ni-CLANG!
Mitt Romney is such an asshole:
Mitt Romney made a birth certificate joke today, prompting President Obama’s campaign to accuse him of lining up with the so-called “birther” movement.
During an appearance in his native Michigan today, Romney said: “No one has ever asked to see my birth certificate—they know that this was the place we were born and raised.”
Some of President Obama’s most intense critics continue to question whether he was born in the United States, despite his 2011 production of a birth certificate from Honolulu.
Obama’s campaign quickly condemned the comments.
I repeat: Mitt Romney is an asshole.
The people in the media who are excusing his comments as being merely a joke response to Obama’s Seamus shade are also assholes. (I’m looking at you, Jim Acosta.) The Birther conspiracy is a lie. Romney strapping Seamus to the roof of his car isn’t.
The people who were claiming that because Barack Obama is selling mugs with his birth certificate on it, Mitt Romney’s “joke” is no big deal are assholes. (I’m looking at you, Chris Moody.) That is nothing more than “black people can say ‘nigger’ so why can’t I?” argument.
Mitt Romney has pandered to and courted Birthers. (Donald Trump, anyone?) Mitt Romney is currently running dog whistle ads that accuse President Obama of gutting the welfare work requirement, despite the ads having been condemned as false by anyone with two brain cells to rub together.
[read full post at ABLC]
LanceThruster
And there’s the crux of it. And why Mitt’s followers (and press enablers) are so bloody dangerous and frightening.
Alison
Fuck this guy. Fuck him to hell, I am so God damn disgusted by this I can’t even…
No decency, no character, not one fucking ounce of worthiness. He’s a repugnant pile of shit. he does not DESERVE the honor of being President, not of this country or any fucking place.
Ugh.
CardinalRed
If he’s talking, he’s lying – “Actually, Boston Globe columnist Joan Vennochi has asked to see Mitt Romney’s birth certificate. She wanted to know if his middle name was really Mitt—or whether it was actually Milton.”
LanceThruster
@Alison:
Spoken like a 99%er. /snark off
Calouste
Romney is an asshole. He is also a fucking race-baiting fucking racist.
artem1s
most would say that a bare minimum requirement for a joke would be some type of punch line. In what way does this statement even remotely resemble a joke?
That word you keep using, I do not think it means what you think it means.
Bulworth
Why is President Obama dividing us all the time? /snark
Bulworth
“We nobody has asked ME for my birth certificate. Ha! Just look at me…everybody knows I was born here. Isn’t Amercia an exceptional country?!”
Dennis SGMM
How many Very Serious People will now chorus “Can’t you take a joke?”
Comrade Jake
Well that’s one strategy for getting people to stop talking about Todd Akin, I guess.
Raven
bbbbbbaby you ain’t seen nuthin yet
Professor
Didn’t these WHCA (white house corresp ass) journalists crying their freaking eyes out when Joe Biden used ‘chains’ metaphorically in a speech? Lets wait and see what their response would be?
japa21
Expect to see some major contributions going Obama’s way.
scav
The man and his party’s pride at running a national tantrum is palpable.
GregB
Have they announced David Duke as keynote speaker at the RNC yet?
comrade scott's agenda of rage
This is why the comment will get no traction in the Village, they’ll write it off as a “joke”.
Nothing more than today’s episode of IOKIYAR. If we made some crack about Mormons and polygamy, you can expect the right wing fauxrage machine to kick into overdrive and the Villager enables to tut-tut how nasty the Dems are being.
Calouste
@GregB:
They have announced Joe Arpaio.
Hill Dweller
@Professor: Their contrived outrage is even more laughable when you consider Biden was responding to Republicans accusing Obama of shackling Wall Street. In other words, putting Wall Street in chains.
Origuy
So the GOP has gotten all the Blacks to hate them, they’re working on the Latinos, and now they’ve started on the American Indians:
quannlace
No, but I heard they’re moving the official nomination from Wednesday to Monday. (Cause of that storm thingie.) Wow, that should be some riviting tee-vee time. Mitt and Ann Romney’s speech on the same night. How can the networks refuse to broadcast it? (They’ve declined.)
Wonder how this is gonna affect Mitt’s ‘bounce.’
? Martin
Fine with me. This won’t do shit to help Mitt’s turnout. It’ll help Obama’s, though.
More please.
