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Wednesday, April 4. 2012
Marvelous!
Tuesday I woke up to President Obama making a speech. At first I thought it was a dream because he was actually going after the Republicans like a real Democrat would during an election cycle. He called the most recent Ryan Budget Plan voted on in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, a “Trojan Horse” and “… thinly veiled Social Darwinism.” He then quoted former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich who just last year called the Ryan Budget “radical right wing social engineering.”Not only that, he called out Ryan and his most likely Republican challenger Mitt Romney by name when he went after the Republican budget. What? Yeah, sort of quoting Romney, President Obama told his audience, news editors and publishers, Romney called the Ryan Budget “marvelous.” Then, in his way, the president had a little fun with that saying “marvelous” was not a word often used to describe a budget. It’s funny when you watch it. The president has that little chuckle he reserves for these moments.
Probably no coincidence this speech took place on the same day as the primaries in Wisconsin, Maryland and Washington, D.C. It is the Wisconsin primary that most people focused on. It’s a Midwest state, currently under control of Republicans (but that could change in two months) and a primary Rick Santorum called a “must win.”
Santorum looked like he might have it too. Fifteen minutes after the polls closed the Republican race was too close to call. My friend Bob, a denizen of Milwaukee (his wife is another over-worked and under-paid teacher in the Milwaukee Public Schools), said the polls were busy Tuesday. Bob is hoping this is a good omen for the June recall elections when Governor Scott Walker is due to get put out of office, the first Wisconsin governor to be recalled in that state’s history.
In the end, Mitt Romney won the primary and Wednesday he gave his speech in front of the same editors and publishers who heard President Obama the day before: the American Society of Newspaper Editors. For Romney’s Wisconsin victory speech, Congressman Paul Ryan introduced the winner. The mystery is: Will Ryan become Romney’s running mate? It would make the Teabagger base of the Republican Party happy and give lots of ammunition to the Democrats for the fall campaign. We can only hope.
This is funny: for the past 30 years the Republicans have been calling the media their enemy. The newspapers and television/radio networks have been called out every fucking day by Republicans who claim the mainstream media is always in the tank for the Democrats. Now, after 30 years of hearing that, maybe many in the media are. You spend 30 years calling me your foe, then okay, I’ll take your word for it and be your enemy.
What got me started on that was this editorial from the blog, Hot Air in which “Karl” referred to the assembled editors as the president’s “base.”
So today (Wednesday) Romney spoke in front of that same organization, making so many promises, well, that’s what Romney does. Besides flip-flopping on every issue that comes his way. The centerpiece of Romney’s plan: more tax cuts! We have this 12-15 trillion dollar deficit (depending on the day and who’s making the claim) and what does the rich man propose? Cutting revenue!
Like Sarah Palin in 2008, Mitt Romney has avoided tough interviews. Not because he’s a blubbering idiot, but because if he’s challenged on any of his current policies he turns into a blubbering idiot. He can’t support any of his ideas with facts and/or reality, so he turns to empty insults, like calling the president’s campaign strategy “hide and seek.”
Mitt Romney is probably the most liberal candidate the Republicans have put on their presidential ticket since Richard Nixon. Two years ago Romney was applauding the president’s Affordable Healthcare Act and a year before that Romney was telling anyone who would listen the individual mandate was an important piece of that legislation. He strongly encouraged it to be a part of the AHA.
Now that he’s running for president as a Republican, Romney has flip-flopped on this issue and promises to repeal “Obamneycare” on his first day in office. Actually governor, a president can’t unilaterally repeal something voted into law by Congress. You need Congress to do that.And of course Romney promises to lower gas prices. This is funny: there’s little president’s can do to change the price of gas. So far, the oil industry is privately held and is driven by profits. The only people who can change the price of oil are the oil cartels and they’re not about to end their record profits.
The president could nationalize the oil industry, but he would have few — if any — supporters on either side of the aisle. The oil oligarchies, with their record-breaking, multi-billion dollar profits, have been spreading around the wealth to politicians, mostly Republicans but Democrats too, to ensure their continued ascendancy as the most profitable corporations in the history of the world.
Life’s been good for the oil industry ever since George W. Bush took office just over 10 years ago. That’s when Vice President Dick Cheney’s secret meetings on energy policy, that only included oil company executives and some other fellow travelers, the oil companies have been getting greater profits, each year breaking the record from the years before.
The British Petroleum fouling of the Gulf of Mexico two years ago was just a blip on the radar for the industry and right now there are more oil wells in the gulf than before the BP oil spill. More than when George W. Bush was president. Hell, President Obama has been good to the oil industry.
But why let the facts get in the way of a good story, especially if you’re running a campaign based on flip-flopping and empty promises.
Let’s hope that after winning re-election President Obama continues to take the fight to the Republicans. You tried that bi-partisan approach Mr. President and it didn’t work. In fact, it cost you a butt-load of political capital. Step up to the plate and be a Progressive, a Liberal Mr. President. Hell, the right is calling you a Socialist anyway, maybe it’s time to be one.
The Middle Class, the workers of America, need that right now Mr. President and they’re counting on you and the Democrats to deliver. Don’t disappoint us now.
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