Let’s see, where was I … oh, yes, politics. I wrote last week — “I’m saying Romney is George W. Bush without the Texas accent, people. You elect him, you’ll get tax cuts for the rich up the wazoo, huge cuts in benefit programs, and a return to foreign policy by the Marlboro Man.”
Well, now we have a confession, at least on the domestic side of the agenda. Pat Garofalo writes for Media Matters —
During an interview last week on The Fernando Espuelas Show, Alexandra Franceschi, Specialty Media Press Secretary of the Republican National Committee, said that the Republican party’s economic platform in 2012 is going to be the same as it was during the Bush years, “just updatedâ€:
ESPUELAS: What do you mean by economic security? Regardless of who the ultimate nominee is, what’s the general idea that the RNC, or the Republican party in general, has in terms of this message?
FRANCESCHI: Well, it’s a message of being able to attain the American dream. It’s less government spending, which a Tarrance Group poll, came out last week actually, shows that the majority of Hispanics believe that less government spending is the way out of this deficit crisis. It’s lowering taxes so small businesses can grow and they can employ more people, because we understand that the private sector is the engine of the economy. It’s not the government. […]
ESPUELAS: Now, how different is that concept from what were the policies of the Bush administration? And the reason I ask that is because there’s some analysis now that is being published talking about the Bush years being the slowest period of job creation since those statistics were created. Is this a different program or is this that program just updated?
FRANCESCHI: I think it’s that program, just updated.
Of course, the RNC has its fingers crossed voters won’t remember that Bush’s policies are what screwed the economy. Paul Krugman writes,
Just how stupid does Mitt Romney think we are? If you’ve been following his campaign from the beginning, that’s a question you have probably asked many times.
But the question was raised with particular force last week, when Mr. Romney tried to make a closed drywall factory in Ohio a symbol of the Obama administration’s economic failure. It was a symbol, all right — but not in the way he intended.
First of all, many reporters quickly noted a point that Mr. Romney somehow failed to mention: George W. Bush, not Barack Obama, was president when the factory in question was closed. Does the Romney campaign expect Americans to blame President Obama for his predecessor’s policy failure?
Yes, it does.
Of course, I suspect a lot of voters need reminding by this point.
Bush IV, rather…
I count only two previous Bushes in the White House. Things do get by me sometimes.
I’m having trouble discerning the difference between II and the one who’s in office now.
You might have brain damage. Seek medical help.
starskeptic,
Yes, it’s Obama’s non-invasion of Iran after those terrorists didn’t attack us again that must be doing that.
And Obama’s signing the Lilly Ledbetter Act that “Baby Doc” Bush couldn’t wait to sign, but just ran out of time.
Why, if Barack was shade lighter, or George a bit more mocha, they’d pass for twins, physically and ideologically.
Btw all, my Pop’s funeral went about as smoothly as possible.
MAN, am I glad I got my Mom some sedatives from her Doctor last week.
She’s a bit on the hysterical side. And that’s if something only slightly bad happens on a regular Monday – like someone comes down with a cold. Or Tuesday… Or Wednesday… And let’s not forget Thurs… well, you get the idea.
And guess who took after her?
My sister?
Hell no – ME!
YEEEEESH!!!
Also too, if Romney goes in, he’s such a blank slate, that he’s liable to be even worse, in kowtowing to thank those that ‘brung ‘im’ into the WH.
Especially if he has a R House and Senate.
That “veto pen” will have to have it’s ink cartridge removed after 2-4-6-8 years -since if he continues to have a R Congress, Mitt’ll NEVER use it.
We’re still all here for you, Gulag. Hang in there, and give your mom lots of hugs.
I don’t need a refresher on the Bush years…Although it is difficult to remember all of the abuses..Why just the other night I went back for a trip down memory lane to revisit the episode of Terri’s Law.. I think because probably more than any of the repug antics and abuses of governing, that particular episode shocked me to the core, and made me realize our government is way out of control, and that a government of the people, for the people,and by the people had perished from the earth…I mean, how can a bill to become law pass through the United States Senate with a vote of 3 to 0 ? Not to mention that a repug controlled committee would issue a subpoena to testify to a person who had been in a vegetative state for years.
I have a file called “the crimes of GWB” or something similar. It is amazing to glance through it and realize that we are all still here. Well, except for that who apologized to Cheney after Cheney shot him in the face. I’m not sure he’s still around. Surviving at that level of stupid is pretty iffy.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-february-13-2006/headlines—cheney-s-got-a-gun
Bill B…I think Whittington’s body is still alive, but his mind is gone. Cheney gave him such a severe head wound that he now thinks he was wounded at Pork Chop Hill.
Is starseptic referring to the Kenyan Usurper? It’s a shame he doesn’t have discernment..After all, the one who is in office now was handed the biggest ball of shit in US history and he’s done a remarkable job of containing the damage that the Repugs have done.
