Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

I was promised a recession.

The willow is too close to the house.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Come on, man.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

T R E 4 5 O N

Their freedom requires your slavery.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2012 / More of This, Please

More of This, Please

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Greg Sargent at the Washington Post highlights the Obama administration’s response to Romney’s craven defense of his fellow One Percenters:

[Wednesday] Romney denounced the Cordray appointment as “Chicago style politics at its worst.” The Obama campaign responds:

“Mitt Romney today stood with predatory lenders and Republicans in Congress over the middle class. He doubled down on his promise to eliminate the Wall Street watchdog and allow Wall Street to write its own rules again, leaving consumers vulnerable to hidden fees, financial traps and excessive risk taking that will hit their pocketbooks. Governor Romney has made clear he has not learned the lessons of the economic crisis, instead, he’s giving the most irresponsible financial actors a bright green light to pursue profit at any cost to communities across America.”

Note the mention of “Republicans in Congress.” Dems know it’s imperative that they prevent the eventual nominee from achieving separation from the unpopular Congressional GOP and its policies.

There is a sidebar poll asking “Has Mitt Romney locked up the Republican nomination?“. Responses, as of pre-dawn Thursday, are running 71% against.

Reader Interactions

144Comments

  3. 3.

    Rafer Janders

    [Wednesday] Romney denounced the Cordray appointment as “Chicago style politics at its worst.”

    Republican politicians seem to have a certain fondness for denouncing and demonizing large areas of the United States. They constantly use phrases such as “Chicago style politics”, “San Francisco values”, “California values”, “East Coast values”, “Massachusetts permissiveness”, etc. — as always, they claim to love the United States while hating large numbers of Americans.

    The reverse doesn’t seem to be true for Democratic politicians. Can anyone remember any prominent Democrat denouncing, say, “Dallas style corruption” or “Texas style politics” or “Mississippi level racism”? And if they did, you can bet the TV talking heads would start screaming at the divisive effrontery….

  4. 4.

    BGinCHI

    Greg has been doing excellent work calling Romney out about his “job-creating” lies too. His blog is a must read if you aren’t in the habit. One of the best journos in the biz.

    Someone should fire all the other assholes at that paper and just let Sargent run it.

  6. 6.

    Paul in KY

    Excellent comments. Was reading some more in ‘Wealth of Nations’ last night & Mr. Smith (in 1773 now) had divided society up into 3 components: (Get your money from property holdings, get your money from wages, get your money from ‘profit on their capital’).

    He said the 1st 2 were always interested in keeping society at large as healthy as possible, because that is how they increased their wealth (1st ones from increased rent of their property & 2nd from increased wages). The 3rd class, however, determined that it received the lowest profit in an enlightened nation, the most profit in a poor nation, and highest profits when a nation was heading to ruin. he said to always take anything the 3rd class said with a grain of salt as lying is in their nature.

    Mitt Romney is the apogee of this predatory 3rd class Mr. Smith warned us about 220 years ago. VDE can elaborate on this.

  7. 7.

    jibeaux

    @Rafer Janders:
    It’s odd, isn’t it? It reminds me of Liz Lemon saying years ago, “Jack. No part of America is more or less American than any other part of America.” So obvious, but the frequency with which that’s not observed by Republicans is breathtaking.

  8. 8.

    Amanda in the South Bay

    I’m not quite sure I get the left wing Romney bashing yet. He’s still weaker than any possible dark-horse/brokered convention candidate. Granted, that probably won’t happen, but better Romney than anyone else.

  9. 9.

    Alex S

    I still laugh whenever I see “Chicago-style politics at its worst”.

    On the other hand, maybe Romney really believes Chicago is and always has been a corruption-free city with no backroom deals or bribery.

  11. 11.

    Cat Lady

    Obama’s tone was also angry enough when he reamed Mittens to provoke some Village hack into calling him a dick. Oh wait. I guess they’ll just have to find some other way to call him an uppity scary secret Muslim thug.

  13. 13.

    The Moar You Know

    Good. Tying Romney by the neck to the current crowd of obstructionist assholes in Congress is imperative and I’m glad to see that the White House is on top of this.

  14. 14.

    Napoleon

    @Paul in KY:

    Really?

    It is amazing the number of things I read attributed to Adam Smith that really do support the centrist and progressive adgenda, from an underlying policy standpoint. I read a ton of economics, politics and history for fun but have never picked up that book. Maybe I should

  17. 17.

