Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

The willow is too close to the house.

A Senator Walker would also be an insult to reason, rationality, and decency.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

This fight is for everything.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

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

Their freedom requires your slavery.

We still have time to mess this up!

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

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Reader Interactions

213Comments

  3. 3.

    dmsilev

    He’s not being bipartisan! Waaaaah!

    This message brought to you by the ghost of David Broder. Who’s a bit of an annoyance really.

  5. 5.

    MattF

    I’d like to see it (slowly) dawn on the wingers that, thus far, they’ve been shadow-boxing. It’s a mean thing to want, but I want it.

  6. 6.

    pragmatism

    shoot, i forgot to set up my online shop for fainting couches, garments to rend, replacement monocles and seat donuts for teh butthurt. i blame obama.

  7. 7.

    the fake fake al

    Well, they hate him already; he might as well come out with both barrels. Just hope the service is vigilant, cause severe ODS is going to make someone snap.

  8. 8.

    Hunter Gathers

    Which GOPer is going to to use the word ‘disappointing’ when crying about this to the press first? President McCain? Future President Romney? Ryan himself? I’m taking all bets! I also offer video poker!

  10. 10.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    @dmsilev: Or, from Paul Ryan’s own tweet:

    We all thought @BarackObama would be better than this. He had potential, making his leadership failures so disappointing.

  12. 12.

    bogdan

    Arianna Huffington thinks Obama should quit now before it’s too late…for the liberal cause. Not because she is rooting for the other side or anything but because she is so passionate about progressive ideas and doesn’t want Obama to turn back the clock.

  13. 13.

    Fwiffo

    Not to sound all “concern troll”, and I’m glad that he’s throwing a little red meat out there, but who green-lighted the “social Darwinism” line? That’s actually verging on Godwin territory right there (not that it’s not a phrase that wingers toss around casually.)

  17. 17.

    Jay in Oregon

    Ryan has a sad because Obama won’t offer to compromise by starving only half of America’s elderly to death?

  18. 18.

    J.

    I was so aroused by Obama’s “Math” speech, I threw my panties at the TV screen. (Seriously, if anyone can make “math” sound sexy, Obama — and Paul Krugman — can.)

  19. 19.

    Jay in Oregon

    @dr. bloor:

    With a little luck, Paulie will be so disillusioned he’ll abandon his political ambitions and pursue a more honest career in used car sales selling stolen organs on the black market.

    Much better.

  22. 22.

    bogdan

    @Fwiffo: Do you not realize how brilliant that line is? Darwin totally freaks out the creationists and the word social will sound suspiciously like socialism to the mouth breathers.

    Of course the rest of us with half a brain will understand the true meaning which also works.

    I can guarantee you they ran that by the Democratic messaging experts and poll tested it.

  23. 23.

    butler

    @hells littlest angel: Nah, I want a culture warrior nut for Romney’s running mate.

    Obama can already tie Romney to Ryan’s granny starving fetish without him being on the ticket. Besides that he’s a pretty blank slate, unlikely to spew the kind of crazy that you would get from a Palin or a Santorum.

  25. 25.

    Bubblegum Tate

    I THOUGHT OBAMA WOULD BRING THE COUNTRY TOGETHER! HE’S A DIVIDER, NOT A UNITER! WAAAAAAA!

  27. 27.

    bogdan

    @J.: Keep it in your pants. Seriously, the whole infatuation a lot of women here and on wonkette and on obama diary have is getting kind of creepy. Every single fucking thread over on Obama Diary is a bunch of women swooning.

    Don’t get me wrong, I get it and it’s ok with me but you and the sites you post that stuff on lose credibility because of it. Just sayin.

  28. 28.

    BDeevDad

    Every time someone tells me Paul Ryan put forth a realistic plan, I’m going to just cut and paste this:

    He’s saying that in 2050, spending on defense, on food stamps, on infrastructure, on education, on research and development, on the federal workforce, and everything other non-entitlement program combined will be less than four percentage points of GDP.

  31. 31.

    jheartney

    “Social Darwinism” hits the nail on the head. My only worry is that the Punditerati may be too ignorant to know what it is, and use it to paint him as “elitist” for bringing it out.

    We should have brought out the Class Warfare big guns long ago. There’s a reason wingnuts have been sneering at those arguments for years – they know they’re true.

  33. 33.

    Villago Delenda Est

    I hope that Ron Wyden is paying attention to this, and will do the right thing and cut all ties, to including providing the time of day, to the vile Randroid Ryan.

  35. 35.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    @Fwiffo:

    but who green-lighted the “social Darwinism” line? That’s actually verging on Godwin territory right there (not that it’s not a phrase that wingers toss around casually.)

    It’s about fucking time. For years it’s only been the DFHs who’ve called the Republican ducks ducks. The fact that the Kenyan Usurper is in campaign mode and finally deciding to call them out Is. A. Good. Thing.

  36. 36.

    bogdan

    @hells littlest angel: It’s pretty simple what Romney will be looking for. Whatever it takes to win. The 2 biggest demographics Republicans are weak in are Women and Latinos. If he can find a Latin woman who looks good and is smarter than Palin (that one is easy) he will go for that as VP. I can almost guarantee you.

    He is way behind so that is just the sort of game changer he will be looking for but unlike McCain he will make sure that person is fit for the job as well.

    Rubio will shore up Latino voters so I would say he is looking closely at that as a fall back.

    Again, to figure out what Romney is looking for the answer is simply whatever it takes to win.

  37. 37.

    jibeaux

    @bogdan: Wait a minute. You think a commenter throwing virtual panties at Obama damages the credibility of a blog whose founder and proprietor injures himself while mopping naked?

  38. 38.

    taylormattd

    @Roger Moore: I was gonna say.

    It’s either MOARBULLYPULPIT or JUSTWORDS.

    Either way, it amounts to HIPPYPUNCHTHROWUNDERBUSSTABINBACKSHITSANDWICH

  40. 40.

    Fwiffo

    “Social Darwinism” is a term generally applied to ideas like eugenics, so yes, I think it’s a little bit hyperbolic, even for the disaster that is the Ryan budget.

  41. 41.

    BeanTooth

    Cue the Post think piece about how Obama’s meanness once again scuttled the GOP’s desire to come together on important solutions for America. If only he didn’t hurt their feelings, then something could get done.

  45. 45.

    S. cerevisiae

    I’ll have to catch the speech later, but he actually used the phrase social Darwinism? About freaking time and keep on calling ’em out for what they really are.

  46. 46.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Belafon (formerly anonevent):

    We all thought @BarackObama would be better than this. He had potential,

    Paul Ryan voted for Obama in ’08?

