People who lose their jobs in Massachusetts are unlikely to find themselves permanently uninsured. That’s because they have RomneyCare. Somehow, though, it is a grotesque miscarriage of justice to do on the federal level what they’ve done in Massachusetts. It’s supposedly a states’ rights thing. But if you think the right really buys that distinction, go over to Red State. When you are done reading the article, skim through the comment section. What you’ll learn is that they think RomneyCare is indistinguishable from ObamaCare, and just as bad for all the same reasons. They could give a crap if it was enacted on the state level.
So, when Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul pointed out today that no one loses out on cancer treatment in the Bay State, she committed some kind of horrible faux pas. And it is supposed to be proof that Romney will never repeal ObamaCare, as he has repeatedly promised to do.
But, Ms. Saul didn’t say that. The clear implication of her statement is that each state should emulate Massachusetts, not that the federal government should keep its recently-passed health care bill.
They freaked out about the mandate and now the states are not allowed to ban deadbeats either.
The GOP has made a total transition. They went from the Party of Lincoln to the Party of Black Disenfranchisement. They went from the Party of Personal Responsibility to the Party of Liberty for Deadbeats.
It’s shocking, really.
They’ve gone so far down the tunnel of stupid they can’t find their way out.
Just watch: 20 years from now the GOP will claim they were for Obamacare all along.
20 years?
8 years from now the republicans running for office will be screaming ‘OMG, the Democrats want to take away your health coverage!’. They won’t be calling it Obamacare by that time.
nalbar
For sure. They will focus on the fact that the ACA scheme was created by the conservative Heritage Institute. And as with the Voting Rights Act, they’ll talk about how it was really Republican support that got the bill passed – even though, y’know, none of them actually voted for it.
But they were secretly praying for it to pass the whole time!
Ah yes, the power of prayer strikes again.
It certainly has made phone banking and canvassing very interesting here in my very red area. It is quite the wild experience. Coming face to face with the insanity right here in my backyard often makes my head spin. It is a lesson on developing a very thick skin.
This is a very interesting statement since the Democratic Party has spent beaucoups of money to set up a huge validated database of likely Democratic voters. What lists are you using that gets so many Republican crazies on it? Or are the Democrats reinventing the wheel once again? Or are you dealing with new registrations?
I don’t think they are new registrations. The name of the software that generates the lists escapes me right now. I would have to look at one of the printouts to refresh my memory. In the early phone banking, it did seem that the lists carried almost all likely Democratic or leaning Democratic people. You would get the occasional Republican. But as time passed, we seemed to work into those deemed “possibly persuadable”. It didn’t take long to work through those. Last night there were six of us working. I made probably 80-90 calls. Most did not answer. But, as far as “live calls”, I know I had at least 20 people who were firmly pro-Romney and one person “undecided”. I got one person who said they planned on voting for the President. That’s a pretty shitty average, in my book. I really didn’t expect that we would be plowing ground like this to turn up one or two potential Democratic voters. Canvassing is a little better. The targeting seems to be a bit more focused. But I’m puzzled about the phone banking.
That is a shitty average lol. And why so few calls? Comon, Richard 😛
When I phone-banked as a student, if I made 100 calls, I probably got mostly undecided but leaning Obama. Maybe 20 McCain, 20 Obama, 10 undecided totally. No one undecided leaning McCain. And that was SW Virginia. Granted, Montgomery County was an oasis of blue that election in a sea of red, but just barely.
Ouch Seabe, that stings!! In 2008, my county went 68% for McCain. So it’s a pretty good bet that you can throw a stone about any direction and hit a Republican. Not that I condone that, mind you. 😉
Can’t ding you too hard anyway. 4 years is a huge difference in cell phone tech.
It sounds like you and your crew may have called through all the Dem/lean Dem phone lists and are now working the lean Rep numbers. If so, two observations are in order:
1 – Congratulations on the great work you have already done! (And keep it up.)
2 – If you ID’ed 1 Dem voter and 1 undecided last night, and if the other five people calling with you did the same, then at that rate by Election Day you and your crew will have ID’ed another 300-400 Obama supporters to get to the polls, as well as an equal number of previously unidentified swing voters who might be persuaded. It all adds up.
exactly.
For a buck I can obtain a dvd with up-to-date voter registrations and voting history from the county clerk. I’ve been doing it for several election cycles and this year compared it to the OFA/state party database. They are virtually the same. I get the clerk’s data in delimited text and import to Excel. OFA Votebuilder is pretty nifty, with lots of formatted report options and other capabilities.
The follow-up article on Redstate says that the Saul incident shows why conservatives need to “housebreak” Romney now. Very interesting choice of words. They really do just see him as their dog. Can you imagine prominent Democrats talking about Bill Clinton or Obama in that way? I don’t think so.
They can see that Romney’s a fraud just like we can. Their hope was that they could control him. If so, being mindless and soulless isn’t a problem; it’s a feature. He can be the teabagger’s meat-puppet. When it looks like he might just have a mind of his own, or even a few vestigial brain cells, they get scared.
But, Ms. Saul didn’t say that. The clear implication of her statement is that each state should emulate Massachusetts, not that the federal government should keep its recently-passed health care bill.
Isn’t this just as bad re: the Teahadists? Either way, their interpretation or hers, it shows that Willard can’t completely quit on RomneyCare. And the Teahadists can’t have that at all.
I phonebank at least once a week or register voters in VA, Chesterfield County. Sometimes we call for volunteers and sometimes we call to ask who they are supporting for president. THe lists are mostly targeted at Dems or leaning Dems, but the list has expanded, and sometimes I do manage to get a number of Republicans. The database is also identifying areas to canvas, the idea being to narrow and narrow the geographical areas where canvassers can make a difference in conversations with “leaners” or “undecided.” THere are nights that are great (7 volunteers in the first 5 calls–they’re bringing others from their families) and other nights where I swear I was given the worst list in the stack. I just never know from week to week how the phoning will go.
I will say that our suite of offices in Midlothian is now packed with volunteers. I started in winter with only a few people in the group. Now we are planning to move to a larger location. This is Cantor land, by the way.
Keep up the good work. And on those nights where it seems like you’ve accomplished nothing, remember that you may have helped swing a voter that neither you nor anyone else will ever know about.
Okay — the GOP freakout is now in full swing with:
Mitt insults CA
Coulter calls for no donations to Mitt until Saul is fired
Gingrich defends Bachmann and Joe McCarthy.
Whew — and still out there are Mitt’s hidden tax returns and Bain business records.
Can they just freak out every day? It’s so wonderfully weak and fractured of them.
“Wonderfully weak and fractured of them . . .” Wow, like poetry.
Half the GOP base has been freaking out every day since November 2008. But the contagion has now spread to the other half. The half that could contain and exploit the craziness of the fundies and baggers. Now they’re all out on the crazy wire and nobody is holding the net.
An apt fate for those who would slash the nation’s safety net to ribbons.