In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king, and Mitt Romney is that one-eyed man.
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He stands head and shoulders above the crowd, like a short man among midgets.
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But seriously, Romney seems like he won’t mess things up, especially with a Republican Congress. (Remember, he was facing a veto-proof Democratic supermajority in Massachusetts.) He won’t be on any currency, but he won’t be a bad President either, and I’ll take that. Most importantly, he’s clearly the least bad option of those who are actually running.

As for the Romney nomination, the real problem wasn’t the machine, but the poor quality of his competition. Ron Paul is a niche candidate. Newt Gingrich has a long list of character problems. Rick Santorum would have lost by double-digits, like he did his last Senate race. Rick Perry had a chance, but blew it due to poor performance during the campaign.
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Sarah Palin, Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels and all the other A-list Republicans didn’t run. Romney was the best choice of those who did.

I don’t like applesauce.

He has to pick a real conservative to get the base over their desire for revenge. I seriously hope it’s not Christie.

Romney will pick Marco Rubio as his running mate because:
1. Rubio will help delivery Florida, a critical state
2. Rubio will help win some Hispanic votes, which Romney needs

The religious right has nowhere else to go. What are they going to do? Vote for Obama?  Romney will vector to the center to win moderates, because this is what is done in the general election.

Romney was inevitable.  I don’t see his nomination as a crime, but simply politics.

Mitt Romney was a successful governor of a state which houses M.I.T.

I’m focusing on the Congress and figuring that the presidency is just a giant loss this time around.  I’ll probably (although I’m not certain) vote third party.  My husband disagrees and will likely vote for Mitt Romney, although we’re both still hoping for a brokered convention where someone else emerges.    Without an energized base, I honestly don’t think Romney stands a chance anyway.
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I figure if we keep giving the Republican elites their man - both Bushes, McCain, and now Romney - they’re never going to give us another Reagan.    And as far as I’m concerned, these other men are just slowing the decline, they’re not doing a thing to stop the decay.    More and more, I’m just done with the Republican party.
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I’m cynical enough to believe that this whole dreadful affair in Florida is being turned into a race war to energize the Black vote.  The Black vote is treated by the Democrats much the way the pro-life vote is treated by the Republicans.    So just like Obama seized the opportunity to point out that the dead man was Black, at some point before this eliection, Romney will seize upon some opportunity to point out how he’s less bloodthirsty.    And he’s hoping pro-lifers will flock to him in droves.  Well, as of right now, this pro-lifer is done lining up, holding my nose, and pulling the lever.

WHAT is wrong with you Tim? How can you not like apple-y deliciousness? *sigh* Whatever. I’ll eat your share. ;)

As a matter of fact, I already take propranalol daily. Can’t say it’s messed with any bad memories, but it’s fantastic at preventing migraines. Which, one might argue, is crucial when looking at our current options for the presidential elections.

Plus, Romney has, by far, the most presidential-looking hair of any candidate this go ‘round.

Simcha,
I’m not a fan of Romney as a political figure, but my deep misgivings of the Mormon beliefs also prevent me from wanting to support Romney.  Supporting Obama is certainly out-of-the-question.
My daughter was nearly sucked in by the Mormon machine in college, and I’m still feeling the horror of those painful years.
I feel like voting for Romney is legitimizing Mormonism.
Any thoughts on this subject would be deeply appreciated.

You just made my day. Honest, funny, TRUE!

Heh. Crickets.

Yay for (somewhat) obscure literary references!  (James Ellroy, L.A. Confidential, Rollo Tomasi…)  An excellent novel and a good movie adaptation that gave us Russell Crowe at his best.  And yes, I have way too much time on my hands.

@Julie: I really don’t think one can “legitimize” a religion by merely not discriminating against candidates based on belonging to the religion. Nobody is asking you to let him come speak at your church.

We are facing a government that wants to make it difficult for religious people to live their faith. Romney belongs to a conservative religion that he actually follows. He is much more likely to “legitimize” our religion than anything else. If we can accept a Mormon in public life, we can hope that Catholics and other Christians can be allowed to at least live out their private lives in peace.

If we want our next President to support the Second Amendment, and throw out this HHS mandate, then we need to get over our “fears” of the Mormon faith and vote for Romney.  Goodness gracious, anything is better than Obama, let’s be real.  Catholics used to (and to some extent, still are) seen as “pariahs,” so let’s lay off the Mormon bashing.  Romney has ONE wife and supports LIFE.  Enough said.

@Julie-I don’t think Mormons are Christians. But, this race is now between a non-Christian who will at least leave the Church alone and a nominal Christian who is actively waging war against it. Sometimes you have to vote strategically.

I don’t like apple sauce - but I think Ryan Gosling for Vice President is a great idea! I don’t really know who he is either, but the “hey girl” posters are hilarious.
so funny

I think the best thing Romney could do would be to choose as VP someone who has been a successful businessman in a Rust Belt industry.  Someone who manufactures tractors or water pumps or chainsaws or something like that—all in the US, ideally in a state like Ohio or Pennsylvania. 

The only safe way for Romney to go is basically to avoid the traditional spectrum altogether, since he really can’t afford to move either left or right.  He should make this about the economy and bring in someone with real business experience, not another look-alike politician, and someone with more real, down-to-earth experience than his own adventures as an outside consultant.

In better years we might hope for someone with military experience, but those best qualified are staying away.  This may be the first election in which there is no military experience on either the top or the bottom of either ticket, “coincidentally” when we are as gung-ho about military intervention as we ever have been.

As an ex temple endowed Mormon who converted to Catholisism, I would beg every Catholic NOT under any circumstances to vote for Romney. It would totally legitimise Mormonism and the whole world will be a worse place. The Mormon church has actively worked towards the office of president since Joseph Smith and if Catholics knew what the Mormon church teaches about catholic they would never and should never vote for a Mormon. In addition, Romney would not separate faith from politic, his faith will govern his whole life and he will do or say anything to become president for the Mormon church.

