POINTING FINGERS

To see how swiftly Republicans have turned on Mitt Romney to blame him for the loss of the election is breathtaking.  Since Romney didn't win, he will be erased from Republican history even more thoroughly than George W Bush, as soon as the GOP is done with the blame game and vilification.  Now they say Romney was a bad candidate, after nominating him, throwing millions his way to get him elected, and remaining in shocked disbelief far too long when the election was called for the president.

All right, I'm not saying Romney was a good candidate, but when you consider the lineup of alternatives, in which only one candidate, Jon Huntsman, appeared to address the issues with a semblance of sanity (he was quickly disposed of), then the nomination of Romney actually makes sense.

Michele Bachmann
Newt Gingrich
Rick Santorum
Rick Perry
Ron Paul
Tim Pawlenty
Herman Cain

Which of the above would have done a better job than Romney?

To the GOP, I say: get off Mitt's case and do an honest self-examination about why you lost the election.  The following email to Talking Points Memo from reader JT might be helpful should you decide to do so.

The Republican Party has a problem, but it is not one candidate; it is not packaging or branding; it is not messaging that is sinking the GOP. It is the core beliefs of the vast majority of Republicans.

Their problem is their war on women; war on gays; war on minorities. It is their war on science and math and logic and education and reality. It is listening to nuckle heads like Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, Michael Savage, Ann Coulter and Donald Trump. It is allowing entertainers to determine the direction and policy positions of a major political party. It is following the teaching of extremist religions leaders like the US Catholic Bishops.

But most of all, it is the GOP’s utter lack of respect for anyone who is not like them; supporting an idiot obscure congressman who shouts “You lie” at the President of the United States during the State of the Union Address. Not repudiating truly crazy people who cling to the thumbless notion that Barack Obama was born in Kenya. It is supporting an insane governor who waves her finger publicly in the face of the President because he rejects her lunatic positions. When the GOP allows or supports these actions, they are condoning disrespect for the majority of Americans who are not aging white men.

JT sums it up nicely.  A national party cannot dismiss so many citizens of the country (47%) and expect to win.  The leaders of a national party cannot cower in fear and allow the crazy fringes to take over and expect the party to survive.

H/T to Russ Manley for the link to TPM.

WHAT WOMAN IN HER RIGHT MIND...?

An acquaintance just called for my husband who is not home right now, and I gave him the number where Grandpère can be reached.

 Caller: "Are you ready for the election?"

Me: "I voted already."

Caller: "You voted for Romney, of course."

Me: "You're joking.  What woman in her right mind would vote for Romney or for any Republican?"

Caller: "I know a lot of women who are voting for Romney."

Me: "Romney and the Republicans are so anti-women that I don't understand how any woman can vote for any of them."

Caller: "Well, I'd better try to get in touch with Tom (Grandpère) now."

I expect Grandpère will get an earful about my conversation with the man.  I must say that I'm at the point where I try to avoid conversations about politics, because they often end in acrimony, but when I'm asked a direct question, I have to answer.  Thank goodness this person did not appear to want to prolong the discussion, because I was not in the mood.  Anyone who doesn't know by now that Romney as president would be a disaster is almost certainly not a person who is open to being convinced otherwise. 

COMPARE AND CONTRAST

In this case, it was once-in-a-lifetime Superstorm Sandy, which caused the outspoken Republican governor of New Jersey to declare a state of emergency and seek federal help for widespread devastation.

Interviewed Tuesday on NBC, Christie described Obama's response as "outstanding," and he told CNN that the president had been "incredibly supportive and helpful to our state."

"This is much more important than any election," Christie told CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight."

Obama has "been outstanding to deal with on this and I look forward to seeing him tomorrow so he can see for himself what this hurricane has done to my state," Christie said Tuesday night.

If you say so, Governor Chris.

It also focused attention on how Romney would handle such a disaster if he were to defeat Obama in what is expected to be a very close election.

On Tuesday, the GOP candidate showed little inclination to address the matter. At a campaign event changed to a storm relief effort in Ohio, Romney ignored shouted questions by reporters on whether he supported the Federal Emergency Management Agency's role in disaster relief.

