Re-Decision 2016! Over before it started.

I’m out! Good luck Jeb.

Big time announcement on the Hugh Hewitt show today. Mitt Romney, a few bad breaks away from the White House in 2012, declared today he is not running for President. Like most things with politics these days this announcement begs more questions than it answers.

Like, why Mitt why?

To his credit, I guess, Mitt says it’s time for other leaders to emerge from the party. This is a refrain my podcast partner, Hupp, has been singing for a long time now. He, and Mitt, are right. But that brings us to the next question. Who will emerge? Can they unify the party? Can they do it fast enough for November 2016?

Mitt was the front runner in all polls taken so far with respect to the Republican nominee. Granted it’s January of 2015 but you know this stuff can never start too early. That aside, who’s it gonna be? Jeb Bush was next in all polls so obviously it’s him. Or is it? My gut says Bush is about to feel the same pinch as Romney did.

Oh the leader emerging line from Romney is good and believable but I also have to believe the harder core conservatives beating Mitt about the head and face for the last two months factored into the decision. Well Bush is a less richer version than Romney. Is the far right machine recalibrating to take out W’s bro? Even though Jeb has street-cred with Latinos I would still bet he’ll find himself in the cross hairs of the Tea Party set.

Mitt was actually performing a service for Jeb. But now that Mitt has tapped out, Jeb is center stage.

The rest of the republican line-up is unremarkable to me. I’m a Rand Paul fan but I’m having a hard time seeing his path to the convention in August of 2016. As we talked about on the podcast a few weeks ago, Huckabee just muddles the water, as does Ben Carson, Santorum, Palin, Trump, and now Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who officially announced yesterday. An unnamed republican strategist thinks this could benefit Marco Rubio of Florida more than anyone.

So as the Tea Party burns so called Republicans In Name Only (RINOs) at the steak in their quest for a pure heart to lead the party, they may unknowingly clear a path for Rubio. This is a Tea Party candidate that has been dubbed a witch RINO by the people who elected him in Florida, and by Tea Partiers nation wide. Rubio does have Latino connections, albeit a rough history on immigration bills, but this is where January of 2015 is a plus. Long way to November of 16. Rubio could easily shake that immigration bill flip flopping off by then. The question is does he have the political moxie to actually do it? Time will tell.

People will be chirping about Chris Christie, but I feel confident his bridge has closed and he’s probably the next so called RINO for the fire anyway.

So we have our first real big test for the Republicans in the race for the White House in 2016. Mitt has kicked the ball back into the arena. Who’s gonna pick it up next?

The bigger question: When they lose to Hill-dogg in November, does Mitt get the blame?

Podcast Season 2 Episode 29: New Year – Old News

We’re back! Welcome to season two of Unfiltered and Unfettered. Yeah Season Two. Let that sink in for a second. Not sure who made the career ending decision to green light our show for a second season, but God bless em!

A question for you, our faithful readers/listeners. Should we restart the clock on episode numbers or stay continuous. In other words should this be episode 1 of season two or should we just keep counting and call it episode 29? Answer in the comment section or e-mail us if you please.

OK let’s get to work.

Click the link or chose other options below and listen to this podcast, unless of course you hate real America.

Episode 1 or 29: New Year – Old News

Or find us here: http://unfilteredunfettered.podhoster.com/

Or go to iTunes and search Unfiltered Unfettered. Find the UF/UF icon, click, and enjoy every episode from season 1.

Then tell us what you think, ask questions, argue with us, mock us.  Do it in the comment section below or the show’s email: theunmail@yahoo.com

On to the tease…

 

Ah, fresh powder.

Old Faithful – on skies.

Yeah our old buddy is back and he’s badder than ever. Kim Jong Un, fresh off grinding his uncle’s bones into a fine powder, uses that powder to open North Korea’s first ever ski resort. Open to the public too. Never let it be said he’s not a man of the people.

 

Don’t let them forget. Ever.

Chew that bone Darrell

Rep. Issa, R CA, is not letting go of the Benghazi cover up. Call him a right wing nut job if you want, but he’s one of the few in government that seems at all concerned about how four Americans were left to die in our own embassy. That makes Darrell our Politician of the Podcast.

 

Jean Luc Picard – greatest of all time? (yes)

2013 – Politics of the Weird

UF/UF top five list of the weirdest things in politics for 2013. The Pres tops our geek list when he confused Star Wars and Star Trek. Truly an impeachable offense.

