__
__
Dave Weigel, at Slate, on the True Believers’ eagerness to force their guy into losing:
In May of 1970, when he was a young former journalist working for the White House, Pat Buchanan offered President Richard Nixon some tips that he’d never stop using. “I strongly endorse symbolic gestures toward groups,” wrote Buchanan, “especially the blacks where symbols count for so much.” In order to divide the country effectively, Nixon had to pretend that he wasn’t dividing it at all. “The President is President of all the people and while they will never vote for us, we must never let them come to believe we don’t give a damn about them—or that they are outside our province of concern.”
Forty-two years and four months later, an older, more widow’s-peaked Buchanan appeared on Fox News to explain the leaked video of Mitt Romney talking to donors. Had Romney stumbled when he wrote off the “47 percent” of voters too dependent to vote Republican? No, said Buchanan. “Barack Obama is a drug dealer of welfare. He wants permanent dependency, in my judgment, of all these folks.”
Spot the difference! The younger, wiser Buchanan argued that a president (presidential candidate, in this case) should avoid telling voters just how much he needs them to splinter if he’s going to win. The new Buchanan, who’s been a pundit since Paul Ryan was listening to Led Zeppelin on a Walkman, is ready for a guns-a-blazing debate about lazy moochers versus broad-shouldered job creators.
It’s not just Buchanan saying this. As the “47 percent” saga drags on, a sizable group of conservatives are telling Romney to stand by the argument. Romney is standing by it, which is probably the best of a bunch of bad options. First of all, what would he gain if he said he was lying to a bunch of gullible rich people? And second, there’s a team of conservatives giving him terrible advice, telling him to make a general election message out of this story…
Doghouse Riley, with the shorter:
… Let’s just say it plainly: Mitt Romney is not smart enough to be President of the United States. Paul Ryan is not smart enough to be Vice President of the United States. And that’s taking into consideration the last pair the Republican party and its Court subsidiary foisted on us. And it’s taking into consideration the fact that both men are professional liars, and likely personally dishonest into the bargain. There’s lying, and then there’s lying in such a way that you register enough contempt for the listener to not be bothered with good lies.
This is the Republican party. It’s the Republican party since 1980, the Republican party since the time it lied its way past Watergate, lied its way past Vietnam and Civil Rights, and decided that lying was the key to a shining future. This is the party which has believed, since the Ascension of St. Ronnie, that advertising plus money was not only more powerful than the truth, it was better than the truth. Even smart Republicans have to see, now, what that’s got them. Assuming there are any.
Misterpuff
Mitt “Joe Isuzu” Romney made his bed and now he has to lie in it.
Nunca el Jefe
As we like to say around here, the arc of history is long but it bends toward justice.
raven
And the Mornin Joe crowd reveals that the “center left media” WANTS a horse race!
raven
Ha, Romney says “the President THREW in the white flag of surrender”!
kay
What’s really heartening is, there’s so much skepticism towards Romney. There IS a price for lying constantly, but it’s cumulative. It takes a while to show up.
Ohio newspapers really took him to task for the “miners” ad. The whole story around that ad is that the miners were forced to appear and weren’t paid. No one is talking about Obama’s “war on coal”. They’re talking about how Romney cost the miners wages, or how their appearance was “mandatory”
Imagine how arrogant that campaign is. The story about the miners came out when Romney did the event. Yet, incredibly, they turned that appearance into AN AD. They have complete contempt for the people they’re trying to reach.
raven
Hahahahahahaha, Joe doesn’t like Reid’s “snotty remarks”! Fuckin asshole.
PeakVT
Judging by the headlines (Carr: Granny, you’re not in Okla. anymore) the Boston Herald – a publication I had been blissfully unaware of until last night – has decided to spin the debate for Scottie. Bonus delusional scribbling:
Joey Maloney
@Misterpuff: Mitt “Joe Isuzu” Romney
madeshat his bed and now he has to lie in it.I’m Joey Maloney and I improved this message.
JPL
@raven: I just started streaming the show. Was Joe repulsed by Brown’s remarks last night during the debate?
