The Romney camp may roll over and piddle on its belly rather than engage in the healthcare debate, according to the National Journal (via General Stuck in the open thread):
Romney Campaign Declaring Cease Fire on Health Care
In the aftermath of the Supreme Court health care ruling, the early conventional wisdom was that an unfavorable health care ruling at the court would be good for Republicans politically, even as it was a serious policy setback for conservatives. But that’s not shaping up to be the case. Mitt Romney, after giving a brief statement decrying the decision, has been virtually silent on criticizing the health care law. He’s been on vacation and his campaign has been giving off clear signals that it doesn’t want to make health care a major part of the election.
I don’t buy this. Sure, Romney is vulnerable on healthcare since he enacted a virtually identical scheme in Massachusetts and the Republicans have nothing to offer to replace the ADA except “Die at great expense in the emergency room, poors!”
But since when have astounding hypocrisy and cruelty ever interfered with a Republican talking point? Maybe Willard really is too busy concocting schemes to trip a toddler grandchild and take the gold in the Romney Olympics sack race to bother with this shit right now, and his team is regrouping in the Sister Wives cabins to plan the attack.
Cease fire my ass. We haven’t even begun to hear the lies and demagoguery yet, is my guess.
[X-posted at Rumproast]
cathyx
Yes.
Female on the Beach
Tough. Mitt can’t wish this one away into the cornfield
Raven
Yeah, it’s sad, believe me Missy
When you’re born to be a sissy
Without the vim and verve
But I could show my prowess
Be a lion, not a mowess
If I only had the nerve
http://hearingelmo.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/tnhwizardofoz0018.jpg
Raven
What happened to the editing functions?
Culture of Truth
Romney doesn’t want to talk about anything. He’s on vacation, then onto the London Olympics, then Israel, then Bermuda, then the Cayman Islands. He should be back November 3rd.
Roger Moore
My theory: Romney’s on vacation and nobody wants to either disturb the boss or take any initiative. Once the vacation is over, they’ll get their orders and talking points.
Culture of Truth
Foiled again!!
jibeaux
Who knows what they’ll actually do, but if I were advising them, it would be my recommendation to leave it alone. They’ve failed legislatively and they’ve failed at the courts, they have no answer to what in the world they would replace it with or what they would do about the 30 million or so Americans that it helps, and Romney can’t distinguish it from Romneycare anyway other than some weak federal-state sauce. Basically, I expect them to be unwilling to talk about anything in much detail other than the economy, which they see as their strong point.
burnspbesq
The Catholic Church in action.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/07/02/paul-ryan-vs-catholic-nuns-on-a-bus/
artem1s
vacation? egads, the VP train wreck is a comin’ down the street. maybe they have somethin’ special just for us.
i have the utmost confidence that RMoney et al is going to make McCain’s choice look sane and reasonable. bring out the popcorn.
Davis X. Machina
It is not guaranteed that these talking points won’t work.
We’ve reached the Marpi Cliffs stage of our cold Second Civil War.
There are 40-70 million people out there who when the crunch comes will jump, with their families, rather than live in a country where their God-Emperor the Market, and his phalanx of blue-suited priests no longer rule…
EconWatcher
@Female on the Beach:
Yes, ducking this debate is not going to be an option, even if the Mittster wants to. Republicans in Congress want to let insurers deny coverage for preexisitng conditions. They want young adults to be dropped from their parents’ insurance. They want lifetime caps to cut off benefits for sick people.
Mitt is going to have to say what he’d do. Obama won’t let him duck it.
RP
I don’t doubt that he’ll regroup and demagogue the issue, but he’s losing a lot of momentum right now and feeding the MSM perception that his campaign is disorganized. Will persuadable voters care about attacks on healthcare a month after the decision came down? By that point many of them will have concluded that (a) the legal issue is settled, so complaining about the SCt decision is petty and pointless, and (b) they might benefit now that the law is definitely going into effect. The tea party/27% types who absolutely hate the law were going to vote for him anyway.
Schlemizel
“You never roll out a new product before Labor Day”
General Stuck
Thanks Betty. It is dicey to predict what Willard Romney will do from one day to the next. But he is going to experience some major pressures to do a bunch of stuff that appears to be, and is contrary in substance. Now the leader of an insane political party that is more like a hydra headed monster, with himself being a waffle in the wind. These things will come into intense focus as we approach election day, and there is nothing he can do about that.
Culture of Truth
The media has taken to openly mocking them. Even dimwits get it. He enacted this in Massachusetts. All else is whining.
Hunter Gathers
Mittens would like it to go away, but morons like Imperial Grand Moff Reince Priebus won’t shut the fuck up about it.
MattF
I guess that Romney will try to delegate the health-care lies, since anything he says personally will be all flippity-floppity. Maybe Sarah of the North can do her Death Panel Tap Dance. Showing a little ankle will distract those unlucky voters with pre-existing conditions.
