Columnist.
"In what new ways," an "undecided voter" asked the presidential candidates during the second debate, "do you intend to rectify the inequalities in the workplace, specifically regarding females making only 72 percent of what their male counterparts earn?" Mitt Romney said that, as governor, he questioned why there were no female applicants for his administration. Women's groups, he said, then brought him "binders full" of qualified women. To this, Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said, "Mitt Romney, on a point-blank question the other night in the debate, refused to answer whether he believes in equal pay for equal work. He refers to women as binders and resumes. You know, a callous sort of brush-off."
Within the first few minutes of the second presidential debate, Obama said "not true" more times than Lance Armstrong, Mark McGwire and Baghdad Bob -- combined. Sure beats talking about the economy. President Obama scored a big victory over Mitt Romney with this week's cover story in Time magazine: "Who is Telling the Truth?" How is this a victory for Obama? The silliness of sending out surrogates to call Romney a "liar" has become a Big Media Issue in 2012. Breaking news: Almost all politicians obfuscate, sometimes shading or altering positions as political winds shift and even completely changing positions. Sometimes they admit changing positions (Obama on gay marriage). Sometimes they change while denying any change (Romney initially asserting that RomneyCare could and should be a "model" the federal government "can learn from").
"I just thought it's too difficult. And you're not going to like this, but my gut feeling is that all the media is against George, Republicans, any Republican." -- Former first lady Barbara Bush, who said she was surprised when her son won the presidency in 2000. The Axis of Liberalism -- the other AOL -- is the media, academia and Hollywood. First, the media.
What if President Obama were white? Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said last year, "If (former President) Bill Clinton had been in the White House and had failed to address this problem, we probably would be marching on the White House." The problem to which Cleaver refers is black unemployment. At the beginning of the Obama administration, 12.7 percent of black adults seeking work were unemployed. Black unemployment is now 14.1 percent. Black teenage unemployment at the beginning of the Obama administration was 35.2 percent. Black teenage unemployment is now 37.9 percent.
If "journalism malpractice" were a crime, Nancy Grace would not be able to keep track of all the trials. ABC news reporter Jonathan Karl recently said: "Mitt Romney ... made $13.7 million last year and paid nearly $2 million in taxes. His effective tax rate -- 14.1 percent. That's a lower rate than an auto mechanic who made $75,000 in pay." Not again.
Media Used to Give Gingrich Credit
Who Started it?
Mark Alexander is traveling this week. Enjoy this week's guest column from Larry Elder. The case for re-electing President Barack Obama rests on five arguments, the most important of which is that Romney/Ryan represent sexism, racism, homophobia and fascism.
Abortion, according to a recent Rasmussen poll, fails to make the cut among the top 10 issues important to voters. Yet, because of the GOP opposition to abortion, the mainscream media insist that Republicans suffer from a voter "gender gap," with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney down 8 percentage points among women. Fifty percent of men support Romney, but only 42 percent of women do so. Funny, just two years ago in the 2010 off-year elections, Republicans took the female vote for the first time in nearly 30 years. There are big differences in the way *married* women vote versus unmarried women. Married women vote Republican, as do their husbands.
Which is worse, Rep. Todd Akin's, R-Mo., ignorance about human anatomy -- or the way Republicans jump, run and hide when the Democrat-media complex decides they should? Akin is the Republican candidate for a crucial Senate seat in Missouri. In an interview, he said that he believed that pregnancy following an act of rape is "really rare -- if it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down." Incredibly dumb. The married father of six, including two daughters, apologized the next day and then recorded an ad apologizing yet again. That, at the very least, should have satisfied his Republican supporters. But, no. Akin's opponent, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Democratic PACs spent $1.5 million on behalf of Akin to ensure his Republican primary victory over two other Republicans that experts considered surer bets to beat her. Unfortunately for McCaskill, Akin was leading in the polls before the gaffe. Akin's stupid comments were just what she was hoping for.
Shrewd move in choosing House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., as running mate for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Now here's the next play: Invite George McGovern, the 1972 (SET ITAL) Democratic (END ITAL) presidential candidate, to speak this month in Tampa at the *Republican* National Convention. Yes, that old lefty McGovern. You know the expression, "A conservative is a liberal who has been mugged"? Well, McGovern has been mugged.
Gabrielle Douglas became the fourth American -- and first black female -- to win a gold medal in women's individual all-around gymnastics. Effervescent and attractive, Gabby stands to make millions of dollars in endorsements. But she has received criticism -- in the social media, via Twitter, Facebook and, according to The Daily Beast, several "black blogs." It's about her hair...
Tea Party Critic Morgan Freeman Gets a Pass
About the tragedy in Aurora, Colo., rapper/actor Ice-T made more sense -- and has a better understanding of the Second Amendment -- than gun-control proponents.
