This is going to be a dog-eat-dog donnybrook of an election the likes of which none of us have ever seen. If we thought things were ugly with Obama vs Clinton, with all the unsubtle innuendo of Palin, watching Paul Ryan gives his stump speech at the The Villages shows me that they haven't yet begun to flinch and shake the etch-a-sketch to re-insert all of Mitt Romney's previous Middle-Ground positions or reach out for the Center to bring the independents onto their side.
No, that's not how they're going to run. They don't care about Independents, they only care about turning out their base.
They're going to run hard to the Right, while recasting themselves as being on the Left of Obama on Medicare as it's "True Protectors". The ones who would save it from a President who would steal from it, in order to give money away to his pals...
And, to them, it's doesn't matter that's it a complete Crock.
There are always claims made during a campaign that are dubious. That are mildly shading the facts to the benefit of the person making the claim. That always happens, but here we have a very unique situation. The Romney Campaign has based everything they're about, and even everything that they're against in terms of the record of President Obama - on Lies.
They aren't just misstatements, they aren't just convenient exaggerations.
During the Bush/Gore Election the knock on President Gore was that he was the exaggerator. That he claimed to have created the Internet, and that he and Tipper were inspirations for the characters in "Love Story".
Neither of these were, based on the fact, entirely wrong - nor were the "lies". Gore was involved deeply in the committee decision and vote that took the internet from a limited government program to a public/private resource available to everyone. And he was an inspiration for one of the characters in Love Story, even though Tipper wasn't, but the mistake wasn't his - it was a mistaken quote of the author by The Tennesean.
Instead of the truth being revealed - Gore was branded as a "pathological liar".
During the re-election bid of George W. Bush, War Hero John Kerry was painted as "Unfit for Command" based on unsubstantiated claims by people who didn't serve with him in contradiction with the official records and reports. We were told in gravely serious terms by then Vice President Chaney that if America didn't make the "Right Decision, we could be Hit Again [by Another 9-11 Level Attack]". All because somehow, the only man out of the four then running for President or Vice President who actually had any military combat experience was going to "flinch" in the bright light of hard Presidential decisions on National Security.
We saw this again in 2008, as then candidate Obama was assailed for having thin acquaintances with old college professors who had never been tried and never been convicted of a crime, let alone something as heinous as "domestic terrorism". He was assailed for being member of a "Church Of Hate", by a opposing Vice Presidential Candidate whose own church had had Ceremonies where she was Blessed to Protect her from Witchcraft by a Kenyan Pastor.
Yet, "Obama" is the one whose "Not like the rest of us" because of his Church.
The lesson many of the Rightwing took from their loss in 2008 was that they just "Weren't Mean Enough" to Barack Obama. That they just didn't dig deep enough, and hit him hard enough. That the mistakes wasn't putting a raving wack-a-doodle like Palin on the ticket, it was that John McCain was "too decent" a man to Hit Him Where it Hurts.
Neither Mitt Romney, nor Paul Ryan seem to be infected with the disease of John McCain's "Decency".
Their strategy to the White House seems to entirely be to reassure all those who already Hate, Fear and Mistrust the President, that they should their Fear and Hate is entirely Justified.
In response to this the President has a unique oppurtunity -- all he has to do -- is tell the Truth.
The whole, unvarnished, unlimited Truth.
The question is, Will America Listen this time? Will they understand the difference between the opposite and opposing claims? Will they realize who is the Liar and who is the Truth Teller?
Or will they just assume it's all just talk, just politics, and that it really doesn't make a difference who you vote for in November?
It makes a difference, A Huge Difference.
Vyan