And The Economist Endorsement Goes To ...

The Economist may not be especially cheerful about the election:

"FOUR years ago, The Economist endorsed Barack Obama for the White House with enthusiasm. So did millions of voters. Next week Americans will trudge to the polls far less hopefully. So (in spirit at least) will this London-based newspaper. Having endured a miserably negative campaign, the world’s most powerful country now has a much more difficult decision to make than it faced four years ago."

Of course, some would say we shouldn't expect cheerful enthusiasm to be the norm from a publication named for "the dismal science".

But nonetheless The Economist has issued an endorsement for President Obama, even if mainly because "Mr Romney has an economic plan that works only if you don’t believe most of what he says".

What Part Was The Mistake Rep Ryan? The Jobs Perhaps?

"Representative Paul D. Ryan said on Thursday it was a mistake to have requested funds in 2009 from the federal stimulus bill after voting against it."

So what part of that was a mistake? Could it be the effort to help create jobs for his constituents?

"The Congressional Budget Office said the stimulus increased employment by 1.3 million to 3.3 million people."

So why would it be a mistake to increase employment? Could that be because the Republicans figure that anything that helps employment during President Obama's term hurts their 2012 election chances? Could that be because they've cynically decided that helping the American people is against their political interests? Could that be because they've fanatically decided that they know what's best for us so much that they figure it's OK to hurt us for a while as long as it helps them get back in power in the long run?

The Sprint Towards Insanity

Wow. And we thought things were getting a bit nutty in the 2010 elections. One has to wonder, since the Democrats have adopted so many of the Republican ideas (e.g., cap-n-trade, etc.) years after the Republicans brought them up: For 2016 will the Democrats also embrace something like what's going on in the Republican party today?

Michael Tomasky said it well, in "The Lies and Lunacy in Tim Pawlenty's Economic Plan", "The Republicans have lost any connection to earth, and the Democrats are afraid (with a few noble exceptions) to tell the American public the truth."

It is in this context, that perhaps we shouldn't be entirely surprised that among the notable celebrated likely serious contenders for the GOP Presidential nomination are Santorum, Romney, and Gingrich. Santorum is so far right-wing that he's been known to make other conservatives nervous. Romney is best known for a plan from which he's desperately trying to disassociate himself and claim it wouldn't be good for the country. And Gingrich has that remarkable contradiction of championing the "Defense of Marriage" while himself going through wives like tissue during cold-n-flu season.

In a nutshell, the GOP is running a bowl of mixed nuts.

Ah, but there's Pawlenty, right? For quite some time, most of what we heard about Pawlenty was that he might be a bit boring ... that he lacked charisma. Perhaps he's not so boring after all. He's put forward a "plan" that's more or less total fiscal insanity. That's some exciting stuff. You can't be entirely boring when you put forward a plan that ridiculous. Then again, it does rather come across as the natural extension of the direction in which Republican policy has been heading.

As Tomasky put it,

"The lie, which one hears from Republicans on cable television on a daily basis, is that “we spent our way into this crisis.” Yes, federal spending has gone up significantly in the last decade. But increased spending wasn’t as decisive as decreased revenue. The truth can’t be said often enough: We did not spend our way into this crisis; we de-taxed our way into it."

If folks take that lie and base their world around it -- around the madness that cutting taxes would always be good and couldn't possibly be the real cause of deficits -- then they're going to come up with some really absurd plans.