Ron Paul up as Michele Bachmann Defects to Switzerland and Mitt Romney Rolls Along

In the twilight of the 2012 Republican Presidential nomination race, Mitt Romney has not quite officially clinched the deal but has mathematically eliminated all his opponents. With Santorum and Gingrich bowing to the inevitable, Ron Paul has moved up, winning second place in North Carolina and Indiana. He could crowd out Newt Gingrich to finish third overall, at least in terms of delegate count.

# of delegates secured so far	NYT	WSJ	CNN	CBS	MSNBC	RCP
Mitt Romney	966	966	925	934	966	865
Rick Santorum	264	264	281	247	264	270
Newt Gingrich	130	130	145	130	130	144
Ron Paul	104	104	82	92	104	93
Jon Huntsman	1	1	0	2	0	0
Total	1465	1465	1433	1405	1464	1372
% of delegates secured so far
Mitt Romney	66%	66%	65%	66%	66%	63%
Rick Santorum	18%	18%	20%	18%	18%	20%
Newt Gingrich	9%	9%	10%	9%	9%	10%
Ron Paul	7%	7%	6%	7%	7%	7%
% of remaining needed to clinch:
Mitt Romney	22%	22%	26%	24%	22%	31%
Rick Santorum	107%	107%	101%	102%	107%	96%
Newt Gingrich	124%	124%	117%	115%	123%	109%
Ron Paul	127%	127%	125%	119%	127%	115%

It now appears that Mitt Romney won't reach the magic 1144 delegates to clinch until the Texas primary on May 29.

Meanwhile, Michele Bachmann's spokesperson has announced that she has applied for and received dual citizenship in Switzerland:

"Congresswoman Bachmann's husband is of Swiss descent so she has been eligible for dual-citizenship since they got married in 1978. However, recently some of their children wanted to exercise their eligibility for dual-citizenship so they went through the process as a family."

To go from running for President of the United States in January to becoming a citizen of a foreign country in May is strange. It also means Bachmann must have decided against running for President again in the future. Mitt Romney's Swiss bank account will be problem for him enough, America would never stand for a President with divided loyalties to a foreign country. We'll see if Bachmann keeps her Minnesota U.S. House seat.

Update: Michele Bachmann apparently reads this blog as she has withdrawn her application for Swiss citizenship.

BarackObama.com Focuses on Women's Breasts

I'm looking forward to the wet t-shirt contest in Charlotte showing up on YouTube, if these faceless julias at the merch table in Barack Obama's War on Women are a fair preview:

I'll bet you that BarackObama.com breaks these links as fast as you can say National Offend a Feminist Week, unless they have way too much invested in inventory and badly need to make their money back.

Joe Biden Looks Over His Shoulder at Hillary Clinton

Here's how it is going to go down. Hillary Clinton will step down as Secretary of State around the end of June. In August she will be picked to replace Joe Biden in the VP slot on the Democratic ticket.

How do I know this? Barack Obama is clearly going to face a tough reelection fight. Does he do better with Joe or Hillary on the ticket? Hillary obviously gives him a boost, and he will need that boost. Clearly the War on Women theme works best if the Democrats have a woman on the ticket to fight that fight. Joe has got to go.

Just go the campaign store on barackobama.com. Yes, you can buy a $40 Obama-Biden iPhone case in Navy blue or red, white, and blue, a $30 limited-edition Obama-Biden T-shirt. a $22.50 Cup of Joe coffee mug, a $15 Obama-Biden water bottle, or a $10 Cheers Champ beer cozy. Cheers Champ, that's a nice way to say goodbye.

There are bulk Obama-Biden campaign buttons and bulk Obama-Biden bumper stickers at $1.50 or less for 25 or more and Obama-Biden 100 sticker packs for $15. Buy in bulk, they need to clear the inventory. Curiously, none of these display the year 2012.

Then there are number of items labeled "Classic" such as the "Classic" Obama-Biden yard sign for $15, the "Classic" Obama-Biden placard at 2 for $12, the "Classic" Obama-Biden photo button at 2 for $5, and the "Classic" Obama-Biden bumper sticker also at 2 for $5. Classic is what you call something that is past its time.

Out 291 items on 19 pages I couldn't find anything with both Joe Biden's name and the year 2012 on it. Clearly they are keeping their VP options open over at barackobama.com.