Culture of Truth
I think Obama would be happy to have them duck the issue and move on. It’s the other loonies in the GOP who can’t let it go.
burnspbesq
The action on healthcare is shifting to the states. Republican governors have highly visible decisions to make about implementing exchanges and whether or not to take the money for the Medicaid expansion. It’s a virtual certainty that Haley, Scott, Jindal and a few others will choose to fuck the poor and the small-business community. What’s less clear is whether there will be any meaningful amount of blowback. The American people’s willingness to vote against their own economic interests seems undiminished.
Valdivia
@Culture of Truth:
so he is on vacation this week. then the Olympics are at the end of July and then Israel so is he just going to take pretty much all the time off until the convention?
Alex S.
So the opinion that the SC ruling was good for republicans has become the ‘early conventional wisdom’? I don’t think so. It’s the ‘look-at-us-we’re-so-edgy-and-yet-balanced’ opinion. Every ordinary/conventional person looks at the SC ruling and sees an Obama victory.
ant
I was thinking that Republicans would propose to eliminate the requirement that uninsured people be treated at ER’s.
Brian R.
He can declare a cease fire, but that doesn’t mean the Obama folks should stop talking about the BIG FUCKING DEAL that they accomplished with health care reform in this country.
You scored a touchdown, Dems. Celebrate a little.
Davis X. Machina
@Valdivia: When the more people see you, the less people like you, this is the very height of wisdom….
rlrr
@Culture of Truth:
Maybe he can use his vacation time to learn how Venn diagrams are supposed to work…
Baud
Mitt will continue to talk about it just like he talks about everything else– in vague generalities.
Cargo
The teabag states will take the money, quietly, after grumbling, just like they did with the stimulus. They’ll make grand pronouncements and then when everyone’s back is turned, they’ll do it.
General Stuck
@burnspbesq:
Yea, I was reading about how democrats botched the language in the ACA, that will make it harder for the feds to set up and run the exchanges in states that won’t comply. They can do it, supposedly, but it is a much steeper climb for the feds that it needed to be. I wonder how popular it will be, even in red states, not acting to make health care access easier for the abundance of poor people in those states.
Blue Neponset
“It’s the economy stupid.”
Romney would have to be an idiot to focus the Nation’s attention on health care. His only shot of winning in November is to convince enough voters that he would do better for the economy than Obama. If he debates Obama on health care he loses in November. I think he and his team know this so I expect them to stop talking about health care.
wrb
Maybe they’ve realized that outside their base, running against the ACA isn’t good politics.
General Stuck
I fleshed it out some more, the conundrum Romney and his base are faced with, in having Romney taking up the sword for keeping the health care issue front and center, like the base seems to want now.
Mark S.
I read something last night about how Romney doesn’t want to talk about foreign policy either. So the things Mitt doesn’t want to talk about just keeps growing:
Health care
Immigration
What he did for 20 years of his life
His only experience in public office
Culture of Truth
I was thinking about this last night, and I hate to be this way, but there is a limit to how much the blue states can hand hold / force the red states to act rationally. At a certain point people there are going to have to decide they want intelligent government and a rational society or they don’t.
burnspbesq
@Cargo:
You’re quite a bit more optimistic than I.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
They’ll want to stop talking about it because everybody sees it for the massive flip-flop that it represents. It’s not unlike the campaign’s approach to Bain Capital.
And it won’t make any difference because like the Bain Capital issue, the Obama campaign will pound Rmoney on the ACA/Romneycare issue until the election.
Legalize
Mitt can’t duck it. His own party disagrees with him about what the mandate is. And he’s off his nut if thinks that Obama isn’t going to cut Willard off from his base with it.
scav
Wondering. Mittbot’s supposedly such a back-flipping genius, except he’s usually done his wonders to behold only when he knew the risk was all safely tucked away firmly in some other body’s court. Do his circuits just fry when faced with two options, both of them with actual risk to his precious self? Is this the closest he’s ever come to playing without a (platinum- no doubt) net?
Jewish Steel
Maybe Little Lord Fauntleromney has seen some poling about ACA that makes him want to go all quiet rooms on it?
divF
@Female on the Beach:
Let’s burn down the cornfield
Let’s burn down the cornfield
And we can listen to it burn
You hide behind the oak tree
You hide behind the oak tree
Stay out of danger ’till I return
Oh, it’s so good
On a cold night
To have a fire
Burnin’ warm and bright
You hide behind the oak tree
You hide behind the oak tree
Stay out of danger ’till I return
Let’s burn down the cornfield
Let’s burn down the cornfield
And I’ll make love to you while it’s burning
Davis X. Machina
@Culture of Truth:
Iowa has spoken.
Omnes Omnibus
The Romney people just don’t seem very good at this campaigning thing. One would think that one would pick up some skills in 6+ years or steadily working at something. Wouldn’t one?
Valdivia
@Davis X. Machina:
now we’re about to experience the Being There of campaigns I guess? Or maybe just The Absent Campaigner.