    Lee

    @Napoleon:

    I have that book on my Nook. It is something like 2k pages long. I decided I was going to give it a shot this year.

    I’m doing the same reason you are. The more I hear about the book from non-conservatives, the more it actually sounds worth reading.

  18. 18.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @BGinCHI:

    I’ve long contended that the way to deal with the WaPo is send in a SWAT team, evacuate Sargent and Robinson, seal everyone else inside, clear the area, then nuke the motherfucker from space.

    Only way to be sure.

  19. 19.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    @Amanda in the South Bay: I don’t see that it hurts making all of the Republicans look weak and out of touch.

    Obot moment: I was glad that Obama spent the last three years trying to run the country. In 2012, I am glad that he has decided it is time to campaign.

  20. 20.

    lamh35

    @Amanda in the South Bay:

    Like most people I think Romney will be the nominee (hopefully after a long bloody fight with Ron Paul or Newt), I also think that yes he will be a more formidable opponent than the others would have been, but I believe that he is just not that great a candidate. Yeah he seems so smooth and competent now, but that cause he being compared to fools. One fool may be better than another, but he is still a fool! I think a lot of people are too easily buying into Romneys supposed strength amongst the idiots and the “expectations” game that the MSM likes to play and we somehow get caught up in it too and begin to believe the MSM hype. Well I just remind myself of how much hoopla was garnered over Rick Perry. Remember his fundraising prowess, he’d never lost an election, his charisma, how the other GOP contenders beta look out…well how did that turn out??? Lessons learned “Don’t believe the hype”.

    So yeah, Romney might be harder to fight than the others, but there is nothing to be afraid of and nothing worth panicking about in regards to Mittens.

    Beside which, contra to PUMA fantasies and Faux News lies, POTUS and his team beat a far more formidable and more experienced candidate in Hilary Clinton and if you are paying attention under the MSM “horse race” radar (i.e. twitter, Axelrod, Messina, and Dems alike are daily posting talking points) they already gearing up and are already sticking it to Romney. People should just try not to fall into the “Rick Perry” trap of believing Romney is more formidable than he actually is.

  21. 21.

    BGinCHI

    Yeah, I wish we had the politics of, say, Orlando or Dallas so we could be more like them.

    Let’s turn the whole country into a fucking amusement park and/or a gated community.

    If the Obama admin has been Chicago politics, people better hope to hell they get more of it.

  22. 22.

    Paul in KY

    @Napoleon: It is at the end of one of the chapters, can’t tell you which one right now & I’m paraphrasing just a bit.

    His prose is very easy to read, among the easiest from that era (when most writers tried to use as florid a prose as possible).

    It is an academic book, though. Not a quick read as he makes you think alot.

  23. 23.

    Culture of Truth

    Santorum has gone after Chicago and Boston. But he says Obama is giving “speech after speech after speech” dividing America along ethnic lines.

  25. 25.

    Kane

    I’m guessing that the Obama campaign had this response written out days ago, and they were just hoping and waiting for Romney to step in it.

    It’s amazing that someone like Scott Brown can read where the public is on this issue and where the political advantage is, but the Romney campaign cannot.

  30. 30.

    BGinCHI

    @amk: Thanks for asking.

    Writing this from the hospital (free wi-fi). Mrs. BG got induced last night, so it’s been a long night. Now ready to get pitocin to start things going a bit faster.

    Looks like we’re in for a long day of labor….

    Will update when there is a screaming baby.

  31. 31.

    nastybrutishntall

    @Paul in KY: Good to know that Mr. Invisible Hand knew how the card games were played way way back. The fix has been cooked in since day one.

    History, WTF is that?

  33. 33.

    dmsilev

    Mitt Romney doesn’t know a damn thing about “Chicago-style politics”. If he did, he’d realize that a Senate stymieing the vast majority of the executive’s appointments is about as far away from governance in Chicago as is possible. A Chicago-style federal government would have a Senate that acts as a rubber-stamp for anything the executive thinks it wants.

    Oh, and bulldozers cutting giant ‘X’s into airport runways in the wee hours of the morning. That’s key.

  34. 34.

    amk

    @BGinCHI: Best wishes to mom and baby. Hope both come out with flying colors.

    Of course, you don’t get anything being the instigator and all.

  35. 35.

    geg6

    @Napoleon:

    Oh, do read it. You’ll be shocked when you realize how these GOPer dimwits have distorted just about everything Smith had to say.