 

 

 

All that and more as the ball drops on a new year.

Listen here.

Episode 1 or 29: New Year – Old News

Then tell us what you think, ask questions, argue with us, mock us.  Do it in the comment section below or the show’s email: theunmail@yahoo.com

click the link

 

 

 

 

do it

 

 

 

 

 

well go on and do it already

 

 

 

All I did was buy a t-shirt.

So I like politics.  A lot.  So much so that when candidates offer merchandise on their campaign web sites I go on a bender like QVC-Aholic with unlimited credit. Consequently I have a Romney for America t-shirt (the blue one and the grey one).  I have a Bill Haslam for Governor (R, TN) and Kay Hagen for Senate (D, NC).  I even have a Buddy Roemer, (no party affiliation) for America T-shirt.  What, you don’t know who Buddy Roemer is? Damn communists.  Read here:  The Best Presidential Candidate You Never Heard Of.

Buyer beware. It ain’t just a shirt bro.

Of course I also have an Obama for Tennessee (D, USA) T-shirt.  And that’s where the weirdness started.

One side note, the fact that Obama had T-shirts for every individual state and US Territory shows how flush with cash he was for his second term campaign, and a good indication he was going to win.  Still baffles me.  23% unemployment and he was raising money like he was printing it.  Hey, wait a minute….

 

Just kidding NSA guys, any chance you’ve found my LinkedIn password yet?

Anyway, like I said it got weird, in a Star Wars/Princess Leia/Obi-wan kind of weird.

Below is an example of the e-mails I’m getting from one Michelle Obama, First Lady of the United States, signed by her.  This is just the subject line:

Barack needs you, Francis, you’re his only hope!

Really, I’m his only hope?  How the hell has it come to this?  When did it get this bad? I’m not sure I can handle this kind of pressure. I only wanted a f*&%ing t-shirt, now I’ve been saddled with the weight of the country’s very existence?

This particular email was about helping middle class workers, because “…for too many families, that American promise is no longer within reach.”  My problem with that sentence is the irony, spelled with a capital ACA (affordable care act).  The irony is so thick it might actually choke you, (an no you ain’t covered for choking under Obamacare, unless you’re a corporation).

On our podcast you will here me say from time to time that I am a liberal and my people need to stop being stupid with respect to Ted Cruz’s citizenship, etc… Tony takes issue with the fact that I call myself a liberal, but by comparison to Tony, I’m Karl Marx’s illegitimate son. While it’s true I am conservative on some things, with respect to health care I’m so far left it’s not to be believed. Any self respecting socialist should be aghast at the abomination called Obamacare.  It’s not socialized medicine in any form.  It didn’t just stop short of socialized medicine, it made a right turn onto capitalist utopia and slammed full speed into insurance company nirvana.

And now because parts of Obamacare are being held back or delayed or whatever, it’s going to crush the middle class worker, eliminate the 40hr work week, taking overtime & vacation eligibility with it, and cover less than half of the people then what was initially projected.

How’s that for irony Michelle?

So for whatever reason, buying a campaign shirt from Obama puts you on the short list for people they come to in case of emergencies.  You know real world stuff like finding out your policies will hurt the very people you claim to want to help, or the country finding out you’ve been collecting all of their electronic data all the time.  Electronic data like this blog post and all the people who click on it for instance.  Whoops too late. Should have mentioned that in the header.  My bad people.

Michelle, Barack dosen’t need my help with middle class workers.  He screwed them but good, all on his own.

 

OK, so now what: election observations and other things

Most of the time it’s easier to get a lay of the land after the dust settles.  It’s been a week and we should be able to see clearly, but that might not be the case this time.  But, we here at UNfiltered and UNfettered are committed to routing through and explaining all the facts, while making up the stuff we can’t figure out.  So here now are some observations of America’s political process in all it’s freedom loving glory.

In Rove we trust 

Man, if you weren’t watching the election results on Fox at the moment the election was called for the President, you missed a doozy.  Fox News’ election team was Bret Baier and Megyn Kelly on the main desk, with Chris Wallace, democratic strategist Joe Trippi, and The Wonder Boy Karl Rove, Bush 43s former chief of staff and campaign manager at the “Decison Desk”.  Rove and Trippi were dissecting the numbers as each state was called for it’s respective candidate.  Fox was the first network to call Ohio.  When they did, Kelley and Baier looked up and sheepishly and disbelievingly said, “well that means the President has won re-election.”  Easy guys, don’t pop a vessel.

