The Motivations of Bigotry

In politics, bigotry isn't always connected to ideology; sometimes it simply stems from opportunism.

Last week, in a year in review segment, a hearty laugh was shared among a group of comedic commentators over a family photo of the Romney's in which one of Romney's grandchildren is an adopted African American child. Taunts of "One of these things is not like the other..." and "Look, it's a Republican convention and you have to find the one black person." Melissa Harris-Perry did take time from her show weekend yesterday to apologize for the insensitivity of the remarks, and Gov. Romney has accepted the apology. This instance of poor judgement when it comes to addressing race is closed, but it once again spurs the discussion of how political commentary addresses race in today's political climate.

During the 2012 election, and even in 2008, I tried to veer away from the issue of race when discussing politics with friends and family. I thought it shouldn't make a difference the color of skin for a candidate to public office. There is no color in the words a candidate speaks. Today, however, it is getting harder and harder to not address the issue of race in American politics. The reason that we seem to be forced into acknowledging the color of someones skin is simple: the Republican Party is getting more diverse, and liberal and democrat's are gaining more and more by mocking it.

Commentary is becoming less and less to do with stances on issues or personal integrity when it comes to political leaders of color. Individuals are so often branded simply based on this attribute that it can be frustratingly difficult to hold a serious discussion. Especially when it comes to riddicule of members of the Democratic Party. Now, the Republican party has is duly electing people who are members of minorities. An African-American senator from South Carolina, Cuban-American senators from Florida and Texas, Indian-American governors in South Carolina and Louisiana, and Mexican-American governors in Nevada and New Mexico. A whole generation of prominent conservatives is also forming with the likes of Rep. Allen West, Herman Cain, Rep. Arthur Davis, Thomas Sowell, and Micheal Steel.

In the early sixties of America, southern white voters who opposed the Civil Rights act voted strongly in favor of Democrats, not because their views coincided with a large central government and progressive tax system that was favored by the national democratic party, but because democrats from the south, frequently referred to as 'Dixie-crats' were the strongest voting block against Civil Rights. It is because of these Democrats that Civil Rights passed with a larger margin of Republican support (80%) then Democrat support (63%). Republicans saw an opportunity to gain the votes of disenfranchised voters not because they wanted to repeal the Civil Rights act (though listening to left wing commentators today you would think that), but by appealing to them with a personal liberty and states rights-centric view that was the ideological core of the Republican party, that also appealed to these citizens.

Today, faced with increasing GOP diversity, the Democratic Party will be tempted by bigotry for the same reason Republicans sought out their support in the post 'Dixie-Crat' era, because bigots have votes too. In 2012, for instance, the Obama campaign never directly attacked Mitt Romney’s Mormonism. Still, Montana’s Democratic governor, Brian Schweitzer,suggested that women would not back Romney because his father was “born on a polygamy commune in Mexico.” A group named Catholics for Obama was accused of calling Pennsylvania voters asking, “How can you support a Mormon who does not believe in Jesus Christ?”. South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has also had to deal with comments from state Democratic Chairman Dick Harpootlian about both her origins and she had been compared to Adolf Hitler's mistress, she also had to field questions about tipping Sikh taxi drivers better. Try picturing a reporter asking President Obama if he tips African-American waiters more.

Given the increasing diversity of the American political scene, future race, religion, and ethnicity based baiting may come in unusual forms. Imagine, for instance, a Democrat linking Marco Rubio’s lack of support for programs that benefit African-Americans to white Cuban prejudice against their darker skinned co-islanders. Or a group of South Asian Americans slamming Bobby Jindal for abandoning his Hindu heritage. Or, as in my opening to this post, the belated attack on a Mormon for having an adopted African-American grandchild.

The point is that progressives and liberals need to realize that Democrats aren't immune from racism. In politics, bigotry isn't always connected to ideology, and is not limited to one demographic's oppression of another. Sometimes, it stems simply from an opportunity that is too good to pass up. Melissa Harris-Perry is in a constant ratings foray, putting up a picture of a Republican's family and mocking it appeals to people that she is trying to court for an audience. This is not to say that Melissa is targeting people who think Mormons adopting black kids is funny specifically, just that there are similarities in the audience she is courting, and people who do find it funny. Not unlike politicians who are trying to score political points in certain demographics in hopes that it translates to votes. It's an attention-getter. And, with more minority Republicans seeking high office, Democrats will have more opportunities to get people's attention using this method in the years to come.

Melissa Harris-Perry admitted she crossed a line, her apology was sincere and Gov. Romney accepted it. However, until we delve more into the motivations behind the segment in the first place, this is a mistake we are doomed to see repeated again.

Election Results - Stage 3: Bargaining

Who is out there willing to play 'let's make a deal' with the Republican party? Perhaps those stinking Mexicans or the blasphemous homosexual community, or god forbid, the Atheists. But, how to make the vision of an anti-immigrant, traditional marriage, judeo-christian founded America appeal to them?

STAGE 3: BARGAINING

"There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what... [M]y job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives." -Mitt Romney

<My apologies to Mrs. Kubler-Ross for taking some liberties on what is meant by bargaining when it comes to grief.>

Once the anger subsides and the plotting begins in how to win the 2014 midterms and the next presidential election, the need to woo a new demographic to the right side in order to balance out the overall votes. We can not continue to wait for imaginary ninjas to help the right win.

There have been several thoughts presented as to who the Republican Party needs to tailor their message to in the hopes that it may make a dent in the growing gap with voting blocks that have been traditionally democratic. Some people believe this means compromising a long held position on a key issue. Perhaps immigration, perhaps gay marriage. Which of course could, in turn, prevent a key voting block from turning out on election day, of course I am talking about the closely held @$$-hole vote. I'm talking about those that believe that what hot lesbians do in there bedroom are not only topics for guys sitting in front of their computers late at night, but also matters to people who spend Sunday mornings gathering and talking about how everyone else is going to hell, and that believe the first amendment was put in place to prevent poorly placed mosques in Manhattan. There is some doubt cast when people point out the tailored messages that the RNC spent $5,000,000,000 on this past election trying to broadcast messages on Tela-mundo about the need for border protection, and the $100,000,000 spent by the Westboro Baptist Church of sponsoring a tour by the biggest celebrity they could find, George Micheal, to spread their message of sin and sodomy.

