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Mitt Romney To Announce VP Decision Via Smartphone App
redletterdave writes "In 2008, then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama decided to announce his running mate, then-Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, over a text message, which was sent out to Obama's legions of followers. Four years later, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the likely presidential nominee from the Republican Party, has decided to make his VP announcement over a smartphone app. On Tuesday, Mitt Romney's campaign team launched a smartphone app called 'Mitt's VP,' which promises app users will be the first to know the official news of Romney's running mate for the November election. Once Romney makes his decision, he will announce the news over the app, which will alert smartphone owners with a text notification."
At this point, as crazy partisan as things have gotten, I'm pretty sure everyone in their right minds has already decided where they stand in the fall. Obama, Romney, third party, or stay at home--I doubt there are very many left who are going to be swayed at this point by a VP nominee. Short of Romney either pulling off a miracle (announcing Jesus as his VP, complete with second coming) or making an epic-level misstep (announcing the Colorado shooter as his VP)--I don't think it's going to matter much either way. I'm pretty sure only the die-hard pundits are still listening to either candidate at this point.
I mean, the only time I can remember anyone outside of the pundits even talking about the VP nominees has been when they've REALLY been fuck-ups. And Romney doesn't strike me as the kind of guy to go with one of those (maybe Santorum at the OUTSIDE, and I doubt even that).
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
Mitt has a bad track record with phone apps.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
I thought that in 2008 until McCain picked Palin and I saw (as in I knew personally) die-in-the-wool conservatives actually announce they were supporting Obama this time.
Despite attempts to depict him otherwise (sometimes by himself!), Romney comes across as a moderately competent political moderate, and I suspect his support from centrists is higher than, say, someone like Santorum would have. It's unlikely Romney will pick someone more centrist than himself, the question is whether he'll pick someone all his supporters can live with. McCain picked badly.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
This is exactly the WRONG way to use social media.
Its NOT to broadcast to a select few what decision [insert name here] reached.
Social media is to solicit from the "Wisdom of the Commons" who a running mate should be.
This is so stupid that its doesn't deserve further comment.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Smartphone Apps?
Security traps.
Can't smooth visage
Like fine blade, chaps.
Burma Shave
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
Isn't that what Twitter is for? Does everyone now need their own app?
Corporations are people too!
I wish I could have been in on that meeting, the level of stupidity in picking her was just astounding.
PROTIP for Romney: You have the old people and fox news watchers all locked up, you do not need a VP that will reassure them so stick with someone less crazy. Or don't, I won't vote for you either way.
to see what he mispells this time.
Liberals wanted single payer, not a rebadged Romneycare. So shut up, troll.
Someone who makes an entire app just to receive a text message, does sound like someone who will run an efficient government.
Looks like Max Headroom will be the new VP candidate.
At least he has a mute button.
If "disco" means "I learn" in Latin, does "discothèque" mean "I learn technology"?
This strikes me as an obvious case where a guy - and, more importantly, his campaign staff - just don't grok the technology.
Why on earth would you need a "Mitt's VP" app? There are already numerous, widely-used communication technologies well-suited to this purpose. And on top of that - why would anyone think a single-purpose, one-use-only app makes any sense?
#DeleteChrome
I'm sure that people who don't have this app will be kicking themselves. After all, this app is going to be the ONLY way to learn who Romney has chosen ... for the six seconds it takes for CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and EVERY OTHER TV, INTERNET, RADIO, ETC. NEWS ORGANIZATION IN THE US to get someone on the air announcing it.
Why?
Seriously... um, why would anyone download this app considering the VP pick will be all over the news 5 seconds later? Is Romney trying to look "hip" by doing this? If so, it's a pathetically transparent attempt.
== Jez ==
Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
...require everything necessary to continually contact you and annoy the sh** out of you.
How long until the Democrats have something similarly ridiculous as a contact farming tool?
