September 29, 2012

tut, tut, and all that...

September 29, 2012

When the dogs won’t eat the dog food - BY JOAN WALSH

FRIDAY, SEP 28, 2012 02:40 PM PDT
When the dogs won’t eat the dog food
Mitt Romney is losing not because of a bad campaign but because voters think he would make a bad president
BY JOAN WALSH

I know, “the dogs won’t eat the dog food” is kind of a cliché, but maybe because of Mitt Romney’s Seamus I couldn’t resist it. It refers to attempts to blame marketing for a product not selling, when the problem is the product itself. Romney is the product the voters aren’t buying – the dog food, if you will.

Journalists and political operatives are already engaged in a pre-mortem about Romney’s awful campaign, and what killed it: The never-ending tax controversy? Bain job-killing? His Olympics stumble? A mediocre convention? Bad judgment in slamming the president on Libya? Those remarks about the “47 percent”? Politico came out and told the truth today: “In the end, it’s Mitt.”

Mostly anonymous Republicans (such courage) dish the dirt on the candidate they say they love. The silliest thing in the Politico piece came from an anonymous “top Romney official” who called Romney a “lousy candidate” who’s “highly qualified to be president.” Actually, in our country, sir (it’s almost certainly a “sir”), voters decide who’s highly qualified to be president. And they’re not sold on Romney.

Let’s be clear, though: Romney can still win. Our country is divided. The swing voters coming over to President Obama’s column – including seniors and the white working class – could swing back to the GOP, if not to Romney personally, in the event of a major crisis or something else unforeseen. Everyone’s saying the debates are a make or break moment for Romney, and it’s true, I guess, that a great performance might change the narrative, at least. (In the media, anyway; I’m not sure anything but a spectacular Obama stumble would make the debates decide the election.) So Mitt’s supporters have a lot of advice, some of it crazy.

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MORE:
http://www.salon.com/2012/09/28/when_the_dogs_wont_eat_the_dog_food/

September 29, 2012

Debate Preview

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/29/us/politics/cramming-and-pruning-for-first-presidential-debate.html?hp

and so it goes:

September 29, 2012

Ann, please get Mitt some help. He thinks he is running against the guy in the empty chair...

Me too.

And Ann, I’m a bit worried about Mitt now. It seems to me that his emotional balance and mental well-being are already in the flashing red light zone. I mean, have you heard some of the crazy things he says? He doesn’t seem to be able to tell truth from fiction and he sorta seems to be living a fantasy world.

So Ann, please get Mitt some help. He thinks he is running against the guy in the empty chair that Clint chatted with the night he accepted the GOP nomination. In a few days, he’ll have to debate the real President Obama and I’ m afraid that the cognitive dissonance of the moment will break him long before he has the chance to have the reality of the Presidency crush him.
Better for the world that Mitt has his meltdown now. Thanks Ann, for the well timed warning.

Cheers

MORE:
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/09/29/ann-i-also-have-that-same-concern/

September 29, 2012

If Obama doesn’t slip up, the next 40 days or so will be one long, dark night for Mitt Romney.

40 Days of Night
By CHARLES M. BLOW
Mitt Romney is losing badly. And he has only himself to blame.

Not only is he trailing President Obama in almost every national poll, he’s trailing in almost every poll of swing states.

What is the Republican response? That there must be some magical, maniacal skew in the numbers, and the skew must be a conscious effort by a scheming, elite media to dampen Republican enthusiasm.

...................

This is just an extension of the Republican war on facts. If you find a truth disagreeable, simply deny it. Call it corrupt. Suggest that it is little more than one side of a story — an opinionated, biased one — and insist that there is another explanation. The base will buy it.

Let’s just call this Operation Ostrich.


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/29/opinion/blow-40-days-of-night.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120929&_r=0

September 28, 2012

Romney Health Care Plan Nearly Doubles Family Insurance Costs: Study

Source: Huffington Post

Romney Health Care Plan Nearly Doubles Family Insurance Costs: Study


With the news this week that there’s been net job growth during President Obama’s term, Mitt Romney lost one of his favorite critiques of the presidential incumbent. Not to worry though, there’s always Obamacare to criticize, right?

