(Jeff Danziger’s website)
__
Smart piece by Jonathan Chait at NYMag — “This Video Proves Romney Knows His Whole Campaign Is a Lie“:
As an incumbent president presiding over a painfully slow recovery in which congressional Republicans, the Federal Reserve, and even his own bureaucracy can block recovery measures, Barack Obama can’t run a “Morning in America” campaign. All he can do is try to convince voters that Mitt Romney won’t make things better.
This is just descriptively true, but Romney’s supporters have infused the description with tones of moral indignation. Republicans have been angrily accusing him of “distracting” voters from the economy…. Jeb Ellis describes Obama’s strategy as “chemical warfare.” Obama’s strategy, he writes, “boils down to a simple question: can Mitt Romney be made so toxic as to enable the re-election of a president that a majority of voters would rather not re-elect?”
The unstated assumption here is that the race ought to be a referendum on Obama — and, in particular, a referendum on the lousy economy. But Romney’s strategy here is itself completely cynical and dishonest. I’m fairly sure that Obama genuinely believes that Romney won’t usher in greater prosperity. Does Romney himself actually believe that Obama deserves to be held accountable for the state of the economy?…
The Republican plan is to leverage public discontent over the current state of the economy into an election victory they can use to push through sweeping changes to public policy. Obama wants the electorate to vote on that instead. Now he has a good reason for wanting this: The entire thrust of the Republican plan, to cut tax rates for the rich and cut the social safety net, is highly unpopular. Why is Obama’s approach of discrediting what he sees as the radical policies of the opposition less edifying from the standpoint of American democracy? And why is Romney’s plan to have voters base their entire decision around a single performance metric he himself considers abject nonsense any better?
Click the link for video and more detail.
***********
Apart from the non-stop #GOPfailfest, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
lamh35
This has had me hot all day since i read bout this mess. This right here, this is some bullshhh. Why the Holy Hell are they asking this little girl about her damn mother’s finances. What freakin’ adult reporter opened their mouths to ask this 16 year old kid the damn question???? Gabby can’t say it, but I’m gonna say it…
F’off with that shhhh. Oh and the writer of this piece with his “sure it’s okay that the question was asked…it’s just apart of fame”…bullshit can go play in traffic during rush hour!
http://msn.foxsports.com/olympics/gymnastics/story/gabby-douglas-uneven-bars-finishes-last-pressure-of-sudden-fame-080612?from=en-us_msnhp
No surprise that it’s Fox Sports, but it just seems like the whole damn sports media can’t handle a little 16 year old Black girl winning the very “white” sport of American gymnastics.
This story was reported on the local news this morning and even the newscaster seemed uncomfortable discussing it.
trollhattan
Syrian PM has defected.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19156286
Lord Jesus Perm
Well, since he can’t run on his record as Governor, and the whole “HEY HEY I SAVED TEH ALIMPIKS!” bit blew up on him, did anyone else actually expect Romney not to be dishonest?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’m just watching Tweety, Joe Conason and a guy named Crowley from Time Mag talking about why Obama (according to a new Politico story) is developping a personal animus toward Our Willard. Conason finally got around to Romney questioning Obama’s patriotism. No mention of “No Apologies”, Donald Trump, “foreign”, “he doesn’t understand America”. If Romney didn’t look like a game show host, he’d never have made it past the GOP primary for Senate twenty years ago. He’s a petty, contemptible little man.
ETA: Crowley just said people ask him all the time: Would Romney govern from the right or the center. “I don’t know what to answer”. Then you are a fucking idiot, Mr Crowley.
Brian S
I guess Louisiana was afraid some other state might challenge them for the title of most fucked up education system.
elaine benes
Having a good day today.
The noisy, cock-sure wingnuts on a message board I visit are suddenly coming to the sobering realization that 1) Mitt is a pile of shit and 2) the leftist usurper in the White House might actually win re-election.
I don’t think I’e ever seen a more despondent group…totally deflated and they’re ALL suicidally whining about staying home on election day.
Naturally, I handed them a knife and sent them over to FiveThirtyEight to take a look at the electoral college projections.
