The real Mitt Romney

From the, "not that I would vote for him, but..." file:

Because of the invention of YouTube, Mitt Romney doesn't stand a chance. But I get the feeling that the real Mitt Romney, the one he's tried so hard to hide and the one we can all meet on YouTube, would be a very formidable candidate. 30% of Americans say they would not vote for a Mormon for President. I doubt that when it comes does to the best person for the job this number would be so high, but still. Mitt seems to be directing his campaign directly at those people for whom his Mormonism would be a deal-breaker. My hunch is that this why he is barely registering in the polls while raising more money than any other Republican candidate and performing reasonably well in the debate. He could be speaking to the center-right in the primary and the center for the general election and stand a decent chance of winning both times. He's trying to recreate the "Bush coalition", so uh, good luck with that.

Confederate Generals

On a recent trip to Philadelphia, I visted the new(ish) Constitution Center. It's located opposite Independence Hall and near the Liberty Bell. A nice museum really and worth the trip if you're in town. In the gift shop they sold small busts of some foudning fathers and Presidents of great repute. Mixed in this lot were some busts of Robert E. Lee. This offended me as an American, that the leader of the largest armed rebellion against the US would be honored in such a way. I placed a Ben Franklin head in front of one and turned the other around. It has always puzzled and upset me when Confederate heroes are treated as American heroes. Some Southerners may like what they did for this reason or that reason, but they did no favors for the United States.

So it was some satisfaction that I read this column by Michael Gene Sullivan.

Money quote:

Here's the thing about Confederate generals: They may be the heroes of a failed nation, but they are not now, nor ever were, heroes of the United States. In fact, they were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of loyal soldiers of the United States. Quoting one of these traitors in support of U.S. troops is not only ridiculous, it is an insult to the sacrifice of all our soldiers who died protecting this country.