“I do not understand the cost-benefit here,” Will said. “The costs are clear. The benefits – what voter is going to vote for him because he’s seen with Donald Trump? The cost of appearing with this bloviating ignoramus is obvious, it seems to me. Donald Trump is redundant evidence that if your net worth is high enough, your IQ can be very low, and you can still intrude into American politics.”
I’d only add that this observation could be applied to less public buffoons currently weighing in on the GOPster side. (I’m pleased to see that Joe Ricketts seems in the process of cursing the Cubbies (w. a losing streak now up to 11!) more thoroughly than ever did Mr. Wills pretentious fandom.)
More clear thinking from unexpected to sources to come…
Image: F. A. Phillips, Child with a Punch puppet, 1878. ( I must say that I’ve rarely seen such a perfect representation of the Romney-Trump relationship….)
Comrade Jake
Well, George Will would know a bloviating ignoramus if he saw one, that’s for damn sure.
Alison
More like dominate. There’s no “intrusion” when these rich stupid fuckfaces are the ones running the damn show, for the most part, especially state-level.
Schlemizel
Perhaps the death of wingnutia will not come from the average schmoe finally seeing through the GOPs Death To America stance but from the pretentious pricks like Mr. Will being appalled at being associated with the doofus brownshirt brigade. Tut-tut’ed to death would not be my choice but anything that will finally bring the curtain down on the shitfest will be welcome
Joey Maloney
@top:
Which is which?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
To my simple mind, Romney’s embrace of Trump is still another sign of the confused feelings of contempt and fear he feels for the Republican base/Tea Party, think Poppy Bush x 10. As George the would-be Lord Codswallop, Wannabe Fourth Viscount of Broderton, says, it’s beyond my imagination that Trump has an actual constituency, but Romney is so terrified of criticism from the Right that he’s holding hands with a demagoguing grifter (Palin x 10). Somebody on the TV said last week that this fundraiser is a compromise, if the Short-Fingered Vulgarian gets to look like a king-maker now, he’ll drop his demands for a convention speaking slot.
But there are political professionals in the Romney team, they approved this “Dinner with the Donald (fercrissake)” thing. Do they think that his reality show will win votes? Could they possibly be right? Am I that much further out of step with the average American than I was even a year ago?
Hill Dweller
But the Romney spokesman said Trump was more popular than Clooney. That has to matter for something, right?
Brachiator
@Comrade Jake:
Good one.
The Friday Rachel Maddow show pointed out that Trump did robocall endorsements for states in which Romney scored primary victories.
So, the sad conclusion may be that even though reasonable people and pundits like Will may recoil in horror, associating with The Donald is not hurting Mitt at all. At least, not with Republicans, and maybe not with many Independents.
Tom Levenson
@Hill Dweller: Gerry, right, not George. Please tell me that the Romnoids are not that dumb.
joes527
@Hill Dweller: only if they are casting another Ocean’s 11 sequel.
Mark S.
Things I learned from Thomas Friedman this morning:
1. Obama doesn’t brag enough.
2. Obama would be kicking Romney’s ass if he embraced Simpson-Bowles.
Actually, that part is beautiful in its wrongness:
3. Obama has retreated to his left base.
HRA
There are some things that have to be faced. George Will does not represent the base of his party now. He’s a little late in realizing it and/or writing about it. The moderates have 3 choices. They vote for the stiff version of Pinocchio without the growth of his nose when the lies are thicker than molasses. They vote for the best president I have had the fortune of seeing through many years. They stay home.
What bothers me the most is the inability of Democrats to act loyally on behalf of the president or to act for themselves as well. It’s like they have all been taking relaxants by the fistful.
texascowgirl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I think it also reflects how Mitt Romney views the GOP base. He sees them the same way we do: rabidly, ignorant birthers who are turned on by Obama hate more than anything else. Romney, like most uppercrust GOPers, see the GOP base as stupid, bigoted rubes to be placated and he’s so lacking in his own principles he’ll placate them in whatever way he thinks will work. With Trump he gets to say he’s not personally a birther, but that he thinks birthers are cool.