Yutsano
@trollhattan: Shit just got serious. And Lebanon is gonna pay some kind of penalty here.
lamh35
President Obama in Conneticut:
Pres. Obama: “Mr. Romney wants you to pay for tax cuts for him. It’s like Robin Hood in reverse. It’s Romney Hood!”
Romney Hood. hahah love it. I’m just waiting for some enterprising internet maven to come up with an image or gif for that!
trollhattan
@Yutsano:
Confess I’m very nervous about the possibilities resulting from the uncorking of all the many factions in play there. Hezbollah & Iran & Al Qaeda make strange bedfellows, and there are a raft of regional and international interests who won’t be able to keep from mucking about.
Sheesh.
raven
@lamh35: Motherfuckers are bitching about the color of her fucking leotard too.
gnomedad
Fox Covers the Olympics: Gabby Douglas Has ‘Lost That Jingoistic Feeling’
This can’t be the worst thing Faux News has ever done, but I’m just stunned. Who decided attacking Gabby Douglas’s patriotism was a good idea? I want to slap both those clowns.
And the nerve of Serena Williams being Publicly Black “all over the most lily-white place in the world”!
Yutsano
@trollhattan: There’s a mutual hatred of Israel and…not much else. Hezbollah has morphed less into a terrorist organization and more into a political party with guns. But Iran through Syria is their biggest backer. There is no guarantee that would continue when Assad falls. And this is now a when.
lamh35
Ok, wait please tell me this is true cause I can’t stop laughing. So Romney goes to buy stuff at the hardware store to show he’s “every woman” or man or something and when asked what he bought he said “hardware” um awkward right?
I never understand why people who have been rich all their lives always like to try to show they are “just like joe blow”…please. One of the first things I will change when I strike it rich is to never have to go to the grocery store again. I’ll have maids and yes men and butlers for that…yup.
Besides who in their right minds truly believe those dumb as “hey look the stars are just like us” memes in gossip rags anyway.
raven
@lamh35: Then he went to the grocery store but he wasn’t “making groceries”!
hhex65
@elaine benes: heh, maybe they’ll finally see the nipple on their own souls– probably too much to ask.
cathyx
@lamh35: People who are rich don’t try to show they are just like us to other rich people. Only to us 99%ers. To his fellow elites he brags about what he has other people doing for him.
General Stuck
Enough of this politics shit. Say hello to Mr. Caliope, smallest bird in north American. Just trying to make an honest living.
BGinCHI
@gnomedad: Shorter Fox News:
Why did those lazy Africans force us to subject them to slavery, so they could become American citizens? Where’s the gratitude??
mclaren
@elaine benes:
This is what I don’t understand about the Republican party in 2012. You can call them lots of things — sociopaths, corrupt liars, toxic thieves, Gay Older Pedophiles or GOP for short — but you can’t call them stupid.
What in the world did the Republicans expect to happen if they nominated Mitt Romney in 2012?
Didn’t they realize that they’re sending in Gordon Gecko as their presidential nominee in the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression?
Didn’t the Republicans understand that their own base of fundamentalist evangelical Christians would rather vote for Obama than see a Mormon become president?
This is why I found it utterly impossible that Romney would ever become the Republican presidential nominee — it would be complete electoral suicide, equivalent to the Democrats nominating Reverend Al Sharpton.
And I still don’t understand why the people who run the Republican party allowed Romney to become the nominee. They could’ve changed the rules of the primaries to eliminate the Mittster. That kind of thing has been done before. Didn’t the people who run the Republican party realize the magnitude of the trainwreck they were setting up for themselves?
cathyx
@mclaren: Who else was there?
Amir Khalid
On further reflection, I realize that Clint Eastwood’s endorsement of Mitt Romney boils down to: “I like Mitt’s pretty face.”
Calouste
So why would we want to elect a President who is in the process of constructing this massive billboard saying:
“I have something to hide. Please blackmail me.”
?
JCJ
Since I live in the middle of Wingnuttia I frequently get fundraising letters from Republicans. Recently there was a letter from “Romney Victory.” I could join Team Mitt for $5,000, become a battleground something for $15,000, or become a Founder for $50,000. I sent back the following reply:
“You have got to be fucking kidding me. Motherfucker is worth $250,000,000 and you have the gall to ask me for $50K? FUCK YOU!!!
