Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Fucking consultants! (of the political variety)

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

So many bastards, so little time.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Humiliatingly small and eclipsed by the derision of millions.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

Accountability, motherfuckers.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Celebrate the fucking wins.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

This really is a full service blog.

No one could have predicted…

Innocent people do not delay justice.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2012 / Tuesday Evening Open Thread: GOP Buyer’s Remorse

Tuesday Evening Open Thread: GOP Buyer’s Remorse

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(Pat Oliphant via GoComics.com)
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Even the “horserace” reporters are bored. Walter Shapiro at TNR on “the least exciting New Hampshire primary ever“:

Rochester, N.H.—Having emerged unbloodied Sunday morning from the weekend’s debate double-header, Mitt Romney barreled down Route 101 at more than 80 miles an hour towards a noon rally at the Rochester Opera House. (I can verify the speedometer reading since the Romney campaign bus zoomed past me in a 65-mile-an-hour zone and I tailed it until it turned off the highway). The front-runner’s haste was understandable, since Romney wants this primary inscribed in the record books before his double-digit lead vanishes…
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Romney’s stump speech includes a patriotic reading of stanzas from “America, the Beautiful,” ostensibly to prove that no one (certainly not that Europe-emulating president named Obama) can match his star-spangled patriotism. Listening to Romney, though, I was mostly inspired to recall the great Senate filibusters of yore, when exhausted legislators would read aloud fragments of poetry and pot-liquor recipes to run out the clock.
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The sad thing—for those of us who love the spirited competition and hairpin turns of traditional New Hampshire primaries—is that Romney almost certainly will get away with his evasiveness. As a reporter chronicling his ninth New Hampshire primary (dating back to the days when George Bush boasted that he was “up for the Eighties”), I can recall no contested race in either party this devoid of energy. It feels like the primary is being conducted underwater, with every movement slow and exaggerated…

Apart from inattentively waiting for the statistically meaningless results of said lackluster ‘contest’, what’s on the agenda tonight?

Reader Interactions

143Comments

  1. 1.

    MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson

    I wonder whether there would be an audience for a horror movie called The Creature From The Santorum Lagoon…?

    And yes, I am killing time until the results from Innsmouth, Arkham and Shoggoth’s Hump come in.

  2. 2.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    “Romney brand Mayonnaise” not sure, how about “Romney brand decaffeinated White Bread”?

  3. 3.

    Hill Dweller

    And yet, whichever buffoon emerges with the nomination has a coin-flip’s chance of being President.

    This must be how some Romans felt…

  6. 6.

    The Moar You Know

    Mitt Romney barreled down Route 101 at more than 80 miles an hour towards a noon rally at the Rochester Opera House.

    It’s so adorable how there are two sets of laws in this country – one for the rich and one for everyone else.

  7. 7.

    Nutella

    @The Moar You Know:

    It all depends on what you look like, I guess. Casually dressed young men are apparently a threat to Romney’s right to assembly, or something like that. (His followup to that first post.)

    ETA: In all fairness I have to note that the young man was in possession of a backpack and is a resident of Massachusetts so anyone would be afraid of what he might do once the speeches started. This kind of decisive action is what we need to see from a Commander in Chief.

  8. 8.

    MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson

    Mitt Romney barreled down Route 101 at more than 80 miles an hour towards a noon rally at the Rochester Opera House.

    I guess the movie Run, Romney, Run can’t be far away.

    Nonetheless, my money’s on the Kenyan when it comes to the long-distance event.

  10. 10.

    jl

    Hell, Old Gingrich is aged 14 years and damn near 180 proof. I wouldn’t throw that away. Could come in handy.

    Edit: Oh, they had the Gingrich Baloney. Never mind, that stuff will kill you even when its fresh made.

  11. 11.

    gogol's wife

    @redshirt:

    Same here. After watching an old movie (“My Favorite Year”–is it any good?), I will tune in here to find out what happened in a way that won’t offend my sensibilities.

