At least one billionaire conservative’s pet super-PAC is vowing to go into the depths of hatred, bigotry and racism that even the McCain campaign wouldn’t touch, and will do so in October as the presidential election season nears the home stretch.
The plan, which is awaiting approval, calls for running commercials linking Mr. Obama to incendiary comments by his former spiritual adviser, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., whose race-related sermons made him a highly charged figure in the 2008 campaign.
“The world is about to see Jeremiah Wright and understand his influence on Barack Obama for the first time in a big, attention-arresting way,” says the proposal, which was overseen by Fred Davis and commissioned by Joe Ricketts, the founder of the brokerage firm TD Ameritrade. Mr. Ricketts is increasingly putting his fortune to work in conservative politics.
The $10 million plan, one of several being studied by Mr. Ricketts, includes preparations for how to respond to the charges of race-baiting it envisions if it highlights Mr. Obama’s former ties to Mr. Wright, who espouses what is known as “black liberation theology.”
The group suggested hiring as a spokesman an “extremely literate conservative African-American” who can argue that Mr. Obama misled the nation by presenting himself as what the proposal calls a “metrosexual, black Abe Lincoln.”
Oh please let that be Herman Cain. That would be the most awesome thing ever.
And if the name Joe Ricketts sounds familiar, he’s the guy who bought himself a GOP senate candidate in Nebraska’s primary this week, funding Deb Fischer’s out-of-nowhere win over state AG Jon Bruning in a last minute victory to take on Bob Kerrey for Ben Nelson’s seat. And Joe Ricketts plays hardball with his billions.
A copy of a detailed advertising plan was obtained by The New York Times through a person not connected to the proposal who was alarmed by its tone. It is titled “The Defeat of Barack Hussein Obama: The Ricketts Plan to End His Spending for Good.”
The proposal was presented last week in Chicago to associates and family members of Mr. Ricketts, who is also the patriarch of the family that owns the Chicago Cubs.
Brian Baker, president and general counsel of a super PAC called the Ending Spending Action Fund, said Mr. Ricketts had studied several advertising proposals in recent months and had not signed off on a specific approach to taking on Mr. Obama.
“Joe Ricketts is prepared to spend significant resources in the 2012 election in both the presidential race and Congressional races,” Mr. Baker said in an interview Wednesday. “He is very concerned about the future direction of the country and plans to take a stand.”
Citizens United means Ricketts and others like him can publicly announce they are spending their fortunes to buy our government and your vote through awful campaign smears, and that doing so is free speech protected by the Constitution. Oh, and he owns the Cubbies too. Isn’t America great?
[UPDATE] Turns out Mr. Gubment Spends Too Much here sought a $200 million public finance deal to renovate Wrigley Field. Frees up a bunch of green so he can spend it on attacking the President, huh?Can’t make this stuff up, folks.
Nina
Can’t do much crowd control without Discipline.
Randy P
Posted this earlier in the “open” (but dominated by gaming) thread. No easy way to paste a link to the story on my phone unfortunately.
NY Times is reporting that for the first time, non-white births last year outnumbered white births in the US. I expect this will generate some extra special mouth-frothing just in time for election season. Anybody seeing any good reactions yet?
Roger Moore
May his forays into politics be just as successful as his family’s baseball team has been for the past 100 years.
amk
Twitterdom
So what I’m getting from all the voter suppression, debt talk and religious propaganda is that it’s obviously not “the economy stupid.”
Another Halocene Human
Ending spending. 1936 redux. The Austerions have landed.
cat
@Nina: RMP is ezmode…
Another Halocene Human
@Randy P: Who gives a fuck?
The poor outbreeding the rich makes the rich richer.
Cacti
Paging Alan Keyes. Mr. Keyes, could you please pick up the white courtesy phone in the lobby.
Another Halocene Human
@amk: The economy is not painful enough, stupid. The rich can’t play when they know that somewhere, someone is not crying from hunger and want.
MattF
…and you can solve all these problems by votin’ for… um, what’s his name… that Romney fella. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
Another Halocene Human
Alan Keyes. Lololol.
How about Thomas Sowell? He really brings the cray-cray.
Clime Acts
Being a metrosexual, black Abe Lincoln is an awesome combination if you ask me. What’s the problem?
Schlemizel
@Another Halocene Human:
Thats a maybe but it will sure fire up the teatard base who is deathly afraid that should them coloreds ever get to be the majority they may well treat us as badly as we treated them and that would be wrong so’s we gotta stop em now!
Randy P
@Another Halocene Human: As was discussed at some length yesterday, most of the poor are white. Interesting that you think non-white automatically means poor.
RalfW
Citizens United will feature prominently in Chinese and Indian histories of why the US imploded and became the backwater country it will be by about 2025.
Unless the christofacists manage to seize the WH, and irradiate much of the mideast and unleash global war, in their effort to “protect” Israel. In that case there may be precious little history-writing happening anywhere on the globe some time hence.
“All hail Scott Walker, Preznit of the tattered remains of America, c. 2016…”
Good golly I’m more bitter than a pot of cold french roast this morning.
Teddy's Person
Maybe a very small silver lining to Citizen’s United is all this bragging about the billions they’re pumping into politics might wake some people up.
Chris
@Randy P:
I suspect they’ll double their efforts to pass that Fourteenth Amendment Doesn’t Mean What It’s Meant For The Last Hundred And Fifty Years Act. (All in the name of honoring the Constitution, of course).
GregB
Chief Justice Roberts is seeing lots of billionaire balls bouncing off his chin.
Well played plutocrat scum.
Punchy
At least Citizen’s United was correctly decided. Or so I’m told by lawyers on this blog. So we really shouldn’t complain. Or something.
Cacti
@Clime Acts:
Metrosexual, black Abe Lincoln is tag-line worthy.
maya
Joe Ricketts will not be happy until all poor children have a disease named after him.
Mike Goetz
It is absolutely essential to re-elect Obama now, and it isn’t even really about Obama at this point.
This stuff needs to be rejected and expelled like the toxin it is, and shown to be unacceptable to the majority of Americans. Only re-electing Obama will do that.
