A quick search didn't turn up any posts here yet about Paul Krugman's 5 point blog summary of the GOP convention campaign themes, three negative, two positive. I figure it's too good not to pass on:
Negative:
• The claim that Obama denigrated businessmen, saying that they didn’t build their own firms — which isn’t true.
• The claim that Obama has gutted Medicare to pay for the expansion of health insurance — which isn’t true.
• The claim that Obama has eliminated the work requirement for welfare — which isn’t true.
Positive:
• The claim that Ryan has a plan to balance the budget — which isn’t true.
• The claim that Romney has a plan for economic recovery — which isn’t true. (The Economist: “The Romney Programme for Economic Recovery, Growth and Jobs” is like “Fifty Shades of Grey” without the sex).
emphasis added
The rest of Krugman's post is short, with several pertinent links. Go read it.
Let me connect some further dots here. If you're wondering why the themes are all based on falsehoods, and why the Republicans don't seem to be bothered by that, Matt Taibbi's analysis of where Romney is coming from exposes what's going on here: it's the ethos of Wall Street applied to politics.
...His infamous changes of stance are not little wispy ideological alterations of a few degrees here or there – they are perfect and absolute mathematical reversals, as in "I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country" and "I am firmly pro-life." Yet unlike other politicians, who at least recognize that saying completely contradictory things presents a political problem, Romney seems genuinely puzzled by the public's insistence that he be consistent. "I'm not going to apologize for having changed my mind," he likes to say. It's an attitude that recalls the standard defense offered by Wall Street in the wake of some of its most recent and notorious crimes: Goldman Sachs excused its lying to clients, for example, by insisting that its customers are "sophisticated investors" who should expect to be lied to. "Last time I checked," former Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack sneered after the same scandal, "we were in business to be profitable."
Within the cult of Wall Street that forged Mitt Romney, making money justifies any behavior, no matter how venal. The look on Romney's face when he refuses to apologize says it all: Hey, I'm trying to win an election. We're all grown-ups here. After the Ampad deal, Romney expressed contempt for critics who lived in "fantasy land." "This is the real world," he said, "and in the real world there is nothing wrong with companies trying to compete, trying to stay alive, trying to make money."
emphasis added.
Nothing matters except winning. And if you're not a Romney or a Ryan, if you're not in the .1% that is busy buying out America right before our eyes, you're a loser. That's the vision they have for America, on display in Tampa.
So while we're obsessing over the racism, the hypocrisy, the constant lies, the lack of substance to their ideas, their record of failure, they know exactly what it's all about, and they'll stop at nothing to make it happen.
Nothing.