As I made clear on the show over the weekend, I was and remain overjoyed that Governor Romney selected Paul Ryan as his running mate.
It was a huge move, for reasons I expressed in my partly-tongue-in-cheek open letter to Governor Romney last week; it wasn’t the “safe” move, but it was the right move, for the future of this country.
Every talking head in the country spent the weekend solemnly intoning that “this choice changes the conversation”, which proves only that the the barriers for entry into the “Talking Head” business aren’t nearly high enough.
Democrat talking heads giggle their smug giggles and chortle “this changes the conversation away from the economy – the last four years – and changes it to entitlement reform, the next four years!”.
Let’s forget for a moment that Obama and the Dems have not the faintest hint of a plan for reforming entitlements, much less recovering the economy. Beyond that – do Democrats think the long-term economy is in any way extricable from reforming entitlements? They think entitlements can ever be reformed without a vigorous and growing economy?
But the talking heads have a point; this election offers this country a choice. This election is a battle between Silly America and Serious America. Silly America believes that if you just demigog issues long and hard enough, and focus obsessively on contraceptives and tax returns, and ignore the real issues facing this society.
And there really are two outcomes.
If Serious America wins, and Romney and Ryan win, and they dig in and engage the economy and face the entitlement cliff, a lot of long, hard, non-sexy work will follow. The nation will have a chance – provided the people stay serious, and keep serious governments in office – to avoid becoming a cold Greece with a more vapid celebrity class.
If Silly America wins, Obama carries on in office. This nation runs up to the cliff smiling one of those smug, NPR-audience smiles as we sail off into oblivion.
And America will deserve to fly off that cliff, with all that that entails.
And then we’ll need a new conversation. It’s hard one to describe; thinik of the one an oncologist has with someone with Stage IV cancer.
It’s over. Romney is falling further behind in the polls. The Ryan pick is an attempt to shore up the base and save some of the down ticket races.
” to avoid becoming a cold Greece with a more vapid celebrity class.”
The comparison to Greece is just a bit of fear mongering. Th US is a continent-sized country with 300 million people — a huge supply of human capital. We have more arable land than any other country and staggering natural resources. Compared to Greece, a rocky edge of the Balkan mountains that relies on foreign currency and controls neither its currency nor its economic policy, the difficulties of the US are trivial and quite solvable.
” relies on foreign currency”
I meant to say it relies on foreign tourism for its economic survival . . .
Sanity,
As to the polls – put down the narrative. This election is just beginning. And Obama has nothing.
Will the US be a Greece? Of course not.
So what level of economic misery ARE you willing to accept? Clearly 10% unumployment and a 58% employment rate doesn’t faze you.
So predictable from you, InSanity! You have nothing but your failed libturd ideology, can’t debate with any facts, so you wet your pants trying to obfuscate. Congrats on playing your usual role as a useful idiot of the DemocRAT party.
GWU poll shows a tie – with Dems sampled according to 2008 turnout numbers. Good luck with that.
The media is bandwagoning. And you, ,”Sanity”, are the bandwagon.
I think Sanity needs a little help. This might be just the thing.
http://my.democrats.org/page/s/talkingpoints
“Will the US be a Greece? Of course not.”
Then stop saying it could be”
“to avoid becoming a cold Greece with a more vapid celebrity class.”
Your words. If you want to be credible then stop the hyperbolic fear mongering.
“This election is just beginning.”
We are 85 days away from the election. In nine of the past 10 elections, the candidate leading in the Gallup Poll taken closest to 100 days out has won the White House. At 85 days out the correlation is even stronger. Obama has it.
He’s up by a whopping 9 points in the FOX poll.
You can spin it any way you want. It’s over.
It amazes me that anyone — other than a lawyer or a public employee — would want to see Obama re-elected.
Obama has been the worst president for the poor and working class since the Great Depression. There is no light at the end of the tunnel. We are not “turning the corner”, if anything, slow and hesitant growth is sliding back into recession. Obama says that he is building the economy the economy from the bottom up — he ain’t building nuthin’.