The party started, everywhere, except in Rove Land.  Alert reader Laurie Halsey hit me through FaceBook to say, not so fast Junior, Romney team is not conceding Ohio.  She was right.  So I quick-like switched back to Fox just in time to see Rove going after Megyn Kelley and Brett Baier and their journalistic ethics for calling a state where so many votes had yet top be counted.  Rove wasn’t hysterical but his boiler was definitely reaching maximum pressure.

Oh, you expected results?!?

Rove doesn’t care who’s President.  In fact it’s now more lucrative for him if  a Democrat is in office. There-in lies the problem.  His super pac raised millions, boarding on billions, over the last four years to defeat the President and some Dem Senators.  None of that worked out for Rove or his super pac and he was clearly feeling the pressure of his big pocket donors.

A member of the Fox News production crew recorded some behind scenes audio with her iPhone.  This apparently occurred during commercial break and was not meant for public consumption.  Warning, Rove drops the F-bomb in the first seconds of the first audio clip.  Take a listen: Rove melts down and again, and again.

Turn those machines back on!

Hey I admit, I’m a Rove fan.  He’s normally a savant with this stuff, but on this night, for this election, he was galactically wrong.  Ah well, time to find a new savant.

 

Irony, it’s so….ironic

Hey, them polls, they ain’t so bad after all.  For the most part all the polls showing Obama ahead and disregarded by the Republicans as skewed and biased, turned out to be right.  A mathalete named Nate Silver predicted the President had a 91% chance of winning reelection.  He was figuratively crucified for that prediction.  He was right.  He has been very gracious, as you would expect from a number crunching nerd, and turned down late night talk show requests to come on and do an “Up Yours, I told you so” tour.  But let the word go forth from this day forward, mock mathaletes at your peril.

Hey Tony, you were right it was a voter fraud conspiracy…for Romney.  In the irony of ironies, voter fraud made a huge appearance in this election, for the other guys.  So far amidst numerous complaints and rumors lobbied by disbelieving conservatives, the only documented case of voter fraud occurred in Pennsylvania.  Turns out in several precincts in Philadelphia and surrounding areas, whenever a voter touched Obama’s name on the touch screen the vote would be registered to Romney.  About two hours of longs lines had voted before someone noticed the error.  It gets better.  The company making those particular machines has shareholders.  It’s biggest shareholder: Tagg Romney, son of Mitt.  Whoa Nellie, take me home I have seen enough to know I have seen too much.

It turned out to be a software glitch that swapped the sensors on the screen.  Really not a big deal and apparently easily fixable.  But after all that crybaby nonsense over the summer by conservatives pushing for new laws to tamp down the 5 total cases of voter fraud tilting our electoral process of millions of votes cast in 08, it’s more than a little funny the only case proven so far happened for republicans and not against them.

Black Panthers, party of two?  Yep that’s it, just two, and that’s them, Mikhail Muhammad and Bob, in their Sunday best.   These are the two causing all the voter intimidation around the country.  Girl Scouts selling cookies at my Kroger are more intimidating and pushy.

Vote for Obama or I’ll make you wear this beret!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Racism rears it’s ugly head.

Yes, racism is still alive and well in America.  I know because I was involved first hand. When the Knoxville New Sentinel asked for election stories over Twitter, I submitted a picture of Frank going into our polling place and remarked how easy it was, no lines, no waiting etc…  A woman took issue with that.  Well not just a woman, a member of Obama for America reelection campaign, Knoxville chapter.  Here is her response:

What does this even mean

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is she implying west Knox is all white and therefore would not have issues at the pooling place?  Is she saying, of course whites will vote Romney?  Who knows?  I suspect Judi is a half wit.

The sad part is when I called her out on her racist remark Judi had no clue what I was talking about.  She assumed because I was white and I lived in West Knoxville that I would vote for Romney.  Assumptions about a group of people based on their race and physical location; Webster’s could not have defined it better.  She had no idea, as most of my conservative friends and family will tell you, that I am a big Obama fan and have championed him for the last four years.  It was his dirty campaign that turned me off this year.  But I voted for and was extremely excited for his presidency in 08.

