POST-CONVENTION BOOST FOR THE PRESIDENT

        As I predicted (What A Difference!) President Obama's approval rating got a nice bump following the Democratic Convention. The Gallup Poll reported a seven-point boost over his pre-convention rating.
        Many factors combined to produce the positive result, including especially powerful speeches by keynoter Julian Castor and First Lady Michelle Obama on Tuesday night, Massachusetts Senatorial candidate Elizabeth Warren, women's reproductive rights activist Sandra Fluke, and former President Bill Clinton on Wednesday night, and Senator John Kerry, Vice President Joe Biden, and President Barack Obama on Friday night, and many others. The speakers were on target and well-coordinated, and the cumulative effect was an  impressively persuasive case for the reelection of the President.
        The positive, upbeat tone throughout the convention and the genuine enthusiasm of the delegates were contagious, and hitherto undecided viewers were obviously favorably impressed, as reflected in the bump in the President's approval rating. It was considerable higher than the pundits were predicting, given the minimal effect of the Republican Convention on Mitt Romney's approval rating.

AP Photo/Charles Dharapak 

         For me the most inspirational moment of the entire convention was when former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, accompanied by Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, walked out on stage to lead the delegates in the Pledge of Allegiance. Still recovering from the effects of the assassination attempt that nearly took her life in January, 2011, she was greeted by shouts of "Gabby! Gabby!," as she waved to her admiring audience.      
         I'm sure that the Pledge of Allegiance has never had a greater emotional impact on those who joined her in the Pledge that night. There weren't many dry eyes in the convention hall as she spoke the words, and I dare say among those watching at home, including yours truly.

AGAIN I SAY, WHAT A DIFFERENCE!

        After watching the final night of the Democratic National Convention, I repeat even more emphatically what I wrote in my blogpost following the first night: what a difference between this week and last week!

DLM Press. Pacific Coast News.com

        To all the reasons I gave for saying how much more inspirational, uplifting, positive, and substantive the Democratic Convention was than the Republican Convention, let me add another difference that occurred to me after watching the last two nights. It was the difference in the way the delegates at the two conventions looked at their respective candidates.
        The expressions on their faces told it all. The DNC delegates were genuinely inspired by President Obama. They looked at him with obvious affection, respect, pride, and gratitude. They hung on every word, and they nodded in agreement and expressed their approval with vigorous enthusiasm.
        I didn’t see that same spontaneous affection, respect, pride, and gratitude on the faces of the  RNC delegates. Their enthusiasm seemed somewhat hollow to me. It was as if they were trying to make themselves like their candidate, as if they were listening for things they could agree with, especially Mr. Romney’s attacks on the President.
        I said in my earlier post, there was a positive thrust to the DNC, whereas the tone of the RNC was much more negative. The faces of the delegates at the two conventions seemed to reflect that difference, but I admit that observation might have been influenced by my own
reactions to the two speakers.
        Last night Bill Clinton skillfully answered every one the Republican false charges against the President. Tonight John Kerry gave a brilliant tribute to the President’s foreign policy, leaving no doubt as to who is the more qualified person to be the commander-in-chief of our armed forces and to handle our nation’s international affairs. Vice President Joe Biden’s acceptance speech was a powerful testimony to the President’s leadership and to the personal qualities he has most admired about Barack Obama after working with him so closely during their first term in office.
       The various speakers were well coordinated and they set the stage perfectly for the President, whose acceptance speech more than lived up to everyone’s high expectations. I can’t imagine how any truly open-minded person, after watching both conventions, could fail to choose Barack Obama and Joe Biden over Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.

DILEMMA OF A WOULD-BE ACTIVIST

I profess to be innocent of the sins of my forbears,
        but am I, really?
I disclaim my complicity in the cause of your plight,
        but can I, really?
I say I hear your angry rhetoric,
        but do I, really?
I wonder why you do not trust my worthy declarations,
        but should I, really?
I claim to identify with you in your struggle,
        but have I, really?
I know there is something I can and must do,
        but will I ---really?

(from If I Do Say So Myself)

WHAT A DIFFERENCE!

