… given all the manure being spread by the GOP contenders. Via Greg Sargent, Erick Erickson [warning: Redstate link] has a big sad:
Since November of 2010, political reporters in this nation have been telling us Mitt Romney would be the nominee. And while I completely agree and have said I expect it, the political reporters in this nation have routinely, and I am beginning to think intentionally, failed to report on what I think is and remains the biggest story this campaign season.
__
The man who should be the front runner and who should be walking away with the nomination has had since March of 2008 to lock down his lead as the Republican nominee and less than one month from the start of Campaign 2012, 80% of Republican voters want nothing to do with him and a third would rather go to the fight with a retread from the Clinton era than Mitt Romney…
__
There is another story too as we get to the Horserace this week. It is on the failure of the professional political class in Washington, D.C. The professional political class has failed Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Jon Huntsman, and the list goes on. Sure, when God serves up a lemon of a candidate, there is only so much a consultant can do. But very few have successfully made lemonade with any of the candidates. Even with Gingrich, his rise has more to do with his debate performances than his consultants.
__
These two stories — the failure of the political press to get the stories right and the failure of the political consultant class to get the candidates right — are not written about enough. And both impact the horserace for 2012. And the muddied stories of both these problems may interweave directly to a brokered convention. I think it is time to move beyond wishful thinking and take seriously the idea of having a brokered convention with someone other than the current crop of candidates becoming the nominee…
Shorter Erick ‘Voice of the Gated-Community GOP’ Erickson: How dare those so-called reporters tell us Willard Romney will be the GOP nominee, just because every single indicator (including high-profile commentor EE, VotG-CGOP) says that Romney will be the nominee? And why has the ‘professional political class’ failed in its duty to polish any of the available soft turds to a glossy, electable shine?
Tragically for Mr. Erickson’s fevered fantasies, Steve Benen at the Washington Monthly reports that Bill “Always Wrong” Kristol is also excited by the idea of what he’s pleased to label “the Valentines Day option“, about which Benen says:
… First, this really should be humiliating for the Republican Party. They’ve been planning to take on President Obama for three years, and as of last week, had at least eight candidates to choose from (more if you include guys like Buddy Roemer and Gary Johnson). And yet, just 26 days before the Iowa caucuses, leading GOP voices are still trying to figure out how to get a better candidate nominated.
__
Second, the party should probably give up hope now of a brokered convention, at which a white knight can come save the party. It’s “not going to happen.”
__
And just as an aside, I can’t help but wonder how Mitt Romney, who’s been running practically non-stop for five years, feels about all of this.
Jonathan Chait at NYMag‘s Daily Intel has a more succinct take on the GOP id-iots’ last best hope against the Romneybot:
Gingrich is like the heavy-metal roadie your daughter brings home after having fallen for the motorcycle guy, the drug dealer, and that creepy way-too-old one. She lost interest in all of them, so no reason to worry too much about the latest. Except, of course, it might be a sign she really isn’t going to wind up with the nice accounting student down the street you keep hoping she’ll go out with…
Comrade Javamanphil
I’d be enjoying this a lot more if there still wasn’t a very real possibility one of these buffoons could get elected.
c u n d gulag
How will a brokered convention help a broken party?
Find a new clown to stuff into the car?
And is that what they mean when they say ‘driving the pol’s?’
Hill Dweller
Every Republican in the House(and 33 Dems)voted to stop an imaginary EPA regulation of farm dust.
That party is gone f’n crazy.
dmsilev
Erick Erickovich really doesn’t like Romney. If Mitt manages to beat out whoever is the final not-Mitt, it will be absolutely hilarious to watch Erickovich outdo Orwell’s Ministry of Truth.
“We support Romney. We have always supported Romney.”
Schlemizel
@Comrade Javamanphil:
Exactly – particularly if the Kewl Kids Klub succeeds in getting a third party into the mix. The insane vote will stick with Whatever falls out of the clown car, and that may be just enough if the third party can convince a sufficient number of doofs who understand that the clown is dangerous but is not happy with Obama.
dmsilev
@c u n d gulag:
A brokered convention would be a disaster for the GOP. Between “candidate chosen in smoke-filled back room” and “new candidate immediately has to run a national campaign”, it would come pretty close to dooming whoever it was.
The Moar You Know
Conservatism cannot be failed, it can only be failed.
The Republicans in my office already know that 2012 is a lost cause. “Despair” would be a pretty accurate term.
beltane
@Hill Dweller: I think they’ve been smoking too much of that imaginary farm dust. Maybe that’s their problem.
losgatosca
Actually the GOP has had since 1999 to come up with a credible, competent candidate.
Winning two elections in that time shows that it may not be necessary.
Also, too, the GOP was the party of No since Wilson on the League of Nations.
ET
The GOP gets the candidates it deserves. This nominating season for the GOP is a culmination of everything they have worked for since the 1980’s. A big part of that is Newt and what he brought to the table.
EE can complain about the establishment press, there is a lot wrong in that area, but they covered what the GOP thew out there mixed in with the fact that they let others tell them what they should be covered.
