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.