• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

American History and Black History Cannot Be Separated

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

This blog will pay for itself.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

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

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

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

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

In my day, never was longer.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Mobile Menu

  • Winnable House Races
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • Balloon Juice 2023 Pet Calendar (coming soon)
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • War in Ukraine
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • 2021-22 Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2012 / Late Night Open Thread: Throw Down vs. Double Down

Late Night Open Thread: Throw Down vs. Double Down

by Anne Laurie|  September 19, 20122:40 am| 108 Comments

This post is in: Election 2012, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republican Stupidity

FacebookTweetEmail


__
__
The latest from Hugh Atkin, the genius responsible for “Song of Mitt’s Self“. Lyrics at the link.

Meanwhile, Erick “Voice of the GOP Gated Community” draws himself up & sticks out his glass jaw:

This is the week when Democrats and the Arab street both erupted in frenzies over otherwise obscure YouTube videos, with our media tripping over itself to provide excuses for both…

The Romney campaign should double down on what he said. They should own it. The trouble for the left and media (but I repeat myself) is that most Americans agree with Mitt Romney. Most Americans consider themselves part of the 53% and it is not a winning proposition for Barack Obama to convince Americans they are less than they think they are when most Americans already recognize he has made them less than they were…

The media will use this as an opportunity to stop covering North Africa, which continues to have negative implications for Barack Obama. In moving the focus to this, Mitt Romney should embrace it. It’s time to have the discussion everyone has been waiting for and now, with terrible economic data and North Africa Mitt Romney has a very simple message to close the sale: leading from behind is failure.

When I pointed out that were the election held today Barack Obama would win. And he would win because Mitt Romney has a muddled messaging mess. For pointing that out and suggesting that if he fixes it he could win, I was called a “liberal flack” an “Obama collaborator” and Twitchy called me a hand wringer lumping me in with liberals David Frum and Ezra Klein. It is to be expected. But I stand by the point. Now, Mitt Romney has the perfect opportunity to focus his message like a laser and close the sale.

Was it over, when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? I certainly hope that the Romney campaign takes the astute policycraft of Mr. Erickson to heart, because the only ingredient this slapstick comedy has been missing so far is a media-seeking fat guy with an inflated sense of his own importance to serve as a pie target.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Do the Mother Jones Videos of Mitt Romney Violate Florida Wiretapping Laws?
Next Post: Wednesday Morning Open Thread »

Reader Interactions

108Comments

  1. 1.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    September 19, 2012 at 2:52 am

    I like the way he conflated “Democrats” and the “Arab Street”. When did Erick Erickson stop beating his wife?

  2. 2.

    Djur

    September 19, 2012 at 2:57 am

    liberal[] David Frum

    The great, overwhelming fact of a capitalist economy is risk. Everyone is at constant risk of the loss of his job, or of the destruction of his business by a competitor, or of the crash of his investment portfolio. Risk makes people circumspect. It disciplines them and teaches them self-control. Without a safety net, people won’t try to vault across the big top. Social security, student loans, and other government programs make it far less catastrophic than it used to be for middle-class people to dissolve their families. Without welfare and food stamps, poor people would cling harder to working-class respectability than they do now. — David Frum (liberal), Dead Right, 1994.

    (see here. Frum’s current dissatisfaction with the Republican party is hardly indicative of an ideological shift.)

  3. 3.

    karen marie

    September 19, 2012 at 2:59 am

    When you’ve lost David Brooks and Peggy Noonan …

    Also, Mr. Romney’s ads are mostly boring. It’s kind of an achievement to be boring at a moment in history like this, so credit where it’s due: That musta taken effort!

    Also, too, in celebration of the open thread, a lovely song by a lovely new singer.

  4. 4.

    Yutsano

    September 19, 2012 at 3:14 am

    @karen marie: What a fun little tune! And her voice is just wondrous. I bet there’s a few decent remakes she could pull off and make magic out of.

  5. 5.

    barath

    September 19, 2012 at 3:15 am

    We were curious what a Romney cabinet could look like, and came up with a potential list. I don’t know what’s more scary—the list, or the fact that Republicans probably would think it’s a decent list:

    State: Newt Gingrich
    Treasury: Donald Trump
    Defense: Dan Senor (or Clint Eastwood)
    Attorney General: Michelle Bachmann
    HHS: Rick Scott
    Energy: Joe Barton
    Education: Rick Perry
    Commerce: Herman Cain
    Agriculture: Mike Huckabee
    Interior: Sarah Palin
    VA: Paul Wolfowitz
    Homeland Security: Rudy Giuliani

    Chairman of the Fed: Ron Paul
    UN Ambassador: Rick Santorum

  6. 6.

    Yutsano

    September 19, 2012 at 3:18 am

    @barath: Defence will be John Bolton. He’s still smarting for not getting to play with toy soldiers under Bush.

  7. 7.

    amk

    September 19, 2012 at 3:19 am

    Most Americans consider themselves part of the 53% and it is not a winning proposition for Barack Obama

    umm, the polls say diff, errickkk, you pos.

  8. 8.

