Overheard at Nerdworld Today

Nerdworld, as you know, is blue to the core and filled with Obama supporters.  It's the sort of place where you stop and stare if you actually see a Romney-Ryan sticker or poster (I've only seen one during this entire campaign season.)

But today as I was talking past a cafe, I overheard a group of young guys talking about politics.  One said gravely, "I think Romney's going to win.  I don't want him to, but I think he's going to win."

Well, well, well. 

This VP Debate is a Biden Train Wreck

Good grief!  Biden is vacillating between being a creepily grinning clown and being a rude, condescending, interrupting jerk.  Meanwhile, Ryan's coming across as an earnest accountant trying patiently to explain math to a shrilly aggressive blockhead. Best line so far is Ryan's: "There aren’t enough rich people and small businesses to tax to pay for all their spending."

As for the Biden performance?  This is symptomatic of the dynamic:

Ryan: *trying to explain tax cuts* 

Biden, flailing: "Nobody's ever done this!!!" 

Ryan, calmly: "Jack Kennedy did." 

Biden: "SO YOU'RE JACK KENNEDY NOW???!!!!" 

Me: *facepalm*

I don't know how much longer I can watch this.  Martha Raddatz can't rein in Biden, and it's embarrassing.  Well, there's always the drinking game, Vodkapundit's drunkblogging this debate, and law prof Ann Althouse's liveblogging.  Given the choice between the cool, calm, earnest Ryan and the shrieking Biden, I know whom I'd pick.  Here's a news photo hot off the Internet:

Oh, boy, this one's even better.

Come on, Ryan, hammer Biden on the administration's indefensible record.  Right now he's smacking him with Obama's broken promises.  More of this, please, plus: "We have to tackle the debt crisis before the debt crisis tackles us."

You know, the only thing keeping me watching is simultaneously watching Twitter.

PS: Ryan notes that 23 million people are struggling for work.  Let me put it to you this way: That is the entire population of Taiwan.

Whoop!  I made it through the debate with my brains only slightly scrambled while my ears keep on ringing from Biden's endless screeching.  Raddatz did a horrible job moderating.  Ryan's closing statement was good.  I think he won but not crushingly, partially because of the endless awful interruptions and Biden's sheer disrespect.  Still, advantage Romney-Ryan.  Peace, out.  Oh - one more thing.  The Onion strikes again.   One more more thing: Thank goodness the drinking game wasn't "take a drink every time Biden smirks/laughs" or "take a drink every time Biden interrupts Ryan."  That'd be almost 1 drink for each of the 90 minutes of the debate.  

LOL: the VP Debate Drinking Game

Remember the presidential debate drinking game?  That was SO last week.  Here's a fresh round of alcohol poisoning to go with tonight's Joe Biden-vs.Paul Ryan cage match (which I am, by the way, expecting Ryan to dominate).  Click the image for a bigger version.  I'll say this right now: if we're supposed to take a drink every time someone says "Medicare," we'll all be passed out within minutes.

Oh, and for your amusement from the archives: back in 2008 I chose the Winchesters over the Biden-Palin debate.  (Can you believe it's been 4 years?)

A Study in Contrasts: Campaign Priorities

A thought in passing as I rush around with research deadlines.  After that first presidential debate, the Romney campaign gave us a major foreign policy speech.  The Obama campaign gave us an ad featuring a character from a children's TV program.  One of these campaigns is proving itself to be fundamentally and irremediably unserious. 

Speaking of striking contrasts ... Tomorrow is the VP debate, and I CAN'T WAIT. 

UPDATE:  Heh.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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Monday Therapy: Do the Paul Ryan

I had previously blogged about the Romney-Ryan ticket here and also noted the amusing "Hey Girl, It's Paul Ryan" blog.  Now it's all taken a hilarious musical turn:

 

Questions for the Presidential Debate

What do you think?  What would you like to ask Obama and Romney about domestic policy?

Living in Utter Defiance of Reality

I was going to write a full-blown post about this administration's foreign policy and public relations follies, but  the thought occurs to me that everything I want to say can be summed up in the blog post title.  

