Down to the Wire

This weekend all the political Einstein's provided us with their prognosis for the presidential outcome. It didn't give me any comfort that most of them said President Obama will be reelected because I remember from history “Dewey defeats Truman."

This morning, the general theme was that Obama has a razor-thin lead in the national and the battleground states. I'm waiting for the actual count Tuesday night or perhaps early Wednesday morning. I was getting a headache trying to decipher all of Chuck Todd's political data and map this morning. For example, Obama has a 2-1 lead in early voting but Republicans always cast more absentee votes and traditionally vote on the day of the election. Mitt Romney has a double-digit lead white male vote nationally but in Ohio, Obama leads in the white male vote. Huh? I now believe that poll responders tend to lie a little bit, but I still believe we will know the results of Ohio by just tallying up a few counties. For example, we know that our 77904 zip code will vote 90% Republican. Of course after the election, the first debate, Hurricane Sandy and the praise of Obama's handling of the storm provided by Governor Chris Christie will be evaluated. Fox News & Company thinks the mainstream media gave the president a pass on Benghazi.

 

I'm glad I left the VA forum because I can imagine that I would have been pretty busy debunking the nonstop partisan comments that have been posted lately.

I don't feel comfortable addressing religious comments because the entire topic is based on a persons' faith and beliefs. I'm not going to argue someone's belief that the Democratic Party is made up of a bunch of heathens because some in the party wanted to omit God from the platform. I think the Democratic Party is more than one issue, and I like the way the party tolerates secular views. It's a big tent party, and that was self-evident as the national television cameras panned the crowd at the convention. You would think that we would have 535 GOP legislators and a Republican president and vice president if God was really on the GOP's side.

I don't know who's going to win tomorrow night but I sincerely think that whoever does, will get an economy that's moving in the right direction. I really hope that President Obama gets reelected and gets the full credit for his efforts. I still think the passing and signing of TARP by the Bush administration, the actions by Federal Chairman Bernanke and a lot of policies by President Obama stabilized an economy that was heading for a depression. I agree with some world economists that I heard on Fareed Zakaria's CNN show yesterday. They said that American may have a lot of debt but our problems have solutions unlike the European and Asian markets. Our problems stem from a broken political system where nothing gets done because of ideological differences.

I will write one more blog Wednesday analyzing the election in my own words and opinion. It looks like the house will remain in Republican hands the Democrats will hold onto the Senate. That means that the Republicans will not get to use reconciliation (51% of votes) and depending on the final tally, and if Romney is elected, he will not have a veto proof repeal of Obamacare. I don't think Romney really wants to repeal Obamacare because it's the carbon copy of his masterpiece in Massachusetts...If President Obama is reelected, Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell's plan of not allowing the president a second term goes into the wastebasket. If you watched 60 minutes last night, I think you will agree that Congress has not gotten the message, and that they wear their low approval rating, as a badge of honor.

The Politics of Desperation

I've been away from the constant barrage of political garbage for about a week, but now I'm starting to put my toe in the water to see if it's OK to go back in. Hurricane Sandy has taken a lot of the luster out of the presidential election, as it should. We're still going to have an election next Tuesday, whether we like it or not. Hopefully, we come up with a clear winner Tuesday night, so we can go onto solving the problems that have been ignored.

We normally give politicians a little latitude because we know their limitations and their tendency to exaggerate. I had already given up on Romney’s  tax plan that didn't add up but now Mitt Romney is running an ad in Toledo, Ohio, where they make the jeeps in question, saying that Obama bailed out Chrysler, and they repaid us with plans of moving their entire operation to China. Forget politics; just think what that does to the worker's morale. Mitt Romney knows that story came from a blogger with no credibility whatsoever. It's not only the ad which may be out of Romney’s control  but it’s the lie Mitt is repeating in Ohio. Politifact gave him four Pinocchio's for the outrageous claim but Mitt Romney has doubled and tripled down since then, knowing some unsuspecting voters might not notice the lie. This morning, MSNBC's political consultant Mark Halperin tried to make excuses for Mitt by saying that Chrysler will build some jeeps in China. For example, let's say China agrees to buy 10,000 jeeps if Chrysler builds 3000 of them in China. That doesn't leave Mitt Romney off the hook because he said Chrysler would move the whole jeep operation to China. In that example, the 3000 jeeps built in China is part of a contract negotiation and it doesn't mean that those 3000 jeeps ever had a chance of being built in the United States.

It's normal for a sitting president and a governor of a stricken state to coordinate FEMA's efforts to bring relief to the citizens of those states as quick as possible. The governor normally accompanies the president when he takes to the air to see the damage, so they can show him why he needs some resources and where. The president has the ability to cut through red tape and eliminate some of the normal power plays between the federal agency and the state officials.

The Republican governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, praised President Obama for his leadership and corporation during his state's initial attempts to recover from the storm. I didn't think much of it but apparently the political pundits did. Charles Krauthammer said Christie's words were equivalent to $200 million of campaign funds. One of the stupidest remarks I've ever heard came from one of the stupidest hosts I've ever seen, Fox and Friends, Steve Doocy." Mr. Doocy asked Governor Christi this question " Over the last couple of months, you have appeared throughout the country, Governor, on behalf of Mitt Romney… (W)e hear that perhaps Mr. Romney may do some storm-related events. Is there any possibility that Gov. Romney may go to New Jersey to tour some of the damage with you?" Only to be slammed dunked in shame by Christie when he said, " I have no idea, nor am I the least bit concerned or interested. I’ve got a job to do here in New Jersey that’s much bigger than presidential politics and I could care less about any of that stuff. I have a job to do. I’ve got 2.4 million people out of power. I’ve got devastation on the shore. I’ve got floods in the northern part of my state. If you think right now I give a damn about presidential politics, then you don’t know me."

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/politics/chris-christie-goes-fox-script-praises-obama-dismisses-romney-photo-op-re-monster-storm

As far as I can see, the political landscape hasn't changed much, the race may be getting a little tighter, but it's still about Ohio.

Parsing Words

Hopefully, in three weeks we can go back to living in the real world instead of the superficial one, the politicians and the media have created for us. Does anyone really care whether or not Representative Paul Ryan was washing dishes at a homeless shelter? His budget will tell you everything you need to know on how he feels about the poor. Mitt Romney's "binder" gotcha moment is getting a little over a top. I thought Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough were going to have a loud shouting match over that subject this morning. I sort of understand her point because Romney didn't actually come up with the idea of hiring more women executives, so she said he shouldn't get credit for it.

