The GOP needs "to be much more granular in our approach to partners in the community like African-Americans, Hispanics and Asians."

Says Reince Priebus, a man with a funny name, using a funny word.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines "granular" to mean:

Consisting of grains or granules; existing in the condition of grains or granules....

Mountains, which consist of lime stone or marble of a granular or scaly texture....

Having a granulated surface or structure....

On the [foot] pads or cushions of the cat, the cuticle is rough and granular.

Of the nature of a granule or granules....

Their [geckos'] skin is studded above with very small granular scales....

A "granule" is "A small grain; a small compact particle; a pellet."

1652   W. Charleton Darknes Atheism 45   Those Granules of sand, which suffice to make up the vast bulk of the World.

If it all comes down to Wisconsin...

It's 7 a.m. here in Wisconsin, which might just make the difference in the Electoral College, with our measly but magnificent 10 votes. I've seen various permutations of the Electoral College map — here, create your own map — and it's easy to see how Wisconsin could put Romney over the top even if he loses Ohio and Pennsylvania and Iowa.

Air Force One touched down in Madison at 2:30 a.m., and a small group of people were lined up on State Street at 6, but the line has grown in the last hour. Madison gave Obama his largest crowd of the campaign when he was here a month ago, but he was here a month ago, and that was in the afternoon in the middle of campus. Now, it's early Monday morning, a time when young people are difficult to rouse from their warm beds, and, speaking of warmth, it's 30° in Madison right now. It was a long wait in the rain for the campus speech last month.

And people must remember that you don't just get to see Obama and that other guy you might care about. (Do the young folk care about seeing Bruce Springsteen?) You have to put up with the local politicos — the mayor and so forth. Meanwhile, it's all on TV.... and has been for months. (Years?) The reason to go is not so much to see, but to be seen. Lend your body to the photograph of Obama with the Wisconsin Capitol looming in the background. As it looms, you may wonder, where was Obama when you were marching and chanting and drumming last year protesting Scott Walker? Where was Obama last spring when you dragged Scott Walker into a recall election? He expressed tepid support from afar, but declined to set foot in Wisconsin, even when he was right at the border in Minneapolis/Chicago.

Ironically, that recall election forced Republicans to develop their ground game in Wisconsin, and that's exactly what may push Mitt Romney over the top tomorrow. Here's RNC chairman Reince Priebus, yesterday on "State of the Union":

[The Democrats] haven’t been able to win in Wisconsin for a long time. They claim that the Obama machine was out during the Walker recall. We basically crushed them in Wisconsin. I have seen firsthand the difference between Obama’s rhetoric on their ground game and the reality, and the reality is they’re not as good as they think they are....

When you see that Wisconsin State Capitol in the background in today's Obama photo-ops, remember all that it symbolizes: an immense GOP victory in 2010, a huge and rude months-long uprising of the left end of the Democratic Party's target constituency (shunned by Obama himself) in 2011, and, in 2012, a decisive victory in the recall election for GOP Governor Scott Walker. What about all those Democratic voters splayed out around the GOP-dominated Capitol building? Hello? This is Madison, Wisconsin. The state Capitol building is always surrounded by Democrats. Every day, every month, every year. Madison does not control election outcomes in Wisconsin. In fact, there are an awful lot of people in Wisconsin whose idea of Madison is: This is not what Wisconsin looks like. And the people of Madison return the sentiment. We've been amusing ourselves with the saying "Madison is X square miles surrounded by reality" for a long, long time.

Obama will win by a landslide in Madison, but Madison — as we all know and have been telling ourselves for decades — is not reality.

"The Wisconsin delegates to the Republican National Convention in Tampa were treated like royalty."

"They were given a prime location on the convention floor, right up front and to the right of the stage. The delegates from Wisconsin aren't nearly as well positioned when the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte officially opens Tuesday."

What's happened to Wisconsin? Here's the L.A. Times trying to figure it out:

Four years ago, it might have sounded preposterous that Wisconsin, a state that preferred Barack Obama to John McCain by 14 points, would become a wellspring of successful GOP candidates and leaders.

But the impossible has happened. The state features three prominent speakers during the GOP convention -- RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, Gov. Scott Walker and vice presidential hopeful Paul Ryan, who hopes to wow the nation with a speech Wednesday night. In 2008, the state’s two U.S. senators were from the Democratic Party. Polls indicate that after Nov. 6, both will be Republican.

Red isn’t necessarily a strange color for Wisconsin – after all, the Republican Party was founded as an anti-slavery party in the state in 1854. But what may be surprising is the strong conservative bent of the politicians who have come out of a state that has not chosen a Republican for the White House since 1984.

The Republican Party was founded as an anti-slavery party in Wisconsin. Interesting to see that highlighted, especially with the L.A. Times failing even to mention Joe McCarthy.

Why isn't the Democratic convention treating the Wisconsin delegates better? When I look at the Electoral College maps, I can easily see how our 10 electoral votes could make the difference for Obama in this tight race. Perhaps the Dems think they're doing enough by giving Tammy Baldwin a prime-time speaking spot. (Tammy is the congresswoman from Madison's district who is all but doomed to lose to Tommy Thompson in the Senate race in November.)

"We've seen Paul Ryan and Scott Walker on the national stage. I'm going to talk about the Wisconsin I know," Baldwin said in an interview, emphasizing fairness and hard work over influence and wealth.

