(Jack Ohman via GoComics.com)
__
Smart summary from Digby, at Hullabaloo:
… I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a presidential candidate with more contempt for the American people than Mitt Romney. It’s one thing for a candidate to attack his opponent, but to attack half the country as a bunch of losers you don’t have to care about is just unprecedented. He’s obviously as much a believer in twisted Randroid tropes as his chosen VP…
There has been a tendency to believe that Romney might really be a moderate underneath it all and that he’s just playing to the wingnuts. It sounds to me like he’s very fluent in wingnut ideology in private. So much so, that I would have to say that it’s far more likely he conned the people of Massachusetts all those years ago that that he’s conning all the wingnuts now.
And so do his rich Republican donors. Anyone who’s still waiting for the Big Money Boyz to pull the plug on these wacky weirdos on the right is going to be waiting a long time. They are the wacky weirdos on the right. And Mitt’s certainly King of the Weirdos.
Roy Edroso was mocking a far less significant rightwinger on Sunday, but I think his conclusion applies just as well to The Big Target:
… The title of the post is “Narrative Wars: Slap the Honey Boo Boos with Truthaganda.” Zombie is talking about “last remaining undecided voters in America,” and bases his characterization on the fact that a reality TV show about hillbillies beat out some reality TV shows about rich politicians making promises to America.
That seems like a reasonable preference to me, but Zombie believes those people are dumb…
I’ll spare you: It mainly means recreating rightwing talking points like “OBAMA TEAM TWEETS COMMUNIST PROPAGANDA” in oversize red letters. “Even a Honey Boo Boo can get through those headlines,” he says; “they’re short enough to survive the three-second attention span.”
That someone actually thinks this about his fellow citizens doesn’t surprise me, but I am a little surprised that he would say it out loud in a public forum. It suggests to me that Zombie is not actually concerned with influencing those voters. He’s like a teenage boy who doesn’t have a girlfriend and declares it’s because girls prefer jerks, and so he’ll be a jerk himself, and then they’ll all come running. Having been a teenage boy myself, I recall that such a person is usually not seriously mapping out a seduction strategy, but looking for sympathy from like-minded loners…
*********
Apart from quoting Voltaire (“Oh Lord, make my enemies ridiulous… “), what’s on the agenda this morning?
wasabi gasp
I didn’t see it initially, but Ann was right, Romney is a fun guy.
Schlemizel
I’d like to point out a couple of cartoons to brighten your day
The oatmeal on dogs (danger, its funny and heart rending)
theoatmeal.com/comics/dog_paradox
and Kliban’s cats
gocomics.com/comic/explore/1384359/19
I’m trying to remain positive in the face of all the great news for our side!
Todd
MoJo’s next install ment is up.
motherjones.com/politics/2012/09/romney-secret-video-israeli-palestinian-middle-east-peace
Romney=Lazy Fuck
raven
@Schlemizel: Come on you must be worried about something!
hep kitty
You know, I was saying on here Monday morning, it’s been a boring wkd, wonder what kind of shit Mitt’s going to get into and how long will it take. The day wasn’t even half over when this broke.
PsiFighter37
Schadenfreude is a delicious dish early in the morning. I was almost excited to haul my ass out of bed at 6:15 this morning.
Humanities Grad
These past couple weeks have been enough to make one wonder what sort of deal with the Flying Spaghetti Devil Obama must have worked out earlier in his life.
He’s running for re-election in a climate that should (and may still) make it very difficult for him to win. And yet…
…in almost every election he’s ever competed in, he’s had the incredible fortune to draw either very weak or fatally flawed opponents. I suppose 2008 could have been an exception–John McCain had the potential to be a challenge, although any Republican was going to be paddling against the current in 2008. But the combination of “suspending his campaign” to deal with the Wall Street crisis and nominating Caribou Barbie as his running mate blew great big holes in that idea.
This time around, I don’t think the Republicans had much choice BUT to nominate Mitt (because, really, who else was it going to be?). And I suppose he could still somehow win. Maybe. But WOW is he tone-deaf. So much so that even people who don’t follow politics much are starting to notice.
PeakVT
I hope the Rmoney campaign doesn’t figure out that anvils are something you give to the other guy in the race.
beltane
I’m not feeling any schadenfreude over this because my blind rage won’t yet let me. Now we know why hausfrau Ann never hit the charity circuit as is to be expected with women of her station: because she and her husband are not moral people who feel any shred of responsibility to the society that made them rich. Their tithing should in no way be considered charity; it is just another business investment to them, one which promises material (not spiritual) rewards in the afterlife.