I felt so much better afterwards.
dmsilev
@cathyx: Newt Gingrich?
Rick Santorum?
Donald Trump?
Michelle Bachman?
quannlace
Has any of the major news outlets called Romney out on his blatant lie about the lawsuit trying to restore early voting in Ohio? No, all I’ve heard ad naseum, on CNN and others is the story that Obama raised XXX in July but was still less than Romney’s XXXXXX. Jesus, why the fuck is this news, unless it’s to point out the obscene amount of money in campaigns. Which of course, is never mentioned.
Anoniminous
@mclaren:
The field, if you’ll recall, was:
1. Romney
2. Gingrich
3. Santorum
4. Paul
Out of that line-up of goofballs Romney was their best choice.
WaterGirl
@Amir Khalid: I know. I thought that was too weird. I was disappointed when I heard Clint Eastwood had endorsed Romney. Then when I read what he said, I was flabbergasted!
cathyx
@Amir Khalid: I admit I did a double take when I read that. What is wrong with that man.
cathyx
@dmsilev: And they’re better?
xian
@Amir Khalid: nobody said actors are good at math (but the rich ones do have accountants who can tell them how they’ll do under different tax scenarios)
kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Obama is developing a personal animus towards Mitt Romney because everyone does.
Go back and look at any of the debates. There isn’t a person on that stage who likes Mitt Romney, with the exception of Ron Paul, which I just think shows that Paul is vain and easily flattered.
I think this is a much bigger problem than “want to have a beer with him.”
People seem to actively dislike Romney. There’s a reason for that.
I’ve come to think the John Kerry comparison people make is so unfair. Kerry may not have “connected” with working class Democrats (or whatever) but I never felt he was perceived as a huge asshole. They thought he was a fundamentally decent human being. There were points in the GOP debates where I felt the other candidates really loathed Romney.
Even with all the money and the huge business backing Romney still has to deal with people like state Party chairs and mayors and all the other little feifdoms. How’s that going to go?
Brian R.
@JCJ:
That is outstanding.
Anoniminous
@Amir Khalid:
So, is Clint Eastwood Teh Ghey?
It seems totally irresponsible not to speculate.
Brian R.
@WaterGirl:
Eh, Eastwood’s a Republican from way back.
If all he can say to endorse Mitt is that he’s pretty, that speaks volumes.
Yutsano
@WaterGirl: I shudder to think the worst, but Clint coukd be saying the President is near.
WaterGirl
@Brian R.: @Yutsano: You guys are both right.
Damned with faint praise?
PeakVT
@mclaren: Romney is the best they have.
I still haven’t decided whether that’s funny or scary. Probably won’t until election night.
@Anoniminous: Don’t forget
PolandPerry!lamh35
@raven: hey, don’t knock “makin’ groceries”. In NOLA we say were are “goin’ta make groceries” all the time. In fact if ya wanna know if a person was born and raised in NOLA prior to Katrina an not just a transport, then expect to hear “going to make groceries” or “we gonna be on the nu’tra ground”
Brian R.
@kay:
Yup.
I can’t find it, but there was a story from the Republican debates of several of the candidates stopping in the men’s room before a debate, and all of them were mercilessly mocking Romney and laughing about what an asshole he was. And then Romney walked in and they all clammed up.
ETA: Here it is. Even though it’s from that shitpile Game Change, it’s hysterical:
scav
Oh, I am twisted. First thought was, of, of course, he is so fundamentally detached that he thinks it’s all exactly like casting leading man vs. best buddy in a movie. 3rd rate movie, don’t even have to worry about the acting chops.
My second thought was casting couch.
Brian R.
@WaterGirl:
Yup.
And after Eastwood gave the right fits with his Super Bowl “Detroit is back” ad, I still think we’re way ahead.
Haydnseek
@General Stuck: @gnomedad:Ah, General, thank you for that. If someone stops watching a hummingbird while it is still visible, regardless of what it is doing, feel free to change the way you feel about that person, however slightly.
Anoniminous
@PeakVT:
Oh. Yeah.
Him.
