Grand Theft

After I read the news, I wonder if there's anything Republicans won't do to steal elections:

In North Carolina, they do it this way.

In Wisconsin, they do it this way.

Minority Rule

From Juan Williams @ The Hill: Every state gets two U.S. Senators, which partially explains how we reached this point.

Green

In 2000, Al Gore won the popular vote by 543,895 votes overall. In Florida, he lost by 537 votes. Green Party candidate Ralph Nader got 97,488 votes in Florida. Gore also lost New Hampshire by 7,211 votes, and Nader got 22,198. If Ralph Nader's votes in either New Hampshire or Florida had gone to Al Gore instead, the United States would never have known what life would be like with George W. Bush in the White House.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by nearly 2,865,000 votes, but lost in the Electoral College because she was edged out by around 70,000 total votes in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. If the votes in those three states that went to the Green Party candidate had gone to Hillary Clinton instead, we'd have missed the experience of having a TV reality show host trying to run the country, especially one who's also a dangerous mental case.

I have my doubts that the Democratic Party can make any appreciable progress toward winning the hearts and minds of assholes who still view the so-called precedent (sic) favorably after 100 days of this fucking horse shit. Maybe they'll have more luck winning the hearts and minds of people who voted for Ralph Nader or Jill Stein because they thought Gore would be as bad as Bush, or Clinton would be worse than Trump.

BNSR Update

I've updated the Basic National Stupidity Rate, which is currently 48.19 percent. The BNSR is a simple calculation of the average percentage of the popular vote received by the Republican presidential candidate in the elections of 2000, 2004 and 2008. For the sake of simplicity we'll round it to 48.2 percent. Any Republican, regardless of how pathetic he is, should receive at least 48.2 percent of the votes in any national election. McCain and Palin dragged the average down from 49.28 by being blown out in 2008.

Field Theories

The field of candidates for the Republican nomination has not dwindled at the rate that I expected last summer. So far, only Tim Pawlenty has actually dropped out of the race after officially joining it. Hucklebuck and Wondermom decided to stick with their day jobs as TV entertainers. The big boy from NJ checked to the raiser, then folded.

There are two Republicans running who would probably make good presidents: Mittenful and Huntsman. Willard has the steady support of roughly 25-26 percent of Republicans. Huntsman, my personal choice for the nomination, is barely making a blip on the radar screen.

At least 70 percent of Republicans want the next president to be Sugar Cain, Ricky Retardo, Newter, the Other Rick, Moochele, or Granddaddy Ron. Did I leave anyone out ? Don't their preferences tell us everything we really need to know about typical Republican voters ?

No sane person can imagine Santorum, Bachmann or Paul as the nominee, and they're apparently only hanging around for the free box lunches. If Republicans weren't totally fucked up, Pie Daddy would also be in that group. How many times does Perry have to make a goddamned ass out of himself on TV before his meltdown is complete ? Gingrich, the serial adulterer, is rumored to be making a mini-comeback and should collect the dividends if Pie Daddy finally sees the handwriting on the wall and quits.

Of the entire gang of miscreants, the only one who looks like a realistic threat to unseat the incumbent is Willard Romney. Are there any recorded instances of a Republican winning a presidential election when 7 out of 10 voters in his party don't like him ? I imagine Obama's staffers are wondering if they'll have a chance to find out.

The race is on...

Charles Krauthammer, normally unreadable, handicaps the field for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. If I'm reading his odds correctly, he likes plenty of Pawlenty. Probably likes Mittens even better -- if it weren't for his public health care record. Unlike the rest of the chattering class, says The Haircut has no chance (zero, zip, nil, nada). Where's Palin ? Probably cheerleading from the sidelines, says the hammer, who also proclaims Rep. Paul Ryan the de factor leader of the GOP now.

Talk is cheap

Just what the world has been waiting for: the official reaction of the prospective candidates for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination to last week's congressional budget deal. Bachmann is the only one who actually gets to vote on federal legislation, and Barbour is the only other one currently occupying an elected office. I'm not sure what the rest of them do for a living.

Fantasies

Right-wing extremists believe that everything Obama does is WRONG. Left-wing extremists believe that everything Obama does is WRONG. Who said Americans couldn't unite in brotherhood in the common cause of shared anger ?

The president's latest foreign policy decisions have conservatives grinning about a possibility that Democrats are so disenchanted with Obama they'll support a challenger in the Democratic primaries next year. That's the kind of play that would be typical of numbskull Democrats, and would virtually guarantee Obama's defeat in November.

Even without a challenge from his left, conservatives are convinced Obama has disillusioned liberals to such an extent that they'll just sit out the election. Republicans aren't the wisest owls on the limb, though. There's a good chance they'll nominate this bimbo or someone equally repugnant, causing Democrats to turn out in record numbers.

Ladies and gentlemen, forming in the north end zone...

The best website in the world for political comments that make me laugh out loud is wonkette.com. The stuff that gets tagged onto any item about Michele Bachmann is priceless.

So far, the Republicans who appear to be seriously running for the 2010 presidential nomination: Bachmann, Palin, Gingrich, Pawlenty, and probably Mormon Mitt. On the sidelines, acting coy and playing hard-to-get: Hucklebuck, Don (The Haircut) Trump, and Haley (Fat Boy) Barbour. Out of that collection of miscreants, Mormon Mitt and maybe Pawlenty look like the sane ones. Unfortunately, they'll have to pretend to be sociopaths to win the nomination, as Ace McCain did in 2008.

One thing is certain: Those early Republican primary debates will be must-see TV.

At bat, the guy from Minnesota

We had a president named Jimmy, and now we have one named Barack. So why not a guy named Tim ? I propose the following campaign slogan: "What America needs is plenty of Pawlenty."

I don't know anything about Tim but in March of 2007, I didn't know anything about Sarah Palin either. God, I hope Tim doesn't suck as much as she does.