Erick Erickson's Blog, page 68

CPAC: Not Quite Like the Media Matters Communications Room. But Still, Grow Up.

UPDATE: Melissa Clouthier has taken on the task of writing the same point about the young women, too many of whom were even more scantily clad than some of Fox News hosts.

Stephen Glass was a fabulist. He made up stories and eventually he was caught. I read somewhere he wants to be a lawyer now, but his contrition is in doubt.

One of the things he made up was a story on CPAC. He may have made it up, but I think he got it right nonetheless.

After RedState got started in July of 2004, blogging on the right became all the rage, though it was correlation and not causation. By 2005, CPAC had a Bloggers Row and I went for my first time. The event was held that year at the Reagan Center in Washington, D.C. Most of the attendees stayed across the street at the JW Marriott. It was not an ideal venue, but it was my first time and I did not know better.

Being the good, intrepid blogger, I ran across the street to a CVS to buy a notepad, having left mine in my office back in Macon, GA. There in line were a half dozen young men, each with CPAC credentials around their necks and each buying condoms.

That is part of life on the college circuit. Young men, regardless of political persuasion or ideology, are intent on having sex, being boys, getting drunk — doing what young men in college often do. All to often there are also a few young ladies willing to shame their parents if their parents only knew.

But — and I wouldn't be writing any of this had I not had a series of email exchanges on this subject in the past few days — I am more than a bit shocked by the young men at CPAC this year who just seemingly refuse to grow up or act their age. More troubling, while in 2005 it seemed to be just college kids, as the years have passed it is not just the 18 to 21 year old set, but the twenty and thirty somethings who just can't seem to grow up. It's like they started out at CPAC this way in college and each year at their CPAC reunion descend back to their freshman year rush week.

This is more and more common in society and none of us should expect that a behavior increasingly common in society should not spill over into any event including CPAC, but just because something is common does not mean it is responsible or acceptable.

We can be thankful that CPAC is not like the communications war room at Media Matters. But it should be much more than that. The young men and women who go to CPAC are often present or future leaders on their college campuses and within the conservative movement. They go to CPAC and are often on near equal terms at CPAC with people much older than themselves. Unfortunately, too many treat CPAC like spring break.

More than a few of the twenty and thirty somethings who go to CPAC seem to treat it like an extension of their college days doing their best to hook up before passing out. It's not the majority to be sure, but it is a noticeable minority.

I am not even sure that there is a solution to the problem. But we should not think it is anything but a problem. It is not every young man, but there are many. They risk dragging the whole affair down to some bawdy, rowdy distraction. They risk embarrassing themselves and the conservative movement. They risk the perception premised on their own actions that conservative men of a certain age think that good manners and decorum around women of the same age is unneeded or unwanted.

This is not to say CPAC cannot and should not be fun. This is not to say that CPAC cannot and should not be a party. But it is to say that I hope the college groups bussing in students next year, the out of college set there to network, and CPAC itself encourage behavior we all too often don't talk about anymore in our society — the behavior of gentlemen. Eat, drink, smoke, be merry, but be chivalrous too. There really is, regardless of your age, no need to play the cad at CPAC to score points with conservative ladies.

Conservatives should, first and foremost, want to conserve the basics and good behavior should remain a basic characteristic of the conservative movement. As conservatives, we believe in self-government. With that belief comes the duty of personal responsibility. We should accept that duty as the opportunity to do what is right, not as license to behave like fools.

It really is time to embrace again the concept of growing the hell up.

Today House Republicans Are Set To Approve Barack Obama's Latest Stimulus Plan

"Call your Congressman today at 202-224-3121 and tell him to oppose H.R. 7, the American Energy & Infrastructure Jobs Act."

It is sad that we have gotten here, but House Republicans, including conservative stalwarts like Jim Jordan of Ohio, are set to pass Barack Obama's latest stimulus plan. Except they are calling it John Boehner's "Highway Bill." Consider, however that Barack Obama's budget, unveiled yesterday, calls for much of the same infrastructure spending the House Republicans want.

There is a reason the Heritage Action for America, Club for Growth, Competitive Enterprise Institute, and other conservative organizations are opposed to this spending spree. It is not conservative. It should not be Republican. It is Barack Obama style spending. Call your Congressman today at 202-224-3121 and tell him to oppose H.R. 7, the American Energy & Infrastructure Jobs Act.

