All the Huckleberry coded talk about Natalie Portman’s bastard love fetus, Newt Gingrich’s non-announcement announcement website, and Sarah Palin’s continuous dribble of Facebook sharts are obscuring a fundamental fact. Obama is facing the worst economy since the Depression, the biggest continuous onslaught of lying propaganda in the history of the nation, and a major midterm reversal, yet none of these clowns, or even the “serious” Emmett Kelly-style clowns like TPaw and Mittens, can come close to beating him next Fall.
That means that birth certificates, his fat wife, the broccoli agenda, death panels, his palling around with Mubarak and Khadafi, Bill Ayers, his Kenyan anti-imperialist Muslimism, and everything else Glenn Beck and Roger Ailes have thrown at him hasn’t stuck.
The first Republican debate is on May 2. Tick-fucking-tock.
dmsilev
None of them have had the guts to officially toss their hat into the ring. That’s telling.
By contrast, in early March of 2007, all of the major candidates on both sides had moved beyond the exploratory committee phase and had officially launched their candidacies. Ditto early March of 2003.
dms
General Stuck
I plan to have a barrel of popcorn popped, and all my yaw yaws out.
It should be a “which wingnut out wingnuts all the other wingnuts”, loolapalooza like few others.
Omnes Omnibus
@General Stuck:
I don’t know about that. Don’t they have to be just wingie enough, but save some vestige of sanity for the general election? A tough needle to thread for these camels.
mr. whipple
The words ‘projectile diarrhea’ come to mind.
General Stuck
@Omnes Omnibus:
I think the wingnuttery will be pre set on rock and roll from the gitgo.
Omnes Omnibus
@General Stuck: Then they pre-annihilate themselves for the general.
dmsilev
@Omnes Omnibus: They may try to out-wingnut each other, and then the winner will throw up enough chaff into the air to attempt to hide that fact from the electorate at large.
It’s really the only plausible strategy, given how extreme the GOP primary electorate is compared to the country at large. Whether it will work in an age of Google and YouTube is a different question.
dms
Poopyman
Not being one to fail to find the downside in anything, I think this means we’ll see a ratcheting up of the stupid and the screeching to eleventy–leven.
Nails–on–chalkboard screeching. Squared.
shawntos
@Omnes Omnibus: No, I think they are all going to have to go really hard right to get nominated. Remember a lot of these states you have to be a registered R or D to vote in that primary and from what we’ve seen come out of the last election they are going to have to be frothing at the mouth to get those votes.
General Stuck
@Omnes Omnibus:
I suspect they are not so concerned with the general, but rather who gets to wear Limbaugh’s thorny crown from one day to the next. There will be no prisoners taken, from the all out assault on our senses.
Hunter Gathers
With every passing day, it looks more and more like Queen Sarah of the Alaskan Grifters is going to end up with the nom. Mittens can’t get it (RomneyCare, anybody?) , the Huckster won’t be able to raise enough cash, nobody gives 2 shits about the Minnesota Mullet and the rest couldn’t win a straw poll at your local Rotary Club meeting.
Watching the press bend over backwards for Queen Sarah will be enough for me to wish the Vogons would hurry up and build their HyperSpace Expressway, and end this little experiment that we call the human race.
Omnes Omnibus
@shawntos:
@General Stuck:
I guess that level of stupid is tough for me to wrap my head around. A sign of relative mental health, perhaps?
Roger Moore
Of course the other point you’re missing is that most of the viable Republican candidates are currently working for Faux News, which is set to fire them the moment they declare. As properly
greedyself interested individuals, they aren’t going to hop off the gravy train a moment before they absolutely have to. And, of course, it’s easier to take that attitude when none of their major competitors has declared yet, either. Once one of them has officially declared, you can bet the rest of them will finally hop off the Fox gravy train and start the next phase of the hustle.MattF
They’ve all decided to compete for that one pure and precious vote of the craziest person in Iowa. Now, a rational person might think that’s not such a smart thing to do, but… who are we to disagree?
