WHY WON’T TEAM OBAMA FIGHT! OBAMA IS PICKING ON ROMNEY!
And, it starts. Ben Smith and JMart have a gossipy piece (go figure!) in the Politico saying that the Obama campaign plans to destroy Romney:
A senior Obama adviser was even more cutting, suggesting that the Republican’s personal awkwardness will turn off voters.
“There’s a weirdness factor with Romney, and it remains to be seen how he wears with the public,” the adviser said, noting that the contrasts they’d drive between the president and the former Massachusetts governor would be “based on character to a great extent.”
The second aspect of the campaign to define Romney is his record as CEO of Bain Capital, a venture capital firm that was responsible for both creating and eliminating jobs. Obama officials intend to frame Romney as the very picture of greed in the great recession — a sort of political Gordon Gekko.
“He was very, very good at making a profit for himself and his partners but not nearly as good [at] saving jobs for communities,” said David Axelrod, the president’s chief strategist. “His is very much the profile of what we’ve seen in the last decade on Wall Street. He was about making money. And that’s fine. But often times, he made it at the expense of jobs in communities.”
That all seems fine and good to me. In fact, that kind of seems what the point of campaigns is- to point out the opposition’s flaws and make people less comfortable with the candidate so they don’t vote for him. I think strapping a dog to the roof of a car is weird. I think flip-flopping on everything is weird and a character issue. I think using the death of a relative to demonstrate your support for abortion and then deciding, when it is politically expedient, then becoming an anti-abortion zealot is weird and a sign of bad character. I think screaming about auto bailouts and socialism then claiming you rescued the auto industry is weird. And so on.
Not content to chum the water with several pages of unsourced crap, Smith and JMart add their own opinion:
None of the Obama advisers interviewed made any suggestion that Romney’s personal qualities would be connected to his minority Mormon faith, but the step from casting Romney as a bit off to raising questions about religion may not be a large step for some of the incumbent’s supporters.
So pointing out that he is a phony who does weird shit like pretend women pinched him on the ass and strapping a dog to a roof MIGHT MAYBE POSSIBLY COULD SORT EVENTUALLY LEAD TO ATTACKS ON HIS RELIGION. Even though none of the anonymous people even so much as suggested as much. But it could!
Enter the professional left:
Come on. These guys ran the entire 2008 campaign fighting dog whistle racism. They know how this works. Stop with the innocent virgin bit. You can’t run around the world preaching “religious tolerance” and defending the “inalienable rights” of people to freely practice religion, and then turn around and help people connect the dots between freaky Mitt Romney and freaky Mormonism.
But going negative may be the only path available to Obama right now. He can’t hope to activate true grassroots support and deliver what Wall Street oligarchs want at the same time. So he is appealing to the people who stand to benefit — wealthy donors — and asking for their support to impose austerity measures on the country.
You see! Even though NO ONE BUT BEN SMITH AND JMART mentioned religion, it is obvious that this is all about Mormonism. Note too, that, we have now adopted the McCain campaign rhetoric about Team Obama using race. Lemme guess- HE DEALT THE RELIGION CARD, AND HE DEALT IT FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE DECK!
Here’s the Raw Story, which is usually much better than this:
President Barack Obama’s advisers consider former governor Mitt Romney (R-MA) their most likely opponent in 2012, according to Ben Smith and Johnathan Martin of Politico. And so, in the words of one anonymous Democratic strategist, they are going to try to “kill” him by borrowing the tactics used by then-President George W. Bush (R) against Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) in 2004: portray him as waffling and “inauthentic” and, in an oft-used word, “weird.”
Why weird? Martin and Smith offer one explanation:
None of the Obama advisers interviewed made any suggestion that Romney’s personal qualities would be connected to his minority Mormon faith, but the step from casting Romney as a bit off to raising questions about religion may not be a large step for some of the incumbent’s supporters.
It’s not the first time Romney has faced questions about his faith from his political opponents: during the last presidential campaign, Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) staff was wont to make mention of it particularly often. It became a big enough issue that Romney himself addressed his religious beliefs in a speech in late 2007 that tied his own difficulties to those faced by then-Sen. John F. Kennedy during his own Presidential run.
Actually, no they didn’t mull any such thing. In fact, the very quote you based this whole story on says exactly the opposite. For Megan Carpentier, the fact that none of Obama’s advisers mentioned religion is ALL THE PROOF YOU NEED THAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT RELIGION.
I fully expect by the end of the week to hear Halperin and the other bobbleheads decrying this outrageous attack on Romney’s religion. If any of you were wondering what the upcoming election was going to be like, this should be a healthy primer for you. In order to win the WH in 2012, we are going to have to beat back the wingnuts and the GOP, Wall Street and the Banksters, the Chamber of Commerce, a worthless media, and our progressive betters.
*** Update ***
In response to a story that President Obama’s re-election campaign is prepping a “ferocious personal assault on Mitt Romney’s character and business background,” the Romney campaign sent CBS News a blistering statement from campaign manager Matt Rhoades deeming such a strategy “disgraceful” and “despicable.”
“It is disgraceful that President Obama’s campaign has launched his re-election with the stated goal to ‘kill’ his opponent with an onslaught of negative and personal attacks,” said Rhoades. “President Obama will say and do desperate things to hold onto power because he knows he has failed. Neither despicable threats, nor President Obama’s billion dollar negative campaign, will put Americans back to work, save their homes, or restore their hopes. On November 6, 2012, this will change.”
I quit.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
Shorter Skreetards: UPPITY!!
Emma
It’s enough to make one nauseous, isn’t it?
NonyNony
Wait – show me an example of our progressive betters in that list above.
Or did you mean Hamsher and my sarcasm detector isn’t firing properly?
Dave
we’re all a bit retarded today, aren’t we
wrb
Oh, c’mon.
If he is the candidate this place will be full of jokes about magic underwear and Planet Kolub.
Shit’s just too ripe.
gbear
That’s a lot of beating…
4tehlulz
Wait. He hates gays AND Mormons?