I thought the rights of women was settled a long time ago, but it has resurfaced because it's become a political issue. Women make up 53% of the voting population, and they're being used like a political football. The Republicans say that they do not favor “equal pay for equal work" because they think that issue should be between the employer and the employee, and it shouldn't be an issue for the government. I don't agree with that because, if companies are going to compete for government contracts; the government has a right to insist that pay equality be inserted into the contract. There are some women who are not that excited about the Lilly Ledbetter Act because they just want an opportunity work, and they think that's just the way it is. Besides they don’t think it will ever affect them.


Mitt Romney and his surrogates get under my skin every time I hear them say that more women have lost their jobs under this administration than ever before. The other is playing that dog whistle for their base by saying more people are on food stamps under this president. Both statements are literally true as far as numbers go but they pray that the uninformed won't ask any questions. Republican governors laid off a lot of schoolteachers and related services, so we know the reason so many women lost their jobs. We also know that we were in the worst recession since the Great Depression, so the humane thing to do would be not to let recently laid-off individuals starve. I believe that we would have had just as many people on food stamps under a John McCain presidency.

I'm not going to pretend that I know what's important for women in this election. I always look at women as my equal; I don't believe they are single issue voters. I do believe a majority of women would not like to see Roe vs. Wade be overturned, and I also think that they appreciate “equal pay for equal work" but they may consider the economy to be the most important issue. I don't think women have to look at the inflation rate to see if the economy is improving for their family; they do the grocery shopping, fill up the cars, and are thoroughly involved in making educational choices for the children. It's not the stock market for them; it's the meat market. Andrea Mitchell said that she thought that women were turned off by the Alfa male performance of the two candidates in Tuesday's night debate. I don't know how we could measure that, but I think that's a case by case observation.

I don't want to get in trouble, but the “binder & flex time “Tweets are making me laugh. I saw a Tweet about 4:00 PM that read" women if you worked for Romney, you could be getting off right now to fix dinner"...:-)

The Mitt Romney campaign is once again going after the administration's reaction to the Benghazi incident in the next debate because they see another opening. I'm always puzzled why the right needs the president to react the way they would, or it's not acceptable to them. It's been that way for a while; they see an apology where the president might call it a conciliatory tone. When the Obama plan called for more Middle East countries to get involved in Libya; his opponents called it" leading from behind."

I've seen enough of Mitt Romney to come up with a pretty good picture of him. He's obviously a rich guy who doesn't have to conform to the 21st Century, unless he wants to. He will never have to work in a diverse environment, unless he chooses to. He really, really, really wants to be president, but when, and if he does become president, he will insist on the respect he doesn't give our current president. Right now, he will be anything you want him to be and there is a videotape to prove that. He would be a spreadsheet president who would undermine his biggest accomplishment to humanity (Romneycare) in order to accomplish his current goal.

I don't know how I overlooked it but I'm glad Dan Rather brought it up last night on the Rachel Maddow show. I'm paraphrasing but Dan Rather said, “President Obama saw the mistake he made in the first debate; acknowledged it; apologized and came back with a stellar performance." That's the making of a leader. Mr. Rather said we would have to go way back to President Eisenhower to see anything that closely resembles that. I know President Clinton apologized but not before, denying, lying, and putting our country through a lot of agony. I also believe the Republicans blew the incident way out of proportion for political gain.

OK,I’m over it because I can’t for the cycle to start all over again this evening.

Round II

It's all starting to sink it after all these months of trying to decipher talking points. I'm pretty sure I know what the Mitt Romney's tax strategy is and what's behind his foreign policy. Mitt Romney's sudden shift to the middle is being masked by having his surrogates telling the media that the debates allowed the country to see Romney in a different light, other than the one painted in the Obama ads. Since he made a strong showing in the debates, his base didn't make any noise about him moving to the middle. The Romney camp has Tony Perkins on speed- dial assuring him that Mitt Romney is severely pro-life. It's been said that Mitt Romney is rehearsing his" connect with the crowd" technique since a lot of tonight's debate questions will come from undecided voters. He is being prepped on how to smile and feel the questioner’s pain. President Obama already knows how to deal with a crowd, so he is being drilled on countering Mitt Romney's statements without seeming too aggressive.

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are saying that their tax plan is the framework of a 20% across the board tax cut. They use the words" broaden the base and growth" which is basically saying," make more people pay income taxes and believe me this will work" because six studies, I have selected said so. Paul Ryan said that this had been done twice before, but that's not true. The tax brackets under President Reagan and Kennedy were a lot higher than they are today. Republicans will go to their graves saying that cutting taxes will promote growth because it puts more money into the hands of the people and job creators but that is not a proven fact. President Clinton raised taxes in the 90s ,and those years were known to be prosperous. There are no studies (only assumptions) that prove rising or lowering taxes will automatically lead to growth. Mitt Romney will not talk about eliminating the home-mortgage deduction because it will be political suicide, so he'll allow Congress to put it out there. He will then have the cover Congress to cover a campaign promise that went unfulfilled. I have to give credit to Chris Wallace for telling a Romney spokesman that of the six studies Romney is claiming, two of them are bloggers and one is a former George W. Bush staffer, and another comes from an editorial not a study. We might hear another version tonight.

Mitt Romney's foreign policy so far has been that he will do what the current administrations doing, but he will be more boisterous about it. He says that the Obama's Syria response is reprehensible, but he doesn't say what he'll do besides arm the rebels. There's a front-page story of the New York Times, stating that the arms that are meant for the Syrian rebels are falling into the hands of Islamic extremists.

I still think the White House is vulnerable to charges of incompetence in handling the deaths of our ambassador and three other Americans. We still don't know why our ambassador to the U.N., Susan Rice,was sent out to the Sunday talk shows to say that a video caused the deaths of four Americans. Yesterday, Senator Lindsey Graham said that the White House was in a mist of a giant cover- up and tried to emphasize that Al Qaeda in is now larger than they have ever been. That's all Fox News wants to talk about. There are a lot of misleading claims out there because our Marines guard embassies because of information that stored there not consulates or outposts. We know that Ambassador Christopher Stevens, was stationed in Tripoli  and was visiting Benghazi when the attacks occurred. We also know that the State Dept gets requests for more security all the time, and that is a bureaucracy request that probably wouldn't filter up to the White House. It's more likely to go through an appropriation committee in Congress. On the other hand, the fact that a CNN correspondent found Ambassador Stevens journal is a sign that the investigation was handled poorly. That whole area should have been sealed. I'm sure the president will be asked about all this tomorrow night because this issue is being politicized. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has taken blame for the whole incident, but some conservatives are saying that the White House has thrown Clinton under the bus.

