Remember how just a short few weeks ago, one of Romney and the GOP's favorite talking points was how "divisive" Obama was being, since he was "dividing the country up" and setting them against each other in "class warfare"???

There is no doubt that Romney's campaign is divisive..

And, if you ever posted a commentary that said otherwise, you can bet the farm that I would be right there, correcting the record...

So, since we have established that Romney's campaign is divisive, is there ANYONE here willing to concede the same point about Obama's???

{{{chhhiiiiirrrrrrpppppp}}} {{{chirrrrrrrrppp}}}

Didna think so...

Michale....

I'm reminded, though, of something said to me eighteen months ago, not too long after that last election. It concerned the fundamental difference between the "Big Tents" (BT's) of the two parties. The difference, he said, was that the interest groups in the Republican party were by nature uncompromising and unrelenting, while those in among the Democrats were the opposite.

He speculated that it was rooted in the broad differences in demographics and economic self-identification, but it doesn't matter. His point was that the Republican BT had much more in common with a European parliamentary coalition than it had with that of the Democratic party.

All it was going to take, he said, was an electoral disaster for the coalition to evaporate, and the internecine strife to epochally transform the party. The risk of that happening is rising by the day, it seems.

CW, thanks for the re-welcome! I took a look at the subject of the quiz, and I'll take it when I have the time and beers to do so. Gonna project I'll do okay, having spent a good deal of time in my younger days on the road, beginning with parents' vacations, end-of-school-year transcon drives, and employment. The only thing I really regret about any of the time on the road, as compared, say, to Lampoon's vacation, is that we never had cause to strap the corpse of any cranky relative to the car roof for delivery somewhere Down the Road.

You asked CB if she was worried. Wasn't sure if it was in this commentary or another..

Well, while I can't speak for her, I can tell you that I am not worried..

It's established fact that the MSM is aiding and abetting Team Obama... According to reports, Team Obama's internal polling paints a very dismal picture for Obama..

So much so that the agent securing his retirement home in Hawaii has been told it needs to be ready by 13 Jan..

Yea, I know, I know. Obamabots unite and kill the story!!!! :D

Nice thing about this is, in 45 days, 5 hours, 8 minutes we'll know if it's true or not. :D

Michale.....

The ONE promise that prompted me to vote for him..

His biggest promise ever...

And now he admits he can't do it..

Well, at least we are (FINALLY) seeing honesty from our President...

Michale....

This is the EXACT problem with the Hysterical Left..

YOUR comments are sane... Anyone's comments who DON'T agree with their comments are insane.

Now ya'all know exactly why I compare political fanatics to religious fanatics. It's the same type of mind/will enslavement.

MY Political Party is right.. YOUR Political Party is wrong..
MY priests are right. YOUR priests are heretics..

MY god is right. YOUR god is evil..
MY President is right. YOUR president was evil..

It's the exact same mentality...

Ya'all simply REFUSE to accept ANY other opinions except your own...

Do you know how I know this?? Because NO ONE here has every taken the GOP side in a DEM/GOP issue...

Given this FACT, only one of two possibilities exist..

1. Dems are right ALL the time..

2. The Democratic Party is like parents. Ya'all will support them, even if you think they're wrong...

Now, NO ONE with more than 2 brain cells to rub together (that leaves a couple of ya'all out :D) could conclude that 1 is accurate..

That leaves only #2 as the only logical choice...

"Simple logic."
-Admiral James T Kirk

:D

Michale.....

See!??

Even when I give ya'all a break and let you wallow in your echo chamber, my services are missed!!! :D

Since FoxNews has officially been declared a valid source for opinion, I'll let Napalitano speak for me.. :D

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/09/20/governor-romney-is-courageous-to-stick-to-his-guns-about-47/

Face it, people. There won't be any blowback from Independents and NPAs, because the vast majority of Independents and NPAs agree completely with Romney's position...

And, since it's the Independents and NPAs that will decide the election..... :D

Michale.....

Needs no argument.

and don't really care about anyone else's tax burden.

Not quite. They see wealth in relative terms. If they can further impoverish the poor, that makes the rich richer by comparison.

If you're referring to the "preview" function (such as it is), then your paragraphs aren't the problem, my lack of programming skills are. Your paragraphs look fine to me, I just usually enter two "Return" characters, and the software does the rest automatically.

You did indeed miss a quiz. I had to repackage it as a "game" before anyone would play, so I heartily encourage you to check it out and report back your score. Heh.

Anyway, welcome back and stick around for all the election fun!

