Welcome to this week’s Voice Votes, a feature in which we grade the week’s headlines—and poke fun at them. You can join the fun by suggesting your own #win, #fail, and #meh candidates via Twitter. (Send tweets to @nationaljournal). Need more space? E-mail suggestions to Readers@nationaljournal.com or leave us a comment on Facebook. We’ll publish the best suggestions in this space every week and credit the authors.
Here’s how we vote this week:
#Fail on the leaked video of Mitt Romney telling supporters at a $50,000-a-head fundraiser that he’s going to ignore a large portion of the electorate because “there are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, here are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government…. These are people who pay no income tax.” Does this mean Romney’s also written off private-equity fund managers?
#Meh on the news that “Facebook knows how to trick you into voting.” Impressive, but only Karl Rove knows how to trick you into voting for George W. Bush.
#Win on the new Romney Web video that likens the debt to an out-of-control prairie fire. It’s a vivid image and could be adapted across the map. We're looking forward to a Romney video for Colorado comparing government regulation to a crushing avalanche; a video for Nevada comparing the dirtiness of Democratic political tricks to the bathroom of a Vegas strip club; and, of course, the video for Michigan comparing the state of the nation to, well, the state of Michigan.
#Win on the revelation that members of Myanmar’s parliament had been teaching themselves how to create democracy by watching Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing. We hope it works, because we’ve been teaching ourselves journalism by watching The Newsroom.
#Fail on the attack on Gary Locke, the U.S. ambassador to China, in which protesters in Beijing threw water bottles at his car. Sure, Beijing water’s pretty scary, but the guy’s already been breathing Beijing air.
#Meh on concerns that as Romney’s campaign flounders, the Republican cash advantage won’t translate into increased support. Maybe it’s time for Romney to roll out a new campaign theme song: “Can’t Buy Me Love” (we think he could afford the rights).
#Win on the culinary and budget priorities expressed by Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Calif., in a discussion of PBS funding. “If there comes a choice between Big Bird or cancer research … Big Bird gets fried and sold for funds for NIH,” he said. In that case, we hope at least some of the money goes to diabetes research.
#Win on Sen. Susan Collins's sponsorship of a bill that would extend new rights to gay immigrants. Next up for the Maine Republican: moving to Massachusetts and running as a Democrat.
#Win on the news that Iran is planning to build its own Internet. It’s a daunting task, but one that seems made for team leader and former Vice Ayatollah al-Gore.
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