Mitt just doesn't have what it takes ...

Thinking about the Romney camp. They've decided that, after all, harping on the economy is not going to put them over the top in November. Well, d'uh.

The American people apparently know that the Republicans are at least as culpable on that score as any Democrat. And people apparently know that Obama's attempts to stimulate the economy with federal infrastructure projects worked and would have kept on working, if certain people had not put a stop to it before it had a chance to do permanent good.

So, now, Mr. I've-Got-Nuthin' is looking around for something else to say that will make people distrust the guy he's running against and think -- at this late date -- that Mitt might not be that great a risk in the White House. So, how's that working for him?

Running off a the mouth about Libya and Egypt probably wasn't a good way to launch his new plan to expand talking points from jobs-jobs-and-no-jobs to more national and international issues. No. Displaying -- once again -- his inept foreign policy chops was not helpful, not to Mitt, and certainly not to our country.

And now, some pundits' lengthy analyses of the Romney campaign are painting an enterprise in chaos. People running around in all directions, back-biting and in-fighting, wondering how they're going to turn things around with only a tad more than a month and a half left until the election. It's a little late to be retooling the message, don't you think? Or is this "any port in a storm" time at Romney headquarters?

You know, this whole debacle does not speak well of Ol' Mitt's ability to run an enterprise. Not well at all.

If he's this bad at running his own bitty campaign, why would anyone think he could run a whole country -- especially one that occasionally must weather a crisis and be seen as a world leader during tough times?

No, Mitt's used to running a company, a corporation, some enterprise limited to making a profit for shareholders. In that world, you can change course in mid-stream. In that world, you can throw up your hands and call it a day.

But running a country is a whole other thing. And Mitt's clearly not up to it.

A Very Important Year ...

This blog, Pattio Conversation, has been here for several years and I have not put anything to speak of on it. So, today, I erased what was here. Right now, the things I want to write are: 1) my novels -- three of them planned and one mostly written, and 2) thoughts on the current election year that I think is a critical time in the history of our republic.

The second of these is, for much of the time lately, crowding out the first. That's probably not good. But it is what it is.

So, this space will be where I wax verbose and preachy, OR I comment thoughtfully (that depends, probably on whether or not anyone reading it agrees with me) on the issues that I think people need to spend more time thinking about and understanding right now. Not that I'm going to understand so much better than anyone else, but I'm definitely going to at least weigh things a bit before swallowing the "party lines" -- hooks, lines, and sinkers. And I'm going to do it more here than on other sites. And more deliberately -- I hope.

But I'm a human animal, after all, and we human animals tend to like what confirms out biases. We need to know that about ourselves, and we need to deal with it, and take it into account when figuring things out.

Even knowing that, I doubt that my political philosophy can change a great deal from what it is currently, and I doubt that I can be convinced that voting for this year's national Republican Party nominees is a good idea (there, that's my current bias -- Left Progressive). Does that mean that I will only pay attention to the Left Wing Echo Chamber, seek out information that supports what I WANT to believe, and spend my time here justifying my preconceived positions on the issues of the day?

I don't think so. Not really. What it means is that my values have been explored, examined, and evolved over a great many years, and with a great deal of attention and thought and argument with people who push back and make me justify my positions, and I'm pretty sure that new information and argument, however well made, will not change what I have come to value at a bedrock level.

But at this time in history, the Republican Party is opposing a huge swath of those things I have come to value, and I think people of conscience need to push back, or at least make them justify what they espouse.

So, I don't think my mind will change a whole lot, but I do think it's important for people of conviction to engage each other and figure out what our world needs to survive with Umpteen Billions of us roving about on it together.

And right now, what does my country -- the United States -- need for a president? For a Congress? What does science need to move us forward? How can we engage philosophy and history to inform our critical decisions? Here in the US and around the world? What are other people thinking and what's my opinion of their opinions?

Am I just kidding myself that I can be logical and cogent in my evaluation of the political and social arguments of the day? Does anyone else care?

Hmmm. Maybe. Maybe not. But then, if you've come this far, read what I have to say in the days to come, and maybe comment from time to time, and we'll see.