THEY'RE BACK!

Picture the last scenes of a horror flick, the hero is riding away on horseback or speeding down a highway in a sleek convertible and the camera backtracks to a close up of the  remnants of the villain lying in a heap at the bottom of a canyon, from all appearances  gone to the netherworld. Suddenly he opens his eyes, jaundiced yellow eyes at that and lifts his head slightly, looking all around as an evil smirk slowly spreads across his face, revealing greenish, uneven teeth.

This is apparently what’s taking place now. For all intents and purposes the 2012 presidential election has come and gone and the Republican Party and its standard bearer were severely and soundly trounced, and yet the Republican pundits, including Bill O'Reilly, Karl Rove, Grover  Norquist,  El  Rushbo, as well as Sean  Hannity continue to spew anti-president Obama rhetoric as though the campaign is still ongoing.  It would seem that the millionaires who gave almost a billion dollars towards the defeat of the president would be having second thoughts about what a waste this was, since the untruthful negative ads proved to be worthless in persuading voters. You would think that the Republican electorate would be rethinking their reliance on Fox News and CNN for their news sources.
Yet, Fox News who continually and intentionally misleads it's viewing audience has not recanted any previous coverage and continues to spread misinformation about the Benghazi tragedy. Fox News initiated the supposed cover-up story about Benghazi as a way to tarnish the President’s  foreign affairs record and the Mittster quickly started using this strategy until he was caught flatfooted during the second debate  and then dropped it like a hot potato. Not deterred Fox News has kept up the Benghazi issue and somehow has now tied it into the Petraeus affair, insinuating that President Obama dismissed the general in order to prevent him from revealing the real back ground on the death of Ambassador Stevens and three others in Benghazi.  The fallacy of this argument is that even after his resignation the general could still be subpoenaed to testify before congress and the general has already made a statement regarding the Benghazi tragedy which supports the administration’s position. The toothless hoard however are never convinced by facts and they continue to believe that the ambassador and his three body guards could have been saved but for the actions of the administration. This includes Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain who have made statements that they would not support United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice for secretary of state even before she has been nominated because of statements she made five days after the Benghazi incident that it occurred as a result of a protest against the anti-Muslim film that had been released at that time.

 Immediately before and after the attack on the consulate, 19 protests had occurred in the Middle East as a result of the film and it would have been logical to believe that this incident was the result of a similar protest. Yet it appears that John McCain is still miffed at his defeat by President Obama and evidently remains in anti-Obama campaign mode.

Meanwhile the Mittster in his first speech since the election has actually blamed the voters for rejecting him. In another behind closed door presentation, (when will he ever learn) he said minorities, young voters and women supported President Obama because of the gifts that they had received. Governor Romney displayed the extent of his extreme hypocrisy since the donors he was addressing must have expected some gifts in return for the monies they had contributed. The Mittster remains out of touch with the common man and cannot accept that the reason for his failure to capture this voting block was because he stood for everything that they were against. Mitt Romney after giving a gracious concession speech thereby proving that he was capable of doing so reverted to his true form in blaming minority voters for rejecting him.

Leading Republicans, who two weeks ago in spite of his infamous 47% video were strongly campaigning for his election, are now distancing themselves from him as quickly as possible,including Louisiana Governor, Bobby Jindal and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, both vocalizing the obvious, "if we want people to like us we have to like them first (or at least make it appear that we like them). Senator (R-S.C.) Lindsey Graham said "when you're in a hole you stop digging," Romney "keeps digging." Romney is the same disengenious individual now that he was two weeks ago so why the pius response from Repulican leaders. Why do they want to appear shocked?  Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose, the French saying for the more things change, the more they stay the same!

The reason why President Obama received the support of these groups was not because of gifts but what they stood to lose if a disingenuous, unethical individual was elected. Romney after all had promised to repeal Obamacare on the first day of his administration, defund Planned Parenthood, failed to endorse the Lily Ledbetter equal pay for equal work bill, would make life so miserable for the immigrants that they would self deport, would repeal Pell grants and transfer jurisdiction of student loans back to the banking industry making them more costly and finally because he was  so untrustworthy in that he knowing approved of ads he knew were factually false.

The voting bloc consisting of minorities, unmarried women and college educated women and young people supported the president because of his philosophy of inclusiveness, where we help one another rather than the selfish philosophy of the Mittster that everyone was on their own, each one for themselves and one should not worry or care about those less successful who were not capable of caring for themselves.

So they’re back in mass, or did they ever leave, ignoring the fact that President Obama received a mandate to raise taxes for those earning over $250,000 and close tax loopholes, Valuable time will be lost dealing with the investigation of the Petraeus extra marital affair. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar so folks should just move along, there is nothing to see but this will not deter the naysayers. General David Petraeus is a strict military man who fell on his sword by submitting his resignation knowing that he had violated the code of conduct for a man of his stature and there is nothing more to say.

It is time to pay attention to the looming Fiscal Cliff and time to let those in charge know that the public will no longer stand for obstruction politics.

FIST BUMP!

THE AFTERMATH

In a decisive victory President Obama was re-elected as the 44^th President of the United States.  Many thought that as a result of the ongoing economic crisis, the election was there for the taking by the Republican Party and their nominee Mitt Romney. This might have been possible but for his flawed character, disingenuousness, insincerity, untrustworthiness, flip flopping and his Etch a Sketch mentality to mention some of his best points, and Mitt snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, to coin a trite phrase. Three million Republicans failed to vote for their party’s flag bearer, which says a great deal about the Mittster.

 The referendum on President Obama which he emphatically won, both in the popular as well as in the electoral vote, 332 to 206 (including Florida) was the result of his extraordinary intelligence, his decency and idealism which aided him in securing support from diverse factions of our society. He won 93% of the African American Vote; 71 of the Latino Vote; 67% of the unmarried college educated women’s vote; and 60% of the younger voters, 18 to 29; 

President Obama lost only one of the 9 battleground states, (North Carolina) that he needed to win. Polls showed that the electorate felt that he was more in touch with the people 53% to the Mittsters’ 43%.

