So if you want to know what LEROOOOOOY NNNNNEWTON! was doing while he was drowning in flop sweat and Santorum last night, he was too busy playing for Ohio by attacking the President (and Mitt Romney) here in heavily Catholic Cincinnati yesterday.
Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich today brought his talk of family, jobs and God straight to where he hoped it would resonate – Cincinnati’s West Side.
And it did. The popular Price Hill Chili was packed with 200 people who cheered and clapped as Gingrich promised he’d put people on unemployment into job training and cut corporate taxes. “Large-scale” change is needed, he said, and he’s the man to bring it.
“It is fundamentally wrong to give people 99 weeks of money for doing nothing,” he said, prompting the crowd to yell, “Newt! Newt!”
He must hate anyone who’s on Social Security for more than two years then. Oh wait, he pretty much does.
He drew his biggest cheers when he talked about oil and said, “No American president will ever again bow to a Saudi king.”
He said he doesn’t want to run just a Republican campaign, but one that unleashes “the American people so they can go out and rebuild the America we love.” A woman shouted, “Yes! Yes!”
When someone in the crowd yelled, “Lead us back to the Bible, Newt!” he didn’t miss a beat: “What I want is to lead you back to the Declaration of Independence… The fact is, in America, we believe that power comes from God to each of you personally” and you loan it back to the government.”
Newt went on to attack Obama’s War On People Who Were Never Going To Vote For Him In The First Place, and the crowd ate it up.
Jim Ferneding of Montgomery wanted the chance to shake Gingrich’s hand, and he got it. He told him: “You’re the one with the strength. Just concentrate on condemning Obama and you will win.”
Because in the end, that’s all that matters to a hell of a lot of folks around here. They don’t want someone to beat Obama, they want him so thoroughly and utterly destroyed that nobody “like him” dares to run for President again in their lifetimes. He must be broken.
Don’t forget that little goal even for a second.
Jennifer
As I said in a post over at my joint after the SC primary, Gingrich’s candidacy is popular with those who are less focused on “who can win the election” than on “which candidate is most likely to call Obama a ni**er to his face.” Gingrich wins that one walking away.
balconesfault
You’ve tripped on what I see as the big split in the GOP as they look for a Presidential Candidate.
Around half the party wants the candidate who has the best chance of winning.
Around half the party wants the candidate who will piss off liberals the most.
JCT
Crystal clear — I’m as sure as hell that Obama will end up being one of the best presidents in my lifetime and these dead-enders want to stomp him into oblivion.
They are scared shitless, aren’t they? Good.
FuriousPhil
Hearing about these campaign rallies makes me think of the witch burning scene in Monty Python’s Holy Grail.
“She turned me into a Newt!”
“I got better.”
kindness
Sucks to be ‘them’ then, huh?
Paul in KY
Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone had a comment on what us Democrats would be doing/thinking if Newt was the nominee. I can’t reproduce it here, but it would be happy times in the Paul in KY household.
jurassicpork
Let’s give credit where credit’s due: Willard Romney is remarkably lifelike but that won’t fool even the NASCAR faction of the GOP.
The Dangerman
The farther Newt drops, the more ridiculous he will become; attacking unemployment, I mean, REALLY? Before this is over, he’ll be actively supporting Death Panels to cut entitlement spending.
rb
LIIIIMitless SanTOOOOORum!!
Smells like VICTORY!!!
Tuffy
Ok, no bowing, like John McCain did to Gaddafi.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNfztA1i0ts
Will hand-holding and kissing with Saudi kings still be allowed?
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_HuV_NHMdPd0/TU0B5yx8l9I/AAAAAAAACrw/eYTgnMl5UEw/s1600/BushKiss2.jpg
Legalize
Let’s be clear. “Cincinnati” isn’t generally “highly Catholic”. Parts of Cincinnati are “highly Catholic”. The part of town Newton Leroy slithered into is highly Catholic, and gets outsized attention as being representative of Cincinnatians. It ain’t so.
Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor
Funny thing: This is exactly how I feel about the entire GOP these days.
MattF
Noot’s got a talent for the grift, you have to admit that. The suckers, um, I mean, voters in the audience believe they have a new best friend who needs them. And all those others, who Noot has betrayed over the past, what, twenty years… they’re just complainers.
Villago Delenda Est
It’s all about putting that uppity ni*CLANG* back in his place. Preferably, totin’ bales of cotton.
Zandar
@Legalize: True.
But they vote.
OTR, for instance, could give a shit.
