I had the same reaction Steve M had to the Politico story John mocked:
After Dukakis, after Gore, after Kerry, part of me would very much enjoy seeing the Republican be the one who’s banished from the cool table in the junior-high cafeteria that is our infantile political system. If we can’t run our politics like grown-ups, at least let the immaturity work in our favor for once.
The national media has a Holden Caulfield-like hatred of “phonies”. It sees Romney as a phony because Mitt is a moderate Republican pretending to be a lunatic, whereas most of the other Republican candidates are actual lunatics. Also too, who let the dogs out, etc.
Personally, I don’t care if Romney is a phony, but if it helps keep Republicans out of the White House I’m ready to spend most of 2012 waving flip-flops and making cracks about earth tones. I hope you are too. It sure beats nodding along with all the praise for Mitt’s Burkean restraint.
beltane
It’s funny that the national media hates phonies, as they themselves are all phonies.
jwb
And apparently he did strap a dog on the roof of his car. It really is my favorite Mitt story, though I don’t know that it really has much political bite.
Dave
As a life-long, fourth-generation Red Sox fan…if you could guarantee me with 100% assurance that Obama would win the 2012 election and all I had to do was put on a Yankees hat, I’d do it.
James Hare
That’s why I always refer to him as multiple-choice Mitt. Michele Bachmann is crazy-eyes Bachmann. Screw dignifying these idiots.
J.W. Hamner
I certainly don’t mind the “politics ain’t beanbag” approach, but I find it pretty unlikely Romney is even going to be the nominee. Seems like a waste of time to get all wedded to some particular tactic at this stage. The WH needs to figure out some harebrained/madcap scheme to get the economy growing again without the help of the House or the Fed. That seems a little more important for reelection prospects than phoniness.
Trurl
New Gallup shows Obama’s disapproval rating at 50%. He’s going to have to flat-out accuse Romney of polygamy to survive with those numbers.
cleek
the press took a while, but they did eventually catch on Palin’s phoniness.
took years.
baby steps.
aimai
@beltane:
They don’t really hate phonies for being phonies, but for getting caught at it. Its more like the con man who is disgusted at a really bad three card monte player on the strip.
aimai
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
I suggest waving lengths of garden hose in honor of Romney Family Dog. Dog Hoser Romney has a nice ring to it, don’tcha think?
Villago Delenda Est
@James Hare:
Which reminds me of that photo SoBe shared with us of Rasputin with Michelle Bachmann’s eyes…didn’t look that much different than the original, to be honest…
Geeno
@jwb: My favorite Mittster story was during the primaries in ’08 when Dems wanted Romney to do well in Michigan to keep the Republican race alive and ugly. Some guy was driving around on primary day with a stuffed dog strapped to his roof and a sign saying “Mitt is the shit! Vote Romney!”
Roger Moore
@beltane:
They don’t like the competition.
cleek
is this thing on?
cleek
@Trurl:
Bush was below 50% approval on election day 2004.
aimai
Also, in re the phony issue. I think that Mitt would have zero problem if he were willing/able to simply accept the totally undeserved and fake role of “grand old man” and “CEO” who steps in and calms the warring factions. That is, Chris Matthews et al would lap it up. But Mitt can’t accept the mantle they are just panting to throw over him becuase he really has to please the teabaggers. And the MSM is pissed off about that because that’s the kind of phony they don’t want to get behind. They want to get behind the fake war hero/maverick or the CEO/leader they don’t want to get behind fake god bothering/teabagger because they believe those people can’t win the presidential election and aren’t really ready for prime time. The word I want to use is “clubbable” as in “acceptable to your country club.”
aimai
Villago Delenda Est
@cleek:
That ties right in to Aimai’s #8.
EconWatcher
So far, I think the Mittster has been pandering a tad less in this campaign than in 2008, perhaps because someone told him he looked like a clown. He’s at least owning up to global warming and, IIRC, evolution, and that ain’t nothing in this primary race.
ericblair
The first rule of public pandering is to make sure it doesn’t look like public pandering. To be successfully insincere you’ve got to have faking sincerity down cold, and Mittens can’t seem to do that. Well, also it adds to the challenge when you’re contradicting yourself on a weekly or even daily basis. Justifying that takes a real pro, and even then it mostly ends up as a spirited Chewbacca defense.
If this is all too difficult, you could just throw in the towel and tell people what you believe. Well, unless you’re a Republican, since people don’t really like what Republicans actually stand for. So maybe Mittens should go back to laying people off for fun and profit.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
You see this is where you and I differ. I’m far too pure in my liberalism to even dip my toe in the pool of these shenanigans. This is how the Republicans operate, do you want to be just like the Republicans? Hmmm? Hmmm?
While Obots like you are soiling yourself playing politics and trying to win an election I’ll be sitting high and mighty doing everything I can to show you just how pure of liberal mind I truly am. Like teaming up with Grosser Nosetwist to move the Overton Window. And contemplating how much more liberally pure a Hillary Clinton administration would have been.
