GOP Voters Find Romney as Exciting as a Saltine

The New Hampshire primaries are today and, if polling is to be believed, Mitt Romney may be looking at a landslide. This is probably fortunate for Team Romney, since it may wipe the taste of a humiliating Iowa squeaker from their mouths. Then again, Mitt's trajectory has been downward in the Granite State in recent days, so it's possible that he may not get his monstrous win. Still, barring a miracle, Romney will win.

While the media have been talking about Romney's "inevitability" as the GOP nominee, the other narrative has been the Republican voters' inability to get behind him. While polls show him winning in New Hampshire, I haven't seen one that has him cracking 50%. If this primary battle is what the media has portrayed it to be -- Romney vs. Not-Romney -- then Not-Romney still has the numbers, if not the candidate. As a result, Mitt Romney's rise seems to be accompanied by a consequence; waning GOP enthusiasm.

Part of the reason for the Iowa squeaker was that evaporating enthusiasm. Where turnout for the caucuses was expected to reach 140,000, 122,000 showed up. Romney won by eight votes, making it the tightest win in caucus history. And the number of registered Iowa Republicans has declined from 21.1 percent in 2008 to 19.9 percent now.

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Not the "Greatest Country in the World," But Getting There

Is the United States the greatest country in the world? Not if you look at the facts. Our infant mortality rate is worse than forty other nations, we rank in the middle of all nations in terms of income inequality, and we compare poorly with the rest of the world when it comes to people living in poverty. "America is the greatest nation in the world" is something you're supposed to say if asked, maybe even believe, but by most measures it simply isn't true.

Which is why progressives exist. People on the right like to point to progressives' skepticism about this whole "greatest country in the world" stuff to paint us as America-haters. This is poor logic. The person who loves something is the person who's willing to do the work to fix it when it starts falling behind. Leaving everything be and hoping for the best is laziness, not love. Progress means there's always room for improvement, while conservatism believes that everything is fine the way it is -- in fact, it's the belief that things are worse than they used to be. Which explains why they're all busy trying to undo the 20th century.

And it explains why real progress toward real liberty sticks in their craw. As Don't Ask, Don't Tell ends today, it's important to mark a milestone of American progress toward being the greatest country in the world.

Associated Press:

Just as the formal repeal of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy took effect, Navy Lt. Gary Ross and his partner were married before a small group of family and friends.

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The GOP's Self-Laid Medicare Trap

The Paul Ryan economic trainwreck budget plan is dead. While not killing it outright, Senate Republican leadership have all but abandoned it. And even if it had ever gotten to the president's desk, it would've been vetoed. The path to survival for Ryan's fantasy-economics porn looks nonexistent and the whole idea exists only as a statement of principle. And that principle isn't being widely embraced by the party.

It may be that Newt Gingrich did Democrats and liberals a tremendous favor by establishing the Ryan plan as a sacred cow. By criticizing it, Newt embarked on what was the worst political week in recent history and set the groundrules for any other Republican campaigns -- the Ryan plan is the most perfect and brilliant piece of legislation ever written and Republican candidates criticize it at their peril.

Which is why Democrats are so eager to make it a campaign issue. Let me correct that; Democrats want to make it the campaign issue. Polling shows that Ryan's plan is about as popular as a fart in an elevator, making it a perplexing hill for House Republicans to choose to die on.

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Does Wolf Blitzer Want to Replace Bob Barker?

If the Democratic [transcript] and Republican [transcript] debates in New Hampshire told you anything you didn't already know, you haven't been paying attention. Sponsored by CNN and hosted -- I won't say 'moderated' -- by Wolf Blitzer, these debates seemed designed to generate headlines, not inform.

For instance, it's been widely reported that while answering a question about abortion, Rudy Giuliani's microphone was cut by a lightning strike. "Clearly, God is pissed at Rudy," commentators have laughed. But look at the damned question he was trying to answer:

Mayor Giuliani, there was some news here today. A Catholic bishop in Rhode Island said some words about your position on abortion, suggesting that it was similar to Pontius Pilate's personal opposition to Jesus Christ's crucifixion but allowing it to happen anyway.

