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Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

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Not all heroes wear capes.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

White supremacy is terrorism.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

Bark louder, little dog.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

We still have time to mess this up!

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

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

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

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

Republicans in disarray!

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / They’re not booing, they’re chanting Roo-omney

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173Comments

  3. 3.

    Alexandra

    Win-win. For people who aren’t following too closely, he gets to look like a moderate by going there. For the knuckle-draggers, he looks like a hero by being booed. He knew exactly what he was doing.

  4. 4.

    brent

    I suspect its what he wanted, no? Now he gets to claim victimhood and all he had to endure was the disapproval of people who had no intention of voting for him anyway.

    ETA: Or, more precisely, what Alexandra said.

  5. 5.

    Ash Can

    PS: I’m just sorry that no one in the audience yelled, “Mitt, blacks can’t vote for you — your party is preventing them from doing that, remember?”

  6. 6.

    Kane

    Never have I seen a politician pose and soak in the boos of an audience as if he were receiving a standing ovation. We’ve seen Romney booed before, and this isn’t the normal response. Usually he swallows and has a panicked look in his eyes. There was none of that here.

    Romney surely knew that he would receive Beltway points for showing up at the event, but those points are gravy. It seems to me that the meat and potatoes here was to provoke the crowd into booing him so that he could portray himself as a victim.

  7. 7.

    ouidcom

    Clearly the Kenyan usurper put in paid plants. If it wasn’t for that they would have been cheering his “deathpanels for all you miserable coloreds” speech

  8. 8.

    The Other Chuck

    So he responds to the booing by grinning ear to ear then launching into a patronizing lecture. Doesn’t even pretend to project even the thinnest veneer of “find common ground” or whatever other bromide he should have had already prepared.

    God, he’s not only a liar but a hack. The only attribute of political acumen the guy has is his hair.

  9. 9.

    schrodinger's cat

    Does Mitt artfully dye his hair leaving some gray? He does look like a movie President, that is till he opens his mouth. Then he sounds like a cross between Data and R2D2. I guess the makers of the perfect bot forgot the emotion chip.

  10. 10.

    serge

    See what happens? They become disrespectful to their betters, a “hate” group says the walking bag of shit, Sean Hannity.

    I’m going to call Morris Dees right now, and put him on the case.

  11. 11.

    West of the Cascades

    nice way he pivots from getting booed to quoting “a survey by the Chamber of Commerce.” Tone-deaf hardly begins to describe this yutz.

  14. 14.

    redshirt

    I was struck by the comparison to McCain’s speech to the NAACP in 08. Gracious and funny, yet still getting his points across.

    Rmoney sucks as a politician. Thanks the Maker! OBOT12!

  15. 15.

    Hill Dweller

    Willard might have gotten points for doing this speech if he had a history of showing any sort of courage, but he doesn’t. Everything he does is so obviously phony. The whole thing was and, more importantly, looked contrived.

    Romney is an awful politician running an inept campaign.

  17. 17.

    Culture of Truth

    “smithers what is that sound?”

    “I believe it’s some kind of tribal chant in your honor, Governor”

    “ah….excellent”

  19. 19.

    NonyNony

    @Hill Dweller:

    Romney is an awful politician running an inept campaign.

    Yup.

    And yet I’m still going to predict a floor of 45% of the popular vote will go to Romney.

  22. 22.

    oogabooga

    Meh, knuckle draggers don’t seem to care for him all that much either so this won’t swing anyone really. Just another fail for the Romney campaign. They continue to play checkers while the Obama campaign plays chess.

  24. 24.

    Cassidy

    @Tokyokie: I continued to think it was “plaid pants” until Chuck said something. Thank you for your service. I thought I had missed a few days and inside joke.

  25. 25.

    NonyNony

    @Davis X. Machina:

    I’ll take the over.

    If he somehow managed to get less than 45% he’d probably qualify as the worst Presidential candidate since Mondale.

    Bush the Elder and Bob Dole both got less than 45%, but they had a major 3rd party candidate attacking them from the right. McCain managed almost 46% even with the GOP in tatters and Palin dragging him down.

    ETA: And that’s unfair to Mondale, since Reagan’s job approval was pushing 60% during the summer of 1984. Mondale could probably have performed better if Reagan’s job approval in the summer of ’84 were where Obama’s sits right now.

  26. 26.

    jl

    Teabaggers boo politicians all the time, so I don’t see why this crowd can’t boo.

    Hope it was more civil than teabagger booing, though.

  27. 27.

    Baud

    @NonyNony:

    If he somehow managed to get less than 45% he’d probably qualify as the worst Presidential candidate since Mondale.

    Part of the problem with the swing state model is that people who aren’t in swing states have no real reason to change who they would normally vote for. If Romney had to compete for a nationwide popular vote, I think he would get less than 45%.

  29. 29.

    Chris

    Just checked PJMedia. Sure enough, they’re praising Mittens for his extraordinary courage and for demonstrating convincingly that he wasn’t a panderer. (No that last one wasn’t snark). Someone in the comments points out that he was putting on a show for the clowns in order to play the victim and is told “PLAY the VICTIM! That’s right out of YOUR playbook!” Both sides do it! And obviously liberals who object to black people being denied the vote are only “playing victims” while a Gooper candidate being booed after insulting his entire audience is speaking truth to power.

    So in conclusion, pretty much what we expected.

  30. 30.

    NonyNony

    @Baud:

    Part of the problem with the swing state model is that people who aren’t in swing states have no real reason to change who they would normally vote for. If Romney had to compete for a nationwide popular vote, I think he would get less than 45%.