    Villago Delenda Est

    September 19, 2012 at 3:27 am

    Keep fuckin’ that chicken inside that bubble of yours, Ewick.

    You too, Political Observer.

  9. 9.

    Jewish Steel

    September 19, 2012 at 3:30 am

    messaging

    I keep telling conservatives they’re close when they whine about their candidate/party/issue. Just lop off that -ing and you’ve got it.

  10. 10.

    Amir Khalid

    September 19, 2012 at 3:32 am

    @Yutsano:
    Naw, Bolton will want to be SecState. I bet he’s still itching to blow up the top ten floors of the UN building.

  11. 11.

    Villago Delenda Est

    September 19, 2012 at 3:33 am

    @Djur:

    When asked to start Bain Capital, Dubya Mittens Rmoney insisted that he be at no risk at all if it should fail.

    Frum was so full of it then. Has he figured out that the essence of conservatism is the AVOIDANCE of risk? Therefore, a true conservative should LOATHE unbridled capitalism. The dynamism of it should cause him to shit his pants.

    The Terror was the spirit of capitalism unleashed…change and uncertainty as a virtue, to somehow be institutionalized. The very thing that Burke feared most.

    They’re all fucking ninnies. Every last one of them.

  12. 12.

    gorram

    September 19, 2012 at 3:48 am

    Erick Erickson, but I repeat myself, has a silly name.

  13. 13.

    Chris

    September 19, 2012 at 4:03 am

    @barath:

    State: Newt GingrichJohn Bolton

    FTFY.

    Don’t know who he’d put at defense, but I’m sure the cesspool of contractors, think tanks and PACs that revolve around that department will produce someone who’s still got that old Vulcan mentality which dominated the last thirty years. Ditto the DNI and DCIA positions.

    And maybe John Yoo for Attorney General, unless that’s who they plan to nominate the next time one of the Supreme Court justices retire.

  14. 14.

    KeithinOhio

    September 19, 2012 at 4:04 am

    So now Romney will BE THE COME BACK KID and win cause the nation will rally around his 47% belief.Lets watch this unfold folks.

  15. 15.

    KeithinOhio

    September 19, 2012 at 4:08 am

    Wow I thought I would love Balloon Juice. Too many voices here. Emoprogs, Rightwing fanatics, Libertarians, Far Lefties. Where are the Pragmatic Obamabots? O_O

  16. 16.

    Triassic Sands

    September 19, 2012 at 4:17 am

    All I can say is thank the Baby Jeebus and Joseph “Where the Hell Are Those Golden Tablets Anyway” Smith that Mitt Romney had the guts to stand up (even if it was in a double-secret, super private $50,000 event) and once and for all put to rest the idea that anyone is ENTITLED to EAT.

    And that includes children. The biggest fuggin’ parasites of all. What kind of a socialist hell-hole have we become when people begin to think they’re entitled to food?

    What’s next? The RIGHT to BREATHE?

  17. 17.

    ? Martin

    September 19, 2012 at 4:20 am

    @Amir Khalid:

    I bet he’s still itching to blow up the top ten floors of the UN building.

    I’m sure he is. Easier to do that when you have the keys to the tanks, though. Not sure I’d put it past him either – he’s a mental motherfucker.

  18. 18.

    Kane

    September 19, 2012 at 4:28 am

    Most Americans don’t consider themselves part of the 53% or the 47%. They consider themselves to be Americans. So while Romney is doubling down on what he said, President Obama can once again take the high road in being president for all the people.

  19. 19.

    EconWatcher

    September 19, 2012 at 5:02 am

    The Senate races seem to be the worry now. Maybe people from Mass can correct me, but the match-up between Brown and Warren reminds me too much of Bush v. Gore. Of course Warren is smarter than Brown, but she’s an egghead like Gore. Maybe I underestimate the Mass electorate, but i worry about that race. I believe Obama will pull Kaine over the line here in VA, but Kaine hasn’t generated much enthusiasm on his own steam, as far as i can see.

  20. 20.

    raven

    September 19, 2012 at 5:12 am

    @Kane: And I’m Father Flannigan from Boy’s Town.

  21. 21.

    MikeJ

    September 19, 2012 at 5:21 am

    @EconWatcher: Last I saw Warren had a healthy lead.

  22. 22.

    piratedan

    September 19, 2012 at 5:28 am

    @EconWatcher: well its looking a lot like 2010, imho… then you had Angle, O’Donnell at the forefront of the stupid, now it’s at the top of the ticket so folks are reconsidering this bipartisanship business and checks on the President’s power stuff. With that in mind, Mccaskill is back from the dead, Warren resurgent in Mass, hell even Arizona is in play with Carmona vs. Flake. I hope Mitt continues to ride this strategy of capitalizing on Obama’s mistakes all the way to the bottom of the abyss and takes his Tea Party, Corporate Tools and Family Fetus values folks with him.

  23. 23.

    Todd

    September 19, 2012 at 5:43 am

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    The chicken is sore and needs a little break, even though it still loves him and is willing to give him a claw job…

  24. 24.

