Run, Mitt, Run! (far away from here)

For some reason only know to Mitt, Ann, and maybe Refalca the Prancing Pony, Mitt Romney has indicated strongly enough to seize the nation's attention that he may run for President again. The problem is, it seems like there are more than 47% of us now who are not going to ever vote for him (and there were actually 51.1% the last time. It was Mitt who barely cleared 47 at 47.2%.)

The speculation in the media is that he acted to assert his interest before Jeb Bush signed up all the support from the "Establishment" wing of the Republican Party. (The "Establishment" wing - always with a capital "E" - is made of the wealthy people who have wealthy family who have already been or have run for President. The 1% who like to get the 51% to vote for them.)

Who Wants to be President?

There are two people who really, really want to be President of the United States.

The problem is, neither one wants to run for President. Hillary has her decades-old problem with the Press. She hates them and they love to go after her. Mitt's problem is similar. It's just not the Press, but that whole 47% of us thing. I don't think he liked the crowd he had to debate with in the primaries that much either.

The Big Lie of "Socialism!"

I got a little snarky on a FB post of a friend with whom I share some political views. In his attempts to promote a little Social Justice from solid, Mormon History, he was met with all the usual screed about the evils of "Socialism." My best comment was:

"Socialism. You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it does."

My point here is to try and explain that when tea-partiers on the Right talk about "Socialism" they are not using the classic, dictionary definition of an economic system in which the state owns and controls the means of production.

(By the way, I am not a Socialist. I believe in property rights and open markets regulated by representative democracy. Sigh!)

Mitt Romney at the Science Fair

I really, really wanted to like Mitt Romney. I did like his dad whom I believed to be a man of conviction. George Romney was one of the last Republicans to support the Civil Rights movement when the party's ideology was switching driven by Nixon's “Southern Strategy”  (Nixon canvassed the Southern vote with a veiled appeal to white voters using phrases like “law-and-order” to counter the push from Democrats to support civil rights). Mitt, like his father, was a great moderate Republican Governor and I fully supported Romneycare.

Yesterday I read something from a Republican that made a lot of sense in explaining Romney’s recent loss. Representative Pete Sessions explained:

“Mitt Romney appeared like a kid who showed up for his science project and the teacher said, ‘Explain it,’ and Mitt couldn’t do it. His ‘dad,’ Paul Ryan, explained it to him, but Mitt didn’t get it. … That’s why we lost the last election.”

How Do You Solve a Problem like Mitt Romney?

Bye, bye Mitt, American Guy!

Utah is heart-broken. (See this article in the Deseret News). The Republican establishment is throwing Mitt away. They are also, finally, going after their former intellectual leader, the infamous Bloviator, Rush Limbaugh. But maybe that's a story for another day. And we'd like to see them successful first.

I'm pretty upset about Mitt Romney too. He used to be one of my heroes as the guy who saved the SLC Olympics in 2002. Then he went on to be a moderately progressive Republican Governor of Massachusetts (i.e., Romneycare). He even gave Ted Kennedy a run for the money as a progressive Republican competing for the Senate a few years earlier. That's why I was so confused when I saw Romney running in the Republican Primaries of 2008 and 2012. I was sure he wasn't ever "Severely Conservative" (whatever that is) except for maybe the neo-con part. I don't think the Republican Party has a Mitt Romney problem, the Republican Party has a Republican problem.

Election Post-Mortem 2012 (by Faith, nothing wavering)

A few days have passed, so it's time to share a few thoughts, and my thoughts alone, about what happened. And as I promised, no gloating. (At least I'll try really, really hard.)

Electoral College Map 2012

And here's another version from the University of Michigan (h/t HF & PB) with the geography contorted to represent population of states:

Live-Blogging Election Night 2012

Well, I was running around to Utah County and back for my kids. Oddly, I was in Utah County for election day four years ago with my oldest boy and his now wife. I was in McD's briefly in American Fork checking Twitter and CNN and now I'm back at home with CNN and MSNBC on TV. I guess I could check how they're doing on FOX. Maybe we'll wait a while.

