For those of you who missed last night’s debate, here’s Mitt Romney showing a lack of Hayekian modesty by betting Rick Perry $10,000 over a passage in one of Romney’s books. Nate Silver says that Intrade is already dumping Romney over his performance. The consensus seems to be that nobody touched Gingrich, so the DC media better file the rest of their brokered convention fan fiction pieces quickly before Newt locks it up.
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[…] wager doesn’t seem to have impressed the betting public. But what about the Law? Commenter Legalize at Balloon Juice wrote, “With his little wager last night, Mittens has made himself a class c felon in Iowa. See […]
Gin & Tonic
“Dumping” Romney? Not that I give a shit about Intrade numbers, but it was a 2.8% drop, and he’s still well ahead of Gingrich. If I hadn’t clicked through to Nate, I’d have a completely different idea.
Linda Featheringill
Mitt was mighty free with that 10 grand wager. I think that Perry was a bit taken aback by the size of the offered bet. But I’m not sure how this will sit with Republicans.
JGabriel
mistermix:
The phrase Hayekian modesty should always be linked back to its source. Let no one wonder which courtier jackass wrote it.
.
PeakVT
For those of you who missed last night’s debate…
I didn’t and still don’t, thanks for asking.
It will be funny if Gingrich wins: the base will totally demoralize the insiders (and hopefully a lot of donors).
Shalimar
The 10 grand wager is funny, but what will really kill Romney’s campaign was the exchange with Gingrich about career politicians. The only advantage Romney has is that many people think he has the best chance of winning the general election against Obama. Once it becomes common wisdom that he would be a career politician if he won more often, Romney is toast.
mistermix
@Gin & Tonic: We’re talking about a 2.9% in 3.5 hours. That’s a pretty big move given the timeframe, don’t you think?
suzanne
However, I’m not sure I can genuinely comprehend a world in which Newt Gingrich is the better fucking option.
And I really don’t think I can stand to look at his face for four to eight years every night. GOD.
It’s come to the point where I really don’t know which of these clowns sucks the least, because they all suck so hard in their own unique ways. With this GOP field, I’d be surprised if there’s any chrome left on any trailer hitches in the early primary states.
PK
On twitter, I thought the best answer to the question what will $10,000 buy you?
12 days of consulting for Freddie Mac by a “historian.”
Gin & Tonic
@mistermix: I’m not sure how big a move that is. Perry lost half his support in a couple of minutes after the “oops” moment, so Romney going from 44-something to 42-something doesn’t seem like a big deal. You made it sound like he was gone.
debbie
Great with Wall Street, lousy with Tea Partiers, and poorly with the Independents he’s going to need.
I don’t think Newt won; I think he showed the arrogance that will be his undoing. Some people thought he wouldn’t implode until the convention; I think it began last night.
I don’t remember where I read it this morning, but a NC Senator who knows Newt described him as “a man with 1,000 ideas and the attention span of a one year old.” Not even the most rabid Obama haters are going to think that’s a good combination for a president.
B W Smith
@suzanne: I cannot begin to express how much I agree with your statement. I am one of the unfortunates who lived in Newt’s district at the beginning of his political career. For more than 35 years, I have listened to his pseudo-intellectual, misogynistic, pretentious demagoguery. I cannot think of a worst person to lead our country.
amk
@Gin & Tonic: yup. pure hyperbole. not supported by facts.
It’s still a pity that willard has a glass jawbone. The fucker has a short fuse. How he was not exposed in 2008 beats me. Was it ‘cos his rival mofo of mccain had the shortest fuse of them all ?
bin Lurkin'
@suzanne:
QFT … after I caught my breath.
Jerzy Russian
@suzanne:
Also too: there will be lots of golf balls at the the other ends of garden hoses.
Legalize
With his little wager last night, Mittens has made himself a class c felon in Iowa. See Section 725.7 of the Iowa Code.
Jennifer
You gotta love the look on Perry’s face after he unloads that individual mandate “zinger” – it’s the same look a 2-year-old has wnen he says, “look mommy – I made poo-poo in potty!”
Schlemizel
@Linda Featheringill:
If Perry were smart . . . yeah I know I could stop right there & everyone could have a good laugh. But, if he were the correct response would have been, “If I had inherited millions from my dad I guess I could throw away 10,000 bucks like you want to.”
