Obama/Biden 2012 released a “theatrical trailer” video in anticipation of the start of the republican National Convention in Tampa:

[Romney advisers believe he’s viewed as “stiff, aloof, and distant”

and that the GOP convention will be “a chance for a fresh start”

their plan includes mad men “slick packaging” and a “theatrical,” Hollywood-style reinvention.]

Narrator: In a world where thousands of jobs were destroyed by his corporate takeovers.

Worker: One day we had a job, the next day we didn’t.

Narrator: From a state where his economic record was a failure, he faces an election where the stakes couldn’t be higher.

Mitt Romney (r): This a battle for the soul of America.

Narrator: And he’s tried it all.

Mitt Romney (r): I love this state. It seems right here, the trees are the right height.

Corporations are people, my friend.

I stand by whatever I said, whatever it was.

Narrator: But nothing is working.

Pundit: Mitt Romney’s favorability rating is about half President Obama’s.

Second Pundit: fifty percent of Americans view Mitt Romney unfavorably.

Narrator: His only hope is a convention reinvention.

And an etch-a-sketch of epic proportions will be shaken to its core.

Mitt Romney (r): I’m running for office, for Pete’s sake.

Narrator: On August 30th Mitt Romney stars in The Do-over. critics have called his previous work “wildly misleading”, “four pinocchios”, “pants on fire”.

Rated N, for not gonna work.

[conventionreincention.com]

Heh. Turn loose sarcastic people who love and understand popular culture and work in politics and see what you can do?

You’ve gotta love the audio of the scratchy optical sound track at the very beginning. We are not worthy.  

Previously:

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D): “Vets For Claire” listening tour in Columbia (August 25, 2012)

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D): “Vets For Claire” listening tour in Parkville (August 24, 2012)

Representative Stephen Webber (D) at Senator Claire McCaskill’s (D) “Vets for Claire” event in Columbia on Saturday, August 25, 2012.

Representative Stephen Webber (D) is a veteran who spent two tours in Iraq as a Marine Infantryman. He represents Columbia as a member of the House in the Missouri General Assembly and is seeking reelection for a third term.

Yesterday, after Senator Claire McCaskill’s veterans’ event in Columbia, Representative Webber took a few moments to speak with us:

Show Me Progress: As a, as a Democratic office holder and veteran how do you reconcile the difference in the Republican Party when it comes to rhetoric and actual practice on veterans issues?

Representative Stephen Webber (D): It’s incredibly frustrating. And there are, part of the, part of the problem is that everybody assumes that every, you know, office holder’s gonna support veterans. And so they don’t look at the record. And that’s not factually what’s happened. And I can give you very specific, specific examples at the state level of, uh, veterans bills that I’ve had. Uh, for example, um, what that said, state employees, if they were activated, if they were in the National Guard and they were in the Reserves, the state would make up the difference in their pay. Um, ’cause there was a problem with judges getting a full military salary and a full judicial salary, but Highway Patrol officers getting activated and losing money, having a hard time making their mortgage. Um, that was, make sure their pay stays equal. And it was killed in the Veterans Committee, Republicans voted against it in the House Veterans Committee.  Um, and it’s just frustrating.

Show Me Progress: So, and in the discussions about bills like that what, what reasoning is given for defeating those, these kinds of bills?

Representative Webber: The argument that I was told was that, um, they thought it was unfair to help veterans that were active, reservists that were state employees and not help, uh, ones in the private sector. Um, by that logic, their logic, every state employee ought to be making minimum wage and no benefits. Uh, because any time you give anything to any state employee, uh, you’re, you’re putting them at an advantage versus private sector folks. I mean, that’s, that’s illogical reasoning. Uh, it’s, it’s also, you know, I’d be happy to try and expand it to everybody in the private sector, but, I mean, there, there’s no way they’re gonna consider that either, so.

Show Me Progress: And, and you, you spoke very eloquently, uh, about, uh, about Senator McCaskill’s support for veterans and veterans issues. Uh, at the, at the national level and with the candidates in, in Missouri who run, uh, you know, at the national level, uh, is, is this the norm?