David Hunt
@burnspbesq:
*”What’s less clear is whether there will be any meaningful amount of blowback. The American people’s willingness to vote against their own economic interests seems undiminished.”*
Objectively that’s probably true, but that’s not the way the GOP voters in those states see it. They’re sitting inside their bubbles being constantly informed that the Demoncrats want the Socialize everything which means that all the hard working folks like them will be forced out of their homes and put into shitty FEMA trailers while THOSE PEOPLE will be given their homes as part of the Great Socialization.
Shorter version: people in deeply red states think that no matter how bad it gets, Democrats will be worse.
rlrr
@Omnes Omnibus:
Romney was counting on the economy being a lot worse than it is…
kay
I hate the pranks. I would have to battle Mitt Romney if he were the Ruling Patriarch of my family.
I know I’m supposed to think these things are adorable, but I don’t. I think they make him a huge asshole. These constant, endless stories of Mitt Romney insanely and hyper-aggressively “competing” with people who are weaker than him are like a flashing red light.
WTF? What is wrong with him? How is this behavior admirable or even within the range of normal?
The Moar You Know
@Blue Neponset: You wrote it for me and wrote it better.
The GOP knows this is a loser issue that could turn bad on them real quick. Here’s an real-life example why:
Just got our quotes for next year from Kaiser (we use two insurers for our employees). Kaiser, which is dirt-cheap in comparison to the other folks, still was nailing us for between 6-8% a year in rate hikes.
Today’s quote? 1.7%.
That noise you’re going to be hearing between now and November is CEOs falling to their knees and thanking God for Obamacare.
I would add that this is a constituency that the COP listens to.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@scav:
Most likely. The last time he came this close was during his 94 Senate campaign against Kennedy. No net there and he bombed.
Flash forward to his pondering running for re-election as MA governor and knowing he’d get creamed…and how that would effectively end any chance he had winning the Repup nod for Preznit. He avoided running for that reason and because he had no safety net.
I’ve said it before: he’s an ungodly, lousy politician. He really is out of his element in all of this. It’s funny how the Repups have a bench that’s typically wide and deep at every level of state and local politics but when you get to the Presidential level, it’s nothing but 11th round draft choices and “a player to be named at a later date”
EconWatcher
@rlrr:
Don’t speak too soon. I’m not seeing a lot of good news on the horizon, unless helicopter Ben finally decides, with his newly filled Board, to fire up the whirly bird.
JPL
@kay: He fits in with those bitching about political correctness. Hell with common decency.
maya
Mitt’s campaign committee probably just found out what Mitch McConnell’s chin transplant is gonna cost.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@David Hunt:
Fixed.
MattF
@Mark S.: Yeah. Whatever you may think of Fred Kaplan, his views are a good proxy for what the foreign policy establishment thinks of Romney:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2012/06/mitt_romney_s_foreign_policy_ideas_can_t_be_taken_seriously_.html
Summary, FP experts say Romney is ‘not serious’, which is the very worst thing you can say about anyone.
The Ancient Randonneur
But will the “real” conservatives make him quit the race if he won’t fight the hideous Obama TAX?
Gosh, I kind of miss Newt, Santorum, and Palin.
rlrr
@MattF:
Romney doesn’t have to be serious about foreign policy. He’ll simply let the Likud party handle foreign policy for him…
JPL
When will the media report that former Barclays Bank chief executive Bob Diamond, will no longer be hosting a fund raiser for Mitt.
David in NY
@kay: Kay, there were a number of stories, not very widespread, about this same kind of meanness in Bush II. He apparently was nasty to Jeb and the other kids when they were young. And he delighted in giving his subordinates and the press disparaging nicknames, and so on. They are peas in a pod, guys who’ve always had their own way, partly because of their Daddies. They’ve just gotta assert their meanness as a way of confirming that they’re important, too.
Linda Featheringill
@divF:
Yeah. I miss Etta.
smintheus
Liberal icon Andy Griffith has died. RIP.
TG Chicago
My first thought is that he’d like to duck it.
But the thing is: this is a question that will come up in debates in the fall. With Obama standing right there, Romney is going to have to find a way to criticize it. He can’t say it’s unconstitutional, and anything else he says about it, Obama will easily be able to rebut by saying “So why did you do the same thing in Massachusetts? Why are you criticizing the biggest law you enacted in the only elective office you’ve ever held?”
So he’ll have to come up with something. My guess is that he’ll claim that the ACA weakens Medicare. It’s silly, but it’s about the best shot he’s got.
kay
@JPL:
Well, that’s baloney. I have a question for Romney. Has he ever, ever pulled one of these “pranks” on someone who can fight back?
Has anyone ever hit him back?
This shit would have stopped when he was 12 years old if he hadn’t been surrounded by idiots who indulged him or were afraid of him.
Jewish Steel
@kay: I’m sure it resonates with those who say, “If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying.” I.e., other asshole white guys.
But I think he’s probably got that bloc sewn up.
divF
@Linda Featheringill:
But Randy Newman is still with us.
Roger Moore
@Mark S.:
It’s a pretty short list:
Anything except how bad Obama is.
