Mr. Personality is off to a flying start.
Not so much as a glance at the press corps from Romney on the plane, which was both funny & telling. Biggest press group traveling w/him yet
— Maeve Reston(@MaeveReston) July 28, 2012
The campaign team shows off their superior organizational skillz.
Romney plane also decorated w/ Middle East map & Team USA Olympic sign. Aides had an Israeli flag to hang but nixed it — Holly Bailey (@hollybdc) July 28, 2012 Meanwhile, Team Rmoney is ready for Obama’s “Saturday Surprise.” Whatever that may be. Any guesses? 
[original photo via]
Ben Cisco
Doesn’t matter.
They’ll make something up, the media will whiff on it, the 27%ers will believe it to their graves, and the rest of us will stand around going, “What the complete and unabridged FUCK?”
NotMax
What, no hummus?
Liberty60
“Saturday Surprise”; standing back and letting Rmoney do something stoopid.
g
It’s the new trend in political campaigning! Make up your opponent’s attacks and pre-respond to them!!
Maybe the Romney campaign will use some of its money to actually make attack ads against himself!
Valdivia
I sincerely think I am going to be sick of the tongue bath he is going to get in Israel. My only hope is that in his quest to always be alpha dog he rubs Bibi the wrong way and is utterly manhandled by him / a girl can dream
Served
His VP pick will be Bibi. Or, possibly just Israel.
NotMax
Anything vaguely campaign-ish (the regular Saturday radio address?), no matter how trivial, will be met with “See? We expected that.”
If there’s nothing even tenuously related that can be pointed to, it will be “See? The Obama campaign backed down and is in disarray and retreat.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I don’t doubt that LaBolt is right on one level…
…that this is a cynical attempt at pre-emptive media manipulation, but at the same time, Romney and his campaign do seem to operate in some kind of entitlement-fueled state of paranoia. “How dare that fellow fight back? It really is just too much.”
JGabriel
__
__
Libby Spencer @ Top:
No one expects the Saturday Surprise!
A really spicy salsa?
.
David
The surprise: Tonia Harding will hit Rafalca in the kneecap with a crowbar.
aimai
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Agreed, also thanks for reminding me of the new word “diplodisaster.” We might also go with “Diplosion.” “The Romney Campaign’s Diplosion was a new world record in diplodisasters.”
aimai
Jewish Steel
Telegraphing one’s constant state of agitation and paranoia. How presidential.
Redshift
Per the tweet above, one thing we’ve got going is that Romney seems to be the anti-McCain with the press corps. David Schuster was on Stephanie Miller a few weeks ago, and he said that the press corps hates Romney because he treats them like crap. This was around the time when the campaign announced that Romney wasn’t going to be taking any questions on the rope line at events, and then aides physically prevented journalists traveling with the campaign from getting to the rope line.
Editors and news anchors may be determined to make this a horse race, but all other journalists are just more of The Help, and are treated like it. I can’t imagine this will end well for him.
Redshift
@Jewish Steel: So, let’s see, we now have more than Nixonian level of secrecy, Nixonian level of paranoia, and GWB level of only wanting to be president, not to do the job of president. Any more?
(Yeah, Romney worships himself as much as most Republicans worship Reagan, but that’s not quite the same thing.)
scav
For a while I had he idea that it might be a staggering Vulture Capitalist beginning to be circled, slowly, by Vulture Journalists, but . . . Hard to commit. I can’t quite see why being closer to any particular MittWreck that appears is going to do the vultures(J) any good and they probably won’t report it unless it is of any size. And for a wreck of any significant size, they can get the Alpha Journalists in pretty quick. Do they get journalist bragging rights or frequent flyer miles or something?
Or are they being encouraged because the Mittster thinks ignoring larger and larger groups of people visibly around him will make him look more Presidentialy Strong! and Americanly Exceptional! and paper over that hes not giving details to the bulk of Americans ever, even on traditional subjects. By the end of the trip hé’ll be muttering Name Ranks and Serial Number to all questions posed. I’m baffled by all aspects of this relationship.