We'll try to keep up with some updates. I have an interruption coming with our Scout Commissioner to work on registration renewal. But we'll try to keep up. Nobody is calling Florida, Virginia or Ohio, but Florida is looking surprisingly well for the Prez on CNN analysis.

Why I Voted for Obama

Now that I have through early voting, I suppose I should explain myself. I have frequently referred readers to a general perusal of this blog to explain my support for the President which should give a fairly good understanding. I link some of those as we go along, but it is very hard to explain things that are a mixture of sentiment, logic, feelings, study, experience, inspiration and all kinds of different electrical impulses darting through my brain. Let me start with this:

Four Days to Go! My Picks for Tuesday

Time for Final Predictions. Obama by 2% in the popular vote. A solid win 303-235 in the Electoral College. If this link right here works, you can see my predictions on the CNN interactive map for the Electoral College by state. I couldn't figure a way to save or cut and paste.

Oh, and the Dems stay in control of the Senate. I'm going very optimistic to call it as 52 Dems, 46 Repubs, and 2 Independents who will caucus with the Dems. Not quite enough for the 60% cloture rule (only Constitutional in that the Senate can set its own rules, but it's a stupid rule), but the Republicans put up some really bad candidates for the Senate and Dems are doing better than originally expected. Repubs keep the House mainly due the short coat tails of the President. They will hold the House by a smaller margin, unfortunately not as unbounced as Tiggers should be.

Finally Figuring out Math

My wife is a Science Teacher. She used to teach Math. She's a lot smarter than I am in these areas. In fact, that applies in almost every area. The smartest thing I ever did was to marry her. Our kids do pretty well with Math. They get that from their mother. So far, none of them want to be a lawyer. They get that from me. 

Math has always been a problem for me. I'm smart enough, but still struggle with the Math Anxiety I developed in Mrs. Sather's class at Finn Hill Jr. High when she introduced something called polynomials. I've been lost in Mathematics-land ever since.

Live-Blogging Presidential Debate II

This is the one when they vote who gets thrown off the island - I'm pretty sure.

All the punditry is certainly extra excited to see if Governor Romney can pull a knock-out punch or the President can fight back to be a contender for round three next week. I can't figure this out to predict much. Neither one seems capable of "feeling pain" as well as President Clinton. And neither seems like they will be as distracted as George H.W. Bush checking his watch and misunderstanding the questions - or wandering the stage like McCain. Certainly the President will be more engaged but something less than the excitable Vice President. Governor Romney will continue his best equity salesman persona with all the moderation he can muster. We'll see if the President can call him on any of that this time. Or, the complete unknown, how the audience will play on either one of them.

Classy & Classless

Secretary of State Clinton is a very popular and successful member of the Obama Administration. She is so popular that even Republicans claim to love her, as in, "if only she had won instead of Obama!" Take that for what it's worth.

The classy thing she did was to fall on her sword over the Benghazi attack. She claimed full responsibility and that the President and Vice President didn't have any reason to know about any requests for increased security. This is clearly a political attempt to deflect the Republican attacks against the President on this. Of course the ultimate buck stops with the President and her deflection will only work to a point. Yet I'm sure Secretary Clinton, along with many others, is more concerned about the tragedy in Benghazi becoming a political football in the closing weeks of this election. We will eventually know the truth of all this yet it will take some time. Now comes the classless part.

Big Bird Is My Hero

On the political light side tonight, I can't resist sharing the best of Big Bird from the internest today.

It's Bull Pucky

Yes, the President appeared disengaged and not on his game at the debate. I'm sure he was thinking that he would rather be spending the evening with Michelle. And the strategy failed in that they were probably hoping to hold back a little and let Governor Romney slip somehow. Governor Romney was in top form that night. And I just read something that churns up my passion to threaten moderation.

CNN reports that Governor Romney now admits (I'm sure with the greatest of "sincerity") that he was "completely wrong" about calling 47% of America irresponsible victims demanding entitlements (such as "health care, food, housing" -the nerve!). If the President had mentioned anything at all to call him out on the 47% the other night, Romney would have walloped him with this prepared and practiced line of "sincerity."

