US Presidential Election 2012

[Count Bobulescu]

COUNTDOWN: 75 days.
Poll of Polls

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epo...bama-1171.html

Now that we are inside the last 75 days it’s time to start paying attention to the Electoral College Map.

The US Presidential election is NOT a national election. It is an amalgamation of 50 individual state elections. Individual states have different rules and deadlines for things like ballot access and selection of “candidates for inclusion” not “members” in the Electoral College. Only fifty percent of the candidates become members of the Electoral College, and only after the popular vote has been cast. The final make up of the Electoral College is not known until the outcome of the popular vote in all states has been decided. Who becomes a member is directly related to which Presidential candidate wins the popular vote in each individual state.

The Electoral College(EC) goal of each Presidential candidate is to surpass 270 EC votes, the minimum number needed to be formally elected president.

Under the U.S. Constitution, each state legislature is allowed to designate a way of choosing electors.[2] Thus, the popular vote on Election Day is conducted by the various states and not directly by the federal government. Once chosen, the electors can vote for anyone, but – with rare exceptions like an unpledged elector or faithless elector – they vote for their designated candidates and their votes are certified by Congress in early January. The Congress is the final judge of the electors; the last serious dispute was in the 2000 election.

The nomination process, including the primary elections and the nominating conventions, were never specified in the Constitution, and were instead developed by the states and the political parties. This too is also an indirect election process, where voters cast ballots for a slate of delegates to a political party's nominating convention, who then in turn elect their party's presidential nominee.

Electoral College Map

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epo...llege_map.html

AKIN QUESTIONS WERE OFF LIMITS IN DENVER CBS INTERVIEW: "It's the sort of statement that leaves journalists slack-jawed: 'The one stipulation to the interview was that I not ask him about abortion or Todd Akin,'" the Times' Brian Stetler notes. "That's what Romney's campaign demanded, said Shaun Boyd, a reporter for the CBS-owned television station in Denver, when she interviewed the Republican presidential candidate on Thursday. Ms. Boyd was one of four Denver reporters to be granted five minutes with the candidate via satellite, and the only reporter to tell viewers about any preset restrictions. In response to Ms. Boyd's claim, the Romney campaign suggested that it does not demand that reporters swerve around certain topics during interviews." NYT: http://nyti.ms/PgoD44. Here's a Trip Gabriel on the Ryan press corps' hunger for more access: http://nyti.ms/Pgqlm3.

TWO REPUBLICAN PROS OFFER ADVICE ON ROMNEY'S RNC SPEECH -

PEGGY NOONAN (in Saturday's Wall Street Journal): "How will voters judge Mr. Romney's speech? The answer comes in some questions: Is it fresh? Is it true? Does it substantiate-add substance to-what we think we know of Mitt Romney? Does it deepen and broaden our understanding of him? Does it make us, as we listen, begin to see him as a possible president? Presidents are in our face 24 hours a day now. Is this someone we'd let in our living rooms for four years? Can he inspire? ... Emphasis is everything. Emphasize dynamism. Mr. Romney shouldn't just repeat what he thinks but tell people why he thinks it, what life has taught him that formed his views. He shouldn't shy away from religion." She also wants him to be funny. http://on.wsj.com/QxAYQg

MIKE MURPHY (in next week's edition of Time): "Romney needs to break out of the cage of doubt that the Obama campaign's negative-ad makers have created around him...if he is smart, Romney will avoid the often powerful temptation inside the convention hall to chase the cheap applause that comes from endlessly bashing the opponent. If Romney finds himself standing at the podium merely giving a hastily repainted version of his primary stump speech, he will lose the night." http://ti.me/PLsatI


BATTLEGROUND BRIEFING-THE PATH TO 270:

DEM STATE PARTIES HAVE MONEY ADVANTAGE: "Democratic state parties overall have raised more money than their Republican counterparts, although their cash available as of July 31 was more mixed, with the G.O.P. holding cash advantages in Florida and Wisconsin," Derek Willis notes in the Times. "That is in part because of heavy spending by Democratic state parties in states such as Nevada, Colorado, Ohio and Virginia." http://nyti.ms/O8ANwI

SWING STATE HEADLINES-

AARP VOTER GUIDE ON MEDICARE: The seniors' advocacy group features quotes from the presidential candidates - in their own words - on what they'd do to strengthen Social Security, Medicare and financial security. Here is the guide as it will appear in "AARP The Magazine," which hits mailboxes starting next week: http://bit.ly/T2PlOG.

LAS CRUCES (NM) SUN-NEWS: "Romney, in Hobbs, pledges to make North America energy independent, teamwork with Mexico, Canada." http://bit.ly/NkUMMh

FAYETTEVILLE (NC) OBSERVER: "Ryan says Romney would work to avoid defense cuts." http://bit.ly/NK9Xi1

THE SPOKANE (WA) SPOKESMAN-REVIEW: "Romney to be on Washington ballot, judge rules." http://bit.ly/ObaFQc

RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL: "Harry Reid makes it clear: he will continue to criticize Romney about his tax returns." http://bit.ly/ObcuNg

KRUGMAN: Paul Ryan’s ideas for monetary policy would take us back further. ”Mr. Ryan is a man of many ideas, which would ordinarily be a good thing. In his case, however, most of those ideas appear to come from works of fiction, specifically Ayn Rand's novel ‘Atlas Shrugged.’…[In a] 2005 speech to the Atlas Society…he declared that he always goes back to "Francisco d'Anconia's speech on money" when thinking about monetary policy. Who? Never mind. That speech (which clocks in at a mere 23 paragraphs) is a case of hard-money obsession gone ballistic. Not only does the character in question, a Galt sidekick, call for a return to the gold standard, he denounces the notion of paper money and demands a return to gold coins.” Paul Krugman in The New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/24/op...wpisrc=nl_wonk

BROOKS: Ryan’s biggest mistake was to walk away from Simpson-Bowles. ”If Ryan and the other House Republicans had voted for the Simpson-Bowles proposal, it would have gone to Congress for up-or-down votes, regardless of how President Obama reacted. We would have had national action on debt reduction…Ryan voted no for intellectually coherent reasons. He argued that the single biggest contributing factor to public debt is the unsustainable growth of Medicare. Yet the Simpson-Bowles plan did nothing to restructure Medicare…This is the sort of argument that makes a lot of sense in a think-tank auditorium…[But] Ryan was giving up significant debt progress for a political fantasy…Ryan's fantasy happens to be the No. 1 political fantasy in America today, which has inebriated both parties. It is the fantasy that the other party will not exist. It is the fantasy that you are about to win a 1932-style victory that will render your opponents powerless.” David Brooks in The New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/24/op...wpisrc=nl_wonk

