"What would a Romney Presidency look like?"

That's what the narrator, who sounds a bit like the Republican nominee himself, asks viewers in the Romney campaign's first video ad for the general election (entitled "Day One") that went up on YouTube last night. The advertisement will be shown over and over again in the battleground states (i.e. Virginia, Michigan) to a people who presumably hate the word "swing." 

Most of us have no idea what the answer to that question is; predicting the future is a hard trait to come by for the non-clairvoyant demographic. Our fellow Voice writer Pete Kotz took a wack at it and, apparently, so did Mitt.

Interwoven with gleeful shots of Mitt shaking peoples' hands and workers that exist somewhere Bain Capital hasn't found yet, the video takes hypothetical politics to the White House, painting a first day on the job portrait for anyone who's interested. And, if the video is any indication, he has a lot planned.

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"Family planning:" The wholly innocent term infuriates the pro-life community. To them, it connotes Big Government abortions, the movie Juno and everything that is "morally wrong" with women's reproductive health (apparently, there is a lot). Since the female health service organization Planned Parenthood is the epitomization of this catchy phrase, it goes without saying that the pro-lifers would try anything they can to shut it down. And that's exactly what has been been happening this weekend.More >>

Hey, college students!

If you weren't already bummed that 53 percent of you will likely face joblessness or underemployment upon graduation, or that university is a big waste of time and money, we have even more bad news for you.

Unless Congress gets its shit together -- which it probably won't because it's Congress -- interest rates for federally backed Stafford loans will totally swell from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent July 1, according to the Associated Press.

For some 7 million U.S. undergrads, that means that tuition would go up $1,000.

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Via

Probably not the Etch A Sketch image Romney's camp had in mind.

In a brief break from the depressing news we've been covering lately, we wanted to weigh in on presidential toys. You may have heard that Romney aide Eric Fehrnstrom had something to say about Etch A Sketch yesterday.

"I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign," Fehrnstrom said, before dropping the pixelated bomb that seems to typify how the Romney camp bungles their campaign the day after a win when they should be celebrating: "Everything changes. It's almost like an Etch a Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and restart all over again."

Etch A Sketch was happy to be front and center, releasing this statementt:

Happy to see Etch A Sketch, an American classic toy, is DRAWING attention with political candidates as a cultural icon and important piece of our society. A profound toy, highly recognized and loved by all, is now SHAKING up the national debate. Nothing is as quintessentially American as Etch A Sketch and a good old fashion political debate.

Like most things "quintessentially American," Etch A Sketch toys are, of course, manufactured in China.

Still, it's worth noting that Etch A Sketch is only the most recent in a long line of toys made famous by presidential playtime.

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Benjamin Sherman started marketing Barack Obama condoms on a whim in 2008, in the hopes of making a few quick bucks. Sherman, then a college student, simply ordered 2,500 Obama and 2,500 John McCain and hired his kid brother as an intern to sell them. He didn't really think much about the future of his biz. By October of that year, however, Sherman's venture had grown to 40 employees, and he had been unexpectedly been thrust into the national spotlight.

His company, New York-based Say It With a Condom, now ships internationally and has gotten attention recently as well, when Sherman unveiled Mitt Romney rubbers. Runnin' Scared caught up with 30-year-old Sherman to see what other political prophylactics might hit the market this election season.

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In what looks like an attempt to win "cool" points with many of the young, tech-savvy voters he has pissed off during his presidency, Barack Obama is hosting a Google+ Hangout this afternoon, where he'll answer a few not-at-all cherry-picked questions via live video stream. (We hope a lot of questions turn out to be about weed, like they have been at YouTube-based Town Hall events.)

Runnin' Scared has decided to live blog the "first completely-virtual interview," which has basically been interpreted by the press corps as a giant "fuck you" from the White House.

So . . . enjoy!

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​It seemed like every archetype of New York liberalism--from your
pashima-wearing UWS grannie to the pseudo-anarchist who introduces himself with a PGP -- was out and in rare form Tuesday night.

At the Drinking Liberally State of the Union Watch Party at Forum, the drinking wasn't liberal enough (no drinking games or hard alcohol in sight) but the cheerleading for O. sure was.

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Guess who's on Twitter, now!? Yeah, you, me, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Rupert Murdoch, that guy we broke up with 100 years ago who still insists on creeping into our everyday virtual reality, and, yes, Michelle Obama! The First Lady! We are so excited! Whatever will she say?

Well, upon her Twitter account launch 7 hours ago, she said, "We're excited today to launch @michelleobama as a new way for you to connect with First Lady Michelle Obama and the President's campaign." Hm. That doesn't seem very revealing, or even really from Obama herself. Upon a closer look, we see the fine print -- "This account is run by #Obama2012 campaign staff. Tweets from the First Lady are signed -mo." Oh.

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The Republicans are engaging in their twelfth (that's right, an even dozen) debate tonight in Washington, D.C., in a CNN foreign policy debate sponsored by the Heritage Foundation and American Enterprise Institute. Mitt Romney got things off to a fun start by lying about his first name (or, at least, substituting his middle name for his first name). After Wolf Blitzer introduced himself by saying that "Wolf" is really his real first name, Mitt Romney followed up by saying, "I'm Mitt Romney, and yes, Wolf, that's also my first name."

Problem is, his first name is Willard. (Guess Willard Romney doesn't sound exactly presidential.)

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• Yesterday brought all sorts of crazy weather -- sleet, snow, rain, hail, possible thundersnow...did you hear the thunder last night? If those icy bits of rain/snow fell on you, they probably hurt, and they were crunchy to walk on. Today it's calmer, though there's a chance of more snow/rain. Hang in there, by Friday it should be sunny again. Oh, and this is not the latest snow on record...it's not even April, you know. Here's the storm as captured in Queens.

[Weather]

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