Ruckus
Let’s see, mmmm, in college, an asshole, in mid life business a complete fucking asshole, in politics, an asshole.
So shouldn’t be honor him with the highest title he’s ever held? Complete. Fucking. Asshole. CFA for those so inclined.
Mike in NC
This excludes a large proportion of the American electorate.
Brachiator
Intense critics?
At this point, any reporter and editor with a brain would call these fools what they are: certifiable lunatics.
And Romney continues to show what a gutless piece of crap he is by playing into this stuff.
It’s interesting to recall that McCain had to betray his last dregs of honor to grasp at the presidency; Mittens keeps reminding us that he never had any honor to discard, only a wan smile and robotic, soulless determination.
Frankensteinbeck
@Origuy:
…Custer was not actually the good guy in that story, right? They know that?
Actually, Custer is a perfect poster boy for the modern GOP. Racist, sadistic, warmongering, he failed upwards in the military until it got him killed.
The Dangerman
His internal polling on white working class voters must suck shit; the welfare ads followed by this “joke” are rather telling.
Elie
He’s just doing it to get under Obama’s skin. Its as predictable as his making an ass of himself. The sad thing for Romney is that Obama doesnt have to make stuff up to make him look like a fool. He does it on his own…
? Martin
@Origuy: Wow. Defending Custer. That’s pretty out there. But I think they can do better.
How about the GOP hold a candlelight vigil for Eric Rudolph? I’m thinking the time might be right.
Waynski
@quannlace: It’s just the roll call vote. Mitt won’t be accepting until Thursday (I think) as planned.
jp7505a
@artem1s: The punch line is ‘ as opposed to that other guy with the funny name’.
Without four years of birther nonsense, it would simply be a bad joke, poor delivered, by someone with the stage presence of a fire hydrant BUT we have had 4 years of birtherism. So sorry ‘it’s just a joke’ doesn’t cut it
Snarki, child of Loki
I want to see a DNA test, to see if Romney is human.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@Elie:
The president tweeted in response:
Song of the Day: Born in the USA.
Teddy's Person
@Brachiator:
Best description of Rmoney (and Ryan) ever!!
It can be the name of the band they start in Mrs. Rmoney’s stables after the election.
Bokonon
Classic Limbaugh framing. Hit someone below the belt, and then chortle “why do LIBRULS have such a bad sense of humor??”
NCSteve
<a href=http://www.nationaljournal.com/thenextamerica/politics/obama-needs-80-of-minority-vote-to-win-2012-presidential-election-20120824?"Ron Brownstein explains everything that's going on in a single post"
This was my favorite part and, indeed, the part that explains everything that’s happened over the last four years and why the ni*CLANG event horizon draws ever nearer:
japa21
@Brachiator: At least, to give the little bit of credit he is due, McCain did push back against a woman at one of his town halls that said she was afraid of the Muslim Obama and did say that Obama was a decent man. When someone at one of omney’s rallies called Obama a monster, all Mitt could do was nod his head, smile and move on.
nanute
The response should be: We don’t want to see your birth certificate. We want to see your taxes.
? Martin
@Frankensteinbeck:
No. Custer was the white guy. Of course he was the good guy. And he was military, so of course he couldn’t have done anything wrong.
I mean, I did a simulation in my kid’s sandbox that shows definitively that a man on horseback couldn’t even see any native americans due to the terrain and the inability to see clearly along the right side of the horse. He did nothing wrong when those savages attacked him.
ChrisNYC
One saving grace here is that this whole Obama experience is going to be written about for what, decades? And the silence and complicity from the press on the constant racism is going to be a story in itself. Maybe an entire book. None of these people are going to be well thought of by later generations. It’s like the opposite of Murrow and his McCarthy broadcast.
Yutsano
@Bokonon: Fuck that. Willard is a stone cold racist from a stone cold racist religion. Full stop.
rlrr
@? Martin:
You know who else was white and in the military?
Teddy's Person
@NCSteve:
There’s a depressing thought: 3 in 5 white Americans are racist.
ding dong
Since Anne Rmoney was born at Henry Ford hospital she is an anti semite right? It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
bemused
It’s obvious it was a calculated move to use this “joke”. What struck me was how comfortable Mitt was doing this, chipper even. When was the last time we’ve seen or heard Mitt so relaxed and at ease? Never that I can recall. He seemed to be in his element.
Mitt is a total asshole.
