Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

You cannot shame the shameless.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

You are here: Home / Politics / Politicans / David Brooks Giving A Seminar At The Aspen Institute / How sharper than a serpent’s tooth

Reader Interactions

189Comments

  1. 1.

    psycholinguist

    I don’t know, she’s coming off as a sympathetic figure compared to Christie – what a giant jerkoff.

  3. 3.

    Arclite

    Yet, despite having the more intelligent, empathetic candidate with the better policies, Obama is tied with Romney.

  5. 5.

    Linda Featheringill

    If I may invoke the show, Lie to Me:

    The upper and lower halves of Ann’s face don’t agree.

    Her eyes are full of stress and tension [due to public speaking?] and clearly show that she doesn’t want to be there doing that. Maybe she’s shy.

    Good smile, though. Wonder how much practice she’s put into that?

  6. 6.

    Dennis G.

    I think that Sully managed to capture the night with this:

    As Christie proudly declares that he’s a momma’s boy, have you noticed how many moms there have been mentioned tonight? This is an entire evening geared toward narrowing the gender gap a little. And perpetuating lies.

    And somehow Christie sounds like it is his first campaign speech of 2016. Is he praising Mitt or pissing on his grave…

  7. 7.

    Corner Stone

    Who in the ever loving fuck thought it was a good idea to give Christie a platform for 2016?

  15. 15.

    DCLaw1

    So what do we think so far folks? Between Ann and Chris, what’s the damage, objectively? I would make the evaluation myself but I couldn’t stomach watching.

  18. 18.

    Hill Dweller

    I do have to say it’s been quite amusing watching the media act as Ann Romney’s PR agents since Willard wrapped up the nomination. They took the exact opposite approach with Michelle Obama in ’08.

    Also too, Michelle Obama has been a great First Lady, but she doesn’t get nearly the press she deserves.

  20. 20.

    Corner Stone

    Where’s Cassidy when you need him? Shouldn’t he be breaking Christie’s facial bones about now?

  25. 25.

    jwb

    @Arclite: I don’t believe the race is even close to tied for the reasons well documented in earlier posts today. There’s still the question of whether $2 billion can sell a lie well enough to move the vote, but everything about the way the pols are acting and the media are covering the race now suggests to me that Obama is up by at least 5 points, maybe even more. Personally, I think the internal polls are starting to show that many of the white hood dudes are thinking of sitting this one out and the GOP is shitting itself about getting trounced in all the down ticket races. Just speculation, though it would explain why they aren’t even pretending to hide the dog whistles any more.

  26. 26.

    Corner Stone

    @DCLaw1: You don’t have to. They have both been dog whistling about “taking our country back”.
    But Christie is a true FAIL on the epic sized scale of FAIL.

  30. 30.

    Cacti

    @Arclite:

    Yet, despite having the more intelligent, empathetic candidate with the better policies, Obama is tied with Romney

    Why do people keep saying this?

    We don’t elect the President by national popular vote. Obama is comfortably ahead in the state-by-state electoral vote race.

  34. 34.

    beltane

    Ann Romney reminds me of a horrible experience I once had with a realtor whose services I declined to use. There is something about these rich blonde housewives and their sneering ways that makes me want to use all kinds of forbidden sexist words.

  36. 36.

    Dennis G.

    I love how Chris Christie’s speech was “fill in the blanks” when it came to Mitt. He could have filled in those lines with any name from Cain to Santorum to Paul and not one other word of it would need to be changed.

    But that’s OK, because Christie is running for office for Pete’s sake…

  41. 41.

    Corner Stone

    I have completely lost the the plot of whatever 2016 platform thread Chris Christie is talking about anymore.

  42. 42.

    General Stuck

    Cool, Chritie is channeling Carter’s malaise speech, it went over so well the first time.

    Shorter Christie – we are going to have to fuck you, America, but promise to kiss you first.

  46. 46.

    El Cid

    The Onion covers the RNC.