Villago Delenda Est
Rmoney has to appeal, constantly, to the teatard/wingnuts/racists/talibangicals, because he’s got two terrible traits: Mormon, and used to be governor of one of the most hated by aforementioned morans states in the entire Union, the home of the vile Communist Kennedy clan, much beloved by the hated liberal media.
Rmoney cannot tack to the center. His crew will revolt. As I’ve said before, “starboard or death!”. And then the idiots crash into the lee shore and wonder wtf happened!
Hill Dweller
@Tom Levenson: Yes, they’re that dumb:
ExurbanMom
TPM is full of goodness today; taste the delicious schadenfreud of Randy “Duke” Cunningham begging a judge to restore his 2nd Amendment rights upon his release from prison:
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/05/randy_duke_cunningham_gun_rights_restore_atf.php
Almost makes you feel sad for the guy. Almost.
FlipYrWhig
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Maybe the idea is that Trump makes Romney look like a paragon of humility and restraint, instead of a guy with a car elevator and a predilection for show-jumping horses.
kdaug
Projection much, Dr. Levenson?
I kid, because I care.
jl
@Hill Dweller: Might be true, depends on what you mean by ‘popularity’. Back in the day, you could get as many people to show up at a state fair for a staged train wreck as for Jenny Lind or Caruso singing an aria. Which was more ‘popular’?
Tom Levenson
@kdaug:
Always, sez I, non-Dr. Levenson.
MattF
Liar, coward, plutocrat, sanctimonious, soulless pr*ck with a Daddy Problem. Have I left anything out?
texascowgirl
@MattF:
Creepy.
patrick II
@texascowgirl:
I agree, but would add that Trump does not serve the same purpose as a Joe Arpio would. I look at Trump as Romney’s businessland ambassador to the land of the Teaparty proletariat. Someone with a $5000 suite Romney can be seen with at a fancy restaurant in Manhatten, but who is fluent in birtherese. Trump is Romney’s backdoor diplomatic channel.
Roger Moore
@MattF:
Sociopath.
Brachiator
@Villago Delenda Est:
I would be willing to bet that Romney’s people are telling him to keep courting the right up through the convention, and that he will be able to court moderates and Independents in the general election campaign. And he is betting that he will be able to sell himself as a job creator, and that this will be all that the voters care about come November.
Villago Delenda Est
@Brachiator:
I’m sure that his advisers are giving him that advice.
The thing is, I don’t think the 27% will tolerate any movement to the center even after the convention, and the Obama people will destroy any twisted notion that Rmoney is a job creator.
Bruce S
Yeah – whatever!
Fuck George Will.
Just felt like saying that.
WereBear
I agree completely. Those ads with the local slant, where the people right there in town explain what Romney did to their lives, are devastating.
jl
@WereBear:
And McCain is pitching in too: “Capitalism can be cruel”.
All hail, The Deal!
Just Some Fuckhead
I understand the predominant viewpoint expressed in this thread but this could be the fissure that causes George Will to come to our side. No, he hasn’t made a complete break with the right yet, but when they come after him for these comments, it may very well happen. This is how Charles Johnson saw the light, of course.
Yutsano
@Just Some Fuckhead: Nahgunna happen. No way would Will ever associate himself with dirty hippies and folks who wear denim on a regular basis. He wants his 1960’s Nixon Republicans back.
jake the snake
@Just Some Fuckhead:
.
I hope you’re wrong. We have enough sanctimonious pricks on our side as it is. We don’t need another, certainly not one as humorless as George Will.
MattF
@jake the snake: I wouldn’t worry about it. We’ll be having sleigh rides in Hell before George Will endorses a Democrat.
