by Benjamin J. Kirby
During the debate the other night, Nina Gonzalez asked this question of President Obama:
President Obama, during the Democratic National Convention in 2008, you stated you wanted to keep AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. What has your administration done or planned to do to limit the availability of assault weapons?
Great question.
I thought Obama's answer was actually pretty good, and at the heart of it was the idea that we ought to reintroduce the assault weapons ban.
Governor Romney had the follow up:
Yeah, I’m not in favor of new pieces of legislation on — on guns and taking guns away or making certain guns illegal. We, of course, don’t want to have automatic weapons, and that’s already illegal in this country to have automatic weapons.
This is one I wish Governor Romney hadn't gotten wrong. But he did:
Fully automatic weapons -- guns that fire continuously when the trigger is held down -- are legal to possess in the United States but are tightly regulated.
After that, things took a turn for the worse in his answer:
But let me mention another thing [to change the culture of violence]. And that is parents. We need moms and dads, helping to raise kids. Wherever possible the — the benefit of having two parents in the home, and that’s not always possible. A lot of great single moms, single dads. But gosh to tell our kids that before they have babies, they ought to think about getting married to someone, that’s a great idea.
Look, I actually get it: safe and stable families do, in fact, produce better outcomes for kids. I think that Governor Romney stated that as ineloquently as I've ever heard it, but that was his larger point. Happy, healthy, smart kids in stable homes have better outcomes -- ie, they're not gunning each other down with AK-47s.
Fine. He got some well-earned guff for that -- even from me, on Facebook:
...because two parents who are married are literally impervious to AK-47 gunfire. #debate #superparents
Now, Romney might've actually recovered from delivering this point so weakly, had his idiot son Tagg not stepped right in it:
Mitt Romney's eldest son weighed in on the second presidential debate on Wednesday, joking that the debate's contentious nature made him want to "take a swing" at President Obama.
So the answer to preventing violence -- gun violence or otherwise, presumably -- lies with the parents. Two parents, we're told in as condescending a way as you can imagine.
If Tagg Romney wants to "take a swing" at the President, what does that say about his parents?
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Nice of Tagg Romney to prove my point once and for all about this being the bully election, by the way.
Indeed, Mitt Romney is nothing more than a bully -- which explains why he got so flustered the other night. Bullies don't like getting their asses kicked.
His son is nothing more than a petulant bully, either.
I'm real glad I could call it back in June, but what I didn't anticipate is how bitter this election cycle would make folks. I should have known. Because just dealing with a bully -- much less actually being bullied -- makes you kind of bitter and angry. And when you're a Democrat -- particularly a liberal Democrat -- it's hard to accept that you sometimes have to stand up to bullies using the same tactics they use. In other words, fighting back ain't always real palatable.
I have seen more folks than I care to -- and a lot of them being folks I care about -- say they're just disgusted with the whole thing. They can't stand to be on Twitter, they can't stand to be on Facebook. The whole thing is a cynical, ugly mess.
I agree... to a point. The frustration point for me lies with our broken national media apparatus which just can't seem to call it like it is in the twisted name of "equality" and "balance". Mitt Romney is an awful character and he's a liar and a serial flip-flopper of herculean proportions.
And he is quite literally trying to use SuperPAC money to, well, bully his way to the White House. Imagine what four years of that guy would be like.
Talk about trauma.
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The CIA wants to expand the drone strike program.
I'm going to go ahead and say: bad idea.
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Newsweek was a staple for me gowing up -- more so TIME, I guess.
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I'm a big proponent of social media, but I'm not at all surprised by this study which says Facebook ads are ineffective.
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It's almost Friday.
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