Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

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

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

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

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

The willow is too close to the house.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2012 / Friday Evening Open Thread: Post-Con Droop

Friday Evening Open Thread: Post-Con Droop

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(Jim Morin via GoComics.com)
__
Mr. Pierce wraps it up, and he’s not completely happy:

… I have to give the man credit. Romney on Thursday night came as close as he ever has in his political career to being thoroughly human. He worked so damned hard at being empathetic that, even if I didn’t buy a word of it, the sweat equity was positively profound. Really, at times, he looked like a guy trying to push a truck up a hill…

I think that, somewhere along the trail, it occurred to him that, really, all he was doing was conducting another sale, and that, if there was one thing he can do, it’s that he can sell. And he has learned very well how to sell an indictment of this administration that is not going to be as easy to parry as this president’s people seem to think it’s going to be…

I was moved by the couple for whose dying son Romney wrote a will. I was moved by the woman whom the Romney’s helped through a difficult childbirth. Wasn’t there room for one family from Massachusetts who could have come out on the stage and explained how much easier their lives have been since Governor Romney worked with the Democrats in the legislature to pass comprehensive health-care reform? When Healey talked about his gift for compromise and bipartisanship — which were largely illusory, especially when he stopped giving a fk about being governor — couldn’t she have spared a mention for the most monumental achievement that gift produced? Couldn’t Jane Edmonds have mentioned how hard his cabinet worked to make sure that we would have the system we have today, with 93 percent of the people in Massachusetts, and almost all the children, covered by health insurance?

What do you make of a man who runs away from the good he’s done, who won’t let the people who most benefitted from his presence in our politics share his finest hour? This is not a mistake Bill Weld would have made, because he is the person Willard Romney is trying to manufacture out of himself. This is the Willard Romney in whom I choose to believe. A man who will bring “backbone” to our dealings with Russia, but who can be talked out of his justifiable pride in his greatest accomplishment because his party has lost its mind on the subject. But that’s just me, and I’m one guy, and something of a provincial at that. On Thursday night, Willard Romney may have come as close to humanity as he needs to come. The rest is all just waiting for him out there — 8-percent unemployment, and a Democratic Party that may well spend a week talking about how much they’re willing to cut and how serious they are about The Deficit. I felt a pulse on Thursday night, and I saw a certain vigorous color come to his cheeks. I think Romney’s alive now, and it bothers me, because I think he’s a lot closer to becoming president than he was at the beginning of the night.

***********

Apart for preparing, in spirit, to share next week’s Big Democratic Adventure with Cole and Imani, what’s on the agenda for the start of the long holiday weekend?

Reader Interactions

94Comments

  2. 2.

    The Republic of Stupidity

    At one point during last night’s… uh… festivities… I turned down the sound (which I sometimes do, just to get a different take… easier to concentrate on body language, for one thing…) and watching Mitt, I was struck at how frickin’ uncomfortable he came across as…

    What a sad, unhappy look he had in his eyes…

  3. 3.

    Villago Delenda Est

    I think Romney’s alive now, and it bothers me, because I think he’s a lot closer to becoming president than he was at the beginning of the night.

    Not to worry. He spent today pissing all that away with his appearance in Louisiana.

  4. 4.

    Hungry Joe

    What do you make of a man who runs away from the good he’s done, who won’t let the people who most benefitted from his presence in our politics share his finest hour?

    He’s saying he didn’t mean to do it and that he won’t do it again.

  5. 5.

    Violet

    @The Republic of Stupidity: He looks like a beat puppy, just begging you to love him. It’s sad. In the video segments with his family he doesn’t look like that. I think he’s truly comfortable with them, and also with people in his church. I think he’s genuinely uncomfortable being a politician. No idea why he’s doing it.

  6. 6.

    Hill Dweller

    Relatively speaking, not many people saw Willard’s speech. And whatever good feelings he engendered last night will be forgotten the minute Willard has to go back on the stump and start talking.

    Also too, the Eastwood debacle has consumed all the oxygen post-convention.

  7. 7.

    Catsy

    Stuck on a work call fixing an issue that’s been plaguing us for days. This does not please me.

