If I were campaigning for president...

Published: December 31 | Updated: Friday, December 30, 8:12 PM HALEY BARBOUR (Governor of Mississippi) If the 2012 election is about President Obama’s policies and the negative results of those policies, he won’t be reelected; so if I were campaigning, I’d talk about how his policies have made economic growth and job creation harder.

"If" what the hell else should it be about?

Republicans and independents want a straightforward, factually accurate discussion of Obama’s proposals for the largest tax increase in history, which falls mostly on job creators;

JOB CREATORS? The big corporations that are forever downsizing? The only jobs they create are the jobs that get taken by the people they terminate!

his unprecedented explosion of the federal debt, primarily caused by his skyrocketing government spending; creation of a government-run health-care system that will increase the cost of both health care and health insurance; an energy policy that would drive up energy costs so Americans will use less of it; and excessively expensive and onerous regulation.

NOBODY wants a straightforward, factually accurate discussion of anything; least of all the pundits - the press corpse - they get bored - they want good snacks, pats on the backs of the heads, and nicknames.

Those Obama policies will elect a new Republican president because they make it harder to create jobs and stimulate growth. The plain-spoken truth about issues such as controlling spending on entitlements

you forget, Haley, that these so-called "entitlements" are called just that because people (tasxpayers) have PAID for them, and promises were made by the US government - we, the people are entitled to them, because they are bought and paid for!

and promoting economic growth and deficit reduction through tax reform will pay off in the primaries and in November. Voters are sick of happy talk and cheap attacks. They’re ready for problem solving, and they know it requires tough decisions. Finally, I’d attack Obama’s policies and offer solutions instead of attacking primary opponents. As conservative as I am, remember that the middle will decide the election in November, and the center agrees with us on the critical issues.

But the ONLY solution the republicans have managed to propoage in the last 20 or so years is to reduce taxes for the starving corporations!

SARAH PALIN (Former governor of Alaska; Republican nominee for vice president in 2008) Given the concerns I have for some of the Republican field’s focus thus far, I must implore the candidates to do something that sounds self-promoting, but whatever. Candidates, please turn to Chapter Three of “Going Rogue” and read what it takes for our country to step toward energy independence. Note the lesson I share in the same chapter about taking on the “elite,” the crony capitalists and the permanent political establishment to get a job done.

Sarah, sounding more and more like a socialist radical every day - maybe she didn't get the message - the elites OWN the friggin' country!

Do you really realize what is at stake? What is at stake is our republic. The gravity of today’s situation is real.

I find it impossible to disagree with anything Sarah has said here.

We count on you to lead our nation on the right path. Please let us know you realize this. Understand how the left’s terrifyingly naive assault on American industry exposes us to the mercy of foreign regimes whose prime objective is, at worst, our permanent demise and, at best, is stripping away our freedom

oops, Sarah, you should have quite while you were ahead!

. God has blessed America with ingenuity, natural resources and the strength of our workforce. Let’s use them. Tell voters that you understand this. Talk about this on the campaign trail. And quit gripin’ and moaning about “inside baseball” partisan machinations and maneuvering. We have other things to worry about. Stay strong. Focus on defending our republic and how we’ll re-industrialize our most exceptional nation in order to defeat the incumbent and win for America. MITCH DANIELS -- Governor of Indiana; author of “Keeping the Republic” One hopes in 2012 for a campaign that levels with the American people about the brute, mathematically certain dangers of our indebtedness and that trusts them enough to present a program of change, specific and sufficiently bold to restore the promise of upward mobility for all.

As long as the US government can counterfiet money (quantitative easing) at will, don't follow the dog's grack!

The advocates of change should stress our commonality, never our divisions. Every American, regardless of category, will be harmed if we continue following Europe into debt disaster. Every American, regardless of ideology, has a vital stake in a private economy that grows far faster than current policies permit and thus provides opportunity to each individual and revenue to fund whatever level of public activity we decide is appropriate. Tax reform, domestic energy production and a regulatory pause must be advocated as indispensable for poor people, unemployed people and, especially, young people. All ties must be broken in favor of private growth. Today’s blind, anti-growth zealotry must be contested as the cruel, pro-poverty policy it is. Prospective reforms to save the safety net must be advanced with aggressive confidence. With survival literally at stake, and broad consensus required to enable major changes, arguments about secondary issues should be muted.

Let us not speak ill of corporate corruption and corporate incompetence!"

The absence of an alternative world currency and investment havens has given this ever-fortunate nation a precious, maybe final, chance. Those who would lead us after 2012 should campaign to govern, not merely to win. HERMAN CAIN (Former chief executive officer of Godfather’s Pizza) (serial fondler of women who habitually never has any memory of his unwanted fondlings) This year is the time to get bold. Bold tax reform must be on the lips of every politician, the media and every voter. Americans have been victimized by a tax code that has corrupted our free-market economy by doling out favors, picking winners and losers, and dividing our nation with class warfare. Likewise, they have been victimized by the idea that we can spend our way to prosperity.

Here's my idea for bold tax reform - tax the rich, tax corporations, don't let any of them whiny titty-babies off scott free!

The bold solution is my 9-9-9 plan. It’s simple: a 9 percent business flat tax; a 9 percent individual flat tax; and a 9 percent national sales tax. An official in the Reagan Treasury Department said that, in addition to being simple, 9-9-9 is “fair, efficient, neutral and transparent.” My 9-9-9 plan allows Americans to keep more of their hard-earned money and to trust the government to be good stewards of the money it takes. We also need a bold energy policy. America has an abundance of natural gas and oil that is trapped — not by soil and rock but by excessive regulation and politicians too timid to take on the environmentalists’ attack on energy independence and prosperity. Remove these shackles, and the United States could become the world’s top energy producer.