Spencer Critchley

Communication and Change

Politics & Society

Paul Ryan is Romney’s Sarah Palin

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Cross-posted at Huffington Post. Of all the obvious blunders Republican leaders didn’t want Mitt Romney to make, it was choosing a Sarah Palin as his candidate for vice president. The possibility scared even Dick Cheney.

But that’s exactly what Romney has done.

What, you say? Paul Ryan, like him or not, is a person of substance, and Sarah Palin is, well, Sarah Palin. But if you look at why Romney chose Ryan, and why John McCain chose Palin, it becomes clear.

McCain was seen by the conservative base as far too impure ideologically, palling around with liberals on bellwether issues like immigration, global warming and campaign finance reform. He was also proving to be a disappointing campaigner: lacking a coherent message, committing gaffes and never really firing up any part of the electorate.

Sound familiar?

McCain chose Palin in a desperate attempt to buy credibility with the base of his own party. Same with Romney and Ryan. Romney, a man who apparently has no core, has attempted to hire one.

But what about Ryan’s intellectual gravitas, as compared with Palin’s anti-gravitas? Ryan’s famous plan, the Roadmap for America’s Future, may be radical and heartless, but as the GOP mantra goes, at least he has a plan.

Gravitas? People, Paul Ryan is a big fan of Ayn Rand. This counts as gravitas?

Only in Washington, as they say, though we shouldn’t overlook Star Trek conventions.

As any psychologist could tell you, if you’re obsessed with escaping someone, you are not free of that someone. In fleeing Sarah Palin, anxiously looking over his shoulder, Mitt Romney has run around in a circle, smack into Paul Ryan.

Don’t vote for anyone who looks like he should be president

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A great insight from Moneyball author Michael Lewis this morning on Fareed Zakaria GPS:

Maybe you don’t want to vote for the guy who looks like he should be president. Because the only reason he’s gotten as far as he’s gotten is because he looks like he should be president.

In studying rich and poor baseball teams for Moneyball, Lewis found that rich teams invested in the wrong players — in effect, the players who looked good, as opposed to the ones who actually were good.

It does sound like more than a few presidential candidates, not to mention much of the Senate.

A corollary: If there are two barbers in the shop, ask for the one with the bad haircut.

Prepare for Republican Dirty Tricks in the California Attorney General Squeaker

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Written with Zach Friend for the Huffington Post.

As we watch the final vote count in the oh-so-close contest between Steve Cooley and Kamala Harris, watch for a California replay of Bush-Gore 2000. Already, Cooley consultant Kevin Spillane has promised to fight any supposed “manipulations of the ballot counting process by the Harris campaign.”

There is of course no evidence of such manipulations. Republicans are by far the most aggressive practitioners of ballot chicanery, up to and including the shameful intervention by the Supreme Court in 2000. And they are always first off the mark with charges of same against the other side. Kamala Harris received more votes on Election Day than Cooley did, so it’s predictable that Republicans would immediately launch their usual program of FUD: Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.

The Democrats this time appear more prepared to protect the vote and more willing to recognize that they have a reason to take ownership in this race’s outcome. California Democratic Party Chair John Burton has put out an appeal to have election monitors present at all county vote counts, and Harris campaign officials have been actively fighting all Republican smears.

Unlike Republicans, Democrats have reason to be worried about dirty tricks. The Cooley campaign had major support from Karl Rove, who of course had a leading role in the 2000 travesty. Rove has made his career on dirty tricks since he won a bitter 1973 campaign for Executive Director of the College Republicans — in part by getting votes for his opponent disallowed. Although Rove was caught on tape counseling other young Republicans on how to cheat, then Republican National Committee chair George H.W. Bush chose Rove as the winner and later, fatefully, connected him with his son, George W.

As we have noted previously, Kamala Harris is a logical target for Rove and company. She has had an impressive rise on the way to her current post as District Attorney of San Francisco. She is California’s first African-American DA, and has scored big successes in that office, showing a combination of toughness and brains. She would be the state’s first female Attorney General. It seems obvious that Rove (and partner Ed Gillespie) should fear Harris’ potential to win higher office. Many former Attorneys General have been governors, members of congress, and presidential candidates.

Democrats need to stick to their guns and fight hard for a clean result, because it’s the right thing to do, because of what’s at stake politically, and — not least — because voters want to see that they have the gumption to do it.

Ice Cream Tells the Story of How the Stimulus Worked (VIDEO)

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Written for the Huffington Post. Hundreds of billions of dollars were spent, and millions of words were argued. And now a little ice cream shop in Santa Cruz, California has made it clear why the stimulus program was worth it.

The facts say the stimulus worked, as in the recent Congressional Budget Office report showing millions of jobs saved or created plus solid increases in GDP.

But more powerful than facts are stories, like the one told in this video, by the owners of the new Penny Ice Creamery in Santa Cruz:

Kendra Baker and Zachary Davis, the owners of the shop, describe how the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) made it possible for them to get the loan they used to open their business. They hired service providers and employees, bought equipment (US-made) and supplies (from local vendors), and now have a thriving store that’s helping to boost the economy of downtown Santa Cruz. They made the video because they wanted to thank President Obama; their senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer; and their congressman, Sam Farr.

These ice cream entrepreneurs make the case that many a politician has struggled with. They drive it home simply by cutting from one person to another saying, “They hired me… and they hired me… and they hired me.”

That’s basically the way stimulus spending should work when credit stalls in a recession, and that’s the way it did work this time.