Karen
So Hamsher is now a Romney fan?
Or is she so slash and burn and scorched earth that she’d rather have Romney be President when Romney is as anti-progressive as he has to be to be a Republican?
Jane Hamsher saying that because Obama didn’t bring up religion that means Obama is really talking about religion is the same as saying Obama didn’t talk about incest so that proves that Obama really wants to rape his daughter.
JC
@gbear:
So what are the ways to do it?
4tehlulz
@Karen: Keep that up, and you might end up getting a job at FDL.
PeakVT
Surprise! Gossip remains easier to cover than actual governance.
And we’re still 15 months out from the general election.
Rob
Team Obama’s “fighting dog whistle racism” = “using race” like McCain charged??
Villago Delenda Est
Why is anyone surprised that team Obama sees Romney as their greatest danger? He’s one of the two or three borderline sane GOP contenders.
I’m sure that these guys (the Obama brain trust) are less concerned about the general if they are handed the gift of Michelle Bachmann than the far more pragmatic and, let’s be upfront about it, “Presidential” Romney.
John Cole
Because virgin birth, resurrection, drinking the blood and eating the body of Christ, not eating meat on Friday, and on and on- all that shit ISN’T weird?
Agoraphobic Kleptomaniac
I love when the moronitude of current “journalism” is so clear and sharp, with the echochamber of blogs is busy punching the truth in the gut so even though it has it’s pants on, it’s not getting out the door.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Which I realize qualifies by the end of the week, but you’ve left yourself so much space as to be technically true but collectively nonsense.
Martin
God, Politico is horrible. They know full well that the long knives come out during the primaries from members of the same party. The birther shit wasn’t a GOP attack, it was from the PUMA camp. That’s always how it works.
If anyone goes after Romney over religion or anything else, it’ll start from the GOP camp first. By the time the general rolls around, the attacks are much more subtle and less personal. Which is why the Palin ‘palling around with terrorists’ attacks were so glaring – it was outside the normal rules of play for that stage of the election.
Professor Booty
Maybe it’s from living in Utah the last 7 years, but I for one am VERY uncomfortable with the idea of a Mormon president. (I would be not untroubled by voting for a Muslim, in fact.) The idea that we can’t even raise religion with candidates who wear it on their sleeves is ridiculous. Religion per se demands no respect, particularly when it influences political decision-making — it is no less relevant to a candidate’s suitability than his or her other political/cultural affiliations.
Linda Featheringill
Mitt is not a newcomer to politics. He knows how campaigns go.
All major religions have some weird folks attached to them. Saying that Romney is weird is not the same as saying the Mormons are weird.
Geez. I’ve known some weird Catholics in my time, along with some weird Jews, and weird Orthodox Christians, and weird Southern Baptists, etc.
Whether their respective religions are strange is another question altogether.
But I do find Megan weird. What religion is she?
Karen
You put me in moderation but you won’t let me edit my comment to make it more moderate?
j low
Our entire nation is insane. Even the good guys. Time to go live in the mountains and grow weed.
JC
Well, the one good thing, is that Obama is succeeding in making the Republicans unpopular.
Villago Delenda Est
@John Cole:
The PZ Myers demographic is fairly small, there are tons of people who actually don’t see any of that as weird, no matter how much PZ and I boggle at them.
Karen
@4tehlulz:
You misunderstand me. I’m saying that’s what Jane Hamsher is saying…to prove how evilly ridiculous she is.
eemom
Hamsher was creaming her panties yesterday because TMZ reported that Michael Moore said — at a FDL “seminar” — that Matt Damon should run for President.
The letters on my keyboard that spell “can’t make this shit up” are worn down to little nubs.
Ben Cisco
Come on, man! Wouldn’t you have been more surprised if Baby Jane hadn’t jumped in with both hooves?
And this is exactly what they want.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
I don’t have an FDL account. Someone who does should post that it was Politico, not Obama, that brought up religion, and see how long the comment stays up.
bkny
you need to get up earlier … it’s the daily meme … (well, that and the mean newsweek photo that tina brown helpfully casts michelle bachmann as a victim.)
anyway … this politico story was covered quite thoroughly according to script on killerjoe this morning…
gbear
@JC: I’d say that John just got off to a good start. He just covered a lot of territory very succinctly. Steve Benen does a good job of this too. All we can do is shine a bright light on the bullshit. Hopefully the message will start to sink in. Hopefully (he says…).
Martin
@John Cole:
Well, to be honest, once Twilight mainstreamed half of that stuff it all seemed a lot more normal.
Rommie
Considering the other Republican candidates will bring up his religion early and often, by the time it made it to the general election it won’t be that big a deal. His primary opponents will destroy Romney with more vigor than Obama ever could.
Professor Booty
@PeakVT: @John Cole: That shit IS totally weird, but guess what: most mainstream Jews and Catholics don’t take their faith seriously. Unlike the evangelical snake-handlers and — especially — the Mormons. (In fact, I’ve always suspected that the reason “establishment” evangelicals look down on Mormons is that the Mormons actually believe what they preach, they aren’t sanctimonious hypocrites. But I’d rather be governed by a hypocrite!)
wrb
@John Cole:
Plenty weird, just lacks the novelty.
Went to a Buddhist Chod ceremony last week in which we were to meditate on this wild woman cutting off our heads and boiling them. In order to reach enlightenment, you know.
Villago Delenda Est
@PeakVT:
DING DING DING DING DING!
You’ve summed up the rancid bag of dog poo that is “Politico” perfectly.
Gin & Tonic
If people think this stuff is hard-hitting, they should familiarize themselves with some of the 19-th century presidential campaigns.
Derf
Cole concern trolling Obama. Nothing new here…
Mike Goetz
Romney is weird. He has a weird affect, weird mannerisms. Everything he says has the right notes, but the music isn’t there. It has nothing to do with Mormonism.