San Francisco Chronicle 

        Having watched the Republican National Convention and now the first night of the Democratic National Convention, my immediate reaction is, what a difference!
        The speakers tonight had far more substance and their tone was far more positive than that of their Republican counterparts. The Republicans spent more time criticizing President Obama than they did praising Mitt Romney. The Democrats were just the opposite. They spent most of their time praising the President and making the case for his reelection.
       There was a highly visible difference in the make-up of the attendance at the two conventions as well. The inclusiveness and diversity of the Democratic delegates was in marked contrast to the almost totally white Republican audience. It was exciting to see a microcosm of America tonight!
        I should mention one other important difference. There was something electric and exciting in the air at DCN. The delegates were much more emotionally involved, it seemed to me. Their enthusiasm was palpable, and they responded empathetically to the speakers.The Republicans were loudest when their speakers were negative about their opponent. The Democrats were loudest when the speakers were positive about their candidate!
        The effect was inspirational. It was a great start for the Democrats, and with some excellent speakers yet to come, including former President Bill Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden, and President Obama himself, I'm going to be glued to my television set. If  the speakers can maintain the same high level in terms of style and substance for the next two nights, I'll be surprised if the President doesn't get a bigger boost in the polls following the convention than the Republican candidate did following the RNC.
        That's assuming there are enough independents and swing voters still left out there to make a difference.

       

THE WRONG QUESTION

        The Republicans are asking the wrong question, and the Democrats need to make that point.
        The question is not, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?”  The question should be, “Is our nation better off now than it was four years ago?” The answer to the latter question is a resounding YES!
        Our nation is moving in the right direction. Even though unemployment is still far too high, for the past twenty-seven months istead of losing jobs, we are gaining jobs. Thanks to the stimulus, more than four million private sector jobs have been created. Many small businesses have been helped.
        The housing market is improving; home prices are rising.
        Thanks to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, women are now getting equal pay for equal work.
        The American auto industry was on the verge of collapse and is now thriving again.
        So, too, a major financial crisis was averted by the Wall Street bailout. The Stock market is flourishing. The Dow Jones Average is nearly double what it was four years ago.
        With the passage of the Affordable Care Act, more than thirty million previously uninsured Americans now have health care coverage, and millions more are benefitting or will soon be benefitting from its other provisions. Because of the Affordable Care Act, the life of Medicare has been extended by at least eight years, at no increase in cost to individuals.
        As to international relations, we are far better off than we were four years ago. The war in Iraq has ended. The end of the war in Afghanistan is in sight. Osama Bin Laden, the leader of the world’s most dangerous terrorist organization, and many of his henchmen have been eliminated. Al Qaeda, while still a threat, is far less so now than four years ago. America’s place of leadership and respect in the community of nations has been restored.
        These are only a few of the reasons why our nation is better off now than it was four years ago, and if our nation is better off, then everyone is better off, even those who are unemployed, for there is more hope for their future now.
        That is, unless the Republicans win the election and take us back to where we were four years ago!

HOPE FOR THE FUTURE

It is said that the future belongs to the young,
but that saying is simply not true.
That's because when the bell of the future has rung,
that day's young will be somebody new.

Why does each generation repeat that cliché,
as if it were something profound?
For will not tomorrow be always today
to those who will still be around?

Furthermore, there's no comfort at all in the thought
that the future belongs to the young.
For we are the future for those who once thought
that the hope of the world on us hung!

Though I know what they mean when they say what they say,
such a word from believers is odd.
For what hope for the world is there really today,
if the future belongs not to God?

"MAKE MY DAY" CLINT RUINED MITT'S NIGHT

Clint Eastwood addresses an imaginary Barack Obama
 seated in the chair to his left.   Getty Images

        I've always enjoyed Clint Eastwood's movies, but I didn't enjoy Clint at the RNC Thursday night.
        He looked seedy and unkempt, and his slurred speech and the way he stumbled over his words, made me wonder if he'd had too much to drink before he appeared.
        I don't think I'm the only one who thought his routine was totally inappropriate. Some of the delegates enjoyed his raw humor, but others, including Ann Romney, seemed uncomfortable with it.
        The Republicans had a grand time bashing the President, but no one, not even "Make my day" Clint, has the right to be so disrespectful of the President of the United States. Had the President actually been sitting in the chair, Eastwood would not have had the guts or the gall to address him that way.
        For the movie actor/director to respond to his imaginary conversationalist in a manner that suggested Barack Obama would use the kind of foul language Eastwood made it perfectly clear he was using, was offensive, and those who laughed at it were just as disgusting to me.
        Eastwood's unscripted routine was an embarrassment to the program planners, who have been trying hard to put their best spin on it. The not-such-a-mystery guest speaker displaced the video that would have set the stage for the Man of the Hour, Mitt Romney. Not only that, it wasted a valuable chunk of prime time television, when the networks were covering the convention.
        Because Eastwood ignored the clock, Senator Marco Rubio had to rush through his lengthy introduction of Governor Romney, who in turn appeared later than he was supposed to. The next morning the blogosphere was buzzing with comments not about Romney's acceptance speech, but about Eastwood's weird performance.
        The devil in me wants to say to the Republicans, "It serves you right!" But the better part of me rues the fact that millions of viewers had to be exposed to such a distasteful exhibition by the iconic Clint Eastwood.

