The entire Romney-Ryan campaign boils down to two essential points:
Really; yesterday the RR campaign came out and said it could not divulge precise policy proposals, like what tax deductions might be eliminated to balance the budget, because Democrats are mean. Angry Black Lady writes,
The Obama campaign, on the one hand, has got all these different tools that you can use to figure out how Obama’s policies will affect you: as a woman, for example, (The Life of Julia) or as a taxpayer (you can calculate your tax rate with his nifty tax calculator).
Romney and Ryan, on the other hand, have no nifty tools — Whiteboard of Fail, notwithstanding — and are willing to tell voters exactly two things: Jack and Shit.
R and R argue that if they released details of what they plan to do, those awful Democrats would just demagogue them. You know — like the Republicans relentlessly demagogue President Obama’s record and policies, because hate and lies are all they have to run on.
Four years ago the Obama campaign web site, which I actually read pretty carefully, had page after page after page after page of details on how they proposed to achieve their various campaign promises. And, um, they won.
(And the Obama Administration actually stuck to most of those details as closely as Congress allowed. Those who perpetually whine about how Obama sold them out obviously never read the website and mistook Obama for the Progressive Utopia Fairy.)
Basically, they’re asking us to put the nation into a blind trust that the Right will manage. And while they won’t tell us how they will invest our money, they are promising the equivalent of a 300 percent return with no risk.
Part of me is looking forward to the Republican convention. Seriously. The Republicans have figured out they can’t make Romney lovable, so the theme of the convention is going to be professionalism. They’re going to emphasize Mitt’s business background (leaving out Bain Capital?) to argue that Mitt just knows how to take care of money stuff, so we should let him be president.
To me, this sounds like they are veering awfully close to the Michael Dukakis line — “This election isn’t about ideology. It’s about competence.” I happened to like that line at the time, but it seems to have fallen flat with most Americans. And, of course, this election is precisely about ideology, and I have no doubt the convention participants are not going to let America forget that.
It’s going to be the Mother of All Clown Shows, in other words. America will be treated to four days of unhinged baggerism, and then Mitt is going to take the stage and proclaim he is a serious adult professional and we should just trust him to know what he’s doing. Yeah, that should work.
Update: Somebody set up a Romney’s White Board site. This one’s my favorite (although it took me a few seconds) —
Update: If you are feeling discouraged, read Nate Silver, Why I’m Not Buying the Romney Rally.