I rarely post anything about non-Massachusetts fundraising emails. But I’m making an exception, because this one from Team Obama gets it exactly right on why Mitt Romney asked Paul Ryan to run as his VP.
Here’s the calculation: Mitt Romney doesn’t need or expect Paul Ryan to convince even one undecided voter to cast their ballot for him. That’s not what he’s on the ticket for. He’s there to reassure and inspire ultraconservative ideologues and corporate interests that they will have one of their own a heartbeat from the presidency.
That means tens or even hundreds of millions more dollars for the Romney campaign and the array of outside groups supporting him — and if current trends hold, more than 90 percent of that money will be spent on TV ads — lying, distorting and trashing Barack Obama. Those ads will have more impact on undecided voters than anything Paul Ryan himself does or says.
Mitt Romney is convinced that picking Paul Ryan is a great investment for him. And his campaign is already touting the pledges and donations they’ve received as a result, with fundraising events planned for this week.
I think that’s correct. Paul Ryan is obviously not a play for undecided moderates. He’s a teabagger through and through, and that’s who the play is about. The right wing is a lot more excited about this election than they were a few days ago, and than they would have been today had Romney named, say, Tim Pawlenzzzzzzzz. They’re counting on right-wing excitement and enthusiasm to translate both into a big fundraising boost and into an enthusiastic base, in the hope that that’s enough.
It’s a big gamble on Team Romney’s part. But when you’re down a couple of runs in the late innings, you might as well swing for the fences and see what happens.
Eileen McNamara (miss you!) takes our Welfare Whiner to the woodshed:
Would Brown have Massachusetts defy the law designed to ensure that all eligible voters have an opportunity to participate in the electoral process? Is his fear of being judged by a fully representative sample of his constituents really that great?
There is nothing sinister about the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, more widely known as the “Motor Voter Act.” The law requires states to provide voter registration materials to applicants for a driver’s license, unemployment insurance, food stamps and other public assistance. Congress designed the law to address the nation’s anemic voter participation rate. Only half of all eligible voters in this country are registered to vote. Of those who are registered, only 63.6 percent cast a ballot in the last presidential race, according to the Pew Research Center.
Anyone tried the Obama app? - promoted by charley-on-the-mta
Twitter followers and my facebook friends may have noticed that I am on a “Doors Every Day” kick. I have been campaigning for Democratic candidates every day for 26 days straight. I’ve been canvassing for a number of campaigns from President Obama’s reelection campaign, to Elizabeth Warren’s campaign for U. S. Senate to a local rep race. All Democrats of course.
One of the things that I miss about the soapblox platform is the ability to create a survey.
I’m wondering what people think about some of the mechanics of canvassing. What formats do you like or dislike? Have you tried canvassing with an electronic device, like an iphone or an android? Do you like to have odd on one page and even on another? An odd packet and even packet? Thoughts on font sizes? Page breaks?
I’d be curious to hear from both first time canvassers and those who are out volunteering regularly.
Food for thought. Or something. - promoted by david
Sunday morning diversion.
Does anyone else pick up a resemblance between Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine and Edouard Manet’s `Olympia’ ? Am I crazy, am I seeing things here? Is it the pose, or that long look into an uncertain future? Actually, I would say Olympia seems more determined and self-assured in her gaze…
Mash-up: Detail from Edouard Manet's `Olympia;' Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine in the dugout ,Thursday, Aug. 9. (AP photo)
Paul Ryan claims to oppose dependency on the federal government. So let’s ask some questions:
Is a senior citizen who cannot afford health care “independent”?
Is a senior citizen who is without income “independent”?
No. Before these programs, senior citizens who did not have these things became dependent upon their families or charity to provide health care and sustenance. Before Medicare, only 51% of senior citizens had health insurance. Senior poverty has gone from 30% in 1959 to 8.9% in 2009 — largely because of Medicare and improved Social Security benefits.
Those senior citizens are more independent now, not less.
And it is not “government charity” that made it so. It is a much different concept: Social insurance. Folks pay into the system, and then they get something out of it when they retire. They’ve earned it by the time they collect benefits. You can call it an “entitlement” — as if it were a rich uncle’s windfall inheritance, or a title of nobility — but in fact it’s an earned benefit. It’s reciprocity, not charity, that’s at work here.
