We haven’t inflicted enough bad-for-you-but-sinfully-delicious Politico Republican convention post-mortem on you yet today. Anne Laurie covered it pretty well, but I’ll give an executive summary: (a) a lot of (probably silly) hand-wringing about the campaign’s inability to take advantage of what a “special” candidate Romney is and (b) an interesting account of what an unbelievable clusterfuck the Republican convention was.
It wasn’t just Eastwood’s musical chair routine, it was Romney’s speech and its (inexplicable) failure to mention Afghanistan. Some of it was that they had to scramble to deal with the hurricane (though no one made them put the convention in Tampa), but some of it was just incompetence. The original speech did include references to Afghanistan, but it was scrapped at the last minute.
Here’s my favorite part of the article:
Nevertheless, Wehner came up with a draft he found pleasing, including the memorable line: “The incumbent president is trying to lower the expectations of our nation to the sorry level of his own achievement. He only wins if you settle.”
That is one memorable line, huh? Can’t you see it becoming a catch phrase? If Romney had opened that can of eloquent whup ass on us, we’d be in serious trouble, right?
Hunter Gathers
My dog can give a more persuasive argument than that. And she barely speaks English.
Hunter Gathers
Romney’s failure to mention Afghanistan wasn’t a failure. He honestly doesn’t give a fuck about foreign policy. If he did he wouldn’t have hired Dan Senor. The only reason anybody hires Neo-cons these days is in order to call their critics Anti-Semites.
BGinCHI
“The sorry level of his own achievement?”
Editor of the Harvard Law Review? Professor at the U of Chicago Law School? Senator…President? And that’s without a last name connected to a political dynasty.
Plus all of the things accomplished in a first term with the worst congress in history and a corrupt SC.
Santorum is right: the GOP will never get the smart people.
max
“The incumbent president is trying to lower the expectations of our nation to the sorry level of his own achievement. He only wins if you settle.”
Translation: “I’m a banker and I have 250 million dollars. AND I’m not black.’
Everybody loves themselves some bankers, don’t they? Sure.
If Romney had opened that can of eloquent whup ass on us, we’d be in serious trouble, right?
I want them to ‘unleash Ryan’. Please, O Goddess of Swine, Ayn the Turgid, unleash upon my moocher butt the whoopassness of Galt. PLEASE.
max
[‘No. Really. Please.’]
The Moar You Know
The stories of what a shitshow fail parade Romney’s campaign has been are already assuming historic proportions and it’s not even October yet.
Is Team Romney simply going to forfeit on November 5th?
Zifnab
Hey, at least its an argument. Better than “Crazy old man rambles at President only he can see”, which sums up both Eastwood and Romney nicely.
I mean, the bottom line is that Romney very well can make the case that Obama hasn’t done a good enough job as President. There is undeniably room for improvement. But every time Romney tries this line of attack, he stumbles into his own personal history and exposes himself as a worse alternative.
What the GOP has been reduced to is an endless stream of easily debunkable lies, repeated in the face of the debunking. And a constant drum-beat of “Obama sucks! Obama sucks! Vote Not-Obama because Obama sucks!” Which, let me tell you, was a total winner for John Kerry back in ’04 when he ran that strategy against Bush.
:-p Romney’s total lack of rhetoric skill definitely isn’t helping him in a race that all the poll numbers say should technically be winnable with a better candidate. This is not ’08. People are not ready to vote for Obama just to get away from George Bush anymore. A competent GOP candidate could take this election. So the GOP pundits do have a reason to be upset that their nominee is floundering.
Cacti
Magna cum laude Harvard grad, best-selling author, Grammy award winner, Nobel peace prize winner, state senator, US senator, and President of the United States.
What a f*ck up, that guy.
Todd
@max:
Is it just me, or has the dude gone invisible? As I remember, in aught eight at this point, Sarah Palin seemed to be in so many places at once that I was afraid she’d been cloned, witch screech and all.
The Moar You Know
@max: It may just be my imagination but it seems as though Mr. Ryan is running the fuck away from the spotlight as often as he can.
I wonder why he would do that?