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I found it scary that Romney was indeed the less crazy choice, but then next to Perry and Santorum it's not difficult to appear an intelligent and compassionate centrist. I'm very curious to see his VP choice, and I'd hope he won't repeat McCain's clusterfuck of a choice.
-- Using the preview button since 2005
My prediction for the VP candidate is going to be a Cheney 2.0
Some rather sketchy politician with really questionable ties to industries whom everyone is pretty sure is just doing it as a means of making a shit load of money, consequences and country be damned.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
It's not about efficiency. It is about outsourcing everything to corporate fat cats.
-
And do you trust that the only thing the app is doing is providing you a text message when the announcement is sent out?
Put on the evil genius hat for a bit and ponder what neat things you could use the app for before and after it' purpose to do additional stuff to the stooges that fell for the trick of 'install this app to receive a text message'.
die-in-the-wool
I think you mean "dyed in the wool," although the idea that they're so devoted that they'd die with the wool still pulled over their eyes works too :-P
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
My prediction for the VP candidate is going to be a Cheney 2.0
Some rather sketchy politician with really questionable ties to industries whom everyone is pretty sure is just doing it as a means of making a shit load of money, consequences and country be damned.
So.. Karl Rove?
Nah, Methuselah always prefers to run things from the shadows...
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
It wasn't stupid to pick Palin. McCain's campaign was going nowhere fast, as the Republicans yet again picked the guy who was next on the list, instead of someone who might actually interest voters. When Palin was announced as the VP pick, McCain's numbers shot up. Most of the people I know who voted Republican that year were voting for Palin, not for McCain.
The Republican establishment inside the District of Corruption doesn't want to hear that they simply bore people. Palin, for all her faults (and yeah, she has 'em), shot some life into the Republican party for a bit.
Romney's probably going to do whatever his advisers tell him to do, which will be moderate, and safe, and utterly boring. Boring does not win elections.
I agree.
However, what else would you expect from America's Borat?
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
I wonder if this application will be open sourced. A high profile person like Romney could get many young people interested in programming.
DNA is the ultimate spaghetti code.
You realize that your insurance company does the same thing, right? Or your insurance company's pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) or some other entity even further divorced from the doctor patient relationship. If you want something other than by formulary under almost any health insurance plan, you pay out of pocket. There is almost no other way to control expenses: you negotiate until you get a good deal and in exchange for the good, you lose exclusivity.
Moreover, you're trolling isn't really helping your cause here. First, most of the United States won't get government sponsored health insurance. Nope, that's reserved for politicians, soldiers, and the very poor. Everything else is going to be by the same commercial insurance companies that already dictate healthcare. Good try though.
Second, control over individual medicaid expenses is something that the RIGHT wants, not the left. It allows states to prioritize their healthcare expenses and make decisions at a state level. You know, the whole "laboratory of states" thing.
As long as by "that" you mean "the App store." It was hard to tell from your context. ;-)
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Despite attempts to depict him otherwise (sometimes by himself!), Romney comes across as a moderately competent political moderate.
I generally consider Mitt Romney to be a thoroughly dishonest political $DEITY-knows-what. These are the only political positions I've actually seen him consistently take:
1. Taxes should be lower, especially on rich people.
2. I'm not Barack Obama. In particular, I'm white.
Everything else seems to me to be up for grabs, and vary from hour to hour depending on who he's talking to.
I am officially gone from
"It wasn't stupid to pick Palin."???
Let's get something straight here. Palin was fucking stupid. She, personally, was a fucking twit.
Anyone thinking that she was a positive for the GOP is also a fucking twit. She did more damage to the GOP brand every time she opened her dumb mouth-hole.
One day I feel I'm ahead of the wheel / the next it's rolling over me / I can get back on / I can get back on
If ever there was an app to be cracked, it must be this. Think of the possibilities --
Mitt selects Kim Jong Il
Mitt selects Vladimir Putin
Mitt selects Sarah Palin
Mitt selects Daffy Dick
Wish I had the chops to try. Anyway, Let the Games Begin!
