Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

Their shamelessness is their super power.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

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

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

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

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

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

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

I don’t recall signing up for living in a dystopian sci-fi novel.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

If you’re gonna whine, it’s time to resign!

Everybody saw this coming.

Petty moves from a petty man.

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Reader Interactions

198Comments

  3. 3.

    PurpleGirl

    Have a safe trip. Hope the ladies get some sleep during the drive.

    Did you (or they) ever get some BBQ?

  4. 4.

    Violet

    Has anyone posted this interview with Clint Eastwood in the Carmel Pine Cone yet? Clint meant it:

    “President Obama is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people,” Eastwood told The Pine Cone this week. “Romney and Ryan would do a much better job running the country, and that’s what everybody needs to know. I may have irritated a lot of the lefties, but I was aiming for people in the middle.”

    It’s a good interview.

  6. 6.

    EconWatcher

    I keep thinking of some great lines from Chris Rock in 2008, which still ring true:

    “That George Bush, he really f’ked up. He f’ked up so bad, he made it hard for a white man to run for president. Voters say we’ll take the woman, we’ll take the black guy, whatever. Just not another one of those white guys.”

  8. 8.

    Scott de B.

    “President Obama is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people,” Eastwood told The Pine Cone this week.

    The greatest trick Obama ever pulled was to convince people that he was invisible and sitting in a chair in Tampa.

  11. 11.

    LanceThruster

    You need to work on the Sgt. Oddball look (Kelly’s Heroes) for the next trip out into the real world. Leather tanker helmet, Ray-Bans, leather bomber jacket, olive drab bdu’s and t-shirt.

    There’s gotta be a surplus store between Charlotte and WV. Have the ladies wake up to John Cole, master of close quarters combat.

    Between to headgear and the shades, you’d look fairly anonymous (among other things) for photos.

  15. 15.

    Violet

    @lamh35: By “It’s a good interview” I mean it covers the whole speech. Why Eastwood went, how the timeline worked out, did he or did he not have prepared remarks, why not. Why the chair. Etc. A lot of questions people have been asking are covered. The reporter did a good job.

  16. 16.

    The Dangerman

    @Garbo:

    Who’s gonna need the frequent pee stops this time, eh?

    Advantage of being a guy (as long as you can find a tree outside of Michigan that’s the right height).

  17. 17.

    David Hunt

    @top

    This should be interesting.

    There is only one possible response to this:

    Mal: Define “interesting.”

    Wash: “Oh God. Oh God. We’re all gonna die.”

    Mal: Just get us on the ground.

    Wash: That part’ll happen pretty definitely!

  18. 18.

    Violet

    @lamh35: I mean, there are some great lines in there:

    “They vett most of the people, but I told them, ‘You can’t do that with me, because I don’t know what I’m going to say,’” Eastwood recalled.

  19. 19.

    Cacti

    @Violet:

    By “It’s a good interview” I mean it covers the whole speech. Why Eastwood went, how the timeline worked out, did he or did he not have prepared remarks, why not. Why the chair. Etc. A lot of questions people have been asking are covered. The reporter did a good job

    “Cranky old white guy dislikes black President. Get the full story!”

    Thanks, I’ll pass.

  20. 20.

    Violet

    And:

    “There was a stool there, and some fella kept asking me if I wanted to sit down,” Eastwood said. “When I saw the stool sitting there, it gave me the idea. I’ll just put the stool out there and I’ll talk to Mr. Obama and ask him why he didn’t keep all of the promises he made to everybody.”
    __
    He asked a stagehand to take it out to the lectern while he was being announced.
    __
    “The guy said, ‘You mean you want it at the podium?’ and I said, ‘No, just put it right there next to it.’”

  21. 21.

    Kay

    @Violet:

    I may have irritated a lot of the lefties

    He shouldn’t flatter himself. I didn’t really hear anything he said. I was trying to figure out what he was doing up there.

  23. 23.

    Violet

    @Cacti: No, it’s more like “Famous old, white movie star and director acts like a nut at Republican convention. Find out how the hell that happened.”

  24. 24.

    bemused

    @Violet:

    Wow. Two things that stood out: The campaign allowed him to be totally unvetted and Romney/Ryan laughed and thanked him back stage according to Clint.

  26. 26.

    Trinity

    Safe travel!

    And we will require proof of life pics of the petz upon your glorious return to the homestead.

  27. 27.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @EconWatcher:

    Funny you should mention Chris Rock because I was reading a piece on Romney last week where the reporter was basically saying that Romney “stood by” Anne and supported her when she got sick instead of abandoning her and I thought to myself “that is what you are supposed to do asshole what do you want a cookie”.

    In sickness and in health, how the fuck does that work?

  28. 28.

    Violet

    @bemused: Yep. I can’t believe they just let him up there, but he told them to and they obeyed him. Like we said before, Clint was the alpha male and the types of people Romney hangs out with always bow to the alpha male.

  30. 30.

    Anya

    @Violet: He didn’t irritate any lefties, he provided them with lots of good entertainment. Is he aware that he came off as old and incoherent?

  31. 31.

    Nina

    Now, if the ladies fall asleep in the car you can take pictures of slack-jawed droolage and keep them as ammo to prevent pictures of What’s Behind The Hand from being posted online.

  33. 33.

    flukebucket

    Just thought I would say that I dreamed about that photograph of ABL and Booker but Booker was not in the dream.

  34. 34.

    Violet

    @Anya: If you read the article, he says he was completely unaware of how it came off even the next day. All the feedback he got from the Romney campaign was good.

  37. 37.

    Ben Franklin

    @Violet:

    “I’m a movie maker, but I have the same feelings as the average guy out there.”

    That’s the persona he’s cultivated for 60 years, and he has bullshit breath. The average joe doesn’t have a clue about political facts, or his income bracket. But they know they like him, and so his politics must be A-ok. Clint’s humble pie is filled with roadkill, but the average joe eats it up.