Just about any analysis of the 2012 presidential election should start with words to the effect that this is a very close race, that close races can go either way, and that many different factors—convention speeches, debates, verbal miscues, overseas conflicts—can change the trajectory of such a race. A decision by Israel to attack Iran, for example, would certainly scramble things.
Still, this race shouldn’t be as tight as it is. Whether one looks at polling measurements of whether voters think the country is headed in the right direction, at consumer confidence, or at key economic measurements such as growth in gross domestic product, deviations in the unemployment rate, or the change in real personal disposable income, it is puzzling, to say the least, wh
Jy polls show President Obama and Mitt Romney running neck and neck. Incumbents generally don’t get reelected with numbers like we are seeing today.

http://www.nationaljournal.com//colu...close-20120823


THE BIG PICTURE, from Elizabeth Wilner in Kantar Media's "CMAG's Weekly File": "Chicago sees this contest as a seven-month run and Boston sees it as a three-month sprint. Chicago is betting that undercutting Romney before the airwaves become totally saturated after Labor Day is the best strategy; Boston is betting on saturation this fall to persuade voters that one Obama term is enough. Whoever is right, wins. ... From a messaging standpoint, Chicago is banking on its summertime swamping of Romney with ads about Bain Capital, outsourcing, tax returns, abortion and education, culminating in its pre-convention rollout of Bill Clinton's 30-second case for a second Obama term. This wasn't just a hunch for them-it was a calculation made out of necessity given the GOP's overall ad spending advantage, which started snowballing in mid-July and is expected to get even bigger as we enter the fall.

"NO RON PAUL REVOLUTION at convention, " by James Hohmann in Tampa: 'Using a mix of charm and procedural hardball, Mitt Romney's campaign and his allies who control the [RNC] have ensured that the Texas congressman will neither speak nor be formally nominated ... Romney ... could have been faced with a raucous rebellion from the Paul crowd if he hadn't extended an early ... olive branch to what's become a key constituency. The libertarian septuagenarian controls the state delegations from Nevada, Iowa and Minnesota. But a candidate needs five states to be officially recognized on the floor. Paul supporters have made claims to Louisiana, Massachusetts, Oregon, Oklahoma and Maine.'

"But Romney's coterie of lawyers skillfully used the rules and interpersonal negotiations to peel each away. The 168-member Republican National Committee approved a report Thursday by the Romney-friendly 'committee on contests' that invalidated Paul delegates elected in Maine based on irregularities at the state convention. The RNC voted to split the at-large delegation in half, effectively depriving Paul of control. Paul's high command and key supporters were disappointed by their defeats but surprisingly conciliatory. Most are adamant that there will be no trouble during the televised proceedings that begin Monday. ... To dissuade Paul supporters from disrupting this week's pomp and circumstance, the Romney campaign and its surrogates have bent over backward to show respect to the Paul forces.

'There have been months of previously unreported , behind-the-scenes phone calls and meetings between Romney and Paul acolytes to try to build bridges and reach compromise agreements. The establishment made significant concessions on the platform to the Paul folks even before the group convened, and then they allowed up-or-down votes on proposals from Paul supporters during pre-convention meetings at the Marriott hotel here. ... Rand Paul nabbed a prime-time convention speaking slot on Monday night. But after Romney sewed up the nomination in April, a string of chaotic state conventions in places like Maine stoked fears that Ron Paul could wreak havoc on their planned coronation. ... The Republican National Committee hired Paul campaign press secretary Gary Howard in June as 'special projects director.' He's worked the halls this week helping his new bosses. ...

''Tampa is Paul's swan song in many ways. The 77-year-old, who retires from Congress at the end of this year, will speak Sunday at a rally being organized by his campaign at the University of South Florida Sun Dome. A big part of it will be to celebrate how much they've accomplished this cycle, even if they lost the nomination fight. Then the Texan will stick around to watch his son address the convention Monday night. ... NBC reported that there could be a video tribute to the elder Paul on Tuesday night.' http://politi.co/NpBNuh


LIGHTER CLICKS -

SHELDON ADELSON accompanied the House GOP delegation for part of its Israel trip, but he was not with the group when Kevin Yoder went skinny dipping in the Sea of Galilee. Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan look at some of the ethical issues raised when AIPAC's nonprofit arm picked up the bar tab that night: http://politi.co/O8pRiE.

THE MAD MEN, how Romney's ad-makers apparently describe themselves, get profiled by Phil Rucker in the Washington Post: http://wapo.st/RihUu1.

JANNA LITTLE, the former Democratic lobbyist who became Paul Ryan's wife, took a road trip to DC as a student at Wellesley to march for women's rights. The Times' Susan Saulny and Christine Haughney look at their marriage: http://nyti.ms/NpO2qu.

ANDERSON COOPER called out DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz last night for saying in a fundraising appeal that Romney directed the RNC platform committee to include no exemptions on abortion. Watch the contentious 7-minute interview: http://bit.ly/NkY56n.

JENNIFER GARNER plays a character inspired by Michele Bachmann in a new movie called "Butter." Trailer: http://politi.co/T2RMRm.

CALLISTA GINGRICH has been posting a flurry of Instagram photos from her ongoing trip to Greece on Twitter: http://bit.ly/TYUObP.

OBAMA loves to fist-bump. A slideshow with nearly two dozen photos: http://politi.co/NkWiOB.

CODA - QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Nothing cures broken relationships like victory." - Todd Akin's media consultant, Rex Elsass, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal http://on.wsj.com/P7aQBq

[Count Bobulescu]

The first rule of birtherism is you don’t talk about birtherism — unless you want to be labeled a birther.
Mitt Romney is the latest Republican to find this out the hard way. Romney’s decision to crack a joke about his and his wife’s birth certificates at an event in Michigan on Friday is the latest example of a Republican getting tripped up by even getting close to the continued questioning by some on the right of President Obama’s birth certificate.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...pisrc=nl_pmfix

Ron Paul Campaign Last of its kind.

Republican officials have voted to change the way the party will nominate its presidential candidates in future elections in an effort to ensure that delegates to the national convention are bound by the outcome of states’ primaries and caucuses.
It’s more than a technicality. The change — which was passed by the Republican National Convention Committee but still needs to be approved at the convention — would make it nearly impossible in the future for rebellious Republican presidential candidates like Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) to rack up substantial delegate support in states when they do not win the states’ nominating contests.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...pisrc=nl_pmfix

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and the outside groups that support him have spent more than twice as much as President Obama and his Democratic allies in three of the past four weeks, according to sources watching the television advertising market.
This week alone, Romney and outside Republican groups are spending $24 million on broadcast and cable television advertising. Obama's campaign is spending $10.6 million, and a super PAC supporting his campaign is tossing another $1 million onto the airwaves.
Obama's campaign has outspent Romney's campaign on television ads by a three-to-one margin, dropping $236 million compared with $74 million for Romney so far. But outside groups have closed the gap. Between them, American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS have spent a combined $105 million, while a Romney-backing super PAC has chipped in another $40 million.
All told, Republicans and Romney's campaign have spent $296 million on television advertising. Democrats and Obama's campaign have spent $273 million so far this year. The $569 million spent so far eclipses the $515 million Obama and Sen. John McCain spent on TV ads during the whole of the 2008 campaign.

http://www.nationaljournal.com//2012...owing-20120824

THE BIG PICTURE - George F. Will's Sunday column, "Romney's 'Big 10' strategy": "Conventions are the seventh-inning stretch of presidential politics ... Republicans gathering in Tampa face an unusual election in which they do not have a substantial advantage concerning the most presidential subject, foreign policy. ... The eclipse of foreign policy underscores the rationality of Romney's selection of Paul Ryan. ... One peculiarity of this political season's first seven innings was the selection of a fundamentally non-ideological presidential candidate by a Republican Party that, under the beneficent influence of the tea party, has never been more ideological or more ideologically homogenous. The Ryan selection ameliorates this incongruity.

