Don't get me started

on Obama's speech last night.  Didn't watch it.  Read the transcript.  Same old crap.  Calvin Woodard of, surprisingly, the Associated Press, did a pretty decent takedown (h/t: Wizbang).

Let me be perfectly clear.  By no means is Obama wrong about everything.  I think reasonable minds can disagree on ObamaCare, though the way it was passed through Congress was contemptible.  I think reasonable minds can disagree on new banking regs.  I myself hate US companies moving jobs overseas just because Pakistanis, for intance, will work for less money and under more unpleasant working conditions than Americans.  And Obama did take out Usama bin Laden, which many Democrats and even some self-styled Republicans (I'm looking at you, Ron Paul) would not have done.  And though I disagree vehemently with Justice Elena Kagan's politics, I think her intellect and temperament will make her a good addition to SCOTUS.

But in terms of defense and foreign policy, the raison d'etre of the federal government, and in environmental policy, which has become increasingly irrational and even malevolent, Obama has been an utter disaster (see, e.g., Iran and the Keystone XL pipeline, respectively).  Plus, two words: Eric Holder.  Two more: Timothy Geithner.
At a time when a good GOP candidate is needed more than ever before, the GOP primary process has been a joke.  I actually like Newt Gingrich -- hey, he's a history professor and a very good one -- but he does have baggage and I'm bothered by his kowtowing to the Green Nazis.  I'd be OK with Mitt Romney and certainly don't see him as the Anti-Christ that many in the Republican base seem to think he is, but I worry that, like most Republican office holders today, he doesn't have the stomach for a fight against the more irrational policies of the Democrats and is always looking to avoid a fight by caving.  I would hold my nose and vote for Rick Santorum if necessary, but his social conservatism is a major turnoff. 

(What many SoCons don't understand is that, whatever people believe on individual social issues, social conservatism as a philosophy comes off like the town in Footloose. And people really do not want to live in the town in Footloose.)

Still, Obama is not the worst candidate out there.  (I'm looking at you, Ron Paul.)