About his interview attacking Obama’s association with radical reverend Wright.

“I’m not familiar precisely with what I said, but I’ll stand by what I said, whatever it was,” Romney said.

About his gay baiting bullying of a fellow classmate 40 years ago. “I don’t remember the event but I apologize.”

Politicians often fail to remember events that are embarrassing. But we may have discovered a trend here. Is the possible next president of the United States possibly an Alzheimer’s victim? Could we be about to elect the first such case to the oval office in an era of global terror? Well I guess if you count Ronald Reagan, Mitt might be the second.

If this is political memory loss, he should fess up right now and end the rumors immediately.

Representative Gabrielle Giffords, victim of a heinous shooting announced she was resigning today.

While clearly the decision gives her Arizona district full time representation and is clearly meant to further her recovery, the world is a darker place, none the less.

I bear no ill will toward her decision. It just saddens me that the nut job that shot her and killed 6 other people succeeded in causing political change.

A light which dispelled darkness has been taken out of politics. We wish her well, and look forward to what she does with the rest of her life.

With the benefit of polling data found by a google search, this publication sniffed out and correctly predicted the Gingrich rise.

But what does it really mean? Probably another avalanche of negative ads by the best funded candidate, Mitt Romney. However his blizzard of late ads could not stop Gingrich who took a pitch and hit it over the fence last Thursday night and won the debate. The longer Romney fumbles with not releasing his tax return, the longer he’s going to be in trouble. What is he hiding anyway? He’s uber rich. So what. I admire that. I’m actually planning on being uber rich again myself.

Gingrich was magnanimous in his victory speech and hopes to roll his South Carolina momentum into a Florida win. Gingrich could still self destruct but hes not stupid. He learned from his mistakes, not replying to negative ads, complaining instead of engaging. He is a good candidate.

Yes, his leadership of the House was at times chaotic. However the only balanced budgets to pass the chamber during my lifetime were passed under his leadership. It should be noted that the economy was strong at the time and Gingrich benefited from both the Papa Bush and Clinton tax increases. Still the budget WAS balanced. President Johnson did it by accident and that budget was passed with a deficit, the surplus developed due to a very strong economy.

The Gingrich claim to be a better debater and capable of taking on Obama in the fall seems to have been proven correct. The candidate needs to show continued discipline and take advantage of his poll numbers as he did in December to raise a boat load of cash.

I look forward to the rest of the campaign. I think Gingrich makes it interesting and though my current plans are to vote for Obama he’s the only one left standing that might convince me otherwise.

I judge him “more qualified” than Romney, that I will say now.

I totally agreed with what Gingrich said in the CNN debate.

Click here to view the embedded video.

See his victory speech.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Free political advice from a moderate Obama supporter. Why, because I own a web server and know how publish a wordpress blog.

If conservatives want a republican candidate they know its not Mitt Romney. Voters can change their mind, politicians are suspect. Romney has changed his mind on abortion rights and a host of other issues, too long to list. He is not their candidate. If he wins they will not be happy.

So what to do? Like the airline business, the only way to win is to consolidate and do so quickly. Like in the next five days.

Gingrich should be the nominee, baggage and all. He is the best debater, and can hold his own with Obama like nobody else can. Age is a factor. He can’t wait. Vice Presidential nominee should probably be Rick Santorum. He is young, he is a serious version of Sarah Palin and will be the presumptive front runner if Obama is re-elected. Jon Huntsman is a good second choice due to foreign policy concerns. A Mandarin speaker at diplomatic meetings with the Chinese, where they say one thing in English and another in Chinese would be invaluable.

Rick Perry: He should go back to Texas, drink Ginseng tea and run for president when he has some serious foreign policy credentials. He should swallow his pride and take a sub cabinet position that involves lots of foreign travel. He wont. That is too bad.

Ron Paul is an idiot that believes (correctly) that Israel founded Hamas. It was founded as a counter to the PLO and there are 1500 Israeli’s in graves regretting that decision. Policy makers in Israel fear Ron Paul as much as they regret their decision to found Hamas.

Back to the topic at hand. The Gingrich Santorum ticket combines out at a level that wins South Carolina and changes the momentum of the race.

If getting the nomination is easy for Romney, Obama will eat him for dinner at the debates and on the air waves. If Romney is to become tough enough for a win he needs to be tested against a single strong, conservative candidate.

Gingrich is flawed. But he is an intellectual powerhouse and deserves a shot if he can demonstrate control of his temper. If not, the Republicans deserve Romney and Gingrich should go back to Georgia where he belongs.

