Know Thyself

As I was reading a couple of partisan political letters in the Victoria Advocate this morning, I asked myself" why did the writers wait until the last paragraph until they mentioned they were Romney supporters?" The owner of ACU-TUNE auto service, Steve Fiedler, titled his guest column" President Obama has a record of lies, hypocrisy."

Mr. Fiedler, being the partisan Republican he is, cherry picked a chronological chain of campaign statements to call the president a liar and a hypocrite. The writer started with Obama's promise to bring transparency to the White House. The president fulfilled that promise because the previous administrations had never put any pending legislation online for the public to see.

Transparency does not mean that you cannot have closed-door meeting to map out strategy. The writer fails to mention that for the first time, the White House released the visitors log for the public to see.

President Obama did say that he would bring civility and bipartisanship to Washington, but he was just a naive former senator who did not have the foresight to know that as he was dancing with Michelle at the inaugural ball; key leaders of the opposition party were plotting to derail all the president's future plans. The GOP came to be known as the party of NO.

President Obama made 508 campaign promises, of that according to Politifact 38 percent were kept. 16 percent compromised and 17 percent broken.

http://www.politifact.com/

Mr. Fiedler goes onto say that President Obama promised to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term. The writer left out that the administration had to stop the job loss bleeding, make sure the most vulnerable among us didn't have to suffer more than necessary, and they took steps to ensure that teachers, firemen and policemen would not be laid off in great numbers due to state budget cuts. Can the writer tell us, what the unemployment figure and GDP would have been without those measures? Health Care costs were rising out of control; doing nothing was not an option.

Mr. Fiedler’s claim that President Obama has been the most divisive we've ever had is laughable. Obama maintains a 50% approval. President Bush left office with a 32% approval and Dick Cheney had a 15% approval. How quickly they forget. The former president and vice president are nowhere to be seen in the 2012 presidential campaign. The president apologized during the 2008 campaign season for his remarks concerning people clinging to their guns and their God. The man Mr. Fiedler is going to vote for said 47%of Americans were dependant on government and voting for the president. No such apology came from Mr. Romney, as usual; he denied the context of the speech.

The right wing is understandably upset because they could not hang a scandal on the president. Oh they tried, but those darn committees could not come up with anything, so they're trying to make the most of the Benghazi incident. In fact, I heard that Fox News gave more coverage to the Benghazi incident last week than to Hurricane Sandy.

They must not be well coordinated because their presidential candidate is not mentioning Bemghazi on the campaign trail. In fact, in debate number III, Mitt Romney agreed with all of the president's foreign policy actions. I seriously doubt that many people will go into the voting booths thinking that President Obama doesn't know the meaning of the word “terrorism."

Mitt Romney has a four-year record as governor of Massachusetts, and he's currently behind in that state by nearly 30 points. We have heard the many stances Mitt Romney has been taking during the 20 plus debates in the GOP primary and the three with the president, so it won't take time to tell on how he will govern. President Obama did not have two major car company CEOs write memos to their employees, telling them that their jobs were not going overseas, as Mitt Romney is saying.

The other letter written by Nanette Foster of Victoria, who is worried about our president honoring a foreign leader's culture and customs and thinks that the president is refusing to meet with prime minister Netanyahu. The president has had many talks with the prime minister and the last I heard (Netanyahu at the UN) they were in agreement on the sanctions imposed on Iran.

Again, when the president took office, we were losing 750,000 jobs a month, since that time, the private sector has created a little over five million jobs. As for the president being selective on who he bails out, if it's the auto industry, you are talking about, Nanette, he was only following the actions of President George W. Bush.

The administration and Congress have given small businesses 18 tax cuts, what else do they have to do to be user friendly as you state?

I can't rebut all of Nanette's assertions because the rest are just talking points that don't make any sense. The president hasn't done anything to remove God from anything nor has he done anything to remove your precious guns. Our defense is superior to any but it's bloated with waste.

I hope Steve Fiedler and Nanette Foster remain in the Republican Party.It seems like a perfect fit.

I've never found a reason to apologize for voting for a straight party ticket, in fact, I've read where 85% of voters already do that. Some people can't come to grips with the reality that sometimes; there just aren't candidates in one party that appeal to people. We fool ourselves every four years into believing that we weigh all the facts and pick the right person. We might do that in the primaries or at the local level but not at the state or national level.

I love early voting and I always take advantage of it but for those who haven't voted; please do.

Three more days before I take a break from blogging and I just might quit altogether.I think blogging (except for the professionals)has lost out to Facebook and Twitter.

The Final Debate

Tonight's final debate is supposed to be about foreign policy, but it wouldn't surprise me if Mitt Romney pivots to the economy as many times as he can. The incumbent always has the distinct advantage over his opponent when it comes to foreign policy. Mitt Romney is briefed on security matters, but he does not have privy to all the information a sitting president has.

I'm pretty sure the Benghazi incident will be revisited, but the New York Times story has brought Iran back into the spotlight. According to the story, it seems that Iran now wants to have a one- on- one discussion but the administration, and the Iranian representative denies the contents of that story. I believe the New York Times story because Iran has seen the value of its money drop 40% in the last two weeks, because of the economic sanctions. The Republicans are saying that the president should have done this long time ago when he had to be pushed by Congress before taking any action. That's certainly not true because it took a while to convince Europe and Russia to go along with the sanctions because it was against their economic interest. Dan Senor, a Romney foreign policy consultant, said the president should have backed the Green Revolution, and we would be in a stronger position than we are in today but that's coming from someone who advised President Bush to invade Iraq. Dan Senor insinuated that we should run any negotiations through Israel first, as if we are a subsidiary of Israel. I still think that we've been having back channel talks where both parties have walked away from the table but now the consequences of the tough sanctions have given us an upper hand in the negotiations.

