And the GOP Learning Curve keeps getting steeper....

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

There's some powerful denial going on within the GOP right now. From the Governors Conference.

"They spent all their time making Mitt Romney unacceptable and making him out to be someone who was untrustworthy and unacceptable to enough of the American people – and it worked," Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad said in an interview.

The fact that Romney wouldn't divulge his finances MADE him untrustworthy, Gov. Dumbass.

"We need to figure out what we did right and what we did wrong, how we can improve our tone, our message, our technology, our turnout – all the things that are required to win elections," Gov Bob McDonnell said.

No. What's required to win an election are policies that promote the interests of all Americans. Fucking over 99% of the country on behalf of the 1% will lose an election EVERY SINGLE TIME.

"His whole campaign was a fear-and-smear attack to make Romney unacceptable and to blame George Bush for anything that happened while Obama was president," Barbour said. "This was all personal: that Romney is a vulture capitalist who doesn't care about people like you, ships jobs overseas, is a quintessential plutocrat and is married to a known equestrian."

The Democrats barely mentioned Bush, and when they did it was to praise him. And the rest was basically telling the truth about Mitt Romney. Your policies suck, and so did your candidate.

"His campaign was largely about his biography and his experience," Jindal said. "But time and time again, biography and experience is not enough to win an election. You have to have a vision, you have to connect your policies to the aspirations of the American people. I don't think the campaign did that and as a result, this became a contest between personalities and – you know what? – Chicago won that."

Uh. Were we watching the same campaign? Romney scarcely mentioned his time as governor or his tenture at Bain Capital because it was political poison. Not our fault that your candidate has all the charisma of a used dishrag.

With this kind of political "Brain Trust" at their command, the Republican Party will be showing up in one of those "Where Are They Now?" articles in just a few short years. And what the hell ever DID happen to Milli Vanilli?

[enlightenment]

1. A steep learning curve implies that

one learns quickly (0-60 in 20 seconds kind of thing) . . .

I think you mean their learning curve is getting flatter.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

2. Steeper...

A flatter learning curve would indicate that they're gaining mastery of the subject matter.

Spoiler Alert: They're Not.

[enlightenment]

4. I disagree.

Consider the pace of knowledge acquisition. If you measure it on a graph with the vertical axis as percentage acquired and the horizontal axis as time (hours/days/months/years/whatever), than a flatter curve would indicate a slower rate of mastery.

That doesn't take into consideration the difficulty of the knowledge gained, of course. A flatter curve could simply mean that the material is more difficult - but if you are comparing apples and apples, then a steep learning curve would be a positive, not a negative indicator of the ability to master the 'apple' you're comparing.

[HooptieWagon]

3. Steep learning curve = more difficult to master. nt

[Bake]

10. I think they fell off the curve ...

Or were on the wrong graph to begin with.



Bake

[rsdsharp]

5. In Iowa we do not call Gov Branstad "Dumbass!"

We call him Braindead.

His Lt. Governor, who seems to have been surgically attached to him, is Barbie Doll Braindead.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

6. LOL!

But here's the question. Would you trade him for Scott Walker? I don't know how bad yours is, but I'd be willing to swap!

[rsdsharp]

9. Interesting question, and the answer is yes.

Not because Branstad is worse than Walker; he's bad, but not that bad. (He is dumber than a box of rocks, though. In 1983 he vetoed legislation setting up a state lottery saying it would be controlled by organized crime, but supported horse racing as good clean family fun!)

However, they both have two years left on their terms. Iowa has a divided legislature, with the Dems holding a slim edge in the Senate. Walker couldn't do the kind of damage here that he's done in Wisconsin, and I think Iowa would vote out Walker in two years.

That said, Braindead's other nickname is Governor-for-Life. He served 16 years, before retiring in 1999, and then rose from the dead to win another term in 2010. For some reason, Iowa will vote him in everytime if he continues to run. So I'd take Walker for the short term, over Branstad.

[yellowcanine]

7. Haley Barbour I believe it was Rick Perry or Newt Gingrich who called Romney a "vulture capitalist."

I don't believe the President called him that once.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

8. I know for a fact that Newt did...

Because Jon Stewart used the clip in his show. I think you're right -- I've never heard of Obama using that phrase. He was remarkably polite on the subject of Mitt's "Barbarians at the Gate" business career, in my opinion.