  39. 39.

    Cacti

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    In sickness and in health, how the fuck does that work?

    When you’re a rich dick, you’re supposed to dump her for some hot piece of 20-year old tail.

    IOKIYAR.

  40. 40.

    ? Martin

    @Violet:

    “There was a stool there, and some fella kept asking me if I wanted to sit down,” Eastwood said. “When I saw the stool sitting there, it gave me the idea. I’ll just put the stool out there and I’ll talk to Mr. Obama and ask him why he didn’t keep all of the promises he made to everybody.”

    So Romney’s team really did invite Grandpa Simpson out there. Clint didn’t even have the framework for what he was going to say laid out until the last second. Geez, what a clusterfuck.

  42. 42.

    bemused

    @Anya:

    It’s always amusing to me that rightwingers have the illusion that they make liberals terrified and shaking with rage. So much projection and wishful thinking.

  43. 43.

    MattF

    Now, it’s all about ‘irritating lefties’, which is fine with me. Used to be about ‘winning’, but wingers have moved on and left that business to the Dems. So, if you want me to be irritated, I’ll be irritated, no prob, bygones, whatev.

  44. 44.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Gin & Tonic: @Cacti:

    What really pissed me off was the reporter’s tone, he (or she) was almost praising him for NOT dumping her, as if it was some sort of huge sacrifice for him to “stick by her” like I said that is what you’re supposed to do. If I was married to that reporter I’d be livid (and scared).

  45. 45.

    lamh35

    If this is truly their strategy, then this campaign is dumber than a box of rocks (and I’m sorry for the insult to the rocks in this analogy)

    A Month of Mistakes?

    Matthew Dowd commented on Mitt Romney’s campaign strategy going forward for the month of September:
    “September is a month of mistakes. I think what they’re trying to do is force the president to make a few mistakes in September, release a bunch of ads, make him respond to it — and I think that’s what you can expect in September.”

    Um…ok. So the Romney campaign is gonna wait for the “No Drama Obama” campaign to make a series of mistakes and that’s a strategy??? Obama making a series of mistakes…oh like Mittens series of blunders on his European tour? Really? This is a Presidential campaign right, not amateur night at the Apollo, right

    If I was Repub, I’d be pissed. I’m not psychic, but my gut tells me they gonna be waiting a long time for those series of mistakes to come.

  46. 46.

    cmorenc

    I’ll gladly take our unscripted white guy (Clinton) over theirs (Clint). You must’ve been feeling lucky Thursday night a week ago, weren’t you punk?

  47. 47.

    catclub

    @Litlebritdifrnt: “In sickness and in health, how the fuck does that work?”

    Well, when Newt Gingrich and John McCain are the two exemplars of the GOP style, not very nicely. Yet again, Romney is slightly better than the troglodytes he competed against in the GOP primary. Golf clap.

  48. 48.

    Suffern ACE

    @Litlebritdifrnt: I think we’ve just watched too many episodes of City Confidential and Who Did I Marry? and are starting to think that doing evil stuff to your sick spouse is normal rather than the stuff of tabloid shows.

  49. 49.

    jimmiraybob

    @Violet:

    A lot of questions people have been asking are covered.

    Personally, I have no questions. I think the chair’s bold stoic stance stole the show. Don’t even remembered what Eastwood said.

    Chair/End Table 2016

  50. 50.

    catclub

    @lamh35: My impression of Obama is that every August since about 2007 has been bad, but September has seen substantial recovery from the bad days of August.

    Obama’s first mistake of september: Brilliant DNC convention.
    Then: stock market soars the day of his nomination speech.

    How much worse will it get?

  51. 51.

    bemused

    @EconWatcher:

    Maybe so in the campaign staff. Romney/Ryan could have had the thought that not knowing what Clint was going to say might be a risk but they evidently don’t care when they’ve been obviously been playing to the basest of the base.

  52. 52.

    cmorenc

    @lamh35:

    If I was Repub, I’d be pissed. I’m not psychic, but my gut tells me they gonna be waiting a long time for those series of mistakes to come.

    While Obama is unlikely to make any outright gaffes, he nevertheless needs to be careful to avoid making statements that are easily twisted out of context into potent 30-second attack ads, such as how the careless use of “that” laid the groundwork for the GOP’s use of “you didn’t build that [business]”.

  53. 53.

    Suffern ACE

    @lamh35: The’ve been led around in circles by Team Obama they don’t know what else to do to get traction. Except maybe claim that their mistakes were really attempts to force Obama into a trap. It’s 11th dimensional chess played with unlimited corporate cash this time.

  55. 55.

    catclub

    _I_ predict a return of requests for tax forms, and questions about exactly what is he hiding. Why is he a coward?
    How much he prefers Swiss and Caymans banks to US banks.

    But that is just me.

  56. 56.

    jimmiraybob

    @bemused:

    It just seems like the Romney campaign is basically winging it.

    Speaking of winging it, has anybody seen footage of him returning the boat to dock? MIA? Or as they say, Mitt who?

  57. 57.

    Cacti

    @lamh35:

    If I was Repub, I’d be pissed. I’m not psychic, but my gut tells me they gonna be waiting a long time for those series of mistakes to come.

    Also saw per MSNBC that Rmoney was pulling his ad buys from Wisconsin.

    I guess we can call fail on Ryan giving any “favorite son” advantage.

  58. 58.

    LanceThruster

    @cmorenc:

    laid the groundwork for the GOP’s use of “you didn’t build that [business]”.

    In one sense I think that actually works against the Goppers because it shows just what delusional, prevaricating liars they are.

    Yeah, *you* built that 4-hole! (like the guy in the ad that turned out to have help from a massive low interest business loan – or Bain Capital even)

    BWAA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!