    Anya

    September 19, 2012 at 5:44 am

    After all his fuckups and general horribleness, if Mittenz wins then the world is a fucked up place.

  25. 25.

    raven

    September 19, 2012 at 5:47 am

    @Anya: And if he doesn’t it still is.

  26. 26.

    Narcissus

    September 19, 2012 at 5:49 am

    @Todd: claw job

    ah god

  27. 27.

    Todd

    September 19, 2012 at 6:01 am

    Now that MoJo has put up the whole transcript, you can see true conservatism in action, and just how lazy these worthless cocksuckers are.

    It depends, of course, which markets you’re talking about, which types of commodities and so forth, but my own view is, if we win on November 6th there will be a great deal of optimism about the future of this country. We’ll see capital come back, and we’ll see—without actually doing anything—we’ll actually get a boost in the economy.

    Lazy. Entitled. Stupid.

    Thirty years of the failure of Art Laffers drunk napkin scribbling has taught them nothing. When he dies, I intend to find his grave in order to take a giant shit on the stone.

  28. 28.

    raven

    September 19, 2012 at 6:03 am

    Mika in S&M gear this morning.

  29. 29.

    NotMax

    September 19, 2012 at 6:26 am

    @raven

    Mika in S&M gear this morning.

    Borrowed the nipple clamps from Joe S.?

  30. 30.

    Schlemizel

    September 19, 2012 at 6:31 am

    @Todd: WIN!

  31. 31.

    raven

    September 19, 2012 at 6:33 am

    @NotMax: Weird black dress with a leather front. I’m not too hot at describing women’s fashion.

    How ya doin?

  32. 32.

    NotMax

    September 19, 2012 at 6:33 am

    BTW, mateys, jubilant Talk Like A Pirate Day.

    Shiver me timbers, laddy.

  33. 33.

    Napoleon

    September 19, 2012 at 6:33 am

    @raven:

    OK, I am going to have to turn that on.

  34. 34.

    Schlemizel

    September 19, 2012 at 6:33 am

    @raven:
    Must need a ratings boost. Sadly there is no trick to low the whores on TV won’t stoop to it.

    Speaking of which I sure do miss ‘Media whores online’. there was some good bloggin’.

  35. 35.

    NotMax

    September 19, 2012 at 6:34 am

    @raven

    Hangin’ in there as best I can. ;)

  36. 36.

    raven

    September 19, 2012 at 6:35 am

    MSNBC stream

  37. 37.

    BethanyAnne

    September 19, 2012 at 6:36 am

    @NotMax: So, *that’s* why Woot is doing Captain Crapbeard today.

  38. 38.

    Napoleon

    September 19, 2012 at 6:37 am

    So today on the morning news here in Cleveland I saw my first anti-Obama ad that mentions as a reason to get rid of him because he was not respectful enough of Bibi.

  39. 39.

    Schlemizel

    September 19, 2012 at 6:38 am

    Went to get some veggies out of the freezer last night & found it on the fritz. Spent the rest of the evening up to my elbows in pots, pans and anything I could dig out of the pantry. Cooked up a pile of stuff that is now in the fridge. The upside is I won’t have to worry about having a ready made lunch to take to work for a couple of weeks.

    Which is good because I’m on the hook for a freezer

  40. 40.

    NotMax

    September 19, 2012 at 6:42 am

    Here’s a question:

    If the R&R campaign train wreck were a movie, which would it be?

    Anything by Ed Wood is too easy.

    I’m going to start it off with Ishtar.

    (If it were a Broadway show, I’d have to go with an obscure one: Moose Murders, which, although starring Eve Arden, remains (so far as I recall) the only show to open on Broadway and have the announcement of the cancellation of its run made during the intermission.)

  41. 41.

    Schlemizel

    September 19, 2012 at 6:44 am

    @Napoleon:
    Well, I bet the Marquis has sewn up the entire Cleveland Jewish vote with that bit!

    My fav was the year Paul Wellstone beat Rudy Boshwitz (who was considered a smart businessman and rising star of the GOP Senate). It was close until the Friday before election. Rudy sent a letter to every Jewish household in Minnesota stating that Paul wasn’t a good Jew but Rudy was. I was standing on line in my Republican district waiting to vote & overheard several voters agree that Rudy was dead meat because of that. I love their bitter tears, gooper tears taste like honey

  42. 42.

    Schlemizel

    September 19, 2012 at 6:45 am

    @NotMax:
    Come on, you missed the easy Mormon angle joke:

    Battlefield Earth!

    Plus it was over spent, over wrote and populated with bad performances

  43. 43.

    PsiFighter37

    September 19, 2012 at 6:47 am

    New polls on NYT website this AM – Obama leads by 6 in WI, WI-Sen is tied, and Kaine leads by 7(!) over Allen.

    I’m not a huge fan of Kaine, but I have to give props to him – he has not shied away from running as an Obama supporter, and it hasn’t hurt him one bit in VA. I would expect both he and Obama to win by a very similar margin in November.

    Tammy Baldwin is making a strong push – would be fantastic to get a progressive like her in the Senate to replace Kohl.

