So, with Rush Limbaugh insisting that any woman who would like to see her health insurance include contraceptive coverage is a prostitute, the state of Virginia legislating forcible sodomy for any woman who would seek an abortion, and GOP candidates seeking to ban contraception altogether, conservative bloggers have been working harder than ever to do what they do best: draw false equivalences to argue that “the other side does it, too… and they’re just as bad.”

And yet, like a student who read the Cliff notes version of women’s lib rather than the actual text, right-wing bloggers continue to show that they just don’t get it. The latest pathetic example of false equivalence comes from Slate managing editor, conservative columnist Rachel Larimore. In a rather lame attempt to draw parallels between Limbaugh, Santorum, the state of Virginia, et al and the Left, Larimore draws our attention to two incidents that supposedly prove that Liberals are just as prone to misogyny as Conservatives:

With two incidents that were reported yesterday, the left is showing that it’s just fine with misogyny and violence against women as long as the women in question aren’t card-carrying liberal feminists. As David Weigel mentioned on his Slate blog, Donna Dewitt, the outgoing president of AFL-CIO South Carolina, bashed a piñata bearing a photograph of Gov. Nikki Haley, while men and women in the crowd shouted “Whack her harder” and “hit her again.” Dewitt continues to smack the piñata long after it’s knocked down, which is a nice touch.

Read more »

It wasn’t too long ago that Mitt Romney surprised political observers by abruptly reversing course on his criticism of the Obama Administration’s rescue of the U.S. automotive industry to begin, instead, taking credit for it.

Well now, in a similar vein, Mitt Romney is promising voters that if elected president, he will reduce unemployment to 6% by the end of his first term. How does that constitute taking credit for the hard work of others, you might ask? Well, according to the Congressional Budget Office, unemployment is currently on track to being at 5.5% by 2017 anyway.

Maybe what Mitt Romney should have said is: “If the American people put me in the White House, I will see to it that my administration continues the amazingly successful economic policies of our current president.”

(Hat Tip: Talking Points Memo)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzK3ZX7hvzg

So, presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney is out with what is being described as his first television ad of the general election (as opposed to the primaries). You can see it embedded above. And although the ad has been met with generally favorable reviews among the commenting classes, I would submit that this fact says less about the ad itself than about just how vacuous our politics has become and how toothless and irrelevant the fourth estate has become.

Because an honest appraisal of what the ad says can only leave the informed viewer shaking his head at a 30 second video that is, at heart, little more than a agglomeration of nonsense, deliberately hollow vagueness and political farce. Promising to describe what a Romney presidency would look like from “day one” the ad describes three policies that Mitt Romney would take that would distinguish him from the President. Let’s take a look at these proposals one by one: Read more »

In response to former Playboy model’s brief appearance at a Presidential debate in a tight white dress that “revealed her ample decolletage:”

“The best was the girl in white with the cleavage at the beginning,” tweeted former Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda, who is also a New York University professor.

It was, apparently, the only thing of interest from a debate that will have no outcome on the election outcome. In related news, Herman Cain’s Mexican Presidential bid begins tomorrow.

Winner of Mexican Presidential Debate? Sexy Model” [New York Times via The Awl]

Remember the scandalous government bailout of the auto industry that saved General Motors from bankruptcy and liquidation, saw the storied carmaker restructured and restored to profitability, and saved well over a million U.S. jobs? The Right threw a shit fit, derided GM as “government motors” and Mitt Romney proclaimed it “crony capitalism on a grand scale.”

Well apparently the American people aren’t buying the Right’s critique of President Obama’s handling of the auto industry, and so now the Mitt Romney campaign has a new strategy for dealing with it. Said strategy can basically be summed up: “well duh, of course the auto bailout worked. It was Mitt Romney’s idea in the first place.” Read more »

In addition to his more confrontational tone with Obama this week, Romney has also sought to be a bit more personable.

Earlier this week he sat down with four married couples for a staged outdoor picnic in Bethel Park, Pa., and suggested that Obama should do the same.

“This is a president who doesn’t understand what the American people are experiencing,” Romney said. “He needs to sit down with folks and understand how difficult these years have been and take responsibility.”

Am I reading too much into the above excerpt, or is it evidence that, at least on reporter at the Washington Post, thinks that Mitt Romney is as much of a douchebag as the rest of us do?

Then again, I guess sitting down to a staged picnic with four carefully screened couples is no less valid a way of learning about the economic travails of the unwashed than turning to his wife for insight on the day to day struggles and hardships of ordinary women whose husbands aren’t worth $250 million.

So, guess who has got himself a Swiss bank account?

This race is gonna be sooooooo much fun!