When Mitch Daniels announces his candidacy, I may have to go off the grid for a while, I don’t think I’ll be able to take the nonstop fluffing he gets from all the serious people. Even the liberal Hendrik Hertzberg (a favorite of many of you totebag types) has gone more or less all in:
I found his affect reassuring. To all appearances, his temperament is undoctrinaire even if some of his economic views aren’t. When it comes to red meat he seems to be a vegetarian.
Michael Kinsley and Josh Marshall may not be far behind.
On Tuesday, at the Gilded Age Upper East Side mansion that houses the nascent Bloomberg View, Daniels lunched with a baker’s dozen of journo-pundits ranging politics-wise from rightish (Peggy Noonan, Ramesh Ponnuru) and leftish (Michael Kinsley, Josh Marshall) to neitherish (Mark Halperin), and outlet-wise from mass market (George Stephanopoulos) to niche market (me).
My guess is Marshall doesn’t go for it, but Kinsley does. I can’t see how the contrarian in him can resist.
Yutsano
I saw a picture of Daniels today. No way could he win. He doesn’t look tough enough for the neocon pantswetters. And trust me these guys are all about appearances.
dj spellchecka
“When it comes to red meat he seems to be a vegetarian.”
yeah that’s why he just signed a bill to cut off funding to planned parenthood….
ps
props for the prince song title headline
eric
How can you be the type of candidate that (i) inspires GOP primary voters AND (ii) inspires the moderate-elite? If he threads that needle, he will be a formidable candidate indeed. But, right now that seems to be an either-or proposition and you can’t win without impressing the GOP primary voters who dont put much stock in moderate rhetoric.
ETA…”moderate rhetoric” being the precise thing that makes him attractive to the moderate-elite (his actions notwithstanding)
SIA
Ditto what Yutsano said. He’s also very tiny, and unfortunately that’s a no-go in this country. AND of Arab descent.
I despise him for cutting off funding to Planned Parenthood in Indiana. Not a “reasonable person”, just a wee wanker.
(ETA “unfortunately that’s a no-go in this country”…meaning, appearances are too important, NOT unfortunately he can’t win, LOL)
Jamie
wow, we have a possibly non-insane GOP wingnut running to be President and he suddenly is leading the pack? What a country.
13th Generation
DougJ, while I appreciate your commitment, this post may be too esoteric even for you.
BTW, the site meter’s approaching 50 million, will someone win a prize for being the lucky commenter?
Fred
Best 60minutes interview of a president you will probably ever see. Just wow! Obama went into just about every detail of how the Bin Laden operation went down. Riveting stuff!
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-20060530-10391709.html?tag=contentBody;listingLeadStories
GregB
Has his Arab heritage been vetted by Pam Gellar yet? Sh, sh, sharia!
Rhoda
Daniels isn’t going to win; he’s an Arab, he’s to tied to Bush, and he’s effed up his roll out. My bet is still on Pawlenty; he’s like a Mitt Romeny light. He’s not a Mormon, he seems sane but gives the insane in the party the red meat they want, the salons don’t care about him. He’s the Al Gore of the Republicans right now (all apologies to Gore for the comparison) and given how close he came to the VP nomination last time he’s got some claim to the “my turn” feeling the GOP likes.
The only wild card that has a chance IMO is Huckabee; and the money folks will starve him out like they did in ’08 through with the tea party element he might have a better chance now. He also has the best “my turn” claim other than Sarah since he came closest to defeating McCain.
General Stuck
I read Marshall’s website several times a day, and don’t remember him fluffing any republican. He often doesn’t skewer them directly, but is more subtle just giving us the more liberal facts with a slight spread of Dijon. I seriously don’t think he will be treating Daniel’s any differently.
And I agree with Kinsley being a contrarian by nature.