PS Now it has been revealed (see this morning's NY Times front page article) that it was Candidate Romney himself who invited Eastwood to speak, following the actor's endorsement of Romney at a campaign fund raiser in Idaho earlier this summer. Romney's top aides, Russ Schriefer and Stuart Stevens, provided the talking points for Eastwood, who chose his own way to present them, ignoring in the process the blinking red signal to stop. Need we say more?
     
     
 

THE REAL MITT ROMNEY

        There was only one thing missing from the Republican National Convention---the truth!
        I was hoping that tonight would be different, but it wasn't. I heard the same old lies, the same misrepresentations, and, of course, the same unsubstantiated claims and promises without specifics.
        Having heard the speeches of all of the attack dogs, I was expecting the presidential candidate to rise above his usual negative rhetoric and present his softer, more likable side. Tonight's program, we were told by the analysts, was to help those present and those watching at home to know the real Mitt Romney.
        The culmination of the orchestrated effort was to be the candidate's acceptance speech.  
I would have to say the planners achieved their purpose. Only it turns out that the real Mitt Romney is the Mitt Romney we've been watching and listing to throughout this campaign!
        The real Mitt Romney does not tell the truth, even after his prevarications have been publicly exposed. If the real Mitt Romney cannot be trusted now, how could we trust him as President of the United States?
               

THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION

The Republican National Convention

        If only there could have been a true prophet at the RNC to stand up and ask, "Is there a truthful Republican in the house?"
        (to which I would have been tempted to add, "or in the Senate?")
        Will there be a truthful speaker at the RNC? Probably not, there hasn't been so far, and we haven't even heard from Mitt Romney yet!
        The speeches have been filled with half truths and outright falsehoods. To be sure, to varying degrees of effectiveness, they are revving up the crowd. Paul Ryan's speech last night gave them all the red meat they wanted. To be sure, they have every right to declare their differences with the current administration, to criticize its programs and policies, and to poke fun at their opponents. That's politics, and the Republicans are good at it.
        But what they say should bear some resemblance to the truth, and when their words are blatantly inconsistent with their records, that's utterly deceitful and hypocritical. As to be expected, the speakers have consistently misrepresented the President ("he wants to eliminate the work requirement for welfare recipients"), lied about him ("he robbed Medicare of $716 billion to pay for Obamacare"), and quoted him out of context ("he told business owners, 'You didn't build your business'"). The fact checkers are having a field day!
        Ann Romney charmed the delegates Tuesday night. Her love for and belief in her husband was obvious and sincere. She assured her audience that her husband "is a man you can trust!" But I was wondering, as she said that, how can I trust a man who doesn't tell the truth, who is constantly changing his story, whose professed financial policies are not consistent with his personal practices, whose refusal to reveal his income tax returns makes many people wonder what he's hiding, and who is either unable or unwilling to give a straight answer to a direct question, especially one having to do with his "plan" for saving the American economy?
        The Republicans accept no blame for the fact that they have consistently opposed every piece of legislation designed to help solve the very problems they're complaining about, e.g., the American Jobs Act, which was the President's plan for putting people back to work.  As I have said in previous blog posts, don't blame the President, blame the Republicans! They would rather let the country suffer than help Barack Obama succeed..Their stated goal was make him a one-term President. So now they are savoring the opportunity to blame the President for all of America's problems.
        The Democrats will have their opportunity next week to set the record straight at their own convention. They have one huge advantage over the Republicans: they don't have to lie! The facts are on their side.