Many say that there is no need for change within the party, and that the problem is that large swaths of Americans that don't seem to want to change their morals and values no matter how many times theirs are proven to be inferior to their own. The solution to this conundrum is simple, succession. A petition to the White House has already garnered over 68,000 signatures to allow Texas to succeed from the United States.

To those readers who wish to pursue this path, I would recommend looking at history for the list of do's and do not's when it comes to succeeding from the United States. A brief look at history shows that seceding states don't have the greatest track record. 0 for 11 to be exact. The other number to toss around is 600,000, the sobering number of deaths as a result from the attempt.

Assuming that you are not an Italian plumber stereotype and have but one life to live for your country, my recommendation is to stop trying to wheel and deal your way out of the election results, grab a box of tissues and wait for the forth stage of grief; depression.


Stage 1: Denial
Stage 2: Anger

The Third Debate

It's been a couple days, and I've already been asked "What did you think of the last debate?" or "Where is your blog post about the third debate?" Here is my short answer;

It didn't matter...

Sure, I tuned in hoping to see some sparring and some red in the face back to back. But Romney did something that some people predicted and many people already in his corner. He played it safe. Why? Not because he was afraid of looking like a fool or putting his foot in his mouth, but because the foreign policy debate is transcending a 90 minute forum. In the papers yesterday it was discovered that Obama knew exactly how the attacks in Benghazi went down hours before he went into the Rose Garden and spewed some crap about a YouTube video and showing respect for others religion.

In this sense, it was a boring debate.

Which is fine, the truth of the matter is that between game seven for the Nation League Pennant and Monday Night football playing all at the same time on cable, there where millions of people that just decided to skip this debate. The conditions were right to not have a terrible impact on the election. A better question, that I've been asking for weeks, is when, where, and how did Obama get this narrative of blaming the death of Americans on an act of free speech. If Romney had jumped in with this question, I'm sure Obama would have been ready with some deflection of "We spoke on the intel that we had at the time, and as Candy pointed out in the last debate, I did identify this as a terrorist attach...". Or some sort of statement that skirts the edges of truth on the latter point and now with these emails being exposed blasts the truth to bits on the former point.

This debate didn't matter. Romney supporters liked Romney, Obama supporters liked Obama, and the four or five people that are undecided were busy watching the Bears and Lions game. I recommend watching the news to get the real story of where this countries foreign policy has gotten us in the past four years.

To make it up to some of you that came here for some quick wit or a good laugh and feel a bit cheated, I did come up with some whimsical titles for ya, enjoy!

Debate 2 Cheat Sheet

IT could be a pretty lady, a train wreck, or a squirrel, something will distract all of us at some point during tonight's debate. Save yourself some embarrassment by using my cheat sheet guide to tonight's debate.

	President Obama		Governor Romney
Question	What he will say	What he won’t say	What he will say	What he won’t say
What will you do for the working classes tax burden?	“I Believe in a ‘middle out’ approach that strengthens the middle class by reducing their tax burden.”	“My temporary tax cuts for the middle class weren’t paid for, as a result, I’m shaving years off the solvency of Social Security and Medicare. “	“My tax plan to reduce the rate by 20% will not add to the deficit. And I have 6 reports that support this.”	“The only way this plan won’t result in a deficit is if it stimulates a 4+% growth in the economy, a rate we haven’t seen since the 90’s”
What is your plan to strengthen the Economy?	“We must invest in infrastructure, and make sure our schools and police departments are adequately funded.”	I've been saying this for 4 years, my budgets have assumed record growth as a result, I've never been right."	"Removing needless obstructions to small business that are the life blood of our economy."	Specifics... Specifics... Specifics...
How will you keep America Safe?	“Let me be perfectly clear, the US will not tolerate any attempts of violence on us or our allies.”	“We will continue with drone strikes that are causing hundreds of deaths in collateral damage.”	“I will not cut the Military by $2 Trillion Dollars over the next 10 years.”	“These cuts were part of a deal to begin to rein in spending, and I have no plan to make up the difference, other then to grow out of it.”
What could have gone better in Benghazi?	“We could have improved relations with the Muslim people.”	"I will never say where Ambassador Rice and I got our initial story from that this attack was a result of a YouTube video."	"I will stop the culture of America apologizing for everything that America has done."	"...which does nothing to address the current problem which has no easy solution, but whatever Obama is doing ain't working."
How will you address Healthcare?	"I will continue to close the doughnut holes in Medicare, and help ensure our seniors get the care that's been promised to them."	"The Medicare surplus will be dried up by 2016, The CBO has added trillions to the cost of ObamaCare, and I have no plan other then to keep borrowing money to continue this program."	"My plan will keep the parts of ObamaCare that are popular while infusing the private sector to hlp control costs."	"You'll be dealing with insurance companies until the day you die and then some. Why don't you like me plan?"
Why should American’s Vote for you?	"Because we can not return to the policies that got us into this mess in the first place. We must continue to move Forward."	Any answer that actually makes you want to vote FOR me.	"The President said in his own words that if he didn't have this figured out in 3 years, it would be a one term proposition."	Any answer that actually makes you want to vote FOR me.

Debate Recap

I had a good night sleep, I woke up, took a quick shower, and noticed an odd growth on my leg, but I digress. It's time to take a few minutes and reflect on how the debate went last night.

