Romney laughs off Frankenstorm

Just to make sure people remember and are clear where the candidates stand on things: This is Mitt Romney's attitude about having Frankenstorms become the new normal.



So Romney, how about helping the families hit by climate change disasters like this one? How about helping the next generation of farmers? How about helping families in the Mississippi River valley where we're seeing 100 and 500 year floods almost every year now?

What an ignorant ass.

Debate Moderator Fail: Does anyone worry about gas prices when their home is destroyed by disaster?

I always felt Candy Crowley focused on the frivolous, like most of CNN, so she exceeded my expectations moderating the Presidential debate. She mostly did an acceptable job, but her decision to focus the energy discussion on gas prices rather than climate change was a massive failure.

Crowley chose the question on gas prices and asked two follow up questions to keep the focus there. It's a way of framing the energy debate that ignores a far more important issue. If a persons' home or workplace is destroyed by a catastrophic flood, hurricane, or wildfire; or if their crop is destroyed by drought, then suddenly gas prices aren't the most important problem. I can only guess about whether Crowley's misguided focus is due to a lack of understanding the enormity of the problem or because of CNN's reliance on massive advertising revenue from the fossil fuel industry. The press is still part of the problem.

It's disappointing that Obama didn't raise climate change himself, but keeping the focus on gas prices is a way to put politicians who want to deal with climate change on the defensive. Obama did the right thing by investing heavily in clean energy and efficiency. But, the smaller stimulus investments in clean coal have largely been a failure and pandering to coal is gaining Obama nothing politically. The coal industry will continue spending millions to fight him, no matter how much he increases coal mining production or throws subsidies at them.

The American energy infrastructure needs to be rebuilt. It's the best large-scale jobs plan anyone has come up with. It's time to stop kidding people about bringing back coal jobs (new mining methods employ half as many people anyway) and make sure more of the new energy economy jobs are created in poor coal mining regions. The alternative is to let our economy be destroyed by climate change disasters. Obama may not be aggressive enough, but Romney's energy policy is simply suicidal.

Added update: Last night, I didn't see Crowley's quote after the debate that's making enviros moan this morning.

"I had that question for all of you climate change people. We just, you know, again, we knew that the economy was still the main thing so you knew you kind of wanted to go with the economy."

So, she thinks climate change is an interest group, not a problem that will impact all of humanity. And, she doesn't think more frequent floods, hurricanes, wildfires, and droughts are an economic issue. Now I remember why I stopped watching CNN.

Local debate watch party news coverage. Romney's lies catching up.

The State Journal-Register sent a reporter to the Liberty Brew & View debate watch party at the Capital City Bar & Grill movie room. They got a few good quotes from the crowd.

Nick Whitfield of Springfield said he believed Romney flip-flopped during the debate about his tax break plan for the wealthiest Americans. “How do you debate a guy that doesn’t stay on the same spot?” he said.

Nich hits on one of the two things Obama did best at the debate. First he hammered away at Romney as a flip-flopper. That's a powerful, ugly label independent voters will remember long after they forget the specific issues discussed.

Second, he let Romney lie. By not responding to each lie, he escaped the "he said, she said" cop-out stories. It will be more difficult for the press to cover Romney's lies as countering claims made by competing candidates. They'll be forced to fact check Romney and plainly admit themselves that he lied frequently.

Climate Progress has a good post on Romney's biggest lie of the night: his whopper that half the companies getting clean energy stimulus funds failed. The fact that he believed anything remotely close to that shows he's out of touch with reality on energy.

Ok, one last thing. Jim Lehrer is getting a lot of criticism but I liked the debate format. Even hosts of talking head soundbite shows complain that debates consist of nothing but pre-packaged soundbites. Lehrer let candidates get into details and talk at length about specific issues. So...isn't that what people who complain about soundbites wanted to see? I like it a heck of a lot better than the 30-second answers in the overcrowded primary debates.

Talking heads focus on debate style over substance. Romney wants to flood your house.

I was pretty shocked after the debate when MSNBC hosts started crying about how badly they think Obama did. After a while I realized that their entire critique is about the performance style of each candidate rather than what either one actually said.

I'm used to Obama's style so I wasn't surprised by how he spoke tonight. He acts as though he has respect for the intelligence of the American public, which is obviously pretty risky. I like his calm, rational approach as a contrast to the foaming at the mouth conservatism that has been popular the last few years.

The national pundits disagree. Chris Matthews was the worst, bemoaning that there was no Robert Kennedy backstage. I'm surprised he could stop daydreaming about the Kennedys long enough to watch the debate. I muted the TV about the time that Matthews was screaming that Obama should watch MSNBC to get debate pointers.

No, Chris, no one should watch MSNBC to get pointers because most of what the cable networks do is crap. This may be news to the talking heads, but many people think that someone who constantly interrupts and talks over others like Romney did tonight (and like you do to your guests) is a rude jackass. Romney's rude behavior and smug smile did not impress me.