Todd
@Zifnab:
He also has that upperclass stammer thing going against him. Every time he talks and gets lost in a thought (which is frequent), it comes out.
They can call the movie about his refusal to take advice on his stammer (or anything else) “The Asshole’s Speech”.
ericblair
For all the blathering about Romney being a Bidnessman and a Manager, I’ve never heard anyone say that he was particularly good at it. The most you can usually point to is using his connections to chisel money out of the gummint or other businesses.
Maybe I just haven’t heard it and it exists, but so far what I’ve seen isn’t impressive: he can’t delegate, is jealous of his subordinates’ successes, has this overwhelming urge to dominate every stupid situation he’s in despite the damage it causes, and so on.
I do enjoy the view of the ships deserting the sinking rat already. I’ve got my beer and popcorn handy.
Omnes Omnibus
I know it’s Dr. John, but title brought Dire Straits’ “Down to the Waterline” to my mind first.
Dave
@Zifnab:
Which is the Republicans’ single biggest flaw – they don’t have a better candidate.
30 years of epistemic closure has turned the GOP into a party that only believes it’s own bullshit and has given them a base of voters who will only accept a candidate who believes in an ideology that is almost utterly divorced from facts and rational discourse.
It’s a closed system collapsing upon itself. 30 years from now the party will be reduced to one 105-year-old white male who will be utterly convinced that President Obama blew up the Twin Towers and that tax cuts cure everything. And nothing you can tell him will convince him otherwise.
Carl Nyberg
Not only does the line not roll off the tongue, within a few seconds of reading it I could edit it to something better that says the same thing.
could be
It really feels like the talent in the Republican Party has aged out of politics, lost their faith in the party or been shoved to the side.
The remaining infrastructure is manned by second-rate wannabes. They misremember Reagan and believe they got everything they wanted and they were popular. And their standard for how things should be was set during the post-9/11 era when they were getting every policy they wanted (minus privatizing Social Security).
And so the Republicans expect they can both make their agenda more extreme and they can get everything they want.
Ah, well. It’s gonna be fun to watch them lose. And the beautiful thing is that they will blame Romney for not being a “true conservative” and they will come back and make the same mistakes in 2016 when their base is even smaller.
jibeaux
Dude, your base is angry old white men who might not’ve exactly wowed their teachers back in school, if you get my drift. They want zingers without words they have to go look up.
Cacti
@The Moar You Know:
Taking the Veep spot on Romney’s ticket was a strategic blunder for Ryan’s national aspirations. Romney loses, and Ryan will have the indelible loser stink on him for the rest of his career.
Bruce S
I think “$10,000 says I’d make a better President than Barack Obama” would have been THE killer line.
japa21
@Cacti: Ryan has suddenly realized that if he doesn’t focus on the race for his House seat, he may well be unemployed come January. For the first time in his adult life, he may have to look for a job outside of government.
Has anybody seen any polls for his district?
Shawn in ShowMe
The best zinger at the RNC was Ryan’s “College graduates should not have to live out their 20s in their childhood bedrooms, staring up at fading Obama posters and wondering when they can move out and get going with life.”
But that’s not the end of the discussion. Because if Romney and Ryan get into office, their first act will be to repeal ObamaCare and their second act will be to raise taxes on the middle class. That’s a recipe for keeping college graduates at home with mom and dad. Otherwise, they’re on their own without healthcare as the economy craters.
The GOP would actually have a chance at winning in 2016 with Jon Huntsman as the nominee and Clinton-style triangulation as their strategy. Fortunately for us, Huntsman would never survive the purity purge of the primary.
Carl Nyberg
@The Moar You Know:
Better to lose one race that’s already lost than double down and find himself losing his U.S. House seat too for saying dumb things to fire-up the GOP base for Romney’s lost cause.
Todd
@Dave:
Which is ironic, because they should. There are a number of supremely competent Republican tilted and appointed District and Circuit judges who are conservative only insofar as they are cautious and inclined to measured, incremental changes. Of course, when they came on to the scene, the GOP had a sizable faction that thought that government could work but wanted it to do its thing efficiently and competently. Now that these guys are in their lifetime dream jobs, they’re disinclined to give that up. What’s taken over on the institutional side is a bunch of shallow grifters – marketing jerks, failed lawyers, phone bank hangers on, propagandists and shallow polemicists, looking to grab a paycheck.