Overall, I think it is pretty obvious that Mitt Romney carried the night, in the first 15 minutes Obama I believe used his infamous "Uhh..." thinking sound about 300 times, but there was a reason, at least in part, for this. Mitt Romney never gave Obama the ammunition he needed to attack his plans. He still hasn't, not really. When Obama started a line of attack about Romney's plan to cut taxes by $5 Trillion taxes, Romney was able to counter by saying that wasn't his plan at all, and then go into a fairly simple argument about cutting loopholes and broadening the base that would result in roughly the same revenue. This was a narrative of Romney's plan that hasn't really been put out there and it made it difficult for Obama to really pick it apart.

"...I'm not looking for a $5 trillion tax cut. What I've said is I won't put in place a tax cut that adds to the deficit. That's part one. So there's no economist that can say Mitt Romney's tax plan adds $5 trillion if I say I will not add to the deficit with my tax plan..." - Romney

As a more than likely Romney voter, it did disappoint me that we got little more then a taste as to what ta loopholes Romney would cut to make his across the board cuts feasable. He hinted at lowering the standard deduction, at reducing exemptions for higher wage earners, and putting the focus on making things easier on small businesses, but it's a long way from specifics. I would venture to say he doesn't want to be hindered by campaign promises while tackling this issue, but the same could be said for campaign assurances that he is trying to pass of as his plan currently.

This sums it up, Obama still ahead, but Romney won the Debate

Make no mistake though, the dance the Romney did around details of his plan paled in comparison to Obama's plan which has been heard before, in many cases been tried before, and worst of all sounds near impatient when he tries to make the case that his current policies are actually working. At one point he tried to make the case he was emulating the plans of the late 90's where we had massive expansion, jobs were plentiful, and the deficit disappeared  The obvious flaw with this narrative is that we are NOT having massive economic expansion, jobs are very scarce, and we have spent record amounts of money in the process. In my eyes, it makes the President come across as arrogant and pompous.

"...Bill Clinton tried the approach that I'm talking about. We created 23 million new jobs. We went from deficit to surplus. And businesses did very well. So, in some ways, we've got some data on which approach is more likely to create jobs and opportunity for Americans..." - Obama

The simple fact of this debate is, that Obama looked tired and week compared to a Romney that looked energized, ready, and eager to tackle these problems. I was a bit frightened toward the end that Romeny started to have a bit of that 'foaming at the mouth' aspect too him by interrupting and talking over Jim, but then this happened;

OBAMA: Now, the last point I'd make before ...

LEHRER: Two minutes -- two minutes is up, sir.

OBAMA: No, I think -- I had five seconds before you interrupted me, was ...

Then he proceeded to speak for another minute or so. Suddenly, my mind went from a tired and un-engaged Obama to a frustrated Obama, the body language shifted back to Romney's favor, and no amount of Big Bird tweets would correct it.

To address the elephant in the room, let's call him Snuffleupagus, the Big Bird joke was brought up back in January. My personal thought is most people that are acting like this is a slip are just a little behind on the times. I'd also note that many people are talking about the tragedy of loosing Big Bird, not if the government should be financing a broadcast channel that gets next to no ratings.

In other news, Jobless Claims are back up from the prior week, Unemployment is still over 8%, Labor participation is at 30 year lows, and we are still spending $8 Billion dollars a day we don't have.

Fast Facts;

Obvious Looser of the Debate

Mentions of the word(s):
Tax - 109
Jobs - 41
President - 97
Governor - 76
Please - 5
Sorry - 5
I wouldn't be a perfect President - 1

Number of tweets under #Debates/#Debates2012: 10.3 Million

Balance of time: Romney - 38 1/2 Minutes, Obama - 43 Minutes

Money Disparity

Who's money is this?

The Los Angeles Times did a piece about how President Obama is employing roughly twice as many paid staffers for his campaign then Gov. Mitt Romney, for about the same amount of money. Here is a litany of legitimate reasons for this;

1. Half of Obama's Staff is paid with unemployment checks.
2. Romney thinks a fair livable wage is $250/hr.
3. Half of Obama's staff is made up of fake names.
4. Romney pays his staff in stock options from his personal investment portfolio, which he calls the CAYMAN CHA CHING!
5. Obama has "Work for the same wage as the homeless" Wednesdays.
6. Romney has "Work for the same wage as me" Mondays, from Noon to 12:01pm.
7. Obama charges his employees 35%, plus a 5% sir tax to work for him.
8. Romney is paying off staffers from the last 10 years of campaigns, but refuses to release any of their names.
9. Obama is waiting until after re-election, then he will "Have more flexibility" to pay his staffers.
10. The other half of Romney's campaign works in India.
11. Obama's staff took a 50% pay cut on the promise they get to meet Beyonce.
12. Romney just pays his staff with whatever change he finds in his couch cushion.
13. Obama declared himself half of his staff exempt from pay.
14. Romney likes to surround himself with rich people.
15. Obama pays his staff with U.S. Treasury Bonds.
16. The other half of Romney's staff is on strike, Obama has no comment.

Why don't the poor just buy some more money?

Hopefully that clears up some confusions. As with most things this election cycle, just doing a little bit of investigative journalism will bring all these things to light. What's that? You don't believe that I spent tedious painstaking hours putting these 'facts' together. Well, what good are facts, when you have THE TRUTH on your side!

What's my Debt Again?

Did anyone else catch this?

I figured that since President Obama's time taken to appear on the Late Show with David Letterman took presidence over meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu and addressing the riots that appear to be directed at us in a dozen different Middle Eastern countries that he must of had something pretty important to say. After a crack about seeing David naked (that made me think of a hilarious pun involving the President missing his security briefs) they began to talk about the Republican National Convention. The key part came when David asked President Obama what this who Debt Deal was about. He was responding to  the National Debt Clock that was a prominent feature of the Republican National Convention last month in Tampa.