Roger Moore
@Randy P:
I’d assume that some fraction of that growth in minority births is actually a growth in biracial or biethnic births. Something like 1/6 of all new marriages in the US are now between people of different race or ethnicity, with the large majority having one white spouse. If those couples are having kids at the same rate as same ethnicity couples, that could boost the number of minority kids well above the fraction of minorities in the population.
4tehlulz
HURF DURF NOBAMA IS A FA660T
That shit worked so well in 2008; I predict 320 EVs for BHO.
Suffern ACE
Sure he may look like an urbane metrosexual and talk like one, but on the inside, he’s a honky hating street thug. Now Rickett may look like a prick and talk like a prick, and his name kind of rhymes with prick, but on the inside, he’s just wealthy.
RalfW
@Cacti:
I believe that would be the lilly-white courtesy phone.
j
I just heard on the Stephanie Miller show that the Rickets family is asking Rahm for some TIF $ so they can remodel Wrigley Field. Good luck getting that money if they go after Obama. The citizens will have a fit if those multi-millionaires get tax dollars to fix up their privately owned stadium, but can afford to spend their own money on a 4 year old smear campaign.
And this also opens up the whole Mormon cult conversation.
Cacti
@4tehlulz:
I’ll be generous to Rombot. He carries the McCain states and flips IN and NC.
Obama wins 333-205.
Linda Featheringill
That plan looks to me to be a waste of money. Persuading folks to be afraid of what Barack Obama might do would have worked better four years ago. By now, people know Obama. Even those who don’t like him aren’t likely to get caught up in a bunch of “what-ifs.”
I sometimes wonder if the Republicans live in a culture of circular time, rather than linear time. Maybe they think they will have multiple chances to redo something if they wait for it to come around again. The rest of the world, of course, operates under the assumption that there are watersheds and sometimes things change and after is different from before.
I can’t ask the Republicans if this is so because the whole concept is too much educated elite for them to grasp.
gaz
@Roger Moore: That’s been happening in my little neck of the woods for years so I suppose we’re just ahead of the curve.
And thank goodness. Despite the pleas of solidarity with the white-trash here yesterday, I’m glad to see them being out-bred. Here’s to hoping every last one of them move back to North Carolina (that’s where whitey tends to hail from, in these parts). I for one, am sick of them committing property crime, doing meth, trashing the place, and blaming their problems on the mexicans. Good riddance to bad white-rubbish.
g
@Linda Featheringill: Eaxactly. Isn’t Wright retired? So anything they dredge up is from many years ago. There’s nothing new here; people already considered the Rev. Wright story and made their decisions. I can’t see anyone changing their vote, or deciding to vote for Romney based on some archived Rev. Wright sermon.
Is this all they have?
Stuck in the Funhouse
@Randy P:
Oh, they already got that memo, and this is the sort of thing they plan to do about it.
BGinCHI
First he wastes his money on the Cubs, buying them from the Trib, which is also known as an Idiot to Asshole transfer in accounting, and now he’s going to try to bring down the most vetted President in American history by…..vetting him all over again.
Shorter Ricketts: Hey America, the black President is black! Seriously, he’s black and spending whitey’s money!
chopper
@Randy P:
i’m just trying to guess exactly how pointy the reckoning will be.
flukebucket
I sincerely do not believe that a religious discussion is one that Romney wants to get involved in. I have already told all of my evangelical friends that I cannot wait for the Republican convention because it is going to be great watching all of them kiss a Mormon’s ass. That did not go over very well.
Litlebritdifrnt
I bet Hannity came in his pants when he read that this morning. He hasn’t shut up about Wright and Ayers for four years.
Rock
Just one more reason to dislike the Cubs.
Go Sox.
Steve in DC
@Clime Acts
Black Abe Lincoln is fine, metrosexual is a pretty good insult. It screams of men that care more about their appearance than super models do, spend too much money on hair care, won’t do manual labor for fear of ruining their skin, are shallow, it’s just bad. See South Park’s view of it.
It’s one of those things that had a quasi positive connotation till people went crazy with it and then turned into a negative thing. It’s a pretty damn good insult.
Black Abe Lincoln isn’t an insult though.
Obama isn’t a metrosexual though.
Forum Transmitted Disease
@Teddy’s Person: Nope, not happening.
Just asked every person in the office if they knew what “Citizens United” was.
Blank stares.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Suffern ACE:
Fix’t.
Ripley
I’m surprised he didn’t stroke out when his son was on Undercover Boss. Giving things to lowly employees? The horror!
(I think his kids actually own the Cubs, but that’s a hair that needn’t be split.)
JoyfulA
@j: My thought exactly. If their PACs attack Black Liberation Theology, then our PACs attack Mormonism. Mutually assured destruction, they used to call it.
Ash Can
@j: The NYT article mentions that while one of Ricketts’ sons is a GOP operative, his daughter is a big Obama donor/supporter. I’m wondering to what extent the kids, especially those most actively involved with the Cubs, agree with the father. I can easily see Rahm telling them where to blow it if they’re on their dad’s side, or them being beyond mortified by their father if they’re not.
Yep, which undoubtedly is why Romney’s campaign is saying “ix-nay on the ight-Wray.”
The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik
@Mike Goetz:
The problem is that re-electing Obama is about the absolute least that can be done about it. It’s essential, but it’s also amounts to step 1. If it can’t be done, then we’re totally and utterly screwed for at least a good decade and a half, but even if it happens, it’s still going to amount to holding court at best unless we can make inroads in Congress and in the states.
And the Rev. Wright thing is depressing, not because of any merit on its effectiveness, but the fact that it’s a bellwether as to just how deep they’re going to go in this campaign, and the likelihood of how much total rancid bullshit is going to get mainstreamed further thanks to this campaign.
Cacti
@Steve in DC:
In other words, it’s offensive to Republican or Repub-leaning males, like yourself?
Villago Delenda Est
@g:
Yup. Unfortunately for them, Obama is squeaky clean.
They do not want to open the door to discussing religion. They simply do not. But they are so desperate to be rid of the ni*CLANG* that they will.
gaz
@Steve in DC:
It is if you’re an insecure little man-child with penis-size issues.
It says far more about the hurler of the epithet than it does of the people they “insult”.