  59. 59.

    dianne

    It felt like a big old cloud of mean hovering over the Tampa auditorium and Eastwood fit right in.
    Romney was too intimidated by the big star to even ask to see his speech. He’s a bully when it comes to the little people but caves like a stack of cards when he perceives someone maay be a little more powerful than he is. No wonder the Koch brothers figure he will be no contest to control – just an automatic pen, like Grover said.
    And Obama was so classy in response. I’m so proud of my party.

  60. 60.

    Suffern ACE

    @catclub: My impression has been that the reason that Augusts have been bad is that the high hair democrats who should be thinking about what to do in the summer spend their springs preparing their summer homes and don’t work after 4:00pm on Thursdays. Someone on the D side, beyond Anthony Weiner and his dick, needs to figure out what to do with August and the empty news cycle. Otherwise, it gets filled up with dick shots and scary mosque stories which never end well.

  61. 61.

    Calouste

    @lamh35:

    Projection as usual. August was Romney’s month of mistakes (as, come to think of it, was July. And June. And May. And April. And March.) So now it is Obama ‘s time, is it? They will just generate “mistakes” like the ‘We build it’ bullshit.

  62. 62.

    Hoodie

    @Violet: Clint Eastwood is the giant hoax. He’s kind of an updated,edgier Ronald Reagan without Reagan’s better manners, which I guess is in the sweet spot of the more libertarian minded Republicans of today. The saving grace was that, until now, he generally limited taking himself too seriously to his film directing, where it’s actually an asset. Otherwise, he spent his time playing golf, fathering chidren out of wedlock and other forms of self-absorption. Guess he got bored with that or he can’t get it up anymore.

  63. 63.

    Dennis SGMM

    @lamh35:
    Over the years, the Republicans have drained so many words of meaning that now “strategy” and “flop sweat” have the same connotation for them.

  64. 64.

    Cacti

    @Hoodie:

    Clint Eastwood is the giant hoax

    Repukes always seem to project, nay, hurl their own insecurities at those they dislike.

    “Obama is a hoax,” according to a man who’s spent 6 decades playing male fantasy characters.

  65. 65.

    1badbaba3

    @Kay: Attempting to irritate “lefties” is the only viable part of their platform. It’s the only thing left that they think they still do well. The poor, sad fucks.

  66. 66.

    EconWatcher

    @Suffern ACE:

    Also too, I’ll bet Team Obama has been saving some nasty stuff to release in September and October, what my Russian wife calls compromat (compromising material). For example, I’ll bet the trickle of info about those tax returns will resume soon.

  67. 67.

    lamh35

    @cmorenc: won’t matter either way, as evidenced by Romney himself on Wednesday repeating the welfare to work lie in his FoxNews interveiw, that even if Obama doesn’t say something “taken out of context” they will lie and said that he did something that every non-partisan fact-checkers have said is not true.

    and the “you didn’t build that” thing, was built up hype that no one outside of my circle of blog friends and politics obsessive friends knew or cared anything about.

    And contrary to the “you didn’t build that” stuff Obama is not “gaffe-prone” or tone-deaf often enough for their to be a “series of mistakes” before the debates.

  69. 69.

    Cacti

    Also too, since this seems to be an open thread…

    The 08/12 jobs report is the best numbers for August in the last 6 years.

    Bang that drum loudly.

  71. 71.

    Dennis SGMM

    @cmorenc:

    While Obama is unlikely to make any outright gaffes, he nevertheless needs to be careful to avoid making statements that are easily twisted out of context…

    Obama should say what he feels he needs to say. One of the hallmarks of today’s conservatives is their ability to make shit up and then get furious about it. This making shit up has been going on for some time. Now it’s perfected and proliferated through hate radio and email. The wingnuts dream up some dire fantasy and off it goes to circulate around and around until it becomes a fact for them.

  72. 72.

    flukebucket

    Clint Eastwood is an 82 year old very wealthy and very white guy.

    About the only people his skit spoke to are very wealthy and very white people.

    After 2000-2008 how any Republican can even pretend to have any idea as to how to govern or how to create jobs or how to improve the economy is beyond me.

    And how anybody swallows their outlandish bullshit is even more beyond me.

  73. 73.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I see half a dozen posts that Timmy Dolan stole the convention. Did anyone other than CSPAN cover his speech? Did anyone here bother to watch it? Did Andy Sullivan scold him for cheapening religion with politics like he did with Sister Simone Campbell?

    ETA: John Heileman, one of the Village’s keenest minds, just said that the former governor of Michigan can’t run for president because she is a ‘Canadian citizen”

  74. 74.

    feebog

    @ Cacti:

    Also saw per MSNBC that Rmoney was pulling his ad buys from Wisconsin.

    Kos had a post up on Wisconsin this morning. Makes no sense unless their internals are far worse than the public polling. Rmoney is running out of states. If you look at 538 he has been stuck on the same number of electoral votes for weeks. If PA and MI are out of play, that leaves almost no room for error.

    Looking forward to seeing what kind of bump this convention gives Team Obama. Methinks it will be substantially more than the measly 1% Rmoney got.

  75. 75.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    This should make Kay and Zander happy this morning.

    When @BarackObama’s #DNC2012 speech ended at 11:03 p.m. ET, @google searches for “register to vote” doubled nationwide. #googlepolitics

  76. 76.

    beltane

    @lamh35: Yeah, that’ll really win over women. If the Romneys have to work for the support of the equestrian set they’ve got bigger problems than we can imagine.

  77. 77.

    Anya

    @bemused: Since they live to piss off liberals maybe they’ll start insulting the troops since our convention was all about honoring the troops.