Judi, you and people like you are the reason this country is divided.  The promise of a President to be above all that silliness, to raise the level of discourse and bring everyone into the conversation, has been undone by small minded people like you who think because racism happened and still happens, it’s ok to return the favor against people you have never even laid eyes on and have absolutely no clue about.  Attach an idiotic, racist comment like that to a picture of my three year old son going to his first election Judi, really?

I, for one, am not burdened by inequality Judi.  I treat all equally regardless of race, religion, or gender.  To that end, if we ever cross paths in Knoxville Judi, and you look at my son crossed eyed, I will punch you dead in your mouth.

How’s that for irony.

Democracy in Knoxville: No people, no lines, no problem.

Chalk us up America.  Count us among the counted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Frank and I went to our polling place, Bluegrass Elementary School in Knoxville TN, and got our democracy on.  We went around lunch time in hopes of seeing some people and waiting in line.  That would have at least given us someone to interview.  Alas, no joy. Joint was pretty empty.  Tennessee is an ID required state.  So that one extra stop to prove who I was caused the whole experience to last 3.6 minutes.

When we were leaving we ran into one volunteer working for Senator Becky Duncan Massey, running for re-election in the Tennessee 6th district.  So we talked to her.  She was neither a ball of energy, nor a font of knowledge.  Frank gave me the high sign to keep the questions simpler and more generic.  The young lady had “not seen very many people and the weather was turning out fine.”

That’s it.  She was spent.  She didn’t have to work too hard, we were voting for Massey anyway.  But I decided if she burned any more brain cells answering our questions she might not find her way home. That’s the hard hitting, deep political insight, we provide here at Unfiltered and Unfettered.  Be advised, had this lady come to my door two weeks ago, it only would have encouraged me to vote for Massey’s opponent.

So that was a total bust.  Next step, on to Kroger to get groceries/supplies for the impending armageddon based on tonights winner.

Here is a shot of Frank going into the polling place.

For freedom loving Americans everywhere!

Disregard that little sign above his head.  Frank did vote.  I moved the wheel and he hit the button when it got to a name he liked.  Sort of like Democracy Roulette. Surprisingly he liked Mitt Romney.  It makes him laugh when I say Mitt.   He also hit the big red button that casts the ballot once you’re done spreading freedom.  So my ballot is probably invalid.  But Frank liked it.

He thinks he’ll like democracy.

 

First polls close in an hour and a half.

 

Stay tuned.

 

 

 

 

The votes are in…

 

Happy Election Day!

It is 12:08am in the east and I’m going wire to wire. I think.

Dixville Notch and Hart’s Location have spoken.  Results as follows.  I’ll only give you the Presidential results.  I’ll spare you the senate and congressional races.

10 votes cast in Dixville Notch

President Obama – 5

Governor Romney – 5

1st tie in the history of Dixville Notch voting.  In. Their. History.  Gonna be a long election day.

The race with in the race shows Obama getting the 2 registered democrats and 3 independents.  Romney got the 3 registered republicans and 2 independents.

And at 12:40 in the AM the numbers roll in from Hart’s Location.

34 votes in Hart’s Location

President Obama – 23

Governor Romney – 9

Governor Johnson of New Mexico (Libertarian) – 2

The problem with small towns like this; you know too much info.  There are 41 residents in Hart’s Location and 37 registered voters.  So that means 3 people did not vote.  Or maybe they voted by-proxy or absentee.

Either way, President Obama out to a commanding lead.  Got to feel good about that.

Ok next results about 18 hours away.

Go vote!  Sleep first then go vote.

 

Voting in T – minus 2hrs

Can you feel it.  We are this close.

That’s close people!

T – minus  2, as in hours.  That’s right.  Voting starts at midnight.

Presidential elections are great for a lot of reasons. Besides the peaceful transfer of power since Adams took over from Washington, there are a lot of great traditions that come along with elections.  One of my favorites is the voting that takes place in Hart’s Location and Dixville Notch, New Hampshire.  At midnight on election day  the people of those two tiny hamlets gather in the town polling places, the ballroom of the Balsams Hotel in Dixville and an undisclosed spot for Hart’s Location, and using paper ballots, cast the country’s first votes for president.

They’re able to do this because of an obscure law in New Hampshire that allows towns with a population of less than 100 people to close the polling place once all have voted. Dixville has a pop. of 12, and Hart’s Location 41. So both places open the poll at midnight, cast their votes, close the polls, count the votes and go home.  They use paper ballots and a wooden box.  The votes are counted and reported immediately.  Freaking love it.  I may not sleep tonight. Romney is actually campaigning in Ohio on election day.  So votes will have already been tallied before he takes the stage at his rally.  It may not matter.