In the last decade or so, the US political process seems to have refocused on the endless selection of candidates that takes years, rather than focusing on the actual business of government. Other countries typically mount much faster elections, and political parties tend to be ephemeral -- two or three groups may amalgamate to mount a challenge to the ruling party, whereas the Democrats and Republicans seemed locked in a colossal coin toss. Barring a significant political event leading up to the election, we know that one party will edge the other by a handful of votes. Of course, it's easy to provide foreign commentary but much harder to see what could be done to improve the situation. Perhaps we will see the emergence of new regional parties that focus on issues of extreme importance for specific areas? Perhaps we'll see increasing demands placed on the federal gov't by individual states? Or perhaps we'll see the status quo indefinitely. I'd be interested to hear an American perspective on this -- does the system work? How would you improve it?
What people do you hang out with? Inmates at the local asylum?
You, um, might have missed a memo or two about the, er, 'demographic re-targeting' of the GOP brand...
Maybe this app is not just to receive a text message. Maybe this app really is Mitt's VP, and he needs a few million smartphones to run the neural nets.
Most of the elements of the law haven't gone into effect yet. It should not be surprising there haven't been big savings.
How has the "we could all keep our own plans and doctors." claim proven to be a lie?
You should at least read the title of the article you linked. The key points being it's the states that are limiting drug coverage, and it's applying to Medicaid not Medicare.
> Anyone thinking that she was a positive for the GOP is also a
> fucking twit. She did more damage to the GOP brand every time
> she opened her dumb mouth-hole.
Um really? Do you see one of their men in the hot seat for what was the coming economic crisis? Is their man defending his record during a major recession?
Palin was a smart choice for throwing the election, when they already had a good enough candidate for their aims being run by the Dems.
The GOP has spent the past 20 years going off the deep end and pulling the dems over to their side. We have a Dem president who came out of the gate proposing the old GOP healthcare reform, even fighting them for it.
They already won. The last thing they would want is to have to take credit, it ruins their whole strategy, as they demonstrated with Bush II.
People don't seem to realize, you don't win under this system by supporting your people and compromising with likeminded people. You win by going so far to the extreme of your view, that others have to compromise with you.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
Mittware:
Software that like its creator has no perceptible function except to consume the resources of others.
One day I feel I'm ahead of the wheel / the next it's rolling over me / I can get back on / I can get back on
He has also been largely consistent in his assurances that, while being governor of Massachusetts does make him Serious and Experienced, he is absolutely against any policy he endorsed or enacted in that office, and is particularly horrified that this great nation has been saddled with the a medical insurance system practically identical to Romneycare...
No. "Crowd Input" is one aspect of social media. The other aspect is the viral aspect. You want to spread your message across the social web through each node's personal connection by seeding a select few initial nodes. The advantage of that over traditional media is that you can try and generate a buzz. Everybody talking about it, liking, commenting, sharing. Not everything is suiteable for broadcasting via social networks, but this is definitely one major aspect of social networking.
I guess the real question is: What else does that app do? You don't need people installing executables on their phone to receive a text message, it must have other features that made it worth the development effort on Mitt's part. It could have a donate button, but most of his donations are going to 529 groups anyway, so that's not a huge win (it will be there anyway). What is the point of this app?
I read the internet for the articles.
I don't think you can be your own running mate...
And you've met a real Marxist I take it.
I wonder what real Marxists call Obama? A clue... it sure as hell ain't "Comrade"
Romney doesn't need any more money, he has tons more cash than Obama as he is bankrolled by the plutocracy.
although you are right, i forgot the great legion of American idiots, who would give this man money and vote for him, even though he is part of the corporate culture that fired the unemployed American idiot to move his job to a country with less workers rights and cheaper slave like labor. but don't worry, his kind will reemploy the American idiots again, just as soon as all "evil socialist" worker's rights are destroyed and we desperately need the walmart greeter job at one tenth the salary
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
The people who talk about it, have made there minds, There is a big set of undecided,
There are people who have a mixed bag on what they want that doesn't fit political lines.