    @Mnemosyne: That’s been my working assumption: Worrying about Solyndra is like worrying about Bill Ayers and the Indonesian maddrassa.

  47. 47.

    hells littlest angel

    @butler: Good point. But it’s a safe bet, given what he has to choose from, Romney will go with either a simpleton or a shit-head.

    Tell you the truth, my real dream running mate is Michael Steele.

  48. 48.

    Amir Khalid

    @J.:

    I was so aroused by Obama’s “Math” speech, I threw my panties at the TV screen.

    It’s not unusual …

  49. 49.

    Mnemosyne

    @Fwiffo:

    “Social Darwinism” is a term generally applied to ideas like eugenics, so yes, I think it’s a little bit hyperbolic, even for the disaster that is the Ryan budget.

    So leaving old people with no income and no medical care is, like, kind of bad, but not really that bad?

  53. 53.

    amk

    So which media moron asked the stupidest question after that barn burner, totally missing the point ?

  54. 54.

    Nina

    I love the term Social Darwinism. I hope more of our guys pick up on it and make it the phrase of the week on the talking head shows. So many arguments can be spun out of that concept.

  55. 55.

    some guy

    @bogdan:

    Rubio will shore up rightwing Cuban voters in Florida who always vote R, so I would say he is looking closely at that as a fall back.

    fixed your typo.

    Senator-elect Marco Rubio is, in fact, one of the most extreme candidates when it comes to immigration and other progressive issues. He supports Arizona’s SB 1070, is against the DREAM Act and immigration reform, and doesn’t even think the undocumented should be counted in the census. He even opposed Sonia Sotomayor’s Supreme Court nomination……He managed to win 45 percent of the overall Hispanic vote in Florida. But this number is less impressive when you compare it to the other Republican Hispanics in Florida. Mel Martinez, the Cuban American Republican senator whom Rubio will replace, won 60 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004. And in the 2008 election Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) received 64 percent of the Hispanic vote while Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) won 67 percent. What this means is Rubio is walking a very tight rope when it comes to maintaining support among Hispanics even in traditionally Republican Florida.

  56. 56.

    Roger Moore

    @bogdan:
    If Rmoney seriously thinks all it will take to win the Latino and Women’s vote is to name a Latina as his VP, he’s going to be bitterly disappointed. If the Republicans keep campaigning on keeping women barefoot and pregnant and deporting anyone whose name ends in “Z”, they’re going to lose women and Latinos no matter who Romney chooses.

  57. 57.

    MikeJ

    @Mnemosyne:

    So leaving old people with no income and no medical care is, like, kind of bad, but not really that bad?

    Old people are beyond reproductive age and can not exert evolutionary pressures on the group.

    Starving children and denying healthcare to women (especially reproductive healthcare) would fit the bill though.

  59. 59.

    rikyrah

    Eddie Munster Ryan IS STILL madder than a mutha that the President bitchslapped his ass last year.

    after all, doesn’t POTUS know how ‘ serious’ Ryan is?

  60. 60.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    @Fwiffo: Um, no:

    Social Darwinism is a term commonly used for theories of society that emerged in England and the United States in the 1870s, seeking to apply the principles of Darwinian evolution to sociology and politics.[1] It especially refers to notions of struggle for existence being used to justify social policies which make no distinction between those able to support themselves and those unable to support themselves.

  61. 61.

    Cris (without an H)

    @Fwiffo: And one line will become the story, overshadowing everything else and burying the message.

    That one line is the message. The Republicans consider you weak and want you to die off. Let it overshadow.

  62. 62.

    gwangung

    @Fwiffo: That doesn’t fit with MY definition of social Darwinism. Eugenics is not the only program that falls under that concept.

  63. 63.

    Forum Transmitted Disease

    And one line will become the story, overshadowing everything else and burying the message.

    @Fwiffo: The message is that Republicans are engaged in a hardcore game of Social Darwinism.

    Let go of those pearls, you’re about to crush them to powder.

  64. 64.

    taylormattd

    @Fwiffo: You realize, don’t you, that a million stories by right wing EM-ESS-EM reporters clutching pearls about the phrase “social darwinism” will have literally zero negative impact on Obama? And, in fact, to the extent it continues to bring the Ryan’s insane medicare / social security elimination scams into the spotlight, it will help?

    Honestly, you wrote “not to sound like a concern troll” in your first comment. Let me tell you, you don’t “sound” like a concern troll, you ARE a concern troll.

  66. 66.

    Cris (without an H)

    @amk: So which media moron asked the stupidest question after that barn burner, totally missing the point ?

    I don’t know who asked it, but the most dialed-in question (there were only three or four, I think) was the first one: “What can you say to Americans who just want both sides to stop fighting?” And Obama handled it exactly right.

  68. 68.

    Forum Transmitted Disease

    On the bright side, this means that at last the Republicans are giving some credit to the ideas of Charles Darwin.

  70. 70.

    dmsilev

    Paul Ryan has a sad:

    “Like his reckless budgets, today’s speech by President Obama is as revealing as it is disappointing: While others lead by offering real solutions, he has chosen to distort the truth and divide Americans in order to distract from his failed record. His empty promises are quickly becoming broken promises – and the American people will hold him accountable for this violation of their trust.”

    Poor baby, apparently this sort of thing wasn’t covered in Atlas Shrugged.

  72. 72.

    balconesfault

    I guess this is like calling someone a eugenicist … if you don’t know what Social Darwinism means, and you don’t know what eugenics are…

  76. 76.

    aimai

    @Belafon (formerly anonevent):
    You are making that up? The President of the United States, Former Senator, Author of Two bestselling books, Holder of the Nobel Peace Prize is failing to demonstrate his “promise?” Jeebus. I’d like to be demonstrating his fucking failures, myself.

    aimai

  77. 77.

    Fwiffo

    You quote wikipedia but leave out the next sentence:

    The most prominent form of such views stressed competition between individuals in laissez-faire capitalism; but it is also connected to the ideas of eugenics, scientific racism, imperialism, fascism, Nazism and struggle between national or racial groups.

    And before accusing me of being a troll, look at my past posts.

    Occasionally small disagreement == TROLL TROLL KILL IT WITH FIRE

  81. 81.

    dslak

    @Fwiffo: So because it is “also” connected to those things, that means it was not mostly about throwing the poor to the wolves?

    Accusing you of concern trolling is unwarranted, but the shoe of Social Darwinism is a perfect fit for the GOP foot.

  85. 85.

    Elizabelle

    @Fwiffo:

    Social Darwinism is precisely the correct term. Were he around, Richard Hoffstedter could school you on that.