UNFAIR CRITICISM OF THE PRESIDENT*

Photo by Catherine Vail 

        President Obama has been criticized, in my view often unfairly, for failing to keep some of his campaign promises. You will hear it at the Republican national convention. I say unfairly for three reasons. The Republicans make it sound as if he deliberately ignored his promises, as if his promises were lies, in other words. That is totally unfair. There is a huge difference between sincere but unfulfilled goals and deliberately misstated intentions.
        The second reason the criticism is unfair is that most of the blame for what has not been accomplished lies not with President but with the Republicans, who have opposed whatever he proposed. Their intention from the start was to prevent the President from succeeding. Their publicly stated goal was to make him “a one-term President.”
        So if the unemployment rate is higher than it should be, blame the Republicans who prevented passage of the American Jobs Act. If the rich are not paying their fair share of taxes, blame the Republicans who filibustered the bill to extend the Bush tax cuts for the middle class but not for those making more than $250,000 a year. If comprehensive immigration reform has not happened, blame the Senate Republicans for filibustering the Dream Act. If the Affordable Care Act has flaws in it, blame the Republicans whose proposals were incorporated in the Democrats’ compromising effort to gain bi-partisan support for the legislation. Yet even when they got what they insisted upon, the Republicans still refused to vote for a plan that would provide healthcare coverage and service for millions of hitherto uninsured Americans.
* See article entitled CONSISTENTLY INCONSISTENT, posted on August, 30, 2014

UNDER THE INFLUENCE

All drunken drivers are a threat
        to others and themselves, and yet,
there's overwhelming evidence
        to show that most car accidents
are caused by social drinkers who
        have had no more than one or two!
Contrary to what some fools think,
        it's dangerous to take a drink
before you get behind the wheel,
        because one drink can make you feel
that you're completely in control.
        but that one drink can take its toll
on your reaction time and make
        you take some risks your shouldn't take,
like speeding through a yellow light,
        or passing someone on the right.
So many people drink these days,
        that they'll not likely change their ways.
There's nothing wrong, most would agree,
        with someone's drinking socially.
The problem isn't what they think;
        the problem is, they drive and drink!

(from If I Do Say So Myself)

JUST KIDDING

        Mitt Romney got a big laugh out of his audience at a rally in suburban Detroit yesterday, when after commenting that he and his wife were born in Michigan, he quipped "No one has ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place that we were born and raised."
        The crowd clearly got the implied reference to the birthers' demand to see Barack Obama's birth certificate on the presumption that he was not born in the United States and consequently has no right to hold the office of President. Romney supporter Donald Trump and his ilk continue to harp on this theme, despite the fact that the President has released his long form birth certificate.

"No one has ever asked to see my birth certificate"!

        It was a calculated zinger, but when asked why he would make such a statement, Romney told CBS evening news anchor Scott Pelley that he was only joking. "And humor, you know ---we've got to have a little humor in a campaign." Romney assured Pelley that he believed the President was born in America and had every right to be President, but the joke was sure to appeal to the "birthers," whose support he needs in the forthcoming election.
        Romney's remark illustrates a point I made in a poem I wrote several years ago. It is entitled JUST KIDDING and is based on this saying from the Book of Proverbs: "Like a maniac who shoots deadly firebrands and arrows, so is one who deceives a neighbor and says, 'I am only joking'" (Proverbs 26:18-19, NRSV).

If you want folks

to like your jokes,

yourself of friends not ridding,

it doesn't pay

to sting, and say

"But I was only kidding!"

Time and again

some rascals when

their hurtful fun are poking,

employ that ruse!

It's no excuse

to say, "I'm only joking!"

(from  If I Do Say So Myself)

THE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES

Click on the link below for a thoughtful, thorough, non-partisan view of the forthcoming presidential debates. There is one important omission in the article, however. There is no mention of the fact that Mitt Romney has been lying and contradicting himself throughout this campaign. President Obama will be standing on the high ground in these debates, and that is a huge advantage, for he will have a face-to-face opportunity to confront his opponent and hold him accountable for his many deliberately misleading statements. Mr. Romney has been falsely attacking the President throughout his campaign. The President can turn the tables in the debates and put his opponent on the defense. I'm assuming the format of the debates will give him that opportunity.  We should all be watching to see if the debate moderators will ask questions that enable such a confrontation.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/09/slugfest/309063/?single_page=true

THE MOST DISHONEST CAMPAIGN

Never in my entire life have I witnessed a more dishonest presidential campaign than that which the Republicans are running this year.