Representative Webber: You know, I, I think the Republicans are continually, their rhetoric is the norm. Uh, I think Democrats do try to take substantive actions. Uh, I think Claire McCaskill has probably gone above and beyond even what most Democrats do. Um, she’s really made it personal. Um, she’s really, I mean, you can see when you ask her questions, she knows the  policies, not just the, the top level policies, she knows more of the internal policies. Um, and I think she’s been a real leader on that.

And it’s frustrating, because, you know, a lot of these ideas, like the ideas about expanding the GI Bill have been around for a long time. The Republicans had every opportunity to pass that when they were in charge of the House and Senate. They didn’t do it. So, it is the norm for them to ignore these issues.

Show Me Progress: All, right, thank you very much for your time.

Representative Webber: Absolutely.

Previously: Sen. Claire McCaskill (D): “Vets For Claire” listening tour in Parkville (August 24, 2012)

Senator Claire McCaskill (D) at a “Vets for Claire” campaign event in Columbia, Missouri.

Senator Claire McCaskill (D) held two veterans’ events today, one in Marshall and one in Columbia. We attended the afternoon event in Columbia which was held under a large covered outdoor structure next to VFW Post 280. There were approximately fifty people attending the event. Senator McCaskill spoke, then took and answered questions on veterans and other issues. As she did in Parkville yesterday, Senator McCaskill took some time to read a lengthy list of Congressman Todd Akin’s (r) House votes against veterans’ issues.

After the event Senator McCaskill took questions from the media:

Question: So, how do you feel about Akin staying in the race? How will that impact your campaign?

Senator Claire McCaskill (D): The voters in the Republican primary, uh, have nominated Todd Akin to run this race. I’ll look forward to a spirited campaign and drawing a lot of major contrasts between Todd Akin and me.

Question:  So [crosstalk]…

…Question: Now, at the beginning of this month you said that you were the underdog. You still feel that way?

Senator McCaskill: I will always feel that way in Missouri. I know this state and I know that, um, this race will be hard fought and I predict this race will be close.

Question: Senator, a poll came out from the Post-Dispatch last night that said the same thing Rasmussen said. You said Rasmussen was a partisan poll. Is the Post-Dispatch a partisan poll, that came out last night showing you ten points ahead?

Senator McCaskill: You know, I, I , to try to comment on polling this cycle, uh, would really be a, um, uh, I think, a fool’s errand. Um, the poll that came out in the Post-Dispatch this morning was off by a measly twenty-two points in the Republican primary. Uh, ten days before the primary that poll said that Todd Akin was down by seventeen points. And he won, um, by five. So I think my math tells me that was twenty-two points off in a matter of ten days.  So, I’m gonna take all these polls with a big grain of salt. And, frankly, Missourians don’t care about that. They really don’t. I mean, uh, Todd Akin is a pleasant and sincere man, but his views are not pleasant for Missouri families. And what Missouri families are worried about right now is not polling. But they’re worried about their kids’ college tuition, and they’re worried about their Social Security, and they’re worried about Medicare, and they’re worried about a lot of things, um, besides polls.

Question: Is the women’s issue something you’re gonna be, like, campaigning on? [inaudible] Emily’s List said they’re gonna put a lot of funding in this race.

Senator McCaskill: I, um, uh, will be campaigning on a long list of issues where Todd Akin and I have big differences and women’s health is one of them, but it is just one. And, um, but, but college loans is a big one, the minimum wage is a big one, uh, today’s issue is a big one. Um, we have a very different view of how veterans should be taken care of in this country. We have a very different view about something as basic as whether or not we’re feeding kids lunch at school. So, I think it’s one of many that, um, we’re gonna be able to show Missourians that they’ve got a very, uh, big choice, uh, and big differences between us.

Question: What has happened to your fundraising [inaudible] this past week? Um, what, what’s been the response from, from fun, from donors in Missouri, what’s been the response from donors outside of Missouri?