  86. 86.

    dmsilev

    @aimai: It’s incredibly condescending, to put it mildly. “Aw, look at that poor little Obama boy; so much promise, so sad that he couldn’t live up to it.”

  87. 87.

    Roger Moore

    @Fwiffo:

    “Social Darwinism” is a term generally applied to ideas like eugenics, so yes, I think it’s a little bit hyperbolic, even for the disaster that is the Ryan budget.

    Not so much. The original meaning of Social Darwinism was more in line with the way Obama is using it, i.e. that laissez-faire capitalism will sort out the weak from the strong and let the weak perish. It does have some ties to things like eugenics because some of the strongest believers in Social Darwinism were very unsavory people who wanted to speed things up beyond what simple survival of the richest would manage, but that’s neither the original, nor the most common usage.

  89. 89.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    @Fwiffo: But, all you keep saying is that it is associated with Eugenics, trying to blow off any other use of the term. Personally, I knew the term social darwinism nearly a decade before I had heard of eugenics.

  91. 91.

    schrodinger's cat

    BTW, Andrew Sullivan is still crushing hard on Ryan and his plan.
    *Wondering if “plan” is a euphemism for something else*

  92. 92.

    Martin

    @butler:

    Nah, I want a culture warrior nut for Romney’s running mate.

    He is one. It’s just his Randian fapping tends to distract you from it.

  93. 93.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Roger Moore:

    Just this.

    As Richard Dawkins likes to point out, Social Darwinism misses a lot of the point of Darwinism, in that it applies the rules that seem to be there for non-conscious living things to conscious living things, that is, to man himself, who is aware of the rules, which gives him an opportunity to modify them. Social Darwinism ignores this key point, entirely, throwing hands up in the air saying “what are you going to do?” Well, stop being a shithead is the first step.

  94. 94.

    Elizabelle

    I would say that connecting “Social Darwinism” with eugenics is a misapplication of the term.

    Much as Fwiffo might say that if you approve of using contraception, you are also down with forcing abortion. It’s the very same thing — birth control.

  95. 95.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Cris (without an H):

    Speaking of “both sides do it,” this just might be the place to mention one of Charlie Pierce’s latest gems (as I type it is the most recent, but by the time you read this comment he’ll probably have two or three new posts up):

    I have been meaning to mention this for a while, but MSNBC is running this promo in which Andrea Mitchell bemoans the fact that “political parties and interest groups” are working to keep people from voting, which is something that Andrea believes is a very bad thing indeed. I agree. About what a bad thing it is. But I depart from agreement due to what I think is her mistaken use of the plural. There is only one political party that is actively working to keep people from voting. There is only one political party whose allied interest groups are actively working to keep people from voting. This is not even a close call. I know that faux balance is the way you keep all the dinner reservations coming in, but, lawsamercy, let’s not lie to ourselves.

    Honestly, every time I finish reading one of his columns I need a cigarette.

  97. 97.

    schrodinger's cat

    Romney needs a crazy person as the VP, the 27% (or the GOP base) need to be represented. There is an abundance of riches to choose from, it should not be a problem.

  98. 98.

    Mnemosyne

    @Ben Franklin:

    Sorry, I didn’t realize that you actually thought there was some kind of “scandal” around Solyndra that had to be addressed.

    Here’s a hint: Solyndra = Whitewater. There’s nothing to “address” because there’s nothing there.

  99. 99.

    Roger Moore

    @Fwiffo:
    Honestly, though, I think it’s hardly unfair to tar the Republicans with the rest of that crap, too. They are a bunch of racists and fascists. They may not openly advocate for eugenics, but I’m pretty sure a lot of them would like to see good white people out reproducing minorities. If the shoe fits, they should fucking wear it.

  100. 100.

    FlipYrWhig

    Social Darwinism means applying the idea of the survival of the fittest to human beings. A social Darwinist believes in brutal competition among people. Eugenics and all that is related, but not the core of the concept, IMHO.

  103. 103.

    Elizabelle

    It’s going to be interesting to see how network broadcast news covers the President’s speech.

    If they give him much airtime, or if they just sniff, knowingly, that “he’s in campaign mode.” (Pay no mind. Move along.)

  104. 104.

    Arm The Homeless

    @some guy: Yeah, I think folks who aren’t as familiar with Florida’s Hispanic community as those who live here often make the mistake of believing that Rubio attracts significantly–if at all–more Hispanic voters than any other GOP VP would.

    If we look back to the the last elected FL senator, Mel Martinez (who also happens to be Cuban) in 2004, you can see that he actually got about 5% more of the Latino/Hispanic vote than Rubio did in 2010. Actually I think that the Mel Martinez 2004 vote may be the highwater mark in Florida Senatorial campaigns, which doesn’t bode well for the GOP 2012 POTUS campaign.

    GOP cannot pump that Hispanic well going forward without a) Actually appealing to their concerns, or b) make it very difficult for non-Cuban Hispanic voters to exercise their franchise.

  106. 106.

    Cris (without an H)

    @SiubhanDuinne: Brilliant.

    And to be honest, Obama himself has often trafficked in “BSDI.” He frequently speaks broadly of “the tone of Washington” and “partisan bickering.”

    But today, he gave a name to it, and that name was the GOP. For example:

    The challenge we have right now is that we have on one side a party that will brook no compromise.
    __
    Ronald Reagan […] could not get through a Republican primary today.
    __
    This bears on your reporting: I think that there is oftentimes the impulse to suggest that if the two parties are disagreeing, then they’re equally at fault, and the truth lies somewhere in the middle. And an equivalence is presented. This is not one of those situations where there’s an equivalence.
    __
    As all of you are doing your reporting, I think it’s important to remember that the positions I’m taking now on the budget, and a host of other issues — if we’d been having this discussion 20 years ago, or even 15 years ago, would have been considered squarely centrist positions. What’s changed is the center of the Republican party.

  107. 107.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Elizabelle: I’m sure there’s somewhere in these tubes I could place the bet, and if I did I’d bet Brian Williams uses the words “campaign mode” and “harsh rhetoric”, with a side bet on “surprisingly” used to modify “harsh rhetoric”. Also there seems to have been some kind recent ruling from Ben and Sally’s salon that Democrats are not allowed to use Republicans’ names when discussing their policies.

  108. 108.

    bogdan

    @Roger Moore: Oh for fucks sakes. Like trying to herd cats around here.

    Rmoney thinks whatever he needs to think just like a well oiled weather vane should. And if you think that something as simple as getting a VP that checks off certain boxes isn’t enough to sway a lot of voters than you are giving voters FAR too much credibility.

    All it took for McCain was to pick a former beauty queen hillbilly grifter Gov. from Alaska to shake things up. All she did was check off certain boxes and being qualified for the job wasn’t evem one of them.

