Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Somebody needs to explain to DeSantis that nobody needs to do anything to make him look bad.

Motown is Joe-Town!

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

The revolution will be supervised.

Chutkan laughs. Lauro sits back down.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

Not all heroes wear capes.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

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

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

There’s always a light at the end of the frog.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2012 / Election Results Open Thread

Reader Interactions

148Comments

  5. 5.

    General Stuck

    Every time someone bites off the tail of the Newt, a new one starts growing back. He is in Tasmanian Devil mode now, from the Citizens United carpet bombing by Romney, and I am confident, that as long as there is gas money, Gingrich will take it to the ends of earth, and a little further than that. The Panhandle is just now reporting, so Romney wins, but Newt will have held his own.

  6. 6.

    Ken

    No, Newt ended about fifteen years ago when he resigned in disgrace. He just hasn’t had the good sense to disappear, and the rest of the party and the media haven’t had the good taste to tell him to go away.

  10. 10.

    Benjamin Franklin

    News Media sign a contract making exit-polling before polls close, a no-no.

    Drudge must be paying to play to get the results so early.

    57% want a new candydate to enter the fray. More popcorn, please.

  14. 14.

    dmsilev

    So, what have we learned? We have learned that when Mitt Romney outspends Newt Gingrich by two to one, he loses big. When Mitt Romney outspends Newt Gingrich by five to one, he wins big. Clearly, additional experimentation is needed to determine the exact spending ratio which will yield a close Mitt:Newt result. I’m guessing 3:1.

    What this says about Mitt Romney’s alleged strengths as a candidate is left as an exercise for the reader.

  15. 15.

    Calouste

    Newt is still leading in the nation wide polls IIRC, he’ll stay in. And considering Florida has had its number of delegates cut in half, the Romneytronic might have purchased some very expensive delegates. Far more important for the race is if Santorum is going to drop out or not.

  16. 16.

    General Stuck

    @Raven:

    It won’t be that big in the end, i don’t think, that is why I mentioned the panhandle just now reporting, as that is Gingrich country.

  17. 17.

    Soonergrunt

    @joeyess: Stupid, pathetic and hilarious, too.

    @John Cole, top–no. Newt cannot fail. Newt can only be failed. He has already indicated that he’s perfectly happy to spend Sheldon Adelson’s money at least until Super Tuesday.

  18. 18.

    Martin

    Is this the end of Newt?

    Why would it be? Santorum is still in there, and he’s vastly farther back. The question with Romney’s big media buys is whether he can sustain that. Florida doesn’t deliver shit for delegates, so it’s a bit of a hollow victory – useful only to further the ‘inevitable’ narrative.

    It’s a long game. Don’t call it after the first play.

  20. 20.

    pseudonymous in nc

    Paid troll Fart Chucker is apparently worth about 21 seconds of Florida ad time.

    The map’s looking interesting, with Newt sweeping most of Dixie Florida (including the actual Dixie County, Florida) and Mittens taking Brown Person Florida and Nearly-Dead Florida. That, I think, may keep him going.

  21. 21.

    Veritas

    @Egg Berry:

    LGM has banned me a lot of times, too. And let me just say Erik Loomis is the perfect encapsulation of why I utterly despise liberal arts professors.

    Of course he deletes any comments that disagree with his views–I imagine his brainwashing sessions “classes” are similar.

    It was hilarious when he bitched one time about not being able to afford a “decent car”, though.

  22. 22.

    Soonergrunt

    @Veritas: That wouldn’t be cause for banning here.
    If you were banned, it would likely only be because you are an advocate of pedophillia or child pornography.

    You aren’t saying that you are either of those, are you?

  23. 23.

    r€nato

    Florida GOP primary ballot:

    PLEASE VOTE FOR ONE ONLY:

    a) Herpes
    b) Syphilis
    c) Gonorrhea
    d) Santorum

  24. 24.

    dmsilev

    Mitt bought Florida (or, at the very least, leased it for a couple of weeks). It’s easy to slam down an opponent when you can outspend him by a factor of several on TV ads, especially when that opponent goes out of the way to make himself look ridiculous.