    Weekend can begin now, kthx.

  8. 8.

    Baud

    Odd excerpt from Pierce. It reads like he really wants to vote for Romney. And this:

    The rest is all just waiting for him out there — 8-percent unemployment, and a Democratic Party that may well spend a week talking about how much they’re willing to cut and how serious they are about The Deficit.

    just seems to accept the Village viewpoint that the Democrats really deserve to lose (if only the GOP will let them).

    Oh well, anyone can have an off day.

  9. 9.

    NotMax

    After last nights’ performance of The Good, the Bad and the Delusional, it’s a cinch that Mr. Eastwood won’t be asked to take over Andy Rooney’s old slot on 60 Minutes.

  11. 11.

    Baud

    I just saw an ad for a new Clint Eastwood movie. Maybe he was going for some free publicity last night.

  12. 12.

    Violet

    This article by David Roberts on how journalists should navigate post-truth politics is very good. Sample:

    What would it look like if journalists tried to win an argument with a campaign — an argument over, say, what Obama has done with state welfare waivers? For one thing, they wouldn’t just string together correct facts once and call it good. They would do it repeatedly. They would call out the campaign explicitly as acting in bad faith. They would mock and shame the campaign for its behavior.
    __
    This would be a serious departure for U.S. journalists. It would put them in an explicitly adversarial role with political operators — not the same operators all the time, not the same party every time, maybe, but not “neutral.” More like prosecutors working on behalf of the truth.

    The whole thing is very good–go read it. I love the journalist as “prosecutor working on behalf of the truth” concept. If only we could have that!

    I found this article via Fallows, who is doing a very good job listing post-truth politics issues.

  13. 13.

    beltane

    Mitt Romney is not, nor has he ever been, a salesman of any kind. He thinks he’s too good for that.

    I must not have seen the same Mitt Romney Charlie Pierce did, but if the highest form of praise for the speech is that it showed Romney might have a pulse the same as other mortals do, I’m not terribly afraid.

  14. 14.

    gwangung

    I love the journalist as “prosecutor working on behalf o the truth” concept. If only we could have that!

    This was the way journalists used to be. It was the way I was trained.

    Feh.

  16. 16.

    arguingwithsignposts

    Apart for preparing, in spirit, to share next week’s Big Democratic Adventure with Cole and Imani, what’s on the agenda for the start of the long holiday weekend?

    Well, I guess fixing the comments isn’t on the agenda anytime soon.
    ETA: Fuck you ESPN and your stupid WatchESPN blackouts.

  18. 18.

    Turgidson

    @Baud:

    Pierce’s disappointment with Obama is nearly as vociferous as his contempt for the GOP. And it’s not like there isn’t a history of Dems, including O, getting freaked out about the deficit at inopportune moments.

    I don’t expect too much of a bounce out of the clown show, not do I think Romney’s chances have improved all that much lately, but we’ll see.

  19. 19.

    Baud

    @Violet:

    I love the journalist as “prosecutor working on behalf of the truth” concept. If only we could have that!

    Unfortunately, the concept is incompatible with the goal of being able to engage in witty banter with the big shots who attend Beltway cocktail parties.

  22. 22.

    hhex65

    Pierce must be fking high; or perhaps it’s because he knows Rmoney so well from his time in Massachusetts he feels a sympathy most do not.

  24. 24.

    Baud

    @Turgidson:

    And it’s not like there isn’t a history of Dems, including O, getting freaked out about the deficit at inopportune moments.

    I don’t blame them. For whatever reason, independents freak out about deficits whenever Republicans complain about them, but not when Republicans create them. It’s unfair but that’s how it is as I see it.

  25. 25.

    handy

    I’m sorry, Pierce is overstating it with Romney’s speech. 4 years ago Obama gave one of the best speeches of his campaign in CO when he accepted the nom, and literally the next day gramps took the wind completely out of his sail when he unleashed The Palin onto an unsuspecting world, and he rode that momentum all the way until the bottom fell out of the economy and he was running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

    Obama probably won’t get quite that “game change” in the runup to the DNC this year, but he does have the advantage that he gets to go second and I think that if anything neutralizes any good Romney did with independents last night.

