Pudd'nhead Mitt and the Great Giveaway

[WilliamPitt]

Pudd'nhead Mitt and the Great Giveaway
By William Rivers Pitt
Truthout | Op-Ed

Monday 13 August 2012

The decision to add Paul Ryan to the Republican presidential campaign has, once and for all time, exposed the limp, rudderless vacancy that is the core essence of Willard Mitt Romney. Over the eighteen years he has been on the political stage, Mr. Romney has changed positions more often than most people change batteries. By tapping Ryan, and thus agreeing to take on the fourteen years of far-right baggage Ryan brings with him, Romney has all but announced to the world that he is folding his hand and ceding control of the party to the whacked-out denizens of his right flank.

Here is Paul Ryan in one sentence: He is an acolyte of Ayn Rand's sinister school of thought that human beings are only worth what they can earn or be sold for in the marketplace, the author of the blueprint Romney used to craft his notorious budget plan to raise taxes on 95% of Americans while cutting taxes for those who share his rarefied financial atmosphere, the latest in a long line of brigands seeking to eviscerate Medicare and make growing old in America the equivalent of growing poor again, a job-killer who wants to do away with Pell Grants in an age when educated workers are becoming harder and harder to find, a family friend of Big Oil, which explains his virulent hatred for any attempts to safeguard the environment, as evidenced by his oft-repeated claims that climate change is a giant conspiracy he says is invalidated whenever snow happens to fall, which explains his vote to overthrow the EPA's ability to regulate greenhouse gas pollution, his vote to block the USDA from preparing for climate change, and his vote to kill higher light bulb efficiency standards for reasons passing understanding, and let's not forget that he was a member of that very very very special cadre of House Republicans who signed a bill to make fertilized eggs into people so as to outlaw abortion, in vitro fertilization and many forms of birth control.

Why Paul Ryan? The answer lies in the cold bowl of pudding that is Mitt Romney's personal and political integrity.

(snip)

Since he began running for president six years ago, Mitt Romney has been hedged in by his right flank to an increasingly great degree, entirely because the man has evinced no core set of beliefs for them to cleave to or argue against. The far right has had to contend with him and his utter lack of convictions in these last two presidential elections, so they kept pushing him rightwards in the hope that he would become one of them, and like any jellyfish in a rip tide, Romney went with the flow...until Saturday, when he found himself beached on Tea Party Island.

What Romney has now in his running mate is not just a Times Square-sized billboard advertising his fealty to the wildly unpopular social and economic policies of the Tea Party right. Paul Ryan is also a watchdog serving that far-right, a guy in the co-pilot's seat who isn't going to let Pudd'nhead Mitt soil Ryan's conservative credentials with any of the undignified waffling we've seen on a regular basis from the presumed GOP nominee since he first stuck his tepid toe in the political waters back when everyone thought Clinton would be a one-termer, too. These people do not like Romney at all; he is a means to an end for them, like a condom or a wad of toilet paper. They own him now, period, end of file.

The rest: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/10858-puddnhead-mitt-and-the-great-giveaway

[bigtree]

1. as the folks here have said

. . . he's officially a prop of the republican establishment now. He's so dense that he really doesn't know any other way forward in this election.

[spanone]

2. k&r...

[madashelltoo]

3. And, together they spell "DISASTER"

The baggers are lying to Rmoney and he's lying to them. All they want is the White House. Rmoney wants it for a few billion perks for himself and his friends. The baggers want it for a few billion perks for themselves and their friends. I really don't think they serve the same masters. Besides, the actual baggers are merely pawns to get what they want and they either don't know it, or are so filled with loathing for their fellow man that they don't care. Just don't give them minorities and immigrants a damned dime. Close them borders and tell them women to git in that kitchen an' make dem somethin' ta eat . . . and keep them bad ass kids quiet!

Oh Lord, what a mess.

[WilliamPitt]

4. Up

[Auntie Bush]

5. Well said Will and soooo true.

Romney has lost ALL power! The Tea Party, Ryan, corporations, Alderson and the Koch's OWN him. He'll do whatever they say...even bend over.

[starroute]

6. But the right is looking for a Reagan, and Romney doesn't fit the bill

Reagan was an actor who could be folksy and charming even as he sank into senility. He was a perfect front for enacting the agenda of his wealthy promoters and the Heritage Foundation.

Bush I didn't fit the bill and was a one-term fiasco. Bush II came closer -- he couldn't con the whole country the way Reagan did at his peak moments, but he could fool enough of the people enough of the time.

But Romney is neither folksy nor charming nor any damn good at hiding what he really believes or the contempt he has for ordinary people.

So even before this Ryan misstep, they had the formula all wrong -- like a guy I saw on one of the TV cooking shows last night who had never seen plantains before but figured that if they looked like bananas he could use them in a banana split.

This means that Ryan gets stuck with being both the folksy, down-home, winning persona and the Dick Cheney-like evil mastermind at the same time. And as we all know from time travel paradox stories, that means that at some point he's bound to meet himself coming and going and explode in a cloud of anti-matter.

[hifiguy]

8. And given Ryan's public statements over the years,

the Obama team may as well be hunting dairy cows with a sniper rifle from a range of fifty yards when it comes to potshotting him. The Zombie-Eyed Granny Starver is, shall we say, a target-rich environment.

[WilliamPitt]

7. Up

Last edited Tue Aug 14, 2012, 02:37 AM - Edit history (1)

[WilliamPitt]

9. .