Blinded by partisan hubris

     The highlight of election night for me was when Karl Rove, an on-air host for Fox TV, publicly challenged the decision of the Fox News analysts that President Barack Obama had won Ohio, and thus the election.
     Not so quick! Rove even got one of his co-anchors to lead the charge against the Fox News decision desk. They were, in effect, demanding a recount.
If nothing else, this points out the dangers of trying to serve two masters. Rove was posing as a pundit, but acting as a partisan — and a  partisan who was totally, especially financially, invested in a Republican victory.
     His two super PAC s — American Crossroads, and the dark super PAC Crossroads GPS, the one where we never get to find out where the money came from — spent upward of $300 million on organizing and on buying ads, mostly for naught.
Perhaps that is why Karl could not see the forest for the trees. He was blinded by the light of his own partisan hubris.
     He was shell-shocked to see the reality of losing that was staring him in the face. The reality that he, Karl Rove, boy genius and Bush's brain, was wrong. Not just wrong, but profoundly and completely wrong in his assessment of the state of the campaign, and the election.
The indelible image of the Wicked Witch of the West comes to mind: "I'm melting! I'm melting!"
Or perhaps an even better analogy would be that of the Great Wizard of Oz trying to crank away behind his velvet curtain, saying, "The great and powerful Oz has spoken!" while all the while Toto was nipping at his heels, and pulling back the curtain for all to see the Great Wizard in his diminished glory.
     Face the facts, Karl. Obama now owns the presidential megaphone for the next four years. If he plays his cards and utilizes his bully pulpit right, he could be every bit as much a transformational figure in American politics as was Ronald Reagan.
     Tuesday night, on national TV, the time had come for Rove to face his moment of truth —the truth of his failure and its enormous consequences. Yet he just couldn't do it, and his reluctance to accept the reality of the moment apparently helped to delay Mitt Romney's concession speech.
Ultimately, sanity prevailed. Romney conceded, and eloquently so. The need to heal the nation and move forward trumped Rove's clinging to his charts and his convictions, while reality was knocking ever more loudly at his front door.
     America has indeed arrived at Karl Rove's Crossroads. The American people have chosen a road diverging in the woods. That, at last, has made all the difference.
Time to move past your own crossroads, Karl, and get on with the business of fixing the future of the body politic in this great country.
Forward! Not backward, and not sideways. Forward.
     As Lee Iacocca so famously put it, "Time to lead, follow, or get the heck out of the way."
Move over, Karl. The train has left the station, and you are no longer on board.

Wrongway Corrigan/Brownback


Who is Douglas Corrigan, and what does he have to do with Sam Brownback? Corrigan earned the  nickname "Wrongway Corrigan" when he flew his single engine plane solo over the Atlantic in 1938, after filing a flight plan to go from New York to Los Angeles.. This was before radar. He claimed that he had a broken compass, and that's why he flew for 28 hours in the wrong direction, crossing the Atlantic ocean instead of the American continent.

     He was heralded by a depression weary American population for his “wrong way” flight, and even feted with ticker tape parades in New York and Chicago. Truth be known, he simply lied about it. He had  been denied the right by aviation authorities to cross the Atlantic in his single engine plane because aviation officials deemed it unsafe to fly. They told him he couldn’t do it, so he figured a way around them, leaving in the pre- dawn hours from Long Island, and heading out to sea. Despite his filed flight plan, which said he was heading west…he headed east.  He actually developed a leak in his gas tank while flying, which caused gas to spill into the cockpit, so  he poked a hole in the cockpit  floor to let the gas drip out to the ocean below,  instead of accumulating and causing an explosion.  In short  he knew what he was doing,, and he was hell bent for leather to do it.       So ,  Why the comparison?  Governor Sam Brownback and Wrong way  Corrigan have a lot in common. Damn the torpedoes...full speed ahead!  And so it is with Governor Sam Brownback.

     When historians come to judge the Kansas Governor's stewardship at the helm of state, it may be written of him that,  like  Corrigan,  he was a fierce pilot who flew his plane  with lots of guts and gusto, but in the wrong direction.  They both thought they were aiming correctly.   While the initial result for Corrigan was a ticker tape parade,  he became an historical footnote,  and poster child for bullheaded reversity.  Corrigan was literally flying blind  across the Atlantic. He could not see out of the front of the plane because of the gas tanks that obfuscated his vision, but that didn’t matter, because they fueled his journey, and buoyed his grit and determination to do what no one else, save Lindbergh, had ever done. And so it is with Sam Brownback.  Anyone who is standing in the way of his vision of a Kansas without an Income tax, which he believes will reverse the fortunes of and bolster the economy of the state, is to be ignored, or to be end run arounded.

