Romney’s Big Tent Republican Party

True or not the rationalization the President’s camp puts forward is fine by me. They claim they did not want to get into a mud fight covering ground that is already well known to the public. But let’s be honest, the Obama team got their clocks cleaned. There is plenty of time for recovery, plenty of time, to adjust to Romney’s careening, swerving, move to the center.

That being said one has to be impressed with what the Republican Party has morphed into under the Romney Banner:  Republicans are the Party of the Big Tent, just look at all the Romneys they squeezed in.

After weeks of banging the $700 Billion in Medicare cuts--part of Obama Care-- on the campaign trail, “Empathetic” Romney hit them again at the debate. It’s not his fault the President did not clarify the situation with his comments. If he did he might have noted that “Deficit Hawk” Ryan uses the same $700 billion in Medicare cuts for deficit reduction in his plan. In one of the night’s most disturbing moments the president once again failed to explain to the American people exactly the deal he made and the resulting years of extension in the program’s financial. Perhaps there was good reason for that. Many economists believe that the cuts Obama included in his spending forecasts will be untenable to hospitals and will be restored by Congress. That’s a little dicey, but the Republican plan, as near as I can tell, is that they will restore the cuts (“Empathetic” Romney) and also keep the cuts (“Deficit Hawk” Ryan).

What is unmistakable is that “Deficit Hawk” Ryan proposes 20% cuts in Medicaid, the Government Health Care program for poor people. Ignoring poor people or worse has become totally acceptable policy. These are draconian cuts which will affect the weakest, most elderly, and often times sickest among us. The religious parallels are apparently lost on “Devout” Romney. The cuts are unconscionable.

Emergency rooms do NOT provide Health Care, they provide emergency medical treatment, and then send people home. Health Care is what one gets with regular medical check-ups and visits to their doctor. I guess “Empathetic” Romney didn’t know that.

“Empathetic” Romney proposes to maintain some of the most popular elements of Obamacare, most notably the requirement that insurance companies offer coverage for those with pre-existing conditions-- With continuous medical coverage, i.e. no one who lost a job through this recession. He brought this up at the debate. However, “Just Like a Liberal ” Romney proposes no mechanism to pay for it, and basically refuses to acknowledge the deal that the Obama Administration made with the Health Industry: You get more patients so you can amortize costs over a bigger pool of healthier Americans , but you’ll have to provide better service. Counter intuitively “Empathetic” Romney proposes keeping some of the regulations but eliminating the larger pool of insured.

In the debate, “Populist” Romney portrayed the watered down regulations for colossus banks such as Chase, judged as too big to fail, as “the biggest kiss that's being given to New York banks I have ever seen”. Huh? You have to wonder what “Bain Capital” Romney’s biggest contributors thoughts about that:

 Goldman Sachs -$890,000; Bank of America -- $670,000; JP Morgan Chase $663,000; Credit Suisse -- $554,000; Citigroup $418,000.

Obama had to be wondering-- I know I was-- “Will he say anything to be elected?” If so, how will he govern? “Bain Capital” Romney proposes the complete elimination of Dodd-Frank, the legislation which contains the offending “kiss”.

“Empathetic” Romney telegraphed his move to the center days earlier, saying he would not suspend the visas Obama put into place granting children of immigrants a reprieve from deportation.  Previously “Joe Arpaio” Romney has said he would see to it that college age immigrants are not allowed to get tax payer funded incentives to attend college. I guess the goal being to keep 11 million immigrants in a state of perpetual povertry. “Joe Arpaio” Romney endorsed the right wing fantasy “self- deportation movement, which suggests as the Washington Post put it that, “that America’s 11 million undocumented immigrants would simply go home if government made their lives miserable enough”. The liberal firebrand Newt Gingrich called the movement an “Obama level fantasy”.

After the debate “Empathetic” Romney told Sean Hannity that the “47%” comments made by “Rich Guy” Romney were “just completely wrong”. This must have come to news to Hannity who has been defending the statement outright, and has himself been making the case that Obama’s domestic agenda is fashioned to buy votes with welfare and $125 per family monthly stipends of food stamps.

For those of us paying attention, one has to wonder who is this guy? After a season of bellicose and bitter dialogue which included self-deportation, silence in the face unconstrained attacks on women, foolish arguments about contraception, silence in the face of the right wing hordes, booing gay soldiers, cheering the death penalty run amok in Texas, suggestions amplified with hoorah’s from the crowd that people who get sick without insurance should be left to die, the Republican candidate is finally moving to the center.

Meanwhile, “I Like Cheesey Grits” Romney slyly runs a whites-only campaign for the base that believes with all its heart that Obama is a Muslim Socialist.  Loose talk and innuendo has lead between 25% and 50% of Republicans-- depending on which state they come from—to believe that Obama is a Muslim.  For those on the right that look to vilify a billion souls for the political advantage they believe it brings them I offer a single finger salute.  If the worse they can do is accuse someone of being a Muslim, then I too consider myself a Muslim, and a Jew, and a Christian, and an agnostic, and an atheist.

“Cheesey Grits” Romney offers a dog-whistle campaign appeal for angry whites and is built on distortions of the welfare work requirements and the bill-boarding of the phrase “Food Stamp” president. These are tactics to de-legitimize what Newt Gingrich recently said was “not a real President”. 

“Crazy Ivan” Romney, zig sagging his campaign this way and that, is confusing from both a political and as well as a governing standpoint. At the debate, “Deficit Hawk” Romney says he will not pass any tax cut that will add to the deficit. “Empathetic” Romney promises he will not cut taxes for the rich, but will cut them for the middle class. We know "Cayman Islands" Romney does not "worry about the poor". “Crazy Ivan” Romney wants to cut tax rates by 20% across the board, but can provide no measurable way to keep them from affecting the deficit or siphoning vast fortunes off to those of already unimaginable wealth. He has recently suggested that he will cut rates, but cap deductions, perhaps at a relatively low level for the rich. That sounds a little like a combination of “Deficit Hawk” and “Empathetic” Romney. However, “Cayman Island” Romney would eliminate the Estate Tax, a huge gift to the wealthy and their heirs. In the end he will either have to cut taxes less, get a host unpalatable spending cuts through Congress, or run up the deficit. Since increasing the deficit is the most politically expedient I wonder which way “Finger to the Wind" Romney will go?

On energy “Bain Capital” Romney wants to protect a total of $70 billion a year that Obama has proposed for elimination to the oil and coal industries. In fairness, there is substantial Democratic opposition to these subsidies in some states. Money tops principle on both sides of the aisle when it comes to energy. There is no “Devout” Romney concerned about the future of the planet . But, “Governor of Massachusetts” Romney issued a 72-point Climate Protection Plan. Alas “Bain Capital” Romney killed that guy, and now denies the existence climate change.

“Empathetic” Romney say he loves Big Bird and Jim Lehrer, but he wants to eliminate PBS funding. “Empathetic” Romney loves teachers while his party tries to destroy by any means necessary the unions that represent them. What might “Right To Life”Romney say he loves so he can justify his proposed funding elimination for Planned Parenthood, something “Governor of Massachusetts” Romney would not have tolerated.  “Empathetic” Romney believes in regulation, but he would roll back Dodd Frank and turn the EPA authority for the management of our water supply over to the states (HR 2018 & HR 872).