    @Cacti: I am not buying this ad pullout. I think they’re playing a trick. How can they afford to abandon Michigan, Pennsylvania and now Wisconsin? I am not a conspiracy theorist but I think the campaign and the known super pacs are pulling their ads to make way for obscure or new pacs who will bombard the states with overtly racist ads. That way the campaign can say: it wasn’t me.

  78. 78.

    Cacti

    @Dennis SGMM:

    The wingnuts dream up some dire fantasy and off it goes to circulate around and around until it becomes a fact for them.

    If you ever wade through the sewer of comments at any RW site, or their responses to editorials, it’s immediately apparent they believe that all but the most hopeless of libruls share their billious hatred of the President.

  79. 79.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    This should make Kay and Zander happy this morning.

    When @BarackObama’s #DNC2012 speech ended at 11:03 p.m. ET, @google searches for “register to vote” doubled nationwide. #googlepolitics

  80. 80.

    Anya

    @bemused: Since they live to piss off liberals maybe they’ll start insulting the troops since our convention was all about honoring the troops.

    @Cacti: I am not buying this ad pullout. I think they’re playing a trick. How can they afford to abandon Michigan, Pennsylvania and now Wisconsin? I am not a conspiracy theorist but I think the campaign and the known super pacs are pulling their ads to make way for obscure or new pacs who will bombard the states with overtly racist ads. That way the campaign can say: it wasn’t me.

  81. 81.

    SatanicPanic

    @Dennis SGMM:

    The wingnuts dream up some dire fantasy and off it goes to circulate around and around until it becomes a fact for them.

    Which has its benefits- when one of them starts off on “SolyndraFastAndFurious GOLD COINS MuslimFEMAcamps” everyone around them making that awkward face that says, oh crap, I am talking to a crazy person, I gotta get out of here.

  82. 82.

    piratedan

    @catclub: would think that Ms. Wasserman-Schultz should get some of that cred as the DNC chair, was it perfect, no, but it was consistently on message, with fresh faces, powerful speeches and a verklempt moment or two…..(Giffords, Fluke, Ledbetter)

  85. 85.

    lamh35

    Oh, puh-leaze!

    Romney Responds To Obama’s Dig On London Olympics

    …Speaking to reporters in Iowa on Friday, Mitt Romney said that he was glad his own personal experience leading the Winter Olympics in Utah allowed him to talk frankly with other nations on the world stage, and that he wishes President Obama had the courage to do the same…

    Um, yeah sure Mittens, you were talking “truth to power”…good Lord this guy.

  86. 86.

    Cacti

    @feebog:

    If you look at 538 he has been stuck on the same number of electoral votes for weeks. If PA and MI are out of play, that leaves almost no room for error.

    I’d say it’s pretty close to desperation time now. If R-money doesn’t win both OH and FL, he loses the election.

  87. 87.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    And this should make all of us happy, they are waiting for Obama to make mistakes huh? Well Romney just said this

    Romney on why he didnt mention troops: “when you give a speech, you go thru a laundry list, you talk about things you think are important”

    Way to go Willard, tell the troops serving in a hot war that they aren’t important enough to speak about.

  93. 93.

    Cacti

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    “when you give a speech, you go thru a laundry list, you talk about things you think are important”

    Military service has never been important to any man in the Romney family.

    Neither Mitt, his 5 sons, his father, grandfather, or great grandfather ever wore the uniform of their country.

    However, they all made time to serve as Mormon missionaries.

  94. 94.

    Cacti

    @bemused:

    Ha, ha. Riding stable. Perfect venue to reach out to the average wimmin folk of America. Talk about tone deaf.

    Maybe she can wear another $1,000 t-shirt.

  95. 95.

    JCJ

    @Cacti:

    If he is really pulling his ad buys in Wisconsin I would be very happy since I am sick of them, but I am not sure how many there were. Here in the Milwaukee area I think most of the ads were from the SuperPacs. If those go away also I will be quite happy.

  96. 96.

    NonyNony

    @Violet:

    I may have irritated a lot of the lefties…

    What is it with Republicans and their insane view on what “irritation” is? I mean I’ve long got past the idea that they understand “leftie” to mean “anyone who disagrees with me”, but which “lefties” were irritated by Eastwood’s antics?

    Honestly I wonder sometimes if Republicans are wired wrong in the brain. “Lefties” were mostly laughing at Eastwood, which is kinda the opposite of “irritation”. It’s like when they said that Democrats were “running scared” of Sarah Palin – somehow laughing at them means that we’re scared of them instead of, you know, finding them laughable.

  97. 97.

    Hill Dweller

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Keep trying to fly that lead kite, Willard. No one gives a fuck about your “Olympic experience”.

    Especially when said experience was essentially becoming a lobbyist and begging the government for money.

    If there was actually an honest accounting of his “running the Olympics”, it would be damaging.

  98. 98.

    Chyron HR

    @Anya:

    I am not buying this ad pullout. I think they’re playing a trick. How can they afford to abandon Michigan, Pennsylvania and now Wisconsin?

    It’s almost like Romney is a mediocre politican, and he’s supported by a party that actively clebrates ignorance and denial of facts.

  99. 99.

    JoyfulA

    @Litlebritdifrnt: Well, McCain abandoned his wife (who stood by him while he was a POW) when she was in an accident and then limped, so maybe that’s what’s expected of Republicans.

  100. 100.

    1badbaba3

    So it’s pretty clear that Clint has ‘lost it’ lost it. Do we now seat him at the table with Mel Gibson and Jon Voight, or does he go in the romper room section with Dennis Miller and Victoria Jackson?

    @Anya: Well of course it’s a trick. Lacking substance, simple tricks and nonsense are all they have left. And I expect it to work about as well as everything else they’ve done for the past seven years.

  102. 102.

    Cacti

    @Chyron HR:

    It’s almost like Romney is a mediocre politican, and he’s supported by a party that actively clebrates ignorance and denial of facts.

