Tag Archives: Mitt Romney

Romney – Obama won because he offered “Gifts”

Posted on November 14, 2012 by Terry| 1 Comment
Romney Snake Tongue

Forget the "soft", "human" side of Romney that some stories have tried to talk about since the election. With Romney's comments today, once again the REAL Romney is revealed, and it's not a pretty picture.

There have been a few stories lately about the “misunderstood” side of Mitt Romney, the “human” side.  Even Jason Sudeikis, the Saturday Night Live member, appeared on the Daily Show last night, and talked about the human side of Romney, how he’s somehow gotten an unfair shake from the media who have focused on the cold, hard, businessman version of Romney.  I never felt much sympathy or believed in the “caring, human” side of the man.  It was pretty damned obvious from his 47% comment what he really thought of most Americans, and it was pretty damned obvious from his business dealings how he treated people (Remember “I like to fire people”?)

After today, there will likely be VERY few people who ever talk about Romney’s “soft” side.  On Wednesday, Romney had a conference call with campaign donors, and offered his excuses for the Obama win.  According to Romney today, Obama won because he offered “extraordinary financial gifts” to Blacks, Hispanics, women, and the poor.  In other words, according to Romney, the reason Obama won is because he bribed all us poor lazy saps who just want the government to take care of them.

Bill O’Reilly was the first to go down this road, when late on election day, after Obama had been announced the winner, O’Reilly blamed the Romney loss on people who want “stuff” from the government.  God knows you see the same ridiculous statement from many of the completely deluded Republican voting base as well, where they ONLY view government as a mechanism to take THEIR money and give it to a bunch of lazy saps who don’t want to work for a living.

It’s one thing for a right-wing talking head like O’Reilly to make such a stupid statement.  Given the complete ignorance of most of the Republican base, it’s not unexpected to hear them make stupid comments like this.  But for the freakin’ PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE from the Republican party to use this as an excuse for the loss?

Disgusting. You know why you lost, Republicans?  BECAUSE YOU DON’T GIVE A DAMN about PEOPLE.  I think I’m a rather typical Democrat.  I don’t need a government handout.  I have a good job.  I don’t need government assistance.  However, I am glad to help PROVIDE assistance to those who DO need help.  LIBERALS CARE about their fellow man, we care about the future of our planet, and THOSE are the core reasons why we vote Democratic.

Repubs, you can keep focusing on the almighty dollar, about greed, about the acquisition of personal wealth. It will certainly get you a large number of votes.  But until you understand WHY people vote Democratic, you’re doomed to continue losing the big races.

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Don’t blame Romney, Repubs. It’s your party that sucks.

Posted on September 27, 2012 by Terry| 1 Comment
Ohio Polls

Poll trends in Ohio over the last month (Average of polls, from RealClearPolitics.com). Despite this being average of all polls, Repubs continue to insist on poll bias. Or media bias. Or, many are just assuming they're going to lose at this stage, and are blaming Romney. It's not the polls, or the media, or even Romney himself. It's what the Republican Party stands for.

I love the panic right now among Republicans. Ever since the conventions, and ever since Romney lost his ability to censor himself, the polls have moved very strongly in Obama’s favor.  InTrade had Obama with a 54% chance of reelection before the conventions.  Now, it’s over 75%.

Republicans are in a state of shock.  They just assumed they would win this election, solely based on the state of the economy.  Their entire strategy was based on the proposition that voters would blame Obama for the current slow economy, and would vote for the Republican candidate by default, whoever that candidate turned out to be.  Now that Obama is widening his lead in Ohio, Florida, and other important swing states, Repubs are placing the blame on one of 2 factors 1) Romney himself, or 2) “biased” polls.

There is no getting over the fact that Romney has run a miserable campaign.  More on that in a second.  Beyond Romney though, there have been numerous stories and opinion pieces out this week from the right claiming some kind of conspiracy or bias in the poll numbers.  Despite the fact that every poll on the planet has Obama in front nationally, and in front in Ohio, Florida, and every other swing state, Repub pundits are claiming it’s all a part of an effort to depress Republican voter enthusiasm, that the polls are using incorrect assumptions, and that these same Repub pundits “know better” than the pollsters.  Republicans just seem to be in shock that the electorate isn’t rushing to support them.  It HAS to be the polls, right? There’s no way people actually LIKE Obama and Democrats!!!