     Corrigan’s zealotry for  crossing the Atlantic in a plane that was not ever fit to do so, earned him initial public plaudits but eventual  retrospective ridicule. The end result for Brownback may be similar, in that he may be feted at  conservative conventions in Wichita and  Topeka for now, but he may be  less than revered by future historians.  Unfortunately, the real consequences of his studied actions may be to set Kansas back for decades, instead of propelling it forward to economic hegemony.  So convinced is he of the rectitude of trickledownomics that he has literally bet the ranch, his entire state, on it.  True zealots like him never fade away. They are either vaulted to the forefront by virtue of the success of their wild and speculative ways, or catapulted to the dung heap of history by the odiferous scents of their failed gambits that won't go away. Their  ideas may die, but the scent of their experiments hang ‘round for a long, long time. And so it may be with Brownback. He will either be lionized by future generations as a hero, or considered a bum who messed up Kansas' entire governmental and educational structure.

I hope it is the former, but my bet is on the latter.

So, move over "Wrong Way Corrigan"… Governor Sam Brownback is about to outdistance you in the Guinness Book of foolhardy records.  The problem is, the joke may be on Kansas,  and it’s people.

 Facts Matter..Ads shouldn't

The number of new jobs created last month again disappoints. And, yes, there is a reason for this disappointment.

Who to blame? President Barack Obama?
How about blaming the Republicans in Congress?

They continue to refuse to pass Obama's jobs bill which would have created hundreds of thousands of new jobs. The bill would build roads and bridges that are badly needed, and create enough jobs to bring the unemployment rate down by a full percentage point.

But wait. We can't have that before the election, so the Republicans are just saying no — and then criticizing the President for not creating jobs fast enough.
Gotcha! The way to play the game is to stick your foot out and trip your opponent, and then blame him for falling down.
Will the American people buy this bullying tactic and reward the Republican opposition for their obstructionism? Only if they don't connect the dots as a result of a great fog machine being sent into overdrive by unlimited Super PAC advertising, fueled by the donations of an oligarchic group of billionaires.

How can Mitt Romney's campaign be so dismissive of the truth? The answer is that it has the money to help defy the truth.
The fog will be so thick with 30-second negative advertising spots that by November, most Americans — at least those living in the swing states like Missouri, where I teach — will be crying, "I want my TV back!" The barrage of ads will be nearly unbearable.

Still, before you fling open the shutters and say you're mad as hell, and can't take it anymore, just take a deep breath, and join me in this vow: "I refuse to allow any 30-second TV ad to affect my judgment. I will pay attention only to the debates, to the news, and to the fact checkers."
Facts really do matter, despite what Mitt Romney's pollster Neil Newhouse says to the contrary.
If people ignore these Super PAC and partisan ads entirely, from both sides, and vote based upon the merits of the positions taken by both parties, we will all be better off. The platforms of the two major national parties are pretty clear in terms of the choices they are offering the American people. Read the platforms, stay informed on the issues through the news, and vote accordingly. You can make intelligent choices in so doing, and vote your own value system.

Tell these Super Pacs, enough already! I won't be bought. I am not as stupid as you think.
I think. I actually do think. And considering the magnitude of the issues this country faces, thinking before voting is critical to the preservation of our democracy. Thomas Jefferson perhaps said it best:
"A people who believe they can be both free and ignorant, believe that which never has been, and never can be."

     The Edge of the Waters


When I was growing up and taking citizenship classes in school, we were always taught that "Politics stops at the water's edge", and that "We only have one President at a time".

      I guess all of that went out the window on Wednesday morning when Mitt Romney, with less than cautious abandonment, dove into the precarious political waters of middle eastern uncertainty to heap scorn on the President of the United States at a time when unity of purpose , resolve, and response, would have made much more sense.

      Clearly, for whatever reason, Mitt Romney jumped the gun to inject himself into an ongoing crisis, when prudence would have dictated that he hold his fire, and shut his mouth, in the face of the death of an American diplomat, at least until the dust settles, and it becomes clear what has happened, and is still happening.

       Romney sounded almost as if he were the pseudo President, speaking in a manner as if he represented America, and attempting to undercut the credibility of our one and only President at a time when standing together in the face of attacks against our embassies and our personnel should be soundly, and roundly condemned. He is not elected to any office, and has no right to speak on behalf of the American people. He is simply a candidate for office. Nothing more...nothing less. Nor does  he "represent" us, or anyone, at least not yet, and with this type of performance, hopefully he never will.