The president mustn't let the Republicans say that Social Security is going bankrupt because it's not and can't. Social Security is and has always has been a promise to supplement seniors when they retire. It was always meant that the younger workers would contribute, so the retirees could benefit from the program, and the cycle would repeat itself. As we know, the Social Security tax revenue was put into the general fund, and no administration ever stopped the practice, and we are living longer today which in itself and has a crippling effect on the Social Security trust fund.

Will this be the debate of debates? I don't know, but it's a well-known fact that some people have already voted, and the majority have already made up their mind. I have to go along Saturday Night Lives’ skit describing those people who were still undecided. You have to tell those people who's running, where to vote, and the day of the election because there's more than enough information out there.

A Pew Research Center poll stated that 20% of social media users had been recently unfriended someone because of political discourse. I can believe that and I think it's going to increase as we get closer to Election Day. I just read a response to a local newspaper article from someone who describes himself as a white, bible beating gun- toting red neck. The poster had the audacity to lecture black voters because they supported President Obama. The poster would've loved to vote for black man (wink*wink) of his own choosing who met all his qualifications, but black people aren't allowed to do that. In the year where 16 voter suppression laws were either stopped or temporarily blocked; the poster doesn't think that black people need support groups like the NAACP. Matthew Courage (if that's his right name) said black people will never have a man of honor serve as president. If the Republican Party doesn't purge its ranks of those who think like Matthew Courage; it will go the way of the Whig Party.

I encourage everyone to view Jon Stewart's http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkljREAaDa8 on the VP debate. I was not aware that Fox News got so upset over the antics of Joe Biden. If you do watch it, you won't have to believe the two out of the three polls that stated Joe Biden was the winner because Brit Hume and Charles Krauthammer both said “if you would've listened to the debate on the radio, you would come away thinking that Joe Biden was the clear winner.” This was not a high school debate where a style is given a preference over substance. I have not heard the opposition arguing about Joe Biden's facts and fact checking; just his laughs.Fox brought out a doctor that said he could not evaluate Biden by viewing the tape of the debate but said he could be showing signs of dementia. Jon Stewart came back and said "yeah,the kind where he remembers facts."

I can't help it, even though I have full confidence in the president, I will be nervously watching tonight's debate. I've started watching the debates while following my Twitter feed. The comments are hilarious and insightful.People are quick on their feet and up on the issues ,which gives me feed back I might not of had. This is the future because people no longer trust the press to give us up to date information and the pundits rarely challenge the politicians. 

29 Days & Counting

I'm glad it's Monday because I had a trifecta of disappointment last week. First, there was Monday night where Tony Romo and the Cowboys stunk up the place. Then, there was the debate where President Obama didn't show up and then Saturday night, my Longhorns failed to make an open field tackle when they needed to. It's a brand new beautiful day. The temperature is 54° so it's time to turn those three pages and prepare for the next 29 days.

Before I move on, I want to give my take on Daniel Ellis's letter to the editor last week. It was a rare Obama complementary letter which I knew, would be attacked. I can't get angry because the letter got contradictory remarks because that would be hypocritical, so I'll try, to sum up, the points used by his detractors.

In Mr. Ellison's three short paragraphs, the  letter writer stated that he liked President Obama’s Christian like approach in handling problems, his humble beginnings contrary to Mitt Romney's and a plea for patience to complete the job.

I believe Mr. Romney, and President Obama are both God- fearing men but that's not for me to say because I can't see into their hearts, and neither can anyone else. Some will continue to use a single DVD that was shown on a continuous loop on Fox, to judge Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his parishioners as radical racists, and they will associate the president with them. That issue was settled in 2008, and 69 million people chose Barack Obama to be the 44th president of the United States. It would take a vivid imagination and a consumption of loads of propaganda to convince  even the  most guidable people that the president and Michelle didn't come from humble beginnings.

I agree with Mr. Ellis final assessment . Consumer confidence is up, and people are aware that we have a long way to go, so it's no time to start all over.

I started my weekly watching of the Sunday talk shows with a very spirited debate moderated by George Stephanopoulos on ABC Sunday. Peggy Noonan can write an excellent speech and a decent column, but she's no match for Paul Krugman when it comes to economics’, and it showed. Mary Matalin is also great using scripted talking points, but she was stunned when a panelist said that consumer confidence was up. Mary Matalin had to resort to rolling her eyes in obvious disgust. She even stooped to name calling, telling Paul Krugman " "You're hardly credible on calling somebody else a liar" when he said that Mitt Romney's incredible performance was theatrical and based on lies.

I noticed a pattern that's been used by Republicans. Mitt Romney cited the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) as his source for saying that we would lose 700,000 jobs by taxing the wealthy. First of all, NFIB, is an ultra- conservative think- tank that’s to the right of the United States Chamber of Commerce, so the fact that they are independent businesses is laughable. Every Republican surrogate will try to use the NFIB numbers and dismiss the Tax Policy Center as a left wing source, when the Obama team says that Mitt Romney has a $5 trillion dollar tax plan that's geared to the wealthy. Mitt Romney will often cite six supporting economists who agree that he can give a 20% tax cut across the board without raising the deficit. The economists he cited, like the American people and President Obama's team, have not been told the deductions that Romney will cut, to remain revenue neutral.

I think the onus is on the Romney team to repeat a stellar performance Thursday night and the rest of the debates. I also think that Joe Biden will get the ball rolling Thursday night, and it's going to be interesting to see if Paul Ryan does a complete 180°on his views because he has actually put out two budgets that failed to pass the senate. Is Paul Ryan going to say, that his ideological views were wrong, and they are now going with a more moderate point of view? Mitt Romney has effectively killed the Ryan budget because Mitt Romney said he would restore the $716 billion Ryan used in his budget proposal. Romney has also said that he will not increase the budget with tax cuts, so what happens to the Bush tax cuts and defense spending Ryan wants? It is surprising to see those who were criticizing Romney not being fazed with his moderate stances he is now taking.