"The incongruity, however, explains why Romney may be able to win with a Big Ten strategy. Until last year, when Nebraska joined this athletic conference, it extended from State College, Pa., to Iowa City, Iowa. Romney enters the final innings competitive in those two states, as well as in Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin, which means he is poised to correct a Republican problem: The party has been too dependent on the South, understood as the 11 states of the Confederacy, plus Oklahoma and Kentucky." http://wapo.st/NMFLmo

COUNTER-CONVENTION -- Obama campaign to bracket Tampa by branding it Romney's "convention re-invention": "The response includes the President fighting for students in Iowa, Colorado and Virginia, the Vice President fighting for the middle class in Florida, the First Lady on a back-to-school tour including Letterman, and surrogates touring key states to show Americans why the Romney/Ryan ticket is wrong for the middle class and ... wrong for women. While Romney spends the week trying to recast his out-of-touch image and putting out fires started by the most strident voices in his party, ... we'll be cutting through the political chatter and speaking directly to the American people - including young people, Hispanic Americans, women and middle class families."

--"BC-US--Obama-Interview,ADVISORY ... EDITORS: The Associated Press will publish an exclusive interview Saturday with President Barack Obama, focusing on the presidential campaign and Republican challenger Mitt Romney. The story should move around noon EDT and will be accompanied by photos, video and broadcast. The AP."

Highlights of AP interview here.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politi...d67_story.html

DRIVING THE DAY - "Romney turns to Ohio amidst distractions," by AP's Ken Thomas in Columbus : "Romney and ... Ryan look to shrug off the latest in a series of unwanted distractions when they face Ohio voters as the Republican presidential ticket for the first time. The two men are appearing at a Columbus-area rally Saturday morning, less than 24 hours after Romney raised the discredited rumor that President Obama wasn't born in the United States. The comment, and his efforts to explain it, overshadowed Romney's economic message as he campaigned near his Michigan birthplace on Friday. The Ohio rally is expected to be Romney's final public appearance of the weekend ahead of the Republican National Convention in Tampa." Romney/Ryan appear in Powell, Ohio, at 9:10 a.m.

SOUNDBITE DU JOUR - Romney in Commerce, Mich., just outside Detroit: "I love being home, in this place where Ann and I were raised -- where both of us were born. Ann was born at Henry Ford Hospital. I was born at Harper Hospital. No one's ever asked to see my birth certificate -- they know [laughter] that this is the place [swelling laughter and applause] that we were born and raised." Video http://politi.co/QBPxm1

Here's a reminder of the fast pace of the campaign.

ARTICLE OF THE DAY - "Blink: The 21-minute news cycle," by Dylan Byers, with Kevin Robillard : "Friday, at 12:23 p.m. ... Romney made a crack about [his] birth certificate ... The Washington Post's Phil Rucker tweeted the remark at 12:23 ... [T]weets with the phrase 'birth certificate' went ... to 138-per-minute in ... four minutes ... At 12:27, POLITICO posted Romney's remark online. In the same minute, the Washington Post asked, 'Did Mitt Romney make a birther joke?' At 12:28, BuzzFeed posted video of Romney's remarks to YouTube. At 12:41 p.m., the Romney campaign issued a response. ... Three minutes later -- 21 minutes after Romney's comments -- the Obama campaign provided its own interpretation of events, accusing Romney of being a 'birther.'" http://politi.co/Oc0P2h

ROMNEY DEFENDS - Scott Pelley, anchor and managing editor of the "CBS Evening News," interviewed Romney afterward in Birmingham, Mich., another Detroit suburb.
PELLEY: "Why did you say that?"
ROMNEY: "We're in Michigan - Ann and I both born in Detroit. And, of course, a little humor always goes a long way. So, it was great to be home - to be in a place where Ann and I had grown up, and the crowd loved it and got a good laugh."
PELLEY: "But this was a swipe at the president, and I wonder why you took it."
ROMNEY: "No, no - not a swipe. I've said throughout the campaign, and before: There's no question about where he was born. He was born in the U.S. This was fun about us, and coming home. And humor - you know, we gotta have a little humor in a campaign, as well."
PELLEY: "You threw a little red meat at the conservative wing of the party, there."
ROMNEY: "No, this was all about being home in Michigan, the place we were born and raised."
PELLEY: "But once and for all, for the record, you believe that Barack Obama is the legitimate president of the United States."
ROMNEY, with strained smile: "I've said that probably 30 times by now ... 31 certainly won't hurt."


A quick detour into what is still the most interesting Senate race of this cycle. The Massachusetts fight for Ted Kennedy’s old seat.

For months, Elizabeth Warren’s coterie of advisers, strategists, and close supporters have insisted that her campaign’s argument would not pivot around shackling Sen. Scott Brown to the national Republicans, that her strategy was not to nationalize the race, and that her closing pitch would not explain to voters that a vote for Brown was essentially a vote for Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
One adviser told National Journal in late March that there “wasn’t a lot of dissension” around settling on hitting Brown’s voting record and highlighting her biography: “If the race came down to our narrative versus his narrative, we’d feel pretty good about that.”

“I don’t think it’s about nationalizing,” Democratic Senate Campaign Committee spokesman Matt Canter said the same month. “It’s more about a strong contrast between these two, more about what he did: coming to Washington and letting us down, fighting for the banks.”

Warren herself told National Journal last month, “I think the question is whose side do you stand on? I approach the question by looking at his votes and where he takes money.”

And then Todd Akin walked in.

.................He’s a likable guy, so you’ve got to take him down by tying him to someone who’s not only unsavory but completely unacceptable in national politics.”

http://www.nationaljournal.com//memb...brown-20120824

The New York Times: Former GOP hero plays down label
By Katharine Q. Seelye

Senator Scott P. Brown of Massachusetts, who is locked in a dead heat in the nation’s most expensive Senate race, is distancing himself from the Republican ticket.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/22/us...1&ref=politics

[Count Bobulescu]

SNEAK PEEK - Jeb Bush to David Gregory, on NBC's "Meet the Press": "[O]ur demographics are changing, and we have to change not necessarily our core beliefs but ... the tone of our message and the message and the intensity of it, for sure. I don't think that's gonna have an impact in this election, though. .... But long-term, conservative principles, if they're to be successful and implemented, there has to be a concerted effort to reach out to much broader audience than we do today."

