Romney vows to nuke China and India and invade and conquer all the major oil producers

Chinese traffic jam--worst in history--Aug. 14-26, 2011

Well, no, he didn't. But he blamed President Obama for the high gas prices we have now, and vowed things would be different during his reign. But to accomplish that, he'd have to do what I said in my headline, and he said he's accomplish that, therefore he plans to nuke China and India and invade and conquer the OPEC nations.

Of course what he's promised is to stop stopping American oil producers from producing oil, as he's accued Obama of doing. Including blaming Obama for slowing down Gulf oil platform operations like the one BP owned that blew up. Does anyone outside of the states around the Guilf remember that?

But suppose we opened the taps, drilling offshore, in Alaska, everywhere, dumping our reserve capacity into the refineries, and built the Keystone pipeline..

First, America is no longer a major oil producer. Second, the burgeoning middle classes of China and India--each the size of America's total population--are buying cars and driving them. Third, unless we nationalized our oil companies, oil production in America is in the hands of private, for-profit, multinationals.

So the modest increase in oil supply would be promptly sold on the world market--much of it snapped up by China and India--at prices set by the oil cartel, OPEC.

Change to American gas prices: pretty much nada. American gas prices are the same as prices in Europe, except for us subsidizing drivers more here with a lower gas tax. But on a day by day basis, except for that tax differential, Americans pay the same at the pump as their French, German, and Brit counterparts--and have done so at least since the mid-1990s.

These facts were pointed out by all the pundits on Fox News--back when gas prices soared during Bush II's presidency. They only started lying about it when prices rose during a Democratic presidency.

And nearly all the Congressional Republicans always vote against raising gas mileage requirements, of course. Now their mantra has become God, Gays, Guns, and Gas....

Therefore, since Romney et al claim they can affect gas prices, they'll have to eliminate the competition for gas: China and India...and OPEC.

Bush II who?

Fascinating how Republicans rhapsodize about Reagan (despite the fact that he'd be considered a RINO today) while the last GOP president--for two terms no less--is an official Nonperson.

And yet Romney, Gingrich and Santorum all endorse Bush II's overall tax and economic policies, along with his Ready! Fire! Aim! foreign policy, firm belief in big government intrusion into our bedrooms with no respect for states' rights (contrary to GOP mantras about same), and contempt for science and economics when their findings don't support GOP Billionairian theology. They should give credit where its due--and so should their followers. 

Especially since the overall policy similarities give us a horror movie-quality foreshadowing of what a Republican-dominated Congress, Presidency, and Judiciary would have in store for America. 

Of course my non-Republican conclusion is that Republicans don't want to talk about Bush II precisely because a Romney presidency would be Bush II Redux. Right down to both of them claiming to be "outsiders." Now there's unintentional humor for ya.

Romney would kill medical care reform, just like Bush II would; he'd hang onto the tax cuts for the rich that Bush II got--and which, instead of trickling down, has cost America at least 3/4 of a trillion dollars so far and counting; he'd endorse the government rape of women trying to get abortions (or should there be a different word for inserting a foreign object into a woman's privates against her will at the behest of male-dominated legislatures and male governors?). And he'd enrich himself personally and substantially through implementing his policies--just like Bush II did. And Bush II and Romney both worked hard to mimic what regular people who weren't born rich were like--Bush II with his fake ranch, Romney through his, um, family anecdotes (they're regular Motor City folks because his wife has two Cadillacs--and she doesn't "feel" rich!).

Bush II is one of your own. He's not just your past--he is, if the GOP has its way with us, our future. And he still actually rules one of the three branches of government, through his radical corporatist appointees, who are likely to rule that roost for decades to come, regardless of who wins in November.

So come on, guys, give credit where it's due. You aren't the party of Reagan--who raised taxes repeatedly and avoided foreign entanglements. You're the party of Bush II. Own it.

There are great Republican candidate out there...

Just none who are running.

Why not?

Because they don't think they can beat Obama this time around.

Nobody Republican in the public eye will say so--they'll say Obama's doomed because no president gets reelected with unemployment this high (can you say FDR?), and then launch into a litany of his deficits as a president and as a human being.

But 'andsome is as 'andsome does.

If Republicans were really sure of his defeat, those hotter candidates would have tossed their hats in the ring. Candidates that excite Republicans. The current crop doesn't.

This doesn't make Obama a shoe-in in November. The Republican core strategy is to make him the subject not their guy, and a loose assortment of billionaires are going to flood the airwaves with a superslick campaign of ads and pundits for hire and a TV channel dedicated to pretty much nothing but his defeat, hoping to make him so hated, so much the personification of everything that's gone wrong in voters' lives, that they'll take a chance on the not very likeable candidate who emerges from the current tussle--still almost certainly Mitt Romney.

And the guys who aren't trying to get the GOP nomination know this. Yet they aren't running.

They're voting with their feet.