    We are talking about a country that elected the texas dummy twice.

  109. 109.

    Mnemosyne

    @Ben Franklin:

    So tell us, what is the deep dark scandal surrounding Solyndra that you think Obama should be forcefully addressing? All I’ve seen so far is a bunch of Republicans who voted in favor of the Solyndra tax breaks now trying to pretend they never heard of them plus Obama made them do it, also, too.

    If you think there’s a scandal there that needs to be addressed, tell us what you think the scandal is instead of playing coy.

  112. 112.

    ShadeTail

    @Fwiffo:

    So you are desperate for us to note the next sentence of the Wikipedia page, which proves exactly what people have been saying about you: that you are completely full of shit. Kindly note how the sentence says that Social Darwinism is merely “connected” to Eugenics, and that Eugenics is not the most prominent form of Social Darwinism.
    __
    If you don’t want to be labeled a concern troll, then stop spreading ignorance with your holier-than-thou air.

  113. 113.

    Arm The Homeless

    @schrodinger’s cat: DING DING DING!

    Here are your interwebs.

    I fully expect to see Allen West, Rand Paul, or perhaps if it’s looking really bad by July, DeMint.

    Mittens’ largest deficit will be activist support. With all the fronts he will be fighting on, this is the one that absolutely has to hold (see: McCain; Palin; 2008).

  114. 114.

    Steve

    I think it is high time for the actual trolls to reclaim the term “concern troll.” In BJ parlance it is used to refer to anyone who the speaker considers to be overly worried, and I’m extremely concerned that the misuse of the term may destroy America.

  120. 120.

    giltay

    Social Darwinism is the belief that weak people hold back society and should be left to die for the sake of Progress. It’s a pretty broad term (and it has very little to do with actual Darwinism).

    Eugenics is a course of action, informed by Social Darwinism, where the weak are rooted out as early as possible and then killed, sterilized, or isolated so that their genes don’t mix with those of more worthy people.

    As vile as Social Darwinism is, I think it’s a pretty good descriptor for the economics of modern conservatism.

  122. 122.

    burnspbesq

    @Roger Moore:

    deporting anyone whose name ends in “Z”

    If that’s defined to include Mark Sanchez, Romney might carry New York and New Jersey.

  123. 123.

    jl

    Spent a few minutes playing with TPM’s poll tracker last evening. Interesting that there is really only one decision you have to make that determines what pooled poll results say over time: do you include Rasmussen or not?

    Rasmussen is by far the most influential polling organization in terms of determining path of pooled poll results over time.

    On hypothesis that Rasmussen is basically a nationwide GOP push polling and public opinion engineering operation, and leaving that out, then remaining variation is due to whether you want to limit results to likely and all registered voters, or include all adults. But however you do it, results is widening lead for Obama, since Dec 2011, and who has lead since except for one week in Jan or last week in Feb, depending on combination of all adults, registered or likely voter polls you want to include.

    Being all nice and finicky, if you consider Rasmussen a potential outlier due to bias, then (Edit: for unbiased pooled results) other potentially biased polls should be omitted too, but omitting other D and R pollsters produces about same results, very marginally less favorable to Obama

    Using only polls results for likely voters, a slowly increasing lead for Obama, now slightly over 5 points. Including registered voters, Obama lead is now about 8 points, but more fluctuation over time.

    And I saw in the news that recent polls indicate the GOP War on Women have hurt Romney badly in swing states.

    So, I am more optimistic after looking through polls for general, at least for President.

    Generic Congressional poll does not look so good, but I don’t know enough about election forecasting to know how significant generic Congressional poll is.

  124. 124.

    The Other Bob

    @bogdan:

    Rubio will shore up Latino voters so I would say he is looking closely at that as a fall back.

    Throwing a brown guy at the problem and expecting latinos to fall in line is insulting to latinos.

    The Republicans are so condensending that they dont realize that minorities, women and other groups are smart enough to vote on the issues?

  125. 125.

    nellcote

    @Cris (without an H):

    “What can you say to Americans who just want both sides to stop fighting?” And Obama handled it exactly right.

    And he did it by pushing back on “both sides do it”. This to a roomful of AP publishers/editors.

  128. 128.

    Mnemosyne

    @bogdan:

    All it took for McCain was to pick a former beauty queen hillbilly grifter Gov. from Alaska to shake things up. All she did was check off certain boxes and being qualified for the job wasn’t evem one of them.

    Considering that McCain lost the election in part because the thought of Palin being a heartbeat away from the presidency got people to vote for Obama who had never voted for a Democrat before, I think you’re vastly overestimating how much good checking those boxes off does in the absence of an actual qualified candidate.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if Rubio gets the nod as the “Latino,” but only someone who doesn’t understand Latino voters would think it would do Romney any good with Latinos. It might do some good with racist Republicans who don’t like to think of themselves as racist, but a Mexican-American or Salvadoran-American ain’t gonna be voting for Cuban-American Rubio just because they all came from Spanish-speaking countries.

  130. 130.

    Roger Moore

    @bogdan:
    If you’re going to use Sarah Palin as an example, you should look at what she actually did. She was great at riling up the White Evangelical Christian base, but didn’t help at all in winning over women swing voters. Low information voters may not be terribly well informed on the issues, but they actually seem to understand when they’re being cynically pandered to. Anti-woman and anti-Hispanic slogans aren’t suddenly going to go over with women and Hispanics just because they’re coming out of the mouth of a Latina or a candidate who’s VP is a Latina.

  132. 132.

    jl

    @Cris (without an H): thanks for Obama quote. Nice to see he will push back on lazy cynical and cowardly corporate media BS. And he did it by using the truth, which has some advantages in maintaining an easy to follow and credible narrative (since it changes less often than fantasy based spin).

  133. 133.

    ShadeTail

    @bogdan:

    Are you kidding? You’re using McCain’s Palin bump as evidence for your position? 2008 wasn’t that long ago, so you really ought to remember that McCain picking Palin was a huge part of the reason why he lost. His entire campaign made him look ignorant, feckless, and just plain unprepared, and Palin magnified all of that.

    In fact, the main checkbox that Palin marked off, women, ended up alienating far more women than it attracted, because Palin was such a bad example of her demographic.

  138. 138.

    jl

    @Mnemosyne:

    Agreed. A conservative Floridan Cuban will swing a lot of other Hispanics? Not a sure bet.

    Regarding Palin, I think people forget that her rep from her early part of her AK governor stint was that of a reasonable, nice, moderate conservative, who was willing to push some slightly ‘progressive’ measures, like making oil companies pay their fair share of taxes.