Benjamin Franklin
The Klingon Class has been furiously violating the Prime Directive by throwing up ‘candidates’ of the Manchurian kind. Gingrich, Cain, Perry and Bachman are just here to remind us all how lucky we are to have Mitt Romulan, a more civilized choice.
Judas Escargot
I keep thinking of the old Bill Hicks trope, that the reason our basic institutions are crumbling is because they are no longer relevant. The GOP is leading the way.
I’ve almost lost interest in the GOP primary fight, if only because I’ve started to recognize it as the thrashing death throes of a dying mindset. (Granted, a mindset that could last for several more election cycles, and do a lot of real damage if it gets absolute power– but still an unsustainable mindset. Reality always wins, eventually). Nothing I say or do will have any effect the GOP race: All an outsider like me can do is watch them, really.
There will be no GOP in 30 years, because the GOP as an institution is clearly unable to generate viable leaders anymore. If they were, one would have showed up by now.
Question is, how much damage will this dying party be allowed to do in the meantime?
gaz
Gee… Eric son of Embarrassed haz a butthurt because the GOP base refuses to get behind anyone that isn’t completely fucked up batshit crazy.
No amount of consulting – no amount of punditry – no amount of spin, can detract from this dynamic.
So fuck you Eric. You morons made your bed. Now lie down in it, and shut the fuck up. You got EXACTLY what you wanted. Now you just have to find a way to live with it. Sucks to be you, asshat
Benjamin Franklin
@Judas Escargot:
I call them ‘New Whigs’…
Soonergrunt
@The Moar You Know:
Ahh, the wonderful taste of conservative tears. Sweet, sweet tears.
Judas Escargot
@ET:
Yes, this. If the GOP really means what it’s been saying, then Gingrich (who really does deserve much of the ‘credit’ for our current toxic politics) is the obvious choice.
Romney, on the other hand, is the “fool ’em twice again” candidate, more able to swing to the center after the convention (and therefore more likely to slip past the low-info independents in 2012).
Does anyone here really believe there’d be much difference in policy between a Romney administration vs. a Gingrich administration? The GOP is basically just fighting over how up front it’s going to be about its horrible policies beforehand.
Again, all those outside the GOP can do at this point is watch, and snark.
Benjamin Franklin
An offshoot of the 19th century Whigs was the ‘Know Nothing’ Party, so both aspects of the Do Nothing Party , today’s GOP, have that going for them.
Brandon
The dig at consultants I think provides some insight into how these people view politics and Obama. We are very familiar with their focus on the message above all else and their belief that political failure was not a failure of policy, leadership or governance, but a failure of message. Second, I believe that they think Obama was elected solely on the basis of message and nothing else. In Erik son of Erik’s mind, Gingrich’s debating is equivalent (or better-no teleprompter) to Obama’s speechifying, but where Obama had Axelrod to polish what he considers a turd, Gingrich doesn’t have the equivalent. You see, Erik son of Erik somehow believes that behind Obama’s messaging genius lies a vapid turd no better than Newt.
Yutsano
@Soonergrunt: This actually worries me, because now I’m afraid of extralegal methods coming into play here. In other words, they’d better beef up the Secret Service budget.
Xenos
@Brandon: And since Erik McErik does not actually deign to talk to non-verified ultraconservatives, he has no bloody idea that a majority of independents will completely hate whomever the GOP nominates this summer.
Xenos
@Yutsano: The need for the Secret Service kicks in when Obama wins. There will be an utter freakout. Very important the P and VP not be in the same room together anywhere outside the White House.
patrick the pedantic literalist
Romney can’t fake sincerity, Newt can. The story of their candidacies.
aretino
I am trying to wrap my head around the idea that a brokered convention would serve up a *less* crazy Republican candidate, and I just can’t. The fevered, Jesus-camp atmosphere of unleashed Republican id would be destined to bring us the likes of Paul Broun or Steve King. Once all constraints of actual campaigning have been lifted, they are going to have a free hand to mainline the insanity, and that’s an opportunity I just don’t think they can let pass by.
Brandon
@Yutsano: I think you mean 2nd Amemdment remedies.
H.E. Pennypacker, Wealthy Industrialist
I just love how their victim mentality never takes a holiday. It’s always the ‘media’ or ‘political class’ or something at fault, and not the fact that batshit insane whackaloons are defining their party platform.
The Republic of Stupidity
There… prolly much closer to Kristol’s true wishes now…
The Moar You Know
@Soonergrunt: I have three in the office: a Rockefeller Republican, who I’m pretty sure voted for Obama and is almost certain to do it again, a atheist PUMA who made the switch from Hillary to Palin without blinking an eye and is driven by a hatred of black people, and an evangelical who also hates black people and sincerely thinks that Democrats want to carve babies out of pregnant mothers and use the resulting abortions as offerings to Satan.
The GOP did an unbelievable job in cobbling together a ruling coalition out of such a disparate group of voters for as long as they did, but it’s just not working anymore. The evangelicals in particular have finally figured out that they’ve been doing all the heavy lifting for zero returns and are not going to settle for anyone that is not Full Metal Dominionist this time around.