*giggling* Thanks for the humor. During confession once, I was talking about just how angry and heated I was getting over politics, and my priest advised that I remember to bring my sense of humor with me and not take everything so seriously. I’m not very good at that, but I can certainly enjoy columns like this!

And I have a husband who is voting for Obama because of his stance on immigration. I’ve tried and tried to shed light on how Obama lacks respect for life in all its stages. My husband is first generation American. He has his MA in poly-sci.  I’ve tried. He doesn’t see how voting for Obama is in direct opposition to the teachings of our Faith.

I am not wise.. but my Mom whose 92nd Birthday is today. Thinks Obama wants a second term so he can do away with term limits and become like FDR, king of the USA..any thoughts ?? it makes sense to me. But then I think he is trying to loose as I really can not see good true Americans voting for him with the stunts he’s pulling.

Another “lesser evil” election, between Asmodeus and Beelzebub.  Mao or Stalin.  Aliens v.s. Predator.  No matter who wins, we lose.

I’m allergic to applesauce, but will happily send a case of that, plus a special case of Depends, to Ron Paul if he will just get the frak out of the race and stop trying to be Ross Perot v.2.0.  I will be refraining from hitting myself with a hammer this election day, and won’t it feel good.

I’m finding these comments really alarming.  A vote against Romney or a pass this election is a vote for Obama, and I really don’t see us in a good place after four more years of him.  Use your heads, people!  These comments about Mormonism are right out of the JFK election.  We HAVE to support Romney, the alternative is just unthinkable.

Mittwad for president! I mean Mittward!  Confront the nuanced, neo-patriotic smugsters! (just can’t call those bleating sheep intellectuals) Throw that nasty ninja out on his skinny, abortion-sucking-country-wrecking posterior!

#1 and #5. A-FREakin-MEN. Just make the beatings stop.
And your links are always fun surprises!

Slightly more serious VP suggestion—Susana Martinez, governor of New Mexico.  (I know, I know, women governors and all…)

Simcha—Thought your link to crickets chirping was funny, but there are actually many faithful Christians who are enthusiastic about Mitt Romney.  The site evangelicalsformitt.com is a good place to start. 

My husband and I, both faithful Catholic converts, have actively tried to persuade others he’s a great choice for president.  We lived in Massachusetts when he was governor and came to respect him profoundly, especially surrounding the gay marriage and stem-cell research positions he took. 

Regarding people’s love for Ronald Reagan: People forget that he too was initially pro-abortion, and that he promoted no-fault divorce, one of the the stepping stones to gay marriage. 

I think, too, you shouldn’t forget that by pushing people away from Romney, all you’re doing is helping Obama get reelected.  I wish Romney had Santorum’s Catholic faith, or that Santorum had Romney’s skill, experience, and discretion.  He may not be “ideal”, but he IS a good choice.  Also, the reality is that if a Republican doesn’t win this election, Obama’s bad policies will become so entrenched that the mere election of a Republican in four years will not undo the damage.  Think about how America changed when Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid came into being.  No politician of any party can even talk about getting rid of those programs without sounding like a lunatic, even though they may someday bankrupt the country.  Such a culture of dependence on large government has grown from those programs, that those of us who love the Church’s teaching on subsidiarity can only sigh and wish for something that seems increasingly out of reach.

Oh Simcha, you are going to bring allllll the Paul-bots out in their idealistic glory with this one…you witty, brilliant woman, you.

I agree that voting for Romney would legitimitize moranism, yes I said it.  This is nothing like the great JFK election and anti-Catholic issues.  The LDS is a falsehood and I personally will vote as I did in the last election as a Catholic and vote for the better candidate, President Obama.  Abortion is not the main concern of this administration and as I have said before, abortion will happen if we illeagalize it or not.  I’m too young to remember, but I have heard the horror stories of failed abortions.  And as far as debt, unemployment and war your great conservative Bush family started all that and President Obama is doing better than any to clean up that mess.  To “somewhere out there” voting for Romney is a direct is in direct opposition against our faith.  Morman’s don’t beleive in the same Christ, Trinity or God our Faith teaches.  They all want to be God, or a god as it were with their own planet inhabited by creatures that worship them.  Read up on the LDS and you may find that you may not want a blasphemous, rich get richer, false god worshipping plastic man running our country.

Ma….I HEAR YOU!  Thank you for sharing about your journey from Mormonism into the One, True, Faith (welcome home) and for voicing your (valid) concerns.  I was worried about Romney 4 yrs ago for this very reason. (Not to mention his socialized healthcare plan in Massachusetts.)  However, having conceded this, SURELY you don’t propose we vote for more of the same with Obama?  And SURELY you don’t think we should vote for Ron Paul?  (PLEASE PEOPLE, no third party voting!  Doing so is clearly a vote for Obama!!)  I can’t tell you how long and loudly I’ve been arguing against Romney but my vote for him in November will be a vote against Obama.  Just as my vote for McCain last election cycle was the very same.

Pass the Propranolol, please.

Jonathon…I will pray for you and for all others who are so deceived. (No snarkiness intended, I mean it…I will truly pray for you.)  As a Catholic, you CANNOT, SHOULD NOT vote for Obama.  Wake up!  Can you not see what that man and his administration are doing….EXACTLY what they said they would?!  Would you have supported Santorum for president against Obama?  I’d love to know your answer to that…

@Jonathon, Failed abortions?  You mean like when Obama voted NOT to give life saving care to infants that survive botched (meaning the child actually lived) abortions?  Have you read about the nurse who was left to cradle these poor suffering babies that were left to die in a linen closet? She testified against this barbaric reality. You’re kidding, right?  You would vote for a man that believes in a woman’s right to a partial birth abortion? You know, the kind where they insert the scissors at the base of the child’s skull and sever the spinal column?  Is that the moral man who will get your Catholic vote?