It doesn't get more obvious than items like the 2012 Obama-Biden calendar which has been discounted from $15 to $10 so that you're not paying for the months after Biden will be off the ticket. The perfect tell is the Obama-Biden Grey T with Barack Obama's name in a bold blue and Joe Biden's name in a dull grey that will fade out after several washings. It's been discounted from $30 to $15 so you are only paying for Barack Obama's name.

This shirt is also available for the full $30 in an organic white cotton that will biodegrade into an Obama-Clinton T before the end of August.

That brings us to the play Joe Biden made on Sunday to keep his job. He came out unequivocally in favor of gay marriage, even though that is not official Obama administration policy. That's raised a lot of eyebrows with some Democrats even describing it as a gaffe. But Joe is just trying to appeal to the one big Democratic constituency that may not be completely down with Hillary Clinton. Hillary's husband Bill, of course, signed the Defense of Marriage Act back in 1996 that prevents recognition of gay marriage by the federal government.

Warren Buffet Outdraws Barack Obama, What Was That Rule Again?

This past weekend Warren Buffett filled an 18,320 seat arena in Omaha, Nebraska to the rafters. With over 35,000 tickets handed out to his annual meeting, many watched on large screens in overflow crowd areas.

By contrast, Barack Obama held his campaign kickoff in a similar 18,300 seat arena in Columbus, Ohio. Attendance was only 14,000 with his campaign unable to find anyone willing to occupy 4,000 empty seats.

Columbus has a metro area population of 1.8 million people, so the Obama campaign would have needed just 1% to fill the arena. Columbus proper is home to 57,000 college students at Ohio State University and 220,000 African-Americans, a mere 6.5% of these two key constituencies for Democrats would have filled the arena. The Ohio jobless rate is 7.5%, so the unemployed would also have easily overfilled the arena 7 time over just from the Columbus metro area if they had enough hope left to come.

The problem, I think, is the Iron Law of Stardom, which says no one can be a star for longer than three years. Barack Obama built his 2008 campaign on star power. The 3 years 2008 - 2010 will prove to be his glory years in terms of star power. Yes, he will always be famous, and he may even win reelection, but facts are facts and the Tea Party victory in 2010 succeeded in putting an unhappy ending on his 3 years of stardom. No one gets excited about a team running a prevent defense.

And what about the famous Buffett Rule, that CEOs should pay the same tax rate as their secretaries, which Barack Obama has made a centerpiece in his reelection campaign? Warren Buffett said the Buffett Rule has been "butchered a bit" (by whom you may feel free to speculate). Warren Buffett's right-hand man Charlie Munger says he supports the Buffett Rule but added, "We need more sacrifice and we need more sensible ways of spending money."

Meryl Streep to Star in Life of Julia

Meryl Streep will reunite with Amy Adams to star in Life of Julia where they both, along with a child actress still to be cast, will play the Obama administration's composite girlfriend.

I think we've seen this movie before, and it doesn't turn out the way you hope:

Julie & Julia (2009) (PG-13) - Amy Adams stars as Julie Powell and Meryl Streep as Julia Child, as Julie decides to spice up her uneventful life by cooking all 524 recipes outlined in Julia Child's culinary classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

Julia (2008) (R) - At an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, Julia Harris (Tilda Swinton) agrees to help her friend Elena (Kate del Castillo) kidnap her son (Aidan Gould) from his industrialist grandfather. But when Julia takes the scheme into her own hands, she quickly descends into a dangerous world of Mexican con men.

Dreaming of Julia (2005) (NR) - In Cuba in 1958, the last year of Fulgencio Batista regime, a boy (Andhy Mendez) is torn between his friendship with a blonde American named Julia (Iben Hjejle) and the strife facing his family headed by his grandfather Che (Harvey Keitel) as a result of the revolution and turmoil in their nation.

Being Julia (2004) (R) - Estranged from her son, willfully ignorant of her husband's philandering and aware that her youth and beauty are fading, aging actress Julia Lambert (Annette Bening, who earned an Oscar nomination for her spirited performance) is in search of a way to regain the spark of passion. And that passion may lie in the smoldering attentions of a much-younger admirer (Shaun Evans) who might not be able to stay faithful to her.

Julia (1977) (PG) - A case of writer's block and a chance to reconnect with lifelong friend Julia (Vanessa Redgrave) prompt American dramatist Lillian Hellman (Jane Fonda) to journey to 1930s Europe. Julia, once a young woman of privilege, has become an antifascism activist and recruits Lillian for a risky undertaking that tests their friendship.

