Mitt the Twit

I guess it was one of the British newspapers that headlined “Mitt the Twitt” on Romney’s recent disastrous trip to Britain during the Olympics. I think they were on to something, but now I’m confused because I can’t decide if Romney is Twit, a Nitwit, a Half Wit, or completely Witless. Take his choice of Paul Ryan, for example. Romney has fully embraced the now famous and atrocious Paul Ryan budget at least five times in public, including his statement that he would sign it if President. So now he has picked Ryan as his running mate, but says they are not running on the Ryan budget but on his own version of a budget. His own budget has not been spelled out in much detail as has the Ryan version, but as far as I know doesn’t differ very much. But what are we to make of his claim they are not going to run on Ryan’s budget? Is it (1) an evasion, (2) a lie, or (3) another monumental flip-flop? Whatever, I say, in the immortal words of George W. Bush, “Bring it on.”

I think Romney has made a potentially disastrous mistake, both in picking Ryan in the first place, but now trying to distance himself from the Ryan budget. This will probably lead critics to insist on knowing just what the difference is between the two different budgets, thus bringing more attention to just how bad they both really are. We should all enjoy watching Romney squirm as he tries to explain the differences, and Ryan may or may not agree, thus putting him on the spot as well. If pursued this could be real entertainment for a while. Oh, I almost forgot, under the Romney/Ryan plan, Romney, who made a mere twenty million dollars last year, would pay less than one (.01) percent in taxes. Cool, huh?

If that is not enough of a mistake, Ryan has announced he will only provide two years of his taxes. This is obviously to defend Romney’s witless refusal to release only two years of his returns because, as his wife said, “You people know all you need to know.” As in the case of taxes, this is only going to increase the interest in Romney’s taxes rather than decrease it. It’s the issue that won’t go away that could have been easily avoided in the first place.

Romney is in real danger of being so upstaged as to become in effect the number two man on the ticket as he pretty clearly will not be able to hold his own when trying to explain the tax issue or his taxes, and he will probably suffer during his debates with President Obama. The Ryan/Biden debates will also be fascinating to watch as I doubt that Biden will be much impressed or awed by the so-called “intellectual leader of the Republican Party.”

Interestingly enough, the tax questions may not prove to be the most important problem for Romney/Ryan. Although this has not been much noted until now, Ryan is a virulent opponent of abortion, and what is worse, a proponent of the “personhood begins at conception crowd.” He has supported this and voted for it in the past, which means he is against abortion for any reason and also opposed to contraceptives. This, of course, will not endear him to the female vote and quite likely, just by itself, will lose Romney/Ryan the election. Ryan would like us to believe he represents his Catholic Church on this issue which, I guess he does. But his position on doing away with the social programs that benefit the poor have been described by the Church itself as “immoral.” While immorality might bother many of us, it won’t bother the Republican Tea Party base because they apparently have no concept of either “moral” or compassion.

There are those who believe Ryan is a truly brilliant pick for Vice-President, because he will take the heat off Romney (acknowledged as a terrible candidate) and, they think, may help to swing the election to Romney/Ryan. Even if this fails they believe that Ryan will be the perfect conservative candidate for 2016, having received so much exposure and experience. He is said to be the Koch brothers’ candidate, and with his selection as Romney’s running mate, has effectively turned the Party and the election over to them. Be that as it may, if this means the Republicans will continue to obstruct President Obama for another four years as they have done so far, there won’t be enough of the country left to worry about. Like it or not, the only hope for any of us in the near future is a Democratic sweep to take back the House and remain a majority in the Senate. There are things I do not like about Obama, but even if, for the moment, he has to cater to Wall Street to save the rest of us, so be it. Reality is not always pleasant.

Place one hand on the telly-vision, and one hand on your damaged brain, pray for the pain to go away.

Morialekafa