Mitt "Electability" Romney has won just one general election in nearly twenty years of politicking. His one and only term of office left him with an approval rating of 34%. Make no mistake about it: this was the best guy the Republicans had to offer this cycle.
Try to imagine just how bad the guy's running mate will have to be.
Of course, sane people will tell you that Rob Portman is the most obvious choice and, in this context, Portman's not bad at all. There are other promising contenders, too. Rand Paul would be great help in fundraising and energizing the Paul, er, enthusiasts, but the guy clearly isn't ready for prime time and nobody wants to be the next Sarah Palin in that regard. Paul Ryan offers similar benefits, but would have the unfortunate side effect of calling attention to what Republicans have actually been up to these last couple of years. Jeb Bush would make a great running mate, if it weren't for the fact that his last name is poison outside Florida. And, hey, maybe with enough coaxing Mike Huckabee could be convinced to--no, wait. No he couldn't.
But sane people aren't terribly involved in the GOP nomination process. The people who are have--strangely enough, even for them--spent the last week or so lobbying to make Bobby Jindal Romney's #2. Bobby freakin' Jindal.
Bobby Jindal, Bobby Jindal... How can I put this kindly? Bobby Jindal is an outright curiosity. Bobby Jindal is beyond gifted academically, yet he more often than not manages to come off like the lost cousin of Goober and Gomer Pyle. The one they never talk about. When Barney asks how Bobby is doing, Goober and Gomer just shake their heads and stare at their feet. Still, he is a Republican-friendly curiosity: Jindal is, after all, walking validation of every anti-intellectual suspicion the right wing holds about higher education.
Most of the world was introduced to Jindal through his shockingly daft 2009 State of the Union response, described as "painful" by Republican Strategist Ed Rollins immediately after.
If you don't recall Jindal's bizarre, all-smiles rant about "out of control" government spending, it might be because he managed to identify none. His list of pork included just three items: High speed rail systems (since when is the government responsible for infrastructure, anyway?), "cars for the government" and "something called volcano monitoring."
"Something called volcano monitoring." Those were Jindal's very words. It was as if to say, "What sorcery is this!"
"Instead of monitoring volcanoes," he concluded, "what congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, DC." Funny, I know some women who would say the same thing about their uteruses.
Also funny that he used the word "eruption," which made it sound like he knew why a government interested in public safety might want to monitor volcanoes. Yet, there he sat, wide-eyed and slack-jawed, in awe that such a thing might even exist. As if the Earth itself felt compelled to slap him in the back of the head, one of Jindal's volcanoes erupted soon after.
At the same time, it would be very, very difficult to overstate how impressive Jindal's educational pedigree is. Bobby Jindal is, literally, a Rhodes scholar. He is also a biology major who claims there is "no scientific theory" that explains how organic life comes from inorganic matter. You know, like abiogenesis through the formation of amino acids, most likely in the Eoarchean era, as demonstrated in the Miller-Urey experiment. But I might be getting some of that wrong--I'm not a Rhodes scholar or biology major, after all. Bobby Jindal is the science guy; I am not.
Maybe Bobby Jindal missed that day of class because he was, at the time, living in a William Blatty novel.
You see, one of Jindal's college friends, Susan, was treated for cancer. In recounting the events that spun out of that tragedy, Jindal takes great pains to imply that the young woman was in love with him, but that he wanted only a very close friendship. One night, with an operation imminent, the young woman suddenly left a concert they had attended together, sobbing. Later, Jindal noted that she had been acting strangely even apart from that... but for whatever reason? The cancer? The treatment? Unrequited love? Demonic possession?
The next day, she collapsed in extreme pain, followed by a seizure--the sort of thing that might prompt you or me to call an ambulance. Unfortunately for the young woman, this happened at a prayer meeting. Demonic possession was the preferred diagnosis. Jindal and his campus crusader pals decided to perform an exorcism rather than call for help.
Here's a taste of Jindal's account:
"The students, led by Susan's sister and Louise, a member of a charismatic church, engaged in loud and desperate prayers while holding Susan with one hand. Kneeling on the ground, my friends were chanting, 'Satan, I command you to leave this woman.' Others exhorted all 'demons to leave in the name of Christ.' It is no exaggeration to note the tears and sweat among those assembled. Susan lashed out at the assembled students with verbal assaults."
Clearly, this was a case of demonic possession, as no person in the throes of a genuine and serious medical emergency someone might lash out at those people like that.
Jindal's full account reads like satire--a black-as-night comedy that would be hilarious if it were not, allegedly, true. After more "oooh-woo-oooh" and bumps in the night, he continues:
"Maybe she sensed our weariness; whether by plan or coincidence, Susan chose the perfect opportunity to attempt an escape. She suddenly leapt up and ran for the door, despite the many hands holding her down. This burst of action served to revive the tired group of students and they soon had her restrained once again, this time half kneeling and half standing. Alice, a student leader in Campus Crusade for Christ, entered the room for the first time, brandishing a crucifix. Running out of options, UCF had turned to a rival campus Christian group for spiritual tactics. The preacher had denied our request for assistance and recommended that we not confront the demon; his suggestion was a little late."