While national polling has the two men in a dead heat, state by state polling is showing a widening margin for the President.  The focus has shifted from Ohio to Virginia.  The “experts” all seem to agree that the winner of Virginia may go on to a big victory.  Mind you some of these experts are the same geniuses that predicted John Kerry would beat George Bush 43.  So you know, who knows?  Personally I’m hoping for a long night.  I would love for Hawaii to decide things.  The law suits, oh the law suits.

I’m getting way ahead of myself.  It’s the excitement, it’s actually visible.

For those of you that have followed my political rantings over at Frank’s Place, you know that I like to drag my now 3yr old son, Frank, along to political events like elections and rallies.  We also like to do man on the street interviews as we wait on line or in the crowd.  Got a few good interviews and met some nice people when Romney came to town in March for a pre-Super Tuesday rally.  You can read it here: Mittmentum rolls into Knoxville!

The little election junkie was sick during the primary on Super Tuesday in March of this year.  But this time Frank is right as rain and ready to get his democracy on.  We are traditionalists , so we go on election day.  No sissy early voting for us.  We get in line on November 6th and taste the sweetness of democracy as the founding fathers intended: the Tuesday after the first Monday of November.

So check back during the afternoon hours to read about our experience and maybe get some interviews from  people who actually voted.  And of course check back all  night on Tuesday to see how the race is going.  I’ll be tickling the ivories until my Polynesian brethren have their voice heard.  (That means until Hawaii votes)

T-minus 1:40 now!

Down the stretch they come: The electoral map, Crazy Joe, and other things.

Now this is really it.  I mean it was “IT” after the debates, but only partially it.  Now this is really  it.  Come Tuesday the race will finally be over, maybe.  More on the maybe in a second.  Lets get to the campaigns with some quick hits.

We ain’t in Kansas anymore…

Because you’re in Cleveland Joe, you crazy bastard.  Crazy Uncle Joe was at it again.  On stage in Cleveland the countries favorite Drunk Uncle started to extol the virtue of Des Moines Iowa.

Tell me who’s the candidate with Romesia…

They use to call me Crazy Joe, now they call me… ah…ah… Hey who wants ice cream?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The “where am I bug” even hit President Clinton, who is normally smoother than I don’t know what.  He thought he was in Pennsylvania when he was really in Florida.  Now in his defense he was in the middle of a 6 state run yesterday.  He also recovered much better than Joe, who just stammers along as if you’re the one who doesn’t know where you are.  Clinton just went on a riff about PA and chucked out some interesting facts and figures before returning to his Florida speech.

Can that dude run again?

Since last we debated…

So a lot has been going on since the final debate.  We’ve been subjected to lousy punch lines from the Obama campaign.  “If you said one thing two weeks ago, but said something different this week, you might just have Romnesia.”  Good lord.  Do we need to say more.  The state of his campaign is pretty obvious.  If it’s not obvious to you than you’ve never been pursued by a desperate paramour.

Not to be outdone in the idiot department, a super pac supporting Romney put up an ad about Chrysler Jeeps that could only be classified as an outright lie.  Seems camp Romney is telling folk the economy is so bad that Jeep is making Jeep in China and it’s all Obama’s fault.  A myriad of problems here.  China does not allow auto imports.  Every car maker has a plant in China.  The Chinese can only buy domestic, meaning the car must be made in China.

Second, car makers traditionally build the cars where they sell them.  It’s a standard car business model.  So Jeep also has a plant in Australia, all over Europe, Japan, etc…  So do most car makers.  Guess what, they have a plant or two here in the good old US of A. Always have.  They build the cars where they sell them.  Stuff like that is so easy to check. One search in the Google and you have the ad debunked.  Just dumb to put that ad out. Even dumber to endorse the ad, which Romney did himself when asked directly about it. You might have Romnesia…

Along came Sandy…

The only positive of the massive storm that hit the east coast was it put an end to all the idiotic campaign talk, ads, stump speeches, and commercials.  It would have only lasted a day or so but we got even more relief from an unlikely source.

