Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

This really is a full service blog.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

No one could have predicted…

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2010 / Listen To Rachel

Reader Interactions

121Comments

  1. 1.

    Comrade Mary

    I don’t know what this looks like to you, John, but this page is broken and no video appears in Firefox.

  2. 2.

    Kryptik

    but the time for concern trolls is long past.

    I wish I could agree here, John. Unfortunately, the worst concern trolls we have are the ones in Congress, and way too many of them seem to be sticking about despite the wash the Dems are supposed to take.

  3. 3.

    cleek

    but what if Fox News says something bad about the Dems because of it ? all those swing voters will think less of them and the Dems will never get elected ever again !

  5. 5.

    Chyron HR

    But what about people on the LEFT RIGHT LIBERAL TRAITOR COAST donating money to influence who Arizona elects to the Federal government that runs our entire country? Isn’t that EXACTLY the same thing?

  6. 6.

    Tancrudo

    I think the CofC needs to be ACORNed.

    Let’s dress up somebody like a Saudi Prince and tape him pretending to go into CofC offices and asking how many Congressmen he can buy for ten million.

  7. 7.

    Kryptik

    Ffffffffft-…speaking of concern trolls, it may just happen that our own Goddamn president is one.

    President Obama said that he is expecting Republicans to offer him more cooperation after November’s elections, no matter the outcome. (…) In an hour-long interview with Times White House correspondent Peter Baker, Mr. Obama predicted that his political rivals will either be chastened by falling short of their electoral goals or burdened with the new responsibility that comes from achieving them.

    In the magazine article, Mr. Obama reflects on his presidency, admitting that he let himself look too much like “the same old tax-and-spend Democrat,” realized too late that “there’s no such thing as shovel-ready projects” and perhaps should have “let the Republicans insist on the tax cuts” in the stimulus.

    In other words, he comes off as totally and utterly clueless. I’m usually quicker to hang my hang-ups on Congress and its utter dipshittery, but…good God. Seems like the total Democratic rot starts from the top up. They really have absolutely internalized all the stupidity the Republicans have attributed to them, haven’t they?

  8. 8.

    Juicebagger

    Hey, I can ignore Sullivan all decade, no worries here. You are the one who can’t live without the warm, moist slap of his fuzzy, sweaty teabag against your neckbearded face, so consider that a personal problem.

    Kinda like your recovery from Republicanism.

  9. 9.

    bemused

    Love the post title “The moral thing to do is go into combat unarmed”. R’s howl and whine how unfair and outrageous it is when Dems even timidly attempt to counter their spin and lies. It’s infuriating how successful their blatant bullying is in cowing Dems.

  11. 11.

    Carnacki

    @Tancrudo: You don’t dress as a Saudi prince. You add that part in later in editing and then let the media run with the fact you were there dressed as a Saudi prince. Or does the media only spread likes like that for the Republicans?

  12. 12.

    The Thin Black Duke

    Unfortunately, not only does President Obama want to be respected by his enemies, he wants to be liked even more, and thereby lies the seeds of his own destruction. To paraphrase a bumper sticker I saw, “Well-Behaved Black Men Rarely Make History”. God knows what the Civil Rights Act would’ve looked like if Barry was around in the 60s.

  14. 14.

    Comrade Javamanphil

    @Carnacki:

    Or does the media only spread likes like that for the Republicans?

    Yes. (Another edition of SATSQ.) However, I suspect the Chamber is way more likely to fall for Saudi Prince with briefcase full of cash than Acorn work by outrageous pimp outfit so it really isn’t necessary to have editing tricks.

  16. 16.

    TR

    Maddow’s comments about the conventional wisdom being formed on this is dead on, too.

    Press the issue, Democrats. Press it all the way.

  17. 17.

    jinxtigr

    @Kryptik:

    That’s a pull quote. It won’t let me read the actual article because it’s not out, so I’m not sure what else Obama said after he added “but”…

    “perhaps should have “let the Republicans insist on the tax cuts” in the stimulus.”