  26. 26.

    The Republic of Stupidity

    @Violet:

    I agree…

    What a sad, unhappy look…

    It’s almost like he’s afraid of being President but can’t bear to admit it…

  27. 27.

    raven

    @Baud: They used the Globe for some bar scenes and a bunch of night shots in downtown Athens. It’s about a scout but I don’t know if it’s the Braves specifically. Amy Adams and some pretty boy is in it too.

  28. 28.

    Parrotlover77

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    Password: webuiltthis
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  29. 29.

    beltane

    @hhex65: None of the people I know from Mass have any warm feelings towards Mitt Romney, who seems to have been universally regarded as a dick.

  30. 30.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Violet:

    I wonder who’s going to play the role of Eastwood in the inevitable HBO movie version of the inevitable behind-the-scenes book about the fustercluck that is GOP2012.

  38. 38.

    amk

    pierce is freaking out just ‘cos mittbot gave one acceptance speech? what next, that ryan is gonna win it for the thugs?

  39. 39.

    different-church-lady

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I wonder who’s going to play the role of Eastwood in the inevitable HBO movie version of the inevitable behind-the-scenes book about the fustercluck that is GOP2012.

    Eastwood, of course.

  40. 40.

    joel hanes

    Pierce … reads like he really wants to vote for Romney

    Would be different if most national Dems, especially including President Obama, hadn’t long ago forgotten what their party, _our_ party, is supposed to be about.

    If Obama was currently and passionately defending Social Security, the most successful social program in the nation’s history, rather than signalling his great desire to be the Dem that finally cuts benefits in the name of keeping taxes low …

    If the Obama Administration had made a strong effort on labor law enforcement, or had prosecuted some banksters,
    or had made any real effort to push for principle reduction in underwater mortgages …

    If there had been the slightest effort to go after the torturers and domestic wiretappers from the W. misadministration …

    then Pierce would have someone to vote _for_.

    And so would I.

  41. 41.

    Peter

    If faintly showing a pulse at the convention, the time when he’s supposed to be a rock star, is the best Romney can do, Obama doesn’t have to worry about a damn thing.

  49. 49.

    Maude

    @Baud:
    Pierce covered sports in Mass.
    He may have thought then that Romney was a good guy and now can’t get his head around the fact that Romney is not a good guy.
    Perhaps a bit of rose colored glasses.

  53. 53.

    PurpleGirl

    This morning I fell and bruised my right knee and my chest muscles. I’m resting this weekend. Funny that the one chair I’m comfortable sitting in is the one at my computer desk.

  54. 54.

    aimai

    @hhex65:
    As far as I know Pierce has nothing but contempt for Romney from his time in MA. Weld, as he says in the blog post, is more his cup of tea. Romney was joyless, arrogant, pushy, and his office was run by Eric Fehrnstrom who was just as big an asshole then as he is now. I don’t think Pierce would ever contemplate voting for Romney, but I do agree that he seems to feel the sympathy one would feel for watching a whipped cur come to heel and piddle out of fear.

    aimai

  56. 56.

    Baud

    @Maude:

    Thanks. Still odd though. Let’s assume Romney wasn’t a liar and was running for President as moderate like when he was governor of Massachusetts. I still don’t see why someone like Pierce would choose Romney over Obama.

  57. 57.

    mechwarrior oline

    I actually felt bad for Mitt. He has a compelling story, most due to those around him, and he isn’t a bad guy, demonstrated by those close to him. He’s an OK dude, never managed to learn how to deal with the rest of us. That sucks.

    But he’s dangerous, because he has not earthly clue what it’s like to be us. The old story is “nobody knows what it’s like to go to war but a soldier” and that’s true, and thus Mitt Romney cannot and understand the working class or the poor, ever.

  60. 60.

    General Stuck

    Next time you want to slam Chris Mathews for saying something stupid, which he does say stupid things. Before passing judgment, you might want to consider this.

    TAMPA, Fla. — MSNBC host Chris Matthews got into a heated exchange with Republican delegates at a Tampa restaurant early Friday morning following the conclusion of the GOP national convention.

