Jack Kelly wants to help Obama get re-elected

Or so it would seem in today's column.

Well, actually, not really.

By the way, I've noticed that almost if not every week, the Obama administration/campaign is described by Kelly as desperate.

The theme this week is a Kelly implication that Joe Biden is such a liability to Obama that he should be dumped. No wait, Kelly says, that would smack of too much desperation. And there is so much for Obama to be desperate about, great Republican victories in the recall primary (although I thought primaries were separate races?) and the fact that in the West Virginia Primary 40% of the vote went to a convict currently incarcerated in Texas. Kelly uses the term "Slow Joe" for Joe Biden, a not so subtle suggestion that Biden is retarded. Definitely another dog whistle column.

I do have admit that with the weak economy Obama is vulnerable. I don't expect that a lot of people are reading Glenn Greenwald, so not a lot of people are seeing the liberal criticism of Obama. Greenwald had a good piece about Obama's relationship with the banks (which actually referenced a Newsweek piece on that subject, an indication maybe more people will see it). There are several reasons to be annoyed with Obama, things that liberals are saying quite different from the conservatives complain about (not enough tax breaks for the rich).

Still, I think that the merits and detriments of both sides need to be considered. Frankly at this point Romney and the Republicans have literally no merits, nothing for the economy or foreign policy. While Obama does have his faults to be sure, so too the Republicans have them, I believe at least slightly more. Perhaps when re-elected Obama can be talked out of the drone program, the assassination program, the bank coddling ... maybe Obama will let loose on one or more of those, once the first (actually) black President is re-elected (actually because of course Bill Clinton claimed to be the first black President). By contrast, I suspect Romney will not revert to moderate (like he was in Massachusetts), and I think the Republicans will maintain all the policies of Obama's that we don't like now. Nor do I think it will be possible to convince Romney to change those programs (much like Bush did pretty much whatever he wanted).

Columns like this "Slow Joe" are just a distraction, and I still wonder whether the PG really wants to be associated with the wild sorts of accusations backed by shaky facts that Jack Kelly keeps making.