I don't know if facts matter anymore because the waters have been muddied so much that people think that the Dept. of Labor and Bureau Statistics, and the Federal Reserve can be manipulated by the White House. Liberals don't have any confidence in the Supreme Court, and we all seem to be playing a zero-sum game. It's been that way for while; did anyone believe the color-coded terrorism threat advisory scale? Many thought it automatically went up to orange when President Bush approval numbers started dropping.

I still believe that this election will be about the role of government. I heard a good line, this weekend that went something like this “we the people made this government and we the people can fix what's wrong." That statement was supported with a good example of how a small  private startup company came together and built an app that helped the city of Philadelphia with their bureaucracy. It seems that Philadelphia was trying to get input from its citizens who use their children's park to see what they could do to make it better. Typically, they had a city council meeting were 150 people showed up on a weekday night. They would get about 10 ideas and then they would go through the bureaucracy of setting up committees for approval. By using a text-messaging system, the start-up received over 750 responses with new ideas that didn't require a weekly meeting. To make a long story, short, the app saves the city two million dollars and was implemented in two days. After that success, the start-up company received many more requests from cities across the nation. It goes to show that people want effective government.

I hope this election is not about sound bites, quotes taken out of context, 30 second ads or anything but well informed opinions. I hope we don't allow ourselves to think that the 3/10 of 1% job numbers drop are rigged for election purposes. We shouldn't let the politics of Big Bird confuse or influence us; that program costs $450 million or as I like to say, 6 hours of Pentagon spending. Mitt Romney did a wonderful job of mudding the waters on green jobs. That $90 billion for green jobs was just a proposal figure that never materialized.  Not even half of that has been spent because Congress only allocated $34 billion of it.  Mitt Romney said half of the green companies went bankrupt but that is not true.  Only three of the companies went bankrupt.  Check out the facts because if a candidate will lie about something that can be Goggled in 5 minutes; what else could he be lying about?

You can’t stop to gloat

This morning's job numbers ruined the celebration party for the GOP. It's as it's as someone turned off the juke box as they were still celebrating Romney's debate victory. Romney surrogate, former governor of New Hampshire, John Sunnu, told Andrea Mitchell,"What people saw last night, I think, was a president that revealed his incompetence, how lazy and detached he is, and how he has absolutely no idea how serious the economic problems of the country are, and how he has failed to even begin to address them,” Sununu — a top Romney surrogate — said on MSNBC Thursday. Those views are shared by people who think that this president is a product of affirmative action. They themselves could never make the grades to get into Harvard, or have what it takes to win the presidency, so they can't see how President Obama could accomplish all this.

This morning's job numbers show that we created when 114,000 jobs last month but most importantly it dropped the unemployment rate from an 8.1% to 7.8%. The 7.8% is what will be the headlines in tomorrow's newspapers because that's what it is on today's online versions. The conservatives have already cracked up their spin machine to create another government and liberal media conspiracy theory. We can argue the accuracy of those numbers, but we can't deny it's the same metric that has been used since we've been using the data. The numbers are good, but we would need another 10,000 jobs, in order to keep up with a population growth. We also have to remember that 7,600 people turn age 60 everyday and just give up being part of the workforce. It's a known fact that those with a college degree have an unemployment rate of around 4%. We also know that the most important statistic is how the voter feels on November 6th. As I've said all along, we have a consumer-driven economy, so when consumers start spending, inventories will drop and no matter what party of affiliation a business owner subscribes to, they will have to hire to keep up. The June and July job numbers have been revised upward. The housing market is starting to pick up; manufacturing is up slightly and so is consumer confidence.

We Democrats can't gloat because there will be one more job's numbers before the election but it is my opinion that the undecided will have made up  their mind by then. Recent voter suppression may have been overturned by federal judges but some voters may not be aware of that. It’s no time to get complacent or take time out to “smell the roses.”

I'm just saying that if we sit back and try to imagine lady justice balancing that scale. On one hand, we have a debate victory and on the other, we have an optimistic job number. It's my opinion that the job numbers will weigh so heavily in the president's favor that it will throw the debate victor off the scale. The Romney camp will have to go back revise their stump speeches where they say that unemployment has never been below 8%. They will make it the point that it's not good enough and the administration will admit that but touting Romney 12,000,000 jobs without specifics is not a good counter argument. I don't think the job numbers will get below 6% for another two or three years, no matter whom the president is.

Mitt Romney is dismissing the recent job numbers, but he threw those ardent supporters who agreed with his 47% comment under the bus, by admitting that those comments were wrong. That's what he would've said if Obama would have pressed him on it the other night. I think the reason for Mitt Romney's new found confidence is that he finally got out of that shell the hard-right conservatives put him in. He will now be the moderate Republican he's always been; he'll agree with the group he's talking to at the moment. The conservatives have no choice, but to sit back and hope that Paul Ryan will influence him. If you're a Romney supporter, you best not plant your feet in cement on what he says because there's video evidence to show that's not a good idea.

A Wake up call?

There's no way to sugarcoat it, Mitt Romney gave President Obama a good old-fashioned country butt kicking. Mitt Romney put on his establishment Republican moderate game face and was relentless in his attack on the president's policies. Last night Mitt Romney showed how he became the governor of Massachusetts. I'm not going to whine or make excuses, I'm going a step further and tip my hat to him for getting the job done. I looked forward to the debate, but I was very disappointed of how it transpired. The panel at MSNBC was angry and made no bones about the president being soundly defeated by his challenger. Bill Kristol of Fox News said it was the best Republican debate performance since Ronald Reagan in 1980.

The great thing about debates is that people can come away with different opinions and still be correct in their analysis. I think Mitt Romney took over the debate when he ran roughshod over the moderator, Jim Lehrer, and got away without naming the deductions in his tax plan that he would eliminate. . Mitt Romney went immediately after "green jobs" although Jim Lehrer never asked him about that. President Obama never challenged the obvious contradictions in the statements of last night's version of Mitt Romney. I think the Obama prep team over emphasized the “staying above the fray “part. The undecided voters may have looked at the debate and came away wondering if that's the way the president negotiated with the opposition.