Mitt Romney has criticized the president for not an arming the Syrian rebels, but if I were the moderator of tonight's debate, I would ask how far Romney would go. Would he establish a no-fly zone? Syria is located on the border of Iraq and Lebanon; could Romney ensure us that Islamic extremist would not get the arms intended for the Syrian rebels?

Mitt Romney said on day one, he would call out China for being a currency manipulator as all presidential candidates have in the past. China will have new government leaders pretty soon; and they will ask Romney if he's ready for a global trade war. As Jon Huntsman correctly pointed out; bellicose doesn't work with China.

Chris Wallace and Fox News must think that all intelligence reports go through them, before it goes to the president. I thought Chris Wallace, Britt Hume, and Senator Lindsey Graham's version of what happened in Benghazi is just pure partisan politics. They never mentioned, the Libyans, who helped us doing that tragedy nor the thousands who held signs condemning the actions of a few Islamic terrorists. They barely mentioned that the request for more security was for Tripoli not Benghazi. There're too many questions left unanswered, but they want their answers before the election.

It's funny how Mitt Romney and President Obama are right where this election started at 47% for each. The Democrats and Republicans are in their partisan corners waiting for the undecided to make up their minds. We now know that 2/3 of uncommitted are women. Mitt Romney has to win Ohio but if President Obama wins Ohio and Wisconsin and Nevada; he will be the 45th president of the United States.

I went down to cast my vote today, and the person next to me showed his driver's license but the poll worker informed him that it was not required. The man (a republican I presume) went on and on saying they should be required. I was going to refuse to show my driver's license if asked because I had my yellow voter-registration card. It didn't take me but a couple of minutes to vote straight party, verify, and push my selection with my stylus.

Go vote.

God Bless Joe Biden

The things I'm hearing this morning leads me to believe that if you are a Republican, you think Paul Ryan won and if you're a Democrat you and think Joe Biden crushed the young upstart. If you measured it by glasses of water consumed, Paul Ryan won. Most of the pundits I've heard have agreed that Joe Biden gave the liberals new life and Paul Ryan didn't embarrass himself or the party. It's funny how conservatives are annoyed because Biden interrupted Ryan but they called that taking charge of the debate when Romney did that to the president. It's hard for Democrats to please the conservatives because, when the president didn't challenge Romney last week, it was a sign of weakness, last night Biden's performance was deemed arrogant and condescending to them. It's one of those “do as I say not as I do."

I don't have a problem with people giving the vice president demerits for his style last night because it's the only way that you can have a conversation with a Republican legislator. I saw the congressman try to interrupt the vice president, and I also saw his facial reactions during the debate. I think Biden was a sitting fact checker who didn't allow Paul Ryan to use his slanted talking points effectively. Joe Biden called Ryan on his hypocrisy for railing against the stimulus plan, yet he wrote two letters to Joe Biden requesting funds for his district. Once again, neither Joe Biden nor the moderator could get Paul Ryan to say what the deductions he would cut in their tax plan. Joe Biden let the country know that Paul Ryan was and probably still is ,very instrumental in trying to privatize Social Security. If you've been around for while, you know that the Republican Party is not trying to strengthen Social Security and Medicare; they want to take small steps to eventually abolish it. You also know that Romney and Ryan are trying to sell the same old “supply side trickledown economics" that's never worked.

I do think that Paul Ryan effectively hit the administration for their response to Benghazi. The administration is vulnerable on this issue and they will continue to be until all the facts are out, blame is taken and remedies are put in place. The Republicans on the investigation committee took it a little too bit too far because they ousted a CIA operation in their quest to embarrass the administration.

I think Martha Raddatz did a suburb job in moderating the debate because she used her skills as an investigative reporter to follow up on some questions that weren't completely answered. She tried that with Joe Biden by saying that some generals want to stay in Afghanistan beyond 2014. Joe Biden let her know that he's in the room when those decisions are made and he doesn't doubt that there are generals' who disagree with decision made by the pentagon.  Martha’s expertise in foreign policy might have influenced  her to allow that segment to go on longer than it should have.

I knew that Biden's many years of sitting on and eventually chairing the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and his position as vice president would give him an overwhelming advantage over Paul Ryan. I believe that's the reason for the lot of the “I can't believe he's that naive" laugh. Joe Biden made two critical statements, he said we would definitely be out of Afghanistan by the year 2014 but it takes a little bit of time to complete that transition. He also put Paul Ryan on the spot and by asking him if he wanted to go to war with Iran or Syria. At first Paul Ryan said he was against a timeline and then he was for it but in my opinion, he was out of his elements.

I did hear a Romney supporter in a focus group say that Biden actions were unbecoming of a sitting vice president. Vice President Joe Biden is a realist and this is the same way he has conducted himself, in the many debates he has participated in. I have learned from the books I've read that it's as the way military strategy is conducted. I remember the president dressing down General McChystal and reminding him and General Petraeus that he was the Commander in Chief and he would be treated that way. Politics and debates are the battlegrounds for the American vote to be president and vice president of the United States; not a church social.

