Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We still have time to mess this up!

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

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

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Come on, man.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

T R E 4 5 O N

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

The revolution will be supervised.

Infrastructure week. at last.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

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

Battle won, war still ongoing.

The willow is too close to the house.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

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Reader Interactions

51Comments

  1. 1.

    Bokonon

    This blog is in disarray.

    This blog is in disarray.

    This blog is in disarray.

    See! Everyone is saying that this blog is in disarray. It is all that anyone can talk about! Look at that controversy! Some say it is true, others say it is not! People can draw their own conclusions – I am just reporting on the perceptions.

    Next up – Obama is a socialist, Obama is a soc….

  4. 4.

    randiego

    Jonathan Alter says it was long winded, so it must’ve been a total disaster eh?

  5. 5.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Let me check twitter to see what Cory Booker thinks I should think, or Ed Rendell, or maybe somebody whispered anonymous nothings into Karen Tumulty’s ear

  6. 6.

    Linda Featheringill

    The speech was longer than some but it felt good right down to the last syllable.

  7. 7.

    middlewest

    Some people say this blog is in disarray. It may or may not be true; what’s important is that the story is out there.

  8. 8.

    Piratedan

    it’s painfully obvious to me that the Democratic Party needs to have Obama driving a mid-size hybrid sedan honking his horn behind them so they will finally go home and be safe in their own yard.

  9. 9.

    Hunter Gathers

    I loved the little stunt Mittens’ asshole staffers pulled with the campaign bus. As if anyone needed more proof that Mitt Romney is a classless asshole. And a coward to boot.

  10. 10.

    Lev

    I hear Mitt Romney’s bus got lost and needed some directions to their own event, but those nasty libs just ignored them and didn’t help, even though the driver honked at them for a long time.

    Man, that Hannity, he can really get the old blood boiling!

  11. 11.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    I haven’t seen it, and since I don’t feel like acting like a journalist today, I’m not going to comment on it.

  12. 12.

    Tractarian

    I think Obama won the morning with this speech.

    I know it’s 3 pm in Cleveland. Who cares?

  15. 15.

    Linda Featheringill

    You know, that man [Obama] is dangerous. Every time I hear him speak, I start thinking “Maybe we could do this” or “Perhaps we could accomplish that” or even “Hey! Let’s try to do this!”

    Yes, I’m an incorrigible, incurable Obot.

  18. 18.

    Ben Franklin

    Piratedan Says:

    it’s painfully obvious to me that the Democratic Party needs to have Obama driving a mid-size hybrid sedan honking his horn behind them so they will finally go home and be safe in their own yard.speaking only in soft, measurable tones, so they can sleep at night, confident we are the touchy-feely Party

    fux-ed.

  20. 20.

    ericblair

    @Hunter Gathers:

    As if anyone needed more proof that Mitt Romney is a classless asshole

    In the next five months, I think we may actually see new vistas of campaign incompetence out of the Rombot. It’s like he’s completely unacquainted with the human race. Maybe this year we’ll get the first computer to pass the Turing test and the first presidential candidate to fail it.

  21. 21.

    wesindc

    I thought it was one of his better speech’s in sometime. He hit all the talking/gaffe points as well as the Repubs exactly where they need to be called out.

  22. 22.

    Shinobi

    I really enjoyed the part where he said something along the lines of “Well if you ACTUALLY want to fix the deficit, not just act like you want to fix the deficit when the other party is in power and then spend when you’re in charge, you need to raise taxes on the rich.”

    I think it would be nice to see some anti republican ads highlighting that hypocrisy.

  24. 24.

    Cap'n Magic

    Obama fiddeled with healthcare as the financial industry bruned (continues to burn.)

    None Of the Above for 2012!

  25. 25.

    ericblair

    @redshirt:

    Protip: Recalibrate your deflector array to a multiband harmonic frequency using a phased pulse wavelength.

    Amateur. Everyone knows you reverse the polarity of the neutron flow! Oh yeah, and change the color of your shirt: phasers are attracted to red for some reason. Maybe you should reverse the polarity of your shirt too, just to be on the safe side.