Omnes Omnibus
@Frankensteinbeck: Custer was dumb, even by cavalry standards.
SenyorDave
In case anyone forgot, Mitt Romney is still an asshole. And a lying sack of shit. And a fuckwad. And any of those other sixth-grade insults. Occasionally somone steps up to the plate and shows he is worthy of those juvenile comments, and Mitt is just such a person.
Mitt, you revealed your worthlessness when we found out you tormented your peers in high school. It said all we need to know about you.
Cassidy
Hey now. No need to get upset. The American public loves this birther shit Mitt. Double down! Double down I say. This won’t hurt in the genreal, I promise.
Seriously, though, is anyone surprised? I figured they’d wait untilt he Klan gathering enxt week, but hey, maybe it’s a preview of Mitt’s hands on leadership of the whole convention. And just remember folks, they’re on record as saying his hands were all over it, so when these idiots do say dumb shit on prime time television…he approved it.
And Jeebus, what a dipshit. If you’re gonna make a joke, at least be funny. This guy is such a fuckin’ tool he can’t even tell a racist joke right. At least look around with your eyes wide first or something.
Bago
Well, it seems less of a dog whistle, more of a train whistle.
HAHA! I’m white and have the hair of Mr. Fantastic!
NCSteve
Ron Brownstein explains the last four years, the entire election and why the ni*CLANG event horizon draws ever nearer with a single post:
This was my favorite part:
ottercliff
Yup. An asshole sticking his nose up the asshole of that Donald Trump asshole.
Waynski
@rlrr: Oo. Oo. I know. Eisenhower! Or did you mean Hitler?
Cassidy
@Omnes Omnibus: And universally disliked by his peers.
Dennis SGMM
@Yutsano:
Back in my machinist days I was sent to a vendor for a course of instruction on how to run a new and very complicated computer-controlled machine. One of the other attendees was a machine shop owner from Wendover, Utah. A few days into the course he invited me to lunch and during the course of the meal he offered me a job. It was more money, relocation expenses, a nice deal. Something made me tell him that my wife is a Latina. “Well, then there won’t be anything there for you,” was his answer.
Those people are fucked-up beyond the imagination of anyone who hasn’t dealt with them directly.
Villago Delenda Est
OvenMitt has no choice.
To hold on to the cretinous, racist vermin that are the heart and soul of the GOP, he must go birther.
It’s that simple.
He can’t tack to the center. His crew of racist scum will revolt if he tries.
ottercliff
@ding dong: Not at all. She’s a rich snob who thinks that rules only apply to little people, not her, her husband Willard, or her dancing horse.
rlrr
@Waynski:
What do you think?
catclub
@Elie: Has anyone EVER gotten under Obama’s skin? I have never heard of a case where he blew up, or got flustered. Last time would have been when he was working in Chicago in the early 90’s.
I wonder how Michelle gets under his skin?
22over7
@Origuy:
Holy mother of pearl. And this guy lives in Albuquerque?
I can’t decide which is worse, that he’s invoking Custer, or that he’s invoking the name of Allen Weh, a whiny godbag who lost to Martinez and, as far as I know, is still pouting about it.
This guy does know that Martinez is a republican, yes? And that New Mexico has a large population of Native Americans?
My gob is smacked all to hell.
Ann Rynd
Ther will be payback for this when Mitt’$ seat at Obama’s second inauguration is on a curb in Detroit.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
Every time the Romney’s do a joint interview, yunno who they remind me of?
Leona Helmsley. Without the flair.
Equally out of touch. Equally dickish. At least she didn’t put her dog on the roof of a car. Now, she might have tied a servant up on the roof of a car “just in case”, but her dog? Never.
Waynski
@rlrr: Truman? Kennedy? Carter? … yeah it’s probably Hitler.
catclub
@Teddy’s Person: It seems to me that most everybody is racist to some degree. The point is how one acts on one’s racism, or makes an effort to counteract it.
I do not see how, in this day, that making racist messages will win over the folks who have not yet been won over.
rlrr
@Waynski:
Just echoing a right wing meme…
rlrr
@Waynski:
Truman? Kennedy? Carter?
“Unpossible! Democrats never serve in the military.”
— Typical right winger
Mnemosyne
@Calouste:
Given that Arpaio is probably the most prominent “respectable” birther out there right now, this is seeming like less of a joke and more of a first strike.
