Romney's home state blues: can he make history?

By Paddy Ryan

In the history of the United States, no GOP Presidential nominee has lost their home state and won the Presidency. This trend is an issue for Mitt Romney, who is now 24 points behind President Obama in Massachusetts, according to RealClearPolitics.

Below is a list of every Republican to ever win the Presidency. Each one of them won their home state.

1860 – (R) Abraham Lincoln wins the Presidency. Wins home state – Illinois.
1864 – (R) President Lincoln wins re-election. Wins home state – Illinois.
1868 – (R) Ulysses S. Grant wins the Presidency. Wins home state – Illinois.
1872 – (R) President Grant wins re-election. Wins home state – Illinois.  
1876 – (R) Rutherford B. Hayes wins the Presidency. Wins home state – Ohio.
1880 – (R) James Garfield wins the Presidency. Wins home state – Ohio.
1888 – (R) Benjamin Harrison wins the Presidency. Wins home state – Indiana.
1896 – (R) William McKinley wins the Presidency. Wins home state – Ohio.
1900 – (R) President McKinley wins re-election. Wins home state – Ohio.
1904 – (R) Theodore Roosevelt wins the Presidency. Wins home state – New York.
1908 – (R) William Howard Taft wins the Presidency. Wins home state – Ohio.
1920 – (R) Warren G. Harding wins the Presidency. Wins home state – Ohio.
1924 – (R) Calvin Coolidge wins the Presidency. Wins home state – Massachusetts.
1928 – (R) Herbert Hoover wins the Presidency. Wins home state – California.
1952 – (R) Dwight D. Eisenhower wins the Presidency. Wins home state – Kansas.
1956 – (R) President Eisenhower wins re-election. Wins home state – Kansas.
1968 – (R) Richard Nixon wins the Presidency. Wins home state – California.
1972 – (R) President Nixon wins re-election. Wins home state – California.
1980 – (R) Ronald Reagan wins the Presidency. Wins home state – California.
1984 – (R) President Reagan wins re-election. Wins home state – California.
1988 – (R) George H.W. Bush wins the Presidency. Wins home state – Texas.
2000 – (R) George W. Bush wins the Presidency. Wins home state – Texas
2004 – (R) President Bush wins re-election. Wins home state – Texas.

Every Republican President in American history - Lincoln, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Harrison, McKinley, Roosevelt, Taft, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan, and both Bush's - carried their respective home state.

If Mitt Romney beats President Obama and wins the White House, it will be the first time in American history that a Republican nominee wins the election without carrying his home state.

That's not all.

The last time a Republican nominee for President couldn't win his home state was in 1944 when Thomas Dewey lost his home state of New York to Franklin D. Roosevelt. However, this shouldn't really count because New York was FDR's home state as well.

Take the FDR elections out of the equation, and the last time a GOP nominee failed to win his home state was in 1912, when the unpopular GOP President, William Howard Taft, failed to win his home state of Ohio, and thus failed to win his re-election.

Maybe Romney should have concentrated more on Massachusetts, or maybe GOP voters should have realized that they never won the White House with a nominee who couldn't win his home state.

Either way, Romney must have the home state blues because history's trend-line is on the side of President Obama. Romney will become yet another GOP candidate to lose his home state and, in turn, lose the election.

Romney's religious cult, his “most important treasure”

By Paddy Ryan

Mitt Romney's Mormon faith is a major issue. It raises red flags about his fundamental beliefs. Since President Obama's faith is fair game, then I think Mitt Romney's faith, which was founded on trickery and con-artistry, should be fair game too.

Mitt Romney, who is a certified bishop in the Mormon church, has built his entire life around the Mormon faith. In a little-known commencement speech to his prep school alma-mater, Mitt Romney described his Mormon faith as “one of the most important treasures of my life.”

A religion, started less than 200 years ago by a con-man, a religion that has been exposed as a cult (by all sides of the political spectrum), is Mitt Romney's “most important treasure”. Comforting.

Here are some wacky, out-of-this-world beliefs that Romney and his fellow Mormon's hold:

- God is a man, made of flesh and blood, and he lives on the planet Kolob.

- There is no hell, but there are three heavens.

- The punishment for being a bad Mormon is that you don’t get to reach the third heaven, where God dwells.

- Lucifer was Jesus’ brother, back on the original earth, where God and Jesus dwelled.

- The biblical characters Adam and Eve once lived in America, which is where the Garden of Eden was really located.

- We were all spirit children together with God in the 'pre-existence'.

- People of African descent are "cursed with a skin of blackness” and the curse was based on their performance in the pre-existence.

- Baptism happens for children at age 8 and at age 12 they are allowed to go to the temple and do baptisms for the dead, these posthumous "blessings" are intended to "save" ancestors and others who weren't baptized in life or were baptized "without proper authority."

- There will be a literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes, Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent.

- Christ will reign personally upon the earth, and the earth will be renewed and receive its 'paradisiacal glory'.

Although most of Romney's religious beliefs are strange, I think that one of his strangest is the belief in secretive posthumous baptisms. This issue fascinates me.