    But Palin either revealed her true self, or started immediately devolving into what she is now, and destroyed her ‘reasonable, nice, moderate conservative’ cred within a few weeks, which deflated the initial Palin poll surge.

    Edit: point being, is that Rubio will be know as, and have to maintain hard core conservative stance right from the start.

  139. 139.

    piratedan

    Rubio will shore up Latino voters so I would say he is looking closely at that as a fall back.

    unless Rubio has hitherto unknown solutions to the illegal immigration issue and the economic jobs situation and its evolving away from jobs that served as a gateway for many latinos. His racial qualifications won’t make much of a difference simply because he’s in denial regarding his Cubano heritage and that isn’t likely to impress the millions of acclimated Latinos formerly from South and Central America.

  140. 140.

    schrodinger's cat

    @jl: Did she devolve, or was that her assigned role. Remember the pitbull with lipstick,
    schtick, that was her speech at the convention.

  141. 141.

    jl

    @schrodinger’s cat: I dunno. That get’s into what the McCain campaign was thinking, which may be forever, an unknown unknown.

    Edit: but I do remember what Palin’s political reputation was, as her name came up as possible VP candidate.

  142. 142.

    Arm The Homeless

    I find the fact that Mittens has now progressed to the point of warning the GOP that without him, they may have to deal with a Huckabee/Palin ticket.

    That’s going to chap a lot of Palinistas.

    The Etch-a-Sketch is upon us!

  143. 143.

    jl

    @piratedan: Hispanic is an ethnicity, not a race. And, I have not talked to an Hispanic in CA who considers Cubans to be Hispanic in any real sense. That includes Puerto Ricans as well as folks with Mexican and Central American heritage.

  145. 145.

    schrodinger's cat

    @jl: I do remember her interview with Maria Bartoromo of CNBC, when she was the governor of Alaska, which they kept showing once she was selected as the VP. In it she sounded almost normal, no snarling or deer-in-the head light looks like the Couric interview. I think she was just not ready.

  146. 146.

    piratedan

    @jl:ty for the correction, just wanted to get it out there that the subsections of “Latino” are just as varied as “Caucasian” and as such the use of a label does not an automatic sympathetic affiliation make.

  147. 147.

    Nemesis

    Paul “zombie-eyed, granny-starving, damn Im tired of getting bitchslapped by the President cause Imma weepy soulless bastard person” Ryan haz a sad.

    He is such a coward, so thin-skinned, so completely unloved. Like the kid who never gets picked to play a game of dodgeball. He scuttles off toward home, head down, bottom lip pouty, momentarily distracted and amused by stepping on and squishing a frog.

  148. 148.

    quannlace

    So much pearl-clutching over Obama being mean about the Supreme Court yesterday. Can just imagine the bleatings this will give.

  149. 149.

    Arm The Homeless

    @jl:
    @schrodinger’s cat:

    It seemed to me that she had this great plan in her mind that she was going to ride a rocket to the political stratosphere on a wink and a ‘you betcha!’.

    As soon as she didn’t get the respect a deference she thought she was owed, it seemed like a very short step to letting her victim-status flower, while trying to hide behind political barbs like, “Real Americans” and her pitbull and momma-bear avatars.

  150. 150.

    Martin

    @ShadeTail:

    In fact, the main checkbox that Palin marked off, women, ended up alienating far more women than it attracted, because Palin was such a bad example of her demographic.

    You’re looking at the choice from the vantage point of the electorate. From the vantage point of McCain, he’s exactly correct. She was chosen for the reasons given. Plug any conventional candidate into the VP slot at the time of the convention, and McCain was a guaranteed loser according to the polls. There was no winning path laid before him. He had to reach outside of the box. Palin was a go big or go home kind of play, and considering that he was in a hopeless spot at that point, I can’t fault the choice from a purely tactical standpoint. That he would have saddled the world with an idiot in the #2 slot (not that McCain is any kind of brain trust himself) is inexcusable in the larger sense.

    So it turns out that McCain was wrong about the effects of that choice, in part due to a misunderstanding of the electorate, but also in part due to making such a bad choice. Had he chosen a much more competent woman (and the GOP does have them), he might have done better due to the choice than he did – we’ll never know. It was both a failure of assumption and a failure of execution, and we shouldn’t overcredit one or the other. But the execution was clearly a failure, which mainly leaves the question of assumption open. Had he nominated someone like Elaine Chao (Sec Labor under Bush, wife of McConnell), who has her faults to be sure, but generally comes off as smart and competent, then I’m not sure what result we would have gotten. Identity politics is overstated to a large degree, but there’s at least some effect there.

  151. 151.

    fasteddie9318

    @Belafon (formerly anonevent):

    Obviously as a white man I have no basis on which to reach this conclusion, but isn’t this kind of reaction dripping with sublimated racism? Where the fuck does a pissant congressman get talking about how “disappointed” he is in the president, like he’s Obama’s daddy, other than the fact that the president is black and Ryan is white? There are a lot of appropriate reactions Ryan could have, but “disappointment” in Obama? Is it just me or is that incredibly condescending?

  153. 153.

    jl

    @piratedan: I agree with your basic point. Typical response I get is something along the lines of ‘Cubans are rich, or try to act rich, and sneer at all the rest of the Hispanics, they can ‘pass’ as whities and then ride the Hispanic label for whatever it can get them, they call us cockroaches, eff them.”

  154. 154.

    Mnemosyne

    @jl:

    IIRC, there’s still a fair amount of resentment that illegal Cuban immigrants get special immunity while people who fled right-wing death squads in El Salvador were deported back to their deaths because the death squads trying to murder them were “our” guys. School of the Americas and all that.

    Anthony Bourdain had an interesting essay in Kitchen Confidential about running a restaurant where he pointed out that one of the chef’s responsibilities was to know where all of his employees came from, because putting a Cuban immigrant on the line with a Salvadoran immigrant was not going to end well for anyone, especially since they would both have knives.

  156. 156.

    jl

    @fasteddie9318: As a fellow white man, my reaction is ‘yes’. This is the ‘inadequate black man who just can’t lead, not up to the job’ racist angle. To be alternated with the ‘Kenyan commie Dr. Evil mastermind coming for your stuff’ and ‘unnoble savage commin for your wimmin with his black savage tribe’ angles.

    Their rotating gimmicky taglines are so tired and predictable, not sure whether they can do all the hard work needed for the 73 percenters who will decide the election.

  157. 157.

    Arm The Homeless

    @redshirt: A,yup!

    This is why I really do expect them to pull Allen West. I seriously think that much of the activist base would collectively cream themselves if they could hit the minority, fire-breathing, Southern military man-lottery. It checks-off the “I can’t be racist, I have a black friend” requirement. Plus it would piss off liberals and possibly alleviate the embarrassment of West losing his election.

