Even the 47% Are Hard To Convince

It would seem that with Mitt Romney and the GOP falling all over themselves mocking and denigrating every demographic except white, blue-eyed blonde haired two-year olds, he would not be doing THIS well:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/157508/romney-support-among-lowest-income-voters.aspx

Just think, the people that will benefit the LEAST from the Romney/Ryan administration (and I use that term loosely) are the very ones that seem to support them. Well, and the VERY rich of course...

Then there is just one other thing that the Right can play off of, that seems to work very well...with the help of such entities as FOX News:

".... or the feeling of belonging to the dominant, superior race, is simply greater than the need to vote for one's own interest. These hillbillies (sic) sleep better at night....knowing that as long as they're white, they are not inferior, no matter how poor. You could try to appeal to them with facts, except their feelings of intellectual inferiority causes incredible resentment toward anyone showing any intelligence at all.... If you think for a second that they're now not going to vote for Romney because of this brouhaha, you are sadly deluded. These people believe in an implicit wink and nod agreement from conservative elites that they'll still continue to get whatever assistance they may be getting, and that the cuts to these programs will fall almost solely on blacks and Hispanics. They are white. They vote for the white party. They vote for the party that isn't beholden to high falutin' facts that make them feel stupid..."  (comment from)

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/gallup-one-third-of-lowest-income-voters-support

Most of the 47% do not realize this either:
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/09/20/881151/study-wealthy-americans-receive-far-more-tax-breaks-than-the-poorest/ 

I'm not even sure that the Republicans death to the veterans job bill will make a large dent, but it should. A large percent of returning veterans, along with seniors on Social Security, are part of Romney's 47%.

"However, Veterans Jobs Corps bill co-sponsor Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) said on the Senate floor today that “this bill is fully paid for and does not violate pay-go rules.” Murray even tried to include most of the provisions of a competing Republican bill but Democrats still ran into opposition. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said he would block the measure until the Pakistani doctor that aided the CIA in looking for Osama bin Laden was freed, while Coburn claimed the bill would have no chance of passing the House so it wasn’t worth the effort."http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/09/19/875351/republicans-kill-vets-job-bill/

I guess someone....more eloquent and smarter than I am....was right:

“Socialism (or progressivism in our case) never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.” ― John Steinbeck

Just This....

UPDATE:
If you've got a minute, head on over to Southern Beale's blog, especially those of you who were not aware of ol' Mitt's family background. He had a pair of really supportive, understanding parents it seems. WHAT happened???

http://southernbeale.wordpress.com/2012/09/19/who-is-john-galt-and-why-is-he-such-an-asshole/#comment-11665

Who are YOU voting for in November?

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

........sometimes

We've heard that MANY times. But when you are speaking the words while engaging in the actions the result can often be disastrous. Take what happened to Mitt Romney as he jumped the gun on unrest in Libya yesterday:

"That the left heaped scorn on Romney’s gambit came as no surprise. But the right reacted almost as harshly—with former aides to John McCain, George W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan creating an on-the-record chorus of disapproval, while countless other Republican officials and operatives chimed in anonymously. “This is worse than a Lehman moment,” says a senior GOP operative. “­McCain made mistakes of impulsiveness, but this was a deliberate and premeditated move, and it totally revealed Romney’s character; it revealed him as completely craven and his candidacy as serving no higher purpose than his ambition."

http://nymag.com/news/politics/powergrid/mitt-romney-middle-east-unrest-2012-9/

Compare this to Michelle Obama's nomination speech for the president, her husband, as the Democratic National Convention:

"Well, today, after so many struggles and triumphs and moments that have tested my husband in ways I never could have imagined, I have seen firsthand that being president doesn’t change who you are – it reveals who you are."

And she went on to say:

"And he believes that when you’ve worked hard, and done well, and walked through that doorway of opportunity…you do not slam it shut behind you…you reach back, and you give other folks the same chances that helped you succeed."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/wp/2012/09/04/dnc-2012-michelle-obamas-speech-at-the-democratic-national-convention-full-text/

The take-away is Romney is losing, he is aware of it really, and panic is setting in. But is THIS what we can expect from this Romney-Ryan team upon the world stage?