Jay in Oregon
@Soonergrunt:
Have a bottle of this, on me.
http://peterjsullivan.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/gop_tears.jpg
maya
I thought that was Gingrich.
Soonergrunt
@Judas Escargot:
That’s precisely correct, and this point needs to be pounded home every chance we get regardless of who the nominee is.
Brachiator
I love this insular wailing about the inability of the “professional political class” to lead the suckers, uh, I mean, voters by their noses.
The GOP punditocracy keeps banging their dead horse about how Obama is an elitist aristocrat hovering above Real American Common People(tm), and yet they love to stew in the juices of their own Beltway entitlement.
Soonergrunt
@The Moar You Know: Fuck ’em all, I say.
Thor Heyerdahl
The GOP’s clutching at pearls since they are so scared of a “n***er” winning the WH twice.
Given that many presidents have scandals in their second term from what happened in the first, my hope is that Obama’s will be due to the fact he took the “bi-partisan” path with the GOP and that the scandal wouldn’t have happened if he had taken a liberal/progressive bent.
Now if he can follow through with some of the Teddy Roosevelt populist measures…the Greedy Old Perverts will really start going insane.
wrb
@Judas Escargot:
Gloomier alternative:
The GOP cannot generate viable leaders now because the Murdoch/Koch/Rush mind control is insufficiently complete. It is to the point that you can’t win a nomination without being completely within the insane “reality” but (we like to think) enough people remain outside it that such a person can’t win a general election.
If climate change is to be stopped hundreds of trillions of dollars of hydrocarbons must be left in the ground unburnt. Those trillions can buy a lot of think tanks, endowed chairs, media and minds. They’ve already bought their own economics. If I was the manager representing the ‘carbs I’d leave nothing unbought, starting with NPR. Hell, I might even set up a think tank on the Stanford campus.
kerFuFFler
Chait was the only reason I used to frequent TNR. I just wish he would write as much as he did at his former gig.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Judas Escargot:
Yes
Newt is convinced he is an intellectual so he would go out of way to undo what Obama has done internationally. Newt would just over ride the State and Defense departments and wander off on the first crazy idea in his head. Likely we would have a war with Iran that would trigger a new Cold War with Russia and China as they become convinced the US is a lose cannon.
With Rommeny, Mittens is in perpetual CYA mode. Mittens would be Bush II, but without a decider. The government would be run in practice by the most aggressive Cabinet secretary. You would see a lot of contradictory policies out of a Rommeny administration accompanied by a lot of infighting and whining from Mittens himself.
So the difference is rouge president verse presidential chaos for the Republicans.
dj spellchecka
perhaps it’s because the coffee hasn’t kicked in yet, but i read erick, son of erick’s, complaint three times and have no idea what he’s going on about….
it isn’t exactly news that the base hates romney…..i have no idea in what world this “big story” hasn’t been repeated endlessly
Tom Hilton
I’ve come around to the idea that Newt may actually win the nomination. The single most persuasive piece of evidence for this: he’s polling higher than Romney on “electability”.
Electability is all Romney has. It ain’t nuthin’–it’s actually a damn good reason to vote for him, if you’re a Republican–but that’s all he’s got. If GOP primary voters really think Gingrich is more “electable” than Romney, then Romney is toast.
Hill Dweller
Benen posted a story at his place on NPR challenging Republicans to find one of the small business owners they claim will be hurt by the tiny surtax that would pay for the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits extensions. They even took to facebook asking for small business owners. So far, nada.
I would love to see the rest of the media follow NPR’s lead, and start asking more questions.
The Dangerman
@Soonergrunt:
I recall vividly a Conservative friend’s tears when it appeared that Bush would lose Ohio in 2004…
…which leads me my point: Republican’s don’t have to “win” in 2012; they just have to get within cheating distance. All the dirty tricks and all the ugliness will be on full display.
As for the need for more Secret Service if Obama wins, this doesn’t concern me at all. What concerns me are the yahoos that will be going after those “anti-Americans” that helped to re-elect him (in that spirit, there will be zero political bumperstickers on my new car).
Edit: Just recalled to whom I was responding, which leads me to a question from a post a while back; SG, I read someplace that one doesn’t have to burn-in a new build any longer. True?
BGinCHI
Wrong thread……
Villago Delenda Est
@H.E. Pennypacker, Wealthy Industrialist:
Yup, quite true. SOMEONE is sabotaging our movement, someone from OUTSIDE it, who’s trying to keep us down!
Xecky Gilchrist
80% of Republican voters want nothing to do with him and a third would rather go to the fight with a retread from the Clinton era
I can’t believe this guy can’t even spell “retard” right.
Brachiator
@aretino:
I think the GOP would fall all over themselves in relief if they could get NJ Governor Christie to change his mind and go for the nomination. There is also Jeb Bush, who would please both the evangelicals and the Money elites.
Paul in KY
@maya: That’s Ron Paul.
BGinCHI
This whole fantasy is like putting your new secret quarterback in who is the best player you have but have never used when there is a minute left in the Superbowl and you are losing 52-7.