    TAMPA, FL —- Ann Romney shocked the crowd at the Tampa Bay Times Forum into silence Tuesday, announcing during her remarks to the Republican National Convention that she plans to divorce her husband of 43 years, whom the party had just nominated for president of the United States.
    __
    “Good evening and welcome! I want to use this opportunity to talk about my husband Mitt and ask him for a divorce,” said Romney, who sources confirmed received two seconds of applause before the audience processed what she had actually said.
    __
    “Mitt Romney is fiscally strong, he has a great vision for this country’s future, and I’m requesting a very substantial figure in alimony. I strongly feel this is what’s best, both for me and for our family, and my decision is final. If he wants to discuss the matter further he can contact my attorney.”
    __
    Following the speech, a beaming Mitt Romney reportedly walked across the stage, took the microphone from Ann, and asked the crowd, “Wasn’t she great, everybody?” to continued silence.

  49. 49.

    feral1

    Something must wrong with the teleprompter. Both Ann Romney’s and Chris Christie’s rhythm is really awkward.

  50. 50.

    Ruckus

    @Maude:
    It’ll have to be FedEx truck shipment, too big and too heavy for overnight. Or ground. Stated in a more eloquent manner, they won’t take 350 lbs of shit in a 5 lb bag.

  51. 51.

    Corner Stone

    Just as much as Obama in 2004 planted his fucking flag of greatness in the earth with his convention speech?
    Christie is doing the EXACT opposite with this brutal, brutal, brutal convention speech tonight.
    This is awful.

  52. 52.

    LanceThruster

    @beltane:

    As they cut to Princess Ann and His Mitteness, with her dour face and bored/polite applause, I keep expecting her to give a back-handed wave like that queen of the Anglo-Saxonys across the pond.

  55. 55.

    magurakurin

    @Cacti:
    I agree. Now there is lots of talk about what percent of the white vote Rmoney needs to win. But in what state? It really doesn’t matter if Rmoney gets 98% of the white vote in say Texas because he’s going to win Texas anyway. The only thing that matters is the percent of the white vote or any other vote in Florida, Ohio, Virgina, Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire and to a lesser extent Nevada and North Carolina. The rest of the states are decided.

    Tell me that Obama is clearly losing Virginia, and I’ll begin to panic.

  57. 57.

    Ruckus

    She looks like a cross between Nancy Raygun, a stepford wife, and a plastic mannequin from wally world.

    OK I know those are pretty much all the same thing.

  58. 58.

    tam

    Christie’s awful too. Jeebus, the media puffery of the GOP is evident tonight. Every person reported to be a great speaker is barely competent.

  59. 59.

    Elizabelle

    I’d say “pugilistic”.

    Rachel Maddow says “selfishness.” 18 minutes before he said the word “Mitt Romney.”

    She says this is Christie’s acceptance speech for the 2016 nomination.

  63. 63.

    Rey

    Gov. Christie is supposed to be a shining star for the Repubs???? Geez this speech suuuucked.,, And he needs to lose some of that weight, he will not make it through 2 months of a primary run…

  64. 64.

    Spectre

    Matthews is sucking up to Republicans 5ever tonight. First he lied about what Santorum said, and now he’s praising Bobby Bacala.

  65. 65.

    Elizabelle

    Tweety:

    “I don’t even think his wife warmed him up tonight. Because it’s just too hard to do.”

    Tee hee.

  66. 66.

    Corner Stone

    @GregB: “We believe in teachers. Not teachers’ unions!”
    Or:
    “We believe in the right to arbitrarily fire any teacher who we feel is being paid too much!”

  67. 67.

    NotMax

    Every time the camera shows the “We Built It” logo, I have to muse:

    New Deal? No, you didn’t.

    New Frontier? No, you didn’t.

    Great Society? No, you didn’t.

  69. 69.

    mai naem

    I think Chris Christie thinks he’s doing the Republican version of the Obama speech of 04.

    I think Ann Romney thinks Chris Christie screwed her poor Mittie and she’s gonna tell Mittie that Chris Christie will not get any position in the Romney administration once she moves into the West Wing.

    I think Mitt Romney’s wishing he could speechify like Chris Christie.

  70. 70.

    El Cid

    More capturing the spirit of the RNC from The Onion.