Overall, the debate won't make much difference in the polls because most people have already made up their mind. This debate showed the contrast between the two parties especially at the end. I know in my heart of hearts that Paul Ryan does not believe that there should be exceptions such as, rape, incest and life of a mother but that's what he said as a company man. Governor Mitt Romney told Mike Huckabee that he favored a personhood bill but like everything else, he backed off of that lately in order to get elected. Joe Biden said that he believes in the teaching of his church on abortion but he doesn't want to impose his beliefs on non Catholics. You would have to be pretty naive to think that Romney would not try to repeal Roe v Wade. As Joe Biden said, "this election is about one and maybe two Supreme Court judges."

You noticed how the families of Joe Biden and Paul Ryan met and exchanged pleasantries; that was genuine. People who know Joe Biden are familiar with the northeastern back and forth and they don't take exception. Paul Ryan & Joe Biden joked about their passionate Irish heritage. It's different with Mitt Romney where  even his Republican opponents disliked him.

This is the last time that I will put up with a selfish intrusion of my blog. According to the IP address, this blogger will change his name in order to try piggyback his baseless propaganda rather than post it on his own blog. I was in a good mood yesterday ,so I let it slide but I'm not that naive. I don't try to push my ideology on any one and I respect the right of others to publish what they want on their own blogs. I would never even think of disrespecting other bloggers.

I think it was one of the best debates ever.

If you think Paul Ryan won,then by all means post it.

My liberal friends are freaking out

I expected my wife to start freaking out because this is her first rodeo, but some of my liberal friends are starting to get a little nervous as the race is tightening. They're not listening when I try to tell 'em that Romney can't win the election without winning Ohio and Obama still has a 4 point lead in that crucial state. I can't remember who said it but my friends remind me of what was said yesterday “when conservative Republicans hear bad news; they want to kill the pollsters but when liberals hear bad news; they want to kill themselves." It may not be quite that bad, but some people think that this election should be a blowout, one way or the other.

This is the fun part where I try to match wits with public perception. I was wrong last week when I thought the jobs numbers would outweigh Romney's good debate performance. Most of the polls are moving favorably toward Romney, but we still have 27 days to go.

I've heard so many strategies of what Obama and Biden has to do but very little of what Romney and Ryan's plans are. Yes, it's obvious that the Obama campaign will take an offensive approach, but I'm pretty sure the Romney camp is expecting that, and they will have an answer. It'll be whether that answer is enough.

Joe Biden won't have the same problem President Obama in his debate tomorrow night because it's easier to walk away from ideas like Romney did, than it is from current proposals. Joe Biden's opponent, Paul Ryan, has submitted two budgets with substantial numbers on them. Paul Ryan might say that he is now running on Romney's plan but what does that say to his colleagues who took a political risk voting for his controversial proposals? If Mitt Romney loses, Paul Ryan, will likely be the budget director again, but he might not get as much support if he waivers too much on his proposals tomorrow night. Paul Ryan will get his first challenge tomorrow night because, so far he's only been preaching to his choir. Paul Ryan is getting a little testy, as he showed yesterday in an interview with a local television host. Paul Ryan was asked about guns and their relation to crime, and his answer was a standard “we need to enforce what's on the books." He also disappointed those that think that the president is a threat to the Second Amendment ,when he said “even President Obama is not asking for new gun laws." Paul Ryan as he typically does, tried  turning the gun issue into an economic issue by saying that more financial opportunity will reduce crime. When the interviewer asked if “tax cuts" were the solution, the interview came to a sudden stop, and Paul Ryan told him not to put words in his mouth. He seemed to be visibly angered. This is the time in the campaign where one gaffe or misspoken word dominates a two or three days negative news cycle.

The next debate between the presidential candidates will be about foreign policy where the president will have a lot to work with. Mitt Romney just gave a foreign policy speech where he said he would ask for 15 ships to be built along with three submarines. He has already asked for 100,000 more troops, so the question that should be asked is pretty obvious. Why is Romney requesting more than the Navy current plan? "The current Navy plan is to build 34 ships over the next four years — 10 in 2013 — including seven submarines as part of its goal to reach at least 300 ships by 2019. " Mitt Romney claims the president is weak in his support for the rebels in Syria. Our intelligence sources tell as that al-Qaeda forces are helping the rebels, so I wonder if Romney has the system to make sure that the arms we're supplying aren't going to Al Qaeda. Many of the things that Mitt Romney said he would do in the Middle East are already being done through back channels under the Obama administration. The president will have to walk a fine line between revealing our current strategy and combating political rhetoric.

PBS had a pretty good Frontline special about President Obama and Governor Romney last night. I learned a few things. For example,I didn’t know Mitt was involved in a near fatal auto accident. The special showed a lot of the  president’s college friends  although the conspiracy theorist said none existed. I didn’t know that Obama’s maternal grandparents were alcoholics.

Dish Network is offering their long-time customers a free movie. I see Obama 2016 is an option. Since it's free, I'll probably see it this weekend and blog about all the discrepancies in it next week; or not.

It's always interesting to see another opinion on how the Biden v Ryan debate tomorrow night will turn out and their reasoning behind it; knowing that a gut feeling is acceptable. I've stated my opinion; tell me your opinion.

