Walker Campaign not running on empty. They've got a full tank of high mileage Lies.

I've criticized Democrats for stretching the truth when they really didn't have to. But get a load out of the Walker campaign. Wow. See here, here and here for own coverage.

In rapid succession, the only criticism they could come up with for Mary Burke were two whoppers:

GOP Hillary Discredit Campaign laughably Transparent, but most likely shockingly effective.

Like Mitt Romney ever had a handle on the issues? He didn't know anything then, and still doesn't. An amazing attack so early in the process and ridiculously preemptive.

Conservative Best Friends Digging Deeper into Alternate Reality.

I'm hoping the old saying, "time heals," is in play after our divisive presidential election. What happened in the last few months, calling reality based polls and jobs numbers a left wing conspiracy, set Republican voters up for a huge fall. Even my conservative friend in Milwaukee, who's is always a bit more critical of Republican politicians than most, called me out of the blue to rub the impending Romney/Ryan landslide in my face. It actually caught me by surprise.

Now when I talk to him, he doesn't want to hear anything that calls into question what he believes to be true.

So I thought this call from CJ, a WTDY listener, reflected pretty much my own conversations and disagreements. Just like my friend in Milwaukee, he heard things I never did; solutions offered up by Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. He also heard that liberal Americans are takers. Just as surreal, because they pay attention to media that doesn't report the "other side," they are convinced Obama never offered any solutions, even though he has a whole bunch of times, including budget proposals.

But what Sly in the Morning explains to CJ is the underlying problem. It's the real reason why things never seem to get any better; the loss of good paying jobs due to outsourcing, offshoring and the movement to decrease employee hours. It has little to do with spending.



David Frum tells us all why conservatives are marginalizing themselves now and in the future, from Chris Matthews:

Chris Rock on the Global Choice for President.

Who Votes for Romney? Be afraid.

From NewLeftMedia:



Here are a few comments left out of the interviews above:



This clip is from a rally to "kill the bill," Obamacare, from many of these same kind of tea party losers:

Romney Endorsements prove Republicans working under different set of rules.

In a state where Scott Walker and the Republican legislature, lead by the highly offensive and partisan Fitzgerald brothers, rammed through a straight partly line agenda without one Democratic vote, I thought this section of the Wisconsin State Journals endorsement of Mitt Romney stood out as especially hypocritical:

Our pick: Mitt Romney-It was Obama and his fellow Democrats who went it alone on health care, making subsequent deals even harder to find. It still is Obama who hasn't laid out a clear vision for the next four years.

I know, I almost choked on the idea that Romney actually laid out a "clear vision"  of the next four years. He didn't. Low information voters got what they wanted, a low information campaign.

After not taking one question from the press in 3 weeks from the print media, and four weeks from the TV networks, it's difficult to imagine any voter being satisfied with that. Yet things might be going in that direction.

But even worse, the media set themselves up for further irrelevance and declining viewership. They oddly settled on being shut out of the election by the Republican candidate for president. Instead of fighting back and calling out the Romney/Ryan campaign for shortchanging the public's need to know, they said...nothing.

Pundit prognostication can only tolerated so long before viewers have had enough and tune out. 

Avoiding the press for 3 weeks, Romney's Echo Chamber Campaign Tour Promises No Compromise Leadership.

I've always been fascinated by the way the media plays dead to Mitt Romney’s claim he achieved “change” as governor of Massachusetts; yeah, if you ignore the Democratic legislatures veto overrides and liberal political agenda, where they balanced the budget, cut spending, improved schools, etc.. It wasn't because of Mitt, it was in despite of Mitt. But compliant low information voters aren't bothered by such wonky details I guess, so in West Allis the crowd roared with approval:

WSJ: "President Obama promised change, but he could not deliver it. I promise change, and I have a record of achieving it," the former Massachusetts governor told the cheering crowd.

And like the 2010 Republican tea party campaigns, Mitt has decided to stay away from the media for a whole month. Really, can he do that and get away with it? The public’s need to know, their desire to make an informed vote, was just too much to ask so close to the election. For Mitt Romney, if elected, he will lead and do what he wants because it’s his turn, as Ann Romney insisted in a recent interview.  

