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You are here: Home / Shep Smith’s Reaction to Romney’s Statement on Gingrich Calling it Quits is CLASSIC.

Shep Smith’s Reaction to Romney’s Statement on Gingrich Calling it Quits is CLASSIC.

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Newt has finally exited the Republican primary stage right, but not before leaving 4 million dollars in debt and campaign staffers wondering if they’re ever going to get paid. (Don’t hold your breath.)

Fox News’s Shep Smith (who usually cracks me up, and whom I actually like for the most part) reacted to Romney’s reaction to the news in a way that is already an instant classic, and sums up the stupidfest that is the Republican primary:

Politics is weird. And creepy.

You said it, Shep!

Reader Interactions

93Comments

  1. 1.

    Jay B.

    Unlike the reality Fox News enjoys creating so very much.

    Christ, I’m surprised he didn’t take out a gun and shoot himself in the head.

  4. 4.

    BGinCHI

    Fox News is weird, and creepy, and lacks even the loosest attachment to anything like reality.

    Letter perfect.

  6. 6.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    You wonder how many people work for Fox and say “I dreamed of being like Walter Cronkite, and here I am, working for Ayers reality show”

  8. 8.

    beltane

    TACO is weird, and creepy, and lacks even the loosest attachment to anything like reality.

  11. 11.

    Napoleon

    @Cato:

    Fox and Freinds was on at the gym yesterday morning and they were already pushing this meme.

  15. 15.

    TooManyJens

    Hilarious. Though if Shep Smith is just now discovering that politics (especially as practiced by the GOP) lacks even the loosest attachment to reality, he really hasn’t been paying attention.

  16. 16.

    Cato

    And that particular ad is going to have the backing of lots of anonymous corporate cash, you can bank on that one.

  19. 19.

    hells littlest angel

    I’ve never been able to figure out whether I should loathe Shep Smith or feel sorry for him. But I lean toward loathing.

  21. 21.

    TooManyJens

    @hells littlest angel: I don’t know, I’ll always treasure the time Shep hollered “We are America! We do not fucking torture!” on the air. (Not in the “it wasn’t really torture” sense, but in the “this shit is WRONG” sense.)

  23. 23.

    Chyron HR

    @Cato:

    Oh, I get it now. The reason the other phony scandals you keep threatening us with always disappear after 24 hours is becuase they weren’t “looking for blood”.

  25. 25.

    Tonal Crow

    Republicans are weird. And creepy. And lack even the loosest attachment to reality. Plus, they spread dangerous, highly-contagious thought-viruses wherever they go. They are perverted, dishonest bullshitters and con-men who want to make you — and your children — their serfs.

    Republicans will say anything — anything — to get power. And when they get it, they’ll abuse it from A to Z. They’ll send your kids off to die in some forsaken sand-hole if they think it’ll make them a buck. They’ll pull your grandma’s plug so that Mitt Romney can buy another house. And they’ll put you on the street just to enjoy your suffering.

    Yes, Republicans are often attractive and well-spoken. That’s no coincidence. Con men aren’t stupid. But they sure as shit think you are.

  26. 26.

    joeyess

    @Cato: I wish them all the luck in the world with this adventure.

    They’re not dealing with John Kerry this year.

  29. 29.

    Mickey

    @Cato: lol…you do realize that all this does is remind people that Obama got Bin Laden rrright? Big difference to the Kerry thing which questioned his war time service. Not even in the same ball park.

    But carry on being all hair on fire about it if it makes you happy…or are you just trolling?

  32. 32.

    BGinCHI

    @dmsilev: The troll has that combination of stupidity and self-assurance that I can only describe as the conservative version of a winning personality.

  33. 33.

    lamh35

    Wow, Tweety might be on a roll today. In the first segment, he totally put MC Steele on the spot by asking what foreign policy writing, ideas, speeches, etc has he read by Mitt Romney that made him sit up and notice that Romney had anything substantial to say about Foreign Policy…MC Steele said nothing for a few seconds

    then on his 2nd segment he had the leader of the Log Cabin Republicans on and from the start, he would not let the LCR guy use his cop-out of trying to defend the Romney campaign while trying to show outrage over Grenell’s firing. Seems to me like the LCR dude was more worried about trying not to burn his bridges with the Romney campaign than trying to “defend his friends” honor.