Anyway, Obama isn’t going to have to savage Romney. Perry will take care of that himself. He isn’t shy about it.
Oh, and the new CNN poll has Republicans cratering to 33% approval, 59% disapproval. Obama did that.
lol
@Martin:
The birther shit came from the right and started off as a smear against Hillary.
Remember that WND article debunking birtherism at the very beginning? It was about here was this young clean well-spoken negro and the Hillary camp was spreading all these slanderous lies about how he was born in another country.
Once it became clear Obama was a threat, WND embraced birtherism, of course and as the primary dragged on, elements of Hillary’s supporters embraced it.
But it originally came from the right and the smear wasn’t that Obama was born in another country but that Hillary’s camp was saying he was.
If you dig through all the claims that Hillary was the one who started it, you’re inevitably going to trace it back to the WND article nearly 5 years ago.
It has the same amount of validity as the claim that Al Gore was one who first ran Willie Horton attack ads against Dukakis in the primaries.
Villago Delenda Est
@eemom:
Is that really too far off from getting some considerably less thespian movie star than Matt Damon type who once co-starred with a monkey to run first for Governor of California, and then for President?
Jay in Oregon
QFT:
El Cid
…There were no suggestions by Obama advisers that the campaign would focus on firebombing Romney’s houses or on targeting his children with Predator drone strikes.
OBAMA CAMPAIGN TARGETS ROMNEYS CHILDREN WITH PREDATOR DRONES!*
*It occurred to me after typing this that you’d have to type a lot more about how, yes, Predator drone strikes are continuing to blow children into meat pieces in an expanding list of nations, but, but, that’s totally because there’s bad intelligence and unfortunate timing and it’s not about a political campaign, not really. This realization means I love the terrorists.
Judas Escargot
The Romney camp is presumably scrubbing youtube clips of the 1994 Senate campaign as we speak. The almost-liberal Mitt who tried to buy Kennedy’s Senate seat won’t play well with the Teeps.
If they have any brains, the other GOP campaigns are keeping copies.
jl
@34 efgoldman
Ah… but now we have published evidence from Politico that Obama started it! Whatever the crazies in the GOP primary do, well, now that we know, how could you blame them?
I should have taken in interest in HS student government, especially the adolescent nasty dirty tricks side, and the name calling, ah yes, the name calling, and the elaborate pretext building.
I coulda been a contender! For a bigshot national political analyst. But nooooooooooo, I had to waste my time on band and cross country. Stupid me.
chopper
there’s no need for the WH to go after his religion, the other goopers are going to do a great job of that themselves. but, whether or not the WH meant for this blurb to come out this way, it is in obama’s best interest to let the issue be brought up by the media.
personally, i think there are other issues that will resonate even more with the GOP base, ones that obama can bring up in a non-nasty way (embracing, over and over again, romney’s health care bill, making sure to point out that obama’s doesn’t go as far as to cover things like abortion etc). it’s like with huntsman, hugging him close will destroy the dude’s candidacy.
let the goopers flip out over who’s jesus is what. romney has plenty of skeletons in his closet and it doesn’t matter what kind of crazy underwear they’re wearing.
Loneoak
So. Fucking. Tiresome.
PeakVT
Matt Damon is too shrill to ever be elected president.
Villago Delenda Est
@Gin & Tonic:
“Ma! Ma! Where’s my pa?”
“Gone to the White House ha ha ha!”
cleek
rumor goes in, bounces around a bit, eventually reaches a state of excitation and polarization sufficient to break through the normally impenetrable barrier that separates blogs from the MSM. and the result is a searing stream of FALSE that burns everything it touches.
it’s like a LASER, but with nonsense as input and paid hacks as the oscillator. i shall call it the RASH : Rumor Amplification by Stimulation of Hacks.
seanindc
This will have a lifespan of a week and a fuckin half…besides the point isn’t so much to get Dems onboard with attacking Romney as much as it is about making the other Teatards either a) defend Romney and Mormonism or b) giving them the opportunity to say yeah, mormons are weird (and they are…)
TenguPhule
Ahem, the beatings will continue until morale improves.
Poopyman
@gbear:
I’m up for it. When do we start?
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Derf: Know what I love about you, Derf? Your name has the same effect in my brain as seeing a pile of wet dog shit.
Judas Escargot
@eemom:
If Matt Damon decided to come back to Mass and run for Brown’s seat (another rumor I’ve heard, which of course means nothing), he’d have a better chance than Elizabeth Warren would.
And if Brown’s worthy of a Senate seat, Damon is certainly more so.
Dave S.
This gives the GOP hopefuls some cover in going after Romney’s religion. “I didn’t start it, Obama started it!” More out of sorrow than anger, etc. (I see [email protected] beat me to this.)
martha
Um, I’m sorry, but wait until the fundies and Catholics and just regular folk hear that Mormons believe that Jesus showed up in South America after his death and resurrection and that his second coming will occur in the state of Missouri. Can you see the heads explode?
Tonal Crow
This again. Please show us on the doll where Jane Hamster touched you.
LarsThorwald
Recession. Downgrade. Tea Party. Media fecklessness. Class disparity. Syria. London. Insanity.
The image I keep coming back to is Fred Thompson standing on the deck of that carrier, looking at the plane wreckage, and saying to Jack Ryan, “This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we’ll be lucky to live through it.”
chopper
@cleek:
lol. einstein’s ghost is nodding with approval.
jl
@47 But Cleveland paid his child support! No teabagger he. What a fool he would be today. The dork wouldn’t stand a chance.
Some one would get a hold of a check and splash it on leaflets all around the country. And nobody would never vote for the randy Cleveland, who betrayed all that good right thinking olde timey self righteous moral posturing and false passive aggressive humbility that made this nation great.
BTW, what happened to ‘randy’ the concept seems so quaint now.
Countme In
Since we live in a “civilized” polity and have to cool our heels between elections to punish Republican filth, it’s always good to see Swift-Boaters plucked from their Porsches by their vengeful God.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/08/08/texas-billionaire-charles-wyly-killed-in-colo/
More accidents like this please.