Pre-debate Hype

After 45 years of marriage, my wife will sit down and watch her very first presidential debate with me, from start to end. She watched a little of the 2008 debates, but tonight she told me that she would watch the entire 90 minutes because she's tired of hearing of what others think. She's behind Obama 100% but, she’s relying on what she will see tonight, instead of what the pundits will say tomorrow.

The pre-debate hype is as high as I've ever seen it, and I guess that's due to 24/7 media coverage of what to expect. Yesterday, Matt Drudge and Tucker Carlson tried to influence the media by digging up yet another exclusive Obama bombshell. Fox News picked up a tease and advertised it as breaking news tonight on Sean Hannity. As usual, it was nothing more than a 2007 Obama speech where he gave a shout-out to his Pastor Jeremiah Wright. Sean Hannity said he sounded blacker than usual. The people who are behind this must think that their viewers are pretty gullible because this video has already been hashed out by Tucker Carlson when he was a host on MSNBC.

Yesterday, I read an article by George Will, which puzzled me because I think the conservative columnist is a pretty smart man. I don't usually agree with him, but I like to hear or read his viewpoint. He said that although the economic figures are dismal, and our foreign policy is in shambles; President Obama shouldn't even be close to being reelected. I don't agree with that analysis, but I can understand why someone would see it that way. It's the reason he gave for the president being reelected that left me puzzled. He said that President Obama would get a second chance because voters are reluctant to throw out the first black president. He went onto say that Frank Robinson stayed on as the Cleveland Indian manager because the owner didn't want the fire the first black manager in major league baseball. George Will knew that he would be criticized and would be called a racist for having those views. I wouldn't say that he was a racist, but I know there's not a measurement of how many people who would vote that way. This is just my opinion, but I don't think there's that many people who think that way.

This morning the panel on “Morning Joe” were discussing the most-recent polls where it showed that the race is tightening prior to tonight's debate. Joe Scarborough started the discussion by mentioning what he thought was a gaffe by Joe Biden that was similar to Mitt Romney's 47% comment. Joe Scarborough went into a laughing fit mocking Joe Biden for saying, “This is deadly earnest, man. This is deadly earnest. How can they justify raising taxes on the middle class that’s been buried the last four years? How in the Lord’s name can they justify raising their taxes with these tax cuts?” Joe Scarborough said it was an indictment on the president's policies because they were in office. I guess you could see it that way, but I've been saying that the middle class has been suffering for over 10 years. It's no question that they suffered the most because their companies have either laid them off, cut back their hours and benefits, and many have lost their homes. Joe Biden's comment will get some blowback because people act on sound bites and how they are portrayed.

I don't think you can compare Joe Biden's remarks to the 47% comment that was reinforced by Paul Ryan's words in November when he told a conservative crowd that 30% of the people don't share the American dream. Those two comments are accurate depictions of what the Republican Party really thinks. It hasn't changed much throughout the years. I saw a clip of the 1976 debate between James L. Buckley and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, where Buckley constantly accused his opponent of supporting a welfare state. The GOP is proud of their “takers and makers" mentality. For example, the other day a Paul Ryan supporter asked the Congressman if there was a way to make sure everyone paid something “have some skin in the game." Paul Ryan had a chance for redemption, but he made it worse by saying, " we want to make those people taxpayers by making jobs available to move them into the middle class." A lot of the 47% are seniors, returning veterans, students working part time while attending college, so making more jobs attainable will not get them out of the 47%.

Joe Scarborough hates to be corrected, but he doesn't realize that non conservatives don't think that Ronald Reagan was perfect. Joe was saying that if Mitt Romney could have Reaganesque results if he uses the same tactics that the late president did against Jimmy Carter. He got angry when someone pointed out that Ronald Reagan never had a plan on how to release the hostages in Iran, he famously said, “we only have one commander in chief at a time" but he did give a great optimistic closing speech backed by an economy that was showing no sign of improvement. Mark McKinnon, political strategists for President George W. Bush tried to say that the debates won the election for his candidate. He showed a little anger when someone pointed out that Al Gore won the popular vote by 600,000 votes, and it was left up to the Supreme Court. It's funny how those little facts play into the picture.

The Romney camp is saying the people will finally get to know the real Mitt Romney. I thinks that's just spin like the one saying that people are just now starting to get interested in the election. I disagree because the 2012 GOP primaries were viewed by many and many people are requesting early voting ballots. 

I'm eagerly awaiting the debate tonight, and I don't expect get much sleep because I'll have to watch the post-debate analysis. About 45 million people viewed Sarah Palin and Barack Obama's acceptance speech and that many will probably view tonight's debate.

I was just wondering

I nodded my head in agreement this morning when I read the cartoon in the comment section. The caption read" I'll be glad when the election is over, and we can go back to being friends." I'll admit that politics is a contact sport sometimes, but it doesn't have to be.

As I was reading the article about the state of our economy in the business section of the Victoria Advocate, I was wondering what was going through the minds of those who are exclusively blaming President Obama for our financial mess.Do they even consider that the material that they have been reading might have a bias? I'm not saying that everything Obama touched turned to gold but the article substantiates everything I have been saying about what exploded the debt. I don't think our home town newspaper leans left or right.