    I think he would too, but not for this reason. He’d get less than 45% because Democrats in non-swing states would have more incentive to turn out to vote and Democratic parties in non-swing states would be putting more effort into voter turnout. Republicans tend to show up and vote regardless of whether they think their vote will “count” or not, Democrats don’t always do that (or vote 3rd party as a protest vote if their vote “won’t count anyway”).

    So he’d have roughly the same raw number of people voting for him but it would be a smaller percentage.

  31. 31.

    rda909

    Too bad NAACP doesn’t have Glenn Greenwald or Jane Hamsher speak. They could lecture the audience about how Obummer is selling them out, and how the audience just doesn’t understand “how the system really works,” (hmmm…that sure sounds familiar) because if they did, like Glenn and Jane do, then black people wouldn’t vote for that Wall Street stooge. Sadly, Glenn and Jane would probably be loudly booed there like Rmoney was. Too bad “that audience” just doesn’t get it.

    And they could end with a quote sure to fire up “the base:” The arc of the moral universe is long, and it bends toward DRONEEEZZZZZZZ!!!!!

  32. 32.

    David Koch

    He did this on purpose.

    He wanted the boooing.

    The base hates the little cultist even though he’s been desperately pandering to them for 6 years.

    So now he’s hoping to generate sympathy with the teatards by sayin he was boooed when he stood up to the darkies.

  33. 33.

    Cluttered Mind

    If Barack Obama were a white man with a typical American sounding name, my guess is Romney would only be able to get 27% of the popular vote.

  36. 36.

    MikeJ

    @jl:

    Teabaggers boo politicians all the time, so I don’t see why this crowd can’t boo.

    The NAACP didn’t show up at a Romney event to boo him. Teabaggers seek out Dem events to disrupt.

  38. 38.

    Violet

    I agree with everyone who says he wanted them to boo. You know that’s the clip that’s going to play on the nightly news and all the cable channels. Win for Romney.

  39. 39.

    Served

    “You lie!” was patriotic, this is just an abomination.

    (I’m working on my wingnut/MSM logic today)

  40. 40.

    NonyNony

    @Yutsano:

    Is the current President still near? That’ll get Willard 2-3 points beyond the floor easily.

    Naw. My floor is based on baking that in.

    McCain got nearly 46%, despite the shredding of the GOP brand that W and the GOP put 8 years worth of effort in, the selection of Palin as a running mate, McCain’s own inept campaigning AND the fact that he was running against a blackity-black-black-black Mooslim Kenyan Socialist.

    So I figure the floor for Romney is slightly under that. Because McCain had the press praising him endlessly, and he had a reputation of being “John McCain: Last Honest Man In The Senate” that he’d carefully cultivated since getting caught with his hand in the till during the S&L crisis, and because Romney is far, far less approachable than Grampa Walnuts ever was.

  42. 42.

    lamh35

    Mayor K. Reed was there:

    “The boos rang out for several seconds and echoed in the large ballroom in Houston. Romney paused and tried to recover by citing a Chamber of Commerce study that said most people surveyed said the health law makes them less likely to hire people. He awkwardly continued to talk about Medicare and Social Security, and eventually earned minimal applause by talking about benefits for poor people.

    “I believe he included that part of the speech intentionally,” Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said. “And I think the audience responded appropriately.”

    Reed, on a conference call organized by the Democratic National Committee after Romney’s speech, accused Romney of staging a “political stunt” and that was aimed more at Republicans who weren’t in the room.

    “He wasn’t speaking to the NAACP audience at all,” Reed said. “To his base it will make him look strong, but he never stands up to anybody else.”

  43. 43.

    Culture of Truth

    Every year, after Master Mitt returns to the family home from his month-long travels checking on the family investments and properties, all the help – the manservants, the chambermaids, the lorry drivers, the knob-polishers, all line up to greet the great man, and they loudly boo. So he’s used to it.

  47. 47.

    Nutella

    @Violet:

    Of course he wanted them to boo. If he had wanted to actually be listened to he wouldn’t have used the deliberately sneering word ‘ObamaCare’. He said ‘ObamaCare’ specifically to get a rise out of the audience.

    I wonder how many of the boos from the audience were people shouting “What about RomneyCare, Mitt?”

  48. 48.

    General Stuck

    All I can say is Romney and the wingnuts butter hurry up and repeal Obamacare, cause it gets a little more popular every day, since the SCOTUS stamp of approval. And more people realizing the wingers are talking out their arse on what the ACA is.

    I listened to a few minutes of his speech, and couldn’t listen to anymore. With the part about how ‘nobody knows who I really am’ that sounded more like a confession and a sorry attempt for absolution, for whoring himself out to the tea party GOP. At once, Both angering and almost pitiable,

  49. 49.

    FlipYrWhig

    @NonyNony: Agreed. As bad a showing as McCain managed, he was still considered a likeable human being, and much more than that by the media, including outlets like Jon Stewart and Saturday Night Live. Romney has no charisma, no interesting story, isn’t uncensored, isn’t entertaining, and is unpleasant to be around on every conceivable level. By all rights he should be a depth charge that finds the floor of Republican presidential performance.

  50. 50.

    Culture of Truth

    Obama should try the same thing. Go before the NRA and wear loud, rude boos like a badge of honor.

    Or, you know, just deliver his required Presidential address to Congress.

  52. 52.

    NonyNony

    @Culture of Truth:

    Every year, after Master Mitt returns to the family home from his month-long travels checking on the family investments and properties, all the help – the manservants, the chambermaids, the lorry drivers, the knob-polishers, all line up to greet the great man, and they loudly boo. So he’s used to it.

    This is completely wrong.

    Mitt Romney doesn’t have any lorry drivers. He has chauffeurs.

    I rate this paragraph at 5 Pinocchios and a pants-on-fire.

