After looking at the track of the storm running right at Tampa, it seems that the Almighty is as disappointed as I am in the current state of the Republican party. The past few weeks have seen some truly awful ideas voiced by members of a party who don’t even seem to be pretending to be working for average citizens any more.

But as much as we complain about things moving backwards, this does put things in some perspective: 92 years ago this week, the 19^th amendment to the US Constitution, the amendment giving women the right to vote, was ratified. I mention this because 92 year is not all that long ago – my grandfather just celebrated his 94^th birthday. That means that within his lifetime, women were both denied, and then granted, the right to vote.

This seems ironic, given the outrageously callous comments made about women by (male) elected officials in the past few weeks.  Women have had the vote for over 90 years – one would think that politicians would be better at pandering to them by now.

What a difference a week makes.

It was less than a week ago that the Romney campaign announced Paul Ryan as the running mate, and already down ticket candidates are trying to put some distance between themselves and the would-be veep.

What are they afraid of? Loosing. Big-time.

But as my math teacher always said, if something happens on one side of the equation, something has to happen on the other side to balance it out. In this case, it’s Democrats seeing a huge opportunity in a possible miscalculation of voter appetite for Ryan’s loony ideas.

You’ve got to hand it to Mitt Romney. For being the most conventional Republican candidate since, well, the last rich white male Republican president, he certainly has exotic taste in running mates. He could have tapped a rising conservative senator from Florida, a portly blowhard bulldog from New Jersey, or anyone else for that matter. But instead, Romney decided to run with the one guy the rest of the Republican party has been running away from for the past two years. I’m not sure if it’s genius or desperation, but it certainly is interesting.

Now, don’t misunderstand me: I think Ryan’s ideas are awful. Really awful. A Romney-Ryan White House would be a dream for the richest 1 percent of Americans who are millionaires, but an economic nightmare for the vast majority of middle-class and lower-income Americans. Romney’s tax plan, which would make the Bush tax cuts permanent, including for the richest 2 percent, and cut the top income tax rate by another 20 percent, would give people making over $1 million in 2013 a net tax cut of over $250,000, according to a new analysis.  Romney’s tax plan would increase taxes by an average of $2,000 on families making less than $200,000 a year.

From Minneapolis to Miami, from San Diego to Sandusky, homeowners just like you have learned a simple, and terrible, fact...no one is going to save their home but them.  Americans have been waiting for the government to sweep in, but federal programs have come too little, too late for millions of families.  Americans have been waiting for the Banks to stop the bleeding, but Big Banking would rather foreclose than refinance.  The clock is ticking for tens of millions of us and no one is coming to the rescue. 

But homeowners, just like you, are coming together, working together...and winning!  Don't believe me?...click here for stories of homeowners fighting back! http://www.homedefendersleague.org/meet-the-home-defenders/ 

You may not have realized it, but this week marks the 47^th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act in the United States, the law that upheld the fundamental right of voting for millions of our fellow citizens. But while we quietly celebrate, conservatives are busy trying to turn the clocks back to 1965 – and I’m not talking about the Beatles in Shea Stadium.

What am I talking about? Good olde fashioned voter suppression, but this time in the guise of “voter ID” laws.

Here's what's really going on: Republican politicians love to make these false allegations and cry wolf because they know it drums up support for their anti-voting laws. But in case after case after case, it turns out clerical errors, people pulling pranks, or simple explanations are at the root of the charges. It’s just the same old ideas dressed up in new names.