And Bachmann also! Too.
dmsilev
@cathyx: A lot of the GOP base seemed to think so. I can sort of understand that; Mitt’s a weathervane who doesn’t have any real beliefs beyond “I should be President”.
Baud
Didn’t the Republicans win a historic election last time around? Why isn’t this election a referendum on their performance?
SiubhanDuinne
@Brian S:
Every time I think my gob has been smacked about as much as any gob can ever expect to be smacked, something comes along to smack my gob a little more brutally. This is today’s something.
raven
@lamh35:Not knockin it in any way, just sayin that dope wasn’t. That was my point.
Baud
@General Stuck:
I bet you Mr. Caliope can’t stand Romney either.
Haydnseek
@mclaren:Perhaps you were distracted during the Rethug nominating process. Look at his competition, and laugh in amazement! Rmoney was the “best” of a ridiculously, comically bad lot.
raven
@lamh35: Wanna see me makin blackened redfish that I caught down on the gulf?
Turgidson
@mclaren:
The other people who were willing to run could barely speak a coherent sentence without vomiting all over themselves. Even with all the red flags you mentioned, Romney was the best they had in that clown car.
PeakVT
@quannlace: Pointing out the Romney is a lying shit would torpedo the horserace narrative right quick.
Narcissus
Romney Hood. That rocks.
raven
@Baud: Or Mr Bill, no no no!
ShadeTail
@elaine benes:
What forum are you referring to? And did any of them pick up the knife?
Amir Khalid
@quannlace:
For all Mitt’s fundraising advantage is worth, he’s still running just about even with Obama in the popular vote polls, and way behind in the electoral-college tally. Also, is Obama’s campaign going broke? No. So as long as they can fund operations and raise enough money to execute their plans, I wouldn’t worry.
Mitt might be sitting on more money; but July was a dreadful month for his presidential image, and some of last month’s uptick in donations may have come from worried Republicans trying to compensate for that.
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
Oh fer fuck’s sake, I’m a peaceful person as a rule but today I just feel like smashing the bejibbers out of a while lot of people. In the neck. With a rusty pitchfork. Sideways.
jefft452
@mclaren: “…—but you can’t call them stupid.”
Yes We Can!
SiubhanDuinne
Whole lot not while lot.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Calouste:
THIS! If he does not release his tax returns prior to the election he is blackmail bait for his entire administration if he gets elected. If anonymous truly does get a chance to hack the IRS and release his returns he is toast on the world stage, he is TOAST. Are we willing to go down that road?
kay
@Brian R.:
God, it was just palpable from Huckabee. He has a really expressive face and he’s a good speaker, and it was just coming off him in waves. I remember McCain and Romney had some testy exchange and it was so clear the other candidates were enjoying how brutal McCain was.
I’m hoping GOP governors will dislike him as much as those who have come to know him do :)
Coupla bus tours oughta do it!
Jay in Oregon
@JCJ:
If the Italy deal is any indication, Romney and Bain are really good at making money using other peoples’ money. So this is pretty much standard operating procedure.
Running for President is probably the closest Romney has come to risking anything personally.
WaterGirl
@raven: That must have been one hot fire! The cooked fish was already landing on your plate at the 15 second mark. :-)
Baud
I’ve said this before, but haven’t seen it said lately: A Romney loss will open up 2016 for a lot of GOP wannabees. I don’t expect the party bigwigs will be bringing out their “A” game.
MikeJ
@Amir Khalid:
Actually, Rasmussen has Obama up 2 in a nationwide poll. Nate Silver says Rasmussen has a permanent +5R built in.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: Did autocorrect have a hand in that sentence, or am I just clueless for not being able to understand it?
Brian R.
@kay:
Yeah, the GOP governors aren’t going to like him personally, but politically they’ve got to know he’s becoming toxic. I can’t imagine a swing-state Republican governor wanting to be seen with Old Uncle Moneybags right now.
raven
@WaterGirl: That’s the deal with blackened redfish. You get a dry cast iron pan as hot as you can, dredge the fish in seasonings and butter and BAM! The heat forms a crust and the inside stays tender.
Laissez les bons temps rouler
Turgidson
@kay:
The fact that Romney’s surrogates can’t help but take little digs at the guy or undercut his message may also be related to how much of an unlikeable shithead he is.
raven
Now Gumbo, on the other hand. . .