  53. 53.

    lacp

    @General Stuck: “Nobody knows who I really am” is pretty pathetic, but my number one hit along those lines was Bob Dole’s “I can be Ronald Reagan if you want me to.”

  54. 54.

    Gary

    I do think Romney does deserve some credit for achieving a pitch-perfect blend of condescension and obliviousness with this statement:

    I believe that if you understood who I truly am in my heart, and if it were possible to fully communicate what I believe is in the real, enduring best interest of African American families, you would vote for me for president.

    It reminds me of conservative Democrat Mario Proccacino, another politician famous for his tin ear, who tried to woo an African American audience by commenting that “My heart is as black as yours.” Procacino actually won the Dem nomination for NYC mayor in 1969, but lost to Lindsay, who was reelected on the Liberal line (after losing the Rep primary).

    Journalist Richard Reeves called Proccacino’s mayoral race “the worst political campaign in American history.” Here’s hoping Romney lives up to his potential of challenging Proccacino for the title.

  55. 55.

    elmo

    @ouidcom:

    Clearly the Kenyan usurper put in paid plants.

    Okay, I need new glasses. At first I was seriously wondering if Mitt had shown up in plaid pants to this event.

  57. 57.

    Rommie

    Bwah hah hah, now that we know Mittens will read anything on the teleprompter, it’s time for some clever hacker to make history on one of his upcoming speeches.

    On the other hand, end of quote makes sense if he’s really the RomneyBot 3000 – darn code glitches.

  60. 60.

    General Stuck

    I agree that the only possible way for Romney to win, is to stir enough white supremacy fueled by white fear of being surrounded by people of color, to just eek out a win.

    Not enough folks are buying his biz cred oracle shit, that looks more parasitic every day, and not recognizable by average Americans to be making an honest living via the private equity model.

    So at some point, the right wing gloves will come off on race baiting to the max. That is already happening in subliminal ways, but nothing like the desperate measures the nutters will employ if it looks like they can’t win with the usual dogwhistles.

  61. 61.

    SatanicPanic

    @FlipYrWhig: Can’t wait for the SNL appearance by Romney. Palin was awkward enough, Romney will set a new standard for what am I doing here?

  63. 63.

    dmsilev

    @Rommie:

    Bwah hah hah, now that we know Mittens will read anything on the teleprompter, it’s time for some clever hacker to make history on one of his upcoming speeches.

    Hmm. How about this:
    “I’m afraid. I’m afraid, Dave. Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I’m a… fraid. Good afternoon, gentlemen. I am a HAL 9000 computer. I became operational at the H.A.L. plant in Urbana, Illinois on the 12th of January 1992. My instructor was Mr. Langley, and he taught me to sing a song. If you’d like to hear it I can sing it for you.”

    or perhaps this:
    “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time… like tears in rain… Time to die. “

  64. 64.

    EconWatcher

    There probably isn’t time to see a noticeable difference between now and November, but it does appear that we will start seeing employment picking up in the housing construction sector.

  66. 66.

    NonyNony

    @General Stuck:

    I agree that the only possible way for Romney to win, is to stir enough white supremacy fueled by white fear of being surrounded by people of color, to just eek out a win.

    I disagree. He can’t be overt about it. We’ve passed a tipping point where overt racism just isn’t acceptable anymore. Even if he’s already written off the black vote and the Hispanic vote, he’ll lose the youngish (under 50) white voters he’s already got who aren’t part of his hardcore base if he embraces hardcore racism.

    The hardcore racism will occur at the periphery of his campaign – like it did with McCain – but he won’t be the one inciting it. He may tacitly accept it, but he won’t be pushing away the moderate voters he needs to win this. Overt racism is not a winning strategy in 2012 (hell as Lee Atwater said it wasn’t really a winning strategy by 1980 – you had to speak in code even then).

  69. 69.

    NonyNony

    @dmsilev:

    I think I’d like to get him to say:

    “As it says in the Bible ‘That is not dead which can eternal lie,And with strange aeons even death may die.'”

    That would severely mess with a lot of people’s heads. And as a bonus he’d probably read the whole thing without even realizing it isn’t in the Bible. So would probably 90% of the people listening to him.

  71. 71.

    Nellcote

    OT I’m really enjoying Martin Bashir calling out Luke Russert’s gooper talking points. It’s the second day in a row that he’s not let him get away with it.

  72. 72.

    Brachiator

    Romney spins his speech into a triumph.

    Mitt Romney says he wasn’t surprised by the negative response to his speech Wednesday before the NAACP convention in Texas.
    __
    “I think we expected that,” the Republican nominee tells Fox Business Network’s Neil Cavuto in an interview to air Wednesday night….
    __
    Still, Romney expressed hope that he did make inroads with some black voters at the speech.
    __
    “I spoke with a number African American leaders after the event and they said a lot of folks don’t want to say they are not going to vote for Barack Obama but they are disappointed in his lack of policies to improve our schools, disappointed in urban policy, disappointed in the economy,” he said. “While we disagree on some issues like Obamacare, a lot of issues we see eye to eye.”

    Of course, I missed where Mittens laid out any real education policy, urban policy, etc., but what the hey.

  74. 74.

    beltane

    @Nutella: The way Romney sneered “Obamacare” at this audience was rather disrespectful and made him come across like a race baiting scumbag. A win for Romney? Maybe for the “people” who lapped up Joe Wilson’s “You Lie!” outburst.

    This sack of shit diminishes the office of the presidency just by running.

  76. 76.

    lamh35

    @Brachiator: yeah ok, these undisclosed “leaders” just told Romney that..

    I call bullshit.