Senator McCaskill: Uh, we’ve had as good week in fundraising. Um, but, from what I can tell from a distance it appears that Todd Akin has had a decent week also.

Question: [inaudible] He says he’s raised a hundred and fifty thousand dollars more. But, can you tell us how much you’ve raised [crosstalk] in this past week?

Senator McCaskill:  I honestly don’t know. I know we’ve had a good week, but I honestly don’t know.

Question: Um, as we talk about, you’re looking for a fair and, and a, and a complete debate, how can it really be a fair, for Missouri voters, how can it be a fair debate if, uh, one candidate is going in so severely damaged? Shouldn’t.

Senator McCaskill:  Says who?

Question: inaudible] Every Republican says that they’ve got a severely damaged candidate. So, well, you’ve got, you’ve, you’ve expressed outrage but you, you haven’t said, this guy should get off the ballot because no way that Missourians should, should be, are gonna be accepting his, his views. If this was somebody who, um, who’s thirty points ahead I, I think people will be expecting you call for him to get off the ballot. Why would, why are you, um, not doing that?

Senator McCaskill:  Well, I, I’m old fashioned about this. I, I, you know, there was an election.

Question: Mm, hmm.

Senator McCaskill:  Um, you know, I watched carefully for eighteen months when these three candidates, uh, traveled every nook and cranny of the state and campaigned in front of Republican Party faithful all over the state. They had debate after debate. And the people of this state had an election. And Todd Akin won that election.

Question: What would it take for somebody to do, for you to suggest that they might get off the ballot? What would they have to do?

Senator McCaskill: Well, first of all, that is a silly hypothetical. The bottom line is the voters of Missouri selected Todd Akin as their candidate. And it was an election, not a back room selection. It was an election. As Todd said yesterday, um, this is about elections, not selections. So I think the election has, has occurred, Todd Akin was elected by the people of his party. I think to overturn that is a pretty bold and radical thing. So, I, I, you know, I, I believe that Todd Akin’s gonna be in this race and we’ll spend the next seventy-some days making sure that Missourians have another choice and then they’ll get to vote in the first Tuesday in November, whether they want the Republican or the Democrat.

Question: How enjoyable is it as a political observer to watch the civil war going on in the Republican Party?

Senator McCaskill: [laugh] Um, I, I don’t, I’m not aware of all the machinations going on over there. I can only see from a distance that there appears to be a lot of cloak and dagger stuff, which I think, um, is, in some ways, disrespectful to the voters.

Question: Do you think we should have closed primaries in Missouri so that, you know, they couldn’t say that Democrats chose this candidate? That’s what they’re saying, the Republicans are saying that you encouraged your supporters to go and vote for this guy.

Senator McCaskill: Oh, that, first of all, I discount that. That’s, um, Todd Akin has a lot of strong, loyal supporters in this state. And they remain strong and loyal. Um, and I think it’s disrespectful to a big swath of voters, uh, in the Republican Party to diminish, um, the choice they made. Um, you know, I, they’ve chosen so I, I don’t, I think the election speaks for itself.

Question: You had said that, uh, the Democratic Party may not have, may not have been as interested in, uh, helping you out. How’s that changed in the past week?

Senator McCaskill: Oh, I think the Democratic Party’s always been interested in helping me out. Uh, I think this race has always been one of the top tier races. I think everyone knew that it was, Missouri’s a difficult state and I was running as an underdog, But, um, you know, they’ve already come in to help some. It’s not that they weren’t willing to help, it’s just they don’t have the mega billionaire’s money that’s being funded behind closed doors, uh, behind curtains. We don’t know where the money’s coming from, the millions and millions and millions of dollars that have been brought in here with Karl ba, Karl Rove and his band of, uh, merry men, um, the masters of the universe that are writing big checks and trying to pull this election out from underneath Missourians. Uh, it’s not that Democrats weren’t helping, it’s just they didn’t help to the extent that, um, these anonymous donors were helping, uh, run, I think, up to, I think it was about fifteen million dollars in negative ads so far that have been run, um, on the other side.