Last week, when I pointed this out, I handed the front page over to Brendan Buck, Speaker Boehner's Press Secretary, to rebut my claims. I would say he more than proved that this is, in fact, Barack Obama's latest stimulus scheme hiding behind John Boehner's name.

Consider first that this highway bill "expands domestic energy production and puts in place a long-term plan for America's infrastructure that is controlled by the states and completely paid for –without raising the gas tax." Why would a highway bill focus on energy production? Well, first because it is called a sweetener designed to woo conservatives to vote for it. Second because "the gas tax does not generate enough revenue to meet all the infrastructure needs in America."

There you have it. Instead of opening up American land to energy production and using that energy production to pay down the national debt, we will instead jack up highway spending, bankrupt the highway trust fund as a result, and then use the energy taxes to offset the project funding. Oh, and even better, the House GOP has an accounting "score" that claims they won't bankrupt the Highway Trust Fund. How's that? Well, just like how Democrats took all the major budget busting provisions out of Obamacare and put them in separate legislation so it looked like Obamacare actually decreased the deficit, House Republicans have decided to take mass transit funding and pay for it out of the general fund of taxpayer dollars instead of paying for it out of the Highway Trust Fund. So it makes it look like the Highway Trust Fund won't go bankrupt!

Accounting gimmicks — they're not just for socializing the American healthcare industry any more.

This is the key. As noted in the rebuttal to my original claims, "the gas tax does not generate enough revenue to meet all the infrastructure needs in America." But rewind the clock to just last July when Congressman John Mica (R-FL HAFA Score 66%) passed a highway spending bill out of his committee that spent no more than what the gas tax raised. In other words, House Republicans have taken us from being able to spend as much as the gas tax raised to bankrupting the Highway Trust Fund and requiring domestic energy production fees to offset the spending binge.

This is what smaller government looks like to House Republicans.

Even worse, in the rebuttal we learn "Currently, only about two-thirds of federal highway dollars go back to the states for them to control. Under this bill, it will be 93%. What's more, for the first time in three decades, ALL of the gas tax revenue – the user fee paid by every motorist on the highways – will go to core highway programs."

The first question is if we can get to 93%, why not 100% and get Congress out of the business of dictating local and state highway projects? But more so, note that all of the gas tax revenue will go to core highway programs. All of it. And Congress will keep spending beyond all the gas tax revenue.

This is madness. This is Barack Obama style stimuli and Barack Obama style accounting. It reminds me of the unemployment chart showing where unemployment would be with and without Barack Obama's stimulus plan. After the plan passed, unemployment was even higher than Obama said it would get without his stimulus plan.

The House Republicans are relying on five year estimates of revenues generated from energy production to hide just how bankrupt they will leave the Highway Trust Fund with this spending binge. And in five years, none of us will be surprised when reality comes in less than the estimates.

Morning Briefing for February 14, 2012

RedState Morning Briefing

February 14, 2012

Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

1. Today House Republicans Are Set To Approve Barack Obama's Latest Stimulus Plan

2. GOP Does the Right Thing With Payroll Tax

3. Boehner's Bailout: The Highway to Hell

4. Dylan Byers of Politico Defends Media Matters While Ignoring Herman Cain

5. Only Solution to ObamaCare's Tyrannical Attack on Religious Freedom is Full Repeal

6. The Uber Conservative

7. American Majority Racing and NASCAR

———————————————————————-

1. Today House Republicans Are Set To Approve Barack Obama's Latest Stimulus Plan

It is sad that we have gotten here, but House Republicans, including conservative stalwarts like Jim Jordan of Ohio, are set to pass Barack Obama's latest stimulus plan. Except they are calling it John Boehner's "Highway Bill." Consider, however that Barack Obama's budget, unveiled yesterday, calls for much of the same infrastructure spending the House Republicans want.

There is a reason the Heritage Action for America, Club for Growth, Competitive Enterprise Institute, and other conservative organizations are opposed to this spending spree. It is not conservative. It should not be Republican. It is Barack Obama style spending. Call your Congressman today at 202-224-3121 and tell him to oppose H.R. 7, the American Energy & Infrastructure Jobs Act.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. GOP Does the Right Thing With Payroll Tax

We all agree that a temporary payroll tax cut without permanently restructuring Social Security, along with its funding source, is a ludicrous idea. Sadly, Democrats would rather play politics by introducing this inane stimulus measure, in an attempt to get Republicans to vote against a tax cut.