    Tweety did good, but it won’t last.

  35. 35.

    Cato

    @Mark S.:

    Damn straight. BIG, FAT STACKS of corporate cash and Super PAC ads hitting this message again and again and again and again.

  38. 38.

    WJS

    Somewhere, a grifter just got his grift on, and Newt Gingrich put a dollar in his pants and wondered where his soul went.

    If they do end up destroying News Corp, I would hope that Shep Smith would end up with gainful employment somewhere watchable.

  39. 39.

    FlipYrWhig

    So if Obama doesn’t deserve credit for authorizing the mission to kill bin Laden because he didn’t do it personally with his bare hands or something, how is it that Mitt Romney deserves credit for, well, anything? How many people did he personally hire? How many Olympic venues did he personally construct? How did Ronald Reagan “win the Cold War” by this standard? How did any politician or business person in a leadership position ever deserve credit for anything before? This is just stupid.

  41. 41.

    Mark S.

    @lamh35:

    The only foreign policy writing I can remember from Romney is that we should junk all our treaties with Russia and start Cold War II. I can see why Steele had a hard time coming up with anything.

  42. 42.

    GregB

    @Cato:

    The Obama campaign should do a rework and superimpose every one of those slogans over George W. Bush’s mission accomplished sign.

    I think the right wing’s message machine is broken all to hell.

  44. 44.

    chopper

    @Cato:

    OH NOOOOES! this, plus unlimited corporate cash? we’re done for! that’s why obama’s so far ahead! he’s done for!

  45. 45.

    Cato

    @GregB:

    It doesn’t matter. The Super PACs are flush with so much cash that our message will be DRILLED THE FUCK IN to every single American by November. Repeat something often enough, and people believe it.

  46. 46.

    beltane

    @FlipYrWhig: Yes, it’s not like George Washington personally bitch-slapped George III or that Julius Caesar personally cut the throats of every Gaulish warrior. Leaders lead, that is their job. Mitt Romney is neither a leader nor a doer. He is a shirker and a check writer but that’s about it.

  47. 47.

    Cato

    @chopper:

    No, the race is all tied up. And that’s before the Super PACs really get going.

    And I can’t fucking wait until tomorrow’s job report. Word is its going to be piss-poor at best.

    The economy ALWAYS chokes this time of year. There will be no Recovery Summer.

  50. 50.

    MikeJ

    From William Gibson’s twitter account: Come on Scrabble. If “CHOADY” isn’t a word, how do I write this article about Gingrich suspending his campaign?

  51. 51.

    dmsilev

    @beltane: Romney is a moral coward. When has he ever done anything that entailed personal risk, even risk to reputation?

  52. 52.

    chopper

    @TooManyJens:

    if the sprinklers go off and it starts raining in the studio while he’s talking to the camera i’m going to fuckin freak out.

  53. 53.

    Amir Khalid

    @Cato:
    I remember following the 2004 US presidential campaign. The Swiftboat thing was all about spreading lies and insinuations about John Kerry. That came out well before the election proper. It may or may not have dissuaded people from voting for Kerry, but he lost only narrowly to George Walker Bush.

    2012 is very different. The incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama (it must burn you, poor fellow, to see that phrase) is at this stage a far better known quantity than Kerry. Obama’s role in the killing of Osama bin Laden is widely known. Indeed, it’s the subject of this week’s TIME cover story, which I commend to your attention. TIME is as tiresome an example of America’s corporate news media as any. But even it acknowledges that Obama put as much care and thought into ordering this operation as he could, and that he called it exactly right. However you want to spin what he said about it afterwards (unlike you, I believe he continues not to gloat about it) it’s hard to argue against that assessment as providing a good reason to keep him in office.

    People will ask, what would Mitt Romney have done in Obama’s shoes? It is appropriate, even necessary to a Romney vs. Obama assessment, to put that question to Mitt and watch his response.

