Goodbye, Andrew

I had only met Andrew Breitbart a few times- had dinner with him once. What I first admired about him as a person (and not just as an activist) is that he talked to me- directly to me- and had not the slightest air of "do you know who I am?" and "why am I talking to you?" He didn't measure me what I could do for him or whether or not it was worth his time to talk to me.

It reminds me of my friend whose husband produced a Julia Roberts movie. After the red carpet premiere, the cast and crew went to a dinner, and Ms. Roberts sat down next to my friend and asked "Who are you?". When my friend told her she was just the wife (lol) Ms. Roberts smiled and said "I'll go sit somewhere else".


And she did. She sized up my friend, decided she was not worth talking to, and moved.

Sad, really, that we all calculate our interpersonal relationships by metrics of utilitarianism. I shouldn't blast Ms. Roberts for doing what I do each time I dodge a neighbor of let a call go to voicemail.

Andrew didn't do that- at least not when I met him. And he was huge- he was famous (or infamous)- he could have commanded the presence of people much more important and influential than me. He didn't. He asked what I thought about things, he listened to my opinions. It was not about him. Ever.

The hardest part of being on the right is finding champions of the right. We have some tremendous players on the right: Rush and Ann Coulter and Dennis Miller, not to mention Hannity and Laura Ingraham and many, many others. But Andrew was cool. Andrew was Hollywood cool, and he wasn't trapped in a branded media outlet (TV, talk radio, weekly column, etc). He was, in fact, and idea more than he was a product.

And his ideas where incredible. Like his offer of $100k to the United Negro College Fund for anyone who found videotaped evidence of tea party activists shouting the "N" word at black democrat congressman preparing to vote on healthcare. That lie has been recycled by the media for years now, but no one ever claimed the reward. Not even the black congressmen who had themselves videotaped the spectacle (especially Jesse Jackson, Jr).

Congress voted to defund ACORN after the great pimps and ho's movies made my James O'Keefe. If you read the current NPR stories about Andrew's death, they still refer to this event as ACORN offering tax advice to the pimp. No mention of the underage, illegal immigrant sex workers.

NPR fired their leadership because of a truth brought to light by Breitbart. Anthony Weiner had to resign from Congress.

Andrew did what the rest of the media refused to do: tell the truth about the institutional left.

The Breitbart moment I will cherish forever is the impromptu news conference at the NY Hilton when the press corp waited for Weiner, and Andrew hopped up on stage and conducted his own gaggle. His passion, his demand for them to find evidence of lying, his exposure of their corrupt cover-up of Democrat candidates and values... never before had I seen someone attack the press so brilliantly leaving them speechless, with cameras rolling.

My heart and prayers go out to his wife and small children. And to the Conservative movement who has lost a true champion. Cool. Original. Fearless. Kind.

Has anyone had such impact on the institutional left?

Thanks, Andrew. We will all miss you.

Presidential Election Predictions

If Chris Christie is preparing to endorse Romney, then here's how I see the 2012 GOP field panning out:

Christie will be the Romney VP choice for the ticket. I believe they cut a deal. Here's why: Christie doesn't want to run for President right now. It means stopping his work in New Jersey which he truly seems to love in order to head to places like Iowa and Nevada and South Carolina which doesn't interest him. Skipping the Presidential primaries, he is "off" until the GOP Convention in July of 2012. That's 9 months of his life.

He can campaign July - November and will raise Romney a ton of money because the conservatives will be totally jazzed he's on the tickets. Hey- trust me on this. I worked McCain 2008. And forget what you think of Sarah Palin NOW. But in July and August of 2008 she gave that campaign energy, life, and voters. Christie can do the same thing for Romney. though I think it will be less important to Romney than it was for McCain. Meaning- Romney can win on his won. Christie just ensures it.

Christie will guarantee New Jersey and possible Pennsylvania, too. He will be popular in places like Arizona, Nevada and Florida where millions of Jerseyites have relocated. A Romney/Christie ticket will lock up Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Now- 8 years of Romney/Christie and the Veep is a shoe in for Christie 2020. He'll still be young enough to run for his own White House and have had the best possible training for the job.

That's a pretty attractive offer...

The Christie endorsement hurts Perry, though not as much as Perry hurts Perry. Bachmann, Gingrich and Huntsman will eventually putter out leaving Santorum to battle Paul, Romney, Perry and Cain to fight it out. But Romney will prevail.

Here's my prediction knowing what I know now... Romney / Christie 2012 will win in a landslide. Unemployment has no chance at improving, Solyndra and "Fast and Furious" are just starting to gather steam, and the stalemate in the Congress will be laid at the feet of the great orator who can't talk his own party into voting for his jobs bill.

Romney / Christie and an electoral landslide.

On Drones, Prisons and Principles

President Obama has proven to be the biggest supporter of President Bush's War on Terror protocols and policies. So much so, that recently former VP Cheney asked for an apology. President Obama has no need to apologize. But Candidate Obama does. Too bad they are not the same person.

Candidate Obama had many names for the War on Terror: illegitimate, over reaction, shredding the constitution, illegal, etc etc. He blasted the policies of rendition, military tribunals, enhanced interrogation, predator drones, and the military prison at Guantanamo Bay. On his first day in office he signed an executive order to look into closing the prison within the year. And he would pull all troops out of Iraq and Afganistan immediately. Global War on Terror became Overseas Contingency Operations.

He won the Nobel Peace Prize based on his rhetoric. Or branding effort.

And here we are just a few short years (and several dozen rounds of golf) later, and we've escalated war in Afghanistan, continued Bush's time table in Iraq, carried out drone attacks (and one targeted assassination) in Pakistan, bombed Libya with additional troops on the ground, and now killed an American citizen in Yemen for his preaching. Guantanamo is still open and functioning and the military tribunals are ongoing. New Coke was not such a hit.

I wonder if Candidate Obama and President Obama have ever met.

3 years ago the interrogation of KSM was a war crime. Obama claimed he was due a civilian trial in Manhattan with full protection of the rights granted by the U.S. Constitution. By today Al-Awlaki can be blown to pieces in Yemen by a drone.

Confused yet?

So you can't put enemy combatants captured in Afghanistan in Guantanamo because of the Geneva Convention. But if you are an American citizens preaching anti-American rhetoric in Yemen... watch out!!

Candidate Obama's rhetoric of the "good" war and "Bush's" war or "war of choice"- phrases he preached in Berlin and Cairo... it's all so much more meaningless and so much more insulting now. It shows what little principle he has. And just how clueless he was as a candidate.

We are no more safe now than we were under the Bush Administration. But we are much less respected. Makes me wonder if that was the plan all along.