Don’t things like the Patriot act, NDAA, SOPA/PIPA, the bailouts for banks and corporations, the devaluation of our currency by printing money constantly mean anything to you?  It’s not about giving Ron Paul some applesauce, which isn’t even funny.  It’s about stopping this nonsense of voting for the lesser of two evils and actually voting for what you believe in.  Principle over party.  If you gave me two choices of going to a Mormon church or a Muslim Mosque to worship god, I would choose neither.  I don’t believe in those faiths so how could I in good conscience throw away my beliefs because I think Mormonism is not as bad as Muslims.  We have allowed this horse and pony show to go on long enough.  Its time WE stop this nonsense and get rid of this two party system that forces us to make concessions on our beliefs.

Is there enough applesauce to go around?  Or did Ron Paul and Kaitlan get it all?

I guess I didn’t find the article that funny. It’s time to rally together and make Obama a one term President. For the record, there are a lot of people who passionately support Romney and what he stands for; I am one of them. I feel there were far too many people supporting Santorum simply because he is Catholic. He voted to raise the debt ceiling 5 times, supported Arlen Specter (and stood with him at a pro-choice rally!). Where are the questions about HIS authenticity and conservatism? It’s a two way street, people. Romney will make a great President and do what he does best: turn around this mess and lead us to more opportunity.

I do not agree that not voting for Romney is a vote for Obama. I do not agree in voting against someone. I vote for only for people I believe is most qualified for the office.

As for Romney, I do not agree with his politics. Neither do I agree with Obama’s. Of all the candidates, I think Ron Paul is the best qualified.  If I could vote, I would still write-in his name. Yes, even if he drops out officially of the race. I never want to put myself in a position of being have to answer “Did you ever knowingly vote for someone you did not agree with politically?”

Again, I cherish my vote enough not to give it to someone just because I do not want someone else to win. The vote may not change the country but I won’t let it be an expression of an unwanted change in me.

Simcha - your articles are great, engaging, wide-ranging, thought-provoking. When you write about politics, tho, your negativity and sarcasm about the Democratic party really alienates me. It is not at all as simple as ‘Republicans good, Democrats bad’. The Ron Paul joke was in poor taste. I have to ask, where is the Christianity in this?

@RedMarie23 - I’m a Pennsylvanian.  I was brokenhearted by Santorum’s endorsement of Specter over Pat Toomey in the PA primary.  I felt personally slapped in the face.  However, it is gross mischaracterization to say that Rick Santorum stood with Arlen Specter at a pro-choice rally.  Rick Santorum, along with President Bush, stood with Arlen Specter at an Arlen Specter for Senate Rally.  It was an act that devestated me more than it should have.  I was wrong to have been placing so much confidence in a man I barely knew.  But characterizing the event as a pro-choice rally is dishonest, at best.    I actually know pro-life people who were at that rally - they believed in their heart of hearts that Specter had a better chance of beating Joe Hoeffel in the general and therefore the judges would be safer with a Specter vote.

I have to ask, where is the Christianity in this?

In the fact that she still has hope, duh.

As long as Democrats are the Party of Abortion, the negativity and sacrasm is all self-generated.

Simcha, this is the best political commentary I have read all year.  Not.Even.Kidding.

Sometimes you get to vote FOR someone and sometimes you have to vote AGAINST someone.

Vote ABO! (anyone but Obama)

It’s true that Mormonism is a grotesque affront to Christianity, but I think that rather than somehow legitimizing Mormonism, a Romney presidency would actually serve to expose the ridiculousness of that religion.  The more anyone learns about it, the more it fallacious foundations and history and “theology” insult one’s intelligence.  They won’t be able to stand the scrutiny.  Really.  It might limit Romney to one term, but at least Obama would be disposed of.

To all of you discussing the “Mormon issue” remember there is NO RELIGIOUS TEST for political office in this country!  I’d vote for a conservative atheist before a liberal Catholic, because the atheist is more honest about who he is.  I’m not voting for people to lead my church, but to lead the country, and they don’t have to be any particular religion to do that well.

I don’t get to vote in your elections and that’s quite fair. You don’t get to vote in my country’s elections either. But I can, and do, pray. For a long time now I have been praying that that evil man, Obama, is not re-elected in your country. I am also praying that my country’s Prime Minister is not re-elected.
I do not like your Romney but he is the only chance you have of getting rid of the evil that is Obama. Getting rid of the evil one should be your motivation and that clearly can only come about by voting for the only chance that you have and Romney clearly is that chance.

What is all this about applesauce?

So these are our choices; Obama taking us on a fast track to atheistic socialism or Romney taking us on a fast track to an amoral oligarchy of hedge fund managers. Sorry I will not be voting for either.

The lack of a religious test applies to actions of the Federal government, not the choices people make in their voting. The Constitution (used to anyway) defines and limits the powers of the Federal government, not the people.

So, yes, you may vote or not vote for someone based on his/her/your religious beliefs and practices. Have at it!

Blessings on you, Simcha! I didn’t think that anyone could make me laugh this election cycle, but you did.

I’m a devout Catholic, but I don’t vote for or against anyone’s religion when it comes to politics. I don’t agree with the Mormons on matters of theology or doctrine, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have Mormon friends or that I wouldn’t vote for a Mormon to lead my country if I felt he/ she was the best choice.  The Mormons I know are kind, supportive,hard working and earnest. Why should the fact that I don’t agree with their religious beliefs mean I shouldn’t be friends with them or vote for one?  Those of you bashing Mormonism are practicing discrimination- which is wrong and certainly not Christlike.  I am always amused when people make a big deal about JFK being a Catholic. He was a horrible example of our faith- as are John Kerry and Newt Gingrich. Better a good Mormon, Jew , Muslim or atheist than a bad Catholic, although our president doesn’t have to be a good anything religion-wise to lead us well, as JFK demonstrated.

I would love to laugh at all of this, but our situation is far too serious for joking about boy-bands for vice president.  Romney, while I’ll vote for him, while praying he is more consistent in his thought than he appears, is probably just a white Obama.  Some things shouldn’t be scoffed at.  Dong so shows a lack oof understanding of the real issues.  Romney is dangerous and Obama is dangerous.  I’d love to laugh, but I can’t.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n61nZNycfBI

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I mean, it’a a better joke than a boy band, anyway.