  54. 54.

    chopper

    @Cato:

    Repeat something often enough, and people believe it.

    like “obama gave the order to shoot osama bin laden in the face”?

  56. 56.

    chopper

    @Cato:

    it’s okay. you’re so ginned up trying to put a veneer of bullshit on reality you can’t tell what day it is. it happens.

  58. 58.

    pseudonymous in nc

    Paid troll Biggus Dickus is so dumb, he’ll gush about unlimited corporate cash while receiving $0.78/hr.

  59. 59.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Cato: You really have lost your shock value.

    Say these words out loud “The dynamic and bold leadership of President Romney” and not laugh. That’s why Obama is going to win. He’s running again Mittens the etcho sketch, not the generic republican candidate.

  60. 60.

    beltane

    @dmsilev: It is an ugly phrase, but Romney is the consummate “girlie man”, lacking all semblance of honor or courage. He strikes me as nothing more than an American of convenience, the type of rick f*cker who would gladly give up his US citizenship in exchange for citizenship in some offshore tax haven.

  62. 62.

    ant

    I said that I’d go after Bin Laden if we had a clear shot at him, and I did. and I did. and I did. and I did.

    LOL. why yes, let’s repeat that, over and over again.

  63. 63.

    Svensker

    @pk:

    Have not seen this guy for a long time. He looks as if he is ill.

    I was thinking the same thing.

  64. 64.

    Svensker

    @Cato:

    The Super PACs are flush with so much cash that our message will be DRILLED THE FUCK IN to every single American by November. Repeat something often enough, and people believe it.

    And the truth? What about telling people the truth? Perhaps that’s not the point.

  66. 66.

    Mike in NC

    NC has a “semi-closed” primary, meaning if you’re not a registered Democrat or Republican, you can vote for either party’s candidates. I grabbed the GOP ballot today since the assholes running for the US House in my district are (1) a war criminal and psychopath, (2) some cracker who brags on TV about working for Jesse Fucking Helms, and (3) some nobody with a $10 campaign budget. I needed to do my part in taking out the war criminal, as the Blue Dog incumbent will most likely get re-elected running against Jesse’s scumbag pal.

    Would have loved to have voted for Newt, too, just an hour before he dropped out, but in the end I had to go with Ron Paul.

  67. 67.

    GregB

    The troll battalions are taking on a whiff of desperation.

    Sort of reminds me of the Sarah Palin has changed the game, this is good news for John McCain…suck it libs! posts that were ubiquitous in the run up to 2008.

    If dumping money into a campaign were the only factor for the win then we’d have Senator Carly Fiorna, Senator Linda McMahon and President H. Ross Perot.

  68. 68.

    hells littlest angel

    @TooManyJens: Yeah, but on the following Friday, he cashed his paycheck. I guess I lean toward loathing him because my supply of compassion is limited.

  69. 69.

    Tractarian

    “Classic” is a word that’s too lightly thrown around. But this definitely qualifies.

    Jon Stewart could only dream of pulling off this kind of deadpan brilliance.

  70. 70.

    danimal

    @GregB: You forgot California’s governor: Billionaire businesswoman Meg Whitman, who vastly outspent the outmatched Democrat, Jerry Brown. Oh, wait…

    It still makes me smile that Gov. Moonbeam trounced ’em. Only a Jimmy Carter/Michael Dukakis presidential victory would be more soul-crushing for Republicans. Cato-taco is laughable these days. VICTORY!!!!

  71. 71.

    The Sailor

    @Cato: It doesn’t matter. The Super PACs are flush with so much cash that our message will be DRILLED THE FUCK IN to every single American by November. Repeat something often enough, and people believe it.

    You, republicans, and Goebbels all say that. You are known by the company you keep.

  72. 72.

    WJS

    @Amir Khalid:

    The Swiftboat thing was all about spreading lies and insinuations about John Kerry.

    Yes, and why did it work?

    Because they started up with it in August, and Kerry was on vacation, and his campaign was slow to respond (please correct me if I’m wrong).