    At fifteen million dollars just in advertising expenses just for Florida, Mitt and his accountants had better hope that Gingrich flames out fast, because even Mr. Oceans of Corporate Cash has his limits. And Barack Obama out-raised him by almost 50% in the last quarter…

  25. 25.

    cmorenc

    @Soonergrunt:

    @John Cole, top—no. Newt cannot fail. Newt can only be failed. He has already indicated that he’s perfectly happy to spend Sheldon Adelson’s money at least until Super Tuesday.

    Newt Gingrich is the Up-Chuck Norris of GOP politics. Just as Norris will be around to annoy us, with the compensating value of being the unintentional focus of endless Chuck Norris jokes, so will Newt be around to annoy us, as long as there are Sunday morning talking head shows who think they need him as a guest for the ratings.

  26. 26.

    Mnemosyne

    @Veritas:

    Of course he deletes any comments that disagree with his views—I imagine his brainwashing sessions “classes” are similar.

    Now, do you mean his “classes” or his “majors”? Because I seem to remember you were a little confused about the difference between a “class” and a “major” and had to be spoon-fed the correct information.

  27. 27.

    some guy

    Mass Liberal Romney still hasn’t broken 50% yet. The majority of Florida Republiklans apparently don’t like him.

  28. 28.

    Davis X. Machina

    @dmsilev: SuperPAC. It’s going to be irrelevant, or nearly so, how much a GOP Presidential candidate raises. In a two-man, national, race, there’s no need for coordination — the advertizing will coordinate itself.

  29. 29.

    Sad Iron

    Yes, it is the end. How sad for him to be exiled to weekly, high-paying appearances on the weekend shit shows.

  30. 30.

    Calouste

    @Soonergrunt:

    We all know the reason. Because of those ad buys in Florida, the Romney campaign didn’t have enough cash on hand to pay their trolls.

  31. 31.

    lamh35

    Steve Schmidt seems to think that this isn’t over. that Newt is not gonna get out, that in fact this is gonna get uglier. At the very least Newt will stay in until Super Tuesday.

    Personally, I’m not following the returns. I’m watching Glee for the first time in over a year (it’s the Michael Jackson tribute episode) Way better way to spend my time, IMHO.

    ETA: hahahaha. this is soo bad!!!! It’s ridiculously bad! Michael Jackson is rolling over in his grave!

  32. 32.

    Tom Q

    @Martin: There’s even some talk that FL’s winner-take-all policy may be court-challengable, so Romney’s haul cold be even less impressive in the end.

    I really don’t get why, every time Romney wins a primary, everybody starts screaming for the other candidates to surrender. But then, I go back to the 70s and 80s, when primaries routinely played all the way out, giving every state their shot. I think that dynamic changed in ’92, when Paul Tsongas dropped out prematurely after losing IL and MI to Clinton. (It didn’t exactly help Clinton, either, as Jerry Brown stuck around to scrap with him for months)

    I am interested in how Gingrich does in the Panhandle, and how it sets him up for Super Tuesday. I think there’s at least one more loud roar from the farthest-righties before this nomination is settled.

  33. 33.

    Anya

    Is this the end of Newt?

    Why? Most of the delegates are not awarded and most of the caucus states and southern states haven’t held their primaries yet. He’ll stick around “’til the last dog is hung.”

  34. 34.

    MikeBoyScout

    Newt done? The man who will fundamentally colonize the moon and make it our 51st state?
    (Yeah, F**K YOU Puerto Rico and Washington DC!)

    Newt will be back. The awesomeness of the most grandiose Republican evah will be back live on CNN at the Mesa Arts Center in Mesa, AZ on February 22.

    I’m going long on Popcorn!!

  35. 35.

    Chuck Butcher

    With a few percent of the Delegates accounted for at this point…

    I’d say Newt can make Mittens miserable for awhile yet. He might do a bit more than that. FL is a closed primary but its GOP demographics are strange compared to most of the nation.

    Newt coasted off SC and I’d bet he won’t make that mistake again. I don’t do predictions involving crazy people or even make “reasonable” guesses.

  37. 37.

    Mnemosyne

    Also, too, fun film history information if you haven’t seen Little Caesar in a while: Rico is gay. No, really, it’s all built into the film by the filmmakers. In fact, the guy who wrote the novel that the film was based on complained about it after the film came out, because it’s not an aspect of the character in the book.