General Stuck
@Omnes Omnibus:
LOL, perhaps. mental health will be what little baby jeevus says it is.
Wag
Another Teflon President! And this tim the democrats get to claim him as our own. I hope that 30 years from now we will look back on these years as fondly as the GOP looks back on the 80’s.
Brian S (formerly Incertus)
Just so happens I’m moving to Iowa this summer, so I’ll get to see it up close and personal. I’m tempted to register as a Republican just so I can take part in the insanity caucus, but that might be a bit too much for a first hit. Have to ease into it.
Cat Lady
This point is exactly what I was discussing the other day – if Obama is the biggest existential threat to RealAmerica since Stalin (who I renounce, btw), then why can’t any one of these gooper assclowns get any traction? The cognitive dissonance inside a teatard peabrain should be tapped for an energy source. Faux has ratcheted up the outrage for every tiny thing, and lied about so many other things, that where can they go now to keep the teatards riled up except Hutu land? Which may be coming.
rikyrah
don’t you have to declare to participate in the debate? if so, let’s get ready for a wave of declarations.
Omnes Omnibus
@Cat Lady: Broccoli mandate?
Cat Lady
@Omnes Omnibus:
whoops. renounced. also, too.
RossInDetroit
@ christian mistermix
Thanks for that reality check. Times are hard and there’s craziness at large in the land, but O-man has managed to remain above it. Maybe a little too above it at times, but still. I think we picked the right guy for this job.
Gin & Tonic
What’s a shart?
RossInDetroit
@Gin & Tonic:
shart
Mike in NC
Will even one of these loons renounce talk of “Second Amendment Solutions”? Don’t think so.
Doug Hill
I liked Bastard Love Fetus’s first album, but they’ve gone downhill.
RossInDetroit
@Gin & Tonic:
Not to be confused with a snart.
Gin & Tonic
When you see something like this on the Fox web site, in reference to Sydney’s gay Mardi Gras, you know it’s not Ozzie and Harriet-land any more.
aimai
@Poopyman:
I’m remembering a Monty Python lineup of political candidates that include guys literally foaming at the mouth before falling down. Its not this one that I’ve included. But its close.
aimai
Gin & Tonic
@RossInDetroit: More than I needed to know with my coffee.
I must travel in the wrong circles, but I’ve honestly never heard any of my acquaintances using either word in any context.
Kristine
@RossInDetroit: I learn so much from this blog.
Zifnab25
May I throw my dark horse pick of Ron Paul into the ring? I honestly think he has a chance in NH. Maybe the GOP will look at the current crop, throw up their hands, and figure running the ghost of Barry Goldwater is good enough.
At least Paul is popular outside the squirelly pundit pow-wow circle of FOX News pundits.
Omnes Omnibus
@aimai: This one, perhaps?
CynDee
@ mistermix:
Simply and brilliantly stated.
piratedan
well just keep watchin’ the state houses for glimmers of what is coming next. In Arizona we have double digit unemployment, and a state budget that can’t be balanced.
in response we’ve seen the following to address the economic crisis:
the drafting of a bill to identify a state handgun
new legislation to adopt a tea party license plate
a nullification bill to allow Arizona to opt out of federal laws
the right to carry a concealed firearm in the state capitol, public places and college campuses
eliminating the state healthcare program and kicking people off of the organ transplant list
looks eerily similar to the outstanding legislation that we’ve seen in Congress doesn’t it?
those are just the natural follow ups to the papers please laws that were passed last year…
but hey, we’re seeing legislation like this in other states: Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virgina, Texas, Wyoming, South Dakota and Georgia.
So while we can talk about how insane it all is and how unrealistic and unconstitutional it is all likely to be, none of us thought Citizen’s United would come down the way that it did. These guys are a bunch of shameless amoral greedy vampires and I won’t consider their chances dead until I don’t see their corpses rise after the next full moon.
jeffreyw
Eat, eat.
