Columnist – John Sammon
The response from Newt Gingrich to the question at the debate asking him if he asked his wife for an “open marriage,” in other words the right to cheat on her right under her nose with her permission, and the reaction of the crowd in South Carolina, was chilling if one is rational.

It was the roar of the mob.

It was also a standing ovation. The crowd might as well have been in the Sports Palace in Berlin in 1938 giving Nazi salutes. Newt went after a representative of the despised “Liberal Media.” The crowd of Southern, Ultra Right-Wing nut-jobs loved it, because they want hate, they want revenge. They didn’t listen to the candidate’s response soberly.

Instead, it was a shriek from the cave. Who ever said America is the land of the free?

CNN debate moderator John King asked Newt the question he has to ask as part of his job, because the personal character of the candidates’ private lives can be just as important as their job records. That is, once a figurative sleeping dog goes public like Newt’s ex-wife did.

You take that scrutiny on when you run for president.

If Obama’s wife publicly accused him of hitting her, it would become an issue.

Or does Newt think the press should favor him and ignore sexual affairs the way they used to do for John F. Kennedy? Bill Clinton and Gary Hart, both Democrats, suffered for their sexual peccadilloes. But that’s okay with conservatives. In fact, Newt himself personally supported charges of impeachment against Clinton for fooling around with an intern.

He sees no hypocrisy or double-standard in this.

When Newt called King’s question “disgusting,” his crowd of worshippers roared their approval. King might have felt he was about to be lynched. But he’s white.

Juan Williams, a conservative black commentator, was heckled by the mob in the same way and may have been more uneasy. He is black.

South Carolina after all is the state that fired the first shot in the Civil War, and where today the Confederate Stars and Bars flies at the State Capitol.

Both Newt and Adolf Hitler seem to have similar ideas about the role of women in their personal lives. Hitler rationalized that he was “too important” to marry any one woman, in this case Eva Braun, because he was instead symbolically married to the nation as a great man.

Newt told his wife that his mistress didn’t mind if he fooled around, so he obviously feels himself big and important enough to make himself available to any woman he chooses. Asking your wife for permission to cheat on her after taking vows in church to supposedly “love, honor and whatever,” for a candidate of the family-values-oriented Religious Right, is an interesting form of megalomania all its own.

Newt’s way of dealing with it, saying he admitted mistakes, is unlike Herman Cain, who steadfastly denied any wrong doing until an army of flummoxed women came out of the woodwork.

That still doesn’t absolve Newt of the need to answer tough questions about his private life if they become character issues because of public disclosures (complaining wife). Is it fair for Herman to suffer and not Newt?

In newly deciphered vintage footage of a silent film where linguistic experts studied Hitler’s mouth movements so they can tell what he was saying, they show he is telling his long-suffering mistress (Braun tried to commit suicide twice) at his mountaintop retreat, “all you have to worry about is that dress you wear. What if you had my responsibilities?”

Good ploy Adolf. In other words, I’m too important for any one woman.

Newt likewise complained to his wife, “You want me all to yourself.”

Is that bad? Is that wrong?

Isn’t that what marriage is? Isn’t that what you promise when you get married? I wouldn’t expect my wife to agree to such a deal. Is there one set of rules for you Newt, and another for me? Are promises not important? They become lies if they’re not kept.

Newt like Hitler was is a supreme egoist. He’s also a hypocrite, always referring to his humble middle class roots. Hitler too thought himself a man of the people.

Newt, the little butter-ball man with the double chin has tried not quite successfully in recent months to portray himself as more reasonable, but naked hate is always just underneath the surface waiting to spring out.

His followers, themselves haters, love him for it.

Any man who cheats on his wife will likely cheat the voters. Any man who has the unmitigated gall to ask his wife for permission to cheat, when cheating behind her back would at least spare her feelings of humiliation, is a ruthless man. These skeletons remain private until somebody complains publicly, and then voters have a right to know the kind of person they are electing. What’s fair for Clinton, Gary Hart and Herman Cain is also fair for Newt.

If Newt had behaved in an honorable manner and had nothing to hide, he should be able to answer such questions calmly in a dignified way without going ballistic.

His followers should also act reasonable. Newt’s tirade was instead a Freudian type slip, a rare moment of candor that demonstrates his inability to handle personal crisis.

If Newt admitted it was a mistake, why can’t he calmly repeat so at the debate? Why can’t his followers act like sane people? Newt can’t answer in a manner that is not enraged because there is no way he can logically explain and justify it. So, he flies into a rage and whips his mob of supporters into a frenzy.

The courageous one was King. Thanks John. The guy who retains control of himself is the brave one. It says so in the Bible. I read it.

