David Brooks’ cornflakes, walking the party planks, Adelson’s Billions, and Karl Rove misses the mark on Indiana.
First up, we have this lovely Op-Ed from the New York Times’ David Brooks, in which he thoroughly trashes Mitt Romney.
Yes, I can’t believe it either.
An excerpt:
Mitt Romney was born on March 12, 1947, in Ohio, Florida, Michigan, Virginia and several other swing states. He emerged, hair first, believing in America, and especially its national parks. He was given the name Mitt, after the Roman god of mutual funds, and launched into the world with the lofty expectation that he would someday become the Arrow shirt man.
Okay, did Mitt Romney personally come to David Brooks’ house and shit in his cornflakes, then make him eat it? What the hell is going on here? Did Brooks finally get tired of being called a hack and just snapped? DOGS AND CATS, LIVING TOGETHER. MASS HYSTERIA!
Either that, or the media, Brooks included, is reacting like a puppy that got kicked one too many times and is finally biting it’s owners’ ankles.
Next up, TPM reports a surge in voter interest in the Republican Party platform. This is very bad news for the GOP.
It’s bad news for the GOP, because their party platform is littered with political landmines, any one of which could blow the legs off the Romney/Ryan ticket.
Here’s some of the GOP’s Greatest Hits included in this year’s platform:
- No exceptions for rape, incest, or threat to the mother’s life on abortion. Only 17% of Americans agree with this stance.
- Zero support for gay rights, including defending DOMA and reinstating DADT. Less than half of the GOP supports it, almost all Democrats do.
- A crackdown on pornography in general.
- Transforming Medicare into a private voucher program.
- National Right-To-Work.
- National Voter ID.
- No women in combat.
- National “Papers Please” Arizona-style Immigration Laws.
- A Balanced Budget Amendment (aka “The Stupidest Idea In Washington”)
- The right to keep and bear arms of any caliber, anywhere, anytime, with virtually no restrictions.
- Establishing American sovereignty (read: Sharia Law and Agenda 21)
If you’d like to read the whole thing, here it is.
The more people learn about Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, and the GOP, the less they like them. I can’t imagine why.
Adelson is worth more than the combined GDP of 25 countries. If he wanted to, he could do this for every Republican in the House and Senate for the next 186 years before he ran out of money.
This was the danger of Citizens United. Not corporations flooding the political process with money. They’re inherently risk averse, and by design back both sides. No, the real threat was always rogue billionaires supporting fringe candidates with virtually unlimited financial resources.
Fortunately, the GOP hasn’t figured out a way to buy votes directly yet, but I’m pretty sure the Supreme Court is looking for a way to legalize that too.
And I said, ‘Mitch, is there a white Democrat south of Indianapolis who’s supporting Obama who’s not a college professor in Bloomington?’ [Laughter] And he stopped for a minute over his green beans and says, ‘Not that I can think of.’
You know, Indiana’s gone.
No shit, Sherlock. In 2008, Barack Obama carried Indiana 50%-49%, the third smallest margin of victory behind Missouri and North Carolina. Indiana continues to stubbornly be the last Red State in the Midwest, with neighboring Michigan, Ohio, and Illinois all Blue.
By the way, if you were wondering why, it’s because Indiana is 84.3% white, versus 71.5% in Illinois, 78.9% in Michigan, and 82.7% in Ohio.
Isn’t it interesting how the more white a state becomes, the more conservative it becomes as well?
Regardless, Rove is stating the obvious. Indiana was never in play this cycle. The fact that North Carolina and Virginia are is a testament to Mitt Romney as an awful candidate and the country’s changing demographics.
Remember kids, Conservatism never fails; it can only be failed.
