A Country Divided

A recent CNN/ORC national poll indicates that if the 2012 presidential election were held today Governor Mitt Romney would beat President Barack Obama by a margin of 53% to 44%.  But a slew of recent national polls show that three-quarters of all Americans disapprove of the job Congress is doing.  

Together these polls reflect enormous dissatisfaction with Washington.  Nonetheless, Republicans, even those in Congress, have been unrelenting in their attacks on President Obama.  Since Obama's first day in office in January 2009 Congressional Republicans have done all they can to block President Obama.  Worse, they have consistently done all they can to delegitimize the Obama presidency at all costs.  They have put party politics ahead of the well being of the American people.

Politics in America has always been a rough and tumble profession.  But, with the emergence of powerful conservative media outlets, the country has become more divided.  Calls for presidential impeachment have cast a shadow over most modern day presidents.  However, the chorus of impeachers seems louder in the past year.  A recent poll by CNN/ORC found that 57% of Republicans support impeaching Obama, while just 35% of independents and 13% of Democrats support such an action. 

The United States Constitution states, "The President, Vice President, and all civil Officers of the United States shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors."  Some Republicans point to Benghazi and the failure to secure America's southern border as reasons to impeach Obama.  Others cite Obama's use of executive orders as an abuse of power.  But President George W. Bush issued an executive order every 10 days, President Ronald Reagan issued an executive order every 7 days, and President Jimmy Carter issued one every 5 days.  In fact, Obama's rate of executive orders is the lowest since President Grover Cleveland.  

In the near future, President Obama will likely take action to change immigration laws, a hot button issue for Republicans who have blocked all efforts for meaningful reform.  White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer, speaking at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast last week, said, “It would be foolish to discount the possibility that Republicans would think about going down that path."  But many Republicans think it would be foolish to pursue impeachment.  They remember that right after the House voted to impeach President Bill Clinton in 1998, for perjury and obstruction of justice, his approval rating surged 10 points to 73% in a Gallup Poll. 

In mid July Republican House Judiciary Committee chairman Robert Goodlatte of Virginia said on ABC's This Week, “We are not working on or drawing up articles of impeachment.” He added, “The Constitution is very clear as to what constitutes grounds for impeachment of the president of the United States. He (Obama) has not committed the kind of criminal acts that call for that.” Meanwhile, House Speaker John Boehner, who has said he disagrees with impeachment, has moved ahead with plans to sue the president over his use of executive powers.  Specifically, Boehner is suing the president for failing to execute the health care law by delaying the law's employer mandates.  This is the same healthcare law House Republicans have voted more than 50 times to repeal.  

The Boehner lawsuit and talk of impeachment have given Democrats an opportunity to increase fundraising efforts.  Last week House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi emailed supporters, "Yesterday, for the first time in history, Congress voted to sue a sitting president. Today, the White House alerted us that they believe 'Speaker Boehner … has opened the door to impeachment.'"  Democrats face many difficult midterm elections this November, and may lose control of the Senate.  

Ten years ago then Senator Barack Obama made a keynote address at the Democratic National Convention that would win him broad acclaim.  "Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes." Obama said.  "Well, I say to them tonight, there's not a liberal America and a conservative America; there's the United States of America."

Sadly for America, those who embrace the politics of anything goes are winning. 

Stop Whining, Republicans

President Barack Obama handily won a second term largely because he ran a superior campaign. Republicans expected a late Reagan-esque surge to propel Mitt Romney to victory. This made Tuesday's defeat an even more crushing blow.

As Romney was conceding defeat, already indignant Republicans were pointing fingers and assessing blame. They were intensely angry, overwrought, and consumed with personal animus for the president. Highly paid Republican consultants cried foul. After all, consultants must protect their reputation and future income.

Republican strategist Mary Matalin blew a fuse and personally attacked President Obama in an article for the conservative National Review. "What happened? A political narcissistic sociopath leveraged fear and ignorance with a campaign marked by mendacity and malice rather than a mandate for resurgence and reform," Matalin wrote. "Instead of using his high office to articulate a vision for our future, Obama used it as a vehicle for character assassination, replete with unrelenting and destructive distortion, derision, and division."

Her hate and bitterness toward the president oozed through every word. To call him a sociopath is to call him a person whose behavior is, "often criminal, and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience." Outrageous.

Perhaps Matalin suffers from a case of Romnesia because the Republican primary was filled with negative and personal attacks on Romney. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich even called the governor a "liar" on CBS. All the Obama campaign had to do was repeat the attacks on Romney from fellow Republican candidates earlier in the year.

For Instance, last year Texas Gov. Rick Perry told the National Journal, "There is something inherently wrong when getting rich off failure and sticking it to someone else is how you do your business, and I happen to think that's indefensible." Gingrich told Mediate last December, "If Governor Romney would like to give back all the money he's earned from bankrupting companies and laying off employees over his years, then I would be glad to then listen to him." And last March Rick Santorum told CBS This Morning, "He doesn't have a core... He's been on both sides of almost every single issue in the past 10 years."

But when it comes to mendacity, Gov. Mitt Romney set the standard. Apart from the constant flip-flopping on issues, Romney regularly leveled dishonest attacks against the president throughout the campaign. The worst lie, which probably cost him a win in Ohio, was the false ad about Jeep moving its operations to China.

Matalin's vituperation was not the least of the GOP blowback to President Obama's reelection. Donald Trump's Twitter response was emphatic: "We can't let this happen. We should march on Washington and stop this travesty... Let's fight like hell and stop this great and disgusting injustice! The world is laughing at us." The aging rocker Ted Nugent tweeted, "Pimps whores & welfare brats & their soulless supporters hav (sic) a president to destroy America... Goodluk (sic) America u just voted for economic & spiritual suicide. Soulless fools."