No Matter. Newt’s followers don’t care. He represents their most cherished fantasies, “I’m a tough, no-nonsense guy who puts liberal commentators and everybody else we don’t like in their place.”

Newt revealed his real old snarling, hating self.

PLAYLIST: Newton Leroy ‘Newt’ Gingrich — Scam Artist Extraordinaire

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   Columnist – John Sammon
Poor Tiger Woods.

The media circus he’s subjected to because he cheats on his wife is another example of how the public persona of a famous person is subjected to hypocritical scrutiny by the public. In other words, if you’re famous, how the public perceives you is what determines whether your indiscretions are largely ignored, or as in the case of Tiger Woods, you’re crucified.

Golf is viewed by people as a squeaky clean sport, unlike boxing. If Woods was a boxer like Mike Tyson and cheated on his wife, hardly anybody would take notice. Boxers are perceived by the public as low-lifes.

Let me show you how this works using two movie performers of the 1940s, Charles Chaplin the comic, the Little Tramp, and Errol Flynn, the dashing Robin Hood hero of sword and horse movies. Both men had extra-marital affairs at the same time in the 1940s. Flynn had many, Chaplin a few.

Every time Flynn cheated, the public loved him more. It perfectly fit his image as a dashing rogue.

But when Chaplin the Little Tramp cheated on his wife, the public was outraged. The image of the Little Tramp, psychologically, symbolized the nobility of the downtrodden, the pathetic struggles of the lowly, common man. Such a person would never fool around with another woman. The fans couldn’t accept it. It was insult.

But not for Flynn. The image the public had of him perfectly fit his marital indiscretions. A classic double standard.

I mentioned boxing earlier. The same thing happened to Joe Louis. The first black heavyweight champion, Jack Johnson, fooled around with white women and openly flaunted it in front of racist white America in 1910. He was roundly hated. When Joe Louis came along in the 1940s, he and his handlers were careful not to make the same mistake Johnson had. Louis was polite, respectful, had a black wife, the perfect non-threatening image for white America.

I think most white golf fans are willing to tolerate Tiger Woods having a white wife, but not his fooling around. Tiger is supposed to behave in a way that racists used to say, “He’s a credit to his race.” Numerous African American sports figures, performers, rock stars and others have had extra marital relations. Hardly anybody notices them.

Why Tiger?

The answer is partly the shock (to white America) of seeing a black man become the best in golf, a previously white-only sport, always noted for its more intelligent, refined, polite aura both in performers and fans. Many white Americans still haven’t gotten over it. They say in their mind, okay, this happened, but you (Tiger) better act just the way I want you to act. A higher standard than others.

I think the box Tiger found himself trapped in, as the highest paid athlete, spokesman for countless sponsors and products, the almost Jesus-like standards of conduct he must adhere to, the microscope of public and media dissection that follows his every move, might provoke in anybody a desire to somehow rebel, to do something reckless, naughty.

John F. Kennedy was trapped in the same box. He had to live up to the world’s image of him as a saint and a hero. When asked why he cheated on his beautiful wife, he said. “I can’t help it.”

Martial infidelity is a fact of life and practiced by millions of Americans. I’m not condoning it. Just castigating the hypocritical double standards with racist overtones that dictate how public figures are perceived.

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The right-wing hate speech polluting the debate over health care is generating more and more threats against President Obama, some truly frightening. CNN reports that threats against Obama has increased by 400 percent

CNN anchor Rick Sanchez reports that when President Obama visited Phoenix, Ariz. on August 17, local minister Steven Anderson of the Faithful World Baptist Church, who strongly expresses hatred for Obama in many of his sermons, told his congregation that he wished him dead. In a disturbing twist, it was discovered that Chris Broughton, the man who brought an AR 15 assault rifle to the Phoenix rally where Obama spoke, had attended Anderson’s sermon.

In a later interview, Broughton said he concurred with his pastor’s wish to see Obama "die and go to hell." As many as twelve men were seen walking around the Phoenix Convention Center with guns on that day.

Arizona Pastor Pastor Steven Anderson Prays For Obama’s Death

Countdown montage contrasts Obama’s speech to students with conservative media’s claims about it

Limbaugh Compares Obama To Kim Jong il (North Korean Dictator)

Neutralizing GOP Attacks on Obama – White Nationalist THUG Patrick J. Buchanan
Tries To Justify GOP Thuggery.

President Obama faces 30 death threats a day, a 400 percent increase from former President Bush, according to Ronald Kessler, a veteran investigative journalist and conservative who recently authored a book about the Secret Service.