Now leave me be, I must get back to reading the Jane Hamsters of the Left at Fire Dog Lake.
Good day, sir. Good day.
SiubhanDuinne
Niiiiiice title, DougJ!
aimai
Can I just say that I know a Bain guy, a VP from way back–who later was Head of the London School for Business (not the LSE, the Business school). These people are unmitigated assholes. I mean, its not possible to plum the depths of their instinctive, natural, impulsive shittiness on all things relating to race, class, and gender. These people give the very phrase “entitled asshole” a bad name.
aimai
aimai
Sorry, that should be “plumb” not “plum.”
aimai
BGinCHI
To take the junior high lunchroom analogy to its proper conclusion:
Here’s the problem.
The MSM knows the GOP are dumbasses but they also know that they will talk to them and give them quotes and be entertaining like a monkey on a leash.
The MSM also knows that the Dems are smarter and will fail to acknowledge that whatever the MSM does is brilliant, and so they fear getting shut out by cooler, more sophisticated Dems.
The MSM has chosen to be King of the Dipshits, since at least you get to be on top. Consequences be damned.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@aimai: We’re watching “Bleak House” right now. . .nice bunch of folks there!
Lolis
@Trurl:
I don’t think those numbers mean what you think they mean. Plus, the election is over a year off, what is his numbers are now mean pretty much next to nothing.
Stefan
It sees Romney as a phony because Mitt is a moderate Republican pretending to be a lunatic,
There’s a fine line between pretending to be a lunatic and actually being a lunatic. Would a sane, stable person willingly debase himself by pretending to be a lunatic for years on end? Doesn’t the very willingness to comport oneself as a lunatic indicate a certain level of lunacy?
gocart mozart
@J.W. Hamner:
Romney has zero chance to win the primary, all the others have less of a chance.
Poopyman
Did someone link (WaPo) this before? Mitt Romney’s transparently phony outrage.
Linda Featheringill
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:
:-)
Keith G
Mitt is going to end up being a tough candidate to beat. The Democratic blogosphere can afford to laugh. The White House can’t.
BGinCHI
@Poopyman: See Cole’s earlier post. Lots of detail there.
gocart mozart
@Stefan:
No. Not when the prize is so big.
BGinCHI
@Keith G: I hope that’s snark, cuz it’s about as completely as full of shit as it can get.
You’re absolutely right about Romney’s electability, as long as he just stands still, smiles, and waves at the camera. The minute he starts talking or gets his record scrutinized he’s fucked.
These conflict-free pre-election claims about this horrid GOP field are just concern trolling.
The Dangerman
@gocart mozart:
Looks like Perry is announcing this weekend; I just don’t see the appeal of another Texas Governor who has created jobs in his State by cutting nearly every workplace regulation on the books.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Mitt still has to become the nominee. No, I am looking forward to watching the President Perry speech justifying the Uzbekistan War.
cleek
@The Dangerman:
i didn’t see the appeal of the first one, either. people are … complex.
Redshift
@beltane:
Not to mention that they loved GW Bush for being “authentic,” despite the fact that his entire public persona was phony, from the Texas accent that no one else in his family had, to his “ranch” with no cows or horses, to his “business background” of failure and disaster…
Chris
@cleek:
I think Palin’s phoniness was just blatant to the point that it was impossible for anyone not in the teabagger base not to notice it (hence her high disapproval rating not only among liberals but among moderates). Too lazy and too much of a diva to even allow her handlers to guide her the way they did George W. Bush – that’ll do it.
Jewish Steel
I seem to recall reading somewhere that most incumbents go in below 50% approval. South of 42% is where one should be worried.
gocart mozart
@aimai:
I think you were right the first time. A substance that causes increased bowel movements fits better.
FlipYrWhig
@The Dangerman:
And who looks like an actor playing the last one.
FlipYrWhig
@Chris: It’s been really funny to see the banner ads here asking, “Is Sarah Palin doing a good job?” Sarah Palin has a job?
chopper
@FlipYrWhig:
are you kidding? like pimpin’, griftin’ aint easy.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@The Dangerman: And hiding a $31B 2yr budget shortfall until after his election.
t jasper parnell
The “cool table,” really? Name me a cool Republican.
Roger Moore
@Redshift:
He wasn’t a complete failure. He was OK as managing partner of the Rangers, where he was finally able to give up pretending that success had anything to do with merit. Once he was free to explicitly trade on personal contacts and demand a massive government subsidy, he was finally able to make some real money. Our capitalist system at work.
gocart mozart
@Jewish Steel:
I think Reagan was under 50% in ’83 also.
gocart mozart
G.H.W. Bush was at about 70% at this point and how did that work out for him? Polls mean almost squat over a year out.
Keith G
@BGinCHI: No snark on my part.
L. Ron Obama
Trurl said disapproval rate over 50%, not approval rate under 50%. These are not the same thing.
pragmatism
dammit that movie was awful dougj. i almost had it purged from my memory banks. *shakes fist*
Xecky Gilchrist
The national media has a Holden Caulfield-like hatred of “phonies”.
