You need an ego that stretches from sea to shining sea to even contemplate running for the presidency of this great land, but you also require a hide like a rhinoceros.

Imagine what it must be like to put yourself up on display, election cycle after election cycle, spend a considerable amount of your own fortune to service your ambitions, approach friends and strangers with hand outstretched, ask them to be enablers for your self-indulgence, tramp from hotel to hotel in out-of-the-way places (a lot of them snowy), eat rubber chicken day after day in banquet halls with incredibly boring people, and find out that after all that trouble, most folks still don’t like you.

Continue reading "Chan Lowe: Mitt Romney loses big" »

If you saw the now-famous Clint Eastwood Chrysler ad, you would probably agree that it’s hard to find it offensive, unless those who do your thinking for you on cable TV and talk radio told you to be offended.

Under certain circumstances, one can say that individuals interpret different events through the prism of their own belief systems, life experiences and upbringing. But to find something objectionable about this shamelessly pro-American ad, delivered by an American icon, can only be attributed to political cynicism and a touch of defensiveness.

I speak of Karl Rove⎯Republican strategist, architect of two George W. Bush victories, and holder of the questionable sobriquet, “Turd Blossom,” conferred by his former boss. He found the ad “offensive,” and sounded off about it on⎯where else?⎯Fox News.

Continue reading "Chan Lowe: The Clint Eastwood Chrysler ad" »

As I’ve said before, it’s seductively easy for an organization to take its eye off the ball and elevate its self-preservation to a position above its original mission.

This is particularly true of outfits that feel their purpose here on Earth has been blessed by the angels (as in the cases of the Roman Catholic Church and the Penn State football program, mentioned in the hyperlink above). The more outwardly sacrosanct the mission, the more the mere mortals involved in that organization are able to rationalize their activities in the servicing of it.

Continue reading "Chan Lowe: The Komen faux pas" »

And they accuse Barack Obama of not being able to speak without a TelePrompTer. Every time Mitt Romney goes even slightly off script, he utters inanities so maladroit that they almost sound like he spent time polishing them.

It’s actually painful to see Romney step on his tongue with such regularity. Sure, he’s rich⎯but so was FDR, who had a similar upbringing, went to the same schools, and also grew up in posh, protected surroundings. Nevertheless, he had a finely tuned politician’s ear for the vernacular and the daily concerns of those less privileged, and those with no privileges whatsoever.

Continue reading "Chan Lowe: Mitt Romney's concern for the very poor" »

Well, at least we know what it’s all about, now. It isn’t about faithfully representing the people of Florida District 22, because he just coldly abandoned them.

It isn’t about never shying away from a challenge, which is what Congressman Allen West was crowing just a few weeks ago when the Florida Legislature redrew his district to include more Democratic voters.

It’s about putting his career in Congress first and foremost. It’s been about that ever since he first decided not to run in his own home district. Evidently, the war veteran found the self-described “Jewish mom from Plantation,” Debbie Wasserman Schultz, more fearsome, even, than Iraqi militants.

Continue reading "Chan Lowe: Allen West jumps districts" »