BEHIND THE CURTAIN -- "Libertarian Legion Stands Ready to Accept Torch From Paul,' by John Harwood, on NYT A13: Ron 'Paul, in an interview, said convention planners had offered him an opportunity to speak under two conditions: that he deliver remarks vetted by the Romney campaign, and that he give a full-fledged endorsement of Mr. Romney. He declined. 'It wouldn't be my speech ... That would undo everything I've done in the last 30 years. I don't fully endorse him for president.'" http://nyti.ms/Nptrc1

OUT THIS A.M.:
--Obama video, "Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan: The Do-Over -- ConventionReinvention.com" (which clicks through to a donation page): "[A]n Etch-a-Sketch of epic proportions will be shaken to its core. ... Mitt Romney stars in, 'The Do-Over.' ... Rated 'N', for 'Not Gonna Work." YouTube http://bit.ly/OijVCc

--Romney ad, "It Ain't Right" - Male narrator: "In 2008, candidate Barack Obama attacked John McCain for proposing cuts to Medicare." Sen. Obama clip: "Senator McCain would pay for part of his plan by making drastic cuts in Medicare -- $882 billion worth." Narrator: "As president, Barack Obama cut $700 billion from Medicare to pay for Obamacare. What would candidate Obama say about President Obama's Medicare cuts?" Sen. Obama clip: "It ain't right." Narrator: "No, Mr. President. It ain't right." YouTube http://bit.ly/QFspCY

THE BIG PICTURE - "Obama, Romney camps see eye to eye on shape of race," by Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen : "The Obama and Romney campaigns spend all day beating the pulp out of each other over policy differences, big and small. But when it comes to the political landscape and the dynamics of who prevails, the two sides agree on an awful lot. Both sides predict the race will remain tied in the national polls ... Both think the race will finish 51-49, or closer. But both believe that if one candidate could win bigger - and reach a tipping point that provides a real cushion - it would be Mitt Romney, pulling away at the very end because he crossed the plausibility threshold after the third and final debate. And both are in basic agreement that the election will come down to a variation of one simple question: Do voters think Romney understands the struggles of ordinary Americans?" http://politi.co/NplROC


MITT'S MOMENT:

--N.Y. Times 1-col. lead, "ROMNEY ADOPTS HARDER MESSAGE FOR LAST STRETCH: NOD TO WHITE WORKERS - A Tropical Storm Threat Forces Party to Delay Convention by a Day," by Jeff Zeleny and Jim Rutenberg, in Tampa: "[I]n a marked change, Mr. Romney has added a harder edge to a message that for most of this year was focused on his business and job-creation credentials, injecting volatile cultural themes into the race. The strategic shift in the campaign message that has been unfolding in recent weeks reflects a conclusion among Mr. Romney's advisers that disappointment with Mr. Obama's economic stewardship is not sufficient to propel Mr. Romney to victory on its own. Republican strategists said that many middle-class voters had proved reluctant to give up entirely on Mr. Obama ... The moves reflect a campaign infused with a sharper edge and overtones of class and race. ... The convention will focus on a dual fire-Obama-hire-Romney message ." http://nyti.ms/TcUBiJ

--L.A. Times A1 splash, "IMAGE GAP: The Romney we see on the campaign trail doesn't seem to be the one revered by friends and colleagues," by Maeve Reston in Boston (online hed: "A Mitt Romney most of America doesn't know: Friends see a warm, charitable man with a sense of duty rooted in his Mormon faith. So why is so much of his past kept under wraps?"): "The dissonance between Romney's expansive private generosity and the way he [comes] across ... reflects a conflict at the heart of his second bid for the presidency. Much of what America knows about Romney ... is one-dimensional and politically troublesome - his wealth, his low tax rate, a tenure at Bain Capital that created jobs but also layoffs. ... 10 weeks before the election[,] Romney remains an enigma to many Americans. ...

"[I]n recent days advisors have signaled an intent to fill in the portrait of Romney. Last Sunday, for the first time, his campaign invited reporters to watch Romney attend church ... While some might see a contradiction between Romney's private acts of generosity and his plans to shrink government programs, ... those close to him say ... [i]t stems from his belief in individual responsibility and self-reliance, and the view that every American has a duty to help others either through their community or through their church. 'He believes government has a certain role as far as helping people, or helping provide an infrastructure in areas where you can help create opportunities,' Romney advisor Kevin Madden said." http://lat.ms/NuwYzF

--Maeve's profile also gets half of Chicago Tribune p. 1, "Defining Romney: His opponents paint him as an out-of-touch Wall Street type. The GOP and his campaign say he's the Mr. Fix-It the economy needs. Family members and friends see another side: A generous person."

--Boston Globe banner, "Like father, like son. Then, a shift to right: Romney followed a rapid evolution as he aimed toward the presidency," by Michael Kranish: "Romney isn't the moderate voice seeking to rein in the extreme forces in the GOP; he has become, as he called himself earlier this year, a 'severely conservative' man looking to win the complete trust of the dominant right of his party, the Goldwater wing of his day. It is as if winning requires purging a key element of his father's political legacy. ... Call it a reasoned and heartfelt evolution, as the candidate does, or flip-flopping and shape-shifting, as his opponents prefer to put it.

"The question is not whether Romney has changed his outlook over the years - he undeniably has - but why. It is an evolution that combines many elements of the Romney saga: the bonds and breaks between father and son; the question about whether he has core convictions; and his politically bloody fight with the party that finally is poised to anoint him as its leader. For much of Romney's political career, the effort to understand him has been seen as epilogue of his father's quest, a redemption story in which the son strives to succeed where his father failed. Everything ... has built to this moment in Tampa, and the nomination and acclamation his father never gained." http://bo.st/OCTQzS

--WashPost splash, "ROMNEY'S REINVENTION: After 2008, he saw that the GOP was hungry for a winner, not an ideologue," by Karen Tumulty: "[T]he name at the top of the ticket is not what defines the GOP identity as it has at times in the past. Some presidential candidates reshape their parties, as Ronald Reagan did in 1980, Bill Clinton in 1992, George W. Bush in 2000. Romney fits more in the category of those who, with more mixed success, have run as true standard-bearers. Think Walter Mondale in 1984, George H.W. Bush in 1988, Bob Dole in 1996. The Republican brand these days is stamped on Capitol Hill. Romney shows no sign of setting himself apart from that agenda ...