Yevgraf
@Jennifer:
Although in a stretch, “boy” will do. They can’t do “buck”; as a wiry guy, Obama isn’t muscle-y enough.
roshan
For a moment I thought that Dennis G. wrote this post.
JenJen
Ha! Price Hill Chili kind of sucks.
@Legalize: I dunno. To this non-Catholic, Cincinnati feels more Catholic than Rome to me. For example, I’ve never lived in another city where, on Fridays during Lent, the local news and radio stations do informative Fish Fry location segments.
stormskies
Yep, and these are the types that ‘believe’ that the Earth is less than 10,000 years old in which human co-mingled with the Dinosaurs. In other words Gingrich appeals to those that are utterly stupid and whose ‘intelligence’ is defined by nothing more than bumper stickers and sound bytes.
burnspbesq
And in the face of this insanity, people like Robert Reich are actually calling on Obama to unilaterally disarm.
http://robertreich.org/post/17251255054?8d933da0
Bob, you know why this is a bad idea? I can name that tune in six words: Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown.
Yevgraf
@Villago Delenda Est:
I keep picturing Obama walking up to an aging teatard woman, saying “good morning, ma’am, and ain’t it a lovely morning?”, and then getting the “up yours, n***er” response.
As I said elsewhere, America is broken and nobody wants to fix it because of who the Sheriff is – the shame of it all is that they’d do it for Randolph Scott.
Bubblegum Tate
“Lead us back to the Bible, Newt!”
Holy shit, is that hilarious. I literally laughed out loud at that one.
Legalize
@Zandar:
Correct about the former. Incorrect about the latter. Places like OTR helped carry Hamilton County for the President in 2008.
Violet
I really hope the Secret Service is paying extra close attention during the campaign this year. If these people start to figure out that they aren’t going to beat President Obama at the ballot box, they might try some other method to get rid of him. And he’ll be out there campaigning and meeting more people. The kinds of people who just want him out of office and don’t care about how really scare me.
Eric S.
@JenJen: Not to start a food fight but in my humble opinion all Cincinnati style chili sucks.
Cat Lady
Every so often I try to imagine the world these people inhabit – a tight sphincter, tight lipless, loveless world filled with dark skinned others who are just waiting to take away all of their tacky Chinese-made shit while eating t-bones in their welfare Cadillacs in between their unemployment paid for exotic vacations, and almost feel sorry for them. Then I remember they’d happily subject me to the nearest President Newt death panel where he would personally be judge, jury and executioner. These people are seriously deranged with blinding hate.
Zandar
@Legalize: I meant OTR didn’t care too much about the Catholic thing, not voting. Last year’s City Council elections proved they do indeed vote.
JenJen
There’s also a good chance that Newt’s appearance in Cincinnati was scheduled so that nobody would pay attention to Governor Kasich’s utterly bizarre, rambling State of the State Address yesterday.
Transcript of Kasich’s 2012 State of the State speech – now with a word cloud!
SenyorDave
Shorter Newt:
Blackity, blackity, blackity, liberals, blackity, blackity, n***ers, ACLU, blackity, n***ers, blackity, Alinsky, n***ers, blackity, n***ers, strapping young bucks buying fillet mignon with food stamps, n***er, N***er, N888ers!
Schlemizel
@JenJen:
I grew up in heavily Catholic Saint Paul, MN. In addition to teaching me what it was like to be a religious minority that was openly despised by the majority I learned a lot about how far the media will go to pander to the majority (or are controlled by the majority its hard to know which)
Zandar
@Eric S.:
This Carolina boy agrees. And ya’ll put it on spaghetti. Effin’ really?
Legalize
@JenJen:
Ha, you do have a point. I still think it’s an outsized emphasis though. Or maybe I’m just stuck in the downtown bubble.
Montysano
I can’t remember which front-pager posted this the other day, but this photo of Rick “I like to keep my audience riveted” Santorum is beyond awesome.
Zandar
@JenJen: Remind me to buy the Plunderbund crew a round, they have some of the best political coverage of Ohio out there.
Kasich’s SOTS speech was horrific. It was like every 3 minutes, his brain was yelling at him “Remember the last election? DON’T SAY THAT.”
Legalize
@Zandar:
Oh right. Yes, I agree with that.
Schlemizel
@Violet:
Sadly, because it reflects the very little faith I have in my fellow man, I am stunned that there have not been more high-profile attempts on this Presidents life. Look at the ones against Clinton – several shoot up the WH ones, the plane crash into the WH one. And yet we have not seen that. I thank the Great Pasta, not simply because the good man does not deserve such treatment but because I deeply fear the price we would pay as a nation if they succeed.
