1) The economy will not likely improve to an amount that would certifiably and undeniably prove the Republicans wrong. We would need several months of a million or more jobs added to hammer that point home, and only twice in recorded job growth history has the number cleared 1 million in a month (in I believe 1946 under Truman, and again in the early 80’s under Reagan). Our economy is certifiably improving right now, it’s just going at an incredible snails pace. Since it’s so slow it’s easy to deride the recovery and say it’s not at all, or as politicians often do… to argue that the opposite of what is happening is actually what’s happening. As far as social issues go, the Republicans quite frankly can’t win on them. Half of their base is libertarian in nature, and doesn’t agree with the neo-con social structure… and the independent base is incredibly far off from their views (anti gay marriage, etc). If the election isn’t about the economy, the Republicans almost assuredly lose.
2) In today’s political world, especially in the Republican party, being seen as agreeing with anything that Obama says is toxic. That’s how screwed up our politics, and in particular the Republican party, have become lately. It literally got to the point last year that Republicans found themselves arguing against extending the payroll taxcut because the President was supporting the move. So for Romney to be with Obama on a topic, let alone one that is as hated amongst Republicans as the Healthcare bill… that is a huge red flag to the Republican base. The massive irony being that not only was the Obamacare plan basically copy/pasted from the “Romneycare” plan… but it’s the same plan that was heavily endorsed by Republicans back in the 90’s when Clinton tried to force through the public option in his first term. The likes of John McCain, Bob Dole, and even Newt Gingrich… came up with and/or actively supported plans that were nearly identical to the healthcare bill. But now the Dems and Obama are supporting, so they hate it.
3) Michael Steele doesn’t know his a** from a hole in the ground. He was one of the worst RNC chairman’s in history. That’s why MSNBC scooped him up just as fast as they could, he supplies them with a token Republican to make the network appear unbiased… and at the same time he manages to make the Republicans look stupid as hell because of his own stupidity. So I would pay little to no attention to what he says.
As far as Romney, you are right… most of us liberals are not deriding the fact that he followed the law… we are pointing to him as a textbook example of what is wrong with our tax code and hence our country. You have a man born into wealth, who has never really worked a day in his life. He made all of his money either from his father or from investments. The only job other than governor he ever had was to be CEO of an investment firm (which btw he ruined). He doesn’t even manage his own stocks anymore, he pays someone else to manage them (that’s what all that trust fund and mutual fund talk was about during the last few debates). He literally sits back and has someone else move his money around so that it accrues interest… making more money in one day than over half of American’s make in an entire year… without lifting a finger or really contributing to any of these companies that are making him rich.
I can tell you for fact right now, that the handful of people Romney has employed over the last few years, is most definitely not worth the huge tax cut he is getting. The capital gains tax was lowered under the premise of getting common people to invest their money.. but it has been abused by the wealthy who now collect all their income in stock options rather than cash, because it’s taxed lower… and by people like Mitt Romney, who make 50k a day on interest of money he never earned, that isn’t doing anything to help the economy.
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