Here’s a couple of “Dont’s” I’ve come up with, drawn from my own dreary experience with her campaign thus far:

–DON’T immediately reject all ideas that supporters offer; be considerate or at least conciliatory

–DON’T neglect to r.s.v.p. to well-meaning invitations per “a matter of policy”

–DON’T become angry and without damage-control strategies when enthusiastic supporters become disgruntled supporters, for they will probably be on their way to becoming disgruntled adversaries soon

–DON’T turn down invitations to speak in front of hundreds of supporters: that’s where the money is raised! (Not to mention rooms full of campaign-ready volunteers!)

–DON’T ever, EVER tell a supprter that his/her town is “too small” or “too immaterial” to bother including on a campaign tour

–DON’T turn down ANY invitations, as a matter-of-fact. (Rescheduling is allowed, when warranted, of course!)

–DON’T show up at an event without any literature/signs/ballons–ANYTHING–to attract/keep attention

and some “Do’s”:

–DO let all of the businesses in your campaign headquarters neighborhood know WHO you are, WHY you are renting space (and the good that will do the neighborhood), WHERE you are located, exactly, so when supporters decide to swing by–and ask directions to the headquarters–the neighborhood business people will know WHAT they are talking about…

–DO bring the Kennedys on board!! Martha Coakley angered them by taking “Ted’s Seat” for granted. You need the Kennedy aura, or whatever it is…

–DO offer an alternative date for an engagement in a town when you are unable to accept an invitation.

–DO remember that “All Politics is Local.”

A grad student in astrophysics was going through his PhD thesis defense. The thesis was on a new, startling theory of the creation of the universe. The professors on the committee were very impressed.

Still, one professor asked the student, “So what is the size of the universe that your new theory predicts?”

In typical MIT fashion, the student said, “Calculations are just simple arithmetic, not worth bothering with.”

The Professor said, “Humor me and make the calculation.”

The student worked with his slide rule for a few minutes (this is an old story) and then turned to the Professor sheepishly replying, “Would you believe 2.5 centimeters?”

Do you think he got his PhD?

As an undergrad, the moral of the story was “always do the calculations to check for errors in the theory.”

He finds that he has this fantastic investment from his vulture capital hedge fund. He has held it for over a year and it has appreciated so much that there is a $2 million unrealized capital gain. He has never had to report this as income because it is unrealized. He has never paid his 15% tax of $300,000. He also cannot use the money unless he realizes the gain and pays the tax.

However, as a charitable contribution, he gets to deduct this $2 million from the income he does report.

If he gave away $2 million from his reported income that he has already paid $300,000 in taxes, the deduction would reduce his taxes by $300,000. Just balancing out the tax that he paid. (This balance being the reason the tax code allows the deduction of charitable contributions.)

If he gives away the appreciated assets that he could not use without paying taxes, he still cannot use the money himself. However, he does get a $300,000 tax deduction that he never paid $300,000 in taxes to earn. He also gets the praise of his church and bragging rights for having donated the money. He might even get a building at BYU named after him.

That is tax money your government could have used to pay its bills, but thanks to Mitt’s generosity you get to make up the missing $300,000 with your taxes. At least he gets to put the money where he wants it instead of letting your government decide. And you also get to put the money where Mitt Romney wants it (and he isn’t even President yet) instead of the government paying off the bills it ran up in your name. Perhaps your government could have used the money to fix a bridge, or send it to a state to pay a teacher, or avoid having to cut your medicare, or continue to fund higher education at the levels it formerly did so today’s students wouldn’t have to rack up such huge debt.

Maybe your government wouldn’t have to sell Mitt Romney a bond so that it could borrow the money back from Mitt to pay its bills and also pay interest on this money to Mitt and still owe him the principle on the bond.

Moreover, Mitt Romney never has to say that he earned that $2 million dollars so you won’t have to feel so bad that he is making so much more money than you are. All you need to know is his reported income. You don’t need to know how much his net worth increased last year. You’d probably fall out of your chair if you knew, so he is protecting you from injury.

Also remember that Mitt got to suck that money out of the economy and not use the money to create jobs for the length of time he held it.

So even if you don’t think this is unfair to allow our wealthiest citizens to do this, you should at least wonder if this is good for the economy to let them do this.

You don’t deduct the charitable contribution of the unrealized capital gain from the unrealized gain that you never had to report. You get to take the deduction of the unrealized capital gain that you never reported from the income that you do report.

The Republican presidential contest in America is a ‘freak show’ said Marc Pitzke in the German Der Spiegel. The candidates vie with one another to spew the most outrageous hard-right positions, denying evolution while endorsing torture and joking about electrocuting illegal immigrants. How did a major party in the world’s sole superpower become a “club of liars, debtors, betrayers, adulterers, exaggerators, hypocrites, and ignoramuses? These know-nothings are enabled by a U.S. press that has been “neutered by the demands of political correctness” so that it can’t say what’s obvious: These people are daft! Instead, it “proclaims one clown after the next to be the new front-runner.” The current favorite, Newt Gingrich, is actually considered an intellectual merely because he can create sentences with multiple clauses. Scarcely a one has even the most basic grasp of foreign policy. One said Africa is a country, another that the Taliban rule in Libya. Collectively, “they expose a political, economic, geographic, and historical ignorance that makes George W. Bush look like a scholar.”

“That’s the scariest part, said Lorraine Millot in the Paris Liberation. The only GOP candidate who knows a thing about diplomacy, Jon Huntsman, is dead last in most polls. The others “careen to extreme positions that include starting new wars and abandoning old allies.” And that’s when they even have a position. Herman Cain, now thankfully out of the race, was the front-runner even though he couldn’t find a single coherent word to say about President Obama’s policy on Libya. He even boasted of knowing little about foreign countries. And yet it was his adultery, not his astounding ignorance, that brought him down.”

“There’s a simple explanation for this bizarre phenomenon, said Max Hastings in the London Daily Mail. In the ‘lunatic, gun-toting badlands of America’s Hicksville, Tea Party country,’ it’s considered suspiciously elitist to show any interest in modern science or the world beyond America’s borders. ‘Say what you like about British politics, no MP of any party would dare to offer themselves as town dogcatcher while knowing as little about the world as the Republican presidential candidates.’ We take public service seriously. Yet we in Britain, and everyone in the rest of the world, will suffer if ‘one of the lunatics’ vying for the nomination makes it to the White House. ‘The American political system has seldom, if ever, looked so inadequate.’

Don’t worry, said Matthew Norman in the London Independent. The fact that Gingrich is the latest threat to Mitt Romney’s inevitability just ‘confirms how inevitable’ Romney’s nomination is. The thrice-married, ethically challenged Gingrich is unlikable in the extreme. Which means the nominee will be Romney, ‘the slimiest, phoniest opportunist to run for president since… well, ever.’ So sit back and enjoy this circus passing for a presidential election. It can’t possibly end in a GOP victory. Can it?

Happy Thanksgiving to you, too.

Oh, Happy Thanksgiving, Steve.