And we do it together, through the government, because that’s how you get everyone covered; that’s how you make it secure. And it has been that way for a long time now.
The problems of Medicare are twofold: One is that there’s a demographic bubble, with a large and aging population about to collect benefits; and the other is simply the rising prices in health care (cf pg 8-11), which pressures Medicare is subject to as much as the private market. That, by the way, is the source of the $500 billion in future Medicare savings that the Affordable Care Act contemplates, and which Ryan’s very plan anticipates as well. Medicare needs cost controls — we miss you Don Berwick — not to be gutted and turned into something weaker and less effective.
Dependency is what these programs prevent. That’s the reason why they exist, and the reason why they’re popular.
Scott Brown really wants you to think that he’s a regular guy who’s just like you. He understands your problems and your concerns because, well, he just does, and that’s why he’s all bipartisan-y and stuff. Even his campaign slogan, “He’s For Us,” is an effort to wrap himself in togetherness – in “us-ness,” you might say.
But Brown’s astoundingly mean-spirited, and, as Charley accurately states, un-American, attack on registering welfare recipients to vote lays it bare for all to see: the only “us” that Scott Brown is “for” is the ones who he thinks will vote for him. Apparently, Scott Brown is pretty sure that people who receive welfare benefits are not going to vote for him, and therefore, an aggressive attempt to get those kinds of people to register to vote is “wrong.”
I think this is crazy talk. I cannot see any argument whatsoever against registering eligible voters. None. And that’s really all I’ve got to say. For more commentary, read the excellent pieces by Adrian Walker (“There are certain ideas that I used to consider self-evident, among them that voting is a healthy exercise in a democracy. But that was before politicians like Brown set me straight: Voting is for the kind of people who will vote for you.”) and David Bernstein (“I’m having trouble seeing how this attack makes Scotto look good, rather than making him look like a mean-spirited, partisan Republican.”).
YOWZA! Brief thoughts: Ryan is eloquent, charismatic, has a gentle manner, and Paul-Newman blue eyes. He is a very substantive pick, in that we will mulling over his very thoroughly-considered ideas and choices over the next few months. (Contrast with Palin.) It will force a genuine choice in national priorities. Read up on his budget plan, The Road to Serfdom The Path To Prosperity.
True and irrelevant fact: Ryan's voice reminds me a lot of our differently-winged friend Rob Eno. :) - promoted by charley-on-the-mta
A well connected friend of a friend in DC who works for the LA Times leaked this to me mere minutes before HuffPost confirmed this, apparently Romney did make a bold pick and he may have just lost Florida and Ohio in the process and allowed one of my favorite progressives an opportunity at Ryans seat.
GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has announced that his running mate will be Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, author of the Medicare Destruction Act of 2011.
Now, as we’ve discussed before, Paul Ryan is a total fraud - an apt running mate, perhaps, for the guy who was the object of the original (and still missed) Massachusetts political blog, “Romney is a Fraud.” There will be plenty of time to dissect Ryan’s numerous ludicrous positions on budgetary matters and to assess the number of votes in, say, Florida that this pick has cost Romney.
But for now, let’s leave it at this: Mitt Romney will almost certainly be overshadowed by Paul Ryan. Both the left and the right will now identify the ticket, at least on economic matters, not by what Mitt Romney has said (in part because, as we know, he’s been on both sides of most issues), but by what Paul Ryan has said. I’m not sure that’s such a great thing for a presidential candidate.
Senator Scott Brown demanded Friday that his Democratic rival, Elizabeth Warren, reimburse taxpayers for the $276,000 that the state spent to mail thousands of voter registration forms to welfare recipients.
…“It’s been disturbing for a lot of people to learn that the state’s welfare department undertook an unprecedented voter registration drive at the behest of Elizabeth Warren’s daughter and the organization she represents,” he said. “It is clear that this was done to aid Elizabeth Warren’s Senate campaign. Professor Warren has more than $13 million dollars in her campaign account, and if she wants to mail every welfare recipient a voter registration form, she should do so at her own expense, not taxpayers’. She should immediately reimburse the state for the cost of this mailing and stop playing politics with the taxpayers’ money.”