"Republicans ... are seeing Romney as a transitional figure rather than a transformational one. A year ago, it seemed that every GOP gathering was paying tribute to the centennial of Reagan's birth. But Romney's nominating convention will throw a spotlight on the next wave of conservative talent - not only his running mate, but also New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie; Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida; Ted Cruz, the tea party Senate candidate from Texas who upset the establishment pick; Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell; Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker; South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley; Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. ...

"'Romney is both the midwife of and the beneficiary of their talent,' [said Ralph] Reed [the longtime GOP operative who heads the Faith and Freedom Coalition, an organization that aims to mobilize evangelical voters.] 'And if he wins, they will spend the next four or eight years working with him, serving in his administration, and not incidentally, jockeying to succeed him.'" http://wapo.st/RcAtvF

Paul Ryan is famously a man with a plan. The Wisconsin Republican has pushed for budgets that radically change tax codes and entitlement programs and boil away much of the federal government.
Although the congressman’s vision is often described in the language of wonkery, replete with numbers, charts and graphs, he is pushing a deeper ideological agenda: Ryan believes that much of what government does is toxic to the American psyche — that government programs designed to help people can actually end up hurting them.

That’s a big idea fighting to be heard in the cacophony of the 2012 campaign. The debate about the proper role of government in American life is the essential question dividing the two political parties — and has been since the New Deal. Ryan has spent years positioning himself to be the chief litigator on Capitol Hill for his side of that debate.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/nation...7ad_story.html

When reporters are writing stories and don’t yet have a necessary piece of information, they sometimes write “TK,” meaning “to come.” I feel that way about Mitt Romney’s foreign policy. Other than his support for Israel and rhetorical shots at Russia and China, it’s a mystery what Romney thinks about major international issues and where he would take the country.
Is Romney a neoconservative who has an idealistic vision of America transforming the world through military power and advocacy of democracy? You get that impression from some of his speeches and position papers, and from the role of such neocons as Dan Senor among his close advisers.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...d05_story.html

[Andrew49]

Ryan on abortion exceptions: Rape is just another ‘method of conception’

Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan says that he personally believes that rape is just another “method of conception” and not an excuse to allow abortions. During an interview with WJHL this week LINK, Ryan was asked his view about Rep. Todd Akin, who recently asserted that women could not get pregnant from “legitimate rape.”

The Raw Story

[Spectabilis]

I had a look at that link but I did not draw quite the same shocking conclusion that rape was seen as a methofd of contraception. He said "the method of conception doesn’t change the definition of life,” Not the same thing as The Raw Story concludes.

[Count Bobulescu]

RNC Update

COMING ATTRACTIONS: When RNC Chairman Reince Priebus gavels in the convention at 2 p.m. tomorrow - a formality that will last less than five minutes, since the program has been postponed - he will also launch a second national-debt clock in the hall. This one will start at zero so that by the end of the convention, the party can show how much the debt has increased during the festivities.

STEVE DUPREY, the New Hampshire GOP committeeman, headed out of town before the Republican National Convention even began. Most delegations continued with their welcome events, despite the delay in the convention's start. But Duprey, who was in town all last week for Rules Committee meetings, used the lull as an excuse to skedaddle to sunny Manchester, leaving his passes to guests who didn't have them.

New Hampshire is being punished, under party rules, for moving up its primary. So Duprey - who normally would be been a delegate, had been demoted to "honored guest."

Duprey said one lesson of the compressed schedule is that in the future, the convention should be shorter, to start with. "You can do the business and the messaging in three days," he said. "Plan the first day as a party day."

THE GIANT, WHITE LETTERS on one wall of the Tampa Bay Times Forum spell "CHANGE" - a shameless appropriation of President Barack Obama's '08 theme. Viewed from one of the camera platforms across the hall, however, a Kentucky delegation sign blocks the hook in the "G," making it appear to spell "CHANCE."

Idea larceny works both ways. Some veteran Republicans were amused to see that Democrats were branding this week as Romney's "convention reinvention." One Republican emails: "Did I read right, that the Democrats are bracketing Tampa by labeling it Romney's 'convention reinvention'? Why does that sound so familiar? Probably because I spent six days in Los Angeles with the RNC in 2000 for Al Gore's 'Reinvention Convention.' ... The lesson is -- there are only so many words that rhyme with 'convention.'"

RYAN RISING: Staking out the Rules Committee and haunting hotel lobbies, Lois Romano chats up a slew of delegates and finds that Paul Ryan is filling the passion gap that had leached excitement from the Romney campaign. "I liked Romney -- but I love the ticket," said Linda Lepak, a lawyer from Oklahoma. Elizabeth Poirier, a Massachusetts state representative, said: "This was a caffeine choice for Mitt - it gave him energy."

GOOGLE tomorrow will open a media lounge - dominated by Google red, yellow, blue and green -- that includes a "cell-cierge" where you can drop off your phone to get charged, coffee from Tampa's Buddy Brew, and perhaps the most useful swag ever - ponchos.

THE MICHIGAN DELEGATION hotel, the Embassy Suites, is within sight of the convention hall, a small lesson in campaign politics. Romney is trying to turn his home state into a swing state, so delegates got red-carpet treatment. Four years ago in St. Paul, Wolverine State delegates were banished to the suburbs and had to take a 25-minute bus ride downtown. The state was being penalized by GOP officials by moving its primary earlier that party rules allowed.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE FOUR YEARS MAKE: Meghan McCain emails POLITICO's Ben White to say that she is in town, but keeping a low profile -- until she co-hosts a Lifetime Television party on Wednesday night.

SPOTTED:

--Five cars doing loops through downtown, each with a stuffed dog on the roofs.

--A rehearsal in the convention hall for a tribute to the late astronaut Neil Armstrong. The backdrop looks like the night sky, studded with photos of Armstrong throughout his life. It was fast work: His death was first reported yesterday afternoon.

--A newspaper drought at the Romney staff's headquarters hotel, the Tampa Marriott Waterside. Yesterday, guests had a wide choice of papers, including the New York Post. This morning, with the security perimeter in place, only The Tampa Bay Times managed to deliver to the hotel.

--Stray copies of Romney's book, "No Apologies: The Case for American Greatness," lying around the lobbies of the hotels housing top GOP donors, after the books were given as gifts.

--Charles Krauthammer, the conservative columnist, on a Southwest flight from Baltimore to Tampa. On the same plane: a group of women Mitt supporters, one of whom introduced herself to someone on the plane as "Romney's gal, down the shore."

--At the JetBlue exit at Tampa airport: a phalanx of drivers dispatched by Bloomberg and Huffington Post -- clearly sparing no expense-- to pick up hordes of arriving staff

FLASHBACK: The "Talk of the Town" column, in the issue of The New Yorker out tomorrow: "After the 1992 Convention, the columnist Molly Ivins wrote that Pat Buchanan's speech 'probably sounded better in the original German.'"