    Interestingly, it’s not presented as an inherently bad thing (he’s not a murderous gangster because he’s gay or anything like that), but it does make for an interesting undertone to his character once you know it’s there. And it makes his final end more poignant, especially when you realize that he ends up a drunk in a flophouse because the cops killed his boyfriend.

    (It would have been much more clear to audiences of the time than it is to us, but we don’t use the same iconography today.)

  38. 38.

    Cacti

    Cole, what makes you think Romney’s going to perform differently in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas etc. than he did in South Carolina?

  39. 39.

    dmsilev

    @Davis X. Machina: True, but Romneytronic vs. Obama is a much closer match on that front as well. Basically, Newt has his Vega sugar-daddy, and that’s about it for SuperPACs. Even when you toss in the Koch brothers etc., the Romneytronic isn’t going to be able to outspend Obama by a factor of five, which right now seems to be the only way he can win.

  40. 40.

    amk

    @dmsilev: We also learn that willard cannot score with the ‘true south’ despite all the money spent. Look at the northern FL counties bordering GA where noot swamped mittens.

  41. 41.

    Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn

    @Soonergrunt: Please don’t get that ball a-rolling. Some of the comments threads around here have been the ugliest I’ve seen here, and I don’t mean that in a “yay, more popcorn!” way.

  43. 43.

    Calouste

    So, Romney spends $300,000 per delegate. That means he only needs to spend $343,200,000 to win the nomination.

  46. 46.

    AA+ Bonds

    I admit that it has been compelling to follow the first meaningful Republican vs. Republican presidential race in Florida in, what, 32 years?

    People always make such a big deal of this primary and Michigan’s that everyone forgets that they don’t usually mean anything at all

  48. 48.

    AA+ Bonds

    @Cacti:

    Cole, what makes you think Romney’s going to perform differently in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas etc. than he did in South Carolina?

    $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

  49. 49.

    jl

    Well, I dunno. Which end of Newt is Cole talking about?

    I’m not willing to investigate it myself, too unpleasant. So I will check back later to see if anyone knows. I hope they spare the details.

  51. 51.

    Mike in NC

    The Daily Show last night reported that Newt ran about 210 spots (TV?) in Florida compared to the Romneybot’s in excess of 12,000. Money can’t buy love but it won’t stop Willard from trying. 50 lousy delegates.

  54. 54.

    AA+ Bonds

    @Mike in NC:

    The Daily Show last night reported that Newt ran about 210 spots (TV?) in Florida compared to the Romneybot’s in excess of 12,000.

    Ahhhh so nice to be vindicated

  55. 55.

    Martin

    @Tom Q:

    I really don’t get why, every time Romney wins a primary, everybody starts screaming for the other candidates to surrender.

    Money begets money. Didn’t used to be like that, but money is too much of a factor now in campaigns, and we’re a trendy people and won’t throw cash at losers. Once you’re adequately outgunned, the only way to win is to not play. Sort of a metaphor for our economy, no?

  58. 58.

    Ken

    pseudonymous in nc: Newt sweeping most of Dixie Florida (including the actual Dixie County, Florida) and Mittens taking Brown Person Florida and Nearly-Dead Florida.

    Anyone got the under/over on whether it will be Newt or his uncoordinated SuperPAC that first says Romney appeals to urban liberals?

  59. 59.

    harlana

    so Newt says he will go all the way to the convention – does that mean anything at all? cuz i really really want him to. :(

  62. 62.

    Kirbster

    Yay! It’s over. No more interviews of angry, embittered Florida GOP voters, disappointed by their party’s candidates and bitching about the gridlock in Washington that they voted for in 2010.

  65. 65.

    amk

    For all that money spent, ‘inevitable’ de-facto nominee, willard, cannot breach the 50% mark even in his own party. Bodes well for ‘obambi’ in GE.

  68. 68.

    AA+ Bonds

    @Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal:

    i wonder if newt has an angrier, more aggressive newt to unsheath

    that would be awesome

    and I don’t mean in a good way either, I still maintain that the longer he’s allowed the national stage, the worse it is for America

    Elections have consequences – but so do campaigns

  69. 69.

    Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor

    Outspends Newt 5:1, and still can’t seem to break 50%.

    Newt will only bow out before Super Tuesday if he gets something very nice in return. And I don’t think the VP slot will do.

