Usa Thread

[Redbaron]

The Nutty Professor - Jerry Lewis

[Flashermac]

Romney picks Paul Ryan!

 

WTF was he thinking? Ryan strikes me as one of the weakest choices.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kamui]

Romney picks Paul Ryan!

 

WTF was he thinking? Ryan strikes me as one of the weakest choices.

 

 

He plays to the very conservative base: anti-abortion, anti medicare, privatize social security, radical tax cuts for the rich and corps, cut main government functions, e.g.

And he is young, energetic, with a strong own profile.

 

It might be energized to conservatives, but won't do anything for the women, Latinos, elderly, which are important in some swing states like Florida. And of course it opens lines of attack for the Dems.

 

We'll see...

[Flashermac]

Preaching to the choir? I thought Rubio might win it for him. I don't see Ryan doing so.

[Steve]

Catch 22 for Romney, the base isn't excited about him. That's obvious. The question does the base hate Obama enough to come out in numbers to vote against him despite not liking him?

They may if it was the idea of an Obama but they've had almost 4 years to get used to him. And as much as they don't like Obama, deep down they know he isn't as bad as Fox News or Hugh Hoy (hehe)makes him out to be.

 

The big question as well as will he get a good enough bump in the polls to challenge in Penna., Florida and Ohio.

 

The polling suggests that people aren't crazy about Obama but he's not as bad as how the far right are making him out to be.

[Flashermac]

Rep. Allen West says ad plays on racial stereotypes; NAACP disagrees

 

Conservative black U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Palm Beach Gardens, says an ad that depicts him punching white women plays on racial stereotypes and would make liberals “apoplectic†if a Republican ran it against a black Democrat.

 

While Sarah Palin and Herman Cain joined the West campaign in ratcheting up criticism of the ad on Friday, an NAACP official said he didn’t find the 30-second spot to be racially offensive. And the campaign of West’s main Democratic rival defended the ad’s content while denying any involvement in its creation.

 

The controversy centers on an ad by American Sunrise, a PAC that is largely financed by the father of Democratic congressional candidate Patrick Murphy. The ad blasts West’s stances on seniors, women’s health and tax issues by showing a cartoonish likeness of West in boxing gloves slugging an elderly woman and a younger woman who are white and punching a black family and grabbing the family’s cash.

 

“Think if the Republican Party or some conservative PAC ran a picture of a black Democrat politician or congressman punching white women and white seniors. I’m sure that MSNBC, NBC and the Huffington Post and everyone would be going apoplectic right now,†West said on Fox News.

 

West, one of only two black Republicans in Congress, said “different rules†apply to black conservatives.

 

“You know, where’s the outrage from Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton and the NAACP about this? They’re not going to say anything because they’re nothing but an effective wing of the Democrat Party whatsoever and they have effectively kept them well placed so that they can continue to have a black electorate voting bloc,†West said.

 

NAACP Washington Bureau Director Hilary O. Shelton, the organization’s chief federal lobbyist, said he watched the ad three or four times.

 

“It is a typical campaign ad,†said Shelton. “I don’t see it playing on stereotypes.â€

 

American Sunrise got $250,000 of its initial $350,050 budget from Coastal Construction CEO Thomas Murphy Jr., who is Patrick Murphy’s father. The PAC, which says it aims to “reduce the hostile environment of governing in today’s Congress,†lists Patrick Murphy as the only candidate it supports.

 

The elder Murphy has not returned calls requesting comment. Patrick Murphy’s campaign defended the ad’s content.

 

“The Murphy campaign had nothing to do with the content or creation of this ad,†said a statement released by Murphy consultant Eric Johnson. “However, it is amazing to hear Allen West complain considering he recently called Social Security ‘slavery,’ said the President is trying to ‘enslave’ Americans, and told a female colleague she was ‘vile and despicable.’â€

 

West’s campaign assembled several supporters for a Friday news conference to blast the ad.

 

“It’s only been recently that women have come out and admitted that they have been victims of domestic violence. And to put this ad on TV showing a black man hitting a white woman is despicable. It sets things back 20 years,†said Nita Denton, the lead attorney in the state attorney’s office in Martin County.