Kessler notes that funding cutbacks have already left the first African-American president in U.S. history particularly vulnerable. The book, which alleges that the cash-strapped Secret Service is endangering the president by cutting corners, has sent shockwaves through Washington. "There’s no question his life is in danger." "Tomorrow, Obama could be assassinated … simply because the Secret Service was not doing what it used to do, " said Kessler.

"We have half the number of agents we need, but requests for more agents have fallen on deaf ears at headquarters, " a Secret Service agent told Kessler.

"There’s a tremendous feeling within the Secret Service that they are risking an assassination, "Kessler told Canadian TV.

As CNN’s Rick Sanchez said on the air, "This looks serious. This almost looks like this is coming to the point where we are even beyond maybe where this nation was on November 22 of 1963, when JFK was assassinated, when there was also an environment of hate in this country."

As racist attacks increase and protestors continue to bring guns to presidential events, it is strikingly clear that President Obama is vulnerable to harm. Are the Secret Service and FBI doing enough to protect him? Will they confront and investigate those who threaten our president so that they can be prosecuted and jailed?

We cannot allow funding problems to weaken the organizations charged with protecting the life of our nation’s president. In 2003, the Secret Service and FBI became part of the Department of Homeland Security and now must compete with 20 other agencies for oversight from their chief, Janet Napolitano. She must use her authority to ensure that the Secret Service and FBI put more agents on the ground to protect President Obama and confront and investigate those who threaten him. It is time for Americans of every stripe to insist that the Secret Service and FBI operate at the highest levels of effectiveness.

Sign your name to this petition so that Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security hears the message loud and clear. And please pass this message on to your friends and colleagues. It is a difficult time in America, and we have to stand up and make sure our president is safe

References:

1. CNN: Death Threats Against Obama Increase By 400 Percent
2. Obama-Hating Pastor Protested In Arizona, Calls Reporter A “Jerk”

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SIRTE, Libya – Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on Tuesday called Barack Obama a “flicker of hope in the middle of the imperialist darkness”, but said he feared the president could be assassinated.

Gaddafi, known for his controversial statements, did not say who might want to kill Obama but gave the examples of the assassinations of Presidents John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln, as well as black rights leader Martin Luther King.

“I fear that they could liquidate this young man or force him to submit to their imperialist policies,” Gaddafi told a university gathering of his supporters in Sirte, without specifying who might put Obama under pressure.

“Obama is a flicker of hope in the middle of the imperialist darkness,” the Libyan leader said, adding: “There is a fear that they would liquidate him as they liquidated Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln.”

Gaddafi, who is the African Union chairman, had offered to work with Obama to sustain security, stability and prosperity in Africa and elsewhere.

Gaddafi praised Obama for breaking with what he said was the previous American foreign policy that dictated to the rest of the world what to do to serve U.S. interests.

“He (Obama) speaks logically. Arrogance no longer exists in the American approach which was previously based on dictating to the rest of the world in order to meet its own conditions,” Gaddafi said in the remarks carried by state media.

Gaddafi, who took power in 1969 in a military coup in his oil- and gas-rich North African state, was shunned for decades by the West, which accused him of supporting terrorism.

His ties with Western countries have improved since Libya announced in 2003 it was scrapping weapons of mass destruction programs and agreed to pay compensation for families of victims of bombings of U.S. and French airliners.

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Historical rankings of United States Presidents

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In political science, historical rankings of United States Presidents are surveys conducted in order to construct rankings of the success of individuals who have served as President of the United States. Ranking systems are usually based on surveys of academic historians and political scientists or popular opinion. The rankings focus on the presidential achievements, leadership qualities, failures and faults (such as corruption).

General findings

George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt are consistently ranked at the top of the lists. Often ranked just below those three are Presidents Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt. The remaining top 10 ranks are often rounded out by James Madison, Andrew Jackson, Woodrow Wilson, Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy have often scored very highly in popular opinion polls, but rank highly in only some polls of historians. The bottom ranks often include Franklin Pierce, Warren G. Harding, and James Buchanan. Two presidents, William Henry Harrison and James A. Garfield, died after less than six months in office, and are sometimes not ranked.

Exceptions

Some presidents present special problems because their foreign policy success or failure stands in contradiction to their domestic policy failure or success. Political scientist Walter Dean Burnham noted the "dichotomous or schizoid profiles." Historian Alan Brinkley said, "There are presidents who could be considered both failures and great or near great (for example, Nixon)". James MacGregor Burns observed of Nixon, "How can one evaluate such an idiosyncratic president, so brilliant and so morally lacking?"