El Cid
@martha: Don’t make me break out my seer stones and hat.
FlipYrWhig
Remember how liberals used to pride themselves on being the “reality-based community”? That was a lot better than being the “rumor-swallowing sloppy-reading hyperventilating-based community.”
chopper
of course, with news that obama’s going to come out swinging against romney, it’s expected that the hamsherites would see this as proof that obama has no fight in him.
usually switching from forward to reverse that hard will fuck up your transmission.
Valenciennes
Can we just get it over with and start rioting here now? Please?
The Worst Person In the World
Yes, it is clear that it has never occurred to anyone in the Obama white house that his Mormonism might be a useful wedge issue for them in the coming campaign. Those folks…they’re as pure as the driven snow.
It’s getting weird watching John and his faithful Obamacolebots twist themselves into bloody pretzels to rationalize how haaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrd it is for poor Barack to catch a break.
Poopyman
@Rommie:
Uh, NOPE! “It’s out there” now, and they’re sticking the Obama team with it. Very clever hit piece, actually aimed at Obama.
jl
I forget whether this is an urban legend, or I saw it in the parts of the Book of Morman that I was able to wade through long ago.
But the New World holy warriors, as I remember, went to battle riding giant tapers, is that right?
Not sure whether that is a plus or minus, campaign wise. I will watch Politico for an analysis.
martha
@El Cid: LOL. Sort of immunizes wiccans for all time, at least in my book.
sparky
did i miss something? isn’t ginning up fake controversies a necessity when there’s nothing
i want to write aboutnothing of substance to discuss?weird is a container word, in that people can toss pretty much anything they want into it (see comments above). i would be surprised if anyone in the Obama campaign was stupid enough to get caught tossing “religion” into the “weird” bucket. that said, i doubt they would be upset if it happened.
presumably the idea is just to get the meme of “weird” out there, possibly to have Romney lose some primaries. it would certainly be better for the Ds to face a *cough* “crazy lady” than Romney in the general election.
chopper
@Mike Goetz:
right. people in general dislike his used car salesman demeanor and the fact that he’ll say anything at all, even stuff that directly contradicts something he just said.
the mormon thing adds to that weirdness for sure, but that’s more an issue in the primary than in the general.
trollhattan
This “Obama is Mean!” preemptive volley seems to dovetail with WSJ’s renewed “Obama: he be dumb” attacks.
I guess it means he’s just clever enough to insult others but cannot otherwise tie his own shoes. Sigh.
http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/93396/the-obama-dumb-meme
Villago Delenda Est
@Countme In:
Amen. Now if we can just arrange for the Koch brothers to be strangled by their courtesans…
Villago Delenda Est
@jl:
When you think of the Mormons as the Scientologists of the 19th Century, everything clicks into place.
chopper
@Poopyman:
meh. the media is salivating for a street fight. if the other GOP candidates won’t break the seal on romney’s religion, they’ll find a way to take something obama said and do it. the election’s more than a year away and these guys want every day to be high drama, preferably bloody.
trollhattan
@jl:
I’m pretty sure they ride Xenu ponies. Oh, wait….
trollhattan
@Villago Delenda Est:
Aw, beat me to it!
FlipYrWhig
@chopper:
Because of that other meme out there, that Obama does fight when he wants something badly enough, so when he doesn’t fight it’s because he doesn’t want that thing. So this way he can fight hard to be reelected but won’t fight hard to do good for The People, validating the canons of the Hams(t/h)er Dancers.
shortstop
You’re not supposed to quit; you’re supposed to hate everyone.
Felinious Wench
As all of this BS start flying, and the Republicans start the Indignant Parade, I’d love it if the Obama campaign would respond with “You’re right, it is despicable. Which is why we didn’t say it.”
Samara Morgan
@John Cole: but where is the complete tweetset set of your epic tweetwar with Greenwald?
dummie…..its always all about religion….or sex.
:)
Constance
@John Cole:
I seem to recall that the Mormon prophet received at least some of the revelations from a white salamander when said prophet was sitting in a dank cave. A friend used to refer to The Church of Latter-Day Saints as the science fiction entry in religions. Now that I think about it, that’s redundant. They are all science fiction. Gawd impregnated a virgin, Mohammet rode to heaven on his fiery steed, Gawd gave Moses the burning tablets. Well, I don’t need to go into detail.
fasteddie9318
FIREBAGGERS, ASSEMBLE!
Seriously, Hamsher is really a ratfucker running a long con, right?
Stooleo
Obama is rudderless and over his head. Latest fish wrap from Dana Milbank. Ugh..
Culture of Truth
As a person, Romney is probably no more or less weird than your average adult American. As a politician, he does have a weird affect, I suspect because he got into politics because of his family history and has no idea what’s he supposed to do or say when he’s playacting at this “politician” business, and does not have strong if any political convictions.
In other words, he’s white guy who thinks, ‘why shouldn’t I be President?’, but that’s as far as he’s gotten.
Poopyman
@Constance: No science, all fiction. To paraphrase Joseph Campbell, -other people’s- religion is “mythology”.
mk387
STOP directing traffic to POLITICO!
The “story” was based on stuff that unnamed sources who are supposed “Democratic strategists” told Ben Smith in a conversation.
Politico is the Natl Enquirer of DC gossip. Stay AWAY!
Ash Can
Shorter Mitt Romney: “MO-OMMM!! BARACK’S CAMPAIGNING AGAINST ME! MAKE HIM STOP IT!”
@Tonal Crow: Hey, if Cole didn’t skewer asininity, this blog would hardly exist. And since Hamsher provides so much of it, it’s no surprised she gets as much coverage here as she does.
So Hamsher is leaping to Mitt’s defense, eh? How long till she just comes right out and declares herself a Republican?