 Almost 1 billion dollars spent by the Koch Brothers, Sheldon Adelson($60 million) and Karl Rove($350 million) did little to influence the voting public, largely because the Mitster continually displayed his famous foot in the mouth syndrome, which was highlighted by the 47% video, where he demonstrated his disdain for 47 % of the population who he described as irresponsible individuals dependent on government programs who were incapable of caring for themselves.

  His other major Gaffe occurred during the first debate when he told the moderator, Jim Lehr that he like him and liked PBS but would eliminate their budget including Big Bird. The annual PBS budget is 450 million dollars which equals 6 hours of the defense budget; you do the math, since the Mittster is incapable of doing it.

 During the second debate he thought he caught the president misrepresenting facts about when he first declared that those responsible for the Benghazi attack were terrorist and he pounced in for the kill, only to have the moderator Candy Crawley, verify that the president did in fact call the attackers terrorist the day after the attack.

Who can forget Mitt’s disastrous European trip where he sought to spot light his foreign policy experience when he slighted his host, Great Britain by questioning  their readiness for the Olympics.

The Sunlight Foundation reviewed Karl Rove’s campaign and his super PACS, American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS and found that of the $350 Million dollars spent they had a 1% success rate in unseating targeted candidates. Imagine of the $350 Million dollars collected, less than 1% went to a successful campaign in Nevada. President Obama’s re-election is a victory for the 47% and a solid defeat of the super PACS! Money and negative advertising cannot surpass boots on the ground and it was volunteer foot soldiers in Denver, Colorado like 80 year old Bertha Gallegos who spent hours on the phones extolling Latinos to get out and vote and 70 year old Antonio Esquibel, a retired college professor who personally registered 700 people who voted for the president, using the 47% comments as motivation. Colorado was a battleground state and Latino volunteers were successful in delivering this state into the democratic fold.

During the final two weekends before the election, over 200 volunteers who were a microcosm of the America. Young, old, male, female, Latino, Asian and African American manned a phone bank in Mission Viejo, California placing calls to Nevada, Iowa, Colorado, Ohio and Pennsylvania, energizing the Democratic electorate to vote. This was duplicated by 2500 other phone banks throughout the country, all volunteers who strongly supported the president’s values. Money cannot buy this dedication!

The Republican Party pundits were in denial about the results of the election and who can blame them. Fox News has repeatedly provided them with misinformation which they greedily accepted without question. Fox News denied the unemployment reports showing a drop to 7.8, saying the figures could be skewed; they denied the polls which gave the president any type of lead in the battleground states, they quickly endorsed the Gallup repeated polls that the Mittster lead by 5 points among “likely voters” which is a meaningless poll. The president was called un-American and lazy and Mitt did nothing to prevent the continuance of the negative statements, because they were readily accepted by Romney’s supporters.

There was a very noticeable difference in the makeup of both candidate's crowds with the Mittster’s crowds being very homogenized and the president’s crowds being very diverse.

 Evidently, Even the Mittster with all his gaffes, so strongly believed that he had a chance of winning that during the last week of the campaign he started wearing suits and ties, giving up the mom jeans that he wore to pretend he was a regular Joe. He told his press corps that he had only written a victory speech, an 1118 word victory speech. In the end, after a long delay he gave a five minute concession speech which was gracious and proves that the Mittster could have given an honest stright forward speech all along if he had wished to do so. At the age of 65, this is the end of the Mittsters political life. He started running for the presidency in 1994 and you would have thought that he would have perfected his act. He truly believed that he was the chosen one to lead the free world and still does not accept how out of touch he is with the common man.

 As a result of Fox News policy of denial, it was no wonder that the Republican pundits would deny the election results as they were being announced. Karl Rove was challenged on Fox about his math when he complained that Ohio was called to soon in favor of the president. The Republican electorate in general continues to be in a quandary as to the loss by the Romney/Ryan team because they never received accurate coverage by Fox News either as to the true state of today’s economy or the issue of character and dishonesty that surrounded the pair. Everyone is being blamed for the loss except the one most responsible, Willard Mitt Romney himself who ended the last few weeks of the campaign by approving an ad that falsely accused the president, Chrysler and General Motors of closing down U.S. Auto plans and outsourcing the work to China, leaving U.S. workers unemployed. This ad caused the Denver Post in an editorial to question the Mittsters’ character but this was never reported on Fox News. President Obama responded to this false negative ad by saying "You don't scare hard-working Americans just to scare up some votes." 

 Fox is now busy misrepresenting the facts about the Benghazi tragedy by saying that the U.S. and the president were aware of the attack and did nothing to prevent it. The incident was over within one hour which was not sufficient time for any type of response. It occurred on 9/11 and if Ambassador Stevens had any concerns about terrorists or his safety, he would not have gone to the consulate on that day. Security on all the embassies was reduced in May 2012 as a result of budget cuts voted on by among others, Paul D. Ryan.

The Fox News faithful however have swallowed this misrepresentation of the Benghazi tragedy to the extent that some have started calling for the president’s impeachment.

This same group of mislead individuals do not attribute the economic stagnation to President George W. Bush’s policies. They are in denial that George W took office with a balanced budget and a surplus in the treasury and left office after 8 years with two raging wars, the economy in a severe depression and a 1.4 trillion dollar deficit. They blamed the economic crisis on President Obama and do not recognize that he averted a complete collapse of the economy by the actions he was forced to take such as the stimulus bills and the bail out of the auto industry. They do not accept that the country is better off now than when the president first took office because all of this information has not been part of the Fox News format.

Donald Trump (they say that repeated use of hair dye can impair cognitive reasoning) tweeted, “this election is a total sham and a travesty. We are not a democracy”. Not content to stop before he proved himself a complete idiot, he tweeted “we can’t let this happen we should march on Washington and stop this travesty. Our nation is totally divided”. He continued to tweet “let’s fight like hell and stop this great and disgusting injustice. The world is laughing at us.” (at us, well maybe at him),Finally to let us know beyond a doubt that he was slightly disappointed he tweeted, “he lost the popular vote by a lot and won the election. We should have a revolution in this country”

Bill O’Reilly complained that the white establishment is now the minority. He said that 50% of the electorate  supported President Obama because they want “stuff” He gives them ‘Stuff”   

 El Rushbo rattled on that President Obama secured the women’s vote because he pandered to them giving them what they wanted in birth control and contraceptives.

