The Romneyshambles

So much of American politics depresses me. I see a Democratic President whose symbolism doesn't quite make up for the fact that his policies would be considered absurdly rightwing in Europe being pilloried as a 'socialist' by a Republican party that's far removed from its foundation by Abraham Lincoln and friends to assault slavery.

Willard Mitt Romney isn't just a cold, calculating plutocrat whose only aim is to capture the US Government for his class (as if it wasn't already in their hands: 80% of Representatives and Senators are millionaires), but an incompetent hypocrite. He receives tax breaks for a dressage horse which competed in the Olympics (like him, it lost). He's building a massive new 8th house (probably, I lost count) with a car elevator. While demanding 'American jobs', his business specialised in exporting jobs overseas and closing American factories, and he opposed government bail-outs for America's auto industry.

As this Democrat ad points out, while Romney was declaring that 'my job is not to care' about the 47% of Americans too poor to pay income tax - though they pay a lot of state, property and sales taxes - he has reduced his tax bill from the official 35% top rate to about 14%, and keeps his money in a surprising number of countries which aren't the United States of America. No wonder he won't show the American public his records.



Here's a chilling thought for you. When John McCain considered Romney as his vice-presidential running mate, he saw 23 years of Romney's tax returns. He then promptly chose Sarah Palin as his candidate instead. I really think Americans deserve to see what scared off John McCain

US election stats

I follow the US election statistics on the Guardian's round-up page, but an article today suggests that if you really want to get into the electoral nitty-gritty, you should head to FiveThirtyEight.com where Nate Silver, who used to collate baseball statistics, is hard at work tracking every bit of polling data available. 

Is blogging unsuitable for political journalism?

John McCain certainly thinks so, according to Robert Draper. The idea is that blogging journalists are so desperate to get a 'gotcha' comment online that they've lost the art of sustained questioning - though neither candidate has gone out of his way to encourage this type of interview.