Apparently, no one suggested the "spiritual tactic" of calling an ambulance to the man Grover Norquist would like to see a heartbeat away from the presidency.
 |
 |
|
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Electoral Votes (270 to win) |
332 | 206 |
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 65,899,660 | 60,932,152 |
| Percent | 51.1% | 47.2% |
| Democrats* | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Current Senate | 53 | 47 |
| Seats gained or lost | +2 | -2 |
| New Total | 55 | 45 |
| Democrats | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Seats won | 201 | 234 |
There is never a problem with ending the life of someone believed to be in possession by non-existent supernatural evil beings.
Ironically...
I think I’d be willing to enjoy the six-pack I just consumed with Sarah Palin, although NEVER with her daughter, Bristol…
As long as she’s an ‘abstinence-only’ spokes-person!!
I’m white, pushin ’60, a (former) fire-arms-owning U.S. citizen, who CAN’T find f/t employment, despite a 'granite-solid' employment history, and over 30 (‘municipal’) commendations earned during a nearly 30 year (‘paid & volunteer’), ‘A.E.M.T.-4-Paramedic, A.C.L.S.’ career!
Just the demographic this (self-alleged) 'mamma - grizzly' claims she's &/or, the republicans, are
‘spokes persons’ of / for...
I even sport a, (‘neo-pagan-religious’...; the 1st. of many, I expect…), polar-bear tattoo!
I’m hardly one of the ‘barbarian_hordes’...if you’ll pardon my (intentional) sarcasm!!
The entire ‘republican_compassionate_conservative’ election_effort, which is neither ‘compassionate’,
‘Christian’, (nor, especially, ‘conservative’), IS the 'Sarah Palin’ of 2012!
Realclearpolitics.com had a similar electoral_college projection, (to H/P’s projection), a coupla weeks back…in which they postulated ‘O’Bama vs. Romney’ at ‘250 vs. 170’, (in O’Bama’s favor)!
This is an insurmountable_obstacle, politically speaking, for Mr. W.Mittans “…I smile as I discuss how I love firing people!!” Romney!
Correct me if I’m mistaken, but…
Realclearpolitics.com is hardly a ‘neo-communist’ website!
theory - Definition of theory
Obsolete a mental viewing; contemplation; a speculative idea or plan as to how something might be done; a systematic statement of principles involved: the theory of ...
www.yourdictionary.com/theory
"theory" that is used in common vernacular and the term "theory" as in "scientific theory."
A scientific theory has to meet many rigorous tests of its accuracy. Since there is really no way to replicated the origins of life, either naturally or unnaturally, that life came from the forming of amino acids from molecules commonly occurring in the inorganic make up of the earth, there is likely to never be a scientific theory of that no matter how obvious it is logically or empirically.
It is a certainly a workable, laboratory reproducible hypothesis of how life likely began on earth.
The Garden of Eden is a folk tale about which there is not one shred of factual or even empirical evidence, and it fails any test of empirical evidence or common sense, and is certainly unreproducible (pun intended).
Personally I pity any person whose faith is only possible by believing in magic and mystic hocus pocus. There is a wondrous and awesomely complex reality that we live in that they have blinded themselves to.
"And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,
Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him... neither could any man tame him.
"And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.
"But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him,
And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.
"For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.
"And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.
"And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country.
"Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding.
"And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them.
"And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine:
and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea."
- Mark 5:2-13
Oh look! There's a dog chasing its tail. Silly dog.
I'm no Atheist but that is not the true nature of Creation or the Universe or that "Consciousness" we call "God!"
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2575961/posts?page=10
What a strange story! He makes everything that happens all about him. Everything... and everybody is performing for him.
1. The one speech years ago that didn't go over very well.
2. Some kind of attempted exorcism back in college
That is not a substantive argument against Jindal.
The fact that this behavior, unlike Sarah Palins case, is presented in an otherwise intelligent, educated person in no way reduces the amount of recoil it produces among voters.
Jindal had - and flopped - his screen test for prime time, and even the most vigorous shaking under Romneys etch-a-sketch messaging won't erase the indelible impression those accounts have left.
Jindal is currently attempting to cheat state workers out of their pensions, leading to a mass exodus of people who have ANY CLUE what they're doing from state government. These are the people who have been holding the state together while Jindal tries to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.
Jindal would make a fantastic VP candidate and VP.
It is now finally getting its act together.
Jindal's Reaganesque charisma seems to be obvious to nearly everyone but you. Here's 99 seconds that ought to open your eyes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SSAgoxd-QQ
And saying that someone has "Reaganesque charisma" to me means that they have dementia.
8 hours ago (9:36 AM)
I don't like or trust Mary Landrieu and I'm a Dem but if she really accomplishes anything positive for LA I will be glad. And you are so right about "Reaganesque charisma"! Fanned and faved.