Different Day, Same Shit.

You have to give the Republican National Committee credit for knocking out a new attack ad straight after the Vice Presidential debates. While Vice President Joe Biden's derisive chuckling made for lovely Twitter fodder, this was probably why so many people wanted ol' Crazy Joe to mask his contempt for veep hopeful Paul Ryan. Then again, there are a million things the RNC and others could use to create an attack ad.

Perhaps Joe Biden should have been as somber and as stone-faced as possible. I'm sure people will ding him for being too "aloof" or "unresponsive." One way or another, you just can't win.

Keep in mind the RNC haven't yet found anything substantive to bang Biden on, hence the above. Meanwhile, Think Progress was keeping tabs on the entire debate with a series of wonderful live posts. Great for calling out the loads of malarkey Ryan tried throwing at Biden and the audience.

Precious few people manage to survive a gunshot wound to the head, but Gabby Giffords did just that. She survived, recovered and now stands before us today as positive proof of God's grace, self-determination and the marvels of modern medicine and advanced healthcare.*

This woman exudes class, unlike this comment from your average low IQ YouTube commentator:

Obama is getting desperate he had to roll out the freak! I wonder if Clinton Shoved a cigar up fer ass first ? 

A comment like this would prompt a juvenile retort involving his/her father's "cigar," but fighting morons on their own turf is like strangling a piranha in a fishbowl. The GOP faithful have been hitting the comments of each DNC video like clockwork, but no amount of poorly thought-out commentary will paper over how the Republican National Convention was a farce bordering on tragicomedy.

Meanwhile, check out these full speeches from Jennifer Granholm, Joe Biden and President Obama himself.




*Crippling debt and HMO fuckery notwithstanding, when it comes to severe trauma care and rehabilitation, the U.S. healthcare system can't be touched.

I've been told that Mitt Romney's been putting Bill Clinton on a pedestal while attempting to knock down President Obama by calling him "a welfare queen king president." Apparently, the plan was to drive some sort of wedge between moderate Democrats and those of a more liberal bent. It was a stupid, stupid plan:

Regardless of the fact that the differences between Clinton and Obama are effectively non-existent, what exactly is Romney's plan when Clinton starts campaigning aggressively on Obama's behalf, delivering a major primetime address in support of Obama during the Democratic National Convention?

Or more to the point, if Romney is spending much of 2012 telling voters that Clinton is reliable and worthy of respect, won't that be a problem when the Big Dog is urging voters to rally behind Barack Obama and reject Romney's candidacy?

Oh yes, that's most definitely a problem. As Jamison Foser points out, the Dems tried this whenever John McCain stumped for a GOP candidate and in those cases, the plan never worked out the way they thought it would:

Just about the best the Democratic campaigns could hope for as a result of these tactics was a line or two deep in a newspaper writeup of the GOP campaign event noting an area of disagreement between McCain and the Republican candidate. Meanwhile, they’re enhancing the credibility of someone who is endorsing and campaigning for their opponent. And, as an added drawback, they’re building up the credibility of someone who was widely seen as the best future presidential candidate the Republican Party had to offer.

If such tactics have little potential payoff, and obvious unintended consequences, why do campaigns seem to like them so much? In part because it’s the kind of superficially smart thing that wins political operatives praise from their colleagues and reporters. And because a lot of people don’t know the difference between superficially smart things that win praise from political reporters and operatives and things that are actually smart.

But leave it to Romney's campaign to not do their homework and learn from the mistakes of others. Now the RMoney team has to sit and watch as the Big Dog not only gives President Obama his endorsement, but poor Mitt has to take a trip to the hospital so the doctors can remove that size 13 wingtip from his narrow orifice and unwedge that bit of magic underwear it took with it. Don't worry - he's got pretty good health insurance for those sorts of things.

Meanwhile, Artur Davis is now heading up Mitt's new Black Leadership Council, a collection of 18 black conservative politicians and leaders trying their damnedest to figure out why other blacks simply won't vote for poor Mitt. Here's a clue: as long as people assume that black Americans vote for black Democrat leaders out of racial solidarity, the BLC and their GOP paymasters will always remain, pardon, in the dark.

The only DNC highlight you're getting today is Michelle Obama's heartfelt speech, in its entirety. It was the speech that lit up the crowd, electrified viewers and took over Twitter.

By the way, President Obama held an "Ask Me Anything" session on Reddit a few days ago. POTUS is proving to be more in touch with these here interwebs than anyone realizes. This is how you earn votes if you're not a GOP candidate coasting atop the flab and hot air of "Real American" Tea Party voters.

I can't see Mittens doing one of these. He'd probably host an "Ask One of My Aides to Ask Me Something I'll Willingly Give a Canned Non-answer to (except if it involves my tax returns)" session that lasts for a few minutes before it gets cut short for "privacy concerns" or some other nonsense.