    When the speakers at your convention all sound like they’re fluffing themselves for a run in 2016, it doesn’t exactly scream “We’re going to win in November”.

  103. 103.

    Poopyman

    @JCJ: I’m sure it’ll be pure coincidence when Mittens pulls his advertising just as the superpacs carpetbomb the state’s media outlets.

  104. 104.

    SatanicPanic

    @1badbaba3: Since, unlike the other people you mentioned, I love his movies, I suggest we just all pretend that he retired in 2011 and hasn’t made any public appearances since then. Let’s remember him the way he was before he lost his mind.

  105. 105.

    NonyNony

    @JCJ:

    If he is really pulling his ad buys in Wisconsin I would be very happy since I am sick of them

    You’re sick of ’em? I live in OHIO. I was sick of them in, I think, November of last year.

    At this point if it wasn’t for the fact that I’ve decided to give up on teevee almost entirely until after the election (for a variety of reasons, only 60% of which involve me not wanting to watch election ads), I’d probably be so sick I’d be in a hospital.

    Sometimes I really wonder how anyone who watches TV in a swing state manages to get themselves to the polls without hating everyone on the ballot for their inane television ad buys.

    (And don’t get me started on the fact that I still have a land line like an old person. We get a call from the “Romney For President” people with a recorded message asking for money or inviting us to a telephone “town hall meeting” or asking for money or telling us about how Romney and Ryan want to save Medicare or asking for money or talking about how Obama didn’t build that or asking for money EVERY. FREAKING. DAY. FOR. THE. LAST. MONTH. AND they call during dinner. I swear to Grod that sometimes I wonder if Romney’s campaign is actually TRYING to run itself as a caricature of the worst example of political campaigns ever.)

  108. 108.

    Chris

    @NonyNony:

    This. Most people I know just laughed. I and a few others were vaguely saddened, because we thought or hoped Eastwood was better than just another John Wayne. But the world kept spinning, Clint. No, really.

    These are the same people who vote Republican in order to stick up a giant middle finger to those Liberal Elitists that they think are laughing at them and talking about them behind their backs and plotting to humiliate them… never realizing that those liberals don’t know, care about or think about them much at all.

  109. 109.

    Dan

    @Anya:

    The foolishness was in regarding PA as a swing state to begin with. It’s gone for the Democrat for the past 20 years. Money spent there could be better spent in Ohio or Florida.

  110. 110.

    Shawn in ShowMe

    What is it with Republicans and their insane view on what “irritation” is? I mean I’ve long got past the idea that they understand “leftie” to mean “anyone who disagrees with me”, but which “lefties” were irritated by Eastwood’s antics?

    I know firsthand that lefties Henry Fonda, Gregory Peck and Katharine Hepburn were mighty perturbed by Eastwood’s performance. I know this because I attended a seance conducted by Bobby Jindal.

  111. 111.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Dan: I try not to out-think the people who got a black guy named Barack Hussein Obama into the White House, but I can’t imagine Willard’s little speech about letting the foreclosure process run its course to the inveestors move in isn’t going to play a role in FL this October

  112. 112.

    Anya

    @catclub: Guess what: everyone who goes to riding stables is not an out of touch douchebag. Freaky, I know, but some of us who love to ride also vote.

  115. 115.

    Anya

    @Dan: I know! I am always puzzled by that. They did the same thing in 08. But I think in 08 the whole “Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans is weak” talk might’ve excused it then; but after his decisive win what’s the excuse?

  117. 117.

    Linda Featheringill

    @Litlebritdifrnt: #75

    When @BarackObama’s #DNC2012 speech ended at 11:03 p.m. ET, @google searches for “register to vote” doubled nationwide. #googlepolitics

    That’s terrific!

    And it might actually be more important and the pundits’ fluffy opinions.

  118. 118.

    The Moar You Know

    Do we now seat him at the table with Mel Gibson and Jon Voight, or does he go in the romper room section with Dennis Miller and Victoria Jackson?

    @1badbaba3: An argument could be made that both Gibson and Voight, appalling as they are, have artistic talent. Eastwood certainly does.

    Miller and Jackson are just washed-up cokeheads who’ve never done one single thing of merit in their entire lives.

    I’ve got to agree with Ebert’s take on it; Clint’s a very talented and smart guy who has thought through everything and simply come to the wrong conclusions.

  120. 120.

    quannlace

    President Obama is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people,” Eastwood told The Pine Cone this week.

    Just to clarify, Eastwood wasn’t talking to an actual pine cone.

  121. 121.

    Jay in Oregon

    @lamh35:

    Mitt Romney said that he was glad his own personal experience leading the Winter Olympics

    Yeah, it takes a lot of leadership to go begging the federal government for a bailout.

    Fuckwit. (Romney, not lamh35.)

  122. 122.

    Napoleon

    @feebog:

    Kos had a post up on Wisconsin this morning. Makes no sense unless their internals are far worse than the public polling.

    I was reading a week or two ago, I forget where, but the person made the point that BOTH campaigns for months had been acting as if their internal polling was worse for the Reps then public polling and this person speculated that it appeared that public polling was adjusting numbers based on mid-term demo of voters, which is almost certainly whiter and older then what we are about to see, so it is possible that both campaigns are adjusting based on internal projections of a younger, less white 2012 electorate. That would explain this as well.

  124. 124.

    Nina

    The Repubs have a ton of cash, it doesn’t make sense that they think they have to save it, unless they’re pulling back in swing states to make a Hail Mary huge ad buy somewhere that we think is safe but where our fundamentals are weak.

    They may be chasing the eternal Republican wet dream of turning New Jersey and Connecticut and breaking the solid New England blue block. Or something equally desperate.

    They have paid for some brainpower on their side. They can read the electoral college numbers almost as well as we can. So there’s something they’re thinking about doing that they think will change the narrative.

