Hugh Hewitt Lost in Fantasyland

Apparently, Hugh Hewitt doesn't like debate:

This is why the GOP needs to rethink its debate schedule and why the RNC should take over the operation of the debates and exile Cain, Johnson and Paul as well as every other candidate without a prayer of winning. (Santorum is a long shot, but he has a realistic though small chance of winning the nomination, while the others do not.) The seriousness of the fiscal crisis requires the GOP and its candidates to act seriously, and allowing marginal candidates to eat up time and distract from the enormous problems facing the country is not serious.

Or debate means "eventually, you agree with me" because either Hewitt seriously underestimates Ron Paul's importance or he's being disingenuous and writes him off because of their disagreements. Yeah, it sucks when those guys won't even deign to pretend to think like you.

As for the candidates Hewitt wants gone, Paul and Johnson are the only two that I know of who have given more than platitudes towards solving the fiscal crisis. On this issue, and most issues, the rest are sloganeers. No details, no substance. Cain, though I disagree with him, fared well in the debate, maybe even coming out on top. I know he's not Mr.GovernmentRunHealtcare, Hewitt, but it would seem you can't just write him off.

Oh yeah, and Republicans don't even agree:

Gallup has always found political independents to be most desirous of a third party, and 68% currently are. But right now there is also a significant party gap, with 52% of Republicans favoring a third party, compared with 33% of Democrats. (emphasis added)

I would say Republicans are craving something different from the small(microscopic, actually) "c", top-down, big government loving, conservatives that Hewitt just absolutely, positively loves.

Herman Cain's Energy Insecurity

Herman Cain highlighted last night one of the more infuriating misconceptions during this presidential race. If you watched the group survey after the debate you heard a lot of "Herman Cain is a business man and we need a business man in the White House." But knowing business does not necessarily translate into knowing economics. Knowing management and marketing strategies is not the same as knowing good macroeconomic policy.

This was especially apparent when Cain brought out the tired old trope of energy independence. Every President since Nixon has promised this, yet we have decided to import more oil, not less. There are a lot of bad reasons to try and achieve energy independence. You can here from Robert Bryce on the subject here or here.

But there is another reason that is underscored by our current problems with sugar. According to the Wall Street Journal in "Sugar Squeeze in US":

A potential drop in home-grown sugar coupled with government caps on imports of the sweetener could drive up prices, just before the peak Christmas season.
A harsh winter has caused headaches for U.S. sugar-cane and sugar-beet farmers. Record cold last December damaged sugar cane in Florida, taking about 260,000 short tons of raw sugar out of production, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture

The US has a horrible protectionist system for sugar, what you may call "Sweet Tooth Independence," which has not only resulted in us paying higher prices for sugar and sugar byproducts as well as having the unintended consequence of the creation and upsurge in use of high fructose corn syrup, it has made us less "Sweet Tooth Secure."

If our energy policy looked like our sugar policy then a large scale disaster or attack on our domestic supplies coupled with the legal inability to trade in energy could put us in quite the energy bind. Plummeting supplies would bring about skyrocketing prices without imports to offset the reduction. We're better off with a highly decentralized supply of energy where we produce some and import the rest from (in order) Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Nigeria, Angola, Iraq, Algeria, United Kingdom, and Brazil. (That's just the top 10. You can't attack them all at once and I'm pretty sure nobody wants to attack Canada anyway.)

So before you vote for somebody because their a "businessman," listen to what their saying.