    Matthews was booed and sworn at as he was leaving the Tinatapas restaurant, which is near the Tampa Bay Times Forum. Matthews turned back and confronted the taunting GOP officials. The Hill witnessed the exchange and interviewed Republican delegates after the confrontation.

    Ballsy
    This sort of thing is one reason why teevee anchor/pundits are intimidated by calling out the wingnuts in blunt terms.

    Matthews said he told the rowdy group, “What’s this, a douchebag convention?”

    Most excellent.

  61. 61.

    amk

    @mechwarrior oline: yeah, he made him, his family and those associated with him very, very rich and fucked over others (be it peeps or those fucking laws) who came in his way. That’s a ‘compelling story’ alright,

  62. 62.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @raven: I still want to know if that is SteveinDC. The concern-trollery, village life and military background sounds vaguely familiar.

  66. 66.

    hhex65

    @beltane: @aimai: @Maude: Pierce must have had some poetry in his glass that night and Willard just happened to be there. It’s like how Roland Barthes could write 5000 words about a wooden cigar box.

  67. 67.

    some guy

    anyone who thinks Pierce is
    a)sympathetic to Romney
    b)wanting to vote GOP
    or
    c)freaking out

    needs to
    a)learn how to read
    b)actually read Pierce
    c)catch the Clue Bus at the next stop

  68. 68.

    different-church-lady

    Oh FFS, Pierce does not sound like he wants to vote for Romney. He’s saying he was more moved by the sales pitch than he thought he’d be, and he finds that worrisome. Quit using up valuable thread numbers on this.

  71. 71.

    Baud

    @Maude:

    I don’t read Pierce enough to feel comfortable making a guess, but, if so, I have difficulty respecting that point of view from a knowledgeable left-of-center person.

  72. 72.

    handy

    @different-church-lady:

    His instincts are way off on this though. Maybe it’s cuz he’s a sports chowd so he just rolls like that. I dunno. But Romney’s speech doesn’t move the needle one quantum in regards to the overall race.

  76. 76.

    different-church-lady

    @handy:

    Maybe it’s cuz he’s a sports chowd so he just rolls like that. I dunno.

    The ball is always dribbling through Buckner’s legs, no matter how many times Folke underhands to first.

  78. 78.

    some guy

    I have to admit that I, a son of the Commonwealth and grandson of a shepherd lass from the hills of north Kerry, never looked at Willard Romney and his perfect wife and his perfect children and thought to myself that we shared a common experience as the descendants of emigres. I have to admit that I don’t look at him and think anything of that sort now, either. But, by god, he made a real stab at it, and I had to respect the effort, and the raw chutzpah, if nothing else.

    give him a blowjob why doncha?

    jesus, Pierce is one of the best observers we have, and his convention coverage is outstanding.

  79. 79.

    JayJohnstone

    WOW

    Ryan, through a spokesman, responded that he’d just mixed things up. “The race was more than 20 years ago, but my brother Tobin—who ran Boston last year—reminds me that he is the owner of the fastest marathon in the family and has never himself ran a sub-three. If I were to do any rounding, it would certainly be to four hours, not three.

    Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/08/paul-ryan-marathon.html#ixzz25BMIX4pc

  80. 80.

    L. Ron Obama

    @Baud:

    I don’t read Pierce enough to feel comfortable making a guess

    Ah, I see now. You have never read Pierce, other than, maybe, five or six random sentences from this one column.

  86. 86.

    Donut

    @beltane:

    I strongly disagreed with Pierce on this too. Guys like Romney, and I have worked with a few (not quite as wealthy, I mean more so by personality type and corporate position), and they all think they are sales and marketing geniuses; but not because they actually pick up a phone or go to a customer and actually sell something. Nope, it’s based on their MBAs and law degrees and connections to like people. They aren’t sales people, and are fucking clueless about what goes into customer service.

    I personally think Ronmney couldn’t sell ice in the desert, and the only things he can hope to count on to carry his message are advertising and a compliant media.