Pro-Choice and Anti-Welfare
Pro-Life and Wants welfare expansion
Favors A larger military but more gun controls....
The moderates in the world are often treated as not having strong convictions, but they may have strong convictions however their views don't fit the molds, they take a little from each side and try to figure out what is the best balance. These are the people who determine elections, if they feel Romney or Obama has more of the wrong mix, then they will make their vote.
If we are going to just say we are all partisan, why bother voting for a person, we vote for the ideology we want, and we have judges determine if a persons actions fall under the winning ideology. But we actually hire people, people can determine if their key ideology just wont work for that situation and do the right thing and bend it for the greater good. Not being a flip flopper but because there are issues that come up that ideology alone doesn't cover.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Palin made the difference between McCain losing and a landslide.
McCain spent his whole political career trying to be liked by democrats and alienating his fellow republicans.
His prized demographic was gaga over the idea of electing president Chocolate Jesus and republicans didn't particularly like him. Palin saved him from 45 state sweep.
Romney is in a worse position than McCain was. Expect a Rubio type VP.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Well, not all the dems were in favor of this in the house but enough to knock it over the goal line. I believe thirty or forty voted against it. But really, the US needed a health care policy. It was just unsustainable and probably still is, but at least people can now pay to be covered. The funny thing is that some of the people who screamed bloody murder at the passage of the bill will have their lives saved by it.
I just wish Obama had tried for single payer from the beginning and then compromised down to this solution (or I don't know, passed single payer). That way, everyone would have been happy. Well except the die hards. When the dems co-opted the conservative plan, the conservatives had no where to go except to crazy land.
I'm sure the GOP's got the blueprints to build another Romney.
Check out my world simulator thingy.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/mitt-romney/9424524/Mitt-Romney-would-restore-Anglo-Saxon-relations-between-Britain-and-America.html
The Republicans will never run Powell for Prez or VP. They're too afraid that he'd win.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
I'm sorry, where do you get your news? Moderately competent? Really? Romney just came back from a disastrous trip to Europe, where he offended the entire country of Britain, was renounced by the Poles (big fans of Solidarity, not so much of Mitt's union views), pissed off the Palestinians by saying their culture was inferior to Israel's (keep in mind Israel is the occupying force there, keeping free movement of goods and trade limited).
Good lord, the guy keeps talking about the Soviet Union being an adversary of the US! 20 years after the Soviet Union fell!
This guy can chop up a company and "extract" a profit, so can I, that's just numbers on a spreadsheet, but he's not a leader of a super power. And I didn't even get into his buying all the hard drives in Massachusetts after he left office to delete his history there, how he won't release any more than the bare minimum when it comes to his tax returns (his dad released 12 years and set the standard), or how his wife's prancing horse is a $77,000.00 a year tax deduction, more than most American's make a year.
He's worse than anyone will ever admit, because he's all they got, but the guy's toast once they get to the debates and he puts both feet in his mouth at the same time. The crazies took over the Republican party, and CItizens United fogged up the windows so thick that the GOTeaP is toast. Incompetent to the point they can't even find a candidate who's not a twit.
Also, my dogs ride inside the car.
The most sane choice was John Huntsman, unfortunately nobody could get excited about him because he's intelligent, competent, and not a frothing-at-the-mouth ideologue.
The rest were a bunch of fucking clowns, and Romney just managed to be the last man standing by not screwing up too badly and not being too insane.
Check out my world simulator thingy.
You're a moron.
The legislation was drafted by six senators. Three dems. Three republicans. Once it was released, it was sent to a committee vote in which a lot of republican amendments were ACCEPTED. I know. I watched all the friggin live hearings. The hilarious things is that they were so cordial during the proceedings, thanking each other for every motion and then they threw each other under bus during the one-on-one interviews. One minute Grassley is thanking Baucus for getting his motion passed, and the next moment, he's complaining to Fox News that republicans were being stonewalled.