Instead, he focused his remarks to supporters who donated relief supplies for storm victims on how such efforts contribute to meeting the overall need.

"We won't be able to solve all the problems with our effort this morning," Romney said, adding "one of the things you learn in life is you make the difference you can, and you can't always solve all the problems yourself."

So.  Who do you want as your president in a crunch?

Nevertheless, there is a place in disaster recovery for donations to private charities that pitch in to supplement aid from the government.  Links below.

Red Cross

Episcopal Relief & Development (My favorite)

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?

It’s an absurd notion, but it’s fully in line with decades of Republican resistance to federal emergency planning. FEMA, created by President Jimmy Carter, was elevated to cabinet rank in the Bill Clinton administration, but was then demoted by President George W. Bush, who neglected it, subsumed it into the Department of Homeland Security, and placed it in the control of political hacks. The disaster of Hurricane Katrina was just waiting to happen.

The agency was put back in working order by President Obama, but ideology still blinds Republicans to its value. Many don’t like the idea of free aid for poor people, or they think people should pay for their bad decisions, which this week includes living on the East Coast.

Over the last two years, Congressional Republicans have forced a 43 percent reduction in the primary FEMA grants that pay for disaster preparedness. Representatives Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor and other House Republicans have repeatedly tried to refuse FEMA’s budget requests when disasters are more expensive than predicted, or have demanded that other valuable programs be cut to pay for them. The Ryan budget, which Mr. Romney praised as “an excellent piece of work,” would result in severe cutbacks to the agency, as would the Republican-instigated sequester, which would cut disaster relief by 8.2 percent on top of earlier reductions.

What's wrong with the Republican Party?   I live in Louisiana, and I shudder to think what it would be like here to be on our own. Our governor, Bobby Jindal, one of the bright stars in the Republican political firmament, is in the process of privatizing or dismantling as many of our public institutions as possible before he moves on to what he hopes is a prominent role on the national scene. He will leave wreckage behind that will require decades to rebuild, if there is even the will to rebuild.  The most recent havoc is in medical education, the training of doctors, which, because it is in such a state of disarray, is causing consternation amongst doctors, hospitals, and anyone in the state who cares and is paying attention. 

The Republicans of today are ruthless social Darwinians with a dog-eat-dog mentality and no concept of the common good, no conscience for a government that cares for those amongst us who are in distress.  If you are poor, or sick without health insurance, or trying to recover from a disaster with little or no resources, then you are on your own, because your plight is your own fault, and you don't deserve to be helped by the government.  

What I don't understand is that many Republicans profess themselves Christians and claim to be pro-life.  From what I see, many of them are pro-life only for life in the womb and to hell with you after that.  Oh, and when you're at death's door, and your illness is terminal and irreversible, and you have left directives not to be kept alive on machines, they just may take up your cause in Congress and pass a law ordering that you must be kept alive at all costs, despite your expressed wishes.

What is wrong with these people?  Do we want their leaders, Romney and Ryan, running the country?   

ROMNEY ON DISASTER RELIEF

 

It seems to me in the case of an immediate disaster, it makes sense to attend to people affected by disaster and help those in distress right now, rather than be concerned about the debt to future generations.  And if Romney is truly concerned about future generations, why does he preach, "Burn, burn, burn!" fossil fuels without a thought for what kind of world future generations will inhabit because of the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere?  I expect Romney is still in denial about climate change, but I have no doubt that the increase in violent weather events like Sandy the Superstorm is due to climate change as a result of our unwillingness to move more rapidly to the use of cleaner sources of energy.

Watch the video.



From Think Progress.

COMPARE AND CONTRAST

 

The pollsters tell me, as of today, the election is a dead heat, but I'm having real trouble wrapping my head around that piece of information.  The election on November 6 should be a landslide in favor of Obama...a landslide, not because Obama did everything right in the last four years, for I have issues with certain of his policies, but the president did much to better the lives of the citizens of the US. Below is a list of the top-10 accomplishments of the Obama administration from The Washington Monthly.  See details and the rest of the list here.

