60 Shades of Gray: Why Obama Won and Romney Lost

It's all over for a moment. The 24 hour news cycle can take a breath for one second before continuing its relentless, hypnotic spiral. Like many news babies, I wish I could get weaned. We'll see. But for now, what happened and why? It's not black and white.

The people have spoken, but only after waiting in long lines. Question number one is this: Why were so many willing to stand in long lines?

        

The Republican Party misread this badly. In fact, they constantly added fuel to the fire. The most obvious misstep was Governor Romney's 47% comment, followed by his defense of it, then the obligatory walk back. However, that’s only one of a series of indignities the poorer Democratic constituency revolted against. As Bill Clinton and Nate Silver kept reminding us, math matters. You can’t just make things up. Offended, we were willing to bite our tongues and stand in line.

Extremism about women reached the tipping point. Discussions about rape are, to put it mildly, distasteful. Forcible rape, legitimate rape, redefining rape – these topics do not play well, excuse me, with reasonable, 21^st century people.  If someone rapes my sister, she should be free to decide what to do – not some older man who thinks he knows what God has in mind for my victimized sister.

Then there are the comments. The GOP claims to have common sense on their side, yet they rarely respond to the last half dozen years during which they heard these statements broadcast daily: He is a Muslim, a terrorist, a Socialist, a Communist. He was palling around with terrorists and gave a terrorist fist bump. How’s that hopey-changey stuff working out for you? Where is his birth certificate? Where are his college transcripts? He used Affirmative Action to get in school. He is the Food Stamp President. He wants to give people on welfare a check. ACORN, Benghazi, Solyndra. Each time we heard these, up jumped the dander. We Obama voters want to give a big shout out to all of those who said these things. Thanks for the impetus. The yard signs also inspired us, especially the Fire Obama signs from FreedomWorks.

Last on the list of voting motivators were the pundits. FOX News pundits – not the competent news division, of course, greatly inspired the Democrat masses. Its ever-present fabrications did not go unnoticed or unrewarded.  Karl Rove – embarrassing laughingstock. Donald Trump – washed-up buffoon. Dick Morris – silly joker. Ann Coulter – gruesome witch. Michelle Malkin -- reliably bitter.  Sean Hannity – snake oil salesman. All of them, liars to their core.

Our campaign, the Romney folks told us, will not be dictated by fact checkers. This was one of the only truths they told. 

Sybil in the White House

Mitt Romney is like Sybil, the character with multiple personality disorder. To borrow from the deeply Christian Rick Santorum wing, either he is Sybil or he is a liar.

Conservative Evangelicals have been fond of joking, "It's Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve," and their champion, the next Imposter in Chief, could be the embodiment of the Capital Hill version of The 3 Faces of Steve. On the other hand, perhaps this is insufficient critique of Mitt Romney's latest makeover.

During the third debate, he was the man with the foolish grin, a grin so artificial he looked like he was constipated and overdosed on Visine. With this in mind, electing Governor Romney will be a tribute to the old Beatle's tune The Fool on the Hill, the eyes in his head see the world spinning round while I presume he is eating fresh grapefruit with a bib on, servants trimming his hair, Ann all in awe, 5 sons, in letter sweaters ready to toss the ol' football around.

In another moment, the Governor is the coonskin cap wearing King of the Wild Frontier, but closer to Davy Bullsh*t than Davy Crockett (and less noble than Sonny Crockett.)

Insome exchanges, he appeared as a sweaty form of Richie Rich, say Richie Shvitz, or a skinny version of Newt GingRICH.

Another incarnation is the Three Headed Hydra -- one part Richard Nixon, one part Spiro Agnew, one part Lance Armstrong.

Parents out there could imagine Mr. Romney as an even cheesier Henry the Octopus from the Wiggles.

Herbie Hancock could have played Chameleon in the background.

It seems like one should never underestimate how easily hoodwinked the American people are. Money may not be able to buy you love (sorry Kardashian generation), but it will buy one an election. If you value honesty and sincerity, you are just out of luck.

Your next President may be the greatest shapeshifter of all time.

Debate Round Two: Obama TKO

When the bell rang last night, I quickly got sick in my stomach as I thought Mitt Romney came out swinging while Barack Obama was back-peddling. I had to go get a drink of water to settle down. Perhaps this was all the President had to do as well, because soon he was jabbing away at Governor Romney, who was trying to bob and weave but had no legs to stand on. Governor Romney doesn’t have a five-point plan; he has a one-point plan. It is a sketchy deal. Big Bird doesn't like it. The 47% have worked all their lives. Libya was an act of terror.While the challenger got a couple of good shots in, the memorable punches were all thrown by Obama. Want proof? His handlers were all defensive after the fight.

This is always how they do it and the biggest difference in the landscape. When Governor Romney to it to President Obama, we called it like it was. President Obama took a terrible beating. The blood was all over the internet. Everyone owned it. No such reaction on the right.