I’m just really dumbfounded. It’s so crazy, so silly, so hysterical, so whiny and pathetic. It’s the law, dude.
We live in a democracy, where people vote for their representatives. The right to vote is sacrosanct. The expansion of that franchise as widely as possible is the hallmark of a great democracy, one that trusts its people to make wise choices in self-government. As the Congress wrote in the 1993 National Voting Registration Act:
The Congress finds that— (1) the right of citizens of the United States to vote is a fundamental right; (2) it is the duty of the Federal, State, and local governments to promote the exercise of that right; and (3) discriminatory and unfair registration laws and procedures can have a direct and damaging effect on voter participation in elections for Federal office and disproportionately harm voter participation by various groups, including racial minorities.
… even if they vote for the “wrong” people.
If there’s any justice, this is going to come down on Brown like a ton of bricks. It’s not dignified; it’s not adult … and it’s not American, in the sense in which you trust the electorate for better or worse.
“I want every legal vote to count, but it’s outrageous to use taxpayer dollars to register welfare recipients as part of a special effort to boost one political party over another,” the senator said in a statement. “This effort to sign up welfare recipients is being aided by Elizabeth Warren’s daughter and it’s clearly designed to benefit her mother’s political campaign.”
Substantively, this is laughable: The state is complying with the 1993 National Voter Registration Act,and many other states have settled in a manner similar to Massachusetts. The idea of Warren’s daughter scheming to get a few extra votes for Mom via a lawsuit for compliance with a federal law just requires too many leaps for a sensible person to take. Yes, Warren’s daughter advocates for greater voter registration and enfranchisement — not just in MA but across the nation. I guess Brown has a problem with that.
(And Brown attacking Warren’s daughter’s work, well, that’s totally above board; but pointing out the source of Ayla’s health insurance is just despicable politics. Alrighty then.)
From the Findings and Purposes of the NVRA (page 1, folks, I’m not exactly in the weeds here):
(a) Findings
The Congress finds that—
(1) the right of citizens of the United States to vote is a fundamental right; (2) it is the duty of the Federal, State, and local governments to promote the exercise of that right; and
(3) discriminatory and unfair registration laws and procedures can have a direct and damaging effect on voter participation in elections for Federal office and disproportionately harm voter participation by various groups, including racial minorities.
(b) Purposes
The purposes of this subchapter are— (1) to establish procedures that will increase the number of eligible citizens who register to vote in elections for Federal office; (2) to make it possible for Federal, State, and local governments to implement this subchapter in a manner that enhances the participation of eligible citizens as voters in elections for Federal office;
Waiiit for it … waiiit for it … here’s the kicker (pg 4):
(a) Designation
(1) Each State shall designate agencies for the registration of voters in elections for Federal office.
(2) Each State shall designate as voter registration agencies— (A) all offices in the State that provide public assistance; and
(B) all offices in the State that provide State-funded programs primarily engaged in providing services to persons with disabilities
… and so forth. Pretty clear. (Wow, remember the good old days, when voter registration was just Mom and apple pie Americana? Now it’s a left-wing thing, I guess.)
This fits the pattern of GOP attacks against any organization, law, or effort that tries to encourage or allow low-income people to exercise any political power whatsoever. They hate it. Brown is essentially admitting — proclaiming! — that he’s got nothing to offer poor people who vote — except that he thinks it should be harder for them to register. And rather than modify his positions to accommodate the interests of low-income people — to earn their votes — Brown and other Republicans try to delegitimize their very votes themselves. No let-the-chips-fall-where-they-may stoicism from Scotto, no sir.
Eric Fehrnstrom’s little brains and hands are all over this one. Is it a coincidence that Mitt’s going with the same “welfare queen” angle this week? Putting on my Kremlinology cap, it seems that KrazyKhazei and Ko. are still playing the early-season fire-up-the-base game.