Cermet
When did 47% of the country turn Black? That is what skin head mitt was trying to get at – the follow-on to the Aryan nation i.e. the repub-a-thug party – is trying to create fear among the fast approching white minority that those people are taking over …
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@Cermet:
That might actually resonate with certain white voters. Particularly those in all-white areas who have no idea how big a majority White is in this country. I know intelligent middle class liberal whites who are convinced that the USA is being overrun by immigrants who come here for a free ride. One of those ninnies has a Masters in Political Science. People will believe what supports their prejudices.
Unfortunately, demonizing Blacks is preaching to the choir. He shored up his position with the hard core but looked (more) like a jerk to Undecideds, probably losing net supporters in the process.
danielx
@raven:
Actually I’d enjoy a horse race, preferably with the Romney campaign staked out in the middle of the main straightaway.
Will never happen, the Romney campaign is currently back in the stables digging under a pile of manure looking for a thoroughbred.
WaynersT
full of awesome
‘Cranks and crazies’ have taken over US Republicans, says Australian minister http://gu.com/p/3ahqf/em
Misterpuff
@Joey Maloney: EWW Romney’s Santorum….Brain Bleach, please.
Misterpuff
@danielx: All they can find is dancing horses, Reagan’s pony and the odd unicorn.
MikeJ
@PeakVT:
He would be a national laughingstock and the Herald would be saying, “why oh why didn’t we go with the tried and true Romney?”
arguingwithsignposts
@JPL: Where are you streaming morning ho from?
JPL
@arguingwithsignposts: http://blog.livenewschat.tv/rockinroosters/
I’m not sure it’s worth it though. It’s nice to be able to watch Rachel though.
arguingwithsignposts
@JPL: Good to know it’s there for future ref., at least. I’m not sure I want to listen to Michael Bloomberg lecture me on the history of radicalism in American politics.
ETA: “It’s a disgrace that neither of the candidates are willing to tackle the big issues.” head/desk
Kirbster
When asked by Univision why he had not solved the country’s immigration problems yet, I wish the president could have been blunt and said, “because your fellow citizens elected a bunch of xenophobic loons to Congress and Statehouses who refuse to work with, or negotiate in good faith with, my administration. Change that, and we’ll get the job done.” Sometimes the man is just too polite.
kindness
Between Pat and his sister Bay that must have been some fucked up household to grow up in.
raven
@arguingwithsignposts: \\http://blog.livenewschat.tv/rockinroosters/
scav
@WaynersT: Yep. And “the biggest threat to the world’s largest economy.” Man the How Dare Foreign Officials Opine on US Politics barricades! It’s not like Australia is Israel or anything.
aimai
@Kirbster:
I didn’t enjoy the actual comics doing it but, damn, the concept of SNL’s sketch in which one person plays angry Barack and the other plays President Barack was hysterical. Frankly, I always thought that was Rahm’s role in the white house psychodrama, to say all the unforgiveably angry things Barack can’t even bring himself to think.
aimai
raven
What a fucking punk this Donnie Douche is, damn.
arguingwithsignposts
Morning Ho is building up Mitt as “Teflon Mitt.” ha!
EconWatcher
My would-be Senator, Tim Kaine, stepped into it in his debate with Allen, saying he would consider a minimum tax that would apply to all Americans. Apparently, he thought the republicans had some kind of fair point with their 47% b.s.
He’s now walking it back by insisting he only said he would consider it, not that he would actually do it. Smooth.
Nice job, buddy. You had just taken the lead in the race for the first time, all you had to do was play it safe, and this is what you come up with.
I want George “Macaca” Allen nowhere near the Senate, but something about Kaine has always given me the creeps. And this just confirms it. What on earth is a Democrat doing, talking about the need to tax poor folks more?
hoodie
That’s it in a nutshell. It’s not just that they’re liars, they’re dopey, incompetent liars that invariably trip on their own dicks. One thing about that secret tape that is so damning is that the level of conversation is painfully stupid. I think even some Republicans get that, but they’re just deflecting it by saying the “campaign” is incompetent. No, Romney is incompetent and his campaign reflects that. They can’t wrap their heads around that because they’re stuck in money=competence and, relatedly, Republican Daddy = competence. They still don’t get that the black guy is smarter and better suited for the job.
scav
@arguingwithsignposts: Willard Weeble and even that is being kind.
jeffreyw
scav
Anyone marked the IgNobels here yet? Early morning would be a good time as there’s an award involving spilling coffee from cups.