Danny
Well what’s new? Jane is a ratfucker and if we needed more proof it’s hard to defend peddling that kind of D.C. smear job if you’re not actively looking for attack vectors against a guy on ones own team.
For all we know Romney payed Mark Penn to plant this shit with Politico. After all these kinds of stories are very convenient for Romney when he eventually will have to defend all his flip flops should he get to the general election.
Elie
@FlipYrWhig:
Yeah, that is gone for good. Now half of us are in crazyland just like the Tea Partiers. I wonder though if that is true or whether there have been people “planted” to give that impression. The internet is apparently a pretty easy tool to use for misdirection, not to speak outright fraud. Its pretty scary sometimes to think about…
Marci Kiser
To be fair, a ‘billion-dollar negative campaign’ is bound to put at least a few people to work, right?
Samara Morgan
@Constance: and the US spent 10 years and 4.4 trillion dollars to make Iraq into a client state and trading partner.
sad for us, Islam is an uninvadable strategy.
:)
Thoughtcrime
My, such delicate flowers these Republicans are.
Essential furniture in all of their offices:
http://www.victoriantradingco.com/store/catalogimages/2d/i9084.html
Bizono
Love how this plays right into the victimized conservatives narrative like a big fat hanging curve across the middle of the plate. The next 14 months are going to suuuuuuuuuuuck….
Elie
@mk387:
John just can’t seem to avoid tempting those “outrage” hits from linking to Politico and other garbage…
chopper
trying to find out what happened with the fed’s meeting but can’t find any news. was supposed to come out at 2:15, zerohedge crashed and the dow is off a cliff.
anyone?
Ash Can
@jl:
I’m picturing these guys riding giant candles into battle.
Sly
@Tonal Crow:
The place that goes into convulsive shock every time an idiot tries to insult the intelligence of their intellectual betters.
Samara Morgan
@Danny: i wunner why Cole isnt linking GG.
he spent all night twitterfighting him.
PeakVT
@chopper: See CR.
ETA: and the DOW has bounced back, with a round trip delta of about 400pts. Neat.
trollhattan
How does “Mitt Romney’s transparently phony outrage” sound?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/mitt-romneys-transparently-phony-outrage/2011/03/03/gIQAYQOk4I_blog.html?hpid=z2
Works for me. Moar plz.
Culture of Truth
@chopper: FOMC says low benchmark rate of 0-0.25 through mid-2013.
ed drone
@John Cole:
I recall a cartoon (New Yorker?) right after the “no meat on Friday” thing got phased out. It was a demon, on the phone to the boss, asking, “So now what do we do with these clowns who ate meat on Friday?” It was amusing, and pointed out the silliness of the whole top-down, rules-based, inflexible aspect of (far too many) religions (not just Catholicism).
Ed
Derf
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): Really digging into that grade school comeback material now. Always happy to hear from my groupies. Hugs and kisses.
mcd410x
Cole, it’s August, this is what happens. Kick back, put down the Internets, have another drink and contemplate the Eers. It’s almost football time!
chopper
fed’s website is down too. jesus, it’s like that bit in airplane when all the reporters run into the line of phone booths at once and knock it over.
lol. what a country.
Kane
Isn’t it all about framing issues and portraying an opponent in a negative light before they get into the race? This is the same strategy that Politico and others for years praised Rove for, and why they called him The Brain. It would be political malpractice if Team Obama didn’t kneecap Romney at every opportunity.
But it’s doubtful that Team Obama will need to bring up Romney’s Mormanism. That issue will surely be brought up repeatedly by the surrogates of Bachmann and Perry. If Romney should reach the general election, that issue will already be widely known. Then Team Obama can simply remind voters of Romney’s religion by insisting that they are not going to make Romney’s religion an issue.
fhtagn
How does Jane Hamsher manage to whistle Dixie with her mouth wrapped firmly around Grover Norquist’s nether parts? Does she just have unusually talented nostrils?
cokane
great read john, thanks for the sanity
chopper
@Culture of Truth:
well whoopdee-shit. “we’re going to monitor the patient’s severe blood loss as it continues. shit, that’s a lot of blood, mike. shouldn’t we get a transfusion or somethin?”.
Danny
@Samara Morgan:
I better keep on staying off twitter then. There’s only so much outrage my body can take…
Poopyman
@Ash Can:
For some reason my mind went to “tapeworm”, like something out of “Dune”. I am sick.
kc
I think Romney is the LEAST weird of the GOP candidates.
Why is Obama’s strategist leaking campaign strategy now? Or is that just part of the strategery?
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
@fhtagn: Awesome.
askew
@trollhattan:
The PL has been pushing the Obama is dumb meme since he got elected. It’s not a surprise that the Republicans are using yet another PL talking point to attack Obama with.
Obama’s team is calling out Romney’s Crocodile tears already –
jl
@98 Ash Can. Sorry. I meant tapirs, not tapers.
Culture of Truth
I suspect Mitt desperately wishes he was born a Baptist.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
Um. Could Tapers be TAPIRS? (The black & white pig type things vs. the little skinny candle things.)
EDIT: Apparently the answer is yes.
Culture of Truth
No, no, no, riding Tappers.
Jake and his brothers.
chopper
welp. i guess they’re hiding behind their mandate and doing little. can’t blame em, another round of quantitative easing would be more than a bit premature and would piss off our foreign bondholders somefin fierce.
Three-nineteen
@John Cole: All that stuff you mention is from Catholicism. We’ve only had one Catholic president, and damn straight it was used against him.
aisce
@ chopper
no QE3. fed is gonna go wait quietly in the corner and hope shit works itself out on its own. for now.
Ash Can
@jl: I’m just funnin’ ya. I figured that was probably what you meant. Although I’m not sure which image is more absurd.
Sly
@John Cole:
No, they constitute some of, but not all, of the absurd beliefs held by those of the dominant culture. Weirdness, to a very large extent, is relative and governed by the drive toward conformity.