GregB
Romney is doing a bang up job as America’s Illwill Ambassador to the world.
dr. bloor
Obama’s going to triple-double for Team USA>
geg6
OT, but can anyone who is less lazy than me use their Google-Fu and tell me when and which NBC channel will be showing women’s volleyball? Local woman and daughter of a guy with whom I went to high school, Christa Harmotto is on the US team. Watched her play since she led my high school alma mater’s team to successive state championships and went on to win two national championships at Penn State. I’d love to watch her play and, hopefully, win a gold medal. Nice girl and nice family.
dr. bloor
@Valdivia:
Bibi has to decide whether he wants to deal with a president he doesn’t like, or one he doesn’t respect. If it’s the latter–which I suspect will be the case–Rmoney will really have to fuck up to draw overt disapproval from him.
Shalimar
One of them should wear an “I’m with the clueless rich dude” t-shirt.
Jewish Steel
@Redshift: Minus Nixon’s political savvy. And without Nixon’s level of trapped-animal cunning. Oh, and no swears.
Nellcote
this was a surprise:
http://www.kboi2.com/news/local/billboard-James-Holmes-Idaho-President-Obama-kboi-164065466.html
Waynski
@David:
That’s two tons of WIN, brother. Can’t top it.
Jay C
@g:
Isn’t this basically what the Romney campaign has been doing already? Campaigning against a bullshit-stuffed strawman “Obama” and then offering either stale boilerplate sloganeering and/or huffy fauxtrage over imagined/invented “slights” as a response?
FTW. Karl Rove is probably ginning up some seni-anonymous SuperPAC to do just that……
Valdivia
@dr. bloor:
Knowing Bibi like I do I don’t doubt it, but he too loves being Alpha Dog (he will never forgive Obama for treating him without due deference at one meeting early in the Obama administration) so I am hoping Mitt is his utmost Galtian Lord while in Israel.
Also–will be interesting if Mitt tries to go to the Wailing Wall tomorrow during Tisha B’AV, a very sacred fast day for religious people and the Wall being the last standing part of the Temple and this being the fast in which the destruction of said temple is commemorated it will be Mitt imposing himself on religious holiday. Curious to see if he waits til Monday.
Anya
@Valdivia: I have the same fear. Netanyahu hates President Obama with passion (probably because of his middle name), so he might be really be tempted to bring out the red carpet, but this little nugget from Vanity Fair (via Wonkette) gives me some hope:
That doesn’t seem like Netanyahu is interested in propping up Mittenz.
arguingwithsignposts
@Nellcote: Stay classy, wingnuts.
Libby Spencer
Put me on the list who think the Rombot invented the rumor just so he could pretend to be the victim. The rubes love that shite.
geg6
@dr. bloor:
Bibi will be slobbering all over him. Rumor is that Mittens will be announcing that he supports moving the capital of Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. As if the Middle East doesn’t hate us enough.
patrick II
The Saturday surprise is that, in stark contrast to Romney, Mrs. Obama acts with elegant graciousness while visiting England.
Romney aides will complain about unfair competition.
Waynski
@Nellcote: Outstanding Cavuto mark on that story. The BJ Lexicon should link to it.
El Cid
Thomas Friedman faces actual journalist questions — rather than worship — from a Radio New Zealand journalist. (Via driftglass.)
Why do these inferior, backwards provinces train their journalists so badly, such that they think they’re supposed to ask ‘questions’ of one such as Friedman and ask him to clarify things that ‘don’t make sense’ and challenge him where he’s ‘wrong’.
I hate him. He’s so fucking inane, above and beyond being a sheer propagandist for pseudocapitalist fundamentalism and warmongering as freedomizing and horrendously terrible writer.
One of his responses to the failures of his projected wonders of globalization was that ‘well, he went and looked back up in the Lexus and the Olive Tree and found that in the “F” section, Facebook wasn’t mentioned.’
That’s about as powerful a point as when some bizarre conspiracy theorist mentions some banal fact, connects it with the Federal Reserve via some ridiculous route and says ‘so there’.
When the journalist asks about how deregulation caused the crash of 2008, Friedman responds by saying that North Korea is well regulated.
But the journalist challenges him when he says that maybe we went to far: ‘Well, did you know at the time you were advocating it that was going too far?’
He gives a fucking John Bircher libertarian approach to a god-damned New Zealand journalist (they didn’t deregulate their banks this crazy way) by saying YEAH OMG WELL WHAT DO YOU LOVE STALIN SHUT UP.
Jesus fucking Christ he quotes himself from Lexus & Olive Tree to back up his own point.
But fuck regulations — you (really? me?)_can trade stocks on your cellphone?