I am absolutely loving it.  I’m loving seeing the Republican party completely self-destruct.  The election is still almost 6 weeks away, but Republicans are falling all over themselves right now, trying to play the blame game.  IT’S ROMNEY!  If ONLY Romney were more like Paul Ryan!  Or, IT’S THE POLLS!  The media and the polls are out to get Repubs!

Well, guess what, Republicans?  It’s not Romney.  It’s definitely not the polls. It’s not some liberal media conspiracy.  It’s your entire, deluded, $hitty excuse for a political party that’s at fault.

Let’s start with Romney himself.  Clearly, of the miserable batch of Republican “stars” that were in the primaries, Romney was the most “electable”.  He was the most qualified.  He was the right choice, from a Republican perspective.  But in winning the nomination, Romney has been forced to act like he’s something he’s not…a hardcore, right-wing conservative of the kind that Republican leadership INSISTS on.  Romney has had to abandon his former moderate stances and has shifted so far to the right he can’t even remember where he came from.  Granted, given how extreme the Republican party has become, he likely wouldn’t have won the nomination if he hadn’t moved to the right.  Some assumed he’d move back towards the center after winning the nomination, in preparation for the election against Obama.

However, Republican leadership simply hasn’t allowed any wiggle room for Romney.  Be it foreign policy or the tax policy back home, Romney has been squeezed into a position where he’s forced to continually reiterate the most extreme conservative positions.  Obama has taken out Bin Laden and kept us safe at home, but Republicans continue to act as if they alone are the standard-bearers for security and the military.  Hence the sabre-rattling tone from Romney on every foreign policy issue, as if America acting “tough” is the answer to the delicate and extremely complicated issues in the Middle East and elsewhere.  Romney continues the bravado when talking foreign policy, however, simply because he HAS to.  His base insists that he act “tougher” than Obama.

Things are no different on the domestic front.  Romney and every other candidate running for the nomination were all pushed into a position where even a $1 tax increase for every $10 cut in spending was too much.  Romney has been pushed into a position where he has to continually talk about cutting taxes, while at the same time, somehow magically maintaining or increasing our military budget, and balancing our overall budget.  It’s an impossibility…but logic or fact have given way to ideology for the Republican party.  Romney is a problem-solver…he’s not one to carry the Republican ideological flag.

It’s a mismatch, it’s been doomed from the start, and there’s no one to blame other than Republican leadership and the party as a whole.  Republicans, you’ve been done in by your own hatred, your own intolerance, your sole focus on being the “anti-Obama”, rather than standing for anything meaningful.  You’ve been done in by your extremism, by your unwillingness to compromise, no matter the consequences.  You’ve been done in by a vision for America that bends over backwards to accommodate those with money and power, while abandoning those who need our help.

It’s not Romney.  It’s not the media. It’s not biased polls.  Don’t act shocked that you’re losing, that people aren’t stampeding to support Romney or Republicans.  You simply don’t represent what America wants, or needs.

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Romney sticks foot in mouth — Again

Posted on September 18, 2012 by Terry| 1 Comment
Romney speech

Shades of 2008, when McCain campaign staff cringed every time Palin opened her mouth. In 2012? It's the Romney campaign cringing every time their presidential candidate opens his mouth.

Obama’s best campaign strategy may be to just stay quiet, and let Romney do the talking.  Whenever Romney does talk, you’ve got a good chance that he’ll say something that is either 1) misinformed, 2) a lie, or 3) downright offensive.  Once again today, the media is lit up with another dumb Romney statement, this one about the “47%” of Americans who are “dependent upon government”, with Romney saying it’s  not his “job to worry about those people”.   It’s probably not a good thing for a presidential candidate to write off half of Americans as useless to him.

David Brooks from the NY Times has an on-the-mark perspective on Romney in his column today.  As Brooks notes, one of Romney’s biggest problems is that he’s pretending he’s something he’s not.  He was a relatively moderate Governor in New England.  The campaign has pushed him to become, as Brooks calls it, a “cartoon” of himself, someone who supposedly is very conservative, someone who is anti-government.  I think Brooks is a very fair political commentator, but he is a conservative.  It says something about the campaign Romney is running when someone like Brooks comes out with a rather scathing critique of his campaign.

6 months ago, the line of thinking was that the Republican candidate would have an edge in voter enthusiasm, that Repubs and the independents they could attract would be very enthusiastic about booting Obama from office. That’s no doubt still the case for the hard-core, rabid conservatives on the right, but even they are increasingly disenchanted with the Romney campaign.  After the conventions, it’s Obama who seems to have gained the edge in enthusiasm among his base.