Ash Can
@Todd:
@The Moar You Know:
I’ve been thinking the same thing lately. He was spewing some toxic inanities at that Value Voters klan meeting the other day, but in general, he doesn’t seem to be in the press at all. No speeches that we can pull ridiculous quotes from, no statements to the press, no rundowns of which diner he ate lunch at or which VFW hall he spoke at or whose down ticket fundraiser he showed up at. Either the press can’t stand the guy or he ain’t doing shit, or both.
Cacti
@Shawn in ShowMe:
They also want to cut billions from the Pell Grant program.
I guess the solution to the number of unemployed college grads is to make sure fewer kids can go to college.
Zifnab
@Dave:
They have Chris Christie. They have Mitch Daniels. They have Mark Rubio. The GOP is not without options. Their bench is deeper than we like to admit.
But Romney staked a claim to the ’12 nod, and all the other heavy hitters, with the exception of Rick Perry, backed off. I have absolutely no doubt 2016 will see a better field of candidates than 2012. State governor’s mansions and Senate seats are thick with skilled demagogues.
qwerty42
The Politico article is interesting. Even more interesting is the whining of the pro-Romney folks, accusing Politico of being for Obama. Obviously, the Republican Convention they saw did not suck. Must have been a different convention.
Persia
@Hunter Gathers: Seriously, that is a terrible line. The concept isn’t bad – refuse to settle, aim high, vote Romney – but that is horribly written. And it also depends on Romney actually aiming high, which he has pretty consistently failed to do.
Redshift
@Cacti:
Even earlier, letting Obama maneuver them into making his budget the face of the Republican Party was a strategic blunder for Ryan’s national aspirations. Ryan seems to one of those who believes his own bullshit, which gets him in trouble now that he’s actually being challenged on it.
Rafer Janders
Well, except that it’s tilted way over to the side that Chris Christie is sitting on….
Ash Can
@Carl Nyberg: Now that I think of it, it’s entirely possible that Ryan, like Romney, is spending all this time preparing for his debate with Biden (because he’d get his ass handed to him otherwise) (and might anyway).
Todd
@Zifnab:
Christie is too fat and obnoxious to stake a credible claim, Daniels’ marriage problems and the microscope knock him out (remember, there’s a dude out there who may have embarrassing pillow talk to sell), and Rubio has birther issues. And while the GOP can pivot on the birther thing, it would be a little soon.
I’m thinking something like a Brian Sandoval/Susana Martinez ticket could work for them. Each of them has some crossover appeal.
Shawn in ShowMe
@japa21:
Lyin’ Ryan needs to decide what he wants. If it’s power, then he should have passed on the VP offer and asked to deliver the keynote speech that was delivered by Chris Christie instead. He would have entered the 2016 Republican primary without the loser stench.
If it’s money, then he should take advantage of the Koch/Adelson network and get a cushy lobbying/consulting lob in Washington.
ChrisNYC
@Zifnab: Keep hearing about this deep bench but don’t see it. Daniels’ pol career is most likely over. Christie did horribly and the wingers hate him and a goombah from NJ is a tough sell nationally. Rubio seems like a person caught up in a storm — he’s Cuban! he’s cute! he’s the second coming. But I hear him talk and he seems slightly dumb and very without huge ambitions.
Njorl
@ericblair: Well, he’s a more successful businessman than GW Bush.
I think one of the biggest problems Romney has is that is the only way he distinguishes himself from Bush – he wasn’t a failure at business like Bush was. The Romney campaign has no answer when the Democrats say he wants to go back to the Bush years. I can’t think of any policy differences between Romney and Bush. If they do exist, it doesn’t matter, since Republicans are incapable of acknowledging the existance of the Bush years. They can’t differentiate Romney from Bush if they aren’t willing to discuss Bush.