 

State Rep. William Snyder, R-Stuart, a candidate for Martin County sheriff, decried the “vile, racially charged attack ad.â€

 

Thomas Bakkedahl, an assistant state attorney in Martin County, said the ad “hearkens back to the Willie Horton days.â€

 

Horton was the convicted murderer featured in a 1988 ad by a PAC supporting Republican George H.W. Bush for president and slamming Democratic rival Michael Dukakis as soft on crime. While Dukakis was governor of Massachusetts, Horton used a weekend furlough to escape and later kidnap a couple, stabbing the man and raping the woman.

 

Critics charged that the 1988 TV ad was meant to inflame white prejudice by featuring a menacing photo of Horton, who is black.

 

The NAACP’s Shelton said the smiling photo of West used in the American Sunrise ad isn’t in the same category.

 

“What you don’t see is the kind of Willie Hortonesque making him look more sinister,†Shelton said. “He does not look more aggressive, he does not look more threatening. He looks congressional.â€

 

While West and Murphy are expected to face off in an expensive November showdown, both must first win Tuesday primaries. West is being challenged by Martin County Sheriff Robert Crowder in the GOP primary while Murphy is on the Democratic ballot with retired firefighter Jerry Buechler and businessman Jim Horn.

 

My link

[Flashermac]

Smart Democrats Should Be Worried

 

By John Fund

 

Liberal pundits are already fanning out in force to attack and discredit Paul Ryan. Michael Tomasky, who recently wrote a Newsweek cover story calling Mitt Romney a “wimp,†has now decided that Romney’s bold move is “a terrible choice†because Ryan has proven himself to be an extremist on budget issues.

 

No doubt there are many Democrats rubbing their hands in glee in contemplation of reviving some version of the ad that featured an actor playing Paul Ryan pushing a grandmother in a wheelchair off a cliff. But the smarter ones are worried.

 

First, if Ryan is an extremist and his proposals are so unpopular, how has he won election seven times in a Democratic district? His lowest share of the vote was 57 percent — in his first race. He routinely wins over two-thirds of the vote. When Obama swept the nation in 2008, he carried Ryan’s district by four points. But at the same time, Ryan won reelection with 65 percent of the vote, meaning that a fifth of Obama voters also voted for him.

 

Ryan has pointed out to me that no Republican has carried his district for president since Ronald Reagan in 1984. “I have held hundreds of town-hall meetings in my district explaining why we have to take bold reform steps, and I’ve found treating people like adults works,†he told me. “All those ads pushing elderly woman off the cliffs don’t work anymore if you lay out the problem.â€

 

Second, Democrats know that Ryan has Reaganesque qualities that make him appealing to independent, middle-class voters. Take the cover story on Ryan that the Isthmus, a radically left-wing Madison, Wis. newspaper, ran on him in 2009. “Ryan, with his sunny disposition and choirboy looks, projects compassion and forcefully proclaims dedication to his district,†the story reported. “And he’s proved he is not unyieldingly pro-corporate, as when he recently joined in condemnation of AIG ‘retention’ bonuses.â€

 

Third, Ryan’s ideas aren’t that novel or scary. The idea of “premium support†for Medicare, which would change the program’s one-size-fits-all policy to a private-insurance model with public options, was endorsed by a bipartisan commission appointed by Bill Clinton back in the 1990s. Late last year, Ryan announced a new version of his proposal with a new partner signing on: Democratic senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, who first achieved political prominence as an advocate for seniors.

 

Four, Ryan puts Wisconsin and its ten electoral votes in play. Polls have shown that President Obama holds a five to seven point lead in Wisconsin — significant, but much less than Obama’s 14-point margin in 2008. With Ryan on the ticket, polls show the race is dead even.

 

Five, if Republicans were looking for a superior candidate, they’ve found it in Ryan. His maiden speech as the GOP vice-presidential candidate was perfectly pitched:

 

"We won’t duck the tough issues . . . we will lead!

We won’t blame others…we will take responsibility!

We won’t replace our founding principles . . . we will reapply them!"

 

Echoes of Ronald Reagan at his best.

 

Ryan was judged to have already had the better of President Obama in televised exchanges on Obamacare. His debate with Joe Biden this October might well be remembered as cruel and unusual punishment for dim vice presidents. Recall that Sarah Palin fought a much more engaged Joe Biden to a draw in their 2008 vice-presidential debate.