Ash Can
@Just Some Fuckhead: I wouldn’t go so far as to say that. Will is just crabbing about Romney here. If he were crabbing about the entire GOP and/or right wing, that might signal a fissure. He could be pining for Chris Christie/Mitch Daniels/Marco Rubio white-knight action, for all we know.
jl
@jake the snake: I agree. If a few zombie remants of their internecine fight wander a few inches towards the side of reason and fact (even assuming such a thing occurs to the extent that the other side really splits up in a serious and prolonged way), that can be used as evidence that the other side is a worthless mess and not a good bet for providing reason and truth. No reason at all to try to adopt any of them for anything.
But, won’t happen. I think people like Will and Brooks are professional hacks who have marketed themselves as a reliable ‘pundit product’ to the media. Doubtful they have any interest in being anything else. For one thing, it would entail some irritating details like study, effort and work. Why do that when you can make good bank by typing up sloppy and fantastical pundit boilerplate on the spot, or in response to the GOP operatives’ tactic of the day?
They will never be useful or reliable allies in anyway as long as they keep that attitude, which I think they will.
Uncle Cosmo
@patrick II:
Trump is Rmoney’s backdoor man??!?!!??
Aieee! Brain bleach, NOW!!
Citizen_X
JOB CREATOR LIBEL!
@Just Some Fuckhead: I’ll lay down a marker for him: until he refudiates his AGW denialism he can GTFO.
Like Yutsano said, it’s nahgunna happen.
WereBear
Some people just have an adoration of money, from whatever source. Even someone like Trump is Important because he has Money and Fame. Period.
I’m still trying to get over the gossip mag headline I saw in the supermarket this week; the one that detailed the struggles of one of the Kardashians and claimed, “The fame she struggled so hard for is slipping away!”
Excuse me? Struggled so hard? What on earth are they talking about?
Frankensteinbeck
@Brachiator:
Put me in ‘This is exactly the plan, and it’s already failing.’ The plan itself shows that they’re not keeping up with current events, and even if it still suited the circumstances Romney couldn’t pull it off. Plus, Obama is already eating Romney’s lunch. By the time Romney pivots to the importance of the economy, he’ll be driving voters in droves to Obama with that argument.
Anoniminous
Obama is polling +8 to +20 over Romney with women, depending on the pollster. Women will be 51 to 53 percent of the electorate. Unless Romney knocks the number down it doesn’t matter what he does, he’ll lose the election.
Sometimes this stuff does get real simple.
feebog
@ Anonimious:
Ditto that for Latinos. Number I saw this morning was Obama carrying the Latino vote 67 to 23%. Obama gets north of 70%, there is no way the Romneybot 2.0 carries Colorado, New Mexico or Nevada. And you can likely throw Florida in there too.
jl
@feebog:
I read Romney figured he could finesse the issue of immigration by the clever trick of not even mentioning it at a headline talk with Hispanics. Nice try, big guy.
I don’t think that will work, and I am sure that his little finesse will have consequences in other ethnic communities with lots of immigrants. That has been the history of how that goes in CA since the Wison/CA GOP jihad did its wonderful counterproductive work. The Hispanic reaction against the CA GOP brought a lot of Aisan and PI with it to Democrats.
schrodinger's cat
@Mark S.: Friedman is demonstrating what Will said, it also helps if you NYT column, being an ignoramus who can affect national politics, I mean.
Villago Delenda Est
@jl:
Fuck.
McCain’s entire fucking life, from before birth to the present, has been on the government teat.
Every motherfucking second of it.
Fuck him.
The Other Bob
Cultist? Religious nut? Or were those covered under “sanctimonious”?
CW in LA
@Just Some Fuckhead: On top of what everyone else just said, remember in ’92 when William Safire acted like he had single-handedly swung the election Clinton’s way by endorsing him, and then tried with increasing hysteria to take the Clintons down because he felt like they had personally let him down somehow? How much more self-important would something like this make George Swill?
ed
Dear George Will, please either join your party on the Ledo Deck or plunk your ass down in a lifeboat, and leave the deck chairs alone.