    “…just to see our entire society implode and get people to take the situation seriously. But honestly I could not justify wrecking the country to make a point…”

    See how it works? Be careful with that stuff ;)

    Reality is out there somewhere every day but you MUST remember that almost everything you see, hear or read in media is twisted or spun in some way, sometimes (thanks Rachel) by totally unexpected players with totally contrary agendas to what you might want…

  20. 20.

    Redshirt

    Let’s keep tearing down Obama – lord knows he’s failed us all. I place my trust in the Wingnuts. They’ll clean out that corruption in Washington up there.

  21. 21.

    Linda Featheringill

    Thank you for that link, John. It cheered me considerably.

    This is an issue we can talk about to the working class white male.

    Yes!

    I would feel more secure if I could convince myself that it was just a made-up charge against CofC but I fear it is not.

    [cue music] Don’t cry for me democracy . . . .

  24. 24.

    JenJen

    In “I watch “Morning Joe” so you don’t have to” news, boy oh boy were they laying it on thick today.

    Pat Buchanan was practically apoplectic at the nerve of the administration on this issue, Tina Brown babbled endlessly about what a failure of hope Obama has been and this just seals the deal (something new seals the deal every time she’s on, btw), and Barnicle expressed for the millionth time that “Obama just fails to connect with middle America.”

    Donny Deutsch was the sole voice of reason, saying that if nothing else, it’s good politics, and one look at Karl Rove’s reaction proves it.

  25. 25.

    Redshirt

    Also, if this is an effective campaign issue for the Dems (foreign money), then its incumbent on all Dems never to mention it again. Good decency and honor dictate it!

  26. 26.

    Dennis SGMM

    Anyone else remember the stink when Al Gore was found to be soliciting campaign donations from American Buddhists? The media couldn’t find enough Republican assholes to put in front of the camera for a session of “Tut, tut and shame on you.”

    The issue of foreign money being used to influence US politics is easy to understand and it will resonate with the voters – it’s a bumper sticker issue and, sadly enough, that seems to be what it takes. The Democrats seem to be taking it up and I fervently hope that they beat the Republicans over the head with at every chance.

  28. 28.

    Redshirt

    @Dennis SGMM: I remember well. Just another example out of a thousand thousand examples of “Good for me, but not for thee”.

    The imbalances in our entire system (politics, media, culture) are just staggering.

  30. 30.

    daryljfontaine

    This isn’t free speech, this is bought speech.

    Goddamn it, Democrats, recognize your sound bite when it falls into your lap.

    D

  31. 31.

    WyldPirate

    The inability to focus on issues, to distill the message down to the point it is understandable to the average idiot American and the general lack of much emotion in doing so is the Democrats biggest fault and it pisses me off to no end.

    Obama is at his very best when he shows a little emotion and sardonically needles the dumbassery and criminality coming from the Rethugs, teatards and Wall St. But it is so goddamned rare from him. Most of the time, he has his Constitutional Law Prof hat on. That shit may have worked w/U. of Chicago Law students, but it doesn’t with most Americans.

    The Dems–Obama included–need to start pounding the ever-lovingg shit out of the lunacy coming from the other side on a daily basis. They need to show that they’re not on the verge of falling asleep–Harry Reid is posterboy for the Dems here–when they address their constituency.

  33. 33.

    jwb

    @Redshirt: You can tell that this is an excellent issue for Dems by the virulence of the response. So far the Dems haven’t stood down, which is rather unlike them. We’ll see if they can hold it through Friday.

  35. 35.

    lacp

    So Osama bin Laden staggers into Michael Steele’s office, pushing a steamer trunk full of $100 bills courtesy of Al-Qaeda LLC, while the Democratic National Committee receives a check for $25 from a self-employed Turkish peace activist. Which one do you suppose makes the nightly news?

  36. 36.

    Citizen_X

    @jinxtigr: It’s slightly different in the original article (emphasis mine in the following):

    Perhaps he should not have proposed tax breaks as part of his stimulus and instead “let the Republicans insist on the tax cuts” so it could be seen as a bipartisan compromise.