SiubhanDuinne
@Legalize:
“Illegal gaming in the first degree.” Class C felony. Well done, Mittens.
P.S. Somebody needs to call this to Gail Collins’ attention pronto, so she can vary the dog-strapped-to-the-roof-of-the-family-car schtick. Although that’s still pretty funny.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Jerzy Russian:
Mind if I drop a bowling ball next to the end of that hose?
;)
Schlemizel
@Jennifer:
That reminded me of Boy George too.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
Yeah, I disagree with the early analysis, and the folks trying to arbitrage the Intrade.
I think that was great regular folks politics. And yes i think it works with the fundies too. They know mormons can’t do a lot of stuff like gambling and drinking coffee. someone asked last night if its possible they would miss it, I don’t think so. What others can’t do, and are sins if they do, is the one type of info about other people they excel in gathering.
The exchange, except for the forum, and the amount(though if you are absolutely sure, why not) is one regular folks have seen and done and always liked for its “put up or shut up” triple dog dare like assertiveness.
Not that anyone still cares what Perry says, but did anyone notice he granted sovereignty to Arizona? I would have thought something like that would get him noticed.
The bottom line is, Romney v Gingrich from here on out. Of course it scares me because i don’t trust the stupid people, but i have hope, because, if not them, who can O beat?
Omnes Omnibus
@Schlemizel: Why malign the singer of “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me” in this way?
dmsilev
@Schlemizel: Yeah, Perry saw that hanging curveball and just let it amble on pass. Ah, for the halcyon days of summer, when Perry was supposed to be the can’t-lose candidate who was going to sweep the field before him.
SiubhanDuinne
@Jennifer:
Now that you mention it — that is exactly the look he has, actually, most of the time. And it defines the expression he shares with Dubya.
Schlemizel
@Omnes Omnibus:
Its a way to differentiate the wasteral, useless, scion from his dad. That morphed into Boy Blunder after he was selected President.
Special Patrol Group
The reason Mittens made the wager so
motherfuckinggosh-darn low is because he’s so thrifty. No really, ask his friends.xian
Meanwhile Mittbot’s handlers keep trying to convince us he’s a real boy:
(via Mike Allen)
Special Patrol Group
@xian:
Indeed, if the human in question is five years old.
aimai
@Jennifer:
You beat me to it. A toddler at the potty was exactly the image I saw, too. I could not get over how absurdly proud Perry was–the look he gave the audience was clearly meant for the advisors who had rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed him to get that line off without a mistake.
aimai
dmsilev
@xian: So, apparently the Mark “Excellent News for John McCain” Halperin cloning project has been successful.
Bravo, people, but why? Why?
amk
@Special Patrol Group: Talk about a fluff piece by the grey lady.
GregB
Has anyone thought of digging through the digital archives and finding who was saying and what they were saying about Perry before he showed is ass as a complete and utter fucking incompetent boob as a campaigner and a human?
It seems there was lots of fluffing and fear mongering about how great a threat he would present to Obama.
Just who met this man and thought he’d play outside of the fever swamp that is Texas?
The Dangerman
@Jerzy Russian:
Garden hoses? Shit, this is golf balls through surgical tubing suck.
Palli
The overlooked, ignored or totally denied fact: the sentence Perry referred to in the first edition of the insipid Romney book but redacted from the second edition is the following:
“We can accomplish the same thing for everyone in the country.” (thing being Massachusetts “Romneycare”).
Any valid reading comprehension of that sentence would win the bet for Perry who could probably do something with the money. But could it be listed as a donation from Romney?
Special Patrol Group
@amk:
Mittens is such a regular guy for a stinking rich millionaire son of a stinking rich millionaire! Also, too: I heard that George Bush, Jr. likes peanut butter sandwiches and drives a pickup truck.
Svensker
@debbie:
Judging from the Obama haters I know, they’d vote for a rabid squirrel ahead of O AND think the squirrel would make a better president.
Benjamin Franklin
OT, but in the neighborhood.
Bernie Sanders, the lone socialist, is doing something, at least..
It has no chance in the current situation, but ‘Corporate Personhood’ as, more free speech for those who have more money, needs to go away.
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/198343-sanders-offers-constitutional-amendment-to-strip-corporations-of-first-amendment-rights?tmpl=component&print=1&page=
“Sanders’s amendment, S.J.Res. 33, would state that corporations do not have the same constitutional rights as persons, that corporations are subject to regulation, that corporations may not make campaign contributions and that Congress has the power to regulate campaign finance.
