The Hackwhackers Voter Guide

If you haven't voted yet, we're offering this partial list as a guide. Is any of this appealing to you:

Mandatory transvaginal probes, Rep. Michelle Bachmann, birtherism, unequal pay for women, Rush Limbaugh, privatizing Social Security, de-funding Planned Parenthood, Donald Trump, right-wing religious extremists, "Defense of Marriage Act," Rep. Todd Akin, Richard Mourdock, "legitimate rape," a baby from a rape is "God's will," more tax cuts for the 1 percent, tax hikes for the middle class, Ann Coulter, increasing income inequality, Sen. Mitch McConnell, Gov. Scott Walker, deregulating Wall Street and the banks, de-funding PBS, taking 30 million Americans off of health insurance, Rep. Steve King, voucherizing Medicare, climate change denial, anti-science agenda ("Darwin who?"), Sean Hannity, Ayn Rand, never compromise, voter suppression, corporate money awash in the political system, Speaker Boehner, Rep. Eric Cantor, "self-deportation" for Hispanic immigrants, Rep. Allen West, Rethuglican obstructionism and economic sabotage, rewarding political hostage-taking, and finally "President Willard Romney and Vice President Paul Ryan."

If any of the above is appealing to you, please exit this blog immediately. Otherwise, think about what the Rethuglicans represent when you're in the voting booth on Tuesday. Think about the America you want for yourself and your family. Then vote.

BONUS: Want more food for thought? Here you go.

(Photo: Willard "Corporations Are People Too, My Friend" Romney wears his mom jeans to show that he "gets it" when it comes to women's issues.)

The Big Dog's In The Hunt

If there's anyone that President Obama will owe a debt to, if Tuesday turns out as we hope, it's former President Bill Clinton. He's been a tireless and effective campaigner for Obama, making the case for four more years in ways that have sometimes eluded the President. Here's an excerpt from a report on Clinton's travels:

"Clinton campaigned for Obama on Thursday in Wisconsin and Ohio. Earlier in the week he was in Iowa, Colorado, Minnesota and New Hampshire.
He will join Obama on Saturday for a rally in Virginia and on Sunday morning for an event in New Hampshire. Clinton also will campaign Sunday in North Carolina and Minnesota. And on Monday, the Obama camp hopes Clinton will snuff out any possible Romney eruption in Pennsylvania, scheduling stops for him in Pittsburgh and Scranton, plus two in Philadelphia."

That's on top of five stops yesterday in Florida, a key swing state where Obama is slightly ahead. He's a force of nature, and without his active campaigning, we're not certain that Obama would be leading as he is in most of the critical swing states.

(photo: Clinton campaigns November 2 in Lake Worth, FL. Photo credit- Larry Marano/Wireimage)

Here's Your Rethuglican Base (Viewer Discretion Advised)

Captured here, in about 8 minutes of video, are vignettes of the Rethuglican base hive mind. These are Rethuglican voters in Ohio freely regurgitating whatever misinformation is contained in their lizard brains (brought to them courtesy of the Fox "News"/ Rush Limbaugh/ Koch Brothers/ Willard Romney right-wing grift-the-yokels machine). You might want to chug some Maalox before watching:

Suppressing the Facts, Rethug Style

The Congressional Research Service is a respected, independent research arm of the U.S. Congress that is typically called upon to research and report on a wide range of issues. When it was asked to research the issue of whether tax cuts for upper income people ("job creators"), it reported back that there was no correlation between tax cuts for the wealthy and job creation or economic prosperity: it just make wealthy people even wealthier.

Well, this didn't sit well with the protectors of the 1%. Rethuglican Senate Minority Leader and unintentional turtle impersonator Mitch "Missy" McConnell had the report squashed, obviously because it undermined the most cherished myth of the modern Rethuglican/New Confederate Party that giving the wealthiest more wealth will trickle down to the rest of the country. It also demonstrated that taxphobic Grover "The Pledge" Norquist has the Rethuglican leadership's gonads in an undisclosed location, and is threatening to stomp on them if they depart from the "no taxes, never ever" pledge that they signed.

So add tax cut mythology to the list of Rethug fantasies, along with climate change denial, pregnancies from rape are impossible, and so many more.

Hoping These Numbers Hold Through Tuesday

Latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll is bringing good news for President Obama, who holds a 6 point lead in all-important Ohio and a narrow 2 point lead in Florida. If Obama wins Ohio, he's a lock for re-election, because Willard "I Cannot Tell A Lie" Romney simply can't win without Ohio. Winning Florida would be icing on Obama's electoral cake.

UPDATE: The incomparable Nate Silver assesses the polls and likely outcome. Spoiler alert: Obama's in the driver's seat.

More on Romney's Dishonesty

Charles Blow in the New York Times offers several reasons today why Willard "I Cannot Tell A Lie" Romney is probably going down on Tuesday. One of the reasons matches what the Kaplan Daily said in its editorial today (see "Update" below):

"Evidence continues to emerge that Romney is one of the most dishonest, duplicitous candidates to ever seek the presidency."

As we've indicated many times, if dishonesty were a disqualifier for the presidency, Willard wouldn't have made it past the first month of his 7-year quest.

Mitt's Mendacity - Farewell Edition (?)

With any luck, and the Rethuglicans not being able to disenfranchise enough people in Ohio, this will be the last edition of the chronicling of the untruths coming out of the lie-hole of Willard "Mendacious Mitt" Romney for the forseeable future. Once again, the work is actually Steve Benen's, and we're certain he's hoping this is the last he'll have to go hip-deep into the sewage coming out of the Rethuglican's standard bearer. As Benen puts it,

"Little did I know at the time that Romney would become an ambitious prevaricator, whose rhetoric would come to define post-truth politics. Nearly 11 months after Greg Sargent's harmless suggestion, I've published 40 installments of in this series, which, before today, featured 884 falsehoods. (If you include today's edition, the new total is 917 falsehoods for the year.)