    So he was suggesting this as a negotiating tactic; to pacify the High Broderites, I guess. Make of that what you will.

  39. 39.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    @Citizen_X: Having read that a couple of times, I think he’s finally saying something we want: Don’t just accept Republican ideas up front, make them ask for them.

  40. 40.

    JenJen

    @schrodinger’s cat: I’m not really sure. But according to Barnicle, “Middle America” wants a pep talk, “Middle America” just wants to feel good about itself again, and Obama lets “Middle America” down almost every day because he just doesn’t get “Middle America.”

    Basically, “Middle America” misses Ronald Reagan.

  41. 41.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @JenJen:

    Barnicle expressed for the millionth time that “Obama just fails to connect with middle America.”

    Middle America being “middle aged (and older) white guys like me”, TDS had him in some kind of mash-up the other night, and I was surprised to know teh old plagiarist hack still had a platform. Pat Buchanan, ’nuff said. Tina Brown aka Lady Evans, IIANM? She probably thinks of Brooklyn as exotic.

  44. 44.

    stuckinred

    @JenJen: Yea, and this morning he was a big fucking expert on camaraderie in the coal mines a Marine Corps. He went so far as to spell out Corps and core to explain to us how they hang together! Oh yea, he wrote an article from Normandy, what a fucking fraud.

  45. 45.

    schrodinger's cat

    @JenJen: From this I conclude
    Middle America = Middle Aged White Media Village in DC
    ETA: I see that Jim, Foolish Literalist got there first.

  46. 46.

    Shelton Lankford

    @Kryptik: Could be when you overvalue youth and vigor you get a candidate that is young and inexperienced. He then has to learn all the lessons on the job in his first year in office.

    And that is assuming he shared a few of your values in the first place.

  47. 47.

    Shelton Lankford

    @Kryptik: Could be when you overvalue youth and vigor you get a candidate that is young and inexperienced. He then has to learn all the lessons on the job in his first year in office.

    And that is assuming he shared a few of your values in the first place.

  48. 48.

    Kryptik

    @Citizen_X:

    Mrph. Ok. The actual magazine article makes it out a little better than the NYT blog post or Greg Sargent made it out to be, but the whole appeal to the High Broderites still makes my teeth grind.

    I just seriously honestly hope that the administration isn’t honestly expecting a genuine bipartisan effort on the GOP’s side after the election, like Axlerod seemed to be implying a few days before (I’ll admit that the article didn’t seem to imply that as a Obama hope personally).

  49. 49.

    JC

    Anytime the GOP starts getting their news allies to go out and try to tone down an attack, you know that’s where you should go all-in.

    The GOP likes to use the media to head off expensive battles. It’s a smart move, but it is also their tell.

    It makes it way too easy to read what the GOP is afraid voters will learn about them.

  50. 50.

    JenJen

    @stuckinred: My favorite exchange from this morning was when the hopelessly banal Tina Brown said “Not one of those Chilean miners asked for anti-depressants, I’m so impressed by that” to which Barnicle lamented “So true. Americans didn’t need anti-depressants after World War II.”

    I truly LOL’d.

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: This.

  52. 52.

    Steve

    Foreign money is a legitimate issue but it’s only a small piece of the larger issue, which is the unlimited corporate spending combined with a total lack of disclosure. It was widely reported that the Tea Party Express bought the Alaska primary for Joe Miller by spending about $600,000 on the race – but where did they get the money? We don’t know and they’re not required to say.

    No one really thinks the Tea Party Express gets its funding from Red China or Saudi terrorists or whoever the bogeyman of the day might be. Most likely, they get it from Koch or other corporate sources (or gee, maybe it’s 600,000 grassroots supporters sending $1 each, yeah right)! The reason Democrats complain about the possibility of foreign money is that it’s the most salient political message, not because they think that’s the most likely explanation for where GOP candidates get their funding. And it’s a legitimate point, because in the total absence of disclosure, you can’t rule it out, which is why we need disclosure.

  53. 53.

    bayville

    More brilliant political and policy strategy advice from the same major bloggers who hailed the wonders of health care reform.