When Hillary Clinton insists that Benghazi residents took the late ambassador to the hospital as if performing a good deed instead of dragging his corpse in the street while snapping photos, when Susan Rice insists that the riots were spontaneous when the Libyan president says otherwise, when Jay Carney insists that the riots weren't about America but only one asinine video when even a cursory look at history would prove him wrong, when the president would rather go to Vegas and hang out with Beyonce and Jay-Z than go to security briefings and meet with Netanyahu, when the First Amendment seems to evaporate at a convenient moment, when the prospect of a nuclear Iran doesn't make you do anything other than pay lip service, and when Mitt Romney seems to be a bigger problem than the fact that abroad you have alienated your allies and inflamed your enemies while at home you have presided over 40+ months of 8% unemployment and $16 trillion national debt and unsustainable entitlements ... Well, you just might be living in utter defiance of reality.  It's not just denial.  It's the active, willful defiance of it.

(And, no, it's not raaaaaaaaaaaaacist to say so.)

AWKWARD.

Heh.

Post-RNC: One Huge Oversight

I was going to say something in retrospect, but Dignified Rant beat me to it.  I absolutely do think that the Romney campaign should run on the economy as its main argument, but we can't forget that we do have military engagements in progress.  What bothers me even more, though, is a nagging feeling that Romney hasn't formulated - or perhaps fully expressed if he has formulated - his position.  UPDATE: Still, the upshot is that the more I learn about Romney the person, the more I'm warming to him (a good speech certainly didn't hurt).  The reverse is proving true about Obama, though.

One British Perspective on Romney and Obama

Daniel Hannan, a Conservative MEP, shares a few thoughts as an outside observer.  A blurb: "Whether Mitt Romney can eliminate the deficit is not clear. What is beyond doubt, though, is that Mr Obama cannot."  Hannan had supported Obama in 2008.  What a difference a term makes.

Paul Ryan at the RNC

I repeat the Onion's spot-on satire after the Ryan speech at the RNC.  UPDATE: Yup, that speech might have hit a nerve, because today my lefty friends are going on and on about how Ryan's a liar and a monster and the devil incarnate and (insert whatever nasty thing you want here).

LOL: Hey Girl, It's Paul Ryan

The Hey Girl Ryan Gosling meme meets Paul Ryan, and the result is swoony right-leaning hilarity.  There's also a lefty version that's more critical, but I'll just leave you with a LOL-worthy image from Hey Girl, It's Paul Ryan, shall I?

Niall Ferguson on Romney vs. Obama

The Oxford/Harvard professor and analyst has something to say.  I give you a blurb because he says a lot of the things that I would say if I ever had the time to sit down and blog them all out for you:

The voters now face a stark choice. They can let Barack Obama’s rambling, solipsistic narrative continue until they find themselves living in some American version of Europe, with low growth, high unemployment, even higher debt—and real geopolitical decline. 

Or they can opt for real change: the kind of change that will end four years of economic underperformance, stop the terrifying accumulation of debt, and reestablish a secure fiscal foundation for American national security.

Well, I suppose we can sort of append him to the list of 400 economists who have declared publicly for Romney.  You know, you can boil down the entire presidential campaign, I think, to one idea: Romney with Ryan has a plan.  Obama has a narrative.  (The less said about Biden the better, aside from the snarky observation of who chose him for the VP slot in the first place, hm?)

UPDATE 1: Mark Steyn on who has a plan and who doesn't.  Hmmm.  This too.

UPDATE 2: In the interest of fairness, an opposing response to Ferguson.

UPDATE 3: Ferguson responds to his critics.

Thoughts on Paul Ryan

The choice of Generation X?  (Well, we're "the Screwed Generation," after all, though that's a rant for another post - and, believe you me, I will rant if given half a chance, since plenty of Boomers seem perfectly happy to eat their young, metaphorically.)  Interestingly, this article was written by a center-left member of Gen X.  

In the New York Times editorials, of all places, comes this argument why moderates should like Ryan.

Remember that Ryan's budget plan was praised by none other than Erskine Bowles, the Democrat who co-chaired Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.  Here's the video.

