Todd's Mischief Blog

Yes. That is a Stones reference. Since the naming of Paul Ryan as the running mate of GOP Presidential nominee-apparent Mitt Romney, the Anybody-But-Romney crowd has quieted down its protests. It’s about time, considering that his last serious competitor, Newt Gingrich, dropped out of the race in May, and even the ABR crowd can’t get behind holdout Ron Paul. Still, as pleased as they are with the Ryan pick, and the unabashed conservatism he represents, they aren’t singing Mitt’s praises just yet. Oh, they’ve come around in just about every way imaginable. They’ve always praised his business experience. The flip-flopper and gaffe memes have been largely discredited. His lack of foreign policy experience is dismissed by citing the same of Reagan. Likewise, the Tenth Amendment is cited to put aside questionable aspects of his governorship in Massachusetts apart from RomneyCare. And even there, the ABR’s seem to now take Mitt at his word that he intends to do away with ObamaCare and are ev...

In just over four years, Barack Obama has taken the United States from “Yes, We Can!” to “Oh No, You Didn’t!” But in the days since the Campaigner in Chief told business owners that “if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own,” his apologists and his campaign have been very vehement that Barry did not actually say what he in fact did. They’ve even gone so far as to slide the president’s words off onto his political opponent, Mitt Romney. Just a few days ago, the Obama campaign released the following ad claiming that Romney put words into the president’s mouth: The only problem is, Barack Obama said exactly what Mitt Romney claims he did: Of course, the argument du jour is that Barry was taken out of context. Well, here’s some context: LINK So, what do you think Obama meant? (For a mind-bendingly overwrought interpretation of what the president meant, check out this article from Ezra Klein’s Wonkblog.

I can't tell if this has been Photoshopped. What do you think?

Also: Say hello to the “Sev-Con” There’s a NYTimes article out over the weekend that is all the buzz today. The pull-quote du jour is by former Mitt Romney strategist Mike Murphy, who told National Review in 2005 that Romney "is a pro-life Mormon faking it as a pro-choice friendly." The preferred pick-apart is that this proves Romney will say and do anything to get elected. And, I admit, it certainly sounds damning. If nothing less, it was a poor choice of words. But this is old news. At the time Murphy issued a statement saying he had been misquoted. I’d say the facts support Murphy’s side of the story. The Times article tries to make more ado about Romney’s pro-life journey than there is. In 1994, when he ran against Ted Kennedy, he did not shy away from his personal opposition to abortion but positioned himself by saying “my personal beliefs, like the personal beliefs of other people, should not be brought into a political campaign.” He lost that race. In 2001, Romney e...

Bachmann Wins Ames Straw Poll  Just announced, Michelle Bachmann has won the Ames Straw Poll in Iowa, taking first place with 4823 votes and becoming the first woman to do so. With 4671 votes, second place goes to Ron Paul while third goes to Tim Pawlenty with 2293 votes. Mitt Romney and Rick Perry did not participate (the latter being a little late to the game) but they took 567 and 718 votes, respectively. So what does it all mean?  Any discussion of the Ames Straw Poll should rightly start by pointing out that it has only been conducted five times in the past, so there’s not all that much precedent to rely upon. On the other hand, since the event began in 1979, the candidate winning the Iowa Caucus has placed first or second in the straw poll every time. And the Caucus, with a longer track record, is a pretty fair indicator of who gets the party nomination. So, if the Straw Poll changes anything, it is that it spells out definitely exactly what chances Bachmann has for the...