Maybe WE should begin to panic, too, if by some sort strain of horrible luck these two ever get to the White House......

Where Do You Sign Up For This Gig?

Old School

You know how Republicans in Congress are totally against teachers, who make TOO much money, work TOO few hours and don't work a full year anyway.....

They rail against the unemployed and those on welfare taking other people's money for "doing nothing."

They are INCENSED at the waste in government.

But the time THEY put in, working for YOU on your taxpayer dime...well, that's a different story:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20126778-503544/house-plans-only-109-workdays-in-2012/

Now, I can't say for sure....it's just my guess...but I wonder if Mr. Romeny's dropping (or at least not pushing upward) poll numbers would have anything do to do with this. Or maybe it's their not-winning-everybody-over candidate's completely bizarre responses to his already disgraceful comments about the President's foreign policy in Libya:

"Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., announced on Friday that, after next week, the House won’t be returning to session until after the Nov. 6 elections."

http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress-legacy/after-next-week-house-stopping-work-until-election-20120914

"Speaking on the House floor, Cantor said that the decision for House members not to return to the Capitol in October has been made given the Senate’s anticipated passage next week of a bill to keep government running beyond the Oct. 1 start of the new fiscal year, a bill already passed on Thursday in the House."

I wonder if these guys feel they need to do a little more campaigning among the masses to make their candidates more palatable to the undecided, whoever they are. I'm sure those job bills, immigration matters, wars on women's reproductive rights, voter suppression, dashing environmental concerns, dismantling the educational system can wait till after they get Romney and Ryan elected.....

“Unfortunately, the Do Nothing Congress wants to go home,” Pelosi said.

Or MAYBE it's dawned on them that if you're NOT THERE, you can't be seen as being AGAINST everything, this close to the election.

I'd Love to have those work hours ......and even HALF the pay!

Laughable....but Telling

The last couple of days have been quite a circus for the Romney-Ryan campaign, and a horror show of pain and disbelief for the rest of the world. Whether instigated by an Islamophobic filmmaker on YouTube or an Al-Queda cell's hatred, the result was the same: loss of life for America and Libyan people.

All the media here in the US had something to say, especially about Mitt Romney's right-out-of-the-box blast against the president...and it wasn't good.

Everybody except FOX, that is. Today you will not see ONE word of the Republican candidate's accusations. Yesterday there was this piece:

"It’s fine to criticize Romney’s views; that’s how a debate of substance takes place. It’s also fine to question the timing of his statement (though that’s a question of strategy and tactics, not substance).

This was something different. This was an effort — not entirely conscious — to make it illegitimate for Romney to criticize the president’s foreign policy at a moment when foreign policy has suddenly taken center stage.

But that’s exactly when such a debate should take place — because it’s when the public will actually pay attention.

That is not what The Most High want — a debate. What they want is for Obama to be re-elected. And they’ll use the tools at their disposal to achieve their aim.

Apparently the horror of Romney’s evil words was lost on Obama. In a CBS interview yesterday, he converted the business into a one-liner: “Gov. Romney seems to have a tendency to shoot first and aim later.”

How solemn. How grave.

So it appears one politician can say what he likes and the other can’t. Because, you know, there’s an election to win, and the self-appointed referees are also the fans."

 http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/09/13/liberal-media-lash-out-at-romney-for-daring-to-criticize-obama/#ixzz26MqAWR38

I know I'm preaching to the choir here. But HOW ON EARTH can millions of people live in this country, not making the first effort to get all the facts on anything, believing any and everything that is told to them on one outlet. How can EVERY news outlet, newspaper, website, author, political figure be WRONG...except theirs?

I guess maybe Andy Borowitz said it right:

"An official statement from the Romney campaign did not refer to his latest comments, but indicated that between now and the election Mr. Romney’s schedule would deëmphasize events where he might be called upon to open his mouth."