MGB
Ricketts is really going to bankroll anti-Obama ads. The owner of the Cubs, in the heart of the President’s most ardent supporters. Yeah, that’s going to go well for him. Really…
Steve M.
Keep reading — the guy that want as window dressing is Larry Elder, columnist for World Net Daily, Townhall, and FrontPage Magazine.
Clime Acts
@g:
You continue to misunderestimate the stupidity of the american electorate.
Also too: Obama was a slime bucket in the way that he threw Wright under the bus.
gaz
@Steve in DC:
It is if you’re an insecure little man-child with p3n1s-s1ze issues.
It says far more about the hurler of the epithet than it does of the people they “insult”.
Cacti
@JoyfulA:
As a recovering Mormon, I actually think Romney comes out worse in a religious war. Black Liberation Theology at least has the benefit of being out in the open.
If the public got an eye-full of the robes and secret oaths from the Mormon temple ceremony, there would be a collective…”WHA????” heard round the country from low information voters.
Clime Acts
@Villago Delenda Est:
hahahahaha….
RalfW
@g:
I can’t see anyone changing their vote, or deciding to vote for Romney based on some archived Rev. Wright sermon.
Going heavily negative is about depressing motivation and turnout on the other side, not about changing minds, or so the thinking goes.
Is this all they have?
In addition to racism, they have mooslem-hatin’, gay-bashing, climate-denialism and ‘job creators.’ A pretty sorry-assed hand they’ve dealt themselves.
This is what happens when a party abandons governing in favor of pure power and, of course, tax cuts!
jibeaux
Well, I do want to see an ad with an extremely literate conservative African-American arguing that the President misled the nation by presenting himself as a metrosexual, black Abe Lincoln. I mean, that just sounds fucking FASCINATING. If the argument is that he is really a manly white man who is not Abraham Lincoln, I’d rate that a “mostly true” on the the Politifact scale.
Nate
Owns the Cubs, eh? Well, he must be quite familiar with backing losers then.
shortstop
@Ash Can: His daughter is out and proud, and apparently smart enough not to be a Log Cabin Republican.
Sasha
Considering that Obama is an avowed White Sox fan, Mr. Ricketts is really going to take this campaign personally.
Rommie
@j:
>>And this also opens up the whole Mormon cult conversation.
My thought as well. If they go there, it opens the door to going Uncle Billy on Bishop Mitt with a superPAC of their own.
In other words, if they really want to point out that the President is Near, then it’s fair game to point out that the RomneyBot2000 is from Kolob. The horse race will turn into a grand melee after that…
BGinCHI
No, don’t throw us into that Rev Wright briar patch! We’ll never Mormon our way out of there!
Cacti
@Steve M.:
He’d be the perfect choice.
Unlike other black conservatives, who have actually held public office, Larry’s whole career has been as a black face, insulting black people for an adoring white audience.
kindness
I may be a little extreme and I don’t wish for this to happen but I think someone is going to start killing some of these Galtians. How can it not go there? I don’t want that to happen as it will play right into the hands and paranoia of the reichtwingnutz but when it does happen, I won’t shed a tear for them.
Does that make me bad?
amk
@Steve in DC: Guess you got your wet dream of the day.
jibeaux
@shortstop:
damning with very faint praise but still, good on her.
Hill Dweller
@Clime Acts:
Obama didn’t throw Wright under the bus. In fact, he kept defending him, but Wright wouldn’t lay low and keep his mouth shut. The stunts at the National Press Club and NAACP dinner were the last straws.
Sometimes I wonder if Wright intentionally acted a fool near the end of that fiasco just to give Obama an out.
shortstop
@BGinCHI: The Wright thing doesn’t get any new converts; it just whips up the slack-jawed base. But there have to be less expensive ways of doing that, what with their whipping-up having a hair trigger and all.
Zandar
@Steve M.:
Larry Elder?
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *deep breath* BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
OK, that is even more entertaining than 999 Man.
shortstop
@jibeaux: I didn’t mean to. I was just adding to the comment about her being a big Obama supporter. There are too many very wealthy gay Americans who aren’t. But most of them are men.
RalfW
@MGB:
I don’t imagine enough Cubs fans will give one shit about Rickett’s politicing. And his TD Ameritrade friends, who’ve all eaten decades of fear-based Law and Order teevee, will love this.
Our BJ crowd seems to think average voters pay attention. They don’t. I’d guess 97% of swing (ie: low info, late deciding) voters will never even know who Ricketts is. Even if he spends $200 million (yes, 10X) on Rev. Wright.
I read all sorts of blogs and can’t remember the names of the Swiftboat financiers. I know they’re immoral fuckwads, but can I name them or remember which businesses got them bank? Nope.
There just isn’t the kind of blowback we crave for this stuff. Hell, Crossroads GPS can lie its ass off, and Rove suffers z.e.r.o. consequences.
Joey Maloney
Just heard Ruth Marcus say on the Diane Rehm show that the WaPo doesn’t spend nearly enough on editorial page writers. She’s right, but not in the way she meant.
Ash Can
@shortstop: She’s awesome. She and a few of the Cubs players did an “It Gets Better” ad spot last year. As far as I know, it’s the kids, rather than the father, who are running the show at Wrigley. I’ve never gotten any political vibes one way or the other from them. And commenter j raises an interesting point above — if these Ricketts kids are trying to get money out of Rahm for their ballpark, they can’t possibly be happy with the publicity their dad is getting right now.
kc
That’s cool. Now we can talk about the magic underwear, golden tablets, and Moroni.
kc
Does anyone have videotape of a Mormon clergyman preaching? I wonder why not?
BGinCHI
@Joey Maloney: Spend what, bullets? I think they should really break the bank in that direction. Or rat poison. Or cement shoes.
Michael2
Anybody got this guy in the N*Bomb Pool? I’ll take him.
butler
How is that a good insult? And how is it an insult at Obama when they are claiming that he lied when he supposedly presented himself as a metrosexual? Was Obama insulting himself?
Teddy's Person
@shortstop: I agree. Come November, their base is going need extra whipping to get to the polls and vote for the MormonBot.
Clime Acts
@Hill Dweller:
I don’t agree that Wright was obligated to behave in any certain way re Obama, But I agree with this last statement of yours.
