SANTORUM: STOP THE POLITICAL PANDERING

Rick Santorum speaking at a town hall meeting in Lady Lake, Florida on Monday.

At one of Rick Santorum’s town hall meetings held in Lady Lake, Florida on Monday, a woman stood up and asked him this question: “I never refer to Obama as President Obama because legally he is not. [Applause] And well he constantly says that our Constitution is passé and he totally ignores it as you know. He is an avowed Muslim and my question is: why isn’t something being done to get him out of our government? He has no legal right to be calling himself president.” In return, Santorum answered: “I am doing my best to try to get him out of the government.”

When asked by NBC political embed Andrew Rafferty why he did not use his platform to correct the lady, with such a disgusting attitude, Santorum responded: “Why do you guys ask these ‘gotcha’ questions like it’s my job to go out and correct everybody who says something I don’t agree with? I don’t think it’s my responsibility. Why don’t you go out and correct her? It’s not my responsibility as a candidate to correct everybody who makes a statement I disagree with.”

I am not really bothered by the woman’s question, though, because obviously she is confused; that’s her right to ask such question. However, you have a candidate, who knows (I am assuming now) the truth about President Obama’s faith, who knows damn well that he is not a Muslim, yet is not using his leadership attribute to refute the question and make an on-the-spot correction. That’s troubling. And he said it is not his responsibility to correct the lady? Whose town hall meeting was it? Keep reading to see what John McCain did a few years back when he was asked the same question.

In 2008, during the general election campaign, I remember vividly just like it was yesterday that Candidate John McCain was asked this similar question while he was on the trail in Minnesota; before the White lady who stood up to ask him the question could even finish, he stopped and corrected her on the spot. By doing so, he acted like a leader in charge and stood for what was right.

So basically, if Santorum failed to correct the misinformation from the lady, isn’t it fair to argue that he too strongly believes that President Obama is, indeed, a Muslim? I think it is. Well, Mr. Santorum, for your information, the actual president of the United States, President Barack Hussein Obama, is a Christian; he is not a Muslim. I know you know it, so please stop the political pandering.

The difference between John McCain and Rick Santorum is that John McCain is a leader, Santorum is not. Leaders don’t do what is popular to score political points; they do what is right even when it is not popular. So America, is this the guy you want to be your next president, someone who cannot assume his responsibility and does not have the courage to stand for what is right? If so, frankly, you need to think again.

MANIGAT, MARTELLY, BAKER & LAGUERRE: WAKE UP!

The presidential election in Haiti is only days away, yet JUDE CELESTIN still matters. Something was not done right. I can tell you this much –it is because you guys (MANIGAT, MARTELLY, BAKER and LAGUERRE) did not play right. I would beat up all four of you for your complacencies. You failed to link him to the failed policies of the PREVAL administration.

The man in the White House, RENE PREVAL, said that CELESTIN is his man, what better evidence do you need to destroy or make him insignificant in the race? That’s exactly what you should have been wanting from him, and he delivered it to you “UPS delivery” at your doorsteps. How could you not use that to run an effective character assassination campaign against the man?

We democrats did it here in the US. How you think we literally annihilated McCain during the 2008 presidential campaign and gave Obama the election on a silver platter? We played three smart cards against him.

1. We linked him to the failed policies of the Bush administration –the baseless Iraq War, the recessive economy, the handling of Katrina in New Orleans, big tax cuts for big corporations and the top 2% Americans while neglecting the middle class, etc… 

2. We proved to the American electorate that he was out of touch with reality. On Monday, September 15, 2008, he hand-delivered to us the gift we had long been waiting for. On the campaign trail in Jacksonville, Florida, he declared: “the fundamentals of our economy are strong [despite] tremendous turmoil in our financial markets and Wall Street.” Mind you, he made such statement right in the middle of the recession, at a time when the economy was bleeding jobs.

 

3. We transformed Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska, his pick for vice president, into a laughing stock, a joke, someone not worthy to be taken seriously. By doing so, the McCain candidacy was viewed as a big joke. Her interview with CBS’s own Katie Couric did it for us.

 

We played the three cards so well strategically that before you know it, Senator McCain was already confined in history book. He was a done deal. We slashed him in the polls. So no one can tell me about the effectiveness of a character assassination campaign strategy, for I have seen it used many times in every single election (local and national) here in the United States.

I do not work for your campaigns, nor am I one of your cheerleaders. However, I want to place my country, Haiti, first. In this election, I do not have a fighting dog, which by now you should know. I do not know whom I am for. I do know, however, whom I am against. I am against PREVAL and his protégé JUDE CELESTIN.

Quit all the “kole mouda” with CELESTIN. The clock is ticking. You do not have that much time in front of you. It is time to proceed with PLAN B –CHARACTER ASSASSINATION. You guys need to run ASAP campaign ads on the radio and on TV telling the people that a vote for CELESTIN is a vote for the continuation of the PREVAL administration embodied in the policies that gave us -MINUSTAH, CHOLERA, LACK OF OVERSIGHT, CORRUPTION, MY PALACE COLLAPSED, etc…” Take my check to the bank and cash it. Trust me, it will not bounce.