  12. 12.

    muddy

    Just a minute ago, Bob Schieffer is being interviewed about the campaign by the local CBS news in VT, their early 5:30pm show. She is saying about the media, and he stated that the media does not bring out the crowds, the candidates bring out the crowds.

    I frightened the dog with my thundering bark of lolwut. I told the tv that advertisers were really getting ripped off, then. He has always been such a smug faced hypocrite. He should just go home, if tv doesn’t do anything.

  14. 14.

    Amir Khalid

    My only hope, being the spiteful vicious little git that I am, is that the New Hampshire result throws the Republican presidential race into more confusion, that this confusion keeps on growing all the way to a fractious national convention at which a desperate party turns its lonely eyes to …

  17. 17.

    Comrade Dread

    All primaries should be replaced with a Thunderdome style cage match where only one emerges alive and victorious, the proud bearer of his tribe’s bloody standard.

    The general election should be follow the same format, but we add a pissed off cougar too. The winner is declared president for the next four years. Even if it’s the cougar. Especially if it’s the cougar.

  18. 18.

    jl

    @PeakVT: And the Huntsman is not improving with age, whatever is in that bottle. If it turns to vinegar we will know it used to be green wine.

  20. 20.

    Berial

    I think tonight I will just play Star Wars the Old Republic and not watch ANY TV whatsoever. I’ll be happier in the morning for sure.

  21. 21.

    General Stuck

    The GOP primary is like Jonestown, where all the faithful have gathered to choose what flavor Kool Aid.

  24. 24.

    joes527

    @Comrade Dread:

    The winner is declared president for the next four years. Even if it’s the cougar. Especially if it’s the cougar.

    Must … not .. make … PUMA … joke.

  26. 26.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    @Amir Khalid:

    a desperate party turns its lonely eyes to …

    Zombie Nixon?
    Zombie Reagan?
    George HW Bush? (can still serve another term!)

    … Alan Keyes?

  31. 31.

    dr.hypercube

    @MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson: Innsmouth and Arkham are down on Cape Ann in Mass, sez I. All we had was the Miskatonic Geological Archive out on Goat Island (no connection to either Binx or Isak). And as an undeclared voter, I did my best to help the Republican party choose…

  33. 33.

    WereBear

    @Mark S.: Comments have been closed. Perhaps it’s because most of them were people screeching that they didn’t believe the language was 65,000 years old and no one could make them throw away their Bible.

    Sigh.

  41. 41.

    Quaker in a Basement

    The reporters are bored? They should find something else to do.

    Are there no burgers that need to be flipped? No shoppers to be greeted?

  43. 43.

    MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson

    @Amir Khalid:

    Tsar Ivan the Terrible… or whatever other name The Free-market Historian Formerly Known As Gingrich is calling himself these days.

  48. 48.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    @gogol’s wife:

    Fantastic movie. Peter O’Toole should have won an Oscar for his performance.

    Hacks like Shapiro at TNR are typical: if it’s not a horse race, it’s boring. I’ve talked about this with one WH reporter over the years and his/her comments typify the bubble they live/report in: they are convinced only horse race style reporting generates readership. Yeah, we’ve seen how well that’s worked for em over the last dozen years.

  49. 49.

    Jager

    @The Moar You Know: Too bad old Governor Meldrim Thompson isn’t still around, he used to block the highways with his limo and a couple of state patrol cars and keep everybody at 55mph, especially those headed home to Massachusetts!

  50. 50.

    MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson

    @Mark S.:

    I thought the suggestion that the Theory of Gravity should be replaced by Intelligent Falling deserved applause.

  52. 52.

    Raven

    Two friends with cancer diagnoses in one day. One brain with a chance one pancreatic with not much.