    Yep. The nation is just a buzz over the fact the Chamber of Commerce takes foreign money.

    I hear future Speaker Boehner is spending the day shopping for fancy drapes for his new office upon hearing this new Dem game plan.

  55. 55.

    Corner Stone

    @Kryptik: Haven’t read the original source yet but I hope to goodness those really are out of context “pull quotes”.
    Because if they aren’t then I’m going to start believing in 11D Chess, as no Democratic President in 2010 can actually believe them to be true.

  56. 56.

    Citizen_X

    “Americans didn’t need anti-depressants after World War II.”

    Yuh huh. American housewives of the 50s: tranq’d to the gills. American executives of the time: trashed daily on 3-martini lunches.

  58. 58.

    Nick

    @WyldPirate:

    Obama is at his very best when he shows a little emotion and sardonically needles the dumbassery and criminality coming from the Rethugs, teatards and Wall St.

    He also gets relentlessly bashed the most when this happens

  59. 59.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Citizen_X:

    American executives of the time: trashed daily on 3-martini lunches.

    Or stopping at the tavern for an eye-opener on your way to the plant, then for a few boilermakers on the way home. But in Barnicle’s (and Matthews’ and Russert’s) “I’m gonna make my daddy love me dammit! but of course never use the word love cause that’s kinda well you know” sad, desperate, churning psyche, alcoholism is very manly.

  60. 60.

    WyldPirate

    @JenJen: @JenJen:

    @Linda Featheringill: I crack the hell up every time Barnicle starts yapping like some kind of know-it-all about “middle America.”

    Not only that, but I’m pretty sure Barnicle’s old lady is some bigwig executive with one of the bailed out banks. Bank of America comes to mind.

    That piece of shit plagiarist Barnicle makes me want to chew on fucking nails and spit them out every time he opens his cakehole.

  61. 61.

    TooManyJens

    @JenJen: I don’t know what the miners asked for, but they did in fact send anti-depressants down the borehole. I know, shocking that talking heads would spout off about shit they know nothing about.

  62. 62.

    JenJen

    @Citizen_X: “Doctor please
    Some more of these
    Outside the door
    She took four more
    What a drag it is getting old”

    So you can see why I LOL’d. Also, apparently, Barnicle has never seen “Mad Men.”

    @TooManyJens: Exactly! But that’s Tina Brown for you. She also made some kind of snide remark about how overblown Captain Sully was compared to these miners (?? uh whu?), and Willie Geist actually snapped at her.

    It was a highly entertaining morning, and the absence of Joe and Mika felt natural somehow.

  63. 63.

    Mnemosyne

    @Kryptik:

    Not to pile on, but your alarm probably should have gone off when the very first bullet point in that article was that Obama doesn’t really like Camp David and “is more at ease in an urban setting.”

  65. 65.

    Mnemosyne

    @bayville:

    Yep. The nation is just a buzz over the fact the Chamber of Commerce takes foreign money.

    Funny how you guys were screaming when Clinton and Gore were supposedly taking money from Chinese citizens, but when it’s your guys lining their pockets, suddenly it’s no big deal.

    So who do you want your congressman owned by? I’d prefer India, myself, but it looks like China is really cornering the market on Republicans right now.

  66. 66.

    WyldPirate

    @Nick:

    He also gets relentlessly bashed the most when this happens

    Sadly, you’re right, Nick. Not from me, though. That chickenshit comes from his enemies and the enemies of the country–the Rethugs, the Teatards, the corporate owned Media whores, the Villagers and the rest of the pieces of shit that have fucked up the country.

    That style of communication is what got the people who elected him excited, though. Too me, you don’t throw away the best weapon in your rhetorical arsenal.

  67. 67.

    Brian J

    Good point from Jon Stewart: Fox News has had a remarkable change of mind when it comes to foreign money. It was all for finding out the sources of funding for the mosque near Ground Zero, yet the funding of our elections is not worth discussing. Maybe there really isn’t any foreign influence, but why not simply disclose who is giving what? Nobody is proposing, as far as I can tell, an outright ban.

