Countdown to Election 2012: Week Ten in Review

by Sunnyjane

This is the most inauthentic candidacy I’ve ever seen.   

Tom Brokaw, August 28, 2012

While Hurricane Isaac was throwing a brutal punch at the Gulf Coast states, the Republicans were doing their damnedest to make a mockery of America's traditional  national convention proceedings. In what could be considered one of the saner moments, much-touted mystery guest Clint Eastwood held a rambling debate with Empty Chair.  [Spoiler:  Political experts declared Chair the winner.]

On a fifty-gazillion-dollar stage that RNC officials promised would blow people's minds, we were treated to three days of mind-numbing speeches from the usual cast of Romneyetts.  The one thing noticeably absent from the proceedings was Truth, which had been banned from the convention as being a threat and was hustled away by the Secret Service and confined to an undisclosed location until after November 6.  

Kool Aid Republicans served big Whoppers to the attendees, courtesy of David Koch, who was in the hall to see how his four hundred million dollar investment was performing.  

Officially in attendance as a member of the New York Delegation, the big man with the narrow mind refused to answer questions from the press.  

But Mitt Romney, making his way to the podium to accept his party's presidential nomination, took time to genuflect before his benevolent lord and savior... Amen!

The entire convention was as much fun as watching a colonoscopy in 3-D. 

  

Never Let the Facts Ruin a Good GOP Convention

The carefully scripted Republican National Convention demonstrated the party's continued aversion to a progressive America by taking a U-turn that favored its devotees with everything from hawkish-to-mawkish.  It was a gathering of ignoramuses and bigots mired in a nostalgia where everybody in the nation knew their rightful places: women (kitchen), blacks (crop fields), gays and lesbians (closet), immigrants (Mexico), and dogs (strapped on top of the family station wagon).   As for you middle-and-poorer class males, well, forget about that old college stuff; your place is on the battlefield, son! And if peace should break out all over the world, not to worry: Uncle Mitt will drum up a war somewhere far from home because he wants what's best for you and America!  

Charles Pearce, writing for Esquire, encapsulated the Republican's get-together like this:  The Republican Party did something remarkable at its convention on Tuesday. It set out on an experiment to see exactly how much unmitigated hogwash the American political system can contain on a single evening. The Republican Party has set out at its 2012 convention in search of the Event Horizon of utter bullshit…It was something to see, I'll tell you. An entire evening based on a demonstrable lie.

Pinocchio is suing for

trademark infringement

Rarely in the history of convention speeches have so many lies been told to so many people in so short a period of time. 

In a startling revelation, some in the mainstream media awoke from their self-induced comas and actually called out Ryan's lying ways. The token liberal at Fox News, Sally Kohn, gave the speech three Ds: Dazzling, Deceiving, and Distracting.  OK, Fox has done its fair-and-balanced act for the year; they can all go back to their regularly scheduled right-wing propaganda broadcasts.

From the If It Weren't So Sad It Would Be Funny department, CNN's Wolf Blitzer decided the speech was...um...powerful and then added, Although I marked at least seven or eight points I’m sure the fact checkers will have some opportunities to dispute if they want to go forward.  I’m sure they will.  In an excellent example of the classic understatement, his cohort in this journalistic felony, Erin Burnett, chirped, We were jotting down points. There will be issues with some of the facts.  

Steve Benen, who has been giving weekly updates on Romney's lies at The Maddow Blog for thirty weeks, has probably the best write-up on the Ryan speech.  But if you're not convinced after reading Benen's very astute piece, just choose your favorite search engine and type in Paul Ryan's Convention Speech Lies.  You'll get what you're looking for -- and more.

I'm so excited I could

 just pee my panties!

Ann Romney couldn't contain herself when it came time to tell everyone how wonderful her husband is.  Fairly vibrating with excitement, she exclaimed, I love you women! That sounds remarkably like a talk-down-to-the-commoners you people redux, does it not? 