Comrade Javamanphil
@Hill Dweller: I heard it this morning. Rather stunning, especially since it was done by Tamara Keith who often does some terrible “both sides are too blame” stories. The conclusion was a bit tepid as she ended with “maybe no affected businesses want to speak with us” rather than the more probable “maybe these affected businesses don’t actually exist.” But, hey, it’s a start. Even Jay Rosen was impressed.
Paul in KY
@Thor Heyerdahl: How about wishing for no scandal?
Plus, we haven’t gotten to a 2nd term yet. Let’s do the work to get him one so he can have his scandal.
Yevgraf
@Yutsano:
Not to mention making sure that Navy and Army are assigned some high profile cross-posts at Air Force installations.
Don’t trust the blue suit boys these days.
GregB
Is it too late for the GOP to get Vladimir Putin on the ballot?
Paul in KY
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I would think a Romney presidency wouldn’t fuck thing up quite so thouroughly as a (gack) Gingrich presidency would.
Yevgraf
@aretino:
Nope – my prediction is that such an atmosphere would lead to Jim DeMint.
Paul in KY
@Yevgraf: Don’t worry about the USAF.
feebog
What a wet load of dog crap. Look Ewick, your candidates all suck. You can take off the big red rubber noses, the funny yellow shoes and the makeup and they are still clowns. Blaming the failure of this group of morons on their consultants and handlers is lame.
Did Perry’s consultants coach him to debate like a seven year old who forgot his lines in the Chirstmas pagent? No, I think he did that all by his self. Did Cain’s managers turn him into a serial sexual harasser and adulterer? Anybody on Bachman’s staff suggest to her that she say something completely stupid and insane everytime she opened her pie hole?
As for Newt and the Romneybot, they have both have more baggage than a 747 the day before Thanksgiving. As a campaign manager or consultant you can hope the voters have short memories, but when the gaffes just keep on coming, what’s a Mother to do? Nobody told Newt to describe Paul Ryans plan to gut medicare Rightwing Social Engineering. Given, someone may have advised to walk it back the very next day, but I doubt they told Newt to twist himself into a pretzel while doing so. And no one told Romney to go on Fox and completely blow an interview. In the end, Romney made that decision himself. But at least now we know why his handlers have kept him away from reporters like a leper.
No Ewick, the sad bunch you have as the Republican field is the direct result of the likes of you and your rabid rightwing rednecks. You have moved all of these candidates so far to the right that they are cartoon cutouts rather than viable candidates. And for that we thank you.
Soonergrunt
@The Dangerman: I don’t do burn-in on new builds, unless I’m over-clocking. And then, as you can imagine, it’s only to establish the parameters of the over-clock. Otherwise if it’s going to run at stock, I’ll just check the logs for the system monitoring app (I usually use speedfan) every couple of hours for anything unusual.
I’m anticipating running my new build that I’m working on now at around 4GHz. The proc is rated at 3.6GHz for normal use with a turbo mode of 3.8. I figure with the gargantuan CoolerMaster Hyper 212+ cooler with two fans, and the CoolerMaster HAF912 case, and the PC 16000 RAM I should be able to sustain 4.0 without too much difficulty.
Matt McIrvin
I don’t think that’s going to happen. The centrist third-party efforts promoted by Tom Friedman types are not going to be any more successful than they were in the past. We might get some kind of neo-Naderite Firedoglake party happening on the left, but it’ll have support mostly in heavily blue states and the only way it could theoretically swing things would be if a Florida 2000-style hair-trigger situation happens in some swing state, by some combination of chance, dirty tricks and Obama screwing up. Most of its voters will be people whose primary alternative is staying home in disgust.
The Moar You Know
@Yevgraf: I really don’t get the Air Force hate.
For starters, the blue suits are gone.
Not a fashion issue? I know there’s the Academy issue, but less than 5% of their officers spend any time there at all.
I’ve been working with all the services for over a decade now, and there’s really no difference between any of ’em. The enlisted guys are almost always awesome. About half of the officers are, the rest are merely professional. I’ve met only about five genuine assholes over the last ten years. Not a one of the Air Force folks has been even overtly religious, much less fanatical.
I really don’t get this, and it is an approach that can alienate a lot of military support for Democrats. Your officers tend to be Republicans, but at least half of your enlisteds are Democrats and most of those are pretty damn liberal.
Thor Heyerdahl
@Paul in KY: Well, that’s my hope, but history isn’t on our side.
Brachiator
@Brandon:
This is the essence of the mind of the marketer. It reminds me of the Marketing department weasels who insist that a movie didn’t bomb because audiences rejected a stinker, but because the PR campaign wasn’t effective.
Or, to invoke the Great Bill Hicks
And note that I do not wish ill of any particular political strategist or marketing person. No, seriously.
DanielX
The current crop of GOP candidates is the final product of decades of work. The Grand Old Party has spent all this time molding the GOP (and the base in particular) into a mass of Teh Crazy and this is the final result. Of the two candidates (Mitt and the Newt) with a remote chance of winning a general election, one is out and out corrupt and the other is deeply detested by the base, as well as regarded as an infidel by the evangelicals.
