Shortly after reading about Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s economic speech in Chicago, I decided to read the address itself and see if a word search confirmed my hypothesis that the GOP presidential frontrunner emphasized the word, “freedom.”  Sure, enough the word,”freedom” occurred 32 times, (30 not counting the titles) in the prepared text.

This “word cloud” shows you just how central the word is to this man’s economic ideas:

Now, to be sure, this cloud does show that Mr. Romney also used the word, “government” a good deal (17 times by my browser’s count), but mostly to criticize state intervention in the economy:

The government does not create prosperity; free markets and free people do.

For three years, President Obama has expanded government instead of empowering the American people. He’s put us deeper in debt. He’s slowed the recovery and harmed our economy. And he has attacked the cornerstone of American prosperity: our economic freedom.

In response to these attacks, the Republican was going to tell us “why economic freedom is so critical – and how” he would “restore it in order to get our economy growing again”.  He found that the ideal of liberty distinguished American culture:

But one feature of our culture that propels the American economy stands out: freedom.

The American economy is fueled by freedom.

Free people and their free enterprises are what drive our economic vitality.

He went on to detail some of the damage regulators do and took the incumbent to task for the crony capitalism he practices: (more…)

“And by and large,” Rick Santorum said, “Gov. Romney can’t get above 35% of the vote anywhere”.   Oh, really?

Just yesterday, Romney won Puerto Rico with 83% of the vote.  He won his adopted home state with 72% of the vote.  His finally tally in the Gem State was 62%, but 50% in the Silver State.  In Arizona it was 47%, near identical to his Sunshine State tally of 46%.  In another sunny state, Hawai’i, he captured 44% of the caucus votes, 41% in Michigan, 40% in Vermont, 39% in New Hampshire, 38% in Washington State, approximately his tally in the Buckeye State–and in Maine.

It’s generally a smart idea to check your facts before making such sweeping statements.

There comes a moment in the lives of most gay conservative when the outrage we feel at intolerant attitudes toward and mean-spirted reaction to our politics becomes amusement at the narrow-mindedness and short-sightedness of our left-of-center gay peers unable to understand the ideas of their ideological adversaries.  I receive reports on a near daily basis from gay Republican peers about Facebook “friends” “defriending” them for daring to disagree with their opinions of the president — or registering their own as Republicans.

Not to mention the nasty response we often hear when we offer opinions at odd with gay orthodoxy.  And sometimes we don’t even need identify ourselves as gay Republicans to experience the hatred some gay liberals feel for gay conservatives.  Just yesterday, I quipped that we “must always be suspicious of anyone who spends his life defining himself by what he is not — or making much of those he dislikes” in response to a liberal friend’s link to a blog post about an “ex-gay” video.

Shortly after my comment, a gay liberal chimed in, “self loathing gay men [Log Cabin?] are a bit strange!”  Another would offer (all caps in original, “REPUBLICAN –GAY = OXYMORON…OR IS IT JUST MORON? I FORGET.”

Do wonder why these guys hate so much.  And wonder as well if some of them have joined campaigns against H8, i.e., those opposing state recognition of same-sex marriage.

You look at these people, smile in amusement at their smallness, shake your head and feel sorry for them — for lacking the capacity to realize that someone can have different opinions from their own for sound reasons — and without harboring sinister motives.

The man who, as presidential candidate, pledged a “net spending cut,” has now, as president, overseen an increase in the national debt greater than that of a predecessor whom he derided for his profligate ways.  And Barack Obama did this in less than half the time George W. Bush was in office.

Tomorrow will mark the completion of the first 3 years and 2 months of the Democrat’s time in the White House.  The Republican served two full terms.  ”Over the weekend,” writes Jim Geraghty

Steve Eggleston checked the latest numbers from the Treasury Department and credited me for an accurate prediction: that upon the Ides of March, President Obama reached the milestone of raising the debt by $4.93 trillion since taking office.

On that day, the debt’s increase under Obama surpassed the amount it increased during George W. Bush’s two terms in office, $4.89 trillion.

In other words, Obama ran up as much debt in 3.15 years as Bush ran up in eight years.

The Ides of March, for those of you unfamiliar with Julius Cæsar, is the 15th of that month (on the Roman calendar). If our legacy media were even-handed, this story would receive more coverage than two men kissing at a Santorum rally.

ADDENDUM: Oh, and Jim asks us to remember that, on the campaign trail, “Obama said that adding $4 trillion in debt over Bush’s eight years was ‘irresponsible’ and ‘unpatriotic.””  (Just click on over to his post to watch the videos.)

In the Puerto Rico primary yesterday, not only did Mitt Romney beat Rick Santorum by a margin of greater than 1o-to-1, but he won all the delegates at stake in the commonwealth, quite a victory for the former Massachusetts governor, particularly impressive given that his Pennsylvania rival traveled to the island to campaign last week.

“Why,” Michael Barone asks, in his insightful analysis of yesterday’s results, “did Rick Santorum spend precious campaign time in Puerto Rico rather than Illinois?”

Here’s another interesting factoid from the primary in Puerto Rico, as reported by Yahoo!, “Ron Paul topped by also-ran Fred Karger in Puerto Rico primary“:

Ron Paul not only placed last in Sunday’s Puerto Rico primary, he lost to Fred Karger, the former actor and political consultant who has never before held elected office.

Karger, who brands himself as the first openly gay Republican presidential candidate and has failed to garner any significant support this season—let alone qualify for any presidential debates—led Paul 1,702 votes to 1,452 with 83 percent of precincts reporting Monday morning.

Not sure how much we can read into Fred’s showing, but it is nice to see his campaign get some attention.