The article listed the reasons in the following order:

1. The Bush era tax cuts
2. Interest on the debt
3. Afghan and Iraq wars
4. The stimulus
5. The Medicare drug plan

I would like to think that we can agree on the five reasons and then discuss methods of remedying the financial mess, knowing we won't agree on everything.

We should also agree that the sequester was a bipartisan proposal (170 GOP votes in the house, including Paul Ryan and Eric Cantor) to bring the parties together to hammer out a deal. As we know, votes are recorded, yet, Paul Ryan and Eric Cantor, are now saying that they didn't vote for the sequester or the defense cuts that are embedded in them. How can you make a deal, when you can't even admit what you voted for?

I'll admit to enjoying the theatrics used on a campaign stump or in the political debates. I've heard of a good tactic that the president could use when confronting Mitt Romney tomorrow. I understand that it's the political season, so Mitt Romney wants to keep his cards close to his vest. It would be political suicide for him to say that he would eliminate Pell grants, the home mortgage or local sales tax deduction but not tax hedge fund managers" carried interest" as ordinary income tax rates. He and his surrogates have been saying that they don't have time to go into the details. President Obama could use that to his advantage by saying to the moderator, Jim Lehrer, “Jim. I'll relinquish the balance of my time, so that Governor Romney can have ample time to explain his $5 trillion tax cut, he says will be revenue neutral." I'm sure the Romney camp anticipates that maneuver, so it'll be interesting to see what their move will be.

It continues to amaze me how the viewers of Fox News will brag about outdoing their cable news competitors, but they don't consider themselves the mainstream media. If you're drawing two million viewers a night, even if it's just old conservatives, it's part of the mainstream. They keep using that victim card but isn't that the idea of Fox News is to present the conservative point of view;not the only view? The commentators of right-wing media and their followers are now doubting the polls, even the Fox and Rasmussen poll. Polling companies will not put their reputation on the line for one election. I do believe if Mitt Romney does pretty well in the debates; the polls will change and so will the commentary because the media has a vested interest in keeping this race alive.

We come together as a country after a weather disaster either here or abroad, wars, and even environmental mishaps, but we're miles apart on this fiscal cliff that we're approaching and it will have direct bearing on our lives.

Hanging by a Thread

The Sunday talk shows centered on what Mitt Romney needs to do to get back in the presidential race. They all made the Wednesday night debate the pivotal point in his campaign. The pundits would have us believe that if Mitt could make the president angry by calling him a liar, or if he just threw out a memorable line, the race would be knotted up Thursday morning. Those were just two of the many opinions that were used yesterday to make Wednesday night's debate, the mother of all debates.

The debate will be about the economy, health care and the deficit. The Romney campaign hopes that Mitt can do better than Paul Ryan did in trying to explain a tax plan that cuts marginal tax rates by 20% for everyone, yet somehow it's revenue neutral. It's easy to tell when Ryan is stumped because he'll say," I don't have time to get into the details." Paul Ryan would never tell Chris Wallace (although he was asked three times) the cost of Mitt Romney's tax plan because he would have to divulge the deductions that he would eliminate in order to make it revenue neutral. I'm waiting to see what side of health care Mitt Romney will be on Wednesday night because he's flip- flopped so much just in the last three weeks. They'll also be interesting to know how Mitt will handle the deficit, since raising taxes is off the table, as well as defense spending. Inserting growth as part of a financial solution is more of a wish list than an economic policy.

It will be incumbent on the president to say what he will do in his second term. He will have to say that a 1.3% growth rate is terrible, and the job numbers reflect that but the housing market seems to be recovering, a new source of cheap energy(natural gas) is a plus, as is the stable stock market. He can also say  consumer confidence is coming back and that’s a reason to have some optimism. He must then emphasize that going back to the policies that got us into this mess is not the way to go. The popularity of the Affordable Care Act (ACA)rose to 48% after the Supreme Court ruling, this gives the president some wiggle room when he paints his opponent as one who will repeal Obamacare, which will take away the popular " pre existing" provision and the fact that CBO said that when fully implemented, ACA would lower the deficit. He'll have to say that Mitt Romney was one of the presidential candidates who raised his hand signifying he would not take a deal which included $10.00 in spending cuts for $1.00 in taxes.

The Republican representatives did not disappoint because they all pulled out their Reagan card, they keep close to their vest pocket saying “Reagan pulled us out a recession in a lot less time.”I expected the talking point and I wasn’t surprised when they didn’t admit that Reagan’s recession was not as severe. Our deficit is 7% of GDP and the GOP Congress won’t consider raising taxes, even thou Ronald Reagan raised taxes when the deficit was 4% of GDP. President George H. W. Bush ruined his chances of a second term by raising taxes when the deficit was 3% of GDP. No economist worth his salt thinks that we can get out of our financial doldrums without raising taxes. it has to be part of the equation.

I think Mitt Romney will and should do well in the debate Wednesday night. I don't think the voters are rejecting Romney as much as they are the Republican brand of today. I think any of the 2012 candidates would be in the same shape or worse if they would have won the primary.

