High Net Value Voters Summit

This was a big weekend for politically active social conservatives.  The Value Voters Summit took place in DC and the agenda was filled with conservative speakers singing their favorite tunes.  Looney tunes might be more appropriate.   The speeches focused mostly on the invisible boogeyman sitting in that empty chair in Tampa and the damage he would do to Real America over the next 4 years unless we elected someone else.  Romney’s name was mentioned in passing.

Michelle Bachmann was there, blaming Obama for the Kennedy assassination and the Jon Benet murder.   Mike Huckabee was there, telling us that Obama is a secret Muslim that is hated by the Muslim world.  Kamal Saleem was there speaking as a converted former Islamic terrorist, even though no one can independently verify his claims about his past, not even a fact checker. 

Mitt spoke via a recorded message, reemphasizing that he was not Barack Obama which made him uniquely qualified to be President.  Ann Romney was supposed to speak in person, but backed out at the last minute.  This was her gentle way of saying that ”we love everything you stand for in the abstract but need to distance ourselves from your actual words so we cannot be attached to any small minded, incendiary or racist remarks your speakers may spout during the event.”  I guess the Todd Akin thing still stings. 

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor spoke and warned that this election was more than a Presidential contest.  It was a battle for the very soul of the country, and promised that another term for Obama would continue the nation’s decline.  “This election is going to determine whether or not the very moral fabric of our country will be upheld, or whether it will be torn apart,” he said.

If Obama wins, the “moral fabric of our country…will be torn apart.”  Thank goodness he didn’t resorted to exaggerated fear mongering to make his point.  Lord knows what he might have said.

One piece about the speakers at the Summit caught my eye.  Here’s a summary about what Gary Bauer told the assembled crowd:

By Evan McMorris-Santoro of TPM, September 14, 2012

Conservative pundit Gary Bauer, the former president of the Family Research Council, which puts on the Values Voter Summit each year, told the crowd at the 2012 conference Friday that it needs to turn out in great numbers to defeat President Obama’s army of welfare recipients and fraudulent votes.

After his speech, Bauer told TPM “voter fraud is rampant in urban areas” and he expected that to help Obama.

Bauer also told TPM that “there are a lot of people who will vote this November because they depend on government largesse,” meaning checks from Washington. He expects those voters to go Obama as well.

“They will vote for their own perceived interests, which is they don’t want anybody cutting back the size of the checks,” Bauer said.

As I read Gary Bauer’s words, three thoughts crossed my mind.  First, he was supporting 2 of my 5 proposed GOP excuses for why Romney might lose the election (see my post from Friday).  He is advancing the argument that if Obama wins on November 6^th, it is due to racism and voter fraud.   Second, how could an Italian magazine devote 26 pages to topless photos of Kate Middleton?  And during these two thoughts I had a third, and I rewrote his remarks in my head to quickly make the anti-Bauer argument:

By Me of MSRP, September 14, 2012

Environmental pundit Eddie Bauer, the former president of the Family Retail Council, which puts on the High Net Value Voter Summit each year, told the crowd at the 2012 conference Friday that it needs to turn out in great numbers to defeat Mitt Romney’s army of corporate welfare recipients and bought and paid for votes.

After his speech, Bauer told MSRP “bought and paid for voters are rampant in suburban areas” and he expected that to help Romney.

Bauer also told MSRP that “there are a lot of corporations who will vote this November because they depend on government largesse,” meaning checks from Washington. He expects those “people” to go Romney as well.

“They will vote for their own perceived interests, which is they don’t want anybody cutting back the size of the checks,” Bauer said.

While the real Gary Bauer thinks only the poor and disadvantaged vote for a candidate that serves their interests, my imaginary Eddie Bauer thinks that the opposite is also true – the rich and advantaged vote for a candidate that serves their interests.  Apparently, we both share a class bias.

The real Gary Bauer continued to make his argument to MSRP:

“There’s a lot of people out now around America who depend on checks from their fellow taxpayers being in the mailbox every day,” Bauer said. “They will turn out in massive numbers, but so will the entrepreneurs, the small businessmen and women, the military families, the soldiers in harm’s way, the millions of Americans that want to hope again.”

That last set of voters, Bauer said, will turn things for Romney.

As for voter fraud, Bauer claimed Republicans will have to contend with lots of fake votes from the big cities. But he said those Obama votes won’t be enough either.

“My prediction is after all the votes are counted — even the dead votes of Democrats in Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland — I predict that we will win, that this nightmare will be over and America will finally be on the road to recovery,” Bauer said.

Bauer was focused on the types of votes he said Democrats rely on, but his talk about people who rely on “government largesse” is not far from the mainstream Republican view of the election. Mitt Romney has said several times that Obama is creating a “culture of dependency” in which more and more people become reliant on government checks.

The little Eddie Bauer voice in my head rewrote the remarks to reflect the counter argument:

“There’s a lot of corporations out now around America who depend on checks from their fellow taxpayers being in the mailbox every day,” Bauer said. “They will buy votes in massive numbers, but so will the small businessmen and women, the military families, the soldiers in harm’s way, the millions of Americans that want to hope again.”

That last set of voters, Bauer said, will turn things for Obama.

As for bought and paid for votes, Bauer claimed Democrats will have to contend with lots of bought and paid for votes from the big companies. But he said those Romney votes won’t be enough either.

“My prediction is after all the votes are counted — even the votes of the Republicans on Wall Street,  — I predict that we will win, that this nightmare will be over and America will finally be on the road to recovery,” Bauer said.

Bauer was focused on the types of votes he said Republicans rely on, but his talk about corporations who rely on “government largesse” is not far from the mainstream Democratic view of the election. Barack Obama has said several times that Romney is creating a “culture of dependency” in which more and more corporations become reliant on government checks.

So according to Gary Bauer, if Obama wins, it will be because of the poor looking for a hand-out and the votes of dead people.  According to my Eddie Bauer, if Romney wins, it will be because of the rich looking for a hand-out and the votes of living corporations with their dollars. 

I believe that my imaginary Bauer is more grounded in reality than the real Gary Bauer.