Originally Posted by Craig

Unfortunately, this type of nonsense is easy to sell to many americans, especially those who are not doing very well and are looking for someone/something to blame for their failings. It is pretty easy to convince people that they are caught up in some type of economic disaster (the sky is falling on everyone, so it's not you fault) and they need to be rescued. The republicans are simply trying to keep the trailer park wing of their party interested so they can claim they tried to do something during the 2012 campaign. It's just theater; not very convincing, but probably good enough for their intended audience. The party's real power base knows enough to ignore the theater and get back to earning money.