    Gay Marine Beaten To Bloody Pulp To Fire Up RNC Crowd
    __
    TAMPA, FL —- Excitement on the floor of the Republican National Convention reached a fever pitch Tuesday, as attendees were treated to a rally at the Tampa Bay Times Forum featuring the savage beating of an openly gay Marine.
    __
    Amidst the deafening roar of applause and anti-gay slurs, the highly decorated veteran, who had just returned from his third tour of duty in Afghanistan, was dragged around the stage in a blindfold and flexicuffs while party leaders took turns pummeling his body into a near-lifeless pile of mangled flesh.
    __
    “Who’s ready to get this convention started? I said, who’s ready to get this convention started?!” shouted former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, one hand clutching the gay Marine’s bloodstained fatigues and the other cocked toward his face. “I want to hear some noise if you think it’s time for a change in Washington -— if you think this administration is out of touch with America’s problems.”
    __
    “Out of touch,” he repeated, drilling a fist into the combat veteran’s kidneys with each syllable. “Let’s give it up for Romney-Ryan 2012!”
    __
    As the frothing crowd of more than 5,000 delegates, alternate delegates, and volunteers leapt to their feet, Sens. Marco Rubio and Rand Paul charged out onto the stage with baseball bats. According to sources, Rubio went to work on the gay man’s legs while Paul concentrated on his back and abdomen, sending attendees seated in the front row into fits of delight each time they were splattered with blood.
    __
    Chris Christie, the brash New Jersey governor and rising GOP star followed close behind, ratcheting up the crowd’s enthusiasm by laying into the Marine’s shaved head with a sock full of quarters, leaving his broken body crumpled up beneath a giant banner reading “We Can Do Better,” one of the convention’s themes.

    I know, it’s unrealistic to imagine any of them getting their own hands dirty and engaging in physically threatening combat, but still it captures the themes.

  71. 71.

    Elizabelle

    Fineman: Christie speech was “nasty and mean in tone.”

    I’ve never seen such divisive, angry rubbish. And then they call President Obama polarizing.

  73. 73.

    Maude

    @Ruckus:
    Couldn’t get him on a hand truck, anyway. Oh, well it was a nice try. Christie never worked a day in his life. At least Nixon delivered newspapers when he was a kid.

  75. 75.

    beltane

    @PurpleGirl: When I first wrote the comment I called her a bitch but then I re-wrote it for reasons of civility. The hell with that, civility is overrated.

  76. 76.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @mai naem:

    I think Chris Christie thinks he’s doing the Republican version of the Obama speech of 04.

    I got the same thing. I was surprised he didn’t hold up a Christie For President 2016 6X tee shirt at the end.

  79. 79.

    spiffy

    Chris Christie comes across as the bully who used to punch you in the gut, then steal your lunch money, then spit in your face. Some people like that, but most don’t.

    Also, I hate bringing up the fat issue, but a lot of Americans are shallow. Christie is just too ugly and fat to get elected. Elections are based on looks and personality nowadays and Christie lacks both.

  81. 81.

    David Koch

    Thank goodness Christy isn’t fat like Al Gore.

    Lord knows the Village would never tolerate that.

  82. 82.

    cmorenc

    @Dennis G.:

    Fat Bastard has left me uninspired. I love how Romney was just an add-on to his schitck…

    Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t vote for Christie instead of Obama.

    NEVERTHELESS, the GOP’s chances to beat Obama would have been MUCH stronger with Christie as their 2012 nominee than with Romney. I can see Christie’s gruff purportedly no-nonsense persona would appeal to many voters whom Romney simply leaves cold as a cod on ice. Unfortunately, 2012 was the year when the zeitgeist was right for a candidate like Christie to be the GOP nominee, but he may find that by 2016, with an improving economy and national outlook, the moment for his particular type of appeal has passed by.

    Shorter version: the GOP picked the wrong guy to run in 2012. But OTOH the nomination was probably Christie’s to take away from Romney back last fall, but Christie blinked, thinking his chances better in 2016.

  85. 85.

    Elizabelle

    I wouldn’t call Ann Romney a bitch. Not at all.

    She is a beautifully coiffed and attired, very attractive woman who is trying to tell the delegates and us that she and Mitt are just like us.

    She put on a Southern twang to do it, she tries to sound like she knows how it is for a working mother and so much to do. Yes, she has survived breast cancer and MS, but she’s got excellent healthcare and no one in that house sits up at night wondering how they will pay the medical bills and replace Ann’s income while she’s undergoing treatment.