EconWatcher
@smintheus:
Sad. What a charming man. I loved how he and Ron Howard maintained a close friendship for half a century after they were on TV together.
Did you see the ad that Griffiths and Howard made for Obama, as Andy and Opie discussing the need for change? Great stuff.
gene108
Why should Republicans offer an alternative?
Bitchin’ about the evils of “socialized medicine” and “government take over of healthcare” and “government bureaucrat deciding who lives and dies” has worked very well for them for several generations.
It worked in 1948, to a limited extent in 1965 and worked wonders in 1993.
Even Bush, Jr.’s ineffective “consumer driven healthcare” program is more than this crop of folks is willing to think up.
Their voters are happy with the letting people die, rather than giving government any “new” powers.
@burnspbesq:
Jindal can probably get away with it and not effect his popularity. Of the three, he’s the only one, who is actually well liked in his state.
Despite Haley’s lack of popularity, the impotence of SC Dems pretty much means this won’t effect Republicans statewide.
The only real hope for blowback will be Florida, where the Democrats still seem to have a bit of pulse.
Culture of Truth
Yes that is the big recent talking point. Obama takes $500 million from Medicare! Stephanopoulos said to Paul Ryan, well, so do you. derp.
General Stuck
I think Allahpundit sums up the crazy fairly well.
The nutters are beginning to talk about campaigning minus their own candidate. I’m sure that will work out well.
And then there is the political oxygen problem. If you are talking about health care, and “Obama’s BIG tax”, that is less time to pound the economic issues mostly related to more jobs.
JPL
@kay: Chris Christie has become a household name for the tea bag folk because of his bullying.
They find it a strength not a weakness.
gene108
@TG Chicago:
No. The tactic will be to say healthcare is a states rights issue.
The powers states have to regulate commerce, within their borders is different than what the federal government can do via the Commerce Clause or the Feds power to tax.
For Massachusetts, “Romneycare” was a good idea and supported by people in the state.
For other states that “value freedom” it is a bad idea, but each state should decide for itself and not have the Imperial Federal Government dictate terms and force states to capitulate to Washington, D.C.
feebog
I just don’t see any upside for the Romneybot 2.0 on the healthcre issue. It is after all, about 99.9% Romneycare from the Socialist Republic of Taxachusets. And there are all those sound bites out there in TVland that the Romneybot 1.0 made about the individual mandate before the new software was installed. Team Obama has the ads already in the can.
Davis X. Machina
@gene108: A pulse, but only a third of the state legislature. Branstead announced today Iowa won’t play. I expect New Hampshire’s deep-red, near-veto-proof legislature won’t let its Democratic governor play, either.
Patricia Kayden
“Maybe Willard really is too busy concocting schemes to trip a toddler grandchild and take the gold in the Romney Olympics sack race”
Had to read the article to see if this had actually happened. Romneybot would probably put it all down to a “prank”.
gbear
Given that there is already video of him saying that he would repeal ‘Obamacare’ on his first day in office, it’s going to be kind of hard for him to shut this issue down. All Obama has to do is run that snippet over and over and over again.
gene108
@smintheus:
When I moved to North Carolina, as a kid, it was right around the time of the 400th anniversary of the Roanoke Colony and Andy Griffith was all over the T.V. doing PSA’s about it.
He really was a bit of a cultural icon in North Carolina.
David Hunt
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage:
“Fixed”
That’s accurate in most cases, but I was trying for stating the general case. “Those people” also includes the poor in all their variations. Black people are more likely to be poor so the GOP hates them twice as much, but they still want to stick it to poor White/Hispanic/Asian/etc people too.
JPL
@gene108: EMTALA declared health care a right when hospitals were forced to take anyone.
Everyone with health insurance and everyone who pays federal taxes are penalized already. I do wish someone would ask Romney about EMTALA.
rlrr
@JPL:
That would require a journalist to do actual journalism…
joes527
@smintheus: Andy Griffith was alive?!??
Next thing you are going to tell me is that Abe Vigoda is still alive.
kay
@JPL:
In Romney, it’s coupled with this disgusting, pleading attitude towards powerful people.
Have you listened to him when he appears at events with GOP stars? He’s an ass kisser. It’s blatant and weirdly generic, his lavish praise for (pick anyone) Santorum, Ryan, Christie, etc.
It is cringe-inducing. I have never seen a presidential candidate do this, to this extent.
Davis X. Machina
@JPL The GOP minor leagues at least are already working on repealing EMTALA on Tenth Amendment grounds.
rlrr
@joes527:
Abe Vigoda is still not dead.
Jewish Steel
@joes527: I thought he was a lot older too. Maybe it was because he played such a creaky, dust-bowl era character on the AG Show.
Mark S.
@MattF:
The problem is nearly every Republican foreign policy “expert” is a neocon loon who wants to start three more wars in the Middle East. Mitt’s better off not talking about foreign policy at all.