  70. 70.

    Calouste

    @AA+ Bonds:

    Gingrich can hang in there as long as Santorum drops out. Romney spent 5 times as much as Gingrich and Santorum combined, and is predicted to beat their combined totals by a mere 3%. Even Romney can’t keep up that burn rate.

  72. 72.

    amk

    twitterdom

    Team Romney spent 1.5 as much as the entire GOP field spent in FL in 08 on TV. $10m in 08 versus $15m just for Romney in 12.

  75. 75.

    AA+ Bonds

    @Tom Q:

    I go back to the 70s and 80s, when primaries routinely played all the way out, giving every state their shot. I think that dynamic changed in ‘92, when Paul Tsongas dropped out prematurely after losing IL and MI to Clinton.

    It changed for the Republicans in 1980 and hasn’t been like that for thirty-two years, since before I was born in fact

    The Republicans now have a rhythm for fundraising and spending and narrative in a presidential campaign and if the eventual candidate doesn’t win SC it really fuckin upsets the apple cart

    But like I said after SC, the question was whether Newt could get the Get-Clinton-Crew money (the deluded billionaires who fancy themselves Red hunters as described by Media Matters founder David Brock in Blinded by the Right), and in time to make a difference in Florida.

    Judging by the TV spending, Gingrich didn’t get enough, or really jack shit compared to Romney. His campaign is claiming $5 million raised in January on top of Adelson but won’t talk about cash on hand, which means they’re fucked

  76. 76.

    Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal

    @AA+ Bonds:

    i understand where you are coming from, but losing that way, also has consequences.

    call me a fool if you must, but i am mostly if not entirely concerned with not losing 2012. angriest newt can help that cause.

    to me the opposite side of the coin, is that we never win and it never gets ugly, amirite?

  77. 77.

    dogwood

    Man that’s a lot of money to spend to beat a loser like Newt Gingrich. This is the same way Mitt ran in 08. He ran negative ads in Iowa against Huckabee and lost big time. Then he ran tons of negative ads against McCain in NH to the same result. It’s only working this time because his opponents are much worse than in 08. It appears that the Romney strategy will be to run a campaign on the airwaves and skip the campaigning in the General Election. This won’t be as easy as he thinks. His opponent won’t be a thrice married, unattractive, blowhard with ethics violations who was run out of office.

  78. 78.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    No Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, not even East Asians in the background?Your version of America, Mittens? Count me out.

  80. 80.

    AA+ Bonds

    @Calouste:

    Gingrich campaign claims $5 million raised over the last month but won’t talk about cash on hand

    They don’t have the money to compete and if they don’t have the money to compete, they don’t have the money to raise money or to convince the competition-fearing Republican donor base that they should give money

    Like I said after SC, Gingrich’s moment would have been to seize the historical importance of the SC primary to get a few wealthy donors to give him an immense amount of money (assuming they hadn’t already given everything they wanted to spend to Romney)

    If the money wasn’t there in FL I have a hard time believing it will be there later

  81. 81.

    AA+ Bonds

    @dogwood:

    This is the same way Mitt ran in 08. He ran negative ads in Iowa against Huckabee and lost big time. Then he ran tons of negative ads against McCain in NH to the same result. It’s only working this time because his opponents are much worse than in 08.

    Or because the donor base is solidly behind Romney, even the Red-hunting billionaires, which seems a lot more likely as an explanation, especially after tonight

    This shit gets decided well before SC votes, usually, and certainly Florida was decided a long time ago

    No Blinded by the Right supervillains for Gingrich -> no chance of overturning that long-ago Florida decision, and the TV spot numbers say they are either behind Romney or sitting this one out until the general

  83. 83.

    Calouste

    @dogwood:

    I also wonder what negative ads against Obama are going to have any effect. He is black already, a Willie Horton ad is not going to do the job.

  85. 85.

    amk

    sully’s live blog

    Let me just say right now: this speech is the most dishonest, manipulative, disgusting series of lies I’ve heard in a very long time. And its core premise: that the president hates this country, whereas Romney believes in it. As I said: disgusting. I’m with Newt on this. The man will say anything to gain power.

  87. 87.