Believe the opposite of what they say!

Romney and Ryan, whose plan would destroy Medicare as we know it, are accusing the President, whose plan will prolong the life of Medicare, of destroying Medicare! That’s their karlrovian approach! The President’s plan has reduced the cost not the benefits of Medicare by 716 billion dollars, by eliminating excessive payments to insurance companies and health care providers.
Yet the Republican candidates are accusing the President of robbing Medicare of that amount in order to pay for the Affordable Care Act. That’s the dickcheyneyan principle: If you tell a lie often enough people will believe it.
So, too, with their total misrepresentation of the President’s welfare program, which they say has no work requirement. That is an outright lie, but they keep saying it. They want people to believe the exact opposite of the truth. They should not be allowed to get away with such deliberate falsehoods!

THANKS FOR KEEPING TO THE HIGH GROUND, MR. PRESIDENT!

         In my previous post I talked about voter suppression and deplored the failure of any Republicans to speak out against it.
         It would be too much to expect Mitt Romney to oppose it. He has everything to gain if his supporters can steal the election by hook or by crook. His campaign has lacked integrity from the start. He will say or do anything to get elected. His team strategy is obvious: find a way to deny or denounce, distort or misrepresent every accomplishment of the Obama administration.
        Witness the most recent Republican misleading documercial featuring some retired Navy SEALs criticizing the President for “taking credit’ for getting rid of Osama bin Laden. CNN investigated and found that the makers of the film have strong ties to the G.O.P.! The film completely distorts the facts. The Republicans are clever at that!
         When non-partisan, independent researchers point out their discrepancies, as in the case of their misrepresentation of the facts relating to Medicare and the Affordable Care Act, it doesn’t seem to bother the Romney/Ryan team one bit. They go on repeating the same lies.
         To be sure, both sides are on the attack. But there’s a huge difference between them in terms of both style and substance. The President has not quoted his opponent out of context, or misrepresented his opponent's positions. He has not indulged in the kind of personal attacks to which he himself has been subjected. Nor has he lied about his own accomplishments.
         With regard to Mr. Romney's income tax returns, the President has asked for no more than he himself has already provided. He has never questioned Mitt Romney's faith, or his patriotism, or even his success as a venture capitalist.
         I applaud the Obama team for keeping to the high ground and sticking to the facts!

THE REPUBLICAN WAR ON WOMEN’S RIGHTS CONTINUES

Rep.  Todd Akin - (APPhoto/St. Louis

Post Dispatch, Christian Gooden)

        The Romney team has distanced themselves from Republican Rep. Todd Akin’s totally inappropriate and offensively sexist attempt in an interview two days ago to justify banning all abortions, based on his distinction between what he called “legitimate” rape and what he implied was consensual rape. The former, he argued, never results in pregnancy because the body of a woman who is forcibly raped blocks it! Therefore, by implication, any time a pregnancy results, the woman must have enjoyed it.
        Responding to the backlash from his remarks, Akin has since said he “mis-spoke,” but the damage was done. Members of his own party are demanding that he withdraw as the Republican nominee in the Missouri senatorial campaign. Their concern is political not moral. They're worried about the adverse political fall-out, not about women's rights.
        The truth is that Akin was simply representing the general opposition of ultra-conservative Republicans to abortion under any circumstances, a view shared by Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan, who co-sponsored a bill that declared life begins at conception and defined a fertilized egg as a person. Fortunately the bill never made it to the House floor.  In his fourteen years in Congress Ryan has consistently voted against abortion rights. “I’m as pro-life as a person gets,” he declared in a 2010 magazine interview. Now here he is pretending to be offended by a Republican colleague who was trying to justify the view they both hold about abortion!
        As for Romney, it should be noted that he, too, has expressed his support for an amendment defining personhood as beginning at conception. The inconsistency of his and Ryan’s denunciation of Rep. Akin, given their own similar views on the subject, is another example of their flagrant hypocrisy.
        The Republican war on women’s rights continues, and it is thoroughly consistent with their opposition to and misrepresentation of the Affordable Care Act, which gives women greater control over their health care and free access to several new preventive services.
        Again I ask, why would any thinking woman want to vote for Romney and Ryan?      