How does that make you feel when you hear words like that from a Catholic bishop?

See, this is why I'll never be elected to any office. I'd have answered, "It makes me feel like it's a stupid question. My position is the position of millions of americans -- in fact, the majority -- and this idiot is insulting us all. My response to the bishop would be to invite him to kiss my ass."

Putting aside whether my answer was any good, it is a stupid question. "Some guy no one has ever heard of outside of Rhode Freakin' Island -- population 3 -- said something outrageous about you," Blitzer might as well have said. "Respond."

Debates are meant to inform, not entertain. But Blitzer has been acting like the host on a game show -- Who Wants to be President? At this point, just about everyone is an undecided voter and, assuming that you're trying to figure out who to vote for, what questions would you ask? Would this be one?

[SCOTT] SPRADLING (Political Director of WMUR-TV, NH and co-moderator): Gentlemen, last night (sic) we asked Democrats, if they were elected, what role -- would they use former President Clinton. I'm not going to ask you that. (Laughter.)

SEN. BROWNBACK: Thank you.

MR. SPRADLING: But Governor Thompson, I'd like to know, seeing as how you were a member of President Bush's Cabinet as Health and Human Services secretary, how would you use George W. Bush in your administration?

I doubt it. Again, it's a stupid question. What is this, The Dating Game? Seriously, how much less informative would it have been if Spradling had asked, "Let's say I'm a banana split -- candidate number 1, how would you top me?"

A CBS News/New York Times Poll asked, "What do you think is the most important problem facing this country today?" and got these answers in this order; War in Iraq, Economy/Jobs, Gas/Heating oil crisis, Immigration, Health care, Terrorism (general), President Bush, Environment, Moral values/Family values, Poverty/Homelessness, and Foreign policy. (Don't you love how there's a measurable percentage who think President Bush is 'the most important problem facing this country today?')

Given that list, it's a little hard to justify this question to Democrats:

MR. BLITZER: All right. We're going to move on to the next question. But before we do, one related question. And I'm going to periodically ask you to raise your hand if you agree or you -- if you agree with the question.

And I want you to raise your hand if you believe English should be the official language of the United States. (Pause.) The only hand I see is Senator Gravel.

Yes Wolf, let's ask the questions that polls show no one freakin' cares about. And a show of hands? What is it about the word 'debate' that confuses you? He did the same thing to GOP candidates with a question about evolution. Sen. Sam Brownback's been explaining his answer ever since -- something he should've been able to do on that stage. It's not a freakin' quiz.

And Brownback has other things to complain about -- as does Mike Gravel, Tommy Thompson, Joe Biden, Dennis Kucinich, Jim Gilmore, etc. If you're not a fruntrunner, you're wallpaper.

Daily Press, Virginia:

Republican presidential hopeful Jim Gilmore had to sit on the sidelines Tuesday night during most of a two-hour presidential debate that featured 10 GOP candidates.

The former Virginia governor barely had a few minutes to speak during the 120-minute debate from New Hampshire that was televised commercial-free on CNN.

Again, how is this a 'debate?' Wolf Blitzer made sure to farm plenty of quotes from Clinton, Obama, Giuliani, Romney, Edwards, and McCain -- everyone else was an afterthought.

In case you haven't noticed yet, my argument is that the CNN hosted debates have sucked. A while back, there was a minor controversy over FOX hosted dem debates -- they finally fell through. But has CNN been any better than everyone was afraid FOX would be? Not that I can tell.

Anyone hoping to learn anything from these debates should be disappointed. If they were designed to keep you ignorant, they couldn't have done a better job.

--Wisco

Technorati tags: politics; elections; 2008; Republican; Democrat; Say it with me, "I watched the CNN-hosted New Hamshire debates and I'm just as dumb now as I was before -- maybe dumber!"