Okay? Thanks, guys.

Question: I have one more question. [crosstalk]

Voices: Thank you.

Senator McCaskill: Okay.

Question: How do you think Akin’s comment will, um, change your campaign ads?

Senator McCaskill: I don’t think it’s gonna. Uh, our campaign is pretty clear. We have stark differences on Medicare. I want to protect it, he wants to privatize it. We have stark differences on Social Security. I want to protect it, he wants to privatize it. I believe the minimum wage is an important part of the middle class, he wants to abolish it. I believe student loans make us different than the rest of the world in terms of a healthy middle class, he wants to make sure that only rich kids can go to college. You know, I think school lunches, uh, are a smart way for us to buy in volume and, um, help with excess commodities, he thinks we should do away with them. Uh, it’s a long list of things that we have differences on. So, I’m gonna talk about that long list between now and the first Tuesday in November.

Voices: Thank you.

Missouri 4th Congressional District candidate Teresa Hensley made campaign stops on Saturday, August 25 in Webster, Barton and Cedar Counties. Hensley arrived at her last stop of the day, the local community building in Stockton, fresh off a rain-soaked walk in the annual Lamar parade. Before heading home, she spent about 90 minutes sharing a pleasant smile, lots of conversation, and a rousing stump speech with about 35 local Democrats.

It’s one of many stops Hensley has made in the southern side of the 4th, and she’s getting great reviews like the one in the Nevada Daily Mail:

Hensley promises ‘common sense’ service

And, she added a few observations about her opponent’s silence in the Akin mess of the past week, noting that the press is also asking questions of Vicky Hartzler:

Hensley criticizes Hartzler for staying silent on Akin

This is a tremendously articulate, informed and dynamic candidate. Her experience as Cass County prosecutor gives her a trained and caring ear to listen to people’s problems and find solutions. We are lucky to have a candidate of her caliber in the 4th.

Pictures to follow.

Mason-Dixon conducted a poll August 22nd through the 23rd of 625 registered voters (apparently, not using a “likely voter” screen) in Missouri for the Post-Dispatch and KMOV TV which was released in a Post-Dispatch story late last night. The margin of error is 4%.

QUESTION: If the 2012 general election for Missouri’s U.S. Senate seat were held today, would you vote for Claire McCaskill, the Democrat, or Todd Akin, the Republican?

McCASKILL – 50%

AKIN- 41%

SEX

Men

McCASKILL – 44%

AKIN – 46%

Women

McCASKILL – 55%

AKIN – 37%

PARTY

Independent

McCASKILL – 52%

AKIN – 35%

There goes the gender gap. Go figure.

Yep, self identified “Independents” don’t tend to identify strongly with the delusional lunatic fringe.

The sample is reportedly “registered voters” rather than “likely voters”. If they don’t show up on Election Day these numbers and their opinions won’t matter.

Previously:

Rasmussen Poll – 8/22/2012: Claire McCaskill (D) up by ten over Todd Akin (r) (August 23, 2012)

Public Policy Polling: Like a snapshot of a moving amusement park ride (August 22, 2012)

In the 31st Senate District. Yesterday, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C121090 08/24/2012 CITIZENS FOR ED EMERY Ethelmae Humphreys 2505 East 11th Street Joplin MO 64801 Tamko Bldg. Products 8/24/2012 $25,000.00

[emphasis added]

And, it’s so much easier to recharge the campaign coffers, too.

Blue Girl has registered her amazement, and, dare I say it, her disgust at the obliviousness that Todd Akin showed as he assured his fans that he’s in the Senate race for the long haul. Many of us in Rep. Akin’s district have long been familiar with his somewhat dimwitted but frequently entertaining style of speech, but we also know that there’s a hardcore claque of Christian evangelical Missourians that think Brother Todd walks on water. The guy’s won his House seat six times after all, and this is far from his first outrageous public statement. It’s just the one that got the most attention and the first that occasioned any recoil from his currently rather jumpy and election-shy party.

