Archive for the ‘2012 elections’ Category

The presidential race begins in earnest over the next two weeks with the nominating conventions, and we’ll get under way with the start of the GOP gathering Monday night. Unless you don’t have cable, in which case you’re stuck with “Hawaii Five-O.”

That’s right: CBS plans to air a rerun of a remake rather than a primetime speech by Mitt Romney’s wife Ann. ABC is going with “Bachelor Pad” rather than remarks by tea-party favorite Rand Paul of Kentucky.

When you hear the GOP is just a bunch of old, white males, recall that NBC offered you “Stars Earn Stripes” instead of Alabama Democrat-turned-Republican Artur Davis; Senate nominee Ted Cruz of Texas; the Indian-American governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley; Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington; and Lucé Vela Fortuño, wife of Puerto Rico’s governor.

Hey, at least it’s a new episode.

This election is a critical inflection point for our country. Why would the networks bail on any of the nights? …

Continue reading Want more from Romney, Obama? Vote with your remote »

Finally, a top Democrat has revealed the cost of following Barack Obama’s plans for the size of the federal government. Unfortunately, his name is not Barack Obama.

Instead, it was Obama’s former top economic adviser, Lawrence Summers, who painted the picture in an op-ed published by the Financial Times.

Now, to be fair, “the cost of following Barack Obama’s plans” is not how Summers put it. Rather, he referred to the cost of “preserving the amount of government functions the U.S. had before the financial crisis,” and he argued this future was inevitable whoever is president come 2013.

The problem with his assertion of inevitable government growth is that Obama and Mitt Romney are not proposing the same things.

It is Obama, not Romney, who argues such a level of government will somehow remain affordable. It is Obama, not Romney, who would have you believe any changes will affect someone else — usually “the rich.”

Still, Summers’ outline of how government …

Continue reading ‘The rich’ can’t bankroll Obama’s big-government plans »

From The Fix at the Washington Post (headline: “Seniors [heart] Paul Ryan”), a result that cannot be received well at Obama 2012 headquarters:

Grandma isn’t scared of Paul Ryan.

A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows 41 percent of Americans view the new GOP vice presidential nominee favorably, while 37 percent rate him unfavorably — slightly improved from last week’s polling.

Among seniors, though, the numbers are even better for Ryan: 50 percent favorable and 35 percent unfavorable. Fully one-third of seniors say they have a strongly favorable view of the Wisconsin congressman, while one-quarter have a strongly unfavorable view.

In fact, those seniors whose view of Ryan is “strongly favorable” virtually tie all those who view him unfavorably to any degree, 33 percent to 35 percent. This suggests seniors don’t buy Democrats’ false attacks that Ryan and Mitt Romney would change the deal for current retirees.

For the record, that “slightly improved” standing for Ryan among …

Continue reading So far, Obama’s Mediscare attacks aren’t working »

Two weeks ago, Missouri’s Todd Akin took a big step in his quest to go from the U.S. House to the U.S. Senate by winning the state’s Republican primary for the seat. Instead of moving toward unseating incumbent Democrat Claire McCaskill, however, Akin may have taken an even larger step back this weekend with his remarks about rape and abortion during an interview with a St. Louis TV station:

First of all, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let’s assume that maybe that didn’t work or something. I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child.

From his bizarre distinction between “legitimate rape” and, well, I’m not sure what (maybe Whoopi Goldberg could help him out with that?) to his crackpot notion that the female body “has ways to try to shut [pregnancy by forcible rape] down,” Akin has created a …

Continue reading Todd Akin and the perils of ‘personhood’ »

After a week when Joe Biden employed his best Delaware drawl to warn “y’all” the GOP wants to put you “back in chains,” told the same Virginia crowd that they would help President Obama win North Carolina this year, and declared America perfectly capable of leading the worldwide automotive industry well into the 20th century, the vice president is catching plenty of heat. Naturally, the rumors are swirling that he will, or should, be replaced on the Democratic ticket this year.

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Ed Klein, author of a book about the Obama administration, said last night on CNBC that Hillary Clinton was offered, and turned down, the job — two weeks ago. Personally, I would be surprised if that entire conversation — from Obama …

Continue reading Poll Position: Should Obama dump Biden from the ticket? »

There are a few moments in any national presidential-nominating convention that are designed for drama: the keynote address, the speech by the running mate and, of course, the speech by the nominee. But the GOP this year is trying to add another one in a Zell Miller-esque address by a longtime Democrat.

