Mitt Romney has invited seven birthers to speak at the Republican National Convention in Tampa. Obama has invited no one to speak at the Democratic National Convention who questions Mitt Romney’s American citizenship.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
Obama has invited no one to speak at the Democratic National Convention who questions Mitt Romney’s American citizenship.
Has Obama, or whomever makes the arrangements, even invited someone that could be considered on the left end of the Democratic Party? BTW, I seriously hope Rahmbo stays away from the convention. Who the hell wants to hear that corrupt creep speak?
But is Obama having a speaker who asks which governments Romney pays taxes to and how much does he pay to each one? Seems there’s a report that on one of the gawker-com documents he offset his US tax liablility with foreign tax payments (presumably at a lesser rate).
I’m going to assume that the GOP convention will be overtaken by birther talk, religious freedoms of white males to govern women, the glory of Big Oil and all her Big friends and the joys of the Rep platform, but not a minute will be wasted on specific policies to improve the economy. Specifics will be missing, bumper stickers will be stacked high.
That’s about what I’m expecting. If there’s any mention of anything even in the same solar system as policy it’ll be at the level of “sure the Demonrats will give you health care but we give you FREEDOM!”
I’m sure they will cover economic policy: Cut taxes for the “job creators”, unleash the “innovators” from regulatory strangulation, abolish taxes on capital gains. Bumper stickers to be sure, but pseudo-economy bumper stickers.
One can only hope. I would assume that they would want it to be extremely scripted and non-controversial (they already did brush Palin aside, after all).
Have you seen the GOP’s primetime speech lineup?
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/08/24/gop-releases-primetime-speaker-schedule/
Nearly everybody on that list has less than two years experience in office. It’s also the most cynical tokenism I’ve ever seen them try to pull off in my lifetime.
How do these people fucking sleep at night when they try to pass this slate off as the “new face of the party” knowing the true composition of their elected ranks (let alone their electoral base)? And why has no one in any random state tried to genuinely expand their party’s appeal to women and minorities? There’s not a single Republican player in some random small state like Vermont or New Mexico or Hawaii that tries to cause a stir with the national party (and the national media) by trying to be decent human beings for a change?
Off Topic:
Whew! That crazy CNN poll huh? Up 9 over RV but just 2 over LVs? 7 point swing!
Yes, that’s the poll. 2 points is not a “deadlock” it’s a statistical tie. That’s just BS for headlines.
Technically I don’t even like the term “statistical tie”, because if the difference is 2% that isn’t a tie.
The term “margin of error” is also wrong – it’s a confidence interval, usually set at 95%. This means that if 20 polls are conducted using the same methodology, and if there are no errors in the methodology that we don’t know about, then 19 out of 20 will be accurate within a the range of the confidence interval. This also means that 1 in 20, even if the methodology is perfect, will be wrong outside the range of the confidence interval.
But that does not mean that a polling result of one candidate ahead by 2 points means that there is an equal likelihood that the two candidates are tied, or that the other candidate is leading by 2 points. The most likely outcome is the one they report – a two point lead. So it is not a “statistical tie”.
But all this is pretty much noise when you consider the extensive methodology problems inherent in any poll that is conducted economically. Typically on 20% of those contacted participate, which immediately says that you probably aren’t getting a random sample. Some of that can be adjusted using demographic weighting factors, but not all of it, and those weighting factors are based in large part on the demographics of the expected voting population – which itself is part guessitmate and part based on iffy exit poll data from past elections.
Then of course there is the problem that people lie to pollsters – a lot. Sometimes it gets downright silly – like when people self-report income they exaggerate so much that in some polls 19% would qualify for the top 1%. In the case of pre-election polls its impossible to detect lies, since people are reporting intent which can change. But even then we know that people lie about intent in many cases – such as when telling a pollster with a black-sounding voice that they are voting against Obama.
Then finally, in recent elections the actual vote counts may be different than the counts of the people who voted due to the factors we’ve discussed. When VNS did exit polls of Florida in 2000 they found Gore leading by 7% – the confidence level of a Gore victory in that state was higher than 199 in 200 based on their data. We now know that probably 10s of thousands more voters intended to vote for Gore than Bush that date but the vote counts made it close enough for Bush to steal.