John PM
As if being a Cubs fan wasn’t depressing enough…
This election is really turning into old white male billionaires versus everyone else. Who started the class war again?
El Cid
The original Abe Lincoln sometimes talked and dressed kinda fancy, in addition to destroying the liberty and freedom of all those heritage-appreciating noble patriotic Southerners what with his crazy Northern Aggression.
Silver
@Another Halocene Human:
Sowell looks too much like a dork. They need strong and masculine, because they want to paint Obama as a fag. It’s Cain or war criminal West, I bet.
geg6
@Clime Acts:
Yeah, we don’t often agree, but I’m with you on this one.
amk
@El Cid:
teh irony is that the same noble, patriotic southerners are now forced to kiss the ass of a northern mormon and vote for him. Thanks, uncle karl.
Linda Featheringill
@Clime Acts:
Is that a fault in the Rightie world?
giltay
I’ve never seen Obama in a stovepipe hat.
j
@Ash Can: The daughter is openly gay, but is outnumbered by her 4 brothers. In addition to owning the Cubs, they also own Intrade online brokerage firm, and High Plains Bison meat. So if you are ever in the market to buy some expensive meat, High Plains is one to boycott.
http://www.highplainsbison.com/
shortstop
@Ash Can: The kids are doing day-to-day operations, but the club ownership is very much the whole family’s. It hurts me to say that, and as a Wrigley neighbor and a Cubs fan, I’ve already had enough pain and betrayal.
(I’m immune to abuse from you people, BTW. I’m resignedly playing the hand I’ve been dealt, but I do try to turn young Cubs fans from their ill-conceived path before their formation is complete. It’s not too late for Chicago’s north side children to live nobler and more dignified lives than we have.)
MGB
@RalfW: Generally I agree with you. Though the Cubs are looking to get money from the city. Meaning they have to go through Rahm. Pissing him off by putting all this money up against Obama isn’t going to help them in business around here.
Kay
@John PM:
So true.
Oh, well. I think they should buy whatever, do whatever, just put it out already, or shut up about their plans. I’m tired of threats from billionaires. They’re selling fear. I guess we’ll find out if anyone is buying this cycle.
Roger Moore
@gaz:
Remember that the 1/6 is for the nation as a whole, including all the lily white parts. In the West, it’s well over 20%. Pew had an interesting study on this.
One of the points I thought was most interesting is that the effects are much more widespread than just the married couples. More than 1/3 of people have a close family member who’s part of a mixed marriage. I think that’s tending to drive the other major trend they saw, which is much greater acceptance of mixed marriage. And, getting back to the point that started all this, those marriages are going to produce biracial children, which means lots of people are going to have blood relatives who are a different race. That’s going to be a big long-term step toward delegitimizing racism.
geg6
@j:
That was my first thought. Is Romney really happy about this particular expenditure of UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH?
jibeaux
@shortstop: I know, it wasn’t a criticism of you at all, I am just always marveling at their existence. It’s like a Black Folks For Slavery group or something.
JGabriel
__
__
NY Times:
Seriously? These guys want to go after religion, when their own candidate professes a faith that most of the country regards as a bizarre cult?
Listen, Ricketts: Romney is a Mormon. Their heaven is being the king & royal family of other planets after they die. You’re not going to be able to make religion a sticking charge against Obama — especially since it was already tried last election and failed. It will fail again.
And you’ll look like a complete racist jackass.
But as a good progressive Democrat, all I can say is, “DUDE! Go for it! Stick that knife in your own eyeball while we laugh our asses off at you!”
.
Brian R.
jwb
@amk: Karl is absolutely convinced that given enough money he could get a robot elected President. He gets to test that proposition this year. I think he’s going to be proven spectacularly wrong. But lord help us all if he is right.
Brachiator
@Steve in DC:
Sounds like Mitt Romney, definitely a metrosexual looking guy.
How much does he spend on haircuts?
@Clime Acts:
Bullshit. Politics is a tough business. There were too many stupid ass white people eager to buy into the “Scary Negro” fantasy that the larger context of Wright’s sermon was never going to be heard. Still hasn’t been heard by a lot of people.
The plain hard fact is that while white ministers can criticize America, especially if it is tied to gay bashing or other approved conservative tropes, black ministers who evoke the same tradition of prophetic admonition of the nation get slammed as being incendiary racists.
The worst conservative pundits keep looking for that hidden clue that will prove that Obama and Michelle hate whitey and have a secret plan to send Real American White People(tm) to concentration camps.
People harping on the Wright issue need to get a clue.
shortstop
@Brian R.: Madam Minority Leader! Low blow! But I forgive you because of its innate truth.
Roger Moore
@Cacti:
Also, too, there’s a difference in how deep they were in their churches. The Obamas were church members in good standing. Mitt is a LDS Bishop and up to his eyeballs in church business. Obama was perfectly willing to throw Wright under the bus when it looked as if he might be a drag on the campaign. It’s hard to imagine Romney being willing to do the same thing with the Mormon church.
Kay
@JGabriel:
They like making threats, I think.
Retired Navy Seal (?) veterans for Truth! SWIFTBOATING! You’re supposed to hide under your bed when you hear that :)
Zifnab
@RalfW:
As a Texan, I’m very familiar with Perry Homes and its patriarch Bob Perry. He’s a political force in my state and somewhat hard to ignore if you have any interest in local politics.
At a certain point, politics is local. I’m sure you are familiar with your resident conservative asshats. Either way, the California Governor’s race has made me a lot less worried about the effect of money in politics. Half of me wants to just start a radio station and sell ad time in purple states to soak up all the revenue. But I’m not terribly worried about wall-to-wall ad blitzes. People get really sick of hearing the same ad over and over and over again, and learn to hate the advertiser a lot more than the target.
gbbalto
As a Mormon, Harry Reid might have some issues with attacks based on Mormonism…
gbbalto
As a Mormon, Harry Reid might have some issues with attacks based on Mormonism…
Brian R.
@Clime Acts:
You know, I’ve long believed, like most sentient beings, that Obama has been one of the most scandal-free presidencies in all of American history. The complete absence of susbtance despite all the efforts of Fox News and the House GOP to dig up something, the scandal-free nature of this administration has been impressive.