  158. 158.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @redshirt: That’s my feeling, and the main reason I think Christie as Veep is a non-starter. I guess Martinez could be Romney’s shake-things-up ploy, but I don’t see Romney as being a risk-taker.

  159. 159.

    Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor

    I do wonder if the press will jump on the “Social Darwinism” line as anachronistic and possibly even soshalist. But in saying it out loud, he’s not wrong.
    __
    If Paul Ryan and others are free to try and drag the country back to 1895, then the rest of us are at least free to use the terms and tactics of that time to oppose them.

  160. 160.

    Culture of Truth

    the chef’s responsibilities was to know where all of his employees came from, because putting a Cuban immigrant on the line with a Salvadoran immigrant was not going to end well for anyone, especially since they would both have knives.

    Stand Your Ground!

  161. 161.

    Culture of Truth

    @Arm The Homeless: Hmmmm…. that’s quite brilliant. Reminds me a bit of Ferraro in ’84. Allen West would be a game changer, but would be another Palin?

  162. 162.

    geg6

    @bogdan:

    Unlike, say, sites that have a weekly celebration of Shakira’s ass, amirite?

    Don’t get me wrong and I adore Tbogg, but get real. O is a hottie, any way you look at it. Brains, charm, power, and looks. I find it hard to believe that acknowledging that causes someone or an entire blog to lose credibility.

  163. 163.

    Martin

    @Mnemosyne:

    IIRC, there’s still a fair amount of resentment that illegal Cuban immigrants get special immunity while people who fled right-wing death squads in El Salvador were deported back to their deaths because the death squads trying to murder them were “our” guys. School of the Americas and all that.

    Yep. There’s some animosity there for exactly those reasons. Further, the Cubans, rather than helping make the case for the Salvadorans, didn’t do that out of fear of losing their own privileged status.

    There’s simply nothing in the Cuban experience that applies to any other Latino experience, so tying them together as a unified group is just an avalanche of fail.

  164. 164.

    Ben Cisco

    @Nemesis:

    He is such a coward

    So are the rest of them. That’s why they are scared of, well, EVERYTHING. Can’t roll with somebody who is scared of EVERYTHING. Can’t win with them. Can’t govern with them. And they have no interest in co-existing with us unless we’re under their heel.

    Not. Gonna. Happen.

  165. 165.

    redshirt

    @Arm The Homeless: That would be “glorious”. Insane, and glorious. I wouldn’t put it past the Wingnuts either, for the reasons you elucidate. To wit: To beat a black man we need a black man. So we can be racist.

    It wouldn’t work, of course, in fact, it would be a blowout of epic proportions. But they don’t know that. They don’t know much about anything outside of the bubble any longer.

  166. 166.

    Arm The Homeless

    @Culture of Truth: WIN!

    Since one half of my family is Cuban, I can honestly say that in my opinion the moment that the embargo is lifted from Cuba, is the moment when the GOP loses its current hold over American Cubans. As more flood into Florida to reunite or simply visit, and as those families which are already here begin to absorb those Cubans who have lived under the Castro regime, you will see their support for conservatism recede. The non-expat Cubans don’t really identify with those who are here. What I would expect the Iraqis felt when their exiled “leaders” returned.

  167. 167.

    jl

    @Arm The Homeless:

    Don’t know how things are on the East Coast or in the South. But in CA, the younger generation of Cubans I know have already started turning Democratic. That includes people I know in LA, since SF Bay is not a good sample of anything for rest of country.

    With good reason, since despite inter ethnic accusations, most Cubans I know in CA are not rich at all, the youngins are learning who is on their side.

    When the subjects of GOP loyalty of older generation, embargo politics, etc. come up, I see a lot of eye rolling among the less than 40 people.

  168. 168.

    Martin

    @Culture of Truth: Game changer? They’ll never nominate West. For one, it’ll be a media field day on his interrogation and near court-marshalling. But more notably, that event was just yet another indictment on the efficacy of harsh interrogation. The prisoner gave up meaningless information to get the interrogation to end, but West believed it to be genuine when it was just bullshit. So it’ll shine a light on that entire chapter of our history. A competent media would point out that the entire CW on interrogation policy pushed by Cheney and Rummy were completely wrong, but before that ever happened the entire right wing base would need to rush to West’s defense and we’d wind up right back in that cesspool all over again – which just gives Obama yet another club to swing at the GOP – and a pretty good one as he’ll attest that no coercive information was needed to get OBL. Cheney and co aren’t going to stand to have that whole effort relitigated in the media and it would be such a massive distraction to the GOPs campaign that they’d get killed come the election. Too risky.

  169. 169.

    El Cid

    I like him going there w/Reagan — Reagan wouldn’t survive a Republican primary today. Cap and trade? Republican. No compromise on one side, not both sides.

    There was almost no restraint in this one.

  170. 170.

    Arm The Homeless

    @redshirt: Some of the ones who still retain higher brain function know it.

    If the GOP can convince Mittens to take that risk, then we can all safely assume their internals are looking pretty bad. Palin at least was a blank-slate for the majority of the country. The negatives for West are in Palin territory already, at least within Florida, which would be the only real reason to add him to the ticket.

  171. 171.

    Culture of Truth

    @Martin: I didn’t say they (Romney) would choose West. I bet money they would not. I just thought the idea was brilliant in a twisted kind of way, since I’ve heard every name but his.

  172. 172.

    Culture of Truth

    But yes it would be a game changer. It would dominate the news for a full week, at least.

  173. 173.

    jl

    I hesitate to quote a piece of advice the olde tymey all American Mom used to give, since she is now a communist with her hateful ‘eat healthy’ and ‘do your homework so you can go to college’ advice.

    But, IMHO, the GOP’s problems right now boil down to
    ‘what a tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive’.

    And Romney’s boil down to
    ‘Just because Michelle, and Rick, and Rih, and that weird Gingrich kid jump off a cliff, doesn’t mean you have to jump off a cliff’.

    Not sure ‘you can’t buy love with money, you can only rent it for awhile’ would be something an olde tymey all American Mom would say, but it fits in too.

  174. 174.

    Culture of Truth

    of course Allen would be disaster. That didn’t stop them before. heh.

  175. 175.

    Ben Cisco

    @fasteddie9318:

    Obviously as a white man I have no basis on which to reach this conclusion, but isn’t this kind of reaction dripping with sublimated racism? Where the fuck does a pissant congressman get talking about how “disappointed” he is in the president, like he’s Obama’s daddy, other than the fact that the president is black and Ryan is white?