Today’s overtly radicalized GOP has worked very well for folks like Todd Akin – a type of extremist I had thought obliterated years ago when we all stopped talking about the Birchers.  This fact was brought home to me today when I read in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about the disputed tax valuation of the Harrah’s casino in Maryland heights. This is County Assessor Jake Zimmerman’s second attempt to assign a higher value to the casino – and given the $610 million price it bought when it recently sold, he may have a stronger case this time around. As Zimmerman remarked, “When big entities like Harrah’s get special breaks, the rest of us wind up paying more.”

However, the attorney for the casino, Dan Peters, saw it a bit differently:

His voice rising, Peters countered: “What he (Zimmerman) is doing is Marxism. He is saying that he’s going to tax your restaurant based on what a successful business it is you have. If  you have people going there it creates value, then h e’s going to put a price tag of $100 million on that restaurant and he’s going to shut that restaurant down.”**

Dramatic to say the least. Accurate? Not so much. If Zimmerman were imposing a Marxist solution (hard to do all on one’s lonesome), he would appropriate for the state the entire hypothetical restaurant – along with all the other restaurants. And every other business. Instead, what he has the temerity to suggest is that a business making big bucks should pay its fair share of taxes. It’s not even socialism – it’s just a basic question of fairness. I like to know that my neighbor and I are taxed based on a fair application of the system we have agreed to. The same goes for local businesses, even those that can afford to make big political donations.

I don’t know what a fair tax valuation for Harrah’s casino should be. But I do know that arguments against the proposed valuation don’t, by any stretch of the imagination, have anything to do with the Pavlovian trigger words the casino’s lawyer has used in order to snow the members of the Board of Equalization. I also know that his use of those words signals just how far into a fact-free fantasy world we have moved. In this right-wing Missouri of the mind, words don’t have real, denotational meaning; they’re nothing more than tools used to leverage an emotional response to vaguely understood concepts. This is the world in which Akin thrives and which we now have to navigate.  

In the video Blue Girl posted, the operational fantasy construct is “freedom” from which Akin believes all good things, low taxation, minimal bureaucracy, etc. flow. Akin characterizes the difference between himself and Senator McCaskill as having to do with how great a quantity of freedom each will produce, the gist being that Akin’ll give us a measuring cup full, while McCaskill doles it out with a teaspoon.

What he fails to tell us is that the freedom he talks about is that of a totally unregulated market, a corporate class free to run roughshod over the American middle class, a group that has steadily been losing ground after each iteration of the Republican love affair with this lop-sided freedom that has been allowed to play out. It was Akin’s brand of freedom that in 2008 nearly crashed the world economy.

We aren’t out of the economic woods yet, but we are actually better off today than we were in 2009 by almost every objective measure. But, hey, who cares, as long as you’re for freedom and fight the good fight against Marxism, and that nasty old liberal hatred of God, you know better than objective facts.

** This quote appears only in the print edition version of the story. “Tax battle resumes over Harrah’s.” Aug. 24, 2012.

Senator Claire McCaskill (D) at a “Vets for Claire” tour event at VFW Post 7356 in Parkville, Missouri this afternoon.

Senator Claire McCaskill (D) held three veterans’ events today. We were able to attend a noon event in Warrensburg and an early afternoon event at VFW Post 7356 in Parkville. In Parkville Senator McCaskill sat at a table with five veterans, surrounded by media, and spoke with them, listened to their comments, and took and answered their questions. Senator McCaskill took some time to read a lengthy list of Congressman Todd Akin’s (r) House votes against veterans’ issues.

After her conversation with the veterans in attendance Senator McCaskill took questions from the media outside the VFW hall.  

Question: Senator, so, since we last spoke to you there have been all kinds of rumors floating out there about Congressman Akin’s, uh, press conference coming up. Uh, what does that say to you? In your mind how much does this race depend on who you’re running against, whether it’s Todd Akin or it’s someone else?