Obama, "We had a surplus when Bill Clinton was President"

Letterman, "That means extra money."

Obama - "Extra money, that was projected to continue to be a surplus. We decided to launch two wars on a credit card. We cut taxes twice without finding offsetting costs for it, or ways to pay for it. A Perscription drug plan, and then we had a massive recession. So when I walked into office we had a trillion dollar deficit. Debt had mounted, and we had to take Emergency Measures, saved the Auto Industry, making sure that the financial system got back on track. So now, what we have to do it pair down that deficit, get that debt under control. The only way we've been able to do that, effectively, is when you do it a balanced way, so, you cut out spending you don;t need, programs that doesn't work, and like I tell my Democratic friends all the time, if you're going to be in favor of helping the American people you can;t just assume that every government program is working the way it should, it can work better. But, what is also true, is that we are going to need to ask folks like you and me to do a little bit more and if you and I are paying the same tax rates we did under Bill Clinton then that helps to close the deficit. If we do those two things then we can manage very effectively and get our books in order."

Letterman - "Now do you remember what that number was? Was is.. $10 Trillion?"

Obama - "I don't remember what the number was preciously."

Letterman, "Now if this is me and I got the credit card guy calling me everyday, I start to get scared. AS Americans, should we be scared that we owe that kind of money, who do we owe that money to?"

Obama - "Well, a lot of it we owe to ourselves, because if you invest in a treasury bill or something like that then you are essentially loaning the government money. In fact, the majority is owed by folks who live here. But, we don;t have to worry about it short term, right now interest rates are low because people still consider the united states the safest, greatest country on earth, rightfully so. But, it is a problem long term."

The National Debt is an astounding $16 trillion, a number that I have trouble grappling. It also exceeds the size of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product, the total value of goods and services. Even if the government doubled it's revenue with higher taxes and fees, and even if it didn't bring the economy to a grinding halt as a result, it would take over two decades to pay this thing off.

Obama’s answer was a masterpiece of prevarication. He described how the debt originated, and claimed, falsely, that he inherited a $1 trillion deficit. In fact, this country had never run a deficit anywhere near $1 trillion until FY 2009, the first year of the Obama administration.

Even in his stump speeches he proves a lack of having a handle of the deficit. The speech I attended in Cedar Rapids included the line, "We fought two wars on a credit card..." and five minutes later "So I want to take about half the money we’re no longer spending on a war and let’s use it to put people back to work.". Huh? so we still don't have any money, but since we aren't spending this money we don't have on war, lets spend it on job creation, what about the half a trillion plus we spent in 09' and '10 that was supposed to spur our economy? There is no plan to reduce spending, just to funnel it into his own picks and agenda.

In a development directly related to the federal debt and the deficit, the Washington Examiner is reporting that the number of able-bodied Americans on food stamps has doubled after the Obama administration suspended certain work requirements for welfare programs.

Although the president apparently is thus far too busy to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu about the Iranian nuclear threat, his trip to New York also included a campaign fundraiser with Jay-Z and Beyonce. Barely giving the slaying of our ambassador a second thought before flying off to Las Vegas.

Watch President Barack Obama below say he doesn’t remember what the National Debt is precisely (about the six-and-a-half-minute mark):


How frustrated do I become when I see the President so obviously duck a question? Even though millions of people see him do it, nobody seems to care. He's just too cool, he's too charismatic, he has done NOTHING to improve this countries situation on one hand, and in the other, he can do no wrong.Meanwhile, a businessman with one of the greatest track records for turning companies and even the Olympics around gets nothing but blame for only paying $2 million in taxes when he should have been paying $4 million. Well, now it seems that he only had to pay $1.5 million, because of all the money he was donating to charity... yet some people will never know, and will continue to think of him as nothing but an a-hole.

I don't get it...

Making Sense of Bengazi Slaying

I had to log several hours of piecing this together, but here is a timeline of the events, hopefully this can be referenced for conversations pertaining to timing of events and making a bit of sense of what happened.

Benghazi Aftermath

5:11 a.m. CDT, 9/11/12. A statement is published online from the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, Egypt. The header reads; "US Embassy condemns religious incitement" The post since appears to have taken down from here. The statement has since been re-posted in about a zillion sites.

Late Morning, CDT 9/11/12. Or around 5 p.m. local time in Cairo, demonstrators began to assemble outside of the U.S. Embassy. Reasoning behind this gathering appear to be the subject of some investigations, still, a Salafist leader and president of Egypt's Hekma television channel, Wesam Abdel-Wareth, was one such voice that called for Muslim's to protest the very low budget movie 'Muhammad's Trial', a US-made film which, critics say, insults the Islamist Prophet Mohammed.

3:47 p.m. CDT, 9/11/12. The Cairo Embassy, via twitter, states: "As Spokesperson Nuland said, protesters breached our wall and took down flag. Thanks for your concern and kind wishes." There is little indication of outright violence, but a crowd with estimations of roughly 2,000 demonstrators are loud and angry at this time.

Ambassador Christopher Stevens

5:00 p.m. CDT, 9/11/12. Additional tweets from the Embssy in Cairo "Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.", "Of course we condemn breaches of our compound, we're the ones actually living through this.", "Sorry, but neither breaches of our compound or angry messages will dissuade us from defending freedom of speech AND criticizing bigotry."

5:01 p.m. CDT 9/11/12. A Footnote, but this is the point where Stand Up America Now begins a livestream of Jones' anti-Muslim presentation online. Though I question how many people in Egypt follow this website, it has been presented by many media outlets as a channel that added fuel to the fire of anger.

5:30 p.m. CDT, 9/11/12. Cairo Embassy Tweets: "This morning's condemnation (issued before protests began) still stands. As does condemnation of unjustified breach of the Embassy."