For far too long, the extension of the payroll tax cut was coupled with more entitlement spending, in the form of 99 weeks of unemployment benefits and extension of Medicare 'doc fix.' We have long advocated that Republicans should decouple the tax cut from the spending in order to preclude a situation where conservatives, who oppose more entitlement spending, would be forced to vote against a tax cut. Today, House Republicans announced that they will decouple the two issues and pass a clean payroll tax cut extension until the end of the year. They are leaving out the entitlement spending extensions and daring Senate Democrats to oppose their clean tax cut – one that they have "championed" for the past few months.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. Boehner's Bailout: The Highway to Hell

Here are the inviolable facts. This 5-year (2012-2016) surface transportation reauthorization bill, H.R. 7, will commit $262.8 billion in spending through 2016, even though the revenue from the user-pay taxes (gas tax and other highway related taxes and fees) will only reach $193.2 billion over the same period. Even working with CBO's numbers, which don't account for FY 2012, there will still be a $55.2 billion deficit over 4 years ($210.3 billion in contract authority vs. $155.1 billion in revenue).

Boehner can propagate his protestations from now until tomorrow, but the fact is that, under this bill, contract authority for transportation will outpace its funding source by roughly $55 billion from FY2013 through FY 2016. That is their solemn commitment to the Democrats; that spending will definitely be authorized at those levels. Any "offsets" discussed henceforth are notional, phantom, temporary, and/or stridently opposed by Democrats.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. Dylan Byers of Politico Defends Media Matters While Ignoring Herman Cain

We should not be surprised Dylan Byers is defending Media Matters over at the Politico. I'm sure he does not want the spotlight shifting to him and the Politico for continually running Media Matters generated hit jobs.

Byers himself cited Media Maters bashing Dana Loesch.

He repurposed a Media Matters hit job on George Will recently too.

He makes sure we all see both Greg Sargent and Media Matters targeting the New York Times.

But here's the one I'm most fascinated by and highlights the exact pattern described by Tucker Carlson. On January 31, 2012, at 6:20 p.m.,Dylan Byers linked to a Buzz Feed story about me that had been posted at 4:10 p.m. The Buzz Feed story itself was nothing more than a straight regurgitation of a Media Matters hit job posted at 1:52 p.m. In fact, the Buzz Feed story was the first link to Media Matters and the Politico was the second according to my Google News Alert that day. You will be unsurprised to learn the Huffington Post was third.

It is humorous to read Byers demanding examples from Carlson when he should be able to just pull up his own blog at Politico to find them. But the most laughable line of Dylan Byers' denial/non-denial is this line:

"In publishing those quotes without providing evidence, the Daily Caller has put accusations on the public record regardless of whether or not they carry any weight."

This is the Politico. Surely they have heard of Herman Cain.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

5. Only Solution to ObamaCare's Tyrannical Attack on Religious Freedom is Full Repeal

Well, we can't say they didn't warn us. Nancy Pelosi famously decreed that Congress must first pass ObamaCare to find out what's in it.

The problem with passing a 2,700 page government takeover of health care is that it gave unprecedented authority to Washington bureaucrats to infringe upon our most personal health care decisions. So when Congress passed the bill they didn't really know what we'd end up with, but conservatives had a bunch of good guesses. It turns out we were right. And now we know for sure what's in it: assaults on religious liberty, government bureaucrats with the power to strip away our most basic freedoms, increases in health insurance premiums, trillions in new costs, and a drag on our economy that is killing jobs.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

6. The Uber Conservative

In his CPAC speech, Mitt Romney used "conservative" more than any other word except "President." Just how many times?