"A Mormon may propose the baptism of another person posthumously. Church members have performed the ritual on Buddha, Catholic popes, 9/11 hijackers, William Shakespeare, Joan of Arc, Elvis Presley, President Obama's mother and even reportedly Jesus Christ. In 2002, the managing director of the Mormon's family and church history department told The New Yorker magazine that as many as 200 million dead people had been baptized as Mormons.

In 1994, an Israeli genealogist researching her family in the Mormons' computerized International Genealogical Index made a startling discovery. Her grandfather, a religiously observant Jew killed in the Holocaust, had been posthumously baptized as a Mormon. Distraught, she alerted other Jewish genealogists who soon learned that some 380,000 Holocaust victims, including Anne Frank, had been baptized. Plus, Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, and scientist Albert Einstein had received this treatment."

Wow. If that doesn't sound like some shady medicine man, rainmaker, voodoo-magic wizardry, than I don't know what does. How can any sane, rational, intelligent minded person, like Mitt Romney, ever take these beliefs to heart?

Last Monday, top Romney advisor Kevin Madden said,

“The governor’s faith is part of who he is, … It’s informed how he’s raised his family, it’s informed how he’s had a strong marriage.”

I am not a religious person. I understand that all different religious beliefs can sound a little outrageous, but Mormons are definitely in the major leagues when it comes to sounding ridiculous.

Call me crazy but, I'm not comfortable with a President who believes that God is a flesh and blood man living on the planet Kolob, a President who believes that Zion will be built upon the American continent and believes that people of African descent are "cursed with a skin of blackness” based on performance in some fairytale 'pre-existence'. I don't feel comfortable with a President who refers to his faith, which includes these fundamental pillars of Mormonism, as his “most important treasure”.

How Todd Akin and Paul Ryan Partnered to Redefine Rape

By Ian Millhiser from ThinkProgress Justice
republished by Paddy Ryan

Earlier today, Missouri U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) claimed that “legitimate rape” does not often lead to pregnancy because “the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” This is not the first time the biologically challenged senate candidate tried to minimize the impact of rape. Last year, Akin joined with GOP vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) as two of the original co-sponsors of the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” a bill which, among other things, introduced the country to the bizarre term “forcible rape.”

Federal law prevents federal Medicaid funds and similar programs from paying for abortions. Yet the law also contains an exception for women who are raped. The bill Akin and Ryan cosponsored would have narrowed this exception, providing that only pregnancies arising from “forcible rape” may be terminated. Because the primary target of Akin and Ryan’s effort are Medicaid recipients — patients who are unlikely to be able to afford an abortion absent Medicaid funding — the likely impact of this bill would have been forcing many rape survivors to carry their rapist’s baby to term. Michelle Goldberg explains who Akin and Ryan would likely target:

Under H.R. 3, only victims of “forcible rape” would qualify for federally funded abortions. Victims of statutory rape—say, a 13-year-old girl impregnated by a 30-year-old man—would be on their own. So would victims of incest if they’re over 18. And while “forcible rape” isn’t defined in the criminal code, the addition of the adjective seems certain to exclude acts of rape that don’t involve overt violence—say, cases where a woman is drugged or has a limited mental capacity. “It’s basically putting more restrictions on what was defined historically as rape,” says Keenan.

Although a version of this bill passed the GOP-controlled House, the “forcible rape” language was eventually removed due to widespread public outcry. Paul Ryan, however, believes that the “forcible rape” language does not actually go far enough to force women to carry their rapist’s baby. Ryan believes that abortion should be illegal in all cases except for “cases in which a doctor deems an abortion necessary to save the mother’s life.” So rape survivors are out of luck.

And, of course, as we learned today, Akin isn’t even sure that “legitimate” rape survivors can get pregnant in the first place.

Ryan Hailed Akin’s ‘Leadership’ During Missouri Senate Primary

By Benjy Sarlin from TPM
republished by Paddy Ryan

Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO), whose comments Sunday that “legitimate rape” is biologically unlikely to cause pregnancy sparked a firestorm, earned gushing praise from Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) last year when he declared his candidacy for Senate. His comments were so glowing that Ryan had to clarify later that they did not constitute an endorsement.

“Todd Akin has been a great asset to the House Budget Committee,” Ryan said in a joint press release last November with fellow House leaders, including NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions, and Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Jordan. “His principled approach to fiscal responsibility is exactly the kind of leadership America needs and I appreciate his hard work.”

Akin touted Ryan’s praise as a major asset, prompting his GOP primary rivals toaccuse Akin of misleading by implying Ryan had endorsed him in the race. Ryan’s spokesman quickly clarified at the time that he merely was “applauding Rep. Akin’s work on the House Budget Committee,” not giving his official backing, according to Politico.

Although best known for his budget work, Ryan is firmly within the right wing of his party on abortion. The Obama campaign recently released a TV ad highlighting Ryan’s support for banning abortions without exceptions for rape and incest and, in certain cases, even the health of the mother.

Top Democrats are already trying to connect Akin’s recent remarks to Ryan’s shared record on key votes, most notably a bill they co-sponsored barring taxpayer funding for abortion that distinguished pregnancies resulting from “forcible rape” — language that was ultimately scrapped after an uproar.