Pure utter bullshit. Obama would have sold his kids up river for an extra republican vote. Yet, you idiots favor quoting talking points instead of using your brains.
Try it out some time. You'll find that people will like you for it.
I'm sure the GOP's got the blueprints to build another Romney.
The problem is that the GOP bought those blueprints from the Democrats. The blueprints they bought were for John Kerry.
Good point. He should price it at $250,000. He'll sell one copy to every major news outlet that doesn't want to get scooped.
Scuse me. I need to go patent this.
“We are part of an Anglo-Saxon heritage, and he feels that the special relationship is special,” the adviser said of Mr Romney, adding: “The White House didn’t fully appreciate the shared history we have”.
He feels the special relationship is special.
This is not about using social media. It's about using the spying ability of smartphone apps to pad his fundraising mailing lists. Everyone who downloads that app will be giving their phone number and twitter name to the campaign. It could also grab their email address, and all the info on everyone in their contact list.
This is an extremely smart, out-of-the-box way of using social media as a stepping stone to outrageously unethical campaign advertising. It's a shining, heartfelt example of amoral power, a pristine jewel of fucking the public when they're not looking. I'm not surprised the Romney campaign came up with it.
Genocide Man -- Life is funny. Death is funnier. Mass murder can be hilarious.
He used to be very consistent about not performing any actions in Pakistan, but after OBL was killed he changed his position. Actually he didn't change his position, but he claims that he still would have gone after OBL in Pakistan even though he would not perform any actions in Pakistan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Mitt_Romney#Pakistan
In 2007, Romney criticized then-candidate Barack Obama for stating that, as President, he would launch military strikes against "high-value terrorist targets" in Pakistan, even without the Pakistani government's approval.[123] In 2011, after such a strike resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden, Romney said that, if he had been President, he would have done "exactly the same thing."[124]
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
Clearly you can't afford your meds, so I'm certain the new system will help you. Nevertheless, I feel compelled to take on your crazy.
First, the economics of the system aren't that controversial. More people paying into the system means more money, fewer "takers" per capita, and, thus, lower premiums. The whole point of the mandate/tax was to make those without insurance, typically, the young and/or healthy, enter into the insurance system. And just to clarify, this part of Obamacare is the clearly Republican part of the scheme.
There is another factor that works to lower overall costs: more insured means less reliance on the more expensive ED system. Because under the prior system, hospitals were obligated to treat everyone, there was an overuse of the most expensive, least efficient health care delivery vehicle: the emergency department. Since those people also can't afford to pay, those costs were passed along to everyone else. Now, in theory, if fewer people have to use the ED for basic healthcare and there is better access to non-emergent care, you will lower everyone's costs.
Second, I'm pretty sure the last clause of your sentence is not even accurate. There are whole categories of "insurance" that are going away. In particular, those include insurance plans that put people in the "under-insured" category. Perhaps, put another way, you can certainly try to buy such insurance packages, but you will not escape the individual mandate.
Third, whether you can keep your doctors is still up to your insurance company, not the government. This really has nothing to do with Obamacare. What's more, there was no guarantee -- even under the old system -- that an insurance plan would allow you to keep your doctor. Of course, when the government is the insurance company, they are in the same spot as an insurance provider (think the VA).
This strikes me as an obvious case where a guy - and, more importantly, his campaign staff - just don't grok the technology.
Sounds more like you are stuck in the past.
Communicating this over an app is brilliant - it's the one piece of information more casual users might have any interest in. So my announcing this choice via an app, Romney gets hundreds of thousands or possible millions of people to download an application, that can be used for further secondary direct messaging later.
It also makes a ton of sense when you realize how hostile most traditional media is towards conservatives. The app totally bypasses the media as we know it - they know when the rest of the world knows.
Far from "not groking technology", Romney's staff is seeing the shift that you and other supposed technology "experts" are unwilling to acknowledge.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I am still surprised that people Think the office of the president is to blame for everything in this country. Like nothing happens that isnt their fault, good or bad.