Jay C
It should come as no surprise that Mitch Daniels might be slated for a first-class fluffing from all those “media honchos”: he is, after all, a Serious Republican. And, rare for these days, a S.R. who actually deserves the title. Mind you, that’s not to say ol’ Mitch is all that great a candidate: a bog-standard GOP Midwest Governor – with a tendency to pander, as we’ve seen; but compared to some of the other
clowns in the buffoon-circusRepublican offerings – Michele Bachmann, or Allen West, or Herman Cain – he’s The Personification Of Sanity. And so the perfect object for The Village’s obsessions.parsimon
@eric:
The inspiring of the moderate-elite is what puzzles me: I take it the idea is that, on the off chance the Republican candidate wins in 2012, we’d like that person to be the least-awful option.
There’s something to that, but if we’re going with that line of reasoning, might we wait to hear what John Huntsman has to say for himself? Because Daniels is pretty bad.
General Stuck
Ron Paul will git the GOP nod, it’s written in crazy crayon across the stars.
Hunter Gathers
Daniels will become the chosen candidate of those from the left, right, and middle who, while having no real problem with Obama, will desert him, due to Obama’s Unforgivable Blackness.
JonF
Candidates who are bland with a side of bland don’t win pres elections.
Yutsano
OT, but I am troll toying a few threads down. Caz went full-on Jack Bauer on us. This is kinda fun.
parsimon
Mitch Daniels is an Arab? Am I going to have to google?
Jay C
And, btw; as (relatively) good a candidate as Mitch Daniels might be, I’m visualizing the debate between him and President Obama: height differences aside, Obama would, I think, wipe the floor with Daniels. The one thing, I’ve noticed, that Barack Obama does better than anything is to look Presidential. May be trivial, but this is America: appearances count….
Spaghetti Lee
@parsimon:
No, ma’am, he’s a good family man.
Spaghetti Lee
If y’all aren’t reading Doghouse Riley, you should be. He has a lot to say about Mr. Daniels, and none of it good.
If anyone can beat Obama in 2012, it’s him. I do think that the theoretical needle-threading between the crazy 27% and polite society will be impossible for anyone to bridge, which is in part why Obama’s chances look so good.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
not to concern troll on behalf of serious people, but if your job for the next year figured to be punting the field of gop nominees, and you looked at the current parade through the paddock, wouldn’t you want to make anyone who enters look like a decent bet?
BR
@Fred:
I was proud. Haven’t watched a great interview like that in many many months, if not since the campaign.
AAA Bonds
Jesus Christ. Those absolute shitheels. That quote reads like a list of “first against the wall”.
parsimon
@Spaghetti Lee:
It’s fine if he has Arab heritage, of course; I just hadn’t heard about it. However! I’ve now actually read the Hertzberg article DougJ linked to, and all is clear.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Did he mean ‘effect’ rather than “affect”?
Serious people want to know! ;)
Shoemaker-Levy 9
Short and balding costs you at least 5% in the general. At least.
The Dangerman
He wanted to call a “truce” on social issues; he can cut Planned Parenthood all he wants, his position is out and he can’t sell it to the wingers.
Put me down for Pawlenty, followed by an epic ass kicking.
Martin
@Jay C:
I’d put a different take on it. It’s not that Obama looks Presidential, it’s that he’s competent.
Everyone is going to make bad decisions in the job. Nobody is immune from not predicting the future properly. But when you make a decision, you have to execute it competently – whether the decision was a good one or bad one. A good decision, executed poorly is no better, and often worse, than a bad decision executed well.
That’s why I don’t freak out every time Obama makes a call I think is wrong.
Mr Stagger Lee
If the revolt of the unions gains success in Wisconsin, and Michigan recalls Snyder, Daniels may have to straddle a dangerous line between his Wall St bankers and awakened pissed off populous tired of making sacrifices.
Gregory
Just the other day, even-the-liberal-NPR gave Mitch “Deficits” Daniels a tongue bath touting his so-called “fiscal conservative” credentials, that went something lie, in 2001, he became George W. Bush’s financial advisor, and then in 2003 he ran successfully for governor!
Yeah, like nothing happened in the intervening two years, or since. Feh.
The Dangerman
I saw Huckabee on TV this past week saying that Reagan couldn’t get the nomination in this current far-right environment (raised taxes in CA, etc.); I think that is his tell he is sitting this one out.