    She’s out of touch, in her well cut red dress and the “Krugerand earrings”. (NotMax’s description; loved it.)

  86. 86.

    spiffy

    @cmorenc:

    I agree with this.

    Aren’t there rumors out there that Christie has health problems? Also, what happens if Christie loses his re-election bid next year? What the hell is he going to do for three years to stay in the public eye?

    Are New Jerseyites really going to re-elect Christie? Is he really that popular?

  87. 87.

    Cacti

    @spiffy:

    Also, I hate bringing up the fat issue, but a lot of Americans are shallow. Christie is just too ugly and fat to get elected.

    The last time a fat man was POTUS, television hadn’t been invented.

  88. 88.

    Violet

    @cmorenc: Christie would have a heart attack before finishing the primaries. He’s seriously out of shape. Saw him talking to Matt Lauer this morning and he couldn’t even sit on the stool/chair they had for him. He had to kind of prop himself up against it. Primaries are grueling and involve long days and lots of travel. I just don’t think he could do it.

  89. 89.

    J.D. Rhoades

    Ann Romney: I want to talk about love.
    Chris Christie: We don’t want to be loved, we want to be respected.

    That’s an odd point to make for a politician. For a Mafioso, not so much.

  90. 90.

    mai naem

    @Just Some Fuckhead: I am surprised somebody in the hall isn’t coming by and smacking Lawrence O’Donnell upside the head with a rolled up newspaper. He’s doing that truthiness thing that doesn’t go down well with the Republicans.
    I love Al Sharpton on MSNBC. Chris Christie is the Ralph Cramden of the Repub Convention. I could never stand Al Sharpton in his previous incarnation but somebody very sharp at MSNBC saw something in Al Sharpton that I would have never seen.

  91. 91.

    MikeJ

    @cmorenc: Christie is evil but at least he believes in it. Romney is just evil by default. If I’m going to vote for evil, I want fucking Cthulhu.

  94. 94.

    Elizabelle

    Now Chris Matthews is comparing him to Jackie Gleason.

    Ooh, and a little Winston Churchill reference thrown in too.

  95. 95.

    Cacti

    @Elizabelle:

    She is a beautifully coiffed and attired, very attractive woman who is trying to tell the delegates and us that she and Mitt are just like us.

    Because everybody can relate to moving into your future husband’s family compound at age 17, to keep yourself out of circulation while your betrothed dodged the Vietnam draft in France.

  96. 96.

    Water balloon

    CNN is loving this stuff. Erin Burnett was literally crying after Ann Romney’s speech.

  98. 98.

    Elizabelle

    But this is interesting, Chris Matthews saying Mitt Romney reminds him of Prince Charles, visiting a strange culture. That Romney’s not a red meat Republican, like Christie.

    That’s an inspired comment.

  100. 100.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Cacti:

    She is a beautifully coiffed and attired, very attractive woman who is trying to tell the delegates and us that she and Mitt are just like us.

    All she was missing in her box seat was the dangly lace handkerchief to express her approval or disapproval with the performers.

  102. 102.

    mai naem

    @Water balloon: Erin Burnett also said it was okay for China to be sending over lead containing toys and melamine containing dog treats. Fcuk her with a baseball bat with no lube.

    Chris Christie will probably have stomach bypass surgery and tell everybody he built his new body by himself with no help.

  106. 106.

    RareSanity

    I hate this trend where TV sets, have to be set up, “in the crowd”…

    I hate it in sports, and I hate it in news. I don’t want to watch a show where the people that are supposed to be talking, have to yell over the damn idiots in the background.

    Stop it.

    Move the sets to areas isolated from the great unwashed, so we can hear what you’re saying without you screaming, and pausing because people are heckling and distracting you.

  107. 107.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @mai naem:

    Chris Christie will probably have stomach bypass surgery and tell everybody he built his new body by himself with no help.

    “Working out with Paul Ryan”.

  108. 108.

    El Cid

    @Elizabelle: I thought that was well put — Prince Charles visiting a tribe in New Guinea, Romney’s watching all this like some curious outsider.

  109. 109.

    Corner Stone

    @spiffy:

    What the hell is he going to do for three years to stay in the public eye?