My radio producer Shane Backler cut up his speech and put them all together.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

7. American Majority Racing and NASCAR

On Thursday, American Majority launched an unprecedented program to engage NASCAR fans this year and promote fiscally conservative values on Fox News. American Majority Racing is a year-long project in conjunction with MacDonald Motorsports, challenging millions of race fans to "Pledge to Vote to Keep America Free." Car #81, driven by rising NASCAR star Jason Bowles, is going to be on the track for the entire Nationwide series in 2012. The effort will also be off the track, activating and educating fans through a state-of-the-art booth on vendor's row and special outreach at the campgrounds surrounding the races. If fans aren't registered to vote, we'll be doing that as well. There will be race car simulators, contests, a show car and American Majority Racing "swag" at the booth – all of which will be messaged encourage increased participation by fans. NASCAR fans are the American majority and as such, should have a louder, stronger voice in the direction this nation takes.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

The Uber Conservative

In his CPAC speech, Mitt Romney used "conservative" more than any other word except "President." Just how many times?

My radio producer Shane Backler cut up his speech and put them all together.

Download audio here

Dylan Byers of Politico Defends Media Matters While Ignoring Herman Cain

We should not be surprised Dylan Byers is defending Media Matters over at the Politico. I'm sure he does not want the spotlight shifting to him and the Politico for continually running Media Matters generated hit jobs.

Byers himself cited Media Maters bashing Dana Loesch.

He repurposed a Media Matters hit job on George Will recently too.

He makes sure we all see both Greg Sargent and Media Matters targeting the New York Times.

But here's the one I'm most fascinated by and highlights the exact pattern described by Tucker Carlson. On January 31, 2012, at 6:20 p.m.,Dylan Byers linked to a Buzz Feed story about me that had been posted at 4:10 p.m. The Buzz Feed story itself was nothing more than a straight regurgitation of a Media Matters hit job posted at 1:52 p.m. In fact, the Buzz Feed story was the first link to Media Matters and the Politico was the second according to my Google News Alert that day. You will be unsurprised to learn the Huffington Post was third.

Tucker Carlson described Media Matters' operation pattern and that story about me, in addition to the others, fit perfectly. Carlson noted:

"The entire progressive blogosphere picked up our stuff," says a Media Matters source, "from Daily Kos to Salon. Greg Sargent [of the Washington Post] will write anything you give him. He was the go-to guy to leak stuff."

"If you can't get it anywhere else, Greg Sargent's always game," agreed another source with firsthand knowledge.

Reached by phone, Sargent declined to comment.

"The HuffPo guys were good, Sam Stein and Nico [Pitney]," remembered one former staffer. "The people at Huffington Post were always eager to cooperate, which is no surprise given David's long history with Arianna [Huffington]."

"Jim Rainey at the LA Times took a lot of our stuff," the staffer continued. "So did Joe Garofoli at the San Francisco Chronicle. We've pushed stories to Eugene Robinson and E.J. Dionne [at the Washington Post]. Brian Stelter at the New York Times was helpful."

"Ben Smith [formerly of Politico, now at BuzzFeed.com] will take stories and write what you want him to write," explained the former employee, whose account was confirmed by other sources. Staffers at Media Matters "knew they could dump stuff to Ben Smith, they knew they could dump it at Plum Line [Greg Sargent's Washington Post blog], so that's where they sent it."

It is humorous to read Byers demanding examples from Carlson when he should be able to just pull up his own blog at Politico to find them. But the most laughable line of Dylan Byers' denial/non-denial is this line:

In publishing those quotes without providing evidence, the Daily Caller has put accusations on the public record regardless of whether or not they carry any weight.

This is the Politico. Surely they have heard of Herman Cain.

Panic Time for Everybody. Sepuku Seems To Be Winning the GOP Primary.

Mitt Romney should win Michigan. It is his for real home state — not one of the adopted or moved in to and bought a big house home states. Michigan is Mitt Romney's home state as in his father was Governor of Michigan.

He should win it.

He is losing it.

He is losing it to Rick Santorum.

A PPP poll now has Santorum 16 points ahead in Michigan. An ARG poll has Santorum ahead by 6 points.

If Romney pours money in to Michigan to win, he will do it the way he has won the other races — through destroying his opponent, not building himself up. Romney knows the value of negative advertising. Santorum winning will cause abject panic among the powers that be in Washington, DC because they don't think he can win a general election. They are sure he cannot win a general election. They are sure all the things he has written about women working outside the home, gays, beastiality, etc. will come back to bite him in the general election.

If Romney wins, the conservative base will panic because he will be one step closer to wrapping this thing up and they don't want him to wrap it up. They want him beaten. They just aren't sure they want Santorum, or Gingrich for that matter, to be the one to do it.