I do like the fact that he’s talking to a real journalist from an English-speaking nation as though she’s a dumb Maoist piece of shit. Keep doing that, little Tommy, and you’ll soon find that word gets around — the BBC uses reports from Radio New Zealand and Radio Australia, and he’ll be facing real questions from these foreign networks tired of his arrogant dismissal from the point of view of celebratory self-quoting inanity.
Valdivia
@Anya:
I am hoping. I am very very curious too why Adelman felt it was necessary for him to go to Israel and babysit Mitt. That in itself could be a double-edged sword since Adelman is against the two state solution (he is on record about it) which may be in Bibi’s heart of hearts his wish it is not the stated policy of Israel. If Romney embraces Adelman, that might be trouble.
But in general I am sure they will make him look stately and he will promise to be in Israel the day after his inauguration unlike the usurper who went to Egypt instead. Also note he said to an Israeli newspaper that he will never criticize Israel in public, instead he will always state utter support for whatever Israel does, always. Just wow.
Hill Dweller
I’m too lazy to look for it, but Axelrod basically said that they didn’t need a ‘Saturday Surprise’ because Willard was doing a great job f’n everything up all by his lonesome.
amk
@Redshift: You should tell that to chuck toad.
Southern Beale
According to this, Romney told his Tel Aviv University audience that “governments should spend like Jews”…
I mean … I’m speechless. I will await verification of this because I can’t fucking believe it.
UPDATE: Just realized that’s a parody site. NEVER MIND. Even RomneyBot ain’t that stupid.
Valdivia
@Southern Beale:
that has to be a parody, you can tell by the over the top language plus, he would never be so stupid as to attend an event on the jewish sabbath.
El Cid
Awesome. About 14 minutes in, she gets tired of him accusing her of being stupid and naive.
She asks him about what it is he’s recommending.
She says that he suggests subsidies to education. He denies that he suggests subsidies. She asks him where the money would come from. He says from government. She asks how the government would get that money. He responds incredulously, well, duh, through taxes and revenue.
Mother fucking Little Tommy Friedman denies advocating subsidies to education but does advocate using tax funds via the government to pay for education.
GOD DAMN HE’S SUCH A FUCKING IDIOT.
[Oh crud, this was from October of 2011. Still.]
dr. bloor
@Hill Dweller: Yup. When you’re opponent is self-destructing, the best course of action is to just stay the hell out of his way.
Anya
@Valdivia: Did he not say in a debate that he’ll call his “friend Bibi” before he makes any statement. Basically he’s promising to outsource our Mideast policy to Israel. I know this makes Jennifer Robin happy but do other people not see this as insane?
Mark S.
@El Cid:
Man, I’d kick him in the nuts if he gave me such a stupid answer, but that’s just me.
dr. bloor
He’ll probably show up tomorrow with Lobster canapes for everyone.
Shawn in ShowMe
White House commissions George Romney/Saul Alinsky mural for the Oval Office. Invites Mitt and Ann to honor dear old dad at the unveiling.
Waynski
@Southern Beale: Happens to the best of ’em Beale. Don’t sweat it.
Citizen_X
@dr. bloor: Bacon-wrapped scallops.
Valdivia
@Anya:
yep. it is taking the ‘no daylight between the US and Israel’ to extremes, but hey that’s A-OK right? Staggering to think so.
@dr. bloor:
indeed.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I would be falling-off-my-chair stunned if that that weren’t what BiBi wants–and to the extent he cares, what Our Willard wants (anyone know where the Mormons stand on Armageddon and the Necessary War of Destruction?). I don’t know if that would be trouble since I suspect that most people who really care about Israel agree with Shelly and Bibi. The only way I could see it causing him trouble is that Colin Powell seems nervous about Our Willard and his neo-con flirtations, and the chuckleheads who call themselves independents think Powell is a wise man. I have no use for Powell (to put it mildly), but his endorsement would help Obama.
Waynski
@El Cid: I think it was the venerable Chuck Pierce who said that Newt Gingrich is what a smart person sounds like to stupid people. We should add Friedman to that list. We should have a list that also includes Brooks, Douthat, David Gregory, WaPo fact checkers, and so on. Any nominations for a permanent gobshite list?
Cain
@Southern Beale: I think that is a fake Democratic news site. The tag line is faux and balanced news you can almost believe in.
Citizen_X
@Nellcote: Holy crap, the comments are cesspooliscious. My favorite is a reply to the inevitable mention of Idaho Nazis:
“You’re disagreeing with me, just like a Nazi! You should be shot!”