Bohdi likes gumbo but Lil Bit is too dark to see!
SiubhanDuinne
@General Stuck: Exquisite. Thank you, Mr. Caliope, for lowering my blood pressure.
Um, Charlie? Please?
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl: Referred back to my #57.
quannlace
Romney Hood. Man, that cartoon just draws itself. Mitt all geared up in traditional Errol Flynn costume, complete with feather and green tights.
ShadeTail
@Baud:
They don’t have an A-game anymore. What works in local and congressional elections simply doesn’t work for the Presidency. Too much nation-wide attention gets focused on it for a republican-in-good-standing to actually win. Who else do they have besides Mitt “good with dogs” Romney? Just the likes of Christine “I’m not a witch” O’Donnell, or Rick “Medicare fraud” Scott, or Sue “chickens for checkups” Lowden.
They simply have *nobody* who could survive on the national stage anymore. They’ve driven all those folks out of the GOP.
Baud
@ShadeTail:
I agree that all the GOP has is money and the hope that people won’t pay too much attention. I just meant that the GOP big shots won’t be making any extra effort to get Romney elected.
ShadeTail
@Baud:
Ah, I thought you meant they weren’t going to bring out their A-game in 2016 (which I think they won’t, for the reason I already explained). You actually meant they won’t be bringing out their A-game for 2012 because they’ve basically given up (which is probably also true).
MikeJ
@ShadeTail: It’s possible their primary voters may learn to shut up and take one for the team in order to get someone Huntsman-esque nominated. A Huntsman presidency would be every bit as batshit crazy as a Santorum presidency or a Gingrich presidency. Huntsman knows how to look sane in pubic though. The tea baggers will eventually catch on to the concept of stealth.
WaterGirl
@raven: I saw Lil Bit’s eyes, at least! Was that your voice in the video? (My first thought is no, but I’m guessing your answer will be yes.)
SuzieC
@MikeJ:
Rasmussen is teh stoopid. Read somewhere today that they don’t sample cellphones on purpose; instead rely on an estimate.
raven
@WaterGirl: My playin with the pups voice.
eta I have come to realize I sound exactly like my dad.
MikeJ
@SuzieC: Yep, and if even they agree Mitt is doomed, he’s doomed.
Turgidson
@ShadeTail:
Not sure about that. They should have been cast into the wilderness for a generation after the unholy dump Bush/Cheney took on this country. Despite having absolutely zero ideas or credibility, they were able to turn the country against a somewhat effective (if excruciatingly painful to watch in action) governing party in less than two years, convince a surprising number of morons that our current problems are entirely Obama’s creation and he should be blamed for the lack of progress their own treasonous behavior is perpetuating, and now one of the worst national candidates in decades could still win the big job, even if it’s looking unlikely right now. In a sane world, the electorate would think about the debt ceiling fiasco and all this culture war bullshit and the sanbagging of Obama’s jobs bill, and affix blame for our situation where it belongs, delivering Obama a resounding win and coattails to have a sane Congress again. But….no. That’s not what will happen.
In the past 3+ years, I have become convinced there is no amount of spectacular failure that can completely destroy that party’s viability. All they really need is another GWB-type candidate whose last name isn’t Bush and who isn’t so obviously an insufferable moron. They may not have that person identified yet, but who would have guessed Obama would win the election in 08?
Baud
@Turgidson:
Our side kind of helped them with that with the way we behaved in 2009-10. I don’t know who decided that it was a good time for internecine warfare, but that’s what we had.
gnomedad
@Baud:
Right, someone “conservative enough”.
danielx
@trollhattan:
Yeah, like us if Bloody Bill Kristol has his way.
Well, hell, maybe they’re finally coming around to the realization that I came to some months back:
Any candidate capable of getting through the Republican primaries is incapable of winning the general election, barring an act of God or massive electoral fraud. Neither of which is impossible, but…
WaterGirl
@raven: That’s kind of nice, sounding like your dad. Assuming you liked your dad.
But that’s not how I picture your voice – I can sort of picture your voice in my head. If your “not talking to the dogs” voice is ever in one of your videos, I will get to see if I’m right about your voice. If I am, then surely our paths crossed in CU.