JPL
@piratedan: In GA the proposed birther bill would exclude many from running. A state certified birth certificate is not permissible. You have to show a long form of your certificate.
Omnes Omnibus
@piratedan:
So their chances are undead? Also too, Lisa Simpson predicted this in one of the “Treehouse of Horrors” episodes: “The dead have risen and they are voting Republican!”
You Don't Say
Who’s hosting it? Fox? During the campaign will we get any debate moderators who confront them on some of their BS?
JCT
@piratedan:
Well, there’s always hope!
The best part of the “debate” will be that it probably start out quite rational until one of these nutcases decides to grab for the brass ring of wingnuttery and then the fun will begin as they all try to outdo each other in their race for the bottom with Romney spinning like a top on the stage as he tries to figure out which way to tack. All of this to lock up the ever-constant 27% of the voting public that is actively psychotic and pissed-off. What fun, I’m sure the independent voters will be SO inspired.
piratedan
@Omnes Omnibus: I know I know… and I think the vast majority of them have nothing to offer this country than their own blind ambition and I find their attempts at trying to solve the real problems of our country woefully inadequate but I don’t wanna place any bets on underestimating the potential stupidity of the American electorate.
hildebrand
The GOP is going to go with Mitch Daniels. The party apparatus, such as it is right now, will swing in behind the former Bush guy, join the Bobo bandwagon, and try to pass themselves off as ‘serious’ about the debt, hoping against hope that will at least get the tea-party crowd out to vote, and maybe even a few gullible independents.
Pat
And Bradley Manning will have his clothes taken away from him again tonight. I wonder how Obama will explain that to his daughters when the day of reckoning comes.
piratedan
@JCT: I just want the indies to show up and vote, then I’d like the chances of Dems quite a bit more
Dennis SGMM
It just occurred to me that She Who Cannot Be Named’s recent reasonable-sounding comment re the teaching of Evolution is the surest sign that she’s going to run.
Considering the shit-ton of corporate money that will be in play, the media’s slobbering regard for her, and the idiocy of many voters, I wouldn’t dismiss her chances out of hand.
Omnes Omnibus
@hildebrand: A short guy who was Bush’s budget director and has the charisma of a damp tea towel is their best hope?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Kristine: I learned it at texts from last night. I’ve learned more intellectual type things here, LOL.
colleeniem
@jeffreyw: Thank…looks…fabulous!
hildebrand
@Omnes Omnibus: I think that someone in the GOP home office has got to be asking themselves if they want to at least try to get someone who can string a sentence or two together without sounding like a complete ingrate. Daniels is not a great candidate, but compared to Huckabee, Barbour, Palin, and Pawlenty, he looks ‘electable’. Damning with faint praise, but it may be all that they have this time around. They may simply want to minimize the brand damage – and pray that an adult appears sometime before the 2016 election.
Cat Lady
@Dennis SGMM:
That reasonable sounding comment was in 2008 when she was still more or less talking to the lamestream media. So much for that theory.
JCT
@piratedan: Agree – but the crazier they are, the easier it is to frame the discussion around the fear that real honest-to-G_d inmates could be elected to run the asylum. And by all accounts the indies don’t like this union-busting one bit.
@Omnes Omnibus
You’re being kind about the damp tea towel. And the debate visuals with Obama will be delightful — he will look like a midget. They will hang the surplus -> deficit fiasco around his neck like a boat anchor. Not to mention the fact that the tea party idgits will be VERY unhappy with that pick and will stay home. They are good at the petulant thing.
