Movie Review - Mitt

Mitt Romney was the candidate no one wanted, but still, everyone agreed that he would be the Republican nominee in the 2012 presidential election. Romney wasn’t the most charismatic, he wasn’t that convincing, and in a time of deep economic recession, no one liked the idea of a rich white guy calling the shots. He was a Mormon, the son of a rich business executive and governor, and he himself had made millions - some would say - buying up companies, firing everyone and selling them for parts. It’s not hard to paint Mitt Romney as unlikeable, but that’s part of the reason that Mitt is such a surprise.

News Year Resolutions

Forget the Mayan doomsday that wasn't, four more years of Obama and the devil of robocalls. For me, 2012 marked the year I finally gave up on CNN. This is both a literal and figurative remark; aside from Reliable Sources and breaking news, I have no engagement in any CNN programming anymore, and since CNN is the godfather of cable news, as it goes, so does the rest of the networks that followed it.

What I mean by that is TV news is ridiculous. It's a pandering mess that offers neither context nor analysis lest they end up offending someone by making it seem like they have a point-of-view, or bias. Unless, of course, an identifiable bias is part of their "brand," in which case they will bang on that drum all day. Balance is fine, but when its false you're not just creating conflict for its own sake, you're actively making yourself a part of the story by helping to develop it. And that, in the common tongue, is a no-no.

Newsmakers and Mad Men

Before we adjourn for Christmas, a couple of things caught my eye in today's news.

Graduating from Gun Nuts to Just Nuts

The National Rifle Association and their various surrogates did themselves no favours this morning on the Sunday talk shows. So dedicated they were to the idea that the answer to the question of what to do about America's seemingly monthly plague of gun violence is to arm even more people, that even Republcian stalwarts like Lindsey Graham were doing difficult feats of linguist contortion to keep themselves separate but equal from the NRA. And frankly, any stand that has the seriously right-wing Graham taking a step back from you should automatically give you pause if you're someone like NRA President Wayne Lapierre. But then again, a ban on assault weapons should be a no-brainer after the death of 20 kids no older than 7, but here we are.

Remember way back in 1999 when the NRA had a convention in Denver mere weeks after Columbine. People protested, and I think even local Colorado politicians asked the lobby's leadership to at least postpone such a gathering in the municipality immediately adjacent to what was then the home to the worst school shooting in American history. But what came out of those protests, famously, were the words of then NRA President Charlton Heston, who held up a long gun rifle over his head and promised to the gathered supporters, "From my cold, dead hand."

In Memoriam

 Hopefully this is the last word on the U.S. Election, and appropriately, it's a remembrance reel. From last night's Real Time with Bill Maher, one last chance to remember all the misanthropic, malcontent, and misguided politicians that made the 2012 election season more memorable. Click on play after the jump:

Four More Years, And The Aftermath

Oh, what a night! Tonnes of surprises, and some other things that were not so surprising. On the one hand, Barack Obama, a man that had been written off so many times, beat handily Mitt Romney, a man who has been written off so many times... And although the election, like the campaign, was really close, there were some big winners and losers of the this past U.S. election. Let's break it down.

The Simpsons Do Presidential Politics

For nearly 25 years, The Simpsons have been a frequently insightful and irreverent source of political humour, and on the eve of the 2012 Presidential Election they've done it again.

In this new clip, nuclear power plant owner C. Montgomery Burns makes his case for fellow Republican Mitt Romney despite the “47 percent” tape or “the tax returns that Wesley Snipe would call suspicious.” But in the end, the whole thing might come down to an actual sniff test. But let's let Mr. Burns himself explain:

The Post Game

Well that was painful to watch. Even Barack Obama's political foes had to admit that during last night's presidential debates, the president wasn't playing at par. Will there be a long term impact on the campaign? Has Republican nominee Mitt Romney stopped the slide after weeks of bad press? And just what the hell was that format? Let's break it down.