Tuesday's biggest loser, Republican strategist Karl Rove, who spent $365 million of donor money trying to defeat the president, had the best excuse. He actually accused the Democratic and African American president of interfering with the election. "He succeeded by suppressing the vote, by saying to people, 'you may not like who I am, and I know you can't bring yourself to vote for me, but I'm going to paint this other guy as simply a rich guy who only cares about himself," Rove told Fox News Thursday.

But the most disturbing reaction to the president's reelection may have come from Peter Morrison, the Hardin County Texas Republican Party Treasurer. "We must contest every single inch of ground and delay the baby-murdering, tax-raising socialists at every opportunity," he wrote on his Facebook site. "But in due time, the maggots will have eaten every morsel of flesh off of the rotting corpse of the Republic, and therein lies our opportunity." That "opportunity" is secession, "Why should Vermont and Texas live under the same government? Let each go her own way in peace."

Everybody hates to lose. Yes, the Republican party went though a brutally divisive primary that nominated Mitt Romney. Yes, Romney was gaining momentum, while President Obama remained vulnerable because of a weak economic recovery. But somewhere along the line Republicans lost touch with reality. Their expectations blew way out of proportion. And suddenly their balloon popped on election night.

President Obama's resounding victory has exposed a core problem within the Republican Party: It is filled with anger and hatred brought on by an identity crisis. Republican leaders will be meeting over the next few weeks and months to determine what went wrong this election and what can be done to fix the problem.

Perhaps a great first step would be to stop the whining and the ridiculous personal attacks. Tantrums and snit fits will not win over any converts. Nobody likes a sore loser.

Romney Tales

The story of the third presidential debate is not that President Barack Obama handily defeated Governor Mitt Romney. Rather, what was most noteworthy was how Romney suddenly embraced many of the president's foreign policy stances, as if to say, "Disregard all my previous positions."

Prior to the first debate Governor Romney was flailing and stumbling. President Obama was beginning to take a commanding lead in the polls as even some Republicans were making the switch. A debate win by the president would have effectively ended the Romney campaign. Of course, Romney had the president right where he wanted him.

President Obama, perhaps a bit overconfident, basically phoned in his first debate performance, while Romney came with a clear strategy, energy and purpose. The first debate was a game changer for Romney because it made him look like a legitimate contender. In contrast, President Obama looked as if he didn't care about a second term. Instead of a fatal blow to Romney, the first debate was a near fatal blow for President Obama.

While the president clearly won the rancorous second debate, held at Hoftra University, the results seemed to have little impact on voter sentiment. A bullying Romney commanded the stage, even treating the president disrespectfully. The debate devolved into a sparring match that did not benefit either candidate. Meanwhile, the president's lead in the national polls evaporated.

The third debate was on foreign policy, and moderated by Bob Schieffer of CBS News. For months candidate Romney had harshly criticized every aspect of President Obama's foreign policy. But in Monday night's debate Romney heaped praise on many of Obama's policies. At long last the governor had decided to come home to a more centrist position. He had won the nomination by being a "severe conservative," but Monday night he "Etch a Sketched" his persona into a moderate.

Romney agreed with many of the president's policies, even praising him a couple of times. Of course, there were a couple of tough exchanges, including over military spending. "Our Navy is older -- excuse me -- our Navy is smaller now than any time since 1917. The Navy said they needed 313 ships to carry out their mission. We're now down to 285." Romney said. "That's unacceptable to me. I want to make sure that we have the ships that are required by our Navy."

President Obama was ready with an answer, "You mentioned the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets -- (laughter) -- because the nature of our military's changed. " He concluded, "And so the question is not a game of Battleship where we're counting ships. It's -- it's what are our capabilities."

Going into the final debate Romney had a clear strategy: avoid looking like a warmonger and sound reasonable. He was attempting to appeal to women. As a consequence his responses were so moderate it appeared he was doing all he could to distance himself from the neocons and the "Bush Doctrine." Romney has no foreign policy experience at all. In the past he has staked out very aggressive foreign policy positions against China, Russia, Syria and Iran.

What is most troubling is that Romney has had no problem changing his deeply-held positions to appeal to some constituency. This pattern has repeated itself throughout his political career. He was pro-choice before he was pro-life. He was for Romneycare before he was against Obamacare, which is based on the former. The reason Romney is a serial flip flopper is because he will do and say anything he needs to in order to become president. He has even changed his position on an issue mid-debate.

Romney is a salesman; he is a closer. He sounds convincing, confident and certain. But while he is never in doubt, he is frequently wrong. And worse, he is often misleading. Take his tax cut proposal, which does add up to $5 trillion over 10 years, and most benefits the truly rich. There currently aren't enough tax deductions to eliminate, including mortgage and charity, to pay for the tax cuts. But tax cuts do not grow the economy. The economy barely grew during President George Bush's presidency even though he had signed into law two unpaid for tax cuts, a.k.a., the Bush Tax Cuts.

For those who are now considering voting for Romney, buyer beware.

Romney's Debatable Performance

Governor Mitt Romney exceeded expectations in his debate performance at the University of Denver while President Barack Obama seemed to be trying to protect his lead. 

Romney needed to have a strong performance and he did.  According to a CBS News "snap poll", 46% of the 500 of uncommitted voters asked said that Romney won the debate, 22% said the president won, and 32% said it was a draw. 

It was clear that Romney and his debate team planned to exploit the debate format, moderated by PBS's Jim Lehrer, with an aggressive performance.  The challenger often has the advantage because the incumbent has to defend his record.  But Romney got help from his opponent and the moderator because he was not challenged on his statements.