    I’m envisioning a series of co-ed mud wrestling events across the tri-state area ala John Candy in Stripes.

  111. 111.

    Violet

    @mai naem:

    Chris Christie will probably have stomach bypass surgery and tell everybody he built his new body by himself with no help.

    He and Huckabee can go on tour together.

  112. 112.

    kd bart

    Christie’s only comfort is that Pres. Clinton bombed his speech at the 1988 Democratic Convention.

  113. 113.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Corner Stone:

    I’m envisioning a series of co-ed mud wrestling events across the tri-state area ala John Candy in Stripes.

    Maybe a Sumo tour with Limbaugh?

  116. 116.

    Mark S.

    @cmorenc:

    I can see Christie’s gruff purportedly no-nonsense persona would appeal to many voters whom Romney simply leaves cold as a cod on ice.

    I think Christie would turn off a lot more voters with his personality than he would turn on. He comes across as an asshole.

  117. 117.

    NotMax

    Palate cleanser from one of the greatest keynote speeches ever made at a televised convention, Mario Cuomo’s address in 1984:

    We Democrats must unite so that the entire nation can unite, because surely the Republicans won’t bring this country together. Their policies divide the nation into the lucky and the left-out, into the royalty and the rabble. The Republicans are willing to treat that division as victory. They would cut this nation in half, into those temporarily better off and those worse off than before, and they would call that division recovery.…
    __
    We Democrats still have a dream. We still believe in this nation’s future. And this is our answer to the question. This is our credo:
    __
    We believe in only the government we need, but we insist on all the government we need.
    __
    We believe in a government that is characterized by fairness and reasonableness, a reasonableness that goes beyond labels, that doesn’t distort or promise to do things that we know we can’t do.
    __
    We believe in a government strong enough to use words like “love” and “compassion” and smart enough to convert our noblest aspirations into practical realities.
    __
    We believe in encouraging the talented, but we believe that while survival of the fittest may be a good working description of the process of evolution, a government of humans should elevate itself to a higher order.
    __
    We — Our — Our government — Our government should be able to rise to the level where it can fill the gaps that are left by chance or by a wisdom we don’t fully understand. We would rather have laws written by the patron of this great city, the man called the “world’s most sincere Democrat,” St. Francis of Assisi, than laws written by Darwin.
    __
    We believe — We believe as Democrats, that a society as blessed as ours, the most affluent democracy in the world’s history, one that can spend trillions on instruments of destruction, ought to be able to help the middle class in its struggle, ought to be able to find work for all who can do it, room at the table, shelter for the homeless, care for the elderly and infirm, and hope for the destitute. And we proclaim as loudly as we can the utter insanity of nuclear proliferation and the need for a nuclear freeze, if only to affirm the simple truth that peace is better than war because life is better than death.
    __
    We believe in firm — We believe in firm but fair law and order.
    __
    We believe proudly in the union movement.
    __
    We believe in a — We believe — We believe in privacy for people, openness by government.
    __
    We believe in civil rights, and we believe in human rights.
    __
    We believe in a single — We believe in a single fundamental idea that describes better than most textbooks and any speech that I could write what a proper government should be: the idea of family, mutuality, the sharing of benefits and burdens for the good of all, feeling one another’s pain, sharing one another’s blessings — reasonably, honestly, fairly, without respect to race, or sex, or geography, or political affiliation.
    __
    We believe we must be the family of America, recognizing that at the heart of the matter we are bound one to another, that the problems of a retired school teacher in Duluth are our problems; that the future of the child — that the future of the child in Buffalo is our future; that the struggle of a disabled man in Boston to survive and live decently is our struggle; that the hunger of a woman in Little Rock is our hunger; that the failure anywhere to provide what reasonably we might, to avoid pain, is our failure.  Source

    So many good things in that speech which still hold vital relevance. Well worth reading (or, better, viewing) in full again.

    Christie’s speech was but a wan imitation.

  119. 119.

    Corner Stone

    @Mark S.: He is a complete asshole. That speech was one of the most career ending God awful debacles I have seen.
    It’s like if Rick Perry tried to remember which division he would cut and just started telling people they were in for some hard truths.