6:51 p.m. CDT, 9/11/12. First reports of an American staff member of the U.S. consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi has died following an outbreak of violence. Investigations continue as to the level of protests here compared to the reports of a small team of well equipped militants intent on doing harm.

9:09 p.m. CDT, 9/11/12. Romney submits a statement to the Media. It was supposed to be held until Midnight in respect out of keeping foreign policy discourse off of the anniversary of 9/11. The campaign allowed it to be released within an hour of submission.

9:10 p.m. CDT 9/11/12 News breaks that the statement issued from Cairo was not cleared by Washington and that it does not reflect the views of the United States government.

9:38 p.m. CDT, 9/11/12. An statement from the State Department, specifically Sec. of State Hillary Clinton, stating, "I condemn in the strongest terms the attack on our mission in Benghazi today... We have confirmed one State Dept officer was killed in Libya. We are heartbroken by this terrible loss." Full statement here.

10:51 p.m. CDT, 9/11/12. The U.S. Embassy in Cairo deletes its earlier tweets, statements eventually removed from website.

11:01 p.m. CDT, 9/11/12.: Other policical figures begin to weigh in now that (per New York Time) the embargo on foreign affairs has ended, led off with RNC chairman Priebus stating "Obama sympathizes with attackers in Egypt.Sad and pathetic."

11:09 p.m. CDT, 9/11/12. Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt issues a response to Romney's statement: "We are shocked that, at a time when the United States of America is confronting the tragic death of one of our diplomatic officers in Libya, Governor Romney would choose to launch a political attack."

6:21 a.m. CDT, 9/12/12. President Obama issues statement condemns the attacks in Libya, and confirms that the U.S. ambassador was slain.

8:57 a.m. CDT, 9/12/12. Clinton hosts a press conference condemning violence in Syria. (Video)

9:16 a.m. CDT, 9/12/12. Gov. Mitt Romney holds a press conference while in Jacksonville, FL. (Video)

9:43 a.m. CDT, 9/12/12. President Barrack Obama holds a press conference with Hillary Clinton in the Rose Garden. (Video)

Now begins the narrative of if Mitt's comments where appropriately timed or not, or it the Presidents' response was adequate. But, you don't check in here for a simple list of facts and links, did you? Well, ok, maybe you did, but here is my two cents;

What Mitt Romney said last night was spot on, all though I'm on the fence as far as not waiting for 9/11 to be over before making such an aggressive statement. I don't see an issue with challenging the foreign policy of a President who doesn't seem to have a well established set of principals during the election cycle. When people are storming the gates of your embassy, you can not sit idly by with a 'wait and see' approach such as this President seems to be doing. Then when some of the first things that are said are just to correct and contradict what was said by someone else. Right now there is a serious issue that no one understands one thing, what America is planning in a time like this. It was appropriate for the White House to condemn these actions and make a call for justice against those individuals who killed our delegates. 

This is a big deal. It's a clear indication that things in Egypt, Syria, and several other Arab Spring countries are not going as swimmingly as perhaps we had hoped, and with the way our President appears to prioritize both waiting until a half dozen other people from the Embassy, the State Department, his opponent, and the media all get hours of play time before making a pretty Mad Libs type reply. Then a couple hours later he was in the air on his way to campaign in Colorado, only to return in time for the Hispanic Caucus Anniversary Gala. 

Are we going to withdrawl other embassy staff? Are we going to offer military or intelligence support to hunt these murderers down? Will we withhold our financial support for some of these young, new governments? It's a huge difference when a country is rioting against their own government and when those riots appear on our front door and U.S. citizens are being harmed. It demands something of a response, be it supportive of the local government in keeping the peace, or throwing down the gauntlet and militarizing our embassies. My vote would be to withdraw our consulate staff and families from these countries and suspend any payments of aide until peace is restored. Offer any assistance for peacekeeping or in tracking down these militants that appear to have stormed us in Benghazi. Our President seems more interested in campaigning in swing states and getting ready to appear on Letterman and meeting up with Beyonce.

Election Prediction Poll

The unlikely, but entirely possible, 269-269 outcome

Got a new Survey up, inspired by my boss who is predicting a landslide for Romney. We'll call it an early indicator and I won't leave it up for very long. But here is a bit of explanation/scenario playing to the options;

How do you think the 2012 Presidential Election will end?

Big Obama Victory - Ohio and Florida go blue and the electoral map looks similar to 2008, the election is all but called before California closes it's balloting pushing Obama well over the 270 mark by 20 + electoral votes.

Narrow Obama Victory - Mitt does well east, getting Ohio and Florida but failing to grab any of the smaller swing states like Iowa and or Colorado, well into the evening the Nevada polls close and the state is called for Obama sealing the deal by just a few electoral votes.

2000 Election all over again - Florida declares a 'too close to call' as Obama needs 10 more electoral votes to Romney's 20, protests over confusing ballots and voter fraud abound and the country is held in a 4 day limbo as the Supreme Court "figures it out".

Narrow Romney Victory - The country stays up til 2 in the morning waiting for Ohio to finalize it's count. A surprising number of 3rd Party votes in Iowa and Arizona squash his chances for an easy victory, but much like in 2004, Ohio exit polling shows that Mitt has won and is the next President.

Big Romney Victory - Michigan goes Red along with New Hampshire and Ohio and Florida, Romney wins with 20+ electoral votes to spare. Didn't even need Ohio but glad to have them aboard.

And just to salt the wound that is my failure to even put Paul Ryan on the Ballot, here is the results of my first poll.

Who would you pick as Mitt's Vice Presidential Running Mate?

Who predicted Paul Ryan? Not I.

1. Rubio - 25% (Poll Winner)
2. Other - 20% ("Correct" Choice)
3. Portman - 12%
3. Pawlenty - 12%
3. Jindal - 12% (My Vote)
6. Daniels - 8%
7. Christie - 4%
7. Ayotte - 4%
9. McDonnell - 0%

Total Votes: 24, thanks again to all who voted.