Photo voter ID laws, according to Attorney General Eric Holder, are a "poll tax." "Many of those without IDs," Holder recently told the NAACP, "would have to travel great distances to get them -- and some would struggle to pay for the documents they might need to obtain them." Photo voter ID opponent Keesha Gaskins, senior counsel in the Brennan Center's Democracy Program, writes: "While these laws are allegedly passed to secure elections, they impact communities of color in ways only reflected in our Jim Crow past. Looking at voter ID laws alone, we know that although 11 percent of Americans lack government-issued photo ID, 25 percent of African-Americans, 16 percent of Hispanics and 18 percent of elderly voters do not have this form of ID. ... Hopefully our country will never again see the kind of internal bloodshed we saw during the Civil War -- but we are now seeing a war on voting that can only be compared to the dark, discriminatory past of the Jim Crow era."
Richard Kind is a funny, talented actor. I had the pleasure of working with him when I did a cameo on the show "Spin City," where Kind co-starred. He was thoughtful and helpful on set, even though I was a dreaded non-lefty. Fast forward to this year's White House Correspondents' dinner. Pleased to be invited, Kind gave an interview to The Hollywood Reporter. After praising President Barack Obama as "the smartest man in the room," Kind offered his opinion on what issue he "cares most about": "The disparity between the ultra-rich and the next level is as disgraceful as anything that has gone on in our history. Now maybe some of them can control my life, my career, my employment, but I have to tell you something is wrong. I don't know how it got wrong, but something is wrong." "The next level"? What does that even mean? "As disgraceful as anything that has gone on in our history?" Right up there with slavery, the World War II relocation camps for Americans of Japanese descent and the fact that the race-hustling Rev. Al Sharpton has a television show on MSNB-Hee Haw?
Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., once said: "George (W.) Bush is our 'Bull' Connor -- and if that doesn't get to you, nothing will be able to get to you. It's time for us to be able to say that we're sick and tired, we're fired up and we're not going to take it anymore." Connor was a racist sheriff who sicced dogs and water hoses on civil rights workers in the '60s. Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., says Republicans "want to literally drag us all the way back to Jim Crow laws." The tactic is as obvious as it is insulting. Tell black voters that "they" are out to "get them" -- and pull that lever for us Democrats so we can resist their racist attempt to undermine your success. Never mind that this kind of anger wrapped in paranoia -- assuming that others are out to get you -- is precisely the formula to undermine your own success.
Did the French just elect a self-described socialist who wants to raise taxes on the rich? Yes, they did. Is President Barack Obama asking for four more years with an economic philosophy similar to that of the new French president? Yes, he is. In France, those earning over a million euros would face a tax rate of 75 percent. And one of Francois Hollande's first acts as new president of France was to reverse his predecessor's course and *lower* the retirement age from 62 to 60 -- this in a country whose projected unfunded pension liabilities for its living citizens are about $8.37 trillion, or 300 percent of its $2.774 trillion gross domestic product. The United States' unfunded Social Security, Medicare and prescription drug benefits liability for its living citizens is about $50 trillion, or 333 percent of our current $15 trillion GDP.
Last week, a "right-wing activist" (according to Michael Eric Dyson, guest-hosting for Ed Schultz on MSNBC) interrupted President Barack Obama as he explained his executive order that bars deportation for at least 800,000 illegal aliens who came to America -- "brought to this country by their parents" -- before the age of 16. As Obama stood in the White House Rose Garden and outlined the plan, Neil Munro, a reporter with a conservative website, shouted, "Why do you favor foreigners over American workers?" Based on his colleagues' reaction, one would have thought he'd thrown a shoe at the President. Reporters and pundits called him unprofessional, rude and even racist for interrupting Obama. Never mind Munro asked a legitimate question -- one that probably wouldn't have even occurred to amnesty-supporting media: Will this harm the job prospects for struggling young American citizens? (Nor has anyone had the chance to ask Obama why, only a year ago, he told a Univision audience that he lacked the power to suspend student deportations via an executive order.)
After President Barack Obama said, "The private sector is doing fine," he later quickly regrouped. "The economy is not doing fine (emphasis added). That's the reason I had the press conference." But Obama said he was particularly concerned about losses in the public sector. The cluelessness is absolutely stunning. Obama is wrong about both the private and public sector. Obama's assessment of the economy reminds many of 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain's characterization of the economy. In September 2008, the investment firm Lehman Brothers was collapsing. Wall Street was shaking as the yet-to-be-declared recession deepened, but McCain said: "I think, still, the fundamentals of our economy are strong. But these are very, very difficult times." The reaction to McCain was harsh. His opponent, then-Sen. Obama, pounced: "We just woke up to news of financial disaster, and this morning he said that the fundamentals of the economy are still strong? Sen. McCain, what economy are you talking about?"