    AA+ Bonds

    I am really kind of flabbergasted that people think that Romney spending a phenomenal amount per vote in Florida means that Romney looks weak rather than meaning that we probably just saw the end of the primary season

    How many ways can I say this: if delegates matter at the Republican convention at all, we will all have to rethink our point of view on elections in the United States

  88. 88.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @AA+ Bonds: Let him gnaw on Romney’s leg as long as he can Make Romney and his cohorts pay through the nose. to get the nomination. A wounded Romney, behind in the pools and obviously incapable of inspiring people, is not the prescription for donor enthusiasm in the general. Newt’s attack’s on Romney can’t be tucked back into the closet and ignored. They will be out there in the public eye and it won’t have been Obama who “went there.”

  89. 89.

    AA+ Bonds

    @amk:

    Let me just say right now: this speech is the most dishonest, manipulative, disgusting series of lies I’ve heard in a very long time. And its core premise: that the president hates this country, whereas Romney believes in it.

    It’s pretty funny because when Bush gave that speech 10,000 times about the Democrats, Andrew Sullivan popped 10,000 boners and called the Democrats traitors, so fuck him

    Romney may say anything to get elected, but Sullivan hears whatever the fuck he wants to hear, at all times

    Sullivan is the same as Brooks – they want to save their tarnished asses in the history books before they die. I refuse to let them; they are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands

  90. 90.

    jrg

    I’m with Newt on this. The man will say anything to gain power.

    Yes, because Newt’s the only person on Earth who noticed that.

  91. 91.

    AA+ Bonds

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    See and again, this only holds true if you think Obama needs Gingrich for Obama to beat Romney

    I don’t think he does

    And the risks to the national discourse of Gingrich’s campaign are larger than those of Goldwater’s or Reagan’s against Ford

  92. 92.

    mclaren

    Like Dracula, Newt can never die. Pound a stake in his heart and he’ll merely return from the dead stronger and more vicious.

  93. 93.

    mclaren

    @amk:

    Let me just say right now: this speech is the most dishonest, manipulative, disgusting series of lies I’ve heard in a very long time. — Sully

    I guess Andrew Sullivan was asleep during the Reagan and Bush 43 administrations. You know, 2008 is not “a very long time.”

  96. 96.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @AA+ Bonds:

    And the risks to the national discourse of Gingrich’s campaign are larger than those of Goldwater’s or Reagan’s against Ford.

    That horse has already left the barn. Newt will be around for a while. He will go deeper into the mud. It is a case where our side can simply root for injuries. As a result, I am rooting for them to be severe and crippling.

  98. 98.

    pseudonymous in nc

    Once again, exit polls suggest that 1% of GOP primary voters in Florida are African-American.

  99. 99.

    cokane

    I suspect Newt will stick around until Super Tuesday. Then lose those contests altogether by about the same margin as FL. Then drop out.

    I was right about Romney about a year ago. So I trust my judgement!

  102. 102.

    Elie

    @General Stuck:

    This is a guy without a real home. What the aich is he doing? Does he know? Not that I care, but what is his endgame — destroy Romney or further destroy the republicans (great idea for my part, but I still puzzle) —

    That said — I go back to my original assertion that Newt is not in charge of himself.. the excesses, the manic energy and inability to stop at a predetermined, rationally decided point — is his mark. Imagine for a moment, this reckless energy leading our country… How can anyone with any sanity support this man? Even holding aside bitter partisan feelings about Democrats/liberals and Obama — do these people have a death wish? Moon bases. We would all be praying to be on the moon if this guy was elected.His sickness is so bad that I find myself having a hard time even thinking he might get a whisker closer. Shut this down — as soon as possible..

  105. 105.

    Tom Q

    @chopper: Every time the conventional wisdom becomes “Okay, Romney’s really wrapped it up now”, the GOP electorate seems to recoil in disgust, and do something to negate that conclusion. (Following which, one of the other clowns steps forward, at which point they run back to Romney again)

  106. 106.

    Elie

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Just looking at a special on Billy the Kid on PBS. So much of our current sad southern story comes from wounds inflicted 150 years ago. We can’t prevent blow back, but we should be humble that we know we wish one outcome versus another as some bland selection in a chocolate box. We have no way of knowing.

    Obama has gotten six tons of shit and grief for extending that hand of his in peace and rationality. I tell you what — I’ll take that error term — as much pain and anger that I feel — as much as I would love to crush some of these hateful cracker fuckers — I know — KNOW its just not that easy…. EVER.