  55. 55.

    harlana

    the story behind the Santorum fetus story

    “‘The doctors said they were talking about a matter of hours or a day or two before risking sepsis and both of them might die,” Santorum said. “Obviously, if it was a choice of whether both Karen and the child are going to die or just the child is going to die, I mean it’s a pretty easy call.”
    If the physician came to me and said if we don’t deliver your baby in one hour you will be dead, yeah, I would have to do it,” she said. “But for me, it was at the very end. I would never make a decision like that until all other means had been thoroughly exhausted.’

    In other words, if she hadn’t gone into labor on her own, they would have eventually decided to have an abortion.”

  56. 56.

    KG

    @Comrade Dread: shouldn’t the animal change every four years… this cycle, pissed off cougar, next cycle pissed off black bear, then maybe an angry gorilla, hungry lion… you know, for the sake of diversity

  61. 61.

    pat

    Ummm. I believe the story about the last member of a 65,00o year old tribe is from 2010.

    I always check the date line on these stories.

  63. 63.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    On the poor outskirts of Dakar, Senegal, we sat before six imams in an airy mosque. They are holy men, respected community leaders, and, lately, birth control champions. “Family spacing,” they called it, as they cheerfully explained why Islam supports it. “What’s good for a woman is good for her family, and for her society. We want healthy societies.”

    Money quote from a piece on contraception in the Guardian. Who’d a thunk that Imams are more enlighted that the Talibaptists over here.

    guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/jan/10/us-contraception-africa?CMP=twt_gu

  65. 65.

    Raven

    @jl: We’re gonna do our best. I have two friends who have had brain tumors and both did well. Lots of trips to Duke.

  72. 72.

    jackmac

    @gogol’s wife: “My Favorite Year” is great, you’ll enjoy it. And I’ll second comrade scott’s agenda of rage comment that Peter O’Toole should have won an Oscar.

  73. 73.

    Raven

    @MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson: Thanks, I know they will. They both have wonderful spouses and kids. Of course they one daughter that is a gay female moved to Australia to be with her partner since the partner couldn’t stay here.

  74. 74.

    General Stuck

    @BGinCHI:

    Baby eats, baby poops, baby eats, baby poops, baby eats, baby poops.

    Don’t we all. The difference is, babies are more honest about it, not blowing smoke up the world’s ass in between.

  80. 80.

    Svensker

    @Raven:

    So sorry to hear that. Getting older has some real downsides. As my husband says at times like this, “There better be an afterlife and it better be good, or I’m gonna be really pissed off.”

    Courage. And hugs.

  87. 87.

    General Stuck

    @Raven:

    Tough news. Life is so very fragile, though we spend our days telling ourselves it’s not, and then the shit rains down all at once.

  89. 89.

    WaterGirl

    @WereBear: What a doll he is on his camouflage rug! Why is that dogs and cats seem to gravitate toward the rug or blanket that most resembles them?

    Edit: Tristan is kind of a chair hog? The reverend ends up kind of scrunched in the corner. We will have to speak to young Tristan about that. Respect for his elders and all.

  90. 90.

    EconWatcher

    @Raven:

    Very sorry to hear that. We lost a close friend last year to cancer, an elegant and beautiful woman of 50, who may be the classiest and most generous person I’ve ever known.

    I really hate cancer.

  92. 92.

    harlana

    well, it may seem “devoid of energy” to some, but i for one find watching these fuckbags tear each other apart most entertaining

  93. 93.

    Roger Moore

    @WaterGirl:

    Why is that dogs and cats seem to gravitate toward the rug or blanket that most resembles them?

    Maybe they actually are searching out natural camouflage. That would certainly make sense for an ambush predator like a cat.

  94. 94.

    Cassidy

    Let’s see, FOX was appalled, and I mean APPALLED!, that Romney was being taken out of context. It was so unfair. CNN is trying really hard to give Huntsman a mustache ride. They really need that horserace;it’s like they’re junkies.