    I was required to read it in a political philosophy class back in my undergrad days and have used that as a cudgel against assholes in many a political/economic discussion ever since. Really takes them aback when they realized that I’m the only person in the room who has actually read it and, even more shockingly, the only one who has read it is a fucking girl!

    LOL!

  38. 38.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Paul in KY:

    The serious sense of any Wealth of Nations chapter seems to be in the final page or so. Smith spends a great deal of time with examples, data, long discourses (I love how he often apologizes for them) on detail, then he sums things up in a pithy way at the end.

    It’s by no means an easy read. It does compel you to stop and think quite often. It’s a deep, ponderous read. I doubt if many of its self proclaimed fans have gotten far beyond the first few chapters.

  39. 39.

    Jennifer

    @Amanda in the South Bay: I don’t know that I agree with “better Romney than anyone else;” I mean, the Obama-Perry debates would have been quite entertaining, as would Obama-Bachmann, and Mitt lacks the utter loathesomeness of Newt. But I don’t think a Romney nomination should strike any fear into anyone’s hearts, for the simple reason that I’m envisioning a campaign season full of ads wherein people who lost their jobs as a result of Bain Capital’s smash-n-grab takeovers tell their story. A different one each week. That tells not only their story about losing their job due to Romney predation, but also how much Romney made out of that particular deal.

    Within a couple of months, he won’t be able to go anywhere without being booed or heckled.

  42. 42.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @BGinCHI:

    Will update when there is a screaming baby.

    There was one in Des Moines the other night, saying he won’t go negative, but he will tell the truth, and if that happens to be negative, well, let the chips fall where they may!

  44. 44.

    Brachiator

    There is a sidebar poll asking “Has Mitt Romney locked up the Republican nomination?“.

    Once caucus, no primaries yet. The question is somewhat premature.

    Are we there yet? Are we there yet?

  46. 46.

    Roger Moore

    @jibeaux:

    I wonder what saying you’re not going to give black people other people’s money qualifies as in his world?

    Speaking truth to power. You have to understand, the Republicans don’t think they’re being divisive. They think we’re already divided into Real Americans(TM) and Others. When they point out how terrible the Others are, they’re just acknowledging reality. But when Democrats say there’s no particular reason for working class Real Americans(TM) to align themselves with billionaire Real Americans(TM) rather than working class Others, that’s being divisive.

  47. 47.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    One thing I am curious about is what’s Mittens plan with the old Super Pac? They slimed Newt big time, but that was kind of easy since Newt had been claiming douch bag immunity for years now. But with Obama, what are they going to say about him that hasn’t been said at length for the last five years? Heck, they’ve been accused him of murdering his own grandmother.

  50. 50.

    dogwood

    @lamh35:

    You are so right. There will be a lot of MSM fluffing of Romney over the next 9 months, but he is not an easy sell. People get way too caught up in the idea that swiftboating killed Kerry, or MSM lies did Gore in. While those things were certainly not helpful, they wouldn’t have made a dime’s worth of difference if a large swathe of the electorate weren’t personally turned off by those candidates to begin with. Hell, Gore actually won despite the nonsense and Kerry almost won. Had they been better candidates and campaigners the results would have been different. The “Gore as a liar” and “Kerry as an unpatriotic flip-flopper” are just the excuses people use to justify voting against someone they don’t like. For some reason it’s not acceptable to say “I can’t stand the guy, so I’ll never vote for him.” so other excuses come into play. And this isn’t the who do you want to have a beer with crap either. People really can’t be that ignorant about human nature to believe that the MSM will be able to turn Mitt Romney into a likable human being. Republicans can’t stand the guy, and he’s more than likely their nominee.

  51. 51.

    shortstop

    @Rafer Janders:

    @jibeaux:

    Stoking resentment of and bitterness toward other Americans who don’t share all of their values is the bread and butter of Republican politicians. When your base needs a daily dose of fear and loathing just to get up in the morning, feeding it is in your best political interest.

    @BGinCHI: Labor has been seduced! We eagerly await the results.

  52. 52.

    scav

    @Linda Featheringill: While we’re discussing the general topic, I could only find Moral Sentiments at Googlebooks (pdf).

    ETA: And a Happy Birthday to SonInChicago and an Easy Birthday to MomInChicago.

  54. 54.

    gaz

    @Napoleon: When you do, make sure you also read “The Theory of Moral Sentiments” since it adds a *lot* of relevant societal context to his economic ideas.

  55. 55.