JPL
Bachmann is going to be on Meet The Press and maybe she’ll announce an exploratory committee. Remember that more than a few folks from So. Carolina thought she was the intelligent Sarah Palin. Being compared to Palin doesn’t mean much but still…
Cat Lady
What about Huntsman? I thought he quit his job to run. Maybe he and Romney have to do rock paper scissors before either of them declares so they won’t split the demo who would vote for a competent good looking Mormon. That demo may just give either one of ’em a win in NH, and some mojo going into SC. That campaign in that state will be epic wingnuttia.
MikeJ
@JCT:
The idea that somebody is so far out there their election is laughable has sometimes backfired.
AliceBlue
@JPL: Can someone explain what a “long form” birth certificate is? I had never heard the term until the birthers started screeching about it. There is nothing “long form” about my Georgia birth certificate–it’s just a little piece of paper.
Anonymous At Work
Thank you for the context. I enjoyed it.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Dennis SGMM: But that comment was from the Couric interview. And will Mittens really let the (TM) application for her name go without a WTF comment, should she toss her hat in the ring? Everybody knows he’s a “serious” candidate, magic underwear and all.
RossInDetroit
@JPL:
Praise so faint it’s lost in the quantum noise unless you cool it to zero K.
Villago Delenda Est
@Zifnab25:
Given that NH is the state targeted by Looneytarians as the ‘great experiment’ site I think Paul has a chance of making a showing there that won’t be insubstantial.
Of course, the main problem that he can’t even lose badly (only mega-badly) in the general won’t go away, of course.
Villago Delenda Est
@Zifnab25:
Given that NH is the state targeted by Looneytarians as the ‘great experiment’ site I think Paul has a chance of making a showing there that won’t be insubstantial.
Of course, the main problem that he can’t even lose badly (only mega-badly) in the general won’t go away, of course.
Svensker
@Dennis SGMM:
That’s an ancient clip, from the time her Holiness was still agreeing to talk to the lame stream, aka Katie Couric.
Edit: d’oh, beat by Cat Lady
cleek
prediction: this time next year, the reason why the GOPers waited so long to declare will be perfectly obvious to everyone.
we just need to come up with a reason we can agree on.
JCT
@MikeJ:
Of course — but the current batch of freshman congressmen and the Kasich-Walker-Christie-Scott axis of craven opportunism will provide a wealth of material for a well-run campaign. I agree that if the Dems sit on their collective asses and expect the electorate to wise up they may get an ugly surprise, but I think they are more savvy than that and frankly, if they can’t win against a flaming bozo nutjob candidate then we are all done for anyway.
Villago Delenda Est
@AliceBlue:
I think it’s the one that is given to parents with the little baby footie prints on it, the one the officials have no interest in at all.
JPL
@AliceBlue: It appears that the representative doesn’t know what it is either. Initially there will 93 representatives that signed on and 26 have now backed out.
If you have a baptism certificate or served in the military that might work. Do they not realize that you don’t have to born in the US to serve in the military?
RossInDetroit
I think the Dems caught a break with Walker. He’s so determined to ruin the unions and so rigid that he’s become the face of the GOP for a long stretch of news cycles. The Republicans have managed to keep their policies of ruining the middle class under the radar for the most part, but here’s a clear and plain example on the front pages for a couple of weeks. Walker certainly doesn’t represent all GOP lawmakers, but the Dems shouldn’t let that keep them from smearing him all over the GOP field as an example of their opponents’ hostility to regular Americans.
Villago Delenda Est
@JPL:
My “short form” birth certificate was all I needed to obtain a commission in the US Army.
And of course the idiots don’t realize that you don’t have to be born in the US to serve in the US military.
MikeJ
I think people dismiss mittens too quickly. HEre are his biggest problems, and how he gets around them.
1) Religion. Some people think it’s an issue. It’s not. Most Republicans aren’t really bible thumpers, they just think it annoys liberals. They elected Nixon (Quaker), Reagan(non church goer), Poppy Bush(ceremonial xtian), Bush the dumber (drunkard, coke fiend). LDS won’t be an issue among most republicans, the few who would care would rather have a republican of any sort than a Kenyan, and any attempts by Dems to bring it up will allow the Republicans to pretend to be open minded.
