We're 2-3 weeks from deciding on President

I'm not saying Romney is necessarily the right guy, but Obama has proved he is not the right guy. At least to me.

 

Yeah, I understand the logic that "This seems bad; I don't think I should keep trying bad."

 

Yeah, they can go back to the strategy of the 8 years prior to that. Ya know, how the mess all started?

 

Here is where the campaigning will occur: Nevada, Colorado, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida. All other states have been decided.

 

As I see it, Romney's problem is that he originally stated the election as a referendum on Obama and said to vote for him because he isn't Obama. Saying "vote for me because I'm not the other person" almost never works. Because unless everyone absolutely hates the other person, they want to know "how are you better?" There are some people who absolutely hate Obama, ironically based on a caricature rather than his actual policies, but they are not enough to win. So then Romney picked Ryan and we hear that now it's an issues election. Trouble is Ryan's positions on issues are very unpopular: the Ryan budget that would replace Medicare with vouchers for private insurance, drastically cut taxes on the very wealthy, and drastically cut every program from public safety to highways to education that most people like; the "personhood" amendment that Ryan cosponsored that would outlaw all abortion without exception, most forms of birth control and in vitro fertilization, the attempt by Ryan to redefine rape in a way that would make the majority of rapes "not rape". Then when asked about these issues Romney keeps saying they are side issues. The real issue is Barack Obama. So it's back to vote for me because I'm not the other guy.

I think "likeability" is crap, a person can be affable and make a crummy president or dour and make a good one - would anyone claim the affable George W Bush was a better president than the dour Abraham Lincoln? (That being said, it's not true McCain was more likeable than Obama. McCain was respected but never drew the crowds or the rapturous enthusiasm Obama did, and it wasn't just "first black president". Charisma is something you have or don't. Obama does, Bill Clinton does, McCain does not, Sarah Palin does but it could not overcome her obvious lack of qualification). What DOES matter is if people think the candidate can relate to them. Over and over Romney comes off as not just rich but totally out of touch. Ridiculing the cookies a supporter made, ridiculing the rain ponchos worn by NASCAR fans, talking about his wife's two Cadillacs and his car elevator. No one minds a rich person with the "common touch" but Romney totally lacks that. Poll after poll show that when it comes to rating who "shares your values" or "understands your problems" Obama is way ahead.

 

I think the election can be both a choice and a referendum election. I have never understood why pundits claim it has to be one or the other.

 

By the way, I understand why people don't like Paul Ryan's policies because of their perceived penury, but what's the alternative? As was written by David Burge, "Do you know what will end Medicare as we know it? Medicare as we know it."

Herbert Stein, the famous economist (and father of Ben Stein), postulated that: "If something cannot go on forever, it will stop". He presented the idea in the vein that oftentimes if there are objectionable and unsustainable policies, you don't need to do anything because they will die on their own. However, we all want to see Medicare continue to exist. The problem is that Medicare as it is currently constructed cannot continue. Changes will have to be made, and we will have to live with the idea that the younger generations will have to pay more. It sucks, but the people we elected have overpromised.

 

It's vague criticism like that that loses Republicans respect as the "No" Party. Democrats put out long, detailed programs. Republican frauds like Ryan respond with criticism, but say that they don't have time to run the numbers and be specific.

Why aren't Republican think tanks like Cato publishing papers full of budget numbers, advocating a return to the living structures prevalent before FDR--the non-nuclear family, the ad hoc work group commune, and the large orphanage? This is what's coming up in the 2030s. Start planning now for the death of Social Security.

The cliff is when the country owes so much interest, that it is of no help anymore to return rich people's taxes to where they were before Reagan. That's when we're really out of options, and it's coming up around 2020.

 

Yeah, you're right. Neither Romney nor Ryan have ever put out detailed plans. Oops.

http://www.mittromney.com/sites/def...America-PlanForJobsAndEconomicGrowth-Full.pdf

http://budget.house.gov/uploadedfiles/pathtoprosperity2013.pdf

It must be our Dear Leaders Obama and Reid that are supplying the ones with all the numbers. I can't believe those obstructionist Republicans are keeping President Obama's budget from being passed. Oh, wait, his budget didn't receive a single Democrat vote either. And those terrible Republicans are keeping Harry Reid from passing a budget in the Senate. Oh, wait. Harry Reid hasn't even allowed a budget to be voted upon for the past three years.

Of course, it's all the Republicans fault.

 

I didn't know...Well this is great! You can tell me how much, in the Republican plan, the average recipient will lose in his Social Security check, and how much in his average Medicare benefits. I'm all ears.

 

From what I understand, Romney and Ryan have repeatedly distanced themselves from the "Path to Prosperity" as not the budget they would use. Mostly because it has stuff they don't want to deal with on a national level.

 

At some point we have to pay for what we promise. If we can't pay the tab, we have to do with less. Sorry, honey, but you're just going to have to order the chicken instead of the foie gras.

 

It's a presidential campaign, not a vice presidential one. Romney has his own plan, and Ryan is now beholden to Romney to support it.

The point I was trying to make is you couldn't have a clearer choice when it comes to detailing their positions. One side has an actual plan where they actually bothered to do some math and accounting, and the other presents a plan of rainbows, lollypops and unicorns and pretends that hoping, wishing and praying we had an endless supply of money is a strategy.

 

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I'm reminded of the woman who goes to the butcher to purchase a chicken. She asks the butcher if she could examine the chicken and the butcher complies. She tears off the skin, splits it open, rips off the wings and the legs and pulls out the backbone. She then recoils in horror, "This chicken isn't satisfactory! There's a small spot inside the carcass!" She throws the mutilated chicken back at the butcher. The butcher calmly replies, "Madam, could you pass the same test?"

In this case, the Republican side has presented so much more specificity and willingness to actually try to tackle the fiscal issues facing us that the Democrats need to at least make an attempt before they can criticize what the GOP has done.