Say that before you’ve had any.
sherparick
@kindness: If you read Pat’s memoirs they were privileged white people in a still segregated D.C. (this is the 1940s and 50s), knew they were privileged and enjoyed, and enjoyed bullying the lesser orders knowing that if they started to lose any street fight, the police had their back. And though Catholic and part Irish, they had also had lot of neo-Confederate nostalgia coming down their Mom’s side of the family.
I have been reading Corey Robin’s web site a lot and the “Reactionary Mind” and find how much more sense it makes when you realize that this is about implementing an ideology of neo-feudalism which is the Modern Conservative Movement. The Father, with perfect freedom to rule the Family without state interference; the Church, with perfect freedom to rule the behavior of all; and employers, with perfect freedom to rule their employees and conduct their business with customers and investors without State interference. The State to use its force to sanction dissenters from “Freedom” (see the characters of OWS as a “mob”) and enforce the authority of the Father, the Church, and the Employer.
raven
If you missed Stewart on Bullshit Mountain it’s worth a look.
AA+ Bonds
Stories Fox News Is Trying To Make Happen, 9/21/2012
1. 1998 Obama Tape Proves Secret White House Communism
Rating: Two stars out of five. They managed to push this to NPR yesterday afternoon because Romney himself is talking about it. But it happened in 1998, a year that saw Chumbawumba’s “Tubthumping” place at #35 on Billboard, while Romney’s tape happened months ago during his current campaign for President. Red-baiting never gets old on the American right, though, and “both sides have a thing that is similar” is the lazy journalist’s morning amphetamine. This will probably stick around until it doesn’t; might get a mention in the debates.
2. White House Keeps Changing Its Story On Libya Attack
Rating: One-half star out of five. Sort of relevant, I guess, for something that doesn’t seem to have happened? Even I can’t make out the point of this one. It’s – maybe – some esoteric signal to those in the Ron Paul set who opposed U.S. involvement, combined with a very vague and hand-waving attempt to cover Romney’s ass over his weirdo bad-press statement. Except it doesn’t achieve the latter and the former matters for less than shit. This has gotten a lot of “activity” in the form of multiple breathless FoxNews.com stories over the last 24 hours, but for any of this to pay off in the rest of the press, there would have to be some sort of negative consequence to Obama if the attack turned out to be “al-Qaeda” or if it turned out to be not-“al-Qaeda”, which doesn’t seem likely. Without motive for a cover-up, there’s no cover-up story to sell.
The real problem, of course, is that Romney can’t touch this one at all – Fox’s own I-already-have-a-date-to-the-prom headline here: “Campaigns Ease Off Libya Debate”. A turkey of a campaign story.
3. 10-Part Washington Examiner Report About Obama’s Past Reveals Him As The Manchurian Candidate; Ten Parts To This Report, Count ‘Em, That’s A Lot Of Parts
Rating: Zero stars out of five. Seriously goofy; had already slid down to a sub-sub-headline by the time I finished this post. It turns out Obama lived in the neighborhood in Chicago that he said he lived in, but he was a community organizer at the time and the rent there was a little high so . . . I don’t know, Communists paid it? And fewer students recommended his class in his sixth year teaching than at the beginning, so the high level of recommendations is . . . no, I can’t do this.
4. Obama Said Washington Can’t Be Changed From The Inside, Because He Is A Defeatist Loser Who Lost And Was Defeated
Rating: Two-and-a-half stars out of five. Now here is the sort of substance-free campaign rhetoric that the American news media can get behind. The quickie replacement for the Examiner “story”, and for good reason. No one can do jack shit in Washington, so everyone is free to blame everyone else, and that is about the most favorite subject of every shithead columnist in this dire-ass collapsing hegemony. Feels good, man.
Valdivia
@arguingwithsignposts:
wha? How can they even say that? have they seen the polls?
PurpleGirl
OT: TCM is showing the original Manchurian Candidate this morning, starting at 10:45.
Suffern ACE
@raven: Does he mean the towel or a penalty flag? Who did we surrender to this time?
arguingwithsignposts
@Valdivia: Apparently, the argument is that, if Mitt can hang around even after he keeps punching himself in the face (Ho Scarborough’s words), and he will “come back” in the polls, and the media will say: “Wow, he can handle adversity” or something.
I know. Don’t ask me to explain any more than that.
dmsilev
@arguingwithsignposts:
Blindingly white and chemically inert? I could buy that.