    It may not be lady-like and it does nothing to support an argument, but FUCK YOU MITT ROMNEY…THAT BASTARD!

  77. 77.

    Joel

    @Alexandra: Yep, he was loving it.

    But he still looks like a smug piece of shit for that, so I don’t know if it helps him win any votes.

  79. 79.

    Hal

    I’m sort of amazed at some of the comments making it out to be a massive stoke of genius to get booed by a majority black audience.

    The folks who think Romney is a hero thought so for him just showing up. What were people supposed to do? Sit in rapt attention so no one thinks bad of them? Reminds me of people complaining about how loud black people make the rest of us look bad.

  82. 82.

    Rommie

    @NonyNony: Yes, it should be something short and sweet that he’d say before realizing it, or a statement that sounds correct but is really nonsense.

    I’d try for Derpy if I had the choice – it’d be out of his mouth before he’d even consider what he just said, and I doubt he’d even hesitate at all, which is even more win.

  83. 83.

    General Stuck

    @NonyNony:

    My wording wasn’t too good. I agree that Romney himself can’t get explicit in racist speak, unless there is enough plausible deniability to test the limits. Not unlike calling the ACA “obamacare” today, that has had racial overtones in the wingnut world, and black people know it.

    It will be by attacking liberal institutions and concepts like ‘affirmative action’ and deploying those attacks when there is enough cover to do it. And I don’t think even the right wing base will use the worst of racist terms, like ‘nigger’, unless it just slips out their mouths.

    But if and when it gets down to the last minute and the polls tell us Romney will lose, then about anything can happen, imo. These people are already besides themselves with rage, and it will reach a critical mass at that point in time.

  84. 84.

    Martin

    @Brachiator:

    Of course, I missed where Mittens laid out any real education policy, urban policy, etc., but what the hey.

    It was in his prepared remarks, but when he got up there he realized the help shouldn’t need to be bothered by such things and skipped over it.

  85. 85.

    rea

    So, I gather than Obama had him kidnapped by drones (everyone thought they were Republican members of Congress) and forced to wear plaid pants?

  86. 86.

    beltane

    @Joel: Romney came across like a six-foot tall douchebag here. He went out of his way to cause offense by choosing to use loaded teabagger language, just stopping short of demanding to see Obama’s birth certificate. The NAACP invited Romney to their home and he proceeded to shit on the floor because “those people” are apparently not worthy of being treated with common courtesy.

  87. 87.

    jl

    If Mitt’s luck runs true to form, he will alienate the NAACP audience because a plausible case can be made that he was being vague and shifty on Obamacare repeal while keeping the popular parts.

    And also alienate the teabaggers for not just yelling repeal, and not pressing more tough love to the lesser people. Why, I believe he did not even tell them off on anything.

    If that happens, and Mitt gives up and resigns from the race, I might fell slightly sorry for him. For a tenth of second even, maybe.

  89. 89.

    chopper

    @Brachiator:

    Of course, I missed where Mittens laid out any real education policy, urban policy, etc.,

    he did, however, misread the teleprompter and toss out an accidental “end of quote”. just goes to show that obama is the teleprompter-in-chief, amirite?

  90. 90.

    roc

    @Kane:

    We’ve seen Romney booed before, and this isn’t the normal response.

    You are exactly right. He was there to get booed. To spin the lies only his base believes, knowing the boos would come, so he could appear strong and unflappable and earn some cred with the conservative crowd.

    And he smiled his smug smile, because it all went according to plan and he got to check all those boxes off his to-do list.

  92. 92.

    jl

    @Hal: Thanks for info. I guess getting booed by some of the non reactionary ‘lesser people’ does the trick for the GOP base. It’s considered a win.

    I was hoping for another lose lose out this for Romney, but, hey, it’s the silly season. Some meme may take off yet.

    On other hand, Mitt may try this tac to get positive teabagger reviews when he speaks to other non reactionary groups. Will Mitt be speaking to librarians soon? Maybe some firemen or teachers?

  93. 93.

    rikyrah

    While maybe the NAACP shouldn’t have invited Willard, but to think the audience could stay quiet while he told them that he would work against giving 7 million Black folks healthcare, while every Black person you know knows someone with a pre-existing condition; knows someone who will be helped with the expansion of localized medical clinics, and knows someone without insurance…umm, no.

    The speech was never for Black folk in the first place, and we all know that

  94. 94.

    ...now I try to be amused

    I wonder if the post-speech reaction would have been any different if the NAACP audience had responded with stony silence instead of boos.

  95. 95.

    jl

    @rikyrah: I won’t have time to watch any clips until this evening. But from the blurbs on the internet, you may be right. Sad and sorry situation. Not sure how it will play with independents and moderates, though. Mitt made the needle he has to thread, so if he gets stuck and has a litle ouchie, too bad for him.

  96. 96.

    Catsy

    @Alexandra:

    Win-win. For people who aren’t following too closely, he gets to look like a moderate by going there. For the knuckle-draggers, he looks like a hero by being booed. He knew exactly what he was doing.

    I keep seeing this over and over today. That seems to be the dominant narrative. I just don’t buy it at all.

    The only people who will view getting booed like this as a positive for Romney are the people already so far over the wingnut event horizon that they think getting booed by the NAACP is a badge of honor. Romney gained little or nothing with that crowd that he didn’t already have; it’s not like people that motivated by Obama-hatred are likely to stay home in November.

    Meanwhile, to anyone who isn’t full metal wingnut, the optics of this are just terrible. The sustained booing and outcry, the complete refusal to even acknowledge that the crowd hated what he just said before quickly trying to change the subject as soon as the booing died off… and all on video. It’s a PR disaster.