While the Citizens United case affected corporations, unions and other entities, the Sanders amendment focuses only on “for-profit corporations, limited liability companies or other private entities established for business purposes or to promote business interests.”
Sanders said he has never proposed an amendment to the Constitution before, but said he sees no other alternative to reversing the Citizens United decision.
“In my view, corporations should not be able to go into their treasuries and spend millions and millions of dollars on a campaign in order to buy elections,” he said. “I do not believe that is what American democracy is supposed to be about.”
This past summer, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney said “corporations are people,” when fielding a question about whether taxes should be raised in order to increase federal revenues, which drew sharp reactions from Democrats.
Roger Moore
@Schlemizel:
Maybe the whole Niggerhead incident has made Perry reluctant to talk about who inherited what from his daddy.
xian
@Special Patrol Group: and even then they’d betcha a million dollars. obviously they didn’t want to say million so they moved it down to a figure mitt considers chimp change.
Hal
This makes me sad. Gingrich? Really repubs? If you want to know how he would govern, just look at his whole fucking political career. You know, the one he was run out of in the 90’s?
The GOPs desperation is massive.
Redshift
@GregB: As I recall, one of the people Rachel Maddow had on during that time was a political correspondent in Texas. She asked about his ducking debates during his one-and-only actual election for governor, and the guy said that oh, yes, Perry is an impressive campaigner, and he’ll do very well in debates.
I should go back and look up who he was, so I can be sure never to take him seriously again (in the unlikely instance that he’s ever quoted, since he’s a state political correspondent in Texas.)
amk
@GregB: Buncha dkos doomers were sayin’ perry is gonna whack obama since he was such a great campaigner. Of course, they hate obama’s guts too, so that could be wishful thinking on their part.
Scott
I never thought Perry would do very well as a candidate (I’m from Texas, and you wouldn’t believe how many actual Republicans hate his guts), but even I’m surprised by how hard he cratered.
Amir Khalid
Is that Trump-moderated debate still on? I’m still amazed, and not in a good way, that someone would pick The fucking Donald, of all people, to moderate a Presidential candidates’ debate. That’s like having William Hung as a guest judge on American Idol. If I were American, let alone a Republican, I would want that freak show cancelled before it could bring the country into further disrepute.
Palli
Romney’s bet was made to stop the action because he knew Perry was right! Flabbergast him into silence was the strategy. It apparently worked because nobody recognizes that Romney wrote in the first edition of his book (and took it out in the second edition): “We can accomplish the same thing for everyone in the country.” The “same thing” he was referring to was Romneycare, the Massachusetts version of Obamacare!
patrick the pedantic literalist
@Amir Khalid:
That republicans respect Trump’s faux political expertise is astonishing, especially after O publicly owned him at the Correspondent’s dinner. And it not just the voters, most of the Republican candidates have been to New York to ask for Donald’s endorsement.
I saw Trump being interviewed twice this week about foreign policy (synopsis: arrogance also works with other countries) — once on Faux news and once by Wolf Blitzer. Foreign fking policy. Really.
lamh35
@Redshift:
If I’m not mistaken, it was a reporter from the Dallas Morning News, Wayne “something” he’s been on tweety too. He talked about Perry’s undefeated record in Texas.
The guy who Lawerence O’Donnell usually talks to about Perry always said that Perry was an big ole dummy, but of course I don’t recall him being on Tweety or Rachel.
Commenting at Ballon Juice since 1937
@SiubhanDuinne:
as illustrated by Mr. Fish
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@B W Smith:
Corner Stone
B W Smith
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): Thanks, that was priceless! I stand corrected.
FlipYrWhig
@lamh35: With a lot of these local media guys, I have a feeling that their views tend to be something like, “he’s had a lot of success here suckering dimwitted rubes, and since there are millions of similarly dimitted rubes out there in the country as a whole, there’s no reason to think it can’t scale up.”
B W Smith
@lamh35: His name is Wayne Slater. He and James Moore wrote the book ‘Bush’s Brain’ about Karl Rove. I think James Moore is the go-to guy for O’Donnell. He has written a book about Perry titled ‘Adios MOFO’. Neither of these guys have any love for Bush, Rove, or Perry.