    Nailed it. In Ryan’s (and the rest of the NeoConfederates’) world, President Obama isn’t even entitled to the office in the first place, because it denotes leadership and they’ll be damned if they allow a Ni-CLANG! to lead them anywhere. That is why you have seen the unprecedented opposition to schoolkid addresses, promoting of vegetables, requests to merely be allowed to ADDRESS the Congress, and numerous other benign positions taken by THIS president. Ryan is giving off the paternalistic vibe because in his mind, President Obama is BENEATH him; only to be useful if he (Obama) does what the white man tells him, to get a pat on the head and told, “Good BOY”.

    Well, you know what?

    FUCK THEM.

    AND their apologists.

    AND their media enablers.

    AND fake-ass “progressives”/”liberals” who cannot, or will not, face this fact.

    Just remember, all the calls for “comity” and “working together” and “eschewing divisiveness” are coming after three-plus years of nothing but from the “loyal” opposition, and those calls are coming because POTUS just put them on notice that their lies are going to be called out, one by one.

    That smell you smell? Pure, naked, pants-pissing FEAR.

    To be followed by their tears.

    CAN’T WAIT.

  176. 176.

    redshirt

    @Martin: There you go again Martin, using your “Earth Human Logic”.

    That’s all fine and dandy and makes perfect sense to us. Who knows what makes sense to them? Did it make sense to nominate a woman who’s husband had long standing ties to secessionist groups? No, but they did it anyway.

    Who knows what they’ll do next, except you can bet it will be stupid and crazy, with the media doing their best to ensure it works.

  177. 177.

    Arm The Homeless

    @jl: This is exactly it. Like much of the population, it’s the older generations who still adhere to the conservatives planks.

    The leaders in the S. Florida community are the upper, and upper-middle class Cubans who saw their privilege stripped as Batista was overthrown. There have been GOP flare-ups from time to time, but as time progresses and those first generation leaders begin to move out of positions of power, the less they are beholden to the GOP. It’s not like the Cuban community was immune from the downturn, their kids and grand-kids are suffering too.

  178. 178.

    jl

    @Ben Cisco: What I notice is how completely senseless and inconsistent their racist taglines are: inadequate black man just not up to the job, Dr. Evil Kenyan commie who will destroy American, primitive African savage.

    To be slightly, and undeservedly fair to the GOP tacticians, I think they did not intend to end up with more than half of their schtick to be racist. They ran all sorts of stuff up the flagpole, including anti elitist Kerry era funny mustard and Frenchy lettuces angles.

    But, I think because sadly so much of population in US still is racist, the racist angles just had more juice and worked better.

    Of course, a lot of their slurs against Clinton were just as incoherent and extreme, and Clinton is not black. Or, IS HE? A lot of slurs against Clinton were racist too, he was an NCLANG lover, you see. And much of the rest were white trash classist, but that class based prejudice has a lot of overlap with prejudice against blacks and Hispanics.

    Some of this comment is kind of repeat of previous comment above, so apologies. But cannot resist pointing again how stupid the racism is, at least now when it will be a major factor with (I hope), at most about a third of the white population.

  179. 179.

    Mike E

    @jl: Add this to the notion that a woman justice of SCOTUS could possibly be an expert in law when compared to, let’s say, a bloated talk radio host.

  181. 181.

    Tone In DC

    Nailed it. In Ryan’s (and the rest of the NeoConfederates’) world, President Obama isn’t even entitled to the office in the first place, because it denotes leadership and they’ll be damned if they allow a Ni-CLANG! to lead them anywhere. That is why you have seen the unprecedented opposition to schoolkid addresses, promoting of vegetables, requests to merely be allowed to ADDRESS the Congress, and numerous other benign positions taken by THIS president. Ryan is giving off the paternalistic vibe because in his mind, President Obama is BENEATH him; only to be useful if he (Obama) does what the white man tells him, to get a pat on the head and told, “Good BOY”.

    Well, you know what?

    FUCK THEM.

    AND their apologists.

    AND their media enablers.

    AND fake-ass “progressives”/”liberals” who cannot, or will not, face this fact.

    Just remember, all the calls for “comity” and “working together” and “eschewing divisiveness” are coming after three-plus years of nothing but from the “loyal” opposition, and those calls are coming because POTUS just put them on notice that their lies are going to be called out, one by one.

    That smell you smell? Pure, naked, pants-pissing FEAR.

    To be followed by their tears.

    CAN’T WAIT.

    THIS.

    IMHO, these GOOpers have never gotten over Obama handing them their collective ass (for over an hour, as I recall) in Maryland in 2010.

  184. 184.

    cleek

    @fasteddie9318:

    There are a lot of appropriate reactions Ryan could have, but “disappointment” in Obama? Is it just me or is that incredibly condescending?

    a lot of really stupid people thought Obama was going to change everything. and a lot of not-so-stupid people thought he was going to be a great liberal savior.

    “conservatives” like to point out that he didn’t do that. (“how’s that ‘hope and change’ working out for ya? harharhar”) it’s about trying to deflate Obama’s supporters by reminding them that he did not transform DC politics as (people think he) promised.

    it’s just trash talk.

  186. 186.

    bogdan

    @Roger Moore: I didn’t say it would work any better than Palin, or Steele, or Cain worked. I’m just sayin that’s what they do because that’s all they got. Just like astroturfing except with people instead of fake events.

    Romney needs a lot more Latino and Women voters to win. A VP that gets him more of those will check off the right boxes with him.

    and AGAIN, you people are giving voters FAR too much credit. The same voters who gave Palin/McCain 45.6% of the total vote. We are only talking a small percentage of voters that you have to sway one way or the other.

  187. 187.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @fasteddie9318:
    There’s so much sublimated racism going on in the GOP these days I hate to discount it, but I *think* this one isn’t racism. Rather, Ryan’s a serious Randian, which means in his own head he’s a superphilosopher god-king who has figured out the secret of perfect politics everyone else is too scared to step outside of conventional morality and see. Getting to be condescending to everyone else is one of the major attractions of Randiness, and Libertarianism in general.

  188. 188.

    Arm The Homeless

    @Davis X. Machina: When dealing with an avowed Alinsky-ite, you must parse words and body language with equal care, lest you miss the tell-tale signs that his comin’ fer yer nubile wymin and childrens.

    Exhibit 1
    Exhibit 2

    What does all this shuckin’ and jivin’ actually mean? Let’s ask Michael Steele, I am sure he can decode it for us.

  189. 189.

    Emma

    @jl: It won’t even swing all Cubans. Me being one. The generational divide is showing up here too.

  190. 190.

    joel hanes

    @Fwiffo:

    The common idea that “Survival of the fittest” expresses Darwin’s ideas is a mistake.