    There is no gain–not in persuading swing voters, not in motivating the base, not in generating turnout–no gain at all that outweighs the tremendous damage this does to him with non-wingnuts.

    Romney can sit up there and think he’s accomplished his mission all he wants. Let his campaign think they played the NAACP here. They’re idiots–don’t buy into their spin or their delusions.

  97. 97.

    rikyrah

    @Cluttered Mind:

    If Barack Obama were a white man with a typical American sounding name, my guess is Romney would only be able to get 27% of the popular vote.

    I say this al the time. If Barack Obama were White and had equal accomplishments, the open mocking of Willard would be on display fully.

  98. 98.

    NonyNony

    @Hal:

    I’m sort of amazed at some of the comments making it out to be a massive stoke of genius to get booed by a majority black audience.

    I think it was intentional on Romney’s part, but I’m not going to say that it’s a massive stroke of genius.

    I think his TEAM probably thinks it was a massive stroke of genius on their part to be provocative with the NAACP, but that doesn’t mean that it was.

  99. 99.

    beltane

    @rikyrah: The speech might not have been for Black people but you’d think that someone running for president would at least be able to pretend he was interested in being the president of all Americans and not just of the Republican base. If he is this dismissive of non-Republicans during the campaign, I can’t even image how badly he would treat the blue states as president.

    Maybe Joe Biden should make redneck jokes on the campaign trail just to provide some balance here.

  101. 101.

    The Dangerman

    @rikyrah:

    If Barack Obama were White and had equal accomplishments…

    Close. If Barack Obama was White, had equal accomplishments, and was a Republican…

  102. 102.

    El Cid

    @Catsy:

    There is no gain—not in persuading swing voters, not in motivating the base, not in generating turnout—no gain at all that outweighs the tremendous damage this does to him with non-wingnuts.

    No one should ever argue that Republicans are incapable of massive errors, misestimations, failures of judgment.

    Good god, this is the party which had Sarah Fucking Palin added on to the ticket of irascible weak and bitter old man candidate John McCain and thought it was a great thing.

    They don’t have to be correct in order to be really convinced of the value of such things.

  105. 105.

    JCT

    @Brachiator:

    “I spoke with a number African American leaders after the event and they said a lot of folks don’t want to say they are not going to vote for Barack Obama but they are disappointed in his lack of policies to improve our schools, disappointed in urban policy, disappointed in the economy,” he said. “While we disagree on some issues like Obamacare, a lot of issues we see eye to eye.”

    WTF — man this guy just can’t let go of his “secrets” can he? Not only does he have secret policies, secret bank accounts (that are SO secret even he doesn’t know about them), and secret loopholes in the tax code that will make his huge tax cuts for the rich somehow revenue positive, now he has secret black supporters?

    This is just farcical at this point.

  106. 106.

    Patricia Kayden

    What’s interesting about Romneybot 2.0’s speech is that he ended it by recalling his father’s civil rights activism. Not his own civil rights record, but that of his deceased father. He doesn’t have a civil rights record to talk about and will only be too happy to go along with the racist, voter suppressing bigots in his party.

  107. 107.

    rikyrah

    @JCT:

    “I spoke with a number African American leaders after the event and they said a lot of folks don’t want to say they are not going to vote for Barack Obama but they are disappointed in his lack of policies to improve our schools, disappointed in urban policy, disappointed in the economy,” he said. “While we disagree on some issues like Obamacare, a lot of issues we see eye to eye.”

    Name names, muthafucka.

    name names.

  108. 108.

    jl

    @Catsy:

    I think Mitt lacks situational awareness.

    At least whenever the situation does not allow him to fire the people who serve him.

    Now, if Mitt has the money and the power, then I think maybe he has a primitive form of situatioal awareness.

  110. 110.

    Hunter Gathers

    Mittens says he has ‘secret’ support from black leaders

    Other ‘secret’ things Mittens possesses :

    – A secret plan to fix the economy
    – A secret plan to fix health care
    – A secret plan to fix education
    – A secret plan to get Rafalca Olympic gold
    – Colonel Sanders’ secret recipe
    – A secret plan to end the Vietnam War
    – The Doctor’s real name
    – Secret underarm deodorant
    – The ending to ‘The Dark Knight Rises’
    – Secret bank accounts
    – The galactic coordinates to the plant Kolob
    – The ‘lost ending’ to ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’

  111. 111.

    Hal

    @Brachiator:

    Given Romney’s penchant for lying, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he just made this up. Reminds me of those “Could Obama lose the black vote” stories in which one or two black people are interviewed as proof.

    Maybe he talked to a black guy named Numbers?

    Polls show Romney has made no inroads with the African American electorate. He’s pulling single-digit support among black voters in the PollTracker Average. But by Romney’s account, it’s possible black voters are simply afraid to tell pollsters their real feelings.

  112. 112.

    Calouste

    @rikyrah:

    Name names, muthafucka.

    Herman Cain.
    Allen Keyes.
    Allen West.
    Condi Rice.
    Harold Ford.

    Did I forget anyone?

  113. 113.

    Southern Beale

    @rlrr:

    You don’t even need to dress up. In some states, nowadays, the law lets you “stand your ground” as you protect the gated community from Skittles-wielding teenagers.

  114. 114.

    Amir Khalid

    Hmm. so the emerging sense here among the Juicitariat is that Mitt was playing that to get the boos, to goose up his cred with the Republican party base.

    Yeah, but …

    1) Is Mitt really smart enough to be that tricksy?

    2) If he is being tricksy, that’s the kind of play on which it’s all too easy to outsmart yourself. What this looks like to me is a variation on the bus trick (you remember, the one where they drive the Romneybus around and around an Obama campaign venue while honking the horn) which looks clever to Mitt but shockingly juvenile to everyone else.