    Poopyman

    @BGinCHI: Best of luck to the three of you! Don’t forget to stay hydrated, BTW.

    @Amanda in the South Bay:

    … He’s still weaker than any possible dark-horse/brokered convention candidate. Granted, that probably won’t happen, but better Romney than anyone else.

    If Romney is the one that’ll cause Republican voters to stay home in droves on election day, then better him than anyone else. Having Obama and both houses of Congress Democratically controlled (both small and capital “D”, actually) is what I want to see.

  56. 56.

    Hill Dweller

    Benen has a piece up at his place discussing the policies Republicans will likely pursue should they win. It is ugly, and should scare anyone thinking about sitting out this election into action.

  59. 59.

    gaz

    @geg6: hahaha. Awesome.

    You nailed it – so many people outright distort Adam Smiths positions on just about everything – and somehow end up (while claiming Adam Smith) supporting ideas that are PRECISELY WHAT HE ARGUED AGAINST.

    It’s fucking crazy.

  62. 62.

    Paul in KY

    @Villago Delenda Est: I’m on page 276 or so. Slogging on thru. As you said, he makes you think alot. I have to have about 2 hours devoted to reading on it, as it is not the kind of book you can pick up for a quick 20 mins or so (at least not me).

    I will finish it. It is alot easier of a read than ‘Origen of Species’ IMO.

  63. 63.

    Roger Moore

    @dogwood:

    The “Gore as a liar” and “Kerry as an unpatriotic flip-flopper” are just the excuses people use to justify voting against someone they don’t like.

    Or maybe hating the guy predisposes them to believe anything else bad they hear about him. Those things presumably feed each other. People instinctively disliked Gore and Kerry, so they were willing to listen to the attacks against them. Once they listened to the attacks, they started liking them less and were more willing to believe subsequent attacks. The only way to avoid the cycle is to be likeable enough that people question the attacks from the beginning. Once they get the idea that the attacks are a pack of lies, they’ll start automatically dismissing them, even if somebody finds a real, serious flaw.

  65. 65.

    BGinCHI

    Thanks all for the best wishes.

    It’s humbling and very sweet to be thought of so by people here.

  68. 68.

    Brian R.

    @Rafer Janders:

    Republican politicians seem to have a certain fondness for denouncing and demonizing large areas of the United States. They constantly use phrases such as “Chicago style politics”, “San Francisco values”, “California values”, “East Coast values”, “Massachusetts permissiveness”, etc.—as always, they claim to love the United States while hating large numbers of Americans.

    Of course they do.

    Republicans believe that the best way to show how much you love America is to talk constantly about how much you hate Americans.

  69. 69.

    Napoleon

    Thanks everyone for all the advice. I am sure to pick up both books

    @Paul in KY:

    Funny, I have read a lot on evolution and, again, never the source book, OOS being on my list as well.

  70. 70.

    shortstop

    I have to say, Mittens has managed to transform my complete indifference into active contempt. I finally understand why so many people fucking hate him. It’s true that he’s their strongest candidate against Obama — and let’s all savor that for a second — but he literally cannot get through a single sentence or gesture without oozing awkwardness, insincerity, discomfort and general dorkitude to go with the rank dishonesty and blatantly obvious pandering. The lead-up to the general is going to be just painful to watch.

    (That doesn’t mean that this election won’t be a lot closer than it should be if people were sane.)

  71. 71.

    shortstop

    @Yutsano: Let’s hope that Mrs. BG spent the last bloated months waking him up every time she got up to pee. It’s the best way to prepare fathers for the sleeplessness to come.

    Just messin’ witcha, BG.

  72. 72.

    MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson

    @Paul in KY:

    I stopped at the bit where Dagny Taggart was tied to the railroad tracks by Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank. Does it all work out for the best?

  76. 76.

    Todd Dugdale

    It looks as if Republicans are just going to repeat the same talking points that they employed in 2008. “Chicago-style politics” has been endlessly used. Anyone that is persuaded by those words has already made up their mind not to vote for Obama.

    First Obama was scary, ruthless, devious and dangerous. He would use his unlimited powers to do horrible things, like forcing your daughter to wear a burqa, take away your guns, force you at gunpoint to bow to Mecca, or force you to gay-marry some queer dude.

    Now, it’s the exact opposite. Obama is portrayed as an incompetent moron who is powerless, despised, and unable to get anything done. He’s the opposite of scary. He’s too stupid to “work across the aisle” and advance his “radical agenda”.