Personally, if someone is shoveling a lot of bullshit, I don't care if they do it with a smile. I can still smell bullshit. Not so with the cable news talking heads. They don't talk about substance and facts anymore because dealing in reality means opening yourself up to accusations of liberal bias. And so, they talk about which candidate gave the best "performance" in terms of style while avoiding discussion of any actual issue.

This is why cable news is a waste of time, including most of MSNBC. They rarely deal with substance. They know nothing but style, spin, and people screaming over each other. Rachel Maddow is the only MSNBC host I can handle in daily doses.

Speaking of substance, there was a clear distinction on energy issues. Romney loves coal, unlike his days as Governor when he said he wouldn't support jobs that kill people. He hates clean energy, and he lied about half of the businesses getting green stimulus funds failing. Once again, it's OK with the cable news talking heads if Romney makes things up, as long as he does it aggressively.

Mitt Romney apparently thinks that catastrophic flooding, hurricanes, droughts, and other climate change disasters will be good for the economy. Wow.

Creating green jobs through the stimulus package is the biggest success of Obama's first term. It needs to happen again on a bigger scale in his second term. Creating tons of jobs by rebuilding America's energy infrastructure is the best plan anyone has to revive the economy. I hope Obama will go on the offensive about climate change instead of letting Romney turn green jobs into something negative.

Anyway, the debate watch party I hosted was a good time. I liked watching with friends and meeting some new ones. A reporter showed up so there may be a State Journal-Register article. People are enthusiastic about local campaigns, including David Gill's congressional campaign.

Reactions to the debate were mixed. Some agree with the talking heads that Obama didn't do well, and others thought Romney was terrible. Everyone is looking forward to Joe Biden in the Vice-Presidential debate!

Beating a dead dancing horse

I was thinking of finishing off a post I started about Mitt Romney's Manifest Destiny foreign policy views and how those views are likely influenced by Mormon beliefs about America being a kind of promised land. But, why bother? I never thought Romney had much of a chance and things keep getting worse for him.

The only question now is how much of Congress will be filled with obstructionists who would rather sabotage the economy than vote for anything proposed by Barack Obama. I'll be focusing on down-ballot races.

Is Romney's anti-unionism rooted in his religion?

It's difficult to talk about Mitt Romney's religion. He belongs to one of the most misunderstood and historically persecuted religions in America. Mormons have been subjected to years of misleading hate campaigns, sometimes conducted by the same evangelical Protestant leaders who are now supporting Romney for President. Most of the criticisms I've seen are based on misconceptions.

It's probably best to leave the subject alone. But, then Romney had to say something silly like implying that Obama would take "God" off money and out of the pledge. That sounds like an open invitation from Romney to discuss his religious beliefs, and having been raised Mormon, I have some insights I could share.

Romney attacked Chicago teachers today claiming that, "teachers unions have too often made plain that their interests conflict with those of our children." I'm sure teachers will have plenty to say about that, so I'll focus on the topic of Mormonism and the labor movement.

The fact that Romney is a millionaire venture capitalist who enjoys laying off workers and shipping jobs overseas is probably reason enough for him to be anti-union. However, he may also be influenced by the long-standing hostility his church has toward the labor movement.

This essay from the Utah History Encyclopedia recounts the Mormon church's opposition to unions going back to the late 19th century, and later support of right-to-work laws. The concept of "free agency" is interpreted by Mormon leaders to mean that a person should be free to work at any job without being forced to join a union. In the 1940's an Apostle of the church represented the leadership's position by calling closed union shops "Satan's club and therefore destructive of human rights."

When Congress considered a bill to overturn state right-to-work laws in 1965, Church President David O. McKay sent a letter to all Mormon members of Congress. He publicly stated that "state right-to-work laws should be maintained inviolate."

Curiously, most Mormons don't interpret "free agency" in the same way on the issue of reproductive choice for women.

Modern Mormon leaders say less about politics publicly than did their counterparts in history, but as a former leading lay clergyman, Romney must be familiar with the church's attitude toward unions. The official stance of the church is reinforced by the Mormon culture of the Mountain West that's strongly anti-union. Whether based on his predatory business dealings or religious background, it's clear what sort of approach a Romney Presidency would take toward working people.

I noticed that Mitt Romney made his claim about taking God off money while campaigning with Pat Robertson. Robertson's 700 Club and Christian Broadcasting Network have long distributed misleading hate literature offensive to Mormons that call the religion a non-Christian cult. Romney spoke earlier this year at Liberty University where a course on Western religion describes Mormonism as a cult, along with Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists.

I've seen no mention of Romney correcting Pat Robertson or Liberty University about their anti-Mormon campaigns. I find it difficult to understand how a man can have so little self-respect that he fails to defend his own faith while embracing religious bigots. I guess that's part of running for President.