AA+ Bonds
@PurpleGirl:
This is one of my favorite movies, although it is not, on its own merits, a very good film at all; everyone should watch it, however, for a lesson on how Frank Sinatra can be used as a battering ram by a director if pointed in the right direction
Imagine you are watching a kids’ cartoon and, well, smoke
WereBear
Motions without substance. They have more money, they must win! They don’t have consider nuance; that’s for the proles.
MikeJ
@PurpleGirl: PurpleGirl is the kindest, warmest, bravest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.
dmsilev
Peggy Noonan today on the Romney campaign: “This week I called it incompetent, but only because I was being polite. I really meant “rolling calamity.” “
hep kitty
Could someone tell me what this crap about Warren being on the side of those who want to deny asbestos claims? ?
When I heard that, I assumed she may have gotten her start in her legal career by working for an insurance defense firm that handled asbestos claims.
It’s not like she opened up her own defense firm afterward.
This was my first thought. Second thought was, well how did you get ahead, Scott Brown? Stripping for the camera?
BUT, then I just skimmed over her bio, and I don’t see evidence of that. She taught law, she never worked for a defense firm or for any firm, that I can tell.
So WTF with those claims by Brown. Personally, if I had been her, I would ask the same thing. WTF are you talking about??
I wish she had addressed this specifically b/c it appears to be a completely false statement and a smear! That reeeeally pissed me off.
Stupid people aren’t going to read her bio.
Valdivia
@arguingwithsignposts:
Ah! Upside-down is up world. Got it.
@dmsilev:
LOL. you win the internets today.
Ash Can
@arguingwithsignposts:
Yeah — Teflon after the household knuckleheads have been using knives and forks and other metal shit on it, and it’s all hacked up and flaking off and a hopeless fucking mess and just needs to be thrown the hell out.
Just One More Canuck
@arguingwithsignposts: Punching himself in the face? It’s been more like punching himself in the dick.
Ash Can
@dmsilev: This made me LOL. Is that a direct quote from her? Credit where credit is due, and all that. I’m stealing it, also too.
AA+ Bonds
Well I mean Mitt Romney has not slipped below 40% in battleground states so I guess that indicates some sort of shield between him and grand consequence
Raven
@MikeJ: Why don’t you play a little solitaire?
hep kitty
@EconWatcher: Never liked him. I was appalled, insulted and disgusted when he replaced Howard Dean as chair of the DNC.
AA+ Bonds
The best quotes from that movie make just as little sense in context, like “I was one of the original Chinese workmen who laid the track on this stretch”
Which was lifted from the novel anyway
AA+ Bonds
Thumbs up or thumbs down?: Raymond does not actually fuck his mom in the movie
hep kitty
@raven:
How do you it?? Srsly, how do you start your day that way and maintain the will to live? You and all your fellow Ho-watchers are some srsly tough and resilient individuals. ((takes off hat))
AA+ Bonds
Does he fuck his mom in the remake, I don’t remember, that whole thing was like remaking E.T. only E.T. is a down-on-her-luck croquet champion from Glasgow
Raven
@AA+ Bonds: The book is way scarier than the movie, no junkie action in the flick.
PurpleGirl
@AA+ Bonds: It is one of the few movies I do like Sinatra in. There are a bunch of very fine performances — Angela Lansbury, Laurence Harvey — which make it worth watching. And besides, Richard Condon wrote the line that has been so iconic (??? is the kindest, warmest, bravest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.).
@MikeJ: Thank you.
Tone in DC
@dmsilev:
Big time LULz.
I have had a less than stellar morning, so thank you for that.
NotMax
@Raven
You might get a grin or three from this compiled parade of imbecility:
A Conservative History of the United States.
WereBear
@PurpleGirl: Love that movie!
The media has that tight panicked look that says their bosses have decided how this is supposed to go, and since when has reality had anything to do with it? All this worked when times were good and people could pretend more easily.
But now? No. Adversity is undercutting that comfort zone.
Raven
@NotMax: Yes!
weaselone
@PeakVT:
The Herald’s value is in that it is a cheaper source of sports information, comics, coupons and bird cage liner than the Globe. It is transparent, Murdoch owned Republican Propaganda.