  44. 44.

    amk

    September 19, 2012 at 6:52 am

    @raven: some nut wants know why do the radical muslins hate murka ?

    For the same reason most windnutz hate the muslins, asshole.

  45. 45.

    hep kitty

    September 19, 2012 at 6:53 am

    Wow, have the entire Romney vid playing on CSPAN this morning. Those donors, they think we are every bit as brainless as we view the teabaggers. They think we are spoiled children who, indeed, do not know how to take responsibility for ourselves. That Onion piece was not far off the mark. One donor complains that we don’t even pick up and read a newspaper now and then.

    I never knew how much the super-rich despised me so very much until now. If they had just laid low, I never would have given it much thought. They can’t help themselves, however, since sociopathy is only beneficial if you’re rich. Otherwise, you just end up in jail.

    I will never look at the same way again.

    It’s so funny, the donors’ deep concern about Romney appearing human to voters. It keeps resurfacing throughout the tape. (Romney: I’ve been on the View, Letterman, etc!)

    And the waiters in the white gloves.

  46. 46.

    NotMaxn

    September 19, 2012 at 6:53 am

    @Schlemizel

    Boy, that takes me back.

    Rudy Boschwitz.

    Worked at one time for TV and newspaper in Minnesota. With all due apologies to rocks, Rudy (who made a name for himself with a local chain of cut-rate home improvement stores and cheesy commercials he did for them) was dumber than a sack of gravel.

    According to Wikipedia, he’s currently a board member of AIPAC.

  47. 47.

    Kirbster

    September 19, 2012 at 6:56 am

    Why does Mitt want to be president, anyway? He’s a misanthropic plutocrat with zero political talent or diplomatic skills. He sees no distinction between government and business. Is it about succeeding where his dad failed? Is it some sort of obsession with Ted Kennedy, who humiliated him in that old Senate race and also failed in his presidential bid? Or is “get elected as POTUS” just some item on a rich guy’s bucket list?

  48. 48.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    September 19, 2012 at 6:56 am

    The North Carolina Republican Party is sending out vote-by-mail instructions. Got my brochure yesterday.

    My hubby thinks it’s a great idea. I’m not so sure, given the various shenanigans with absentee ballots over the past few elections.

  49. 49.

    EconWatcher

    September 19, 2012 at 6:57 am

    @PsiFighter37:

    Very good news on Kaine (I live in VA and have found him kind of uninspiring, but I would crawl across broken glass to keep Allen out of the Senate; I cannot abide being represented by an unreconstructed racist).

  50. 50.

    NotMax

    September 19, 2012 at 7:00 am

    @Schlemizel

    Well, Mitt did say last year that Battlefield Earth was his favorite novel.

  51. 51.

    hep kitty

    September 19, 2012 at 7:03 am

    @Kirbster: White Horse Prophecy

  52. 52.

    danielx

    September 19, 2012 at 7:08 am

    @Todd:

    From the commentary on that David Frum book…

    In short, Frum actually thinks that conservatism means forcing the poor and middle-class to sacrifice government programs whose existence is, or may be, in their economic interest. And why? Near as I can figure, for the sake of making over the poor and middle-class into more agreeable objects of aesthetic contemplation for (wealthy) conservatives, whose tastes run to: Donner party-like look-alike doughty leatherstocking hard-bitten frontier-type workers (respectful hats in hand.) And the word for this aesthetic transformation is: making people free. And somehow the economy is going to be OK.*

    This does sound nauseatingly familiar, doesn’t it? It should – that’s pretty much the essence of conservative economic philosophy since, hell, since forever. Add to it the following proviso: always kick a person when he or she is down; it gives them incentive to get up.

    *As Mitt might say, underpants gnomes, aka free market fairies, hard at work on our (by which he means his) behalf.

  53. 53.

    JPL

    September 19, 2012 at 7:10 am

    Romney is on record as saying he is not going to pay more taxes than required but now he wants those working to support a family to pay more? They paid what was due of them.
    Am I missing something?

  54. 54.

    Mino

    September 19, 2012 at 7:11 am

    Notice all the people in the room totally agreed with Mitt! I haven’t heard the press mention that fact. Well, knock me down, Donny Deutch just brought it up on MJoe.

  55. 55.

    Brachiator

    September 19, 2012 at 7:12 am

    A Little Something For Hobbit fans

    Reminder: ‘Hobbit’ Trailer Debuts Tomorrow Morning

    We are just a few short hours away from the sec­ond trail­er for “The Hob­bit: An Unex­pect­ed Journey.” The pre­view is set to debut tomor­row at 10 a.m. PST over at iTunes Trail­ers, and we’ll def­i­nite­ly bring it to you first thing tomor­row morn­ing.

    http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2012/09/18/hobbit-trailer-tomorrow-morning/

    ETA: there is a secret tape of Mittens dissing LOTR fans.

    Also, too, who knew that the whitey tape would be Romney putting his foot in his mouth big time.