Yutsano
@Mr Stagger Lee: Well apparently they are feeling the heat in Wisconsin for sure. They’re fast-tracking a boatload of their agenda before the recall elections start this summer, which means they’re reading polls and they’re fucking SCARED.
@The Dangerman: Personally I think Huck likes wingnut welfare better. It’s definitely easier on the tough questions front. No one asks you to defend your positions as governor while blabbing on Fox.
AAA Bonds
@Martin:
I don’t either, but I do vocally disagree with him when he does something that is wrong.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Gregory:
That’s what kills me. He’s Very Serious about the Deficit, Amen and Hallelujah to David Broder’s ghost.
I also like the notion here that Mark Halperin is “neitherish”, but then Serious People don’t follow this stuff like we do, so Hertzberg (whom I like a lot) probably doesn’t know about Halperin’s repeated sniveling and groveling for Hugh Hewitt. I think the characterization of Kinsley and to a lesser extent Marshall as “leftish” is apt, but La Nooners and Ponuru as “rightish”?
Martin
@AAA Bonds: And I’m more likely to wait for the results and push back based on that. You’re every bit as likely to be wrong on the decision as Obama is, so what makes you so sure that you know better? Results matter. They’re the only thing that matter.
The people that seem most vocal about Obama’s decisions never seem to have anything much to say about the results. I think that’s bullshit, personally. Maybe that’s just the manager in me, but if I went after my staffs decisions and ignored their results (or they with me) it’d be chaos. Sometimes I think their decisions are bad, and yet their results are great. Either I was wrong, or the decision didn’t matter at all – it was all in the execution.
JCT
Daniels has some serious baggage — starting with the magic disappearing budget surplus that occurred on his watch when he was Bush’s OMB. I find it hard to believe that too many folks (even the crazy wingnuts) want to “go back and try Bush’s economic approach again and Daniels’ usual explanation for what happened is comedic.
Kay recently had a nice description of some of the “privatizing” approaches in IN that have been unmitigated disasters and the Planned Parenthood defunding is simply nasty — try to find his mealy-mouthed answer when someone asked him about all of the women who would lose health care access because of his decision and he basically said that he had done some “analysis” that showed that they would not really be affected. Right.
And some clown in the GOP field will find a way to bring up his Syrian grandparents and his Najeeb Halaby Award. Problem.
Couple this to his anti-union stance and he ends up with some serious issues.
And those debate visuals with Obama easily a head taller and his new foreign affairs cred ….. not pretty for Daniels.
MonkeyBoy
For such a little nobody Mitch has a really big Wikipedia page. I wonder if he has fans boosting him up.
wobblybits
Post title reminds me of how bitter I still am that I missed the Prince concert two weeks ago.
TuiMel
WTF is this supposed to mean? I need clarification as to how one is “undoctrinaire” in temperament, yet holds doctrinaire views – economic or otherwise. Mitch Daniels wears his bland mask, and that makes him “undoctrinaire” in temperament. Look at his record. He may look vanilla, but he is shot through with the crunchy goodness of failed Republican economic ideas. And I am willing to bet he would do all in his power to continue and expand the damage Bush and his pals did. A bland exterior does not mean the guy is open to compromise or inclined to make compromises.
Bob Loblaw
Oh look at you hardened, savvy internet commentators talking about height and Arab descent. Such substance.
Remind me again what your problem is with those vile “beltway village elites?” Because it seems to me it’s simple jealousy that they get paid to spew the same bullshit you peddle here on your own time…
cat48
The worst thing I know about him is that he plans to use Ryan’s Original Roadmap that privatizes socsec & Medicare to balance the budget. He told Dan Balz that 2 weeks ago. That is all the info I need.
JCT
@TuiMel:
His Planned Parenthood defunding was about as radical a move as made by any of the other crazy wingnut/Teabagger govs. He may “just” have been pandering, but now he has thrown in his lot with the nuts. Sure flies right in the face of his earlier statements regarding a truce over social issues.