  68. 68.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Citizen_X:

    It’s slightly different in the original article (emphasis mine in the following):

    Perhaps he should not have proposed tax breaks as part of his stimulus and instead “let the Republicans insist on the tax cuts” so it could be seen as a bipartisan compromise.

    So he was suggesting this as a negotiating tactic; to pacify the High Broderites, I guess. Make of that what you will.

    To me, that sounds like what all the self-declared lefty Obama critics always say about “negotiating 101.” IOW, Obama is saying that he should have stuck to his guns for longer so that the resulting compromise felt more grudging, as opposed to jumping ahead to the notorious “pre-compromise” we’ve been hearing criticisms of since like February 2009.

  69. 69.

    Nick

    @WyldPirate:

    That style of communication is what got the people who elected him excited, though.

    Lets be real. Lehman Brothers got the people who elected him excited. Otherwise, we were heading to another Ohio or Florida recount.

  71. 71.

    cat48

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Did you notice how upset Blow got? Some morning soon I expect some idiot on MoHo to just come out and say, “Middle America needs a white president because that’s what they always had.” They talk incessantly about how cool, cold, unemotional, not connecting Obama is…..Blow wrote a column sorta saying people with vague wants like this may really not like having a black prez.

  72. 72.

    TJ

    @Kryptik:

    Could care less about what they actually think. That’s a dumbass thing to say when you’re in an election, you’re down, and you’re trying to portray the GOP as whackjobs. Don’t say you can work with them if they win.

  73. 73.

    Suck It Up!

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    “Well-Behaved Black Men Rarely Make History”. God knows what the Civil Rights Act would’ve looked like if Barry was around in the 60s.

    people are making some completely bizarre comments today.

  74. 74.

    FlipYrWhig

    @TJ: Well, it’s also challenging them to work with him, as opposed to turning the Congress into the monkey house at the zoo. I don’t think you can underestimate how much not-particularly-clued-in people like hearing that politicians are going to work together to solve problems. I don’t think much of “bipartisanship” because I think Republicans are a pack of doofuses, but I don’t think any president can get away with saying he doesn’t think he’ll be able to work with the other side. Fuckin’ _Bush_ used to say it _all the time_.

  75. 75.

    Cain

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    @Cain: I thought Mordor was DC, have you seen the Washington Monument at Night?

    I did not consider that! Yes I suppose a case can be made that D.C. is Mordor but then what would middle america be then? The land of Saruman? Possibly, they are making orcs idiots by the boatload there.

    cain

  76. 76.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @cat48: I actually didn’t see it, I was just reacting to the cast of characters JenJen named. Speaking of cast…. Copyboy Barnicle, Lady Evans, Gruppeleiter Buchanan, Charles Blow, Dylan Ratigan, Willie Geist… how fucking big is the set? It’s like some nightmare Robert Altman Untitled Beltway CW Project. and no one from Politico? For shame!

  77. 77.

    bemused

    @JenJen:
    About a year ago on Morning Joe, Tina said maybe Hilary should get back to the gym. Totally unnecessary and pretty tacky.

  79. 79.

    Madeline

    All of the Villagers poo-pooing this is rich. Remember the vapors over “foreign” support of Kerry’s campaign in 04? Dubai ports deal?

    Yeah, this hits a big nerve and I say keep hitting it.

  80. 80.

    ThresherK

    Rachel should have added something about the chorus of Beltway Inbreds who were chanting “Give it up, Al” exactly 10 years ago. His populist talk was so much more popular with voters than the pundits, you’d think the latter would learn (policy or morals aside, if only so they could say they were on the winning side).

  82. 82.

    Uloborus

    @Kryptik:
    Obama wants to look like the grownup in the room. Can you blame him? Traditionally ‘moderates’ win elections. Remember, Bush got elected pretending that he was a moderate and Gore wasn’t. He’s said flat out that negotiating with Republicans is useless, but SOUNDING bipartisan makes screaming teabaggers look like the fruit loops they are.