TAMPA — Isaac was out there somewhere, an uninvited blowhard. The sky was dark, spitting and gusting, impatient for some serious storming. On TVs around town, radar showed a ragged mop of moisture swabbing its way north up the Florida peninsula.
Thus began the Republican National Convention — though it’s not entirely clear when it will really start in earnest, or when it will end. Monday’s a washout, and rumors have spread that Tuesday’s events could be in political peril if a major hurricane slams the Gulf Coast to the north. Everyone could be here for a while.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politi...y.html?hpid=z1

The Republican National Convention convenes this week in Tampa with virtually every GOP heavy hitter (and wannabe heavy hitter) scheduled to address the gathering sometime between Tuesday and Thursday night.
And with 15,000 members of the media and the entire Republican establishment in attendance, addressing the convention-goers is a massive opportunity — for those politicians with their eye on the future — to make a splash (or belly-flop).
With those stakes in mind, below are five scheduled speakers who have much at stake in their speeches over the next few days

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politi...y.html?hpid=z2

[Count Bobulescu]

Eight questions for Tampa.

Conventions offer all candidates a potential reset moment for their candidacies. Bill Clinton got a big boost from the 1992 Democratic convention and George H.W. Bush helped turn his campaign around at the 1988 Republican convention. But neither had taken the kind of pounding on the airwaves by his rival that Romney has absorbed this summer at the hands of President Obama’s campaign.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv...wpisrc=nl_wonk


Who are the Republicans? An interactive explainer.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...wpisrc=nl_wonk

Meanwhile, the once-fringe elements of the GOP are holding a de-facto parallel convention in Tampa. ”In a speech that was part motivational, part valedictory and at every opportunity critical of the mainstream Republican Party on the eve of its convention here this week, Representative Ron Paul declared his ‘liberty movement’ alive and well on Sunday before a crowd of nearly 10,000 supporters who were eager to testify to that claim…Mr. Paul, 77, was not scheduled to speak at the Republican convention…At another rally on Sunday at a Tampa church, two other former presidential contenders, Herman Cain and Representative Michele Bachmann, spoke to a boisterous crowd of several hundred Tea Party supporters.” Susan Saulny in The New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/27/us...wpisrc=nl_wonk


MINORITY REPORT: A coalition of Ron Paul supporters and conservatives scurried Monday to force a floor fight that could overturn rules pushed through a convention committee last week by Mitt Romney surrogates. They need 28 signatures of the 112-member convention rules committee, or 25 percent, to issue "a minority report" challenging changes that will make it harder for insurgent candidates to succeed in future presidential elections. If they succeed after a Tuesday afternoon meeting, they could theoretically force a hearing by the full convention. Morton Blackwell, Virginia's Republican national committeeman, was spotted leaving the security perimeter Monday so he could try and persuade the North Carolina delegation, staying in St. Petersburg, to join the cause. He's been at every convention since 1964, and he marveled at how much easier it is to communicate than when was a delegate for Barry Goldwater.


POLL DU JOUR - WashPost 1-col. lead, "Race is even as parties convene: OBAMA, ROMNEY GRASP FOR EDGE - Poll: Economy still the defining issue," by Dan Balz and Jon Cohen: "A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows Romney at 47 percent among registered voters and Obama at 46 percent - barely changed from the deadlocked contest in early July." http://wapo.st/OEnYeb

ROMNEY TAKES THE EDGE: Gallup's tracking poll, which updates daily at 1 p.m., shows Romney leading Barack Obama 47 percent to 46 percent. The one-point margin is well within the margin of error. Remember, though, that since 1952 the candidate ahead in the final poll before the first convention has won 12 of 15 times. A poll released Monday by CNN shows Obama leading Romney by four in Florida, 50 to 46. In North Carolina, which hosts the Democratic convention, Romney edges out Obama 48 to 47. http://bit.ly/PMEsjN


BIG FOOT - N.Y. Times A1, above fold, "A Party of Factions Gathers, Seeking Consensus," by Adam Nagourney in Tampa : "'The Republican Party needs to re-establish its philosophy of the big tent with principles,' said Dan Quayle ... 'The philosophy you hear from time to time, which is unfortunate, is one of exclusion rather than inclusion. You have to be expanding the base, expanding the party, because compared to the Democratic Party, the Republican Party is a minority party.' ... It is common for parties out of power to suffer an extended identity crisis. The Democrats struggled for 12 years until Bill Clinton emerged to unite left and center in an uneasy alliance to capture the White House.
"It has been happening to Republicans for at least four years ... There are evangelicals, Tea Party adherents, supply-siders who would accept no tax increases and a dwindling band of deficit hawks who might. There are economic libertarians who share little of the passion that social conservatives hold on issues like abortion and same-sex marriage. There are neoconservatives who want a hard line against Iran and the Palestinians, and realists who are open to diplomatic deal-cutting. More than anything, the party is racked by the challenge to the establishment from Tea Party outsiders, who are demanding a purge of incumbents." http://nyti.ms/PUr3Ic


IN A PARALLEL UNIVERSE - former presidential candidate HERMAN CAIN, on CBS: 'If everyone had competed fairly and honestly, I'd probably be the nominee being nominated this week."

WORST METAPHOR OF THE DAY -- Rep. DARRELL ISSA (R-Calif.), speaking to the California delegation's breakfast: "I think what you have to remember is Republicans are going to take Washington by storm on January 20th of next year, so if this is the first storm of Republicans taking control of our country again, making America competitive again, I'm fine with that. I don't care if we get blown in by a hurricane or a tornado, ultimately there's going to be an earthquake in Washington next January."

LIGHTER CLICK-Engage, a Republican media firm in DC, developed a Facebook application on the Trendsetter social data platform that gives people a "Political Insider Score" from 1 to 100 based on your Facebook activity. Find yours: http://bit.ly/SJhtdS.

DESSERT: JIMMY FALLON impersonated Mitt Romney on his show Friday night, creating a fake four-minute video blog, or "vlog." Funny 4-minute video: http://bit.ly/PiPj8N

[Andrew49]

I had a look at that link but I did not draw quite the same shocking conclusion that rape was seen as a method of contraception. He said "the method of conception doesn’t change the definition of life,” Not the same thing as The Raw Story concludes.

The whole gist of Ryan's response is that women impregnated through sexual violence should be forced to carry their pregnancies to full term. In effect he's advocating the rights of rapists to become fathers through sexual violence on women.

[Spectabilis]

I agree with you there Andrew. Ryan is and has been a strongly anti-choice politician.

