Abbreviated Pundit Round-up: stupid, more stupid, and a side order of crazy

The New York Daily News delivers the most import editorial advice of the year.

Don't be stupid. Pack up and get out.

Paul Krugman makes it clear'a vote for Romney is a vote against Medicaid.

There's a lot we don't know about what Mitt Romney would do if he won. He refuses to say which tax loopholes he would close to make up for $5 trillion in tax cuts; his economic 'plan' is an empty shell.

But one thing is clear: If he wins, Medicaid ' which now covers more than 50 million Americans, and which President Obama would expand further as part of his health reform ' will face savage cuts. Estimates suggest that a Romney victory would deny health insurance to about 45 million people who would have coverage if he lost, with two-thirds of that difference due to the assault on Medicaid.

Anyone who has convinced themselves that Romney is no threat to Medicaid, hasn't been listening to Romney.

Neal Lane finds the key to economic growth in an area that makes Republicans shiver.

Scientific knowledge and new technologies are the building blocks for long-term economic growth ' 'the key to a 21st-century economy,' as President Obama said in the final debate.

So it is astonishing that Mr. Romney talks about economic growth while planning deep cuts in investment in science, technology and education. They are among the discretionary items for which spending could be cut 22 percent or more under the Republican budget plan, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

According to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the plan, which Mr. Romney has endorsed, could cut overall nondefense science, engineering, biomedical and technology research by a quarter over the next decade, and energy research by two-thirds.

Yes, but Mitt plans to grow the economy by taking jobs to China. Or was it building more bayonets?  Either way, you don't need more science. At least, not in the US.

Sean Wilentz restates something that's been obvious since the primaries: Romney 2012 is a vehicle for the worst impulses of the American radical right.

Compare the Republican Party's current positions with those of its hero, Ronald Reagan. Myths of Reagan's rigid conservatism abound now, but in the end, what made him a success was precisely that he was not wedded to a hawkish view of the Cold War and how to wage it.
After the Iran-Contra scandal nearly wrecked his administration, Reagan dismissed the neoconservatives involved, embraced reforming Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev and forged an agreement on arms control that hastened the Cold War's conclusion.
Domestically, yes, Reagan cut tax rates, especially for the wealthy ' but he did not hesitate to raise taxes when he felt it was necessary, which he did on 11 occasions.
Reagan ran government at 22% of gross domestic product ' at a time before the Baby Boomers were retiring. (Romney says he wants to get it down to 20%, precisely when those retirement costs are soaring.)

Carl Hiaasen looks at a man facing a nearly impossible task: can Allen West pass for sane?

His whack-job ranting hasn't hurt him among the Tea Party faithful, but it threatens the prospects of the 51-year-old Republican since he switched to a new district that includes Martin and St. Lucie counties and part of Palm Beach.

The task for West's campaign managers is daunting because he has said so many phenomenally offensive and factually indefensible things. Every time the man opens his mouth there's a moment of high drama: ...

Is West insane? That's a natural question, but the answer is no. He's just a fringe gasbag who spices his macho act with a little right-wing paranoia.

Still, it's possible he really believes that American men are being psychologically emasculated by evil birth-control advocates, and that this is somehow responsible for the nation's budget deficit.

Likewise, it's possible West was dead serious when he told a Jensen Beach town hall meeting last April:

'I believe there's about 78 to 81 members of the Democratic Party who are members of the Communist Party. It's called the Congressional Progressive Caucus.'

How does this count as sane? Isn't their some point where the Tea Party shades into insanity? Say... about the point where someone admits being in or listening to the Tea Party? But of course, West has some help in persuading the voters that at least a few of his marbles are still in place.

He's raised about five times more than Murphy, thanks partly to big checks from the PACs of Exxon Mobil, Northrup-Grumman, Citizens United and OSI Restaurant Partners, which owns Outback and Carrabba's.

Leonard Pitts looks at one of the great losers and best known winners of recent history'and let's you decide which is which.