1. Passed Health Care Reform
 
3. Passed Wall Street Reform

4. Ended the War in Iraq

5. Began Drawdown of War in Afghanistan

6. Eliminated Osama bin laden

7. Turned Around U.S. Auto Industry

8. Recapitalized Banks

9. Repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

10. Toppled Moammar Gaddafi

I favor certain of Obama's accomplishments over others, but I measure them against what Romney offers the electorate. What are Romney's accomplishments?

1. Signed Romneycare into law as governor of Massachusetts.

2. CEO of Bain & Company, co-founded Bain Capital 

3. CEO of the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Romney backed away from Romneycare, then reclaimed the program, then backed away again.  Perhaps there was further waffling that I missed.

Romney accumulated vast wealth during his association with Bain.

The incredible untold story of the 2012 election so far is that Romney's run has been a shimmering pearl of perfect political hypocrisy, which he's somehow managed to keep hidden, even with thousands of cameras following his every move.And the drama of this rhetorical high-wire act was ratcheted up even further when Romney chose his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin – like himself, a self-righteously anal, thin-lipped, Whitest Kids U Know penny pincher who'd be honored to tell Oliver Twist there's no more soup left. By selecting Ryan, Romney, the hard-charging, chameleonic champion of a disgraced-yet-defiant Wall Street, officially succeeded in moving the battle lines in the 2012 presidential race.

....

Last May, in a much-touted speech in Iowa, Romney used language that was literally inflammatory to describe America's federal borrowing. "A prairie fire of debt is sweeping across Iowa and our nation," he declared. "Every day we fail to act, that fire gets closer to the homes and children we love." Our collective debt is no ordinary problem: According to Mitt, it's going to burn our children alive.

And this is where we get to the hypocrisy at the heart of Mitt Romney. Everyone knows that he is fantastically rich, having scored great success, the legend goes, as a "turnaround specialist," a shrewd financial operator who revived moribund companies as a high-priced consultant for a storied Wall Street private equity firm. But what most voters don't know is the way Mitt Romney actually made his fortune: by borrowing vast sums of money that other people were forced to pay back. This is the plain, stark reality that has somehow eluded America's top political journalists for two consecutive presidential campaigns: Mitt Romney is one of the greatest and most irresponsible debt creators of all time. In the past few decades, in fact, Romney has piled more debt onto more unsuspecting companies, written more gigantic checks that other people have to cover, than perhaps all but a handful of people on planet Earth.

....

The only ones who profited in a big way from all the job-killing debt that Romney leveraged were Mitt and his buddies at Bain, along with Wall Street firms like Goldman and Citigroup. Barry Ritholtz, author of Bailout Nation, says the criticisms of Bain about layoffs and meanness miss a more important point, which is that the firm's profit-producing record is absurdly mediocre, especially when set against all the trouble and pain its business model causes. "Bain's fundamental flaw, at least according to the math," Ritholtz writes, "is that they took lots of risk, use immense leverage and charged enormous fees, for performance that was more or less the same as [stock] indexing."

So.  After all the skullduggery, destruction of businesses, and death of jobs, to the great financial benefit of CEOs and top management, Bain produced only a mediocre return for its investors.  Every voter should read the Rolling Stone piece.  It's long but very revealing of the real Mitt Romney, who would trash and pillage the country in a worse way than I ever imagined.  If you thought Gordon Gekko was bad....

POTEMKIN VILLAGE

 

Read the entire column.

THAT NICE ROMNEY LAD

BILL LUMAYE: I’m going to ask something I think a lot of people want to know, or at least I do. What is it like for you to hear the President of the United States call your dad a liar. How do you react to that? 

TAGG ROMNEY: Jump out of your seat and you want to rush down to the debate stage and take a swing at him. But you know you can’t do that because… Well, first there is a lot of Secret Service between you and him but also because this is the nature of the process.

As Melissa in the comments said:

Huh. I thought violent people weren't supposed to come from two parent households.

Seemingly, respect for the office of President of the United States was not high on the training agenda for the five Romney lads, or perhaps Tagg models his dad.  We all saw during the second debate that Mitt treated President Barack Obama like one of "the help".  Like father, like son? 

