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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Paul Ryan Says Rights Come from Nature and God, Not Government

Paul Ryan - photo by Gage SkidmoreAfter being introduced as Mitt Romney’s running mate on Saturday, Representative Paul Ryan (WI-R) said that America was founded on an idea. What is the idea? Ryan said, “Our rights, come from nature and God, not from government.” Oh really? Ryan, which God are you referring to? The Christian God? I’m willing to bet there are Americans who are members of a different faith who might think their rights come from God too. The problem is that the rights people believe they have from God might not exactly line up depending on which God they pray to. This is why Paul Ryan is wrong.

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Harry Reid resorts to Republican-like tactics and the media loses it’s mind

I wrote last week about Senator Harry Reid’s claim that Mitt Romney didn’t pay taxes for 10 years. In that post I agreed with Jon Stewart’s segment where he called Harry Reid “terrible,” and I still stand by that assessment mainly because Reid felt the need to say, “His poor father must be so embarrassed about his son.” That’s not only terrible, it’s awful.

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The Facts: Obama vs. Bush On Job Creation

First let’s get this out-of-the-way. Presidents are not job creators. They don’t wave a wand and poof, magically there are millions of new jobs. Presidents can set the tone for policy and they can have a major influence on congressional legislation that can lead to favorable economic conditions for job growth. But this is clearly a much more muddy process than we like to believe when we talk presidents and job creation.

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Republican ideology of less taxes and small government is just selfish

So I’m just going to come out and say it: Republicans are selfish. How else to explain their policies? They advocate lower taxes, especially for millionaires, along with spending cuts that hurt people at the bottom of the economic ladder. And here’s how this works: Republicans have to tell themselves and the rest of us that it’s tough love and that they aren’t advocating these policies because they are mean, or greedy, or selfish. No, they will say everyone can achieve the American dream if they just stop taking free handouts, pull themselves up by their bootstraps, and make something of their life. OK, so add “disparaging” along with “selfish” as suitable words to describe the Republican Party and it’s policies. But I guess you have to believe they are genuine, because how could anybody live with themselves advocating such potentially destructive policies for the poor? Republicans have to believe that those who are harmed by their policies are deserving of that harm because they are freeloaders, and so the only way to solve this “problem” is to cut spending.

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