Working people know that the best times are times of high economic growth. If the economy is growing 3%-5%/year, jobs are plentiful, and opportunities for advancement abound. Low growth hurts everybody, but it hurts those with the fewest resources the most.
What makes it clearest to me what road we are on were the debates about the debt ceiling. There they were, droning on and on about whether we should raise our debt ceiling, and by how much.
Here’s the thing. The “debt ceiling” that Congress passes is a fiction. It means nothing. It’s simply a self-imposed limit on how much we will try to borrow.
The real and unavoidable debt ceiling is something Congress cannot control – how much people are willing to lend us. Doesn’t matter how much we promise we won’t borrow more than, it’s what others – who are free to say no – decide to lend us.
And here’s the thing. We’ve already hit that. Passed it, and gone on as if it doesn’t matter. We’ve only been selling a fraction of the debt we’ve been accumulating, for several years now. The rest we’ve been inventing out of whole cloth.
And here’s the thing – when the Federal Reserve prints money like it’s worthless paper, it doesn’t take all that long for the rest of the world to decide that our money is worthless paper. And that way lies destruction.
We’re sitting about where Weimar Germany was, in 1922.
And as for Congress, it’s like a couple of plastic surgeons discussing an operation – the Republicans arguing for a face-lift, while the Democrats are arguing that all the patient needs is a botox injection.
Meanwhile, the patient has a leg caught in a woodchipper, and if we’d shut it down immediately he’d have been able to survive with a below-the-knee amputation, but they’ve been dithering so long that we’re facing above-the-knee, now, and if we dither through another year, we’ll be looking at having to cut the leg off at the hip.
It is absolutely essential that we get spending down so that at the least we can cover it all with actual loans, instead of monetary inflation, immediately. Regardless of what we have to cut or who gets hurt.
Because the consequence of not doing so are worse than anyone could possibly imagine.
Regarding whether we will become Greece or not; well, if we continue to accept the idea that we can tax and spend our way to prosperity, and that ever-increasing checks from the government are our right, then yes, we will be Greece–the question is not “if,” but “when.” Just ask anyone who has experience with “community organization” in the inner city; once you persuade people that they are entitled, it’s hard to back down from that.
There was a guy named RickDFL who used to comment here. RickDFL made all impossible to back away from predictions.
He doesn’t comment at SITD anymore, or at least he doesn’t using the RickDFL moniker.
I wonder if we’ll here from “Sanity” after election day?
You guys are far right ideologically bound, and you look through that lens. Nothing wrong with that, but the average voter (and especially the independent and swing voter) asks one question, and that is “can I trust this guy?”
The problem with Romney is that he cannot be trusted. This is a candidate who forced outsourcing and offshoring of jobs as his business model at Bain. This is a guy who won’t release tax forms for 10 years (can you trust someone like this?), and is a tax avoider. To most reasonable, middle class Americans, this isn’t patriotic. Especially when you have an estimated net worth of between 190 and 250 million, as Romney does.
The most basic, and only requirement they have in most cases, is that their leader be someone who understands them and their struggles and who they can TRUST.
Romney isn’t measuring up on those basic criteria.
They might not love Obama, but he’s proven trustworthy (he did release his tax forms, his birth certificate, etc), and even if you don’t like his policies he does what he says he’ll do, for the most part. He said he’d go after Al Quaeda, and he did. He said he’d pass healthcare reform, and he did. While Obama often caves to the wealthy (he continued the Bush tax cuts for the rich along with everybody else), they have fewer worries about whether he is working for the 1% vs. the middle class. With the Republicans there’s no doubt about who their masters are. At least with the Dems there’s SOME hope that they see and have an iota of empathy for the middle and lower classes . . .
You guys are far right ideologically bound
PUt another way – we have principles that you can’t badger us out of.