  108. 108.

    chopper

    @Calouste:

    negative ads work great against newt because newt is genuinely unlikable. they also work against romney because he’s a used-car salesman, but romney just outspent newt. florida was carpetbombed with anti-gingrich ads.

  110. 110.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Elie: The thing is, I think that the ugliness is inevitable this time around. I come from the “don’t stoop to their level” school. We aren’t doing it, and, furthermore, there is nothing we can do to stop it. The Republican Id is loose. I just hope people truly see how ugly it is.

  111. 111.

    Citizen Alan

    @rikyrah:

    Okay, I’m serious — Is Tweety having some health issues? He seems to have aged ten years in the last three, his voice seems perpetually cracked now, and apparently he does not own a comb. I almost never watch him any more (“Obama orders orange juice in a dinner so he doesn’t identify with working class Americans” was the absolute last straw) but I’ve seen three clips of him in the last two days and I was struck by his apparent lassitude.

  112. 112.

    Baud

    @chopper:

    florida was carpetbombed with anti-gingrich ads.

    Someone else here may have pointed this out, but according to TPM, the difference in ad spots is staggering:

    “It’s a little difficult for them to tamp down the notion that they’ve been spending on negative advertising when they’ve had 13,000 ads on TV between their super PAC and their campaign to Newt Gingrich’s 200,” she said.

  113. 113.

    chopper

    @Tom Q:

    it’s like some young woman in college who can’t decide if she wants to go out with the selfish prick or the rich, entitled blueblood asshole. she’ll eventually end up for real with the rich guy, but every time he introduces her at a cocktail party as ‘my girlfriend’ she freaks out and goes back to the other guy only to remember that he’s an incorrigible prick. and she’s always complaining to her friends about how she wishes she had a third option.

  114. 114.

    General Stuck

    @Elie:

    This is a guy without a real home. What the aich is he doing? Does he know? Not that I care, but what is his endgame—destroy Romney or further destroy the republicans (great idea for my part, but I still puzzle)—

    I think he is sticking around from largely being a mean sumbitch, but also, as is Santorum, in hopes the GOP suddenly realizes they are about to nominate a shifty tongued RINO as their candidate going against BO.

    And one of them will catch that bouquet from a very conservative party these days. It is really not all that far fetched.

  116. 116.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    I’m enjoying listening to luaP noR on MSNBC. He’s tossing the red meat to his kittens and listening to them purr for him.

    It’s sooooooo cute!

  117. 117.

    Triassic Sands

    What I learned from the Florida GOP Primary:

    1. Romney is setting a new standard for dishonesty;

    2. Newt Gingrich’s ego threatens to destroy the universe.

  119. 119.

    RossInDetroit

    What scares me about the CU spending on behalf of Newt is that the next time it could be a couple of billionaires ringing up to back a GOP candidate who had an actual chance to get elected. We could have our first President paid for by a very small number of very rich people.

  120. 120.

    dogwood

    @AA+ Bonds:

    This shit gets decided well before SC votes, usually, and certainly Florida was decided a long time ago

    I don’t disagree with this at all. What surprises me is the fact that Romney hasn’t changes strategy or tactics given the difference in his status this time around. Seems to me he just reinforced an already existing feeling that he’s a horse’s ass when he should have spent the time working on improving his image and favorability. Even early on before Iowa was near he was running a campaign that was nothing more than Obamba bashing. This tactic obviously wasn’t endearing him to Republican voters who really hate Obama, so I’m not sure why he thinks it will work among the broader electorate.

  121. 121.

    AA+ Bonds

    @Cacti:

    Romney was leading in SC until Adelson poured money into Gingrich’s campaign and Gingrich will need more of that to win any states whatsoever, and that just became very unlikely

  123. 123.

    Cacti

    @AA+ Bonds:

    Romney was leading in SC until Adelson poured money into Gingrich’s campaign and Gingrich will need more of that to win any states whatsoever, and that just became very unlikely the debates started and Gnewt started speaking Talibangelical

    Fix’d

  125. 125.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    Hey, Veritas, you gotta love the fact that both Gingrich and Romney used teleprompters for their speeches tonight.

  126. 126.