Betty Cracker
@kay: Also too when he appears in the “Fox & Friends” propaganda shop. It’s not exactly the sucking up to power dynamic on display, but you get to see Romney’s hectoring bully-boy persona (directed at the president). That side of him rarely comes out in “mixed” (i.e., not 100% wingnut) company. Sort of how he went all goon squad on Gingrich during the FL debate (not that THAT odious toad didn’t deserve that and more…).
Culture of Truth
Ron Howard is almost 60 years old.
smintheus
@EconWatcher: No I didn’t see those ads, but Griffith has been a champion of liberalism since I was a kid. A brilliant comic as well. This sketch is as perfect today as it was 60 years ago.
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
@rlrr:
Not to get all conspiratorial, but that Bibi trip sets off my Spidey-sense.
Nothing like a midnight bombing of Tehran in mid-October to shake up an election, dontcha know.
rlrr
@Culture of Truth:
Which means Opie Cunningham is as old as Griffith was when Matlock made its debut…
AliceBlue
@smintheus:
I grew up with the Andy Griffith show. The episodes are just as funny to me now as they were 40+ years ago. And the commercials he did with Ron Howard for the 2008 campaign were wonderful.
RIP Andy. We’ll miss you.
gene108
@JPL:
EMTALA was signed by President Reagan, therefore it means whatever Republicans want it to mean.
If that means EMTALA gets lost in the mists of time and becomes so obscure, no reporter can remember to ask about it, then so be it.
scav
Another reason I rather evilly like this Libor/GSK/etc news is that with fines and CEOs and COOs resigning or not resigning, or saying the second and doing the first, well it keeps the business pages front-line full of CEO as amoral entitled-shit, which complicates the ‘it’s all about the economy’ messaging. As astroturfed and misspelled and allied with cultural-nutcases as the tea-party is, there’s some bone dry anti-corporate populist tinder in there I reckon.
Zandar
But Betty, everything in this post makes perfect sense when you consider everything in your post on Sunday.
Mitt doesn’t have to lift a finger on the ACA when Drudge and the Breitbrats will fling poop for him.
JCT
@The Moar You Know: Not to mention the hospitals, there are some real advantages to the front-line medical community in this law.
And hah, even that odious McConnell is starting to lower expectations re: appeal. They have lost big and they know it.
I think they will shut up about this right after their big “show” vote.
bemused
@gene108:
Why is Jindal well liked in LA?
Baud
If the debate in this election ever turns to the proper height of trees, Mitt’s going to have it made.
slag
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’ve been thinking the exact same thing. The sheer lack of professionalism is very reminiscent of McCain’s campaign. He’s another one who’d been campaigning for president for years and year. Maybe overconfidence but that’s a strange place to be when you’re competing for a job against someone who’s currently occupying that job. And who happened to achieve some big things that his predecessors could not.
I’m also starting to have some sympathy for FactCheck in regards to Rmoney’s associations with Bain. I’ll admit I haven’t been following his Bain career too closely, but it’s not entirely out of the realm of reason that George Romney’s son was little more than the titular head of the organization for some time. A money name is a money name after all.
John PM
That T Bogg post was a thing of beauty. This was my favortie bit: Mountain Meadows Massacre: The Musical!
scav
@Baud: Somewhere in there’s a grand 3 a.m. in the morning red-telephone call ad: “Mitt! Mitt! My Oak’s just topped 7 ft! What shall we Do-o?”
< dramatic_voice > Could Obama Make the Tough Calls Like These? < /dramatic_voice >
ETA: Or maybe just a red telephone in the oval office ringing until automatic pickup. “Romeny’s Shrubbery Service!”
Citizen_X
@kay: Great Cthulhu, those Romney family vacations sound appalling. Especially the Cultural Revolution/Japanese Red Army-style self-criticism sessions:
The sons, mind you. Not the womenfolk, bless their little hearts.
DerFarm
@Culture of Truth:You are right and wrong. It is probable that 3+ R govs will attempt to not implement the exchange. But then the Feds will have to implement.
Where does it say that each Federally implemented exchange will be state specific? What if the Federally implemented exchanges aggregate the state uninsured at the federal level?
Can you say Single source insurer? The precursor to single payer insurance?
Amir Khalid
This is just more evidence — there was already plenty of it — that Mitt simply does not have the backbone to be POTUS. People are going to spend the next five months watching Mitt bravely run away from controversy. This won’t be the last argument with Obama that he concedes by default. I doubt that voters still undecided will be impressed.
Davis X. Machina
@slag: Because they can’t be arsed.
I suppose they wake up thinking ‘Why do I have to campaign at all? This is a center-right country. It’s naturally conservative. Everything I hear every day certainly suggests that.” And it’s so demeaning having to ask people to let you run something that’s yours to begin with. After all, you bought it.
Imagine having to ask the kids for the keys to the car you bought and pay the insurance on.
So they don’t really believe in what it is that they’re doing, up there on the stump. And it comes across.
Sometimes you’ll see different, from the jumped-up GOP-ers from nowhere — Huckabee, for example. Gingrich. Kemp was like that. Nixon definitely. But neither Bush. Dole sometimes.