He hasn't done interviews with local TV stations in weeks. His last newspaper interview, with the Columbus Dispatch editorial board, was on Oct. 10. His most recent press conference was Sept. 28.

Romney told the crowd that only he will be able to work with congress and avoid the fiscal cliff, if of course, the Democrats allow the Republicans to extend the Bush tax cuts and kill any proposed tax increases. Lawrence O’Donnell and Ezra Klein make a few clarifications to Mitt’s bluster:

Similar to Romney’s promise to go on a “jobs tour,” Mitt’s presidency will be filled with nothing but empty symbolism, like his chances to win:

The candidate is arguing he has momentum. Advisers say a perception that Romney is heading to victory is critical to maximizing GOP interest in the race. 

Time to say No to Disaster Victims? Next thing you know, they’ll want food and health care.

Add another few million to the “takers” list under Obama…

theGrio: Republican Iowa Representative Steve King has said he doesn’t want to sign off on federal Hurricane Sandy relief unless a specific plan on how the money will be spent is set in place. He supported his statement with claims that money provided during Hurricane Katrina was spent on “Gucci bags and massage parlors.” King said, “I want to get them the resources that are necessary to lift them out of this water and this sand and the ashes and the death that’s over there in the east coast and especially the northeast … But they need to come with a plan on how to spend it.”

Here's a video someone put together that shows this total disregard for life and the American ideal. Simply put, it's hard to imagine anyone thinking and talking like this.



So would Mitt Romney just let the states handle this? Chris Christie reacts, and Rachel Maddow wonders what the Mittster would say, despite being asked 11 times:



Even the Wall Street Journal chimed in on the horrors of helping homeless hurricane victims:

Newsmax: Liberals are mistaken to argue in the wake of super-storm Sandy that it proves the need for more government, according to a Wall Street Journal editorial. “The larger liberal fallacy here is that effective government requires bigger government,” Journal editors write. “Americans expect a government, at whatever level, to do its core functions well. But the bigger and more costly the government, the more likely it is to do more things poorly.” Romney was right to say that the federal government should allow states and cities to handle disasters to the extent that they can … “Energetic governors and mayors are best equipped to handle disaster relief because they know their cities and neighborhoods far better than the feds ever will, and they know their citizens will hold them accountable. The feds can help with money and perhaps expertise.”

Romney's Campaign of Lies, claiming Jeep outsourcing Jobs Last Straw? Obama Responds.

Here's Obama's latest ad taking on the massively denounced lie by the Romney campaign about Jeeps  plans to outsource. Yes even the major media isn't letting this one get by.

New Republic: As Chrysler made clear the very next day, in a tartly worded blog post on the company website, officials have discussed opening plants in China in order to meet rising demand for vehicles there. They have no plans to downsize or shutter plants in the U.S. On the contrary, Fiat, the Italian company that acquired Chrysler during the rescue, just spent $1.7 billion to expand Jeep production in the U.S. That includes $500 million to renovate and expand the Toledo facilities, with 1,000 new factory jobs likely to follow. On Monday, about the same number of people will report for their first day of work in Detroit, when Chrysler adds a third shift to a Jeep plant it operates there.

Mitt will greatly expand Deficits! How easy is that?

Hand it to Rachel Maddow, she did everything she could to get Robert Gibbs to realize that they have a major messaging problem. It's not critical to their campaign, don't get me wrong, but it strikes at the heart of why Democrats are so bad at marketing their brand of ideology.

Rachel's simple observation would have made it so easy for Obama to connect to conservative voters. Not this time...

"A Binders full of Women..."

Here's the now infamous moment:



Here's my favorite tweet of the night:

Ryan Believes in a Congressional Magic Genie; tell them what you want, and your wishes will come true.

On Upfront with Mike Gousha, Paul Ryan admitted he and Mitt Romney have no detailed plan to present to the American public, just an idea and vision for the country. A framework. We all know congress writes and passes all the laws, except when Obama is president.