We all have to remember that Mitt Romney is better than the alternative.  Voting for him is the choice with least regret.

My husband tells me that a Republican vote in California won’t count anyway because of the electoral college.  When people say “electoral college” my eyes glaze over because I’m afraid they’ll want to discuss the reasons why millions of people should go to the polls to cast a vote that won’t count. I’d vote for Mittwit if it would help oust Obamanation, but I may as well write in our geriatric patient whose name must not be spoken just to say “yeah right” (that’s the cleaned up version) Please correct me if I’m wrong because if I bring this up with some of my resident know-it-alls they’ll want to discuss it for a loooong time (eyes glazing over).

I really can’t believe people think Romney is a white Obama.  Where exactly are you getting your information?  Romney believes marriage should only be between one man and one woman (Thanks to a thug in the IRS, we now know he donated $10,000 to the National Organization for Marriage), he thinks homosexuality is morally wrong (I"m sure he’ll never have someone from the Human Rights Campaign on his re-election team), he opposes stem cell research, he opposes abortion, he thinks a free market is better than a government-regulated one, he’s actually had a successful career in the private sector; the list of differences goes on…
So many pro-family and pro-life groups in Massachusetts have defended Romney.  Those who know him are loyal to him because of his excellent character (Have you heard of how he shut down his business and had his employees help find the missing daughter of another employee?)  He’s a really good, decent man with solid values.  Please be better informed, people!

“National Review,” an extremely conservative periodical, has an good article on Mormonism and Romney in its current issue. It’s very balanced and makes all of the anti- Mormon folk look ridiculous.  I challenge those of you who are discriminating against Romney due to his religion to read it.

Once again, we are faced with the biannual MOST IMPORTANT-IST ELECTION EVERRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Personally, who cares?

Government of, for & by the elite, ruling over us unwashed masses with the Obamassiah, or Government of, for & by the bankers, ruling over us unwashed masses with Captain Underoos.

There wasn’t a dimes worth of difference between Republicans and Democrats 40 years ago, & with inflation, they’re practically identical twins nowadays.

Mary Therese Egizio, I think your mom is right. I don’t want Romney for President, but I don’t want Obama as president-for-life, more.

Does this mean the convention will be held at the Victory Motel? Hooray!

Prepare yourselves for the Obama plants who will be attempting to malign Romney because of his religion. Ask yourself; if Romney were to speak at Georgetown University, do you think that he would insist that the cross be removed from behind the podium, as Obama did?

I really like the “just do nothing.”  Actually, that’s kinda what the Constitution says by limiting government.  But I digress…..  Mitt will have one major task which I expect will take most of his (first?) four years anyway:  UNDO EVERYTHING OBAMA.

Joel Hutchens: “So these are our choices; Obama taking us on a fast track to atheistic socialism or Romney taking us on a fast track to an amoral oligarchy of hedge fund managers. Sorry I will not be voting for either.”

Joel, we already have an “oligarchy of hedge fund managers”, Obama will do nothing to lessen that as he depends on Wall Street for his campaign funding. What we really need is to move toward a distributist system but that will only happen through evangelization and conversion of the US, not through elections. For now we just have to vote for the lesser evil and rid ourselves of someone who is leading us on the wrong track.

Okay, though we have myriad views represented here, I think we can all agree there is nothing perfect this side of heaven.  HOWEVER, for those who are planning to just “sit this one out” due to poor choices on all fronts, I beg you to reconsider that thought.  Now is not the time to have your say about the US needing a third party.  Now is not the time to think you’ll make a statement that will be heard by doing so.  Our political system, though quite broken and in need of a serious overhaul, sure beats ALL OTHERS, the entire world over.  For now, we still have freedoms, though those are being eroded DAILY right before our eyes. We are truly fiddling while Rome burns!! Asserting that we’ll just “do nothing” to prove to the establishment that we didn’t like the choices we were presented will do nothing but get us more of the same.  There’s a childish petulance to that position and it’s very dangerous.  I am 49 yrs old, so I’ve been raised in a (mostly) peace-time America (post-911 notwithstanding.  I just mean I’m not of the WWII generation.)  I fear that too many of my generation think “It can’t happen here.”  And, too many of us are raising kids who likely (and mistakenly) believe the same.  My parents sure lived in a time of worry and fear and they understood from their childhood what it’s like to contemplate losing basic, democratic freedoms.  I was raised hearing stories of their WWII world.  Obama and his minions are very, very dangerous and what they have done and still plan to do should be enough to propel us all into the voting booth to VOTE THEM OUT.  Again, NO CATHOLIC can vote for Obama and while I am not a Romney fan, he is CLEARLY the lesser of the two evils and THAT is what our choices are, pure and simple. You won’t hear that in most homilies between now and Election Day but, for now, I’m still free to say it.

Romney will lose to Obama. But by all means, keep disparaging Ron Paul the one candidate that has polled consistently well with independents, which you need to win a general election. The lickspittle Republimaniacs will vote for whatever non-Obama candidate the party picks, even if he is Ron Paul. But the independents will leave Romney. When he is in an actual race and has to defend his horrible record, he will lose. Yes, let’s get behind Romney, a guy who is so moderate he lost to McCain in ‘08. Hooray for democracy! I voted for McLame in ‘08 and watched the inevitable happen, Obama beat him. Never again. Republicans need to learn we do not want Bush, McCain, Romney, or any other idiot they find who has rich friends and a left-leaning moderate socialistic, warmongering, nation building, imperialistic platform. Romney cannot “sweeten” any deal for the general electorate, and because of that, he will lose. Stop placing your hope in the Republican party, and start getting behind candidates with backbones. It often happens that such people win.