The Case for Mitt Romney - Part 3

The trend lines are not pretty, since Rick Santorum's bow out of the primary, effectivaly handing Romney the nomination back in April, the RCP average says Romney has been in a Nationwide poll lead for only a couple days. Romney is in bad shape. After tens of millions of dollars’ worth of attack ads from Obama’s campaign and super PAC, voters consistently described Romney as an unlikable guy who doesn’t understand or care about the problems of you and I. That he is a tax cheat, and a killer. A change of dialogue was needed, to both take some heat off Mitt and start a discussion about the real decision being presented to the American people.

The Case for Mitt Romney - Part 3: Vice President Paul Ryan.

Welcome to the Race, Mr. Ryan.

I'll admit it, I didn't think this was a realistic possibility. I didn't even have him listed in my little survey on this page. And surely Mitt saw the commercial of Paul pushing granny off a cliff? Does that narrative go right into what Obama has already said (DRAT!! keep it positive)

But wait? What am I doing? Let's not pick this guy because the Democrats make attack adds about him?  This man is the only one who has actually put forward a plan that will make something called Medicare exist past 2024, or 2016. This is the only person to put forward a complete budget plan that actually passed a wing of congress. This is the man who appeared with Cong. Wasserman-Shultz on CNN, and has appeared on MSNBC. He also opened up at the Health Care summit the discussion directly to President Obama about the hidden and misleading costs of Obama-Care. This guy is unafraid to challenge people in any arena, and that is something that I feel most people have been looking for in this election.

He also plays well into Romney's narrative of bringing new ideas and tackling the big issues of entitlement reform and the debt. It will be interesting how Romney identifies his own ideas and plans in the shadow of such a developed and debated set of plans brought forward by Ryan. But, the primary point here is that new ideas will help change the narrative of the election and force the oppositions hand to come out with their own plan to tackle these issues.

There is also the superficial, Paul Ryan is a 42 year old, full head of hair, athletic man who fits the mold of a handsome fellow. He injects a young vigor that at least will catch the eye of a younger demographic.

So what does this boil down to? Marco Rubio or Kelly Ayotte could have helped in making large swaths of voters take another look at the republican ticket. At a glance, I don't see Paul Ryan doing this. A McDonell or a Portman could have given a nudge in a close swing state, Many people don't think Wisconsin is in play even in the wake of this choice (We shall see). Then what was the intent here? Simple, he is trying to motivate his base while learning lessons from the '08 pick of Palin. A Rubio pick could backfire, it would bring immigration to the fore front where an Obama plan could appeal more to Latinos. An Ayotte pick could force the 'War on Woman' dialogue where Mitt might have to defend taking away potentially free contraceptive care. Rubio or Portman With a Paul Ryan pick the dialogue is Debt and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), two items that have generally negative numbers among the populous. The first salvo being fired at the tremendous size of cuts that the ACA make, forcing the explanation that it's $700 billion in cuts are waste and fraud, and that that is why it should instead go to another government medical program that surely will not fall victim to $700 Billion in waste and fraud.

The Romney/Ryan campaign will have to break the mold of Middle Aged White Politician

See what I did there? I included a jab at Obama-Care in the context of what Romney was doing as part of his campaign strategy, is that breaking the rules? I digress. The point here is that it isn't about trying to attract the woman vote, or the Latino vote, it's about changing the dialogue to something that will energize Romney's Base instead of Obama's. It was a pick based on ideas and articulating his vision, not politics or popularity. At the very least, you have to tip your hat and say that it was a bold choice.

He's no Bobby Jindal, his explanations, though effective, can lull people a bit when compared to the excitement other politicians seem to generate. But, after taking a few days to look at how Ryan has hit the floor of the campaign, I'm impressed. The R&R campaign has pressed some of the issues Ryan has argued in the past. The hope being that it will expose a lack of new ideas or force justifications for their plans and actions. Demotivating their side, while simultaneously bringing the ideas that can save Medicare and reign in government spending that will motivate their side to the polls, here's to hoping it works. I give Mitt Romney pretty strong kudos in picking a running mate based on ideas and intellect. The person who looks better on paper then in a headline. The same way one would hire someone for a job rather than deciding who to go out on a date with. It's the approach you take when you are serious about running a country over winning over the masses. The one draw back of using this line of thinking here being that you must win over the masses before you can run a country.

The Case for Mitt Romney - Part 1: The Resume
The Case for Mitt Romney - Part 2: The Plan

The Surrender of Civility

I hereby declare, with no mincing of words, the complete and absolute surrender of any meaningful debate for the 2012 election. Let us move on to discussions of Romney’s murder trail, to what Obama wrote in a book 20 years ago, to what state Romney lived in, in 2001, and not least of all what Michelle Obama whispered in her husband’s ear last year. 

The concept of Civility is a punchline in and of itself

Politics has gotten personal, and for the first time in this young Americans life, the general acknowledgement is that there is nothing wrong with that. For all the talk of America as a nation divided, the talk that Americans themselves are somehow concerned that negative campaign ads, fiery campaign speeches, personal attacks and distortion of what is fact and what can be expounded away as ‘near fact’, we sure do seem to lap up a good argument over stuff that effects absolutely nothing.

Poll after poll will tell us that Americans are fed up, they’ve had enough, they don’t want anymore, the brunt of these people are lying, You can just as quickly point out source after source that can answer the question of ‘why do they keep doing it if people are sick and tired of it’. You’ve heard the saying before, say it with me, "They do it because it works". Now, people don’t even waste their breath trying to answer the question of what these arguments have to do with anything. What effect will Obama's grades in college affect his approach on education? What will the tax rate Romney paid in 2003 affect his tax policy? Heck, I'd even take those questions being asked, over the current "He must be hiding something, he won't release his college Theseus", or "He must be hiding something, he won't release 12 years of tax returns". Politics is ugly, and anyone wasting our time to convince us otherwise will probably end up losing in the end. Be it in ratings or an election itself.