    So much of what happened with the SBV happened because Kerry’s campaign was too slow to respond and defend his record. When the wingnuts went after Elizabeth Warren this week, her campaign found proof she had Native American heritage.

    Fast, concise responses are necessary to beat back the bullcrap.

  73. 73.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    @WJS: So much of what happened with the SBV happened because Kerry’s campaign was too slow to respond and defend his record.

    True. Kerry was the poster child for bringing a knife to a gun fight, and his campaign should be studied for generations as an example of what not to do (in a different way than McCain’s will also be studied as that.)

  74. 74.

    TenguPhule

    And that particular ad is going to have the backing of lots of anonymous corporate cash

    Name and shame time then.

  75. 75.

    TenguPhule

    The Super PACs are flush with so much cash that our message will be DRILLED THE FUCK IN to every single American by November.

    Yes, Vote against Republicans and their crappy annoying campaign ads. America F**K YEAH!

  76. 76.

    Patricia Kayden

    Cato,

    Please post a picture of your face after President Obama is re-elected. On Election Night 2008, I made sure I turned to Fox News just to see their reaction to Obama’s election. It was sweet to hear Karl Rove announce when Obama won Ohio. He was so disappointed, which made me so happy. Good times!

  77. 77.

    gaz

    Cato/Taco has been instructed to avoid using the word “Romney” in his posts.

    ETA: VICTORY!

  80. 80.

    karen

    I heard that the Obama campaign has been studying the Kerry campaign so they know what NOT to do.

  81. 81.

    gaz

    @karen: It sure doesn’t hurt at all that as far as stumping goes, Obama makes Kerry look like Mondale.

  82. 82.

    Brian R.

    @Cato:

    And I can’t fucking wait until tomorrow’s job report. Word is its going to be piss-poor at best.

    Wow, when America stumbles, it really gets you hard, doesn’t it?

  83. 83.

    The Sheriff's A Ni-

    @Cato: Keep fucking that chicken. You’ve been waiting four years for Obama to turn into John Kerry, I’m sure it’ll happen aaaaaaaaany day now.

  84. 84.

    gaz

    @Brian R.: I saw that disgusting shit too. Unfortunately the only appropriate response to such risible bullshit is to smack the bitch.

    Anti-American, partisan little snot that he is, nothing else would really have the necessary effect.

  85. 85.

    Hawes

    I always had hoped that Shep Smith was the mole in Fox. And by always, I mean the fifteen minutes that we knew there was a mole in Fox News.

    I also remember he was one of the people who lost his shit during Katrina.

  86. 86.

    VividBlueDotty

    @danimal:

    It still makes me smile that Gov. Moonbeam trounced ‘em.

    Glad I am not the only one who wanted to chime in about this. Meg Whitman is my favorite flavor of schadenfreude!

  87. 87.

    Jebediah

    @Cato:

    And I can’t fucking wait until tomorrow’s job report. Word is its going to be piss-poor at best.

    I just saw this on Bob Cesca’s blog:

    The job-killing policies of the Obama Administration that we keep hearing about are failing to live up the job-killing hype.
    According to the Institute for Supply Management, U.S. manufacturing employment rose to its highest level in nearly a year during the month of April.
    NEW YORK — The fastest growth in U.S. manufacturing in 10 months gave stocks a lift Tuesday and put the Dow Jones industrial average on track for its highest close in more than four years.
    U.S. manufacturing expanded last month at the strongest pace since June, according to the Institute for Supply Management. Orders, hiring and production all rose. A measure of manufacturing employment also reached a nine-month high, a hopeful sign ahead of Friday’s monthly jobs report.
    The manufacturing news jolted stock indexes out of a morning stupor, and the gains held through the afternoon. The Dow was up 106 points to 13,320 as of 2 p.m. EDT. That put the average on course for its highest close since Dec. 28, 2007.

    So sorry, Verisad, but your incredibly lame candidate is running against a smart, sharp candidate with a smart, sharp campaign during a time when things are actually starting to look up.
    So, um, VICTORY?

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