And Erick haz a sad about it, so it must be the fault of the media (again) and political consultants (those evil bastards!). Add Erick to the ever lengthier list of Republicans (yes, Andrew Sullivan, we’re looking at you) who are shocked, shocked to find that thirty years worth of Limbaugh, Beck, etc have produced a base that is indifferent to fact, actively opposed to reality and ripe with hatred.
The gospel according to Driftglass (this from 2005 mind you):
And Little Red State Fundy delivered the margin of victory and was featured in many, many magazines: without Little Red State Fundy, the Republican Party could never, ever, ever win anything.
And now everybody knew it.
Then she said, “Now who shall help me Rule the Earth.”
“We will!” said Moderate Republicans, Undecideds, and Libertarians.
“I am quite sure you would,” said Little Red State Fundy, “but see, now you are all my bitches.”
Then she called Randall Terry and Tom DeLay and Ann Coulter and Jerry Falwell and Rush Limbaugh and James Dobson, and they and the rest of the Shining Path Republicans used what was left of the Constitution as ass-floss.
And judges were terrorized into silence.
And those deemed ungodly were beaten in the streets.
And they invaded whoever the fuck they felt like, for whatever fucking reason they chose.
And the very idea of a Free and Fair press died.
But of course…Erick personally had nothing to do with this, nor does he bear any responsibility for the freak show known as ‘the current Republican candidates’. Exactly what Great White Hope does Erick or for that matter Republican Party elders expect to pop out of a cake at the convention? The Republican base would rather stay home than vote for a candidate foisted upon them, and who could blame them?
gaz
@Soonergrunt: Seems a bit of overkill for such a small ghz boost. You could probably accomplish it without all the extra cooling (as long as u haven’t raised voltage levels too much)..
I’ve softclocked my wolfdale (no over volting) – and run with stock cooling (except my video)…
OTOH, if u r running a q6600 I could see needing to go heavily cooled to get to 4ghz. Those little bastards dislike hitting the 4ghz mark.
I prefer my wolfdale, I *could* get it to over 5ghz pretty easily, and it has sse 4.1 (q6600 does not)
What CPU do you have? I only ask because of the cooling issue. 4ghz shouldn’t require heavy cooling (except for some chips, like the q6600 i mentioned)..
full disclosure – I run an e8500 @ about 3.2ghz @ 9.5 multiplier. 1333mhz effective FSB (softclocked a bit) – DDR2 kingston hyperx at 4-4-4
BGinCHI
I’m honestly amazed that anyone seriously thinks a 3rd party could work. It’s too late, for one. There’s also that Obama guy, who is not failing at his job. And then there’s vote-splitting between the shit candidate (GOP) and the interesting candidate for morons (IND).
Ain’t gonna happen, unless Obama fucks the maid.
The Dangerman
@Soonergrunt:
OK, that makes sense, thanks for the clarification.
BGinCHI
@Brachiator: Hicks = Awesome.
Thanks for that. And if you substitute “Luke Russert” for “marketing” you get a twofer.
amk
@feebog: Yup. All the lipsticks in the world won’t help these pigs.
And didn’t erick boy disown willard months back ? I think he sorta started this whole fucking avalanche of train-wreck.
Schlemizel
@Matt McIrvin:
Not any more successful than it was in 92, 94 and 2000 in putting a plurality candidate in the White House? Unsuccessful like that you mean?
S. cerevisiae
@GregB: They would vote for Putin in a landslide – he is their ideal candidate. In reality, I hope they nominate Newt because as has been stated above people don’t like him, particularly women who are not wingnuts. The gender gap would doom him in the general.
Villago Delenda Est
@Brachiator:
“Don’t sell the steak…sell the sizzle!”
The sizzle has zero nutritional value.
Benjamin Franklin
This may be an olive branch for the anti-Romneys’. Seniors will still smell the stench, but the first step is the Convention.
http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-cohn/98343/romney-gingrich-ryan-medicare-voucher-obama
” “Mitt Romney supports what Paul Ryan did. He endorsed what Paul Ryan did,” former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu, a Romney supporter, said on the conference call. Later Sununu added, “Gingrich’s undercutting of Paul Ryan proves that he is more concerned about Newt Gingrich than he is about conservative principle.”
aretino
@Brachiator:
I think the GOP would fall all over themselves in relief if they could get NJ Governor Christie to change his mind and go for the nomination. There is also Jeb Bush, who would please both the evangelicals and the Money elites.
The Republican pooh-bahs who would welcome Christie or Jeb are not the folks who come out to vote in primaries, much less the ones who will get themselves sent as delegates to the convention. The GOP convention will be as pure a distillation of right-wing craziness as we have ever seen — I’m talking at least 190 proof nuttery. Jeb and Christie wouldn’t stand a chance.
Villago Delenda Est
@aretino:
Jeb’s biggest problem is that he’s the brother of a guy who failed conservatism.
At least, that’s the line now…five years ago, his brother was the fuckin’ return of Jeebus.
Yevgraf
@The Moar You Know:
Here’s the current reg. While the guys you work with might wear utilities, my comment on the blue suits is valid.