@artem1s:
It’s the conservative version of a joke, which is to insult someone to their face and then say, “it was just a joke — don’t you have a sense of humor?” if they protest.
metricpenny
Mitt didn’t make a joke. He is a joke.
Tonal Crow
I hear that Mitt Romney was never born — because he was manufactured.
—
Tag: Romney’s like Sarah Palin, but more dishonest.
Mnemosyne
@catclub:
IMO — and this is just my opinion — I think this may be yet another sign that the Republicans are desperate to hang on to their traditional base. I have a feeling that Republican enthusiasm is not quite what’s been reported in the media and the internal polling is showing scary numbers of conservative voters deciding to sit this one one.
...now I try to be amused
@catclub:
Obama can get under Romney’s skin seemingly at will, while Romney blindly gropes for an Obama button to push, in vain. Obama is making the trolling contest into a blowout. I’ll bet that gets under Romney’s skin too. Bush failed to give me a Captain Queeg moment in the 2004 debates; maybe Romney will indulge me.
This campaign has become a grudge match on both sides. If it wasn’t for the high stakes involved, I’d be enjoying it immensely.
gvg
@Origuy: Custer was an incompetant general. That is not disrespectful, it was fact. I hope the service academies teach about what NOT to do.
A lot of people were killed by indians in the past. A lot of indians were killed by colonists and pioneers etc. Its very sad all around. But we made peace eventually and that is better. We made peace with Britain after we fought the revolution, with the Germans after the world wars. That is normal and right. What is so special about custer compared to all those others? This guy is an idiot.
I hadn’t previously run across someone who thought Custers defeat was somehow reason not to talk to American Indians but I’m amazed. I’ve always understood him to be an example of deadly officer. I recall a childhood viewed historical film that portrayed him as a glory seeker who got his troops killed….that was when most westerns were um still very traditional white centric and well before certain themes appeared about Vietnam war movies.
He’s also blaming a whole ethnic group for actions done before they were born and holding that grudge forever. that is racism flat out.
presquevu
According to philosopher Frank Zappa, “broken hearts are for assholes”. Heartbreak of defeat for serial company rapist Mitt, anyone?
pseudonymous in nc
Is that a joke that Mittens’ daddy would have made?
We already know that he’s got daddy issues.
SpotWeld
This is how @ssholes weed out non @ssholes or make sure everyone stays compliant with their attitude.
Imagine a college frat meeting, or a tailgate party, or a golf group hanging out and someone makes a joke like that.
One out of three thanks happens.
1) You laugh along
2) You note it as a joke, but you don’t laugh
3) You actively point out that it’s a pretty lame attempt at a joke.
If you do 1), you confirm your social status. You belong, huzzah, your social status among your peers is cemented.
If you do 2), you perhaps feel nothing, maybe a bit of unease on whether you really want to hang around with these guys and if the networking is really worth the investment of your time.
If you do 3) you will probably soon be on the out with the rest of the group if since reactions 1) & 2) will sum to be the majority. So why are you the one spoiling the fun for everyone else.
What this does is set up a dynamic where any member of the group who has a different opinion on specific topics like politics, or perhaps in a less topics example what the favorite sports team (Red Sox v Yankees) is quickly alienated.
The remainder are people who march lockstep, or become passive just to “get along with the rest of the guys in the room”
Romney, I think, is more a 2) than a 1).
I don’t think the national level GOP machine would ever tolerate someone with enough imitative and independent thought to stick their neck out on an unvetted opinion.
What we are seeing is someone who defaults to a 2) statement until prodded by one of the other guys in the room to say/do something.
quannlace
What I’m waiting for? During the debates, it’s a sure thing that he’s gonna try and get off some comment/joke in what he thinks is a folksy, Reagan-like way. With that creepy smile and laugh of his. And it fails miserably.
Linnaeus
Daily Caller seems to like this election model predicting a Romney win in November.
Mnemosyne
@SpotWeld:
I think you’re mostly right — this was pretty much a straight-up “alpha male” attempt by Mitt to get everyone else to laugh at his joke. I do think that this is something he’s gotten away with a whole lot of times in his life, because he’s always been the guy with the most money and the most status in the room (he’s basically Mormon royalty), so he’s always been the guy telling the joke that all of his subordinates feel required to laugh along with and say, “Good one, sir.”