[Count Bobulescu]

Race in the race:

The Romney campaign has concluded they need to take the fight to Obama on “cultural themes.” “Mitt Romney is heading into his nominating convention with his advisers convinced he needs a more combative footing against President Obama in order to appeal to white, working-class voters and to persuade them that he is the best answer to their economic frustrations. Having survived a summer of attacks but still trailing the president narrowly in most national polls, Mr. Romney's campaign remains focused intently on the economy as the issue that can defeat Mr. Obama. But in a marked change, Mr. Romney has added a harder edge to a message that for most of this year was focused on his business and job-creation credentials, injecting volatile cultural themes into the race.” Jeff Zeleny and Jim Rutenberg in The New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/us...wpisrc=nl_wonk


‘Subtle’ is not the right word to describe the Romney campaign. ”Mitt Romney's campaign events are an homage to patriotism and Americana, draped with flags large enough to be hung 70 feet high from a crane and drenched in Rodney Atkins country music so loud that the speakers throb…They are a place for voters, mostly white and older, to channel their economic apprehensions about big government into homemade bumper stickers denouncing ‘O-bum-a’ and T-shirts declaring ‘I am pro-America, anti-Obama.’ What they are not: subtle.” Ashley Parker and Michael Barbaro in The New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/27/us...wpisrc=nl_wonk

If you break the vote down by race, Obama’s winning ratio is 80/40. Romney’s is 61/74. ”For President Obama, the winning formula can be reduced to 80/40. In 2008, Obama won a combined 80 percent of the votes of all minority voters, including not only African-Americans but also Hispanics, Asians, and others. If Obama matches that performance this year, he can squeak out a national majority with support from about 40 percent of whites--so long as minorities at least match the 26 percent of the vote they cast last time. Obama's strategic equation defines Mitt Romney's formula: 61/74. Romney's camp is focused intently on capturing at least 61 percent of white voters. That would provide him a slim national majority--so long as whites constitute at least 74 percent of the vote, as they did last time, and Obama doesn't improve on his 80 percent showing with minorities.” Ron Brownstein in the National Journal.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/thene...wpisrc=nl_wonk

The public has become increasingly racially polarized in the age of Obama. “In Obama's first 100 days, even as news polls showed him broadly popular (and before Republicans had turned en masse against him), surveys that also measured racial resentment unmasked a deep, nonpartisan divide. In April 2009, the Pew Research Center showed a gap of 70 points in Obama's approval between "strong racial liberals" and "strong racial conservatives"--more than any of his five most recent predecessors in the White House.” Sasha Issenberg in Slate.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_a...ial_bias_.html

EDSALL: Romney’s latest ads testify to the insertion of racial undertones into the presidential race. ”The Republican ticket is flooding the airwaves with commercials that develop two themes designed to turn the presidential contest into a racially freighted resource competition pitting middle class white voters against the minority poor. Ads that accuse President Obama of gutting the work requirements enacted in the 1996 welfare reform legislation present the first theme. Ads alleging that Obama has taken $716 billion from Medicare -- a program serving an overwhelmingly white constituency -- in order to provide health coverage to the heavily black and Hispanic poor deliver the second. The ads are meant to work together, to mutually reinforce each other's claims.” Thomas B. Edsall in The New York Times.

http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.c...wpisrc=nl_wonk


KLEIN: Racial politics are alive and powerful in the Obama era. ”Most of the issues dominating the 2012 election make sense. There's the economy, of course. The budget deficit. Medicare. Obamacare. But click through the "videos" section of Mitt Romney's Web site and you'll see something odd: His campaign is running more ads about welfare than just about any other issue. Of the 12 most recent ads posted, five are about welfare…In modern politics, however, when a campaign begins doubling and tripling down on an unusual line of attack, it's because it has reams of data showing the attack is working. What's worrying is why this ad might be working…Romney's welfare ads are not racist. But the evidence suggests that they work particularly well if the viewer is racist, or at least racially resentful. And these are the ads that are working so unexpectedly well that welfare is now the spine of Romney's 2012 on-air message in the battleground states.” Ezra Klein in The Washington Post.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...wpisrc=nl_wonk

BARRO: The Republican strategy is to make Obama ‘other.’ ”What Romney [has been] intimating [is] that Obama has given people cause to wonder how American he really is…What makes Obama look “non-American” to some conservatives isn’t just his birth to a Kenyan father. It’s his upbringing around the world and in remote Hawaii, his background in elite coastal institutions and academia, and his liberal politics…Obama is black, so his race is inevitably a part of ‘othering’ him. If he’s not American, the implication must be that he is Kenyan…What Romney was up to on the stump last week wasn’t just stoking the fires under the birth certificate conspiracy that won’t die. It was continuing the Republican tradition of asserting that their party’s agenda is the only truly American one. “ Josh Barro in Bloomberg.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-0...wpisrc=nl_wonk


KLEIN: Romney’s strategy reflects a weak hand. ”This isn't where the Romney campaign hoped it would be in August. Recall that Team Romney began with three premises for how to win this election. The first was to make this a referendum, not a choice. The second was to keep it focused on the economy. The third was to bow to Obama's essential likability by treating him as a decent guy who is simply in over his head. In recent weeks, the Romney campaign has jettisoned every single one of those premises.” Ezra Klein in The Washington Post.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...wpisrc=nl_wonk

Voting restrictions could reduce the minority vote. ”[Romney] found little support among Latinos, blacks, and the young. Rather than competing for these voters, however, Republican culture warriors have been competing against them, by making it harder for them to vote…[S]uch requirements, which have become a priority among Republican legislators across the country, stand to effectively disenfranchise millions of eligible voters, the vast majority of them in demographic groups that tend to support Democrats. Philip Gourevitch in The New Yorker.

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/commen...wpisrc=nl_wonk

The Real Mitt Romney

BROOKS: Uncovering the ‘Real Romney.’ “Mitt Romney was born on March 12, 1947, in Ohio, Florida, Michigan, Virginia and several other swing states. He emerged, hair first, believing in America, and especially its national parks. He was given the name Mitt, after the Roman god of mutual funds, and launched into the world with the lofty expectation that he would someday become the Arrow shirt man.” David Brooks in The New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/28/op...wpisrc=nl_wonk

[Andrew49]

GOP attendee ejected for throwing nuts at African American CNN camera woman.

A Republican delegate attending the party's convention in Tampa, Florida, was thrown out for allegedly throwing nuts at a black CNN camerawoman and telling her 'this is how we feed animals'. A spokesman for the convention told Politico that there was more than one person involved in the incident.

'Two attendees tonight exhibited deplorable behaviour. Their conduct was inexcusable and unacceptable. This kind of behaviours will not be tolerated.'

The incident comes after a recent NBC poll suggested Mr Romney is likely to attract zero per cent of the black vote in November's upcoming election.

LINK

CNN are being a bit shy about this at the moment.

[Count Bobulescu]

Good roundtable TV discussion on the campaign with a panel of journalists. 53 minutes. Antidote to the cable shoutfests.

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/12520


More good TV coverage of the Convention a different panel discusses 38 minutes.