I often have trouble remembering which way is out of bed in the morning.
I made the previous comment only partly in jest...
Romney attempts at identifying with various segments of America always seem to come off sounding as off-key as his National Anthem.
He tried to connect with southern voters by talking about learning to say "Y'all", and having grits for breakfast. He tries to express sympathy for the middle class by pointing out the servers at his fundraising dinners are not having a good year. And now, he seems like he is trying to make a contrived attempt to seem hip and tech savvy by announcing his VP through an app?
Nothing he does ever rings true.
I almost prefer Palin to this guy. She might have been an idiot, but at least she was a human idiot.
Don't forget that Palin left Wasilla massively in debt (for such a small place) and that her claim to fame as governor -- other than not finishing her term -- was raising taxes on oil corporations and redistributing that cash to Alaskan citizens as cash payouts.
On the one hand, I disagree very strongly with pretty much every policy proposed by Governor Romney. On the other hand, I like to hear things first and lord the knowledge over my colleagues. I also don't mind large political operations tracking my movements.
...Well Played, Romney.
Never underestimate the potential of Human stupidity. -Heinlein
That's why he hasn't released his tax returns... Still interested in voting for this crook? It turns out he's a member of the 49% of Americans that don't pay any taxes and freeload off the backs of Job Creators...
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
The Poles all but endorsed Romney,
Here is the quote the foreign newspapers are reporting: “Kiss my ass; this is a holy site for the Polish people,” said aide Rick Gorka. “Show some respect.”
Sounds like Mitt and especially his aide, appreciated the love the polish people showed him.
the only people who disliked his Israel speech were terrorists.
He enraged a large portion of the Arab population across the world, by saying Palestinian culture was inferior to Isreali culture. The prominent palestinian who criticised him was Saeb Ereket who was the chief negotiator in the peace process for decades. I guess all Palestinians are terrorists in your eyes, even when they dedicate their lives to finding a peaceful solution?
It was Obama that withdrew the Pole's missile shield after all
"The Slovak Minister of Foreign Affairs accused Romney of dredging up settled debates in order to score political points and said they fully embraced the new missile defense"
As to London, do you not find the snafus around Olympic security disconcerting?
Do you think politicians should practice diplomacy? Sure London botched a few things. Does insulting them about it help Mitt appear statesmenlike?
Why is is not better to have a president that actually has an opinion and voices it?
Because the goal of a president isn't to tell the world how he feels. Sharing his opinions doesn't help American interests, and seems to actively hinder the goals of the nation by insulting our strongest ally for no reason.
I used to think Mormons were crazy.
Then I got to know a few of them (I live in AZ). They seemed like really nice, decent people.
Then I got to know them much better... and realized they are very good at hiding their craziness. They have a system and a program in place on how to show you and convince you they aren't crazy. They get points for bringing people into their faith. Their religion is very organized, and a lot of what they do is under a veil of "community". They are staunch conservative Republicans. And the ones I know talk out of one side of their mouth about how horrible liberals are, how Obama is the worst thing to happen to this country - while at the same time leeching off of the system they abhor. Unemployed, collecting public aid and welfare (sometimes from two states at once), and being very shady in general. There is a creepy sense of "entitlement". And I know people who are no longer in the Mormon church... and getting out is not a simple thing. That should tell you something.
I can't generalize all Mormons of course, but I have seen these things on more than one occasion. Knowing what I know first-hand about Mormons, there is no way I want one in the White House. And you are probably thinking that Christians aren't much better.. but I can tell you that in general I agree, but it's not always about choosing the best person it's about choosing the one that is less dangerous. Look up Prop 8, there's tons of info out there.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Romney's a little too clueless about human beings to have actually made all that money. I suspect we have yet to learn the most surprising things there are to know about him, but I can't wait to see what they are. My best guess is he's actually an alien from another planet. Has anyone actually seen his birth certificate?
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Darn, I had all my money on golden stone tablets or whatever the fuck, lol
...so his nomination for VP is SkyNet?