 

Six, as Democratic consultant Joe Trippi acknowledged today on Fox News, Ryan will bring in a flood of donations from overjoyed conservatives and tea-party members. Romney had a problem with energizing the GOP base. That problem is now solved, and that will make it easier to pump up conservative turnout.

 

Democrats will no doubt try to make Paul Ryan into a younger version of the devil they’ve tried to paint Mitt Romney as. But they should worry about fighting a campaign on fundamental issues in a weak economy. That’s precisely how Jimmy Carter, the last Democratic president to run for reelection during hard times, wound up losing so badly that it not only cost Democrats control of the U.S. Senate but damaging the liberal brand for years afterwards.

 

My link

[Steve]

Romney made a decision to choose a VP running mate that was gonna get the conservatives who doubt him out as well as get the white male vote out. He's giving up on women and had to risk losing a chunk of the middle.

The part core may not like Obama, in fact hate him, but it didn't seem they were gonna come out in numbers to vote against Obama and for Romney, a person they don't trust as one of their own. Dicey call and suspect their internal numbers said they needed to. Florida may be gone if Obama runs ads there scaring the retirees about Ryan wanting to gut their programs.

 

As for West, he's right on two thigs. First, the ads were meant to have racia undertones and second there is hypocracy on the part of the NAACP, Sharpton and Jackson had it been a Democrat. My question is this. He doesn't like any of the aforementioned and sees them as partisan (which I agree) and took it as an opportunity to blame them for not helping. If they had supported him would he have accepted it? Can't see him standing next to Sharpton denouncing it. I have no respect for West. There are some black conservatives that try to 'out conservative' conservatives in order to prove they are true. His statement about his being glad his forefathers were brought to America as slaves is asanine. Knowing the unthinkable cruelty they had to go through and his making that kind of statement smacks of frankly an Uncle Tom. I hate using that term. I've been accused of being one on many occasions because of my stance on issues. You'd never hear Colin Powell utter such idiocy because he has integrity. Its the same West who tried to ignite bigotry a few years ago by constantly using Obama's middle name Hussein when discussing him. Knowing by doing that many people would not only believe he was a moslem but it also surreptitiously promotes anti arab bigotry. It was reckless and immoral in my view. Ask a Jew if they were glad their grandparents went through the holocaust because it meant that they were able to come to the U.S. instead of staying in Poland if they hadn't otherwise. They would label you an insane anti-semite. Its tantamount to the same thing saying blacks should be glad for slavery. You'll rarely hear black conservatives be proud of being Black. I am, they will always say I'm proud to be American. Its okay for a Jew, Italian, born again or Irish conservative to say they are proud of their ethnic or religious heritage as well as being as proud to be American but if you're black its seen as militant to some extent. I've heard Romney say he's proud to be Mormon. Nothing wrong with it and he should be.

 

My prediction is that there will be an internal revolution in the Republican party just as there were with the Dems. After the landslide losses in the '80s they Dems gave up fielding Presidential candidates who were seen as true Liberals. As I said, they've selected moderates and centrists since the '90s...Clinton, Gore, Kerry and Obama are centrists. With the demographics working against them and if they continue to lose Presidential elections by alienating the middle as they do they will have to or risk only being able to win in congressional districts and statewide elections which senate races basically are.

 

For me the future is Cory Booker, the best person of either party. I hope he runs for Governor soon and then President in the next 8 to 12 years.

[Bangkoktraveler]

If a USA citizens flees the country for fear of being arrested

(Federal crime - felony category)

and then settles in their new country and in their new country

produces several children, are the children automatically given USA citizen status?

 

Could the election come down to debating this issue?

[kamui]

My prediction is that there will be an internal revolution in the Republican party just as there were with the Dems. After the landslide losses in the '80s they Dems gave up fielding Presidential candidates who were seen as true Liberals. As I said, they've selected moderates and centrists since the '90s...Clinton, Gore, Kerry and Obama are centrists.

 

Interestingly the GOP is currently moving even more to the right. The selection of Ryan is clear signal. And in almost all internal GOP races the candidate most close to far right won. Moderate GOP had and have to go into hiding or have been kicked out.

 

If Romney wins there won't be an internal revolution for the next 4 years, but it this is only a postponement. If he loses the GOP might fall into a crisis a little bit earlier. With the whites becoming a minority the current non-inclusive GOP won't have a chance in future elections.