Please explain to the lady how voting for someone other than Obama or Romney is a vote for Obama. Do you want him on your conscience—partial-birth abortion; “incomplete” abortion where the child dies in the nurse’s arms.Vote for Romney-at least you can say you did what you could to make him a one-term Pres.
Yes, Romney is a white Obama in that the people who gave us the Health Cae Bill that bribed its way through Congress was put together by the very same people who put together Romneycare in Mass. VERY EXPENSIVE—solved nothing.

i don’t see why Romney can’t separate his faith from his office. JFK did. Frankly, I can’t think of any president who was ever described as being particularly influenced by any church. Washington, Madison, Monroe and jefferson were deists. Adams was nominally (I think) a Puritan but after reading David mcCullough’s excellent biography I really have no clear idea. Lincoln read the Bible but seldom attended church and usually did so because Mary Lincoln insisted. I think a candidate’s principles are more important than his/her religion because by and large people in public life concentrate on career imperatives rather than religious precepts. Politicians tend to adopt the moral level of the society they live in - and that includes our present bunch, which says a great deal about how far this country has come from the generation that elected Lincoln.

I actually like Ron Paul, but his fans are in general intolerable and John H.“s sour grapes comment here is case in point.

Scott W.

I hope I’m wrong. I hope that if Romney gets the nomination Obama will lose. But that’s not reality. Reality is, Obama is the WORST president in American history and Romney can barely match him in the poles at this point. The Obama team hasn’t even tried to attack him, because the WANT him to be the nominee. They know when the voters get a load of the garbage he has pulled they will reject him. Obama has done more to destroy the economy and culture of our nation than any other president, and yet, Romney can barely put a dent in his election machine. I’m not sure how that’s sour grapes, but I’m glad your comment makes you feel better about supporting Romney. It’s always easier to attack someone’s character than it is to actually discuss an issue with them. I hope the poles are wrong. I hope an Obama/Romney matchup ends in a defeat for Obama, but the empirical evidence leaves little room for hope.

Ron Paul hikes 5-10 miles every morning and rides his bike 15-20 miles every night.  Those who make fun of him are generally those who know nothing about him, have never bothered to study his positions, or generally be able to think outside the media imposed paradigm that the only acceptable political spectrum ranges from Hillary Clinton to Mitt Romney.

It’s funny because Ron Paul is the only person bringing people into the Republican party.  I will not vote for Mitt or any of the other establishment candidates.  So you are going to get Obama elected for a second term because you will pick someone who conservative Constitutionalists simply will not vote for.

I admire the Mormon “culture”, not the religion.  When I was 3 years old my widowed mother married a Mormon, who for all intents and purposes was my dad.  He also brought a large extended family of Mormons with him (he had 5 brothers and 2 sisters) all of whom welcomed my mother and me (she raised me as a Southern Baptist) with love and respect.  Family is first in that culture, and all other pursuits tend to support that core value.  The presidency has never been a platform for evangelizing any one particular religion - until now.  The Obama administration is the most aggresive evangelizer for the “Culture of Death” America has ever had.  My choice is clear:  Mitt Romney.

CHESTERTON 2016, baby!!!

(I plan to read the rest of the intelligent and insightful comments later. Just had to put in the plug for the candidate who speaks for democracy most clearly—he’s even a member of the biggest American constituency: the dead!)

I guess I’ll be voting for Mitt in the election.  But if New York still bothers having a Republican primary (and I guess they have to, with Paul and Gingrich still nominally in the race), I’m going to write in Rick Santorum’s name.  Just on principle.

Everyone, I hate to put my elbow in your punchbowl, but I think Barack Obama is (and will be remembered as) one of the greatest presidents in American history.

I grew up as the youngest of seven children in a Irish family so noisy our surname should have been “Cacophony.” We lived just down the alley from a enormous Catholic Church and, of course, we all went to the parish school. When I was an eighth grader in 1960, the nuns solemnly assured us that John Kennedy could never be elected President because he was a Catholic. “Remember Al Smith,” the older ones would say, not realizing that 1928 was a bit before our time. Then President Kennedy was elected, and all of us realized that we hadn’t given ourselves enough credit - that our fellow Americans weren’t so low-minded, after all, not to vote for a man because they hated his religion.

Forty eight years later, I was the old fogey who had lost his youthful faith in the American people - I didn’t think that a black man could be elected President for at least another fifty years. And my failure was the same as my elders’ had been in 1960 - I hadn’t given my fellow Americans enough credit. I didn’t believe they would put race aside in making their choice, but they did.

Simcha, I’m the prototype of those you characterize as “Death Eaters, oh pardon me, nuanced, neo-patriotic intellectuals who courageously support a global progressive agenda.” I’m a multi-degreed professional and I do indeed support a global progressive agenda.

If I might, let me tell you a bit about my “nuanced, neo-patriotism.” In 1966 I left my small Catholic men’s college with several of my friends to join the army. We did so because the war in Vietnam had begun and we were comfortable middle-class kids who couldn’t bear the idea of not doing our part in bearing arms for our country. Apparently, rough, tough, hairy chested conservative patriots like Dick Cheney (who patiently explained away his five draft deferments to a reporter by saying that he had “different priorities” during Vietnam than serving in the military), or George Bush, who got his daddy to put him into “The Champaign Flight” of the Texas Air National Guard (along with Lloyd Bentsen’s son) so he’d be safe and sound, or Bill Clinton (a conservative Dixiecrat) who avoided the draft by hiding at Oxford, felt much differently than we did.

I enlisted for four years, rather than the two required by the draft, because I thought I had some unique talents to share with my country. I ended up on a tiny speck in the Bering Sea 166 nautical miles from the Soviet Union, listening day and night for the tiniest slip by the Soviets that might indicate the beginning of a nuclear war - a war in which I’d be the first of millions to die.

When I returned home, I discovered that my wife wasn’t the droll, cheerful girl I’d married three years before. You see, there was something wrong with our baby, something she couldn’t put her finger on. Well, several years and many thousand of dollars later we were told it was autism, a malady so foreign four decades ago that most child psychiatrists hadn’t even heard the word. I returned to school at the University of Minnesota, although my studies were just a sideline. My real job was trying to get help for my son, and it was then that I became involved with some of the most wonderful people in the world. They were psychologists and psychiatrists, speech therapists and psychiatric and county social workers, and, most of all, special education teachers and child care workers.