My Obama be wrapped in His Noodley appendages, for the sake of him, his family and our pathetic, unworthy country.
Violet
@Schlemizel:
Some guy did shoot at the White House several months ago. He broke some windows. High powered rifle from a moving car, I think. Didn’t they determine that he was trying to attack the President but the family wasn’t there at the time?
Legalize
Cincinnati chili DOES suck. But it’s delicious. Sorry. Price Hill Chili, however, is one of those stupid campaign spots every candidate has to go to in every city to prove that they are down with Real Americans, i.e. a shit hole populated by assholes full of wisdom like, “get us back to the Bible, Newt”.
rb
@Schlemizel: and our pathetic, unworthy country.
You know, it’s strange. Often I bow to no one in my cynicism about we the people, but this is taking it too far. Yes we’ve got a lot of issues and 27% of us are simply out to lunch, but we did elect the man, after all. Birth control coverage by law, Komen getting a deserved smackdown, and the 9th circuit yesterday. Things are moving in the right direction.
kdaug
@Eric S.:
Ditto from Texas.
Violet
@rb:
It really has been a good week, hasn’t it?
I saw a short clip of Newt in Ohio when the morning news was covering last night’s election results. Newt was standing at a podium and Calista was next to him. She’s just plain creepy. Do they make GOP potential first ladies take some kind of zombie pill or something? She’d go great with Mitt–they’re both robots.
General Stuck
PBO has taken the very huge shit sandwich delivered to him by the republicans and GWB, and has significantly turned it into something partially positive, with lots more work to do. He snatched the national security banner from them with prejudice, and somehow managed to pass some landmark legislation despite all their concerted efforts to stop him. And last month, the country produced 50,000 manufacturing jobs, when most folks were claiming that was impossible given outsourcing and the like. And now has the lead for the coming election. The hate will become white hot if it looks like what it looks like now, that the country will reelect the skinny black guy, and solidify the notion that a person of color can run this white majority country. That will represent their worst fears come true, the loss of birthright. What is left for them but attempted violence of some kind?
PTirebiter
so newt blows on the embers of ignorance and racisim keeping the flame strong enough to passed on the next generation. Yet this despicable human will always be a valued media guest because he’s inarguably, the intellectual soul of the GOP.
JenJen
@Zandar: That’s what happens when you spend so much time making fun of teleprompters that you refuse to use one yourself. He sounded drunk through half of it to me. Even the Cincinnati Enquirer, your basic Republi-rag which is normally All Team Kasich, All The Time called it “rambling” and “unusual” in its front-page coverage.
And yeah, Plunderbund rules!
4tehlulz
@SenyorDave: Needs more Soros.
Villago Delenda Est
@Schlemizel:
Frankly, the result would be open hostilities between the 27% and the rest of us.
It would not be pretty. At all.
Tim in SF
Is that a Leroy Jenkins reference?
Yutsano
@JenJen: Mon Dieu. I couldn’t get past the fourth paragraph. Didn’t this guy used to work for Faux Nooz? Oi.
Jay C
OK, for us out-of-towners: where and what is “Price Hill Chili”?
One thing is obvious, it can;t be TOO large a place, if 200 people “pack” it…
Zandar
@Tim in SF:
Yes. Same results, too.
chopper
straight out of the clinton playbook, except with extra blahity-blah.
Frankensteinbeck
I did not catch this until now, and it fills in the racism angle so much better for me. Things like McConnell’s one-term-president declaration and all of the hate and obstructionism since make perfect sense if the goal is to make an example of Obama to ensure that no black man ever becomes president again. Since he’s the first truly liberal president we’ve had in decades (sorry, Bill, you were a mixed bag), that’s another angle for the same sentiment.
Huh. Yes, this makes so much more sense.
Bobby Thomson
At least he’s got chicken.
Joey Maloney
@Violet:
They don’t scare me all that much. Of course someone could get incredibly lucky but for the most part, the people you’re describing are really, really stupid. Fuck-up-a-square-knot stupid. Can’t-pour-piss-out-of-a-boot stupid. Douglas Feith stupid. And they’re up against the best trained, best funded, most paranoid protective detail on the face of the planet.
On the other hand…
Villago Delenda Est
@chopper:
Pretty much. No Democrat can ever be a legitimate President. No matter how many votes he had more than his Rethug opponent.
The White House is the property of the GOP. Any Democrat in the White House is an usurper, is illegitimate. Saint Ronaldus Maximus won the White House for the GOP for all time.