  56. 56.

    danielx

    September 19, 2012 at 7:19 am

    @Kirbster:

    I gotta go with Charles Pierce’s explanation…

    Haven’t you goobers caught on yet? I am running for president because I am supposed to be president. That is the essence of my political philosophy. That is the basic tenet of my fundamental ideology. I should be president because I am rich and handsome and my great-granchildren are already financially bulletproof to the point where, if my pals in the financial-services “industry” crash the economy completely, and animal hides become the medium of exchange again, my great-grandchildren will have more pelts than anyone else, and they will rule the world. I should be president because I should be president. And because…

    I’m Mitt Romney, bitches, and I’m all you got left.

    Read more: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/Im_Mitt_Romney#ixzz26uhULkCg

    Sounds reasonable enough if you’re a rich sociopath.

  57. 57.

    Todd

    September 19, 2012 at 7:19 am

    @Mino:

    Notice all the people in the room totally agreed with Mitt! I haven’t heard the press mention that fact. Well, knock me down, Donny Deutch just brought it up on MJoe.

    Deutsch is another one who needs his teeth kicked in. He was talking about the “make the tough choices” option.

    I hate any winger motherfucker who talks about making “tough” choices when they won’t face having to live with the consequences of their choices, and in fact benefit from the burdens they saddle on their lessers. They comfort the already comfortable by afflicting the afflicted.

  58. 58.

    NotMax

    September 19, 2012 at 7:28 am

    Movie on TCM at the moment (from 1939) – one of the cast is May Robson.

    The name may not be familiar, but if you watch any classic movies at all, the face and/or the voice will be.

    Always amazed when I see her that I’m watching someone born before the Civil War (and well before moving pictures) – in Australia in 1858.

  59. 59.

    Mino

    September 19, 2012 at 7:28 am

    @Todd: NYT has OpEd up on the subject of the 1%er War on the Poor.

  60. 60.

    hep kitty

    September 19, 2012 at 7:28 am

    Wow, Mika wearing dominatrix outfit this morning! Legs and leather! When’s the playboy spread, Mika?

  61. 61.

    Todd

    September 19, 2012 at 7:29 am

    Howard Fineman – “The campaign appears directionless because it is. The candidate is in charge of his campaign, and it is a reflection of him.”

  62. 62.

    Tony J

    September 19, 2012 at 7:30 am

    @NotMax:

    If the R&R campaign train wreck were a movie, which would it be?

    The Human Centipide III – Not A Drop Wasted.

  63. 63.

    raven

    September 19, 2012 at 7:33 am

    @hep kitty: She belongs in Hustler, Playboy is too tame for her.

    eta Do not google Mika Dominatrix.

  64. 64.

    beltane

    September 19, 2012 at 7:33 am

    @Mino: Also keep in mind that the cost to attend this little tete a tete was $50,000 per person, an amount of money that equals the total annual income for many of those parasitic moocher families Mitt feels don’t pay enough in taxes. These people who are so obscenely can casually toss aside $50,000 on a lark still aren’t satisfied with their lot and won’t cease with their bitching and whining until those families making $50,000 a year are reduced to absolute destitution.

    If there was a god he/she would have sealed these people of in that chamber for all eternity, with the white-gloved wait staff force feeding them a diet of foix gras and Champagne until these pigs burst the seams of their clothes.

  65. 65.

    Todd

    September 19, 2012 at 7:34 am

    Chuck Todd is a moron. He is forgetting that part of the disapproval of Obama is to the left of Obama.

    Those are not disaffected independents who can become Romney votes.

  66. 66.

    Todd

    September 19, 2012 at 7:36 am

    @raven:

    I should have listened when you warned.

  67. 67.

    The Ancient Randonneur

    September 19, 2012 at 7:37 am

    Aarrrrrrrrrrr! It’s Talk Like a Pirate Day a great day for booty calls and ‘stache twirling.

  68. 68.

    danielx

    September 19, 2012 at 7:38 am

    @NotMax:

    You have to be more specific. Are we talking about bad movies or disaster movies?

    If the former, Heaven’s Gate. If the latter, I’m thinking 2012.

  69. 69.

    Todd

    September 19, 2012 at 7:38 am

    @beltane:

    If there was a god he/she would have sealed these people of in that chamber for all eternity, with the white-gloved wait staff force feeding them a diet of foix gras and Champagne until these pigs burst the seams of their clothes.

    I’d settle for the far more satisfying and human Inglorious Basterds theater scene.

  70. 70.

    NickM

    September 19, 2012 at 7:40 am

    @Villago Delenda Est: They don’t object to the existence of a safety net – for themselves and their kind. They’re all for millioniare patriarchs helping out their kids. They don’t want a safety net for the rest of us — keeps us on our toes, you know.

  71. 71.

    NotMax

    September 19, 2012 at 7:41 am

    @danielx

    Bad calamitous productions. Train wreck, as in gone off the rails.

  72. 72.

    beltane

    September 19, 2012 at 7:42 am

    @Todd: I’d have no problem with that. There are many ways to skin a plutocrat.

  73. 73.