THE VOTER FRAUD FRAUD

        The sinister laws of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, and other states aimed at suppressing people’s right to vote on the pretext of preventing voter fraud are a flagrant violation of the fundamental principle of American democracy.

AP Photo

        It is no accident that these unwarranted attacks on voters’ rights are occurring in Republican states and the victims are primarily the poor, the elderly, young adults, college students, African Americans, and other minorities, people who have traditionally voted Democratic.
        In what was, in my view, a travesty of justice Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson, a Republican, upheld the state’s voter identification law. He refused to grant an injunction to stop the law because he saw no evidence that it would lead to disenfranchisement!
        Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Mike Turzai praised the decision. Why not, when he had previously boasted at a meeting of the Republican State Committee that the passage of the voter ID law “is going to allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania.” The law threatens the voting rights of some 750,000 Pennsylvanians!          
        I would like to think that there are some fair-minded Republicans who are appalled by the efforts of Republican-controlled state legislatures to restrict voters’ rights by passing laws designed to solve a problem that doesn’t exist, namely voter fraud. Independent studies have consistently shown that individual voter impersonation is practically non-existent.
        Voter fraud is a fraud! Are there any Republicans who are honest enough to speak up and speak out against what’s going on in their own party? Shame on them for not doing so!

INFINITE FLEXIBILITY

In everything God works for good with those who seek God's will.
          I learned that lesson long ago, and I believe it still.
For many years I tried to name this holy attribute.
          I searched for words that might express my thoughts, but none would suit.
God's mercy, power, grace, compassion, wisdom, truth, or love?
          The concept I was searching for was none of the above.
It had to do with all of them and yet was something more.
          I wondered why it had not been identified before.
At last I hit upon a term which says it all for me.
          It has to do with what I call God's "flexibility."
What if two Christians, both sincere, pray for opposing things?
          How can the God they pray to grant the prayer that each one brings?
What if two enemies at war both thinking their cause just,
          should pray to God for victory in equal faith and trust?
What if while golfers pray for sun, the farmers pray for rain?
          How God could meet the needs of both was once hard to explain,
but now I know this problem was not God's at all but mine.
          If God is God there is no way we can God's will confine.
For God can work within a billion lives at once for good.
          God's  infinitely flexible!  If that is understood,
then one can see how things can work according to God's will,
          yet every human being's free to choose for good or ill.
The unbelieving world can't comprehend this truth at all.
          "We know that all things work for good" ---we who believe, said Paul.
So God can work in everything in such a wondrous way
          that everyone will know through faith God honors what we pray.
In suffering and sorrow, yes, and even in our sin,
          our God can work for good with those who seek God's will therein.
What greater confirmation can there be for what I've said
          than what God did for us in raising Jesus from the dead?
For sin nailed Jesus to the cross, and yet through faith we see

          that out of that defeat God brought eternal victory.

COMMENTS ON THE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN

          The Republicans are resorting to their usual strategy, based on the principle that if you tell a lie often enough and loudly enough, people will start to believe it. Couple that with their karlrovian tactic of accusing their opponent of the very things of which they themselves are guilty and you have a perfect description of the Romney/Ryan approach.

AP Photo by Evan Vucci

          The Republican candidates knew they are on the losing side of the Medicare debate.  So they have decided to go on the attack by completely misrepresenting what the President did. They are accusing Mr. Obama of “robbing” Medicare of 716 billion dollars to help pay for the Affordable Care Act, when in reality that money represents the amount taxpayers have been saved by reductions in excessive payments to insurance companies and health care providers. Despite the fact that there have been absolutely no reductions in Medicare benefits, the Republicans are trying to scare Americans into thinking there are! The audacity of these two arch opponents of Obamacare accusing the President of wanting to kill Medicare! Disagreement is one thing; misrepresenting your opponent’s words and actions is despicable.
          Another example: In his first week as the Vice Presidential candidate Ryan has been denouncing the stimulus as a failure, even though he himself took advantage of if for his own Congressional district, arguing that it would create much needed jobs for his constituents. When the inconsistency was pointed out to him in several press interviews, he at first denied having appealed for stimulus funds. Then he said it was not he, it was members of his staff who did it! But when confronted with copies of letters he himself  had signed, he had to eat his words rather awkwardly.

A ROYAL MORPH

Click on the link below and then on the full screen tab for an amazing morph!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8nJhG1xE5o&feature=em-share_video_user