They moved heaven and earth to help my son and my wife, who was sinking ever deeper into depression. By the way, it was the State of Minnesota and the counties of Anoka, Hennepin and Ramsey who helped my son and others like him. It was government at its very best, government by Republicans and Democrats who believed that they were indeed their brother’s keepers. The government did for me, and my son, and my wife, what we simply could not do for ourselves. Sorry, but I just don’t think we were welfare chiselers or parasites or socialists.

We had to make the decision very early in our son’s life to institutionalize him. That broke our hearts, but it was what had to be done. He’s remained in institutional care, and, in fact, will have been in the same placement for thirty years this July, in a group home founded by the wife of a Methodist Minister who was mentored by a Catholic nun. There’s a woman working there who’s supervised my son for twenty five years and who loves him every bit as much as her own sons. And she’s not an exception to the rule.

As I look at the long parade of people who’ve been involved in my son’s life, I am so grateful that tears stream down my cheeks. They have been, and they are, living saints. I know in the marrow of my bones that the Holy Spirit lives in them and is the source of their boundless compassion. These folks are the Kingdom of God for me and my son, and virtually all draw some sort of a government paycheck, either directly or indirectly.

So I believe that government is part of God’s plan for us all, and that the police officers and firefighters and soldiers and sailors and airmen who risk their lives for us aren’t minions of the devil. Government is indeed the solution, and it’s certainly not the problem. Not at all.

Six years ago next month, I sat in the University of Minnesota Hospital at the bedside of the woman who had been that depressed, hopeless young mother. She was dying of liver disease and was in the final hours of her life. Although she had slipped into a coma two days before, I was reading aloud “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” her favorite book, hoping that it might give her some comfort as she faded away. Although I didn’t know it, a woman two floors above us, who also had Type AB blood and a very healthy liver as well, had just died of a massive aneurysm. Of course, it “just happened” that the University of Minnesota Hospital is one of the premier organ transplant centers in world, and that a team of transplant surgeons were on duty that night.

I don’t know about you, but I’m sure that those events weren’t coincidental. No way. It was God’s will that she live.

She’s alive and very healthy today. Her health insurance and medicaid paid for the millions of dollars in medical bills, money that she and I couldn’t possibly come up with on our own. Government and its resources - from Medical Assistance to a land grant university hospital - saved her life.

I believe in the power of government to enhance people’s lives. That’s why I’m a Democrat.

Now, do I believe in abortion? Of course not! But I don’t - and you don’t as well - have the luxury of a candidate and a party that completely conforms to my conscience. I believe in a culture of life as deeply as you do, a culture of life which is concerned with the born as much as the unborn, a culture of life that mourns the fact that some of our children go to bed hungry each night. My mother, God rest her soul, had eight full term pregnancies in 13 years, and thus had very little time to teach us our religion. In fact, all she really did was repeat endlessly that “Whatever you do for one of these, the least of my Brethren, you do for me.” In my lifetime, it’s been the Democrats who were most concerned, not about George Bush’s base (“the haves and the have-mores”), but about “the least of my Brethren.” I just don’t think that Dorothy Day, one of my favorite Catholic heroes, would be comfortable with the Republicans.

So, I believe that, on balance, President Obama and the Democratic Party are better for this country than Mitt Romney and the Republican Party. And Geraldine, Jonathan and I are probably the only readers of this blog who do.

I’ve scoured the New Testament and I’ve yet to find a requirement for all Catholics to think alike. The Acts of the Apostles record that Christians began to have heated arguments about virtually everything almost as soon as Jesus ascended into heaven. If you know any priests or other religious on a personal level, you know they disagree with each other all the time about theological and pastoral matters. After all, this is the Church of Augustine and Aquinas and of illiterate peasant children like Jacinta and Francisco Marto and Lucia dos Santos as well. No institution on earth can match its immense diversity. For instance, as far as the Magisterium is concerned, just hang around a Department of Theology at a good Catholic school for fifteen minutes and you’ll hear so many different points of view that your head will be spinning. So what?

We’re all Brothers and Sisters in Christ. We don’t have to agree to love one another, to care for one another, to pray with and for one another. We’re all Catholics, and while we may not care to sit together at mass, we are commanded by Christ to love each other “as I have loved you.”

And that means that I don’t get to call you “Fascists” any more than you get to call me “Socialist” or “Communist.” It means that bearing false witness against our neighbor includes sweeping hyperbole such as “Obama taking us on a fast track to atheistic socialism or Romney taking us on a fast track to an amoral oligarchy of hedge fund managers.” The President hasn’t said a single word about seizing guns or overturning the Twenty-second Amendment to the Constitution. He’s not trying to destroy the Catholic Church which employs hundreds of thousands of Americans of all religions in its health care institutions by requiring it to provide contraceptive coverage in its health care plans - twenty eight states already require the Church to do so. And the last time I took a look, Republicans - even the Tea Party types - don’t have cloven hooves or tails.

So, please, let’s just dial the invective back and agree to disagree. Okay?

P.S. Simcha, Rollo Tomasi isn’t quite right for Vice President. How about Sgt. Jack Vincennes?

Romney is going to keep hitting with a hammer, just in a different way.  He’s said multiple times that he wants to cut food stamps.  Is it even possible to reduce food stamp aid any further while still, you know, ensuring that it’s enough money to buy actual food, not a giant pack of Kool-Aid and some expired government cheese?  I’m pretty conservative and I’m generally in favor of providing charity through the private sector, but I still think there should be a public safety net of some sort.

Let’s all stop pontificating and start praying for starters.

If we want Pres. Obama out, we ALL vote for the final candidate running against him. He’s as “worse” as it gets so any of the candidates running would be better.  It’s a numbers game not a personal pride thing
My Dad used to tell us to try being informed instead of just opinionated. Works for me. Let’s stop whining, complaining and get to work unless the Gulag is your desire.