If someone came along saying they were an disciple of Odin and that the All-Father will be mightily displeased with them unless a horse sacrifice is undertaken before the end of the slaughter month, you’d think they were weird because no one you know believes that kind of thing.
jl
@118 Thoughtful black citizen. Yes, tapirs.
Note: See, folks, this tapirs thing in the Book of Mormon will be a big issue. Is in manly to go into holy battle riding on a tapir?
Anyway, you heard it here first. I leave it to Politico to take up this important issue and do an in depth analysis with exclusive inside info from Unnamed Source.
Edit: IMHO it is manly since those battles were always fierce, fought from sun up to sun down, and they fought and fought, forever, until somebody or other won. Question is, how will it ring with NASCAR dads? Can they identify?
fhtagn
@Culture of Truth:
You could catch Spurious Tapper Disease that way. Just sayin’.
Turgidson
I am now convinced Jane Hamsher of the left will throw a goddamn victory party if Obama loses. Doesn’t matter to who, doesn’t matter that the GOP candidate will either be utterly deranged, have no soul, or both, and will inflict brutal and irreparable damage on the country and likely the world, on purpose. She’s just gonna be so happy her mortal enemy and enemy of liberals everywhere Barack Obama (D) has lost.
I am going to take more care not to casually lump other sometimes-petulant liberals who have justifiable beefs with Obama but express them poorly, with Jane from now on. With Jane it’s just pure, blind hatred.
fhtagn
@Sly:
Could we just sacrifice horse’s asses instead? I hear that FOX/GOP has an endless supply.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
@Culture of Truth: Tappers, wouldn’t that be Larry Craig & pals?
chopper
@PeakVT:
man, i’m getting whiplash here.
Samara Morgan
@Sly: nah, thats pretty much normalized like medieval ensoulment. The GOP has that as part of the official republican party platform.
The GOP is 99% white (non-hispanic cauc) conservative christian at this point.
Take that Thomas Jefferson, you elitist polymath snob!
nastybrutishntall
@4tehlulz: Congrats! You won all the internets today.
Suffern ACE
I agree with the posters above that Politico is trying to get the Obama admin to fire the first shot to cover for republican primary candidates who want to “go there” but want to claim that it is the Dems who started it. What they want, since they need Mormon votes is have the conversation be “Mormon Romney Mormon Romney” so that they can talk about Mormonism for the benefit of their fundie base without being caught saying it.
Duckest Fuckingway: Ask not for whom the Duck Fucks. . .
Peak VT: Too soon spoke, you did.
Turgidson
And geez. If there was ever a perfect example of why the bully pulpit usually won’t work the way people think, here it is. WTF are they supposed to do if they’re going to be accused of “zomg scary Mormonz”-baiting every time they say anything negative about Mittens? It’s gonna be a long election season.
jl
@131 Thomas Jefferson is not worried. He reasoned from first principles that such silly superstitions as the Trinity and predestination, and endtimes prophecies would die out in the United States soon after his life time. QED.
CalD
Asked to comment on the story by Politico, famed cartoon cat Sylvester had this to say:
eyelessgame
Look at the headline. Then at the story. Then back at the headline. Then back to the story. Sadly, the headline is contradicted by the story. But if you’re a political hack, you can make the headline *into* the story. Look down. Back up. You’re in fantasyland, with two tickets to complete ignorance. Anything is possible when you don’t care about reality. I’m on a unicorn.
PeakVT
It’s a good thing our markets are so eminently rational.
jl
@135 Trugidson
They are going to say anything and everything no matter what Obama does. So, best to ignore it, or make fun of it, or call it out, and pursue the best political strategy regardless of what they say.
The health care, Medicare, and Social Security, and debt ceiling debates made it clear that the GOP will try any crazy and dishonest thing that they think might work. And media organizations like Politico that have a high proportion of political operatives masquerading as analysts and reporters will help pave the way. So, you can’t use it as an excuse to do nothing, or be passive.
Draylon Hogg
If Mitt wins will he tithe ten per cent of GDP and ban tea and coffee?
Danny
@eyelessgame:
That’s brilliant
TooManyJens
@Poopyman:
Exactly. And it wasn’t all that subtle, either. Anybody who fell for it either is really stupid, or wanted it to be true.
Donut
Jebus H. on a popsicle stick, it’s a fukkin trial balloon. The Obama re-elect people are just testing the waters on how this stuff will play in the Village. This is a great time to do it, too, it “gets out there” (in the Cokie Roberts sense, if you know what I mean) and long before it’s meaningful, it’s planted in the minds of the chattering class. They tsk tsk now but in the heat of campaign season, if if if Romney is the nominee, his oddities and flip-flopping are already part of the conversation. I guess I don’t see how this is much of anything to care about right now. Romney is getting a lot of negative attention for not competing in the IA straw poll this week, so the timing is not coincidental.
The Politico guys are happy to propagandize for anyone, really, not only GOPers.
Oh yeah, and Hamsher is an unmitigated fool. Much like with Sullivan, I’m constantly amazed at how much time and effort a lot of people seem to put in to counterattacking her. It’s such a waste of time.
chopper
love it. the goopers went on a wholesale crazyfest over obama’s religion, his pastor, his sekret mooslimness, and obama’s campaign calls romney ‘weird’ and politico is all ‘oh noes, he’s attacking his mormonity!’
rikyrah
go TEAM OBAMA
RIP WILLARD TO SHREDS.
PERIOD.
Sincerely,
a Strong Supporter
OzoneR
well at least the firebaggers get attention from the media
OzoneR
Progressives attacking Obama for doing what they wanted him to do?
I’m shocked.
Ron
I sorta feel like John here. Between the village idiots and the “professional left” who is left to actually discuss things honestly?
Danny
If we ignore recent history where ratfucking and friendly fire has lost us multiple presidencies, then sure. Otherwise, no. Enemies should be clearly labeled as such and kicked out, otherwise they’ll concern troll and fuck shit up. (Re Hamsher, not Sullivan btw)
Jay in Oregon
@The Worst Person In the World:
I don’t deny that there are probably people in Obama’s campaign team who are calculating the pros and cons of addressing Romney’s religion.
