Friday, April 27, 2012

My guy triangulates. Yours is a weathervane.

The last time I came out to New Hamster was in 2010, and the timing of the trip caused me to have to go down to the City-County Building and vote early, since I would be on the road on election day. This time around I had to go down and vote early because I would not be in town for the Hoosier primaries.

Having almost single-handedly successfully thwarted Santorum's appearance on the ballot in IN by being one of the eight petition signatures he failed to receive, I proceeded to nobly throw my vote away by ticking the box next to Doctor Wookie himself. I also voted for what's his face... that Not Dick Lugar guy.

Downticket I stuck with what research I had done, avoiding people who were incumbents or who thought the greatest perils facing our nation right now had more to do with the gays and the 'bortion than with the fact that we are flat frickin' broke and spending ourselves into oblivion on stuff that would make Thomas Jefferson choke the living $#!+ out of us, were he only alive and possessing 600,000,000 hands.

Granted, this will have about as much effect on the process as bailing the Titanic with a teaspoon, but, like the Sudoku puzzle in your in-flight magazine, it's something to do while you auger in.

Meanwhile, at the national level, it appears that someone turned Mitt upside down and gave him a couple vigorous shakes, exactly as predicted:
For Republicans and certain presidential nominee Mitt Romney, the best defense appears to be a good offense on issues and themes being pushed by President Barack Obama and Democrats.
In recent days, Romney has come out in favor of steps also advocated by Democrats to hold down interest rates for federal student loans and renew the Violence Against Women Act.
This is my shocked face.

17 comments:

SGB said...

Thats just Mitt being Mitt which is like Mitt being Barry.

og said...

Just to be clear: there has not been a candidate for any public office anywhere in the US, in my memory, that i would ever consider "My guy". My voting strategy consists of two criteria, which asshole pisses me off least, and which one pisses most people off most.

Its not working, but very little ever does inside the booth, its what is done outside it that matters.

Tam said...

Og,

"Just to be clear: there has not been a candidate for any public office anywhere in the US, in my memory, that i would ever consider "My guy"."

I was not aware that I had implied such.

Anonymous said...

We're about to be treated to a campaign between two Harvard graduates. There's not a mouse fart's worth of difference between the two of these unctuous clowns, because their worldview springs from the same source: they're products of Harvard.

Harvard graduates don't care about the fate of the nation except in the very abstract sense. They view government as their own private glee club, wherein they assure "proper outcomes" for Ivy League (and especially Harvard) graduates.

Since 2008, my heuristic for voting has added the question "is this candidate a product of the Ivy League?" If the answer is "yes," then I vote against them, regardless of party, position, etc.

Laughingdog said...

It's funny that your trips and mine are to almost the exact same places, but slightly skewed in time frame. I'll be in Knoxville in a few days for a motorcycle trip, and then up in New Hamster for work in a couple weeks.

So far I've missed meeting you once before the Blackwater thing because I was picking up Don Gwinn at the airport, and again last year by 10-15 minutes when meeting Uncle at CCA. It's getting a bit comical at this point.

perlhaqr said...

Anonymous: With the caveat that individuals can prove over a long enough time frame that they aren't like that, I can go with that heuristic.

(The guy who does CoyoteBlog is an Ivy league grad, I believe, and he's a good guy.)

og said...

"I was not aware that I had implied such"

Not other than the title of the post, no. Because you write this blog, I assume, for my amusement exclusively, so when you say "your" I can only assumed you are speaking to me. (lol. Sorry. Just a carryover from that whole DJ "Audience of one" thing;-)

Anonymous said...

If I recall correctly, when Mittens ran for the Senate, his campaign was he was Ted Kennedy Lite.

Just like Teddy except without the seniority.
As angry as voters were at the Teddy at the time, folks just didn’t see Mitt as anything better.

I would believe this would be called foreshadowing in literature.

Gerry

mikee said...

All I can think to say is that Mitt in office will not be Obama in office, and while I really don't want a giant douche as President I also really, really, really dislike the s#*t taco we have now. So out with the old and in with the new boss, same as the old boss, but maybe with better fellow employees around him.

Crotalus (Don't Tread on Me) said...

Yep. I always thought that Romney was just a white Obama. reckon this is the end of America.

Bubblehead Les. said...

As if "RINO Romney" had to run far to go back to being a "Moderate."

Boat Guy said...

Barry Goldwater was "my guy". I was in the fourth grade (but a bit precocious).

Joe in PNG said...

If you see Romney as "Holder Free Obama Lite", then it's a bit easier to vote for him. Getting rid of Eric alone is almost worth the vote in itself.

Joe in PNG said...

Upon reflection:
One big difference is that Romney doesn't have that utter disdain for the Constitution that Obama and his ilk exhibit. While he may follow that George HW Bush road of middle of the road compromise, it's likely to be within the bounds of normal legislative processes. He's not looking to totally disrupt, destroy, and set aside the core of the USA as Obama continues to do.

Anonymous said...

Eh? So, what's a' matter you? Sorry, my inner Portaguese jumped out. I feel ya; ain't voted _for_ any politico since Reagan; love 'im or hate 'im, he was the best of the last-half 20th century.....tried to do what he felt was right. Yes, had failures, but over-all, was a success. JohninMd(help)

Anonymous said...

I know this comes as a surprise even to the liberty-minded, but Ron Paul is still a candidate; I hope you all are planning to cast a vote for him in your state primary/caucus.

No matter what happens, I'm not going to be able to vote for Mitt. Not because there's something wrong with him, but because there's nothing right.

Antibubba

P.S. Now is as good a time to buy more ammo as any.

Tam said...

Antibubba,

"I know this comes as a surprise even to the liberty-minded, but Ron Paul is still a candidate; I hope you all are planning to cast a vote for him in your state primary/caucus."

I said I did, right there in the second paragraph of the post. :)