    Hopefully it’s something as quixotic and futile as the New Jersey Chase.

  125. 125.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Dan:

    That’s exactly what Joe said on MJ this morning when Ed Rendell said that PA could be in play. Joe said that Ed was just egging on the GOP to spend “fools gold” there.

  126. 126.

    ? Martin

    @Nina:

    The Repubs have a ton of cash, it doesn’t make sense that they think they have to save it, unless they’re pulling back in swing states to make a Hail Mary huge ad buy somewhere that we think is safe but where our fundamentals are weak.

    Their cash isn’t tied up with Romney, though. If they’re pulling ads out of those presidential swing states, it’s more likely they’re going to put it instead into house and senate races. That’s likely what Obama is going to do as well in response.

    Essentially, the GOP is slowly giving up on Romney. They’re not going to fight battles they know they can’t win – and they can’t win PA or MI for him. But they’re not going to give up on OH Senate, FL Senate, MA Senate etc.

  127. 127.

    artem1s

    @beltane:

    OK, I’m watching the Prez on the rope line after his NH speech and one of his secret service guys totally looks like Mr. Smith from the Matrix.

  128. 128.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @EconWatcher:

    I’m not sure either of those twits is smart enough to cry on the inside about that.

    They’re both utterly clueless about a great many things. Rmoney thinks his taxes are no big deal, and Ryan thinks he can lie about trivial things without consequence.

    Got news for you, assholes. You are both committing unforced errors in defining the nature of your characters.

    All Obama has to do is stand back and let you destroy yourselves.

  129. 129.

    Suffern ACE

    @lamh35: Take those world leaders, lock em in a room and tell em to knock off the bullshit.

    Cause if there’s one thing world leaders like, it’s candor in public.

  130. 130.

    Some Loser

    Oh, look what I picked up from ABL’s twitter. Greenwald is embarrassing himself again.

    Nice to see I’m not the only one who sees him as a disingenuous hack. But, I should calm down and look at this more objectively.

  131. 131.

    Dennis SGMM

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    It is response to a question as to why he did not talk about the troops in his speech.

    First, I think that it’s a shame that we still have troops in a place where they’re clearly not wanted. That said, I’m guessing that Rmoney’s reticence regarding the troops stems from the fact that their presence in Afghanistan touches on foreign policy and Bibi Netanyahu neglected to tell him what to think about it.

  132. 132.

    1badbaba3

    @The Moar You Know: Talent, schmalent. I’m talkin’ nutty cuckoo, bonkers, animal crackers, crazybus around the bend who’s drivin’ who’s ridin’ and who’s just waitin’ at the bus stop.

  134. 134.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Napoleon:

    Public polling seems to be about maintaining the press corpse horse race narrative, at all costs.

    The campaigns know it’s bullshit. They can’t afford to pretend that the horse race narrative is real. So the Rethugs are putting they bucks into things that they have a shot at doing, like key Senate and House races.

    Rmoney is toast, and will be the scapegoat should there be an Obama landslide with coattails.

  136. 136.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Dennis SGMM:

    Can you imagine the absolute spittle flecked outcry from the RWNJ’s if Obama had said this when asked why he didn’t speak about the troops.

    “when you give a speech, you don’t go thru a laundry list, you talk about the things you think are important”

    It is at 6:34 in the linked interview I posted earlier

  137. 137.

    Lojasmo

    @Nina:

    I suspect they’re just trying to hold onto states like Arizona to avoid a Dukakis style bloodbath.

    At least, I can hope.

  138. 138.

    Dennis SGMM

    @Anya:
    I stoutly maintain that the Republicans are bound and determined this time around to find out how just how stupid and how credulous is the voting public.

  140. 140.

    huckster

    @Litlebritdifrnt: I haven’t met a Republican yet who doesn’t think that they are special and deserve a gold star just for doing what you’re supposed to do, what everybody pretty much does everyday.

  141. 141.

    quannlace

    s like Mr. Smith from the Matrix.

    It always tickles me that this is the same actor who plays Elrond in “The Lord of the Rings.’

  142. 142.

    bondirotta

    Wow, the Friday number broke the Gallup website.

    Obama’s approval/disapproval gap suddenly opened up to 52% – 43%. And the lead over Romney gapped up to three points.

    This was on polling not including the Obama speech reaction. He could have a six point lead by Sunday. Just as well Romney pulled out of Pennsylvania and Michigan. He has to sweep Ohio, Florida, North Carolina and Virginia to win now.

    Since Reagan in 1980, that feat has never been pulled off by anyone 5 points down three months before the election.

  144. 144.

    Dennis SGMM

    @Litlebritdifrnt:
    I have concluded that Republicans regard the troops in the same way that they regard babies; they love ’em when they’re safely out of sight. When they show up as individuals with real needs they don’t love ’em at all.

  146. 146.

    1badbaba3

    @? Martin: They always out spend us, which is why the emphasis on infrastructure and boots on the ground has worked to our advantage the last six years. And will do so in the future.

  148. 148.

    Chyron HR

    @bondirotta:

    And the lead over Romney gapped up to three points.

    Offical Gallup statement: “LA LA LA NO BUMP WE TOOK A POLL LAST MONDAY THAT PROVES IT.”

  150. 150.

    LanceThruster

    @Cacti:

    If you ever wade through the sewer of comments at any RW site, or their responses to editorials, it’s immediately apparent they believe that all but the most hopeless of libruls share their billious hatred of the President.

    The stuff I’ve seen is positively certifiable. On those sites I’ve actually tried to post regularly on, it’s like setting off a cacophony of howler monkeys and it’s not long after that I get banned.

  151. 151.

    danimal

    Romney must be tripling down in VA, FL, and yes, OH. Without that trifecta, he’s toast.

