Happy Monday.

I got off the plane last night to find that a few people on blogs, twitter, and radio had been calling for Romney to go on offense, both in general and over the President's Bain trutherism in particular. Now, I'd generally been keeping an eye on politics while I was on vacation, so this seemed like a new attack on Romney from supposed allies and a peculiarly silly one. There are a few responses.

First, Romney has obviously been on offense. The campaign has been laudably focused on hitting the President where it hurts him most with voters: the economy. The same hard-hitting message discipline that laid his primary opponents low has kept the President's numbers static for a month, despite Obama's giant, largely unanswered, ad blitz. For two months running, Obama has spent more money attacking Romney than he's raised and it hasn't helped Obama's poll numbers.

Part of that is the phenomenally fast response team Romney and the RNC have put together. They're out ahead of Obama on almost every issue that matters to voters and when the latest distraction from Team Obama arises (gay marriage, DREAM, Bain) they're on top of it with outreach to media, bloggers, and directly to voters. The Romney campaign is doing a great job compared to the other side.

When it comes to the Bain trutherism, Romney pushed back hard last week, with multiple interviews, several surrogates striking back, and coordinated outreach to media and bloggers pointing out that Obama has been the Outsourcer-in-Chief. So the myth being peddled that Romney isn't or wasn't on offense doesn't even have the ring of truth.

Second, to the extent that being "on offense" is being equated with running expensive attack ads like the President is doing, there is no conceivable point. Obama's numbers are not on the rise. He's spending millions for no point. It would be one thing if the Bain trutherism were taking a toll on Romney or pumping up Obama's numbers. But the President's national approval numbers have been basically unchanged for a month. A majority of voters have never heard of Bain and likely won't.

The Romney campaign is doing the smart thing and holding fire until it really counts: the last eight weeks of the campaign. It would be one thing if it looked like the President's campaign was getting traction. But so long as it's not, Romney needs to stick with the plan: focus on the issue that matters most to voters, the economy. Blowing his campaign cash now would be pointlessly premature.

The "go on offense" freakout seems at root to be a crisis of confidence. Yes, it's frustrating that the President is a lying liar who makes stupid irrelevant lies about our candidate. But that's no reason to go off half-cocked and waste a lot of effort for little return. The Romney response to the Bain trutherism has been appropriate. Engaging any more on that ground would be just what Obama wants.

It's quite simple. The Democrats have nothing else to run on. Obama would be more than happy to make the rest of the campaign, all four months, be about Romney and Bain. I don't see any benefit to indulging him in that.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 03:08 AM | Comments (317)
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 Happy Cost of Government Day

Congratulations - you've been working exclusively for the government all year until today. And now you get to keep what you earn.^*

Come sundown on Sunday, you all are free of your 2012 obligations to the government. Which now takes 197 days out of your year. My advice: you begin telling every "progressive" and Democrat you know who tries to engage you or approach you or talk to you or ask something of you, that you're now closed for business, and would they kindly piss off.

And believe it or not we're actually worse than the UK which left annual tax-serfdom back in June:

Tax Freedom Day only measures the money actually raised by the government in taxes, not the full amount it spends. The government borrows one pound for every four it raises in taxes, so if the full cost of government is considered the Cost of Government Day, this would fall on 23rd June.

^{* Unless you live in CT, NY, or NJ in which case you've got a few more weeks to go.}

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:16 PM | Comments (376)
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Good morning morons and moronettes. Welcome to this week's witty and urbane book thread.

Apropos of nothing in particular, here's a poster image I stole from the witty and urbane People's Cube website:

The guy who runs the People's Cube, Oleg Atbashian, is a Soviet-bloc immigrant who has been force-fed the crap sandwich of socialism all his life, and he came here to get away from it. So you can imagine that he's not real happy that he is now seeing the same policies that have destroyed his homeland being implemented here. And couched in the same rhetoric.

Fortunately for us, Oleg has compiled his witty and urbane thoughts on such matters into a book, Shakedown Socialism, which sounds like it's worth checking out.