    Elie

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Its been loose a long time — at least 30 years (since Reagan).

    I think its the pathology of excess individualism…we celebrate its excesses and are unable to recognize its pathology and the corruption of our ideas and values. We are the me me me era… unable to work together, to understand the meaning of WE — only ME.

    Newt’s pathology is our mirror. Do we like what we see? We can’t just point fingers at the right… for many years the left did not take up what was happening. Engaging the beast now is a big big deal.

  127. 127.

    trollhattan

    Questions that answer themselves: Is ANY of the Supreme Court justices among the majority in Citizens United having second thoughts?

  128. 128.

    AA+ Bonds

    @dogwood:

    Rove is the guy designing his strategy, and Rove doesn’t really believe in shifting strategy during campaign season, he believes in doubling down and barreling through, and having his guy hit one note over and over

    Honestly if 9/11 hadn’t happened I think we would have been hearing “compassionate conservative” and “restoring integrity” nonstop for 4 years, the entire administration would have been overshadowed by the campaign – but history gave the campaign a new direction

    I feel like Rove’s real problem in 2012 is that Bush was fucking stupid and malleable, and could be cowed into keeping on message, while Romney is instead an ironclad product of boardroom culture, so Romney keeps fucking up the message and saying things that would go over gangbusters among the interns at 85 West but that normal Americans have never fucking heard in their entire lives

    When Bush fucked up his Rove lines you simply couldn’t tell what he was trying to say and the press felt sorry for him; when Romney does the same, he creates an entirely new message about what an asshole he is and how he’s the guy who’s about to buy every reporter’s employer and fire them

  129. 129.

    AA+ Bonds

    @Cacti:

    LOL, right, “debate performance”, that magic fairy that political junkies pretend matters

    Nope, sorry, it’s all about money, it was in SC, it was in FL, hard fact to face up to but it’s the truth

  131. 131.

    AA+ Bonds

    As we draw close to the general, people should really not underestimate that the press personally has a problem with buyout specialists like Romney, each and every one of them

    Buyout specialists and free content, those two combined, are what put reporters out of jobs nowadays, and they all know they’re on the chopping block

    Reporters all have their own personal Romneys in their lives and they are filled with frothing Freudian hate-daddy rage that will be acted out on Romney until he goes away

  132. 132.

    AA+ Bonds

    As we draw close to the general, people should really not underestimate that the press personally has a problem with vultures like Romney, each and every one of them

    Vultures with money and free content, those two combined, are what put reporters out of jobs nowadays, and they all know they’re on the chopping block

    Reporters all have their own personal Romneys in their lives and they are filled with frothing Freudian hate-daddy rage that will be acted out on Romney until he goes away

  133. 133.

    amk

    @AA+ Bonds: I sure hope so. But so far they’ve kept their hate-daddy rage remarkably under control. Take that chucky toad for instance. If he is any further up mitt’s ass, he will become a part of his anatomy.

  134. 134.

    Diana

    AA+ bonds, your comment at 128 was hilarious — and dead-on.
    Just want to add that Romney comes across that way to everyone, not just the reporters.

  135. 135.

    Amir Khalid

    The results tables don’t seem to mention what percentage of registered Republican voters turned out to vote in this primary — an important indicator of partisan enthusiasm, I gather. Does anyone have that number?

  137. 137.

    dogwood

    Romney’s a candidate who exists outside of time and place. I’m sure Barack Obama planned to chart a path to the presidency early on. He probably thought he might serve a term in the Senate. Go home and become Governor in 2010 and then run in 16 if there was an opening. But he was smart enough to know that 08 was his time, and you can’t be guaranteed that your time will come again. Both of Romney’s presidential runs seem to have nothing to do with a particular man meeting a particular moment. He seems oblivious to the mood of the country, and oblivious to the fact that he is not the best candidate for his party at this particular time.

  138. 138.

    General Stuck

    @dogwood:

    It goes to more than just Romney being clueless about the political landscape as it is today. It demonstrates the clinging onto the GOP’s 30 year remake of our economic lives, that is going to have to be spread back out to more people than just the already wealthy. The plutocrats that are bankrolling and supporting Romney haven’t gotten that memo yet, that empty stomachs and bank accounts of the working class must be dealt with by the powers that be, restoring something like a livable middle class existence. And it will only get more that way, as time goes on, unless big changes are made. And you can see the same kind of aristocratic blind spots in all the candidate the GOP has put up this year. Romney just has more money and more experience running for POTUS.