    Kirbster

    September 19, 2012 at 7:46 am

    What’s on the tape is a typical Bain Capital business meeting. They’re discussing how to do a hostile takeover of a company with a lot of juicy assets that has had some difficulties in a tough business environment. They just need a bare majority of board members to carry it off and they’re writing off some and targeting others that they think they can bribe, flatter or cajole into going along with the plan. Once the board votes, the Bain guys figure that they can do anything they want, because the old board members become irrelevant. They can saddle the company with addition debt, fire the workers, sell off the assets, and divide the spoils. No apologies, ever.

  74. 74.

    catclub

    September 19, 2012 at 7:56 am

    @danielx: “making people free”

    Sounds better in the original German.

  75. 75.

    jibeaux

    September 19, 2012 at 7:58 am

    Um, they *always* have a hastily-assembled press conference and double down. Ewick doesn’t have to tell them to do that. It’s in their flow chart, right after “oh, fuck, what next?”

  76. 76.

    sherparick

    September 19, 2012 at 8:04 am

    @Villago Delenda Est: Actually, about the only 3 conservatives I can stand reading Frum, Larison, and Dreher. Bruce Bartlett still considers himself a Conservative. But all three, along with Andrew Sullivan, have read out of the Conservative Movement by its Pope, Rush Limbaugh, and his chief hatchet man, EE. And I do hope Mittens follows EE’s advice (and it appears that he and Ryan are based on that Cavuto interview).

    I would be interested to see how Frum would reappraise his own book since he seems to have traveled a far way from his views that disposing of the New Deal and returning to a Gilded age social Darwinism may not be the best thing a true Conservative would want for society. For instance, the new Frum quotes approvingly of the following from Dickens’ Hard Times (also evidence that our issues created by the Industrial Revolution have not changed much in a 165 years).

    “From Hard Times (1847):

    “…Surely there never was such fragile china-ware as that of which the millers of Coketown were made. Handle them never so lightly, and they fell to pieces with such ease that you might suspect them of having been flawed before. They were ruined, when they were required to send labouring children to school; they were ruined when inspectors were appointed to look into their works; they were ruined, when such inspectors considered it doubtful whether they were quite justified in chopping people up with their machinery; they were utterly undone, when it was hinted that perhaps they need not always make quite so much smoke. …

    Whenever a Coketowner felt he was ill-used – that is to say, whenever he was not left entirely alone, and it was proposed to hold him accountable for the consequences of any of his acts – he was sure to come out with the awful menace, that he would ‘sooner pitch his property into the Atlantic.’ This had terrified the Home Secretary within an inch of his life, on several occasions.

    However, the Coketowners were so patriotic after all, that they never had pitched their property into the Atlantic yet, but, on the contrary, had been kind enough to take mighty good care of it. So there it was, in the haze yonder; and it increased and multiplied…”

  77. 77.

    1badbaba3

    September 19, 2012 at 8:05 am

    @barath: Marcus Bachmann for Interior, you betcha.

    C’mon, it would be fabulous!

  78. 78.

    Paul

    September 19, 2012 at 8:09 am

    @Todd:

    Now that MoJo has put up the whole transcript, you can see true conservatism in action, and just how lazy these worthless cocksuckers are.It depends, of course, which markets you’re talking about, which types of commodities and so forth, but my own view is, if we win on November 6th there will be a great deal of optimism about the future of this country. We’ll see capital come back, and we’ll see—without actually doing anything—we’ll actually get a boost in the economy.

    I am assuming the question to Romney was whether the markets would come back if Romney won. What a dumb question!

    The SP500 has gone up about 75% since Obama took office January 20 2009. The stock market has been doing just fine. And compared to 4 years ago, the economy has recovered. Hell, it was in a free fall 4 years ago.

    One apparently doesn’t have to be very intelligent to be part of the elite and thus a Romney fundraiser dinner. If they don’t think 75% rise in the stock market (that’s 15%-20% annually during Obama) is good enough, then how greedy are they??

  79. 79.

    dww44

    September 19, 2012 at 8:14 am

    @Todd: When did Chuck Todd cease to be an objective observer and become an all-out excuse giver for Mitt Romney and the entire right? Seriously, I’d like to know as I don’t remember him being so biased early on.

  80. 80.

    Rook

    September 19, 2012 at 8:25 am

    “focus his message like a laser and close the sale”

    Overlooking the obvious mixed message, what kind of happy horseshit writing is this? Focus his message like a laser? Has he not been paying attention? Mitt is about as able to focus his message as a honey badger is able to cuddle affectionately with a kitten.

    Damn but is the stupidity palpable.

  81. 81.

    bjacques

    September 19, 2012 at 8:26 am

    Movie? Luis Buñuel’s “The Exterminating Angel.”

  82. 82.

    Anton Sirius

    September 19, 2012 at 8:29 am

    Mitt Romney has a very simple message to close the sale: leading from behind is failure.

    Leading from behind you say, Son of Erick? You mean like saying you’ll “kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately, somehow, something will happen and resolve it” when it comes to Middle East peace, and the belief that “capital [will] come back, and we’ll see — without actually doing anything — we’ll actually get a boost in the economy” simply by virtue of your residence in the White House, without you having to do any real work?