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Top 10 Worst US Presidents [Courtesy: listverse.com]

This list is compiled from the average score of each president over 12 surveys – taken between 1948 and 2005.

10. Calvin Coolidge 1923 – 1929

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In 1919, three quarters of the Boston Police Force went on strike. Coolidge (then Governor of Massachusetts) had observed the situation throughout the conflict, but had not yet intervened.

Furious that the mayor had called out state guard units, he finally acted. He called up more units of the National Guard, restored Police Commissioner Curtis to office, and took personal control of the police force.

Curtis proclaimed that none of the strikers would be allowed back to their former jobs, and Coolidge issued calls for a new police force to be recruited. Many people criticized Coolidge as part of a general criticism of laissez-faire government.

His reputation underwent a renaissance during the Reagan administration, but the ultimate assessment of his presidency is still divided between those who approve of his reduction of the size of government and those who believe the federal government should be more involved in regulating the economy.

9. Richard Nixon 1969 – 1974

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In June, 1972, several of Nixon’s men were caught breaking into Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC – bringing to light the infamous Watergate Scandal. Nixon himself downplayed the scandal as mere politics, but when his aides resigned in disgrace, Nixon’s role in ordering an illegal cover-up came to light in the press, courts, and congressional investigations.

Nixon owed back taxes, had accepted illicit campaign contributions, and had harassed opponents with executive agencies, wiretaps, and break-ins. In addition, he had ordered the secret bombing of Cambodia. Unlike the tape recordings by earlier Presidents, his secret recordings of White House conversations were revealed and subpoenaed and showed details of his complicity in the cover-up.

Nixon was named by the grand jury investigating Watergate as ‘an unindicted co-conspirator‘ in the Watergate scandal. In light of his loss of political support and the near certainty of both his impeachment by the House of Representatives and his probable conviction by the Senate, he resigned on August 9, 1974, after addressing the nation on television the previous evening. He never admitted to criminal wrongdoing, although he later conceded errors of judgment.

8. Zachary Taylor (1849 – 1850)

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The slavery issue dominated Taylor’s short term. Although he owned slaves, he took a moderate stance on the territorial expansion of slavery, angering fellow Southerners.

Taylor urged settlers in New Mexico and California to draft constitutions and apply for statehood, bypassing the territorial stage. New Mexico was too small to act but California — which had high population growth from the gold rush — wrote a constitution that did not allow slavery; the voters approved it and a new state government took over in December 1849 without Congressional approval.

Southerners were furious with Taylor and with California. Taylor held a stormy conference with Southern leaders who threatened secession. He told them that if necessary to enforce the laws, he personally would lead the Army. Persons ‘taken in rebellion against the Union, he would hang — with less reluctance than he had hanged deserters and spies in Mexico.‘

7. John Tyler (1841 – 1845)

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Tyler’s Presidency was rarely taken seriously in his time. Opponents usually referred him to as the ‘Acting President‘ or ‘His Accidency‘.

Tyler shocked Congressional Whigs by vetoing virtually the entire Whig agenda, twice vetoing Clay’s legislation for a national banking act following the Panic of 1837 and leaving the government deadlocked.

Tyler was officially expelled from the Whig Party in 1841, a few months after taking office, and became known as ‘the man without a party.‘

In 1843, after he vetoed a tariff bill, the House of Representatives considered the first impeachment resolution against a president in American history. A committee headed by former president John Quincy Adams concluded that Tyler had misused the veto, but the impeachment resolution did not pass.

6. Millard Fillmore (1850 – 1853)

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Fillmore ascended to the presidency upon the sudden and unexpected death of President Taylor in July 1850.

The change in leadership also signaled an abrupt political shift in the administration, as Fillmore removed Taylor’s entire cabinet, replacing them with individuals known to be favorable to the Compromise efforts.

Fillmore signed into law the Fugitive Slave Act as a compromise between Southern slaveholding interests and Northern Free-Soilers.

The act sought to force the authorities in free states to return fugitive slaves to their masters.

5. Ulysses S Grant (1869 – 1877)

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Grant achieved international fame as the leading Union general in the American Civil War. The first scandal to taint the Grant administration was Black Friday, a gold-speculation financial crisis in September 1869, set up by Wall Street manipulators Jay Gould and James Fisk. They tried to corner the gold market and tricked Grant into preventing his treasury secretary from stopping the fraud.

The most famous scandal was the Whiskey Ring of 1875, exposed by Secretary of the Treasury Benjamin H. Bristow, in which over 3 million dollars in taxes were stolen from the federal government with the aid of high government officials.

Although Grant himself did not profit from corruption among his subordinates, he did not take a firm stance against malefactors and failed to react strongly even after their guilt was established.