Ryan wants to ask the Republican genies in the congressional lamp to grant their platform wishes for the last 70 plus years. Granted, says the conservative majority with courage and leadership, qualities you would never find in a split body of government.

Ryan: "The last place you want to negotiate tax legislation is in the heat of the campaign."   

Everybody knows that rule...?

How Does Paul Ryan Get Away with This?

Even when a thoughtful, what appears to be a smart conservative, wants to hear just a few details of the Romney/Ryan plan to balance the budget, Paul Ryan still doesn't have the time break the message down to a simple sound bite with one or two examples.

Republican voters just don't seem to care, except for maybe this one audience member:

GOP's 8 Percent Unemployment Talking Point Vanishes...now what?

Has Romney reached the point of self parody yet?

So what do you do when your only big talking point has been obliterated? Well, you don't come up with an excuse that would also work against Republican governors touting their own low unemployment numbers. Those doubled edged swords are nasty...

Newsday: Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney says a drop in the nation's unemployment rate to 7.8 percent "is not what a real recovery looks like." He also argued that the rate is low in part because some people have stopped looking for work.

Obama wins on Substance, Romney Wins on Showmanship.

Predictable response from Mitt Romney tonight, actually. Bluster and nonstop, rapid fire topics allowing for no response. It was my worst fear realized. And Jim Lehrer failed miserably.

For Obama, not one mention of any one of the blunders from the Romney/Ryan campaign. We saw that same mistake from Tammy Baldwin, who never built on Tommy Thompson's campaign killing comments.

I'm not sure what to say about the lack of fight and strategy from our Democratic candidates. It really is painfully pathetic.

That said, the best moments came from MSNBC's Chris Matthews. Rachel Maddow got a kick out of Matthew's colorful reference to getting kicked in the balls:



Here, Matthews said pretty much what most Democratic voters were saying about missing every opportunity to bring up the 47 percent reference, Social Security, women' rights, sticking people in emergency rooms, specifics and others:

Rude Romney Voters Trash Card Board Obama.

What if you put up a life size card board Obama outside a Romney Monday night rally in Denver at the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum, and recorded the comments of the passersby?

Here's the video followed by the story behind it:

In an email to FOX31 Denver Tuesday, ProgressNow Action said, “we did nothing to further provoke the crowd.”

Asked what they want people who watch the tape to see, the group’s executive director, Joanne Schwartz, said this:

“It’s clear that not all, but many within Romney’s base of support dislike the President for irrational and often hateful reasons. Comments like ‘go back to Kenya,’ and asserting Obama is ‘black and used up’ reflect a much uglier prejudice than most Americans would identify with. Others continue to repeat discredited race-baiting falsehoods about the President’s religion and nationality,” Schwartz continued.

“Everyone we videotaped yesterday has a right to free expression, but others have the right to publicly reject intolerance. In a free society, we have an obligation to call this out.”

The Paul Ryan Fox News interview fallout continues-We're getting Tax Cuts No Matter What!

The Washington Post's Greg Sargent has a knack for noticing the "little things" politicians reveal in their zeal to convince, con and win over the low information voter.

Like the unpaid for Bush tax cuts, the Romney/Ryan plan is the same, but this time it'll work, trust them. Tax cuts will greatly reduce revenues by trillions of dollars, which will have to be made up with spending cuts. But "base line" stuff like that takes too much time to explain, time the public doesn't have?

A number of folks are having fun with Paul Ryan’s Sunday interview on Fox News, in which he declined to explain how the Romney/Ryan tax cuts will be paid for: “I don’t have the time, it would take me too long to go through all the math.” Jon Chait sees this as the latest sign that Ryan will “emerge from the race with his legend punctured.” But there’s another line from Ryan that is arguably just as revealing: Ryan explicitly admits that he and Romney would cut taxes even if they can’t make the math show that the tax cuts would be paid for. After Ryan’s remark about not having the time to do the math, Chris Wallace pressed Ryan this way:

WALLACE: OK, but let’s assume it doesn’t. The question is, what’s more important to Romney? Would he scale back on the 20 percent tax cut for the wealthy? Would he scale back and say, OK, you know, we’re going to have to raise taxes for the middle class? I guess the question is what’s most important to him in his tax reform plan?

