44% of Missourians are terrible people, more on Akin, the end result of thirty years of sex ed cuts, the GOP’s War On Abortion, the Justice Department and the Virginia Voter ID law, Gary Johnson and the debates, and the best and worst cases against the Obama Administration.
Welcome to the Daily Sausage.
First up, Public Policy Polling is reporting that Todd Akin is still leading Claire McCaskill 44-43. Having lived in Kansas City, Missouri for almost a year, I can confirm that 44% of Missourians are terrible people. However, there are still undecideds. How there are undecideds, I don’t know. Maybe they are rock people, who live under rocks and don’t consume news in any format.
Akin, by the way, has indicated that he’s staying in the race. As Charles P. Pierce points out, is that there is no one left in the Republican party with the clout to push him out. Akin can cobble together a fringe candidacy and still make a go of beating Claire McCaskill. Unfortunately for Akin, the Republican National Committee and American Crossroads have pulled their support, which leaves the Akin campaign badly underfunded. It’s amazing what happens when a candidate like Akin is forced to stand on his own fundraising abilities, rather than be buoyed by a shadowy network of conservative billionaires hellbent on turning the country into Kansas-writ-large. In fact, you might say that Akin is an unwanted candidate, and the GOP is trying to abort his candidacy.
Of course, none of this would have even happened if Todd Akin had ever taken a sex ed class in high school.
The RNC, undaunted in the face of controversy, will add a “No Abortions For Anyone” Constitutional Amendment to their party platform this year. It’s good that we’re establishing clear, bright lines between the parties and wiping out the wimpy middle. Americans deserve a choice between freedom and nutjobbery.
The Justice Department approved changes to Virginia’s voter ID law, indicating that there are ways for such laws to proceed forward without federal action. Notably, Virginia’s law differs from those passed in South Carolina and Texas, in that Virginia’s includes a wide variety of identification, and requires the state to mail a voter card to every registered voter before the general election.
While I’m opposed to voter ID laws in all their forms, I have a hard time raising hackles over this. It’s as inclusive as possible and the state is bearing the cost for providing every registered voter with a voter card. They’re not purging rolls (Florida), disenfranchising urbanites (Ohio) or making the ID restrictions odious (Pennsylvania), so while I may not agree with it, and believe that these laws accomplish nothing, this isn’t nearly as bad as the other stuff that’s out there.
Gary Johnson, former GOP Presidential Candidate and current Libertarian Party Candidate for President, has proposed that Presidential debates be expanded to include candidates from third parties on the ballot in enough states to be elected. You know what? I’d like to see Mitt Romney and President Obama debate Gary Johnson and Jill Stein from the Libertarian and Green parties, respectively. I’m not saying they should be in all the debates because, let’s face it, they’re not gonna win a single state. But, it would be immensely entertaining if, for one debate, we actually heard from someone other than President Obama and Mitt Romney for five seconds.
Finally, Ezra Klein’s Wonkblog has the best and worst cases for or against the Obama Administration.
The best case you can make against the Obama Administration is that rather than treating the wounds left behind by the Bush II Administration, whether it’s torture, Wall Street, or any other landmines, they covered it with a bandage and looked forward. In the process, the wound festered and cost the administration an arm. More should have been done to help homeowners and the middle class at the expense of Wall Street, who so righteously screwed us all. More regulation should have been put in place to keep this mess from happening again. And the President should have spent less time pretending his opposition was anything but unreasonable.
The worst case you can make against the Obama Administration is that the President is a secret Kenyan Muslim hellbent on establishing Socialism or Communism, European or Russian style, in the United States, at the expense of the 47% of people that pay federal income taxes at the end of the year.
The fact that the GOP and none of their candidates can make the first case, and are almost exclusively making the second, is why Obama will win in November.