With each ignorant comment that comes out of Romney’s mouth, the polls edge towards Obama.  InTrade today…up to almost 68% chance of an Obama victory, up 12% from where it stood before the conventions, and before Romney’s series of verbal gaffes.  This election is starting to feel like the last one.  McCain, desperate to regain an edge, made a critical error in taking Palin to be his running mate, and his campaign began to rapidly lose credibility.

In this case, it’s Romney’s own tongue that is betraying the campaign, but the net effect is the same.  It’s becoming damn hard for most Americans to see Romney as their president, given his penchant for verbal gaffes, and the laughable and amateurish errors he’s making in the campaign.  What’s most revealing about Romney himself though is that you get glimpses of the true man behind the mask when he makes comments such as this.   He’s about as out-of-touch with the 99% as any candidate has ever been.

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Republicans’ New Math

Posted on August 24, 2012 by Terry| Leave a comment

Mitt Romney this week came out with a pledge to achieve energy independence by 2020.  ”Independence” for Romney means only using North American sources of energy.  Given that we would still rely heavily on Canadian and/or Mexican energy imports, Romney’s pledge is hollow to begin with.  It doesn’t matter if oil flows from Canada’s tar sands or Saudi Arabia’s wells, it still means we’re importing oil from a foreign country.

With that point aside, you have to marvel at what Romney and the Republicans have accomplished in the field of mathematics during this election cycle.  They’ve completely written the basic tenets underlying mathematics with the policy proposals they’ve suggested.  Romney pledges to reach energy “independence” in just 7 years…shocking pledge in its own right, but even more shocking when he pledges  to do so without supporting any changes to fuel standards. 

Republicans certainly don’t have a good grasp of the basic concept of supply and demand.  Romney’s energy promise doesn’t address reducing energy USE…it’s all about trying to increase supply.  After all, as Romney states,  he wouldn’t want to TELL people what kind of car they should drive.  This is AMERICA, after all!  Dadgumit, if you want to drive a massive SUV that gets 12 MPG, that’s your god-given right as an AMERICAN!

Sounds good…if you’re a right-wing, wacko Republican who thinks the entire world is just there for your own personal short-term enjoyment.  But in reality, it’s simply impossible to expect energy “independence” without also cutting energy use…even when you use Romney’s definition of “independence” that includes importing Canadian and Mexican energy sources.

Romney and Republicans aren’t exactly breaking new ground with this policy announcement though.  After all, this is the same party that insists we can balance budgets by simply shrinking government, without any additional taxes or revenues coming in.  This despite every serious economist on the planet pronouncing the impossibility of doing so, unless the Federal government should somehow come under Ron Paul’s control and consist solely of the military and very little else. 

It’s the Republicans’ “New Math”.  Republicans have already abandoned science.  They might as well abandon basic mathematics or any other form of reason as well.

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Romney’s “Perfect” VP pick

Posted on August 11, 2012 by Terry| 2 Comments
Mitt Romney

It's amazing how often you watch Romney and see just how damned uncomfortable, how unhappy, he looks. I would be too, if I had sold my soul. The man is a caricature of his former self.

With today’s announcement of Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney’s running mate, Romney has again reminded us what today’s Republican Party stands for.  Following in the footsteps of John McCain, the last, failed Republican candidate, the once moderate, pragmatic Romney has completed his conversion to right-wing wacko.  The pick proves that it is the Rush Limbaugh’s of the world and corporate America who really runs the Republican party, not the everyday American voter.

I respected McCain before the last election.  He was indeed a “maverick”, someone who fought for what he thought was right, regardless of his party’s view on a particular issue.  That all went out the window once he ran for president, and it’s carried over into his bitter, post-election loss political life.  Now, McCain is a shell of of his former self, having been “assimilated” (Borg-style!) into the rest of the conservative, right-wing, wacko component of the Republican party.

It’s amazing how Romney has followed the same path.  Romney has somehow transformed from a moderate governor of a liberal state, from a champion of health care reform, into a sniveling wimp who kowtows to the most radical in the Republican Party.  The Ryan announcement is just verification of the transformation.  The architect of a budget plan so extreme, so completely unrealistic that even huge numbers of Republicans distanced themselves from it as much as they could, was strongly backed by the most radical and conservative people and institutions in th U.S.

And, as usual nowadays for the Republican Party…the radical wing of the party “won”, and got their man as the VP candidate.  I really wonder how men like McCain and Romney can look in the mirror in the morning, knowing how they’ve completely sold their souls for the sake of winning an election.  There’s really no word to describe it other than….pathetic.