But then you typed out your laughter there, and that TOTALLY disproved my assumptions. Well done, sir.
Skerry
Does anyone know Joe Rickett’s religion? Please let him be a Mormon.
jwb
@shortstop: I wonder if the discussion about whether liberal Catholics should leave the church can be applied, mutatis mutandis, to liberal Cubs’ fans.
SatanicPanic
Let’s have a debate about who has attended the crazier church. I, for one, will enjoy pointing and laughing.
Linda Featheringill
@Brachiator: #94
Well, I’ll admit that I’ve had fantasies . .
handsmile
@RalfW: (#53/68)
“Is this all they have?
In addition to racism, they have mooslem-hatin’, gay-bashing, climate-denialism and ‘job creators.’… and, of course, tax cuts!”
They’ve got one more thing, the most important thing of all: the American corporate media, which acts as both megaphone and Wurlitzer for all this fear-mongering and ignorance.
And their target: the American “average” or low-information voter, who is simply engulfed by this garbage when he/she decides to turn attention, however fleetingly, to national politics and makes up his/her mind on voting choices.
Exhuming Reverend Wright may or may not be a successful attack, but it will be just one of the thousands of cuts, brandished by Citizens United-sanctioned donors, by which the GOP will seek Obama’s political death during this campaign.
geg6
@Steve in DC:
South Park? This is who you look to for a definition of what metrosexual is? Two potty-mouthed idiot libertarians who are currently making the LDSers into a charming and eccentric branch of mainstream religions on Broadway? Yeah, Trey Parker and Matt Stone are hugely manly men themselves (those were lovely gowns they wore to the Oscars or Emmys that one year), so I guess they get to define masculinity.
AFAIC and pretty much most of the women I know agree, metrosexual is not a bad word or a bad thing for a man to be. It means a man who cares what he looks like. It’s George Clooney. It’s my man who does tons of manual work and still keeps his hands soft with lotion and keeps his nails clean, smooth and well-trimmed.
Brachiator
@Steve M.:
If this is the best that they can come up with, they must really be hurting.
someofparts
So the country is being run by the same people who manage the Cubs? That’s a political ad waiting to happen.
NancyDarling
Only a clueless old white guy would think President Obama is metrosexual. He probably glommed on to the word because it sorta sounds like homosexual. Just google “Obama in Mom-jeans” if you want proof he is not metro. Our president is really sort of nerdy in his style choices when he is not wearing a suit. He does look fabulous in a suit or a tux. That is due to his lean physique rather than any conscious effort on his part.
Villago Delenda Est
@Brachiator:
Sorry, in the case of Clime Acts, clues do not stick, they slide right off.
Roger Moore
@JGabriel:
And, of course, this is why Citizens United money isn’t the same as candidate money. Here’s a rich backer who’s willing to spend millions of dollars trying to support his favorite candidate, but whose spending may hurt more than it helps. Unlimited Corporate Cash! can’t help if it’s being spent by people who can’t coordinate with the campaign and who are pursuing their own agendas.
shortstop
@jwb: Not a bad idea. And I promise you’ll never have to listen to me defensively snapping, “When I want your opinion on my fandom, I’ll ask for it!” or publicly trying to convince myself and you that the fans are really running the show at Wrigley.
SatanicPanic
@RalfW:
I agree with this BUT people are already sick of all the political ads, and when some pol finally comes along, McCain in 2000 style, and offers a way to get them off the air, people are going to jump at the chance to vote for him/her. Until then it will just increase voter cynicism, which I assume is an added benefit for the people running the ads.
BGinCHI
@Villago Delenda Est: I ask myself: is our trolls learning?
Teddy's Person
@NancyDarling: He’s a good looking guy whose style choices (like mine) are influenced by the preppy look of the 80s (polos and khakis all around).
Villago Delenda Est
@Roger Moore:
Well, the ad campaign is “awaiting approval”, the article said.
“Approval” from who?
I mean, technically, if you’ve got the money, and you want to run the ads, you’re supposed to just do it. You can’t contact the candidate and say “is this cool with you” because that would be coordination that is not allowed.
But then again, keep in mind that Rmoney, as chair of the Republican governor’s campaign committee in ’06 coordinated (illegally) with Sarah Palin herself to set up some “independent” ads for the Alaska gubernatorial race.
There’s supposed to be no contact between the candidate’s organization and the SuperPACs. None.
Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
twiffer
obviously, his experience owning the cubs demonstrates a keen ability to effectively spend money to build a winning team.
Roger Moore
@NancyDarling:
I’d guess that being able to afford tailored suits probably helps a lot, too. There really is a difference between bespoke and off the rack.
JGabriel
gbbalto:
No more so than Christians should have issues with Republicans going after Christian Reverends.
.
Carol from CO
Clarence Thomas is probably available.
Cacti
@gbbalto:
As a liberal Mormon, I would guess that Harry would object to ads that portray his church in a false light.
OTOH, many liberal Mormons would like to see some of the less savory aspects of church history and culture dragged into the light of day for a bit of truth and reconciliation.
As it stands, the uglier parts of Mormonism’s past are stomped down the memory hole by “The Brethren,” and just aren’t talked about.
NancyDarling
@Roger Moore: Agreed, Roger. But having one’s suits tailored does not a metro make.
Dr. Squid
I would like to point out that the Cubs are already out of it this season. Anyone can have a bad century.
Villago Delenda Est
@JGabriel:
Well, you have to understand something.
If your skin color is melanin enhanced, you don’t actually count as a “Christian”. I mean, just look at Martin Luther King Jr. If you’re Jimmy Carter, he’s a Christian. If you’re Jerry Falwell, he’s an agitator upsetting God’s natural order of things.
Racism is pervasive among the fundigelicals.
Hal
@geg6:
Don’t forget. They’re also the same guys who define Liberals as Rob Reiner (who’s fat by the way) Al Gore is fat, and Barbra Streisand.
SatanicPanic
@twiffer: The owners of the Detroit Lions and the Pittsburgh Pirates have other hobbies
Cacti
And being intimately familiar with Mormon doctrine and theology, I can say that an information campaign would need no embellishment.