Just another asshole who didn’t campaign in support of any of this stuff then just pulled it out of his hat when he needed to buff up his social conservative cred.
Almighty Bruce
Remember, if God was elected as a Republican
the damage would be done by other all over
the Government Agencies.
There is not an active Republican that would not destroy
our Government, and therefore our Country, as all they know
is take money from the rich and privatize all functions
so as to increase the assets of those buying.
The current crop of Republicans know only Subversion
of Government, if not Sedition!
60th Street
Halperin is “neitherish”?! My balls!
Michael Kinsley, You’re Fired!
Calouste
@Bob Loblaw:
There is a bit of a difference between what people think of Daniels and what they think is going to affect his electoral prospects, but I guess that distinction is too hard for you to grasp.
The Main Gauche of Mild Reason
@parsimon:
He’s half-Syrian, one of his sets of grandparents (Christian arabs, mind you) immigrated in the early 1900s.
AAA Bonds
@Martin:
No, many things matter, like morals and honesty; also, results don’t depend on what the people in power claim are the results. I’m astonished at the poverty of reasoning that leads to this sort of common mistake on the part of writers and thinkers. It’s no less than a recipe for authoritarianism, and I suppose I should thank my lucky stars that the people in power right now aren’t pure authoritarians.
I’m also flabbergasted by bizarre blanket assertions that people like Matt Taibbi “don’t care” about results when they’re perhaps the only people in current discourse writing detail-oriented articles about those results, rather than parroting what they’re told by the White House or the Republicans.
For what it’s worth, I thank the writers at Balloon Juice for opposing your philosophy.
lol
@Fred:
OFA blasted their list to get people to watch.
Shoemaker-Levy 9
@Bob Loblaw:
It was a horserace post and got horserace responses. Perhaps there is a quantum universe where the United States of America has substantive politicians and Alternate Mitch Daniels is one of them. Maybe he even has a goatee.
Martin
@AAA Bonds:
Authoritarians trust the decisions as correct simply due to who made them, regardless of the results. Like I said, results matter – all results, not just the ones that people want to cherry pick.
Bob Loblaw
@Calouste:
The only difference between you catty fucks and Maureen Dowd is an extra hundred fifty grand in salary.
Quick, somebody mention the guy’s haircut! How does that pertain to his electability, huh, huh? Does he wear a flag pin? What about his choice in neckties? Inquiring minds demand to know.
JGabriel
Hendrick Hertzberg:
Gang of Four:
.
Shoemaker-Levy 9
@Bob Loblaw:
Hmm. Well, once again you are berating the commenters for following the OP’s lead. Maybe Doug is a catty fuck, I can’t rule it out. We could settle this by your telling us what interesting policy positions Daniels holds.
RossInDetroit
Look, it’s that funny Bob guy again! Hey Bob! Do that one where the spittle flies out and sticks in your mustache. That’s hilarious!
Brian R.
As Bush’s budget director, Daniels oversaw the explosion of the nation’s deficit — and now the media will treat him as a Very Serious Person when he recommends destroying Medicare in order to correct the mess he created.
motorik
The only thing preventing Marshall from joining the fluff parade is that Daniels isn’t Jewish.
General Stuck
I see Loblaw is on another purity offensive, With emphasis on offensive. Damn near set your clock by it.
If the dude were to sprout wings, he’d be the biggest flying asshole in the world.
Socrates
I bet you’re wrong about Kinsley. No way he goes for a guy like Daniels.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Why my brain went there, I don’t know, but I followed it to Babelfish, and in German, “concern troll” is “Interessenschleppangel”.
FWIW, I think Hertzberg wrote this before Daniels’ attack on Planned Parenthood, not that I think it would have made a difference, or will in the future. Daniels has won the VSP primary.
Along those lines, can anyone think of a Bigfoot Beltway pundit for whom choice is a major issue? Molly Ivins is the only one I good think of, and she wasn’t very Beltway.
JGabriel
@Bob Loblaw:
How ’bout, instead, we talk Daniels’ record on abortion and health care for women? Or Daniels record of failed privatization and fiscal incompetence?