Yes, Mrs. Romney wanted to talk about love, and how women can trust Mitt.  She's right, you know.  Women can trust Mitt Romney to snatch affordable healthcare out from under them, get rid of Planned Parenthood, ban all forms of contraception, and take away their right to legal abortions even in cases of rape, incest, or the risk to the mother's life.  In a twisted bit of irony, Mitt Romney was able to afford the mammogram and treatment that saved his wife's life, but he would deny that opportunity to women who are not in his socioeconomic  class.  

After that unimaginative and uninspiring piece of claptrap, the little missus decided to scold Hispanics for what she called their biases that have been there from the Democratic machines.  At a Latino Coalition luncheon the next day, she said, We very much care about you and your families and the opportunities that are there for you and your families.  Good idea, Ann, particularly since your sweetie disagrees with the Supreme Court decision on Arizona's immigration laws and believes that illegal immigrants should self-deport.  

Youse people shaddup! My
pizza's gettin' cold!

In what must have come as a shock to the Romney people, Chris Christie gave his 2016 I accept the nomination  speech when he was supposed to have been telling Americans why they should vote for  Mitt Romney in this election.   Rachel Maddow had the best reaction to Christie's bombastic screed, calling it one of the most remarkable acts of political selfishness I have ever seen on a stage this big.  From a twenty-six hundred word speech, Christie used eighteen hundred of those before he said the words Mitt Romney.  

And, lest anyone assume that Maddow's opinion was just lefty rhetoric, Chris Wallace on Fox News had this to say:  I thought it was one of the most off-key keynote speeches I ever heard, and added that Christie said "I" 37 times, "Romney" seven times, and "jobs" one time.  Wallace wasn't through with his critique, however, stating, It seemed sometimes as if he was promoting his own candidacy more than he was Mitt Romney's.

  OK, I'll sing just one verse of America 

the ...No?  Are you sure?  I'd love to do it.

The consensus on Mitt Romney's acceptance speech seems to be of the He could have phoned it in variety.  CBS reported that only thirty-eight percent of respondents thought the speech was excellent or good, compared with McCain's in 2008 (forty-seven percent). The Wall Street Journal tried  hard to be upbeat about it, but were disappointed that it was, shall we say, lacking in specifics:  He and Paul Ryan promised to help the middle class, but they never explained other than in passing how they would do it. In his acceptance speech, Mr. Romney tossed out his five policy ideas almost as an afterthought. Energy got one sentence, education scored big with two.

Personally, I believe that Mitt Romney did exactly what he intended to do.  He dog-whistled his base in an appallingly brazen attempt to further divide the country along racial and ethnic lines by using the word American thirty-five times.  One particularly offensive statement hit the mark: When the world needs someone to do the really big stuff, you need an American.

Also in the News

*There was some good news for Mitt: At a time when candidates look for ringing endorsements from influential parties, the John Birch Society and the Ku Klux Klan bestowed their honors upon Mitt Romney.  Why, that has to be right up there the blessings he received from Christine O'Donnell, Nikki Haley, and Ted Nugent.

*Miners at a Romney rally when he was in Ohio complained to a local radio station that they were forced to attend, without pay, or be fired.  The chief operating office disputed their claim, saying Attendance was mandatory but no one was forced to attend the event.  Huh?

*Roger Ailes unplugged Palin on the day of the vice-presidential nominee's speech.  Snort.

*Some obsessive Fox News watcher decided he had to kill his liberal girlfriend.

*In a rather startling admission, Campaign professionals vetting Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as a potential Republican vice presidential candidate warned Mitt Romney's strategists that the Congressman had a “history of exaggeration and prevarication”  that could become a campaign issue and distraction, but the GOP presidential nominee’s team ignored the warnings.

*And just in case you missed it, back in August Pat Robinson warned that couples should never adopt children who have been abused, neglected, or have a mental or physical challenge because they could grow up weird.  His far-right Christian belief:  You don’t have to take on somebody else’s problems.  So, dear readers, if a friend or family member is contemplating adoption, just send them on down to the White Christian Perfection Baby Store.  You’ll find it on the campus of Regent University at the corner of Hypocrisy Boulevard and No Compassion Avenue.   

End Note

Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things.  Among them are a few Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.  Dwight D. Eisenhower, Republican President (1953-1961)