Push the usurper out. If he can’t be pushed out, destroy him. By any means necessary…impeachment over lying about a blow job, assassination, whatever. Get the usurper out.
gogol's wife
@burnspbesq:
See also the NYTimes editorial page this morning. They make me sick.
gogol's wife
@Yevgraf:
Oh, don’t malign Randy by linking him with these people. I love him.
The Moar You Know
@JenJen: He sounds like a very drunk, confused liberal. Wonder why the change of heart, Johnny?
Oh yeah, approval numbers below gonorrhea in an election year.
Linda Featheringill
I don’t think that Obama would be as easy to break as they seem to think. Me, I could be broken and spend the rest of my days hiding under a table somewhere. Barack, I don’t think so. He is actually pretty resilient.
OTOH, perhaps we should be vigilant and watch for attempts to humiliate our man and fight back early and often. Some will take the destroy-Obama approach. I don’t think we can prevent that. But we can make such people pay for their foolishness.
rikryah
I NEVER forget it.
Tim in SF
@Zandar: Freaking awesome first-post-of-the-day to read. I love a wow reference with my breakfast.
Mike in NC
@Legalize:
They could rename it the “27 Percenters Cafe” to sound more upscale.
Pangloss
They pretty much succeeded in papering over the deep and long-lasting damage done to the country by Saint Ronnie, so why wouldn’t their legacy project expertise work in the opposite direction with a sitting Democratic POTUS?
Tim in SF
LEROOOOOOY NNNNNEWTON!
Linda Featheringill
@Zandar:
I have a pretty low opinion of Ohio chili in general. TexMex is much, much better.
But of course we put this stuff over pasta. Have you every tasted of it?
burritoboy
As a Catholic, I’m not sure what “lead us back to the Bible” is supposed to do for me. Now, “lead us back to Thomas Aquinas”….that, I can see. We’re god-damn Catholics, we’re not supposed to be stupid fungelicals, you know.
Here in Catholic-heavy California, I don’t think Leroy is particularly well-regarded. Of course, this is a place where my parish is pushing for beatification of Dorothy Day, so you may get highly different mileage in Cincy.
gbear
Schlemizel @ 30
Yikes, which neighborhood did you grow up in? I’ve lived in St. Paul for the last 35 years and don’t see the prominence of Catholic Church that you’re describing. The church leadership is as backward and reactionary as can be, but I don’t feel like the general population of the city takes that stuff to heart. I don’t see St. Paul as a city of haters.
The Moar You Know
The Jesus wing, the money wing and the asshole wing are all slugging it out in the front yard and no one gives a shit anymore if the neighbors are watching, or calling 911.
What a great time to be a Democrat.
handsmile
@burnspbesq: (#20)
One word less: Supreme Court Justice John Yoo. Bonus knife-twist: he’d be the first Asian-American on the Court! And that underrepresentation must be addressed soon. (Harold Koh could earn that distinction in a second Obama term.)
Thus why I’ve written a dozen or so separate posts about the imperatives of Democrats maintaining a Senate majority and tungsten-cladding for Obama’s coattails. (fwiw, I specifically identified a Justice Brown as one of the dangers.)
Linda Featheringill
@burritoboy:
The Catholic Worker is still being published, BTW.
handsmile
@Tim in SF: (#47)
Leroy Jenkins!! You can’t possibly mean the genius free jazz violinist and composer!? Member of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and founder of the Revolutionary Ensemble. That Leroy Jenkins!?
And if so, boy howdy, how?
(also too, I thought burnsbpesq had the jazz franchise around here.)
Otherwise, I’m clueless as per usual.
WaterGirl
@The Moar You Know: Perfect!
Rita R.
Miss Cokie was saying on Morning Joe this morning that she’s hearing from her Beltway Republican buddies who are so down on their prospects against Obama in the fall considering the four Stooges that they have slugging it out for the nomination that they’re putting all their focus on winning the Senate.
Villago Delenda Est
@handsmile:
No, I think he was referring to this Leeroy Jenkins
kdaug
@handsmile: Damn near 30 million views and you don’t know who Leroy Jenkins is?
The Moar You Know
The stench of electoral death is oozing from Romney this morning. He’s hurt bad and there’s no path to it getting any better for him.
chopper
@Villago Delenda Est:
i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again, there’s a large contingent of the GOP/conservative movement that considers governance by any democrat to be the equivalent of a military occupation by an illegitimate foreign power.
Ohio Mom
@Jay C: Per your request, for you out-of-towners: Cincinnati’s culinary claim-to-fame is a chili dish known as a “Five Way” consisting of, from bottom to top, spaghetti, really ground-up beef in a chili sauce, kidney beans, chopped onions, and a mound of finely grated cheddar/american cheese. Oyster crackers are served on the side. No, it’s not real chili but it has its own charm.