President Obama was not confrontational.  He failed to raise Romney's embarrassing comments at a fundraiser that 47% are not personally responsible and depend on the federal government.  The president failed to get Romney to explain what loopholes he would eliminate in his tax reform plan to pay for his 20% across the board tax cut, which would cost $5 trillion.  That gave Romney the chance to say over and over his program would not cost $5 trillion.

Romney used, in Obama campaign manager David Plouffe's words, "theatrical aggression."  Romney sounded confident as he gave the appearance of offering specifics without doing so.  He criticized the president for "cutting" $716 billion from Medicare, the exact same amount Representative Paul Ryan, his running mate, and Republicans have voted to cut from the program.  Romney did admit his would turn Medicare into a voucher program, but glossed over its impact.

Romney said he would repeal Obamacare, the president's signature health care legislation, but failed to clearly explain in detail how he would replace it.  However, at one point he said his Massachusetts health care plan initiatives can apply nationally.  That would seem to mean that his individual mandate, which is unpopular, would also apply.  The president did not seize that opening.

For his part, President Obama did not mention his record of 30 consecutive months job growth, which has added more than 5 million private sector jobs to the U.S. economy.  He also did not take credit for saving the U.S. auto industry, which saved a million U.S. jobs.

The president was consistent, persistent, but he played it safe.  He was not forceful and he was not passionate.  He did not make a clear case for his reelection. 

The Romney campaign had leaked that their candidate would use zingers in the debate, but there were none.  Instead, he attacked the incumbent's record and surprisingly even used human anecdotes.  And in his strong summation he claimed he would turn the economy around and create 12 million new jobs in his first term.  Never mind that economic forecasters predict that the U.S. economy is currently on track to add 12 million jobs. 

Romney's performance was welcome relief to Republicans after several weeks of poor performances and embarrassing gaffs.  He was convincing, and his debate appearance revved up his own base.

But did Romney convert any new voters?  Will Americans support a candidate whose numbers do not add up?

If I Were A Mitt Man

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney has done just about everything wrong since being nominated at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, last month.   Yet, while the momentum has dramatically shifted to President Barack Obama, it is not too late for Romney to win the White House.

Romney's road to self-destruction has been made particularly painful by the fact that many Republican pundits, and some Republican members of Congress, have now turned on him.   Some of the criticism is so harsh that Ann Romney, the candidate's wife, defended him in an interview with an Iowa radio station.  "Stop it!" Mrs. Romney said when asked what she had to say to her husband's critics, "This is hard.  You want to try it?  Get in the Ring." No doubt, many Republicans wish their wooden candidate had his wife's warmth and human touch.

But Mitt Romney is a CEO, a numbers man who enjoys crunching financial statements and developing profit-making strategies.  Those strategies, which varied from business to business, were focused on delivering the maximum return on investment (ROI) for his investors.  He would scrutinize every aspect of an acquisition, every accounting trick would be utilized, and every person would be evaluated, all in an effort to squeeze out ever-increasing profits.  Those companies that could not be saved would then be sold off for a nice profit.  To Romney, companies are people, and people are expendable in favor of profits.  

Romney worked hard to build Bain Capital, an asset management firm he helped found in 1984.  To raise capital for Bain, Romney courted wealthy investors.  This was his comfort zone.  He had spent his whole life around rich people, as the son of a car executive in Detroit, while studying business and law at Harvard, and attending exclusive clubs and tony fundraisers.  He speaks the language.

So it is no surprise that Romney really connected with a group of wealthy political donors in Florida last May when he attacked those Americans who do not pay any federal income tax.  He said, "There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what...who are dependent on government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that the government has a responsibility to care for them."  He concluded,  "My job is not to worry about those people.  I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility for their lives."

However, it turns out that many of the 47 percent pay payroll taxes, or are on social security.  In fact, a large share of these people are Republicans.  But Romney was just telling his audience what they long believed and wanted to hear.  Yet, now many leading Republicans are accusing the Romney campaign of incompetence.  And, just when it seemed things couldn't get worse, Romney released his 2011 tax returns, thus unleashing a whole new controversy!

Campaign gaffs have plagued Romney, who has already been dogged by his many flip-flops on important issues.  He insulted the British government while visiting the London Olympics.  In an interview with ABC News he said, “My red line is Iran may not have a nuclear weapon.”  The very same position he has criticized President Obama for having.  He hastily criticized President Obama for a Cairo embassy statement that was released hours before that facility was attacked.  During the Republican primary he said, "Corporations are people," and "I like being able to fire people who provide services to me," and "I'm not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there."

Many Republicans are upset because Romney has yet to detail his plan for fixing the economy.  Instead, Romney's campaign seems to be, "President Obama has failed, elect me and I'll fix it!"  Many conservatives were encouraged when he selected Representative Paul Ryan as his running mate.  But Romney has refused to embrace the radical Ryan budget plan, which has received broad support among conservatives.  Ryan's budget calls for more tax reductions, steep budget cuts and turning Medicare into a voucher program.  Romney's actions have confused many of his supporters and deepened their mistrust of the candidate.

Republicans are discouraged.  Their hopes of winning the White House are slipping away.  Worse for them, their hopes of winning control of the U.S. Senate are slipping away as well.  Mitt Romney's only hope appears to be a decisive victory over the president in their upcoming debates.  However, this may be a long shot for a man who once responded, "I'm not familiar precisely with what I said, but I'll stand by what I said, whatever it was."

So, if I were a Mitt Man, I might be considering Libertarian Gary Johnson.  

Romney Stumbles

“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.”  By his definition, were he alive today, Groucho Marx could point to Mitt Romney as a perfect example!   But, no doubt many Republicans wish they could Etch A Sketch away the past six weeks of the Romney campaign.