  121. 121.

    spiffy

    @kd bart:

    No surprise that Tweedledee and Tweedledum liked it. If there are any two more transparent, shallow villagers than Gregory or Brokaw, let me know.

  122. 122.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Didn’t see Christie, caught a couple of minutes of Brokaw who seemed to have a Very Serious hard on over it.

  123. 123.

    TG Chicago

    @J.D. Rhoades: I was thinking the same thing. Did nobody coordinate the Ann and Christie speeches?

    I thought Ann Romney was alright, but… this was my first time seeing her, and I was told she was the super awesome charismatic one of the couple. Maybe she seems like she has a pulse compared to Mitt, but she was no better than adequate.

    Both Mrs. Romney and Gov. Christie had some really weird moments in their speeches. The delivery struck me as fine, but not great. But in both cases, the content occasionally just got a bit offtrack.

    I LOLed when Christie said that the Democrats plan is to be behind the wheel when we drive off the cliff. How on earth does that make sense? And Romney’s stuff about how women are more important than men? Bizarre overcompensation. If Michelle Obama said that, Republicans would be calling for her head.

  124. 124.

    RareSanity

    I don’t care what Tom Brokaw has to say.

    He’s uncompelling and offers no insightful analysis.

    Either make me mad, make me think, or make me laugh. If you’re not doing any of those, what are you doing on my TV?

  125. 125.

    arguingwithsignposts

    Hallelujah! I was out of contact with TV or the Internet for the ENTIRE FUCKING EVENING! wooohoooo!!!

    Fuck you, Joseph Goebbels Frank Luntz! Your evil way with words holds no sway tonight!

  126. 126.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Mark S.:

    You are killing tonight!

    I stayed up til 3AM this morning preparing; working on material, writing and rewriting.

  127. 127.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Didn’t see Christie, caught a couple of minutes of Brokaw who seemed to have a Very Serious hard on over it.

    Blissfully, Brokaw is nearly imcomprehensible at this late stage in his life.

  128. 128.

    kd bart

    The amazing thing that you’ll learn at the RNC is that the US had no President from 1/20/2001 to 1/20/2009.

  129. 129.

    GregB

    Brokaw is icing down his Christie chubby.

    The man is such a useless font of beltway bromides mumbled in a self important manner it is just tiring.

  130. 130.

    Elizabelle

    Andrew Sullivan on Colbert now.

    But Robert Gibbs talking about the very angry convention tonight. So true.

    Gibbs does not think that Romney in 3 years has told anyone a “hard truth.” Has no idea why Christie was saying that.

    “A very, very strange night.”

  132. 132.

    Elizabelle

    @GregB:

    Yeah, I wish Brokaw would just go narrate furniture commercials and nature documentaries.

    He’s ridiculous as an analyst.

  133. 133.

    RareSanity

    Gibbs needs a different haircut…

    I keep glancing at the TV wondering why Tom Arnold is talking about politics.

  134. 134.

    Emma

    @Elizabelle: Actually, I’ve watched Prince Charles visit other cultures and he manages to handle everything they throw at him graciously. He never showz embarrassment and he is never distant. And he and his late wife trained their kids to do the same.

    The Mitts don’t measure up.

  135. 135.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @Elizabelle:

    Yeah, I wish Brokaw would just go narrate furniture commercials and nature documentaries.

    Why do you hate nature-lovers and people who are shopping for furniture?

  137. 137.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Elizabelle:

    Yeah, I wish Brokaw would just go narrate furniture commercials and nature documentaries

    Shouldn’t he be selling reverse mortgages to America’s Greatest Generation??

  145. 145.

    TG Chicago

    @DCLaw1: In my view, “fail” is a little strong, though I guess if they were trying to reach out to undecideds, I suppose it may well have failed.

    I was expecting more from Ann Romney. I thought she was supposed to be pretty good as a speaker. I felt she was decent, but nothing at all special.

    Christie had the “regular guy” thing going for him, but I’m not sure that’s what America wants in a President. He wasn’t terrible, but I don’t think he launched himself into the stratosphere either.

    BTW, I’m talking solely on presence and delivery here. Obviously the content was terrible, but I’m a partisan, so they weren’t speaking to me. Then again, as I mentioned upthread, some content was pretty questionable even for people still making up their minds.

