Paul Ryan? Really?

Feels like Mitt's a bit unsure of his base.

Anybody else out there getting swamped by political ads ?

I've seen a ton of ads during the Olympics, here in NC. They're mostly for the Presidential race, and they run probably 5:1 pro-Romney.

“Your GOP operative should have had the courtesy to stay sober before noon, and BuzzFeed should go back to labeling cat slideshows.”

Obama's press secretary, in response to this inanity.

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Nearly 65% [of those surveyed] think Barack Obama would be better suited than Mitt Romney to handle an alien invasion.

Here's what the "Politics" section of MSNBC's front page looks like this AM:

Biased?

Here is a screen capture of the Politics section on the current MSNBC front page.

I highlighted one item.

Can you figure out why?

Are You A Romniac ?

mistermix, talking about Ezra Klein:

One of the relatively recent developments in the pundit-industrial complex has been to just assume and expect Congressional stalemate, and instead concentrate on the President as savior. This piece points out that the President really doesn’t have that kind of saving power, even though we spend two years of every four obsessing about who’s going to be the next one.

No, a President doesn't have that "saving" power. And by the same logic, neither does a President have that much destructive power. A President cannot single-handedly save this country, nor can he destroy this country, nor lead it down the path to destruction, nor implement socialism/theocracy/fascism/etc.. Because, after all, it's the same power - one partisan's "save" is another's "destroy" - and a President doesn't have much of it.

But, people run for President pretending that they will have that power (and that they will only use it for good!) And lots of people want the President to have the power to come in and Do What Should Be Done - which is why they get so sad when he fails to do it. Likewise, critics imagine Presidents have the power to do all kinds of dastardly things and so they wail about how it will be the end of the country, should that guy win the election. Sure, some of that kind of criticism is hyperbole; but it's not hard to find people who will happily (well, furiously) argue that such criticism is literally true. Go read any political blog.

Most people only remember the first line or two to that "I'm Just A Bill" song, and nobody I know remembers Three Ring Government at all. We could all use a refresher on how our government actually works, and what the limits of Presidential power really are. Maybe it's time for some adult-oriented teaching cartoons to run between episodes of American Idol.

According to an analysis by 24/7 Wall Street, a handful of US presidents were multi-millionaires, while another handful went bankrupt. When Abe Lincoln died, he owned little more than his single-family home in Illinois. When Herbert Hoover, who presided over the last Great Depression, took office, he was worth about $75 million. (Hoover donated his presidential salary to charity).

And here’s a little tidbit for you: The wealthiest president in history was good ol’ George Washington himself.

According to the 24/7 Wall Street report, the Father of Our Country was worth about $525 million in 2010 dollars – that’s almost twice Romney’s net worth for those of you counting – and is listed among the 100 richest people ever, in relative economic terms. (His wife Martha inherited significant property.) And what’s more? Washington’s presidential salary was equal to 2 percent of the total US budget in 1789. If Mitt, or Newt, or Barack, or anyone else were to make that same ratio, their annual paycheck next year would arrive to tune of $7.7 billion.

Romney's still a tool though.