Last Call For Blattered, Bruised And Broken

A week after being re-elected, Sepp Blatter is suddenly resigning as FIFA President.  My question is what did they have on him, as clearly he was doing victory laps over the weekend. Whatever it was, the guy went from king of the castle to royally screwed in record time.

Of course, maybe John Oliver was the one to finish him off.  

Nothing Will Be Done About Campaign Finance Reform

Even if recent Supreme Court rulings hadn't destroyed campaign finance reform, the notion that voters actually care about fixing the system is laughable.

As the 2016 presidential race begins, 84 percent of Americans think money has too much influence in political campaigns now. Criticism of the role of money cuts across party lines - large majorities of Republicans, Democrats, and independents all think money has too much influence.

Most Americans see widespread problems with how election campaigns are funded in the United States. Forty-six percent think the system for funding political campaigns has so much wrong with it that it needs to be rebuilt completely, and another 39 percent think that while there are good things in the system, fundamental changes are needed. Just 13 percent of Americans think only minor changes are needed.

Americans across the political spectrum are critical of the way campaigns are financed, but independents are the most negative. Fifty-one percent of independents think the system must be completely rebuilt. And 46 percent of Democrats and 36 percent of Republicans agree.

On the surface it seems extremely simple: five out of six Americans think money has too much influence on politicians.  But like gun control or climate change, Americans just don't give enough of a damn to make fixing it a priority.

Most who think changes are needed are not optimistic that such changes will be forthcoming: 58 percent are pessimistic that changes will actually be made.

Nevertheless, very few Americans prioritize campaign finance over other domestic issues when asked to name the most important problem facing the country today. Americans' top issue priority continues to be the economy and jobs; health care and immigration follow. Less than one percent volunteer campaign fundraising as the most important issue facing the country.

It's hard to care even remotely about the billions going to pay off our politicians when you're out of work and can't put food on the table, I guess.

Democrats Can't Be This Lucky

Conservative pundit Hugh Hewitt has a great idea for helping Republicans Democrats in 2016 by suggesting the GOP should embrace fresh, bold new ideas double down on white guys on the ticket.

Saying it's "obvious," best-selling author and national talk show host Hugh Hewitt is urging all of the nearly two dozen potential Republican presidential candidates to pick 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney as their vice presidential choice. 

In his upcoming book The Queen, directed at Hillary Rodham Clinton, Hewitt said that Romney has the influence and status of former Vice President Dick Cheney, making him a formidable campaigner and White House partner. 

That, he added in the book provided to Secrets, will force Clinton to make an equally top-notch pick, not somebody like Joe Biden, the "lovable dolt" chosen by Barack Obama. 

The eventual GOP nominee, wrote Hewitt, should pick Romney for just one term, using his fundraising power and credibility to beat Clinton. By serving just one term, Romney wouldn't be a political threat to the president he serves and it would create loyalty from potential successors.

Romney's "credibility" will beat Hillary.

OK.

Sure.

Wake me up when that happens, I'll be over here in reality.

Seriously, if Hewitt's plan to win with somebody from the Clown Car Crew requires the gravitas of Mitt Romney to the formula, then you're still multiplying a number by zero and expecting to get a number that magically is not zero.

Or, in the wordds of the guy who cleaned Romney's clock: "Please proceed, governor."

StupidiNews!

• Several hundred people are still missing in China as a passenger ship sank in the Yangtze River near the city of Nanjing with more than 400 aboard.
• Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson is vowing to improve airport security after ABC News reported on TSA agents failing to detect mock weapons and explosives 95% of the time.
• GOP lawmakers in North Carolina have overridden Republican Gov. Pat McCrory's veto on a bill that would allow public officials to opt out of performing same-sex marriages.
• HBSC, Europe's largest bank, may cut as many as 20,000 jobs over the next year as a response to tough new British banking regulations.
• Intel is expected to acquire chipmaker Altera for $17 billion as consolidation in the industry continues on the heels of last month's $37 billion deal between Avago and Broadcom.