Persia
Question of the day: How much of the Obama bounce was actually a reaction to the Eastwood fuckery?
Also, if I had money and time I’d start a PAC to air an ad. Just one ad. All over the place. It’d just be Clint Eastwood’s speech, with text over it: “Mitt Romney let an actor talk to a chair on the most important night of his political career. What will he do when the phone rings at 3 am?”
Or maybe “what actor will he call when the phone rings at 3 am?” I haven’t really decided.
cat
This is an well crafted dog whistle. It would have really reasonated with the GOP base. A black democrat is given special treatment through affirmative action and quotas so anything they achieve is not really an achievement. So in their mind is is lowering expectations if a medicore person like him can earn all those accolades you don’t have to be ‘special’ anymore to be president.
Villago Delenda Est
The thing I came away with from the Politico piece was that it was Rmoney and Stevens that wrote Rmoney’s acceptance speech, in a huge hurry, after rejecting two previous speeches.
So the fail here isn’t the fault of the political operatives, who are being ignored.
The fail fully belongs to the utterly incompetent sack of shit that is Dubya Mittens Rmoney.
Todd
@ChrisNYC:
Like I said – watch Sandoval – he gave up a lifetime Federal judgeship that Harry Reid(!) recommended him for to gain a governorship. Looking at his achievements, he doesn’t appear to be a universal dick like Walker, Snyder, Scott, Jindal or Christie, and is from a state that is swinging some electoral weight. Plus, his ancestry is Mexican as opposed to Cuban.
GxB
@Cacti: And to discuss this with any of them is an exercise in skull fracturing futility cuz – black, affirmative action, DEMONcrat, welfare… ni-CLANG. Won’t someone think of the poor fetuses?
Chris
@Zifnab:
I mean, say what you want about the tenets of movement conservatism, Dude…
Dave
@Zifnab:
That bench is as deep as a rain puddle. Three guys with no new ideas, one of whom crafted Bush’s economic plan.
And even if they were amazing candidates, they can’t veer from the inward, benighted narrative that drives the GOP voter base. And that forces the candidates to say ridiculous shit that a majority of voters look at with horror.
Carl Nyberg
@Todd:
I have confidence if Sandoval is not a dick, the GOP base will decide he doesn’t sufficiently understand their hurt feelings.
Shawn in ShowMe
@ChrisNYC:
Agreed. Mitch Daniels will be a 67 year old unpopular president of Purdue University who appeals largely to a declining demographic.
Paul Ryan is still their strongest candidate, even with the loser stench. There is no way Marco Rubio wins any midwestern primary over Ryan, and other than Florida, I don’t see him beating Ryan in the South. So maybe Ryan taking the VP slot won’t hurt him as much as we originally thought.
1badbaba3
I keep seeing that there is a case to be made against Obama, but all we get is quibbling about style points. One would think with so many radio stations, television networks, and innerwebs trolls working furiously on his demise, one of them would come up with a nut. Instead, it’s just a lump of dessicated poo.
Just Some Fuckhead
They are going to go down taking angry and unfair shots at the incumbent. It isn’t working because people genuinely like the President and hold Republicans either completely responsible or equally responsible for the state of the economy.
If rightwing talk radio ran a candidate for President and tailored his message, it would be the campaign Romney is running.
The only chance Romney had was convincing people he cared (remember Bush’s “compassionate conservatism”) and convincing them he has a solution to the crisis. As it is, he doesn’t care and wouldn’t be able to pull it off even if he did (because he’s a stiff unlikable ‘tard), and he doesn’t have a solution to the economy and wouldn’t be able to talk about it even if he did, (because it’d be Keynesian).
Chris
@Zifnab:
The reason these people are “competent” is that they’re smart enough to realize that this election is a bomb waiting to happen, so they’re saving their powder until they have a better shot. Romney, on the other hand, wants the presidency like an addict wants an injection, so he doesn’t even factor in these things.
SFAW
@Njorl:
Big deal. I am a better businessman than W, even with half my brain tied behind my back – and I ain’t a very good biznessman to begin with.