RYAN: Keeping tax rates down. By lowering tax rates, people keep more of the next dollar that they earn. That matters. That is incentives. That’s pro-growth policy. That creates 7 million jobs. And what should go first...

WALLACE: So that’s more important than...

RYAN: That’s more important than anything. And more importantly, it’s not what deductions are in the tax code but it’s who gets them.

That is as clear a statement of priorities as you could want. Ryan admits that even if the math in their plan can’t work, that even if the tax cuts cannot be paid for by ending loopholes and deductions on the wealthy, he and Ryan would not scale back their planned tax cuts on the rich one penny. And don’t worry, this won’t explode the deficit, because just trust us, the revenues generated by the growth unleashed by the tax cuts will ultimately pay for the plan.

The consensus among many mainstream economists is that this is a “fantasy,” and as Jonathan Bernstein has noted, the same promise by previous GOP presidents has proven it to be magical thinking. The Tax Policy Center found, however, that it’s mathematically impossible. Romney sometimes deals with this by insisting the study is wrong.

But here Ryan allowed that even if the math explicitly indicates that the tax cuts cannot be paid for without raising middle class taxes — the condition Wallace laid down — the Romney administration would precede with the tax cuts, anyway. Good to know. Hopefully the priorities on display here will be exposed during the debates.

GOP Volunteer caller: "He is a Muslim....he'll get rid of your Medicare"

What the heck. This is what campaigning has come down too for Republicans.

Romney open about attacking Teacher Union Contributions to Democrats.

Here's Ed Schultz dissecting comments made by Mitt Romney about privatizing schools and bashing unions. Few in the media have pointed out, that when the Mittster makes the claim politicians are "tools" of the unions because of campaign donations, he's also admitting that corporate money has the same kind of influence. (Note: It's a false premise anyway.Union money does not effect teachers or influence their professional dedication to educations and our kids. Democratic politicians support teachers with or without unions money. It's Republican projection)

Mitt: "The teachers unions are able to contribute tens of millions of dollars to the campaigns of politicians, and then those politicians when elected, stand across from them at the bargaining table, supposedly representing the interest of the kids. I think its a mistake. I think we gotta get the money of the teachers union out of the campaigns." 

That flies in the face of Citizens United, a decision that gave free speech rights to businesses and unions. How is corporate money different from money donated by unions? Anyone?

The Liberal Polling Conspiracy.

Can someone change reality, and the outcome of the presidential election, if you believe public opinion polls are fake and in the tank for Obama?

More importantly, did we see this same disbelief in polls when Republicans were ahead? 

The Bizarro World of Republican politics is rabid over what they perceive to be the liberal media's reworked bad poll results for Romney.  Does that help them win or change the polls for real? Does desperate conspiracy theories reveal how hopeless and clinically paranoid the Republican voter has become? Stephen Colbert took a look at this upside down lunacy:

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It's good to document this weird surreal attack on polling, like below:

Mother  Jones- Kevin Drum: One of the odder little subplots of the 2012 election has been the growth of poll denialism among Republicans. As Mitt Romney's chances have grown ever dimmer, a cottage industry has sprung up on the right claiming that presidential polls suffer from liberal bias and Romney is really doing better than they say. "When the published poll shows Obama ahead by, say, 48-45," explains conservative pundit Dick Morris, "he's really probably losing by 52-48!"

The conservative … patron saint going into the last few weeks of the 2012 campaign is Dean Chambers, a blogger who runs a site called UnSkewed Polls. Chambers does not dig deep into the numbers. He doesn't explain sample sizes and cell phone biases. He does just one thing: he reweights all the polls so they have the same proportion of Democrats and Republicans. Romney is a big winner every time.

He adopted it, he told BuzzFeed, after seeing a poll that "just didn't look right." After a closer look, he decided that none of the others looked right either. Chambers says. It's all quite deliberate. "Any poll that says NBC, CBS, or ABC is going to be skewed and invested in trying to get this President re-elected," he explained.