Oh, because we’ve already been there, done that, repeatedly, over the past 10 days.
And discovered that, as far as Daniels is concerned, there’s less there than meets the eye. Get it? It’s a double entendre — we’re multilayered that way — because Mitch Daniels comes up short as a governor and, well, here’s the double part, he’s literally short.
Edited to Add: You know, Loblaw, it’s not as if you aren’t a regular here and don’t already know all that.
.
Yutsano
@JGabriel: Oh no it’s worse than that JGab. We DARED to mention his Syrian background and how that might cause him issues in a GOP primary, and Bobolicious took that as instant anti-Arab sentiment on here. Gee you’d think he’ll bitch next about how we dare not mention Obama lost votes because he’s half African-American.
James E. Powell
@JCT:
I thought that way, too. Then the country elected a right-wing Republican congress that promised to do just that.
And there is no sin that the 27% will not forgive, just so long as the candidate is running against the black guy.
Can't Be Bothered
@Bob Loblaw:
For being a lawyer, you sure can’t analogize for shit.
boss bitch
Don’t lump Josh Marshall in with the other two. He knows what’s what.
Its time these very serious people take off their beer goggles when it comes Mitch Daniels.
JGabriel
Yutsano:
A couple months ago, the GOP let repeal of DADT get a vote and pass in the Senate, but not the DREAM Act; thereby making it official that the Republicans hate Mexican babies even more than they hate gays.
Someone needs to remind Loblaw that the Republicans hate Arabs even more than they hate Mexican babies, c.f. Pam Geller.
.
JCT
@James E. Powell:
I’m still not convinced that the 2010 elections were a desire to “return” to the Bush years. I think the guys who were running for office used straight-up deception (socialized medicine! They’re going to cut Medicare! TARP caused all the debt! They gave your tax dollars to lazy people!) and the psychotic base was energized. Couple that to low turnout and I’m not so sure there was much rhyme or reason behind the Republican victories.
I agree about the 27% — but they’re not enough to elect anyone and I don’t think they would get energized about Daniels.
@JGabriel:
And given the upcoming GOP primary bloodbath — at least on of those delightful assholes will have a grand old time hanging Daniels’ heritage around his neck. Talk about low-hanging fruit for them.
Can't Be Bothered
@Bob Loblaw:
Oh, or draw distinctions. So, basically 0-2 in the critical lawyering skills department.
Kane
Mitch Daniels is McCain 2.0
The beltway media types gravitate to this model of Republican. It’s only a matter of time before Daniels is described as a Maverick.
Bob Loblaw
All too easy.
Be honest, which one rankled more: calling you racist or saying you resembled Maureen Dowd? I bet it was MoDo. I’ll keep that in mind for future use.
FlipYrWhig
I’m telling you, the media falls all over any Republican who isn’t a Bible-thumper or a conspiracy theorist. Daniels is like John McCain minus the dirty jokes and the interesting back-story. There’s nothing there. It’d be like getting all hot and bothered about Bruce Babbitt ’88.
ETA: Ha, Kane’s comment crossed with mine in the aether.
jonas
Look, Daniels has been an absolutely disastrous governor. But none of the people harmed by his policies are wealthy Republican donors — so it’s all good. Let the exploratory committees form!
JGabriel
FlipYrWhig:
Which explains why Palin and Trump get so much more airtime than the rest of the Republican presidential wannabes.
Wait, what?
Okay, in a less facile manner, it is not the media in general that loves “any Republican who isn’t a Bible-thumper or a conspiracy theorist”. It’s just a particular class of DC & NY Very Serious Pundits who gravitate towards them.
The media in general likes ’em flashy & flame-baitey (I can’t decide if flame-baitey should end with ey or just y), which tends to bring out the GOP bible-thumpers, racists & conspiracy theorists.
.
burnspbesq
It can be worse.
Iowa GOP Donors Court Christie
Yutsano
@FlipYrWhig: The big secret of Balloon Juice: type fast. Odds are with the great minds who inhabit this space someone is gonna come to the same thought you are.