The Republican Party had an opportunity to win the women's vote on economic issues but were turned off by the Romney social issues which were emphasized by comments from Todd Akins and Richard Mourdock. 

Dick Morris who had predicted a Romney electoral landslide was at a loss to explain the results except to say that he used the 2004 turnout believing that the coalition of voters that turned out in 2008 was a onetime thing.

 So finally, victory after a hard fought battle, but there are still 87 tea party congressmen in the house who didn’t learn a thing from the election, believing that their candidate lost because he became a moderate. They still owe their allegiance to Grover Norquist and don’t seem inclined to resolve the upcoming Fiscal Cliff issue. The press is making it appear that the crisis has to be resolved between now and January 1, 2013, however even if it is not resolved by then, Congress can reach a solution during the first weeks of January making it retroactive to the end of December 2012.

The president however will need support from the electorate to make this happen. The battle has just begun!  The president said he had the pen ready to sign the bills and called for the immediate extension of the cuts for the middle class. This is not likely to happen, however because if the house submitted this bill the only remaining issue would be extending the tax cuts for the rich and it would put the Republican party in bad light to hold out for this.

FIST BUMP

SANDY AND THE FINAL DAYS

The presidential election was 9 days away and it was anticipated that the final days of the campaign would be consumed with endless campaign hopping to the battle ground states, for last minute speeches directed at undecided voters.

However all of this was postponed by what some might call divine intervention, although with the loss of lives (more than 92, 38 in NYC  people and a cost of over $70 billion dollars) I wouldn’t call it an act of God. 

Whether it was an act of God or an act of man, Hurricane Sandy gave the voters an opportunity to compare and contrast how the presidential candidates reacted to this dire emergency. President Obama immediately suspended  his campaign, preparing  for the worst, while overseeing federal  emergency efforts, and thus was able to immediately expedite federal aid for rescue, recovery and reconstruction efforts, which drew praise from New Jersey Governor Chris Christy, a surrogate and keynote speaker for  Romney.  New Jersey Governor Christy’s words of appreciation for the president angered many right wingers, including El Rushbo himself, who ranted and raved to impress his sub marginal listeners.

On the other hand Governor Romney while trying to appear non political in this time of national disaster, came up with the idea of collecting canned  goods and non perishable items which he planned to have trucked from Ohio to New Jersey. If he truly wanted to be of value to the cause, he would have contacted emergency relief groups which would have advised him that for logistical reasons it is preferable to give money or donate blood. The Mittster has never been known for his common sense.

Do you have any doubts during this period of devastation, about which candidate has demonstrated that he has the necessary  competence, compassionate and leadership to be entrusted with the presidency of this country?

Governor Romney, during his Republican primary campaign debates, made the statements that if a federal program can be given to the states it is a move in the right direction and if the program can be removed from the federal government and given to the private sector it is even better. He was talking about FEMA, suggesting that he would get rid of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and hand its authority to the states which he considers to be in a better position to solve their own problems. Governor Romney has been reminded of these statements and asked if he planned to get rid of FEMA, not once but at least 14 times and he has refused to answer. In fact the Governor has not answered a question from a reporter during the last three weeks of this campaign. No wonder, he doesn’t need a reporter to help him make a fool of himself, he can do it all by himself.

In an Ohio unscripted speech which is usually when he makes romneys he said, “we have heavy hearts as you know with all the suffering going on in a major part of our country. A lot of people hurting this morning. They were hurting last night and the storm goes on.” I won’t try to decipher it for you.

 In the midst of this grief however the Mittster did manage to release an ad wherein he blamed President Obama for the outsourcing of auto industry jobs to China. The news media describes the ads as discredited which is a polite way of saying they are outright lies, which is not new for the Mittster. The Mittster will not respond to questions from the media about whether  the China claim is misleading.
Both General Motors and Chrysler have issued press releases stating that the Romney clains are incorrect, that U.S. auto industry jobs will not be outsourced to China.

On his campaign bus tour “every town counts” the Mittster failed to stop in Freeport Illinois, the home of Sensata,  a Bain Capital Company which is  a producer of sensors and controls for manufactures in the automobile, appliance, industrial and HVAC markets (Sensata.com). The Bain Capital Company in which Romney has an investment of $8 million dollars plans to offshore production to China, causing the loss of jobs to 170 workers. Two Republican congressmen, Dan Manzullo and Bobby Schilling urged the Massachusetts based Sensata Technologies to abandon plans to offshore production to China and keep the work and jobs in Freeport Illinois, but the Mittster has not made any statements regarding the plant closure. Romney has repeatedly said that he will be tough on China to create jobs but has failed to make any statements about this plant closure.  Yet he has the audacity to put out an ad which is total outright lie about President Obama outsourcing jobs to China. It demonstrates what a total hypocrite he truly is!

Romney continually attacks President Obama on the auto bailout while at the same time talking out of the other side of his mouth arguing that President Obama followed Romney's prescription to save the industry. President Obama and independent analysts say it was necessary to offer federal loans  to the auto industry to get them through bankruptcy because at the time banks were no longer lending to struggling industries., because credit was frozen. President George W. Bush gave GM and Chrysler a bridge loan in December 2008. President Obama  gave the industry federal loans which have since been repaid and the companies are now profitable.

The Mittster has continually criticzed the auto bail out without once admitting or ever acknowledging that his running mate, Paul Ryan voted for the auto bailouts!

