“Come on, Mr. President,” said the Republican presidential candidate. “You can, by yourself, cut spending, agree to cap the spending and put in place a balanced budget amendment.”
Usual disclaimers apply (it’s early, etc.), but between the debt ceiling hostage taking and the Bachmann surge, it really looks like the panicked Republican establishment has anointed this hothouse flower as their standard bearer. I predict a major wilt as soon as he faces a real debate, especially when dumb shit like this and his eternity of flip-flops are introduced into evidence.
DougJ in Damascus
I still think he’s a better general election candidate than the alternatives — Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann.
arguingwithsignposts
Wow.
Fucking constitutions, how do they work?
Hawes
C’mon Mr. President you can – by yourself – create the better mousetrap, coffee that leaves your breath fresh and a longer lasting lightbulb.
Oops, scratch that last one. The House GOP doesn’t like longer lasting lightbulbs.
Gozer
arguingwithsignposts – July 16, 2011 | 8:48 am · Link
Yeah, that jumped out at me too. Can you even imagine the howls coming from those loons if the President tried to unilaterally amend the Constitution? It’d be a sight to behold.
Come to think of it I can think of a few amendments I’d like to see added.
Linda Featheringill
The House will vote on a balanced budget amendment next week. That’s okay with me. I think everybody has the right to try to float a constitutional amendment, even if I disagree with the nonsense therein.
This particular amendment isn’t going to go anywhere.
Question: Do you think Mittens has actually read the Constitution?
srv
If the President can do all that, why the hell do we have a Congress?
NamelessGenXer
Spot on, but please don’t dis Hothouse Flowers.
Poopyman
“Pew”, indeed.
gnomedad
Shorter.
John Puma
Is Willard constitutionally challenged or does he think he’s running for dictator, both you say?
Bobby Thomson
@ gnomedad: Yep. That’s what he meant. Lots of luck getting a 2/3 vote in the House for that amendment, though.
Ash Can
They’ll have him wired for the debate and will be feeding him answers to make him sound more intelligent and consistent. I just hope his system malfunctions or his earwire falls out in the middle of the debate, exposing the ruse.
Comrade Javamanphil
Saving the gang of 500 some time:
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney had some tough words for Barack Obama today challenging him to unilaterally lower spending and amend the constitution….blah…blah…12 paragraphs of GOP fluffing…blah…blah…Some Constitutional scholars think this plan would violate the document but others, like [insert right-wing hack with degree in marketing], think this is perfectly fine in this situation. Political observer Mark Halperin noted this was a clear case of Romney leadership. “He stood up to that dick Obama and that will carry him to victory in 2012.”
Steaming Pile
4,6 – Nixon used to do this. “Embargoing” the money, I think it was called. It was eventually outlawed by an act of Congress.
Say the President says the Air Force needs ten F-35s. Congress says the Air Force couldn’t possibly do its mission with fewer then 20, and puts that in the budget. DoD only buys ten. Congress starts howling about the rule of law.
Of course, Republican Presidents get to amend the Constitution all they want. Bush 43 proved it. It’s when Democrats try it that Congress gets all hysterical and shit.
dmsilev
Speaking of flip-flops with an extra half-twist before sticking the landing, this story made for some interesting reading this morning. Short version is that the GOP leadership, including budget-boy Paul Ryan, are now actively working to convince their horde of tea-baggers that it’s time to raise the white flag and vote for the debt ceiling raise with only fig-leaf concessions:
Kane
At some point, if Bachmann intends to win, she’s going to have to remind voters of Romney’s weak record. Pawlenty failed to take his shot when the opening was there, and he’s never recovered.
MazeDancer
He’s a placeholder. While money looks for somebody – anybody – to be their champion, they can use Mitt as a pretense that there is a Real Republican Party still existing. And in the not crazy selection of currently announced candidates, who else can they choose? Media needs someone to front false equivalencies.
gocart mozart
After the last election the Romney bot was upgraded to Windows Vista and it still has a few glitches.
Rhoda
No, I don’t think he’s going to pull it off. Whatever the money people want, and I’m not convinced they want him, the republicans are insane and they won’t vote for there best shot because they hate him. That’s why Pawlenty is desperate to stay in the race, he knows the party will have to break the ice on a sane candidate and he wants to be that guy.
gocart mozart
It may come down to Romney being the default candidate/lesser evil like McCain in ’08. I can’t see a scenario where Romney gets the nomination except that I think all the other options have even a less likely chance.
gocart mozart
True Rodha except that they also hate Pawlenty and he is just as much of an unprincipled hack as Mittens.
gocart mozart
What are they gonna do: Recruit Perry? Christie? Wake Fred Thompson up?
Thoughtcrime
Deputy Dawg to the rescue! He knows how to control the GOP monster from the “Dingbat and Daily Circus”:
youtube.com/watch?v=sewhJY6yynk
MazeDancer
@gocart mozart: @Thoughtcrime:
Chuckling away at the memories of the Big Build-up last election to Fred’s Gonna Save Us. Cannot figure out how an actor can be as totally without charm or charisma as Freddie T.
It’s so far away to next November. And the main reason it’s not considered so far in political timings is about raising money. But that’s not going to be as big a problem if the GOP finds a savior along the way. The Koch’s won’t be poorer.
Still, if Mr. Obama keeps up both his fund-raising levels and his owning the press conference stage (knock wood) and looking so smart and reasonable, the GOP is going to have to work harder at finding some lies to spread about the President. Especially, when so many of their own candidates have such full, rattling closets.
Yutsano
@MazeDancer:
Well in Freddie’s defense, he was a Senator from Tennessee (waves at Southern Beale) for at least one term. So he wasn’t a total political naif. Interestingly enough he was more moderate then than during his weird Presidential run.
Nutella
Interestingly enough, the process of amending the constitution is different from usual lawmaking in that it does not involve the president AT ALL.
The president does not sign or veto amendments. They are 100% determined by congress and the state legislatures.
At most the president can say he’s in favor of an amendment and urge his representatives to vote for it, just like every other voter.
Every national Republican would flunk grade school civics class.
gelfling545
@Nutella:
In my years of teaching I was forever coming up against students whining about why do we have to learn about one thing and another. I generally replied that: a. the adults responsible for you have determined that this is necessary; and b. you can never determine in advance what information you may later need so it’s good to have a broadly based supply of it. How useful it would have been to offer these present information deficient legislators as a horrid example.
Cliff
You can, by yourself, cut spending, agree to cap the spending and put in place a balanced budget amendment.
This motherfucker is stupid.
Now if only we could get a journalist to actually say that.
Don K
Either the Mittster really is dumber than a sack of worms, or else he thinks the rest of us are…
Anne Laurie
Either the Mittster really is dumber than a sack of worms, or else he thinks the rest of us are…Option B. He’s not particularly stupid, or even ignorant (unlike the last MBA president) — he’s a sociopath. Since he has no concept of how normal humans think (evidence: Believing the dog-on-the-roof-rack story would be received as a sterling example of hands-on pragmatism, not an offputting act of animal & child abuse), all our prattle about ‘feelings’ and ‘justice’ and ‘community’ convince Willard that we’re morons in thrall to our weak-minded fantasies. Since Willard’s big, important Wall Street career relied largely upon extracting ‘stakeholder tithes’ from his fellow Mormons to be managed by his MBA cronies, it could be argued that he’s reasoning correctly from personal experience.