Shmuel Protter

South Carolina picks presidents. I find it annoying seeing traditional news sources talking about the inevitability of a Romney nomination. “Mitt is it” news.yahoo.com comes to mind.

Gingrich is within the margin of error in most polls and can win. But the clear question is should he win. Does he have what it takes to have a finger on the nuclear trigger.

There are two Gingrich’s and I’m wondering which one will show up when I visit the web for news.

The first Gingrich, the presidential one is the one that pulled himself to prominence in the debates. He was articulate, knowledgeable and showed he can take on President Obama. This Gingrich at the speakers rostrum in New Hampshire cooked up a plan to help veterans who have had to go from Northern New Hampshire to Boston for medical care. This is a man I could see as president.

The second Gingrich is not presidential. He whines about what Romney did to him. Negative ads. I would suggest that Gingrich do the same thing Romney did. Speak positively about his vision for the country. Contrast himself with Barak Obama, and let the Super PAC’s do the mud slinging.

Yes, Romney’s record at Bain Capital is a legitimate issue in the election. But Whining at the speakers rostrum and being an attack dog is not how Romney took down Gingrich.

The Gingrich campaign is sharp. A poll showed up showing Gingrich within the margin of error and his staff immediately posted an article to their campaign site that shows up in google if you search for South Carolina poll results. This is a 21st century, Internet age campaign and it could lead to a 21st century, Internet era presidency.

At this point, I’m still voting for Barak Obama. Full disclosure here.

However Gingrich has time to win my vote and the nomination, though not much. He needs to show discipline, stop attacking Romney in campaign appearances and let the dirty work be done by his allied Super PAC advertising. Can he? I certainly hope so. Wouldn’t it be great to have two candidates in the general election who are qualified, dignified and worthy of our votes intellectually? I think so.

The Republican establishment has gone on the attack. They say that Gingrich is doing Obama’s work by attacking Romney’s record at Bain Capital. Not true. It is also not attacking capitalism. Venture Capitalism is a good thing.

Vulture Capitalism throws people out of work and sucks money out of the economy in a way that should be opposed by all free thinking people, liberal or conservative. Was Romney a vulture capitalist? Maybe. Let’s see the facts and have an informed debate on this topic.

Shmuel Protter

Mitt Romney enjoys firing people. The statement was taken out of context but it does point out why we call people in his profession before politics Vulture Capitalists. Mitt Romney’s company destroyed companies and put people out of work. He is particularly unqualified to guide our economy to health and job creation.

John Huntsman won “my vote” twice. Though I will probably vote for Obama in the general election, Mister Huntsman showed himself to be of presidential timber.

During a July debate in Iowa about the debt ceiling, he was the only one of nine candidates who dared say it would be irresponsible for the United States to default on its debts, mostly run up under a Republican administration. It was brave. It hurt him with the tea party. It was presidential.

During the Sunday debate he said the line that could make him the only Republican I could possibly choose. “I will always put my country first.” This in response to being attacked by Romney for serving his country as Ambassador to China. A low blow that COST Romney this voter.

Newt Gingrich is my second choice. More on that in a future column.

Jon Huntsman speaks Chinese.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Defends his service to the United States

Click here to view the embedded video.

Shmuel Protter

The current debate about how to avoid a European debt crisis in the United States is bringing up some interesting ideas. What the Democrats attack as benefit cuts is actually a way to increase competitiveness of our economy. Raise the retirement age.

Raising the retirement age, with options to help those that do need to retire early is great for the economy and should be done now. Full disclosure, I’m 45 and have no problem at all with raising my retirement age to 70 right now.

I’m a contractor, and I’ve had a chance to work with a lot of experienced people. I worked with an Oracle DBA, named Mike, in Toledo for 10 1/2 months in 2009 and 2010. Mike had 20 years of Oracle experience and a great bag of tricks. He saved the company a lot of money with his tricks, keeping critical Oracle based ERP systems up and running, without the benefit of support from Oracle.

Mike just had his retirement party. He’s 65, healthy and mentally fit. He’s being replaced by on Oracle DBA, based in India in his late twenties with maybe 10% of his experience.

This story is repeated over and over in American business. If we raise the retirement age to 69, yes we incur increased health care costs. There are probably a lot of other costs as well. But try to put a price tag on the experience we are sending to the shuffleboard courts.

Raise my retirement age now. I’m happy to do that to help the economy and lower Federal Debt projections. We can save trillions of dollars in this entitlement program and make our economy stronger at the same time.

Shmuel Protter