Books Recommended By Morons In Earlier Threads

In yesterday's Ronald Reagan and John Paul II thread, moron "BS Inc." commented:

Also, I'll put in a book plug since the guy who wrote it is Polish. "The Captive Mind" by Czeslaw Milosz. Dude knew his way around Communist BS, that's for sure. One of the last good selections by the Nobel Prize Literature committee

I've never heard of this book before, but as it turns out, it's still in print. May God bless the Poles. They've always been our stalwart allies, and I believe that's perhaps one thing that President Ladies' Tee hasn't managed to screw up. Yet.

Also, in the Longmire thread from yesterday, several morons pointed out that the A&E series is based on books written by mystery author Craig Johnson, which they very much recommended. I believe this one is the first book in the series, out of 7 so far. I intend to put this on my stack ASAP.

The Longmire character is, of course, a real man's man. Below the fold is some eye candy for the moronettes, another shot of Australian actor Robert Taylor who plays him. You can thank me later.
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Posted by: Open Blogger at 06:59 AM | Comments (228)
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Exclusive video of pREsiDent Obama's new campaign pitch below the fold. more...

Posted by: andy at 03:26 AM | Comments (321)
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A Picture Of How Redistribution Programs Trap The Less Fortunate Into Lives Of Dependency. Now let me ask you this. Which candidate wants to trap you into a life of dependency (Julia ring a bell)? If you guessed Obama, pat yourself on the back. Why just yesterday he Gutted The Work Requirements From Clinton-era Welfare Reform. As the chart indicates above, there is NO incentive to work and get off the government crutch and the Democrats are pushing forward with agendas to add more.

The problem for Obama and the Democrats is that eventually, you will lose many taxpayers as they give up the ghost and join those already on the teat of government. The reason will be that it is no longer worth having to work over 6 months of the year just to make enough to pay your taxes and then have only a few months of pay to spend on everything else. As Insty pointed out the other day, you'll get The Coming Middle Class Anarchy.

When the backbone of a country starts thinking that laws and rules are not worth following, itÂ’s just a hop, skip and a jump to anarchy.

TV has given us the illusion that anarchy is people rioting in the streets, smashing car windows and looting every store in sight. But there’s also the polite, quiet, far deadlier anarchy of the core citizenry—the upright citizenry—throwing in the towel and deciding it’s just not worth it anymore. If a big enough proportion of the populace—not even a majority, just a largish chunk—decides that it’s just not worth following the rules anymore, then that society’s days are numbered: Not even a police-state with an armed Marine at every corner with Shoot-to-Kill orders can stop such middle-class anarchy.

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Posted by: CDR M at 05:35 PM | Comments (565)
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Via Jeff Emanuel, a fitting tribute to two giants.

Well done by the Poles.

Polish officials unveiled a statue of former President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II on Saturday, honoring two men widely credited in this Eastern European country with helping to topple communism 23 years ago.

The statue was unveiled in Gdansk, the birthplace of Lech Walesa's Solidarity movement, in the presence of about 120 former Solidarity activists, many of whom were imprisoned in the 1980s for their roles in organizing or taking part in strikes against the communist regime.

The bronze statue, erected in the lush seaside President Ronald Reagan Park, is a slightly larger-than-life rendering of the two late leaders. It was inspired by an Associated Press photograph taken in 1987 on John Paul's second pontifical visit to the U.S.

Posted by: DrewM at 02:55 PM | Comments (155)
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Presented for your consideration are three exceptionally stupid links.

First up, we have perennial HQ whipping-boy Matt Taibbi on Mitt's NAACP speech and "free stuff" == teh racism. Or something.

Next comes Jason Whitlock on how the Penn State scandal was caused by sexism and lack of "gender diversity". O RLY?

And, finally, we have an interview of Meghan McCain by a person named Chelsea Handler who apparently has a show on something called E! (video below the fold).

Your challenge, should you decide to accept it, is to read/watch these and vote for the dumbest. But beware, your MENSA membership is at risk, because it's very nearly impossible to run this gauntlet without shedding some IQ points along the way.