That's the Guy I Was Talking About!

I'm really trying hard to express this without sounding sarcastic or cynical. But Mitt Romney last night did really well and reminds me of why I used to like him! I did! I really liked him when he came in and saved the Salt Lake City Olympics. I liked him when he was a moderate Republican Governor of Massachusetts (even more progressive than me at the time on pro-choice and pro-gay!). And I especially liked him when he gave Ted Kennedy a run for his money in 1994!

I mean, it was really great to see a take-charge, moderate, even progressive Mormon Republican doing well. He was so outside the extreme-conservative wing of the Republican Party that I thought he was a breath of fresh air and someone I could have supported for political office had I lived in Massachusetts. And then there was his dad. I was only a kid, but George was kind of a hero as a successful, Mormon politician from Michigan, far from the Mormon homeland. And then he served honorably in the Nixon Administration - one of the few who didn't end up in jail!

Live-Blogging Presidential Debate No. 1

Thanks to the election heating up, September was the biggest month yet on the blog. We had 5,438 page views. October should be good what with Presidential Debates, LDS General Conference, and all.

Keep clicking back. We'll try to keep updating . . .

Debate Prep - NOT Fasting for Mitt

Maybe I need to start a pledge e-mail chain . . . .

Last night I was invited by a Facebook friend to join a fast for Mitt Romney so he will do well in the debate tomorrow and win the Presidency. I was somewhat shocked and disturbed. Calming down a little, I posted this:

I've just been invited to a "fast" for Mitt Romney. I declined. This reminds of when members of my ward were using their manipulative tricks to get me to sign up for their "spiritual" self-awareness seminars. I declined that too. As a public notice to all - Please! No more invitations! If you don't understand why this is so highly inappropriate, then just condemn me to heck and move on. Please! (I think my Libertarian Mormon friends are with me on this one! Respect them too!)

I think that was a pretty temperate response. (The whole "self-awareness seminar business" I'll save for another time).

Why 47% Makes a Majority

First off, let me say that I don't believe Governor Romney really believes what he said on that secretly recorded tape at the fancy fundraiser. I think he was just trying to play to the crowd and the questioner. (The problem with saying things he doesn't really believe we'll leave for another time).

I also understand that he mixed several ideas. The conservative complaint that about 47% of people don't pay income taxes got mixed with the reality that about 47% of the electorate would never vote for him. The two groups aren't the same although there would be some overlap in a Venn diagram. The third idea thrown in was the Ayn Randian adolescent fantasy of the producers and the moochers which is about as accurate as the philosophical fantasies that divide the world into orcs and hobbits.

A Lincoln for President

Only first-time viewers need the notice that I am a big fan of Abraham Lincoln. And we all should know by now that President Obama is as well. He frequently references Lincoln directly or uses his words or phraseology sometimes without attribution. But if you live in his old house, I guess that's OK. He also claims to have read Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals which helps explain Secretary of State Clinton. And that's working out better than even Lincoln & Seward.

So, I thought I would do a little check to see how well Governor Romney reaches for the Lincoln ideal, or even the rhetoric. I found this:

The best ally world peace has ever known is a strong America. The “last best hope of earth” was what Abraham Lincoln called our country. Mitt Romney believes in fulfilling the promise of Lincoln’s words and will defend America abroad in word and in deed.- From Romney's campaign webpage.

The False Choice

As reported by CNN, Governor Romney characterizes the choice this way:

"We have a very different approach - the president and I - between a government-dominated society and a society driven by free people pursuing their dreams," Romney said.

What if there are another options? As in, "People pursuing their dreams of a free society" or "Free People dominating their own government."

President Obama has made serious mistakes. He has been quite amazing in some of the things he has accomplished, but he admits himself that he has not changed Washington or the tone in Washington (meaning DC, not the State of, which has a very nice green and brown tone). And so many on the right cry crocodile tears that they are so disappointed, while mainly frustrated that they haven't been able to stalemate him any more than they have.