    That’s the theory, anyway. It’s the exact opposite of the media narrative, so he’s swinmin’ uphill.

  83. 83.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Cain: The Shire. Full of people going about their lives with little knowledge of, or interest in, what goes on elsewhere.

  84. 84.

    lol

    @FlipYrWhig:

    Obama says exactly what they want and they’re flipping their shit because at the end of the day, he’s still Presidentin’ While Black.

  86. 86.

    DaBomb

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    Unfortunately, not only does President Obama want to be respected by his enemies, he wants to be liked even more, and thereby lies the seeds of his own destruction. To paraphrase a bumper sticker I saw, “Well-Behaved Black Men Rarely Make History”. God knows what the Civil Rights Act would’ve looked like if Barry was around in the 60s

    Well.. from what I remember wasn’t Martin Luther King Jr. considered well behaved unlike Malcolm X? Especially with his turning the cheek, nonviolent protesting, requesting equality and respect from his enemies and such.

    Now who has a holiday after their namesake?

    Please don’t try to be all militant… you make yourself look like a poser.

  87. 87.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Uloborus: Well-behaved as polite, yes. Well-behaved as in did what he was told and shut up, not so much.

    ETA: Malcolm X was polite as well. Manners-wise, that is. It all depends on how you look at it.

  88. 88.

    Kryptik

    @Uloborus:

    King may not have been Hooper X style ‘BLACK RAGE, I’ll kill all y’all motherfuckers!’ rhetoric, but the very fact that he was standing up in the ways he was, willing to go to jail for his work means he was not a ‘well-behaved black man’ of the time.

    (Sorry for the gratuitous reference, I needed SOMETHING to pick me up today, and the Hooper X scene always makes me smile).

    @FlipYrWhig:

    Key here with the Bush issue is that Bush at least had a cadre of dutiful Dems who would cross over to give his policies that shiny sheen of Bipartisanship. Nowhere near the absolute monolithic opposition of the Republicans to anything that comes out of a Dem’s mouth currently.

  90. 90.

    Suck It Up!

    @Uloborus:

    I’m not an expert on him, but I thought King WAS a well-behaved black man.

    I can’t imagine what today’s “activists”, “professional left” and their followers would say about King if the movement was going on today.

  91. 91.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @lol: I don’t think so. the man’s not perfect, but I think he is fighting the good fight most of the time.

  92. 92.

    Suck It Up!

    @Kryptik:

    King may not have been Hooper X style ‘BLACK RAGE, I’ll kill all y’all motherfuckers!’ rhetoric,

    sounds exactly like the left of today.

  93. 93.

    bayville

    @Mnemosyne:

    Funny how you guys were screaming when Clinton and Gore were supposedly taking money from Chinese citizens

    Who are “you guys”?

  94. 94.

    DaBomb

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    ETA: Malcolm X was polite as well. Manners-wise, that is. It all depends on how you look at it.

    In the government’s eye and for most of White America up until the 1990’s, Malcolm X was not considered well-behaved. Still isn’t. He was militant, highly intelligent and well mannered but believed in an eye for eye philosophy. If you read his autobiography, you can understand why he felt the way he did.

    MLK Jr? Not so much. He was respected more because of his non-violent resistance and he wasn’t seen as a violent threat like Malcolm X.

  97. 97.

    DaBomb

    @lol:

    And you think Obama does what he’s told and shuts up?

    I think that’s part of the problem with the PL. They don’t like the fact that PBO doesn’t acknowledge their incessant whining. He isn’t doing the things that they want him to do.

    This behavior goes all way back to the campaign, when they were hemming and hawing about how Obama was handling the debates and his campaign. He did things his way and won the election.

  98. 98.

    WyldPirate

    @Nick:

    Lets be real. Lehman Brothers got the people who elected him excited. Otherwise, we were heading to another Ohio or Florida recount.

    How’s about we compromise here?

    Without the populist rhetoric from Obama, he would have likely never carried states like Virginia and North Carolina and others.

    Without the money form the corporate donors–and Wall st. was his biggest source–he couldn’t have put together the organization needed to get the “little people” out to vote.