Today many political observers characterize Romney's campaign as desperate, disoriented, erratic and lacking a budget plan.  Yet, it was suppose to be so easy.  Having won a bitterly contested Republican primary, Romney would be able to position himself as a successful "Mr. Fixit" businessman who could save the U.S. economy.  His approach was to make the 2012 presidential race a referendum on President Barack Obama's handling of the economy.  But before Romney could get out of the starting gate, the Obama campaign went after Mr. Fixit.  

Romney was co-founder and once head of Bain Capital, one of the world's leading private asset management firms.  It turns out that they succeeded in saving some businesses.  But Bain also closed several companies down, took out millions of dollars and left thousands of people without jobs, all facts that the Obama campaign relentlessly pointed out. Of course, Bain Capital's main goal is to make big profits for its investors, not to create jobs.  At the Democratic Convention, Vice President Joe Biden put it this way, “Folks, the Bain way may bring your firm the highest profits. But it’s not the way to lead your country from its highest office.”

Romney said he was a successful governor of Massachusetts.   But his single biggest achievement was "Romneycare", the state's near universal health care law that was the blueprint for "Obamacare," which Romney has vowed to repeal on his first day if he is elected president.  But last week Romney said, on NBC's Meet the Press, ”Of course, there are a number of things that I like in health care reform that I’m going to put in place.  One is to make sure that those with pre-existing conditions can get coverage."  This set off a firestorm among conservative Republicans.  Later that day, Romney's campaign again reconfirmed he was against covering people with pre-existing conditions who have not had continuous health coverage. 

At the Republican Convention, Romney was upstaged by an embarrassing endorsement from actor Clint Eastwood, who crudely spoke to an empty chair that represented President Obama.  In his tepid acceptance speech, Romney focused on biography and talking points, but offered no specifics on how he would save the economy.  And, in an inexplicable omission, Romney failed to mention the American soldiers serving in Afghanistan and around the world.

The Republican candidate, looking to further mobilize his conservative base and add some spice to the ticket, brought Representative Paul Ryan on as his running mate.  Ryan is a favorite of the right, and author of the Ryan Budget Plan.  But that plan, which was has widespread support among Congressional Republicans, calls for deep cuts in entitlements.  Under Ryan's plan, Medicare would be voucherized and Medicaid would be converted to block grants to states.  As a result, recipients would be left to personally pay for some of the quickly increasing medical costs they will face in the future.

If he embraced Ryan's plan, Romney would risk alienating many seniors, a critical demographic in many swing states.  So Romney has been distancing himself from the Ryan plan.  In an interview with CBS News, he was asked, "Are you running on [Ryan's] budget or on your budget?" Romney responded, "My budget, of course, I'm the one running for president."  Yet, Romney has failed to offer specifics for about his budget.

Romney has also failed to explain why he has parked so many of his investments in off shore accounts.  He found himself on the defensive on his personal taxes.  He has adamantly said he will release only two years of federal returns.  In his 2010 return he paid an effective rate of 13.8 percent in taxes on an income of $21.7 million.  He has not yet released his final 2011 returns, but he has estimated he will pay an effective rate of 15.4 percent on income of $20.9 million.  His taxes are certain to remain an issue heading into the election.

Romney and Ryan have little foreign policy experience, and it shows.  Candidate Romney has blustered about the Russians and the Chinese as if, to use the president's description, he is "stuck in some cold-war tie warp."  So it is no wonder he was poised to seize an opportunity to criticize the president on foreign policy.  While terrorists were attacking the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, which left four Americans dead, Romney was attacking the White House for a statement released by a middle level consulate official. 

Romney's statement read, in part, "It's disgraceful that the Obama administration's first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks."  Very few facts were known at this point.  In response to Romney's attack, the White House put out a statement, "We are shocked that, at a time when the United States of America is confronting the tragic death of one of our diplomatic officers in Libya, Governor Romney would choose to launch a political attack." 

While many Republicans were questioning Romney's judgment, the candidate was doubling down at a news conference the next day.  Republican columnist Peggy Noonan said, ""Romney looked weak today I feel, I'm still kind of absorbing it myself, at one point, he had a certain slight grimace on his face when he was taking tough questions from the reporters, and I thought, 'He looks like Richard Nixon.'"

President Obama, in an interview with 60 Minutes, said that Romney tends to "shoot first and aim later."  He continued, “And as president, one of the things I’ve learned is you can’t do that, that, you know, it’s important for you to make sure that the statements that you make are backed up by the facts. And that you’ve thought through the ramifications before you make ‘em.”

The past few weeks have been very difficult for candidate Romney.  A just released Fox News national presidential poll shows President Obama with a 48% to 43% lead over Mitt Romney.  Perhaps Romney's actions have had an adverse impact on his campaign.  After all, you learn a lot about a person in a time of crisis.

   

Mendacity of Hope

The Republicans gained little momentum for their presidential ticket coming out of the GOP convention in Tampa last week.  In fact, the most memorable moment of the convention was Clint Eastwood's chat with the "Invisible Man."

One obvious conclusion is that Mitt Romney and Rep. Paul Ryan failed to offer viewers details about how they would fix the economy.  Another is that lying about your opponent's record on so many key issues may fire up your base, but it won't help win over undecided voters.   The convention's theme might have been "The Mendacity of Hope."

Now the Democrats convene in Charlotte, North Carolina, with a task of setting the record straight on the many Republican distortions, while, at the same time, offering a clear vision of how to move the nation forward.  For instance, the false claim by Republicans that the president has waived the work requirement for welfare.  In fact, the Department of Health and Human Services plan is designed to let states create alternative strategies aimed at improving employment outcomes by giving the states more flexibility, as long as they commit to increasing the number of people leaving welfare for work by 20 percent.  If states fail to reach the target the plan is terminated.