And yes, while most of the enlisted guys tend to a more mixed blend of politics, the officers tend to be right wing gasbags – and in Jesus’ Air Force, the weaponry (which, I may add, is terrifying in its power) is wielded not by the grunts, but by the officers.
Raven
@Yevgraf: If it ain’t “terrifying in power” it ain’t a weapon. I’m terrified of a 22 short.
sukabi
@Xecky Gilchrist: lol, come on spelling has never been a strong suit of the ‘right’…
amk
Birther Who Tried To Indict Obama For Treason Arrested For Stealing Court Documents
WereBear
I’m, honestly, amazed anyone EVER thinks a 3rd party is the answer… to ANYTHING.
We don’t have a parliamentary system. We don’t have power-sharing. We have a winner-take-all 2 party system designed from the ground up to be what it is.
For centuries our country has repelled 3rd party attempts like bullets bouncing off a force field. When a party dies, like we’re seeing happen now (but so slooooowly, Lawd!) the saner wing splits off towards the center and repells the fringes.
I see no indications that this will change. Ya gotta have infrastructure to support a party.
schrodinger's cat
Meanwhile, the 0.1% can pay $200,000 for a bag
Villago Delenda Est
@schrodinger’s cat:
Wretched excess.
agrippa
@WereBear:
There is no basis for a third party. We do not have proportional repesentation; we do not have a parliamentary system, which enciurages coalitions. The people – the numbers of people needed – are not there. There is no political/economic/social pocy out there waiting to be organized.
But, in a way, there is a third party. The “I do not care” Party. Half the electorate does not bother to vote.
Southern Beale
Meanwhile, House Republicans have just released their 369-page payroll tax plan.
Yes, that’s right, it’s 369 pages. Remember when they were all whining about how loooong Democratic legislation was? Remember when they all said no bill would be longer than 3 pages?
Whatever happened to THAT?
The Moar You Know
@Yevgraf: I admire your “damn the facts, full steam ahead!” approach.
The Other Chuck
Whoah. The Republicans released a plan that’s longer than a pamphlet full of clip art? This could represent improvement as far as their cognitive abilities go.
agrippa
@aretino:
I think that the pickings may be a bit slim for the GOP. The best people in the GOP may not want to be president.
There are not very many people with the wit and the wisdom to be president. This country has had more than few men serve as president who never should have been president.
“He looked evry inch an emperor until he became one.”
Villago Delenda Est
@The Other Chuck:
Or, upon closer examination, indicate that their cognitive abilities have, in fact, further degraded.
Brachiator
@aretino:
Remember that Nancy Reagan supposedly pressed Christie to run when he wowed conservative voters in California. Many of these people greatly prefer him to Romney, and Nancy’s endorsement carries some weight.
And Jeb would get a huge amount of conservative and evangelical support because of his intervention in the Terri Schiavo case.
@Villago Delenda Est:
Yeah, but he is also often talked about as the smarter Bush brother.
And don’t forget that Bush’s wife was born in Mexico and is the daughter of a migrant worker. This would let the GOP at least attempt to play the big tent card with respect to immigrant rights, even if it angered crazier Republican voters.
Yevgraf
@agrippa:
Object. Assumes facts not in evidence.
priscianusjr
Violet
@Brachiator:
Jeb Bush couldn’t win the the general. That name is an albatross hanging over him and any other member of the Bush family. Maybe in another decade or two a younger member of the family might have a shot, but right now? No way.
Paul in KY
@Thor Heyerdahl: I don’t think you can really do a statistical analysis on scandals in the Presidency. There’s only been like 44 of them & of those only 14 or so had a 2nd term.
IMO, each Presidency is unique & the personality involved is probably the biggest predictor. I have a calm feeling about Pres. Obama.
priscianusjr
@agrippa:
Amanda in the South Bay
@Yevgraf:
TBH, in my time in the Army, I met a shitload of fundiegelical Prot chaplains in the Army. Granted, the only experience I had of the AF was at DLI, but still, the USAF most certainly doesn’t have a monopoly on wingnuttery. And yeah, the majority of USAF officers do not go through Colorado Springs.
Paul in KY
@BGinCHI: Just make it ‘marketeers/Luke Russell’. Another problem solved by Editor Man!
les
@Hill Dweller:
Hell, they’ve been looking for a small biz “destroyed” by the IRS death tax machine for 30 years, and haven’t come up with one. Fuckin’ American voters have been eating lies whole forever, and don’t look likely to change. The only hope this time around is the candidate crop is so…distasteful…not that voters have figured anything out.
Jay in Oregon
@Southern Beale:
That was Herman Cain’s schtick, which answers your question.
Soonergrunt
@gaz: Well, the proc wasn’t cheap. The case has other features like plenty of room to play in and more than enough HD bays for both 2.5 and 3.5 drives. The memory didn’t cost any more than the slower memory, and the CPU cooler cost less than $30, and the second fan on it was something I already had laying around, so the cost differential is less than $50. Yeah, a 10-15% OC shouldn’t be terribly difficult, and in fact should be easy as pie with an unlocked proc and an enthusiast-class mainboard, but like I said, my cost diff is less than $50. I’ll OC it as high as it will go, but my daily running OC will only be up to 4GHz.