 I forgot the pundit who quoted a rapper who said, “don’t get high on your own supply." That's what the right wing of the GOP does when they double down on what they think are conservative principles. How many years do Republicans have to go down in flames before they realize that America does not want to give up or consider Social Security and Medicare alternatives? The GOP had a 20% old- folk advantage over Democrats but that as dwindled down to 4% in Florida. A recent poll in Florida showed that people by 70% want to keep Medicare and Social Security; as it is. I remember after a storm, Eric Cantor initially rejected FEMA aid for his own state, without cutting other programs to pay for it. He quickly changed his mind after all the blow-back.

Mitt Romney's presidential hopes took a downward trend after a convention that was built on a theme of " you didn't build that" to mock the president but little else to show the country what they would do to get the job market going besides the same ol'trickle-down economics. It's not always about taxes. People want to hear optimistic visions of the future in education, innovation and infrastructure. We can get committees to tackle the deficit, and the debt but tunnel vision is never a plus. The Democrats can keep their gun holstered because the hard-line conservative Republicans are shooting themselves in the foot by not realizing that there are other opinions out there.

It's going to be a close race to the end unless something drastic happens. Early voting has started in Iowa  and Ohio will begin this week before the debate Wednesday night .

Who are today’s Republicans?

A couple of days ago, an old sparring friend of mine called to check up on me and then after a few minutes of formality, we picked up where we left off 10 years ago; arguing about politics. My very conservative Republican friend would crawl over glass to vote for another Republican. He's pretty much in line with what the national Republican surrogates are saying and doing, so I use him as a way to check the temperature of the local GOP.

My friend hasn't wavered a bit in his hatred for President Barack Obama, and he's not afraid to admit it. He said that he would vote for any one in the Republican Party over President Obama. We agreed that the economy has already hit rock bottom and whoever gets elected, will reap the rewards in a couple of years when our economy starts rolling again. I asked him about the dismal GOP presidential primary turnout, and he said it didn't matter who won the primary, considering the candidates, at that point he thought that the only requirement of a president was to have a couple working digits, so he could sign partisan Republican legislation. He said that “compromise" was equivalent to "kissing your sister.” I think that's where Republicans are today; they don't like Mitt Romney, but they will pretend to like him, not forgetting that the number-one goal is to defeat President Obama. That's why I like to talk to my buddy; he doesn’t skirt the issue. He'll admit that he's not exactly thrilled supporting a Mormon( he's a protestant evangelical), and he knows in his heart of hearts that Romney is a liberal, and he's just renting his conservative credentials until his second term. He said that he'll take that chance hoping that his party controls Congress. I can't pin down my friend's thoughts on the Tea Party. My friend is an establishment Republican, but I don't know if he's a member of the local GOP.

The national Tea Party movement is  trying to replace the establishment Republican Party because they think the established GOP  lack of charisma, loves the status quo and that the party needs to go back to it’s roots. A Tea Party leader in Columbia, South Carolina said this of the GOP platform"It's a piece of paper," "It doesn't mean squat."Matt' Kibbe has been the President and CEO of FreedomWorks since 2004, and he's a spokesman for Tea Party values. I think that Chris Matthews caught him off script and off guard the other day when he showed him a chart that contained the percentage of the budget every program represented. He asked him directly" what would you cut?" Mr.Kibbe wasn't ready for the question, so he said he would reform Social Security and Medicare and give block grants to the states for Medicaid. The Tea Party may be a grassroots effort, but they know that their words have to be on message with the Republican talking points. It tells me that they have a message but not a detailed plan. It was a simple question for a group that wants small government and extremely low taxes. If my memory is correct, the local established GOP is having its own power struggle with the Ron Paulites, Libertarians and Tea Party, but the latter three may the same bunch.

Here it is Tea Party,where are you going to cut?


Today's Wall Street Journal and Peggy Noonan's columns expressed their outrage over a Democratic super PAC ad featuring a Missouri steelworker named Joe Soptic who implied that Bain had closed the steel mill he was working at, leaving him without health insurance, and that eventually was a cause of his wife dying from cancer. It's a bit of a stretch anyway you look at it but so was the Willie Horton ad. It's a little late in the game for those on the right to try to claim the victim card. It's going to be a tit- for- tat from now until November. It didn't help Romney that his spokesman said that if Mr.Soptic had been living in Massachusetts, he would've had Romney care. That tidbit caused Ann Coulter's Adam's apple to bulge out even more than normal, and it also got the ire of Laura Ingraham. They both called for the firing of the Romney spokeswoman because of what she said. It's my belief that the spokeswoman wasn’t off message at all; I think the Romney camp wanted her to deliver that message to the 6% to 8% undecided vote.

It looks like the Republicans don't want their nominee, Mitt Romney, to talk about his accomplishments, such as working with Democrats in Massachusetts, his governorship, Romney care or Mormonism. This is the same party that was against the repeal of "don't ask; don't tell" where gay military personnel could hold up their hands to defend the constitution, but they would have to lie about their sexual orientation. They opposed the repeal in spirit, but they never took any real action against it. Mitt Romney said he would reinstate it, but that's just talk.

I'm sure the GOP will figure it all out by the time of their convention at the end of this month. They will come out of there united in their quest to unseat Obama and will try to convince the 6% who are undecided to do the same. Romney could make nice with the base by picking Paul Ryan as his VP choice but then once again he is conceding just to get along.

Can we ever move beyond our nine dots?

I sometimes get blog writer's block but not this morning because there's a wealth of material to discuss and most of it comes from our hometown newspaper, but I found some articles in today's Houston chronicle that will carry me over to next week.

