It was only a matter of time as I had predicted. The interesting question was which of the leading Republican presidential candidates would take the juicy bait first. Looks like it was Mitt Romney – the clean cut, can do, Mr. U-Turn on issues. Well, after the predictable uproar, Romney shrugged it off with another smart excuse – he claims he didn’t "look at" the sign before he held it up gleefully.
Do "look" before you leap into political controversies, Governor. At this rate your campaign is sure to bomb(a)!
Accidental Blogger 
11 responses to “….. and Chelsea’s Moma!”
He’s definitely not getting too many votes here in MA. :)
Regarding political ads, the infamous Daisy Girl ad was run by the Democrats against Republican candidate Barry Goldwater in 1964. Many of the procedural rules in the House were modified during the long rule of Democrats to unfairly exclude Republicans from the process & debate, and these rules came back to bite Democrats in the ass during the last decade when majority Republicans put them to good use. Both sides play these dirty games, and I’ll be voting for Nader or another third-party candidate next year.
-Amit
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He’s definitely not getting too many votes here in MA.
But he’s raising the most money (where is it all coming from?). I am not thrilled about the Democratic roster either. The only consolation is the ridiculous character of the Republican slate. I “cannot” vote for Nader although I like the guy – the man is ahead of the times for the majority of US voters. Unless a ticket like Gore / Hagel appears on the horizon, a viable third party candidacy looks like a remote dream at this time. I am too cautious – don’t want to sacrifice the race to the Repugs. So, much as it bothers me, in the end, I will probably end up voting for the eventual Dem nominee.
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Gore would be a dream candidate, but Hagel? Mr.Used to own ESS voting machine co Hagel makes the right noises on the disastrous course in Iraq, but seems to have little else to recommend him ideologically. Plus he had a sort of unfair advantage at work for him in the elections. From the above link:
“If you think party affiliation doesn’t matter in terms of who owns these companies, lets look at the case of one US Senator. Nebraska uses ESS equipment and when one of ESS’s owners (Chuck Hagel) decided to run for the Senate, (surprise, surprise) he won – even though the polling showed he should have lost. When Hagel ran for reelection, he captured 83% of the vote on those same ESS machines.”
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I know, I know. Hagel is very conservative on fiscal issues and he made millions from his enterprise. I like him for his stance on the war and on the Israeli-Palestinian matter – one of the few US lawmakers who has spoken out on the unfairness of US policies in the mid-east. Of course, I would like Gore on top of the ticket with Hagel as number two to calm the feathers of the right of center Independents.
Also, am I the only one who is still nostalgic for Dr. Dean? Even though he won’t run?
In any case, this is all fantasy. We will have to deal with the reality of what we are served up by the primary voters.
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Sen. Joe Biden declared on this evening’s CNN-YouTube debate that he would pick Chuck Hagel as his running mate :-)
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I guess I have the luxury of voting for a third-party candidate as it won’t affect the outcome, since the Democratic candidate is sure to carry MA. I know he’s ahead of his time, and that’s why I think it’s important to show him support by voting for him. If courageous people like him aren’t supported, then that will make it even more difficult for people like him to run for elections in future. That also means I accept that corrupt politics-as-usual is the only option available to us, and that’s a bit pessimistic. I’ve wondered about this, and how do you bring about a change? My thinking is that if all the people who want to vote for Nader (or a similar candidate), but are afraid because of a Republican coming into power (very valid), actually took a stand and voted for him, maybe things would change a bit sooner. Maybe conditions have to become much worse before they take a turn for better. Maybe I’m thinking naively. :)
I guess Romney is getting the money from all the business connections he cultivated when he was running Bain Group etc., or maybe the Mormon church? I honestly don’t know.
-Amit
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The Mormon Church is very wealthy and they too have a huge business network.
As for third parties, I would feel a bit more comfortable if a politically viable Third Pary was indeed organized and put in running order during the off years. Among other things, the platform should challenge the hypocrisies of the current Tweedledee-Tweedledums who feed from the same public trough and kowtow to the same lobbyists. I just don’t like the idea of lone maverick candidates, however courageous (Nader, Ross Perot among the more influential ones in recent memory), jumping into the race every election year solely on the strength of their personalities. I don’t want to put my support for such a top heavy ticket – I want to see a capable group of foot soldiers and future candidates behind them. I like Nader as an outsider holding the politicians’ feet to fire. But impressive as he is, Nader has a huge ego and I doubt he “plays well with others.” Also, while he is very good on consumer/ corruption issues, he is rather cool towards women and children’s concerns – and I don’t mean the “touchy feely” ones either. He seems to believe that once the bigger problems of corruption and accountability are tackled, everything else will fall in place. I don’t agree.
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Ruchira, if you haven’t already, check out the documentary “An Unreasonable Man.” In the movie, he addresses some of the issues you mention in your post. It has been done before – though at a state level – in Minnesota (Jesse Ventura).
I’ll email you the list of recent Indian movies that I think are worth watching. You can also check out my movie blog and that’ll give you an idea whether we have similar movie tastes. :)
-Amit
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It’s not Chelsea’s MOMA — it belongs to the people of New York City and art-lovers around the world!
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I know! They probably hate modern art too:-)
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Senator Durbin‘s got Mitt’s poster on the brain too!
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