Jimmy P gives Republicans the worst political advice ever (via Steve M):
Since Democrats are determined to hang Ryan’s bold “Path to Prosperity” budget plan around the neck of every Republican running for office in 2012, why not have its author and best salesman advocate for it directly vs. President Obama?
If you want to get an idea of how an issue plays in Peoria — rather than Georgetown and Bethesda — pay attention to how it gets used in advertisements in Congressional races. The DCCC and NRCC aren’t infallible but their decisions are based on polls of local residents, not on who David Brooks wants Obama to have lunch with. From what I can tell, Democrats didn’t like their chances in the NY-26 special election before the Ryan plan dropped. Now the DCCC is putting money into it with ads focusing on the Ryan plan.
If the 2012 election is anything like a referendum on the Ryan plan, Democrats will control the White House, Senate, and the House of Representatives in 2013. Andrew Sullivan and Rick Klein will be sad that we’re putting off the “adult conversation” we need to have about letting the letting the poor and elderly starve and die the way Galt intended. Bobo will mourn the damage done to Paul Ryan’s fee fees. But nobody out here in flyover country gives a fuck what these idiots think. They are simply errand boys, sent by Galtian overlords, to destroy the middle class. They have a loud megaphone, but it’s not loud enough to drown out the voice of the rest of the country.
I said I’d post videos readers sent me of local protests of the Ryan plan. Here’s one from reader L.
Bob Loblaw
Yes, apparently this Pethokoukis character is the worst political advisor in the country, which is a pretty steep bar to get over, mind you.
The latest polling on independents shows that Republicans still are viewed more favorably on budget issues than Democrats/Obama, but support tanks once respondents actually find out the difference between the two plans. So any sane political advisor would recommend obfuscation, obfuscation, obfuscation forever.
The GOP overreached, don’t bother walking it back, just shut up about it, demonize the President some more, and let the media carry your water. Don’t even say the word Medicare again until the fall. That would be my recommendation. As a liberal, though, I hope those jackasses let their true believers keep the issue roiling. By all means. Put Paul Ryan on tv as much as possible. Heck, let him debate the President in primetime. Pretty please?
Comrade DougJ
@Bob Loblaw:
Yup.
Omnes Omnibus
I liked the ad.
LittlePig
They are simply errand boys, sent by Galtian overlords, to destroy the middle class.
True dat. I see Ford has its best quarter in 13 years. How? Selling cars to the burgeoning Asian middle class.
Our betters don’t need American middle class consumers anymore. They need workers at third world wages, stat. Reaganomics proceeds apace.
The Moar You Know
Please God let this happen.
Roger Moore
Pretty please, with sugar on top?
Zifnab
@Bob Loblaw:
Times like this, I really do think Obama is working off his own little 11-D chess board that he’s working over in the back.
The Republicans have the better cards, but they play them terribly. More money. More media. A damn-near brainwashed base. But then you see shit like this and realize they have completely incompetent advisors. Reagen must be turning in his grave.
cathyx
I guess that geezer-like, Reagan-esque pompadour hair style only gets you so far with the seniors.
slag
James Pethokoukis is a genius! Republicans should totally try to do that!
Roger Moore
Actually, he’s claiming that it’s not his advice, but stuff he’s hearing from the Republicans themselves. Now that may just be his way of trying to make his terrible advice seem better, but I wouldn’t count on it. The Republican bench is shallower than Paris Hilton, so anybody who looks vaguely Presidential is going to get a serious look over by Republican leadership.
Cermet
The Galtian overlords are not stupid – wait and you will see this ryan stupdiity plan fade away andthey will shout loud and clear Obama is a socli@$^ and that will be their battle cry 2011/12. They will try and use Obama’s plan against him and once again say HE is the one who will be cutting Medacare and the old farts will believe this because what else can they do?
Obama = black, scary negro and the hence: The Other; their true over lords = white and as old, stupid looking, farts just like them – that is, us.
Game, set, and match? See how the demorats handle that wil ldecide the election.
Roger Moore
@Zifnab:
The Republicans’ problem is that their propaganda machine is so effective, especially within the beltway, that they’ve started to believe their own lies. If you keep hearing that the Ryan Plan is a bold, serious plan to save the economy, you start to forget that it’s a bunch of bullshit thrown together to justify big tax breaks for the rich. Eventually, you believe that Americans really want you to take away their Medicare and Social Security, that fucking the poor is shared sacrifice, and nobody likes police and teachers enough to stand up for them.
Cris (without an H)
Are the GOP’s methods unsound? I don’t see any method, at all, sir.
