Bad Days for the Supermen

Paul Ryan has been dogged in his Townhall meetings on his own budget. He's taken to packing them now with supporters, who have admitted they haven't read the budget nor its first sentence that attacked President Obama. Ryan has been in his district saying that President Obama has taken a partisan tone in attacking his plan. But the average citizens in Wisconsin have been asking pointed questions about Ryan's own votes for the Bush tax cuts and two wars without asking for additional revenues to offset the deficits they caused. He has been pained by citizens asking about his "voucher system" for Medicare, which has gone over like a lead balloon. After a few of these encounters, he's taken to exiting the meetings through back doors.

Daniel Webster, who defeated liberal firebrand Allan Grayson, has been pummelled in his Florida district about the elimination of Medicare. In one townhall meeting, some woman--bless her heart--asked my question," Name one insurance company who will ensure seniors." Naturally, he was unable to.

Mike Grimm of New York was confronted with irate constituents about the Ryan Plan. Local citizens there blasted the Bush policies for creating these deficits. Grimm tried to call that "insane" but ,alas, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says that the economic downturn, the Bush tax cuts and the costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan war account for the entire deficit of the next ten years.

Teabagger Col. Allen West told his angry constituent in southern Florida that "without changing Medicare, you can kiss the United States of America goodby." A winning approach. Much like having a constituent arrested for questioning him.

Dean Baker just released a policy paper that shows that the Ryan budget would shift $34 trillion in healthcare expenses to the elderly over the length of the plan. One of the numerous flaws in the Ryan plan is that it does nothing to curb healthcare costs in the United States. And with making Medicare a "voucher" system it accelerates the cost of healthcare in the country.

The Wisconsin Democrats keep pluggin away, bringing the number of recalls up to 6. The Republicans, who had hired a Utah-based recall company to run theirs, failed to deliver the recall petitions on any of the Democrats. They came far short of the required signatures and they missed the deadlines. The Koch Brothers should demand their money back.

The Republicans' attempt at minority outreach has gotten off to a great start by campaigns in states' arguing that afformative action has not worked. The poster girl for this effort is a Oklahoma legislator who said that minorities earn less because they don't work hard enough and have less focus. And with more Papers Please Immigration Laws being debated around the country, Hispanics can forget about finding a sympathetic audience.

The Beltway pundits amused me about their obsession over Haley Barbour leaving the 2012 race. He not only didn't think he would win but some sense he knows the Republican Party has gone off the rails and knew he would have to wage a race-based campaign, which he didn't want to do given his own controversial past statemenets.

Mitt Romney is beginning to sound a little redundant. His response to the Obama release of his birth certificate was that he should have released "a plan to create jobs." This whole mantra of jobs, jobs, jobs would be clever if we didn't already have a Republican record in the House that so far as been devoid of any ideas to create jobs. The GOP is banking on the fact that by 2012 Americans will want to put them in charge because of the economic situation. Not only would Americans have to forget 8 years of George W. Bush but also two years of the Boehner House. And while Romney has the in-house Republican resume of private-public sector experience he doesn't seemed to have created any jobs either during a boom economy.

The Mitt sort of retracted his statement on Obama's peacetime spending binge only to step into it further by correcting the dates for his analogy and not recognizing we are in three shooting wars right now.

Today's news is that Mike Huckabee is inching to declaring for the Presidency. But this is contradicted by news from South Carolina where he told his followers and past operatives that should feel free to get jobs on other campaigns. The symbolics of this is that the winner of the South Carolina GOP primary wins the Republican nomination. Strange message for someone about to run.

The Ron Paul Love Revolution is gearing up. Ron Paul landed in New Hampshire just after the Donald's visit there yesterday. He said,"I've come to check out the long form of Donald Trump's Republican registration." The Donald has problems in this regard but he has problems in other regards as well. This will be Ron Paul's last hurrah before he hands the family's libertarian franchise to son Rand.

Sarah, O' Sarah, Sad Eyed Ladies of the Lowlands. Palin is trying to squeak back into the tweet world by suggesting President Obama didn't write Dreams of my Father. I just don't sense there is much pop and fizzle there anymore.

Rick "Frothy Mix" Santorum is accusing President Obama of being soft on..."militant socialism". That is code for China--another Donald Trump meme. The Donald fashion line--by the way--is all made in China. And we are in a quagmire in Libya. This is an unusual designation for a war in which we have no soliders on the ground. That's the way quagmires should be.

Republican strategists are worried about the fallout of the birth certificate issue because they fear that Obama made them all look like "Wack-Os". While they bank on a bad economy for their restoration to power, they fear citizens will believe they are too crazy to trust. Good thinking.

Meanwhile, Carnival Barkers have protested Obama's reference yesterday saying this was stereotyping and that their profession has changed since the old days. They should get the Donald to pose with them.

Mitch Daniels, the man who blasted "social issues", is now confronted with the Indiana's legislature bill to defund Planned Parenthood.

For the record, I organized a program the other day in D.C. which featured Rudy Guiliani as well as Howard Dean. Rudy sounded like he was interested in 2012 and he never mentioned 9-11 once. Rudy blasted Obama for leading from behind in the Middle East. He told local papers he's leaving the door open for 2012. He's heading up to New Hampshire to speak at a police convention. What was eerie is how much he looks like Theodore Roosevelt in his last years.

On a personal note, we talked about the great Mariano Rivera and the two straight saves we both watched. But I said he had to talk to Mariano for me because of the blown save the other night."Oh hey," he said,"he's 41. He can't be perfect." He also showed off a bracelet that helps balance the wrist that A-Rod gave him. It was nice to talk to a Yankee fan here in D.C.

Huffingtingpost and the Daily Beast are giving press play to former Republican governor of New Mexico Gary Johnson. He announced his candidacy before eight people--not the type of thing that puts the fear of God into Obama's heart.

On the Hill, the House GOP are creating a little Christmas tree of cuts to tack on to the debt ceiling bill. GOP financial advisers from past campaigns and former Treasurer Secretaries are warning the Republicans not to play games with this and not to delay passage at all.

Harry Reid is going to allow for a vote on the Ryan Budget. Clever move. This is to force the entire elected Republican party to be on the record as supporting the elimination of Medicare and Medicaid. This would then define the GOP for 2012. Every GOP presidential contender would have to take a stance on why they agree or disagree with the plan.

For the Record, I told Howard Dean the reason I have to be good to him is that I am depending on him to ensure that my wife and I can get to Vermont and be in their single payer system once it's implemented. This led to his explanation of how such a system would work and why single-payer could not in the United States as whole. It's nice to listen to someone who knows what he is talking about. I'm not going to repeat his whole analysis of the health care system. But his is a voice needed to be heard as we move forward.