An unvarnished account of its history, beliefs, and practices would be strange enough to raise plenty of “WTF” reactions.
Just a small example:
God is a polygamist and lives with his wives on planet Kolob.
Roger Moore
@Dr. Squid:
And it isn’t really a bad century, anyway. It’s more like a bad 70 years at this point. The World Series drought may have passed the century mark, but the Cubs did win the pennant in 1910, 1918, 1929, 1932, 1935, 1938, and 1945. It’s the pennant drought since 1945 that’s the real sign of how badly they’ve been doing.
JGabriel
@geg6:
Real men tear their nails off with their teeth. And I’ve got the roughly serrated nail-bitten claws to prove it.
(Never thought I’d have an opportunity to make nail-biting look muy macho.)
.
JGabriel
@geg6:
Real men tear their nails off with their teeth. And I’ve got the roughly serrated nail-bitten claws to prove it.
(Never thought I’d have an opportunity to make nail-biting look muy macho.)
.
Brachiator
@Villago Delenda Est:
Ha! Good point.
JoyfulA
@gbbalto: But Harry Reid’s got nothing to say about independent PACs and who or what they attack.
Randy P
@Teddy’s Person: Wait. Polos and khakis are bad? That’s my entire non-work wardrobe. And lately I’ve gotten fond of $50 khakis that look good enough to wear to work.
Roger Moore
@Villago Delenda Est:
That just goes to show you aren’t swinging the clue bat hard enough. When it leaves a physical impression, there will be a place for the clue to stick.
danimal
Governor Whitman and former President Perot are going to address leading conservatives on how to spend kazillions of dollars to win elections.
Because people always vote for the candidate with the most ads on television (whose audience is skewing older by the day). IOW, let them waste their money.
One person, one vote. Don’t let the bastards get you down.
Hill Dweller
“I hope they’re as successful with this campaign as the Cubs are in baseball.” -Nancy Smash
Yevgraf
Gosh, I certainly hope that all the Ameritrade account holders had returns that beat the market indexes, and that the administrative fees didn’t devour those gains.
catclub
@geg6: “That was my first thought. Is Romney really happy about this particular expenditure of UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH?”
That is really the funny thing. It is personal rich man cash, rather than big mainstream corporation cash — as far as one can discern when the donors names are not disclosed.
All the big donors are rich individuals.
So either corporate america is hiding behind them, or something else. I really am puzzled by this, since my understanding was that individuals could do this kind of spending before CU. Perhaps it is labeled as these rich guys pledging it, but it is coming from the corporations that they control.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@gaz:
I thought a metrosexual was someone who whacks off to downloaded pron on Windows 8.
JGabriel
__
__
Villago Delenda Est:
You read enough of my comments here at BJ to know I understand that. I just like pointing out the double-standard in such way that they can’t justify it without copping to their own racism.
.
nastybrutishntall
Obama a metrosexual? In pressed mom jeans? He’s more Urkel than Beckham.
Oh, but he’s for teh gayz!!! LOL gayz.
danielx
@GregB:
I’m getting a visual of Fat Tony Scalia rubbing his hands together while muttering “at last our plan is coming to fruition…”
Lester
@Skerry: “Mammonism”; least I think so….
catclub
@Linda Featheringill: It always makes perfect sense that a man who was born to no particular wealth, worked hard, got some lucky breaks, and got so far ahead that the rest of the American people elected him President, would hate America.
He gets to fly as Passenger Number One in Air Force One, for chrissakes. Any lingering hatred would be dissolved.
SiubhanDuinne
@Skerry:
Sorry. He and the whole family, according to a fairly obscure article I found, are Roman Catholics. http://www.familybusinessmagazine.com/index.php?/blog/month/2009/08/
catclub
@Dr. Squid: “I would like to point out that the Cubs are already out of it this season. Anyone can have a bad century.”
Or two.
Villago Delenda Est
@JGabriel:
Yeah, I know you know. I was just being helpful for the Jar-Jar Binks types of BJ :P
Kathy Larkin
Chicago wondered what kind of citizens the new Cub owners would be, we have found out.
Villago Delenda Est
@SiubhanDuinne:
Well, according to the Liberty University brain trust, they’re also cultists, so it all works out.
fasteddie9318
@gbbalto: Um, oh well. I guess Harry and his 23% approval rating won’t be on board then.
Oh, golly, but after the election, maybe without Reid’s support the Senate will stop being the solidly progressive, smooth-running body it’s been under his stewardship and suddenly turn all reactionary and just block stuff all the time. That sure would suck.
Rafer Janders
@shortstop:
That’s just brilliant.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Oh wow, “Metrosexual Abraham Lincoln” is so perfect. Three words I would have never thought to go together. This is a gem to toss in the face at the wingnuts at work lol.
Bruce S
“an extremely literate conservative African-American” – they’re kind of giving their mind-set away with that “extremely literate” caveat.
MCA1
This is comical. My blood was boiling reading the article until I got to the part where the consultant behind the leaked outline of the media strategy said something about McCain being too soft and acting like a confused old man, while touting an ad blitz that seeks to look 4 years back in time. Nice. Even the most ignorant of the apathetic undecideds who don’t pay any attention are going to say “Wait, what? This bullshit’s supposed to override the impression I’ve formed through 4 years of watching Obama on the teevee acting professional and soft-spoken?”
I love the touch of focus on the President’s middle name, too. Good luck with that. If you all haven’t checked out the article in the Times, do so and take a look at the storyboarding they got their hands on. It’s like a little diarama of the wingnut mind, complete with characterizing people standing behind Obama as looking “…blind. Like sheep.” A picture of a downy chick popping its head out of an eggshell with accompanying text of “…told us HE was the one we were waiting for.” The text for another panel keeps repeating: “Should we have known?”
different-church-lady
So in their minds the problem wasn’t that people didn’t give a shit about Rev. Wright, the problem was they didn’t pound the Wright drum hard enough?
BULLWINKLE: Hey Rocky, watch me pull this rabbit out of my hat!
ROCKY: Again?
rikyrah
THIS IS WHO THEY ARE.
and, I say BRING IT.
shortstop
@Roger Moore: Nice work tying the subthreads together, sir.