The similar site for John McCain in 2008 was an amusing read.  Nothing much happening here just yet:
http://getdrunkandvote4romney.com/

Everyone, I hate to put my elbow in your punchbowl, but I think Barack Obama is (and will be remembered as) one of the greatest presidents in American history.

I grew up as the youngest of seven children in a Irish family so noisy our surname should have been “Cacophony.” We lived just down the alley from a enormous Catholic Church and, of course, we all went to the parish school. When I was an eighth grader in 1960, the nuns solemnly assured us that John Kennedy could never be elected President because he was a Catholic. “Remember Al Smith,” the older ones would say, not realizing that 1928 was a bit before our time. Then President Kennedy was elected, and all of us realized that we hadn’t given ourselves enough credit - that our fellow Americans weren’t so low-minded, after all, not to vote for a man because they hated his religion.

Forty eight years later, I was the old fogey who had lost his youthful faith in the American people - I didn’t think that a black man could be elected President for at least another fifty years. And my failure was the same as my elders’ had been in 1960 - I hadn’t given my fellow Americans enough credit. I didn’t believe they would put race aside in making their choice, but they did.

Simcha, I’m the prototype of those you characterize as “Death Eaters, oh pardon me, nuanced, neo-patriotic intellectuals who courageously support a global progressive agenda.” I’m a multi-degreed professional and I do indeed support a global progressive agenda.

If I might, let me tell you a bit about my “nuanced, neo-patriotism.” In 1966 I left my small Catholic men’s college with several of my friends to join the army. We did so because the war in Vietnam had begun and we were comfortable middle-class kids who couldn’t bear the idea of not doing our part in bearing arms for our country. Apparently, rough, tough, hairy chested conservative patriots like Dick Cheney (who patiently explained away his five draft deferments to a reporter by saying that he had “different priorities” during Vietnam than serving in the military), or George Bush, who got his daddy to put him into “The Champaign Flight” of the Texas Air National Guard (along with Lloyd Bentsen’s son) so he’d be safe and sound, or Bill Clinton (a conservative Dixiecrat) who avoided the draft by hiding at Oxford, felt much differently than we did.

I enlisted for four years, rather than the two required by the draft, because I thought I had some unique talents to share with my country. I ended up on a tiny speck in the Bering Sea 166 nautical miles from the Soviet Union, listening day and night for the tiniest slip by the Soviets that might indicate the beginning of a nuclear war - a war in which I’d be the first of millions to die.

When I returned home, I discovered that my wife wasn’t the droll, cheerful girl I’d married three years before. You see, there was something wrong with our baby, something she couldn’t put her finger on. Well, several years and many thousand of dollars later we were told it was autism, a malady so foreign four decades ago that most child psychiatrists hadn’t even heard the word. I returned to school at the University of Minnesota, although my studies were just a sideline. My real job was trying to get help for my son, and it was then that I became involved with some of the most wonderful people in the world. They were psychologists and psychiatrists, speech therapists and psychiatric and county social workers, and, most of all, special education teachers and child care workers.

They moved heaven and earth to help my son and my wife, who was sinking ever deeper into depression. By the way, it was the State of Minnesota and the counties of Anoka, Hennepin and Ramsey who helped my son and others like him. It was government at its very best, government by Republicans and Democrats who believed that they were indeed their brother’s keepers. The government did for me, and my son, and my wife, what we simply could not do for ourselves. Sorry, but I just don’t think we were welfare chiselers or parasites or socialists.

We had to make the decision very early in our son’s life to institutionalize him. That broke our hearts, but it was what had to be done. He’s remained in institutional care, and, in fact, will have been in the same placement for thirty years this July, in a group home founded by the wife of a Methodist Minister who was mentored by a Catholic nun. There’s a woman working there who’s supervised my son for twenty five years and who loves him every bit as much as her own sons. And she’s not an exception to the rule.

As I look at the long parade of people who’ve been involved in my son’s life, I am so grateful that tears stream down my cheeks. They have been, and they are, living saints. I know in the marrow of my bones that the Holy Spirit lives in them and is the source of their boundless compassion. These folks are the Kingdom of God for me and my son, and virtually all draw some sort of a government paycheck, either directly or indirectly.

So I believe that government is part of God’s plan for us all, and that the police officers and firefighters and soldiers and sailors and airmen who risk their lives for us aren’t minions of the devil. Government is indeed the solution, and it’s certainly not the problem. Not at all.

Six years ago next month, I sat in the University of Minnesota Hospital at the bedside of the woman who had been that depressed, hopeless young mother. She was dying of liver disease and was in the final hours of her life. Although she had slipped into a coma two days before, I was reading aloud “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” her favorite book, hoping that it might give her some comfort as she faded away. Although I didn’t know it, a woman two floors above us, who also had Type AB blood and a very healthy liver as well, had just died of a massive aneurysm. Of course, it “just happened” that the University of Minnesota Hospital is one of the premier organ transplant centers in world, and that a team of transplant surgeons were on duty that night.

I don’t know about you, but I’m sure that those events weren’t coincidental. No way. It was God’s will that she live.

She’s alive and very healthy today. Her health insurance and medicaid paid for the millions of dollars in medical bills, money that she and I couldn’t possibly come up with on our own. Government and its resources - from Medical Assistance to a land grant university hospital - saved her life.

I believe in the power of government to enhance people’s lives. That’s why I’m a Democrat.

Now, do I believe in abortion? Of course not! But I don’t - and you don’t as well - have the luxury of a candidate and a party that completely conforms to my conscience. I believe in a culture of life as deeply as you do, a culture of life which is concerned with the born as much as the unborn, a culture of life that mourns the fact that some of our children go to bed hungry each night. My mother, God rest her soul, had eight full term pregnancies in 13 years, and thus had very little time to teach us our religion. In fact, all she really did was repeat endlessly that “Whatever you do for one of these, the least of my Brethren, you do for me.” In my lifetime, it’s been the Democrats who were most concerned, not about George Bush’s base (“the haves and the have-mores”), but about “the least of my Brethren.” I just don’t think that Dorothy Day, one of my favorite Catholic heroes, would be comfortable with the Republicans.