From the inception of his campaign, Romney’s mantra has been “We will not be dictated to, by fact checkers” so he doesn’t care what he says or whether it’s truthful. In the last few days of the campaign expect a continuing cascade of outrages from the Romney camp as well as from Super PAC’s like Restore our Future and American Crossroads, both of which in the final days of the campaign are now spending millions.  Romney has started the final days of the campaign with an anti- Obama ad, aimed at his Latino supporters which features, Che, Castro’s daughter and Hugo Chavez as Obama supporters implying of course that President Obama is a socialist. This will have no effect on his Latino supporters and it clearly points out the Mittster’s desperation.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg who did not endorse a candidate for the 2008 campaign endorsed President Obama today (November 1, 2012) citing the issue of Sandy and Global Warming, and the fact that the president has turned the economy around. The Mittster as Governor of Massachusetts endorsed Global Warming but in his race for the presidency he quickly abandoned the concept since it is not accepted by some of his biggest supporters, the Koch Brothers.

Romney continues with his same stump speech about the economy, not conceding that at the time President Obama took office the economy was hemorrhaging 575,000 jobs a month, banks had collapsed and the country was in the worst depression since the great depression itself.  Since then with the auto bailout, which saved General Motors, and auto part jobs in Ohio, General motors’ is alive and generating profits. Housing prices are going up and unemployment is going down, but the

Thomas L. Friedman in the October 21, 2012, edition of the New York Times’ Sunday Review wrote that besides President Obama’s domestic innovation in Obamacare, in addition he instituted his Race to the Top program in education which has already set off a nationwide wave of school reform. In the automotive industry President Obama has raised the standards for American made cars and truck fleets from 27.5 miles per gallon to 54 miles per gallon between now and 2025. This is already spurring a wave of innovation in auto materials, engines and software.  

Mittster is ignoring all this and is still promising that he will add 12 million jobs to the economy. Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich stated that in a good year 2 million jobs can be added yearly, but 12 million in a year  is an impossibility, but the Mittster doesn’t care, if he get elected he can always say “Oops my bad!” The Mittster subscribes to the Moonlight Magnolia theory, which argues that when you strip away the unions and pension’s funds jobs will increase. The Mittster’s only true ideology is he believes in Mitt Romney.

The election is now only 5 days away and a wrong decision could lead to a Romney/Ryan victory which will result in damaging consequences for generations. 

Mitt Romney has demonstrated again and again that he cannot be trusted, that he is dishonest and has shown distain for the 47 % of the population which were not born with a silver spoon in their mouths. He is out of touch with the common man and has no real concept about how others exist. He pays minimum taxes, this year paying 13 %( and he would have only paid 10% if he had claimed his total contributions to the LDS Church. However after the election he will amend his tax return and receive a refund for the money he overpaid). He maintains offshore bank accounts in the Cayman Islands (for tax purposes, of course) and he only closed his Swiss Bank account after receiving ongoing criticism.

 He told teachers that class sizes don’t matter, he told students that they should shop around for the best student loans and that if they want to start a business that they should ask their parents for a loan. In short the Mittster lacks integrity and his involvement in governmental affairs would create havoc and severe discord. There is no comparison of the candidates and one only has to look back at 2000 and 2004 to see the serious errors that can result when an unqualified person is elected who does not have integrity and is incapable of dealing with America’s complex issues, at any time but especially during this period of economic crisis.

FIST BUMP

HORSES AND BAYONETS

During the third and final presidential debate on October 22, 2012 held in Boca Raton, Florida, President Obama In response to a statement made by Governor Romney, that the United States Navy has less ships then in 1916, responded that the U.S. also has fewer horses and bayonets, alluding to the fact that with multiple innovations the navy is much more compact and yet able to exert more offense than in the past. The president went on to say that the U.S, now has ships on which airplanes can land and ships that can go underwater, so we just don’t count ships.

The mittster did not respond. He has consistently been nit picking about different subjects just to appear to be in tune with the different issues of the day and fell into his own quagmire.

Instead the Mittster began to agree with President Obama’s policy, saying that the sanctions against Iran were working but that we should have done this sooner. His demeanor was different; he wanted to appear calmer, more subdued. He didn’t want to make the same mistakes he had made in the past when in the second debate, he thought that he had caught The President in a lie about Libya and jumped at the chance to destroy him. At that time the Mittster said that president did not label that attack on the consulate in Benghazi an act of terror until 14 days after the attack. The president had said that he mentioned that it was an act of terror the following day. The Mittster asked the president to repeat it and then took a step closer towards the moderator to push his point. The moderator Candy Crawley at this time said, no the president did say the day after the attack that it was an act of terror.

The Mittster was silenced, the crowd clapped, the president said can you repeat that louder Candy? What did this mean to the Mittster, was he caught with his pants on fire? No his supporters, the Fox News stooges instead attacked the moderator, saying she shouldn’t have gotten involved in  instant fact checking, that it was not her job to do that. By misdirecting the emphasis on the moderator instead of the Mittster, he once again escaped unscathed.

That is the reason the Romney that showed up for the third and final debate on foreign policy was not the same combative stumble bum that was there at the second debate. This Mittster was a “me too guy”, agreeing with the president on and all issues, while saying, “but I would have done it better!”

On Afghanistan, the Romney who  criticized  the president for setting a timeline for withdrawal and said he might keep U.S. Troops past NATO’s 2014 deadline, did not show up, instead  he sent the Mittster, who meekly agreed that the troops would be out on 2014.

When the Romney who called for a no fly zone in Syria, and supplying the rebels with arms failed to show up for the debate the Mittster once again said “we don’t want to get drawn into a military conflict” The Mittster then withdrew into his stump speech rhetoric, “I know what it takes to create  12 million new jobs.” Was he talking about in the U.S. or in China?  During the second debate President Obama challenged the Mittster when he said that on day one he would name China a currency mulipulater. The president said Governor Romney would be the last one to take on China, since he has outsourced jobs to China. The mittster returned the challenge saying that he has a blind trust and he doesn’t tell the trust how to invest and then asked the president, you have a pension don’t you? You have a pension don’t you? As if one has control over what a pension invests in. The mittster must have been absent at Harvard Law when they taught the difference between a pension and a blind trust.

During the debate between Romney and Ted Kennedy, when Kennedy said he had a blind trust the Mittster later laughed and said a blind trust is just a ruse, it can be broken at any time.

All the newspapers held the president the victor in both the second and third debate and the Los Angeles Times issues an editorial on Tuesday October 23, 2012, entitled “Romney endorses Obama”.