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/12521

There’s been lots (and lots) written about how and why the 2008 election and the 2012 contest are so different.
But, we’ve never seen the case made so clearly as in a new chart put together by Simon Jackman, a professor of political science at Stanford University.
What Jackman aimed to do is compare how Obama performed in each state in 2008 against where polling suggests he is in that same state today — based on his 2012 polling average in each state.
Here’s the chart (and click here to see it in slightly larger form):
The data — when visualized — is striking. At the moment, Obama is running under 50 percent in only two states — North Carolina and Indiana — that he won in 2008. Indiana is almost certainly lost for Obama — it’s a state that no Democrat had won since 1964 at the presidential level — while North Carolina still looks quite competitive. (Obama won it with just more than 50 percent in 2008 and he’s currently just over 49 percent in the average of polls in the state.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...=nl_pmpolitics

http://jackman.stanford.edu/blog/wp-...ngTwoParty.jpg

Democrats are winning at least one key aspect of the 2012 campaign: voter contact.
Some Republicans are starting to fret a little bit about their ground game and a new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that fear is at least somewhat justified.
According to the poll, 20 percent of registered voters say they have been contacted by the Obama campaign, compared to 13 percent who say they have been contacted by Mitt Romney’s campaign.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...pisrc=nl_pmfix

Any party platform is necessarily a compromise between a number of different interest groups. Inevitably, there are always some odd or puzzling policy planks that make it in. Here are 10 of the more unexpected items from this year’s Republican platform:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...=nl_pmpolitics



WHAT EVERYONE AT THE CONVENTION CENTER IS TALKING ABOUT: Yahoo News fired Washington bureau chief David Chalian after he was caught on a hot-mic during an online video broadcast saying that Mitt and Ann Romney had no problem with African Americans suffering as a result of Hurricane Isaac, Dylan Byers reports. "They're not concerned at all. They're happy to have a party with black people drowning,' Chalian said over a break during the ABC News/Yahoo News webcast, in reference to the fact that the GOP convention in Tampa is taking place as Hurricane Isaac makes landfall on the north Gulf coast.
HIS APOLOGY: "I am profoundly sorry for making an inappropriate and thoughtless joke," Chalian wrote on his Facebook page later in the day. "I was commenting on the challenge of staging a convention during a hurricane and about campaign optics. I have apologized to the Romney campaign, and I want to take this opportunity to publicly apologize to Gov. and Mrs. Romney. I also regret causing any distraction from the exceptional coverage of the Republican convention by Yahoo News and ABC News." http://goo.gl/dm0CW

THE VERDICT - CHRIS CHRISTIE BOMBED: John F. Harris calls it a primetime belly-flop. "Several political figures close to Romney made acerbic comments to reporters making clear they thought Christie laid an egg, while also saying they didn't much care since Ann Romney was generally perceived as performing well," he writes with Tim Mak. "Several made eye-rolling references to what they regard as signs of the New Jersey governor's considerable ego: The number of self-references in his address, and an entourage of aides who they believe is too obviously trying to promote Christie Fever for the future rather than help Republicans in 2012. Sources close to Christie noted that Romney's team saw the speech text about two weeks ago, and barely changed a word, and thus had no standing to second-guess now."

CHRIS WALLACE called it "the most curious keynote speech" he's ever heard. "For a moment I forgot who was the nominee of the party," he said on Fox News.

IS THE GOP FUELED BY HATRED? That's what The New Yorker's George Packer concludes after attending a Tea Party Patriots rally to honor the military. "When you go to these side events, the tent shows on the margins of the convention hall, you feel the true source of the Party's energy this year," he wrote in a blog post published Wednesday afternoon. "It isn't about Paul Ryan, though he's a favorite. Sarah Palin doesn't get a mention. Rick Santorum got a big cheer before giving the most sanctimonious speech in convention history, but he's already a has-been. Ron Paul has his hard core, and they are here, causing a bit of trouble, but he's already gone off into the sunset. God knows it isn't about Mitt Romney-no one's name elicits a less hearty cheer on the floor of the hall. The energy is hatred-hatred of Barack Obama, and hatred of what the people here believe he's done to their country, their principles, and their children." http://goo.gl/4ZMie


Paul Ryan spoke to the Republican Party last night as its newly-anointed candidate for vice president. “Paul Ryan on Wednesday night accepted the Republican vice-presidential nomination here with a message of urgency for his party: Now is the time to tackle America's most pressing challenges, including the country's mounting debt and federal entitlement programs that are en route to bankruptcy within the coming decades.” Felicia Sonmez, Karen Tumulty and William Branigin in The Washington Post.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politi...wpisrc=nl_wonk
.

Excerpts:“In this election, on this issue, the usual posturing on the left isn't going to work. Mitt Romney and I know the difference between protecting a program [Medicare], and raiding it. Ladies and gentlemen, our nation needs this debate. We want this debate. We will win this debate…The present administration has made its choices. And Mitt Romney and I have made ours: Before the math and the momentum overwhelm us all, we are going to solve this nation's economic problems…So here is our pledge. We will not duck the tough issues, we will lead. We will not spend four years blaming others, we will take responsibility. We will not try to replace our founding principles, we will reapply our founding principles.”
.

Fact-checkers are not in love with Paul Ryan. For example: “In his acceptance speech, GOP Vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan appeared to suggest that President Obama was responsible for the closing of a GM plant in Ryan's hometown of Janesville, Wisc. That's not true. The plant was closed in December, 2008, before Obama was sworn in.” Glenn Kessler in The Washington Post.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...wpisrc=nl_wonk

KELLER: What should Republicans do about Rice? “If you're organizing the nominating convention of a Republican presidential candidate in 2012, she presents you with a dilemma. On the one hand the former secretary of state is an accomplished, proudly Republican black woman… She is an icon of opportunity (a Republican mantra) and diversity (a Republican shortcoming)…On the other hand, she is a reminder of the Recent Republican President Who Shall Scarcely Be Mentioned at This Convention…She is also an out-of-Republican-fashion moderate on social issues like abortion…Rice has the pedigree and the chastening experience to present a more sophisticated and more temperate Republican take on the world. And Wednesday night she did so.” Bill Keller in The New York Times.

http://keller.blogs.nytimes.com/2012...wpisrc=nl_wonk

[Count Bobulescu]

More good TV analysis of the campaign/convention

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/12523 20 minutes

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/12524 20 minutes

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/12525 12 minutes


Some Newshour reports on the RNC with Mark Shields and David Brooks.

Kohut

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/polit...pew_08-27.html 3 minutes

Next three 8-9 minutes each

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/polit...oks_08-27.html

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/polit...oks_08-28.html

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/polit...oks_08-29.html

[Kev Bar]

The Tea Partiers were pioneers in the active promotion of ignorance.

Now insitutionalised ignorance is being promoted.

"We're not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...=Daily%20Brief



And here's a little genius response to the deviant purveyors of ignorance.

Legitimate Rape.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtzqvqzBdUQ&feature=player_embedded"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtzqvqzBdUQ&feature=player_embedded[/ame]

[Kev Bar]

More on this new form of rape

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Anc_gP2_QeI&feature=share"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Anc_gP2_QeI&feature=share[/ame]