@Carl Nyberg:
“Mr. Nyberg? There’s a Mr. Stuart Stevens on line 2, says he desperately needs to talk to you about some kind of ‘great opportunity’ – shall I put him through?”
GxB
@japa21: His district suffers from chronic Stockholm Syndrome. In short, not good for the good guys. Though it looks as if Baldwin might be turning a corner against Thompson – I’m still thinking we’re going to the red side of purple in all but the pres election.
LanceThruster
@Hunter Gathers:
But is she trainable in the insanity that is Rethug-fu?
Zifnab
@Chris: :-p My point being that Romney’s rhetorical skills aren’t helping him. He lacks the charmy folksey appeal of Bush, who could at least cox you to the edge of the cliff before shoving you off.
@Dave: It’s not about policy, its about salesmanship. The Dem policies aren’t exactly new or exciting either, once you scratch the surface. PPACA was, after all, Mitt Romney’s Massachusetts health care plan. The Stimulus was 1/3 tax cuts and 1/3 state bail-outs. Immigration reform has been hashed over about a trillion times since the nation’s founding, and mostly just boils down to “Do we or don’t we allow more people citizenship?”
The problem with the GOP narrative right now is that their salesmen all suck. That may be, at least in part, because they are trying to sell turds at the sandwich shop. But I agree with DougJ’s article in so far as they’ve been pitching to shit-eaters for over a decade now, and they’ve basically forgotten how to do it for everyone else.
Obama knows how to pitch across the aisle, which I appreciate. What I don’t appreciate is the “moderate” solutions that he occasionally champions, because they can taste like warmed over conservative shit from 20 years ago.
SFAW
@Zifnab:
“They have Mario Mendoza. They have Rod Kanehl. They have Eddie Gaedel. They have Dick Stuart. They are not without options. Their bench is deeper than we like to admit. On the other hand, shit being DEEPER is not necessarily a good thing.”
Villago Delenda Est
@1badbaba3:
The case against Obama is “He’s a ni*CLANG*!”
That’s all they’ve got. It’s all the GOP base needs to know.
burnspbesq
David Frum’s Twitter feed this morning is priceless. Frum understands that the Republicans are going to get whomped, he understands why, and he’s this close to saying they deserve it. Money tweet:
https://twitter.com/davidfrum
IowaOldLady
It’s hard for me to tell how deep the Republican bench is. I was afraid of Perry until he opened his mouth. Pawlenty seemed plausible ahead of time too. But then they stood up next to Bachmann and Santorum and in front of a crowd that booed a gay soldier. Is anyone on that list good enough to cope with crazy fellow Rs? That’s their real problem.
GxB
@Todd:
Agree on the “too fat” point from both an optics and a health strained by campaigning angle. Disagree on the obnoxious point however. Come 2016, the NotObama is going to be up against a pack of rabid jackals howling for blood, and the Jersey Whale can dish that up in heaping slop bucketfuls. They’ll be gorging on it till they burst (and let’s hope that’s what actually happens.)
Persia
@burnspbesq:
That is gold.
ChrisNYC
@Todd: I will, thanks. I am perplexed by this deep bench meme. Chuck Todd was pushing it and then Halperin today has a link to a Dem strategist memo that is all good news for Dems this cycle but talks about fearsome deep bench for GOP.
My pet theory has been that since Reagan, the GOP has been destroying itself and slowly changing into all grifters and people satisfied with winning safe seats and screaming nonsense. Worked ok when they had the Bush machine to impose order and win and then dole out goodies but they, as far as I’ve seen, don’t seem to have raised up even a single freestanding person in that whole eight years in power.
ChrisNYC
@Shawn in ShowMe: Yes, except I think Ryan’s done, too. Unmasked. Now hidden or hiding, whichever it is. And he’s another one — a late product of the Bushies who can’t really stand on his own.
lamh35
I Can’t See Your Face Right Now’: ‘Fox & Friends’ Pranked In Wild, Nonsensical Interview”
Chris
@Zifnab:
:D I was just trolling, but I do see your point.