    And no Republican sees a contradiction in these positions. They are both consistent (in their minds), because they both are critical of Obama.

  77. 77.

    gaz

    @MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson: You must be thinking of Adam Smith’s much more popular book:

    “Economics for morons and malcontents, A Coloring Book”

    I hear he tried to put it in Paint By Numbers form, but that early revision lead to to serious injury among it’s audience. Apparently adding numbers was too much.

  78. 78.

    pete

    @Kane:

    It’s amazing that someone like Scott Brown can read where the public is on this issue and where the political advantage is, but the Romney campaign cannot.

    Romney is running in South Carolina against the crazies; if he were running in Mass against Warren, he’d sing a different tune.

  79. 79.

    ksmiami

    In the midwest, just keep playing clips of Romney “let it fail” comments on the auto industry. He is such a classic rentier courtier it’s not even funny. What.a.joke.

  80. 80.

    Brian R.

    @Hill Dweller:

    Benen has a piece up at his place discussing the policies Republicans will likely pursue should they win. It is ugly, and should scare anyone thinking about sitting out this election into action.

    Agreed. That piece by Ornstein and Mann on what’ll happen if we get Romney and a Republican Congress is so depressing and yet so plausible.

  81. 81.

    huckster

    @dogwood: I think this is certainly true. Bush was more “likeable” than Gore, or Kerry, regardless of policy positions. It makes an interesting narrative to talk about swift-boating and the like, but it seems to me that negative campaigning generally just reinforces one’s opinion about a candidate, particularly a candidate you don’t like. In Gingrich’s case in Iowa it worked because voters were reminded about everything they didn’t like about Newt in the first place. And for all of that, it didn’t really end up making them like Romney any more than they ever have.

  83. 83.

    BGinCHI

    @Yutsano: Couple people mentioned that. Will send baby pics when there is actual baby. Maybe a front pager will help a brother out….

  84. 84.

    lamh35

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    it will be dog-whistles galore and outright lies and distortion. Mittens has already been doing it in his speeches and his ads. The MSM is just too busy salivating over the horse race to care (other than the good ones like Greg Sargent). The good thing is that the only real people paying attention right now are us and the GOP trying to find their nominee. The majority of the people I know don’t even follow politics until the “competition” begins and the sides are chosen.

    Can’t stand Newt, but he was correct in saying that Ronmey is a liar. He has been lying about the obmam record since the beginning. And unlike some people I’m not willing to give him or his sons the benefit of the doubt on the birther dogwhistling either.

    So I expect his superpacs to lie and distort against Obama partially because as you say Obama personally is as squeaky clean as a pol can be unlike Newt and contra to RW fantasy and Faux news the Obama admin has had no real scandals in the past 3 years. so lies and distortion are gonna be the only way for the superpacs to go.

    The good thing is that I think Axelrod, Plouffe and Obama campaigners are ready for them. It’s why Obama fundraising is so important. the MSM will pissed themselves about the ‘OMG 1 Billion haul” meme, but Obama and Dems will need all the money they can raise to fight against the superpacs for all Dem candidates not just Obama. It’s one reason why I am seriously contemplating contributing to one of the Dem superpac if I am able.

  85. 85.

    Brian R.

    @pete:

    Romney is running in South Carolina against the crazies; if he were running in Mass against Warren, he’d sing a different tune.

    Give him time. If he makes it to the general, he’ll pivot on a dime.

  87. 87.

    BGinCHI

    @shortstop: Did you see the little press conference he did the other night with his sons behind him? They all look like him and like each other in what I can only say is a creepy way. Like young Mitt clones.

    Privilege just oozing out from everywhere.

  89. 89.

    Amir Khalid

    @BGinCHI:
    When this lot sees a bebeh picture, the squeeing will be audible across teh intertoobz. Which is always a wonderful thing about the Juicitariat.

  90. 90.

    gaz

    @lamh35: Last I checked, Obama was substantially out raising all of his opponents, IIRC. Maybe even combined.

    I won’t contribute to a superPac because personally, I find them to be destructive to democracy, and I can’t bring myself to condone or participate in it. Do what you will though, not my place to judge, and YMMV

  94. 94.

    shortstop

    @BGinCHI: I did and was revolted. Some wag here nailed it the other night: they look like they were grown in vats. Or animatronic.