The Mitt Hits the Fan

It was roughly this time in 2008 that the event called "The Great Recession" began rolling. Lehman Brothers, a huge financial services firm, declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy on September 15th, 2008, thus beginning a domino effect of big banks and financial firms shuttering their doors, filing for Chapter 11 or announcing that suddenly their huge profits were really huge deficits.

As the world fell (or seemed to), then Republican Presidential candidate John McCain boldly said that he would suspend his campaign in order to return to Washington to work directly on the crisis. However, while he was in Washington, attending meetings on the crisis on all levels, instead of looking like a leader, he looked like he was barely paying attention. By contrast his opponent, then Democratic candidate Barack Obama, said that a president must be able to balance several priorities at once, and in those same meetings, looked attentive, active, asking follow-up questions and making notes; in other words, he looked like a working president. September 2008 is more or less seen as the point in the last election where McCain had officially lost his bid to become President of the United States.

Welcome to September 2012, a point where many, even Republicans, are saying that Mitt Romney lost his presidential bid.

Compounding on a series of gaffs already jamming the political pipeline is this week's release of a tape from a Romney fundraiser in Boca Raton. In it, Romney basically dismisses nearly half the electorate as moochers, beggars and parasites, people so hopelessly attached to the government teat that they'll vote for Obama out of sheer reflex. They can never be convinced to look to alternatives, because they're too busy being a leech to society, riding high on the government hog and not knowing the important American value of pulling yourself up by your boot straps. He also said, to somewhat less fanfare, that he'd be having an easier time if his father had been born an actual Mexican rather than just being born there.

I'd say that Mitt Romney shouldn't give up his day job, but running for president is his day job.

Heart of Darkness?

This week, the Democratic National Convention kicks off in Charlotte, North Carolina. But despite the eagerness of American Democrats to put on their pageant and get the word out about the awesomeness of four more years of Obama, there's still some lingering insanity from last week's Republican National Convention, and it comes in the form of action superstar and former Texas Ranger, Chuck Norris.

Any recent cool points Norris bought for himself appearing as one of the ensemble in The Expendables 2, paying off his debt as a Mike Huckabee supporter in 2008, have all been lost in an instant with this video, which, to say the least, is the worst Romney infomercial ever to hit the internet.

To break it down succinctly, Norris and his fembot wife are concerned that America is "going down the path of socialism of something much worse." They want to encourage evangelicals to get out the vote invoking that quote from Edmund Burke about how evil triumphs when good people do nothing, and further suggesting Obama's re-election will plunge the United States into 1,000 years of darkness. There was also a salute to Saint Ronald Reagan in there somewhere.

But why take my word for it? Let's go to crazy already in progress...

The Old Man and the Chair

So what was that?

It was pure entertainment, that's what it was. Amongst a media event so scripted, it might as well have been overseen by a Hollywood filmmaker, the Republican National Convention brought out an actual Hollywood filmmaker to open an evening of important speeches on its final night. Now laying aside the irony of how the party that chastises "liberal Hollywood" for its dalliances in politics while beatifying the few members of Hollywood out as conservative, I'm sure no one in the Republican National Committee foresaw the events that transpired last night.

Making his entrance like the Hollywood legend that he is, to the tune of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly as if he were about to present an Oscar, the following 12 minutes were as memorizing as they were unexpected.

Romney's Speech: A Critic's Commentary

Last night, Mitt Romney accepted the hotly contested Republican nomination for president before the crowd of the party's faithful in Tampa, Florida. Neither hurricane, nor differences in policy, nor grumpy old men talking to empty chairs could throw Mitt off his course, the role he's been working his way up to for his entire adult life. Now, only Barack Obama's re-election stands in his way of taking the presidency, and despite the months of primary posturing, last night was his opening argument.

You can read the entire text of the speech here, but in the space below I've cut and pasted a few choice segments and offered some rebuttals.