ETA: And this is yet another reason why Mitt would be a crappy, crappy president — he always has to be the smartest guy in the room and surrounds himself with yes-men. What’s the saying? A-level executives hire A-level staff but C-level executives hire D-level staff?
Corbin Dallas Multipass
OT but fun http://www.yiddishcursesforrepublicanjews.com/
Brachiator
@japa21:
Oh, yeah, I give McCain his due on this one.
I also think that Obama was giving Gramps McCain a sly nod when he referred to Ryan as a decent man, a family man, when he noted the VP pick at a public event.
@Mnemosyne:
RE: I do not see how, in this day, that making racist messages will win over the folks who have not yet been won over.
I also think that some Republicans also still believe in this stuff. The Romney spokes hole who was trying to kiss up to the Brits about how Mittens has that special Anglo Saxon understanding is a rancid appeal to the old crap about the White Man’s Burden. And we have the continual, slow seepage of racist dung from the National Review Online.
Like Dr Strangelove, the worst of these clowns just can’t help themselves or stifle their Racial Tourette’s Syndrome.
Chat Noir
Agreed. Just sent a few shekels to Team Obama, per Jim Messina’s request.
Ann Rynd
The Romney coverage this week is gonna be terrible for those of us who can’t stand the sight of them, him, her, the aging boy band they propagated and even fucking Refalca. But the msm must follow their tired old traditions and will do their worst. The good news is that the increase in horseshit media will mean that more people will learn that all of them are wearing ridiculous underwear whenever we see them, except Refalca of course.
Dexter
The page is loading weird. Who broke the blog?
geg6
OT, but not really…
This is a beautiful piece of writing by oft-linked Mr. Charles Pierce. Not funny at all, but, as someone who has walked Gettysburg battlefield numerous times over my lifetime, it brought tears to my eyes.
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/gettysburg-republicans-12009056
MikeJ
@Ann Rynd:
It’s a pity they’re only doing an hour a night. I wish they would keep Romney on every TV in America 24 hours a day. It might lead to the first unanimous vote. People who watch him hate him.
Elie
@catclub:
Oh I am sure Obama can get annoyed. I am sure that I would not like to be on the end of his ire. Probably not by a predictable situation and mook like this but I am sure that doesnt stop Romney from trying. Its that NYA NYA brat impulse that Mitt has. He just cant quit doing it even when he has had both his eyes blacked by the O campaign hit squad. I pray every night that I will live to have the pleasure to see him get both eyes blacked and his teeth knocked out to boot on election eve…
Quaker in a Basement
The birther joke? Piffle.
Romney appeared on a public stage with Donald Trump! That ought to be enough to make Romney the laughingstock of all political history.
Culture of Truth
If Obama said, “I never stapped any of MY kids to the roof of my car,” now THAT would be a lie.
Also I am now asking for Mitt’s birth certificate or failing that his original warranty.
crosspalms
And if anybody does ask for his birth certificate, Ann already has the answer: “we’ve given all you people need to know”
Soylent Green
@Mnemosyne:
Followed by “I’m sorry if you found that innocent remark to be offensive.”
Elie
@Brachiator:
LOL! So true
dmsilev
Trainwreck alert: Apparently Congressman Legitimate Rape will be holding a press conference starting in the next few minutes. Sources say that he will be remaining in the race, so presumably this presser is his way of dropping his pants and mooning the GOP establishment.
Ann Rynd
@geg6:
Thanks for that link. Wonderfully written. Gettysburg is a place that never recovered from the wounds inflicted upon its soil for three days 150 years ago. Not OT at all. We are all shamed by Romney.
sylvan
QQ: How the hell did Mormonism end up being somewhat mainstream and beyond criticism?
It’s second only to Scientology in terms of mercenary bullshit and calculated lunacy.
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
Oh, they still believe it, all right. We saw it come out with the Sonia Sotomayor nomination as well — for a certain subset of white men, there is no such thing as a minority and/or woman who is as smart as the dumbest white man alive. For those guys, even a dirt-poor farmer who never got past the fifth grade would be better qualified to be president than Obama is … as long as that farmer is white.
But, as catclub said, I don’t think this stuff is very convincing for people who are not already fully into that mindset. You’re not going to convince people that Obama is dumb by demanding his college transcripts or mocking him for using a teleprompter.
