Bosox Fold, Romney Next?

So what's happening?

Nate the Great Silver in the NYT today notes that with Perry collapsing, the other Republican candidates are picking up in the polls but that Romney remains more or less constant.

Steve Benen nailed Romney today on the former Governor's new explanation about his flip-flopping. Romney says that in business you have to change your opinions if the facts change or else you get fired. Benen says now that Romney is even flip-flopping on flip-flopping.

Mitt Romney finally told the truth on Fox News about the individual mandate. This is the hallmark of the GOP's charge that the Affordable Care Act is socialized medicine. Romney pointed out that originally it was a conservative idea developed by the Heritage Foundation, who helped him out with Romneycare. He also pointed out that New Gingrich had been a big supporter of the individual mandate.

The Obama Administration has asked the Supreme Court to rule as soon as possible on the merits of the ACA after an appeals court ruled that the individual mandate was unconstitutional. There must be something in that ruling that the Obama Administration likes that they didn't appeal the decision. Despite the flood of e-mails from my conservative friends that this spells the end of Obamacare, I'm not so sure and neither are some legal writers. The Washington Post had a piece last night that suggested that the law will be upheld with more than the usual 5-4 decision. I also read a long piece that argued that given Anthony Scalia's past decisions based on the Commerce Clause he would vote to uphold the law. Here I'm dubious. But the calmness of the Administration and some of the early comments make me more optimistic than before.

Well, if you have been like me wondering where Carl Hiassen has been while his state has been ruled by coconuts like Rick Scott, look no further. He was on Rachel Maddow last night about his offer to pay for the drug testing of all Florida legislators. Carl was on because of the enthusiasm in Florida about drug-testing welfare recipients,, even though their failure rate is about 2.5% now, making the program more expensive than the savings from the culprits.

Kudos to Ed Schultz for exposing the new scam here in D.C. concerning the US Postal Service. On the surface, the USPS is losing billions a year, even though they are America's largest employer with the largest private fleet of vehicles in the world. The USPS processes 40% of the world's mail and packages, including a sizeable portion of FEDEX and UPS because they are mandated to go to every community and house. Schultz explained how they began to lose money. As a farewell gift in 2006 before the new Democratic Congress, the GOP in a lame duck session passed a law that the USPS had to keep 75 years of pensions in escrow. The net effect of this is that the Postal Service will lose money ad infinitum unless this rule is reversed. Over 100,000 jobs are at stake and the whole Postal System is under attack, even though it is a $65 billion business that gets no taxpayer funds. Complain all you want but rural America and the rest of us depend on USPS as do all those little magazines you like. Keep it up, Ed.

Lawrence O'Donnell has been on a tear about the police crackdowns on the Occupy Wall Street Demonstrations. You would think that after the teabaggers generate so much television time and even now co-sponsor with CNN debates that a larger crowd would get attention. While I'm not all that clear what the political point is of the demonstrations, O'Donnell is right to condemn the police brutality and the strange incident of a police officer gratuitously pepper-spraying demonstrators just minding their own business.

If you've lost interest in whether the government will close down, so have I. The new GOP majority in the House have used this gambit too many times already and now they just look like the kooks they are. It is no wonder only 9% believe they should be re-elected.

Read an interesting op-ed in the Huffington Post by an Hispanic political activist who wondered why the GOP is so overtly against immigrants and why none of the candidates make any attempt at all about addressing their concerns of the Hispanics. The author pointed out that the George W. Bush campaign said they needed 40% of the Hispanic vote to beat John Kerry in 2004 and they made it. But now only 19% of Hispanics say they will vote for the GOP. Obama has also had to two-step on the Hispanic vote because of his failure to deliver on immigration reform, which he still supports. But his record number of deportations has dampered Hispanic enthusiasm.

President Obama's approval ratings have now balanced out at about 42% so all he needs to do for an uptick is kill another terrorist.

The market is taking off today because new unemployment figures dipped below 400,000 for the first time since April and the Germans look like they may or may not save the Eurozone. Boy, it doesn't take much to keep these guys happy.

The GOP is now trying to say that Obama tax policy would represent the "largest tax increase in American history". They have been asserting this about Obama from the beginning even though he has cut taxes the most of any President...in history. The attacked is aimed at the Buffett millionaire tax, meaning that the GOP is banking their whole campaign on a tax increase for .3% of our population. Even 66% of Republicans agree with President Obama and some 77% of all Americans. This will be an interesting case study whether the GOP message machine can really reverse the popular opinion of the entire country.

Let's hear for Emmy-winner Rachel Maddow, who keeps plugging away at the voter suppression efforts in various states. The one problem the United States has is people not voting. Efforts were made over the 2006 and 2008 season to facilitate voting with early voting and same day registration. Just a FYI, there have been no serious studies or even complaints that these new procedures led to any voter fraud. But what they did do is increase Democratic turnout and therefore, even Maine, which has had early voting for years, has reversed its policy. The whole idea is to suppress groups that would tend to vote Democratic--minorities and students.

While the Romney camp has been fooling around with the primary schedule, others seem to be playing the same game. Now Florida, Missouri and Arizona want to move up in line. This is a slow-motion car crash waiting to happen.

What is it with Ralph Nader? The man who write "Not Safe At Any Speed" has praised Sarah Palin and now embraced Ron Paul, a man who would not support any safety regulations for cars. Nader has threatened to primary Obama and we remember his last quixotic presidential campaign in 2000 that shaved points off Al Gore. Is his Republican funders coming through like the past?

Sarah Palin re-appeared to say that she might feel "shackled" if she ran for President. She likened the current debates as a reality show--since she has one of her own. This is another person people are ceasing to care about. Joe McGinnis better sell the paperback rights to his book now before he is remaindered. The good news is that the Palin family lawyer has threatened to sue McGinnis for using anonymous sources. McGinnis and Random House responded that they reviewed all the sources for the book. But Joe's missing a great opportunity--through the discovery process he can unearth more dirt. But by that time no one will care.

My regret that Chris Christie isn't running is that he is the person who can finally say during a debate that Herman Cain's Godfather Pizza is terrible. Some one from Jersey has to say it.

No, Barack Obama is not the anti-Christ. This blog has gone into this too many time to repeat. The anti-Christ is Nero.

Could we recognize Lady Ga-Ga. Lady Ga-Ga's collaboration with Tony Bennett on his Duets II album brought the 85-year old jazz great his first #1 album--ever. Lady Ga-Ga also dedicated a song to a 14-year old gay boy who killed himself and vowed to bring the subject of gay bullying up with President Obama. True to her word, she paid the bill for a fund-raiser and did ask President Obama about further efforts to stop bullying of gays. She's been there on DADT and on same-sex marriage. And she's a job creator.

And speaking of the exotic, Muammar Gaddafi is alleged to be hiding on the Algerian border protected by the Tuaregs. The fact that one of my favorite nomadic tribes is protecting him breaks my heart. I remember vividly the Tuaregs riding their camels and appearing over the dunes in the Sahara.