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You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2012 / Paint It Blah

Paint It Blah

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This may be the most pathetic and feeble backtrack of a dog whistle ever:

Iowa runner-up Rick Santorum said Thursday that he would be “a much bigger player” than expected in the New Hampshire primary and denied saying that he didn’t want “to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money.”

Santorum allegedly made the controversial comments when discussing welfare in an interview Wednesday night with Fox News, but he maintained that people misheard the word “black” when he stumbled on a word.

“I looked at that, and I didn’t say that. If you look at it, what I started to say is a word and then sort of changed and it sort of — blah — came out. And people said I said ‘black.’ I didn’t,” Santorum said.

I imagine this is going to kill him with the blah vote.

We’ll see if the media lets him get away with this. Or if they already have.

Reader Interactions

151Comments

  1. 1.

    joes527

    We’ll see if the media lets him get away with this.

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

    Oh Cole, you know how to keep us in stitches.

  7. 7.

    Zach

    You realize that Newt Gingrich calling Sotomayor a racist never came up once in the major media during the couple weeks that he was surging, right? Or the repeated food-stamp President (and related) remarks… or the Kenyan anti-colonialist thing. The same pathology that requires the media to invent a second side to every story results in an inability to call racism what it is.

  8. 8.

    Kola Noscopy

    This is awesome.

    Cole is posting ten times more often since She Who Must Not Be Named was self-expunged.

    Just like old days…but better!

  10. 10.

    Soonergrunt

    We’ll see if the media lets him get away with this. Or if they already have.

    We already know the answer to that question, don’t we?

  12. 12.

    PPOG Penguin

    Note to Rick: when Cole says Newt made the ‘most blatantly racist GOP statement of the day,’ he did not mean it as a challenge.

  15. 15.

    Jonny Scrum-half

    You don’t want to hear it, but he’s telling the truth. And I would never vote for Santorum, but what’s right is right.

  16. 16.

    Schlemizel

    Oh John you silly boy – OF COURSE he will get away with it! Nobody in the media will be so unkind as to ask him about it and press him until he gives an honest answer.

  18. 18.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Zach:

    The same pathology that requires the media to invent a second side to every story results in an inability to call racism what it is.

    Just this.

    Corporate HQ is afraid that it might offend someone out there in TVLand if you call a racist a racist. Might discomfit the real customers, the corporate assholes buying the ads, too.

  19. 19.

    Drum Circles And Weed

    Serious tactical mistake. He should have owned it loud and proud. He’d walk away with the primaries.

  21. 21.

    Cat Lady

    Santorum is Gingrich without the fat, the wives, and the acid personality. His words and past actions are starting to get the same treatment that Gingrich got so he’s got a lot more ‘splainin’ to do because his belief system is basically to the right of Torquemada, but unlike Gingrich he doesn’t have all of the snipers waiting for him in the tall grass. And then there’s teh google problem. Which means it will be between Romney and Paul.

  25. 25.

    Richard

    I hope he wins the nomination and uses a promise to allow states to make contraception illegal as his number one campaigns issue.

    “Rick Santorum says that State’s Rights extend to what you’re allowed to put on your dick.”

    That ought to be popular.

  27. 27.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Kola Noscopy:

    You know fuck you, this is exactly the type of post that ABL would have done, and JC knows it, he is filling in for her as it were. It has been all over twitter for hours. Damn you are a pain.

  28. 28.

    jl

    Link to the clip that people are using to pick on poor Rick.

    Santorum singles out blacks when talking about welfare reform.
    http://youtu.be/3V2-sxiC-wE

    Hilarious, lame ass lie. Putting the this and to Fox weak ass sub grade school excuse/lie together would make a good ad.

  30. 30.

    amk

    Globe sez FU to mittens … yet again.

    So far, Republican presidential contenders have shown little awareness of this opportunity. Far from promoting bipartisan unity, the GOP candidates have even abandoned Ronald Reagan’s “11th commandment” (“Though shalt not speak ill of another Republican”), shattering the party’s customary internal unity in an electric storm of name-calling and accusations. Rather than compare creative policy solutions, the candidates have vied for meaningless titles like “true conservative.’’ Rather than outline a vision for a safer world, they’ve signaled a return to Bush-era posturing and disdain for allies who don’t blindly serve American interests.

