A Bad Few Days for Republicans

You gotta feel sorry for Republicans this last couple of weeks: The Birth Certificate controversy, Donald Trump and Sarah Palin's political careers, the Republican repeal of health care, and Osama bin Laden all dead in the span of a few days! Wow! General Motors, which the Republicans wanted to let die, and President Obama rescued, posted a $3.2 Billion quarterly profit. Even the price of oil dropped. And 268,000 private sector jobs were added to the nation's economy last month. The Featherweight Division of the Republican Party held their first debate last night to what must have been the smallest audience in Presidential debate history. To even call it a Presidential debate is an oxymoron. Anyway.......

Donald Trump's craven and opportunistic big splash in the media on the Birth Certificate issue turns out to be a big fat belly flop and even NASCAR doesn't want him. He had to back out of a stint as the pace car driver at an event because of organized protests. Sarah Palin continues to be stupid and irrelevant.

And then Obama bags Osama! A Navy Seals special operation in the dead of night kills Osama bin Laden in Pakistan nearly ten years after the 9-11 attacks. The President's decision to get us out of Iraq and instead focus on fighting Al Qaeda was the right decision and lead to this good result. Now it's time to get out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Even though George W. Bush famously said about Osama bin Laden, “I just don’t spend that much time on him, to be honest with you," Republicans are making a point of congratulating George W. Bush on his valiant efforts to hunt down Bin Laden and, with a few exceptions, giving only a grudging nod to President Obama.

They live in a bit of a fantasy parallel world I think now that George W. Bush finally got Osama bin Laden. Expecting a bump in the polls any day now, they'll use their new found political capital to end Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, environmental protection, abolish unions, and use all that money to give tax breaks to the rich who will run stuff.

I must say though that the Republican plan to lay off a million teachers, police officers, firefighters, public utility workers, highway maintenance workers, public hospital nurses, etc., etc., etc., take hundreds of billions if not trillions of $$$ out of the economy, end unemployment insurance, end social security, end medicare, cut children off medicaid, break all the remaining unions, eliminate collective bargaining rights, lower peoples' wages everywhere, increase taxes on the poor and middle-class, throw people off their health insurance plans, and giving all the money to millionaires and billionaires and tax-payer subsidized corporations making record profits while paying no taxes and out-sourcing work to China or India, and let rich people run stuff, doesn't seem like a good plan to me.

An analysis of the Republican plan shows $4.3 trillion cuts to programs that help the working poor and the middle class, sick children, the unemployed, end Medicare, etc., etc., etc., while then giving $4.2 trillion in tax cuts to the wealthiest of the wealthy and big corporations.

The Libertarian branch of the Republicans held their candidate debate Thursday night on Fox News (believe it or not) to what I imagine was the smallest audience ever to watch a debate. The Social Issue Republicans will hold their debate later if any of them ever decide to run. Since Donald Trump and Mitt Romney are political chameleons and adopt the color of their surroundings, libertarian or social conservative, they'll need to have a separate and multi-hued debate.

On reported complaints by George W. Bush that he felt left out of Obama's "victory lap," I'll remind you that George W. Bush prematurely strutted across the deck of an aircraft carrier in a flight suit under a "Mission Accomplished" banner a few years ago while President Obama's "victory lap" was to solemnly place a wreath at ground zero in remembrance of all those killed on 9-11 and after. George W. Bush declined an opportunity to attend the ceremony. Give me a break.

And finally, while I agree with President Obama and not that it's a good idea, but on the Osama bin Laden gruesome photo controversy: I suspect that if the US government sold enlarged color enhanced poster-sized framed photos for $100 each on the internet, we could balance the budget within two weeks and pay down a significant chunk of the national debt. At the very least, the government should get a per cent of the profits from the soon to be released graphic video game: US Navy Seals Kill Osama bin Laden, soon to be available at Walmart and other video game outlets.