    ETA: Does FYWP now bugger up URL references? Is this a new feature? I’m trying to waste everyone’s afternoon productivity and link to tvtropes.

  26. 26.

    RaflW

    Wonkerific WaPo WonderWhiz sez

    @ezraklein Can’t decide if it’s a devastating commentary on Obama campaign or on media that Obama’s reframe is: READ OUR POLICY PLANS

    Yeah, because Obama wanted to unleash a devastating commentary on his own campaign.

    #AssHat

  27. 27.

    Hunter Gathers

    @Cap’n Magic: My sister, who was able to get back on my parents health insurance to help with her heart problems thanks to the health care bill, wants me to tell you to go fuck yourself.

  28. 28.

    Piratedan

    @Ben Franklin: awww man, you ruined my Obama herding Dems like JC herding Tunchy reference a few threads back…. (kicks at a rock in disgust)

  29. 29.

    Citizen_X

    @ericblair:

    phasers are attracted to red for some reason

    As are flying knives, deadly flowers, salt-sucking monsters, ruthless superaliens, etc, etc.

  31. 31.

    Tobie

    I liked it when he said that his opponents will run ads with a scary voice saying, “Obama thinks everything is just fine.” It made last week’s Republican attack on him look oh so petty. Now I just wish Obama and the Democrats would tout the success of the stimulus which saved us from a depression rather than let the Republicans define it as a failure.

  33. 33.

    RaflW

    @Tobie:

    I just wish Obama and the Democrats would tout the success of the stimulus which saved us from a depression

    It sucks but it is politically very difficult to prove a counterfactual.

    I’m taking Zinc for a cold, started the moment I woke up yesterday morning w/ post-nasal drip. I think it’s saving me from a whopper. But I don’t know, and I never will. Because the next cold I’ll have to decide to Zinc or not and will only know it’s symptoms as they happen. Each cold/recession is discrete and the cures either work or don’t and have to be analyzed later as to whether the duration or severity were helped.

    Maybe a convoluted example, but 10,000 economists can all say “Stimulus worked!” (or homeopaths can say “Zinc works”) and we either trust or distrust the claim. Most voters distrust economists and only know the recession has sucked for them.

  34. 34.

    Stuck in the Funhouse

    Obama talking about the economy? Well, that’s just peachy when the murrican sky is full of drones and government wifi reading our thoughts. Not only worse than Bush, but his supporters like him a nun rapin’ all the day and nights, also too.

  36. 36.

    Cap'n Magic

    @Hunter Gathers:

    I’m happy that your sister has healthcare coverage (for now.) Pray that you or anybody else you know isn’t late just one time on your mortgage (if you have one). Also, pray that the Euro breakup won’t cause a global financial contagion that results in a 5,000 point drop in the Dow. There’s a lot of folks who will not vote for President this go round-and nothing that Obama is saying right now (nor his past statements on ‘what the banks did was legal’) will get me to vote for him.

    Obama’s victory may indeed become a pyrrhic victory, especially if SCOTUS shreds it. If that does indeed happen, Obama is toast, and the return of the robber barons will be complete by 2015.

  37. 37.

    Mnemosyne

    @Martin:

    I will always remember Steve Jobs in the documentary “Triumph of the Nerds”:

    The trouble with Microsoft is they just have no taste. And I don’t mean that in a small way.

    I think the key to being an asshole with some class is to adopt that more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger tone Jobs manages.

  38. 38.

    Mnemosyne

    @Cap’n Magic:

    There’s a lot of folks who will not vote for President this go round-and nothing that Obama is saying right now (nor his past statements on ‘what the banks did was legal’) will get me to vote for him.

    Great. Enjoy President Romney removing all consumer protections from your health insurance. That’ll show Obama for daring to try to fix things.

    And, yes, unfortunately, the banks spent over a decade buying off members of Congress and writing legislation to their liking to make sure that everything they did was perfectly legal. You can hate that they did it and be pissed off at the legislators and presidents who signed off on those changes, but that doesn’t magically turn their perfectly legal actions into crimes.