I like that better.
“Sanity” is so ideologically bound he’ll support a president with the worst economic record since the great depression because there is a “D” after his name — because of his economic record!
Not trying to badger you out of your principles. The far right exists, always has, and always will. You have a role to play.
I think Romney was a poor choice for the Republicans. This guy pioneered the individual mandate for health insurance (Romneycare in Massachusetts) and now he has to run from it because Obama’s version is the same and, god forbid, you can’t support Obama or give him credit for a good idea (that was your idea, and you actually executed on the state level). Nobody can figure out what he really stands for because he flip flops or gets pulled by elements in his own party or whatever. Picking Ryan was a good idea if he is finally trying to define his positions (and Ryan certainly has cemented those), but most voters focus on the presidential candidate, not the VP choice.
Overall, though, there is this elephant in the room — the trust issue. You can try to dialogue about budget, economy, jobs, etc., but it is all for naught if you haven’t nailed down the most basic issue with the voters, and that is TRUST.
He needs to release his tax returns, for starters. He needs to do that ASAP. If he waits then there will be more doubts (did he somehow “scrub” them? Are there real?).
I fear that the Republicans simply picked a bad candidate this time, but given the choices I suppose this was the best they could do this time. It seems like the better Republican choices are waiting for 2016.
The far right exists, always has, and always will. You have a role to play.
It’s called saving the country from idiots.
“The far right exists, always has, and always will. You have a role to play.
It’s called saving the country from idiots.”
Of course. And that’s what the far left says about themselves too 😉
Obama released his school records? When did he do that, inSanity?
Conservatives are correct in their judgement of the Left. As Reagan said, “. . . the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn’t so.”
For instance, that Mitch and the commenters on SITD are “far right”.
Funny. Reagan would be RINO by today’s Republican party standards, and Democrats of today would be in line with Republicans if they time travelled back to Reagan’s time. The entire political spectrum has been pulled to the right, thanks to corporate lobbyists and campaign funding and the growth in power of the Christian right since Reagan era.
“Reagan would be RINO by today’s Republican party standards,”
Wrong.
Another faulty judgement.
The GOP has selected five candidates for president since 1984, all have been less conservative than Reagan.
Obama, on the other hand, is further left than any previous Democrat candidate, with the possible exception of Carter.
Limited government, Sanity, will always have an enemy – expansive government. The best arbiter in this debate, by design of the founders, ought to be the governed, not the government.
It’s why we’re different from the rest of the planet. Debate over, you lost.
Every poll says that the top issues for American voters this year is the economy, jobs, and the deficit.
What do the democrats want to talk about?
Anything but the economy, jobs, and the deficit. Anything at all.
“It’s why we’re different from the rest of the planet. Debate over, you lost.”
If the debate is “over” there’s no need for this blog, right?
“If the debate is “over” there’s no need for this blog, right?”
Holy mother of non sequiturs!
That’s his new blog name: Holy mother of non sequiturs!
“Another faulty judgement.”
The evidence would show otherwise, especially since 9/11. Collective fear pushed the nation further to the right on many levels as is evidenced by legislation and cultural signposts such as the Patriot Act, repeated tax cuts (even under Obama — payroll tax cut and continuation of Bush tax cuts to shrink government), increased defense spending and homeland security, increase in right wing domestic terrorism, passage of anti-gay marriage legislation in many states, etc, etc.
The nation has moved to the right, as a whole, including the Democrats, over the past 30 years. The Christian right did not dominate politics the way it does today. Not even close.
Why do they call it the “War on Religion (read Christianity, because those other religions aren’t valid)” and “War on Culture” and “Class Warfare”? This is extremist rhetoric unheard of even 10 or 20 years ago. The change in rhetoric alone indicates how far we’ve moved to the right and the carefully orchestrated polarization of the electorate.
Back when ozone depleting chemicals were an issue nobody made it political. We just got rid of them. Today climate change is a science-proven man made problem just like ozone depletion was, but it is politicized by the right.
