There is something profoundly disturbing when the endorsement of one of America's most respected newspapers boils down to a Fox News view of the world with all it's contorted logic and bizarre faith in austerity to solve America's economic problems.
The Des Moines Register endorsed Romney because it claims that Romney will somehow magically restore confidence in the American economy and will solve America's deficit crisis -- ignoring the fact that Romney's policies will add trillions of dollars to the deficit.
Why is is so hard for smart people to understand what is going on in our economy? We have consumers who are buried under debt exacerbated by the financial crisis and the burst housing bubble. We have corporate America unwilling to invest their money because consumers aren't spending. We have a global economic slowdown which drags down our ability to export more goods and services.
With these pillars of economic growth dragging, there is only one institution capable of investing in the economy to promote growth: Government.
Ironically, the DMR seems to get this. They praise Obama for pushing for the stimulus bill that prevented another Great Depression. But in the same sentence they reject the notion of continued government investment to keep the economy afloat -- "the time is past for more government stimulus."
Really? Okay, DMR, care to offer any evidence to support your supposition? If your logic holds, are we then to go along with the austerity cuts built into the sequestration that Republicans and Democrats agree would risk another economic recession? And, does anyone find it interesting that some of the same people who say that the government doesn't grow the economy or put people to work are also saying that sequestration would cripple our economy.
But the DMR takes this contorted logic a step further by completely ignoring the fact that Romney's own proposals would make our deficit crisis A LOT worse. Romney doesn't even pretend to offer ways to pay for $2 trillion in additional defense spending. And he has failed to identify any specific ways he would pay for $5 trillion in new tax cuts, mostly for the very rich.
Does the DMR think adding $7 trillion to the deficit is a good idea? We don't know because they don't confront the question.
The DMR claims that Romney was an effective governor of Massachusetts? Really? Did they ask the residents of Massachusetts who gave Romney at 34% approval rating when he left office after just one term, the lowest approval rating of any Mass governor in recent memory?
The DMR suggests Romney had to work with the Democratic legislature in Mass. Really? Did the DMR care to ask the Dems in Mass how Romney vetoed more than 800 bills passed by the Mass legislature and that the legislature voted to override more than 700 of those vetoes?
The DMR praises Romney's business experience, but offers not one word on the "vulture capitalism" that even Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, and Rick Santorum attacked.
The DMR suggests that somehow Romney will reject the extremists in his own party on social issues. But there is ZERO evidence in the public record to suggest that Romney is a moderate on social issues. Indeed, his choice for a running mate is a carbon copy of Todd Akin and Richard Mourock on social issues.
I could go on, but I'm too tired. I expect this nonsense from Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. But the Des Moines Register is supposed to be a place of rational thought. Apparently no longer.