  97. 97.

    dogwood

    @Roger Moore:

    Absolutely. These things feed upon each other. People also like to have their instincts and emotions validated. So if you just don’t much like someone, of course you are willing to believe most anything negative about them. It also gives you the facade of being logical rather than emotional in your arguments. I’m not the least bit ashamed to admit I’m just as susceptible to this as anyone else. In 2008, I could have made many logical arguments against John Edwards for president – his voting record didn’t match his rhetoric etc. But, the truth is that would have been disingenuous. I simply didn’t like him, and wouldn’t have voted for him in a democratic primary no matter what his voting record revealed.

    The only way to avoid the cycle is to be likeable enough that people question the attacks from the beginning.

    Bingo! How do you think candidates like Gore, Kerry, Mittens, Santorum would come out of a Rev. Wright episode?

  98. 98.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @lacp: That’s what I am secretly hoping for. 2012 will the the first year the GoP goes full nut case.

  99. 99.

    gaz

    @amk: That’s probably the glazed over look you’re seeing.

    The one that comes from their patron embarking on yet another Political Campaign, and yet again further humiliating himself, his family, and his surname.

    (I see the *oh GOD, not AGAIN!* look in their eyes. heh.)

  102. 102.

    lamh35

    @gaz: I understand people’s aversions to them and I agree, that’s why I said, I’m “contemplating” it.

    I’ve already been donating to the campaign since ’08 (love shopping in the logo store and I wish I could win the “dinner with Michelle and Barack” sweepstakes) and I will continue to do so, but there is a superpac that is done by an couple of African American fraternities that I am looking into (1911 United) that based on who they are and what they say they plan to do with raised funds that I am seriously contemplating on.

    “Calling itself 1911 United, the super PAC is aiming to raise $1.5 million during the election cycle and train its efforts on Colorado, Florida, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, committee treasurer Sinclair Skinner told POLITICO.“He needs a boost,” Skinner said of Obama. “And we want to use all the means possible to support him, including a super PAC. Black political participation is still evolving, and what we hope to do is get as many voters active in the process as early as possible.”

    The committee is backed by two large, historically black fraternities, Kappa Alpha Psi and Omega Psi Phi, both of which celebrated their centennials last year.

    The 1911 United super PAC will likely work to “organize and deploy” black voters — particularly potential first-time voters — in support of Obama, said Skinner, a long-time Washington, D.C.-based political organizer who’s a mechanical engineer by trade. He notes that the group intends to make significant use of phone banking and social media to achieve this goal.”

    Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/70987.html#ixzz1ibkwZdrB

  105. 105.

    shortstop

    @shortstop:

    Also, too (what happened to the edit button?), it wasn’t until after Son of Privilege Number Whatever made his “let’s see the black guy’s grades, ’cause no way could a Negro be smart enough for Harvard law” comment that I found out that SPNW is himself a Harvard law graduate. The fact that these racist pieces of dog doody whine about affirmative action while being legacy admissions themselves just makes me crazy. And that’s not even considering that people don’t get the presidency of the law review for other than highly meritorious performance.

  106. 106.

    gogol's wife

    @shortstop:

    I agree. I hate him so much more than I ever thought I could. For some reason I can take the other ones more easily, because Romney really should and does know better (his father was a decent man), so it’s truly watching someone sell his soul to the devil. The other ones don’t have souls to sell.

  109. 109.

    gaz

    @lamh35: At first scratch, it smells okay. But for me, it’s still fruit of the poisoned tree, even if I like how it tastes.

    Citizens United is the worst judicial ruling for America at least since Dred Scott.

    I think it’s actually *criminal*. So yeah, but as I said, YMMV.

  111. 111.

    Anoniminous

    Ref: Senate Races

    In New Mexico the race is shaping to favor Dems holding Bingham’s seat.

  112. 112.

    Josie

    @BGinCHI: I hope you all have a good day. Just remember, if she gets hostile with you at any point, just say “Yes, dear. You are so right.” It’s the safest reaction.

  113. 113.

    trollhattan

    @BGinCHI:

    Best of luck to you, mom and baby! (We had a similar experience with redhead.edu when she was two weeks late. It was a long and eventually successful haul. I, of course, just had to hang out but hey, what are you gonna do?)

  114. 114.

    dogwood

    If you want a few laughs, read Dana Milbank’s account of the Romney victory rally in Manchester yesterday. He got ambushed by OWSers and a Chinese immigrant, with Walnuts acting as a bouncer. How long before the Romney campaign screens participants? Problem with that is then his events would be 2/3 empty rather than half empty.