2) Romney-care. Easiest thing in the world to dispose of, he ran a state, not the federal government. Republicans don’t hate the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act because of what’s in it, they hate it because Democrats did it.
I think Mitt is the only person they have that might run who has any chance of looking sane.
FlipYrWhig
It’s going to be Romney — basically everyone’s 3rd choice — and he’ll have a Dole ’96 showing. And the excitement, such as it is, will be about the VP selection, because whoever gets picked for that will be the presumptive frontrunner for ’16. It’ll be someone like Marco Rubio or Bob McDonnell.
FlipYrWhig
@MikeJ:
I don’t think that works if your big complaint against it is that it’s a terrible, horrible, no-good breach of your fundamental liberties. It’d be one thing to say that the problem is that it’s too burdensome on poorer states or something. But the tone of the criticism has been that the individual mandate is tyrannical. And Mitt has one of those.
hildebrand
I look forward to the inevitable Romney-Huckabee cat-fight. Those two sniping at each other at the 187 debates will be pure comedy gold.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@RossInDetroit: And let us not forget Kasich, who’s been overshadowed by Walker in the press, but is actually doing the damage to people. The sun is sometime eclipsed by the moon.
jwb
@piratedan: Do you know a good manufacturer of wooden stakes?
Villago Delenda Est
@FlipYrWhig:
Pretty much how John “Did you know he was a POW?” McCain got the nomination last time around. Everyone’s third or fourth choice.
jeffreyw
@colleeniem: Thanks! I run it down here.
Cacti
@MikeJ:
I really don’t think you understand just how despised the Mormon religion is among bible-belters.
Davis X. Machina
Someone will un-decide against running, and reenter.
Christie, I think, rather than Daniels, is likely, even though he’s not pretty like Mitt, and Thune, and Huntsman.
He got out in front of the crab-bucket syndrome, the war-on-public employees, thing — someone near him, if not the man himself, has sound political instincts.
He’s not a neo-Confederate. He’s not a God-botherer — things that have killed the GOP in nationwide contests. He’s not a pretty thing, but neither is Huckabee.
Yeah, the people in NJ know him, and can’t stand him now, but they wouldnt’ un-elect him, and the rest of the country doesn’t know him well enough to hate him. In a short-sh campaign, with a tame media, you could hide him long enough. Lord knows Bush wasn’t a gift to Texas, and won through.
If he did decide to run, he’d be a problem.
gbear
@JPL: I really hope that GA tries to keep Obama off the ballot. I want to see what happens and I want to watch the village try to defend it.
On second thought, it will probably look like WI with cops using live ammunition…
salacious crumb
Huckabee wont suffer any fallout for criticizing Portman. What matters to her is that he is a big supporter of Israel
Cacti
@Davis X. Machina:
I think Huntsman is a stalking horse candidate for Romney, with his eyes on 2016. I believe his game is to peel away enough votes from Mittens to cost him the nom.
Because, what are the odds if a Mormon gets nominated and gets his head kicked in 2012, that the GOP will be in the mood for another one in 2016.
Not mention, what would Huntsman’s message be in 2012? “The guy whose administration I voluntarily served is wrong for the country”?
Davis X. Machina
@Cacti: Huntsman’s playing the long game, if he’s playing.
There’s a fair amount of GOP bench that isn’t viable in the present climate, that has to wait until the present crazy burns itself out. I expect 2016’s GOP field to be crowded, and actually not an embarrassment.
Rhoda
@MikeJ: I think you dismiss the fact that Republicans HATE Romeny like a Jesus freak on steroids. The entire Republican field last time banded together to destroy him and Huck stayed in the race to make sure that even with his money he would have no shot. The same folks who actively worked to destroy his campaign and gave life to John McCain will do it again; that works to Pawlenty’s advantage.