Turgidson
@Baud:
Oh no doubt. That’s how the Democrats roll, as tragic and frustrating as it is. I’m not sure how much a difference it might have made in the 2010 elections, but it frustrated me to no end that the vulnerable incumbents in the House didn’t just stand their ground and defend their votes for the ACA with a little bit of pride. Instead they acted like Pelosi extorted them into the vote by threatening their first born, and that they never liked that Obama guy.
Still, I suspect historians will look back at that stretch and wonder just what the fuck this country was smoking when they put those crazy fucks back in power, on any level, after giving the Democrats just two years to try to clean up the giant pile of feces that was left for them. Especially considering how productive a session that was by recent standards (which is pathetic but true).
joel hanes
@mclaren:
I still don’t understand why the people who run the Republican party allowed Romney to become the nominee.
They never really intended to win this one.
This way they get rid of Romney (it’s his turn, which counts for a lot in Republican circles, but they never wanted him) AND provide the shock of losing that will cause the base to purge the last non-fascists from the GOP all in one swell foop.
They DO intend to keep control of the House and make a stab at the Senate. If I were in charge of watching the electoral henhouse, that’s where I’d expect shenanigans with electronic voting — in relatively obscure House races, and in close Senate races.
raven
@WaterGirl: There are a number of vids in my account with my real voice I guess. Check out mudbugs!
WaterGirl
@raven: Will do!
Anne Laurie
@Amir Khalid:
Eastwood’s a hotshot film director these days; if he were casting for a movie president, he thinks Romney could totally ace the look. Unfortunately for the GOP, their version of Campaign 2012 is not doing well with preview audiences, because Mr. Looks-Presidential just ca’t deliver his expensively scripted lines with any conviction…
JoyfulA
@JCJ: My father got a big package of GOP money-begging material; he said it weighed over a pound. He was so offended! He’s been a Democrat for more than 80 years. “In my whole life, no one’s ever called me a Republican before!”
I told him instead of burning it, he should have refused it and sent it back so the RNC or whoever would have to pay return postage.
kay
@Brian R.:
I did a parade this weekend in this tiny burg with our statehouse candidate and got the first real sense (face to face) of how ugly this might get.
It was a little ragged and angry feeling. It’s almost like they’re MORE riled up than they were in ’04 because they don’t love Romney like they loved Bush. They don’t even mention Romney. It’s just pure, distilled anti-Obama.
The statehouse candidate is a first timer and was a bit of a tough Guy in his younger days and he was getting pissed at the anti-Obama comments and commenting BACK. Not good.
Anyway. I think this is going to be rough. They don’t like their candidate and they REALLY don’t like the President. It’s just all anger.
piratedan
@joel hanes: agree Joel, our job is to continue to hit these soft balls out of the park so we can just keep those theocratic fuedalists at home and start restoring some sanity at the local levels too
Anya
@Amir Khalid: So Eastwood has a man crush on Mittenz! How cute! He’s thousand years old, so that’s not the most embarrassing thing he could have said.
@lamh35: I LOL’d when I read this:
jacy
The spymobile has developed an oil leak. I haz a sad.
On a happier note, I have not introduced the BJ crew to my new baby, Elliot. Or as he’s known around here El-El Cool D.
You can see him in action here with Wilson in a piece I call “Two Dogs, One Bed.”
piratedan
in other news, since the PSU trustees feel that they got a raw deal because of the lack of ‘due process’, I hope the NCAA does review the situation and decides to impose a ten year death penalty just to reinforce the message that people are more important than programs.
raven
@jacy: Is that a French Bulldog? They are sooo cool.
Anne Laurie
@kay:
Voice from a two-legged lab rat: Because I was a Boston commuter, I was the victim of an attempted grip’n’grin by Mitt Romney back in 2002, when nobody knew who he was. I also got to shake John Kerry’s hand towards the end of 2003, also at a commuter station during the morning rush, at a time when everybody knew who he was. Some people were mildly rude towards Kerry in a “ya-dirty-librul-Commie” tone of voice, but people were yanking away from Romney. Normal politicians, even the ungifted souls like Kerry, don’t lurch into strangers’ personal space like they intended to grab them by the throat, and if the prospective voter pulls back, they know not to produce a teeth-baring primate-threat expression in response.