Democratic congressman-turned-2012 RNC speaker Artur Davis (Source: OfficialArturDavis.com)

And this longtime Democrat happens to be one of the first members of Congress to endorse Barack Obama for the presidency in 2008, the man who seconded Obama’s nomination at the Democratic convention in Denver: Alabama’s Artur Davis.

Davis’ switch to the Republican Party earlier this year was well-publicized, but I’m not sure anyone predicted he’d be a headliner at the 2012 GOP convention, announced alongside four people Mitt Romney reportedly considered as potential running mates: Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and Sen. Rob …

Continue reading Ex-Democrat Artur Davis to speak at GOP national convention »

With Mitt Romney’s selection of Paul Ryan as his running mate, the entire presidential campaign will — or should — boil down to this exchange between Ryan and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner during a House hearing on President Obama’s fiscal 2013 budget back in February (text of transcript courtesy of Real Clear Politics):

Ryan: Here’s the point. Leaders are supposed to fix problems. We have a $99.4 trillion unfunded liability. Our government is making promises to Americans that it has no way of accounting for them. And so you’re saying yeah, we’re stabilizing it but we’re not fixing it in the long run. That means we’re just going to keep lying to people. We’re going to keep all these empty promises going.

And so what we’re saying is, in order to avert a debt crisis — you’re the Treasury Secretary — if we can’t make good on our bonds in the future, who is going to invest in our country? We do not want to have a debt crisis. And so it comes down to confidence and …

Continue reading The Obama pitch: Don’t ask us for a plan, just reject the GOP’s plan »

I was out of the house all morning and didn’t have a chance until now to blog about Mitt Romney’s pick of Paul Ryan as a running mate. But now I have time, and I must say: Ryan is an excellent pick.

I have made a few mentions during the past couple of months about my enthusiasm for putting Bobby Jindal on the ticket, and I still think he would have made a good choice. But he and Ryan, who for a long time didn’t appear to be on Romney’s short list, are like a No. 1 and No. 1a for me.

Some people will say Ryan is a risky pick because he has laid out the most detailed plan of just about any elected official — from either of the two major parties — about how to put Washington’s fiscal house in order. That means he brings a lot of targets with him onto the ticket, about Medicare in particular. To those people I say: You are crazy if you think the Obama campaign wasn’t going to make Romney answer for Ryan’s plan anyway.

For one thing, Romney already had endorsed the biggest aspects …

Continue reading Why I like the Ryan pick »

A pair of four-word phrases are proving unshakable for the Obama campaign.

The first is a line Obama actually spoke last month in Virginia: “You didn’t build that.” The second is the implication in a new advertisement by Obama’s super PAC that attacks Mitt Romney’s corporate past: Romney killed a lady.

Taken together, they reflect the president’s apparent belief that the good things as well as the bad things in our lives — success and failure, joy and tragedy, growth and death — are the products of forces beyond our control that only government can bring to heel. Unless you’re rich, in which case you didn’t do the good things in your life, just the bad things in others’.

“You didn’t build that” has been making the rounds for weeks now. The full line — “If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that” — came amid a laundry list of ways in which, according to Obama, the successful should play down their own success. It wasn’t because you were …

Continue reading ‘Somebody else’ and Obama’s concept of how the world works »

Liberals have seized on a single study by the Tax Policy Center as proof that Mitt Romney’s tax plan would cut taxes for “the rich” and raise them on the rest of us. The study is a work of wishful liberal thinking.

First, it’s wishful liberal thinking because the study’s authors acknowledge Romney has not laid out his plan in detail. After reviewing Romney’s plans for cutting rates across the board by 20 percent, along with eliminating certain other taxes, the study states:

According to statements by Governor Romney and his advisors, the remainder of the plan will include policies to offset this revenue loss, although there are no details on how that would be achieved. (emphasis added)

Now, it may or may not be a good thing for Romney’s electoral prospects that Romney has yet to explain this part of his plan. It may or may not lead voters to believe his plan would “offset this revenue loss” by getting more money from them, via the closing of certain loopholes and elimination …

Continue reading ‘Romney Hood’ tax claims are wishful liberal thinking »