LanceThruster
@Dennis SGMM:
Thanks for posting this as it gives my an opening to share what I felt this morning seeing the woman who did the upcoming Parade magazine cover story on the R-Moneys on “Morning Joe.”
She gushed about how personable and likeable they were and what a wholesome family they are. She added what a doting grandparent he was, even picking up Fruit Loops off the floor put there by a cooing toddler (the description of which sounding more like a prop from central casting).
All I could think of was that even Hitler liked dogs.
I thought about all those other kids and parents and grandparents that the R-Moneys could give a sh!t about because…well, they are soulless automatons incapable of anything resembling human emapathy.
Didn’t mean to sugar coat it so much as I’d much prefer to really let loose on them (crying over tithes! Oh f#ck ME!).
soonergrunt (nexus 7)
@Omnes Omnibus: and that’s really saying something. Cav guys aren’t right in the head.
Culture of Truth
Indeed, David ‘Fluffy’ Gregory devoted his whole show to the Biden chains remark – will he have the same standard for Mitt??
Randy P
ABL, are you and John still fund-raising for your epic road trip to the DNC? Can you add the Paypal and/or snail mail info?
muddy
@Soylent Green: I know a guy who likes sending email “jokes” where the punchline is that a liberal gets killed. There is no point to them, nor humor (I like dark humor even if it is aimed in my direction), but just a collection of words leading up to the “liberal is killed punchline”. It’s quite bizarre. I asked him many times to stop but finally had to make his addy bounce. He’s not the only one with the jokes, but was the only one who kept sending when I said to knock it off. And he’d have a long list of CC, some of whom were children, jeezum. I replied to the whole list, and then contacted the kids’ moms who hadn’t been included (wonder why?)
I think you can’t expect someone to find something funny when the person has specifically and repeatedly said they don’t want to hear that and why. The continued attempts are like molestation or something. It’s the forcible nature of it that appeals the most to that sort of person.
Culture of Truth
Obama is about to become the 2nd Democrat since FDR reelected Presnit — and the first President with the middle name “Hussein” since Franklin Pierce, I might add. No way this doofus gets under his skin.
Romney is just desperately trying to rile up the base, which will probably work on some lizard brain level.
tamied
@geg6: That was really a beautiful piece. Thanks for the link.
Catsy
@japa21:
The only credit I give McCain for that shameful moment is crediting him with being oblivious to his own bigotry. Remember: the charge was that Obama was a “Muslim”, with the unspoken assumption that that would be a bad thing. And what was the response from Grampy McGrumpypants? He said “No ma’am, he’s a good family man.” As in, no, he couldn’t be a Muslim because unlike them he’s a good family man.
That moment was revealing, but not in a way that is flattering to McCain.
schrodinger's cat
@Culture of Truth: You forgot Bill Clinton.
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
@Frankensteinbeck: Him, and the men he led. Fucking jackass.
Culture of Truth
Romney, like many winguts, is deficient in the concept of “humor”
different-church-lady
Of course he’s an asshole. How the heck else you think he wound up with all that money?
different-church-lady
@schrodinger’s cat: William Hussein Clinton?
hells littlest angel
Every time Romney makes one of his shit-head remarks, a teabagging jackass in Congress loses a vote or two. Keep talking Romney — take your rotten party down with you.
Culture of Truth
@schrodinger’s cat: No, his middle name was Jefferson
Culture of Truth
To be fair, McCain was clearly flustered by that wackjob.
priscianus jr
There are serious questions as to whether Mitt Romney was born on this planet.
Steeplejack
@Randy P:
Click the “Use PayPal to support us!” link at the top of the page. When you contribute you can leave a comment specifying that the money is to go to the road trip and not to Cole’s offshore Cayman account.
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
Unfortunately, that’s a very large subset.
Mnemosyne
@Ivan Ivanovich Renko:
IMO, it’s a large subset thanks mostly to the vagaries of American demographics that mean we have a whole lot of white people today who were raised in a pre-Civil Rights country. I do think the numbers of unthinking racists are fewer among Gen X and younger, but it’s kinda like dealing with nuclear waste — racism has a nasty half-life and it will take several more generations before it fades down to background noise.
SpotWeld
@Mnemosyne: I really don’t think in the circles that Romney moves in, the national level king-makers of the GOP, is the biggest fish. He’s a big fish, a huge fish even.. but a huge fish in a rooms of whales.
