August 18, 2012

Paul Ryan as Running Mate, Mistake or Deceptively Clever?

Paul RyanIt’s been a week since Mitt Romney announced Paul Ryan as his running mate, and in this past week we’ve seen Ryan running away from the two big things that he is known for. If it wasn’t for the “Ryan budget” or his love-affair with Ayn Rand, Paul Ryan would just be another congressman. And if that was the case, it’s probably safe to say he would not have been on Romney’s VP short-list. So why is Paul Ryan running away from the very things that got him on that list to begin with? Did Mitt Romney make a mistake or is this a deceptively clever plan to win the White House?

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August 15, 2012

Pennsylvania Voter ID Law Lives, Judge Refuses to Block It

Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson says he will not halt Pennsylvania’s voter ID law. Everyone else is calling the law “tough” but I call it “discriminatory,” and it matters little to me what one particular judge has ruled because I know what’s right and what’s wrong. It turns out that the reason Republicans stated we needed this law played little role in the judge’s decision.

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August 13, 2012

Paul Ryan: Member of the Republican Obstructionist Party Controlling the House

Congress’ approval rating is lower than that of former Vice President Dick Cheney, and that’s really hard to pull off! Yet this didn’t stop Mitt Romney from choosing Paul Ryan, a member of congress, more specifically, a member of the majority obstructionist party controlling the House. In the era of the Obama administration, obstructionist is just another way of saying Republican. Mitt Romney didn’t have to choose a current member of congress, but that is exactly what he did, and so the low approval rating of congress will be part of the critique of the Romney-Ryan campaign. And President Obama wasted no time making this connection in a speech on Monday in Iowa:

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August 13, 2012

Don’t Vote for the Party or the Candidate, Vote for What is Right

It might seem like a difficult choice sometimes to vote at all, particularly if you live by the idea of voting for what is right. I guess a more nuanced approach would be to say you should vote for the candidate who is closer to what you believe is right. The game might be rigged, but don’t allow the candidate who is further from your values to win by not casting your vote. And I sincerely say this regardless of who you plan to vote for. I will lay out the case in article after article of why I think that should be Barack Obama, but you will have to vote your conscience, not mine.

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August 13, 2012

The Republican Electoral College Math Challenge

20120812-234518.jpgIt will be interesting to see the result of the popular vote vs. electoral college in the upcoming election. Any path to victory for Mitt Romney will involve a close popular vote and close electoral college vote. For President Obama, he could win slim in the popular vote but still win fairly large in the electoral college. The problem for Republicans in this election and future elections is demographics. Many of the most populated states are solidly Democratic and they are also states that have large minority populations that are growing larger each year. As long as the Republican Party continues to be the party of old white guys (ok, Paul Ryan is only one of those things) they will find the electoral college math increasingly challenging.

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