"I wish that were a typo. It's not." (our emphasis)

This week, lie #7 (the racist dog-whistle that Obama "gutted welfare reform") and lie #12 (JEEP is moving to China), are two particularly vicious lies that Willard refuses to let go of.

In the unlikely, but possible, event this gilded turd is elected President of the United States on Tuesday, Americans will have elected a man with neither scruples, moral core, nor the capacity to be shamed by his pathological lying -- Richard Nixon without the 5 o'clock shadow. It's our duty to do everything we can as Americans not to let that happen.

UPDATE: In an editorial today, the Kaplan Daily adds:

"Mr. Romney...seems to be betting that voters have no memories, poor arithmetic skills and a general inability to look behind the curtain. We hope the results Tuesday prove him wrong."

Twitter Twit Trump Trashed

Who is Ralph Gilles? Just the Vice President of Chrysler for Product Design. He knows a gilded turd when he sees one!

Nate Silver Makes It Simple

Unfortunately, use of crayons on the internet is frowned upon, so Nate Silver at fivethirtyeight.com tries to make it simple for the Beltway pudnitz and other malpractitioners of journalism:

If you are following some of the same people that I do on Twitter, you may have noticed some pushback about our contention that Barack Obama is a favorite (and certainly not a lock) to be re-elected. I haven’t come across too many analyses suggesting that Mitt Romney is the favorite. (There are exceptions.) But there are plenty of people who say that the race is a “tossup.”

What I find confounding about this is that the argument we’re making is exceedingly simple. Here it is:

Obama’s ahead in Ohio.

And has been for pretty much the entire campaign. Look at the whole article and you'll see why Nate has Obama at an over 80% favorite to win (but please, please Democrats, Independents and thinking Republicans, let that just be more motivation to get out and vote).

Weekend Twofer - Who Dunnit

Back of the rack again, this time with The Who. Yes, we were young once.

Of Climate Change and Endorsements

President Obama picked up a significant endorsement yesterday from independent New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose views matter among economic elites. What was interesting in Bloomberg's endorsement is the timing and the reasons that he articulated. The endorsement came immediately after the impacts of Hurricane Sandy were felt in the city, and noted that Obama was the only candidate likely to address climate change. Here are excerpts from Bloomberg's endorsement:

"When I step into the voting booth, I think about the world I want to leave my two daughters, and the values that are required to guide us there. The two parties’ nominees for president offer different visions of where they want to lead America.

One believes a woman’s right to choose should be protected for future generations; one does not. That difference, given the likelihood of Supreme Court vacancies, weighs heavily on my decision.

One recognizes marriage equality as consistent with America’s march of freedom; one does not. I want our president to be on the right side of history.

One sees climate change as an urgent problem that threatens our planet; one does not. I want our president to place scientific evidence and risk management above electoral politics." (emphasis added)

The full statement itself has an excess of the "both sides are guilty" false equivalence, which has become a Bloomberg hallmark, but the clear message is that one party and one candidate has gone so far to the far right that they've disqualified themselves in this election.

(cartoon: Rob Rogers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Good Economic News for October

The jobs report for the month of October shows a better-than-expected number of 171,000 net jobs added to the economy. The October report is the last before the election, and represents positive news for President Obama. Most analysts projected anywhere from 105,000 to 130,000 jobs created.

This news, coupled with increased consumer confidence and spending, and signs that the housing sector is coming back, should provide a final boost to the President's campaign going into the last 4 days before the election.

Quote of The Day

"When General Motors tells a presidential campaign that it is engaging in 'cynical campaign politics at its worst,' that’s a pretty good signal that the campaign has crossed a red line and ought to pull back. Not Mitt Romney’s campaign. Having broadcast an outrageously deceitful ad attacking the auto bailout, the campaign ignored the howls from carmakers and came back with more." -- Today's New York Times editorial, blasting Mendacious Mitt for his dishonest claim about the auto industry's plans. The whole editorial is here.

Politico: "Predicting Is Hard Work!"

The Rethuglican-wired dimbulbs at Politico (or as Charles P. Pierce calls them, "Tiger Beat on the Potomac") would have us believe that, gosh and golly, we just don't have any clue who's going to win this election! Punditry is hard (especially when you don't know how to read and interpret polling)! Here's 538's Nate Silver with a nice, eviscerating tweet:

Yeah, we think most of those clowns are so heavily invested in the horse-race narrative that any other reality-based one would cause their hopes and dreams for a Rethuglican restoration to go "poof. * " By the way, Nate's latest projection (close your eyes Rethuglicans) is that Obama has a 79% chance of winning. And that's conservative compared to Sam Wang's 96-99% certainty over at Princeton Election Consortium.

Let's get out and vote, Democrats, Independents and thinking Republicans and make sure these projections come true.

UPDATE: One Hackwhacker voted this morning, and there was a healthy crowd, but no lines. Good feeling ensued.

* Sorry!

Willard's Canned Response to Sandy

Steven Colbert had a couple of segments on Hurricane Sandy last night, but started his broadcast by praising emergency first responders and asking for donations to the Red Cross. In this segment though, he looks at weird Willard "Abolish FEMA" Romney's campaign event staged as a "relief rally" to collect canned goods (which are not what the Red Cross asks for). Notice at about 1:30 in the vid when weird Willard says the goods will be sent "to, I think it's New Jersey." Such awareness and compassion.

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