Thursday, September 20, 2012

All the BS During Election Year

I needed to get a few things off my chest about the election right now.  Eventually I'll re-write this to be more fluid, but for right now I beg your indulgence while I spew a few things.

First, and this is in no particular order, I wish to remind the Republican Party that everyone knows this is not the candidate you wanted.  For those giving their full-throated support to Gov. Romney, I know it's only because the Republican candidate you actually wanted didn't survive Mitt's mud-slinging during the primary.  I know, too, many of you are voting for Romney as part of an "Anyone But Obama" strategy, too.  That's your right and your prerogative. So hold your nose while to make your vote, and God bless America.

Now, let's remember this is not the first time a "private" meeting with Romney's funders was publicized and embarrassing to the candidate.

If the running of his campaign is any indication of how he runs a business, or how he would run the White House, I'm not impressed.  He thinks he can change Washington from the inside?? He thinks if he were President terrorists will be too afraid to do anything??  He thinks he's that much of an intimidating bad-ass??  Sorry, Mitt, even nerds like me think we could take you in a bar fight.

Does he think the practice of foreign relations, the most difficult task any President faces, is as easy as him barking orders from behind a CEO desk?  It's not.  It's even more difficult than working with the opposition party.  I get the impression the only place he is truly comfortable is behind that desk, because anywhere else he's appeared stressed, uncomfortable, or outright annoyed.

Romney had said in the past that he doesn't care about the poor, and now we know why.  He hates them. He considers them lazy, stupid, entitled, and unworthy.  In the past, many of the Republicans have given away this underlying assumption that is the foundation to seemingly all Republican policy proposals: that the poor are poor because they deserve it -- they are lazy and/or stupid, and therefore deserve to be poor in the dream they call a capitalist society.

This is also more evidence that clearly what MR is saying in public is what he really thinks, or perhaps what he really plans to do if he makes it into the Oval Office.  The joke about Romney being a flip-flopper is tired now, any yet somehow Republicans and Conservatives continue to support him, because the alternative is even worse for them.

Ever wonder why Republicans don't agree with Libertarian philosophy more?? Because Republicans don't r-e-a-l-l-y want a truly capitalist system in place, where competition really is king, and companies survive and fail based on their own merit and quality.

Then, the convention tried desperately to paint Romney as good, decent, human.  Numerous examples were tossed out about how he helped a church member in need, or some other inflated tale.  Here's the thing.  Good and decent people don't just help out the people they like, they help out as many as they can.  Jesus helped out with lepers and prostitutes, as I recall.

The person who, with no compunction whatsoever, was willing to go into any business in this country -- really, any business that would've been profitable for him -- close it down, raid the pension fund, fire all the employees, and take millions in profit for himself and this Bain cronies.  A good, decent person would so quickly throw workers out onto the street, causing those workers to become the "poor" that he so obviously despises??


And he obviously doesn't understand moderate voters, either.  His point that moderate voters are sorry they voted for Obama may be partially true, but his premise is completely false.  Moderates knew what they were getting, and they preferred it to the alternative.  This is why Romney will not be getting the moderate vote in November, because they know what they are getting.  We know the President hasn't always been completely honest.  We know he kept C-SPAN cameras out of the health care debate rooms.  We know he's launched more drone attacks in 3 years than President Bush did in eight years.

Moderates want substance, and when Romney says, "wait until after the election for details," moderates say "no thank you."  Of course, the President has been quite short on details and substance in his stump speeches, but that's another blog.  Moderates want to hear on substantial, detailed alternative.

It's not enough to criticize the President for not doing enough.  Put some skin in the game, and bring something to the table.  And the President is actually telling the truth about one thing: the policies Romney is proposing are truly the same Republican policies that shrank the middle class, widened the income gap, and caused the worst financial and economic meltdown since the Great Depression.

Call them what you want -- Moderates, Swing Voters, Independents -- there is no Moderate Party for a reason: the 20 million or so voters in between both major parties are there because they don't trust either party or their candidates.  Moderates don't need a party to tell them how to vote, or a cable new network to tell them that to think.  Moderates are better able to come to their own conclusions on issues than their counterparts in either party.


President Obama is a politician, which means he lies often in order to achieve his goals.  Mitt Romney is just a terrible person.