Reply #9: Woo Me, I read your OP too quickly.

[No Elephants]

I am cynical enough to believe that you could be right on the money.

Even if Ryan were not on the ticket, Obama was going to have to distinguish himself from the Ryan budget anyway, because Romney agreed with it. I think Romney and his backers knew that too and therefore surprised me by not going with one of the bland guys. At least, Ryan will help energize the Republican base, though, as I posted above, they may lose some Republican seniors and disabled folk.

So, I expected to hear a lot of populistic sounding language from Obama during the campaign.

But, campaign promises are a dime a dozen because the Democrats can blame Republican filibusters/"obstructionism," even if Republican are in the minority. So, the Democrats could promise to buy every adult American a Bentley, secure in the knowledge that Republicans would filibuster and it would never come to a vote. Then, the Democrats could tell their base the devil Republicans made them let down their base.

And, for their part, the Republicans can do their own version of that with their own base.

IMO, unless and until we lose the Senate filibuster rule, no one is going to be able to hold anyone accountable for anything. It lets both Parties block everything except the few things they agree on like wars, and endlessly foolish spending for "defense" and Homeland Security.

Whatever usefulness the 60 vote rule may have had in the 1840s or whenever it started, its only usefulness now is to help both parties hide from the people who elected them. And, now that you can have a filibuster without even saying a word, they don't even have to exert themselves.

I am more against the 60 vote rule than I am about the Citizens decision. There is not much that decision allows that was not being done already anyway, one way or the other, including foreign money, what with bundling and corporations donation in the names of their nearest and dearest 400 employees.