Maybe not so much. Under Romney’s proposed health care plan, American families buying non-group health insurance would pay nearly double what they pay under Obamacare, according to a new study by Families USA entitled "ObamaCare versus RomneyCare versus RomneyCandidateCare." That includes both comparative insurance premium payments as well as out-of-pocket expenses.
http://www.familiesusac4.org/2012-health-care-comparison.pdf

The study finds that while RomneyCare in Massachusetts bears many similarities to Obamacare, neither are very similar to what Romney’s health care plan would look like if he were elected. Among measures identified in the study, RomneyCandidateCare would repeal Obamacare, turn Medicaid into a block grant and add an income tax deduction for purchasing health coverage. As a result, the study reports, not only would American families pay more for coverage, many fewer Americans would have health insurance at all. By 2016, 41.9 million more people would be uninsured under Romney than with Obamacare.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/28/romney-health-care-plan-double-costs_n_1922555.html

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September 28, 2012

N.M. - A drug-sniffing Dog is town's only certified cop

VAUGHN, N.M. -- A drug-sniffing dog now is the only certified member of the police force in the small eastern New Mexico town of Vaughn.

Police Chief Ernest "Chris" Armijo decided to step down Wednesday after news stories reported that he wasn't allowed to carry a gun because of his criminal background.

"He decided the attention was distracting," said Dave Romero, an attorney for the town.


State officials said Armijo couldn't carry a gun since acknowledging that he owed tens of thousands of dollars in delinquent child support payments in Texas. Armijo also faces new felony charges after being accused of selling a town-owned rifle and pocketing the cash.



Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/2012/09/27/20120927new-mexico-dog-towns-only-certified-cop.html?nclick_check=1#ixzz27nNIA0GA

September 28, 2012

not a poll, just following the $$$....

WOW check these two pics out!!!



of course,
i am 60 yrs, old and have seen it go up and down, thrown, tossed and jumped upon,
but...
this does SEEM different?

kp

update to add:
NATE SILVER



In the chart, I’ve highlighted the dates of what are probably the four most important political news events of the last month: the Republican and Democratic conventions; the deaths of four Americans in an attack on the consulate in Benghazi, Libya; and the release of the “47 percent” tape.

It’s hard to tell whether this recent gain for Mr. Obama reflects the effect of the “47 percent” comments specifically. But the most typical pattern after a party convention is that a candidate who gains ground in the polls cedes at least some of it back.

Instead, the more pertinent question seems not whether Mr. Obama is losing ground, but whether he is still gaining it.

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/28/sept-27-the-impact-of-the-47-percent/

September 28, 2012

Rahm Emanuel Gets the Spanking He Deserves - By Charles P. Pierce

Rahm Emanuel Gets the Spanking He Deserves
By Charles P. Pierce
at 11:27AM


Of all the several good reasons for wearing a bag over your head while voting for the incumbent, curious staffing decisions are one of the more overlooked. Handing the financial sector over to some Wall Street lapdogs. Listening to Bob Rubin on anything. Putting the deficit commission in the hands of lobby-slick Erskine Bowles and the Undead Alan Simpson. But as far as I'm concerned, chief among these reasons has to be the current president's putting the spectacularly overrated Rahm Emanuel in charge of the White House staff. Emanuel hasn't breathed a breath of air in public service when he wasn't a self-aggrandizing and nasty bit of work.

So it was with some glee that I noted on Thursday evening that a judge in Chicago handed Mayor Rahm his head on a stick as regards the "model" response of the mayor and his police force to the Occupy movement in that city. And he did so with a flourish....

Oops. A mark, that surely will leave.


Read more: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/occupy-chicago-judge-decision-13166971#ixzz27nK7v5Sj

September 28, 2012

Danger for GOP? More Want One-Party Control It's been widely overlooked, but there's a new Gallup...

Danger for GOP? More Want One-Party Control

It's been widely overlooked, but there's a new Gallup Poll with possibly wide significance. Polls in the past have always shown a perhaps understandable but sometimes maddening preference among voters for split control in Washington--in other words, they seem to prefer gridlock, with the White House checking Congress and vice versa. But now Gallup has just found an astonishing surge in those who say right now they want one-party control. Since Obama is doing well at Gallup right now--maintaining a 6% lead today--this would suggest that many folks may also vote for Dems for Congress in an effort to give him something to work with.

The numbers: 38% now want one-party control vs. 23% who prefer a split, and 33% don't really care. Gallup notes: "As the 2012 election approaches, these findings suggest that Americans may be somewhat less open to ballot splitting than in prior years."

More:
http://gregmitchellwriter.blogspot.com/2012/09/for-danger-for-gop-more-want-one-party.html