@burnspbesq: Ugh. I wanted to sleep tonight TYVM. This might cost you your weight in blueberries.
sb
I’m a big fan of Hertzberg and was ready to flame Doug J for that totebag shot (whatever the hell that means) but then I read the article.
Hey, Hendrik? That was some bullshit there, bro.
JGabriel
@burnspbesq: Chris Christie is Fat.
.
Yutsano
@JGabriel: I bet the Fonzi of Freedom gets right on knocking Christie’s mother.
Wait, what?
JCT
@burnspbesq: Ah yes, Gov Bully. An honest-to-goodness prick. He would break new gender-gap records. I tease my NJ colleagues about him all the time. As a matter of fact, a rather prim older woman who I have known for 20 years referred to him as an “odious motherfucker”. It was the first time I had ever heard her curse.
Like most bullies, however, Christie is a coward at heart, he would never run unless he was certain he would win and no one could feel that sure going up against Obama at this point.
Besides, his culture-warrior cred is weak.
burnspbesq
@Yutsano:
Christie doesn’t have a mother. He sprang fully grown from the loins of Satan.
JCT
@burnspbesq:
Ouch. Poor Satan.
Yutsano
@JCT: Ahh he’s a tough ol’ broad he knew what he was getting into with the whole rebellion thing.
aisce
@Bob Loblaw:
ouch. low blow lob law. hee hee.
@Yutsano:
even funnier.
it really does take a rare comedic genius to make fun of john mccain. never heard that one before. but what of the tire swing?
Warren Terra
@Spaghetti Lee:
Echoing an earlier comment by Spaghetti Lee, Doghouse Riley writes an impassioned, informed, and articulate blog about Indiana politics and about Mitch Daniels in particular. I always find him worth a read, and the closest I’ve ever been to Indiana is changing planes at O’Hare.
One thing that rapidly becomes clear if you’re paying attention is that Mitch Daniels is every bit as extreme as Scott Walker – he’s just a lot slicker, or perhaps a lot luckier.
Also, the very notion that George W Bush’s Director Of OMB should be listened to in their guise as a fiscal hawk offends me.
Yutsano
@aisce: Awww did it take you all day to think of that? You’re welcome to try harder, but we play rough here.
James E. Powell
And he is governor of a state where Evan Bayh is considered a liberal.
Calouste
@Bob Loblaw:
Uh? We know it is all projection anyway.
Wilson Heath
Four words: Bush deficit; pap smears. He is not a contender.
aisce
@Yutsano:
can you blame me? i’m just so gosh darned intimidated of all the great minds playing rough around here.
why if things got any greater or rougher…hmm, there’s a sex joke in there somewhere. can’t put it together, though. all the chris christie talk has shut down that part of my brain, i’m afraid.
BR
@MonkeyBoy:
Took care of it.
Hill Dweller
Obama at the Gridiron dinner: “I know some people discount Mitch because he’s not — as they say in the NBA — long enough. But they don’t realize how scrappy he is. I watched him during dinner. He tore into that fillet like it was a public employee. And Mitch is experienced. Before he was governor Mitch was a pharmaceutical executive and he was George W. Bush’s budget director. I don’t have a joke here. I just want to point it out.”
Nutella
@Warren Terra:
And a drug warrior, too, don’t forget! But on the wrong side for the 27%.
goblue72
I’m looking forward to the 2012 election and watching whomever the whoremongers-for-the-rich the GOP put up to go against Obama. The ONLY thing they could hang around his neck the last time around was that he didn’t have any executive experience and was too green, having only been a U.S. Senator for a short period of time. That was IT.
This time around, he’s the sitting President who got universal healthcare passed (or as close as we were gonna get) AND the guy who got Osama. I can easily see between now and the start of the campaign, a whole mess of troops having been brought home at that point, TARP being mostly repaid, unemployment down further, and one last legislative notch under his belt. My bet is on a fight involving taxes and Medicare which he winds up winning due to GOP over-reach.