Valdivia
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Bibi may not want a Palestinian State but he can’t say that, the trick is to always say you support it but the Palestinians make it impossible because they cannot be trusted. He has never uttered the No Palestinian State mantra since he took office this time. If Romney were to go there it would put Bibi in a very big bind, no matter what the policy goal may be the facade game has to be played.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Waynski:
Cokie Roberts, Richard Cohen, Ruth Marcus, Mark “Dick” Halperin, the Politico boys whose names escape me ETA Chuck Todd– how could I leave Chuck Todd off a permanent gobshite list?– and some kind of memorial scholarship to the Dipshit Academy for Medium Russ. And the gobshite list should be called the Broder List.
Also, too, the GOP has a Disappointed Obama Fund Raiser appearing in a commercial that specifically cites Obama’s alleged diss of Bibi (and Israel) as the reason for his Disappointment.
SiubhanDuinne
@Nellcote:
When it comes to using the Cavuto Mark, do both sides do it?
Yutsano
@Citizen_X: Dude, I hate to be stereotypical, but it’s Idaho. There are two small dots of blue and the rest is redneck city. I used to live there, albeit in the blue part. If you’re not white, straight, Mormon, or Christian, you’re gonna have a very rough time there.
@Valdivia: At worst Willard could make the statement that the Palestinian state is actually Jordan. That could really put Bibi in a nice little spin cycle with his neighbours.
(Heard a rumour Abdullah hates Bibi with a passion. No supporting evidence though.)
Kane
Romney can’t get out of Dodge fast enough.
Waynski
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I like it Jim, but didn’t Medium Russ already graduate from the Dipshit Academy — Summa Cum Dumbass?
Mark S.
You’d think this would be bigger news:
This is just further proof that we need to let the Voting Rights Act lapse. We have clearly achieved a post-racial society.
Mark S.
@Mark S.:
Damn it, forgot the link.
JWL
Saturday surprise?
The way Romney is going, Obama could sleep-in every weekend from now till the election and still increase his eventual tally.
Kane
Just for fun, somebody should tell Romney that Julian Assange has gained access to his tax records dating back to 1990, and he plans on posting them online.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Kane:
Why, is that the car the dog was on top of?
beltane
Sheldon Adelson is one repulsive piece of work. If someone were to create a fictional character based on him they would rightly be accused of antisemitism. Vile, simply vile.
Valdivia
@Yutsano:
oh that would be sweet. I read somewhere that Romney is also supposed to meet Palestinian leaders. Hmm. Wonder if the meeting will be another NAACP opportunity to seem macho by being rude.
I am sure Abdullah loathes Bibi. I am pretty sure anyone who actually knows Bibi has the same reaction.
dj spellchecka
turns out that rmoney’s people had originally planned a $50k per plate fundraiser for tomorrow…which is tisha b’av, a fasting day
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/12/mitt-romney-jerusalem-fundraiser_n_1668271.html
Rat Farts
The surprise: Obama releases Romney’s REAL birth certificate showing he was born in a community hospital with the riffraff and delivered by a doctor who went to a state school. Romney won’t come back to the US after the shame of that.
SiubhanDuinne
I’m not that big a Borowitz fan, but this made me snorfle:
SiubhanDuinne
@Bill E Pilgrim:
Heh. A Gail Collins-worthy line.
Yutsano
@Valdivia:
This just screams to me, “Will. Not. End. Well.” I’ll try not to die laughing from the impending ineptitude.
So did nothing happen in Polska?
Davis X. Machina
@Citizen_X: Trayf-kabobs, we call them.
gnomedad
Let the Photoshopping begin.
Valdivia
@SiubhanDuinne:
ohh I love that. :)
@Yutsano: Polska comes after.
Zed
@Mark S.: That’s like someone having a headache, and their friend says “maybe you’re dehydrated? Have some water.” and they respond with “yeah, we’ll, I heard this one woman totally DIED when she drank 80 gallons of water!”
Anya
@gnomedad: That’s soooo funny!!
Mark S.
@dj spellchecka:
If you’re “taken by surprise at the ferocity of the public outcry,” you’ve probably made a gaffe.
Romney has really hired some idiots for his team.
Bill E Pilgrim
@SiubhanDuinne: Ouch. Oh wait you meant that as a compliment?
Kidding.
Actually I figured out the real reason that they’re afraid of the tax returns is that he probably tried to claim the dog carrier as “overhead.”