Full interview with Tagg Romney at Think Progress.

WHOM DO YOU BELIEVE?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Secretary Clinton has done an extraordinary job. But she works for me. I’m the president. And I’m always responsible. And that’s why nobody is more interested in finding out exactly what happened than I did (sic).

The day after the attack, Governor, I stood in the Rose Garden, and I told the American people and the world that we are going to find out exactly what happened, that this was an act of terror. And I also said that we’re going to hunt down those who committed this crime. And then a few days later, I was there greeting the caskets coming into Andrews Air Force Base and grieving with the families.

And the suggestion that anybody in my team, whether the secretary of state, our U.N. ambassador, anybody on my team would play politics or mislead when we’ve lost four of our own, Governor, is offensive. That’s not what we do. That’s not what I do as president. That’s not what I do as commander in chief.

No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for.  Today we mourn four more Americans who represent the very best of the United States of America.  We will not waver in our commitment to see that justice is done for this terrible act.  And make no mistake, justice will be done.

Complete video and transcript of the Rose Garden speech.

Yes, "offensive", Governor Romney.  Your comments were offensive.  You persisted in your claim that Obama did not call the attack on the diplomatic compound an act of terror on the morning after the tragedy, despite the video.  You persisted despite the fact that Ambassador Chris Stevens' father, Jan Stevens, requested that his son's death not be politicized.

Republicans and even certain of the MSM are spinning the exchange as a victory for Romney because on the morning after the attack, President Obama did not say "attack on our diplomatic post" and "act of terror" in proper sequence in his speech in the Rose Garden.

"IT WOULD...BE ABHORRENT..."

“It would really be abhorrent to make this into a campaign issue,” Jan Stevens, 77, said in a telephone interview from his home in Loomis, California, as he prepares for a memorial service for his son next week.

Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee, has criticized President Barack Obama for not providing adequate security in Libya, saying the administration has left the country exposed to a deadly terrorist attack.

The ambassador’s father, a lawyer, said politicians should await the findings of a formal investigation before making accusations or judgments.

“The security matters are being adequately investigated,” Stevens said. “We don’t pretend to be experts in security. It has to be objectively examined. That’s where it belongs. It does not belong in the campaign arena.” Stevens said he has been getting briefings from the State Department on the progress of the investigation.

Do you hear, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan?  Will you respect the wishes of Jan Stevens?

H/T to Adrastos at First Draft.

MITT ROMNEY: "JUST TRUST ME"

 

So many questions...no answers except, "Trust me". Mitt, you know what? I don't trust you. You've changed your policies so many times, and you stray so far from the truth in your statements about policies you once embraced, even in the very recent past, during this very election, that I can't keep up. Are your pants on fire, yet?

Image from Americans Against the Tea Party.

FOR YOU, ROMNEY AND RYAN

 

R&R (Romney & Ryan), I don't know whether you are country music fans or not, but the video below is for you. You may want to take a lesson from our man Johnny. Nevermind the black clothing. No one cares what you wear. We care that you don't care about the people in Johnny's song.

CRIE DE COEUR

“I’m sorry, Jim, I’m gonna stop the subsidy to PBS… I like PBS. I love Big Bird. I actually like you, too," went Romney's vow.

Since then, Big Bird started a Twitter account, journalists calculated exactly how much of the federal budget PBS actually uses (.012 percent), and our favorite thing of all, this happened:

 

Poster from Dear World on Facebook.

Thanks to Ann V for the link to Huff Post. 

UPDATE: I corrected the percentage of the federal budget that subsidizes PBS.  

BIG BIRD MAY YET DO ROMNEY IN

Romney told moderator Jim Lehrer, “I’m sorry Jim. I’m gonna stop the subsidy to PBS. I’m gonna stop other things. I like PBS, I like Big Bird, I actually like you too.”

A collective stab pierced the heart of Generation X who grew up with Big Bird, Bert and Ernie and Oscar the Grouch as their best friends. I immediately thought, “Oh no, Big Bird will be unemployed if Romney wins.” I wasn’t alone.