So everybody sit back and panic. It's panic time in the GOP. In a race they should be winning against Barack Obama, the only winner seems to be sepuku.

Media Matters

A friend of mine has been insistent for a few years that I set up a Google News Alert about myself. It was very interesting to watch it last week. On my radio show I'd laughed about that Occupy guy in McPherson Park who was tearing down police fliers and cussing out the police until they shot him with a taser.

One day last week, Media Matters posted one of their typically outraged outrageous posts about it. Within two hours, BuzzFeed had posted on it. Two hours or so after that, the Politico had it up too. A couple hours after that, the Huffington Post had it. It was like clockwork. It was as if they were on a Journolist or something coordinating their outrage and timing to circulate the story. Every few hours a new outlet chimed in with outrage, all going back to the original Media Matters story.

It is no secret that a lot of folks in the Media read Media Matters and rely on it in a way they never would a partisan site of the same kind on the right. But today, Tucker Carlson and Vince Coglianese along with Alex Pappas and Will Rahn are shedding new light both on the operations and coordination between Media Matters, the "objective" press, and the White House.

This sounded rather familiar:

"The entire progressive blogosphere picked up our stuff," says a Media Matters source, "from Daily Kos to Salon. Greg Sargent [of the Washington Post] will write anything you give him. He was the go-to guy to leak stuff."

"If you can't get it anywhere else, Greg Sargent's always game," agreed another source with firsthand knowledge.

Reached by phone, Sargent declined to comment.

"The HuffPo guys were good, Sam Stein and Nico [Pitney]," remembered one former staffer. "The people at Huffington Post were always eager to cooperate, which is no surprise given David's long history with Arianna [Huffington]."

"Jim Rainey at the LA Times took a lot of our stuff," the staffer continued. "So did Joe Garofoli at the San Francisco Chronicle. We've pushed stories to Eugene Robinson and E.J. Dionne [at the Washington Post]. Brian Stelter at the New York Times was helpful."

"Ben Smith [formerly of Politico, now at BuzzFeed.com] will take stories and write what you want him to write," explained the former employee, whose account was confirmed by other sources. Staffers at Media Matters "knew they could dump stuff to Ben Smith, they knew they could dump it at Plum Line [Greg Sargent's Washington Post blog], so that's where they sent it."

The Anne Boleyn Budget — 1000 Days In

Anne Boleyn was queen for 1000 days then her head rolled off her shoulders thanks to a Frenchman's sword. We're seeing the Anne Boleyn of budgets making its way to Capitol Hill now — after 1000 days the President is finally presenting his budget. But like the last one that got rejected 97-0 in the Senate, this one too, it seems, will get rejected by a bipartisan group lamenting big spending.

Along the way, the White House Chief of Staff is getting his facts wrong.

As President Obama prepares to unveil his FY2013 budget Monday, White House chief of staff Jack Lew this morning was asked by CNN to defend the Senate's refusal to pass a budget in more than 1,000 days.

"You can't pass a budget in the Senate of the United States without 60 votes and you can't get 60 votes without bipartisan support," Lew said. "So unless… unless Republicans are willing to work with Democrats in the Senate, [Majority Leader] Harry Reid is not going to be able to get a budget passed."

That's not accurate. Budgets only require 51 Senate votes for passage, as Lew — former director of the Office of Management and Budget — surely must know.

Of all the things this White House should get wrong, budget reconciliation rules, etc. should be the very last thing considering how they passed Obamacare. But there you go.

No budget for a thousand days — it really is not difficult to understand why so many Americans keep their money on the sidelines when their own government can't tell them a spending plan for the next year.

Morning Briefing for February 13, 2012

RedState Morning Briefing

February 13, 2012

Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

1. Obama to Increase Spending Again

2. Obama Administration Doubles Down On Contraception Rule

3. How Dumb Do You Think I Am?

4. U.S. Officials: Al Qaeda in Iraq Behind Deadly Bombings in Damascus and Aleppo, Syria

5. A Severe Conservative Speaks at CPAC

6. Occupiers lose Battle of Wardman Park

———————————————————————-

1. Obama to Increase Spending Again

On Monday, Obama is slated to release his annual budget proposal for FY 2013, along with a 10-year budget (2012-2021) outlook. One would think that after talking incessantly about cutting spending, Obama would spend less money next year than this year. Yet, in Obama's world, a spending cut means spending less than you were slated to spend, even though it is still higher in nominal terms.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. Obama Administration Doubles Down On Contraception Rule

The Obama Administration's ballyhooed "compromise" on the extraordinary rule that gives the US Department of Health and Human Services the final say in how religious groups operate is actually a finger in the eye.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. How Dumb Do You Think I Am?