    Too bad he is so beholden to his corporate masters. That and the fact that he let the criminals in the Bush administration off scot-free. He is, unfortunately, about to get a replay of the Clinton years when the Dems, in their ineptitude, fumble away control of the House.

  99. 99.

    Nick

    @Suck It Up!:

    I can’t imagine what today’s “activists”, “professional left” and their followers would say about King if the movement was going on today.

    He’s weak and so is LBJ for allowing Everett Dirksen water down the Civil Rights Act to get Roman Hruska’s vote.

  100. 100.

    Mnemosyne

    @bayville:

    Oh, I didn’t realize your persona today was to pretend to be a disaffected lefty and not a conservative. You really need to warn us when you decide to change identities so we can keep track of which stupid argument you’re going to present today.

  101. 101.

    Mnemosyne

    @WyldPirate:

    I don’t think that’s what Nick was saying. He was saying that the collapse of Lehman Bros. scared the ever-living shit out of people and convinced even the corporate wing that the economy was going to go into freefall if John McCain was put in charge of it, so they were willing to vote for a young black guy from Chicago.

    I think you’re thinking of Goldman Sachs, but Lehman Bros. is the one that went belly-up and had to be bought out.

  102. 102.

    Nick

    @WyldPirate:

    Without the populist rhetoric from Obama, he would have likely never carried states like Virginia and North Carolina and others

    Considering he was trailing in both until October, despite having “populist rhetoric” for almost two years previous, I’m going to go ahead and say…no. The collapse of Lehman Brothers got him enough votes to be elected…and 53% in a year like 2008 isn’t something to write home about.

    Populist rhetoric, that he never expressed, didn’t win him the election. Bush’s fuckups won him the election.

  103. 103.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @WyldPirate:

    Too bad he is so beholden to his corporate masters

    Could you tell Obama’s corporate masters that he’s beholden to them? Because they’re spending half a billion dollars to stop him from being so beholden.

  104. 104.

    WyldPirate

    @Mnemosyne:
    yep, you’re probably right on his meaning.

    I think I do have a point, though, because his corporate donations far outpaced the nickel and dime shit from the peons and rabble.

    I think it was more the prospect of McCain coming our and saying the economy was fine in September–and of course, the BitchMoose from Alaska–that scared the corporate types.

  105. 105.

    WyldPirate

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Could you tell Obama’s corporate masters that he’s beholden to them? Because they’re spending half a billion dollars to stop him from being so beholden.

    1. He cut a sweatheart deal for the BigPharma on patents for biological drugs.

    2. He cut Wall St. a sweatheart deal by not siccing the Justice Department on those assholes of the universe. Then turned around and held the auto industry’s feet to the fire on their bailout.

    3. He’s done the mil-industrial complex a huge favor by extending the carnage in Afghanistan booth foolishly and needlessly.

    I could go on, but I won’t.

    He should be foaming at the mouth and raging at these criminals if he were to walk the walk of what he came up as as a “community organizer”.

  106. 106.

    Nick

    @WyldPirate:

    He should be foaming at the mouth and raging at these criminals if he were to walk the walk of what he came up as as a “community organizer”.

    But he’d rather actually govern the country.

  107. 107.

    Mnemosyne

    @WyldPirate:

    I think I do have a point, though, because his corporate donations far outpaced the nickel and dime shit from the peons and rabble.

    Depends on what you mean by “corporate donations.” Obama’s top contributor was the University of California, with Goldman Sachs a distant second and Harvard University at number 3. Of the top 10 donors to Obama, only three were financial companies.

    Technically, the donations I made to Obama would show up as “corporate donations” because you have to list your employer when you donate and I work for a Giant Evil Corporation. But they didn’t give me the money to donate (except by paying me for the work I do) so I don’t know why should get added to the total as “their” donation except that people like to keep track of these things.

  108. 108.

    evinfuilt

    @Cain:
    I picture Middle America as a bunch of Sauraman appeasing Hobbits. They are purposefully uninformed about everything outside and damn “Proudfoot” of it.