  139. 139.

    Cacti

    @AA+ Bonds:

    LOL, right, “debate performance”, that magic fairy that political junkies pretend matters

    Uh-huh. If you just ignore Mittens outspending Gnewt more than 2 to 1 in SC, the $$$$ explanation makes perfect sense.

    It’s not like Mitt has outspent everyone in every state so far. Or something like that.

  140. 140.

    DanielX

    @Ken:

    If Newt ended fifteen years ago, he’s doing a damned fine impression of having risen from the political dead, and seems to be attracting the primary votes of tens of thousands. He has more political lives than any number of cats; virtually every pundit in the country wrote off his campaign after the Greek vacation episode and the subsequent resignation of most of his campaign staff. But, like the phoenix, or maybe more like multiple resistance Staphylocccus Aureas, Newt just keeps coming back to life.

    Why should he quit? He’s not spending his own money on anything except keeping Callista in diamonds and hair stylists, it’s Adelson cash he’s burning through. I would surprised if there aren’t at least a few more wingnut billionaires who would be willing to keep financing Newt’s trashing of Mittens in spite of pressure from the Republican establishment, what’s left of it and such as it is. Billionaires by definition are pretty much immune to pressure from the RNC or anybody else. Think of Newt as a kamikaze at this point, he may end up immolating himself in this his last hurrah, but if he gets to make his point and take at least one of his opponents with him, he’ll be happy.

    Besides, what’s the worst that can happen? He might just win, in which case he’s vindicated. I mean, he did just whip Mittens’ ass pretty convincingly in South Carolina, or did I imagine that? Given the level of detestation of Mittens among the Rs’ rank and file, the win might happen in spite of all that SuperPAC Money for Mitt can do. It’s hard to overestimate the contempt in which Newton Leroy holds Mittens and the RNC, so I don’t see him folding until after Super Tuesday at least. Even if he does, I don’t see Newt – of all people – making conciliatory let’s-all-get-behind-our-candidate (‘who I, man of destiny, think is a complete dolt and loser’) speeches at the GOP convention.

    Or he might lose. In which case he goes back to six figure lecture fees, ghost writing books which will sell like hotcakes among his supporters, and collecting big bucks (not) lobbying for the likes of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. If that’s the worst possible outcome for Newt, why would he quit now? Neither voters nor his peers can possibly think any worse of him than they do now – he can’t be insulted, you might say.

    Although if Newt’s quitting would cause the cancellation of the last Republican debates for lack of participants, most of the electorate and virtually all Republican movers and shakers would heave a sigh of relief. The former because we would no longer have television programming pre-empted by the babblings of clowns, lunatics and liars, the latter because the babblings of clowns, lunatics and liars would no longer be on such prominent display.

  141. 141.

    Amir Khalid

    @amk:
    Found some 2008 numbers in NYT: turnout was about 166,000 Republican voters, down by some 290,000 voters or about 15%. Which does indicate a certain feeling of meh about Mitt among Republican voters. But I still don’t know what percentage that is of registered Republicans.

  144. 144.

    amk

    For all his millions sunk and the despicable ads, willard doesn’t even cross the half-way with his own party. Fuck him, he is done.

  145. 145.

    Librarian

    Letterman has been referring to the Romney dog-on-car incident in his monologue, he just did tonight. That may be a sign that the incident may be no longer be just something familiar to political junkies and is leaking into the mainstream.

  147. 147.

    DanielX

    @Amir Khalid:

    Romney’s been campaigning almost full time since 2006. One would think that a reasonable man might have hung it up by now, figuring out that voters just don’t like him. One would also think that reasonable man might have finally understood that he has all the charisma of your average cinder block.

    One might further think that your reasonable man would know 2012 just might not be the best year for a Wall Street asshole to run for President, particularly one who keeps forgetting about such minor issues as Swiss bank accounts with seven figure balances.

    Obviously, one would be wrong.

    This is actually kind of frightening. Mitt Romney appears to have a capacity for self deception that exceeds that of George W. Bush, something I didn’t think was possible.

Comments are closed.