I like to read the Houston Chronicle's letter- to- the- editor section because they normally select some good viewpoints. Today was no different; I read a letter from a gun owner who stated these liberals didn't understand why gun owners want their AR 15s. I really must renew my liberal newsletter because I didn't know it was a concern. Anyway, he went onto say that he needs the AR 15 for home protection and to do his part; if ever our country were to be invaded. I'll forget the latter, but it scares me that a neighbor with an AR 15 is going to start shooting if he hears a strange noise coming from his backyard. How much firepower do you need for a burglar? All I need is my cell phone. I showered got dressed and went to church and prayed that I don't have any neighbors with that mindset.

I see where the cream of the crop, Vic Ad Facebook posters, are still recycling the five-year-old talking points" I don't mind immigration...legal immigration" and " What is it about "illegal'" that people don't understand! On the other side, there's “they come here for a better life." It’s the familiar battle between nativists,activists, racists, bleeding hearts, and advocates for open borders, but mostly it's low information posters engaging in "word salad" discussions. I'm kind of glad I left Vic Ad because that's hours I didn't waste .These people are not interested in facts just the fight.

The issue is worth discussing because there is still a lot to learn. I didn’t know that the Guatemalan survivors were having communication problems because they don't speak Spanish; they speak Quiche. The drug cartels of Mexico are spilling over to countries like El Salvador, Guatemala, Hondurans and Costa Rica. The Mexican government is chasing the cartels in that direction. The Guatemalans were running away from corruption in their country, $5.00 a day factory job, extortion and no hope for the future in sight. If it wasn't for the large numbers and politics, many of these people would be eligible for political asylum. The United States cannot afford to take in the mass exodus, but that doesn't mean that we have to be so hateful in our rhetoric. My wife and I will ride out to Berclair later this afternoon to express our sympathy for the dead.

I've always said that we need comprehensive immigration reform, and I think this would be an ideal time because we have a zero net gain on unlawful border crossings. It's easy to read about 23 illegal immigrants here and 15 over there and 3 or 4 more each day and thinking that it's worse than it ever was. About half of the 535 members of Congress don't have an appetite to take up the issue because they are waiting for attrition to work. Our slow economy did what a fence couldn't. A lot of us saw the GOP presidential debates. Did you see any workable solutions come out of them? All they were a doubling down of enforcement policies that don't do anything for the 11 million illegal immigrants who are here. Mitt Romney's self-deportation is a joke. I think a lot of Republicans were glad President Obama took the action he did (modified, not official Dream Act) because they couldn't present their constituents that plan because it would be considered amnesty. I don't have any verifiable facts, but I suspect we need every one of those 11 million illegal immigrants just to stay at our 1.5% growth rate. I wouldn't be surprised if the Department of Labor knows that.

Leonard Pitts wrote an interesting article about a televised information forum where issues like these would be discussed minus the same irreverent side issues such as, free health care, food stamps. I'll be watching because I like to know how all the pieces fit together. I want to know if our government turns a blind eye sometimes and what we can do to make our businesses obey our labor laws. Perhaps we need a better way to inform the poor immigrants in Guatemala and Honduras of all the hazards of that long journey. You would be surprised how the word of a "human trafficker” supersedes the word of others who have been through the ordeal, to these desperate people. This morning's Advocate editorial expressed the need to crack down on human trafficking, so I commend them for trying to move us beyond our nine dots.

As always, I didn’t have anyone in mind and those familiar with my posts know that, because I too have recycled my talking points..:-)

The Dog Days of Summer

There is not a lot Congress will do before the summer recess, so the pundits will have to make a “mountain out of a molehill” and continue that theme over the summer. that makes it difficult for political junkies like me to find topics to discuss,so I’m forced to combine several pending issues. And that’s the reason they call it the “Dog Days of Summer.”

I think the defining your opponent period of this presidential campaign is confusing and boring for most. When my wife asked me what all the hoopla was about; I gave her a simple answer of “the Obama campaign set a trap, and Romney fell for it." I then told her that Mr. Romney couldn't run on his expertise of running a business and transitioning that experience to the White House; if he couldn't answer the questions, he's been asked since 1994. His Republican opponents also questioned his business ethnics and have asked for several years of back income tax returns. Mr. Romney was reluctant to do that, so he's stuck in a no man's land. I'm fairly certain that Mitt Romney didn't do anything illegal, but those tax returns may reveal just how rich he really is and how little he paid in taxes. If his 2000 and 2001 income tax returns show that he got paid as a CEO for Bain Capital; it will be one more document where he has to explain the words “retired retroactively."

The Obama campaign attack ads are working despite Karl Rowe's white board showing a Gallup Poll that had Obama ahead by one point before the Bain Capital ads and tied at 47 after the ads were shown. The Obama ran the ads in the battle ground states where polls show that he gained substantially. Mitt Romney couldn't stand the Bain ad heat anymore, so he called a press conference with all the major networks to try to explain his side, but he maintained his arrogance of not releasing his tax returns. That stance is starting to get on the nerves of the leaders of his party. I'm really surprised and pleased with the Obama campaign because, as Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of the Nation said “republicans usually go for the juggler and democrats go for the capillaries."