He’s going along what the multi-bullionares who can pay enough to stay out of the spotlight because that’s what he needs to go along and network.
He’s Bush JR part II.. and he’s just getting his cues from the new round of Rove’s and Cheny’s
Catsy
@Culture of Truth: McCain being flustered by her only helps illustrate where the commend came from. It wasn’t something he stopped, calculated and considered–directly contrasting “Muslim” with “good family man” was what came to mind.
He could’ve said something like, “No ma’am, he’s a Christian. There are plenty of legitimate reasons not to elect Barack Obama without attacking his religious beliefs.” He didn’t even have to go the extra mile of shooting down the implicit assumption that being “Muslim” is bad, just refute the obvious falsehood.
Put on the spot, he couldn’t even manage that much dignity or decency.
Mnemosyne
@SpotWeld:
Those aren’t the rooms I’m talking about — I’m talking about the boardrooms where Mitt spent most of his adulthood using leveraged buyouts to strip companies down to the bone and take all of the meat. That’s where he’s used to being the alpha male whose every wish is deferred to.
IMO, he’s never really been able to humble himself to the money guys the way the money guys want him to. Bush Jr. didn’t have to, because he was already one of them — son of a president, grandson of a senator. Romney’s not. He’s an outsider, a weirdo Mormon who’s not really of the upper class no matter how much money he has.
That’s why Romney hated being governor, and why he’s hating running for president — he’s having to answer to other people instead of being the top dog. For now, he’s biting his tongue and going along so he can get what he wants, but it is not a natural or comfortable position for him at all. He’s seething at all of the people who keep asking him rude questions and demanding answers when he shouldn’t have to tell them a damn thing because he’s Mitt Romney, damn it!
ETA: The outburst I’m expecting from Mitt before the end of the campaign isn’t the n-word, but “Don’t you know who I am?”
Patricia Kayden
Arpaio is speaking at the Republican Convention. I believe he’s a birther too. As well as an anti-immigrant bigot.
ksmiami
The jerk was in my town this afternoon adn I’m really glad I missed it! UGH, figures.
SpotWeld
@Mnemosyne: It sounds like we’re kind of agreement. He has to work both end of things. Proving to the whales he’s a big fish that can bring in the voters, and prove the voters he’s a big fish in his own right.
I honestly think though he’s molded himself into a CEO who simply goes along with the rest of the boardroom, which is how he got the nominee gig. As much as he’s accustomed to having 90% of “regular people” treat him like he was a decisive business genius I don’t think his confort zone is doing things spontantiously.
He looks for a roomful of guys as much like himself as possible, and goes along with the atmosphere he finds here.
Neo
Was that birth certificate joke about Obama ?
… or was it about his father, former Michigan Governor George Romney ?
The campaign event was in Michigan afterall.
Questions were occasionally asked about George Romney’s eligibility to run for President in 1968 due to his birth in Mexico, given the ambiguity in the United States Constitution over the phrase “natural-born citizen”. His Mormon paternal grandfather and his three wives had fled to Mexico in 1886, but none of them ever relinquished U.S. citizenship. Romney’s parents chose U.S. citizenship for their children, including George. The family fled Mexico and came to the United States in 1912 during the Mexican Revolution.
There wouldn’t even be a “birther” issue if Barack Obama hadn’t lied over and over again that he was from Kenya to make himself more African, rather than Hawaiian.
different-church-lady
@Neo:
That would still be Mitt Romney, questions about his father’s citizenship aside.
different-church-lady
@Catsy: But at least when he stared into the maw of the beast, he was repelled by what he saw. Of that there is no question.
I’d rather hold him accountable for never having seen that beast before rather than picking at his words of that moment.
1badbaba3
People, people, calm down. See this for what it is: a desperate attempt to get the zombies to circle the wagons before the rilly big shoe in Tampa. Nothing else has worked, so they play their ace in the hole. Their sure-fire applause line. Probably a little earlier than they wanted, hence the desperation. Now instead of a bunch of hot, angry, frustrated, pistol-packin’ gulla-bulls running around angry at Das Mittens, they’ll be raving about damn libruls and their vast media empire and how they hate ‘murica, and why are they so mean to that nice white man just because he is successful, and shut up, that’s why.
After the Akin Gambit failed so miserably the last thing they want is a full-scale insurrection at the convention.
