Romney 2012?

I think Holder could have been a lot more effective if he hadn't had to deal with a pile of b.s. attacks from the rightwingnuts.

In office as Attorney General he dismissed a case involving armed Black Panther thugs at an active election polling place

Mitt Romney conceded President Obama has succeeded in making him a less likable person in an interview with Politico but he offered a defiant retort to those hoping he will open up this week: "I am who I am."

"Romney quoted that Popeye line three times in a 30-minute interview... swatting away advice from Republicans to focus on connecting with voters in a more emotional, human way at this convention."

"The issue seems close to the surface for Romney. He even used the same line in an interview with Fox News that aired Sunday: "Remember that Popeye line: 'I am what I am and that's all what I am.'"

Mitt Romney offers evidence he's popular: 40 years ago, he was booster club president


Listen, people. Mitt Romney knows you don't like him, and he's sick of it. In an interview with Politico, "Romney made plain he is tired of the criticism that he is stiff, distant or not broadly liked by voters." Not only that, he offered proof that he's a likable guy:

“I was voted the president of my fraternity,” he said. “They don’t call them fraternities at Brigham Young University. They’re called Service Clubs. It was the Cougar Club. But you don’t get voted to be head of your group if you don’t get along with people, if you don’t connect with people.”

There's evidence of broad-based social appeal: More than 40 years ago, a group of voters as diverse as Romney's Brigham Young frat brothers considered him electable. Clearly, he's got what it takes to win the affections of a majority of American voters. (Why, by 2011, BYU's student population was, gosh, getting close to 12 percent non-white.)

Except that the Cougar Club isn't really a fraternity, it's a booster club. But regardless of why Romney chose to mischaracterize it, in 1971, when he became the Cougar Club's president and vowed to dramatically increase fundraising for BYU athletics, other universities were severing athletic relations with BYU over the Mormon church's racist policies, and BYU had yet to have any black football or basketball players.

Message to Mitt: That might not be the history you want to remind people about. And if you have to go back 40-plus years to a group of overwhelmingly white men of your religion and age and education level to prove that people like you, people don't like you. Also, let's not forget what happened last time Romney turned to his past classmates to testify to what a great guy he is, and none of his supposed high school friends would go on the record defending his bullying, while another former classmate described Romney's bullying as "evil" and "like Lord of the Flies."

Mitt Romney: popular among people just like him, trust him. Those people are his friends, no need to ask them to verify.

Mitt Romney and deep pockets like the Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson have flooded the airwaves with ads claiming that Barack Obama has eliminated the work requirement for welfare and stolen benefits from Medicare recipients to fund a government takeover of health care. These are lies, and there are lots more like them out there. In the democracy of our dreams, the press relentlessly exposes their falsehood, and media-literate citizens, proficient at critical thinking, are immune from manipulation. But the press is not relentless, and people seem to have given up on demanding a junkyard-dog standard from democracy’s guardians.

For the news industry, it’s an easy call. How often can a station or a paper run the same story? After crying foul a few times about the Romney campaign’s effort to convince white working class voters that Obama is handing out free food stamps to lazy blacks, there’s no news left in the narrative. Networks fear that audiences will get bored, so they move on. And yes, there may be some truth to their understanding of their customers. We’re hooked on novelty, suckers for speed, addled by ADD. But billionaires don’t get bored. They keep paying to pound those ads into our heads, whether we like it or not. Repetition is the demagogue’s best friend.

August 27, 2012, 3:14 pm6 Comments
Voucherizing Medicare

So there it is: the draft Republican platform says of Medicare and Medicaid,

The first step is to move the two programs away from their current unsustainable defined-benefit entitlement model to a fiscally sound defined-contribution model.

That means that instead of Medicare as we know it, which pays your medical bills, you’d get a lump sum which you can apply to private insurance — they’ll yell when we call it a voucher, but that’s what it is.

No doubt I and others will have much more to say about this, but let’s just ask the question: why is this “fiscally sound”?

Bear in mind that health expenses will still have to be mainly paid for by some kind of insurance; that’s in the nature of medical care, with its high but unpredictable cost. So what we’re doing here is replacing government insurance with a program that gives people money to buy private insurance — that is, adding an extra layer of middlemen. Why would this save money? I guess the answer is supposed to be the magic of the marketplace — but we have the experience of Medicare Advantage, plus studies of Medicaid versus private insurance, plus the raw fact that America relies more on private insurance than any other nation and also has by far the highest costs. Nothing, absolutely nothing, in the record suggests that this will do anything other than make health care less efficient.

And for those demanding documentation, it’s coming; too busy today.

So where are the savings? The answer is, it’s basically a way to deny health care to people while denying that you’re doing so. You don’t say, “we won’t pay for this care”, you just hand people a voucher and let them discover that it won’t buy adequate insurance. It’s health-care rationing — but by money instead of deliberate choice.

It would be far more cost-effective, not to say humane, to make actual choices — to decide that Medicare won’t pay for procedures of little or no medical value. (As always, individuals who can afford it can buy whatever care they want). And Obamacare makes a start on that. But hey, that’s death panels.

So instead of making choices, we’ll let people die because of inadequate assets. Fiscal responsibility!

IE, institute a British-style NHS? Surprising to see an American Conservative suggest such an approach. But, they have had a lot of success with it...

Cycloptichorn

Cycloptichorn wrote:

IE, institute a British-style NHS? Surprising to see an American Conservative suggest such an approach. But, they have had a lot of success with it...

Cycloptichorn

British style? No. Never.

A US military style approach. Nationalizing healthcare is the ONLY way America will ever get control of spiraling healthcare costs.

But, (there's always a but) that doesn't mean that Obama's half-assed approach is going to get my approval.

(CBS News) In an interview with CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley, Mitt Romney said his views on abortion rights are more lenient than those put forward in the Republican party platform.


"My position has been clear throughout this campaign," Romney said. "I'm in favor of abortion being legal in the case of rape and incest, and the health and life of the mother."


The Republican Party is gathering in Tampa, Fla., this week for its national convention, where in addition to nominating Romney for president, the party will officially adopt its national platform. Last week, the party added language to the platform calling for a constitutional amendment banning abortion, with no mention of making exceptions for victims of rape or incest, or to save the life of the mother.

Republican Convention 2012: complete coverage

President Obama in an interview Saturday said that if Romney were president, the Republican would not "stand in the way" if Congress attempted to strip women of their reproductive health rights. Democrats have recently stepped up their attacks against the GOP ticket on the issue of reproductive rights, in part because of the strong views held by Romney's running mate Rep. Paul Ryan, and in part because of the controversial remarks GOP Senate candidate Todd Akin made on rape and abortion.


Romney, however, told Pelley that the issue amounts to a distraction.


"Recognize this is the decision that will be made by the Supreme Court," he said. "The Democrats try and make this a political issue every four years, but this is a matter in the courts. It's been settled for some time in the courts."