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Romney Tells Governors to Lie About Recovery

Posted on June 22, 2012 by Terry| 2 Comments
Romney and Obama

More deception, more lying from Romney. Is this what happens to a GOP candidate? Is the GOP SO corrupt, that any GOP presidential candidate turns to a lying POS? Before the last election...I LIKED John McCain. I RESPECTED John McCain. They he runs for president, and everything he ever stood for went out the window. Romney is headed down the same path. I USED to think he wasn't bad, a Republican governor with a moderate, pragmatic streak. Now? He's a lying, deceptive, slick POS...

The economy has been recovering in several swing states.  Uh-oh, says Romney, we can’t have that!  At least, we can’t let the electorate know the truth!  Hence, the story of Romney telling GOP governors to downplay any economic recovery that’s happened in their states.  He’s told GOP governors to cool it, and not talk about improved economic conditions, lowered unemployment rates, etc.

After all, we can’t have voters knowing the truth!  It fits right in line with the overall GOP strategy of SCARING voters into voting for them, by either playing to their inner bigotry, or playing up just how “bad” things are, or will be, under Obama. Even if they’re not!

Romney continues to bash Obama on foreign policy and national defense fronts, stating that under Obama, we’re much less safe.  This, despite the incredible foreign policy and military successes under Obama.  When Obama DARED to try to obtain contraceptive coverage for those individuals who wanted it but couldn’t get it through their insurance…Romney fell all over himself stating that religious freedoms are “under attack” by Obama, and would shrivel if he were given another term.  There’s a lovely new attack ad on Obama by the National Republican Campaign Committee that claims under ObamaCare, there are massive new taxes on ‘heart attacks, sick puppies, and new babies’.

Romney and other Republican attacks on ObamaCare alone probably keeps the entire staff of FactCheck.org working 24 hours a day.  What’s one more lie, on top of all the others?  Romney knows that lying works, since far too often, the electorate believes this kind of crap.

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Bigotry and hatred as a political weapon

Posted on May 12, 2012 by Terry| 3 Comments
Rick Santorum

Faith, Family, and Freedom? As long as it's a white Christian heterosexual family.

Rick Santorum today urged Mitt Romney to use the gay marriage “controversy” as a “potent weapon” against Obama in the upcoming election.  Santorum says Obama is the one who is out of touch with what America “values”.

If it’s Rick Santorum who is IN touch with what America values…we’re screwed.  If ranting and raving against homosexuality and gay rights is what represents American values…we’re screwed.  If advocating for women to be treated as they were 200 years ago represents American values…we’re screwed.  You can’t build a democracy on a foundation of hate, but that’s what SO many on the Republican right seem to be trying to do. 

It’s not just the gay marriage issue.  It’s bigotry and hatred in general that might as well be the core platform of the Republican party.   Just look at some of the “core” Republican issues over the last decade, as the party swings ever further to the (very radical) right. 

  • Gay rights - Summed up very nicely in a nutshell by Santorum’s comments today.  Gays and lesbians aren’t people in the eyes of the radical right.  Constitution be damned, they’re not to be treated like other human beings.  They’re to be used as a “political weapon”, nothing more.
  • Race – Republicans have managed to lock down the South, helped in no small part by a not-so-transparent use of racism as a political tool.  It even has a very well-established name…the Republicans’ Southern Strategy, a large part of which is based on exploiting racial fears among white southerners.
  • Religion -  Promoting fear and intolerance of Islam, or ANY other religion other than mainstream Christianity has also obviously become a key part of the Republican platform.   Again, Santorum himself could be a poster child for using religious hate as a “potent weapon” in his politics.  Republicans have counted on the “values voters” in the last several election cycles, whipping up paranoia among evangelicals (aka…wackos) about some imagined conspiracy to trample on their religious rights or remove religion from Americans’ every day lives. 

Using bigotry, hatred, and promotion of fear has certainly be a winning political hand for Republicans.  God knows there are enough folks in America who share those views, and blindly follow any idiot who is bold enough to come out and actually campaign on a platform of hate and intolerance. 

But how long can such a strategy last?   I keep hoping that Americans will see the light and realize you CANNOT build a nation based on hate.  I keep hoping that Republicans’ exploitation of racial, religious, or sexual preference issues is a short-term blip, a trend that can’t last in the long run.  But then you see complete wackos like Rick Santorum get a shocking amount of support in the Republican campaign, and it makes you realize just how much fear, paranoia, and bigotry there is out there. 