Mitt Romney won on style and performance, but he left a lot of material that the Obama campaign will use in their 30-second ads. I think the president could have used Romney's characterization of himself as being one who could get along with the opposition. The president could have said, “yes Mr. Romney you gave the Democrats what they wanted; and if I was to offer a big tax cut for the wealthy; I'll have 87% of the Republicans with me." The idea that Mitt Romney will be the one to get the parties to work together is laughable. As the president said," you'll repeal Obamacare on day one; Democrats will not be in the negotiating mood." The president never mentioned Mitt Romney's 47% comment, the intrusive methods of stopping abortion favored by Republicans, pay quality, the obstructionist Congress, or Mitt Romney's self-deportation comment. The president even lost the closing statements because I said to myself, how can you convince people that you will fight for them if you didn't do it in the 88 minutes you had to expose and demolish your opponent?

The president did a good job in explaining how Medicaid recipients would lose 30% of their benefits if the federal government were to send the states ,block grants. He did get Mitt Romney to admit that we do need to regulate Wall Street,  and that he would keep Pell grants but most importantly; that there is not a situation imaginable where Romney would raise taxes on the wealthy. The president President Obama did a good job of explaining health care, Medicare and he did get Mitt Romney to admit that his Medicare plan is a voucher program. The president didn't make to the point that might have made Mitt Romney stutter a little. The Romney plan will give those over 55 a choice of traditional Medicare or a voucher system; those under 55 will not get that choice. The president just took it for granted that we all know Romney's plan would not get off the ground if he included current Medicare recipients in his plan.

There's no question that Mitt Romney had a terrible September but this debate gives him a chance to pail out some water and duct tape some of the leaks in his sinking ship. When the Tea Party wakes up from their sugar high of last night's debate win, they are going to say, “He said what!” Mitt Romney did sprinkle in a little of state rights, cutting off the funding for Big Bird, but he also said that he would fund education programs.

My final analysis is that President Obama was blindsided by a well-prepared Mitt Romney. I don't know how you can prepare for someone who doesn't give details of his plans because you can't contradict something he doesn't produce. Mitt Romney got away with plausible deniability. I also realize that the president hasn't been challenged for four years; he got a rude awakening last night. For example, and Paul Ryan and the GOP Congress passed two budget proposals that totally contradict Romney's plan. Romney will have a harder time negotiating with his own party. The thing that annoyed me the most was the president allowing Mitt Romney to use "growth,"  as a way of raising tax revenue. Growth or the lack thereof is a result of a policy and not part of the calculation. For instance, if a boat salesman included all the fish that you would catch as part of the selling price, you probably wouldn't accept it.

Today, the fat cats will write out the checks to Mitt Romney, the polls will tighten and the Republicans will have that twinkle in their eye as they speak fondly of their candidate. Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and the right wing blogs will all have a bounce in their step today. Republicans like bellicose, substance and facts come in a distant, second and third.

The Obama team can't afford to hang down their head in defeat but instead have to look ahead to the rematches and the vice-presidential debates in two weeks. They don't have to worry about Joe Biden going on offense because that's what he does best. He's already calling the Republican's version of Medicare..." Voucher care." As even Ryan Paul admits, the gaffes Joe Biden makes are usually in informal settings, so there's no doubt that he'll bring his “A” game. It reminds me of Dick Cheney beating John Edwards after an obvious President George W. Bush loss. Despite losing the debates, President Bush won the presidency.

Really,it’s the bias liberal media?

I've been watching politics for longtime and I have yet to hear a campaign say that the  liberal bias is the number-one reason a campaign is seen as being behind.  Even the right leaning Rasmussen Poll and Fox News  Poll has Romney/Ryan behind. I saw  a Romney staffer tell a reporter yesterday, that their internal polls show them ahead in some swing states.  I imagine if he really had data, he would have and shown it to Fox News by now.

A lot of people are skeptical about polls, and that's understandable, but when you have 20 polls that all show Obama ahead in all of 'em, I believe there's at least a trend.  I also believe that Karl Rove is the person to watch because, when he starts using most of its cash for downhill candidates; it means he's given up on the presidential race.  Mitt Romney will spend three days in Ohio, but that's three days that's he's not in Florida, Virginia, Colorado and Iowa where the president is leading and gaining steam.  Mr. Romney cannot lose Ohio and Florida and win the election. No Republican has ever lost Ohio and won the presidency.

The Republicans say that they still have a lot of time, but 26 states have already started voting.  The Romney camp has put all their eggs on in one basket; the upcoming debates.  It is my opinion that Romney has to beat Obama to a pulp in the first debate, or he'll never be able to recover.

It's really too bad because Mitt Romney is not a bumbling nincompoop, he's a good businessman, intelligent, and yesterday at the Clinton Global Initiative, he looked very presidential in laying out a worldwide plan.  He even told a funny joke about how a few good words from President Clinton can do wonders for one's campaign.  He said that he was expecting a pretty good bump in a couple of days. Mitt Romney might have gone down as Jon Huntsman did, running as the moderate he is, but he's trailing the president by a good margin because he doesn't believe in the stuff he is saying.  For example, on Univision, he told a moderator that he was proud that the Obama campaign is calling him the grandfather of Obamacare.  The next day, his campaign said he was just being facetious.  A couple of years ago, he railed against those using the ER for their medical needs  he correct;y said it was driving up the cost of health care.  Two years ago Romney said that's why he believed in universal health care.  Sunday he told Scott Peavey of CBS 60 Minutes that the  uninsured wouldn't be without health care because they could use the emergency room.

I really expect the polls to tighten as the election nears because some Republicans, really hate President Obama.  Buzz Feed is reporting that over a million copies of the film claiming President Obama's true father is a Chicago Communist is now being shipped to Ohioans.  Republicans have always relied on the fear card when they are clearly behind.  They don't realize that the president has been in office for close to four years and people have already made up their mind about him. They dismissed the propaganda in 2008. A lot of voters who usually vote for the Democratic party may be disenfranchised with voter suppression laws, but  we will have to wait and see.

I really don't know why Texans are wasting their time trying to persuade voters not to vote for Obama by writing fact- challenged letters because the state will give all their 38 electoral votes to Mitt Romney.