In walks Chris Christie, Governor of NJ and big time Romney supporter.  The day after the storm destroyed the Jersey coastline and my hometown, Christie gave a press conference where he praised President Obama for moving so quickly to eliminate the red tape and expedite relief efforts.  The President was doing his job, but Christie really went on and on about the help and support he was getting from Obama and Christie felt the President deserved credit for that.  OK.  But he went a little overboard in some peoples’ estimation.  Conspiracy theories abound.  My favorite: Christie is submarining Romeny so he can run in 2016.  Sometimes I weep for the American Electorate.

Then there are times I laugh myself silly.  Christie went on Fox and Friends, the last bastion of pure intentional idiocy on the airwaves, and did an interview with Steve Doocy, king of the dopes.  Just when I thought Doocy could not be dumber, he rises to the occasion and proves me wrong.  He was clearly sent out there to burn the edge off all this praise Obama was getting.  So he asks Christie  if he was going to be taking Romney on a tour of the damage as he had just done with Obama.   The look on Christie’s face was priceless and if you have seen him before you knew what was coming.

Christie lit into Doocy for a good three minutes.  Instead of helping Romney, Doocy opened a can of worms with Christie that only hurt Romney more.  Everything Christie said in response was the last thing the Romney folk wanted to hear.  Especially since it was coming from the mouth of one of their more famous advocates.  But like President Bush 43, Christie really has a heart for the people he governs and he speaks his mind from that perspective, clearly unconcerned with the impact on the politics.

He proceeded to tell Doocy and the Fox fan base that he could care less what Governor Romney was interested in, he’s not the President so he can’t help me or the people of NJ so I have no desire or interest in that.  If you think I’m interested in the Presidential election right now you don’t know me very well.  That last sentence was a direct quote.   Ouch.  Good work Steve.  That’s the kind of reporting/interviewing we have come to expect from a bad weatherman with an undetectable IQ.

On the flip side…

Of course Romney took hits from the left wing of the media and as with Fox, they were all stupid and blatantly false.  The gist of the accusations were to the effect that if Mr. Romney wanted to help so much he should put his personal fortune where his mouth is. There is a lot wrong with that statement and its sentiment. Not the least of which is the fact Mitt had already made a sizable monetary donation to go along with food and resources he’s been personally providing since the storm hit. All done long before the media started to assault his character in a public forum.

Red Cross has confirmed they are accepting all supplies from Romney and his campaign. This was in response to an outright lie put out there by Rachel Maddow and reiterated by Alex Morgan on her noon time talk show on MSNBC.  They said Romney was only making matters worse by sending material goods instead of money and his stuff was not being accepted by any agency due to logistics.  Hey girls maybe it’s time to put your checkbook where your lies are.

So politically the storm was a push for the campaigns.  Both men did what they could do in their respective capacity.  The President obviously has more resources and ability to move mountains and he did so.  The Governor proved you can mobilize private help, but he also showed individual states can’t respond to an event of that magnitude.  Probably has something to do with the fact that the states of NY and NJ just had all their infrastructure washed out to sea.  It takes a partnership people.  The President, Governor Christie, Governor Cuomo, and Governor Romney worked it as well as it can be worked. And regardless of what you may hear or read, they all did it without playing politics.

It’s the map, always the map…

The map is where it’s at.  And the map says this one might be very close.  In popular vote Obama will probably be on the short end, but it looks as though he will win the electoral college race and get a second term.  In the olden days the Thursday prior to election day always told the tale.  Whoever was winning the polling data and the electoral map mathematics on the final Thursday eventually won the election.  And by olden days I mean all the way up to November of 08.   So here is where it stands now.

From Real Clear Politcs

Here is the rub, this ain’t the old days.  Hard to tell what may happen, but if the math stands like this come election day, Romney will need 78 of the 146 toss up electoral votes to break for him while Obama only needs 69.  And yeah that 9 vote difference is a big deal.  270 makes you President, so the Governor has a tough road to climb but not insurmountable.

The hurricane really has little effect.  The President was going to win NJ and NY anyway. Romney didn’t even campaign there.  But he is making up ground in Ohio, Colorado and Iowa.  That’s huge.  If Romney wins Ohio, get ready for a long night and possibly…

RECOUNT!…

Yeah it may be that close that an auto recount is triggered in several states.  Each state is different with respect to when they have a recount, but polling suggests a few states may be close enough to their recount number.  If that happens we’ll not know who won until December.

Be sure to check back here on election night for live updates as the results pour in.  I’ll be typing until Hawaii decides.  As the old saying goes: As goes Maui, so goes the nation.