I think that’s a huge part of it and I’ve said similar things before but I also think it’s not just a matter of forgetting – the shit-eaters insist that they go on selling shit sandwiches (and nothing else) and worse, that they grab a bullhorn before every lunchtime and loudly announce the fact that those are, in fact, shit sandwiches.
GxB
@Carl Nyberg: DING! DING! DING! – I like your Moxie, brother. We think the repugs are livid now, just keep them out of the big chair four more years. We truly do live in interesting times.
SiubhanDuinne
@japa21:
No, but I’ve sent a little money to Rob Zerban (Ryan’s D opponent for the seat).
Shawn in ShowMe
@ChrisNYC:
Well, the GOP has to rally around somebody and Ryan, at this point, seems to be only figure that can fill that role. I just don’t see a bunch of America Firsters rallying around a baby-faced Cuban with no sense of humor.
redshirt
LOL Deep bench! Best laugh this morning.
The Whigs are on their way out.
Tom Q
Two things:
1) The idea that “polls show voters were open to another choice” is meaningless. That’s ALWAYS true; you could have got the same results when popular presidents — Reagan or Clinton — were up for re-election. Americans prize their right to always imagine there’s someone better. I contend (and Lichtman’s Keys system agrees) that Obama is winning on the merits this year, and it’s demeaning to him to suggest it’s only the Romney incompetence that’s making that happen.
2) This whole “deep” bench is just the Village way of saying ooh, we still love Republicans. These people talked about Haley Barbour as a legitimate candidate, for Christ’s sake. They think America’s dying for yet another Bush. And they always tout any GOPer who strays half an inch from party orthodoxy as some awesome moderate — see: Christie Whitman, and now Chris Christie. The 2016 election will be based on the record of Obama’s second term, and the Dems have plenty of strong candidates to carry that banner; Hillary, Gillibrand, O’Malley, Deval Patrick. Who here thinks the MSM would ever refer to that group as a deep bench? They’re Democrats; by definition, they have cooties.
Cacti
@Tom Q:
Romney is giving the Teabaggers the campaign they wanted. His whole message is “vote for me because the ni-CLANG sucks!”
Just like during the Clinton years, they imagine that everyone hates the Dem POTUS as much as they do, and shouting that he sucks will rally a majority to their flag.
Ms. D. Ranged in AZ (formerly IrishGirl)
“to the sorry level of his own achievement”
This about a man who overcame being biracial in a very bigoted country to put himself through a couple of the best universities in the world via scholarships and students loans and has risen to the most powerful position on Earth from a man who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth the size of a shoehorn who, as a result, should already have been master of the universe but instead can’t even control his own shitty campaign (or his mouth)….
I think I will “settle” for the real bootstrapper and it sure as hell ain’t Mittens.
Zifnab
@Tom Q:
There’s a big difference between “I think Obama isn’t doing a good enough job” and “I can definitely see how the shitty economy and political gridlock could get a politician fired”. For those people that aren’t constantly tuned in to the political feeds, or get their news from the D.C. mediocracy that has a vested interest in horse-race politics where everyone is always neck-and-neck, it isn’t unreasonable to expect them to get a different story than the guy reading higher-tier news material or just following events directly and maintaining a more-than-six-week-long political memory.
Obama is winning in no small part because he has a well-oiled campaign filled with top talent executing a strong playbook based on sound domestic policies. That doesn’t explain why Romney looks like a dipshit clown, though. This should be a close race. There’s no reason for Romney to suffer a ten point gap with women voters, for instance. There’s no reason he should be taking shit from Ann Coulter or David Frum. These people are on his team, and when they bite Romney it is because he’s delivering self-inflicted wounds.
> 2) This whole “deep” bench is just the Village way of saying ooh, we still love Republicans.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_United_States_governors
There are currently 29 Republican governors. They are not winning by accident. If Romney was carrying Florida or Virginia or Michigan or Pennsylvania, the #RomneyShambles hash tag would be seeing a little less traffic. The notion that Republicans can’t get elected in the US is easily dis-proven, even in historically blue states.