And that last point is what worries all of us the most in this election. I’m not going to volunteer to campaign for Obama this time around, but if they want me to do something to ensure vote counts are fair I’ll participate.
Since the turning point will be turnout more than honest voting, your final sentence seems odd. You think it’s less significant now whether we end up with President RyanRomney? How come?
I guess I just have a hard time understanding how you can be so seemingly glib at the prospect of a Romney presidency, unless somehow you really think he and Obama are just different sides of the same coin. That’s how it sounds to me, anyway. Please correct me if I am misinterpreting your comment.
I’m not glib at all. I’m not volunteering for Obama this time around because a) I don’t think all that door-to-door stuff I did in 2008 changed many, if any, votes, and b) I can’t defend large swaths of Obama’s record.
But I’ll be happy to be part of an effort to police the voting booths and vote counting places to counteract the Jim Crow voting laws that the GOP has passed.
As a person on Social Security disability and Medicare all I can say is thanks a lot.
Obama Campaign: `America Doesn’t Need a Birther-in-Chief’
Obama: Romney Locked Into `Extreme Positions’ Even If He Doesn’t Believe Them
Niiiiice.
Birtherism is merely spewing insults in the form of questions. There have been some 130+ legal challenges to Obama’s eligibility all of which have been denied. Birthers, including Romney, need to show some evidence that Obama was born elsewhere or stop with the repugnant “questions” and inappropriate “jokes.” Romney is just not presidential material.
Agreed. Birtherism is a mantra of excuses. Like a room with no mirrors.
But we ought to question the tax haven countries of origin
Just a bit of joy …
[History] Twitter message June 25, 2011 – @jstrevino
“Dear IDF: If you end up shooting any Americans on the new Gaza flotilla — well, most Americans are cool with that. Including me.”
5 min. later:
“Indeed, @jetboy24: this is a long historical record of Americans being unsympathetic to the fate of Americans who aid America’s enemies.”
(9 days later) The Guardian Fires Joshua Treviño after first article about Malaysia.
Obama Says Debates Could Shake Up Race
Translation: I will call you on your lies and I will come armed with the facts…game on.
He’s right that that’s how it should turn out. That’s assuming the “debates” are not the zombie apocalypses we’ve grown used to. If the candidates can actually ask the questions and followup themselves without some news reader butting in, Obama wins. If it’s just another Punch and Judy show, the outcome will depend on which gag line the media decides to elevate. We’ll see.
Fortunately, even without real debates Obama has all the upside when it comes to communicating the facts. When voters know what RyanRomney is really all about, they’ll see that they are the enemy of everything they believe and care about.
“And nobody asked for Obama’s tax returns” is funny, but we should be careful not to equate the birth certificate stupidity with our reasonable request to see the tax returns.
Nobody’s asked about Romney’s birth certificate because he doesn’t have one, and because his charter of incorporation is public record. Corporations are citizens, too, my friend.
Why would anyone ask about the anchor baby’s birth certificate?
Snow White Mitt and the Seven Birthers?
Dishonest again…Jinall is not a birther and you know it. I’m facsinated by your definition of “birther”!!!
By the way y’all, this is Liberty For All…I have to keep changing my user name because the site keeps getting reconfigured to prohibit my comments…
If MassDem disappears, don’t worry…
I’ll Be Back!
Oh you poor little thing. Those nasty liberals prosecuting you for exercising free speech.
Yet you are allowed to whine about it, makes sense to me to limit your presence if you just want to spew crap.
So keep complaining unless you want to surprise the world and make a little sense.
Thanks for warning me. I had assumed that you were a belligerent conservative who wanted to engage in rational discourse. Booman does not demand ideological purity in the Frog Pond. However, now that I have been warned that your sole purpose is disruption, I will Troll rate you out of existence. Bye. Bye.
it appears the first day of the GOP convention has been cancelled.
pun intended.
it would appear that the ptb have decided…with a little help from god … 4 days of veiled racism, xenophobia, and mysogonistic rhetoric might be a bit harsh on the masses.
there’s a message in there somewhere, eh.
“with a little help from God”
If it were the Democratic convention that lost a day due to the weather every fundamentalist wingnut would vocally assert that this was a sign from God. And the mainstream media would even give them a voice if only to do he said-she said stories about it.