I Think I Got The Message

After a dozen debates and listening to the Iowa appearances by candidates, I think I have the core Republican message down: "Barack Obama is bad". For variations, you can riff on Santorum saying he's "anti-American" or Romney, who always gives us a double dose of Hate Obama talk. Romney claimed that Obama wants to create a social welfare state like in Europe. Can we vote on this idea? Then he claims that Obama is responsible for the loss of 2 million jobs, and the closing of car dealerships because he saved the car industry. Huh?!

For the record, we have had 22 straight months of private sector job gains and the economy is in its best shape in six years. But Romney will take his record of creating 100,000 at Bain Capital. Of course, like his governorship of Massachusetts, there are no such records validating that claim. Romney even said he would stand on his record of job-creation in Massachusetts, where he was 47 out of 50 in the country,only missing 48th because of Hurricane Katrina.

But this is the argument from the GOP front-runner. Up is down. Down is Up. Strength is weakness. Peace is war. And frankly, I have times when the constant repetition of the Obama hate will actually influence the election. But there are other times that I remember 2008 and thinking then that the media really didn't have much influence despite the hype, the aftermath of books claiming the media was for Obama,etc. On the eve of the Iowa vote, I have no feeling whether the general voters believe this shit being said by Willard.

This is the case for Willard: "Make me President because I turned around Staples." That's it. Full stop. If you believe someone who made Staples profitable again should be the leader of the Free World, then do your thing. Then we can encourage other management consultants to run in the future. "I'm Bob, I turned around Best Buy. I can turn this country around using basic commonsense business principles, too." Man, how low do you go.

Romney's closing argument in Iowa is that he is the man who can beat the evil President Obama and save the soul --as a Mormon, that's a hoot--of the country. The reason Romney believes Obama is evil is that he letting loose his Mormonism. His father denounced the racism of his own religion but Romney has assimilated it. Black people are the people of Ham, cursed, according to the fictitious Book of Abraham written by Joseph Smith.

I was at the University of Chicago when some poor Mormon scholar shipped the original Egyptian papyrii that Smith translated to the Chicago Oriental Institute. The problem was, as the experts soon discovered,the fragments were funeral epitaphs and there was no mention of Abraham, Ham or anything Smith made up. But Romney is channeling the earliest teachings he heard in going after Obama. He no longer pretends anymore that Obama is just a well-meaning guy over his head as his condescending attitudes earlier reflected.

Maybe this is a winning message during a time of high anxiety. Blame the President. Put an extremely rich white man back in the office and all our troubles go away. Because if the Republican candidates believe they have made a winning argument on policy, they are dead wrong.

Even the extremely conservative Republicans in Iowa are beginning to sound baffled by these characters trapsing around their landscape. With a low 5.7% unemployment rate, hearing talk about restructing unemployment insurance as Romney argued or drug-testing unemployment recipients, doesn't make sense to people in Iowa. Rick Santorum pledging in the second whitest state in the uinion not to "improve the lives of black people with taxpayer money" sounds goofy. Then we have the great theater of Rick Perry blasting Frothy Mix Santorum as being "pro-gay" or Ron Paul accusing Santorum of being a "liberal". This is beyond the rhetoric of reality television.

The only thing that was sensible in the last few days was Newt protesting that Romney is a liar, a very slick and dangerous liar at that. It's really no wonder that over 40% of Iowa Republicans may change their mind at the last moment. None of them are satisfied with the field. They are trying to talk themselves into accepting Willard but are uncomfortable with his "elitism" and his condescending attitude.

Reporters flying in and have been capturing some of the strangeness of the whole affair. The BBC reporter talked about America's frustrations of being a superpower but not being able to afford it anymore. Leftwing bloggers have found out that the drill, Baby, drill mantra doesn't seem to resonate because Iowa long-ago went to alternative fuels and that citizens are earning thousands by hosting large wind farms to generate local power. Chris Matthews at Java Joe's had a caniption when he learned that most of the locals there were going to vote for Obama and then he found two lonely souls who might vote for Romney.

I just can't wait until all these characters show up in Florida. I want to hear Mitt explain his draconian immigration policy. "I can't hire illegals, I'm running for office for Pete's Sake." One of the problems is that the Republicans do not think of themselves anymore as a national policy. They have written off whole segments of our society so they do not have to address anyone except the extremely wealthy. There is still very little discussion about the fate of the middle class. The middle-class is supposed to be captured by appealing to social issues, not economic ones. So even if you manage to win office at a national level, you have already narrowed the population you pretend to represent. So it is funny to see Republicans complain about Ron Paul's association with White Supremacists--that's the logical conclusion of their focus as they leave one group after another group after another behind.