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
@Davis X. Machina:
Long term, the population of the Red states must be reduced.
How nice of the GOP Govs to do our work for us.
Culture of Truth
Well he doesn’t have any daughters. Forcing the wives to participate at all is one of the more apalling aspects of thing. Very compound-cultish.
catclub
What for did my post get eaten? Not even a moderation message. But when I tried to post it again it said I had already posted. Call the waaaaahmbulance!
scav
@Citizen_X: Bless their little hearts indeed, they’re probably up for review daily, not once a year during vacation.
Barentw
The brilliance/horror of Citizens United is that it will allow Romney to declare cease fires on everything while “Zion Uber Alles” Adelson and the Koch-suckers blast away with $100 million ad buys linking obamacare to Auschwitz, and the msm plays Human Centipede with Romney’s sons.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@Culture of Truth:
Just another way of demonstrating wtf’s in charge in a patriarchal group. “Okay bitches, get in there and PLAY!”
catclub
@rlrr: Gas prices are low.
Good news for Obama.
People who think low prices are a good thing, so they are happier about the economy, are actually idiots.
Gas prices in summer of 2008 were VERY high.
Mark S.
Dear God.
kay
@Betty Cracker:
I think Romney puts people into broad categories: those who are important and those who are not
What I loved about the clip where Romney and Hannity were caught comparing their wealth and status was, Romney thinks Hannity is a loser.
Only Romney’s face is visible, but you can hear Hannity trying, and failing, to impress him. Romney makes no effort, at all. He’s barely tracking Hannity’s over- eager babbling. To Mitt Romney, Hannity is someone he’s forced to acknowledge while he’s stuck in a room with him.
Ash Can
As I said in the other thread, I don’t see how Romney’s GOP masters let him get away with radio silence on health care, unless they’re in such disarray themselves that it’s impossible for them to impose any clear-cut course of action on Romney.
And hey, if Mitt’s going to blow off the campaign and go on vacation anyway, now’s the time for Obama to fly around the country and schedule speeches every half hour or so.
@burnspbesq: Via ThinkProgress, it appears that blowback is indeed coming, from a fairly powerful source.
@kay: I agree. “Mandatory” family vacations? Full of competitive events? Normally I don’t give a damn about what pols do when they’re off the clock, but there’s just something off about forcing extended family members to get together for competition. It just screams “separate agenda.”
@smintheus: Oh man. So sorry to hear that. What a delightful fellow he was.
catclub
Another positive headline:
June auto sales: GM, Chrysler, Nissan and VW post big gains
Baud
@kay:
That’s the funniest thing I’ve read in a long time. I might have to start watching Fox when Romney is on.
slag
@Davis X. Machina:
Good point. They do seem to have a disdain for democratic processes. Ever since they generously condescended to give the Kenyan and Uteran Usurpers the right to vote. The sense of entitlement is palpable. But I’m not sure entitlement explains everything since they carry the cross of the gotcha lamestream media along with it. At some point, it should occur to them that they’re going to have to at least try to earn it.
rlrr
@slag:
“I believe the Republicans have never thought that democracy was anything but a tribal myth.”
— Hunter S. Thompson
danimal
@The Moar You Know: CEOs live in fantasy-land when it comes to politics. They won’t thank Obama for bending the health care cost curve down. More likely, they’ll thank the free market and curse Obama for introducing “uncertainty” into their insurance rates.
We give CEOs too much credit; many are just hacks outside of their area of expertise.
JPL
@Davis X. Machina: I wonder what happens if you are unconscious and therefore can’t produce your health insurance card.
I guess when someone calls 911, the operator will have to determine whether or not the person can pay.
Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn
Anyone else but me remember that it was the Obama Administration that pursued getting ACA before the Supremes sooner than later? They got the timing on their terms, now they’ve got the ruling they saw they could get on their terms.
The issue is now Obama’s to make hay of, while of course Camp Romney would rather pivot to underpants gnomes or whatever else it is they think they’ve got to run on.
So, I’m guessin’ I can see who’s gonna be calling the shots on this issue, at least in the near term…
rlrr
@danimal:
We give CEOs too much credit; many are just hacks outside of their area of expertise.
Mitt Romney, for example.
Valdivia
@catclub:
wooo hooo. that plus the house sales numbers make up for the flatlining manufacturing numbers out today (yesterday?)
Betty Cracker
@kay: I got that exact same vibe, Kay. You could tell by his snotty little fake smile that Mittens found forced hobnobbing with that odious Hannity creature painful. He probably thinks his willingness to endure low-born boors like that is a sign of courage.
Davis X. Machina
@JPL: I’d say ‘microchips’ but we know how they feel about those.
Ash Can
OK, I’m still in moderation for too many links, but the upshot of my comment, in reply to Burns, was that yes, there is blowback shaping up vis-a-vis the GOP governors getting all pissy about implementing ACA, and it’s coming from the hospital industry, according to HuffPo and via ThinkProgress.