The implications of Romney’s speech are chilling. It sure sounds like he considers 1/2 of this country (really more than 1/2 if you take into account all the poor SOBs who vote Republican) are vermin worthy of extermination. He is a bad man whose very existence is cause for sorrow. No joy here.
Quincy
The sad thing is that these videos reveal Mitt’s public campaign has actually pivoted to the center compared to what he really believes. The media’s been waiting for it all summer, but the whole time Mitt’s been thinking “I’ve refrained from calling out all of the parasites and pretended to be sympathetic to Palestinians’ desire to live. How much more of a squish do they want me to be?”
Todd
*guffaw*
washingtonpost.com/national/romney-republican-party-rightful-home-of-hispanic-americans/2012/09/17/e…
Yeah, right.
@VividBlueDotty
I know a lot of people here hate Sully, but one of his readers nailed it.
As many said yesterday, I think the real Mitt Romney just stood up.
snetzky
With the amount of flopsweat Mitt was exuding at the news conference last night, I was surprised he didn’t have to paddle off stage.
weaselone
I’m tired of the networks uncritically accepting the meme that this 47% of Americans who pay no income taxes are 100% for Obama. They generally whine about the tone, but they never point out that the actual votes from this group probably split nearly 50:50 between the parties with the senior vote for Republicans offsetting the low income vote for Democrats.
LanceThruster
Morning Joe is pushing the spin that if Romney has 3 good debates, he’s right back in the race.
WTF?
hep kitty
Has anybody been checking out the right wing sites to see how they are spinning the Mittsplosion (if they can)
beltane
@weaselone: It’s amazing how the networks will accept this meme while simultaneously accepting the meme that Obama supporters are over-educated, latte sipping coastal elites.
Linda Featheringill
I don’t feel sorry for the Republicans at all. They could have given Huntsman serious consideration but they really weren’t interested in him at all.
If Huntsman had been the nominee, it would have been a different race. The outcome? Dunno.
The Red Pen
What I find hilarious is all this tsüris about whether Romney or Obama is going to win. It’s going to be Ron Paul in a landslide.
A unicorn will be appointed VP.
danielx
Well, this Zombie creature has one thing right – if there are any undecided voters left, they probably should be checked for a pulse.
Yesterday Paul Ryan – the Zombie-Eyed Granny Starver himself? Aye, the very same! – was visiting my fair state pulling for well known ten gallon asshat Richard Mourdock, he whose idea of compromise is that Democrats should come around to the Republican viewpoint. Whatever the hell that is besides tax cuts, union breaking, obsession with lady parts and bombing brown people…
Aside from that, it’s Tuesday so the question of the day becomes “how is the Romney campaign going to fuck up today?”
raven
@LanceThruster: It’s amazing. Our local paper has all these comments about “teleprompters” and how Obama doesn’t have a chance.
snetzky
@LanceThruster:
This after Joe facepalmed immediately following the replay of last night’s press conference.
David Brooks (may his internet connection run at 300kb) has christened Romney the real life version of Thurston Howell. I know we hate Brooks here, but it’s actually a pretty good column.
snetzky
@raven:
Did you see Ryan’s speech at the Value Voters Conference (apparently honesty isn’t one of the values they were celebrating)? He was reading directly from the teleprompter. You could tell. Seems to me that teleprompter jokes aren’t going to work very well, not that they ever did, except for the mouth breathers.
raven
@snetzky: I mean it’s all the time. It’s such bullshit but %27 you know.
Linda Featheringill
@hep kitty: #16
Conservative reaction:
I went to Redstate and so far they’re ignoring this particular blowup.
Erikson does have an interesting post about conservatives who have buried their heads in the sand, though. I think he wants them to recognize that as of this moment, the Republicans are losing.
Interesting comments, though. About half of them are blaming all sorts of people [including Erik] but the other half are trying to understand the current problems and find ways to improve the situation.
None of them address the problem of Mitt being so thoroughly unlikable. Maybe they don’t see it that way.
They did mention that in Rasmussen polls, more Republicans than Democrats are interrogated. In other polls, it’s the other way around.
Linda Featheringill
@The Red Pen:
Tsuris:
I’d forgotten that word! I was looking for a word with that meaning a couple of days ago and now you’ve given it to me.