He will then march through the campaign like Sherman in Atlanta, skewering the GOP candidate just by pointing out the truth behind the GOP lies.
General Stuck
@goblue72:
Oh, you are such an Obot
Yutsano
@goblue72: One small correction good sir:
PPACA is not the endgame. It is the beginning of the beginning. But in the grand scheme of health care reform it’s not a bad start.
Anne Laurie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The short answer is that most of those Very Beltway Pundits are male, and the few women (Dowd, Noonan, Appelbaum) are safely past menopause. The longer answer is that even pre-Roe, girls from the right families could always get abortions (if not a D&C for ‘menstrual problems’ from the family doctor, then a ‘vacation’ in Canada, Puerto Rico or Europe) — legal access in their own communities only matters to women below the top economic tiers, and the Beltway Pundits don’t care to know about people like that.
But to be fair, Gail Collins does talk about the importance of defending reproductive rights for all women. Collins just doesn’t get much bloggy respect, for whatever reason — she’s like Charles Blow or Harold Meyerson, columnists who are persistently overlooked because they’re neither flashy nor aggresively wrong-headed.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
@Kane:
perhaps a pinto, a colt or a vega, maybe a pacer, but probably a pinto.
that gives us animal house references, and if need be george romney’s boy, son of the man who coined the term, if not the concept, of a compact car will blow out his gas tank in a flaming ball of wreckage.
Elliecat
@Anne Laurie:
I’m going to get myself in trouble if I delve into the reasons I think these folks, especially Collins, are overlooked on blogs when they often have pretty right on things to say. Let’s leave it at not flashy enough.
The Esquire Blog seems to like her—in their piece on NYT columnists who should be replaced (and with whom) , they wrote that “Collins is fun, entertaining, lively, lovely, and never not brilliant.” She and Kristof were the only two they declined to replace.
piratedan
@Anne Laurie: isn’t it strange that you have to suffer from bubble-boy syndrome to be taken seriously by others within the beltway clique of punditry? They have little or no connection with the rest of America (much less the world) except for breathing the same air. How many of them waited or bussed tables in High School or College? How many of them had a second hand (or third hand) car or for chrissakes had to ride their bike or a bus to work? How many of them have had ramen for dinner (when there was ramen to be had!).
I may not be able to eloquently express myself as well as they do but I shudder to think how these people would survive if they had to live in someplace like Omaha or Minneapolis or Spokane, if somehow the “right’ school hadn’t accepted them or they had to work in someplace like Albuquerque before they got noticed. Someplace nice but a damn sight more grounded in reality so that they can understand what it might actually mean to live paycheck to paycheck or to have to be concerned about school board elections because some asshat wants to rewrite history that replaces Thomas Jefferson with Ross Perot in the textbooks.
Maybe it’s just a strange strain of teahaditis I’m sporting but I’m still happy that Al Gore invented the internets so that I can still find more than one side to a story.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
@goblue72:
what the hell makes you think any amount of accomplishments, short of finding noah’s ark, is going to keep the republicans from saying obama hasn’t done anything?
obama is going to have to recite his accomplishments, dems running for anything statewide or above, are going to have to put their name on those accomplishments as me too, just to even the battle of
did too/are not.
Anne Laurie
@JGabriel:
The economic Top One Percenters own the Republican Party outright — they’ve been happy to advertise that at any time in the last hundred years — and the Top One Percenters prefer their bankers, like the rest of their servants, to be nicely dressed and discrete in all their ways. Ergo, barring some kind of Katrina or 9/11-level catastrophe, the GOP’s 2012 presidential nominee is going to be… Willard Romney.
Willard may have to choose one of your flame-baiters (Bachman, Huckabee, Gingrich) as a VP candidate, to keep the attention of the infotainment-media & the ‘base’ 27%s interested. I can see him falling in egolove with Daniels, for the same reason Nick Gillespie had his picture taken next to the balding schlub in the xmas sweater: Daniels makes Mitt! look even taller & ‘manlier’ by comparison. But I think Willard’s handlers are gonna insist he pick someone with attractions beyond ‘the Politico boys aren’t tired of this one… yet’.
