Year: 2012

The Economist, a bastion of liberal thought (/sarcasm), doesn't seem to like Mittens:

Mr Romney may calculate that it is best to keep quiet: the faltering economy will drive voters towards him. It is more likely, however, that his evasiveness will erode his main competitive advantage. A businessman without a credible plan to fix a problem stops being a credible businessman. So does a businessman who tells you one thing at breakfast and the opposite at supper. Indeed, all this underlines the main doubt: nobody knows who this strange man really is. It is half a decade since he ran something. Why won’t he talk about his business career openly? Why has he been so reluctant to disclose his tax returns? How can a leader change tack so often? Where does he really want to take the world’s most powerful country?

We are now seeing some polls switch over to their "Likely voter" screens. I hate "Likely Voter" screens because it allows whatever organization to play with the numbers even more than when they play with the demographics. Further, "Likely Voter" screens are biased towards Republicans. Since who turns out from election to election varies wildly, I think Likely Voter Screens based on prior elections are almost always inaccurate. Thus, I prefer, when given a choice between Registered Voters and Likely Voters, to go with Registered Voters. Unfortunately, as the election draws near, all polling outfits and media organizations switch over to their own Likely Voter screen. C'est la vie. The changes in our map this time are from new polls in Ohio and Michigan which show each state a tie, while we have Florida getting bluer.

Let's see, do I have this right? ... Presidential candidate is an unpopular, secretive douche nozzle who cheats on his taxes and ties dogs to car luggage racks? [Check!] Social welfare policies are hated by Americans, especially seniors that vote in disproportionate numbers? [Check!] Have given up on "family values" in favor of "fetus values" in apparent attempt to turn away votes from all women? [Check!] Continued slavish devotion to utterly failed, and transparently fraudulent "tax cuts for the wealthy create jobs" economic policies? [Check!] So where does this leave us?

.... in addition to planning and carrying out lots of other mayhem. I haven't heard this on the news, but saw it online. Information still seems to be coming in, but the short story is that Army soldiers at Ft. Stewart in Georgia bought about $87K in guns and bomb-making materials, killed two people who looked like they were going to talk about the group and were working out a plan to overthrow the government and assassinate President Obama.

In a leaked party platform circulating on the eve of their convention, Republicans reveal in candid detail how they intend to upend Medicare. The platform, snagged by Politico on Friday night after the Republican National Committee accidentally posted it to its website before taking it down, is scheduled to be approved at the convention early this week. The text details the privatization policy that GOP lawmakers have supported for years, and that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are selling as necessary to “save” Medicare. But in an unusual twist, it addresses the specific aspect of the proposal that makes it a departure from what Americans know as “Medicare.”