In the final two weeks of the campaign. Romney has perfected his campaign strategy of speaking out of both sides of his mouth on the same issues. By being pro and con on all subjects who can say that he is wrong, although this reinforces the many reasons to question and distrust his honesty.

In the final two weeks of the campaign, the Mittster is now using a teleprompter for his speeches wanting to avoid any romneys. His spokes people have now finally brought out the race card. John Sununu, a Cochairman of Romney’s campaign made the statement that the only reason Colin Powell endorsed President Obama was because they are the same race. Sara Palin, the Wasilla Alaskan song bird asked the president to cut the “shuck and jive” (as if she knew what that meant) about the attack on the Benghazi Consulate.  The Mittster has not stepped in to prevent the campaign from sliding further into the mud pit.

The Mittster has jettisoned his running mate Paul D. Ryan or “Mini Mitt”. During the first days of the campaign Mini Mitt was getting more applause than Romney and was being described as the new face of the Republican Party. However as the Mittster Etched a Sketched towards the center and bipartisanship, Mini Mitt was demoted. As Mini Mitt was crisscrossing small town in Ohio he was joined by the Mittster whose plans were changed by the hurricane, Sandy that hit the eastern seaboard this past weekend.

The Mittster  quickly praised Mini Mitts budget plan and further praised him for being bipartisan in working with Oregon Democratic Senator, Ron Wyden  on a Medicare Plan,( Wyden long ago disavowed the Medicare plan but both the Mittster and Mini Mitt continue use this as proof of their bipartisanship.

The Mittster can no long carry Mini Mitt who has become a burden beginning with his budget plan, which will change how Medicare is administered; the many questions about his convention speech, his lying about his time in a marathon and his co-sponsorship of a “personhood” bill with Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri, (the same Todd Akin who said women have a way of shutting down a pregnancy in case of rape). Ryan no longer talks about his budget and since his defeat by Vice President Joe Biden during their debate he no longer is anxious to talk about the stimulus bill being a failure, ( During the debate the Vice President brought out the fact that the Mini Mitt, requested and received millions in stimulus funds for his constituents).

Romney continues to distort the facts about his record as the Governor of Massachusetts including his claiming credit for their excellent school system  (Massachusetts had an excellent school system for ten years before he became governor and the school system has remained excellent after he left office. His claim of reaching across the aisle with Democratic legislators is also an outright lie as evidence by the fact that he vetoed over 300 Democratic bills that were subsequently overridden.

The mittster is what he is, what you see is what you’ll get and yet his supporters overlook what they consider small imperfections such as his 47% video which has been quickly forgotten and swept under the rug. His next blunder is overdue; he is unable to go past a week without stumbling over his own feet.

FIST BUMPS

FIRED UP! READY TO GO!

The chant “Fired up, Ready to go!” comes from a campaign trip President Obama made in his 2008 campaign to Greenwood, North Carolina a small town in the middle of nowhere. After an hour and a half drive over country roads the president arrived at the town community center. It was raining, his umbrella quickly collapsed and he was wet and cold as he walked into the building and found twenty people waiting for him. Twenty people after an hour and a half trip. He was disappointed, they seemed disappointed and soon thereafter a lone voice started the chant, Fired up. Ready to go, and kept repeating it. The crowd (twenty people) quickly joined in.  President Obama also joined in while thinking they stole my thunder. This has been his chant and credo since then.

What more can get you fired up, ready to go than an attack on “Big Bird?” Even with the president being extremely low key during his first debate, the Mittster could not resist stepping in it once again. He said that he would reduce the deficit by cancelling public television, including “Big Bird.”  That alone should once again, be an indication of how out of touch Mitt Romney is. The mittster if he had any sense  should have known that to announce that he planned to get rid of Big Bird would not go over well and could not stop himself from saying so.

The budget for PBS is 450 Million dollars a year, which amounts to about 6 hours of defense spending. The Mittster is a big thinker.

This plus his outright lies. In the past I had referred to his lies as misrepresentations but after repeated “misrepresentations” they should now be labeled what they are, outright, unmitigated lies. You can’t even use an “Etch a Sketch”, moment anymore; in fact the term Romney may soon take the place of the adjective, Etch a Sketch Moment, so that it will just be labeled as a Romney.

The Mittmeister has had so many do over’s, or never minds that it is hard to keep track of them and most of his followers believe they are hearing what he is saying for the first time

At one time he said he was for Planned Parenthood and suggested that he would support Row v. Wade since it was the law of the land. But some months later he said that if elected he would appoint conservative Supreme Court justices he hoped would overthrow Roe v Wade.  This past week on October 9^th, he said that he would not pursue any abortion-related legislation if elected president, “there’s no legislation with regards to abortion that I am familiar with that would become part of my agenda.”  Does this sound like a credible statement, especially with his running mate, Paul Ryan who has sponsored 38 Anti- Abortion bills. Several hours later the Mittster’s support staff put out a press release saying Governor Romney is proudly pro life and would be a pro life President.

In that infamous Boca Raton video he said that he would not work towards an Israeli-Palestinian agreement because Palestine was not interested in peace and he would only deal with the issue if it came up. In his foreign policy speech this week he said he would be working towards a settlement between Israel and Palestine. It’s as if you can never count on any of his statements being the final word on the subject.  You can usually expect a correction to be forthcoming from his support staff.

In that same infamous speech in Boca Raton he said 47% of the population pay no federal income tax, believe they are victims entitled to government aid, so it’s not his job to care about them.  They will vote for President Obama and there is nothing he can do about it and will not worry about them because they are not responsible for their own well being.   When the video was revealed by Mother Jones Magazine on September 17, 2012, Romney’s first statement was that he stood by his comments but that they were inelegantly stated.  He told Hannity on October 4, 2012, “well clearly in a campaign with hundreds if not thousands of speeches and questions and answers, now and then you’re going to say something that doesn’t come out right. “In this case I said something that was just completely wrong.”

