nothing heavy today

but having these two together amuses me in a weird manner.

rant for 9-21-12

Imagined internal Romney Campaign memo:

Effective immediately at any closed party function all food service employees will be required to be swept for electronic devices.

It has, to tell the truth done the Professor’s evil black heart a world of good watching the repeated missteps, gaffes and outright blunders of the Romney campaign as it lurches like some wounded giant robot from a Japanese science fiction film, arms failing, sparks a blazing, bellowing smoke, tossing gears leaking oil and lurching from side to side destroying all in its path; not because it intends to but because it’s too damn clumsy to do anything else.

I have witnesses many a campaign in my time – the earliest one I remember was the angry and vile 1968 campaign between Nixon and Humphrey (with Wallace acting out in the south)  - and I’ve seen some really inept ones but searching the professor’s memory he can’t for the life of him recall a campaign this disjointed and this utterly incompetent.

And to be honest he should be winning. The economy is in a doldrums, the left wing of the democratic party is alienated and disappointed with Obama as president (although not for the reasons the GOP doesn’t like him, which has lead to some confusion on the GOP side “hey we can get these voters!” they think, ‘We hate Obama too!” the trouble being that left is disgruntled with O because of policies like not jailing wall street and bank fraud, his obsession with a grand deficit bargain that includes social security cuts, the expansion of the war on terror and  the national security state, the use drones and even the crack down on medical marijuana All of these would have the ecstatic support of the GOP if the president  was a Republican.   So a disgruntled leftist is not going to respond well to Romney’s basic message “wait until you see us blowup brown people and lower taxes!” with any degree of enthusiasm.)  And people are unhappy. This should be his year.

But dear lord what an utter train wreck he has been. Within the last week he’s managed to insult about ½ country calling them lazy bustards – gone on a Spanish TV station looking like he’s been dipped in bronzer and now he’s just managed to beboot his whole tax return problem by issuing his 2011 return (wherein he paid 14 or some such percent – I’d have to pull my return but I suspect I may have paid a bit higher percentage) and issued a statement about the last 20 years of his taxes.

This will not work.

The phrase that comes to mind is from the Watergate era –  “limited modified hangout” tell some of the truth (2011) and combine with this a seeping general statement that is when not directly dishonest intentionally misleading.

And Ann Romney seems to be yelling at the help again.

It’s a hell of his own making. And I for one couldn’t be more pleased