I enjoy watching Joe Scarborough, host of "Morning Joe" hyperventilate and bang his head with the palm of his hand after hearing yet another gaffe from Mitt Romney or Paul Ryan.  This morning there were still talking about the story in the blog "Politico"about the Romney camp being furious at Paul Ryan for the AARP event and because he is using PowerPoint presentations as part of his stump speeches.  On the other hand, the two will be appearing together because Mitt Romney can't generate that much excitement from his stump speeches.  It didn't have to be this way, but the GOP decided to leave their best players on the bench for the 2012 presidential election.  That decision may have been disastrous because the Democrats had a uphill challenge in holding the Senate, but if it was held today; they would win the Senate and gain one senator.  The ineptness  of the Romney campaign is making a likable and pretty  good politician Republican senator, Scott Brown, to go  negative in trying to keep his seat in Massachusetts.

Tighten up your chin straps, buckle up your seats; we are in for nasty 40 days down the stretch.

It's funny how that goes because, if you're a Republican, you are taught at a very young age to hate unions.  That has its limitations because Governor Scott Walker and Paul Ryan are barking at the owners' to settle the strike and bring back the union refs.  The National Football League is a $9 billion industry, but it's allowing its main product to suffer just to show who's in command.  Severe Injuries are up because the replacement referees are not equipped nor do they know what to look for from these professional players. 

Let the 47% eat cake

This is the first of more to come

There has been a lot of “first time I've ever heard of that" in this presidential campaign, but I've never seen a campaign self- destruct in a period of two weeks. I can't imagine how Mitt Romney would have reacted to the 2008 financial crisis or a terrorist attack. I gave him the benefit of the doubt because he implemented Romneycare but in the clip I posted, he seemed at ease telling the fat cats that he wasn't gonna worry about those people. He made similar remarks after the NAACP convention saying, “I’m not going to give them free stuff." Mitt Romney said those words were off the cuff but I'm not buying it. 

Mitt is hitting on a popular Republican theme for not raising taxes on the 1%. The Republican argument is that 47% of taxpayers don't pay income tax is running thin. Most people understand that because of unforeseen circumstances, many taxpayers were laid off, and they now fall into a bracket where their deductions, credits, and adjustments allow them to receive back more than they paid in. Older people living on their pension and Social Security checks are in that 47%. Students entering the job market for the first time might be in that 47% and so the point being; not everyone who ended up not paying income tax last year is a deadbeat Obama voter. Talk about class warfare.

Mitt Romney is not one to preach about government handouts because he only pays 13% to 17% income tax on his earnings while the rest of us pay more than that. We don't have tax shelters in the Cayman Islands. His tax plan calls for 20% cut across the board, but it still gives him a very healthy tax cut. The wealthy will get their tax cut by eliminating some middle class deductions and credits; however, it has not been announced.

I don't know why the conservative pundits are angry at Mitt Romney. It's the same message they've been preaching. I think that they want him to say the words that will win him the presidency and then enact the Ryan budget which will be devastating for those who are already struggling.

The Romney apologists will now reset their aim on the indigent, making them the scapegoats for all our ills. The same ol' made-up stories of poor people loading their grocery baskets with prime ribs and other expensive food, paying with the Lone Star card and driving off in a brand-new Lexus. These stories are as close as the storytellers will get to understanding economics'. If you ask them for the percentage of GDP, Welfare, the SNAP program and Medicaid represent; they will say it doesn't matter because they don't know. 

I still believe that Mitt Romney is an intelligent businessman, but now I think he's a con artist because he must know that Wal-Mart (one of his top donors) will not let him go after China for its currency manipulation. It's that currency manipulation that allows Wal-Mart to buy cheap Chinese products and sell them to us at a good profit.

Mitt Romney has been trying to please the base, but they can see right through him because, as they say, “a leopard doesn't change its stripes." Mitt Romney should have run as a moderate Republican because that's what he is. He's a Rockefeller, country club Republican, and it's easy to see that in his economic plan and tax policies

Romney is starting to scare me

A few months ago, I said I would not fear a Mitt Romney presidency because Congress would be somewhat of a deterrent for his most irrational policies. I've changed my mind because of his bellicose rhetoric as a potential Commander in Chief. I now see him as a person who would "shoot first and ask questions later."

About four months ago, Mitt criticized the Obama administration for endangering the family of the blind Chinese activist, Chen Guagcheng, seeking asylum in the United States. He did not know that Hillary Clinton was working behind the scenes with China to work out a successful deal from the Chinese government that they eventually received.

Recently, Mitt drew fire from some Republican leaders for interjecting his political criticism of the administration's handling of the recent death of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other American's deaths in Libya. Mitt Romney has been trying to paint President Obama as an appeaser and being weak on terrorism. Pundits thought that the cowboy rhetoric was coming from the neocons on his staff, but a reporter said that most of the hot air was coming from Mitt himself. Mitt Romney is used to being in charge, and he doesn't like being painted as being weak on foreign policy. Mitt says that he would have a strong military which would demand respect around the world. How naive, we can't bring in the Marines to start indiscriminately shooting protesters in a foreign country. We took the rational approach and sent in the FBI who quickly arrested four suspects. The suspects may not be the ones who attacked the U.S. Consulate, but they might lead us to the ones who did. It's in the hands of the FBI, where it should be. The president has dispatched two navy warships to the coast of Libya, as a show of force. The situation in the Middle East is very unstable right now, but it can only be handled by one Commander in Chief at a time.

I really don't mind Mitt questioning the latest actions of the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, who recently started a new round of bond-buying, known as quantitative easing or QE3. Mitt Romney and the Republicans think this move is a political one, even though the Federal Reserve is an independent entity. Ben Bernanke is a conservative Republican who thinks our economy is in dire need of more stimulus. He knows the risk of inflation, but these actions will keep the interest rates low enough to help the housing market and small businesses with hiring and training costs. The stock market immediately rose after the chairman's decision. We'll have to wait and see the aftermath, but it's a step in the right direction. Consumer confidence has started to pick up.

I know President Obama is up by six points nationally and is leading in all the critical swing states but the Republicans desire to remove Obama from office might outweigh any question they might have answered in a poll. The Democratic voters might just say that the presidents got it in the bag, so it's not imperative for them to vote. I even saw where Pennsylvania's voter ID law might be overturned or at least put on hold until after the election, but that state is too important for Democrats to start getting complacent. They need to keep registering voters as if the law will be upheld. I got a kick out of one of the Republican judges saying that his ID card could open any Federal courthouse, but it would not entitle him to vote because it does not have an expiration date on it. He also said something to the effect that steps should be taken to ensure elections are free of fraud but can a law that was enacted overnight really assure us of its true intent. For example, it took Georgia up to five years to work out all the kinks before presenting it for a successful vote.