I think it’s going to be Newt, Tim Pawlenty, Romney, Santorum, and then Ron Paul,Sarah Palin,and that Cain guy on the next level.
Pawlenty’s going to become the McCain of ’12 (he was the favored VP pick) and he’s going to lose when Team Obama goes after his record and the bridge thing especially.
shawntos
@Davis X. Machina: I don’t think the crazy is going to run out anytime soon. We’ve been playing defense since 2008 and it seems like more and more states are springing crazy leaks. I mean WTF is wrong with Arizona?
PurpleGirl
Wikipedia has a good article about the differences of a long form certificate and a short form certificate. They also make the point that souvenir certificates made by the hospital with a baby’s footprints are not legal documents or proof of birth.
(I often read the Wikipedia entry first as it might be a good summary of what I’m looking for.)
aimai
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yes, that one!
aimai
Davis X. Machina
@shawntos: Arizona? Where Barry Goldwater came from? Barring the occasional Udall, Anglo Arizona’s been crazy since statehood.
Davis X. Machina
@shawntos:
People won’t buy what they haven’t seen, and won’t reject what they bought till they’ve seen.
stormhit
What exactly was “coded” about what Huckabee said? It all sounded pretty explicitly stated to me.
jon
The GOP idea of governance is one where a bunch of teenagers from Bible school envision utopia as only a group of virgins afraid of sex, inexperienced kids who haven’t gone shopping for their home, and unemployed and uneducated brats who haven’t worked for anyone other than Daddy or gone to any school where admission didn’t require a check can envision a government. Add the fact that they don’t actually want a working government to that mix, and you get quality candidates such as these unelectable bozos.
Here’s my early prediction for 2012: this will be the election where the Democratic candidate debates the Libertarian and the Green while the Republican candidate refuses to show up unless the questions are pre-screened.
Cacti
@shawntos:
Nothing out of the ordinary.
Arizona has long been full of cowboy rednecks, uptight mormons, and bigoted snowbird transplants.
MikeJ
@Cacti:
I grew up among them. I know. I also think they hate black people more than mormons.
jon
@Davis X. Machina: Arizona hasn’t been crazy since statehood. It was crazy before that. Tucson wasn’t made the capital because there were too many Confederate sympathizers. That’s Arizona. There’s now a movement in Tucson/Pima County to secede from the rest of the state.
What’s crazy is that that makes sense. I’m thinking of marrying my girlfriend’s mom since she’s being cut off from Medicare here. That’s how crazy it is: I, with my state job and state benefits, might be the only way she can continue her diabetes, cancer, heart, and other treatments since she’s so healthy now, according to the state officials. I wonder if Blue Cross saw this coming when they supported those whackaloons.
Bex
@Omnes Omnibus: A short Arab-American guy. His grandparents were immigrants from Syria. OK, they were Christians, but Christian enough for the teatards? Inquiring minds want to know.
Redshirt
Add in $4.50 cent gas and calls for violence from Fox and the Gangs, I think this upcoming election is sadly going to re-define what crazy means.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
This gem from Weigel:
From: “David Spielman – FreedomWorks”
Date: Fri, Mar 4, 2011 3:11 pm
Subject: Your Invitation to Support Gov. Kasich on March 8
To: [REDACTED]
Dear [REDACTED],
FreedomWorks, Ohio Tea Party groups and limited-government activists are excited to invite you to our press conference and rally at the state capitol in Columbus on March 8th at 10am to defend the taxpayers of Ohio and offer our support for SB 5. The rally will be followed by delivering hundreds of letters of support we have received from the citizens of Ohio, urging their state Representatives vote YES on SB 5.
