Willard's "I Give Up" List

By Baxter

Here is a tiny sliver of the standing-room-only crowd that turned out for the ribbon-cutting opening of our local Obama-Biden campaign office in Virginia. These folks are all fired up and ready to go, especially now that Willard has named the heartless accountant Paul Ryan to go down in defeat with him in November.

Which got us cats thinking about all the groups that Romney has given up on by picking Ryan. Goodness gracious, but the list is long.

But first, whom have they pleased? Rupert Murdoch, Bill Kristol and the inside-the-Beltway Republican establishment, that's who. Anyone else? We wonder. In fact, it's occurred to us that today might go down in history as the day that Willard officially lost the election.

Second, let's consider for a moment all the constituencies they're taking for granted. Southerners come to mind. So do evangelicals and any other non-Mormon, non-Catholic Christians. Not to mention Florida Cubans who were clamoring for Rubio. How let down they must feel.

But even above all that, picking Ryan means that the Republicans have clearly thrown in the towel on even trying to appeal to:

• Hispanics — Not even a token nod to you guys. Forget the GOP, Hispanic Americans. They hate you. Stay with us.
• Women — Paul Ryan voted against the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. (On top of everything else, we point that out in case you were thinking you could be swayed by the VP pick — who, you may have noticed, is not a woman.)
• African-Americans — Obviously, since Romney ignored Freeper calls for Allen West, you all are — surprise, surprise — nowheresville in the GOP. (P.S. We didn't see a single non-white face in the crowd gathering for the local Romney rally this afternoon. Just sayin'.)
• Anyone who cares about foreign policy — For the first time since we cats were kittens, the Republican ticket has no international experience, and the GOP can no longer brandish the "strong-on-defense" sword against us. Bless you, Barack Obama.
• Old white people — Amazing that Romney would be willing to frighten the Medicare crowd with his VP pick. So what if the Ryan plan calls for healthcare coupons only for people currently under 55? The question is: Where will they stop? Especially when they need to keep giving tax breaks to the rich?

Finally, this is not a group, but the Romneybots also have clearly given up on Transvaginal Bob McDonnell.

Poor Bob. Thanks to Virginia's weird one-term-for-Governors law, pretty soon he'll be out of office, with nothing left to do. The best he can hope for is that Romney wins and gives him a Cabinet position. Maybe Secretary of Vaginas? We cats PURR.