I’m sure that Biden’s unintentional forcing of Obama’s hand on the gay marriage issue wasn’t something that Obama wanted to touch from a political perspective.  That indeed is why I’ve been disappointed by Obama on many fronts, his lack of conviction on issues such as this, ones where he should be leading the “anti-hatred” bandwagon.   But now that it’s out there, now that Obama has been forced to back gay marriage, I hope he seizes the opportunity. I hope he RELISHES a discussion on gay rights in America. He SHOULD be using the issue as an issue where he can shame Republicans for their platform of hatred.

Given Obama’s wishy-washy nature on tough issues like this though, I’m not holding my breath.

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Romney’s “Business Plan” – Lying

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Terry| 2 Comments
Mitt Romney

Surprisingly, I couldn't find a photo of Romney speaking out of both sides of his mouth. This one will have to do, Romney no doubt laughing about completely stupid American voters are for voting for him despite his lack of respect for the truth.

Richard Cohen at the Washington Post has a quite blunt feature today on Mitt Romney and the art of lying.  My favorite part of the feature are the concluding sentences, which give you a nice succinct summary of what it takes to be a politician like Romney:

Business is business. It’s what you do. It is not who you are. Lying isn’t a sin. It’s a business plan.

Thanks to the flub by the Romney campaign, Romney himself is now the “etch-a-sketch” candidate, someone who will say anything to please, well, whoever he happens to be speaking to that day.  If that includes outright lying to try to gain favor with the crowd du jour?  No problem!!  To hear Romney TALK during the GOP campaign, you’d have thought he were a staunch conservative from…Montana? Texas?  You CERTAINLY wouldn’t get the truth…that he was actually a fairly progressive, quite moderate governor of Massachusetts.  The etch-a-sketch candidate has built a false history of supposed conservatism, a history built on a bed of lies.

When he’s been attacked during the campaign, either about his outright lies or about some other aspect of his candidacy, time and time again, Romney’s strategy has been to briefly explain it away, then quickly counter and attack the accuser.  The GOP in general has been under relentless attack for their stances on women’s rights and issues.  Romney’s strategy to deal with it?  To make up a complete lie, one so ridiculous you’d THINK you couldn’t say it with a straight face.  Romney’s big attack in the last week has been that of job losses since the recession began, that “92.3% of them are women”.  One thing Romney certainly excels at is not only lying, but the VERY selective use of misleading statistics to bolster his campaign.

It’s not like Romney is alone in terms of his abuse of the truth.  Yesterday on the way home, on the radio I listened to what was a very shocking history for Rep. Darrell Issa, a very conservative House member from California who has led many attacks on Obama and Dems.  The man is COMPLETE SCUM…with a history of legal issues.  He’s been arrested for stealing cars.  He COMPLETELY distorted his military record during his political campaigns. He committed insurance fraud by torching his business…right after QUADRUPLING his insurance, and putting all the truly valuable items in a fire-proof safe.   He’s been arrested on weapons charging, after a gun, a tear-gas gun, and ammo for both were found in his car. 

But yet Issa has been a GREAT business success, and is currently the richest member of Congress.  A scum with a history like Issa has somehow managed to become a powerful CHAIR of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee!!  Seriously!?!?   A man with HIS history, in charge of a committee meant to reign in corruption in government?!?!?

THIS is what it evidently takes to become successful in America.  You need to lie!! You NEED to be a cutthroat POS with no concern about ethics, your own personal honor, or the welfare of others.  It’s certainly worked for Issa, and seemingly 90% of all politicians in Washington.

And it seems to be the path of choice for Romney.  Just look at Romney’s etch-a-sketch campaign, his statements that wander all over the map, depending on which way the political winds are blowing that day.  He’s the PERFECT presidential candidate, especially for a party like the GOP.   What continually shocks me about American politics is how men like Issa or Romney manage to hoodwink people into voting for them.

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Obama moving forward on Keystone XL

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Terry| 2 Comments
Obama

Obama is expected to push for expedited approval of permits for the southern half of the Keystone XL pipeline. Once again he's caved. Once again, Republicans are lying through their teeth about the whole issue in order to score political points with ignorant American voters.