    Nonetheless, there is a widespread belief that Romney’s campaign, like a well-designed corporate strategy, is bound for success. But even if Romney emerges as the nominee, it matters how he gets there. Already, the religious right, represented by Rick Santorum, and Tea Party activists, represented by Ron Paul, have pushed Romney in unwanted directions. In New Hampshire, Republican and independent voters have a chance, through Huntsman, to show him a sturdier model. Jon Huntsman would be a better president. But if he fails, he could still make Romney a better candidate

  32. 32.

    MikeJ

    @Violet:

    Huntsman got the Boston Globe endorsement.

    The Globe isn’t going to help with New Hampster Republicans. Hell, half of them think the Herald is liberal rag. I’d guess somewhere around 27% think the Manchester Union Leader is a liberal rag.

  33. 33.

    GregB

    @Violet:

    The Boston Globe is considered the voice of the liberal media. It will actually confirm for wingnuts that Huntsman can’t be trusted because even the liberal Boston Globe likes him.

  34. 34.

    jl

    Unless…. Santorum said ‘bland’ people.

    That’s the ticket. Santorum was talking about people just like him, not making counterfactual racist assumptions at all!

    Probably have to let Politif*ckt call it though. Not really really true because Santorum might have been talking about the ‘bland’ people crisis in America today.

    But then, Cole is right, Santorum is’blah’, at least more so than ‘bland’.

  37. 37.

    Peregrinus

    @Linda Featheringill:

    Probably not expecting it.

    (Worth adding that Savonarola was burnt by the Inquisition, if I remember correctly – or by one of its predecessors. It’s said that he was told that he was expelled “from the Church Militant and Triumphant,” to which he replied, “expel me from the Church Militant, you may; but never from the Church Triumphant. That lies not within your competence.”

  40. 40.

    ...now I try to be amused

    Santorum doesn’t do nuance; everything’s in blah and wah.

    [Crossposted with lacp. Curse you!]

  43. 43.

    Drum Circles And Weed

    Little You Tube search cleared that up. He most certainly does not say “blah”, or drop a verbal tick. He said what he meant to say.

  44. 44.

    Quaker in a Basement

    If you look at it, what I started to say is a word and then sort of changed…

    …but that word was NOT “black.” Honest injun!

  45. 45.

    cathyx

    Well, I watched the video hoping to hear for myself what it sounded like he said, and it’s a video of his interview with O’Reilly defending what he didn’t say. What a waste of my time. But I did get to watch the commercial before it that was advertising “Project Runway” which is a show mostly about gay clothing designers. And on Fox TV no less. See, they don’t hate the gays.

  48. 48.

    jl

    @Quaker in a Basement: Some one should ask Santorum what he was trying to say.

    What was it? Black, blah, or bland.

    Maybe it was supposed to be ‘band’. I did a lot of mooching in HS band, free bus trips, meals and whatnot, and musicians are a sketchy crowd.

  49. 49.

    Benjamin Franklin

    via Rump Roast;

    Rip/Roar the sentence ‘Jindal is a font of ideas as fertile as Newt’

    ISTG; You can’t make this stuff up….

    “Morton Blackwell, has suggested a new candidate may emerge. Blackwell’s idea is for Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal to replace the man he endorsed for president — Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

    Blackwell believes that — for a variety of reasons — Gov. Jindal is “almost a perfect candidate.” For one thing, he says, “[Jindal is] a font of ideas at least as fertile as Newt Gingrich — but without the wackiness.”

    Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/01/05/department-of-ideas-could-conservatives-swap-jindal-for-perry/#ixzz1idbiEsCY

  50. 50.

    fasteddie9318

    If it weren’t for the fucking blahs and the fucking hamsandwiches and the fucking flagouts and the fucking muslins, this might be a halfway decent country.

    –Rih Sanitarium

  51. 51.

    Baud

    @cathyx: Ed Show just showed the clip. Santorum does kind of slur the “k”. I’m guessing his staff watched the video and “blah” is the best excuse they could come up with.

  52. 52.

    AngryBLAHlady

    The fact you made that joke indicates you really, really don’t get it. Seriously dude, wow. I thought so much better of you.

  54. 54.

    WereBear (itouch)

    @Baud:Santorum does kind of slur the “k”.

    It’s my theory that he actually had a moment of realization there. Not conscience; this is what he thinks. But a nanosecond of knowing what it might sound like.

  57. 57.

    Emma

    Did I not tell you in the other thread that by 7 we would have an even bigger quote? I should set out a shingle and read the cards or something.

  59. 59.

    Baud

    There is still 3 hours left in the day. Come on Ron Paul, don’t let Gingrich and Santorum out-racist you!

