Mitt's Ongoing Cloud Strategy

Mitt Romney knows he's in trouble. That much became obvious yesterday, when reporters asked Mitt whether he was going to campaign harder in the wake of a slew of bad polling. The candidate almost literally answered with, "Quick, look over there!"

"Ha ha. We’re in the stretch aren’t we? Look at those clouds. It’s beautiful," Romney answered, pointing to the sky. "Look at those things."

I suppose the reporters could be thankful Mitt didn't just tell them their shoes were untied, then take off running when they looked down. Meanwhile, Ann Romney's on the radio telling conservative critics to back off:

During an interview with radio Iowa, Ann Romney was asked how she would respond to influential conservative critics like Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan and Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol.

“Stop it!” she snapped. “You want to try it? Get in the ring.”

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Swinging Away

Mitt Romney has some serious trouble in the swing states. A slew of new polling yesterday demonstrated that well. As Taegan Goddard pointed out yesterday, "There are 11 swing state polls so far today and Obama leads in all of them." This is not good news for the Grand Old Pachyderms. It turns out that, in order to win the national election, you have to win some state elections. And all those swing states seem to be swinging away.

In fact, where Ohio and Virginia used to be concerned crucial to Mitt Romney's victory, conservatives are now trying to figure out how to do it without those states.

Real Clear Politics:

“Their biggest concern right now is: How do they win Ohio and Virginia?” one GOP strategist said, echoing comments made by several other national Republicans outside of the Romney campaign. “They’ve got an issue with those two states.”

Obama leads in Ohio by 4.8 percent and in Virginia by 4.7 percent, according to the latest RealClearPolitics polling averages.

There are many reasons why Romney’s climb looks steeper in these two states than it does in other battlegrounds, but at the heart of the matter is a perception that the economies in both are rebounding faster than is the case elsewhere.

The problem is that, without Virginia and Ohio, the math is actually worse

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No Conservatives, That's Not The Good News You Think It Is

Anyone who thinks the Romney campaign isn't in trouble just hasn't been paying attention. While Mitt's 47-percent controversy is the first thing to come to mind, this is the old one-two -- one disaster following another. His comments on the unrest in Libya that claimed the lives of US personnel have caused four in ten voters to think worse of him, according to one poll. So he was still recovering from one blow when the second landed. The past seven days have not been kind to the Republican nominee.

The New York Times' Michael Barbaro writes that a "palpably gloomy and openly frustrated mood has begun to creep into Mr. Romney’s campaign for president." Conservative columnist Peggy Noonan calls the Romney campaign "incompetent" and calls on "activists, party supporters and big donors" to pressure them to make radical changes to their approach. And remember, this all comes after a "reboot" that was supposed to reinvigorate an election campaign that seemed to be running out of steam. After the reboot, things are actually worse. Much worse.

So any not-so-bad news is excellent news. The problem is that, from where conservatives stand right now, pretty much everything looks like not-so-bad news, even when it's not. The desperate wanderer in a desert might be more likely to see a mirage and the desperate partisan may be more likely to spot good news. So it is with Mother Jones' release of the full video of Mitt's 47-percent controversy.

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Mitt's Red State Freeloaders

Apparently, Mitt Romney really wants to have this conversation:

There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax.

Yes, let's talk about all those red state freeloaders. Mitt's wrong about one thing; the majority of non-income taxpayers are red staters, as the map above demonstrates. So let's talk about what a tremendous failure Republican economic policies are. Let's have that conversation.

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Defending a Con Man's Right to Run a Con

If the honor wasn't already taken by wingnut blogger Jim Hoft, fellow wingnut blogger Glenn Reynolds would be a solid contender for the title of Internet's Dumbest Man. They both deal in histrionic dishonesty and over-the-top fake outrage, aiming their posts straight at the most gullible, paranoid, and idiotic readers on the web. If their websites went dark overnight, the world would be a much less stupid place.

But, like Hoft, Reynolds serves a purpose -- both are excellent examples of just how insane the right wing in this country has become and both of these would-be Glenn Becks demonstrate the strident, limitless idiocy that characterizes the wingnut blogosphere. If I were to write a counter post for every stupid and just plain wrong post just one of these two morons wrote, I would never post anything else -- there are only so many hours in a day. So it's not my intention to straighten out the readers of this Reynolds post, but rather to show just how unfathomably stupid those readers must actually be. Anyone who joins in on the hero-worship of known con artist and meth cook Nakoula Basseley Nakoula is a proven idiot, but this goes far beyond that.

Long story short, Reynolds believes (or pretends to believe -- I'll take him at his word and assume he's dumb enough to believe it) that President Obama must resign because of this:

By sending -- literally -- brownshirted enforcers to engage in -- literally -- a midnight knock at the door of a man for the non-crime of embarrassing the President of the United States and his administration, President Obama violated [his oath of office]. You can try to pretty this up (It’s just about possible probation violations! Sure.), or make excuses or draw distinctions, but that’s what’s happened. It is a betrayal of his duties as President, and a disgrace.

He won’t resign, of course. First, the President has the appreciation of free speech that one would expect from a Chicago Machine politician, which is to say, none. Second, he’s not getting any pressure. Indeed, the very press that went crazy over Ari Fleischer’s misrepresented remarks seems far less interested in the actions of an administration that I repeat, literally sent brown-shirted enforcers to launch a midnight knock on a filmmaker’s door.

But Obama’s behavior -- and that of his enablers in the press -- has laid down a marker for those who are paying attention. By these actions he is, I repeat, unfit to hold office. I hope and expect that the voters will agree in November.

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