TODAY: Republican Presidential Candidate Andy Martin’s letter conducts a Rush Limbaugh-style “caller clinic” for Republican primary voters and explains how and why campaigning must change to meet the demands of a new media world. Martin explains how his personal history as an
COMING SUNDAY: Andy Martin on KGO-AM Radio, San Francisco:
ANDY MARTIN
“The Right Republican”
for President of the United States/2012
Campaign Mail/National Headquarters:
Toll-free tel. (866) 706-ANDY
Toll-free fax (866) 707-ANDY
Web site: www.AndyMartinforPresident.com
E-mail: Andy@AndyMartinforPresident.com
Please donate:
www.AndyMartinforPresident.com
Blogs:
www.AndyforPresident.blogspot.com
www.AndyforPresident.wordpress.com
Dear Republican:
Some presidential candidates, such as Mike Huckabee, intensely dislike campaigning (see link below). Others, such as Newt Gingrich, create tax-exempt empires to subsidize their political activity (I wrote about him yesterday).
As for myself, I actually like campaigning. Campaigning is an opportunity to meet people, to hear their ideas, and to respond. I enjoy meeting the American people and giving them a call to action. In person. I can take the motels and hotels. I don’t mind the food on the campaign trail. And I sincerely love all of you and your love for
I read all of your feedback, and I personally respond to your comments. You have a direct personal relationship with me unlike that with any of the other presidential candidates. Try getting them on the phone or getting a real response from one of others. I have used my media experience to create a unique model of direct candidate-to-voter communication. Most of the other Republican presidentials use speechwriters to create their views and munchkins to read and respond to email. I don’t. The most important thing I do every day is communicate with you, the Republican Party and the American People. And if I should make it into the White House, I will still read email and write my own speeches.
Ironically, the media have conned the American people into believing that Barack Obama is an “eloquent speaker.” That is only half true. Obama reads a prepared speech very well. But Obama is actually a rotten speaker who can't speak without words being written for him and pasted in front of him. All of Obama’s “eloquence” comes from speechwriters, not his own pen. I am the opposite. I write my own material. You may not always agree with me, but you will know where I stand. Unfiltered and up front.
Rush Limbaugh calls some of his host - listener sessions “caller clinics.” Rush stops to explain what he means by certain terms, and explains how his views mesh with the larger mediascape. Today in this informal letter, in the style of a “caller clinic,” I’d like to explain why I am proposing a Twelfth Commandment to supplement President Ronald Reagan’s Eleventh Commandment.
Let me begin with a little about my background (for a detailed biography go to http://www.andymartin.com/). First, I come from a family where military service was valued. As a youngster I studied both the real wars which were taking place and military history. I have seen wars in
Second, as a young law student I was disgusted by the corruption in
So when you ask, "What do you offer as a presidential candidate?" I answer: I have a proven record of fighting corruption and working for government integrity (see www.AndyMartin.com for details). That’s a record of consistency no one in the Republican Party can approach let alone match. I am committed to honesty and integrity in government. Full stop.
Yesterday I promised to take on Newt Gingrich because of all of his financial machinations and abuses of tax-exempt organizations. Most of you were supportive. Some were not. The most amusing reply I got was from a reader (a woman, I think) who said she “wanted to know the truth about Barack Obama” but “didn’t want to know the truth about Newt Gingrich.” In other words, she wanted to know the facts about Obama, but not the facts about Republican presidential candidates.
You would be amazed at how prevalent that “ostrich” attitude is. In fact, the willingness to ignore the truth and the facts about Republican candidates is one of the Republican Party’s greatest weaknesses. Last year I exposed that a senate candidate, Mark Kirk, was a military fraud. I actually published a document from the Pentagon confirming Kirk was a fraud. Republicans were irritated.
Then the media picked up my material and exposed that Kirk had a history of delusional behavior spanning most of his lifetime. Kirk was almost defeated and only barely survived because of the 2010 Republican tide. Kirk was and remains a disgrace to Republicans. I will not mince words. And I will soon have more to say about Kirk’s delusions and “misremeberings.”
