STORY #1: Golden opportunity
I have multiple problems with the official Republican Party platform adopted this week. The “gold standard commission” plank should have been one of them. I have my disagreements with the Federal Reserve, but their authority to issue currency isn’t one, nor is the fact that the U.S. returning to the gold standard on its own would upset trade. But then it occurred to me: Considering that support for the gold standard is so limited within the party, is this the sort of thing that’s designed to die in committee?
This may turn out to be a genius political maneuver. Earlier this week, I recommended that the GOP establishment reach out to the Paulites somehow, specifically on the issue of government overreach, for the sake of party unity. The gold standard commission may be their way of throwing that crowd a bone without getting them involved in anything with actual implications. The Paulites are a conspiratorial bunch, and I’m sure they’ll catch on to that notion. But, who knows? The party gave them something shiny to look at; maybe they’ll keep looking.
STORY #2: Ask him 10 things
A friend tweeted yesterday that President Obama “wins the Internet today.” No, Jen, he actually won nothing. Unless you count the chance to answer 10 questions that were either broad enough for a truckload of bullshit, or lame enough to make Tiger Beat cringe, which I still define as “nothing.” Here are the answers to questions from users on Reddit. Read them and see what I mean.
I have no doubt that all those with a “passion” for social media squeed over the fact that he was (probably) the first person in Washington to engage with voters on Reddit. And to his credit, it does seem like he read the questions and wrote the answers personally, instead of pawning them off to some assistant. But what does that mean in the long run? Nothing. It was a reminder to young voters during the convention that he was willing to listen for a few minutes. As long as the question wasn’t too pointed.
STORY #3: (sigh)
OK, I don’t usually get into examples of blatant racism/sexism/homophobia because their purveyors cannot be reasoned with. But RNC attendees throwing peanuts at a black camerawoman and saying “This is how we feed animals” . . . what the fuck? What was absent from these people’s upbringings to make them view blacks as animals in 2012? Some of you may be mollified to know that those idiots were thrown out of the convention immediately. I’d be happy if they were thrown out of polite society.