Presidential Debate #3: I left my snark in Boca Raton

This is it.  I can’t believe it.  This is the last one.  I mean, I’m not ashamed to say I’m a little choked up right now.  I feel like I know these people.  No more debates.  It can’t be.   Folks this has been going on since spring of 2011 when the candidates announced they were running.   I’ve had two birthdays, a daughter, my brother-in-law got a new job and moved from Lexington KY to Raleigh NC, and my mother-in-law has moved here to Knoxville from Lexington KY.  All since this thing started.

Alright, I’ve gathered myself. I think.  No, no, yeah I’m good, yeah I’m gonna be good.

Ok on to the action.  We’re live from lovely Boca Raton Florida.  A city so nice they say it exactly opposite it’s spelling.  It’s Boca Rah – Tone, even though the O can’t be solid without a vowel following it.  Whatever.  You say potato, I say potatoe.

Bob Schiffer on to debate moderate.  He’s a good choice.  Guy has a Sunday show where he’s essentially a moderator for the entire hour.  We’ll see if he can control these two.

No fist-a-cuffs tonight sports fans.  Just verbal punches.  Looks all happy smiley for the final contest.

Those smiles didn’t last long.

Lets get some facts out of the way first.

1. This debate will have zero, none, nada, zilch, effect on the election.

2. If you are an undecided voter there is a good chance you are mentally unbalanced and realistically should not be allowed to vote anyway.  But this is Merica, so see you at the polls nut-jobs.

3. Incumbents always have the edge in foreign policy debates so the pressure is always on the President.

4. This was debate number 23 for Mitt Romney.  23.  This was only Obama’s 3rd.

Knowing that you would think Romney would mow Obama over with his mad debate skilzz.  I think that’s how the kids say it.  Not the case.  The President was the clear visual winner tonight.

Turns out the Pres ain’t no dummy.  He’s a bit of a liar though.  That was clear tonight. Now if we were on the block playin ball, it would be called gamesmanship.  Lying about what a guy said to throw him off is good strategy.  In Presidential politics it’s called lying. It’s currently palying well with the pundits who are breaking this thing down as I type. The key phrase they are all using; if you watched the debate, Obama was the clear winner.  True enough.  But if you read the transcript or just listened without watching, this debate was a draw, maybe even a Romney win.

Obama brought the funny and the condescension tonight.  He was channeling a little Newt Gingrich I think.  On the issue of the size of the Navy, Romney accused the President of neglect citing the Navy is the smallest it’s been since 1917.  Actual fact there.  The President’s response: “well Governor, we have less bayonets and horses than we had in 1917 as well.  The Navy has evolved in their capability.  They have aircraft carries now, that have planes land on them.  The have ships that go under the water and they call them submarines.”  Wow, a little nasty there.

Most pundits agreed this is the tone of a candidate who thinks he’s losing the race. Agreed.  But for a guy who is losing the race, Obama was smiling a lot.  But it felt more like that Jeffrey “I’ve got a good place in my freezer for your head” Dahmer smile.   It went on like that for several answers.  The big lie came at the end and backfired a little thanks to Twitter.  Obama repeated that tired line that Mitt wanted the car industry to just go bankrupt.  Romney corrected Obama and then the twitter-verse fact checked both men and found Romney was spot on and Obama was dead wrong.

Romney had a good response to the condescension, basically saying “attacking me Mr. President doesn’t spell out your agenda, it’s just attacking me.”  Good point.  Romney then spun a lie about the President into a winning argument.  This so called apology tour the President supposedly went on has been debunked from the beginning.  When Romney brought it up, the President jumped on him calling it the biggest whopper of the campaign.  But then Romney spelled out exactly why he felt it was an apology tour even though he admitted the President never said sorry or actually apologized for America.

By taking the tour at all signaled weakness according to Romney.  By touring all middle eastern countries except Israel gave the appearance of the President trying to curry sympathy from the Arab world while ignoring our biggest ally in the region.  It was a good argument.  Won me over.  It was the only time Romney really articulated a response that left the President with no good comeback.

Other than those few instances the debate was Romney trying to agree with everything Obama said.  Literally.  I think someone on Twitter scored it at about 90% as far as the President’s foreign policies that Romney agreed with.  Romney may have moved the needle with his conservative base, but in the wrong direction.

