Don’t Fade Away

Herman Cain’s polling averages are still almost as high as Bachmann, Huntsman and Perry put together. The problem is that unlike past shooting stars, he’s never run a campaign. He’s in debt, he’s in trouble and he’s going to be asked about everything but what he wants to talk about.

Cain’s decision was to go out before he sank to the bottom. He’s the name everyone cares about at the moment. He may have a few weeks of notoriety left, plus and endorsement that could help settle his campaign debt. I don’t see this as a betrayal of his supporters. If he kept going, it would be as an “embattled” campaign where every event he went to was under a “cloud of suspicion” or a “shadow of doubt.”

People love fighters, but some of the most famous ones met terrible fates. Sometimes voters spend too much some on one savior. Hillary Clinton can’t save us, Sarah Palin can’t save us. We can save us. The message we send by voting against Barack Obama is not that we love his opponent, but that he’s fired. The message of 2010 was a mass firing, where Barney Frank and others are forced into retirement in the following election.

Obama can do so much more damage in 4 more years than any Republican in their first 4 years. The best candidate is the one who gets the nomination. He or she will be the one who gets him out of office.

Saturday Night Music

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ZZ Top is one of my favorite bands of all time. Unfortunately, I’ve never been able to catch them in concert.

This is an open thread

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He’s OUT!

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Herman Cain Suspends His Presidential Campaign

An unapologetic and defiant Herman Cain suspended his presidential campaign on Saturday, pledging that he “would not go away,” even as he abandoned hope of winning the Republican nomination. Instead, Mr. Cain announced what he called a “Plan B,” continued advocacy of his tax and foreign policy plans.

“As of today, with a lot of prayer and soul searching, I am suspending my presidential campaign,” Mr. Cain said. “Because of the continued distractions, the continued hurt caused on me and my family, not because we are not fighters. Not because I’m not a fighter.”

Mr. Cain, with his wife at his side, adamantly professed Saturday that the accusations of sexual harassment and of a long-term affair that have swamped his campaign were not true.

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Well, it was fun while it lasted. At least they can’t say he lost because the Republicans wouldn’t support a black man.

I wish Herman and his wife the best and hope we haven’t seen the last of him.

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Say bye-bye to the Palinista vote

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Mitt Romney Snags Coveted Lisa Murkowski Endorsement

With Mitt Romney plummeting in the polls, his campaign was under intense pressure to pad his grass roots street cred by adding to an already impressive string of endorsements from such high profile conservative stalwarts as David Brooks, Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, Meghan McCain, Alec Baldwin, and Kathleen Parker. Mission accomplished. This afternoon, with all the appropriate fanfare befitting such a momentous announcement, the Romney campaign disclosed that Lisa Murkowski, who ran against the Republican candidate for Senate in Alaska in 2010, is now officially a full-fledged Mitt-head:

Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney announced Friday that he has earned the endorsement of Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, considered by many conservatives to be a RINO.

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Loyal Palinistas know all about the bad blood between Sarah and Princess Lisa. There aren’t too many people on the planet whose endorsement would be more toxic to them.

But then again, loyal Palinistas weren’t likely to vote for Mitt anyway.

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Really?

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Via Hot Air:

A Gastonia mother says her son was suspended for calling a teacher “cute.”

Chiquita Lockett said her 9-year-old son, Emanyea, spent the last two days at home.

Lockett said the principal of Brookside Elementary called her Wednesday to say the incident was a form of “sexual harassment.”

Emanyea told Eyewitness News a substitute teacher overheard him tell another student a teacher was cute.

Then he was suspended.

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So this little kid was crushing on a teacher. Seems pretty normal. What did he do about it? He told his friend. For that he got suspended.

Unless there are some pieces missing here, I don’t get it. Since when is telling your friend you think a third person is cute sexual harassment? I could understand if he said something really inappropriate like “Ms Jones is cute cuz she has big t*ts” but that’s not what the story says.

What exactly was the allegedly wrongful thing here? Thinking a teacher was cute? Or expressing that opinion?

Would they have suspended him for saying the same thing about a girl student his own age? If so, they better outlaw junior high.

So now this kid is in trouble for having feelings and expressing them honestly. Is that the lesson we want to teach kids? Is this kid going to grow up thinking there is something wrong with him?

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This doesn’t add up

Alabama immigration law blamed for drop in construction jobs

Alabama’s construction industry is losing jobs faster than almost every state in the nation, and industry experts say some of the losses are due to the state’s strict new immigration law.

Figures from the Associated General Contractors, an Arlington, Va.-based trade group, showed that construction-related employment in Alabama has fallen from 85,900 in June, when the law was passed, to 80,700 in October.

Construction employment in the Birmingham-Hoover metro declined from 24,900 in June to 23,800 in October, according to AGC figures.

“Some of it has to do with the immigration law,” said Henry Hagood, head of Alabama AGC chapter. “Crews have left the state. That’s not the only reason for the numbers. Our market is down at the bottom. Every little thing, when you don’t have as much work, contributes to it.”

Alabama’s one-month loss of 3.2 percent, or 2,700 construction jobs from September to October, was the second highest nationally, surpassed only by Nevada’s 4.6 percent decline, according to AGC figures.

For the 12-month period ending in October, according to the trade group, Alabama lost 7 percent of its construction jobs, a steeper decline than all but three states — Georgia (9.5 percent), New Mexico (9.2 percent) and Wisconsin (8.6 percent).

John Wyatt, a vice president at Gary C. Wyatt General Contractor in Birmingham, said the immigration law has caused job shortages for construction companies across the state.

“There have been no-show employees in various trades from job sites since the immigration law has taken effect,” he said.

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Correlation doesn’t imply causation.

If 1000 Walmart employees suddenly quit, Walmart doesn’t lose 1000 jobs, they have 1000 job openings. Logic would say that in a period of high unemployment in the construction industry there would be plenty of available workers to fill those positions.

But there is another issue here I want to talk about. We always hear that we need illegal immigrants because they take the shitty jobs nobody here will do. Now I don’t know about where you live, but around here construction is considered one of the better blue-collar jobs.

In fact, many of them are union jobs. That means that illegal immigrants are undercutting unions. Democrats are pro-union. Democrats are also pro-immigration. This does not compute. (Republicans oppose both, so at least they get points for consistency)

I know I am committing heresy for even trying to discuss this topic. Left-wing dogma is that illegal immigration is good and anyone who opposes it is a racist xenophobe.

Except I’m not some racist xenophobe. I’ve lived my whole life around immigrants. They are mostly good people. I don’t blame them for coming here because they can make a lot more money. They don’t come here for welfare, they come here to work.

But we need to take care of our own first. Right now the real unemployment rate in this country is about 20%. Add to that the number of people that are underemployed.

Illegal immigration is a complex issue. Before we can fix it, we need to be able to discuss it.

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