I’ve got to assume Willard’s gotten better at this essential political skill with practice — or at least his handlers have gotten better at warning people he’s gonna come at them like a turnstile groper — but I still can’t comprehend why a guy who so obviously hates having to be nice to random strangers ever thought it was a good idea to take up politics!
Anya
@Anne Laurie: How the hell did Massachusetts elect this mannequin to begin with? Was his opponent that terrible or was it sexism?
jacy
@raven:
He’s the French bulldog I never thought I’d have. Was a surprise Mother’s Day gift (for those of you who wonder why I keep my Republican S/O around.)
And he is just a delight. They are truly wonderful, wonderful dogs.
The prophet Nostradumbass
Ugh, looks like there’s a large fire at the Chevron refinery in Richmond, CA.
raven
@jacy: Great!
raven
@The prophet Nostradumbass: video
The prophet Nostradumbass
@raven: Yeah, I have KGO on my TV right now.
Mnemosyne
@jacy:
If both John Cole and Charles Johnson can wake up and realize that they were sold a bill of goods by the Republicans, we can keep our fingers crossed and hope your SO eventually manages a similar epiphany.
I’m still amazed every day that Charles freakin’ Johnson was able to escape the conservative Borg. I was convinced he was an irredeemable lifer.
Anne Laurie
@Anya:
Short answer: Yes. Shannon O’Brien was a terrible candidate (although she’d almost certainly have been a better governor than Willard), because the men who run the Democratic machine in Massachusetts make your average good ol’ Suthrun boy look moderately feminist. So the few women who are allowed to rise in the Democratic machine to the point where they’re viable statewide candidates are go-along-to-get-along, good-girl doormats. They do fine in races (state treasurer, attorney general) where it’s mostly a matter of voters pulling the straight-D lever, but when they run against someone who’s used to fighting, they get crushed. Which is fine with the Beacon Hill Bhoyos, because it reinforces their proud conviction that we ladies just aren’t ready for the big time.
There’s also a local “tradition” of electing token Republicans to one important office at a time under the vague (low-information, aka, stupid) impression that they will serve as a check on the power of the Democratic state house machine. Romney’s campaign explicitly ran ads using this argument, and it was the main driving force behind Scott Brown’s “upset” Senate win (pious slogan: ‘It’s not the Kennedy seat, it’s the people’s seat’).
Both factors had quite a bit to do with (current) Governor Patrick‘s success — although he’d been a Masshole since his school days and a politician in the Clinton administration, he was in no way shape or color part of the Commonwealth’s Democratic machine. In 2006, there were two “regular Dem” candidates who tore each other to pieces, and once Deval swept them, his Republican rival was Willard “we hate that guy now” Romney’s lt-guv, a woman from the Repub machine, and even more haplessly out of touch than Mitt himself.
danielx
@Turgidson:
Actually they have found such a candidate, I’m delighted to say, and his name is Willard Mitt Romney, aka the Marquis du Mittens.
They had a wide variety of candidates from which to choose this year. Rick Santorum, one of the finest minds of the 14th century and a man of whom Savonarola would be proud. Newt Gingrich, once rated the most unpopular politician in America. Ron Paul, whose positions on less regulation the wingnuts eat right up, and never mind all that unpleasantness about racism, nor yet his insistence that America really doesn’t need to bomb and/or invade every country with whom our government has a disagreement. Herman Cain, who not only produced crappy pizza but has more nastydirty laundry than a college student at Christmas break. Michelle Bachmann, who is not only a religious fruitcake but is the proud owner and operator of the craziest eyes in Congress. The campaign stands taken by these people were and are so crazy, inconsistent and just plain mean that there wasn’t a prayer that any of them could win in a general election.
The Republican base liked all these contestants just fine, and only grudgingly fell in line behind the Marquis – it sure as shit wasn’t because they like him. Come to think of it, I haven’t heard of anybody who actually likes Romney, outside of his family and those people with whom he got rich. And easy enough to see why – he’s a rich asshole who thinks he ought to be President because he’s Mitt Romney and it’s his turn, bitches! George W. Bush too was a rich entitled asshole (and a demonstrated incompetent in the bargain), except that he was capable of presenting the appearance of being a good ol’ boy and empathizing with voters, as all good politicians must. He kept up the act as long as he had to, then dropped it like a hot rock – notice how quickly he divested himself of that fleapit in Crawford.