Grant’s career is also marred by rumors of anti-Semitism due to his involvement with the infamous General Order Number 11.

4. Andrew Johnson (1865 – 1869)

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Johnson succeeding to the presidency upon the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson vetoed the first civil rights bill, stating that it gave ‘a perfect equality of the white and black races in every State of the Union.‘

In a letter to the governor of Missouri he wrote: ‘this is a country for white men, and by God, as long as I am President, it shall be a government for white men.‘

The Republicans in congress overrode his veto (the Senate by the vote of 33:15, the House by 182:41) and the Civil Rights bill became law.

Johnson tried to remove Edward Stanton as Secretary of War directly violating the Tenure of Office Act which Johnson had vetoed. He was impeached (and is the first president to be so) but found innocent by only one vote.

3. Franklin Pierce (1853 – 1857)

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Two months before assuming his place as President, Pierce watched his son die in a train accident.

He took office nervously exhausted. The most controversial event of Pierce’s presidency was the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise and reopened the question of slavery in the West.

The Act also caused widespread outrage in the North and spurred the creation of the Republican Party, a sectional Northern party that was organized as a direct response to the bill.

Pierce is ranked among the least effective Presidents as well as an indecisive politician who was easily influenced.

He was unable to command as President or to provide the required national leadership. Pierce is the only elected president (as of 2007) not to be renominated by his party for a second term.

2. James Buchanan (1857 – 1861)

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In his inaugural speech, Buchanan stated that the slavery issue was of ‘little practical importance‘ because the Supreme Court was about to settle it.

Two days later they announced the Dred Scott decision in which it ruled that people of African descent, whether or not they were slaves, could never be citizens of the United States, and that Congress had no authority to prohibit slavery in federal territories.

Buchanan was widely believed to have been personally involved in the outcome of the case.

Additionally, Buchanan’s administration was troubled by the Panic of 1857 – a sudden downturn in the US economy. Before Buchanan left office, seven slave states seceded, the Confederacy was formed, all arsenals and forts in the seceded states were lost (except Fort Sumter and two remote ones), and a fourth of all federal soldiers surrendered to Texas troops.

Historians in 2006 voted his failure to deal with secession the worst presidential mistake ever made.

1. Warren G. Harding (1921 – 1923)

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Harding’s term as president was beset with scandal – both personal and political. Albert B Fall, Harding’s Secretary of the Interior, became the first member of a presidential cabinet to go to jail for his role in the Teapot Dome affair.

When Harding was elected, he raised many of his friends (known as the Ohio Gang) to prominent political positions. Some of these appointees used their power to rob the government.

Harding is reputed to have said: ‘I have no trouble with my enemies, but my damn friends, my God-damned friends– they’re the ones that keep me walking the floor nights!’

Notes

In the original list, William Harrison ranked 5th worst, but as his term was so short he cannot be fairly included. Additionally, James A Garfield ranked at number 9, but with the second shortest presidential term (6 months) has also been excluded. As a result, Nixon, at number 11, moved in to 10th place, and Coolidge, at number 12, moves in at position 10.

Where will President, George W Bush be ranked?

Why Bush Will Be The Worst Ever!

1. Bush has perverted, distorted and tarnished America’s image beyond repair
2. George Bush’s Presidency — A permanent scar on American Democracy
3. Bush: A legacy of ignorance and arrogance – 8 years of perverse and dishonest leadership
4. ‘Bush is a war mongering LIAR’ – Former Bush Press Secretary
5. Mr. President Bush — ‘You are a War Criminal who belongs in Guantanamo Prison’
6. Bush’s Legacy of Delusion
7. The Hang-Man Cometh — Bush’s PR Legacy Campaign
8. Bush and Kibaki – Certified Election Thieves
9. Bush on the rampage with 77 days left in the White House
10. ‘Blood-Thirsty’ Bush attacks Syrian village in an attempt to influence ’08 Elections
11. A rescue plan for George Bush’s legacy
12. Bush’s Legacy of Delusion
13. Bush: ‘Look How I Cleaned Up The Middle East!’
14. Disaster, the Bush Administration
15. The portrait of a ‘Hang-Man’
16. The Hang-Man Cometh — Bush’s PR Legacy Campaign

| More Bush |

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Reference:

Lincoln wins: Honest Abe tops new presidential survey: (CNN) — It’s been 145 years since Abraham Lincoln appeared on a ballot, but admiration for the man who saved the union and sparked the end of slavery is as strong as ever, according to a new survey. Lincoln finished first in a ranking by historians of the 42 former White House occupants. The survey was released over Presidents Day weekend. | Interactive |

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