  60. 60.

    chopper

    i love how these guys keep fucking up so hard. all because the president is blahity-blahity-blah.

  66. 66.

    Wordsmith

    I looked at that, and I didn’t say that. If you look at it, what I started to say is a word and then sort of changed and it sort of — blah — came out. And people said I said ‘black.’ I didn’t,” Santorum said.

    All right…what was ‘the word’ he started to say (any word) and then changed it?

    It was black. I fucking heard it. I was just surprised he said it in front of all those white people.

  67. 67.

    dmsilev

    I think we’re going to find out in November whether it’s possible for a candidate to receive a negative percentage of the vote from a major ethnic group.

  70. 70.

    Linda Featheringill

    @jl:

    I listened to that on YouTube. He could have made his point without any adjective before “people.” You have to wonder why he felt it necessary to insert “blah” there.

    Or maybe you don’t have to wonder at all.

  72. 72.

    magurakurin

    @poco: It post here because that’s what its employer is telling it to do. Paid blog spammer, what a way to make a living.

  73. 73.

    Lizzy

    Still checking my art catalogs, haven’t found that paint color yet. However, every artist knows that the best black does not come straight out of a tube. It is a mix of various colors i.e., pthalo blue, violet oxide and burnt siena, it’s luminous. Rick is not luminous….

  74. 74.

    Catsy

    @WereBear (itouch): This exactly.

    That was that brief hitch that most of us have had at one time or another when we realized we were in the process of saying something we probably shouldn’t have.

    Also, this thread delivers, and I am observing the emergence of a new meme substituting “blah” for “black” in things.

  75. 75.

    Baud

    I think Santorum meant to say that he didn’t want to make blond people’s lives better by giving them other peoples’ money, but realized that would be offensive and ended up slurring his words.

  76. 76.

    jl

    Three is a lesson here for you kids. All you have to do is slur the consonant, and you are home free. I for one will remember this.

    A few bigshots at work I been planning to call fuhing fuhers who do nothing but fuh things up. I’ll try it tomorrow and see how it goes.

    Edit: first I typed ‘who’ instead of ‘how’. If I did that, it would probably end up that I will be who who goes. But then I am not a VSP who can say whatever and get a pass.

  80. 80.

    Baud

    OT from TPM:

    Did Rick Santorum actually win the Iowa caucuses? KCCI in Des Moines is reporting that a vote counter at one caucus says a counting error gave Mitt Romney 20 more votes than he actually received.

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

  81. 81.

    Cacti

    Probably won’t help him with the blah vote.

    But it’s hard to say, since our only blah Front Pager isn’t here to weigh in.

    She’s probably busy fantasizing being raped by a certain blah President, as noted by my progressive betters.

  83. 83.

    amk

    Hey cole, your bff, gg calls billboard as ‘obama cultists’ just because they debunked kelly clarkson’s “ron paul sales bump”.

    Pretty pathetic that your “intellectual” bff is reduced to poutrage over a third rate singer’s sales numbers.

    ODS is hilarious.

  84. 84.

    jl

    @Baud: What? I don’t believe it. How could a one hundredth of one percent landside disappear like that?

    Poor Mitt.

    On other hand, that would mean Rih Sahorum, a stupid racist, won the Ioa brihary. Which would be the kind of guh ews or ehuyiwahs I wol wi oo ee.

    edit: forgot ‘corrupt’.

  86. 86.

    Mnemosyne

    @Cacti:

    But it’s hard to say, since our only blah Front Pager isn’t here to weigh in.

    Zandar is still blah (as far as I know) so perhaps he’ll stop by to give us the blah point of view.

    I still have hopes for an ABL/JC reconciliation myself, if only to enjoy the sound of exploding troll heads all over the site.

  88. 88.

    Karen in GA

    @kuvasz:

    You do realize that if Count Blah hears about what Santorum said, he’ll punch, no bite, him in the neck.

    But where does he stand on Puppish rights?

  89. 89.

    dmsilev

    @Baud: Recount! Recount!

    Also, too, apparently the Iowa GOP didn’t require caucus-goers to show photo ID, DNA samples, proof of paternal descent from a member of the Continental Army, or anything really. Voter fraud! ACORN!

  91. 91.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    “Blah?” Really? Reminds me of Miracle Max:

    Inigo Montoya: True love! You heard him! You could not ask for a more noble cause than that.
    Miracle Max: …Except that’s not what he said: he distinctly said “To Blave.”