Please JOIN US on March 8th! Governor John Kasich, the latest recipient of the FreedomWorks “Legislative Entrepreneur Award”, has been a vocal advocate for taxpayers as he works to rein in runaway spending and a bloated state budget. Gov. Kasich views SB 5, which restricts collective bargaining for public employees, as a crucial bill: “We don’t have a choice but to lower our cost, become competitive, and be in a position where instead of people flying over Ohio, they stop and say, ‘I’d like to create a job there.'” For months, FreedomWorks has been engaged in a local grassroots campaign for SB 5, directing calls and sending letters to urge our target list of state Senators to support the measure.
We are pleased to report that when the Ohio state Senate voted on March 1, one of our targets, Tim Schaffer, was the decided YES necessary to pass the legislation by a razor-thin 17-16 vote margin. Now the bill moves to the state House of Representatives, where FreedomWorks and local groups will be actively soliciting support for SB 5 from state Representatives. Given how close the vote was in the state Senate, we MUST come out to support Gov. Kasich to make sure this bill becomes law.
That elicited this response.
From: [REDACTED]
To: “David Spielman – FreedomWorks”
Subject: Re: Your Invitation to Support Gov. Kasich on March 8
Fuck that union hating motherfucker and fuck you too.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless Phone
Isn’t that wonderful?
Anya
@AliceBlue: I was born in Massachusetts and I don’t seem to have a “long form” birth certificate. I was told, what form of birth certificate you get depends on the year of your birth. For example, if you were born before 1965, you might get the magical long form birth certificate.
The Dangerman
@Redshirt:
If gas prices threaten the barely blooming recovery, I can see Obama tapping the strategic reserve (I assume that can be done by Executive Order, not Congressional Action); this all depends how Libya plays out and whether the rumblings in Saudi Arabia get suppressed. If SA blows up … well, that is really unlikely, but it’s out there.
Jay C
@JCT:
Well, I’m not so sanguine about the chances for 2012 meself: for one, “sitting on their collective asses” is pretty much what beleaguered Democrats tend to do in most cases, and it doesn’t look like they are much minded to do more than this as long the 112th Congress is in session. Still less on the statehouse level, where the GOP seems to have a solid (supermajority) lock on way too many states, with apparently not the least controls on the levels of wingnuttiness allowed.
It’s not so bad on the Presidential level: I think President Obama will most likely be re-elected, and by a respectable margin: but on the negative side, I have a sinking feeling that he is going to be spending the rest of his first term acting “Presidential”, playing the Washington “bipartisanship” game, and only deigning to actually help support Democratic candidates and the Democratic Party when he absolutely HAS to.
Yes, all too many Republican officials are fundamentally shames on the nation; but that’s what happens, in a two-party system, when one of the parties (extremist or no) is well-organized, super-well-financed, and votes in a consistent, high-turnout bloc. And the supposed “Opposition” is today’s Democratic Party.
Are we going to be able to get a viable “Opposition” in time for next year’s election? I wouldn’t hold my breath….
sukabi
@Poopyman: I don’t think they can go much further into the void of mental illness and not have great majorities of people recoil in horror… in several states they have reached that point… it’s getting close at the national level…
Zuzu's Petals
Uhm, that WSJ article you link to re Obama’s great poll numbers is from March 2009.
Anything more recent to show that “none of these clowns … can come close to beating him next Fall”?
Mike Kay (True Grit)
christian mistermix = Tweety (who’s been on fire)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/#41914016
(fast forward to the 7:00 mark)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/#41895477
(tweety can be such a firecracker)
Zuzu's Petals
@JPL:
So how come nobody ever questioned Gerald Ford’s eligibility? After all, he was adopted…could have been born in Canada for all we know.
JAHILL10
@Zuzu’s Petals: This week a Pew Researc poll had Obama’s approval rating at 51 to 39 disapprove. And the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll that came out this week had him beating a generic Republican 45% to 40 % and This:
Who would you vote for:
Obama 45
Generic Rep 40
Obama 50
Pawlenty 31
Obama 49
Romney 40
JCT
@Zuzu’s Petals: Besides the fact that he wasn’t blackity black?
Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people)
I’m just waiting to hear what Huntsman has to say.
Nutella
@JPL:
You don’t have to be a citizen to serve in the US military, either.
Mike Kay (Chief of Staff)
not to worry, just saw a diary on GOS saying obama is a one term prez.
sometimes I wonder who hates obama more the F’tards or the T’tards.
Zuzu's Petals
@JCT:
Naaaaahhh….
Zuzu's Petals
@JAHILL10:
Thanks. A good roundup can also be found here.
I can’t believe the Huckster is actually tied with Obama at 46/46.
AlanDean
Can someone tell me the realistic comparison of Fox and Hearst and his “Yellow Journalism”? After all Hearst is credited with ginning up the Spanish-American war. I also understand from a book called “Disunion” that before the Civil War there were no non-partisan publications. Are we coming to this? Look what CNN is doing (actually don’t look– they seem to be all tea party).
Cranky Observer
> I was born in Massachusetts and I don’t seem to
> have a “long form” birth certificate. I was told,
> what form of birth certificate you get depends
> on the year of your birth.
Just to be annoyingly precise, you don’t have any form of your birth certificate, which resides in your county of birth’s office of vital statistics (or possibly at a state, church, or hospital records officedepending on exactly where and when you were born). The question is which form of COPY of your original birth certificate you have in your possession.
Cranky
Mnemosyne
It would totally crack me up if Newt was unable to produce his long-form birth certificate. I have a feeling that the idiots trying to pass the law didn’t bother to see if any Republican actually has one.
Nellcote
@You Don’t Say:
First debate co-sponsered by CNN and the teabaggers. At the Raygun library. Also. Too.
Sko Hayes
I’ve already made my plans to be in front of the TV to watch that debate, as they try to outcrazy one another.
Will Sarah be there? Who knows, she can’t afford to give up that cushy job with Fox (didn’t they pay for that in home studio?) at the moment, nor can Huckabee.
Huntsman dropped out almost immediately; he must have done some internal polling showing a) no one knew who he was, and b) the ones who did know him knew he worked for Obama.
Barbour is gone, he might win his own state, but will never raise enough money for the big leagues.
C’mon people, show those Teabag colors! Let your freak flag fly! We want some declarations!
Shoemaker-Levy 9
A couple things to keep in mind. First, the trajectory of Obama’s first term quite a bit resembles Clinton’s (inherit poor economy, onslaught of propaganda, midterm reversal). Clinton won re-election because the economy was trending well and the GOP ran a doorpost against him, so perhaps that bodes well. Pawlenty has the personality of Dole or Gore or Kerry, so if he’s the nominee look for a similar result.
On the other hand, keep in mind the number 45.7. That’s the percentage who voted for a lukewarm bucket of spit representing a party that just got finished destroying the world in ’08. Obama could Rapture the saints and install an orgasm machine for free in every household and 45.7% will still vote for the other guy. That’s their baseline in a post-southern strategy, two-way race. Possibly they could get under that if they nominate one of the more ridiculous candidates, but I think any of the “serious” clowns can bank 45% before he even runs an ad.
I still think you should worry a little about Romney. If the Republican primary voters can swallow hard and forget that he’s a far-left Mormon from Taxachusetts I think he would stand a non-zero chance in the general.
AxelFoley
@General Stuck:
Shit’s gonna be dialed up to 11.
bob h
As the weakness of the Republican field becomes more apparent, the powerlessness will be a cause for further frustration and translate into heightened, shrill rage and anger at Obama. I just hope the Secret Service is adding staff for the 2012 hustings.
Walter
They are waiting for the great white hope Huntsman, the billionaire Mormon who will come out of no where to save the day. He’s a keyboard rocker with looks that could land him in any erectile dysfunction commercial. He’ll save us from the Kenyan Muslim, corporatist radical in the White House. Oh, and White liberals will love him, why wouldn’t they.