  146. 146.

    Shawn in ShowMe

    I’m not interested in seeing the Romneys in the White House, but I am interested in seeing them in their own reality show. Or maybe a guest appearance on an established reality show, like Basketball Wives: “Girl, I told you not get into it with Little Miss Mormon. That bitch don’t play!”

  148. 148.

    maya

    Give Brokaw a break. He’s just doin what he has to do to keep his Bush tax cuts. After all, he earned them.

  150. 150.

    e.a.f.

    Ann Romney isn’t going to change any body’s mind. She is what she looks to be, the wife of a very rich man. She has very little in common with the majority of women in the U.S.A. She hasn’t had to work for a living, she hasn’t had to do without, she has had good medical, etc. What it boils down to, she has a horse which has better medical care than the majority of Americans & she has enough money to get a $77K tax deduction for the horse because its theoputic. Ya, right.

    Unless you are a 1%ers you have nothing in common with Ann Romney & she woudn’t give you the time of day, if it weren’t for the fact she is trying to get votes for her husband.

  151. 151.

    Corner Stone

    @spiffy: It’s not Joan Rivers bad or anything, but it’s clearly obvious. And he has quite the healthy tan now as well.

  152. 152.

    NotMax

    @Shawn in ShowMe

    I’m not interested in seeing the Romneys in the White House, but I am interested in seeing them in their own reality show

    Lifestyles of the Rich and Fatuous?

  153. 153.

    Corner Stone

    If I were with that woman on the car commercial and we were talking about going to Bora Bora? Driving a damn car would have zero to do with anything at all.

  154. 154.

    J.D. Rhoades

    @TG Chicago:

    And Romney’s stuff about how women are more important than men? Bizarre overcompensation. If Michelle Obama said that, Republicans would be calling for her head.

    But see, if Michelle Obama said it, it’d be threatening. They know Ann’s just joshing. You can tell by her little giggles. It’s really the man who is supreme. It’s literally an article of faith.

  155. 155.

    dance around in your bones

    @Corner Stone: Those aren’t pillows!

    Oh, wait – that was Planes, Trains, and you could land an aircraft carrier on those shoulders.

  156. 156.

    J.D. Rhoades

    @e.a.f.:

    She has very little in common with the majority of women in the U.S.A. She hasn’t had to work for a living, she hasn’t had to do without, she has had good medical, etc.

    But they ate tuna casserole, and had to sell some of Daddy’s AMC stock to pay Mitt’s way through college!

  157. 157.

    DCLaw1

    @TG Chicago: Thanks. Yeah, that’s what I was wondering primarily: could tonight do anything to meaningfully move the needle for R&R. I didn’t watch any of it, just couldn’t. But it sounds like it was a combination of bitter and thematically confused (in addition to being stuffed to the gills with lies, but lies can be effective if sold as part of a coherent narrative).

  158. 158.

    Elizabelle

    3 cheers for Andrew Sullivan:

    “I was just wrong to think the Republican party would have the good grace to work with an incoming president.

    …They set out to destroy this guy from the get go, which is why re-electing [is so important]”

    Says GOP is even nuttier than 4 years ago.

    “If you really want to cut the debt, you’ve got to have compromise, and the one thing Romney and Ryan won’t do is compromise …”

  160. 160.

    Elizabelle

    Colbert: “You’ve got an English accent, but that doesn’t make you a conservative.”

  161. 161.

    Elizabelle

    Andrew just called Piers Morgan something they bleeped out.

    You must catch this on re-broadcast.

  162. 162.

    DCLaw1

    And I maintain that there’s next to nothing Mitt can do in his own speech to close the likability gap or make the positive case for himself. Too boxed in by Obama campaign characterizations, longstanding public perceptions, the self-imposed vagueness of his candidacy, and his utterly uninspiring public speaking skills.

    And in just a few days, the Obama campaign juggernaut will roar in with its trademark gleaming presentation, ending with its most powerful weapon: Obama himself. The sum total will be that it is something vs. nothing, and that even if you are disappointed in the something, you feel absolutely nothing for the nothing. Unless you are hellbent on seeing Obama defeated.

  164. 164.

