Where's the Outrage?

If you’re going to go to Screw Up Your Campaign University you will have to take its curriculum. The first class, required by all freshmen, How to Blow Up Your Campaign in a Spectacular Fashion by Trying to Outsmart Everyone Else is a 101-level class and is taught by Rudy Giuliani. The second class, an easy A, is How to Lose a National Election by Being Too Lazy to Try and Campaign is taught by Fred Thompson. Now comes the much harder second-year classes on how to lose a national campaign. This requires special effort. Gary Hart is teaching one of the classes on how to challenge the media to find your girlfriend while denying that you have a girlfriend. The next class is very special. You must have a candidate who is somewhat witty and is extremely successful in private life. The candidate must never say anything of substance. The candidate should repackage old ideas in order to get national traction. Once the candidate gets national attention and begins to jump ahead in the polls, the candidate should release a tax plan that is really rehashing old ideas which were rejected 20 – 30 years ago, but package it with a cute title. Next, the candidate should have some sort of vague sex scandal. The scandal should instantly remind older voters of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Then, instead of squashing the scandal by giving a clear, crisp and precise answer as soon as the scandal breaks, the candidate and his surrogates should give multiple different answers which only muddy the water. The candidate should put out an ad that features a surrogate smoking a cigarette. The ad should look so odd as to make the viewer completely forget what the message is and simply focus on the man smoking a cigarette (see video below). Finally, you should probably have some sort of campaign finance scandal which appeals to even the casual voter to reek of cronyism and break campaign finance laws. This course can only be taught by Herman Cain.

Herman Cain's bizarre political ad [ 0:56 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Elections, Party Politics by ecthompson md
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Here’s a nice graph comparing the tax plans of President Obama, Rick Perry and, of course, Herman Cain. Notice that both Rick Perry’s and Herman Cain’s tax plans (which are basically the same plan with a few minor variations) penalize the poor for being poor and reward the rich for being rich.

More here.

Tags: Economy by ecthompson md
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There’s been a ton of speculation on the Internet that there were something wrong with Rick Perry when he spoke in New Hampshire over the weekend. Was he drunk? Was he high? Was there something medically wrong with him? Take a look at these clips from the Rachel Maddow Show. These clips clearly show a different Rick Perry. I would go as far to say as it shows a Rick Perry who was clearly “nonpresidential.”

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Tags: Party Politics by ecthompson md
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It should be no surprise to anyone that we are more connected with our brothers across the ocean than ever before. With the Internet and various treaties and whatnot, it is now possible for me to order olives in Greece and have them delivered, here, next week. While this is sweet, this benefit also comes with a downside. Our financial markets are more interconnected than ever. This means it actually matters what happens in the European Union. If Europe falls into a deep, deep recession, our economy will stagnate. (I know some of you are asking how it could stagnate even more, but take my word for it, can.)

The news out of Europe is really awful:

The government of Prime Minister George Papandreou teetered on the verge of collapse on Tuesday, threatening Greece’s adherence to the terms of a new deal with its foreign lenders and plunging Europe into a fresh bout of financial turmoil.

Several lawmakers in the governing Socialist Party rejected Mr. Papandreou’s surprise plan for a popular referendum on the Greek bailout, raising the possibility that he will not survive a no-confidence vote scheduled for Friday that depends on his holding together a razor-thin parliamentary majority. Mr. Papandreou was holding an emergency cabinet meeting Tuesday evening to save his government, but the opposition and some members of his own party were calling for new elections immediately.

The impasse in Athens seemed likely to delay — and perhaps scuttle — the debt deal that European leaders reached after marathon negotiations in Brussels last week. Financial markets cratered on Tuesday for the second straight day, wiping out the gains since the Brussels deal was announced last week. Some analysts said that Greece was now coming closer to a messy default on its debt, and perhaps a departure from the zone of 17 countries that use the euro as their common currency.

Tags: Economy, Foreign Affairs by ecthompson md
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