On Thursday, Obama is expected to announce that he’s fast-tracking permitting for the southern half of the Keystone XL pipeline.  For all of those who rejoiced when Obama initially rejected the permit process, you should you have seen this coming.  The pipeline IS going to happen.  Obama never really said he was rejecting the permit due to concerns about the incredibly destructive source of the Canadian oil, or about long-term environmental concerns about the pipeline itself.  Republicans in the House forced his hand to make an up-or-down call, and given Nebraska’s refusal to route the pipeline across the vast Ogallala aquifer, Obama really had no choice.  He wasn’t about to approve a pipeline without adequate study of a new route for the northern portion of the pipeline.   It would have been giving TransCanada carte blanche to do whatever they pleased, without adequate study of environmental impacts.

It was the right call at the time, but I knew it was a short-term “victory” for environmentalists.  When you consider 1) the reasons Obama gave for the initial denial, 2) Obama’s spotty record with regard to environmental issues, and 3) what I see as a complete wimpiness on Obama’s part in terms of resisting political pressures, I figured that eventually that approval would be given and the pipeline would be built.  There IS a distribution problem with Canadian oil, and there really aren’t many other options.  Obama has also been getting a lot of political heat over the initial refusal for the permit, heat that’s only intensified as gas prices continue to rise (more on that in a bit).   It’s not the first time Obama has caved to save his own skin, and from all indications, it won’t be the last.

I honestly don’t have an issue with the pipeline itself.  God knows the U.S. is already criss-crossed with many, many thousands of miles of pipelines.  It’s a necessary “evil” given how we use energy in the U.S. (and I really don’t think it’s that “evil”).  The real issue isn’t the pipeline itself, it’s the source of the oil and the incredible environmental damage in Canada from mining the tar sands for oil, as I’ve said before.

What bugs me about it all is how incredibly ineffective Obama at communicating any kind of environmental message.  Republicans are still SO far ahead of the game in terms of setting the agenda for political discussion in the U.S.  Somehow, Keystone XL has been directly linked with the rise in gas prices, but Republicans, including Mitt Romney, are bald-faced LIARS when talking about gas prices and what government can supposedly do to lower them.  They also KNOW they’re lying about it (don’t ask what I think of a man’s character when they knowingly lie to get ahead).  Unfortunately, they also know how completely stupid American voters are, and know it’s a winning issue for them, no matter how much they have to lie about Keystone or gas prices.

Keystone XL, a pipeline coming soon to a location near you!  It’s only a matter of time before the Obama administration OK’s the remaining northern portion of the pipeline as well.

Posted in Environmental Awareness, Politics

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Pulling for Santorum

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Terry| 3 Comments
Rick Santorum

I would NEVER want Rick Santorum to EVER actually win an election again in his life. It goes well beyond simple political preference, I think the man would be downright dangerous in any position of real power. But for the time being...GOOOOOO SANTORUM!!! The longer he can drag the Republican Primaries out, the better Obama's odds are in the fall.

OK, I admit it. I am actively rooting for Rick Santorum to win Ohio tonight.   I’m actively rooting for Rick Santorum to win as many contests as possible.  No, I in NO way want him to actually EVER serve in any political office ever again.  I think the man is disgusting both as a politician, and as a human being.  But let’s face it, the man is completely unelectable in the general election.   The longer Santorum can drag things out, the better it looks for Obama.  And hence…for the time being…GO SANTORUM!!!!

If you ever want to know which way the political winds are blowing during an election year, don’t look at the polls.  Look at InTrade.  It’s where people “put their money where their mouth is”, in that they’re actually BETTING on the outcome of a political race (well, you can bet on just about anything on InTrade).  It’s interesting to follow the polls, and compare to InTrade, as they are often not on the same page.   More often than not, it’s InTrade that outperforms the polls.

When the day started, InTrade had Romney with a 90%+ chance of winning Ohio.  It’s been fascinating to watch the line on InTrade tonight, as the election results have filtered in.   As I’m typing this, InTrade has Romney’s chances of winning Ohio at only 37.7%.  No matter what, Romney will win the most electoral votes in Ohio, but ONLY because of the organization of his campaign and his money, compared to Santorum. Santorum failed to qualify for delegates in parts of Ohio, largely due to a lack of organization.

My bet…if Romney should indeed lose the popular vote in Ohio tonight, in the morning, he’ll be crowing about his success in winning delegates.  But MAN does Romney have a lot to worry about, delegates or not.  Any momentum Romney may have gotten from his squeaker of a win in Michigan is likely gone, should these results hold and Santorum manages to hold on to Ohio.  He’s also won Tennessee, North Dakota, and Oklahoma tonight. 

The Obama campaign has to be smiling tonight, relishing the thought of many more weeks of Republican infighting.

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