On another note, may I say that I’m quite bored with the campaign ad template that this spot follows to the letter. Twenty seconds about the opponent: narrator’s voice is gruff and serious, music is foreboding and minor, colors are washed out and photos are unflattering. Remaining ten seconds, music is inspiring and major, voice-over is optimistic, and it’s in full bright color. Glad to see they’re doing this, but the ad is boilerplate.
Omnes Omnibus
They really believe their own hype. “Ryan is a wonk.” Obama isn’t very smart; he got into Harvard Law ‘cuz he’s black.” “Obama needs a teleprompter or he don’t talk so good.” They are just asking to have their asses kicked.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
Fxd.
Because it worked so well the last time. Seriously, I’m looking forward to the more and more blatant attempts to inform America that the Sheriff is Near. Donald tRump has already set the bar pretty high and the GOP has yet to produce a contender. At this rate the campaign slogan will be Get That N!gger out of the White House.
lacp
@Omnes Omnibus: Then that request should certainly be honored, no?
Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937
When the Bush tax cuts were extended at the end of last year, it was obvious that 2012 would be a referendum on how to tackle the deficit. What the Repugs are trying to do in the mean time are things they DID NOT campaign to do. They have no mandate currently. 2012 is the best time for everyone to show what they stand for and let democracy work.
Cliff in NH
and I got one of those polls today – I even filled it out and mailed it.
edit: wish I had scanned it. still have the cover/fundraising letter basically the focus was that the republicans want to obstruct or reverse everything accomplished so far.
Omnes Omnibus
@lacp: No. I mean yes. I, uh, well… Kick his ass. How’s that?
MagicPanda
I usually can’t abide Joe Klein, but it was nice to see him speak clearly about the right wing noise machine.
http://swampland.time.com/2011/04/26/the-republican-crackup/#more-46502
Although I have to say his dig on teachers seems completely inappropriate. WTF?
Calouste
@Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen:
What do you think “Taking America back” really means?
Maude
@Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen:
Trump is close to saying Obama is stupid and shiftless and lazy and etc.
I do hope he keeps this up.
Cat Lady
@MagicPanda:
Joe Klein needs to look in his fucking mirror when he asks what happened to this country. Blaming female teachers – really? Fuck that asshole.
ErikdaRed
Any word on where the protest video was made?
MagicPanda
@Cat Lady: Yeah, he’s definitely (usually) part of the problem and that part about the teachers was pretty fucked up. But he does CLEARLY say that the right wing has gone completely crazy, and says Fox News, Limbaugh, Frank Luntz, and Newt Gingrich are to blame.
Unusually clear, when contrasted to the usual false equivalences and mealy-mouthed non-writing.
maus
@Cat Lady: Wow, what a backhanded-asshole comment.
Womens’ place is in the classroom.
WereBear
@Cat Lady: One thing about spending a lot of time in doctor’s waiting rooms (partner has chronic illness) is the you get to read a lot of old magazines.
And find out just how ridiculously wrong a LOT of the pundit blathering really is.
Cliff in NH
252 trading days at say, ~8 hours each = 2016 hours/year
$1,000,000 in taxable gains (after losses) = $496/hr
Why should that person not be taxed at greater than 15%?
DougJ
@MagicPanda:
I’m on it. I need a belt of whiskey first. Just cool them bloggers out and wait for the calvary.
maus
@MagicPanda:
Yes, but he’s part of the problem. Blaming all those OTHER conservatives for his contribution to this country’s ills is insincere. He’s not playing a rodeo clown, he’s taken “seriously” by people who may not watch Fox 24/7. Yeah, we’ve all got lowwwww expectations, but just harping on the talk radio crowd isn’t going to fix anything.
EconWatcher
@Cat Lady:
Klein wasn’t blaming female teachers. He was making an interesting point that I’ve heard others make, and as unpleasant as it is, there could be something to it:
Women used to be limited to basically three roles: homemaker, teacher, nurse. This was grotesque and unfair. But because of it, some of the very best and brightest–the women who today are top doctors and lawyers–went into teaching. They didn’t have any other choice. Kids benefited from having women teachers who might have been neurosurgeons in a fair world.
When other careers opened to them, the theory goes, the average quality of teachers went down. That doesn’t mean there aren’t many excellent teachers who do it even though they could make more money elsewhere. But the basic logic suggesting that the average quality would go down cannot be immediately dismissed. I’d like to see some data that could show average teacher quality over time; it’s an emprical question in the end.
But anecdotally: I was educated by nuns who were amazing teachers. I suspect many of them were personally miserable and had been pushed into the sisterhood by their parents. Tragically, their loss was my gain. That’s not nice. But it might be true. Since then, the sisterhood has basically dried up.