Is this a healthy environment for solving problems? I think not.
Reagan would be RINO
Long since debunked (Part One and Part Two.
It’s a chanting point the left’s been using to try to put a wedge between conservatives. Nothing more.
Good thing you call yourself “Sanity”. While that noun may be debateable, “Factuality” is not.
Doubling down on his failed economic policies:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/08/13/obama_a_new_vision_of_an_america_which_prosperity_is_shared.html
“Go backward”? Obama would kill for Bush’s average unemployment rate of 5.2%. Hell, if it got to 7.2% Axelrod would crow about the “Obama boom”.
When Obama pushed his trillion-dollar stimulus package he said it would keep unemployment below 8%.
From the minute Obama was sworn into office unemployment has never gotten below 8%.
The reason it didn’t work isn’t because the economy was worse than Obama thought — Candidate Obama had no problem talking about how bad the economy was in 2008 — it didn’t work because it was a bad idea pushed by self-serving politicians and economists with an inflated notions of their competence.
What bold change is Obama proposing?
None.
Same incompetent crew, pushing the same tired redistributionist ideas.
The GOP will retain control of the House and may take the Senate. Unlike Clinton, Obama is too rigid of an ideologue to reach across party boundaries for the good of the country.
A vote for Obama is a vote for the status quo. A stagnant economy, high unemployment rate, and wages that are flat while the cost of necessities inexorably rises. “Shared prosperity” my ass.
“What do the democrats want to talk about?
Anything but the economy, jobs, and the deficit. Anything at all.”
I might quibble just a little bit with Terry on this, but only to point out that Dims discussion on jobs has been about more gov’t jobs or “green” jobs. Both of which are demonstrated failure.
““Do we go forward towards a new vision of an America in which prosperity is shared?” Obama asked.”
“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” – Winston Churchill –
Why is it that whenever people refer to “collective fear” they exclude themselves?
Tax cuts have nothing to do with fear induced by 9/11. BTW, why is it that when people talk about the miserable economy Obama inherited, they never mention the blow that 9/11 struck the U.S. economy? Maybe because the ill effects were so short lived compared to Obama’s economic stagnation?
There has been no increase in right wing terrorism since 9/11.
Scott Hughes wrote:
Both of which are demonstrated failure.
That’s because liberals believe in redistribution, not creation. They do not understand Bastiat’s broken window fallacy. They do not understand that making consumers pay $12 for a CFL light rather than $1 for a perfectly good incandescent means that they will have less money to spend on other consumer goods.
“You guys are far right ideologically bound, and you look through that lens.”
Left, right, or completely off-the-wall, we can’t continue to pretend to borrow more than people are willing to lend us.
The more dollars we create from whole cloth, the less every existing dollar is worth.
When the Fed creates a trillion dollars via “Quantitative Easing”, that’s a trillion dollars they’ve stolen from everyone who holds dollars or dollar-denominated assets.
A had a friend visit Taiwan and Shanghai, a few weeks ago. Not only are prices extremely high, given the interest rates, the street vendors and shop-keepers refuse to accept dollars at all. Which is a major change.
The only reason everyone has dumped dollars is because they have so much already sunk into them. But everyone who holds dollars is doing all they can to reduce their exposure.
A complete collapse is coming, unless we take immediate action far more extreme than anyone is discussing.
“Back when ozone depleting chemicals were an issue nobody made it political. We just got rid of them. Today climate change is a science-proven man made problem just like ozone depletion was, but it is politicized by the right.”
Actually, as one who read the papers when the banning of CFCs was enacted, yes, it was hotly debated.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Protocol
The thing that those who wanted to ban CFCs had, but proponents of global warming do not, is a consistent record of credible science–no hyping the upper confidence bound of problems, no poor placement of sites for measuring ozone with the Dobson units, and a bit of predictive power.
Apparently “Sanity” does not need to be rooted in fact, I guess.