      This move by Romney is nothing short of a knee jerk reaction, and a bone headed attempt to cash in and capitalize on a very volatile situation which should call for a demonstration of American resolve, and unity in the face of a common enemy: Intolerance, ignorance, and extremism in the guise of religious zealotry.

      If Romney had simply said, "We stand by the President and Secretary of State in this hour of peril, and are united in support of their efforts to see that justice is done, and that American values will be protected and defended." it would have better served him. Instead, he showed himself to be much smaller a man than his opponent, the President of the United States.

The Presiden's acceptance speech.

Ok. Obama was poised, proud, confident, in charge, and in command. The Republicans will say he was cocky. Maybe he was a bit, but after four years of disrespect, doubt and just dumb and delusional pummeling by his Republican opposition, can you blame him for saying, "Hey, i'm in charge, we're turning the. corner, so don't go soft on me now. Let's finish what we started. I know how to do this job. And I get it. I am one of you. " 

     I think he set the right tone. He did a good, if not great job, and the convention, all of the speakers, and the entire cast of characters in Charlotte was more compelling, more telling, more convincing than the crowd in Tampa...and more real. I always knew who I was voting for this year. Now I know why!

 Dirty Harry meets the GOP

     Crazy old man takes the stage at the Republican Convention and talks angrily to an empty chair, just before Mitt Romney gives the speech of his life . What gives?

     Whoever was in charge of timing and scheduling at the RNC convention flunked badly. The night before they followed a brilliant speech by the candidate's wife with an in your face angry fat guy Governor from New Jersey who was all self absorbed and less complementary of the candidate than he should have been. Can you say, "Get the hook?"

     There were moments when the Republicans actually did shine. Ann Romney's wonderful and inspirational talk was one of those moments. Blue as the blood in my veins may be, I could be persuaded to vote for her. Problem is, she's not running. She seems to me , as the mother of five fine sons who raised them with a loving but largely absent father, to be the real hockey mom we can all respect. Sadly, this was not the case for most of the other supporting cast of characters and bloviators.

     Mitt Romney's most inspirational moment for me came when he said about President Obama's election that we as Americans, himself included, wanted him to succeed. The problem is , his Vice Presidential partner Paul Ryan, and the other head honchos in the Republican Congress did not. They were plotting immediately to chart a course that would insure Obama could not solve America's problems, for if he did, his re-election would be assured, so they decided to just say no....to everything, all the time . Total non-cooperation on their part elevated politics over governing , and they even drove the Chevy almost to the levy during the debt crisis debate, playing chicken with the American people. They largely achieved their objective.  Our credit rating even got downgraded. Whatever happened to the old  golden rule of politics, "First, do no harm"? Sadly, for America, it went out the window on day one of Obama's Presidency.

     So, Obama did not totally succeed, and the jobless number remains high.  He did some good things, like saving the auto industry and millions of jobs, but unemployment  would be lower if they had just voted for a jobs bill that would have fixed and built roads and bridges.  They refused to do so, knowing Obama would be given credit, so they just sat on their hands and will continue to do so until the election is over. There is no letting up to their no-ism.  Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Eric Cantor, and Paul Ryan politically outsmarted, indeed,  ukered the President with their negative trump cards of filibusters and no votes.

     The problem for Obama was that he was initially naive. He didn't fully understand that they were just playing him along, and that at the last minute, they would again pull the plug on any broad solution to the debt crisis, or the Medicare funding problems, or a bill giving better health care coverage to millions of uncovered Americans. They chose to walk away from the table and curse the darkness. They played Obama for a chump, and sadly he mostly went along, trying desperately to find common ground, where there was none to be found.  He was continually surprised when they teased him, entreated him, and then just slammed the door in his face. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

     Obama may have finally learned his lesson, and is starting to fight back. The only question is, will it be too little, too late, or can he save the day for himself and the country. Will he be Mighty Mouse, or Mickey Mouse. That is the question.

      Mitt Romney as Popeye the Sailor man actually does have a chance of knocking Obama out of his Executive chair. I guess it all depends on how much spinach Obama eats between now and the Democratic convention. If it were up to me, I'd take the arugula off the White House menu, and feature a little more red meat .  Obama will need all the testosterone he can muster to beat back this bunch in November.

     We shall see if he can play the role of the man of steel, or just crumple under the weight of the unrelenting Republican mega funded juggernaut. Hopefully he will rise to the occasion and save the day for America. Hopefully. That's still the key word. Hope. Fortunately, it springs eternal.