In an effort to court blue-collar white workers, the Romney campaign has been running a television ad that claims, "Under Obama's plan, you wouldn't have to work and wouldn't have to train for a job. They just send you your welfare check."   Yet, two Republican governors that wanted more control over work requirements originally requested the new policy from the White House, the same waiver then Governor Romney requested in 2005 along with 28 other governors.  

Republicans have also accused President Obama of cutting Medicare by $716 billion and hurting seniors.  But the president's actions are not cuts, they are only reductions in payments to insurance companies and health providers, and not to patients.  These are the same Medicare savings Rep. Paul Ryan called for in his budget.     

Rep. Ryan also claimed the president was responsible for the closing of a General Motors plant in his hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin.  But GM announced the closing of the plant before President Obama was elected and before the president's auto bailout, which is credited with saving the industry.  

“It began with a perfect AAA credit rating for the United States. It ends with the downgraded America.” With those words, Rep. Ryan also blamed the president for the downgrading of the U.S. credit rating.  But the credit rating was downgraded because Congress would not pass a debt-ceiling bill so the government could pay for money it had already spent.  Republicans in Congress held the debt-ceiling hostage in exchange for deep spending cuts.  They took America to the fiscal brink.  In lowering the credit rating, Standard and Poor's said, “the political brinkmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America’s governance and policy making becoming less stable, less effective and less predictable than what we previously believed." 

Rep. Ryan also attacked the president for his handling of the deficit.  “He created a new bipartisan debt commission,” Mr. Ryan said. “They came back with an urgent report. He thanked them, sent them on their way and then did exactly nothing.”  Mr. Ryan failed to point out he served on the commission and opposed their final proposals, which included some tax increases.  His opposition was a major blow to enactment of any of its proposals.  This is the same Mr. Ryan who claimed to run a marathon in less than three hours, a remarkable feat.  Now he admits that claim is not true.  

Republicans say the president's stimulus package did not work.  Yet most economists say that the stimulus package kept America from entering a second Great Depression.  And since President Obama took office, in the depths of the Bush Recession, the U.S. economy has added more than four million private sector jobs.  Economic growth remains anemic, but the world is still in the grips of a global recession.

The president was accused of conducting an "apology tour" for U.S. foreign policy.  Yet the president has never apologized for America.  In fact, when he received his Nobel Peace Prize, President Obama defended American foreign policy.  Meanwhile, the president made getting Osama bin-Laden a top priority and his policies have decimated the al-Quada terrorist organization. 

From the first day of Barack Obama's presidency Republicans, including Rep. Ryan, plotted a strategy to win back the White House in 2012.  Denounce, delay, deny, divide, and deceive.  So deep is their dislike of President Obama, that many accuse him of being a socialist, a Muslim, lying about being born in Hawaii, and about his grade point average in college.  

At their convention, Democrats must not only set the record straight on President Obama's record, they also must unite around a plan that will take this country forward.  The president must effectively communicate what he will do in a second term to reduce unemployment and rebuild the American economy.    

We are, indeed, at a crossroads.  In November, will voters reward those who will do and say anything to get elected?  Or will they side with hope and change? 

Mitt Romney: The Speech

This week the Republican Party will nominate their candidate for President of the United States, Mitt Romney.  And when Romney takes the podium Thursday night to accept his party's nomination he will be delivering the most important speech of his life. 

The Republican presidential primary campaign was brutal, as candidates fought hard for the approval of their party's largely conservative base.  Mitt Romney had to defend his previous moderate leaning tendencies, and his authorship of "Romneycare," the blue print for President Obama's universal health care legislation.   To do so, Romney aggressively attacked his opponents with negative ads, spent a ton of money, and fine-tuned some of his political positions in order to appeal to the GOP right.    

Yet, although Romney won the nomination, most Americans are uncertain about whom he is.  This Thursday night Romney will be introducing himself to America, while, at the same time, he will have to reassure his conservative party base that he can beat President Obama, and he can be trusted not to change his positions on taxes and social issues.

Romney's speech writing team has been hard a work trying to find the right balance.  On one hand, Romney will try to connect with his audience, something he failed to do very well during the primary campaign.  He will try to sound warm and likeable, not stiff and corporate.  He will add some biographical details, including a reference to his wife's ongoing battle with multiple sclerosis.  But also look for Romney to make the case the he should be elected president.  Here he will emphasize his successes as a businessman, governor, and head of the U.S. Olympics Committee, as examples of how he can lead.  

For sure, there will be plenty of quotable one-liners to stir delegates on the convention floor and appeal to the home audience.  Here's one you won't hear: "Watch my lips, no new taxes!"  Here's one you will hear: "President Obama is the only president to cut Medicare."  Of course, the president didn't cut Medicare--but why let the facts get in the way of an applause line.

Romney's speech will not be truly successful if he simply attacks President Obama's record.  He will need to offer independent voters more than the usual talking points: "Cut taxes, cut regulations and become totally energy independent."   Nor can he just simply say, "I have a 59 point plan to save the economy--it's on my website."  

Of course, the devil is always in the details, and Romney's economic plan simply does not add up.   For instance, how can he significantly cut taxes (which mostly benefits the wealthy) and increase defense spending, yet still balance the budget?  It's not possible unless he also massively cuts entitlement programs--like Medicare and Medicaid.  (Enter Representative Paul Ryan?)  So, Mr. Romney, specifically what government programs will you cut to balance the budget?  You owe Americans an explanation.  

Why will cutting taxes create jobs?  The "Bush Tax Cuts" have been in place for a decade, but they have had little impact on the job market, while making the rich even richer.   As part of his tax plan, Romney proposes eliminating tax loopholes, yet he has offered no specifics.   Does he mean offshore tax havens (I don't think so)?  Does he mean home mortgages or charity?   Details Mr. Romney, details? 