    I think the SuperPac GOP money is going to be spent on anti-Obama ads in semi-swing states, on Senate races, and in competitive House races. Because this money is tied to ego-driven billionaires, the message coordination will absolutely suck and the GOP will have to put out multiple fires as the millions spent fall on increasingly deaf ears.

  153. 153.

    catclub

    @Suffern ACE: “it’s candor in public.”

    I remember being very struck by Arafat’s explanation of why he lied to (say) Clinton in private. In HIS world, you can lie to other leaders in private, but you CANNOT lie to your public. I felt that view was very refreshing.

    Naturally, it does not seem to be how things work here.

  155. 155.

    GregB

    I’ll take the warm and serene beauty, music and advocacy of James Taylor over the boiled over, bitter rambling hate filled tirades of Hank Williams Jr.

    I’ll also take the blunt and talented honesty of Michael Moore and Spike Lee over the washed out Clint Eastwood.

  156. 156.

    catclub

    @danimal: Sure sounds like everyone has a big enough ego that they refuse to waste _their_ money on getting out the vote, since that is more invisible. I hope it is a crucial mistake.

  157. 157.

    Dan

    @Anya:

    My best guess is that it’s because we still put Republicans in congress and the governor’s mansion fairly regularly. And it’s a lot of electoral votes. But even with the voter suppression effort, it’s still out of reach.

  158. 158.

    Brachiator

    Clint Eastwood is doubling down on “get off my empty lawn chair.” What a sad crank.

    In a lengthy interview with his hometown paper, Clint Eastwood defended his speech at the Republican National Convention, saying his unconventional performance was a spontaneous decision.
    __
    The former mayor of Carmel, Calif., gave an interview to The Pine Cone; the story was published Friday.
    __
    “President [Barack] Obama is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people,” Eastwood told the paper. “[Mitt] Romney and [Paul] Ryan would do a much better job running the country, and that’s what everybody needs to know. I may have irritated a lot of the lefties, but I was aiming for people in the middle.”

    I hope his aim is off.

  159. 159.

    GregB

    Oh yeah, it looks like the Romney strategy of forcing Obama into a September full of mistakes is off to a brilliant start by Romney.

    Declaring that a shout out to the US troops in Afghanistan is a laundry list and not important.

    Go Mitt, go!

  160. 160.

    catclub

    @LanceThruster: This.

    Clinton’s line about the hatred of him and Obama, not dislike, not disagreement, but hatred, by the faction that is LEADING the GOP (ie. not some deranged blogger, but powerful people) did not get enough play.

    Maybe too impolite.

  161. 161.

    trollhattan

    @Napoleon:
    Chait does some mathificatin’ today.

    The reason this looks worrisome for Romney is that he’s pursuing an electoral-college strategy that requires him nearly to run the table of competitive states. The states where Romney is not competing (and which aren’t obviously Republican, either) add up to 247 electoral votes. The eight states where Romney is competing add up to a neat 100 electoral votes, of which Romney needs 79 and Obama just 23. If you play with the electoral possibilities, you can see that this would mean Obama could win with Florida alone or Ohio plus a small state or Virginia plus a couple small states, and so on.
    __
    Unless I’m missing something badly here, Romney needs either a significant national shift his way — possibly from the debates or some other news event — or else to hope that his advertising advantage is potent enough to move the dial in almost every swing state in which he’s competing.

    nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/09/romneys-playing-field-narrows.html

  162. 162.

    Steeplejack

    @Anya:

    Watched the ad and have a question. Maybe this is just me being out of touch (yet again), but what is the deal with all the Republican ads and convention jokes referring to Obama and golf? Is he some gigantic links-hound? The only golf stuff I remember is when he and Boehner were allegedly going to bond on the course for a round or two, but that was a couple of years ago.

  163. 163.

    Dennis SGMM

    @trollhattan:

    Unless I’m missing something badly here, Romney needs either a significant national shift his way — possibly from the debates or some other news event…

    Romney is off of the campaign trail at the moment while they upgrade his debating software and implant a radio receiver in the empty space between his ears.

  164. 164.

    trollhattan

    @Steeplejack:
    Maybe they’re upset he’s ignoring “his place” by playing and not caddying?

    It’s another R-meme that doesn’t make sense to the sane. I guess it’s some kind of attempt to sissify him because he does little or no brush-cuttin’ and keeps going to exotic and not-really-part-of-‘murka Hawaii.

    “What a snob.”

    They need to be careful, as Bush the Junior’s vacation tally was so vast, even during two wars and a fiscal collapse.

  168. 168.

    Applejinx

    Fuck me. So, no ‘ha ha you’ve been trolled’ from Clint, huh?

    Either this too is a con- which I feel is not impossible, but I wasn’t expecting a double-down phase, or if there was, only in an obscure and controllable venue…

    Or…

    You can be a flaming wingnut who’s lost his damn mind, and STILL be in favor of gay marriage, support the reality of global warming, and work to give people a more nuanced understanding of American wars?

    …

    I can live with either outcome (and it looks like I was about the only one that convinced it was a big troll), but my mind is blown. If that’s what being an insane wingnut is, what of their platform? He hates about half their damn platform! I don’t see much cohesiveness there.

    If all the wingnuts are like that, the chances of them staying home and not voting over specific platform grudges are surprisingly good.

  169. 169.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    @trollhattan: I think the golf jokes are another wingnut projection thing where they’re trying to recycle successful liberal attacks against Bush. Just like the bad speaker/ teleprompter stuff.

  171. 171.

    The Moar You Know

    You gotta see this ad (by the GOP) of some chick breaking up with the president. I am speechless. Are the republicans serious about this election or are they just fucking with us? Seriously, I wanna kno

    @Anya: The “chick” is an senior operative of the RNC.