So Romney’s strategy was to just stay close to Obama, make no big mistake, and come out on top.  Obama kept challenging Romney with belittlement and condescension, but Romney would not bite.  That is the strategy of a guy winning the election.  But I must say for a guy who is winning based on the current polls, Romney sweats a lot.  He was “beading up” as they say down here, from the first exchange.

The national average of polls has the men tied, but both men are seeing internal polling that tell them the same thing.  Romney is pulling ahead in some key states and Obama has been losing ground for a while now.  Both men debated accordingly.

It was a bit of a snooze fest to tell the truth.  But it was the last one, the end.  I really can’t believe it.  Now all we get are e-mail bombs and junk mailers, and ad blitzes for the last two weeks.  It just won’t be the same.

Be sure to check back here on election night for live coverage of the results as they come in.

Big Bird, Binders, and now Romnesia?

You know I am having a hard time processing all this.  I supported the man in 08.  No shame in it.  He was the smartest of the two and had the better Vice Presidential candidate in Joe Biden.  Yes crazy, perpetually half drunk, foot consistently in mouth, not sure what city he’s in – ever,  Uncle Joe Biden.  Tony may fight me on this, but Joe, even half in the the bag, is a genius compared to the killa from Wasilla.  If this was 08 I’d vote for him again.  But this isn’t 2008. I lived in 2008. I lived through 08.  I voted in 2008. And 2008, you are no 2012.  Might have run out the string on that verbiage.

Anyway, this isn’t 2008 and the President’s campaign could not look more different.  I still believe he’s the same smart dude I voted for in 2008.  The problem; he’s trying to keep his job instead of doing his job.  In doing so he is listening to the three most useless people in his campaign: David Axelrod, David Plouffe, and Stephanie Cutter.  And I’m the guy who wrote this about Herman Cain’s campaign manager Mark Block: Down Goes Cain!

What’s the problem with that you ask, seeing as how those three mopped the floor with McCain/Palin in 08?  Here’s the problem, they got a taste and now they’re hooked. Addicts do some crazy and stupid crap to keep feeding the addiction.  These three power addicts are no different than your garden variety East Tennessee Meth heads.  Let me count the ways.

1. Romney talks of cutting spending but gives no clear specifics, except a quick shot at the moderator who works for PBS.  What do we get from the three blind mice?  Two weeks of nonsense about Mitt coming after Big Bird.  This is the leader of the free world mind you, who knows as well as you and I, PBS takes next to no money from the government and will operate fine without it.

2. Romney uses an awkward phrase about binders of women’s resumes and how they went about recruiting women for his cabinet when he was Governor of Massachusetts.  By the way, at that time Romney’s cabinet was over 50% women.  No Governor can make that claim even today.  Even among democrats.  What do we get from Cutter and the gang? A week and a half of binder jokes which did great things for Trapper Keeper sales, only to lower the bar even more for smart and intelligent debate in this country.

3. The President accuses Romney of having amnesia when it comes to some of his practices and polices as Governor.  So for the last week we’ve got nothing but “Do you want a President in the White House with Romnesia?”  That’s a direct quote from advertising and mailers sent out last week by Team Obama.  Again this is the leader of the free world making and repeating stupid lines that Wally and the Beav wouldn’t laugh at, and those two chuckle heads laughed at everything.

So that’s it.  Instead of turning to serious issues that all of Governors comments represent, we get seltzer water shooting lapel flowers and hand buzzers.  Instead of refuting some of the things the Governor said we get open mic night at the improv.  Were those attacks supposed to hurt?  It didn’t hurt Romney one bit.  It only makes you look small Mr. President, because we all know you’re trying to make him look small.  It has become your only shot.

Where I grew up in Jersey, and I’m betting the same for Tony, who’s from Ohio, silly attacks like that would only encourage me to kick the snot out of you.  It only reinforces the idea that you have nothing else, that you’re weak, and ultimately you’re beatable.

Mr. President, I would tell you what I told Rick Santorum, smarten up.  But it’s too late for that.

The final debate is tonight.  Let’s see what meaningless phrase or word Team Shecky Green and his band of cable comedy writers can spin into a Gong Show act for the remaining two weeks of the election.

Yeah it’s a real thing.

 

Thought I was joking?  Here is the high brow, intelligent campaigning we have come to know and love from Obama and his campaign full of not ready for any time players.

Really Mr. President?  Really?

The whoopee cushion of your campaign has run out of gas.

Photo courtesy of Euraputz.com