  92. 92.

    MattMinus

    Typical liberals. Demanding racial sensitivity towards your voting blocks, but refusing to extend it to any minority that leaves your little plantation.

    It’s a well known fact that Rick Santorum’s mother is a cartoon vampire, and vampires, of course, are a natural republican constituency.

    They fuckin’ just yell “Blah” for no reason sometimes.Deal with it, you fucking bigots.

  93. 93.

    wobblybits

    @Cacti: Zander is of the blah persuasion also too. Well he is half blah. I am as well. Does this mean a new category on the ethnicity section of the forms?

  97. 97.

    dogwood

    @dmsilev:

    Ah, that stuff is so yesterday. We’re in New Hampshire now. It’s live free or die unless you can defend yourself with the Magna Carta.

  99. 99.

    Tonal Crow

    Republicans can’t possibly sell their ideology without lying continually.

    So they lie continually.

    I hope Republicans nominate Santorum.

  100. 100.

    DCLaw1

    Cole is right to be wary though. This could very easily turn into a “reasonable minds disagree” debate by our craven media. How did the article describe his VIDEOTAPED comments?? “Santorum allegedly made the controversial comments.”

  102. 102.

    neal peart

    I like the reporter’s use of the word “alleged” when anyone with a 25 seconds can find it on the internet and listen to the “alleged” use of the word black.

  103. 103.

    Benjamin Franklin

    Not-blah…

    http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/

    “In a rare visit to the Pentagon, President Obama declared that the U.S. will be “strengthening our presence in the Asia-Pacific,” while “turning the page on a decade of war.” In practice, that means cutting the Army and Marine Corps and unspecified “outdated Cold War systems,” part of a broad effort to cut what the Pentagon now calculates as $487 billion over 10 years from its budget.

    But it also means that the U.S. is going to lean hard on other military specialties between now and 2020. Obama identified those as “intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, counterterrorism, countering weapons of mass destruction, and the ability to operate in environments where adversaries try to deny us access.”

  104. 104.

    Kola Noscopy

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    You know fuck you, this is exactly the type of post that ABL would have done, and JC knows it, he is filling in for her as it were. It has been all over twitter for hours. Damn you are a pain.

    hahahahaha…so the fact that one of JC’s post is all over Twatter is evidence that ACL is missed?

    you are insane
    and I am a pain
    to your brain stain

  106. 106.

    Tonal Crow

    @WereBear (itouch):

    @Baud:Santorum does kind of slur the “k”.

    It’s my theory that he actually had a moment of realization there. Not conscience; this is what he thinks. But a nanosecond of knowing what it might sound like.

    Yah. And just couldn’t stop it in time. GOP him. GOP him hard and long and frothy.

  107. 107.

    Special Patrol Group

    Of course he said “black” (whom you gonna believe, Rick Santorum or your lyin’ ears?), but give the guy a break: He’s trying to win the Republican nomination for President for Pete’s sake.

  110. 110.

    DCLaw1

    Look at O’Reilly in the video in the Hill article as he blithely says he’ll take Santorum’s word for it. Racists are all too eager to absolve other racists (of their own race) of bigotry. His face tells the story.

  111. 111.

    dogwood

    In all seriousness, how are any of these clowns going to run against the President. They’ve had 6-8 months of embarrassing debates and one lousy caucus where no one showed up. Hillary and Barack did this through June under white hot scrutiny, in front of thousands, not hundreds, and then Obama had to turn on a dime and keep going for another 4 months. Through all that, Hillary had a couple of bad moments, and Barack a goofy bowing incident. Not a real youtube moment between them. It’s been 3 years now, and the President hasn’t even choked on a pretzel. No election is easy, but none of these Republicans is even remotely ready for prime time.

  112. 112.

    Kola Noscopy

    @Lojasmo:

    He only posted this because he still follows her blog. She posted this much earlier today.

    Ooops, my bad. Didn’t know this linked to the ACLC.

    Damn, foiled again by Cole’s codependent need to be tortured and disrespected by ACL.

    Although I suspect this behavior is all an act to be rid of her at BJ and still appear to be the good guy.

  115. 115.

    Tonal Crow

    And so, if he didn’t mean to say “black”, what *did* he mean to say? And why haven’t our media overlords asked him that question?

  116. 116.

    kc

    If only George Allen had thought of that excuse. “No, what I said was ‘Mah-ah-ah’….”

  117. 117.