Americans deserve better, no one doubts this, and with such a quiet consensus in favor of a more civil political discourse, you would think that by now the American people would be crying out to those who seek to represent us. But, unless you constitute answering a poll question as a form of protest, the outrage is gone, or at best feigned, from this year’s election cycle.

On one hand, you have the foreign born, pot smoking, dog eating, Muslim incumbent, and on the other, the tax cheating, wife killing, beholden to the Mormon Church felon who is challenging him. The issue I am trying to address is, that many people will be reading this nodding in agreement at one half of that statement, and then shaking it in a type of feverish anger at the other half. Civility is preached, hypocrisy is exercised.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m probably not helping the cause out much, I’ve posted before trying to poke fun at the mud that is being slung, trying to steer clear of issues that I would think don’t matter (Romney has money in the Kaman islands, Obama saying “Polish Death Camps” instead of “Nazi Death Camps”. I ultimately fail, I even started writing a tenacious response to the new ad that tries to pass responsibility to Romney for the passing of a man's wife. This is because if you don’t bring up at least of a few of these ridiculous, usually improbable, largely irrelevant topics, people stop being interested. You know it and I know it. Sadly, I will probably dismiss most of what I say here in the coming days and weeks, after all, a wise blogger once said, Civility is preached, hypocrisy is exercised.

Put my supposition to the test, ask a friend or colleague what they would like to see happen to the tax code, at best you would get a snarky one or two word response, such as “simplify it!” or “cut it in half!”, any attempt to engage in more discussion then that will probably be met with disinterest or vehemence.  The more likely scenario will play out with just a general level of disgust against one group or another, “The rich need to pay more”, “I need to pay less”. Then ask them what they think about Mitt closing down a paper mill in Indiana, and you could get a lecture about either how there is a smear campaign going on by those rotten liberals or how one candidate is so out of touch we would be fools to elect him into office. The alternative would be someone who has already surrendered, who has already stopped caring.

If I had an answer, if I knew a way to bring the conversation back to fiscal policy, austerity, our troops serving overseas, and things that may actually have an impact on the country past election night, I would be doing it right now. I've always considered myself one to make concise, fact backed arguments to express my views, and to an extent rambling about it here is my attempt, but this is not a call to action, this is a concession speech. Goodbye civility, hello new era of politics, goodbye to a kinder old era where your choice was between an AWOL soldier or a flip flopper, and a new era where you are left between a choice of a candidate that can’t run because he is a felon, and another candidate because he wasn’t born in the US, the time to make an informed, thoughtful choice for the future of this country has been fully morphed into a choice between what disgusts you more, eating dog, or strapping one onto the roof of your car. The choice is yours America; I hope you realize the consequences of your vote more then the circus of conjecture that it is premised on.

The Debate

Mo Derator: Good evening, and welcome to the first Presidential debate of the 2012 election. My name is Mo Derator, and I will be asking the questions for tonight’s debate. When I ask a question of one of the candidates, they will have one minute to answer, then their opponent will be granted a thirty second rebuttal time. When their time expires they will be interrupted with a buzzer sound, like this; <BUZZ!!>

MO: Now, please join me in welcoming our two candidates. President Barrack Obama, and Former Governor Mitt Romney.

<The two candidates enter the stage to the crowd's applause.>

MO: Good evening, Mr. President.

Barrack Obama: (Looking back and forth to his left and right): Uhhh… I think there may be an issue here.

MO: There is no issue Mr. President, this is a debate, you do not get teleprompters.

BO: Ah, I see, well then, let me just start off by saying it’s great to be back in whatever swing state this is.

MO: We are in West Virginia, Mr. President.

BO: Oh no! <turns to crowd>  I'm not black! Just really tan! Please don't shoot with your guns or pelt me with your Bibles!

MO: I assure you, you are quit safe <turns to Gov. Mitt Romney> And a good evening to you, Governor.

Mitt Romney: It's a pleasure to be here Mo, may I call you Mo? The most amazing thing happened on the way in here, you have these doors on the outside of the arena, I found myself looking quite foolish waiting for one of my butlers to open the doors for me, but it turns out there is this sensor, really neat stuff, and the door opens up for you.

MO: You mean it was an automatic door?

MR: Yes, that is what they call it, really incredible what can happen when American innovation is unleashed.

MO: Very good, their inventors from fifty years ago express their gratitude. Let's get to the questions. First, to the challenger, Governor Romney, millions of Americans are feeling the hardships of a struggling economy, what is your plan to turn it around.

MR: I'm glad you asked, this is a time for people to get serious about our challenges. People come up to me and they say, 'Hey Mitt, you have a great head of hair, what would you due to turn this economy around?' and I say to them, I say 'Average citizen, if we just do the things we do in business everyday, in business, you have to balance a budget, if you don't, you loose money, if you loose money, you go broke, if you go broke, you stop being able to buy things, if you can't buy things, you can't buy paper to print out a budget, and then what is the point? So, what I ask to you, and to my opponent, is this, where did all the paper go?

BO: If I may, I believe that falls on you Mitt, you exported 200 paper mill jobs to a call center in India, had we kept those jobs in whatever swing state they where in, I'm confident, that we would have an abundance of paper, for not only the wealthy like my opponent, and myself <Mitt chuckles to himself>, but for the working families of this great nation.

MO: How very un-enlightening. Mr. President, you spoke of wealth, would you explain to the American people your plan on taxes?