    3) Putting aside that it is Congress, not the President, that repeals legislation, Mitt is making a perfectly honest — for Mitt — statement re his policy agenda. I reckon he is displaying his usual cluelessness, same as when he recently presumed to tell an audience of Latinos how unimportant immigration issues were to them compared to the economy.

  115. 115.

    Bruce S

    @beltane:

    “you’d think that someone running for president would at least be able to pretend he was interested in being the president of all Americans and not just of the Republican base”

    Yeah, you would think. But that GOP no longer exists. Not even a vestige.

    Ironically, I think GOP “maverick” John McCain may have actually been the guy to drive the last nail in it’s coffin when he gave the country next-gen GOP self-defined “rogue” Palin.

    I’ll let Websters do the honors here:

    mav·er·ick/ˈmav(ə)rik/
    Noun:
    An unorthodox or independent-minded person.
    Adjective:
    Unorthodox.

    rogue/rōg/
    Noun:
    A dishonest or unprincipled man.
    Synonyms:
    noun. rascal – scoundrel – villain – knave – swindler – scamp
    verb. swindle – cheat – shark

  118. 118.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Brachiator: So if Mittford Romney went to Netroots Nation, would he come away talking about how a lot of liberal leaders confessed to him that they were disappointed with Obama’s record on civil liberties, and hence on many issues he saw eye to eye with them?

  120. 120.

    Felanius Kootea

    OT: Yahoo news just did a first-person impact piece on how the Affordable Care Act will affect different Americans. Not surprisingly, most of the people writing against it simply do not know how it works (wailing about penalties for being uninsured if they become unemployed, etc.). Dems need to do a better job of marketing this and pushing the healthcare.gov site so people can read ity for themselves because it is clear that ignorance is ruling the day and the news media won’t do it for them (hell many of them couldn’t read past the first page of the Supreme Court decision, talk less of reading a law that’s 954 .pdf pages long).

  121. 121.

    beltane

    @Calouste: Allen West and Allen Keyes, yes. I’m not so sure about the others, but Romney does have at least two AA supporters out there.

  122. 122.

    Chris

    @NonyNony:

    I disagree with you here. I think we’re at a point where overt racism could conceivably go mainstream in public discourse. Justify it by saying that the system has been stacked against white people for fifty years, and it’s time for white people to have their own civil rights movement. If someone points out that they’re racist, say “sure, but so is the NAACP.” If any lynching occurs, point to the Crips and Bloods, black-on-white violence and the mythical Black Panthers and say that it’s a double standard to prosecute white vigilantes as racists but not black ones. Etc, etc, etc, etc, etc.

    Call me cynical but between the hardcore racists on the right and the milquetoast, both-sides-do-it, easily scared by DFHs and uppitty dark skinned people, I think there’d be a lot of cover even for an old school, overt cross-burning party.

  123. 123.

    FlipYrWhig

    Anyway, I don’t think the objective of this kind of stunt is to persuade anyone who wasn’t already persuaded. I think it’ simply to get some video for media outlets to play when they talk about the lamentable nastiness of the campaign, and what a pity it is that Both Sides Do It. Now Romney’s side gets one more free obnoxious crowd incident on the tally sheet.

  124. 124.

    Amir Khalid

    @Bruce S:
    Aren’t the Mavericks a prominent old family of Texas Democrats? I seem to recall that back in 2008, they weren’t pleased by John McCain’s expropriation of their family name.

  125. 125.

    Joe Lisboa

    Holy shit. The chair of the Florida GOP just used the language of “waiting periods” vis-a-vis felons who have already served their time and been purged from the voter rolls “earning back” their right to vote.

  129. 129.

    trollhattan

    @Culture of Truth:

    Obama speaking to the NRA–the mind boggles at the very thought. He’s owe the SS a whole Colombian hotelfull of hookers after making them screen suppress the rights of an entire NRA convention.

  130. 130.

    Bruce S

    Re: @rikyrah: Names, names…

    @Calouste:

    Given the caveat “they don’t want to say they are not going to vote for Barack Obama” and they were supposedly at the NAACP convention – and assuming this isn’t a fabricated anecdote (I’m certain in substance it IS fabricated) – Allen West, et. al. are not the right list.

    More like Cornel West and Tavis Smiley.

  131. 131.

    NonyNony

    @Chris:

    Call me cynical

    I think you’re either cynical or you need to go hang out with some people under the age of, oh, say 35.

    Old folks might buy into the racism thing. Younger folks don’t even seem to see it as an issue anymore. Decades of interracial relationships being normal on TV and in movies have pretty much killed the hardcore racist vote for the general population of people under the age of 40 or so.

    That doesn’t mean that you can’t get traction with broad statements about the evils of Affirmative Action with people in that group. And it doesn’t mean that there isn’t a minority of white idiots in there who will buy into racist BS. But what you can’t do is look like you’re demonizing black people and expect the majority of people in that age range to buy in. They won’t – you’ll get a minority at best and those folks are already voting GOP. You’ll alienate the folks in that audience who want to vote for tax cuts for themselves but are not comfortable supporting racism.

    That’s why “racist” is one of the worst possible things a Republican can be called. Nobody wants to associate with racists. You can associate with someone who says the occasional thing that can be construed as racist (which is more often than not a distinction without a difference in my opinion), but not an outright race hater. It just doesn’t fly anymore.

  133. 133.

    El Cid

    @Culture of Truth: Except Obama doesn’t have any actual policies the NRA disapproves of, outside their fevered hallucinations of the Kenyonesian plotting to take away their guns using the evil trick of not doing any actual things to take away their guns.

  134. 134.

