Highlighted By Rage Republicans’ Convention Is Lost In Translation

There’s no difference between Akin’s "legitimate" rape and Ryan’s original "forcible rape" language in their bill.

 [Black Star News Editorial]
 
The
nation is generally divided 45% to 45% between Democrats and
Republicans heading into the presidential election meaning each party
contests over 10% of undecided voters. 
 
Undecided voters aren’t
die-hard Democrats or die-hard Republicans. They don’t embrace the
former’s liberalism or the latter’s uncompromising conservatism as their
paramount concerns. 
 
Some undecided voters may be uncomfortable
with the nation’s deficit. At the same time they know the country is
still recovering from the worst economic recession since the Great
Depression. They know there is an argument for the need for government,
at least in the near future, to push for job-growing spending. 
 
It’s
unlikely that the majority of these undecided voters believe that the
traditional Republican “cultural” issues such as guns, God and pro-life
should be at the forefront. Yet that’s precisely the direction that the
Paul Ryan and Tea Party elements of the party have pivoted the Mitt
Romney campaign towards. 
 
By selecting Ryan, the radical
Congressman became Romney’s burden. He has a radical budget proposal
that would: destroy Medicare by turning it into a voucher program; ruin
social security by privatizing it; end healthcare reform by abolishing
Obamacares; and, gut all government spending except on the nation’s
military.  
 
Rep. Ryan also was notorious for co-sponsoring a
bill that would make women ineligible for government funding for
abortion except in cases of “forcible” rape; the bill never made it to
the Senate floor.  
 
Ryan and Romney both believed the words
“forcible rape” wouldn’t come up again — at least not before the
November vote. But the bill’s co-sponsor Rep. Todd Akin brought it to
the forefront. In an interview, he claimed that, in cases of
“legitimate” rape, women actually had a way of preventing pregnancy by
 “shutting down that whole thing.”  
 
Even though many Republican
leaders, including Rep. Ryan have now denounced Rep. Akin’s statement
and called for him to drop out of his Senate race, there’s no difference
between his “legitimate” rape phrase and Ryan’s original “forcible
rape” language in their bill. 
 
So the Republican Convention
opened this week with Romney’s campaign already mired in the Ryan/Akin
controversy. It also didn’t help that Romney himself embraced the crazy
Bircher Movement with his comments in Michigan about never being asked
about his own birth certificate. 
 
For a party with a need to attract the undecided voters the Republicans were behaving in a very peculiar manner. 
 
While
Ann Romney’s speech was decent and convinced viewers that she loved her
husband the Republican party’s heavy hitters were off target last
night.  
 
Many of the speakers, especially Rick Santorum, Nikki
Haley and Chris Christie, spent most of the time talking about how great
they or their family were and barely mentioned Gov. Romney. 
 
Boehner
spoke of wanting to throw President Obama out of a bar. Not a great
idea given Rep. Boehner’s past reported drinking problems. 
 
Failed
presidential candidate Santorum was angry as usual and focused on
himself and his hard-working grandfather whom presumably he wanted to
contrast with the shiftless people whom Obama wants to give welfare
checks without having to work.  
 
Santorum’s slur, repeating the
falsehood that Obama has eliminated work requirements in welfare
programs, explains why Black voters support President Obama 94% while
Romney gets 0% support. 
 
Gov. Haley of South Carolina, whose
parents came from India, continued to alienate the Latino vote with her
harsh anti-immigrants’ speech. 
 
New Jersey Governor Christie
delivered the most self-serving speech. He never mentioned Romney until
more than a quarter-of-an-hour into his presentation. It was clear that
he was looking towards his own 2016 chances. This means Christie doesn’t
believe Romney can win. 
 
He twice made references to shared
responsibilities and blame by both parties. It’s unlikely that this is
what Romney had in mind when he selected Christie as keynote speaker. 
 
Finally,
given that Republicans are trying to suppress votes in Florida,
Pennsylvania, Michigan and Ohio, Christie chose the wrong words when he
said “real leaders change polls…”

“Speaking Truth To Empower.”

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