Of course, Mr. Romney will promise in his speech to end "Obamacare" to the delight of the floor delegates.  Ironically, he crafted a universal health care law that passed in Massachusetts and relies on an individual mandate, but now opposes the concept.   Mr. Romney, what is your replacement plan?  How will you close the "doughnut hole" on prescription drugs for more than 5.2 million Medicare beneficiaries who have already saved more than $4 billion since Obamacare went into effect? 

Romney has promised to eliminate Planned Parenthood if he is elected president.  Of course, conservatives hate Planned Parenthood because of its association with birth control and abortion.  But Romney is not likely to offer too many details in his speech on abortion, other than, "I believe in the sanctity of life."  Part of the problem is that in the last decade Romney has been pro-abortion, then later anti-abortion, except in the cases of incest and rape.  But the GOP 2012 platform calls for a ban on all abortions, with no exceptions.  

Romney is likely to accuse President Obama of campaign distortions and tarnishing the office of the presidency.  But Romney has been a leading practitioner of negative and misleading ads beginning in the primary.  For instance, most recently a Romney sponsored ad that says, "The president ended a provision requiring welfare recipients to work."  Wrong, but it plays well with blue-collar workers in swing states.  Or a Romney "joke" about his birth certificate.  Don't look for Mitt Romney to denounce the idiotic "Birther" movement from the dais.  

No matter how well Romney performs Thursday--and he should do very well--no mater how enthusiastically he is received, no matter how amazing all the production gimmicks are, there are still many questions that will, pardon the expression, always dog Romney.  He is, after all, extremely private, controlling and ambitious.    

Imagine:  Romney pauses in his speech Thursday to look up toward the heavens. At that point he hears the voice of his father, Governor George Romney, once a Republican candidate for president.  "Release more tax returns Mitt!"  To which he replies, "You're getting two years, and that's it!"

Romney/Ryan

"Join me in welcoming the next president of the United States," said Mitt Romney. Mitt muffed the announcement.  But, no doubt, many conservatives were thinking, "from Mitt's lips to God's ears!"  .   

Romney's pick of the youthful Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate plays to the conservative base of the GOP, many of whom are frustrated and distrustful of their party's banner carrier.  Ryan is the Republican intellectual leader on budget issues, and his selection inextricably links Romney to the Ryan budget, which calls for lower taxes and deep cuts in social programs.  

In his announcement, Romney disingenuously attacked President Barack Obama for $700 billion in Medicare cuts. It was the old misleading "Medi-scare" tactic again, targeted at senior citizens.  In 2009, Medicare spending was about $500 billion, and, according to the Congressional Budget Office, Medicare spending will grow to a budget busting $930 billion in 2020. 

President Obama has not cut Medicare, rather Obamacare calls for $500 billion in savings over the next decade through operational efficiencies and more effective care.  But Ryan's plan also calls for about $500 billion in savings.  The plan would control Medicare spending by converting some of it into subsidies for private insurance, thereby shifting more of the burden to individuals.  Ryan's plan also calls for privatizing Social Security.

The selection of Ryan turns the election into a choice rather than a referendum on Obama's presidency.  In Ryan's own words, "We promise equal opportunity, not equal outcomes."  To liberals, this is code for cutting social programs.  And President Obama’s campaign quickly responded saying Ryan’s selection is, “a commitment to the flawed theory that new budget-busting tax cuts for the wealthy, while placing greater burdens on the middle class and seniors, will somehow deliver a stronger economy.”

Ryan is chairman of the House Budget Committee and a member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee.  He is in his seventh term in Congress, and he previously worked as a staffer on Capitol Hill before his election.  He is a Washington insider who serves a largely rural Wisconsin district that sits between Milwaukee and Madison.  Ryan supported the Bush tax cuts, the Iraq War, and TARP, the 2008 government bank bailout that was unpopular with conservatives.  

During the Republican presidential primary, then candidate Newt Gingrich said the Ryan budget plan was "social engineering", a charge he later retracted.  The CBO said of the plan that it was possible seniors would face higher costs, and its enactment could result in, “reduced access to health care; diminished quality of care; increased efficiency of health care delivery; less investment in new, high-cost technologies; or some combination of those outcomes.”  

Upon accepting the role as Romney's running mate, Ryan said, "We won't duck the tough issues, we will lead. We will not blame others we will take responsibility.  We won't replace our founding principles, we will reapply them."  Ryan is young, 42 years-old, energetic, ambitious and driven.  He is severely conservative on social issues like abortion and gun control, and a Catholic.  

Ryan's selection will only further highlight the differences between the opposing sides and charges up the party base.  But his selection may cause problems among another key group of likely Republicans voters: seniors.  Furthermore, it is unclear how his views will be received among independent voters, a group likely to decide the election's ultimate outcome.     

This has been a rough month for Romney, filled with gaffs and missteps by his staff.  Romney has been under siege to release more of his federal tax returns, including from leading Republicans.  Questions of the legality of a $100 million trust fund he set up for his sons and of the wisdom of establishing off shore bank accounts have been a constant drumbeat. The Ryan announcement is sure to provide a brief respite from all the incoming attacks.    

Romney corrected himself in Saturday's Ryan announcement, ""Every now and then I'm known to make a mistake. I did not make a mistake with this guy. But I can tell you this. He's going to be the next vice president of the United States."  And later, Ryan was earnest, "It will take leadership and the courage to tell you the truth, Mitt Romney is this kind of leader, together we will unite this country and get this done."

Now the two sides are more clearly defined for voters.  But will the vice presidential candidate matter?  In the end, the election will rest on the state of the economy on election day, and on who voters believe they can trust.  Mitt Romney still has a lot of work to do on the trust issue.   

