It\u2019s a good sign for Democrats and President Obama when conservative New York Times<\/em> columnist David Brooks devotes an entire Op Ed piece to mocking Mitt Romney,<\/a> the Republican party\u2019s nominee for president. It turns out that Brooks meant it as a satire of liberal media<\/a>, but nobody, and I mean nobody\u2014Democrats or Republicans\u2014 got the joke. It seemed Brooks had sold Romeny down the river. Oops! Not something the Republican party needed during its convention in Tampa where nobody seems to really love the nominee for president. \u00a0That a Republican wrote \u201cThe Real Romney\u201d a scathing indictment of his party\u2019s candidate as a joke and almost everybody believed it (including me), says volumes about the disarray in the Republican Party. Even the jokes fall flat.<\/a><\/p>\n From its wooden, out of touch, tax-dodging nominee, to its Neanderthal, woman-hating platform, to its craven pandering to everyone from religious extremists, to Tea Party fanatics, to Wall Street CEO\u2019s and the Koch Brothers, the Republican Party may be in the throws of self-destructing. We can only hope.<\/p>\n On the other hand, there’s the real danger Republicans will steal the election through voter suppression and 24\/7 misinformation paid for by billionaires. In that case, of course, we are all doomed. If Romney is elected he will try to enact policies that will destroy what’s left of the middle class. The Republican Party of today is all about lowering taxes for the wealthy, outsourcing jobs, destroying Social Security and Medicare, starting wars, destroying unions, and egging on religious extremists in order to get elected. The GOP is the yacht of the 1% with religious crazies, attached like barnacles, to its hull.<\/p>\n That nightmare aside, the good news is, Republicans do not love Mitt Romney. There is a reason Brook’s lame attempt at humor was mistaken for disgust at the party’s choice. At the Republican convention on Tuesday, August 28, everyone who spoke, from Rick Santorum, to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, to Virginia Governor Bob \u201cvaginal probe\u201d McDonnell, seemed to be running for 2016. As an afterthought, after a long self-congratulatory speech, they would add an obligatory sentence or two to promote Mitt Romney. It was definitely an \u201cevery Republican for himself\u201d night.<\/p>\n As each 2016 hopeful spoke, Romney sat stiff and expressionless next to his adoring wife, Ann. MSNBC correspondent Chris Matthews remarked that Romney looked extremely uncomfortable \u201clike Prince Charles visiting New Guinea.\u201d The whole thing was an embarrassment.<\/p>\n