Yep – since the closing of Guantanamo Bay, and the reduction of executive power and the end of the Bush tax cuts – it’s like a whole new era; I even hardly worry about drones anymore…
starskeptic — Regarding Guantanamo, you obviously are ignorant of what actually happened to thwart the Obama Administration’s attempt to close it. It frustrates me to no end that ignorant people such as yourself continue to blame Obama for this, but if you have the moral fortitude to actually learn something, click here.
Further, from an old post by the Booman:
Oh, and I like people who are well informed and think for themselves, which is why I don’t allow people who can contribute nothing but cut-and-paste from Firedoglake to post here. Goodbye.
There are detectable differences between Obama and Bush II, and also detectable similarities, particularly in matters of executive power.
Whereas a President Etch-A-Sketch will be whatever his handlers want him to be; which would indeed probably be Bush-like. (But with stupidity swapped out for phoniness.)
Swami, I don’t find the big problem to be the idea of passing the law for Terri Schiavo. That one thing I could take as pandering.
What bothered me was the rest of it.
I believe at the time that the law was passed, a dozen judges had overseen the case. In the end, that rose up as high as 20 – or more?
(One interesting side note: The case was to *determine what Terri would have asked for* – the Florida courts can act as proxy in this situation. It had nothing to do with Michael Schiavo’s desires – he was bound, as guardian, to carry out the decision of the court.)
The Republicans were perfectly willing to pretend that all of those judges had completely disregarded the law, common sense, and human decency, in rendering their rulings.
Their pundits were willing to jump on it – “Why do liberals what her to die?” which was such an amazing act of hate that I’m surprised they don’t have to declare a lot of blog sites toxic waste dumps. No one wanted her to *die*, but she wasn’t *going* to get better with the majority of her brain being absent. It was time to do as she’d clearly told others she would want: to let her go, without artificially prolonging her life.
And then, the autopsy showed the facts were exactly as those horrible “liberals” had put forth, legal reviews showed great compassion and iron-clad respect for the laws, and people even noticed that in a video supposedly showing her eyes tracking a balloon, you can see her *eyes*, but *not the balloon* – so you have no idea if she’s tracking something or not.
It should have been the ultimate, career ending humiliation for a great many people. Who would ever trust them, ever again, having said so many awful things, and to have been so utterly wrong, in such a hideously careless manner? It’s not like the court records were hard to find, or hard to follow; it’s not like they didn’t include more than sufficient proof.
The law was stupid and pointless, but *because* it was stupid and pointless, I could deal with that, if that makes any sense. But the rest? That’s where we see the complete lack of leadership, the complete abnegation of the duties of patriotic citizens, to have even the most basic trust in the country’s institutions, and in the decency of one’s fellow citizens.
And then we see it again. Obama had a passport – his citizenship had been established by the Department of State. He was then on the Foreign Relations committee in the Senate, so his background had been checked prior to his getting the necessary security clearance. But it’s okay to ask if maybe the man in the White House wasn’t actually a natural born citizen.
(Okay, time to stop. I’m depressing myself.)
Who is Fernando Espuelas and doesn’t he realize he’ll never get on a Sunday-morning TV talk show asking questions like that?
. . . and, Osama bin Laden is dead.
Guantanamo?
What an idjit!
What a dope!!
What a maroon!!!
Wouldn’t it be nice if “Twit Filters” filtered twit’s BEFORE they left their stinky-twit word-turds all over place?
Bye, starstupid.
Who is Fernando Espuelas and doesn’t he realize he’ll never get on a Sunday-morning TV talk show asking questions like that?
I was wondering the same thing. The man was informed for petesake! Does he mean to make teevee viewers look bad?!
When I listen to R-Money,(that’s his rapper name, you know) I get a touch of Dumbya in the repetition of tired old failed ideas, a double shot of Rove and Cheney in the willingness to lie, and a big glug of Susan Collins in the pretense to give a shit about a serious approach to solutions. If there is anything R-Money won’t say to get elected, I can’t imagine what it is. If he got elected, there is nothing I can think of that he won’t do to emulate the Dumbya approach to governance.
I have my dissatisfactions with President Obama, but they do not come from things he has done willingly. He has, as Swami put it above, had to “deal with the biggest ball of shit” we have ever encountered. No, Goldman Sachs has not been nuked, and no, Bank of America and Citi do not have their boards running hot dog carts to earn salaries for their CEOs. But President Obama has done all the good things listed in Maha’s entry above despite an utter lack of help from many in his own party and despite the unrelenting perversity of Republicans who have voted against things they have wanted for years just to keep Obama from having anything pass.
That said, my checkbook will open up next week, and, like last time, every time I get really pissed off from now till November, I’ll send another $100 to President Obama. I do admit I may cut back to $50 for Mitch McConnell, since his mere appearance makes me write a check, without even having to listen to whatever he says. He is the reason I have to watch TV barefoot, since I want to throw a shoe at him every time he appears on the screen, but I like my new HDTV too well to use it that way.
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