So pompous, pampered, forty-two year old and old enough to know better,Tagg Romney, wants to take a swing at President Obama for calling Mitt a liar. I’ve got news for you, Tagg (and for your brothers, Hide Seek, Catch and Dodge), your father was lying. It’s what he does; it’s a lifestyle for him. You think you were angry because dear old dad finally got called out in real time, I was angry that it took so long. Your father is a human hologram, a shape shifter, quite literally a specter, able to convincingly adopt any position on any subject because he has no true beliefs other than those that give an illusion of substance to his otherwise vacuous persona. He has no values for which he would fight. He has no vision for American that drives his quest for the presidency other than simple ambition and greed.
It isn’t surprising, however, that this judgment-deficient product of privilege should feel free to talk about “want(ing) to ‘take a swing’ at President Obama.” He grew up in an atmosphere in which lying was normal and parental aggression was typical behavior. Maybe Tagg just had his face pushed into the butter dish too often.
It’s not even surprising that the media has chosen to treat this as a joke. President Obama has, from his first day in office, been subjected to a different standard of abuse. Few, if any, limits on references to his color, his place of birth, his intelligence have been observed by the knuckle draggers on the right.
John Sununu, in-house bigot, pilferer of public funds and Romney campaign co-chairman, called the President lazy (could he have really wanted to say shiftless) during an interview with Andrea Mitchell and then, later that same day, went on Fox and was asked, 'You don't think there will be a better prepared (Obama) on stage next week?' Sununu’s reply? 'When you're not that bright, you can't get better prepared.” Sununu should recognize “not that bright” when he sees it. He looks at in the mirror every morning. Sununu is a tongue attached to a nervous system without intervention by a brain. He spouts out sick, warped racist drivel on cue like an evil Chuckie.
Then there is the record holder for most racist allusions in a single comment held by former House Speaker and de facto Republican intellectual, Newt Gingrich, set when he compared President Obama to the NFL substitute referees telling Fox News’s Greta Van Susteren, “He’s not a real president.” “I’m assuming there’s some rhythm to Barack Obama that the rest of us don’t understand -- whether he needs large amounts of rest, whether he needs to go play basketball for awhile. I don’t watch ESPN--I don’t quite know what his rhythms are. But this is a guy who is a brilliant performer as an orator who may well get reelected at the present date. And who, frankly, happens to be a partial, part-time president. I mean he really is a lot like the substitute referees in the sense that he’s not a real president.” The morally bankrupt buffoon threw in everything but the President sure can dance.
Van Susteren then asked the Speaker to look at Secretary Clinton’s schedule and proceeded to check off the list of foreign leaders she had met with this past week. Gingrich opined that Clinton “is a serious person,” while “Barack Obama is an ambitious person.”
He explained that Clinton and Obama have very different personalities: “Hillary Clinton gets up every day thinking about public policy; Barack Obama gets up every day thinking about Barack Obama,” Gingrich said, apparently demonstrating his previously unrevealed skills as a mind reader.
I really want to say something about the pot and the kettle here but it's just too obvious. Instead, I'll just note that Gingrich is considered to be the Republican "idea" man. That's sort of sad when you think about it. A second rate, pseudo-intellectual, perennial presidential candidate (and perennial loser), serial adulterer, a man who was forced out of the House of Representatives eleven years ago and has done nothing productive since, is your idea man. Gingrich is as much of an idea man as Paul Ryan is a "budget wonk." Gingrich is inherently incapable of making an intelligent comment and Ryan can’t add.
Former South Carolina Governor and Fox News contributor Mark Sanford, best known abandoning his state for a week claiming he was hiking the Appalachian Trail when, in fact, he was with his paramour in Argentina, contributed yet another patently racist Republican slur when he said that President Obama is going to “come out and throw a lot of spears” at Tuesday’s upcoming debate." He was thinking spearchucker but didn't have the nerve to say it. Cowardice just seems to go with racism. America’s News HQ anchor Shannon Bream couldn't be bothered to react. She just continued to discuss expectations for the Tuesday debate. That’s par for the course on Fox.
A few days ago, Jason Thompson, the son of senatorial candidate Tommy Thompson, joked at a Republican sponsored event, "We have the opportunity to send President Obama back to Chicago -- or Kenya." Thompson Sr's response when asked whether he believed his son should apologize to the President, "He has already apologized, and that's enough." To whom Jr apologized and what he said is not known. Maybe he apologized to his father for being such a congenital cretin that he made the comment in front of cameras.
Last, but certainly not least, there is the candidate himself telling a crowd in Michigan that no one had ever asked to see his birth certificate. Now there's a class act for you. Don't speak out against the insidious, deceitful character assassination and racism. Join in the fun. Show how presidential you can be by feeding the birther lie. Pundits say President Obama doesn't respect Romney. Is there any reason he should.
Romney and his henchmen have run a campaign based on lies and not very surreptitious racism. They've run a campaign wholly without strength of character, without decency, without conscience and without honor. They've tried to make a mockery of the election system. They've worked diligently to paint the President as "not one of us" and they have institutionalized voter suppression and intimidation. If we elect this bunch of thugs, ideologues and social regressives we deserve no better that what we will get. If enough of us fall for the duplicitous rhetoric, the manufactured concern for the 100 percent, the empty promises of impossible tax cuts then we need to be taught a lesson.
The lesson will be harsh and the results will be dire but we will have no one to blame but ourselves. We will have voted for it. Many of elderly and the sick will die from lack of medical care. Many of the poor will go homeless, cold and hungry because money that could have gone to help feed and house them will have been sent to the 1 percenters and what they don't spend on another house or a bigger yacht will be parked in their off-shore accounts. More unwanted children will come into a world that makes them citizens while they are embryos but has no use for them once they are born while billions of dollars go to warmongers and profiteers. Women will work for less pay and have less control over their health care and their bodies. Another war in the middle east will become much more of a reality but it won't be the 1 percenters sons and daughters who will be sent to fight it. Our food will be less safe and our air and water more foul. This will be what we voted for; this will be what we deserve.
First posted on The Last New Dealer (rodgzblog.blogspot.com)