Just completely wrong is stating it mildly and it was not just a slip of the tongue, as the campaign now seeks to portray it. The Mittster stepped in it, with both feet, giving a complete explanation of what he thought about those less fortunate than him.  He is now back tracking and saying that he is concerned with 100% of the population, because he has been told that some of the 47%’s who are relying on social security to support themselves, are Republican seniors who were his supporters.

The Mittster touts his ability to be bipartisan and argues that his role as governor of Massachusetts, a blue state is proof of his ability to work with both parties. Once again Mitt exaggerates his one term as governor. He has been described as believing himself to be imperious such as when he called legislative leaders into discuss the budget crisis his sense was “I have been elected governor, I am the CEO here, and you are guys are the board of directors and you monitor the implementation of what I say.” To say he had bipartisan support while governor is a far stretch from the truth. The Mittster vetoed 800 pieces of legislation most of which, the Democratic legislature overrode.

The New York Times reported on October 14, 2012, that during his one four year term in office as governor of Massachusetts, the Mittster cumulatively spent part or all of 417 days out of the state. More than 70 % of this time was spent according to a review of his schedule on personal or political trips unrelated to his job.  The citizens of Massachusetts now view Mitt as a phony who sought the governorship only as a stepping stone in his pursuit of the presidency. That maybe a reason why he is more than 20% behind in the polls and is not contesting the state.

The Mittster makes outlandish statements not realizing or caring that fact checkers are out there attempting to verify his every utterance and he has kept them extremely busy. He takes credit for Massachusetts having the best schools in the nation while governor. Massachusetts had had excellent schools for a decade before the Mittster became governor and have continued to have excellent schools since he left the governorship. The school system receives state aid under a law called Chapter 70. Romney budgeted more chapter 70 money then the legislature agreed on.  Mitt’s plan would have robbed Peter to pay Paul, cutting other state aid to municipalities to fund his largess to education.

This is what he plans with Obamacare. He would repeal it and use the funds to pay down the deficit caused by his 20% overall tax cuts for the wealthy. The repeal of Obamacare would add add 109 billion to the deficit.

When the Miitster reverses his position he doesn’t explain his earlier statements and makes it appear that this is the first statement on the issue and is able to do this with a straight face without any apologies. It’s as if he believes his audience was not aware of his prior statements or positions.  His stone cold ability to do this without guilt or conscious borders on a socio-pathic personality.  Amazingly enough, his supporters accept whatever he says without questioning him.  They support him in lock step, not necessarily because they endorse his philosophy but because of their dislike for the president. If the mittster was to suddenly sprout horns and a tail, his supporters would not bat an eye and say, we can always cut them off later.

The Mittster is in charge of his own campaign and the campaign reveals only what he intends to do in order to win, not what he will do once he’s won.  In the midst of the world’s economic and foreign affairs crisis, can we afford to entrust the office of the presidency to an imperious candidate who can’t be trusted to keep his word?

 

FIST BUMP!

 

 

DEBATE JUNCTION, ROUND ONE

Governor Romney’s animation and aggressiveness may have won him the first debate but it may have also lost him the battle.  He jettisoned his right wing conservative alliance by steering towards the center on President Obama’s health care plan and moderate regulation of the financial industry. He questioned Dodds-Franks and said he would repeal portions of it, but which portions he had not as yet decided.

Those viewing the debate may not have been closely following the campaign and may have been hearing about the complexities of the issues for the first time and therefore confused style over substance and credited Governor with the win.  The Governor was at his best Etch a Sketch moment however when he denied that he planned to reduce taxes for the wealthy or reduce benefits for present day Obamacare recipients when he has repeatedly promised that he would repeal Obamacare on day one of his administration. Romney has proposed cutting all marginal personal income tax rates  by one fifth, with the top rate coming down to 28% from 35 % and making up the huge revenue loss by  eliminating loopholes and tax breaks, but of course he has not said which tax loophole and tax breaks he would eliminate. He has said that the taxes for the wealthy would not be diminished and at the same time the taxes for the middle income would also not rise.  For some reason the Mittster used the words middle income instead of the word middle class.  In the October 4th article in the Los Angeles Times article by Michael Hiltzik, the simple math of this program does not add up according to the Tax Policy Center operated by the Brookings Institute and the Urban Institute

 The Mittster reverted to his campaign speeches by attacking the President, changing the topics to the topic he wanted to discuss, and the moderator, Jim Leher was much too polite and allowed the mittster to run rough shod over him.  Mitt knowing his information was a total fabrication attacked the President on cutting $716 billion dollars from Medicare to bolster Obamacare when he knows that his running mate’s budget also calls for the same cuts, $ 716 billion but that this money will instead not be used to bolster Obamacare but to reduce the deficit caused by the tax cuts for the rich.

President Obama mainted a presidential demeanor throughout the campaign, using some sarcasm from time to time but it was so subtle that it might not have been noticed by the general public.

CNN immediately put out the results of a poll that found that 67% of registered voters found that the Mittster had won, vs. 25% for the president. Information from CNN revealed that the voters polled numbered more republicans than democrats. History of presidential debates has shown that many incumbent presidents have lost the first debate. John Kerry handily won the first debate and in fact may have won all three debates against George W and still lost the election.

The issues of the 47% video, Women’s Rights,  abortion, legitimate rape, contraception, the auto industry, Bain Capital, Romney ‘s taxes , and his Swiss  and Cayman Island bank accounts  as well as foreign policy ,have yet to be discussed.  The continued   repetition of his stump speeches will be of little value in the subsequent debates.

FIST BUMP

MITT HITS THE FAN !

The Democratic National Convention closely followed on the heels of the RNC and everyone, even right wingers noticed the difference between the two conventions, noting that the democratic delegates seemed to be more animated and excited by the speeches that were taking place. The obvious factor was the diversity of the participants, with the DNC having multiple racial and ethnic participation of all ages which the RNC was primarily older white voters and a sprinkling of younger white female voters.

There definitely was a marked difference in the actual speakers and subject matter with the RNC focusing on making President Obama a one term president but neglecting to say what the Mittster would do differently.  Anger and resentment was the common theme by one politician after another, capped off by Paul Ryan who continued to lie about President Obama’s Affordable Health Care Reform and how he and the Mittster planned to save Medicare.  Clint muddied the waters with an off color soliloquy and finally Mitt himself was on deck. He gave a speech which was a version of his everyday stump speeches, failing to mention Afghanistan or the military and ending by saying that Russia was our number one enemy, not North Korea, not Al Qaeda, not Iran, but Russia.