The Wisconsin I know... i.e., Madison. Do tell!

“A lot of people ask ‘What’s in the water in Wisconsin?’”

“But a better question is, ‘What’s in the beer?’”

Reince Priebus, at the GOP Convention.

"If the Democrats said we had a war on caterpillars, and mainstream media outlet talked about the fact that Republicans have a war on caterpillars..."

"... then we have problems with caterpillars," said RNC chair Reince Priebus, giving Democrats an opening to feign outrage over comparing women to caterpillars.

"More than a million petitions were submitted this month to force a recall election for Gov. Scott Walker."

So says the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in a sidebar to its article, published yesterday, about Scott Walker's "hero's reception" at the Conservative Political Action Conference last night.

First of all, the petitions were submitted last month, but more importantly, there's no way "more than a million petitions were submitted." There's a claim that the petitions contain more than a million signatures, but there are multiple signatures per petition, and the calculation that there are more than a million signatures is based on the assumption that there are an average of 6+ signatures per petition.

[A]ccording to the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board we do know 152,336 Scott Walker recall petition pages were turned in two weeks ago.

152,336 is a lot less than "more than a million." But even if the Journal Sentinel had said "signatures" instead of "petitions," it should not have flatly stated "more than a million petitions were submitted." We have yet to see an accurate count of the number of signatures. And that's quite apart from the question of duplicate/fake/ineligible signatures.

The number of claimed signatures is high presumably to make Walker supporters give up on trying to prove that there aren't enough signatures. Now, perhaps they should give up — not because it's hopeless, but because the Walker opponents don't have a good candidate to field. It's quite bizarre, all the work they've done campaigning for blank-to-be-filled-in-later. And if the candidate is Kathleen Falk, Walker's already showing us how effective he will be against her:

"She's basically saying she's bought and paid for by the unions. I mean even the other Democrats are hesitant to say that they're going to veto something," Walker said....

Read the article at that last link for background on the veto demand, the pledge, and the endorsement. But back to the first link, the "hero's welcome" article about Walker's CPAC speech:

"When we prevail [in the recall election], it will send a powerful message to every politician in America, that if you stand up and do the right thing, if you tackle the tough challenges, if you make the tough choices, there will be men and women in every state and every part of this country who will stand up shoulder to shoulder, arm in arm with you," he said....

"Collective bargaining is not a right. In the public sector, collective bargaining is an expensive entitlement."...

Introducing the governor, [National GOP chairman Reince Priebus] said of the Wisconsin fight: "The public union bosses are angry and refuse to go down without a fight. They're pulling out every trick in the book, because after all, hornets are always angriest when you try to destroy their nests."

(Mixed metaphor: Hornets don't have books.)

ADDED: Here's video of 2 and a half minutes of the speech.

Reince Priebus on the Trump debate.

"I think that having a successful businessman serving as a moderator has a lot of value. But the issue here is whether the moderator should still be a person who’s still batting around the idea of running as an independent. I think that should give some of these candidates some concern."

Some concern. Please, it's absurd for a potential candidate to moderate a debate.

The clown is not amused.

I love the array of characters in this picture (by me, from yesterday's Tea Party/anti-Tea Party protest). Enlarge.

The girl in the Bucky Badger hat is holding a sign that says: "This Revolution is powered by: PIZZA & BEER/Not TEA and BULLSHIT." The clown's arms are folded across his chest — I know, it looks like he has no arms — so you can only read half of the button he's wearing: "I could be..." I could be... what?! The woman on the right with a red headband has a sign about Reince Priebus. Reince Priebus. It's about time somebody concentrated on the Reince Priebus threat. The man in the brown fedora looks like he's reading the newspaper, but it's another sign.

As for "I can see 1840 from here"... I just don't know, but the man seems awfully pleased about it. Does he mean to invoke "I can see Russia from my house" (because Sarah Palin's in town)? What happened in 1840? He's referring to the year, right? William Henry Harrison was elected President in 1840, and proceeded to die the following April, after going out without a coat on a cold stormy spring day and catching a cold.

It was a cold and stormy spring day in Madison yesterday, and I don't know if Sarah Palin wore a coat. Nor do I know if the man with the "I can see 1840 from here" meant to refer to Sarah Palin's health.

By the way, William Henry Harrison's last words were: "Sir, I wish you to understand the true principles of the government. I wish them carried out. I ask nothing more."

Would you carry a sign that said that?

"A young Wisconsin trio could shape the direction of the GOP."

WaPo:

They all grew up in southern Wisconsin. They are close in age, ranging from late 30s to early 40s, and have known and worked with one another for many years. [Paul] Ryan and [Scott] Walker met when they were in their 20s. Ryan's chief of staff roomed with [Reince] Priebus in college.

They are not only friends but political soul mates. They share a worldview, a set of conservative values and a determination to show the country that conservative governance can solve many of the nation's problems. And in Wisconsin, they found a way to unify the party establishment with the tea party movement, avoiding many of the conflicts that occurred in other states.

It's all about Wisconsin....

"Reince Priebus elected GOP chairman, replaces Michael Steele."

"Priebus won late Friday afternoon after seven rounds of balloting. He received 97 votes out 168 ballots cast."

The Wisconsin guy with the strange name made it.

ADDED: I guess ridicule on "The Daily Show" isn't so bad after all. January 4th:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Top of the GOPs
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog</a> The Daily Show on Facebook