Oh My Akin Breakin' Heartland

I have just returned to Missouri from a pleasant summer in upstate New York. I teach part time here in the heartland. It was very hot all summer in Missouri. The temperatures are just beginning to settle down to near normal levels, and then, boom! The political world is lit up like a bonfire as a result of what one Missouri congressman said, and what a Kansas Congressman did. One dipped into the unholy waters of the Abortion/Rape debate, and the other, a Freshman Republican Congressman from Kansas went skinny dipping in the Holy Sea of Galilee.
Just when you think this year’s political campaign season could not get any worse, or any weirder, it does.   Enter Reps. Kevin Yoder and Todd Akin.
      There’s something about Missouri. It is where the country usually pivots. And courtesy of Akin’s foot-in-mouth disease, we now have another pivotal moment from Missouri that could be an epiphany or just plain apocryphal for the chances of Republican ascendancy come November.
Congressman Akin just won the nomination for the Senate from Missouri. He is running against incumbent Democrat Claire McCaskill, whose chances of re-election, until now, had been rather dim. Akin actually said that women who are raped can effectively will away a pregnancy, so there is no need to allow a woman who is a victim of “legitimate rape” — as opposed to illegitimate rape? — to choose to abort such a resultant pregnancy. In essence, he theorized that somehow you can’t get pregnant unless you enjoyed the rape.The sad thing is, he apparently meant it.
OK, since you can pray away the gay, why can’t you also pray away the day you got raped? Maybe he meant that the power of positive thinking can cause you to self-abort? Who knows?
     Most Americans, including me, firmly believe in the power of prayer, and positive intention, but this comment takes it to a whole different dimension.
     Akin could be the 51st vote that would give Republicans control of the Senate. He is from the western suburbs of St. Louis — and the Michele Bachmann school of religiosity in politics. He was trained as a divinity student and later became an engineer. Politics, however, and the strong support of Tea Party type Conservatives in Missouri, have allowed him to take the national stage in a way that is not entirely flattering to Missouri. His statement, or misstatement as he calls it, was front-page national political news, but was buried on Page 6 of Monday’s Joplin Globe.
I guess it is a sad thing for the Republican Party that he is from Missouri, and he showed us.
He showed us what prominent Republican strategist Craig Shirley said is true. Shirley said that the Republicans are becoming the party of “intoxication, intolerance and idiocy.” If top Republicans are saying that, just imagine what the Democrats might say.
And GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan is closely allied with this guy. Their stances on most issues are very similar. Ryan and Akin both serve on the Ways and Means Committee together, and have jointly sponsored legislation which would prohibit abortion, except in the case of “forcible” rape, as if rape of any kind (other than statutory) is consensual. As President Obama said correctly, “Rape is rape!”

Congressman  Yoder is from the western suburbs of Kansas City, Mo., (which suburbs happen to be in Kansas). He and a bunch of other Freshmen Republican frat boy types went for an ale begotten moonlight  swim on a junket to the sea of Galilee. Yoder , apparently the boldest of the allegedly boozed up bunch, admits that he actually stripped off all his clothes to skinny dip where Jesus so famously walked on water. Alas, there are no calls from the National Republican leadership for his ouster. Why is that?

     He demonstrated a different kind of forgivable stupidity than his cohort Congressman Akin. Akin's mistake was to wade into the waters of a debate about abortion that Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Karl Rove and others want to avoid. Akin, though fully clothed at the time of his verbal gaffe, just waded into the wrong waterway. He would have been better off to dive head first into the Red Sea in his BVD's as part of a stunt on The Jackass TV program. That would be forgivable, but blowing the cover of the anti -women agenda of the GOP, and potentially losing to Claire McCaskill, and losing a Republican controlled Senate as a result,  is just inexcusable. Besides,  Congressman Yoder doesn't even have a Democratic opponent.
     I guess it boils down to this: Jesus forgives sinning skinny dippers, but women whose rights  have been  scorned by the GOP will remember  Akin- like jackasses like Elephants do. They will never forget.

So Congressman Yoder survives, and Congressman Akin is mortally wounded, but soldiers on.  What to make of this conondrum?

How does Paul Ryan set himself free from Akin?
The answer is, he can’t. Yoder can stay, but Akin has to go, or Ryan becomes a huger liability for Romney than he already is.  And so far, he shows no signs of going. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, Kansas and Missouri show us again what is really going on. Woe are we. And woe unto the GOP...big time.