Finally, look at this list: http://economistsforromney.com/
Now think about this.  As Alessandra and I were saying earlier tonight, WOW, you know the economy's shot to hell if you find so many economists - including Nobel laureates and Ivy League econ professors - willing to publicize their support for Romney.  Come on, campus culture is heavily tilted to the Left.  It takes some nerve to declare in public, as these professors have, one's support for the anything else.  Now take a look at the list of economists.  Look at their institutions.  These aren't cranks.  These are established authorities and serious academics.  (And I'm pleased to see Greg Mankiw of Hahvahd on the list too, and he's also got this note.)  I counted 5 Nobel laureates and as for the others I quit counting at 200 and I was only at the letter H.

On a somewhat related note: I still wish we could require that every single member of government, beginning with Congress and the executive branch, take Econ 101 and pass it with a B or better before being allowed anywhere near policymaking.

Anyway, sci fi author Larry Correia's opinion is worth a look too because he's got a flair for words.  I repeat my now-uncontrollable desire to see Paul Ryan beat Joe Biden like a drum during the VP debates.

Oh, and I debated with myself whether to link to this uproarious Onion satire since it's so pottymouthed, but it's late, I'm tired, and I revert to my old mantra of discourse (i.e, "Screw 'em if they can't take a joke").  I had previously stated that I'm pretty sure the Obama camp is terrified of Paul Ryan, and apparently the Onion thinks so too.  Satire Alert: Take a look at this hilarity written in the guise of Ryan: "Admit It, I Scare the Ever-Loving Sh*t Out Of You, Don't I?"  Here's a blurb:

"I’m young, I’m handsome, I’m smart, and I’m articulate. And that scares the ever-loving sh*t out of you. You can pretend like you have this thing in the bag, but you know good g*dd*mn well that this race just got real interesting, real fast."

Quote of the Day: Thomas Sowell on Choices

This is a long-ish quotation, but it's worth a read as it delineates the difference between what people want to hear and what they need to hear:

This election is a test, not just of the opposing candidates but of the voting public. If what they want are the hard facts about where the country is, and where it is heading, they cannot vote for more of the same for the next four years. 

But, if what they want is emotionally satisfying rhetoric and a promise to give them something for nothing, to be paid for by taxing somebody else, then Obama is their man. This is not to say that the public will in fact get something for nothing or that rich people will just pay higher taxes, when it is easy for them to escape taxation by investing overseas -- creating jobs overseas. 

Even if most Americans do not have their own taxes raised, that means little, if they end up paying other people's taxes in the higher prices of goods and services that pass along the higher taxes imposed on businesses. 

There are no doubt voters who will vote on the basis of believing that Obama "cares" more about them. But that is a faith which passeth all understanding. The political mirage of something for nothing, from leaders who "care," has ruined many a nation.

Here's a related note.

Batten Down the Hatches, People

The Olympics are over, and the political campaign season is really upon us.  It's going to be one wild ride until November.  It's already ugly.  It's probably going to be one of the dirtiest re-election campaigns in recent memory.  I'm already hearing it.  A lefty friend just basically announced to everybody, "If you vote for Romney and Ryan, you're a homophobe!"   Thanks a lot.  I guess I should get used to being considered all sorts of nasty things before all is said and done.

Steyn and Romney

Pretty much, yeah?

It's Romney and Ryan

It's Paul Ryan.  Good pick.  The Insta-Prof is all over this.  Iowahawk is hilariously and pithily brilliant as usual.  Now hammer home the message that it's the economy.  I expect the response from the opposition to be not only unserious but disgraceful.  I also think the Obama camp might be secretly terrified.

On a related note, I now might actually be motivated to watch the VP debates so I can watch Ryan wipe the floor with Biden - not that this would be much of a feat, admittedly, but still.  The Olympics will be over, but I'm still going to want to watch a colossal beatdown because ... well, I'm a bloodthirsty sports fan, and politics is basically a full-contact sport.

UPDATE: A few thoughts.  Also this.  From the way that some of my lefty friends are flipping out, the Ryan pick has clearly hit a nerve.