Not only Generation X.  Think of the children!   Of course, children can't vote, but at least some parents and grandparents of whatever generation may remember Romney's threat to Big Bird when they head out to vote.  And it's not only "Sesame Street" and other programs for children that will be affected by Romney's elimination of the subsidy.   A good many grown-ups of voting age watch PBS, too.

I COULD NOT RESIST

From Bipartisan Report.

DID MITT HAVE A CHEAT SHEET?

"No props, notes, charts, diagrams or other writings can be used by the candidates; however, they can take notes on the type of paper of their choosing.The candidates cannot ask each other direct questions, but can ask rhetorical questions.The candidates cannot address each other with proposed pledges.Each candidate can use his own makeup artist.No candidate is allowed to use risers or any other device to make them look taller.The Coin Toss: At least 72 hours before the first debate, there will be a coin toss on the order of questioning and closing arguments."

But we all know that rules don't apply to Mitt.  If Bush can get away with a little radio receiver on his back, what's a little cheat sheet in comparison?

Link to video from CBS Chicago.

UPDATE: The Romney campaign says the object was a handkerchief, and another video shows that may indeed be true.   Below is a screenshot from the video.

I offer my apology.

QUICK WORDS ON THE DEBATE

Last night, Obama seemed disengaged to the point that I wondered if he really wants four more years. One can take cool only so far without seeming to be out of the game.

On the other hand, Romney was repellant. He reminded me of a high-pressure salesman who knows his product is a piece of junk but is determined to close the sale.

I'm tired of people blaming doddering, old Lehrer for Obama's poor performance. Sure, Lehrer didn't do his job as moderator, but Romney took advantage, while Obama continued to look to Lehrer for help. Dude!

And OMG, if Tweety and Ed are going to have public breakdowns on NBCNews, they should get off the air.

Maybe my last words on the debate, maybe not.  Romney lied a lot.

THE TRUTH ABOUT ROMNEY'S HEALTH CARE PLAN

Eric Fehrnstrom, a Romney advisor, admitted that if Obamacare is repealed, those with pre-existing conditions would probably not be able to purchase health insurance.  The individual states would first have to pass laws to prevent insurance companies from excluding the sick from coverage.  Romney's plan would only assure that those who have insurance would continue to be covered.

The admission directly contradicts the GOP candidate’s claim during the debate that “pre-existing conditions are covered under my plan” — a contention Romney has repeated on the trail and that his campaign has repeatedly walked back. 

In other words Romney lies, and even his own campaign staff admit it.

UPDATE: Or as Margaret at Margaret and Helen says:

Well Margaret, once again I am going to say what the media won’t. Mitt Romney is a lying sack of shit and he wouldn’t know a middle class tax cut if it bit him in the middle of his gold plated ass. Evidently the media seems to think that the person who slings the bullshit the farthest wins the debate. Well if that ain’t the damnest thing.

WEEKLY REMINDER

Romney is now claiming credit once again for the health care bill which he signed into law in Massachusetts after distancing himself from it for quite a while.  Well, kinda, sorta....  With each new day one wonders what will be Romney's position du jour on the various issues.

AND THE WINDOWS DON'T OPEN!

Romney’s wife, Ann, was in attendance, and the candidate spoke of the concern he had for her when her plane had to make an emergency landing Friday en route to Santa Monica because of an electrical malfunction. “I appreciate the fact that she is on the ground, safe and sound. And I don’t think she knows just how worried some of us were,” Romney said. “When you have a fire in an aircraft, there’s no place to go, exactly, there’s no — and you can’t find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don’t open. I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem. So it’s very dangerous. And she was choking and rubbing her eyes. Fortunately, there was enough oxygen for the pilot and copilot to make a safe landing in Denver. But she’s safe and sound.

Of course, Mitt was concerned. And why, why does the FAA permit planes to fly full of passengers with windows that won't open? If Mitt becomes president, he will see to it that all planes are equipped with windows that roll down.

OK, I wasn't first with the news of this egregious lapse on the part of plane manufacturers and the government agencies who regulate flights and flying, but I was not altogether negligent in reporting.