BO: I'd love to! You see, my opponent wants to make the middle class pay more, so that he can pay a lot less. An independent council, and by that I mean I didn't hire them, ran some numbers, and it turns out, that if Mitt passes a $250,000 tax cut for himself, and people like me <Mitt continues to chuckle> then you know what? It would take about 250 American families paying right around $1000 a year more each to pay for it. We tried this once. It didn't work. It's what got us into this mess in the first place! And now, they want us to hand over the keys. Well I say to that, you can help push us out of the ditch, but one of us has to stay in the car, to, you know, hold on to the steering wheel and signal our intentions to the other cars on the road, so I say to my republican colleagues, to get out and uhhhhh.... <BUZZ!>

MO: I'm sorry Mr. President, your time has expired

BO: May I just finish my last thought there.

MO: If the Governor will yield the time

MR: Oh sure, take it away, uncle money bags. <laughs outloud>

BO: Thank you, as I was saying, in conclusion, uhhh... push. Thank you.

MO: Governor Romney, your response.

MR: First of all, I just want to say you are hilarious, I mean, wealthy like you <Romney pulls a wad of hundred from his pocket and wipes a few tears of laughter from his eyes, then casually tosses the bills aside> I have put together a simple, straight forward, 57 point plan to reduce taxes for everyone, and balance the budget. Step one; cut taxes for everyone, step two; buy a race horse for Ann, step three; but a yacht for Tagg, step four; buy a hot air balloon for Ben...

MO: I'm sorry Governor, perhaps for the sake of time we can fast forward past the parts of your plan that involve buying lavish gifts for your family.

MR: Certainly Mo, can I call you Mo? So, let's see, that would be <counts quietly to himself> yes, step fifty-seven; balance the budget. Thank you.

MO: Thank you Governor Romney. The next question is a two part one for you Governor, the President has taken some controversial steps to allow immigrants who came to this country as minors stay in this country legally, Governor, would you reverse these actions? And, what immigration plan would you put into action?

MR: Well, Mo, may I call you Mo? I would undo the presidents policy and enact a policy of self deportation, that is, hire these minors to arrest their own parents and ship both themselves, and their parents back to Mexico, or whatever third world country the Mexican's call home.

MO: And you aren't afraid that would be considered insensitive?

MR: What do you mean?

MO: The imagery of a teenager arresting their own mother might be shocking to some people.

MR: Because... of what... the teenager... is... wearing?

MO: Because of the brutality they would impose on a member of their own family.

MR: Oh family, I am very much in favor of a traditional family!

MO: <shakes head> Mr. President, can you defend your recent actions on immigration.

BO: What state are we in again?

MO: West Virginia, Mr. President.

BO: <Looks into the crowd> No, I can not, but to those Latino families watching at home in Florida, Arizona, and Nevada, you are welcome!

MO: Let's move on to national security. Mr. President, how do you respond to people saying that you are weak on defense?

BO: Weak on defense? I am so far from weak on defense! Who started a secret Cyber War on Iran, who started a secret Drone War on Libya, this guy right here! And the best part is, we won't make any new enemies abroad because no one knows it's us doing it!

MR: I once saved a business that sold weapons overseas, created over 900 jobs for the great state of Massachusetts. But under this President, the company had to be shut down because of Obama Care back in 2005.

MO: The American Care Act was passed in 2009, I believe you mean your Healthcare act you passed in Massachusetts.

MR: Another distortion. I had actually left the office of Governor back in 2004 to save a whale that was trapped under a sheet of ice in Alaska, and it's only pool of water that it could use to breath was slowly freezing over due to reverse global warming, I think they made a movie about it. I had to open up 3 new factories right on the ice shelf to increase the global warming in that area, created 2000 jobs, saved the whales. Afterwards the factories sank into the ocean because they were built atop of the ice that they was melting, luckily, I wrote off the $30 million on my taxes and collected $40 million in management fees, it was a modestly profitable Tuesday, and I am not ashamed of what I earned, and I will defend Bain Capital for the decisions it made.

BO: What about the 600,000 layoffs at Bain owned companies between 2000 and 2002?

MR: That was during a remodeling at Bain, new toilets and such, even got a new name! They called themselves, Bane. Totally different company, I don't know what was going on there during that time, I left my dear old, but totally incompetent, friend Frank in charge during that time.

BO: When are you going to step up and stop passing blame on to your predecessors?

MO: Predecessor? Don't you mean successors?

BO: Uhh.. Mo, Bush was not my successor.

MR: Precisely my point. If the state was empowered, then Obamacare would never have passed. That's why we need to repeal this terrible law.

MO: That statement doesn't really make any sense governor.

OB: If I may interject here. This is what I'm talking about. This is what makes America great. When we all come together and sit around eating gluten free apple pie and some frozen yogurt made by my beautiful wife Michelle.

MO: Again, Mr. President, that statement really fit into the context of the discussion, and I would have to say we drifted off the topic pretty dramatically. In fact I have lost track of the questions entirely so why don't we move on to closing statements, first to you Mr. Romney.

MR: Thank you Mo, may I call you Mo? We are at a historic point in American history. We have the opportunity to do what we have never done before. To vote an African American president out of office, never been done before. I understand that people may not want to do that, I mean look at him! He's tall, dark, handsome, heck, I'd vote for him. So, this election day, I hope, you vote for change.

MO: And to you, Mr. President.

BO: Thank you. Folks, I know times are tough out there. I know that many of you are having troubles making ends meet. You worry about keeping food on your table, and keeping the lights on. Putting gas in your car. You have concerns about terrorists entering this country, some of you are even worried about your rights diminishing due to actions taken in Washington. You've lost faith in the system, and you can't trust what your leaders are telling you. You feel as though we are never going to stop this economical and social down spiral. That we are at risk for being the first generation that will leave things worse off for our children. To all the critics and skeptics out there, I can put your worries to rest with this one simple truth, and that is...<BUZZ!>

MO: My apologies, but we are all out of time, I'd like to thank Governor Romney and President Obama. This is Mo Derator with Kurmudkin News signing off. Good night.

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