 

Romney vs. Obama

"I'm for Mitt Romney," former President George W. Bush said to an ABC News reporter as the elevator doors closed.  It was the first time he had publicly said he endorsed the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.  

But don't look for the former president to campaign for Romney this year.  Why?  Two words: Bush recession.  Americans don't need to be reminded that when Bush entered office the U.S. government was operating at a surplus.  However, two costly wars, a series of unfunded tax cuts, and an unfunded Medicare prescription drug benefit program turned a surplus into a burgeoning deficit.  Meanwhile, lax oversight of the mortgage and financial sectors resulted in increased personal debt.  And then the bubble burst in 2007.  This is not a record the Romney campaign wants to be associated with.

Instead, Romney wants to make November's election a referendum on President Barack Obama.  The U.S. economy has struggled to recover from the Great Recession, which was unprecedented in its severity.  Since the president was elected the economy has only added back about half of the jobs that were lost.  The problem has been compounded by the loss of nearly a half million government jobs at all levels due to budget cuts.     

The state of the U.S. economy will likely be the most important factor in the outcome of the presidential election.  And the American economy will continue to be affected by growing economic problems in Europe, and a slowdown in the growth of China's economy.  Uncertainty at home and abroad, and the unprecedented nature of the Great Recession have severely hampered recovery.

This has provided a huge opening for Romney, who has "Etch A Sketched" the Bush recession into the Obama failure.  “The people of Iowa and America have watched President Obama for nearly four years, much of that time with Congress controlled by his own party," Romney said to a couple hundred supporters in Iowa Tuesday.  "And rather than put out the spending fire, he has fed the fire. He has spent more and borrowed more.”  He concluded, “This is not just bad economics, this is morally wrong and we must stop it.” 

It remains unclear exactly what Romney will do to significantly reduce unemployment and the deficit.  Some of the proposals he has mentioned or embraced will in fact only add to the long-term deficit--for instance, more tax cuts.  He also wants less government regulation.  Sounds a lot like George W. Bush.

But Romney believes he does not have to be specific, he only has to attack his opponent--a tactic that worked time and again during the brutal Republican primary.  He managed to overcome his many flip-flops (i.e. abortion), his many distortions, his many flubs ("I like being able to fire people"), his inability to personally connect with voters, and his failure to win over many conservatives ("I'm severely conservative!").   The Obama campaign has begun to forcefully respond, first with an attack ad that painted Romney as "job destroyer" at Bain Capital.   They will also remind voters that Romney equals Bush. 

For the next six months Americans will experience the most expensive, thanks to Citizens United, and most negative presidential campaign ever waged in this country.  No doubt, many will think, to paraphrase Romney, this is not just bad politics, this is morally wrong.  But nothing will stop it. 

The Party of War

So desperate are Republicans to overcome a huge gender gap among women that they will instantly seize any opening to drive a favorable story line and raise money.  But these tactical maneuvers are not going to change the uncertainty that even many Republicans feel toward their presumed presidential nominee, Mitt Romney.

For voters, one of the underlying concerns with Romney is trust.  He has shown a consistent pattern of changing positions on issues to gain support, or saying anything that he thinks will help him win, especially in negative campaign ads.  He will not let the facts get in his way.  

For instance, earlier this month Romney accused President Obama of waging a war on religion and even worse!  "I think in this country there is a war on religion.  I think there is a desire to establish a religion in America known as secularism.  And I know, based upon reports, that the Obama administration gave this a lot of thought."  Well this charge is patently false, according to senior White House advisers.   And it doesn't make any logical sense.

 

Romney is constantly spinning untruths about President Obama.  “I was disappointed in listening to the president as he’s saying, ‘Oh Republicans are waging a war on women.’” But President Obama never said that.   It was fabricated by the former governor, who then continued,  “The real war on women is being waged by the president’s failed economic policies.”  Right!  Candidate Romney has stated that 92% of the job losses under Obama have been among women.  This charge is misleading because it fails to count the millions of men who disproportionately lost their jobs in the last few months of the Bush presidency.

Distortion, negative campaigning and lies seem to be run of the mill for Governor Romney and his campaign.  His tactics and his campaign positions, including defunding Planned Parenthood, have so turned off women that their support of him is 19%  less than it is for President Obama in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll.

It is because of this huge gender gap that Governor Romney and his campaign have been seizing every opportunity to strengthen his support among women by increasingly Ann Romney's role.  She has become his executive in charge of women.  Governor Romney recently spoke about his wife on the Fox News Channel, “And she points out that as she talks to women, they tell her that their number one concern is the economy.”

Comments like these are what Hilary Rosen was addressing on CNN when she clumsily stumbled into the "mommy war."  Rosen said, "What you have is Mitt Romney running around the country saying, well, you know, my wife tells me that what women really care about are economic issues, and when I listen to my wife, that's what I am hearing.  Guess what?  His wife has actually never worked a day in her life."  Ouch Hilary!  Rosen continued, "She's never really dealt with the kinds of economic issues that a majority of the women in this country are facing in terms of how do we feed our kids, how do we send them to school and how do we worry - and why we worry about their future.  I think, yes, it's about these positions and, yes, I think there will be a war of words about the positions."

And a war of words there is!  The Romney campaign saw an opening and jumped on it.  "If you're a stay-at-home mom, the Democrats have a message for you: you've never worked a day in your life," Romney's senior campaign advisor Beth Myers wrote in a fundraising email titled "War on Moms."  No sooner had the Republicans begun their attack than the super sensitive Obama campaign tossed Rosen under the bus too!  President Obama, Michelle Obama, advisers David Axelrod and Jim Messina all made comments critical of Rosen, who was once a Democratic strategist and has visited the Obama White House more than 30 times.  

