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Mitt Romney as a Rescue Dog.

Even though Romney's prospects look dismal by virtue of today's polling matchups with the President, I would not count him out. And anyone who thinks this election will be won by more than a few points in the national popular vote is dreaming. Romney may look like a lost dog but he will be rescued by Karl Rove, Frank Luntz and the Super Pac money crowd, as well as the unlimited wealth of the Koch Brothers funneled into the election on his behalf.

As was predicted on this site previously, the onslaught of negative advertising from both camps will reduce this election to a choice between which candidate one dislikes the least. Having said that, Romney's numbers (if you exclude what seems to be an outlier in Rasmussen's national polling) have deteriorated rather quickly. Whereas for the last three years Obama has been on the defensive, it is now Romney who must make a comeback---particularly with women and Independents.  [Read more]

Eggs Americana

 

Whether it's the River Run, Crossroads, or Fay's,

the Polka Dot, Loons on a Limb, or Four Aces,

a new breakfast joint is hard to breach; you're as

welcome as an order of English muffins and tea. 

 

Shaded eyes from back booths slide off you

quicker than two poached eggs off a saucer;

ersatz butcher-block tables sprout crops of [Read more]

Mitt Romney is looking Christ-like.

After listening to the Jesus-trumpeting of Rick Santorum for the last week and then having bile rise up in the back of my throat at the obscene remarks of Franklin Graham on MSNBC this morning, Romney, by comparison, is looking like a saint or even Jesus Christ Himself.

At what point will fair minded Americans, Republicans and Democrats alike, reach the point of saturation with the calumny, hypocrisy and self-righteousness of people like Santorum and Franklin Graham, and say to themselves---this is not right, this is not America, and this is not who I am. [Read more]

The accidental book scout.

Dedicated to our heritage of books. [Read more]

Foster Friess & viagry for the larynx.

This past week has seen such an outburst of psychologically disturbing sexual and gender references by old white men---and for that matter, old white women---well connected to the socially conservative Republican Party that I have been puzzled as to what chemicals might have been put into their water supply---but I doubt that it is estrogen, because estrogen would presumably make men effeminate and cause prostate cancer whereas the outburst has seemed more like an overdose of testosterone. [Read more]

Happy Valentines Day, Emily Dickinson

 

   Oh, Emilie!

 

This poem---opon

a rose stem...fixed

may pose within--

or blossom yet...

 

From your eyes

may doubt leap---

never so close...

my conversion lies.

 

To our trysting place--

oh, Heavenly One... [Read more]

Romney, you need a speech coach.

While I'm not going to vote for you I certainly don't want Santorum to get the nomination because in an American Idol electorate like we have, a fluke could happen and Santorum would be a much worse option than you. So I'm offering you a few pointers on your speech, your body language, the telling of homilies---and suggesting you spend at least one weekend at Outward Bound.

The first thing you need to do is slow down your presentation. You look flighty, and fidgety, like you need to go to the bathroom. Stop all that. Stop looking like you know everyone in the audience---you don't, and you can't. It looks disingenuous. The best presenters pick one person in the audience and stay with him or her. A good speaker will have an image or person in mind. I would suggest Todd Palin, he is today's Mr. Republican, not you. He's the voter you need to hang onto. [Read more]

70th September birthday in Vermont

 

From slanted windows framed high

in the barn's gable end, I mind a day

the garden patch was strafed, the late

melon patch was ruined, and hickory

switches chastened the granite ledge.

 

Arctic slices have invaded the Yankee

breakfast of warm apple pie, sending

shivers through the pumpkin allies; the [Read more]

Republicans revert to the withdrawal method.

Republicans seem only half there. In the three states where Santorum finally pierced the winner's circle, the overall effect was marred by low levels of participation. Rather than engage in a caucus with such a lackluster slate of candidates, Republican voters preferred to stay home and simply withdraw from the process. Republicans are making a classic mistake in military tactics which may result in further low turnout and other problems.  They are fighting the last war. The public has moved beyond many of the culture wars which Republicans have been able to exploit to their advantage for the last several decades.

Anti-gay rhetoric is back firing. "Personhood" amendments have failed in several states, including the most conservative one, Mississippi. And Santorum's penchant for out-of-touch sexual mores is as removed from the common place as a Medieval Knight fitting out his wife with a chastity belt before galloping off to the Crusades.  [Read more]

The year of no Mormon president

A New Hampshire poll gives Obama a 51% approval rating and a 10 point lead over Romney in the general election. The last poll gave Romney a 3 point lead, so to be fair I call Obama's lead at about 6 points. The state's 4 electoral votes could be pivotal in the 2012 election. For example if Obama won several of the upper Midwest states plus NM, CO, and NV he could lose OH, VA, NC, SC, & Florida and be at 268 electoral votes, with a NH win putting him over the magic number of 270 electoral votes. 

Obviously, the reverse would hand the election to Romney. Wouldn't it be a uniquely American story if two hundred years after a man left hard-scrabble Vermont, discovered a religion in New York, the religion so flourished out in the new West that the spirit of the man, Joseph Smith, would now return to New England to claim the U.S. Presidency? Perhaps we should detach ourselves from the raucous political process and look at both stories, Obama's and Romney's. Is there someone claiming that freedom in America has declined? [Read more]

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