I first went to the
Now we as a party are trying to select a 2012 presidential candidate. Everyone is holding back formally announcing. Except me. I am the only formally fully announced candidate.
I am not in the top tier of candidates. I am probably the leader of the second tier of active candidates, those who are expanding a national presence but who are not as well known as the “A” list. OK, so I’m on the B List. I’m there.
But despite my status as a B-lister, I punch above my weight, to use a boxing expression, because I have media experience and national/international experience most A List candidates lack. And I have a love for fighting the good fight to see that Republicans nominate someone who can defeat Barack Obama.
When he was a candidate President Ronald Reagan announced the “Eleventh Commandment.” Reagan wanted to avoid criticizing other candidates. After I criticized Gingrich yesterday, a few of you asked, “What happened to the Eleventh Commandment?” Here’s what happened. First, I was viciously attacked by a handful of irresponsible New Hampshire Republicans, based on a stale, thirty year-old lawsuit in which I was the victim of a crime and in which I made some inflammatory remarks as part of pleading a case. Obama has been using that lawsuit against me for years; it is old news.
That’s my “baggage,” thirty year-old legal arguments. Ironically, fighting corruption does not make you friends, it makes you enemies. But without corruption fighters our society would be in an even bigger mess.
It seems to me that once Republicans attack a candidate, as I was attacked, a candidate has the right of self-defense, to fight back, and to point out that his record of service is much clearer and cleaner than his opponents. If I remained silent, when
As a high school senior who contemplated applying to
I have lived an honorable life. No, I am neither perfect nor free of errors. I have made more than my share of mistakes. But my honor is intact. My commitment to the Constitution is unsullied.
I propose the Air Force version of the Honor Code as a Candidate Creed and as our Party’s Twelfth Commandment. We should not tolerate corruption or corrupt candidates in our party. We should not hesitate or be afraid to expose Republican corruption or conflicts of interest. It makes us a stronger party, not weaker, when we clean house internally and don’t sit back and wait for the Democrats to whack us.
When President Reagan initially ran over 35 years ago, communications media were in their infancy. People knew little of what happened in “faraway”
Today, you would look stupid if you failed to comment on another candidate’s scandal or mistake. Would you really respect me more if I pretended I didn’t know or didn’t understand how Newt Gingrich is corrupting the political process by using tax-exempt organizations to conduct political activity? Do you really think the Democrats don't know the facts, or that they won’t use the facts if Gingrich wins the nomination? Do you really want to cast your vote in the dark, without knowing what is “out there?” I don’t think so. I respect your intelligence.
Here’s the bottom line. I am not going out and attacking other candidates gratuitously. I don't go through their garbage, or spy on their trysts with women or men. But when a candidate such as Gingrich is operating a political Ponzi Scheme, in which he solicits contributions from small contributors and working families, and then spends those small contributions on a luxurious political lifestyle of private jets and the like, then I believe Republicans have a right to know the facts and the truth before they vote.
I did not spend over forty years of my life as a corruption fighter to stand by silently as corruption and conflicts of interest parade in front of me.
Finally, despite the fact that I was Barack Obama’s first critic, and criticized him in 2008 when Republicans stood mute, I have never been caught in a lie or mistake about Obama. Last week Mike Huckabee said Obama grew up in
And so, I am not the best-known candidate, not by a country mile. And I will not have the most money, not at all. I don't have Newt Gingrich’s contempt for the law and contempt for the small givers he exploits to maintain his lavish political lifestyle. But I am the most experienced candidate and the only Republican with a proven track record of exposing corruption and phony politicians.
I am the only man Barack Obama fears as a Republican opponent in 2012.
Doesn’t that tell you something?
Best wishes,
Andy
AM:sp
---------------------
LINKS:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/20/AR2011022003752.html
No comments:
Post a Comment