:-)

-CW

Haven't posted here in a long time, but did keep up with the readings in case there would be a pop quiz. There wasn't really much to say. As much as I could wish for Perry or Bachmann, we all know which candidate would emerge: it was Harvard's turn to try.

But now, it's gonna get good. The risk that the Republican party faces now, and the first signs of that chill in the air, is what happens when a wife picks up the phone in the bedroom and hears her husband telling his mistress how much he hates his wife's snoring.

In the meantime, a kind of random note: take a peek at why Harry Reid has the job he does, making sure this afternoon that Scott Brown had ample time to get his debate.

You know what else I'd love to hear from the right?

Remember how just a short few weeks ago, one of Romney and the GOP's favorite talking points was how "divisive" Obama was being, since he was "dividing the country up" and setting them against each other in "class warfare"???

Remember that? It was only a few weeks ago...

Haven't heard this talking point recently, since the Romney tape surfaced. Guess both sides do that "divisive" thing, if you know what I mean...

Heh.

-CW

But this does bring up another question: what else is Romney talking about at these private functions that the public never hears? At the very least I think it demands more details about his plans for fixing things...

Shh...just enjoy an almost unheard of 12 straight sane comments in a row.

um, that was a paraphrase of their semantic game, and it wouldn't have been a very good one if i'd taken space in the middle to nitpick.

Therefore focussing on 'federal income tax', which is a progressive tax, completely ignores all the hard-ship endured by these people under the many other regressive taxes imposed on them. It's a deliberate (semantic) distraction to try and focus people on the one type of tax that is actually progressive and ignore all the other regressive ones.

This is the main point: it's not about the number, it's about the fact that Romney has absolutely no clue (and stated he doesn't even care enough to bother learning) about all these other taxes and the burdens, problems and suffering of millions of Americans. The real Romney lives in a complete bubble unaware of all this and unwilling to even try to fix it - how could he fix it when he doesn't understand or care about it? This real Romney was displayed for all to see.

A point far more important to be making! Because, conversely, the wealthy, such as Romney, whose income is from capital gains rather than salary, pay no federal payroll taxes. Its only the uber-wealthy and totally impoverished who might actually pay no federal taxes.

And since Republicans are now claiming FICA is just a "tax," middle-class and poor working Americans pay a far higher percentage of their earnings as federal taxes, two or three times higher, than the wealthy do.

What everyone is missing, I think, is that the Republicans have shown that they don't really believe in either progressive taxes or flat taxes. They don't, to put it simply, believe in any formula of taxation which taxes the wealthy. Not progressive taxes, because then the wealthy pay too much. Not flat taxes, because then the wealthy pay too much. The poor, the middle-class, however can never pay too much; or to be more accurate, as Romney said, the Republican party simply believes its not their job to care about them.

the poor don't pay income taxes

Not to nit-pick, but this isn't true - you are falling into their semantic game! The correct expression would be '(some of) the poor don't pay federal income taxes'. If you include payroll taxes as 'income taxes' (which most would, since they are a tax on income!) then the poor actually pay a substantial proportion of their income as tax (in fact 2/3 of this '47%' group) - probably much higher than Mr Romney's 13.9%...

The actual number of Americans who pay a form of income tax is around 80%. But don't let facts spoil a good Republican 'half of Americans are moochers' rant...

What they care about is lowering taxes for the top 1% and up who are their campaign donors.

Everything else is just a bribe to accomplish this goal. Every now and then we just happen to catch a glimpse of one of them speaking the truth :)

-David

I think I know the answer to your query though: by today's Republican standards Reagan would be considered a lefty socialist! Screw equal opportunity and fairness in your tax system - everyone is just leeching of the wealthy who should be able to keep their spoils. It is much less surprising now that that Romney selected a VP so in love with Ayn Rand: altruism is evil, the poor are scroungers - selfish individualism for all!

Liz,
Don't worry, everything he does is calculated - Romney doesn't need Veterans/Soldiers/Students/Hispanic/Black/Housewives/Poor/Unemployed/Disabled/Elderly votes to get elected! He can insult them at will. Sadly his base is so ill-informed they have no idea that he is talking about (and insulting) a vast number of them - the tea-party loves this rhetoric.

What about the irony that swirls around the assertion that a good chunk, if not an outright majority, of the people who make up Mitt Romney's 47 percent are voters in Red states who typically, if not always, vote Republican?

I guess Romney isn't worried about those folks, either. He knows they typically, if not always, vote against their own economic and political interests, anyway - whether he publically disrespects them or not.