    You mean that sort of leading from behind, you hydrocephalitic scatmuncher?

    True fact: The Dirty Projectors named themselves after the GOP.

  83. 83.

    hep kitty

    September 19, 2012 at 8:33 am

    @raven: oh my, will do that post-work today! :)

  84. 84.

    danielx

    September 19, 2012 at 8:34 am

    @barath:

    Nope. I gotta go with John Bolton as Secretary of State.

  85. 85.

    Bruce S

    September 19, 2012 at 8:41 am

    @Djur:

    “In fairness…”

    I hate being fair to the jackass who coauthored a ridiculous book ridiculously titled “The End of Evil” (sic) with the notorious scumbag Richard Perle, but Frum appears to have actually shifted some of his views on the safety net since 1994. I haven’t done a deep study of Frum, because I don’t care about the man all that much, but the occasional columns I’ve read in recent years have signaled some distance traveled. But he’s no liberal – he’s attempting to rescue rational conservatism from the prevalence of cranks on the Right and their inability to cohabitate with empirical evidence.

  86. 86.

    FlipYrWhig

    September 19, 2012 at 8:52 am

    Erick Fractalname still doesn’t get what the problem is with Romney’s comments:

    Most Americans consider themselves part of the 53% and it is not a winning proposition for Barack Obama to convince Americans they are less than they think they are when most Americans already recognize he has made them less than they were…

    There are members of the indisputably income-tax-paying “53%” who, believe it or not, actually give a shit about the “47%” below them in the pecking order. Romney openly, contemptuously, aggressively doesn’t, and said so.

  87. 87.

    libarbarian

    September 19, 2012 at 9:02 am

    “Most Americans consider themselves part of the 53%”

    I hope not too much more than 53% … but probably so

  88. 88.

    RaflW

    September 19, 2012 at 9:13 am

    @Kane:

    Most Americans don’t consider themselves part of the 53% or the 47%. They consider themselves to be Americans. So while Romney is doubling down on what he said, President Obama can once again take the high road in being president for all the people.

    Which is pretty much exactly what President Obama did on Letterman last night. I would imagine that the Village won’t pay all that much attention to last night’s show, but Letterman’s audience is a good venue to talk past the Village, and even as the show was airing in EDT/CDT, clips of it were already on YouTube.

    Of course, there is some Village chatter, and headlines like “Obama slams Romney” have popped up on major network blogs. I watched the whole thing. Obama did not slam Romney. He was calm, measured, and offered a critique. There was no slam. But media’s gotta have conflict, so they make it up.

  89. 89.

    Jay C

    September 19, 2012 at 9:36 am

    @FlipYrWhig:

    Most Americans consider themselves part of the 53% and it is not a winning proposition for Barack Obama to convince Americans they are less than they think they are when most Americans already recognize he has made them less than they were…

    Leaving aside, for the moment, that this is just typical Erick Erickson politbabble, it seems (wow! shock!) to be wrong on the facts as well, since I can;t recall that President Obama has weighed in on Mitt’s inane 53/47 crap much, if at all (help me out if I’m incorrect here) – still less trying to make it some sort of “winning proposition”.

    Though I think it needs one little fix:

    when most Americans Republicans already recognize he has made them less than they were…

  90. 90.

    Culture of Truth

    September 19, 2012 at 9:41 am

    Erickson is right. I’m deeply worried.

    tee hee hee

  91. 91.

    Frankensteinbeck

    September 19, 2012 at 9:42 am

    @The Ancient Randonneur:
    Thank ye, good Sir. I be bad at dates, and hate ta fergit this glorious day!

    @Djur:
    The great majority here do not be thinkin’ of that scallywag David Frum as a liberal, no indeed! His job is t’ be the ideological asshole what can at least tell up from down and actually see a train headin’ fer his face. ‘Even the conservative David Frum…’, that be his usefulness.

  92. 92.

    Alexander Dope

    September 19, 2012 at 9:50 am

    Was it over, when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?

    Recursive Erick is wrong! Psychotic, but wrong.

  93. 93.

    AHH onna Droid

    September 19, 2012 at 9:54 am

    @Chris: that soi-disant moniker is an insult both to Trekkies and the manufacturers of fine commercial ovens used in better restaurant and institutional kichens evertywhere.

  94. 94.

    Kathy in St. Louis

    September 19, 2012 at 10:31 am

    And the funniest thing about the this post is that the writer doesn’t understand that he THINKS he is one of the 53 percent who Mitt deems to be an ok American because that’s what the writer aspires to be. Unfortunately, he’s still one of the 47 percent that this guy disdains so heartily because he, like all the rest of us, benefits from government services and isn’t one of the superrich who really could find a way to survive without them. The rest of the 99percent, which is the real number who benefit, are just the pond scum that the rich must abide here on earth.

  95. 95.

    SBJules

    September 19, 2012 at 11:02 am

    The L.A. Times says that Romney wants to reframe his remarks. He says “The right course for America is to create growth, create wealth. Not to redistribute wealth.

    I’ve never heard that before. I thought he was supposed to be a christian.

  96. 96.