We don't have all the specifics. But it is pretty apparent that Obama's "deal" on contraceptives is a trick.

As to Catholic institutions, Catholic hospitals and universities would pay insurance companies premiums, which would pay for contraceptives and abortifacients. Evil doesn't become good because it's laundered through a third party.

But, says HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, premiums would go down because, inter alia, you would not have to provide health services to those pesky babies who would have been born, had you not aborted them.

But if this was a theological defense, it would have applied, whether or not contraceptives and abortifacients were specified in the insurance policy.

Incidentally, the 98-99% contraception usage figure which is being thrown about unchallenged? It is from the virulently pro-abortion Alan Guttmacher Institute.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. U.S. Officials: Al Qaeda in Iraq Behind Deadly Bombings in Damascus and Aleppo, Syria

U.S. officials have reportedly confirmed that deadly bombings in the Syrian cities of Damascus (in December and January) and Aleppo (Friday) were the work of al Qaeda in Iraq, whose members were acting with authorization from al Qaeda central head and Osama bin Laden successor Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

5. A Severe Conservative Speaks at CPAC

Mitt Romney got a warm reception at CPAC, standing ovations . . . the works. He did nothing to calm fears that he is not one of us. In fact, he might have made it worse today.

He ad-libbed one particular portion of his speech that just may give away the game for him with the CPAC crowd. He threw in this line:

"I fought against long odds in a deep blue state, but I was a severely conservative Republican governor."

What the heck is a severe conservative? The man who likes to fire people should probably fire Miriam-Webster, in addition to whoever came up with his strategy for Minnesota, Missouri, and Colorado.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

6. Occupiers lose Battle of Wardman Park

The basic premise of the Occupations, including Occupy DC, is that they, the "99%", are not being heard in elections, so they must impose themselves on spaces where they are not welcome in order to force their message out. It's a strategy reminiscent of George Lincoln Rockwell's Phase One for the American Nazi Party, and I expect it to be just as ineffective at achieving meaningful policy change.

What's worse than that though is when the occupiers can't even manage to occupy anything. They can't even execute their strategy, let alone see it through to policy results. That's what happened tonight when they tried to Occupy CPAC. They failed, badly.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

A Severe Conservative Speaks at CPAC

Mitt Romney got a warm reception at CPAC, standing ovations . . . the works. He did nothing to calm fears that he is not one of us. In fact, he might have made it worse today.

He ad-libbed one particular portion of his speech that just may give away the game for him with the CPAC crowd. He threw in this line:

"I fought against long odds in a deep blue state, but I was a severely conservative Republican governor."

What the heck is a severe conservative? The man who likes to fire people should probably fire Miriam-Webster, in addition to whoever came up with his strategy for Minnesota, Missouri, and Colorado.

A severe conservative? It sounds more like a critique of conservatives from the left than that of a conservative himself. In fact, if you want to read only one thing on Mitt Romney's views of conservatives, I actually think Chris Orr of The New Republic captures the situation best.

Orr writes on Quentin Tarantion's view of Superman as discussed in the movie Kill Bill 2.

Superman was born Superman. It's Clark Kent that is the invented alias, the pose, the "costume." And in the way Superman plays Kent–weak, self-doubting, cowardly–we see his critique of the human race.

It occurred to me that the same is true of Romney's desperate, if never terribly persuasive, impersonation of a conservative Republican. That persona–angry, simple-minded, xenophobic, jingoistic–is exactly what Romney (who is himself cultured, content, and cosmopolitan) imagines the average GOP voter to be.

I think that is perhaps one of the most accurate reads on Romney today and why so many of us think he is not what he claims to be.

Just randomly, on the actual issue of Superman, Jim Pethokoukis is correct that Quentin Tarantino got Superman wrong. I think what he means is that Mitt Romney is actually Bruce Wayne, a shallow playboy super rich businessman. (Kidding)