Tonight I am asking you to join me to walk together to a better future. By my side, I have chosen a man with a big heart from a small town. He represents the best of America, a man who will always make us proud – my friend and America’s next Vice President, Paul Ryan.
In the days ahead, you will get to know Paul and Janna better. But last night America got to see what I saw in Paul Ryan – a strong and caring leader who is down to earth and confident in the challenge this moment demands.

But what America got to see in Ryan last night was a big fat liar. Even Fox News, which is no stranger to perpetuating right-wing falsehoods, was taken aback at just how badly Paul Ryan lied. Fox News contributor Sally Kohn even took a time out to detail the lies in Ryan's speech Wednesday Night. But hey, Ryan's still a great dad and has got an awesome playlist on his iPod...

Republicans Behaving Badly

It's a curious thing how Americans can be so easily divided when so many people in one of their two main political parties continue doing and saying things that should put even the most loyal, but still sound-minded supporters on their heels. 

Take Rep. Todd Akin, now candidate for the U.S. Senate, for example. Yesterday, he made a gaff so embarrassing, so misinformed, so misguided, that he might as well have said that he believes that leprechauns are real and that on the weekend he chases rainbows to find the pot of gold at the end. Of course, if Akin did actually do that, it's his own affair; no more a looney a pass time as collecting stamps or Star Wars memorabilia. But Akin's ignorant comments have real implications, and dangerous ones at that. 

Ryan Rebuttle

It didn't take long for the Obama-Biden ticket to start cranking out the counter spin to today's announcement of Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wi) as Governor Mitt Romney's running mate in this fall's U.S. Presidential election. Surrogates on behalf of President Barack Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden sent out two e-mails in eight hours to supporters in an effort to start deflating the GOP's celebratory mood, by attacking Ryan on his background and policy, particularly his proposed federal budget, Roadmap for America’s Future, which includes new tax cuts, deep spending cuts and privatization of entitlements like medicare.

The Blind Leading the Blind?

It was announced late last night that former Governor Mitt Romney had selected Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin to be his running mate in this year's U.S. Presidential election on the Republican ticket. It's a move that's seen as both strategic and complementary. Ryan, a darling of the Tea Party and widely seen as one of the intellectuals of the current right, bolsters Romney's conservative credentials while Ryan seems to be one of the few people that Romney's been comfortable campaigning with. In other words, he humanizes Romney, a factor that the embattled former Massachusetts Governor desperately needs. 

A Dark Night Rises

The preference for a lot of people today in discussing The Dark Knight Rises, one of the most hotly awaited movies of the year, should have been whether or not it's a good movie on it's own or whether it falls short of the rather high water mark of Christopher Nolan's last Batman film, The Dark Knight. Instead, a real life madman barged into a midnight screening of Rises in Aurora, CO, set off tear gas and proceeded to shoot over 70 people, killing 12, with the small arsenal he brought with him. It's now the worst mass shooting in American history.

Aside from the visceral anger towards the perpetrator, and the outpouring of sympathy for the victims and family members, there are a number of questions persisting this evening. Here are a few:

We Need to Talk About the Republican Party

I think by any reasonable stretch of the imagination, it's not hard to see that the current state of the U.S. Republican Party is one of extremism and limited vision. The perception that President Barack Obama is extraordinarily left wing, has forced many of the candidates to push harder to the right. Combined with the perception that Obama is weak, and that Americans are itching for another new direction, and the seven current contenders looking to be named the Republican nominee for President of the United States are in the midst of a bitter, incendiary and occasionally noxious contest that has already eclipsed the 2008 Democratic primary in terms of those qualities.

I bring it up because on Monday, in the next edition of Beyond the Ballot Box on CFRU, we'll be spending some time on the air discussing the state of American politics once again. To get my own thoughts in order, I thought I'd wax poetic on the various candidates with my impressions. Fasten your seat belt, this will most definitely be a bumpy ride.