Christie

Chris Christie addressed the GOP convention yesterday. He's a favorite of many Republicans, but every time I see his picture, all I can think of is Sly Stallone on a 10,000 calorie per day diet.

Ace in the hole

From an ABC News report:

Republican House Majority Leader Mike Turzai made waves in June when he said at the Republican State Committee meeting that the voter ID law “is going to allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania.”

“We are focused on making sure that we meet our obligations that we’ve talked about for years,” Turzai said in a speech to committee members, Politics PA reported.

Turzai then listed a handful of accomplishments such as “Voter ID, which is going to allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done.”

  

We'll probably never know how many voters in each state were prevented from voting due to Republican voter ID requirements, or who they would have voted for if they could. If Obama loses Pennsylvania, he probably loses in November. The idea of President Willard Romney is nauseating enough without the suspicion that he stole the election. One reason I hated Bush 43 so much is that I never escaped the feeling he manipulated the vote counting to win Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004.

House of cards

Anyone who doubts the goddamned lunatics are running the asylum isn't trying hard enough to keep up. Who are the voters who keep sending these assholes to Washington? Apparently the requirements to be a member of the U.S. House of Representatives aren't strict enough.

Brilliant Political Strategies, Part II

Focal shifts

Based on what I'm reading, the right-wing commenting class is in general agreement that Willard's selection of Pablo Ryan has fundamentally altered the nature of the presidential campaign by shifting the focus from a referendum on Obama to a referendum on tea party ideology. I'm no expert, but this seems like a strategic mistake to me.

Reagan won the White House largely by asking people if they were better off than they had been four years earlier. That seems like an approach that should've worked for Romney, since most people seem to believe they're worse off now than they were in 2008. On the other hand, the tea party movement had its glory days in 2010 and has been losing altitude since then. If I was betting, I'd bet 75 percent of Americans don't know any details of the so-called Ryan budget plan, assuming they've heard of it at all, and will have trouble seeing how it puts extra Twinkies in their lunch sacks.

Maybe the National Review and Weekly Standard opinion shapers are right, though. Maybe what the country needs is chance to rule on the tea party agenda at the national level and settle things once and for all.

Dirty politics

On my way to the book store this afternoon, I heard about ten minutes of the Sean Hannjob AM radio gabfest. He and the rubes that called in were pissing and moaning about a campaign ad being run by Obama or one of the PACs supporting him. I didn't get the details, but it's apparently the ad that led to Mittwit's press secretary defending the Massachusetts medical program this week. This went on at least ten minutes, if you can believe that shit.

For years, Republicans were able to steamroll Democrats in presidential races because they'd perfected the art of dirty politics, and Democrats either didn't understand how to fight back or were too chickenshit to try. Bush 41 against Dukakis in 1988 was a classic example. Things started balancing out a little when Clinton ran in 1992 and 1996, but the GOP regained the upper hand in 2004 when they successfully swiftboated Kerry.

I don't have a problem with lowdown gutter-fighting as long as both sides are taking turns bloodying each other. I'm glad that Democrats are on the attack, and I hope they keep the pressure on and the mud flying. Republicans need to man up and stop pouting. Stop being such a pussy, Mitt.

Problem Solved

This afternoon, out of sheer boredom, I did a Google search: mitt romney economic recovery plan. I got a link to his campaign website, and lifted his four-step program. Here's the condensed version (most boilerplate deleted):

• Stop runaway federal spending and debt... reduce federal spending as a share of GDP to 20 percent by 2016

• Reform the tax code... reduce individual marginal income tax rates across the board by 20 percent while keeping current rates on dividends and capital gains... reduce the corporate income tax rate to 25 percent... broaden the tax base to ensure that tax reform is revenue-neutral

• Reform entitlement programs... reduce growth in Social Security and Medicare benefits for more affluent seniors... more choice in Medicare programs and benefits... block grant the Medicaid program to states

• Make growth and cost-benefit analysis important features of regulation... remove regulatory impediments to energy production and innovation... repealing and replacing Dodd–Frank legislation and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act... better financial regulation and market-oriented, patient-centered health-care reform

As a rule, Republicans have the same solutions to every problem that doesn't involve God, guns, gays, and abortion. Their solutions are (a) tax cuts, (b) cuts in federal spending other than defense, (c) massive deregulation, and (d) privatization of government services. This has been the GOP's four-step program for at least as long as I've been keeping track, and probably for much longer. Mitt seems to have included all four to one degree or another.

The way he's been carrying on, I thought he had some radical new innovations that would expedite the process of getting the economy in top-notch shape. Maybe he does, but he's saving them for a special surprise.

Persecuted?

Evangelical Christians in this country are more likely to be the oppressors than the oppressed, but you wouldn't know that from listening to their complaints about how they're being mistreated.