See, you made me more complete. :-)
Anya
I just remembered why I hate Morning Joe with the heat of a thousand suns – Mika Brzezinski’s submissive, bobble-head, clearly, battered-journalist persona is too painful to watch. OMG, why does she accept this? I am disgusted. Also, too, Joe Scarborough is a dickwad.
raven
”
WASHINGTON — GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney tells donors in a newly released video clip that Palestinians “have no interest” in peace with Israel.
The remarks are contained in a video clip posted Tuesday on the website of the magazine Mother Jones. The editors say the video is from a $50,000-a-plate fundraiser in Boca Raton, Fla., on May 17.
In the latest clip, Romney is asked about the “Palestinian problem.” He gives a rambling response, then says “the Palestinians have no interest whatsoever in establishing peace,” and “the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish.”
In another portion of the video released Monday, Romney says almost half of Americans “believe that they are victims.” Late Monday, Romney did not dispute the clip but said his remarks were “not elegantly stated.”
JPL
@Linda Featheringill: Erick and the rest will label the forty seven percent as lazy and did you know they aren’t like us.
Hopefully the President asks Mitt whether or not he wants to take away the child credit. Hopefully the President asks Mitt whether or not he wants to tax all of social security.
Hopefully the President asks Mitt to release his taxes in order to prove he wasn’t part of the forty seven percent.
raven
@Anya: Did you see this vanity fair shot? This is the woman that bitches and moans about how women are treated and portrayed.
Keith G
@@VividBlueDotty: From your “Sully” quote:
Being a Democrat for many decades means that I am a compulsive campaign season worrier. Thus, I am concerned that the disciplined, emphatic, and tough businessman is the persona that Mitt is able to successfully summon up during the debates.
With much of the press and the public, style can matter more that substance and the resulting “Mitt’s Back”, “He’s Found His Focus” media stories will keep him close enough for the shit-ton of dark money to do it’s work. These are still perilous times.
On a related notion: I would like to see the Obama campaign hire Barney Frank as a Romney stand in. Barney can be a relentless, and even blood thirsty attacker. Working against that type of incoming fire would be valuable practice.
Anya
@weaselone: Maybe ” reasonable conservative” David Brooks can lead the way:
arguingwithsignposts
Someone mentioned that Mitt had spoken to the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce yesterday. Apparently, he wore the same tie to his hastily-called press conference last night. I put the two photos linked together to see if he looked as bad as people were saying in the comments last night. You be the judge.
Maude
The pundits will say that all Romney needs to do, is not do this again.
They don’t get it.
Romney can no longer hide what he is and he can’t fake it anymore.
This is the Republican Party in a nutshell and none of them can run away from it.
Edit: What Romney is saying is I have the power to destroy you and I will.
Chinn Romney
It looks like he’s an idiot, but the cognoscenti know better. Mitt’s *12* dimensional chess strategy is very risky, but Mitt is nothing if not a risk taker.
J.D. Rhoades
@LanceThruster:
If Obama totally steps on his dick, and Mitt is brilliant, and nobody brings the latest gaffes and the secret video up, yeah, it’ll be true.
How likely do you think that is?
Anya
@raven: OMFG! That woman has surrendered any dignity she previously possessed. I ask again, why is she demeaning herself like that?
@VividBlueDotty
@Keith G: One point I think that reader made was that Romney’s disciplined, emphatic, and tough businessman only comes out when he is being HONEST. The stammering, sweating mess that he becomes when parroting what he thinks voters want to hear will be present at the debates. When speaking to the public, he’s constantly trying not to fall off the tightrope the crazies drew for him and he CHOSE to walk.
It’s smart to worry; these ARE perilous times. But even without this latest disaster (or those that are likely to follow in the weeks to come) I give the debate advantage to Obama.
raven
@Anya: She works hard for the money. . .
Nina
If the election is pretty much over and Romney’s going to lose in a landslide, then the campaigns have no reason to spend their billions on TV ads. Therefore, it’s in the broadcast networks’ best interests to keep this looking like a horserace for as long as possible. Scarborough is grasping at straws here, but his paycheck depends on Romney loosing the purse strings for national TV campaigns in a desperate Hail Mary.
Todd
It is funny, hearing him lose his upper class stammer when he gets behind closed doors to let his hair hang down.
He’s a mendacious sack of shit – the only thing he believes in is himself – his entitled, spoiled, greedy self.
The only thing I despise more than a candyass is a rich, entitled candyass who believes his own bullshit.
PS – the next Christianist service worker who tells me “have a blessed day” gets a hearty “fuck you” in return. It’s been getting obnoxious out here lately.