Omnes Omnibus
@Punchy: Christ, you are making an effort to misinterpret what people say, aren’t you? I would bet that the majority of lawyers here disagreed with the ruling, but did not think that it was completely out of line with existing precedent. Very seldom in controversial legal decisions is there one “right” answer. It’s okay though; you will ignore this comment since it doesn’t fit your simple view.
different-church-lady
@different-church-lady: Actually, you know what? I’m overthinking this. The problem is that they’re deranged.
different-church-lady
@Roger Moore:
Jeez, it’s almost as if we’re all just people or something!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@geg6:
You mean the two clearly gay cartoonist who act like nine year old boys in real life? Clear arbitrators of adult male behavior.
j
@gbbalto: Harry Reid isn’t running for anything. His feelings are immaterial in this instance. And he was never a bishop in that cult, just a mere member.
Then we can ask Mittens what his opinion is re Article VI of the constitution.
Let’s see him double talk himself around that one.
different-church-lady
@Clime Acts:
Nobody can rock a stovepipe hat at a dance club like Obama!
Kay
@different-church-lady:
That’s what I find hopeful.
We’re further ahead than either our political pundits or the (apparently limitless numbers) of old white billionaires who fund campaign ads. They are deeply, deeply conventional people.
I think it’s because they are so isolated, both the media personalities and the billionaires. They don’t “live among us” anymore, and they only talk to each other. It’s amusing because they’re all supposed to be such savvy ultra-sophisticated cynics, but they rattle easier than the members of the local Rotary Club here.
Brachiator
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
It’s right up there with Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter. Coming soon to a theater near you this summer.
different-church-lady
Romney proves he’s not a complete idiot:
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2012/05/17/exclusive_romney_repudiates_conservative_groups_planned_rev_wright_attacks
different-church-lady
Townhall:
Romney is going to run headlong into the same brick wall McCain hit: “You people are completely crazy, but I need you to get elected.”
NobodySpecial
From all I’ve been given to understand, ‘The Family’ may own the Cubs, but Joe has put a red line on spending any more of the family money on the Cubs, which is why they’re both cutting payroll and asking for public money – Daddy has told the kids this is NOT his doing and he’s NOT helping them out.
Of course, one could do worse than send nice letters everywhere talking about how you’re not buying Cubs stuff as long as Daddy Joe is busy looking for his literate Black Man.
LanceThruster
@Cacti: My advice…let Mitt be Mitt.
What he needs to do is come out and say that though other denoms view LDS with a bit of suspicion, a point in their favor is they wouldn’t even have allowed a Jeremiah Wright type of “person” (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) a leadership position in *their* Sky Daddy club (at least until the embarrassment being locked in the previous century forced their prophet excelsior-oni to pretend that Heavenly Father told them that the darkies had finally become a large enough percentage of human so that, while not ‘white and delightsome’ like the superior strain of celestial gang-bangin’ pioneer stock, could not be kept out without creating a further PR debacle for their loopy cult).
It would tie in nicely with the gopper glory days nostalgia in their march back to the past as soon as they can take control of the future.
Hell, they’d swoon over Mittens if they could again actually openly treat their inferiors with the disdain that they currently have to conceal when not exclusively with their “own kind” within their gated community enclaves. If the Mitt-master of the terrestrial universe can swing that, he could even lure the Newted one over with a return to multiple marriages (and not one at a time like someone with the superior Gingrichian seed finds constraining – do they make magic underwear substantial enough for his pasty[I’m making an educated guess here] lard ass?).
Willard is so thoroughly prone to blunders that the truth could conceivably slip out by mistake.
I think I should be careful what I wish for as the worshippers of Republican Jesus would be like rats deserting a sinking ship to jump onto another sinking ship that they’re about to set on fire, if it meant they would be cleared to bang more wimminfolk AND be able to tell them to shut the hell up to boot (boot not included – must use own). How hard can it be to pick up chicks once they dig that you’ll be getting your own damn planet and be LIKE A GOD! (note to Newt – you still have to die first to get to that part)?
Win-win all around. The man is practically Mormon Jesus come down to Earth in humanish-like form (blessed are the meek for I shall bestow upon them the gift of taking their capital)
Win, win, win with Willard.
Still, with these tight-fisted fuckwads, that 10% God-tax is going to be a tough row to hoe as who the fuck does God think he is to force people to redistribute their wealth…God? Sounds more like “Comrade God” to me. Maybe that bitch Ayn Rand was on to something, ya know? What Reformed Egyptian golden plates did she translate (maybe Atlas was shrugging the objectivist seer-stone)? You can’t get a more Rethuglican tailored message than “selfishness is a virtue.” If they could only point to a deity to cite approving this message…but then Republican Jesus already has a gig.
j
@Roger Moore: He gets his suits from Hart, Schaffner & Marx; off the rack and then has a little tailoring done. (~1,000 to 1,500 each). Bush is the one who wore the $10,000 – $12,000 custom tailored suits from Oxford custom tailors.
http://blog.suitupp.com/2009/07/13/dressing-like-a-president-suits-worn-by-presidents-obama-and-bush/
Obama: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/mens-fashion/hart-schaffner-marx-obama-suits-012612
Bush: http://stylepointer.blogspot.com/2010/03/best-in-us-made-oxxford-suits.html
Villago Delenda Est
@Brachiator:
Abraham Lincoln, Jedi Knight
Abraham Lincoln, Star Fleet Admiral
Abrahamo Lincolni, Centauri Underground Railroad leader.
Abraham Lincoln, Savior of Azeroth
Abraham Lincoln, last of the Númenor
Abraham Lincoln, Disco Stu’s cooler cousin
Moderate Urban Champion
Seems a little misguided. In my independent mind, they miscalculate how many people give a shit about how Barry found Jesus or whether he has an opinion on Jesus at all.
Those who spend any time worrying about that shit are already not voting Democrat.
LanceThruster
@Brachiator: The goppers don’t even mind the positive connections as the Lincoln problem was “disappeared” (Sic semper tyrannis and all that, also too).
Other than that, Mrs. Obama, how did you like the play?
[groan]
Not soon enough?