The right wing never owns up any more. They call it like they want it, which is how they imagine it, and perhaps honestly how they see it. This is the problem exactly: they do not see straight.

This blurry vision is irritating. You cannot pound sense into them. The denial is just like the bloody boxer at the end of the fight oblivious to the beating -- more pride than sense. Look at the litany of issues they have rallied around.

It started with Bill Clinton's misadventures. While we supporters were less than thrilled with Brother Clinton's  escapades, they were both hyper-moral and bloodthirsty. But soon, as always, they had their thrice divorced, prostitute visiting, Jack Abramoff hustling, wide stance, gay Evangelical preacher thing going on, scolding Democrats on social issues.

The Republicans always somehow slide to the right by the Westboro Baptist Church these days. If President Obama went hanging on a tree, they would deny any suggestion that racism exists. Their lunacy knows few restraints. Actually, given Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Hugh Hewitt, Dick Morris, Mark Steyn, and Rush Limbaugh, maybe restraints are the answer. These folks need strait jackets. Is it really madness, or is it simply greed? I can never be sure. But with these folks, it's old-fashioned lock 'em in the back of Joe Biden's pickup crazy.

Obama won the second debate. They can never admit this -- never. All the good Republican folks just interested in fiscal sanity are the real victims. Why they don't abandon them, I'll never know.

GOP Think Poor Americans Not Entitled to Food

From the Huffington Post:

It's also a rather extreme stand, and one contravened by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to assert that people are not entitled to, say, "food." According to the United Nations treaty, to which the United States is a signatory, "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control."

According to the Tax Policy Center, in 2011, 46 percent of households paid no federal income taxes. (According to Harry Reid, Mitt Romney has been among them in the past.) About half simply didn't make enough money to pay income tax. The other 38 million households are exempted from paying by a variety of specific tax deductions. Nearly half of that latter group, 44 percent, were the elderly eligible for tax breaks. Another 30.4 percent were exempted by credits for children and the working poor -- breaks long championed by conservatives, most recently President George W. Bush.

Aside from the income tax issue, there are millions of Americans who use federal aid but don't see themselves as "dependent" on government. The active-duty soldiers and veterans who spent $100 million on military bases over the last year are just one example.

The perception that Romney's remarks showed a man out of touch with reality was worsened by the location of the closed-door fundraiser shown in the video: the private home of private equity manager Marc Leder. According to the New York Post, Leder once hosted a party at the Hamptons where "guests cavorted nude in the pool and performed sex acts, scantily dressed Russians danced on platforms and men twirled lit torches to a booming techno beat." A person with knowledge of Leder's parties confirmed the gist of them to The Huffington Post.

"Romney’s comment is a country-club fantasy," opined conservative columnist David Brooks of The New York Times. "It’s what self-satisfied millionaires say to each other. It reinforces every negative view people have about Romney."

New York Magazine's Jonathan Chait dubbed Romney a "sneering plutocrat" whose comments "disqualify his claim to the presidency." For TPM's Josh Marshall, it was a "fine distillation of the most rancid version of the libertarian conservative worldview." It was "absolutely devastating," Politico's Ben White concluded.

The mainstream media's most respected arbiters piled on. It was his "darkest hour as a candidate," said the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza.

Class Warfare and I'm Offended

Mostly, I've worked all my life. At 14, I worked in the summer, and I haven't stopped since. I'm not killing myself, but I am a typical American. I work at least 40 hours a week. When it comes to work, I have done the right thing my entire life.

I vote Democratic. I pay taxes. I pay income taxes. I am not jealous of those who pay no income taxes and live a modest life, but I am terribly offended by the comments made by Mitt Romney suggesting that I am a freeloader. Any look into the numbers shows that the elderly are least likely to pay any income taxes. Overwhelmingly, they vote Republican.

Mr. Romney would make far more than me if he sat in his pajamas for the next 5 years and smoked a pipe on his balcony. In this case, he would pay no payroll taxes. I would not think of him as a freeloader. I would also not think of him as a "maker."

If Mitt Romney had ever been a regular guy, he would understand this. Though he thinks I am lazy, I am not angry at him. Though he suggests I am a moocher, I am not upset. Though he says I feel entitled, I know he does not know any better. He is truly out of touch.

No one knows what goes on beneath the surface of our thinking. Today's GOP seems to agree with Mr. Romney's point of view. Whether this view is malicious or not, I cannot say. Clearly, however, they do not know what they are talking about. Considering the fact that 9 of the 10 states with the fewest income tax payers are Red States proves that this view does not hurt them.

On the other hand, the press that the GOP calls biased -- the liberal press -- they get it. They are educated. FOX does not count of course; their real journalists are embedded among the Republican proxies who double dip for network and campaign. FOX doesn't count.

Mr. Romney has made another error. He should give thanks that his opponent is so blindly despised by so many. It's Mitt's only chance. In a world with so little actual justice, Mr. Romney may even come back and win.

I can't say I know what's inside the hearts of the GOP, but I now know clearly what they mean when they talk about class warfare.