Valdivia
@gnomedad:
FTW.
@Yutsano:
I too have a feeling that meetings with Palestinians will not go well. But I guess that will earn him kudos right since he means to outsource his foreign policy to Bibi.
Mark S.
@SiubhanDuinne:
ha!
mellowjohn
yiddish has a perfect word for sheldon adelson: meeskite.
both inside and out.
Waynski
@Mark S.: The fish stinks from the head down.
beltane
@Mark S.:
Birds of a feather flock together.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mark S.: a ferocious public outcry? I honestly thought he’d make it through the Israeli leg of the trip surfing on a sea of neo-con platitudes. I wonder 1) will the Sabbath Gasbags make note of said ferocious public outcry? 2) how will he spark ferocity in Poland? Tell them pierogis are second-rate ravioli from the White Hen?
beltane
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Maybe Romney will refer to the Poles as Russians. That would really set them off.
Shawn in ShowMe
@Mark S.:
Can’t wait until Team Romney holds a down-home barbecue for OPEC representatives during Ramadan.
Yutsano
@Valdivia: One would think they would do the tour in the more fuel-efficient order rather than bounce around Europe like that. But hey Willard isn’t too concerned about little things like the price of jet fuel. He has UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH!!
OT: We need a better troll supply. Ours has been seriously lacking lately.
@Shawn in ShowMe: Serving pulled pork and non-alcoholic beer. For that uniquely American experience.
Jay in Oregon
@Nellcote:
What the ever-loving FUCK is that!?
As much as I detest “fierce independant” Norman Goldman for his “the other side plays smash-mouth politics, so we should too” attitude, this is one time that I’m inclined to agree with him.
They did the same shit after 9/11 and after Katrina. They tried to distract everyone with “now is not the time to play the blame game” and then stuck the shiv in as soon as our back was turned. When they say “now is not the time to play the blame game”, what they mean is “can you please hold off on asking perfectly valid questions until we can throw up our wall of bullshit and misdirection?”
Valdivia
@Yutsano:
I know, though I have them pied so I never really know what they say but I haven’t seen any pie lately :)
SiubhanDuinne
@Bill E Pilgrim: LO to the fucking L.
Bobby Thomson
Synopsis of the Obama Saturday Surprise.
Evolving Deep Southerner
@Waynski: George Will might be on the bubble of that group.
patrick II
@Valdivia:
Adelman knows he need to keep a close watch over his employees.
Richard
As vile and stupid as Bush was, he always had the press on his side, thanks largely to the career enhancing scoops that Uncle Karl would hand out to the winners of the most loyal press lap dog competition.
If Romney is going to shut out and antagonize the press, even those who would be more than willing to suck his dick for a story, the bad coverage he’s getting now will seem like a picnic compared to what awaits him.
quannlace
Sounds like the daily special at some DC Diner. Maybe a stuffed tomato?
cckids
@Anya: Didn’t I read the other day that Bibi said his wife was meeting with Romney instead of him? “I certainly hope he has a nice visit” was the tone I remember.
Can’t google right now, but if so, what a burn.
wrb
@Valdivia:
How can it be a parody when it states Romney’s purpose so accurately and clearly:
“he also made it clear to our key ally in the region that even though the United States is a Christian nation, we nonetheless appreciate many of the positive aspects of their Jewness.”
wrb
He’ll wear a hanky on his head so that they’ll understand that though he must speak sternly to them in a fatherly way, he’s the sort of father who gets their music,
xian
@Zed: reductio ad absurdum is tom friedman’s stock in trade
xian
@beltane: no, he’ll promise to liberate them from the Soviet Union and say how much he loves (is delighted by) Chicken Kiev.
Calouste
@cckids: That was a parody of Romney’s statement about not attending his wife’s horse event and bragging he didn’t even know when it was.
rikyrah
@Redshift:
well then, they should act like it, and stop shilling for Willard.
Kathy
@Valdivia: I’m thinking Romey’s going to say something like, “well this wall is a decent start, but when are you going to finish this for Pete’s sake?”
maya
@Kathy:
More like a Reagan redux:, ” Mr. Netanyahu, tear down this wall!”
artem1s
maybe Mitt was afraid the President would make a surprise visit to the games; even show up at the dressage events; and be on hand to congratulate Phelps record breaking achievement. I’m sure Mitt would see that as taking an unfair advantage of the office. Probably Issa had subpoenas all drawn up, just in case.