    To date, advertising hasn’t moved the needle enough, and now the media is feeling some pressure to point all the lying. I dunno, it’s not in the bag but Obama is holding his own right now.

  87. 87.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @L. Ron Obama:

    Ah, I see now. You have never read Pierce, other than, maybe, five or six random sentences from this one column.

    Fuck, if you’ve seen the front page of this blog over the past year, you’ve just about read everything Pierce has written.
    @different-church-lady:

    Quit using up valuable thread numbers on this.

    Indeed. Let’s talk favorite show tunes in film noir scenes.

    I swear, people forget this is a damned blog.

  88. 88.

    tomvox1

    Reads to me like a simple case of worst case scenario post-RNC pants peeing by Mr. Pierce–the straightforward liberal fear that Obama is potentially so weak that Romney just might have done enough to squeak out a victory and thus completely fuck the USA pretty much forever. Not gonna happen but the fear is understandable because the stakes are so high.

    Wait til next week, Chuck. You’ll feel better.

  89. 89.

    jwb

    Pierce is just worried that Obama is going to double down on the deficit and leave Romney an opening he can blast open with his $2 billion ad campaign. Obama has not made many missteps this whole campaign, so I’m not sure why Pierce is so concerned, but that seems to be at the heart of his fear.

  90. 90.

    Cacti

    Beneath the cynical wise-assery and purple prose of one Charles Pierce, is a stereotypical weak-kneed liberal, ready to piss his pants and dive under the bed because a Republican said “boo”.

    Who’d have thunk it?

  91. 91.

    Mnemosyne

    @jwb:

    Obama has not made many missteps this whole campaign, so I’m not sure why Pierce is so concerned, but that seems to be at the heart of his fear.

    There are certain people on the left who have been convinced since before Obama took office that he’s going to kill Social Security and Medicare. They have predicted various dates that this was totally going to happen, and every date that they’ve predicted has passed without anything happening. They have about the same success rate at apocalypse prediction as Harold Camping, and yet they’re still 100 percent convinced that it’s going to happen.

    Pierce is one of those people. I’m not sure if he actually believes it or if it’s just an irrational fear that pops out occasionally, but I think that’s what’s rearing its head here. That’s what the “a Democratic Party that may well spend a week talking about how much they’re willing to cut and how serious they are about The Deficit” line is referring to — Pierce fears that Obama is going to announce major Social Security and/or Medicare cuts at the DNC, and no amount of logic or rationality will convince him otherwise.

  92. 92.

    WereBear

    @Mnemosyne: They have about the same success rate at apocalypse prediction as Harold Camping, and yet they’re still 100 percent convinced that it’s going to happen.

    LOL’d for Truth.

    I think a lot of it is who you hang with; the newspaper crowd deludes itself constantly and Pierce could have picked up that attitude like a virus; unthinking, reflexive, sick.

    I believe I mentioned on the blog that I was reading Showdown by David Corn, who quoted the consensus of Obama’s aides:

    The man is a stone cold liberal.

    Which has been my take from day one. But he also understands the importance of compromise, and so, he Gets Things Done.

    Another eye-opening book on this subject is Master of the Senate. Everyone complained about how weak the Voting Rights Act was; but they had been trying for decades to pass the strong one they wanted. LBJ passed the weak one… and built on it.

    If you don’t understand that, you don’t understand American politics. And that’s a real sad commentary on our Press Corpse.

  93. 93.

    LAC

    @joel hanes: Oh, goody, another firedoglakeblahblah entry. Hey, let’s not worry about winning this time and keeping the hands of time from going backwards. Time to get our lower lip poked out, our “where’s muh sparkle pony, Obama?” frayed and yellowed list out, and our guns cleaned in time for the circular firing. Yay!!!

    Only thing missing from this narrative is the story of scrapping the Obama sticker off the Prius while gently weeping.

  94. 94.

    LAC

    And seriously, I wish someone would tell Pierce that if he going to start that piss in the pants panicking before the convention, could he do it quietly. I think somebody said it well: Romney is a rich guy born on third base trying to convince us he actually hit a triple. It isn’t that he isn’t human, it’s that he always finds a way to remind folks of that fact.

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