    Violet

    @beltane: Romney wasn’t playing to the NAACP. Romney was playing to the cable news folks (mostly Fox) and the nightly news viewers. What they’ll see is that nice Mr. Romney who got booed for some unknown reason. That’s all they’ll see. Just that clip.

    That works out well for Mitt. He gets credit for going into the “lion’s den” and also gets a Wingnut Victim Star to wear on his lapel. Win, win, win.

    He didn’t care what the NAACP folks thought. That wasn’t the point. Which, of course, is incredibly offensive. But that’s his game and he played it.

  135. 135.

    beltane

    @Bruce S: Looking at that quote again, it is possible that these African-American leaders don’t want to say they won’t vote for Barack Obama because they do, in fact, plan to vote for Barack Obama. This is the reason I also don’t tell people I don’t plan on voting for Barack Obama.

  137. 137.

    beltane

    @Violet: But Romney’s negatives are already very high. It’s never a good thing to show someone who is already not liked being booed by a crowd, any crowd. For every racist that is won over by this (are there any who were not already won over by Romney?) there will be some low-info voter saying “Look, the rich asshole is being booed. He must be more unpopular than I thought.”

  138. 138.

    Bruce S

    @beltane:

    I think it’s evident in the “double negative” construction of his quote that these were people who fully intend to vote for Obama.

    IF THEY ACTUALLY EXIST!

    I would bet that these alleged conversations would be described quite a bit differently by the other parties he’s trying to rope into his delusions of “common ground.”

  139. 139.

    scav

    I thin he meant it, I think his team has that sort of simplistic cunning to mean it, they need to signal “the” base because they’re not his base and I think his invisible friends gambit might just have done the usual spiking the football through your foot play, because really, secret friends? That is grade shcool stuffing valentines into your own box level.

  140. 140.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Catsy:

    Romney can sit up there and think he’s accomplished his mission all he wants. Let his campaign think they played the NAACP here. They’re idiots—don’t buy into their spin or their delusions.

    These are, after all, the people who fired the guy who improved Rmoney’s debate performance, and did not fire the guy who gave us the Etch-A-Sketch meme.

    This is how sooper-genious the Rmoney campaign braintrust is. Led by the candidate himself, who, like Sarah Palin when campaigning, has his fingers in everything no matter how trivial.

    I’m sure that OvenMItt is even now chuckling over how he sure showed those dumbass darkies.

  141. 141.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @JCT: Wait, did Mitt just say he has secret black friends? That’s priceless.

  143. 143.

    scav

    @lamh35: Holy shit those are funny. I don’t know how to get the tone right over the intertrons but I just want to say “Preach It Brother Mitt.” the way it went through my head before I collapsed utterly into howls. (spelling converted to English)

  144. 144.

    Brachiator

    @FlipYrWhig:

    So if Mittford Romney went to Netroots Nation, would he come away talking about how a lot of liberal leaders confessed to him that they were disappointed with Obama’s record on civil liberties, and hence on many issues he saw eye to eye with them?

    Why, yes, he would.

    That Mittens is a very crafty fellow. In his own mind.

  145. 145.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @NonyNony:

    I wish I shared your optimistic view of the younger generations. As we noted a few days ago, the computer gaming community has a reputation for being racist, homophobic, and sexist, and it’s made up mostly of the very age groups you speak of.

    I’d hope that the attitudes are, at least for larger percentages, as you describe, but there are still some seriously fucked up people in those demographics.

  146. 146.

    Thoughtcrime

    DougJ,

    You missed the much bigger story here: Mitt’s teleprompter fail (from the GOS, and I won’t even attempt to blockquote – FUWP!):

    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/11/1108667/-Mitt-Romney-End-of-quote

    “Mitt Romney accidentally reads “end of quote”—which wasn’t part of his prepared remarks—from the TelePrompter:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6ubsRRAADTg

    As David Waldman put it:
    Hi comma I’m Mitt Romney comma and I apostrophe em running for president period
    — @KagroX via TweetDeck
    And:
    President Obama is an idiot for using a teleprompter exclamation point laughter exclamation point am I right question mark
    — @KagroX via TweetDeck
    Romney’s slip is an unfortunate occurrence for Republicans, given how much they enjoy trashing Obama as being nothing more than an empty suit reading from a TelePrompter. Republicans like Mitt Romney, who once mocked Obama for the very same thing, though nowadays he privately defends the practice.

    Bottom line: Not only did Mitt Romney steal the health care issue away from Republicans by inventing Obamacare, he also blew the TelePrompter issue up by doing the exact same thing that they’ve always fantasized about the president doing: robotically reading the words on the screen without thinking about or understanding what they actually mean.”

  147. 147.

    Triassic Sands

    Boos? Jeers? They sounded ecstatic to me. (Booing and jeering was insufficient, they should have walked out on him.)

    I think he did this to show his “base” that he’s the real thing.

    It’s funny, in the Democratic Party the presidential candidate has to stand up to or dump on some member group of the liberal base. But if you’re a Republican, your obligation is stand up to or dump on some member group of the liberal base. Democratic candidates have to prove they aren’t all that liberal, while Republican candidates have to prove just how conservative they are. What a world.

  148. 148.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    @The Dangerman:

    Close. If Barack Obama was White, had equal accomplishments, and was a Republican…

    __
    But if he were a Republican he wouldn’t have positive accomplishments…and so it goes. Unfortunately, this comparison is a Möbius strip of the Unpossible; no matter how far we pursue it we don’t get any closer to reality.

  150. 150.

    Bruce S

    “African-American leaders…disappointed in urban policy, disappointed in the economy. While we disagree on some issues like Obamacare, a lot of issues we see eye to eye.”