The Marquis doesn’t know how to do that whole empathy thing; the only way he knows how to act is like a rich entitled asshole. Somehow he and the RNC failed to get the memo about how rich Wall Street assholes aren’t very popular right now, or ever for that matter.
You may have noticed that the other two Republican “candidates”, Jon Huntsman and Tim Pawlenty, got about as far with their campaigns as a Model T at the Indianapolis 500. This for a simple reason:
They-were-not-crazy-enough-for-Republican- primary-voters.
At this point, George W. Bush couldn’t get past a Republican primary on his 2000 platform, much less Ronald Reagan. If Republicans wanted better quality candidates, they’d get off their asses and vote for them in the primaries. They don’t. The crazier and meaner a candidate is, the better the Republican base likes it.
So – if or when Mittens gets beaten like a drum in November, the outcry from wingnutteria will be “he wasn’t conservative enough!”. All of which we’ve all heard before. of course, but they believe it. Wingnuts believe a lot of things that simply aren’t so, which is not exactly news. But one thing they know for certain: they don’t want any namby-pamby RINOs, which is how they refer to anyone whose foreign policy amounts to anything except ‘America fuck yeah!’ and anybody whose domestic policies wouldn’t be approved by Ebenezer Scrooge. They want red meat, and they’re going to have it from their candidates – they would rather lose than reason, or as someone once said, they will rule or ruin in all events.
Putting on my predictive hat, as opposed to my tinfoil hat: Mitt Romney will be the last candidate with a prayer of winning the Presidency for the Republican Party as it exists today. If the Republicans do not change or moderate their positions as a party, they will be irrelevant to national electoral politics in a generation. Their policies are bad enough, but they seem to be incapable of governing without fucking up royally – Watergate, Iran-Contras, and then the Bush-Cheney regime which was more or less one continual fuckup for eight years.
kay
@Anne Laurie:
The “yanking away” is hilarious.
I saw Kerry do a speech in Wood County OH and he had a nice almost sheepish air, like, “I KNOW I’m not connecting with you in some vital way, but I’ll TRY because this is what we’re UP TO, with this running for President thing”
You felt there was some recognition of it, which made it less awkward and more endearing. Some self-knowlege and self-deprecating quality that Romney just lacks.
I have to go to a Romney event. I’ve never done that, gone to one of ‘theirs’ but I just want to see what he’s like in person.
Mr Stagger Lee
@The prophet Nostradumbass: Just in time to raise gas prices to screw Obama.
Anne Laurie
@kay:
I would love to get your impressions of such an event! Even if his handlers keep Romney well away from the hoi polloi, it would be most interesting to find out if Ohio/Midwestern commoners can work up any enthusiasm — for beating the hated Dem, even if they can’t bring themselves to embrace Lord Bain.
cckids
@quannlace:
I can’t help but picture him a’la John Cleese in Time Bandits: “Oh, the poor, you know; they don’t have anything, but of course, that’s why they’re poor“. Priceless.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
I don’t know how much this counts for, but it seems that the impervious anti-accountability force-field around are financial institutions is finally showing some cracks.
My hope is for mayhem. My hope is for noise, and dirt, and much airing of some very dirty laundry. My hope is that this doesn’t stop with LIBOR. My hope is that through these lawsuits, we’ll start to see this disaster unravel. We’ve been fleeced by the MOTUs running the largest casino on earth since at least the early nineties. I hope that some of the major players in the bubble economy BS finally get their due.
I want blood.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
Regarding my previous comment, the easiest way to sum up why these crooks enrage me so is this:
They rigged the system, and then broke the system, so now our debt constitutes roughly 50% of our GDP. 50%!
They are effing creditors of that debt!
And they accomplished all this by WHINING!. Holding the gun to their own head, and saying DO WHAT WE SAY OR THE NI-CLANG gets it!
I’m soooo angry.
That’s what I get for reading Griftopia I suppose.