  95. 95.

    harlana

    oh, FUCK T-PAW just now, what a DOUCHEBAG he was to Rachel!

    pencil-necked dickhead twat-wad

    he should be thankful somebody even wants to talk to his loser-ass and he’s insulting the whole MSNBC panel for being gracious enough to put his pathetic little prick-ass on the teevee and ask him some questions like what he thinks matters worth a shit

  96. 96.

    WaterGirl

    @Raven: So sorry, Raven. To get that diagnosis and be told that there is no hope… how do you wrap your head around that? So sorry.

  97. 97.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    @Roger Moore: This does not explain my dark grey cat, who likes the cream-colored bedspread best. It would make more sense if he’s marking his territory with shed hair.

    On the other hand, this is the same animal who thinks I am the Goddess of Love and Food inside the house but a terrifying predator when he encounters me outdoors, so maybe “cat” and “makes sense” do not belong in the same sentence.

  98. 98.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:

    I’ve got two like that, can’t get enough of me the Benevolent Goddess of Cat Treats indoors but when they happen upon me when I am out in the garden they look at me as if I am the Devil Incarnate and scarper in the opposite direction. Perhaps it is the light.

  100. 100.

    Redshift

    @Cassidy: I caught a few minutes of Lawrence O’Donnell last night that was actually pretty amusing. He was wrapping up with a couple of political analysts who were saying “If Romney wins South Carolina, it’s…” and he interrupted with “Don’t say ‘it’s over!’ It can’t be over!” and generally mocking the horse race junkies.

  101. 101.

    harlana

    life can be beautiful, but it is also filled with pain and suffering, there has to be something better, a place where there is no suffering

  105. 105.

    BGinCHI

    Update:

    Baby eats, baby poops, baby burps, baby sleeps.

    I’m starting to sense a pattern.

    I bet McCain’s wife has the same kind of experience.

  106. 106.

    lamh35

    Amid Romney and Paul people, black fraternities muster a loud show of support for Obama

    MANCHESTER, N.H.—For a while this morning at the first ward precinct here, the loudest contingent of campaign supporters was cheering for Barack Obama.

    About 20 supporters chanted “Four more years!” over the hoots and howls of sign-waving Republican supporters, who had mostly shown up to support Mitt Romney and Ron Paul.

    The Obama backers were part of a new group called 1911 United, which sounds like a union, but is actually a joint effort of two historically black fraternities, Omega Psi Phi and Kappa Alpha Psi.

    The new group, which is registered as a super PAC, is targeting seven battleground states on behalf of the president, and hoping to train 10,000 volunteers to work on behalf of the president…

  108. 108.

    JGabriel

    @harlana:

    … there has to be something better, a place where there is no suffering

    There is, it’s called a grave. I don’t know that it’s better though.

    .

  109. 109.

    muddy

    @muddy:
    Now replying to myself, so sad, but there’s a cheery update. Bob Schieffer tells local VT CBS at 5:30 that the fuss is not due to the media, it’s only the candidates that make the excitement. No Bob, you’re not stirring any pots.

    Then at 6:30 one of the big stories of the night is “Look how much media is in NH, look at this warehouse of folding tables where the busy media toil, etc.” A local says they are there for a long time and then suddenly they are gone on Wednesday, whoosh. Of course they had this piece prepared in advance, but still it was nice that they essentially called Bob Schieffer a liar.

  110. 110.

    General Stuck

    @lamh35:

    MANCHESTER, NH — Which candidate has the most offices in New Hampshire? No, it’s not Mitt Romney. That would be President Obama, whose campaign has seven spread out across the state — more than the rest of the field combined.

    Looks like rumors of OFA death were exaggerated. Go figure

  118. 118.

    scav

    @WaterGirl: I think he’s cheerful enough to point out this world is what is is (a mixed bag of great bits and messy bits — see also eat poop eat poop eat poop . . . . ) and probably not so bad as the alternative. I’ll even go so far as to rather content with my imperfect president and not pine over the necessary existence of a perfect one.

  121. 121.

    burnspbesq

    @ Raven:

    Thoughts, prayers, and best wishes to you and yours.