We are winning, so they are poisoning wells before they go. Fine. Don’t drink the water. Don’t take the bait. Laugh at them. They’re funny. They are here to amuse us. What we have been doing is working, and will continue to work. Stay strong. Stay frosty. Kick ass and take names, I mean, voter registration-wise, of course.
xian
@Catsy: actually she called him an Arab and he said no he’s not, he’s a good man etc. because of course an Arab would be a terrorist.
Yutsano
@Neo: You are also calling the Secretary of State of Hawai’i a liar as well as the Department of State that issued Obama’s passport. This is why you fail: because by extension you’re questioning my citizenship as well as everyone born in Hawai’i. That makes you the asshole.
xian
@Yutsano: why even bother engaging a piece of shit troll?
cckids
@Frankensteinbeck:
You forgot wilfully stupid & proud of it and in love with his inflated opinion of himself.
Yutsano
@xian: Cause I’m bored at work? :)
Honestly, because this shit pisses me off, and yeah I do take it personally. And trolling is a form of bullying. So yeah. Let the fucker laugh at my rise, he’s still an asshole.
TG Chicago
Mitt’s next jokes:
“You know, I’ve never been arrested for driving while white! Ha. Ha. Ha.”
“My parents sat me down for ‘the talk’ about the police when I was a young boy. They said that if I get stopped, I should tell them my dad is the Governor and can get them fired! Ha. Ha. Ha.”
“When I was young and looking for work, I would always get an interview. When people saw the name Mitt Romney on the resume, they knew it was a good ol’ white American! Ha. Ha. Ha.”
“When I asked for flexibility in welfare rules as governor, nobody ever accused me of loosening work requirements for those people. I wonder why! Ha. Ha. Ha.”
Omnes Omnibus
@cckids: Despite all that, Custer was actually quite brave. Okay, it could be argued that he was too dumb to recognize danger, but the willingness to put himself in harm’s way makes him quite different from most of today’s GOP.
Origuy
@Yutsano: Oh, no, this is a whole different kind of birther. He’s not saying that Obama wasn’t born in Hawai’i; he’s saying that birthers were misled into thinking that Obama was born in Kenya because he had previously claimed to have been born there. The only thing they can point to is a promotional booklet from a literary agent’s intern for a book that was never completed.
Mnemosyne
@Neo:
Mitt says the joke was about Obama. What’s your next rationalization?
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: He meant a different Obama, one named George Romney.
jshooper
this is just Romney’s way of reminding everybody…” I’m the white guy ! vote for me !!! “…just like when he concern trolled about how obama didn’t understand the special anglo-saxon relationship between England and America…RMoney’s entire campaign theme is…”He’s black , I’m white…you know what to do”
Kane
If Romney’s comment had nothing to do with President Obama, then what exactly was the joke?
Romney has now given permission to every speaker at the convention to make their own birther “joke.”
Kane
I’m a Christian. No one’s ever asked to see my magic underwear. Get it? It’s a joke. Why aren’t you laughing, Mitt?
Anatoliĭ Lъudьvigovich Bzyp (formerly Horrendo Slapp, Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
O.K., I’m dead sure about this: there’s something deeply wrong with Rmoney. I mean, he’s missing some kind of part of his brain or something that almost everybody has. He cant see, he can’t understand that decent people find this kind of shit utterly repellent. It isn’t that he doesn’t have any empathy–though he surely doesn’t. Psychopaths don’t have empathy, either, and Rmosny also seems to have a lot of the characteristics of psychopaths. But psychopaths are good at faking charm, and Rmoney can’t do that.
I’m guessing here, but I don’t think your average psychopath would say something like this, at least not to a big crowd, since they’d be more likely to understand that it wouldn’t go over well. They don’t have the empathy to onderstand why it wouldn’t go over well buth they’d understand that people might not like it. So that’s Rmoney: Too fucked up to even make it as a psychopath.
SmallAxe
He truly is a cowardly piece of racist shit who has no business being nominated for the office which he pursues.
Leadership much? Bear false witness much? fucking scumbag
Linda
You repeated yourself when you used “Romney” and “asshole” in the same sentence.
AnonPhenom
This.
When the president says that he is withdrawing Mitt Romney’s Secret Service detail ‘because he’s already protected by his magical Mormon underware’ , then they can say ‘it’s just a joke’
Keith6057
Stage presence of a fire hydrant LOL!