GOP partisans truly seem determined to give us “four more years” of Obama

Why am I convinced that President Barack Obama is capable of overcoming the economic struggles of our society that are strong enough to take down the toughest of politicians and get himself re-elected to another term in office?

Is Mitt Romney's sense of humor ...



Perhaps it has something to do with $10,000 – the figure that presidential dreamer Mitt Romney offered up as a “bet” during a weekend presidential debate that is now being used as “evidence” of how out-of-touch the former Massachusetts governor is – compared to so-called “real” people.

I’D ARGUE THE people who think this is anything resembling a legitimate issue  are the ones who are out-of-touch, and that those of us “real” people ought to be grossly offended that these ideologues think they are among “us” in society.

Now for those of you who had real lives and didn’t watch the debate (personally, I watched my alma mater play college basketball that day), it seems that Romney opponent (and Texas governor) Rick Perry tried once again to claim that the health care reform plan that Romney pushed for in Massachusetts was identical to the plan that Obama pushed for on behalf of the American people.

You know, the one that the ideologues are now demonizing and desperately hoping that the Supreme Court of the United States strikes down as unconstitutional?

Romney’s response on Saturday to the latest repetition of this charge was to challenge Perry to a $10,000 bet that the statement he had just made was inaccurate.

OF COURSE, IT was ridiculous debate rhetoric, and Perry quickly backed down. But since then, he has been playing up the fact that Romney is some sort of rich guy who could afford to make a $10,000 bet.

It would be mere pocket change for him, Perry would like us to believe. Even though I personally find Romney’s explanation that the bet was “an outrageous number to answer an outrageous charge” to be completely believable.

... more lame than Barack Obama's?



Perhaps it is because I have covered so many campaign debates as a reporter-type person throughout the years that I realize nothing said by anybody during these staged events should be taken literally.

But this just reeks of being a non-issue.

IN FACT, IT didn’t surprise me at all to learn of a claim by FactCheck.org at the Annenberg Public Policy Center that said Romney was factually correct. Perry, in his attempt to simplify a charge to make a tight, pithy sound bite, did make a charge against Romney that was not accurate.

If there had been a real bet, Romney would have won.

If the people who are following the Republican primary blow-by-blow were interested in serious fact and learning more about the candidates, the “issue” now would be how Perry can’t get his facts straight.

Perhaps that he’s the one who’s willing to spread mistruths (although the gist that Romney’s former views on healthcare are remarkable similar to Obama’s current views is truthful).

INSTEAD, BECAUSE THIS is the primary cycle where Romney has perhaps one-quarter of the Republican Party in his favor and the remainder desperately convinced that they want anybody EXCEPT for Romney to be the GOP nominee running against Obama in the 2012 general election, they’re willing to go along with this kind of nonsense charge by Perry.

Which convinces me that the GOP is on the verge of nominating somebody whom the majority of the American people will despise more than their apathy causes them to distrust Obama.

It is moments like this that make it impossible for anyone of any sense to take any of these candidates seriously. It is turning this upcoming election cycle into the candidate we hate, versus the candidate we don’t care about.

Not the least bit inspirational, to be honest about things.

ALTHOUGH I WILL say one thing about Romney and his sense of “humor.”

It kind of reminds me of a moment from the 2008 election cycle when Obama was at an event of extremely-religious white people, and one person put a question to him that was meant to make him squirm in admitting to this heavily anti-abortion crowd that he was not on their side when it came to this issue.

Obama tried using humor to get out of answering the question; coming up with a lame line about how an appropriate answer was, “above my pay grade.”

It was a lame quip from Obama then. But one that may have been topped by Romney’s lame $10,000 wisecrack on Saturday.

SO WHAT DOES this mean? Romney’s not a comedian! Neither is Obama.

Then again, don’t we want to have a person who can get serious while sitting in the Oval Office?

Because if it turns out that we want a comedian in the White House, then I’m voting for Dick Gregory. It would only be 44 years after his real campaign – the one that got him some 47,097 votes. Too bad the late Pat Paulsen couldn’t be his running mate!

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