But taking my acknowledgment that the possibility exists and reporting it as proof is bullshit.
Rarely Guppert
Wait, so they’re saying that for some reason on November 6, 2012, his “negative campaign” will start putting Americans back to work, save their homes, and restore their hopes? Because that’s pretty much how I’m reading it.
Not very bright press writers over there at Mittens’ camp, are they?
Kane
Aimed at Romney, but conveniently blamed on Obama.
Now everyone with an ax to grind with Romney can remind everyone that Romney is a mormon by voicing outrage that Team Obama brought up the issue that Romney is a mormon. Because they don’t think that Romney is a mormon should be an issue, but obviously Obama must think that it’s important that Romney is a mormon.
TooManyJens
I want to know exactly how many people would have thought that “weird” (especially with all the specific examples of weirdness that Axelrod et al. gave) was a dog-whistle for “Mormon” if Politico hadn’t put the thought into their heads. It’s like Inception for Dummies — Politico plants the idea there, and suddenly everyone thinks it’s Obama’s idea.
@Jay in Oregon:
Oh, but this is what we do now. Every rumor, every bit of unsourced gossip that never comes to pass is proof of how Obama really wants to dismantle the safety net and turn our country into Randtopia. So of course people with that mindset will respond to this exactly as though Obama had already done what Politico told them he might do.
I hate people today. Wisconsin, y’all better cheer me up.
trollhattan
@Kane:
Yep. It’s wingnut huntin’ season. I’m wearing flag orange for the next fifteen months.
Jamey: Bike Commuter of the Gods
Wow, talk about preemptive: Mittens hasn’t even finished fifth behind Bachmann, and he’s already taking the fight to O
thellobama.Jamey: Bike Commuter of the Gods
Also: I hereby declare Warren Jeffs to be Romney’s Jeremiah Wright. Who’s with me?
Heliopause
John, I hate to break it to you, but “weird” is dogwhistle for “Mormon.”
Pretending to be pinched on the ass is a prevalent form of humor, though less socially acceptable as time goes by. It’s not “weird”.
Putting your dog in a kennel and tying it to the roof of the car shows a level of nonchalance that I will see at least half a dozen times in a five minute stroll around my neighborhood. It’s not “weird”, it’s how about half of all dog-owners approach their pets.
Do you have any other examples of Romney’s weirdness aside from these two not-weird anecdotes?
Pat
Who are primarily responsible for about 99.1% of current conditions.
Cacti
@Linda Featheringill:
I’ll happily say that Mormons and Mormonism are weird, and that comes from 20+ years of firsthand experience.
Romney’s social awkwardness is typical of Mormons when interacting with non-Mo’s. More experienced Mormon pols like Reid and Hatch have learned to hide it.
fhtagn
@Heliopause:
So we now consider padded cells to be a neighborhood? Interesting and significant.
TooManyJens
@Heliopause: I swear to God, I have no idea if you’re being sarcastic or not. That’s how crazy it’s gotten around here.
Pat
Behold the new Team Obama “A” game. Now hiring Progressive Betters.
rea
If “weird” is a dog-whistle for “Mormon” then Palin, Bachmann, Paul, Perry, etc., must all be Mormons.
TG Chicago
According to John Cole, since nobody on the right ever explicitly said to Politico that their “he’s not like us” attacks on Obama were thinly-veiled racism, that means that they were no such thing.
John, the whole point is to bring unfair attacks into play without explicitly mentioning them. That’s what the Obama team is doing here.
Jewish Steel
Oh, man! Wait’ll Mitt’s sister wives hear about this!
Heliopause
@John Cole:
Um, no, politically speaking it is not the slightest bit weird since a high percentage of the electorate believe it.
TooManyJens
I’d like to see the evidence that Obama has ever run the kind of campaign that would depend on thinly-veiled religious bigotry. Has he ever run against an opponent of a religious minority before? Did he use thinly-veiled sexism against Hillary Clinton? (I would argue no, but I know there are people who disagree.) And no, his advisors supposedly dropping hints in this article doesn’t count, because that’s assuming what you’re trying to prove.
Second of all, even if we grant for the sake of argument that the Obama campaign is planning to use Mormon dogwhistles, I maintain that it’s inconsistent with what we’ve seen of his campaigning style to think they they’d already be pulling that tactic out. As many, many people before me have noted, Romney’s opponents in the GOP primary will be happy to use that against him. Obama sitting back and letting the other GOP candidates do all the work seems like much more his style to me — why not let the Republicans damage each other and save your firepower for when it matters?
This has been another installment of “This Politico story is bullshit and I’m mad at the people who fell for it.”
Too Many Jimpersons (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
I’ve said this more times than I can count, but I’ll say it again anyway: This country is done if we can’t get a better press. It doesn’t matter if the Republican Party burns itself to the ground and the teabaggers fade into deserved obscurity. There will be some other bunch of sadistic, soulless assholes who will crop up after a while. And if that one doesn’t take over and blow up the country, there will be another one after that, and then another one after that. Sooner or later, if these groups get free passes from the press, one of them will make it, and turn this country into the paradise the teabaggers are trying to turn it into now. No society can keep paying with fire this way forever and not get burned.
Now, the big advantage we have is that the teabaggers are, yes, sociopathic, soulless, fascistic assholes. That gives the rest of us a leg up, since most people don’t like sociopathic, soulless, fascistic assholes. The trouble is that the press won’t call them out on their depravity. And as long as the press won’t call them out in their depravity, they keep getting free swings. It’s like if the unpire at a baseball game suddenly decided not to call strikes on one truly bad team. Now, rather than making outs every time they come up, they get walks. And sooner or later, if they don’t need to worry about stiking out, one of them will end up hitting one over the wall. That’s what worries me. If the teabaggers, or anybody like them, hits a home run, I fear we’ll end up living in a theocracy.
