Portman on This Week this morning:

[No Elephants]

Tapper asked Portman if there wasn't a disconnect between what Romney is campaigning on about China and the fact that Romney is still getting millions from Bain every year.

Portman. First, everything Romney has in is in a blind trust..... (or words to that effect)

Somewhere, there is a video of Romney campaigning against Kennedy, mocking the notion that a "blind trust" is truly "blind" as far as the person who owns the assets in everything but "bare legal title."

I had to run to the kitchen at that point, but I would bet 200 emoticons that Tapper did not mention that video.

I know about the video only because I saw it on TV while Romney was running for the nomination and not because I followed the Kennedy Romney campaign as it was unfolding. (That was before I began following politics.)

If I know about it and following politics is not my day job, or even my part time job, Tapper either knows about it too or he is not earning the big bucks he gets paid to follow politics.

[No Elephants]

1. P.S. I just heard the very dishonest George Will say that

Presidential debates are now "semi-Constitutional." He added that they did not exist before 1960, but they are now semi-Constitutional.

To which I replY (a):wtf: and (b) :wtf: .


First, televised debates started only in 1960, but Presidential debates have existed all along, though maybe not for General Washington. (I don't think anyone had opposed him, but I am not sure.) The Lincoln Douglas debates, to name just one set, are iconic in American history.

Second, what in heaven's name does "semi-constitutional" mean? There's been a White House Christmas tree lighting ceremony since well before 1960. Does that mean the ceremony is now semi-constitutional?

Would the debates be "semi-constitutional" this morning if Romney had lost badly last Wednesday? Or would they be something a lot more trivial?

I dislike that man so much, not because he is a Republican, but because he is so off-puttingly pompous and, worse, so very deceptive. Unfortunately, he has a way of putting his bullshit convincingly.

PPS. Editing to add that Will himself just mentioned the Lincoln Doughlas debate. He is also equating the reaction of the American people to debates with what media tell us cost people the debate or the election.

Example: He said Poppy Bush lost when he looked at his watch during a debate. I submit that happened only in the mind of the media and it has been repeated so often since then that it is now "truthy."

What cost George Bush was "It's the economy, stupid." But, Will is not about to say that. Reminding people about a Republican President and a lousy economy is the last thing Will wants to do during this campaign season. So, sure, it was the watch, which most of America never noticed nor cared much about until the media blew it out of proportion.

[Enthusiast]

3. Plus one million!

WTF?, indeed.

I find it amusing how Republican pundits always declare something the Democrats have done as unconstitutional, yet a Republican administration, or legislature, can do virtually anything, but nothing they do is ever unconstitutional.

[Enthusiast]

2. Those videos could be exploited for poltical gain.

But that might insult Romney.