So, I believe that, on balance, President Obama and the Democratic Party are better for this country than Mitt Romney and the Republican Party. And Geraldine, Jonathan and I are probably the only readers of this blog who do.

I’ve scoured the New Testament and I’ve yet to find a requirement for all Catholics to think alike. The Acts of the Apostles record that Christians began to have heated arguments about virtually everything almost as soon as Jesus ascended into heaven. If you know any priests or other religious on a personal level, you know they disagree with each other all the time about theological and pastoral matters. After all, this is the Church of Augustine and Aquinas and of illiterate peasant children like Jacinta and Francisco Marto and Lucia dos Santos as well. No institution on earth can match its immense diversity. For instance, as far as the Magisterium is concerned, just hang around a Department of Theology at a good Catholic school for fifteen minutes and you’ll hear so many different points of view that your head will be spinning. So what?

We’re all Brothers and Sisters in Christ. We don’t have to agree to love one another, to care for one another, to pray with and for one another. We’re all Catholics, and while we may not care to sit together at mass, we are commanded by Christ to love each other “as I have loved you.”

And that means that I don’t get to call you “Fascists” any more than you get to call me “Socialist” or “Communist.” It means that bearing false witness against our neighbor includes sweeping hyperbole such as “Obama taking us on a fast track to atheistic socialism or Romney taking us on a fast track to an amoral oligarchy of hedge fund managers.” The President hasn’t said a single word about seizing guns or overturning the Twenty-second Amendment to the Constitution. He’s not trying to destroy the Catholic Church which employs hundreds of thousands of Americans of all religions in its health care institutions by requiring it to provide contraceptive coverage in its health care plans - twenty eight states already require the Church to do so. And the last time I took a look, Republicans - even the Tea Party types - don’t have cloven hooves or tails.

So, please, let’s just dial back the invective and agree to disagree. Okay?

P.S. Simcha, Rollo Tomasi isn’t quite right for Vice President. How about Sgt. Jack Vincennes?

Applesauce for Ron Paul, presumably because he is “geriatric”?? Nice. The only who doesn’t lie and flip flop, the only onee who won’t sell us out to the global government crowd, the only one who has the economic understanding to hold the thieving Federal Reserve banking cartel up to scrutiny and has been teaching the same thing for 40 years. The only member of Congress who never took a junket, returns part of his office budget to the treasury each year, the only one to not participate in the lavish penion plan, the only one with a plan to dig us out of a debt mess the rest just want to increase. Ron Paul is OVERWHELMINGLY supported by the active military over other candidates and Obama. Yes, lets make fun of this truly Christian statesman for being old. So very clever and witty.

Yet another election where it’s not vote for the best candidate but vote for the lesser of two evils and it can’t get worse than the present administration.

John Paul,

Before I address your comment, I first want to thank you for your service to our country, especially during a time when soldiers like you risked so very much. God bless you for that.

Now regarding the points you make:

How did Obama provide this country with “healthcare.” The way I read the “Affordable Care Act,” it does not provide anyone with healthcare. Instead, it says that we all have to be at the mercy of the Insurance Industry, the same industry that has been denying people basic medical coverage for decades. How is that healthcare? Your hero just gave you a mandate to support the lying, stealing, cheating, and arguably murderous group that has been at the heart of everything that is wrong with the health “industry” in this country. That’s not healthcare, that’s government mandated support of an ostensibly evil-minded corporate entity. Correct me where I’m wrong here, but healthcare does not equal health insurance.

Besides that, Obama is not just pro-choice. He is not just pro-abortion. The man is admittedly pro-infanticide, and he wants YOU to pay for, and support these policies, or be labelled a pro-life terrorist threat to our nation. He voted to let children born alive die, rather than receive basic “medical” care like a blanket, and a bottle, etc. He voted to let these children die of exposure after being born, simply because their mothers don’t want them. No sir, you cannot claim to be pro-life and not address this egregious issue.

Furthermore, Obama has written executive orders to suspend your right to due process, and indeed, your right to life, if you are even suspected of terrorist activities. And because his administration defines pro-lifers as terrorists, that means you. He has also written an executive order to suspend your right to the free practice of your own religion.

He also:

Bailed out his bankster cronies with your money after they brought this country to the brink of a depression. So now inflation is up (which is a tax on the poor, as our dollars don’t go as far), while Wall St. is laughing all the way to the bank with their bonuses and golden parachutes.

Let the worst ecological disaster this country has ever seen (the BP Oil leak) go on for weeks before actively addressing it, causing a great loss of domestic oil production, tourism, and wildlife.

Sent our troops into Libya to start another war, with another nation, that we have no business being in.

Continues to ignore the Genocide occurring in Chad and Sudan, probably because their Christians, and they don’t deserver our charity like the Al Queda Rebels did in Libya.

Promised to keep unemployment below 8%, which has not happened at all yet in his presidency.

Caused the largest deficit this country has ever seen. So now you, John Paul, owe the Chinese a great deal of money. You are no longer a free American, you are an American indebted to Communist China.

Shall I go on?

So John Paul, I’m not sure which presidency you were talking about, or how long you’ve been asleep, but Obama has been the worst president in American history. I’m not sure how that makes him the awesome president you make him, but you of course are entitled to your partisan opinion.

RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU SUPPORT RON PAUL!!!!

Now lower your hands, and have some applesauce.

John Paul,
You sound like a really nice man.  A man with a kind and noble heart.  I’d like to point out one last thing.  Barrack Obama hardly voted “for” or “against” anything in the Illinois state legislature…but he was the SOLE dissenting vote among both Republicans AND Democrats that voted against care for infants born alive after an abortion.  The nurse who testified against this barbaric practice offered tearful, heartrending first hand experience.  Think of your son.  Think of your wife.  Now think of that child, left to die alone, left gasping or breath in that linen closet, alone.  Unloved.  The fact that Barrack Obama voted to withhold care for him or her—THE SOLE VOTE, is so telling, it should frighten you.  The man is a monster.