The comments “Sanity” makes here are getting longer and longer. Getting a little more shrill, a little more defensive, and now careening off into off-topic land more and more.
I think Dog Gone used to make shorter comments.
Sanity….did you know that Paul Wellstone was a very strong supporter of traditional marriage?
Now, what were you saying about how today’s Democrats are like Republicans of the 1980s?
Wow, InSanity, you sure seem to have a lot of time on your hands today. You better watch out, because you might be replaced with one of your Dear Leader’s pardoned illegal alien voters.
As for tax records, who gives a rat’s ass, I mean besides you ignorant left wing nut jobs?! We all know that he made a lot of money, but then, he made it in the private sector. Let’s look at how much money the rest of the corrupt DemocRAT cabal made from their POLITICAL careers, shall we? And, don’t give me any of your lame crap that they aren’t running for POTUS. Since you brought up trust, how can you defend Obumbler when he’s surrounded himself with people like Geithner, a tax cheat in his own right.
And, you lefties also conveniently ignore the fact that one of the top DemocRAT bundlers, Frederico Pena, also worked for Bain and actually DID outsource jobs, just like Obumbler did for GE and their new light bulbs and Fisker Motors with that green jobs fiasco.
But, hey, keep drinking the kool aid and telling yourself that the country will be better off with four more years of an economically illiterate, illegal alien, racist communist in charge. He has already said that if he’s re-elected, he will implement a massive tax increase on EVERYONE.
One more thing. Read the healthcare bill. I mean really read it, not just parrot the talking points from Obumbler’s ministry of propaganda. After you do that and if you can understand the legalese and double talk contained within it, if you still say that it was a good idea, then you are truly InSane. I call to your attention the fact that over 4,000 companies have already been given waivers for compliance. Obviously, even the DemocRATs know that the bill sucks!
Why does Romney need to release his tax returns for more than last year? Did John Kerry release 10 years of returns? Has Obama?
If Romney has broken tax law, I am sure that the fine folks at the IRS will be in touch. Besides since Geitner, tax returns are of no consequence.
“Back when ozone depleting chemicals were an issue nobody made it political. We just got rid of them. Today climate change is a science-proven man made problem just like ozone depletion was, but it is politicized by the right.”
Spoken like someone who does not understand what science is. Hint: it’s not a truth-generator.
More proof of Team Obama’s economic incompetence:
Treasury: U.S. to lose $25 billion on auto bailout
Washington -The Treasury Department says in a new report the government expects to lose more than $25 billion on the $85 billion auto bailout. That’s 15 percent higher than its previous forecast.
In a monthly report sent to Congress on Friday, the Obama administration boosted its forecast of expected losses by more than $3.3 billion to almost $25.1 billion, up from $21.7 billion in the last quarterly update.
The report may still underestimate the losses. The report covers predicted losses through May 31, when GM’s stock price was $22.20 a share.
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120813/AUTO01/208130392#ixzz23Sxgq5oA
Oh yeah . . .
25 billion would be enough to give four-year scholarships to a half-million state college students.
Sanity- “He continued the Bush tax cuts for the rich along with everyone else.” That’s funny- a more honest and less deceptive way to say the same thing would have been “he continued the Bush tax cuts.” Seems you libs just have a hard time putting your brain around the fact that they were for everybody. The class warfare stuff is just so much more fun and, you know,….. deceptive.
Ten years ago getting a lib to admit that the Bush tax cuts resulted in significant tax saving for all taxpayers was worse than pulling teeth. It couldn’t be done.
To tag team with Terry if I may, it’s also worth noting that the $25 billion taxpayer loss in the GM/Chrysler debacle is about equivalent to the $26 billion the UAW got that it wasn’t entitled to. It wasn’t GM and Chrysler that were bailed out, but rather the UAW.
And exactly WHY weren’t impeachment papers filed for this massive kickback to a big supporter of Obama’s?