Senator Claire McCaskill (D): Well, um, you know, the, the Republican view of, uh, privatizing Medicare and taking the money they save, the expense of the Medicare system, and giving another tax cut to multimillionaires, um, privatizing Social Security. I mean, many of the views that Congressman Akin has are views held, that are held by many of, of the people in the other party. But, I think all of this speculation, frankly, doesn’t do much for Missourians.  [cell phone ring][inaudible] What I want to do is focus on Missourians right now and their pain and what they need. Um, this economy to get better, they want to make sure that Social Security is there for them and their kids and grandkids. Same thing with Medicare. That’s what I’m focused on and I think all of the, uh, processy political stuff is probably, um, irritating to most of them.

[immediate] Question: But you go out, and you, and, and, uh, are sending out, and, uh, funding, fundraising solicitations saying we gotta get this guy…

Senator Claire McCaskill (D) (left) in conversation with veteran Lloyd Lapore (right) in Parkville, Missouri.

…Senator McCaskill: I’m sending fundraising solicitations because in, in case Missourians missed it, there’s been about fifteen million dollars worth of negative advertising run um, by outside money in Missouri trashing my record and distorting my record, uh, since last October. [crosstalk]

Question: But, Senator…

Senator McCaskill:  So, unfortunately, I have to raise a lot of money. I wish I didn’t. [cell phone text tone] I’d love to just be doing this all day every day. Uh, this is a part of the job I love, sitting down and having real conversations with people that need real help. And that’s my favorite part of the job. My least favorite part of the job is calling complete strangers and asking them to send me checks for my campaign.

Question:  But, Senator, you…

Senator McCaskill:  In fact, my staff, right now, wants me to leave here to go do call time [fundraising calls].

Question: Right.

Senator McCaskill:  I don’t want to go do call time.

Question: Sen, sen, Senator, you complain about the process but, ye, but, but yet, you’re, you’re using it for that. You know, you take [crosstalk]…

Senator McCaskill:  Of course.

Question: You know, so, I mean, you can’t have it both ways.

Senator McCaskill:  Well, I , I do, in that, um, this is the system I’m saddled with. I have to raise money from as many different places I can to try to keep up with an unprecedented flow of outside money into Missouri. And we don’t even know where it’s coming from. [crosstalk] Uh, these…

Question: And does Congressman Akin’s decision today to remain in the race affect your ability to run this race? How does it affect it?

Senator McCaskill:  Uh, I, I, don’t, I think that we, um, since the day that Congressman Akin won the primary we’ve been working to contrast our records and make sure Missourians know where the differences are between Todd Akin and his beliefs and my beliefs. And so we’ve planned that campaign and we’re gonna execute that campaign. And it’s gonna be all about, um, student loans and veterans’ benefits and Social Security and Medicare, uh, accountability, uh, being careful with taxpayers’ money. And we’re gonna keep doing that week after week after week for another seventy-some days and then the voters will have a chance to decide.

Question:  [crosstalk][inaudible]

Question:  And, and reproductive rights?

Senator McCaskill: Uh, all of it. Um, there’s contrasts on many, many subjects and so that would be one of the things that we have a difference on. But, um, it’s a long list of things that we have difference of opinions. Todd Akin’s, um, views on many subjects are outside the mainstream. And we want to focus on all of those, um, because many of them are very important to Missouri families. And I want to make sure that while he is a pleasant and sincere man, us, his views are not pleasant, uh, for most Missouri families. And that’s what I want to focus on.

Staffer: Time for one more. [crosstalk]

Question: if you had a vote would you prefer that he stay in or stay out?

Senator McCaskill: I don’t have a vote. Um, the people have a vote. And the people have voted. They have voted by a very comfortable margin that, um, they want Todd Akin to represent them in this election. And so he and I will have this race, and we will discuss the differences we have, and then the people will have another vote and they’ll decide whose voice they want in the United States Senate.

Staffer: Thanks everyone.

Voice: All right.

Senator McCaskill: Thanks everybody.

Question: Thanks Senator.

Voice: Uh, huh.