    Chris

    September 19, 2012 at 11:07 am

    @AHH onna Droid:

    Heh. Yes it is. I think the term originated with a statue of the god Vulcan in Condy’s home town, but I too wish they’d picked another.

  97. 97.

    maya

    September 19, 2012 at 11:17 am

    @dww44:

    When did Chuck Todd cease to be an objective observer and become an all-out excuse giver for Mitt Romney and the entire right? Seriously, I’d like to know as I don’t remember him being so biased early on.

    Guess: Chuckie has already spent his Citizen United ad buying Bonus Bucks and now it looks like he may not be able to cover it.
    That is all.

  98. 98.

    maya

    September 19, 2012 at 11:22 am

    @SBJules:

    The L.A. Times says that Romney wants to reframe his remarks. He says “The right course for America is to create growth, create wealth. Not to redistribute wealth.

    I mentioned in another thread that, since, “Mitt doesn’t disdain the poor”, he and his cowhorets will start up a new vulture fund – Dain Capital, which will weave the poor’s pocket lint into gold. Somehow.

  99. 99.

    McJulie

    September 19, 2012 at 11:35 am

    @Kirbster: If he is, as is sometimes theorized, a sociopath, a common part of the profile is wanting to “win” at all costs. So that’s why he wants to be president: it constitutes winning.

  100. 100.

    gwangung

    September 19, 2012 at 11:37 am

    @NotMax:

    (If it were a Broadway show, I’d have to go with an obscure one: Moose Murders, which, although starring Eve Arden, remains (so far as I recall) the only show to open on Broadway and have the announcement of the cancellation of its run made during the intermission.)

    Hey, at least it made it to opening. Had a friend whose show closed before it opened.

  101. 101.

    shortstop

    September 19, 2012 at 11:45 am

    a media-seeking fat guy

    Why are you always attacking other overweight people for their weight?

  102. 102.

    hep kitty

    September 19, 2012 at 11:58 am

    @Villago Delenda Est: Never had any use for Frum after he was so friggin contemptuous and condescending to Rachel Maddow in the very early days of her show. I don’t care how reasonable he may sound at times, I can’t forget that.

    I imagine he is treating her with a little more respect these days.

    Eat it, Frum. Rachel is a star among progressives and nobody in the R party is listening to or even cares who you are anymore.

  103. 103.

    Sasha

    September 19, 2012 at 12:38 pm

    Funny how David Frum is now a liberal.

  104. 104.

    eyelessgame

    September 19, 2012 at 1:14 pm

    Most Americans consider themselves part of the 53%

    There is so much wrong in this one little bit…

    He’s saying Romney was wrong to say 47% are never going to take responsibility for their lives, right? Why defend him when he’s wrong?

    If “most” is more than 53% then the excess are deluded, right?

    Is this kind of like how 90% of people consider themselves better-than-average drivers? Eric is going all Lake Wobegon on us…

  105. 105.

    JR in WV

    September 19, 2012 at 1:27 pm

    @Triassic Sands:

    Well, some of us want to breath clean air, which could interfere with the ability of some monopolistic conservative jillionaires to run their ancient polluting factories the cheapest way they can.

    And that’s why Rmoney and his cronies want to do away with (this is the ironic part: Nixon’s) EPA.

  106. 106.

    TenguPhule

    September 19, 2012 at 1:47 pm

    If the R&R campaign train wreck were a movie, which would it be?

    Waterworld. Complete with Mittens drinking his own urine recycled into UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH.

  107. 107.

    gex

    September 19, 2012 at 7:47 pm

    The sentence that “most Americans think they are in the other 53%” is a result of thes lie that assholes like him have sold to working white Americans. If they are too innumerate to figure out that they are losing out big time to the 1% before, there’s no way they’ll figure out that 90% of us can’t be in the 53%.

  108. 108.

    dance around in your bones

    September 22, 2012 at 2:44 am

    @FlipYrWhig: I love Erickfractalname.

    I mean the monicker, not the dude.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8

Recent Comments

  • Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) on Late Night Open Thread: Taxing Prep (Mar 28, 2023 @ 2:10am)
  • piratedan on Late Night Open Thread: Taxing Prep (Mar 28, 2023 @ 1:51am)
  • Major Major Major Major on Late Night Open Thread: Taxing Prep (Mar 28, 2023 @ 1:46am)
  • Alison Rose on Late Night Open Thread: Taxing Prep (Mar 28, 2023 @ 1:26am)
  • Chetan Murthy on War for Ukraine Day 397: A New Week Begins (Mar 28, 2023 @ 1:10am)

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
We All Need A Little Kindness
Classified Documents: A Primer
State & Local Elections Discussion

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Twitter / Spoutible

Balloon Juice (Spoutible)
WaterGirl (Spoutible)
TaMara (Spoutible)
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
TaMara
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
ActualCitizensUnited

Join the Fight!

Join the Fight Signup Form
All Join the Fight Posts

Balloon Juice Events

5/14  The Apocalypse
5/20  Home Away from Home
5/29  We’re Back, Baby
7/21  Merging!

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!