Posted by: andy at 01:10 PM | Comments (196)
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According to the LA Times, an "overzealous computer backup" caused all 7000 fireworks to go off at once. When they hit "enter" a backup file was executed instead of the primary file.

The trouble? Well, it's complicated. The explanation from Garden State Fireworks, the company responsible for the mishap, is so convoluted no one seems to be sure exactly what happened. It had something to do with an overzealous backup computer file that overlapped with the primary file to accidentally set off all the fireworks at once.

"Contrary to numerous opinions and theories, the simultaneous ignition was not due to any sabotage or massive computer hardware failure," Garden State Fireworks wrote in a lengthy statement that may require a PhD in firework-ology to fully understand. "The display sequence started exactly when it was expected to and the systems executed the file the way it appeared. Sadly, the file executed was the double file created in the back-up plan download process."

Video shot at the time, however, reveals the computer had nothing to do with it. It was "human" error. more...

Posted by: rdbrewer at 12:36 PM | Comments (46)
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In a thread a week or so ago, some of the moronettes' hearts were going pitty-pat over the lead actor in a new A&E show called Longmire, about a sheriff in a remote county in rural Wyoming. I've watched a couple of episodes, and as a detective/crime drama, it's not bad.

So this is for the moronettes:

It also has that hot chick from Battlestar Galactica, so there's that.
[Update] Sackhoff pic below the fold: more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 12:12 PM | Comments (84)
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I have to disagree with Mitt on this. From his admitted drug use to the thuggish and lawless behavior of his administration, it's clear Obama has no dignity.

“What kind of president would have a campaign that says something like that about the nominee of another party? This is reckless and absurd on his part, and it’s something that’s beneath his dignity,” Romney said in an interview with CBS. “I hope he recognizes that even fellow Democrats have said that. Look, the President needs to talk about the direction he’d take the country and stop these kinds of ads and attacks that are so disparate from what the American people want to talk about.”

During is round of network interviews yesterday, Mitt also said Obama owes him an apology.

Based on the sudden desire to sit for all those interviews (something he's avoided throughout the primary and now general campaigns), it's clear Team Mitt was worried about the toll a week of false stories pushed by the Democratic media took on their guy.

Unfortunately the tone Romney struck yesterday was not very helpful. Instead of going on the attack over the Bain stories, he seemed defensive. Talking about Obama's alleged "dignity" and demanding apologies that will never come (Mitt never gave any to his GOP opponents) seemed weak.

As the saying goes, if you're explaining, you're losing. Mitt should have gone on the offensive. Forget about personality issues, refocus every biased question back on Obama's failures and how they have hurt voters and the country. "Everyone knows when I left Bain, just as everyone knows Obama was President when your tax dollars were used to fund auto production in Finland as part of the "stimulus" that didn't do what the President said it would and only got us further into this historic level of debt that is chocking job growth". "Obama wants to talk about when I left my job at Bain, I want to talk about all the people who were kicked out their jobs while he's been President and how I will help put them back to work". And on and on and on.

I'm sure some Team Romney types will say he's being calm and not swinging back hard will help win over squishy moderates. Maybe. Or maybe just sticking to his "gosh, this is just awful talk beneath a President" shtick will start to morph into the idea that Romney is a wimp. Ask George H.W. Bush how that worked out.

In short, forget the demands for an apology, punch him in the nuts.

We've been getting a little cocky about how easy this might be for Mitt. It's a good thing I don't believe in July polls because if I did, Rasmussen showing Romney and Obama tied in Florida would worry me.

Below the fold is a great (and by that I mean terrible) ad by Team Obama. Yes, it's all based on BS but just wait until it starts playing like crazy in Ohio and Pennsylvania. And remember, it's not aimed at committed Romney voters like you who know better. It's aimed at people who think they are smart because they are "uncommitted" but just decide who to vote for based on the ads they watch.

The race is on to define Romney, he needs to deflect that but also remind people why they don't want another 4 years of Obama. It's not because he's mean to Mitt but because he's been a disaster for America. I really hope Romney comes out hard soon. The gutting of welfare reform is a gift to him, he better use it well.
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Posted by: DrewM at 09:23 AM | Comments (407)
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