Omnes Omnibus
@DougJ: Calvary? I take you still have Easter on your mind.
Cliff in NH
@EconWatcher:
Nailed it.
edit: guess when Women started really entering the workforce:
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/EMRATIO
Mnemosyne
@EconWatcher:
It’s yet another example of how the American economy has always depended on keeping certain people grossly underpaid to keep the profession going. Nursing is another job that has experienced some similar effects: brilliant women who would have been forced into nursing 40 years ago are becoming doctors instead, and it does kinda lower the quality of nurses you get, because you no longer have whip-smart people doing the job because they can’t find anything else.
The US economy has always been built on slave and near-slave labor, and it’s having a hard time adapting to egalitarianism. If we want better teachers, we’re going to have to pay more, but people just don’t want to give up their vision of brilliant people sacrificing their entire lives just so they can teach third graders.
maus
@EconWatcher:
We’re not saying it’s *wrong* per se, we’re saying it’s irrelevant and by this point, an option that means and solves absolutely nothing unless you’re suggesting reassigning gender roles back to “traditional” options.
The best women are doing better things for themselves and others. Now, we need to encourage good women AND MEN to take up the slack. Otherwise, pointing it out sans-context and offering what-to-do makes Klein a regressive asshole.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: Ah yes, a life of genteel poverty. Who wouldn’t sign up?
Calouste
@Mnemosyne: Well, how else can you keep rich white male brats in the positions they deserve by having their dads buying them access to “elite” universities?
Cliff in NH
@JoeKlein http://swampland.time.com/2011/04/26/the-republican-crackup
About Clinton:
WTF Clinton isn’t fat you asshole.
Cliff in NH
@maus:
are you blind?
the smart women left teaching and got good jobs. Thus the Idiocracy.
It’s plain as day in the data. But you would rather call people assholes for pointing out reality.
(not that he isn’t a asshole…)
maus
@Cliff in NH:
Perhaps you should read over what I actually posted before calling me blind. I agree that some aspects are probably true. BUT the inference that it’s still that way, and that we can’t have great teachers of either sex is pretty shallow.
jefft452
@12
“If you keep hearing that the Ryan Plan is a bold, serious plan to save the economy, you start to forget that it’s a bunch of bullshit thrown together to justify big tax breaks for the rich.”
You have it backwards
Crushing the working class and eliminating the New Deal is the ends, tax breaks for the rich are the means
“Starve the beast”, “Drown it in a bathtub” etc etc
Without the tax cuts we don’t have a “crisis” so they wouldn’t be able to claim that we’re broke and have to get rid of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid
Cliff in NH
@maus:
bullshit, the exact point is that it isn’t that way today.
Women are not forced to work as only nurses teachers or secretaries at grossly underpaid rates.
they can work anywhere they want.
The only inference is that we are not paying teachers enough. Supersmart women were clearly underpaid as teachers, and current teachers are not paid enough to attract the super smart teachers that we need.
rikyrah
it should be IN YOUR FACE, all the time for the Democrats until November 2012.
period.
don’t let up
DW
@Cliff in NH: We’ve had a problem like this before. The lowest enlisted in the military used to get paid jack, because we had a draft and didn’t need to worry about attracting recruits. When the draft ended, we had to dramatically increase compensation to get enough competent volunteers. Less formally, salaries for nurses have gone up as well. So the logical implication of what Klein’s saying is that we need to increase compensation for teachers. Oddly enough, he doesn’t make that point.
Cliff in NH
@DW:
I never said he wasn’t a moron or asshole….
maus
@Cliff in NH: Ok, because this-
Would have changed my opinion of the comment entirely.
Jeffro
Yup.
It’s amazing how much Finland has done with this, or (domestically) Massachussetts, and yet, no one wants to talk about why that is.
Professional expectations, professional pay. Who’d have thunk it?
RalfW
The GOP is putting together such a wretched budget here in Minnesota (for example, it cuts funding for the U of M, arguably one of the best economic engines in the state, back to 1997 levels in actual dollars – not inflation adjusted but actual dollar #s the same as 14 years ago), a budget so draconian for th emiddle class and poor, and so avoidant of any possible inconvenience for the rich, that they had to trot out a state anti-gay marriage amendment today to distract us voters from noticing how badly they’re screwing us over.
Spaghetti Lee
@RalfW:
Thank God for Mark Dayton, I suppose. And speaking as an Illinoisan, thank God for Pat Quinn.
Paul in KY
@EconWatcher: I think the dick does have a point. Certainly back in the 50s & 40s there were women who taught/nursed that today would be stars in a different field (one that was basically closed to them back then).
How many of them fall into this catagory, I don’t know.