So yes, Republicans absolutely have candidates that can get elected, even in hostile territory. We ignore the 29 GOP governors at our own peril. Don’t be stupid. In 2005, Republicans got stupid after telling themselves the myth of the “Permanent Republican Majority”. Permanent Majorities don’t exist in US politics.
> Who here thinks the MSM would ever refer to that group as a deep bench? They’re Democrats; by definition, they have cooties.
What the MSM says doesn’t really matter. Dems have a bench too, and I’d be a fool to deny it. I’m personally rooting for Warren 2016, assuming she can get that Mass Senate seat back. That doesn’t give license to ignore the GOP when it is successful.
the Conster
@Zifnab:
I heard on my local public radio station (Boston) this morning that Warren’s up on Brown by 2% or 4%, depending on which poll was cited. I’m surprised, but delighted.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us? (formerly MarkJ)
Didn’t click through, but you forgot to provide a synopsis of one essential point: their explanation of how this Romney clusterfuck of fail is good news for John McCain. That’s gotta be in there somewhere.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us? (formerly MarkJ)
Didn’t click through, but you forgot to provide a synopsis of one essential point: their explanation of how this Romney clusterfuck of fail is good news for John McCain. That’s gotta be in there somewhere.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us? (formerly MarkJ)
Didn’t click through, but you forgot to provide a synopsis of one essential point: their explanation of how this Romney clusterfuck of fail is good news for John McCain. That’s gotta be in there somewhere.
Tom Q
Reply to Zifnab:
A good many of those Republican governors you’re citing were elected by paper-thin margins in a 2010 turnout that vastly favored their party. This is very unlikely to be repeated, since demographics in many of those states are moving further Dem-ward. My own opinion is that they’re as little representative of where US political opinion stands as the GOP class elected in 1946, in another deep recession: most of those were gone at the next opportunity.
Look: if the second Obama term is a disaster, there’ll be an opening for a GOP president (though I think the party will still have to deal with the distance between their median-voter level of craziness and what can be sold as acceptable moderration in this country — Tea Partiers will certainly blame that Massachuisetts liberal Romney for this loss, and push to go full-loony). But I rather suspect that, like with Clinton and Reagan, the worst news (deep recession) was dealt with in the first term, and they’ll leave a legacy that will give a potential successor a leg up.
trollhattan
@DougJ
Mac Rebennack lyric!
SFAW
@Ms. D. Ranged in AZ (formerly IrishGirl):
Well, from what I hear, he got where he is BECAUSE of being (partly) black, not in spite of it. At least, that’s what Rush and Fox tell me. If he had been white, there’s no telling how many of those open doors would soon be shut. I mean, look at all the obstacles Mitt and W had to overcome! And you’re trying to tell me Obama had it tougher? Get real.
kansi
@Tom Q: re: MSM view of the Dem party….I remember Chuck Todd lamenting during the Tampa convention that the Dems would have a tough time getting enough minorities to stand up at the podium, even saying that Castro as keynote speaker was scraping the bottom of the barrel. Their bubble is as big as the wingnut one.
The Lodger
@Persia: I like the “What actor?” version. There could be multiple versions with 3-second clips of different actors taking the call: Schwarzenegger, Adam Sandler, Snooki, etc.
(I realize my definition of “actor” may be a bit flexible here.)
RaflW
W. James Antle III, editor of the Daily Caller ‘foundation’ has a major sad over at AmCon today. I’m thinking its too Romney-shaming to post at his own rag?
Romney’s Craven Campaign: The GOP nominee can’t seem to put the primaries behind him.
Ahh the bitter tears, they’re flowing.
eta: How is one an editor of a foundation? Is the Ford Foundation run by an editor? So much wingnut welfare I don’t understand.
JR in WV
@SiubhanDuinne:
Me too, putting money where my mouth is seems to be the only way to feel like I’m doing something to fight the crazy.
I’m going to do phone calls too, I live in W Va and so have no NE accent. Not really a WV country accent, but still. It’s so little a bit, but living in a suddenly red (from bigotry! Uck!) state makes it hard to feel like my vote counts.
Like always, you do what you can, and try to be satisfied with it.
Go Mr. Serban!