Also, there’s the “busted with two shoeboxes full of dope” incident. He walked away with a two-finger tap on the wrist, not even a slap, and there’s a backstory there for his opponents to find. Bad enough if he just waltzed for being a rich white college kid, but if it turns out he bought his freedom by selling out his supplier and/or customers…
Morbo
But surely there are still reasonable conservative politicians out there. I want to beliiiiiiieve!
Spaghetti Lee
@Morbo:
Well sure there are.
I mean, I know so little about domestic politics in other countries that they’ve gotta be out there somewhere.
MikeJ
@Spaghetti Lee: He’s not actually reasonable, but if you knew nothing about policy and just watched PMQ, you might actually think David Cameron was reasonable.
Of course his idea of good governance is shutting down all the post offices and letting the communities get together to build a postal system that works for them. And then schools. And hospitals. And parks. Etc. He doesn’t seem to realise that they’ve already done it.
Triassic Sands
Daniels’ economic views are nuts, like the rest of his fellow lunatics. It’s amazing how easy it is to package a “moderate Republican” for MSM consumption.
AxelFoley
Where the hell is all this hype for Daniels coming from? Hell, I couldn’t point this muthafucka out of a line-up. I doubt most Americans have ever even heard of this fool.
JGabriel
@Morbo:
How long must we wait until reasonable conservative is added to the list of phrases used to define oxymoron, like: jumbo shrimp, military culture, and same difference?
.
Peter
@Bob Loblaw:
Right.
rea
at least on of those delightful assholes will have a grand old time hanging Daniels’ heritage around his neck. Talk about low-hanging fruit for them.
Low-hanging strange fruit . . .
drkrick
@Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal:
The point isn’t to stop them from saying it. They will nominate somebody, and that person will run a campaign where they say bad stuff about him. This is a given, and the fact that it happens isn’t a failure or even a problem. And no matter what happens, about 40% of the vote will go to their candidate. And about 40% will vote for the Dem. No matter what.
The question is whether much of what they say has any traction with the 20% of the electorate that’s at least theoretically persuadable. And the experience argument is going to seem pretty ridiculous to them after the events of the last year or so.
JPL
If Mitch Daniels decides to run, the media will reinvent him. Didn’t you know, he was the best budget director evah!
kay
If they like Mitch Daniels personally, we’re doomed.
I’m convinced that’s what happened with Bush. They liked him. They still like Bush.
McCain is another glaring example of this, and Al Gore is an example of what happens (to us, ultimately) when they don’t like a person.
Bobby Thomson
Never read this guy, but if he describes conservative Republican fluffer Mark Halperin as non-partisan I think I understand the use of the Even The Liberal trope.
Barry
@eric: “How can you be the type of candidate that (i) inspires GOP primary voters AND (ii) inspires the moderate-elite? ”
By feeding the base fake red meat where real red meat would harm the elites, and feeding them real red meat where it’s safe for the elites. Remember, we’re dealing with people who b*tch about the auto bailouts far more often than about the Wall St bailouts, and are opposed to any effort to reregulate Wall St.
Svensker
@Bob Loblaw:
Because all you want to do is Solve the Nation’s Problems. Right now on this blog on the internets.
Since the rest of us aren’t trying to do that here, we’re a buncha lazy-ass wusses. Or MoDo.
ETA: God, how that last part stung. MoDo. Sob.
MonkeyBoy
@BR:
A fanboy removed your tagging Mitch Daniels Wiki page as being an advertisement.
Joel
Bob, I like you, but the Miss Manners shit is old. Come on down from that high horse!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
A balding, pencil neck, egg head who looks like the accountant at work who eats lunch himself is running for president against Barrack Obama? That will turn out well lol
grandpajohn
@JGabriel: And if Loblaw were to actually do some research and engage his brain before opening mouth, he would find that curiously enough, height does seem to matter. Since 1900 with only 2 or 3 exceptions, the taller candidate has won.And if he thinks that ethnic background doesn’t matter, then he is stupider than I thought