Julia (1974) (R) - Featuring the star of the original Emmanuelle, this erotic comedy from Germany follows the adventures of a young woman determined to lose her virginity while on vacation in Switzerland. Beautiful Julia (Sylvia Kristel) goes to the Alps with one goal on her mind, engaging in a series of romantic adventures as she tries to become a woman.

Movie descriptions cribbed from Netflix.

Update: Uh oh, Iowahawk hits a little too close to the mark. I knew this movie would not have a happy ending.

A Cinco de Mayo Toast to the Unsung Informant

Why do we celebrate Cinco de Mayo on May 5 in the U.S. while the rest of the world celebrates May Day on May 1? The official story involves the 1862 Battle of Puebla between the Second Federal Republic of Mexico and the Second French Empire but no one really knows the truth, and I probably shouldn't tell you now.

May Day celebrates the "martyrs" of the 1886 Haymarket Riots in Chicago and has become the great holiday of international socialism. Labor demonstrations starting on May 1 culminated in a faceoff between protesters and police on May 4, where anarchists tossed a bomb into the police line killing seven policemen. The United States of America has never been able to bring itself to joining the rest of the world in celebrating the killing of those policemen.

May 5 was the day the police acting on information raided the offices of the anarchist August Spies, who was convicted and executed of conspiracy in the deaths along with Albert Parsons, Adolph Fischer, George Engel, and Louis Lingg (who committed suicide on the day before the execution). That's why America celebrates May 5.

An attempt was made a year ago by President Barack Obama to rehabilitate May 1 in the eyes of Americans when he gave the order to get Osama Bin Laden in time to announce it to the country on the evening of May 1, 2011. The horrified international socialists were quick to observe that Bin Laden died an hour after midnight on May 2 local time in Pakistan. That's OK, we can justas easily celebrate Kill Bin Laden Eve.

Time Magazine editor Whittaker Chambers who turned in communist spy Alger Hiss, Oscar winning film director Elia Kazan (On the Waterfront) who named names for the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1952, and unabomber Ted Kaczynski's brother David are a few famous American police informants. Mostly, it's an anonymous trade.

Now you might think no one sings the praises of police informants, but there you would be wrong. "Say a prayer for Lefty too" as you drink a toast on Cinco de Mayo. This song was made famous by Willie Nelson but written by the lesser known Townes Van Zandt. We'll give the honors to Emmylou Harris and Gillian Welch, because every unsung hero needs to be serenaded by a pretty lady or two.





Here's to you out there tonight. Perhaps you're hanging with the Taliban in a Pakistani border town, huddling with Al Qaeda remnants in Yemen, or just singing the blues not quite as well as you used to at an Occupy encampment on a cold night under a Cleveland bridge. The safety of the free world depends on your information.

And Osama Bin Laden? No one heard his dying words either. And while the experts and pundits debate whether the information that led us to him came from waterboarding someone a decade ago, the true source was likely much more recent. We should give credit to the brave men of Seal Team 6 to be sure. But I suspect that a few days after Bin Laden was killed, on May 5, 2011 let's say, a lone informant got his due, a stack of unmarked cash, the thanks of a grateful nation, delivered in a brown paper bag in a dark corner of a nondescript Abbottabad parking garage. Drain your glass for the great informer whose name we may never know!

Elizabeth Warren Touted Her High Cheekbones on eHarmony Too

U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren has offered a strange explanation on why she had listed herself as a minority in legal directories during the 1980s and 1990s.

"I listed myself in the directory in the hopes that it might mean that I would be invited to a luncheon, a group something that might happen with people who are like I am. Nothing like that ever happened, that was clearly not the use for it and so I stopped checking it off."

That's right, Elizabeth didn't exaggerate her Native American heritage to get plumb law school teaching jobs but to get lunch dates. I will refrain from speculating on what sort of "group something" she was looking for.

Even stranger is her cheeky "my Aunt Bea must have walked by that picture a thousand times" defense:



"High cheekbones like all the Indians do," can you say that these days? It's all right to be proud of a family heritage of high cheekbones but one great great great grandmother does not a minority deserving of affirmative action make.

In fairness, Elizabeth has lined up various luminaries at the law schools where she was hired during the time she listed herself as a minority in the Association of American Law Schools desk book to attest that she got the jobs strictly on merit and not on her false resume as she climbed the career ladder from Rutgers to the University of Houston to the University of Texas to the University of Pennsylvania to Harvard. Of course, if they did let a white woman pass herself off as a minority, they would be in trouble too.

The biggest political problem for Elizabeth Warren, she's now marked as the phony she has always appeared to be. There's no answer to that except to run away: