Not at the GOP debates, it's not...
-Headline of the Day-
"This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, Affordable Care Act Edition."
Last night's Republican presidential debate started out with a lion taming act by Michele Bachmann, then things got under way. Rick Perry, to prove his dedication to the Second Amendment, shot John Huntsman dead. Rick Santorum came out of the closet. Ron Paul advocated a Flintstone Chewables-based monetary system. Mitt Romney promised that his first act as president would be to unilaterally declare Israel the 51st US state. Newt Gingrich claimed it wasn't too late to take another whack at impeaching Clinton. All in all, it was quite a spectacle.
Everything I just described is about as true as most of the BS candidates slung on that stage last night. But one claim deserves special attention; that under the Affordable Care Act, Herman Cain would be dead.
See, The Hermanator is a cancer survivor. Under Obamacare, Herman's doctors wouldn't be able to do anything without checking with some pencil-pusher in Washington first. "If we had been under Obamacare and a bureaucrat was trying to tell me when I could get that CAT scan that would have delayed my treatment," he said. How true is this?
Do you really have to ask? Still this is exactly the sort of thing that the nutballs believe.
"Why do [Republican voters] believe that? Because people like Herman Cain keep telling them so," writes American Prospect's Paul Waldman. "I don't know whether Cain is an ignoramus or a liar, but it has to be at least one, maybe both."
"You might say, 'Well, nobody would be dumb enough to actually believe that,' but you'd be so, so, wrong," Waldman continues. The nuts hear things like this every minute of every day from every "news" outlet they choose to delude themselves with. So, when someone like Cain says something that seems so absurd and clownish to everyone else, all the 'baggers are nodding like freakin' bobblehead dolls.
And the rest of the media? Barely any better. Show me the "Herman Cain Lies His Lyin' Ass Off" headline from a mainstream outlet. Sure, an organization like the New York Times might bring it up, but not as news. That info is buried among their billion and one blogs that no one has time to read.
Oh wait, no it isn't.
Every GOP debate so far as been a bullshit festival. And do you know why the mainstream media won't bring up that fact? Because they suck. They don't give a fuck whether it's true or not, all they care about is how it'll play with the this demographic or that. "Truth" is for chumps. What's important is reporting how each candidate plans to win the election and -- if Johnny Ace Reporter is really, really lucky -- predicting who the winner will be before anyone gets a chance to even cast a damned vote.
What, you're waiting for a punchline? The whole freaking thing is a punchline. Or, at least, a joke. As Waldman puts it, "And that's why we can't have nice things." (American Prospect)
-Economics for
Is job creation demand-dependent or supply-dependent?
Click to embiggen
Hey GOP, it's easier than you're making it. (Reddit)
-Bonus HotD-
"Gov. Rick Scott Brags About Laying Off 15,000 Government Workers After Decrying Florida's High Unemployment."
Republicans suck at math is all I'm saying. (ThinkProgress)
