Day: August 19, 2012

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan: Both Avoid Transparency On Finances, So Match Well!

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It is well known that Mitt Romney, the GOP Presidential nominee, has refused to release more information about his taxes beyond 2010’s returns, and the promised 2011 tax return when it is belatedly filed by October.

But now we discover, thanks to the website PoliticsUSA, that Paul Ryan, the Vice Presidential nominee, kept an inheritance of more than a million dollars secret until after he was vetted in the early stages for Vice President. That inheritance is from his mother in law after her death in 2010, and is now worth a few million dollars. It was not reported for two years on his disclosure forms, and was only added to the information provided Mitt Romney after Ryan had gone through early stages of the Vice Presidential search.

Romney must have liked that Ryan was secretive, and unwilling to reveal a major part of his assets, as he is cut of the same cloth!

Medicare Will Decide The Election: IF Obama Wins Florida AND New Hampshire Of “Battleground” States, He Wins The Presidency!

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Chuck Todd of NBC’s Meet The Press just demonstrated how close Barack Obama is to a victory for the White House.

Showing an electoral vote map with 237 electoral votes in Obama’s camp and 191 in Mitt Romney’s camp, Todd demonstrates that there are NINE true “battleground” or “swing” states, and if Obama wins Florida and New Hampshire, he has the second term he wants in the White House! And the issue of Medicare, brought to central focus by Paul Ryan and his budget plans on that program, will be the center of the victory of Obama for the Presidency!

Even if Romney wins the other seven contestable states—Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa, Colorado, and Nevada—he would lose the Electoral College 270-268, due to Florida’s 29 electoral votes and New Hampshire’s 4 electoral votes!

But, to assume that Obama would really lose all seven of those states is also delusional, as it is certain that he will win some, and probably, most of them!

This author has been saying this for a long time, and has found some readers of this blog, conservative and Republican friends and associates, and people on Fox News Channel and talk radio, act as if only the public opinion polls, which often show a close race in many states and nationally, should be paid attention to, but that is NOT the case!

The election is decided by the Electoral College, NOT the popular vote nationally,and do not forget that George W. Bush LOST the popular vote in 2000, but was declared the winner of the Electoral College! The same happened to Benjamin Harrison, Rutherford Hayes, and John Quincy Adams in the past!

But to conclude that, somehow, Barack Obama will lose the national popular vote, with the Republican alienation of Hispanics-Latinos, African Americans, women, young voters, the middle class, senior citizens, gays and lesbians, the poor, labor, educators, consumer advocates, environmentalists, and secular voters—in each case, the majority, not all of any group, of course—indicates that those believing what they do are indeed delusional, and cannot be helped by ordinary medical intervention!

92 Years Since 19th Amendment (Woman Suffrage) Was Ratified!

Ronald 16 Comments

Yesterday, August 18, was the 92nd anniversary of the 19th Amendment, the Woman Suffrage amendment.

The thought that it took two thirds of a century (72 years to be precise) to give women the right to vote is astounding in today’s world, but the fight began with the Equal Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, and was a struggle highlighted by the activism of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, as well as Alice Paul and others. It finally came to fruition when Tennessee became the 36th state out of 48 to ratify in 1920.

Women had little influence on politics in the early years, but now women play a major role, although their representation comes nowhere near their percentage of the population (about 50.8 percent).

Women have been voting a majority Democratic for a long time, and women again could have a major role in the election, with a majority seeing the Republican Party as attacking women’s rights at work, their safety from abusive men, and control of their reproductive lives.

Many women are running for public office, and this might lead to an increase in Congress, and already, women have proved they can serve on the Supreme Court, in high cabinet positions, and have distinguished careers in Congress and the state legislatures and Governorships.

This anniversary is a moment to celebrate, and to remember the long struggle for the basic right everyone should have in a democracy without question, the right to vote!