    Duke Med is about as good as it gets for this kind of stuff. Your friends are in good hands.

  123. 123.

    jeffreyw

    @WaterGirl: I had a notion to get Mrs J to sew a kitty bed made out of fake fur with the blotches of white and black and orange in the same pattern as Bitsy. I Googled “calico pattern fabric” – oops.

  127. 127.

    Cat Lady

    @Raven:

    I had that same day four weeks ago – close friend with multiple myeloma, close friend’s father with pancreatic cancer. Both are grim.

  128. 128.

    dlnelson

    I was watching c span the other morning, Greta was doing radio row, and they had the John Madden of Ireland on, I tried to access their video archives, and cannot find it, but he said the Irish read more papers than most folks, and really laid into the republican candidates, ruthlessly. He said if America sneezed, the entire continent over there gets a big cold. (My words paraphrasing). He was so funny, and totally dissed the entire republican field. I tried to find it, and it was a live feed, I bet it has been scrubbed. He has been known as the live announcer for the weekends for rugby, and very colorful. Enjoyed it.

  129. 129.

    WaterGirl

    @jeffreyw: I think that’s a splendid idea! Why the oops? I googled your phrase in quotes (with some trepidation, in case it was going to bring up some disgusting thing) but didn’t find anything unexpected. Why the oops?

  132. 132.

    Martin

    @lamh35: What good are those food stamp earning young bucks!? Oh, right, raising an army of organized campaign workers for the President. Whoops.

    Goes to show: Republicans buy their shit, Democrats work for theirs. Anyone who thinks the SuperPAC air campaign can displace Democratic boots on the ground is fooling themselves. It’s not so much that the Dems have an inherent advantage this year, but Obama’s team is really, really fucking good and seems to know how to leverage individuals in a way that the GOP, frankly, seems to think is impossible. I don’t think the GOP is going to know what hit them come November.

  133. 133.

    Scamp Dog

    @Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason, @rlrr: Today I saw a pickup truck with a bumper sticker reading “Zombie Reagan 12”. I wasn’t sure what that was all about until I read the one next to it, which was “Voted for Obama? Thanks, Assh0le”, with the 0 in the vulgarity done up as the Obama campaign’s O logo.

    Yet another example of liberal snark (Zombie Reagan!) being indistinguishable from actual conservative thought. FSM help us all…

  134. 134.

    Chuck Butcher

    In a little while I’ll be going to practice for pool league. Knocking little balls around on the table should keep me distracted from NH Primary with no difficulty. My partner who is the best shooter on the team has been badly off the last two meets. I need to up my game and he needs to get back on track. If I’m decent we’re almost unbeatable when he’s at his ordinary game.

  137. 137.

    JGabriel

    @scav:

    I think he’s cheerful enough to point out this world is what is is … and probably not so bad as the alternative.

    As Marvell says, “The grave’s a fine and private place / But none I think do there embrace”

    .

  140. 140.

    scav

    @scav: Had to go check BabyinCHI’s actual diet, my shorthand of it can be shockingly misunderstood. No worries, Dad’s sentence seems to imply it’s not a closed loop.

  141. 141.

    Ken

    Catch some Ohio State – Illinois basketball in about a half hour. The NH nonsense can wait until tomorrow.

  142. 142.

    Darnell From LA

    I just watched Willard’s victory speech in New Hampshire and I have one observation to share — Even though I am white, I still can’t help but look at Willard and his family and think: “goddamn, those are the whitest people I have ever seen.”

    There’s just something about Willard and clan that is indicative of a stick lodged so firmly and deeply in the anus that any person who successfully removed it would be crowned the King of England.

    And I just don’t see Willard being able to connect with hispanics, let alone anyone else who isn’t rich and white. (There’s a video floating around of when Willard actually met some real life black people on the campaign trail, and rose to the occasion by randomly asking “who let the dogs out?” – Seriously)

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