Sara
Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World
Romney's already got all those votes tied up. If he's smart he'll try and pick up some moderate votes, or at the very least not scare away the moderates that plan on voting for him. Picking a right wing nutjob to appeal to the teabaggers is a page out of McCain's playbook.
Hmmmm, Alaskan Flaming Cheese Doodle vs Disney Animatronic Mormon Billionaire... man I'm really stumped here. With Sarah we got some weird kind of head on collision between Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, Jersey Shore and a bad day on CSPAN. With Mitt, we got a genetic melding between Chevy Chase, Zaphod Beeblebrox, a Crash Test Dummy and a tabernacle door knocker.
If Sarah had been elected as Vice President, I'm guessing it would be under the same restriction that Dan Quayle served as Veep, that under the circumstance that the President was for any reason unable to perform the his duties, that the Secret Service would immediately shoot the Vice President.
I've always wondered if Mitt was hand operated or remote controlled... My money is on Jim Henson productions. I hear the nasty job belongs to the guy with his hand up Mitt's pants, moving the mouth.
Anyway, I'm going with Mitt, he has the benefit of being a team effort and all those extra opinions would probably make Mitt more of a consensus guy, by definition.
Hey, I'm a Democrat, social liberal, fiscal moderate, which in a place like this probably makes me some kind of communist, but I am perfectly comfortable saying Romney is almost certainly a moderate who's had to get all pumped up to appeal to his base. I mean the guy already instituted the equivalent of ObamaCare in his own state and its doing just fine. Only the poor slob can't even crow about his accomplishment, because he's sposed' to be all man up against SOCIALISM... booga booga.
I am equally comfortable admitting Obama is not the change I was hoping for. I wanted to see the greedy buggers who almost buried this nation pay for their crimes, and I wanted to see real reform starting with the return of Glass-Steagall. Instead we have a milk toast moderate with a hitman from the recording industries rooming in the Whitehouse, all the while watching my civil and constitutional right vanishing faster than John Holmes at a weenie roast.
I have a brain, attached to two eyes, and I can think and see for myself. I don't do party lines, mostly those are just Conga's straight to hell (whether you be dancing to the left or dancing to the right.) Obama has accomplished some good things too, and its a fact, the numbers are in, ObamaCare will actually save money for the nation, not cost it. The fact is, by limiting costs, its already improving government costs, and by providing medical coverage to the poor (who now are subsidized through emergency visits at 4-8 times the cost of regular medical service) we'll save untold billions. It won't matter, the clowns that promised the world would end if it was passed won't acknowledge they're wrong, that they've been serially wrong for so long, that if they were ever right it might break space and time as we know it. They'll just continue to make crazy ass claims based on undiluted fear and stupid.
I wish I had another choice than Obama. Someone with a reputation for getting things done and getting people to line up and get stuff done. Sadly in this pit-bull political environment, Jebus himself would have a hard time getting folks to play nice. If I thought for a moment that Romney could stand up against the idiots in his party that want to turn America into a full on fascist state, I'd consider him. I'm just not at all certain he has the integrity of conviction to protect us from the flaming wackos walking the isles of Congress. The real challenge for Americans this fall is figuring out how to preserve our freedom, and not fall to the corporate rapist or the rabid ideologues who would turn our nation into a religious state or worse one devoted to an agenda of fear, hate and totalitarian control.
The debates this fall will be interesting, I just doubt anyone will be debating what's really at stake.
How banal. How trite. An app to appeal to the baby Republicans... oh isn't that just precious. I wanna see a little showmanship!!! I wanna see a little fanfare. They should have had the Republican Convention at Disney World, hell its a circus isn't it? And we all know that Florida's all tied up with a bow... can you say JIM CROW!!! So why not have the Mickey bend over, shoot a 50 ft. fireball out of his ass and the smoke coalesces into the ghost of Walt Disney who introduces the newest attraction "Political Land" and the new VP is... and its get's said with fireworks and the choirs of angels backing it up.
An app... blow me.