    Corner Stone

    Ok, who’s taking bets? I’m saying Mitt uses the phrase “our country” at least twice in his speech.

  165. 165.

    Corner Stone

    Ann Romney is just as robotic in public as her husband.
    Anyone who says differently has never seen her.

  168. 168.

    Elizabelle

    @Emma:

    I agree. I like Prince Charles, and think he’s a class act.

    There’s something vulnerable about him, too.

    But Matthew’s example fit watching Romney watch Christie.

  169. 169.

    cbear

    @dance around in your bones:

    Oh, wait – that was Planes, Trains, and you could land an aircraft carrier on those shoulders.

    How’d you like to be sitting in the back of one of those small, packed-to-the-gills regional airjets and see that fat fuck waddling down the aisle as the last passenger to board?

    I’d be scrambling like a monkey trying to find that In-Flight magazine that lists all the planes in the fleet and their specs—frantically trying to calculate max takeoff weight—and hoping to god for that 20% redundancy that engineers always talk about.

  170. 170.

    dance around in your bones

    @Corner Stone:

    Whut, like this?

    Seriously, I think you could land an aircraft carrier on each of Christie’s shoulders.

    Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

    {{{snort}}}

  171. 171.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @Elizabelle:

    Andrew just called Piers Morgan something they bleeped out.

    According to the Twitters, he called him a twat. Which is a little bit politer than Stephen Fry, who defined “countryside” as the act of murdering Piers Morgan.

  173. 173.

    dance around in your bones

    @cbear:

    I’d volunteer for the emergency exit seat.

    (“Sure, just give me the spiel, I’ll make sure everybody gets out ok….yeah, that’s the ticket!”)

  179. 179.

    RadioOne

    Ann Romney didn’t give a great speech, but it was still probably the best speech of the night Chris Christie was flat and boring.

    Worst speech: Ted Cruz. Foregoing the podium for a TED like motivational speaker role, it was a silly speech, accented by flailing his arms around and pacing about the stage, and was not telegenic at all. Thankfully for the GOP, it didn’t air anywhere except on C-SPAN.

    This has been a fun convention so far. Looking forward to Paul Ryan tomorrow.

  180. 180.

    ChrisB

    @spiffy:

    Also, what happens if Christie loses his re-election bid next year? What the hell is he going to do for three years to stay in the public eye?

    A billboard on the New Jersey Turnpike.

  181. 181.

    Mnemosyne

    @pseudonymous in nc:

    I would be willing to give Stephen Fry a special dispensation to use the “C” word. Him, no one else.

    I know he would only use it when absolutely necessary, and use it to its most devastating effect.

  183. 183.

    Another Halocene Human

    @Corner Stone: actually: arbitrarily fire any teacher who dares to teach evolution or makes the kids turn in work to get a passing grade or who doesn’t get along with the principal. Teachers who do not go along with the principle’s fads are counterrevolutionaries and Troskyites who will be tried, unpersoned, and shipped to Yuma to work in the picking fields.

  184. 184.

    Ruckus

    @Anya:
    I don’t understand how Brokaw was ever a succesful anchor. He has a major speech impediment.

    You mean the fact that he can open his mouth and make stupid noises?

  185. 185.

    Ruckus

    @ChrisB:
    A billboard on the New Jersey Turnpike.

    Are they going to paste ads on his ass and make him stand still?
    He’s big enough but all the barfing by the people driving by might be a traffic hazard.

  186. 186.

    AxelFoley

    @cmorenc:

    NEVERTHELESS, the GOP’s chances to beat Obama would have been MUCH stronger with Christie as their 2012 nominee than with Romney.

    ROFLMBAO!!!

    Oh, you were serious?

  187. 187.

    CaliCat

    No Ann, you vapid, self-absorbed twit, you do not love me. If you did, you wouldn’t shill for your creep of a husband who thinks it’s just fine to make a rape victim carry to term the spawn of her rapist.

    Ann, you are a disgusting, self-entitled, pandering, phony. Now please do us woman a favor and go straight to hell.

  188. 188.

    cckids

    @NotMax:

    Christie’s speech was but a wan imitation.

    I’m incredibly late here, but yes. I was struck by how much of it was us vs them. There was no “we” in the sense that we are all one country. Divisive & wanting it that way.

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