I'll be watching because, as predicted this election will be one to behold. It might even surpass the 2002 Bush V Gore fiasco.

Meanwhile, I'm going to keep up with that 77-year-old Texas grandmother who was caught speeding and refused to show the police officer, her driver's license, so she got yanked from her car and thrown to the ground. Of course, all this was caught on the police video, and the broadcast went viral. I don't really know what the correct procedure should have been but in hindsight, I think the police officer should've called for backup, disabled her car because you don't want a speeder to take off again; putting herself in danger. It's a good thing that these confrontations with old people are rare. It was just a speeding ticket, and the police knew where she lived, so it's not like the police didn't have the ability to give her a summons at her home. Perhaps this is a lesson for old people...:-)

Why I’m not a Republican

I'm sure the title of this blog is not surprising or disappointing for someone reading this blog. The title is merely a metaphor of what I learned this week about the distinct differences between the parties. Whether they want to admit it or not, political parties will change over time. For example, I'm convinced that the party of Lincoln from 1860 to 1870 was the best political party of all time. Today’s tea party version of the GOP is 180°and from that party.

It has always been my suspicion that the current GOP favors business over the interest of the middle class ant it was reaffirmed when I learned that the speakers mentioned business 87 times, Afghanistan once and our troops were never mentioned. I guess the theme was the failed economy, but all the speakers told stories out of their rise from poverty to success. They emphasized owning a small business. That's all well and good but what's wrong with praising the teacher, the nurse, the mechanic, and a plant worker who will buy the goods so that companies can hire more people. They marvel at American exceptionalism as if it's always an obtainable goal without the help of government. In his speech, the other night Chris Christie said, “our American seniors are not selfish, and they're willing to make a sacrifice." I'm not disputing that but their plan doesn't ask them to sacrifice because that would be political suicide. Their Medicare plan starts 10 years from now.

Another example is not really caring about the rising cost of health care because the insurance companies will do what’s right. Thursday night, Mitt Romney rolled out a third version of repealing Obamacare. He will now repeal and replace but didn't give any details on the replacement. I know in my inner being ,that Paul Ryan has not changed his stance on Medicare from a year ago. He doesn't like it. He doesn't think government should provide social services and in his first budget, which the Republican majority reluctantly voted for,  he intended to replace Medicare with a voucher. He then saw  it as a political mistake(polls) and changed it to a choice voucher or status quo program; knowing full well that his voucher system would drain funds from the government Medicare. He's a disciple of Ayn Rand, but he knows that's not a popular political ideology.

I got the inspiration for this blog by watching Friday’s Bill Maher and some clips from the Jon Stewart show. Last night the Panel on Bill Maher, Soledad O'Brien, Jason Alexander and former adviser to Dick Cheney, Ron Christie discussed the lies of Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney. The discussion came to a stalemate because the one Republican Ron Christie, wouldn't admit that while the president was dancing at his inaugural ball, Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell and 13 others were plotting to vote against all his proposals in order for him not to become a second-term president. The Republican representatives will always allude to President Obama's promise to restore civility back to the White House, but they will ever admit that it never stood a chance. Jon showed a clip of Bill O'Reilly telling his guest that Obama's policies were failing. There was one catch; it was only 42 days after he signed the piece of legislation. Mitt Romney said he was rooting for Obama to succeed, but Jon showed another clip of Mitt of not completely disavowing the remarks of Rush Limbaugh when Rush said he wanted" Obama to fail" just eight days after he was in office. Mitt said it was appropriate for not wanting failed policies of Obama to succeed.

The Republican Party will never fully embrace the safety net because of the belief that everyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps. There is now totally in lockstep by doubting the science of climate change. They think that taxing the well-off amounts to punishing success and is class warfare because they  all have aspirations of being wealthy. The party is not fully committed to diversity, and it shows. The party likes to paint the Democrats as being a party of ingrates, minorities, the poor and single women. They like to portray themselves as a party of successful people who pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps, and you're only welcome if you're  not willing to do that. When will we see the Republican Party back a pro-choice president or vice president in the future? I think the chances of a pro life Democrat getting the nomination of their the party are a lot  better.

Mitt Romney tried to keep the GOP's reputation on national defense, but he was too vague and chose a country that we're not at war with (Russia) to act tough on. So, Mitt Romney became the first Republican since 1952 to accept his party’s nomination without mentioning war.

The Republicans are not my enemies per say; we probably share a lot of the same interests in sports teams, religion, movies, and in general beliefs but every four years  we will take that step to show that we're not totally compatible.

The Empty Chair

Clint Eastwood will always be my hero, but his performance last night reminded me of a quote from Louis Kronenberger "Old age is an excellent time for outrage. My goal is to say or do at least one outrageous thing every week." Clint Eastwood got in his outrage last night but the anger on Ann Romney's face this morning on CBS said that they were not happy campers. Although the performance was pretty bad, it would not have been given a prime time critique if they would have given him a 5:30 P.M. slot. It is my understanding that the non network portion of the campaign will get about 10 million viewers, but it doubles and triples that when the three major networks come on at 9:00 P.M.. Clint Eastwood came on at 9:03 PM, and his dribble went on for 12 minutes... The Romney camp wishes that they would have use that time to air the videos showing a lighter side of Mitt Romney and his family. That's what campaigns do. I would hate to be the person who booked and placed Clint Eastwood at that time slot. I would bet that even the most diehard Republicans is talking about Clint Eastwood's performance last night. Some pundits were saying that Clint Eastwood denigrated the office of the presidency, but I wouldn't go that far. It’s a campaign; that’s what they are all about.

The lead-up to the Romney's speech was pretty boring for me, but I kept watching because I wanted to hear Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and of course Mitt Romney.

I felt Jed Bush had to chide President Obama for the constant attacks on his brother; it was a family honor thing. He didn't seem too comfortable doing it, but his eyes lit up when he started talking about education. His emphasis was on school vouchers, but that leaves out funding for those who choose to stay in public schools. It was a good speech, and it gives me hope that we can keep the doors open for discussion. Jeb only mentioned the Republican governors who have taken up the cause of education but that's OK because it was a Republican convention.