SatanicPanic
@kay: That kind of behavior is only cute in Wes Anderson movies.
scav
OT: has anyone been especially especially good lately? Good enough for rumors of a police raid at the Sarkozy-Bruni mansion level good?
Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn
@Ash Can:
‘Zactly.
Frankensteinbeck
@Blue Neponset:
No good. Obama’s already eaten his lunch, coming out fast and hard in swing states with an economy focused message. Now he’s beating the Bain drum. The economy IS the biggest issue, but people think Obama’s better at fixing it than That Guy Who Fired Me. Mitt is totally out of his league, steadily squandering his advantages – and the Mushy Middle hasn’t even seen his absence of charisma in action yet.
Jewish Steel
@slag:
I think they’re cool with the processes. It’s the demos they can’t stand.
chopper
@General Stuck:
well prince rebus is now saying that the mandate isn’t a tax, but the RNC will pretend it is in ads.
these guys are so boxed in they don’t know what they’re doing.
SiubhanDuinne
@kay:
One of the articles I saw about the Rmoney Family Olympics had an anecdote told (admiringly) by eldest son Tarpp or Twink or whatever his Palinesque name is. One year the son had a summer job with the LA Dodgers and of course people who work for MLB teams don’t get to take a week off in the summer, so Tragg told his dad he wouldn’t be able to join them that year. But Willard said, all paterfamiliasly, “You will come home!” and by golly, that was that. Young Twatt said his boss wasn’t pleased. No shit, Sherlock.
So what is our takeaway here? Not only does Mittens play cruel “pranks” on people he likes, bullies those he doesn’t, and lies and cheats about everything — but now we learn that loyalty to and contractual agreements with one’s employer can and should be ignored whenever they are inconvenient. Nice life lessons for the grandkids, Mitt.
WereBear
The description of the fun ‘n’ games at the Romney’s is enough to make a gal rethink that whole “marry him for his money” thing.
Jeffro
I am still awe-struck that with the Great Recession still rolling on, with all the drag on the incumbent Prez that comes with that, that the Rs are foresighted enought to (be about to) nominate
a) a .00001%-er
b) who, better yet, has a background in vulture capitalism
c) whose health care plan formed the basis of Obamacare right down to the individual mandate, and
d) is a creepy, bullying, obvious stiff to boot.
I mean seriously, this thing ain’t over yet, but…wow…
Villago Delenda Est
Brave Sir Mittens ran away.
Bravely ran away away
When danger reared its ugly head
He bravely turned his tail and fled
Yes Sir Mittens turned about
And gallantly he chickened out
Bravest of the brave, Sir Mittens!
catclub
@Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn: “Anyone else but me remember that it was the Obama Administration that pursued getting ACA before the Supremes sooner than later?”
Me, me, pick me!
was also worried about it.
Do not gamble for money against B. Obama
gene108
@bemused:
No clue. I don’t live there.
Recent poll numbers I could find on the intertubes
http://www.bayoubuzz.com/buzz/item/12786-louisiana-poll-vitter-edges-georges-jindals-popularity-jobs-and-economy-tops
EconWatcher
@SiubhanDuinne:
I fairness, I’m sure he got the cool job with the Dodgers through family connections and it was make-work anyway, so it’s all good.
Valdivia
@SiubhanDuinne:
Just had to say, this paragraph
is a thing of beauty.
rikyrah
when your main spokesman can’t come up with anything better than to agree with the President…fuck yeah…you need to slink away from healthcare.
fucking hilarious.
Mark S.
@Jeffro:
You saw what his competition was.
pseudonymous in nc
@kay:
Look at who R-Money sucks up to by claiming friendship: NASCAR team owners, NFL team owners, etc. To the mega-mega-rich, he’s a hanger-on; he knows how to look down upon people who are just plain rich, and he’s confused by everyone else.
gene108
@Frankensteinbeck:
Bashing Bain can work up to a point.
At some time Obama has to say how he’ll make the next four years better than the last four years.
The reality is he can’t, as long as Republicans have more than 40 senators and control the House.
I really don’t see a 2008 level sweep by Democrats this time around, so I really don’t know how he’s going to articulate a “can do” message.
There are a lot of frustrated voters out there, who may sit at home in 2012, because they don’t feel voting for either candidate will help them.
The low turnout will hurt Democrats more than Republicans, since the people sitting home won’t be the 27%’ers.
Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn
@catclub:
Ding! Ding! Ding!
Yes, yes, and yes.
Although I’d daresay even the Obama camp didn’t see just how this would shake out. This was a real skin-o-the-teeth, “we heard the bullet whiz right by us” outcome. But in the end, Obama is just where he saw he could be on this issue.
Frankensteinbeck
@gene108:
Dem voter enthusiasm is riding high, though. Apparently we hate the Rs as much as they hate Obama. The media made a huge fuss over the heavily red states where Obama was threatened in the primaries, but in the other states where he had no competition he STILL got more votes than voted in the Republican primaries. Our side is psyched. Their side is pulling Colbert’s ‘Close your eyes and think of The Confederacy’ over Romney. Not good for voting numbers, no matter how much they hate Obama.