The speakers for the DNC included a young couple with a young daughter who was born with a congenital heart defect that would require ongoing surgeries and previously had an insurance cap. With the affordable health care act they no longer have a cap and their daughter can continue to have the health care that she requires.

Speaker  Tammy Duckworth, who lost both her legs and partial use of an arm, in 2004 when her Back Hawk helicopter  was shot down in Iraq, drew standing ovations describing her work with disable war veterans.

 Sister Simone Campbell a Catholic nun and one of the “Nuns on the Bus” who toured the country protesting the Paul Ryan budget, assuring voters that the Republican fiscal proposals violate Catholic teachings as well as “our nations values”, using Matthew 25.40 (verily I say unto you, in as much as you did it for the least of my brethren, you did it for me), demonstrated that this election is about two different visions. 

Keynote speaker Julian Castro, Mayor of San Antonio and his identical twin brother were outstanding. Jon Stewart could not contain himself, saying the Republicans had Marco Rubio, Senator from Florida as their token Latino and the Democrats, they have so many Latinos, and that they doubled down with Julian Castro and his identical twin. Julian spoke of the realistic American dream, not a business you can start by borrowing from your parents, not inheriting one million from your father.

Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown Law School student who was slandered by El Rushbo was there to speak about affordable health care.  One after another the DNC speakers were everyday Americans with a story to tell and not bloated politicians filled with Anger, resentment and hate.

Vice president Joe Biden spoke about his closeness to the president and how he has seen his courage and determination first hand.

And then there was Bill Clinton who spoke for 48 minutes, scripted and ad libbing, repeatedly responding to standing ovations as he knocked down the Mittster’s and Mini Mitt’s lies.

Mitt Romney dared to ask the question, “are you better off now then you were 4 years ago?” and does not like the response given by Bill Clinton that of course we are!

Four years ago, Wall Street and banks were teetering on collapse, the U.S. auto industry, Chrysler and General Motors were in danger of bankruptcy, the nation was hemorrhaging 575 thousand jobs a month, 32 million citizens were without health care coverage, and two wars were raging, all as a result of 8 years of the Bush Administration which left the country in shambles with a 1.4 trillion dollar deficit and a severe downturn in the economy only surpassed by the great depression.

 Since then unemployment has been reduced, and unemployment benefits were extended, Wall Street reform was passed, the auto industry bailout that Romney was against, has revitalized the auto industry, the war in Iraq has ended and the affordable Health Care act was passed; Equal pay for women was protected by the  Lily Ledbetter Act,  fuel efficiency standards are doubling, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was eliminated and Osama Bin Laden is dead, to name just a few of the Obama Administration accomplishments which answers,  why we are better off now than four years ago,

President Clinton’s clearly defined  Romney’s argument, as  boiling  down  to  “we left  him a total mess, he hasn’t cleaned  it up fast enough, so fire him and  put us back in, is on point and definitely not the solution .  Clinton paraphrased another president saying “There they go again”, to emphasize the foolishness of their argument.

Bill Clinton also took on Paul Ryan and the Republican ad campaign that President Obama had taken 716 billion from Medicare to promote Obama Care, saying it takes some brass (he did say brass) to criticize someone for doing the same thing you’re doing.

President Obama received a 5 point bounce immediately after the DNC, but this bounce would only be a temporary setback for the Mittster unless he did something terribly stupid which is not hard for him to do. The Mittster in fact did not fail us and in fact once again provided the electorate with evidence that he is not fit to become the leader of the free world.

Sunday September 9, 2012, was the start of the week in which the Mittster lost the election.

 In response to a question by Meet the Press Moderator, David Gregory regarding his plans to repeal Obamacare, the Mittster flipped right before our eyes. For months in numerous stump speeches he had said, over and over again, that he would repeal and replace Obamacare on day one of his administration, however in his response he answered that he was not planning to repeal or replace all of Obamacare and would keep the pre-existing conditions portions and would allow children to be covered on their parents policies no matter what age for an indefinite period of time.  This was a new position by the Mittster, given voluntarily without any prompting and yet it was short lived. Several hours later his campaign announced that the Mittster had not changed his position.

World events changed quickly and by Tuesday evening,(9/11/12), news was breaking out that protests were taking place in the Middle East as a result of an anti Muslim film posted on YouTube.  Protesters in Egypt were gathering outside the American Embassy. A statement was issued by the embassy, saying the embassy opposed “continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims- as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions.”

The Mittster saw this as an opportunity to demonstrate his foreign policy skills injecting himself in a fast moving scenario in Egypt, while the President was discussing the issues with Israel. The Mittster criticized President Obama for issuing an apology for American values. In a brief news conference in Jacksonville, Florida, Romney said that it was “a terrible course to – for America to stand in apology for our values.” When our grounds are being attacked and being breached, that the first response of the United States must be outrage at the breach of sovereignty of our nation. And apology for American’s values is never the right course.” Nice speech under the right conditions but reporters noted that the Mittster issued the statements before protesters had climbed the embassy walls in Cairo. and before the Ambassdor was killed in Libya.  In his defense the Mittster said, “It’s never too early for the United States Government to condemn attacks on Americans and to defend our values.”

Several hours later in Libya, protesters attacked the American Consulate in Benghazi, killing Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three employees.  Romney even after additional facts became known to him, continued with his criticism.  Romney’s speed in using the protests for his own political purposes was soundly criticized by everyone including some fellow Republicans.  It was considered a violation of a tradition of having at least momentary unity in the face of a foreign threat.  Other Republicans said that Romney had hurt himself by failing to appear steady and presidential.