Paul in KY
@Yevgraf: Our officers (in the USAF & the other branches) are way too professional to be caught up in some coup scenario.
Ain’t gonna happen.
EconWatcher
@feebog:
That was a very fine rant. Haven’t noticed your handle here before. You have talent.
Keep an eye on this one, front-pagers.
Paul in KY
@Brachiator: Jeb’s wife is mentally fragile (think Kitty Dukakis & then some). I’m pretty sure he would not subject her to a presidential campaign.
Paul in KY
@Yevgraf: Surely to God there are some better people in that party than the freaks they have running right now. You would think it was statistically possible (especially after catching one of their debates).
amk
@Jay in Oregon: Remember their poutrage over ACA’s “thousands of pages” ?
Brachiator
@Violet:
I don’t think that there are many voters who link Jeb to the hip with Dubya or even have deeply negative associations of the Bush name, die hard Democrats and political wonks excepted.
And while I don’t want any Republican to win the general, I don’t think we can make reliable predictions about any particular electoral outcome, except maybe that Rick Santorum and Ron Paul don’t stand much of a chance.
sukabi
@Southern Beale: has anyone actually gotten a copy of it yet? It may be 369 pages of “Tax cuts for the rich. Tax cuts for the rich. Tax cuts for the rich. Tax cuts for the rich. Tax cuts for the rich. Tax cuts for the rich. Tax cuts for the rich. Tax cuts for the rich. Tax cuts for the rich. Tax cuts for the rich. Tax cuts for the rich. Tax cuts for the rich. Tax cuts for the rich. Tax cuts for the rich. Tax cuts for the rich. Tax cuts for the rich. Tax cuts for the rich. Tax cuts for the rich. Tax cuts for the rich. Tax cuts for the rich. Tax cuts for the rich. Tax cuts for the rich. Tax cuts for the rich. Tax cuts for the rich. Tax cuts for the rich. Tax cuts for the rich. Tax cuts for the rich. ”
With some hand drawn scribbles in the margins of the poor being fed into a woodchipper.
Jack the Second
I feel really bad for Congressional Republicans.
They’ve been doing everything in their power to make Obama a one-term President, sabotaging the economy, holding off any hope of a recovery with both hands, keeping Gitmo open against everyone’s better judgement, refusing to approve any appointments, really working 24/7 at keeping the government as dysfunctional as possible.
So that Newt Gingrich can be President? Really? Really? That’s gotta hurt.
amk
While the americans are engaged in petty politics and sabre rattling over Iran, china is lending more than the world bank.
sukabi
@sukabi: apparently, I’m not far off…http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/12/09/385954/gop-unemployment-payroll/
“is a drastic reduction in unemployment insurance that lowers a person’s maximum time on benefits from 99 weeks to 59 weeks:
The Republican proposal is expected to reduce the total number of weeks unemployed workers are eligible for aid by as much as 40 weeks and tighten rules for eligibility.
Such a reduction would significantly reduce the cost of extending federal unemployment benefits, making it easier to secure GOP support for a measure that will also include an extension of a payroll tax cut many conservative Republicans dislike.”
The Other Chuck
@sukabi:
Tax cuts for the rich. Tax cuts for the rich. Tax cuts for the rich. Tax cuts for the rich. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Tax cuts for the rich.
Mike in NC
@sukabi:
This shouldn’t be an issue, as we all know the GOP is devoting all of its resources to creating millions of fabulous new jobs. For Real Americans. Any day now. All you have to do is trust them!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Paul in KY:
You’re probably right about. I don’t see Mittens risking confrontation with Iran and I can see Newt wanting one at all costs to go down in history as a war president.
pragmatism
if i were the gopers, i would contact AIPAC and have jewish allies create a golem and name it John Galt.
trollhattan
Talk about burying the lede–did y’all miss Kristol’s dream ticket?
This made my head explode. Whenever I think Kristol has hit rock bottom he buys a new and bigger drill.
Paul in KY
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Yup, that preening fop would just eat up all the pomp & circumstance that a CinC gets.
Brachiator
@Paul in KY:
Did not know this. if true, this certainly would take Jeb off the table.
Disagree on this one. Newt is a bully. Romney is a coward and a bully. Much more dangerous. I can easily see him doing something incredibly stupid to prove his manhood.
trollhattan
@Hill Dweller:
Yes, I was listening while still in bed this a.m. and had to stop myself from applauding (would have felt good but I’d have been bopped on the noggin). I’d like to have every Republican chestnut questioned in this fashion–they’d have nothing left to talk about.
And who didn’t love Jamie Dimon’s demonstration of his tax rate “knowledge?” He’s just the kind of talent Wall Street is so desperate to keep in house with the gigantic salaries and bonuses.
cckids
@Benjamin Franklin:
Actually, I’ve always thought that proved that Newt, at least in that instance, had a finger on the pulse of popular thought. Most sentient beings could see that Ryan’s plan was a stinker for Medicare. Newt was up-front about it, which may or may not hurt him with the base, but would give him cred in a general election, where he has to appeal to the non-brainwashed among us.