    A more correct formulation of Darwinism is “Those organisms that more successfully reproduce will have more descendants that resemble them in future generations.”

    Reproduction’s the thing; survival is not particularly important. Viz the male spiders and mantises whose mates kill them during or immediately after coitus.

    Thus “Social Darwinism” is wrong twice: it’s a mistaken set of ideas that are based on a mistaken idea about Darwin’s theory.

  191. 191.

    taylormattd

    @Fwiffo: You may not be a troll, but your comments here in this thread are some of the stupidest examples of concern trolling ever written.

  192. 192.

    Ben Franklin

    @Mnemosyne:

    I’m not playing coy. I’m not suggesting a conspiracy. I said I wish he had gone to the mat on the Solyndra matter. I also said I was glad Obama is going on the offensive. it’s high time.

    Now if you will disperse the Posse and inform them there is no danger of Obama critique.

  193. 193.

    jl

    @joel hanes: And the superfluous add-on that is eugenics is not main or essential part of Social Darwinism, or Darwinism, despite attempts by commenters (edit: namely, Fwiffo) here to say otherwise.

    Eugenics came out of early ideas about genetics, and very early and very crude, and often mistaken, population genetics in particular.

    The basic ideas of Darwinism, social and otherwise are silent about how traits are developed and transmitted.

    So the term ‘Social Darwinism’ is just right for Ryan and his GOP buddies.

  195. 195.

    Calouste

    @redshirt:

    There has never been a Southener on the GOP ticket (entitled Texas Yankees obviously don’t count). The only GOP candidate who was even born in the South was Eisenhower, who lived in Texas for the first two years of his life before his parents realized their mistake and moved back to Kansas.

  197. 197.

    Arm The Homeless

    @Calouste: “Southern” is more than eating grits. I read that term as meaning embracing the Conservative zeitgeist.

    OTOH, places like Utah and Oklahoma do out-Southern the geographical South on outright regressive social policy.

  199. 199.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Getting to be condescending to everyone else is one of the major attractions of Randiness, and Libertarianism in general.

    Which is why smashing their faces with a shovel is so viscerally satisfying.

  201. 201.

    Bruce S

    The “Social Darwinism” line is great. Tossing one of their perverse coalition’s bugaboos back at them in terms that happen to be accurate. There is such a thing as bad “Darwinism” most often rearing it’s ugly head as a Randian ideology that would undoubtedly make Darwin himself recoil at the implications. Let’s not pretend that this ideology isn’t rooted in a kind of “psuedo-science” that attempts to make a virtue and a “natural law” of sociopathic power and privilege.

  202. 202.

    Arm The Homeless

    @WJS: I agree. Although he would have to do it early in his term, otherwise the closer to the election the more difficult it becomes to push it, especially in Florida.

    But something will get done, perhaps through a ‘de-facto’ lifting of the embargo which could be achieved by simply expanding the list of products that can be brought into Cuba including remittances.

  203. 203.

    WJS

    @Arm The Homeless: I think Obama should be a three term President. Since he is not eligible to be President because he was born in a revolutionary hospital in the bad part of Kenya, technically the 22nd Amendment is null and void in his case. At one point, Harry Reid submitted legislation repealing the 22nd so maybe they can push this through.

    (I say this solely because it causes Obama haters to blow a gasket)

  205. 205.

    Unsympathetic

    I liked everything Obama said today! Watched the whole thing on CNBC.

    Now if only his actions will follow through on the rhetoric, maybe we’d get somewhere both as a nation and a party.

  206. 206.

    mclaren

    Obama is giving a barnburner, just destroying the Ryan plan for the fraud that it is.

    Just before, when re-elected, he signs Ryan’s insane budget plan and then praises it effusively.

    Hear it now: believe it later.

  207. 207.

    jl

    @mclaren: Obama might sign some BS ‘grand bargain’ which would be bad. I do not see how he would sign the Ryan plan or anything like it, and even if Obama goes stupid ‘grand bargain’ I do not see how giving the GOP the keys to the nation would improve matters.

  208. 208.

    AxelFoley

    @bogdan:

    @J.: Keep it in your pants. Seriously, the whole infatuation a lot of women here and on wonkette and on obama diary have is getting kind of creepy. Every single fucking thread over on Obama Diary is a bunch of women swooning.
    Don’t get me wrong, I get it and it’s ok with me but you and the sites you post that stuff on lose credibility because of it. Just sayin.

    You sound upset, bro. Just sayin’. ;)

  209. 209.

    AxelFoley

    @Mnemosyne:

    You do realize that no one gives a shit about Solyndra except right-wingers, right?

    This. Even the media is not talking about it. Only time I hear about Solyndra is on blogs. No one gives a fuck about some Solyndra.

  210. 210.

    AxelFoley

    @Ben Cisco:

    Nailed it. In Ryan’s (and the rest of the NeoConfederates’) world, President Obama isn’t even entitled to the office in the first place, because it denotes leadership and they’ll be damned if they allow a Ni-CLANG! to lead them anywhere. That is why you have seen the unprecedented opposition to schoolkid addresses, promoting of vegetables, requests to merely be allowed to ADDRESS the Congress, and numerous other benign positions taken by THIS president. Ryan is giving off the paternalistic vibe because in his mind, President Obama is BENEATH him; only to be useful if he (Obama) does what the white man tells him, to get a pat on the head and told, “Good BOY”.
    Well, you know what?
    FUCK THEM.
    AND their apologists.
    AND their media enablers.
    AND fake-ass “progressives”/”liberals” who cannot, or will not, face this fact.
    Just remember, all the calls for “comity” and “working together” and “eschewing divisiveness” are coming after three-plus years of nothing but from the “loyal” opposition, and those calls are coming because POTUS just put them on notice that their lies are going to be called out, one by one.
    That smell you smell? Pure, naked, pants-pissing FEAR.
    To be followed by their tears.
    CAN’T WAIT.

    Capt. Cisco, speaking of panties earlier, if I were a woman, there’d be a pair of drawls (yeah, I said “drawls”) flying in your direction.

  211. 211.

    priscianusjr

    @ruemara:

    Is this not Social Darwinism in it’s essence? Otherwise, I’d like to see a better descriptor.

    Not only is it truly Social Darwinism, but the phrase should make religious conservatives think twice, those that are capable of thinking I mean, considering their general attitude towards Darwin. Religious Catholics, too, have a long history of opposition to Social Darwinism.

  213. 213.

    IM

    @Fwiffo:

    But the republicans or at least the movement conservatives are social darwinists. Do you really want to deny that the “ideas” of Ayn rand are pure social darwinism? And aren’t the conservatives of today pure RAnd cultists, from Ryan on down?

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