  116. 116.

    28 Percent

    @Roger Moore: this is exactly why I’m making daily sacrifices to the FSM that the Republicans will end up with a brokered convention out of which they nominate… Bobby Jindal. The fact that he has so far managed not to set off Louisiana’s ick-dar says one hell of a lot about Louisiana.

  117. 117.

    Roger Moore

    @huckster:

    It makes an interesting narrative to talk about swift-boating and the like, but it seems to me that negative campaigning generally just reinforces one’s opinion about a candidate, particularly a candidate you don’t like.

    I suspect that it’s most helpful in two cases: reminding people about the things they dislike about somebody they already know about, and helping to set their expectations about somebody they don’t know about. If you’re dealing with Gingrich, it’s enough to remind people why they hated him, and it will all come flooding back. If you’re dealing with a relative unknown and can get in ahead of them, you can set people up to believe the worst of them. The second won’t work as reliably, especially if you haven’t done your research and chose to go negative with things that are obviously ridiculous once people see more of your opponent.

  118. 118.

    trollhattan

    @rlrr:

    Heh. We had an audience “Philosopher’s Song” sing-a-long when we saw Eric Idle a few years ago. Great fun but sadly, we broke the “I don’t want to catch anybody not drinking” rule during the actual show.

  119. 119.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @shortstop: I suspect that’s actually a good training process. Thinking good thoughts for little BG’s arrival, which will ideally be soon.

  120. 120.

    Aimai

    Good luck to you and mrs bginchi and the soon to be squalling baby. I had pitocin at an Evanston hospital 15 years ago to speed up my labor– three fucking days later the baby made it out. Hold tight to each other because it could be a bumpy ride. But so, so, worth it. Not to be all smooshy but although I may have had some cranky words for the hospital and the universe my husband was heroically there for me the whole time. I’ve got nothing but great memories of him in the hospital.

  121. 121.

    Aimai

    Good luck to you and mrs bginchi and the soon to be squalling baby. I had pitocin at an Evanston hospital 15 years ago to speed up my labor– three fucking days later the baby made it out. Hold tight to each other because it could be a bumpy ride. But so, so, worth it. Not to be all smooshy but although I may have had some cranky words for the hospital and the universe my husband was heroically there for me the whole time. I’ve got nothing but great memories of him in the hospital.

  122. 122.

    shortstop

    @dogwood: I’m no Milbank fan, but that was delicious. Hard to choose the best part, but I’m going with McCain continually checking his watch while Romney was speaking: “Okay, I’ll endorse you, but don’t ask me to stop being an asshole for five minutes while I’m doing it. I really need America to know how much I can’t stand you.”

    Here’s a link.

  123. 123.

    Roger Moore

    @dogwood:

    I simply didn’t like him, and wouldn’t have voted for him in a democratic primary no matter what his voting record revealed.

    I don’t want to sound too much like “you go with your gut”, but I think there’s something else going on when somebody like Edwards rubs you the wrong way. He did, after all, turn out to be a massive phony with a giant skeleton in his closet. The unconscious can be very good at letting us in on that kind of thing, so it’s a huge mistake to ignore it.

  124. 124.

    Paul in KY

    @Napoleon: I did that one about year and 1/2 ago. Probably took me 6 months to get through it. It is about 800 pages long, with very small print.

    Mr. Darwin is one of the world’s greatest caveaters (IMO). Just read it, you’ll see what I’m talking about.

  127. 127.

    eemom

    @dogwood:

    I’m not the least bit ashamed to admit I’m just as susceptible to this as anyone else. In 2008, I could have made many logical arguments against John Edwards for president – his voting record didn’t match his rhetoric etc. But, the truth is that would have been disingenuous. I simply didn’t like him, and wouldn’t have voted for him in a democratic primary no matter what his voting record revealed.

    sheeyit, you should be PROUD to admit you saw through Edwards, when I and so many others were totally suckered by him.

  128. 128.

    Napoleon

    @Paul in KY:

    Mr. Darwin is one of the world’s greatest caveaters

    That would not surprise me at all since it was my impression that part of the reason it took him forever to put that book out (the other being to not offend his beloved wife’s religious sensabilities) was that he kept gathering evidence in support of his theory until he had overwhelming evidence. It seems to me that a person like that may tend to the type that would be a great caveater.

  129. 129.