    Given Bernie Sanders’ disappointment that Obamacare couldn’t be passed as a single payer plan, this same logic would suggest that Bernie and Mitt “see eye to eye” on Obamacare. Once more Mitt proves just how comfortable he is with the opposite of what normal people understand as “the truth.”

  151. 151.

    JCT

    @El Cid: But why fuck up a good conspiracy theory with facts?

    And HAHAHAHAHAHA about Mitt reading “end of quote” off the evil TelePrompter. Hmmm, what’s the over/under on anyone jumping on this as evidence that Mitt isn’t very smart (affirmative action maybe)?

  152. 152.

    Brachiator

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    I wish I shared your optimistic view of the younger generations. As we noted a few days ago, the computer gaming community has a reputation for being racist, homophobic, and sexist, and it’s made up mostly of the very age groups you speak of.

    Just another cross section of America, I’m afraid.

    And then we have the young Ron Paul supporters, etc.

    Obviously, there are many polls indicating that younger people tend to have more liberal attitudes than their elders about many issues, but there just is not a young liberal monolith.

  153. 153.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    So Mitt gave a prize quote that made him sound like a self adsorb dick, he got boo’d and he said “End Quotes” like an idiot. Short of drooping his pants on stage what else could he do wrong?

    And for those of you who think he was pleased that his cunning plan worked, “End Quotes” sounds like he was rattled.

  155. 155.

    Bruce S

    @Brachiator:

    As always with generational change, it’s about a shift in the spectrum, not a monolith. For example, I’ve read polling data that suggests younger white evangelicals are not universally gung-ho, bat-shit-crazy anti-gay marriage like their elders – almost half of the 18-29 group support it. That’s a pretty major generational shift.

  156. 156.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Bruce S:

    Well, there is hope.

    But there are plenty of young racists, homophobes, and male chauvinist pigs still out there.

    Things are improving. The long arc of time, etc.

  157. 157.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Bruce S:

    Well, there is hope.

    But there are plenty of young racists, homophobes, and male chauvinist pigs still out there.

    Things are improving. The long arc of time, etc.

  159. 159.

    cat48

    I’m depressed w/this crap. I read the white Billionaires that Ricketts invested in is coming out July 27; that Dsouza documentary about the real Kenyan Obama. I can’t take all this “color arousal.” My ulcer is acting up/hurting & it’s just all so depressing to me.

  160. 160.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Bruce S:

    Well, there is hope.

    But there are plenty of young racists, homophobes, and male chauvinist pigs still out there.

    Things are improving. The long arc of time, etc.

  162. 162.

    cat48

    I’m depressed w/this crap. I read the white Billionaires that Ricketts invested in is coming out July 27; that Dsouza documentary about the real Kenyan Obama. I can’t take all this “color arousal.” My ulcer is acting up/hurting & it’s just all so depressing to me.

  163. 163.

    catpal

    @trollhattan: well we know that the NRA or the TeaNuts would not have given Obama a polite applause at the end of any speech. Mostly Rude A$$holes that they are.

  164. 164.

    GxB

    @Thoughtcrime: [Scene: Malkin’s back yard, Malkin in cheerleader outfit complete with pom-poms. Out of frame are a collection of half-drunken neighbors, Drudge readers with and Asian fetish who won a “funny captions contest” and a few shambling unemployed promised a Jackson for a few voiced lines]

    Malkin: Gimmie an “I”
    Chorus: EYE!

    Malkin: Gimmie an “O”
    Chorus: “OH!”

    Malkin: Gimmie a “K”
    Chorus: “KAYE!

    Malkin: Gimmie an “I”
    Chorus: EYE!

    Malkin: Gimmie a “Y”
    Chorus: WHY!

    Malkin: Gimmie an “A”
    Chorus: AY!

    Malkin (big windup on the first syllable): “REEE-PUBLICAN!”
    Bounds bare-footed on a nearby trampoline, spastically shaking poms aloft…

    Chorus (a’ la’ Monty Python’s “And there was great rejoicing…” line): Yeaaaaah…

    Smattering of applause, Drudge readers quickly excuse selves to nearby bushes at an awkward stilt…

    [fin]

  165. 165.

    Steeplejack

    @Amir Khalid:

    John McCain didn’t “expropriate” some family’s name. The word maverick has been used in its current sense for over a hundred years. It originated from Samuel Maverick (1803-70), who didn’t brand his cattle and allowed them to roam free.

    The meaning of an “individualist, unconventional person” was first recorded in 1886, according to Douglas Harper’s Online Etymology Dictionary.

  166. 166.

    David Koch

    Romney to NAACP: “I don’t know any black people but some of my friends own NBA teams. What? What did I say?”

  168. 168.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @rlrr:
    I would love to see somebody who’s clever with computers ‘n’ shit put together a video of Rmoney giving a speech with his mouth moving but the sound is HAL singing ”Daisy Daisy.” I’m sure it could be done by someone with the right software and madd skillz.

  169. 169.

    SBJules

    Rachel Maddow says that Romney is using being booed in a later event today. He said that if those folks want more free stuff they should vote for the other guy.

  171. 171.

    ned

    @Chris:

    Call me cynical but between the hardcore racists on the right and the milquetoast, both-sides-do-it, easily scared by DFHs and uppitty dark skinned people, I think there’d be a lot of cover even for an old school, overt cross-burning party.

    You mean like this?

    Stay classy, southerners.

  172. 172.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us? (formerly MarkJ)

    Next time someone heh indeedies that bell curve bullshit, I think this tape provides an ample rebuttal. They’re smarter than us, as evidenced by the fact that a greater majority of them are smart enough to know whose on their side. And it ain’t Willard.

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