I prefer to stay on the issues where  believe it are not; I'm beginning to learn more of how everything is interconnected. I heard some good ideas this weekend having to to do with the SNAP (food stamp) program and farm subsidies. The president of a farm group in Iowa said that they like those on welfare who would rather receive a fair price for their crops  or wages  rather than government subsides. He said it the big corporate farms are making a lot of money because 26 farms receive direct payments of $1 million each in farm subsidies. Granted, I don't know anything about farming but this man said that he would rather be paid a fair steady price for his corn and soybeans, than for the government supplementing him for the low prices of his crops. He disclosed that the two crop rotation makes his land venerable to harmful insects.He said, “we don't want to outsource, illegal immigration, or pay $10.00 for a head of lettuce; that presents a problem." He also said, "right now we are importing most of our food in order for the big farm corporations to get rich." The agriculture industry cannot survive unless we find a way to keep the prices low with cheap labor.

The panel agreed that we can lower our welfare payments by setting the minimum wage to a livable standard. This bad economy has put 46 million people on the Snap program. Food stamps went from $17 billion to $76 billion during this recession. How much is that? That comes out to be $253 per each member of a household, if you believe that your taxes are earmarked to pay for this expenditure. A representative from the SNAP Program said that 87% of the recipients on food stamps are for the elderly, children, and single moms. There are exceptions to the rule but only about 1% of the pay outs involve fraud to the tune of $760 million.

All those programs are interconnected and managed by well informed lobbyists. When the question came up of restricting the use of food stamps on non sugary items; the sugar lobby shut that down. Some congressman wanted to restrict those on food stamps from buying store bought cakes or sodas. It was quickly brought out that they could legally buy all the ingredients to make the cake. It's a rule that could not be readily enforced, unless you expect full corporations from the grocery stores. Remember once again, when the GOP wants to drastically cut the food stamp program, that money will also be taken away from those government workers who were hired to enforce the rules.

If I could only be more than a " unverified commenter" at VI Cad; I would've had an answer for the letter writers who stated that those of us who voted for President Obama are to blame for our nation’s decline and the other one about Democrats helping those who cannot get a voter ID. The first letter writer did not state his" truth certain" economic policy, the Republicans would have  put in that would have assured us of a quick recovery. The second letter writer is a little more ignorant if that's possible. His blind loyalty keeps him from seeing that voter ID and the way it implemented was just a voter suppression ploy. Since 2002, Texas has cast 39 million votes and only 70 and has been investigated for voter fraud. It's easy to see your motive when you're talking about a minuscule percentage of wrongdoing. It's just another case of wanting to finesse the issues.

The GOP might have a peaceful convention now that Ron Paul lost in Nebraska  this past weekend. Mitt Romney doesn’t even have to give him a prime-time speaking role since he didn’t get the 5 states he needed to challenge the presumptive nominee.That long-shot attempt at beating Romney has now ended. Republicans,Mitt Romney is your nominee.

Shame on you,Mitt Romney

I've been pretty easy on Mitt Romney because I think he's a great family man with moral values, and he did a fantastic job reviving the Winter Olympics. I don't resent his wealth because he didn't do anything illegal, and he should run as being a successful businessman.

I do wish, that he would be more forthcoming with his tax returns and business dealings because, if you're going to and call your opponent a liar, I think he should have the facts to back it up. I won't take back my flip- flopping comments because it's very hard for me to believe a person can come from saying, " I'll be to the left but Ted Kennedy on gay rights, and I'll fight hard to retain Roe v Wade" to the position he holds today. It's a complete 180 degrees on fundamental social issues.

I have to give Mitt Romney his props for attending yesterday's NAACP convention in Houston, Texas, unless he was using it for a prop. I'm not a political analyst or a psychiatrist but observing his reaction to the boos, he received, I’ve come to the conclusion that the boos inspired him. It had to be planned because he didn't have the look of surprise; it was more of a look of satisfaction, with a wink and a nod to his base and to the moderates looking for him to pander on that issue. His campaign team knew that repealing health care would be met with resistance, but I don't think they knew why, and I'll give you a couple of examples. The crowd though he used the word Obamacare in the pejorative manner because he doesn't call his health care plan in Massachusetts; Romneycare. The second and most telling is what he said to fundraiser in Hamilton, Montana: "By the way, I had the privilege of speaking today at the NAACP convention in Houston, and I gave them the same speech I am giving you. I don't give different speeches to different audiences alright. I gave them the same speech. When I mentioned I am going to get rid of Obamacare, they weren't happy; I didn't get the same response. That's ok, I want people to know what I stand for, and if I don't stand for what they want, go vote for someone else, that's just fine. But I hope people understand this, your friends who like Obamacare, you remind them of this, if they want more stuff from government tell them to go vote for the other guy-more free stuff. But don't forget nothing is really free." 

It's expected that Newt Gingrich would call President Obama, the food stamp president and Rick Santorum targeting black people by saying he doesn't want to make their lives better by giving them welfare. So far, Mitt Romney stayed away from categorizing black people as food stamp recipients. As you can see from the statement Mitt Romney gave, he is resorting to the same tactics. Shame on you, Mitt,you did nothing to stop the bleeding because your speech drove President Obama's approval in the African- American community from 95% to 98%. Mitt Romney must feel pretty good, thinking he made some points with the base, but it's how he did it. Granted, he was in hostile territory but no one was asking him to pander. He could have spoken about the common ground of wanting better education and jobs, to a community that's lacking in both.