Marco Rubio was just another line of 2016 presidential hopefuls who spent most of his time at the podium talking about his accomplishments. He's is a good speaker, but he didn't use much of his persuasive power to convince the independents on why they should vote for Mitt Romney.

The Romney said that the candidate had been bothered with cold symptoms earlier in the week, but he felt fine last night. I thought that he looked older because he didn't show his usual campaign stump demeanor. I imagine nervousness had a lot to do with it because he was about to give the speech of his political life.

The Romney campaign gave Mitt an "A" realizing that the speech won't go into history as being a good one, but it's as good as the candidate gets. Political speeches are not his forte. He's at his best at a debate forum where he can recite memorized details about a debate subject.

As an Obama supporter I wanted more details on how he would govern as the chief executive. He mentioned divisiveness and wasteful spending but he put the blame solely on the president and his party. I'm glad that he mentioned that jobs were a priority and said that his administration would create 12 million jobs. He got that 12 million job number from a CBO estimate of 250,000 jobs a month regardless of who’s president when the economy finally kicks. As a liberal, I was offended that he would mock the president for being concerned about climate change. If elected this will be a major concern for Mitt Romney, and I would hope that he doesn't ignore it for political reasons. We set a record high in Victoria yesterday, and that's commonplace all over this nation. As president Romney will continue and expand "Drill baby drill" which will not help our future energy needs but it does satisfy big oil and that's what funding his campaign.

Towards the end Mitt Romney did deliver a militaristic speech but did not utter word about the 87,000 troop we have in Afghanistan. He delivered lines that would make a neo conservative gleam with pride, and as he insisted on more intervention in Iran and Syria. I don't know where he gets this obsession of standing up to the leader of Russia, Vladimir Putin. Why would anyone be interested in starting another Cold War? The most important endorsement on foreign affairs is the one from Colin Powell, and he's on the record of saying that he feels many of Romney's advisors are "quite far to the right." "And sometimes they might be in a position to make judgments or recommendations to the candidate that should get a second thought. For example, when Gov. Romney not too long ago said the Russian federation is our number one geostrategic threat. C’mon, Mitt…think! That isn’t the case. And I don’t know whether Mitt really feels that or…It’s been catching a lot of heck from regular GOP foreign affairs community. We were kind of taken aback by it. Look at the world. There is no pure competitor to the United States of America. All of the problems we talk about – Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, you name them all – they come to about 700 or 800 million people in a world of 7 billion. What are the rest of them doing? They’re increasing their economies; they’re building wealth; they’re educating their kids; they’re building their infrastructure. That’s what we need to be doing."...I think that.President Obama will once again get that coveted endorsement.

Whether Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan and the Republicans helped themselves with this convention is subjective but it's just one third of the pie. Mitt Romney will get a do over in the debates and there is still the upcoming economic data coming up. I think that they need to modify the old Ronald Reagan line" Are you better off than you were four years ago? “Let’s see, four years ago we were in the worst financial crisis since the 1929 Depression and I personally lost $12,000 value in my portfolio. I'm certainly doing better but I'm not going to pretend that I don't know the context of what Mitt Romney was talking about.

As for context, last night Clint Eastwood said "do something to yourself" and everyone who heard or will hear it knows the meaning and intent; it’s the same for the "Pray for Obama” sign.

The Big Pep Rally

The political conventions of today are no longer exciting unless it's your party that's having the gala. All the speeches are now vetted by the presumptive nominee's people and fed into a teleprompter. There's not a chance that we will hear anything that will resemble Pat Buchanan's "1992 Culture War” speech but there are elements in the GOP who would still stand up and cheer that type of speech.

I don't know if last night's speeches were choreographed or negotiated because it seemed to me that the governors were touting their own success, bashing Obama, and barely mentioning Mitt Romney.
Ann Romney gave a good speech in support of her husband, although it's hard to imagine that as a young couple, they ate off an ironing board that was supported by two saw horses. It's well known that Mitt Romney sold some stock to get by, but it's their story and they're sticking to it. Ann Romney was there to humanize Mitt Romney, and she did as well as a wife could do. Ann gave a wink and a nod to women voters assuring them that Mitt Romney is on their side. She emphasized love for one another.

Chris Christie followed Ann Romney as the keynote speaker for the night. I thought that he contradicted Ann Romney emphasis on love by saying, "We need politicians to care more about doing something and less about being something." "Tonight, we choose respect over love." As usual, his words played to the base by blaming the unions and everything Democrat as the reason for our doldrums. Christie's speech didn't have the usual pizzazz because he was obviously using a teleprompter. He's a much better speaker when he's spontaneous. Rachel Maddow said he went into 1,800 words of his 2,600 word speech before he mentioned Mitt Romney. Fox New's Chris Wallacxe was not impressed saying " I have to say, personally, I thought it was one of the most off-key keynote speeches I ever heard." He noted that Christie said the word "I" 37 times, "Romney" seven times, and "jobs" one time.His speech sounded more like an audition for a 2016 presidential run. I was surprised that Christi and Ann Romney praised the most significant pieces of legislation ever produced by the federal government, the G.I. Bill because their dads made good use of it. Thank FDR for that.

I don't know why the so-called liberal media bothers to interview the politicians who are attending the convention. It'll be the same way when the Democrats have their convention next week. When the media asks a Republican about their platform or the views of Todd Akin, they all say," the platform is there just for show, and only the liberal media is worrying about Todd Akin." Even Todd Akin is convinced that the liberal media conspired to get him. It doesn't matter to him that every GOP leader and talk show host from conservative media wanted him to get out.

I was surprised that MSNBC, Fox, and CNN did not cover Ted Cruz's speech live. I saw the speech this morning and it convinced me that he's a legitimate Tea Party candidate. His speech was more about liberty than anything else.

I can remember the days when we found something else to do when political conventions were being televised on all three networks. A pundit said that he wouldn't be surprised if the televised portion will be reduced to the final day.

It’s interesting that Afghanistan was missing from the speeches. It was day one, perhaps they are leaving that for Mitt Romney.

Fact checkers sites are not needed anymore because campaigns no longer care if you call them out for lying. The campaigns are results oriented. We only have to look at our local letters and comments on our online forum to see that people are taking the campaign ads as fact and they repeat them verbatim.