Caulfield was much better at spotting phonies and a waaaay better writer than most of these press mugs.
Judas Escargot
@Dave:
You, sir, are an inspiration to us all.
BTW it just occurred to me that if I register as a Republican, I get to vote against former Gov. Romney in the Mass primary next year.
Soul-searching time…
Grumpy Code Monkey
My nightmare ticket is Romney/Perry – who needs good government when you have good hair?
Add Friedman’s moustache as press secretary.
Steve M.
@t jasper parnell:
He isn’t in contention and never will be, but if he were, Jon Huntsman would be inspiring massive mancrushes in the press right now.
TG Chicago
DougJ: I guess your plan is great if your desire is to prove David Broder right.
James E. Powell
I don’t see much evidence for this. It’s hard to imagine a more transparent phony than George W. Bush, West Texas rancher, baseball team owner, uniter not divider. They not only fell for it, they sold it hard to the American people.
Other naked emperors who, because they are Republican, they are always treated as if they are fashionably attired: John McCain, Newt Gingrich, Lindsey Graham, and Haley Barbour.
I expect Rick Perry will get the same treatment. He will not only get a pass on his fervor for capital punishment, he will be praised as ‘tough on crime.’ The American people don’t mind it when their government kills innocent people if those people are brown (see, e.g., Iraq & Afghanistan). His talk of secession? Well, he’s just a colorful, good ol’ boy. If you mention it, you’re an elitist snob.
de stijl
Mark Hatfield is pretty much at room temperature by now.
jacy
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Fixed for future accuracy.
Southern Beale
Oh, Doug!
Sweet, innocent little Doug.
Gentle, lugubrious Doug. (What does lugubrious mean? I don’t know. I just liked it.)
You have forgotten the two cardinal rules of our modern political discourse:
1) It’s always Democrats fault and,
2) IOKIYAR! Always IOKIYAR!
Please. Don’t think if Mitt gets the nomination they won’t be using the IOKIYAR card every chance they get.
Give me a fucking break. How could you forget that one? It’s been IOKIYAR since the glorious days of “Teflon Ron.”
Stefan
Not to mention that they loved GW Bush for being “authentic,” despite the fact that his entire public persona was phony, from the Texas accent that no one else in his family had, to his “ranch” with no cows or horses, to his “business background” of failure and disaster…
It’s all in the framing. If instead of a “ranch” everyone had called it Bush’s “2,000 acre private estate”, people would have had a very different sense of what he was about. Compare and contrast your emotions upon hearing the phrases “he’s spending the month at his ranch” to “he’s spending the month at his 2,000 acre private estate”.
Gussy it up with some folksy down-home name and suddenly it’s charming.
Stefan
The national media has a Holden Caulfield-like hatred of “phonies”.
John McCain cough cough cough! Couldn’t be a phonier fraud than that guy, and yet they all happily lined up for a ride on the tire swing.
Stefan
He wasn’t a complete failure. He was OK as managing partner of the Rangers, where he was finally able to give up pretending that success had anything to do with merit. Once he was free to explicitly trade on personal contacts and demand a massive government subsidy, he was finally able to make some real money. Our capitalist system at work.
And, let’s not forget, work protected by a Big Government-sanctioned monopoly free from all outside competition. It’s not like anyone else could have waltzed into his market and set up a competing ball club. Easy to make money when you’re, quite literally, the only game in town.
t jasper parnell
@Steve M.: Sure, but so did whatshisname old man simpson, oh that’s it John McCain and so did Ryan but are either of them actually “cool”? I mean in the sense of actually cool like, I don’t know, Cary Grant or Errol Flynn?
Jenny
Tweety just did a segment on Romney being a weirdo and it was funny as hell.
I had no idea Mormons reject Jesus Christ as the Savior. That will really go over well with south primary voters.
Steve M.
@t jasper parnell: Well, we’re talking about “cool” by politics standards. When Chris Matthews popped a chubby watching Bush’s plane land on the deck of the Abraham Lincoln on Mission Accomplished day, that was a declaration of coolness, as was all that “Sigh, he gave me a nickname!” nonsense during 2000.
t jasper parnell
@Steve M.: So “cool table” actually refers to membership in a group composed of those too stupid to pound sand?
chopper
@Trurl:
jesus, we’re in the beginning of the second dip of a recession, unemployment is high and we just nearly defaulted. we’re still in afghanistan!
yet the dude’s approval rating is 47%! man, i’ll bet that keeps you up all night, doesn’t it? how is that possible? why don’t people hate him as much as you do?!?
chopper
@The Dangerman:
so, we have mitt “$50 abortions” romney, rick “the second coming of george bush” perry and michele bachmann. i didn’t come up with a nickname for that last one because she’s her own parody.
this is great.
TenguPhule
Given that GOP teatardism will reduce the military to staff officers and a lot of very complicated machines with no drivers, we will gladly accept the Mainland’s surrender right before marching the Republicans off to the ovens.