    The Republicans are not serious about this election, just like 2008, something I’ve felt was the case since they picked Romney. They know the economy isn’t going to get much worse, but it also isn’t going to get any better, and they don’t want to eat the blame for their failure to perform a miracle turnaround in 2016.

  172. 172.

    trollhattan

    @Dennis SGMM:
    When they do a firmware update, do they use a USB cable and upload, or is it an actual chip swap?

    I always get nervous doing an FW update to a camera, because it can’t be undone and sometimes there are unresolved bugs. Am guessing they have a WillardBot12 test mule to try it out on before uploading to the actual public bot.

  176. 176.

    Dennis SGMM

    @trollhattan:

    When they do a firmware update, do they use a USB cable and upload, or is it an actual chip swap?

    It’s a USB cable. Being the cheap-ass mofos that they are they they equipped Romneybot with an Arduino Uno and now they’re stuck with it.

  177. 177.

    Mnemosyne

    @Nina:

    They have paid for some brainpower on their side. They can read the electoral college numbers almost as well as we can. So there’s something they’re thinking about doing that they think will change the narrative.

    You can pay for all of the brainpower you want, but if you don’t listen to them, you may as well put your money into a big pile and burn it.

    Anya may be right that their attempt at “changing the narrative” will be to run a bunch of openly racist ads by shady PACs, but that will be more of a voter suppression attempt as they try to disgust voters so much that they don’t bother to show up to vote for anyone on Election Day.

  178. 178.

    quannlace

    I am soooo glad New Jersey is not a swing state. I’ve seen an Obama ad (the one they rolled out in July) about three times. A Romney ad? Not yet.

  179. 179.

    Kay

    I wanted a picture of John with the West Virginia delegation. A group shot. He’s supposed to go over there and tell them “I’m from West Virginia too!” and then they’ll all go crazy with happiness. I think this is a grave breach of convention norms, John, if you didn’t do that :)

    You have to visit the delegation. Al Franken knows this.

  180. 180.

    Dennis SGMM

    @Mnemosyne:

    Anya may be right that their attempt at “changing the narrative” will be to run a bunch of openly racist ads by shady PACs…

    My supposition is that they really don’t want to take the White House. That would leave them appearing to be responsible for what will be a slow recovery no matter what. I’d bet that they are going to put their money into down-ticket races, everything from state legislatures to the House and Senate. They will become more openly racist in the weeks to come but, only in the interest of turning those down-ticket contests into The White Man’s Last Stand.

  181. 181.

    Anya

    @Steeplejack: Apparently the president is not allowed to unwind even on weekends. Consider this yet another rule that applies to only Barack Obama. CBS’s white house correspondent Mark Knoller focuses all his reporting on counting the number of times the president played golf, the number of empty seats, and the number of times he visited swing states, and other trivialities.

  182. 182.

    Calouste

    @lamh35:

    Cameron was fairly frank back. Cameron’s “It’s easy to organize the Olympics in the middle of nowhere.” was diplomatic speech for “Fuck off, you hick!”

    And then we’re not even talking about Romney being insulted by Boris Johnson (Boris Johnson!) or the leaks from senior civil servants attending Romney’s meetings saying “worse than Palin”, “completely clueless” and “a carwreck”.

  183. 183.

    ? Martin

    @1badbaba3: Yeah, I think the over reliance on money to win elections will be an unforeseen consequence. We saw it first hand in CA in 2010 when Brown was outspent 4-1 and his polling gap opened up the more his opponent spent. The ads were relentless – not a commercial break without a Whitman ad. It just pissed everyone off.

  186. 186.

    Dennis SGMM

    @? Martin:
    Yes, but Brown was running against Meg Whitman, a person whose picture is returned when you Google the word “asshole.”

  188. 188.

    1badbaba3

    I have to chuckle about concerns of a possible (probable?) surge of racism from the other side. Hell to be any more racist they’d have to have tea party rallies morph into lynching picnics while Lyndsey Graham and Jim Demint pull off a couple of Strom Thurmond style secret love chilluns out of the woodwork.

    After all, Barack Hussein Obama has never figured out how to counter racism here in Amerikkka. It will be his Waterloo.

  191. 191.

    R-Jud

    @Calouste:

    Cameron’s “It’s easy to organize the Olympics in the middle of nowhere.” was diplomatic speech for “Fuck off, you hick!”

    I have never been so proud of David Cameron, before or since.

    Because I’ve never actually been proud of David Cameron, before or since. But that was a good line.

  192. 192.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Dennis SGMM: I haven’t been able to shake the feeling that the honchos at the GOP want to use this cycle to get rid of The Romney Problem once and for all.

    “What do we do with this guy who keeps running and, even though no one likes him, has so much more money than anyone else?” “I say, let the bastard win.”

  194. 194.

    LanceThruster

    And for what it’s worth, Rmoney did not “organize” the SLC Olympics as much as bury the problems associated with the multiple scandals regarding bribery and corruption. When all the LDS in trouble over it were relegated to the background or removed, Rmoney brought in a new team of chiselers and tapped into the Fed money stream to put it back on track (or at least that’s my understanding).

    But yeah, he built it. ::rolls eyes::

  197. 197.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @lamh35:

    Mitt Romney said that he was glad his own personal experience leading the Winter Olympics in Utah allowed him to talk frankly with other nations on the world stage

    He still doesn’t appreciate that he was the designated Loud American Gobshite scapegoat for Cameron and Boris that week — and more importantly, that both of them thought they could scapegoat him and not face any political repercussions. Which suggests that Cameron doesn’t think Rmoney’s going to win.

  198. 198.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Cacti:

    Ditto. I didn’t watch any of the Repub convention and have no interest in why any of them said what they said when they said it. A whole lot of blah blah Kenyan socialist communist blah blah blah, which didn’t even do them any good in the polls.

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