The real question is whether they’ve got any other kind of game. Compare this kind of petty crap up against Warren’s new ad, the one with college kids:
The #GoSox!!11!!! radio “reports”, Perfesser-Lie-a-Watha lines, and Ray-Flynn/has-been endorsements are only going to go so far. People should have a strong suspicion that on things that actually matter, Brown is about as deep as a false-bottom hat. That’s going to show up in debates. It’s going to show up when and if local media outlets actually press him on matters of substance.
Waiting for the other shoe to drop … maybe it’s a one-shoe dance.
Hey Mark - don't clear your throat with the McCain stuff. Brown's doing a good enough job embarrassing himself on his own. - promoted by charley-on-the-mta
“Even the Bush Justice Department filed suit to enforce this provision of that law. For Brown to claim this is some kind of plot against him is just bizarre.”
John McCain. Centrist. Maverick. Sunday morning talking heads. Fifteen years ago, he was widely respected on both sides of the aisle. Today, we know as His presidential campaign showed us just how smart he wasn’t. His subsequent senate primary race showed us just how far to the right he was willing to run. It took while for Americans to catch up with his shtick, but it’s safe to say most of us now have his number.
Scott Brown doesn’t call himself a maverick, and Brown’s handlers wouldn’t let him hit the talk show circuit with McCain-like frequency, but nonetheless, there is a remarkable resemblance to Arizona senator. Neither could be described as being the sharpest knife in the drawer. Both pretend to be bipartisan, claiming the straight and narrow, but most of the time turning right. Like McCain, Brown will say anything to get elected.
As time goes on, a clear picture of Scott Brown is developing as not very intelligent, frat boy who sees himself as a victim and takes cheap shots at the family of opponents.
2. Brown joked about Elizabeth Warren’s physical appearance (and then blamed the host of the talk show who started it); He also compared France to an aging 1940s movie star trying to dine out on her looks. He also told a joke about a woman being raped by a gorilla and liking it.
3. Brown implied that Warren’s parents were liars during the tedious campaign to question her heritage. Now he’s accusing her daughter of part of being part of a conspiracy to defeat him by registering people who were deprived their legal right to vote. McCain told jokes about Janet Reno being Chelsea Clinton’s father.
In point of fact, Brown’s campaign is criticizing Elizabeth Warren’s daughter and the state of Massachusetts for following the law. That’s right. The courts found the Commonwealth of Massachusetts failed to implement the Motor Voter Bill, and as a remedy, 278,000 registration packets were sent out to people on public assistance because they were denied their right to register. For Scott Brown, this must be a conspiracy against him. Here’s ThinkProgress:
The 1993 National Voter Registration Act — better known as the Motor Voter bill –requires that citizens be offered the opportunity to register to vote when they get a driver’s license or apply for social services. Voting rights groups — including Demos — filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts was not in compliance, after a 35-year-old woman was not offered the chance to register to vote when she filed paperwork with the state’s welfare office last June. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, recognizing its obligation under federal law, settled the case out of court. As part of that settlement, the state government agreed to contact, by mail, the 477,944 welfare recipients who might also have been denied their right to be offered a chance to register to vote and give them that chance now.
Voting rights groups have brought similar suits in other states. But seizing on the fact that Warren’s daughter is chair of the board of one of the groups suing, Brown made the argument that this amounts to a conspiracy to elect his Democratic challenger. His statement today said:
I want every legal vote to count, but it’s outrageous to use taxpayer dollars to register welfare recipients as part of a special effort to boost one political party over another. This effort to sign up welfare recipients is being aided by Elizabeth Warren’s daughter and it’s clearly designed to benefit her mother’s political campaign. It means that I’m going to have to work that much harder to get out my pro-jobs, pro-free enterprise message.
The story was released by the Boston Globe. Geppetto’s a$$hole buddy Howie Carr has today’s dose of agitprop, which neglects to mention the reason for the registration forms being sent out.
“I want every legal vote to count, but it’s outrageous to use taxpayer dollars to register welfare recipients as part of a special effort to boost one political party over another,” Brown said in a statement. “This effort to sign up welfare recipients is being aided by Elizabeth Warren’s daughter and it’s clearly designed to benefit her mother’s political campaign.”