LanceThruster
@Brachiator: The goppers don’t even mind the positive connections as the Lincoln problem was “disappeared” (Sic semper tyrannis and all that, also too).
Other than that, Mrs. Obama, how did you like the play?
[groan]
Not soon enough?
dww44
@Hill Dweller: I was waiting for this rebuttal, and you recounted the whole Wright episode the way I remember it. No one as measured and thoughtful as this President would have behaved in any other manner. But, you’ve given me food for thought, that Wright’s shenanigans were deliberate, to force the President to act as he did and thereby enhance his chances of being elected. Not sure that Wright was that foresighted or lacking in ego.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us? (formerly MarkJ)
I can’t figure these wealthy people out. I mean, they’re obviously completely delusional. Is it the wealth that makes them delusional? Or do delusions just not pose a barrier to accumulating great wealth? One would think you’d have to be fairly in touch with reality to earn a great fortune in business, but these folks are really making me wonder.
I’m glad I’m not a Cubs fan. With an owner this stupid their fortunes obviously won’t be improving anytime soon.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us? (formerly MarkJ)
I can’t figure these wealthy people out. I mean, they’re obviously completely delusional. Is it the wealth that makes them delusional? Or do delusions just not pose a barrier to accumulating great wealth? One would think you’d have to be fairly in touch with reality to earn a great fortune in business, but these folks are really making me wonder.
I’m glad I’m not a Cubs fan. With an owner this stupid their fortunes obviously won’t be improving anytime soon.
Jewish Steel
@BGinCHI:
That deserved to be repeated.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us? (formerly MarkJ)
@SiubhanDuinne: Well from what I’ve heard of Mormonism it has one thing in common with Catholicism. Pedophilia is common in both religions.
LanceThruster
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us? (formerly MarkJ): Yeah, what have the Romans ever done for us?
Also too, if power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, what can be said of their god(s)?
Villago Delenda Est
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us? (formerly MarkJ):
Pedophilia also seems to be a feature of ultra-orthodox Judaism.
bemused
I wouldn’t have thought a guy could be labeled metrosexual while wearing “mom jeans”.
Heliopause
Is one of Colbert’s writers moonlighting as a conservative political consultant? How is this not satire?
different-church-lady
@bemused: Well, don’t forget, in their minds Clinton was a smooth operator one moment and clownish hick from the sticks the next.
Cognitive dissonance ain’t really a problem for these folks, because they just leave the cognitive part out.
different-church-lady
@Heliopause:
Satire was murdered about 12 years ago.
Tehanu
@Roger Moore:
If there were a Like button here, I’d have hit it 100 times for you.
j
@Villago Delenda Est: And run of the mill Republicans.
http://forum.sbrforum.com/politics-economics/810239-list-convicted-republican-pedophiles.html
salacious crumb
poor Jeremiah Wright..the guy just can’t catch a break.
before we know it, Rezko, Ayers and the New Black Panther Party will be regular features on Mitt Romney’s ads.
stratplayer
I hope this spells the end of the very liberal Sam Waterston’s tenure as tv spokesman for TD Ameritrade. I don’t think he needs the money that badly.
different-church-lady
@salacious crumb: Just run all the same ads from 2008, and overdub “Romney” wherever they said “McCain.” Save a bundle on production costs!
BULLWINKLE: I gotta get another hat!
Snowwy
@Cacti:
I see what you did thar….
LAC
@BGinCHI: LOL!! I can see the first commercial now: Picture of Obama, ominous music in the background, and a solemn voice stating: “did you know that Barack Obama is black? He’s black…let that sink in…black guy…ok? Vote for Romney…please.”
MCA1
As much as I’ve enjoyed the back and forth, I think we might be collectively missing the point on the black metrosexual Abe Lincoln thing. A black, metrosexual Abe Lincoln is the image this group that Ricketts commissioned thinks liberals and progressives bought into in 2008. Since it turns out Obama’s had a tough time quitting smoking, did not in fact own a closet full of Zegna suits, and hasn’t freed any actual slaves or made the whole world join hands and sing, they think we’re all incredibly disappointed and overcome with buyer’s remorse. Because in their bubble, all they hear is how there are only two kinds of people outside the wingosphere these days: brainwashed sheep and the deeply disillusioned. This is nothing more than another version of their juvenile “How’s that hopey, changey thing workin’ out for ‘ya?” bullshit. That underlying message permeates the slides the Times ran in their piece. Since the moment it became clear Obama might actually compete with Clinton, both Republicans and PUMA’s have been flogging the messianic fervor hobby horse. They’ve so convinced themselves the President’s an empty suit/charlatan/naif that they still can’t get off it.
Unfortunately, that message, that Obama’s in over his head and can’t get anything done, has, in fact, made a dent in the public consciousness, despite its utter ludicrousness and lack of acknowledgment of circumstances. Among this President’s greatest strengths are general competence and level-headedness – it’s amazing what he’s actually gotten done given the context of America 2012. So, Republicans have, since Day 1, tried desperately to create a world in which the opposite is true. Karl Rove is still driving the boat over there, y’all. He’s been working this angle forever.
sherparick
@RalfW: Actually, as a Cub fan, I do pay attention to this sort of thing. And so do others:
http://www.thecubreporter.com/2012/05/16/cub-bats-rock-fitch-park#comment-203326
However, it gets complicated. Joe Ricketts does not technically “own” the Cubs. His son is the actual primary owner, and his daughter, Laura, also a co-owner, is an Obama supporter and fundraiser. http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2012/02/cubs_co-owner_laura_ricketts_i.html
It will be an interesting time in the sky boxes.
David Koch
they’re just pissed that Obama is a White Sox fan.
Darkrose
@shortstop:
By moving south of the Loop?
*ducks*
Go Sox!
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
Just heard that Ricketts has killed the ads after the Romney campaign said they would repudiate any character assassination ad campaigns.
giantslor
My favorite part about these billionaire conservatives spending millions and millions on Romney is that they’re throwing away millions on a losing candidate. My least favorite part is that that’s money we could be redistributing to more deserving poor people.
redoubt
Any sitdown with Rahm will have to include Einhorn and Reinsdorf. Because if the city is giving out free money, Royko’s “Ubis et mea” (Where’s mine?) will apply.