58 Second FLAT Post-GOP Debate Analysis: Romney Takes Swing At Perry

... AND CONNECTS!

Willard Mitt Romney must be a (secret) fan of the Rachel Maddow Show. He doubled down on his country club political persona, Gilligan's Island millionaire Thurston Howell III, smoked out by Rachel as an intentional Romney political strategy. Here's Romney bursting the Perry baloon by playing the understanding and generous patrician to his bumbling junior partner, using a golf metaphor ... NATCH:

“We’ve each taken a mulligan or two. I think his heart was in the right place.” Then Romney pivoted to an attack on the President, stealing Perry's thunder: “We have some differences between us. But we all agree this president’s got to go. This president’s a nice guy. But he doesn’t have a clue how to get this country working again.”

Definition: A mulligan, most simply put, is a "do-over." Hit a bad shot? Take a mulligan and replay that stroke.

It was fascinating to see the Republican audience stunned into silence by Ron Paul's attack on Perry's compulsory executive order to vaccinate young girls against HPV, a sexually transmitted disease. Clearly, it was a part of Perry's record they had not known about: “Forcing 12-year-old girls to take an inoculation to prevent a sexually transmitted disease — this is not good medicine,” said Paul, the physician.

Toward the end, as if heaving a collective sigh of relief, the audience fervently applauded Perry's record executions. But Perry was bruised. “I kind of feel like the piñata here at the party,” he whined. Whiny = defeated.

Romney won on points and even issued an absurd press release, notable for its "War Room"-like swiftness, setting himself up as Social Security's champion. He may have staunched the Big Money flow to Perry by signaling he's still their guy and Perry's not ready for Prime Time.

Question left unasked by the Idiot Punditocracy:

(1) No GOP president has ever balanced a budget since Eisenhower; Bill Clinton, the last Democratic president before President Obama, cleaned up the Reagan-Bush deficits, balanced the budget, and created 23 million jobs, a historic high. Given the Republican record of exploding deficits and anemic economic growth, why should the American people trust any of you with stewardship of this economy?

(2) Do you support Paul Ryan's plan to voucherize Medicare? Yes or no.

(3) To Perry: Do you still consider Ben Bernancke, Fed chairman appointed by Bush, "treasonous"? To all: In a speech, Bernancke criticized Republicans in Congress holding our economy hostage over the debt ceiling. Are you in favor, as some Republicans were, including Ms Bachmann, of the U.S. defaulting on its debt?

(4) To all: A simple yes or no answer: Raise your hands if you believe in evolution. Global warming?

(5) Republican state governors in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, New Jersey, and Florida have initiated an unprecedented assault on public employee unions, cutting jobs, pensions, and healthcare benefits for teachers, firefighters, police officers, government workers. As a result, their approval ratings are in the tank, and recall efforts are underway. Is it your intention, as famously stated by Grover Norquist to shrink the size of government to the point where it can be "drowned in the bathtub?" Going against, I might add (to pull a mannerism from Brian Williams), the wishes of the American people, by wide margins.

(6) Speaking of Grover Norquist, are all of you slaves to his "no new taxes under any circumstances" pledge? Are you ready to pledge tonight, to the American people, you will NEVER raise ANY taxes, even if it's to bring down our deficit?

And so it goes. The peeps over at MSNBC are slapping their backs at creating an entertaining spectacle for TV viewers on the right, which should increase their numbers, while scrupulously avoiding the public interest questions which would have turned the wingnuts and MS(NBC) masters (the corporations) against them — see above, questions not asked.

For an idea of the corporatist, Beltway bias of Williams and Harris, one had only to notice how the anti-government privatization questions were, as far as I could tell, all directed at the crazy libertarian in the room, Ron Paul; a perceived gadfly even within his own party.