    Kola Noscopy

    Wait a minute. This doesn’t link to ACLC!

    My god, you freaks have ALC-derangement syndrome.

    …now, where are my keys…?

  119. 119.

    Kola Noscopy

    It’s clear to me in the tape the Little Ricky had a slight stroke while he was talking and merely muttered “blah blah blah…”

    To think otherwise betrays a vicious anti-Catholic bigotry.

  120. 120.

    Benjamin Franklin

    @dogwood:

    No election is easy, but none of these Republicans is even remotely ready for prime time.

    I think there is nervous exhilaration amongst the troops. We do have to remember who we are dealing with. Nothing is beyond their pale. Personally, I think they’re like Vikings with wooden swords. They make a lot of noise, but don’t do any real damage to 2012.

  121. 121.

    jl

    @Baud: I wish he gone with African American. No implausible deniability there.

    Unless Rih wanted to go with Aghan Americans.

  125. 125.

    handy

    C’mon folks! Our esteemed pro-life senator was obviously trying to say “blastocyst” and unfortunately got tripped up over the word, so went with the fitting substitute “people”–since both are clearly synonyms.

  129. 129.

    fasteddie9318

    You liberal satanists can just all go fuh yourselves. Rih clearly said “The sheriff is near.” NEAR, OK? Not whatever vulgarity you think he said.

  130. 130.

    Gian

    @Mnemosyne:

    For reconcilliation, was this her third time leaving the site in a huff in less than a year?
    If that’s the case, there’s probably a chance for things to smooth over again.

    but this post is about how Ricky S likes to be a race-baiter, and when called on it tries to lie about it. For someone who plays holier than thou and super-religious really ought not to be bearing false witness, as to what he himself said earlier.

    He’s flip-flopping on his racisim like he’s Mitt Romney now.

  131. 131.

    Jebediah

    If Bill Clinton was our “first black President” who was our first blah president?
    (I realize this violates the blah=black meme. But just McCain/Palin I’m all mavericky and shit.)

  135. 135.

    Omnes Omnibus

    I came home from teaching future cops about the Fourth Amendment and found this. I was in such a blah mood, but now I am happy.

  138. 138.

    FlipYrWhig

    Sounds like a sharp new attack against the vulture capitalism of more-blah-than-the-night-is-long Mitt Romney. You know, because Santorum is such an economic populist now, like Ed Schultz was saying on caucus night.

  139. 139.

    John Revolta

    Did Rick Santorum actually win the Iowa caucuses? KCCI in Des Moines is reporting that a vote counter at one caucus says a counting error gave Mitt Romney 20 more votes than he actually received.

    Santorum Surges from Behind; Leaves Bad Taste in Mitt’s Mouth

  140. 140.

    Elias

    @PPOG Penguin:

    Dude, Cole totally wrote it as a challenge. Explicitly noting the hour and that there was plenty of time left for somebody to top it.

    Can’t blame the Republicans for simply taking the dare. Dog whistler gotta do what a dog whistler’s gotta do.

  142. 142.

    Rumpole

    1. Thats not a dog whistle. It’s a foghorn.
    2. The Obama presidency is one long rerun of blazing saddles, with Romney as Hedley Lamar, and perry as sherriff taggert. Bachman as lily Von schtupp. Biden as the Waco kid.

  145. 145.

    fasteddie9318

    Oh come on, you know, the hamsandwiches. From Max and Co. Some people might want to call them wetbricks, but Rih is not prejudiced like those people are.

  147. 147.

    Sebastian Dangerfield

    @John, I think the heart of the problem here is that the remark wasn’t a dog whistle; it was voiced at a frequency everyone can hear. More like a Kinsley gaffe. If he had said what he probably meant to say “I don’t want to help people by …” then it would have been a dog whistle. It will get him more primary votes than it loses him of course.

  148. 148.

    Roc

    I’m confused. Are people upset because he said ‘black’ instead of ‘African American’? Or are people upset because he implied that social services are about helping black people?

    Because I know which one sounds more offensive *to me*. But his whole excuse seems to hinge on which label he did or didn’t apply in the process of casting the larger insult.

  149. 149.

    Chad

    @Kola Noscopy: Because who needs a different perspective informed by somewhat radically different life experiences that challenge preconceived notions?! Amirite or amirite

  150. 150.

    mrmike

    This is all just a knee jer over reaction

    I meant to use the soft g sound. Really. I just mumbled. And swallowed a letter. Nothing to see.

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