Paul in KY
@Brachiator: Good point on Romney. Hopefully this will all be an academic exercise.
dogwood
What you are seeing with this Republican field is in many ways the end result of decades of outsourcing political leadership to televangical grifters, radio and tv personalities, and big business frat boys with pledge sheets. Hell, why do you think Ron Paul is such an anathema to the party? His views align about as well as any other candidate. It’s because he leads his own crazy movement, and his foot soldiers don’t get their marching orders from Rush, Hannity or James Dobson. This has been an effective political strategy for decades, but it doesn’t produce actual politicians as leaders.
SRW1
He doesn’t. Having had your self-respect amputated was a prerequisit for hopping onto the merry go round that is the GOP primary.
You gotta give it to them cons, though, this time they did take the go round aspect really seriously.
Soonergrunt
@Amanda in the South Bay: The two most laid back Chaplains I ever had were a Southern Baptist at Brigade, and a Pentacostal at Battalion.
LOL–funny story–I was a PVT, E-1 straight out of AIT and Airborne and in my first unit, and I didn’t know shit from shit. We were in the field, and we didn’t have a mission for that evening so I got put on radio watch and my team leader told me that he and some of the guys were going to “bible study.”
I did not know that this was a euphemism for “reading Penthouse Forum.”
So I’m sitting there by the radio when the Chaplain, the aforementioned Pentacostal, comes up, and while we’re talking, he asks me where the other guys are, and I say, not knowing any better, that “they’re all up the hill doing Bible Study.” He gets a real excited expression, and off he goes.
Well.
About fifteen minutes later, he comes back with big grin and asks me if I knew what was going on, and I told him that I had told him what I had been told, and he just laughed and went on his way. My team leader came down the hill, and explained EXACTLY what “bible study” referred to, and what had happened.
Long story short, the Chaplain was actually pretty cool about the whole thing, even leafing through the pages and making comments like “I didn’t even know that was possible” and so on, before handing it back.
Military Chaplains can only be judgmental and preachy to a point. They’re dealing with people who live stressful lives, even in peacetime, and a large percentage of those people are very young, and just starting to learn their way in the world. They frequently have to minister to and counsel people from various faith traditions, including non-Christians and even Atheists. I’ve heard bad stories second-hand, but I’ve never experienced that myself.
JR
I was in the Navy, a boatswain’s mate (pronounced bosun’s mate) and I only saw chaplains in Boot Camp. They marched us all into a huge building, and set off a holy roller preachin hell fire and damnation.
Monday I told the Chief company commander that I wasn’t gonna do that again, it wasn’t my kind of religion. Wow, you would have thought I told him I worshiped Bezial by throwing little babies into a giant bronze furnace.
He yelled at me for an hour, and turned me over to a commissioned officer, in boot camp he was designated a battalion commander, and he yelled at me for another hour, and I said, freedom of religion, you can’t make me, we’re done here.
After a couple of days, they got me by setting up “morality training” for me, I had to watch TV about ethics and morality for 2 hours. They had a hard time finding much that didn’t have explicit godly-ness in it, so after about 3 weeks it staggered to a halt, and my liberty started early.
@Soonergrunt: You Geeks, what are you using to overclock? Unix, Linux or VM-CMS?
Or windows?
JR
Sarah Proud and Tall
@Xecky Gilchrist:
Heh.
Whatsleft
Is it silly that I thought this was Son-of-Erick’s cry out for ***SARAH***???
Barry
@Brachiator: “And don’t forget that Bush’s wife was born in Mexico and is the daughter of a migrant worker. This would let the GOP at least attempt to play the big tent card with respect to immigrant rights, even if it angered crazier Republican voters.”
Which is a problem in trying to get the nomination.
(not that it’s gonna happen; right now it’s Mitt unless he self-destructs)
gaz
@JR: What’s an operating system have to do with overclocking?
It’s kind of irrelevant to the process. (Burn-in tools not withstanding)
I’m not counting softclocking here – but if I were- I’d recommend windows w/ SetFSB if u want to overclock a netbook or something
gaz
@Soonergrunt: Ahh.
Still curious as to which chip you are using.
As for me, I’m sticking with my good old LGA775 setup until the intel ivybridge architecture hits the market (sandybridge is an unfinished hack, and a joke)
I skipped the i7 & i5 cpus altogether.
My next box just might be an atom d2700 (I’m making a rack mount audio box for live performance, and I can get this little dual core 1.6ghz atom to run on 12v DC – heh)
But as far as a real computer, waitin for ivybridge…
Svensker
@dogwood:
Partly. But mostly because he doesn’t believe in the Military Industrial Complex and endless war. He also thinks we should treat Israel as any other state. Anathema! The only reason Paul isn’t shrieked at by the usual Israel-firster crowd is a) they know he popular with a big chunk of their base and they don’t want to set up a confrontation and b) he is not popular enough to win so isn’t really threatening. If b) changed then things might get interesting…but I don’t think b) will change at least in the few years Paul’s got left.
Edited for left out “not”
Scamp Dog
@trollhattan: I heard that too. NPR committing an act of journalism! If they keep it up, they might be worth donating to again.