LGRooney
Let’s not forget that, in his mind, the majority of us are racists, too, and not in a way that’s beneficial for him and his ilk!
Elizabelle
@LanceThruster:
I didn’t last that long. Morning Joe was whingeing that true conservatives — people like Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and some other fool — don’t think share Romney’s views re the 47% and are for all Americans.
Click, went the remote. Well before 7:00 a.m. The day improves.
Applejinx
@@VividBlueDotty: So basically, if he can convince himself that the debate audience and everybody around him are multimillionare Galtian virtue-creators, he can lay it down?
I think the danger there is he’d have to treat the President like The Help, and even sharing a stage with him might be too much of an insult to Romney’s sensibilities.
If he felt free to spit on Barack he might loosen up, but I suspect if he has to behave with any respect at all, it’ll take him out of his comfort zone and he’ll be the nervous wreck again…
Linda Featheringill
@Keith G: #31
The debates:
I expect Obama to anger Romney. Mitt gets very flustered and frustrated when he’s angry.
And don’t worry about cool. Our guy can be very cool, calm, and collected.
wasabi gasp
Clint’s chair is like E.F. Hutton with that “go fuck yourself” stuff.
PeakVT
Oh, no. Mitt has lost Mara Liasson.
Schlemizel
@raven:
Hey! I didn’t earn the nickname ‘Eyeore’ for nothing! I have tons of things to worry about & all this good news is just making it worse!
LanceThruster
@raven:
Rather than the Mittenburg falling from the sky in a spectacular fiery death, I fear a meme gaining traction that “Mittens is saying what most people are thinking.”
Misunderestimating the people’s power of self deception is always a risky venture. Maybe BO can counter by highlighting the depth of corporate welfare.
Rmoney running the country would be an unqualified disaster
of global proportions.
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
So why aren’t they spinning this as “both sides do it” and rolling out the “bitter men with their guns and god” speech as proof. They’ve drawn equivalencies with a lot less.
Dennis SGMM
Romney was born with a silver foot in his mouth.
LanceThruster
@Elizabelle:
I mostly watch only for the clock display.
Schlemizel
@@VividBlueDotty:
NOTE: one of his readers
Sully, on the other hand, is like a blind pig starving to death under a might oak – refuses to find acorns right there in front of him
catclub
You know what I want the media to ask about?
Is this class warfare? Sure sounds like it to me.
Schlemizel
@Linda Featheringill:
No because the wingnuts would have rejected him and Obama would have hung some of his sillier libertarian beliefs around his neck & watched him flounder.
Could he run a better campaign? Thats a probably but not a for sure.
catclub
@LanceThruster: I think pointing out that most seniors on medicare are in the 47% is one way to counter that misperception.
Another way would be to point to various giant corporations that are in the 47% that pay no taxes.
ET
I honestly don’t think Romney is fluent in winger – that’s been his problem with those dead-enders all along.
This 47% BS is all about Romney spending his entire life in a bubble where most people he has ever encountered serve him in one fashion or another. Sure some may be lawyers and bankers but unless they are the lawyers and bankers or are personal friends they may as well be the wait staff as Le Cirque.
Cassidy
@raven: Hey, hey, hey…don’t stop her. I’m a leg guy.
@Anya: Maybe she’s kind of a sub? Or more likely, it’s Joe’s show. If you challenge him too much you find yourself out of work hoping to make enough off a Tru TV contract.
Man I missed a lot yesterday. So, this is kind of amusing. I’m in Firefighter school and I get off work at 4 and go straight there even though class doesn’t start until 6:30. I just don’t see any point in fighting traffic to get hom and then turn around and leave. When i get there, I usually have an hour and a half to do PT, eat and get ready for class. Anyway, so for PT yesterday I did ashort run (2mi) some pullups and pushups, etc. and then thought “I’ll do the tower” which is seven flights of stairs. I get done, feeling good, get ready for class and then after the test our instructor tells us to go cxhange into our PT clothes and I proceed to end up doing three more trips up seven flights of stairs. My calves are so sore right now that they are spasaming and locking up and I have no bananas.
@VividBlueDotty
@Schlemizel: Pigs? Acorns? Not sure what you are saying here. I quoted (and attributed) the reader so those who don’t like Sully wouldn’t need to click over to see the intelligent comment.
Sully sucks at least half the time, but it was The Dish that led me to Balloon Juice years ago and still leads me to other sites worthy of my clicks from time to time.
Schlemizel
@Anya:
Did you guys know that the assclown Carlson on Fox and Friends graduated with honors from Standford? Thats not exactly Al’s Keys made While U Wait and Business College.