    Hill Dweller

    @dogwood:

    If you want a few laughs, read Dana Milbank’s account of the Romney victory rally in Manchester yesterday. He got ambushed by OWSers and a Chinese immigrant, with Walnuts acting as a bouncer.

    I’ve read both the Milbank and TPM accounts, and sound very similar.

    Conversely, Halperin had a completely different take. He was on MSNBC while both the Obama and Romney events were happening, waxing poetic about McCain’s tired jokes, and Romney hugging people(‘which is doesn’t usually do’). It was pathetic, and not the least bit believable.

  130. 130.

    Jennifer

    Edwards? I always thought he came off as a phony. His every utterance sounded scripted and polished to the nth degree to me. I liked what he said but it always came off as so pre-rehearsed that it was hard to believe that he really meant what he was saying.

  131. 131.

    mclaren

    I’ve been saying all along that Romney will not be the Republican nominee because as a Mormon he’s totally unacceptable to between 50% and 60% of the Republican primary voters, who are evangelical dominionist Christian fundamentalists.

    Clearly there’s a split in the Republican between the big money boys who run the party and the Tea Party fundamendalist social-issue/Christian evangelicals who are most active in voting in and working for candidates during the primaries. What happens if Romney wins in the polls and the big money boys try to force him on the Republican base?

    That could get interesting. In that case, we could get a massive civil war inside the Republican party, with half or more of the base of the party splitting off and either sitting out this election or leaving the Republican party entirely. Either way, I still think it wildly unlikely that even if Romney wins all the polls and the big money Republican elites put all the weight behind him, that he would be the candidate. More likely, you’d get chaos at the Republican National Convention with a huge guerilla insurgency by half or more of the delegates to nominate anyone but Romney. We could get multiple ballots and a brokered convention.

  132. 132.

    BGinCHI

    @Aimai: Thanks aimai (and everyone else).

    I hear the Evanston pitocin is less potent. You know, Methodists and teetotalers and all.

  133. 133.

    Paul in KY

    @amk: He put the poor dog on the roof of the car & drove 800 miles down the freeway. Don’t think those kids don’t know he would do something like that to them in a heartbeat.

    Kinda like the old Chinese saying: ‘Kill the chicken to scare the monkey’.

    At least I think it was Chinese. My apologies if it turns out to be an old Thai saying or whatever.

  134. 134.

    ThresherK

    @MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson: Hate to be the spoiler, but some dimwitted jodphur-wearing Canadian (albeit with a nice baritone) comes in and saves her. (Hey, my scenario is no less possible.)

    And best of wishes to BGinChi and spouse and offspring.

    PS While we’re talking about the Chicago way, remember when Tom Daschle was the greatest threat to the country, cramming them Dakota values down everyone’s throat?

  135. 135.

    ThresherK

    @ThresherK: …by which I mean no matter how many Blue Dogs the Dems put in power, RealAmerica(TM) is narratively owned by the GOP; it’s one of their Birthrighteousness qualities.

  136. 136.

    Paul in KY

    @Napoleon: He was working at the dawn of modern paleontology/biology. There were so many things where he was surmising or making educated guesses. He also had to contend with other well regarded scientific works then that were in opposition to his theses and he would have comments in there to try & say ‘this is what I think happened, but I may be incorrect in my appraisal of the data’ (only he would say it much more elegantly).

    Edit: He was always rock solid that the earth was so much older than anyone thought & that species adapted in response to their environment & went extinct and/or created new species over the millenia.

  137. 137.

    Linda Featheringill

    @Paul in KY:

    I don’t know your situation but if money is the main issue:

    If you have internet at home, you can download Kindle for PC from Amazon. For free.

    They have a number of free books available. I just downloaded Wealth of Nations from Amazon this morning to my Kindle on PC. Again, for free.

    I suspect many of the “classics” are free.

    [Edited because I apparently can’t spell. :-)]

  138. 138.

    Paul in KY

    @Linda Featheringill: Thank you for your concern, Linda. I thought he/she was talking about ‘Atlas Shrugged’. I don’t have a kindle & am not looking for one (right now).

    Just don’t want to give Ms. Rand’s estate any money.

  140. 140.

    El Cid

    I don’t think it’s so much that Americans oppose Chicago-style politics, it’s that they’ve really never tried good Chicago deep-dish politics.

    For that matter, most of what Americans are likely to encounter in their area as New York-style politics is said to be far inferior to the real New York politics.

    And then, of course, you have the whole division between North Carolina style politics which uses the vinegar and the more common tomato-paste based politics. And so forth.

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