  39. 39.

    T. Scheisskopf

    Has anyone ever met a classy asshole?

    Frank Sinatra?

    Johnny Bon Jovi? Worked for him, and if there was a Nobel prize for world-class assholery, he would be a shoe-in.But he dressed expensively.

    Please DO notice the Eastern NJ commonality here.

  40. 40.

    Vernon Bush

    Missing is the realization, by either party, that the economy will not heal until fundamental changes are made and there has been a “Reset”. Neither party can fix the economy.

    rgds

    nonrev

  42. 42.

    Cap'n Magic

    @Mnemosyne: Actually, crimes were indeed comitted across the board, but they wern’t prosecuted-why else the lame-ass consent decree on robosigning?

    The healtcare system, as borked as it is right now, isn’t even close to teetering on the abyss should another financial system shock happen. Those people who have lost a sense of history are going to have to relive it themselves. Sadly, with retention spans measured in attoseconds, it’ll happen again-if you thought 2008 was a bloodbath, the next event will look like a garden party.

  44. 44.

    Mnemosyne

    @Cap’n Magic:

    Actually, crimes were indeed comitted across the board, but they wern’t prosecuted-why else the lame-ass consent decree on robosigning?

    Learn the difference between a criminal prosecution and a civil lawsuit and then get back to me if you’re still confused.

    The healtcare system, as borked as it is right now, isn’t even close to teetering on the abyss should another financial system shock happen.

    I’m sure the healthcare system will survive if PPACA is repealed and insurance companies can go back to canceling a patient’s insurance halfway through chemotherapy because she was once diagnosed with acne.

    Sure, actual people will suffer and die, but who cares as long as the healthcare system still goes on, amirite?

  45. 45.

    Tobie

    @RaflW: Well, yeah, but what about saying we created this many jobs thanks to the stimulus and, you know what, every penny we spent on infrastructure ended up paying for itself, because the more workers getting paychecks meant the more revenue for businesses and ultimately for Uncle Sam at the end of the year. He sort of said this but didn’t tie it to the stimulus, which the GOP has defined as a failure. Low-information voters don’t connect private sector job growth with the stimulus, and they don’t connect the decimation of public payrolls with Republican policies.

  46. 46.

    lacp

    I didn’t hear his speech, so I’m going with the fallback position of being completely OUTRAGED! about…something.

  48. 48.

    Cap'n Magic

    @Mnemosyne:

    Learn the difference between a criminal prosecution and a civil lawsuit and then get back to me if you’re still confused.

    So when forged documents are presented in a civil lawsuit, that’s not a criminal act prepretrated by a business (and even if its subcontracted out, liability for a subcontarctor’s actions flows back to the hiring business.) Right. Gotcha.

    I’m sure the healthcare system will survive if PPACA is repealed and insurance companies can go back to canceling a patient’s insurance halfway through chemotherapy because she was once diagnosed with acne. Sure, actual people will suffer and die, but who cares as long as the healthcare system still goes on, amirite?

    And if you think PPACA will solve that, you’re dreaming. We’ve already seen where off-patent chemotherapy drugs have gone through the roof price-wise due to lack of vendors, but more likely, due to profit (or maybe the FDA was doing their job and shutting down drug fraudsters.) Until you provide transparent pricing on medical products and services (on non-emergency conditions) like in other industries and allow re-importation of drugs you will never fix healthcare in the United States. Tell me, how does PPACA fix what happened to a friend of mine-whose brother, out of work over a year and no COBRA, burned through over a million of dollars of costs at a university hospital with a arterial blockage of his liver?

  49. 49.

    Cap'n Magic

    @RaflW:

    Too damn hot, too many tornadoes and too many power outages for my liking. Perhaps that explains while being Detroit (where the weak are killed and eaten/I’so tough I vacation in Detroit/Sign at Metro: “wecome to Detroit-now go home”) born and raised, I’ve settled in quite nicely in another midwest state, being driven insane by a rescued Persian named Ozzie (who has missed making the cut in the last two BJ calendars-such is life.)

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