  109. 109.

    ruemara

    @Kryptik:

    Yeah, I read that GOS diary too. Maybe you should read the article instead.

    @Suck It Up!:
    also making them with some bizarre handles today too.

    @FlipYrWhig:
    Bush wasn’t Our First Black President, who we keep expecting to turn into Whorf/FiftyCent. Some of the comments in the GOS diary with the pull quotes where eyeopening. One asked “where is our Angry Black Man”? It hurts to black and progressive, sometimes.

  110. 110.

    kay

    I can’t tell if it’s a good tactic. I have lost all perspective.

    I do think it’s fair to say Obama feels strongly about it.

    He put Citizens it in his SOTU and he harps on it constantly, and has for months.

    That’s why I think Andrew Sullivan is being bullheaded and stupid on this. If it’s a “tactic” Obama’s been relying on it well prior to this election.

    My assumption is Obama actually feels it’s very, very bad. He didn’t just pull it out a week ago.

    But conservatives love Citizens, (the sainted John Roberts is never wrong) and they’re knee-jerk on it. Sullivan isn’t thinking.

  112. 112.

    Kryptik

    @ruemara:

    I actually never touched the DKos post before it was pointed out to me. I got the linkage from Greg Sargent, who linked to ‘The Caucus’ blog on the NYT site itself.

    And I did read the whole magazine article afterwards, through no help of the NYT blog post which never linked to it.

  113. 113.

    kay

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    John Roberts has this awesome power over conservatives. He speaks, and they lose the capacity for independent thought.

    He’s the smartest lawyer in the history of the world.

    Remember the superlatives? Really. You could puke. There was groveling going on. It’s like how they are with Reagan.

  114. 114.

    bayville

    @Mnemosyne:

    I’m just too engrossed with this Chamber of Commerce, game-changing “scandal” to deal with your Palinesque wit right now.

    I mean this really, really puts that little National Mortgage Fraud scandal to shame.

  115. 115.

    schrodinger's cat

    @kay: I am neither a lawyer nor a conservative so I don’t get this hero worship of Roberts or even Reagan for that matter.

  117. 117.

    jim

    October Surprise? It is if the Democrats want one. Even a child can understand that outside influence is toxic to democracy – & nobody likes secret special-interests having influence over their lives. The GOP looks both stupid & evil every time they stand up for the Citizens United ruling, but they can’t help themselves – at this point their only rule of thumb is that if Obama opposes it, they HAVE TO support it.

    Sweetest of all, this electoral gift landed in their lap c/o none other than the far-right Star Chamber Supreme Court.

  118. 118.

    Mnemosyne

    @bayville:

    I mean this really, really puts that little National Mortgage Fraud scandal to shame.

    You mean the National Mortgage Fraud that happened under Bush? The one that’s only coming to light now that the house of cards has collapsed? That one?

    Yes, Obama is totally responsible for the 10 years of bad decisions made prior to his election that may have clouded pretty much every title for the past 10 years. It’s all his fault because shut up, that’s why.

    This is even better than when you retards were crying that Clinton was responsible for 9/11 even though Bush was in charge for 8 months before the attack.

  119. 119.

    tikklez

    I tried to watch but gagged on the cutsey routine. Do I need to listen to her say “it can be know! it is knowable!” 40 times in a row?

    No, I don’t. Nor do I want to.

    I wish she would comport herself (Olbermann ought to as well) with a bit more dignity. They are, factually, doing some of the best reporting on the television. They both, however, are terrible blowhards, so enamored of the sound of their own voices that they seem to have no idea that their inverted-Rushbo personalities doom them to only preaching to the choir.

    There doesn’t seem to be much point to that. More facts and less personality please, Ms. Maddow and Mr. Olbermann- you might be able to change a few peoples minds.

  121. 121.

    Peter

    @tikklez: I for one would probably not bother tuning in to Maddow if she wasn’t so much fun to watch. Yes, she does pretty much the best journalistic work in the MSM today, but that’s not much fun to tune into.

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