Category Archives: 2012 Election

Charles Pierce Scores the Final Debate

Dispiriting stuff indeed:

A discussion of foreign policy that did not mention climate change. (Four debates and nary a mention. Somebody else is going to have to tell the polar bears.) A discussion of foreign policy that mentioned teacher’s unions exactly as many times — once — as it mentioned the Palestinians, and I am not making that statistic up. A discussion of foreign policy that did not mention hunger, or thirst, or epidemic disease, but spent better than ten minutes on The Fking Deficit. (Here Romney cited in defense of his position that noted political economist, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.) A discussion of foreign policy that was all about threats, real and imagined, and wars, real or speculative, and weapons, and how many of them we should build in order to feel safe in this dangerous world. (Romney actually argued that we should go back to the “two-war” strategy that we followed throughout the Cold War. Against whom in god’s name does he think we’ll be fighting the second war?)

There was no “we” in the final presidential debate this year. In no area have we as a self-governing nation so abandoned our obligations as we have on foreign policy. In no area are we so intellectually subservient to expertise, and to the Great Man Theory of how things should be run. In no area are we so clearly governed, rather than governing ourselves. The president, at least, occasionally seems to be aware not only that this is true, but also that it puts the whole experiment of self-government in mortal peril, just as the Founders knew it would when they lodged the war powers in the Congress, which has spent the last 225 years giving them back, in one way or another, to the Executive, which is presided over, always, by One Great Man. He at least seems self-aware enough to appear troubled by the power he nonetheless wields.

There is no nation in its right mind that would put its foreign policy in the hands of the Willard Romney who showed up on stage here in Boca Raton on Monday night, particularly since he had so clearly abandoned everything else he believed on the subject for the purpose of fronting himself as a moderate in order to run out the clock over the next three weeks. He knew nothing and said less.

Experts agree Romney lost. Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: “Mitt the shapeshifter falls on Obama’s bayonet” as does the CBS poll.

Nobody knows, however, if anyone in the USA cares enough about foreign policy for it to matter.

Posted in 2012 Election | Comments Off on Charles Pierce Scores the Final Debate

Yes, My Downballot Recommendations Are In Progress

Several readers (yes, really, several) have been kind enough to ask if I’m going to do my regular downballot recommendations on judges and other local issues.

Usually I do them at the last minute, but given that absentee ballots are turning up in people’s homes, I am already hard at work on them, and hope to post them very soon, maybe tomorrow. Bear with me, it is a long ballot.

I’m glad people find them of use!

Posted in 2012 Election | 1 Comment

Is This the Best Political Commercial of the Year?

If Walk and Talk the Vote is not the best political commercial of the year, it’s certainly the best political commercial for judicial office I’ve ever seen.

Thank you to PW for pointing it out to me.

Posted in 2012 Election | 3 Comments

Full Details of Romney Tax Plan Posted Online

A new — unofficial — website promises all the details on Mitt Romney’s 5 trillion dollar tax plan. I have to admit that at first glance they do seem to have captured the basic idea rather well.

Further study may be required to grasp all the fine points, though.

Thanks to DF for the pointer!

Posted in 2012 Election, Completely Different | Comments Off on Full Details of Romney Tax Plan Posted Online

Mitt Romney Debates Himself

1.8 million views on YouTube so far for Mitt Romney debates himself:

Indeed, the scariest thing about the guy is his seeming willingness to say anything, everything, to get elected. It’s far beyond the ordinary politician’s pander level. It’s well beyond Nixonian or Rovian. On the national stage, it is in a class by itself.

It also seems to be reasonably effective.

Posted in 2012 Election | Comments Off on Mitt Romney Debates Himself

Thoughts on Mr. Obama’s Speech in Miami Today (Updated)

Via Talking Points Memo, here’s a highlight from the talk:


If that doesn’t work, here’s a direct link.

As TPM notes, as a rally-the-troops kind of a speech President Obama’s Miami speech was a big success — the President had energy, he got himself going, and he got the crowd going.

And it did a good job of taking the fight to the other guy, unlike a certain recent debate performance.

But as a description of what Obama would actually do in the next four years the speech — like the whole campaign — was a little weak: end the war in Afghanistan, stay the course on the recovery, hire some teachers, make education more affordable (somehow), make a deal with Republicans to cut $1 trillion or more from the budget (queuecue the Catfood Commission).

The key for the Obama campaign has been and remains to demonize Romney, a process that very largely consists of just telling the truth about him. But that’s why the debate hurt so: for the mythical low-information undecided voter, who was just tuning and was relentlessly ignorant of everything Romney has been saying and doing for past two years, it’s all too possible Romney looked good, or at least neither dangerous nor demonic.

Update: While I’m swiping video from TPM, I really ought to include this — an analysis of Romney’s debate performance. It really deserves to work:

Just one thing: This video isn’t by Team Obama at all! It is by something called CannonfireVideo.

Update2: This following video, on the other hand, is by the ‘Obama Truth Team’:

Posted in 2012 Election, U.Miami | 2 Comments