Yet she plays the airhead bimbo for Rupert & Roger. Either the money is better than I can imagine or they have pictures of her performing with animals in Tijuana
PeakVT
I suppose it’s not surprising, but Rmoney’s walkback on the video is worse than the video itself. Here’s the transcript.
Anya
@Or something like that.Suffern Ace: Andrea Mitchell already did that on Hardball.
Randy P
@arguingwithsignposts: I’m reading some of the spanish-language coverage of the speech, struggling with my limited language skills. He promised ito “work with both parties” to achieve mmigration reform, says Obama and the democrats haven’t delivered. Comments, as far as I can tell, are pretty skeptical.
gelfling545
@danielx:
Love it.
WereBear
Alls I know is, ’twas the best birthday present EVAH!
gene108
John Cole had a thread up about ESPN talking heads calling out NFL ownership and he drew the comparison that the MSM would never do this, but he missed a big reason for it: Steve Young and Trent Dilfer played in the NFL and had injuries because of the sport, which are probably still with them to this day.
It’s sort of like, if the MSM were made up of retired coal minors, janitors, farm workers, or whatever other blue collar job you can think of and if something bad happened to endanger the people still working in the field, you’d probably get a lot more sympathy from MSM.
As it is, you have guys coming from comfortable middle class to upper class backgrounds (by and large), who go to good colleges and get into the MSM. They don’t consider the coal minor, janitor, etc. as “one of them”, the same way Young and Dilfer consider current players part of their “brotherhood”.
1badbaba3
@Cassidy: Thank you. I was wondering where all the “rill mens” was at. Hello people, L- E- G- S ! ! !
Njorl
@weaselone:
Not anymore. I wonder how people who worked all their lives to earn their Social Security feel about Mitt Romney calling them parasites.
Cassidy
@Njorl: You actually said it: they “earned” it so he wasn’t talking about them. It’s all those blackity-black people and mexicans he was talking about.
Cassidy
@1badbaba3: Honeslty, I could look at those all day. A little sexist, I know.
hep kitty
@LanceThruster: I heard part of his rant. Just going down the list about why can’t Mitt be like all those other truly great republicans, like Chris Christie! (eyeroll)
1badbaba3
@Cassidy: Admiration of the gams is sexy, innit? Not sexist.
Exploitation of the gams, however…
hep kitty
@Anya: Someone on here called her Stockholm Syndrome Mika which I thought was perfect.
Nobody ever seems to talk about what an incredibly sexist show it is. It’s like a very dated sitcom.
hep kitty
@PeakVT: To be honest, and I hope I won’t get pelted with rotten tomatoes here, but that was the best walkback I’ve ever seen Mitt do. That’s not saying a whole lot or that it will do one whit of good. It would have gone over swimmingly in a room full of CEO’s.
The help, not so much.
hep kitty
@raven: Heck yeh, I was going to post that. Digby had something up about the “pornification” of politics. This is a pretty good example. Mika let’s herself be objectified, ridiculed and yelled at by a big fat cheesehead bore because it pays damn good $.
hep kitty
@1badbaba3: But you know, srsly, whatever happened to “leg men” (w/ the exception of one commenter here) – it’s all boobs and bootie now.
1badbaba3
@hep kitty: Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But “rill mens” display an appreciation of the whole package, inside and out. I consider myself to be well-rounded, and that’s how I likes my wimmens. : )
hep kitty
zombie rotten mcdonald
please note; this zombie is no relation to the one Roy chainsaws.
That fucker never paid his membership.
LanceThruster
@hep kitty:
[sounding like Homer Simpson] Ummm…leeeeeeggggggssss.
(and toe cleavage!) Woo hoo!
LanceThruster
@hep kitty:
Scarborough sickens me with his listing of the GOP “greats.” He also doubles down on trickle down too (thx Big Dog)
“I may be wrong, and Paul Krugam may be right, but I truly feel that what will help the working class is tax cuts for job creators.”(paraphrased but essentially accurate).
Joe is like a slightly less weasely but equally smarmy Stephen Moore.
WereBear
@hep kitty: Boobs & boo-tay are susceptible to technological enhancements, and thus, available to those less than gifted in that department.
While good gams are bestowed by our creator, the God-dess, and are made of many working parts less able to be plausibly messed with.
And may I say that leg men are thus the true connoisseurs?
LanceThruster
@Schlemizel:
What a great discovery. Many thanks to you.
Loved this one too —
theoatmeal.com/comics/religion