We need a way to shake the press out of its stupor. We need to take a good look at what the right did to beat the press into being its lapdog, and use some of those methods on the press on our behalf, or rather on the behalf of the truth. We need to do this not to turn the press into a shivering, cowed bunch of bootlickers, but to get them to do their fucking job and write about the news the way it’s happening, and not the way some Republican shill wants it to be. I don’t have the first damned clue how to do this, but it needs to be a long-haul liberal undertaking. I only hope we can pull it off before the teabaggers, or their heirs, hit that home run.
ABL
::STANDING OVATION::
::exits::
EriktheRed
No, John, NO!
Jay
I filed away, for just this moment, Romney’s reaction to the sickening spectacle of a sitting President giving in to what were obviously racially motivated attacks and releasing his birth certificate: “What President Obama should really be releasing is a jobs plan.” (http://bit.ly/hsTnai)
See what Romney did there? Fake in every way. He created the impression that he was brushing it off, then didn’t condemn any of the ugliness behind the “birther” issue (I’m actually surprised he didn’t go the full Kirchick and blame Liberals.).
Take a hike, Willard.
Draylon Hogg
@Too Many Jimpersons (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.): Didn’t they buy it wholesale?
Unnamed Democrat strategist (formerly Ruckus)
I didn’t do it! I swear I didn’t do it. It wasn’t me, I wasn’t there, this isn’t my beer, I’m just holding the joint for a friend…
b-psycho
If this is credible at all, then leaking such this early seems to me less “Obama is attacking Romney” than “Obama is trying to nudge the ongoing GOP candidate clusterfuck towards Not Romney by having his team act like they’re super well prepared for Romney”.
That isn’t to go all 11-dimensional chess. Simply observation that, if Obama genuinely assumed that Romney has the nomination in the bag this early, telegraphing direct attacks doesn’t make sense.
Judas Escargot
@Heliopause:
And yet so few are willing to say out loud that this fact could very well be the root of the problem.
burnspbesq
@John Cole:
“Because virgin birth, resurrection, drinking the blood and eating the body of Christ, not eating meat on Friday, and on and on- all that shit ISN’T weird?”
It’s less weird than believing that the Steelers’ opponents get all the calls.
TooManyJens
@burnspbesq: Now that’s attacking a man’s religion.
WaterGirl
@kc: See, you fell for it. The story never said it was Obama’s strategist. Could have been anyone. Hey, I could be a democratic strategist. It could have been anyone. Un-sourced. Again.
Jeff Fecke
@fasteddie9318:
It makes a lot more sense than her being an actual progressive.
WaterGirl
@Heliopause:
Really? “cause first thing I thought when I heard “weird” is tying your dog to the roof of your vehicle and DRIVING away like that.
@TooManyJens: Who knows, but I thought she was serious.
darkmatter
@Unnamed Democrat strategist (formerly Ruckus): good one
JPL
@fasteddie9318: I hate to be attacked but I do hope that it was chemo that changed her. There really is something called a chemo brain..
Heliopause
@WaterGirl:
Then you’re as delusional as John. This story got little traction four years ago and if Obama’s advisors think saying “weird…repeatedly…in about a dozen interviews” is going to make voters think about a thirty year old dog story they’re delusional too.
By the way, the official story is that the dog was in a wind-screened kennel on top of a station wagon. If it’s brought up again Romney will easily wave it away and only partisans will give a damn, in fact, it could easily backfire if Romney can establish bona fides as an animal lover. If Obama’s people can come up with something a little more substantial than this then, sure, go with the dog-hater angle, but I really don’t think there’s much “weird” in this one.
TenguPhule
If this is true, we’re all fuxxored.
Karen
I get it.
The N word is used in comments on GOS and FDL regularly but that’s NOT racist.
But an unnamed source says Romney has a weird awkwardness which automatically means “Mormon.”
Yet when the Clinton campaign called Obama “unelectable” because no “working people” would vote for him, nope, nothing racial about that.
Obama better watch his head. If he manages to win the Presidency, I’m sure Jane Hamsher will talk about 2nd Amendment “suggestions.”
TenguPhule
No, its a Dogwhistle for “Republican”
Also, a multi-millionare joking about being unemployed during one of the worst recessions in recent history deserves to be destroyed in all possible manners without quarter or mercy given.
Die GOP, die.
ruemara
@eyelessgame:
I crown you with internets for the day.
Heliopause
@TenguPhule:
I
Why? The vast majority of Americans have believed standard Christian dogma since the dawn of the republic, why would we be more “fuxxored” now?
Mnemosyne
@jl:
But tapirs are just so frickin’ adorable, how could an army riding them not win?
I have to admit, if true, this would be just more proof for me that God (assuming s/he exists) really likes fucking with people. “And then your army will ride to victory on, uh, on tapirs. Tapirs. Yes, those piglike striped things from South America. No, I’m not joking. Are you questioning the Lord your God?”
chopper
@Heliopause:
well i’m not ‘obama’s people’, but i also find it weird as shit that the guy strapped his dog to the top of his station wagon when he took his family on a trip.
that’s just fuckin weird.
Jenny
I’m surprised.
Hamsher’s readers usually flood these posts to defend her.
That the didn’t is telling.
handy
So its becoming quite the field for the Repubs: We’ve got the Weird One, the Crazy Loon, the Loser, the Hack, most likely the Retread and potentially the Idiot. Have I covered everyone?
Jenny
@JPL:
She started smearing Obama in 2006 (before her chemo treatment), calling him a “crook” and “corrupt” over the ridiculous Rezko crap.
http://firedoglake.com/2006/11/13/more-ethics-problems-for-democrats/
Just imagine how Jane would have freaked out if some progressive blogger called her candidate, Hillary Clinton, a “crook” and “corrupt” over Whitewater, the infamous cattle futures deal, and the pardons.
Hbin
@Turgidson:
You’re just now convinced? Hamsher’s been pretty much yelling it loudly for a while now.