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2012/09/attacked-on-foreign-policy-romney-cites-his-moneys-experience-abroad.html#ixzz26MmTcFw2

Creating A More Congenial Reality

.....or at least one that fits your politics

Rush Limbaugh, the Oracle of the Right, came out today with the most convoluted tirade he's done in a while: Obama and his team are using FACTS to suppress the voters in the upcoming election.

"So now it’s not a referendum on Obama. It’s a choice between two guys, which means, of course, whatever Romney says matters. I’m here to tell you, folks, you have got to stay bucked up. The effort to depress you and keep you home, I’ve never seen it like this before in my life."
http://www.politicususa.com/rush-limbaugh-claims-obama-facts-polls-suppress-republican-vote.html

That would seem to fit in with the Romney team which announced last week that they were NOT going to let their campaign be "dictated by fact checkers." Yes..they only put a damper on things....

I read an interesting article that seems to put in perspective this alternative reality seemingly accepted without question on the Right. Republicans would not be Republicans today without it.

"My old Republican worldview was flawed because it was based upon a small and particularly rosy sliver of reality.  To preserve that worldview, I had to believe that people had morally earned their “just” desserts, and I had to ignore those whining liberals who tried to point out that the world didn’t actually work that way.  I think this shows why Republicans put so much effort into “ creat[ing] our own reality ,” into fostering distrust of liberals, experts, scientists, and academics, and why they won’t let a campaign “ be dictated by fact-checkers ” (as a Romney pollster put it).  It explains why study after study shows -- examples here, here, and here -- that avid consumers of Republican-oriented media are more poorly informed than people who use other news sources or don’t bother to follow the news at all."

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/political-awakening-republican-i-had-viewed-whole-swaths-country-and-world-second?page=0%2C0

Aside from all the headaches this creates for the voters in this election, it also creates a more dire problem in the long run: too many people rely on the media to give them background on which they will base their decisions. OR they just sit there, soak in all the mistruths, and perpetuate the falsehoods.

"Whether all this helps the Republican Party in 2012 is of less consequence than the larger danger it poses to America. Democracy cannot thrive when truth becomes irrelevant. To the contrary, history teaches that this is how demagogues take root."

http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/reich/article/How-Republicans-reinforce-campaign-of-lies-3850026.php

Job Well Done, Dems !

Yes, I know...the grand finale of the DNC wasn't what we had hoped for. The event had to be moved to a smaller venue "because they couldn't fill it".....FOX said so, and it MUST be true!! 

At least it had stopped in time for the main events.

For starters, the speakers at the DNC did something refreshingly different from the RNC: they used actual facts. Even the AP fact checkers were a little miffed as all they could do was nitpick. There were no big whoppers as there were last week. As Jon Stewart said:

"Oh, ratios: mathematical parameters from which to extrapolate results."http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/07/jon-stewart-praises-bill-clinton-dnc-math-video_n_1864045.html

Other pundits, media "journalists," and even some Dems were taken back by  what was brought forth: facts. I was heartened to hear time after time, the speakers brought home the REAL truth about the main reason we are in this mess: The Republicans planned for it to happen.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/07/simpson-bowles-obama-biden-dnc-speeches-_n_1863390.html

"Obama publicly backed the deal -- the kind of public support journalists are now saying was lacking. As soon as Obama got behind the bargain, the GOP fled."

The harping on the "where are the jobs, Obama" that the Right has been doing nonstop....even though that's what THEY were supposedly going to correct as soon as they won the midterm elections....was addressed, too. And now one year later, here we are:

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/09/07/812251/republicans-blocked-jobs-act-one-year/

"Moody’s Analytics estimated the American Jobs Act would create 1.9 million jobs and add two percent to gross domestic product."

And yes, there's a long way to go. Rome wasn't built in a day, and it took YEARS for the Republicans...and a few complacent nonvoters on both sides...to take us down this path. We've got work to do.

But as James taylor says:

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/40875_James_Taylor_at_the_DNC-_I_Dont_Get_It_-_Im_an_Old_White_Guy_and_I_Love_Barack_Obama/comments/