President Obama Rebuked Romney, stating, “I think most Americans, Democrats and Republicans, understand that that there are times when we set politics aside and one of those is when we’ve got a direct threat to American personnel who are overseas,”

As if all of this was not enough to be considered Mitts Armageddon. The Mittster outdid himself by making statements which were videotaped and released by the Magazine, Mother Jones.  In a fund raiser to major donors, $50,000 a person, in Boca Raton, Florida on May 17, 2012, Mitt joked about being Latino. He said that his father was born in Mexico to American parents, but if they were Latino, he would have been Latino and would have had a better shot at securing the Latino vote.  The Mittster does not understand that he cannot obtain the Latino vote, not because he is not Latino but because he stands for everything that Latinos are against. The Mittster did not volunteer that his father was born in Mexico where his parents fled in order to avoid prosecution for practicing polygamy.

Further damage control was needed for the Mittster’s additional statements that showed him describing nearly half the country’s population as “dependent on government and unwilling to take responsibility for their lives.”  Romney did not dispute the comments in which he told supporters that he didn’t need to worry about Obama’s supporters because they relied on government services and paid no income tax.

“There are 47% of the people who will vote for the president no matter what.” All right, there are 47% who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it.” “That –that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what. These are people who pay no income tax.”

Romney said he would focus on nonaligned voters and not on Obama supporters. “My job is not to worry about those people; I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

When it was learned that the speech had been taped and released he quickly called a press conference in which he said that he stood by his statements but admitted that he could have made the statements more elegantly but it was off the cuff in response to a question.

This was not the first time that the Mittster was caught saying that he wasn't worried about poor people. He later corrected this by saying that he wasn't worried about poor people because they had safty nets. Now he is attacking the safty nets!

The media was again called it a gaffe however  It's time for the media to stop labeling Romney's missteps as Gaffes, because they are not gaffes but a true revelation of Romney's ingrained personality. He has previously made off the cuff statements to donors and thereafter tries to spin away his statements. On April 15, 2012, he was overheard by reporters from the Wall Street Journal and NBC News during a fund raiser telling donors that he planned to eliminate tax deductions and cabinet departments such as HUD and Education.  Once again when he learned that his statements had been overheard, he quickly retracted his statements just as he is trying to do now. He has been making speeches saying that he is interested in 100% of the people and wants to help them become less dependent on government. This would be a decent spin but for the fact that his speech was recorded where he said he has no use for those people who show no responsibility for their actions!

Romney is arrogant and truly believes that he is better than the 47%’s. That he is the only one with all the answers and if you don’t agree with him, your opinion is worthless and he has no use for you because you are a worthless moocher and leach who is dependent on government entitlements, do not pay taxes and are unwilling to take responsibility for your lives. He doesn't understand the middle and lower class people, obviously he's never had to be there. He's led a pretty guilded life and as a result he is completly out of touch with the common man, as evident by advice he gave to college students. "If you wnat to start a business, borrow from your parents", and in regards to student loans which he's never had, he said to the students,"shop around."

He has demonstrated myopic tunnel vision and is quick to criticize the poor and under privileged and has turned a blind eye to the fact that subsidies and entitlements are also provided to major corporation and industries such as farming and oil and that some major corporations like General Electric, also pay no taxes, but somehow he has not noticed that Michele Bachmann and her husband as well as Rick Santorum have also accepted subsidies and government aid or Paul Ryan who took 20 million from the stimulus bill for his district in Wisconsin.

The taped speech also contained Mitt’s idea of a  foreign policy in dealing with the Israeli/Palestinian issue. The Mittster said if elected he would not work toward a two-state solution. This two state solution has been the policy of the last three presidents and a policy that the Mittster

has publicly endorsed, but he said that he believes that the Palestinians do not want peace anyway and for political purposes are committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel. “ And so what do you do is you say, you move things along the best way you can , you hope for some degree of stability, but you recognize that this is going to remain an unsolved problem."

This is the Mittster, the same Mittster who insulted our ally Great Britain when he questioned their readiness for the Olympics.  In private conversations with an “in group” he feels that he is able to reveal his inner most thoughts, but what he has revealed is that he has no inner most thoughts. He doesn’t have to have any solutions. He is the man who has been chosen to save the free world. Chosen by who? By himself of course, after all he is the Mittster.

This time however some of his supporters, Republicans who had endorsed him were taken back by his; there is no other way of saying it, “stupidity.”

  Peggy Noonan writer for the Wall Street Journal said it was time for an intervention Romney’s theory of the case is all wrong. His understanding of the political topography is wrong. It’s time to admit the Romney campaign is an incompetent one. Romney always seems alone out there, a guy with a mike pacing an empty stage. All by himself, removed from the other humans. Its sad looking. It’s not working. After saying all this Peggy believes there is still time to right the ship.

The Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson,the Las Vegas Casino billionaire, having already spent hundreds of millions dollars to defeat President Obama are spending even more to buy ads that they will be running in the battleground states of Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, Colorado and Nevada. The Republican Party in these as well as in the states of Pennsylvania and Ohio have enacted legislation to prevent voter fraud which has been proven to be nonexistent in order to bar President Obama’s supporters from voting. This is the only way the right wing is trying to right the ship.

You can lend your support for the Democratic Party and President Obama by contributing to the campaign at https://my.barackobama.com. Tell them blu-dog sent you!

Other Republicans are taking a harder stance, if a harder stance can be taken. Laura Ingram said “if you can’t defeat a president with this economic record, you should shut down the party! Shut down the party and start again with new people. As if that would help. The Republicans in congress no longer represent their electorate and instead have pledged their allegiance to Grover Norquist and his silent partners.

Republican Senatorial candidate from Connecticut,Linda McMan said she disagreed with Romney’s insinuations.

 Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown, who is trailing Elizabeth Warren in his bid for reelection said about Romney’s statements, “That’s not the way I view the world.”  Romney former governor of Massachusetts trails President Obama by 28 points in Massachusetts.

Virgina Republican Senatorial Candidate George Allen said “Romney and Paul are wrong about Medicare.”

Former Minnesota Governor, Tim Pawlenty, who had been considered as Romney’s running mate, resigned his position as national co chair of the Romney campaign, ostensibly to become a the head of a leading bank lobbying group. The media is not portraying this as a desertion of a sinking ship, but purely a business decision.  What do you think?

Fist Bump.