This dust up is representative of the hyperbolical, 24/7 media crazed era we live in today.  And it seems that Republicans all too often are prone to characterize conflicts and policy differences in terms of war.  For instance, Republicans accuse President Obama of waging "class warfare" against wealthy Americans because he has proposed increasing their tax rates.  

President Obama's support of the "Buffett rule,” which would have billionaires pay federal tax rates that are no less than their secretaries, has drawn extreme anger from conservatives.  As an example, on Thursday Romney adviser and former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu called it, “a class warfare agenda that President Obama seems to be embarking on in this campaign.”  Republicans would rather cut tax rates for upper income earners and pay for deficit reductions with cuts in government programs that help low and middle income earners.  This conservative fiscal strategy is known as "starve the beast." 

Republicans also claim that increasing the top tax rates will hurt many small businesses and slow the nation's recovery.  They call it a war on small business.   And when it comes to regulating businesses, Mitt Romney's election website is filled with "war-mongering."  "The Obama administration’s war on carbon dioxide—what Time magazine has called “the most far-reaching environmental regulatory scheme in American history”—is the highest-profile EPA effort."  And on energy the website says,  "As the Obama administration wages war against oil and coal, it has been spending billions of dollars on alternative energy forms and touting its creation of “green” jobs. But it seems to be operating more on faith than on fact-based economic calculation."

All this Republican talk of war is meant to deflect attention away from their number one problem: Mitt Romney.   It is also meant to energize and mobilize the party's base.  But conservatives see a flawed candidate--who has held dubious positions on health care reform, abortion and gun control.  So you can bet that Republican strategists are now busy behind closed doors feverishly drawing up their plans for Romney's 2012 campaign.  Of course, using an Etch a Sketch. 

Romney's Veep-Stakes Are On!

Former Governor Mitt Romney is on the verge of sweeping this Tuesday's Republican primary elections.  Likely wins in Wisconsin, Maryland and the District of Columbia will add significantly to his already commanding delegate lead, and increase pressure on his opponents to throw their support to the former Massachusetts Governor.

More leading Republicans are getting on the Romney bandwagon each day in hopes of ending the divisiveness that has characterized much of the Republican primary campaign so far.  Even after all of their harsh criticisms, former Senator Rick Santorum and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich have each said they will support Romney if he ends up getting the party's nomination. But they both, along with Representative Ron Paul, are still campaigning to be their party's standard-bearer. 

Rick Santorum shows no signs of easing up.  On Sunday, he compared Romney to Senator John McCain, who lost the 2008 election to President Barack Obama.  "We came up with someone who wasn't able to win," Santorum said on Fox News Sunday. "We don't need to repeat that again. We don't need to bail out and not have the best candidate to take Barack Obama on in the fall."  Santorum has accused Romney of not being a conservative; flip--flopping on many issues and of being the author of Romneycare, the blue print for the President's health care reform law.  Santorum insists he will present a stronger contrast in the general election.

Nonetheless, establishment Republicans have already turned their attention to who would be the best running mate for Romney.  Speculation has Florida Senator Marco Rubio as the best choice.  A Tea Party favorite, supporters believe Rubio could improve the Republican's chances among Hispanics.  Rubio is of Cuban heritage, but Cubans make up only a small percentage of the U.S. Hispanic population.  More than 60% of that population is Mexican, and they tend to vote for Democrats.

Another potential vice presidential candidate is New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.  Christie has campaigned hard for Romney, and his blunt, in-your-face style frequently outshines the former governor in joint appearances.  But voters in a presidential election don't vote for a president because of their running mate. That is up until now.

This election will rest heavily on Mitt Romney's ability to convince voters he is more qualified for the job than President Obama.  And that he has a better plan to increase employment, lower gasoline prices and assure America's national security.  Yet many of his proposals feel like déjà vu; the same Republican policies of cutting taxes on the wealthiest Americans while ending some loopholes, more oil and gas drilling rather than developing alternatives, and a extremely hard-line foreign policy.  Or will he wipe his Etch A Sketch clean and redo his positions for the general election? 

The fact is Mitt Romney is an opportunist.  That is how he made his money in business.  And Mitt Romney is an elitist.  He is from the upper tier of the one-per centers.  His friends own football teams, they don’t play for them. He cannot easily connect with regular people; he's a Mittbot.  So he is prone to make comments that most normal people consider gaffs.

Who can forget this Romney gem last August from Iowa: "Corporations are people, my friend… of course they are. Everything corporations earn ultimately goes to the people. Where do you think it goes? Whose pockets? Whose pockets? People's pockets. Human beings, my friend."  Or this heart-warming comment two months ago, "I like being able to fire people who provide services to me."  And about the same time, "I'm not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there."

Several times over these past few months he has tried very hard to sound like an Average Joe.  “There were a couple of times I wondered whether I was going to get a pink slip,” he said earlier this year to some volunteers.  Or his attempt to feel empathy for a group of unemployed,  "I should tell my story. I'm also unemployed."  Romney is worth more than $200 million.   And the truth surfaced when speaking in Michigan in February, "[My wife] drives a couple of Cadillacs."  Of course, who can forget the $10,000 bet offer to Texas Governor Rick Perry during a Republican debate in December?

Given Romney's difficulty in winning over voters from his own party, the lack of enthusiasm for him among evangelicals, conservatives and members of the Tea Party, his numerous flip-flops, Romneycare, and his propensity to make gaffs, he will need all the help he can get to win over the national electorate.  Help may come if the economy gets worse, gas prices continue to rise or if there is some national security setback for President Obama before the November election.  

More likely, Romney will look to a strong running mate who can fill in the many shortcomings he has as a candidate.   And that person will become the party's frontrunner in 2016 should President Obama win reelection in November.  Even if a twice beaten Mitt Romney decides to make a third run at the White House.