There are a couple of chili chains in town (Skyline, Gold Star) and a handful of independent chili restaurants, of which Price Hill Chili is one. When you’re trying to picture a chili joint, think greasy spoon.
I’ve spent time on the west side of Cincinnati (unlike some of my east side brethren)and I’ve eaten lots of chili in my 30-odd years here in the Queen City but I haven’t ever set foot in Price Hill Chili. It does seem to be a regular campaign stop for Republicans, which is why I don’t foresee ever stopping in myself.
The neighborhood of Price Hill could be considered, I guess, a gateway to the west side of Cincinnati, an area which is heavily German Catholic and very, very conservative. Steve “turn that video camera off” Chabot is their Congressman (not that I’m gloating, on this side of town it’s Mean Jean).
Hope that helped.
handsmile
@Villago Delenda Est: , @kdaug:
Thank you both for your tender concerns and guidance.
The first sentence of the link provided by V.D. Est reads: “Leeroy Jenkins (sometimes misspelled Leroy Jenkins) is a paladin of the Alliance.” Ah, that helps.
I weep for my ignorance, the immensity of which is a source of constant embarrassment for my loved ones.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Legalize: @JenJen: And the afternoon of Good Friday is a paid city holiday – at least it was when I worked for the city. The halls of the Hamilton County courthouse are filled with smudged foreheads on Ash Wednesday. So even downtown it felt like a hugely Catholic city to me – on the east side, not so much.
AnotherBruce
Kind of late for this thread, but where did Obama ever bow to a Saudi King? I thought that was the Japanese Prime Minister or somebody like that.
pseudonymous in nc
@Yevgraf:
I said back in ’08 that Blazing Saddles would be the best guide to the Obama campaign and presidency, and I don’t feel proved wrong yet.
g
“get us back to the Bible, Newt”
Frankly, if someone is looking to Newt to bring him back to the Bible, he’s been away far too long.
sharl
OTR? {Trots off to investigate…}
Ah, Over-the-Rhine, an urban neighborhood in Cincy, with a high Af-Am population.
Thus ends the mystery for this long-ago Dayton boy, who didn’t make it down to Cincy often, except to see the glorious Big Red Machine back in the day.
Jay C
@Ohio Mom:
Sounds more “No Way” than “Five Way” to me, but thanks for the info.
Something else I can say I learned on the Intertubes….
Ozymandias, King of Ants
I lived in Cincinnati for three years and I can personally say that the Skyline Chili at Clifton and Ludlow is the only thing that made grad school bearable.
When I left in 2001, I immediately was in withdrawal until I learned to make it myself.
Ohio Mom
@Jay C: Hah. Soon after I moved to Cincinnati, an old boyfriend came to visit. I took him to Ozymandias’s favorite haunt, the Clifton Skyline. “Is this stuff any good?” he asked nervously as we approached the door. “I didn’t say it was good, I said this place had the best.”
You’d be surprised though, it is great comfort food, especially on a cold, rainy day.
Kathleen
@JenJen: Price Hill Chile does suck. I’ve only been there twice since Cheney befouled it in 2004. I could still smell the sulphur. I live in Price Hill (not a native however) and feel that Cincinnati’s over the top Catholocism is the root cause of its oppressive vibe.
Kathleen
@Ohio Mom: While I’ve lived in Price HIll for 26 years, I don’t consider myself a West Sider for the reasons Ohio Mom cited (I’m more “Downtown Near”). The West Side did produce Pete Rose, however, and I do think he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.
JenJen
@Ohio Mom: I’m a three-way girl (only in Cincinnati does that not sound in any way sexual), and The Clifton Skyline is, by far, the best chili parlor in town. Almost everyone I know agrees. There’s just something about it; might be the young, collegiate, the-bars-just-closed atmosphere. Kenwood Skyline on Montgomery Road comes damned close, though; I love the way they still kick it old school there with the octogenarian Greek dudes working the chili vats. Mmmmmm.
Wait, though, there’s Camp Washington, and sometimes I absolutely crave Park Chili in Northside…
@Kathleen: @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): When I worked at the Hilton Netherland Plaza downtown, I had to sneak out for lunch every Lenten Friday because I got so tired of people in the lunchroom asking me how!! why!! I was eating a ham sandwich or chicken salad, and did I know what day it was. True story.
Ohio Mom
@JenJen: Have to agree, the Clifton Skyland is the Platonic Ideal.