Bear in mind, 2010 was a midterm backlash election. Voting patterns were pretty normal for that. The same rules do not apply in a presidential year election.
Jeffro
@Mark S.: I know, I know…it’s just amazing that they’ve picked potentially the worst possible person (in every way) to run against Obama.
And thank the FSM for that! =)
General Stuck
@gene108:
I don’t know where you get this from. Enthusiasm is pretty high amongst both parties base to go out and vote. The disappointment factor for Obama is almost entirely on the internet. He has kept record job approvals amongst rank and file dems from day one. And when the campaign starts in earnest, we are going to see an ideological thunder dome match, maybe not seen since the 1964 election. You could be right, as no one knows for sure, but there aren’t a lot of signs of that in polls. Things are tough economically, and people tend to pay attention more, when that is the case. IMO>
ksmiami
@rlrr: BINGO! If things are picking up, there is no reason to change hands… there is no reason for Romney’s candidacy
ericblair
@pseudonymous in nc:
He can deal with anyone, above or below, who has bought into the plutocrat pecking order. Anyone else, who doesn’t understand or doesn’t fucking care who owns what enormous wedding-cake monstrosity of a house or who hobnobs with which other fat loudmouths in tuxedos, causes processing errors.
Between the OBL raid and the Obamacare decision, I would not fucking want to play p0ker with our pal Barry. That man knows exactly when to roll the dice and will not back down if he knows he has to go all in. Compare with the MittBot, who wouldn’t play the penny slots without a signed guarantee that he’d get his losses reimbursed.
chopper
@ericblair:
i don’t think you should be playing p0ker with anyone.
General Stuck
If Romney won’t “fight” the Kenyan Usurper, by golly the House wingnuts will
It will never become law, but if anyone else sees this kind of behavior from a now constitutional passed law, in any other way than bold sedition, I’d like to know.
Randy P
@Cargo: Nice analysis of that by Ezra Klein in today’s WaPo. Several governors have declared they won’t take the new Medicaid money, and it’s possible they won’t. But it’s quite a deal for red states which have been shafting their citizens. The worse they’ve been in allowing access to Medicaid, the better a deal ACA is for them.
catclub
@General Stuck: “in any other way than bold sedition”
Nope, not sedition. Just stupidity.
There was a certain vote early in 2009 which forbade spending money on transferring prisoners from Guantanamo. Not sedition, just stupidity.
And everybody can play!
chopper
stupid moderation.
Bubblegum Tate
@kay:
To be fair to Mitt, I’m pretty sure that’s how everybody regards Hannity regardless of status.
chopper
@ericblair:
i don’t think you should be playing p0ker with anyone.
Tom the First
@Raven: Who needs editing fucktions?
trollhattan
@WereBear:
He’s a punk and a control freak and it would seem the misadventures of young Willard evidence his proclivities as an adult. Yeah, I really, really want him directing our armed forces.
ericblair
@chopper:
I enjoy my metaphors shaken, not stirred. With one of them little onions.
The Moar You Know
@danimal: Um, I don’t like revealing too much about my IRL self here, but guess what I do for a living?
HINT: the job title has the letter “C” in it.
chopper
@ericblair:
you’ve buttered your bread, now sleep on it.
pluege
the republicans have been working for 3.5 years to make sure the economy stays as bad as possible from now until November. Without a bad economy there is NOTHING for republicans to run on except hate. And hate only garners about 30% of the electorate.
There is no “there” in the “healthcare [cough] debate” for republicans. They already got the billions flowing to their plutocrat buddies, they can screw the poor (what’s not to love for a republican), and roberts squashed the legal angle.
ericblair
@The Moar You Know:
“Custodian?” OK, maybe not.
The rationale that I can see that a Fortune 500 company would have against Obamacare is that they’re losing relative advantage over small companies. Sure, the current system is a pain in the ass for them as well, but they’re huge and they can support floors of benefits administrators and have the size to swing the best deals with the insurers, where smaller companies can’t. Now you’ll be on a more even footing with the small and medium companies, and employees will be in a much better position to tell you to take your job and shove it.
The small to midsize companies that won’t benefit from Obamacare are the ones that treat their employees like disposable interchangeable work units, basically the hospitality industry in a nutshell. I think the hospitality industry groups have always been slavering reactionaries.
WereBear
I suspect that this is what frosts them the most.
burritoboy
The big corps don’t really care anymore about smaller competitors: they’ve either bought out the ones that matter or are about to buy them out. What they primarily care about is jostling with the other big boys to get into various now-semi-closed non-mature markets (primarily in East Asia, but also some Latin American markets).
Original Lee
@burnspbesq: This is awesome! What a wonderful FU to the bishops!
And sadly, I now have a Phineas and Ferb earworm from the Soccer X-7 episode: “Sisters on the bus!”
Original Lee
@MattF: But but but he speaks French! And he knows all of the Olympics organizers! Surely that’s better than knowing where rare earth metals come from! \snark
Darkrose
As if I needed yet another reason to hate the Dodgers.