GOP Self Inflicted Wounds, Again

by Steve

Two topics of interest among many this day:

Mitt Romney tells the media this morning that Barack Obama has mismanaged Afghanistan by setting definite withdrawal dates, and that a President Romney would fix everything by talking regularly to President Karzai and our military leaders. To Romney and his "expert" John McCain, setting departure dates was the problem, and not the fact that Karzai never supported the policy in the first place. Romney wants us to believe that he, the skilled CEO with impeccable communications skills can convince Karzai to let us stay there indefinitely. If Romney wants to tell America that we should stay in Afghanistan in an indefinite war while his sons stay at home, I'm willing to watch him try this fall.

Dana Milbank tells us today that several GOP senators want to convince us ahead of the election that Medicare needs to be blown up, because they know it in their bones that the public agrees with their approach. I expect this nuttery from Jim DeMint and Rand Paul among the others, but when I see Lindsay Graham tout this as well with assurance that they are right on this, then it also means that the Senate GOP leadership is quietly on board as well. The DSCC has just been handed the keys to keeping the Senate in 2012, and they should spend every day between now and November stalking all GOP Senate candidates and demanding that they reveal their position publicly on the DeMint/Paul/Graham kamikaze mission.