AA+ Bonds
@PurpleGirl:
Oh it is definitely worth watching, over and over, and mainly because of the cast and those performances; it seems to have accidentally fallen together as such an energetic movie, though, and to me it always feels like what Vertigo might be like to watch if you were out of your gourd on something and couldn’t keep up with how Vertigo ties everything back together so improbably – The Manchurian Candidate leaves half of its plot threads dangling at the end but does a good job of inviting the viewer not to notice
The remake on the other hand, who sits down and figures they will remake that movie, and update it to be “relevant”, through no Tailgunner Joe spoof, and the people secretly and impossibly conspiring behind one presidential campaign are . . . a corporation! You don’t make that movie, you roll it around in your head and have another drink and make a version of the Iliad starring CGI dogs with famous voice actors
Raven
@hep kitty: It’s on, it’s live and they do have competing narratives. For example, Carol King was on this morning as was Eugene Robinson. I watched Imus when he was on too. It’s not balanced but I’m a political junkie and it’s better than the other morning stuff.
The Red Pen
Just found this comment on Free Republic:
Yeah, I can’t imagine why black people would react badly to this woman.
hep kitty
@Raven: In all fairness, I used to watch. :)
Now, I usually turn on CSPAN or play back an old movie in the AM as I am getting ready for work.
Last several months, Ho (and Legs Mika, for that matter) have just become unbearable for me – his cadre of sniggering, somewhat chauvinistic school boys doesn’t help. I guess it’s a woman thing.
I go through phases.
dmsilev
@Ash Can: Direct quote; it’s from her WSJ column today.
AA+ Bonds
@jeffreyw:
Ah nice, and we get a link to this quote from McArdle’s (long-deleted) blog on November 23, 2001
This is ostensibly a post about how she gives a shit about 9/11 and also the introductory post to our special little snowflake. The place where she got hired and then immediately fired by the way was DiamondCluster International, which hired McArdle and all her friends and immediately tanked and fired McArdle and all her friends. Coincidence? You decide
jeffreyw
@AA+ Bonds: Well done, sir. Nice riff.
The Red Pen
@AA+ Bonds:
Thanks for trying, though.
PurpleGirl
@AA+ Bonds: Ah, Vertigo. Another of my favorite movies. I’ve often wondered what it would look like if Hitchcock had had modern special effects. But I wouldn’t want anyone to remake it.
NotMax
@Raven
I don’t grok how you view manage to watch more than a few minutes of the morning wankfest either.
All I can say is that Joe’s as good a host as he was a congressman.
1badbaba3
Which is funnier, GOP fail or the propaganda department attempts to spin the fail into gold? They distort, you decide.
That’s gold, Jerry, gold!
WereBear
@NotMax: My favorite “Joe” thing was when he would follow Keith Olbermann’s show. Keith would let fly with one of his special comments, and they would cut to Joe… looking like someone had just clocked him with a shovel.
I think he went to mornings to prevent that happening again.
Maude
@PurpleGirl:
Modern effects might have taken away the drama of the movie. The audience would be watching the effects instead of the characters.
1badbaba3
Here is the big issue: is Vertigo better than Citizen Kane? Personally, I like the fat guy’s movie better.
WereBear
@1badbaba3: Citizen Kane is made of awesome, but then, so is Vertigo. At a certain point, movies become classics and then it’s just personal opinion.
One is about love and money, and the other is about love and madness.
Tone in DC
Is this Ebert’s site? Should I check with Robert Osborne regarding classic flicks?
Pat and Bay Buchanan are blights on this (not so) fair city. I say we deport ’em to wherever the Dark Lord of the Sith Cheney currently is. That Undisclosed Location where they feed the ex-veep fresh entrails.
Amir Khalid
It looks like I need to make two fairly major purchases pretty soon: a new laptop (this old Compaq seems to be gradually losing it) and a pair of headphones (last night, I found the works on the left side of my Grado SR60s rattling around loose in its enclosure. Grados, even the baby of the headphone line, ain’t cheap around these parts. Le sigh.
If Mitt decides to keep doubling down on a line of rhetoric that reveals him as heartless and too stupid to hide it, no one is going to be surprised, right? The only confusion this will cause is whether it should count for scoring purposes as part of the original 47%er gaffe, or as a new gaffe by itself.
Tone in DC
@Amir Khalid:
Grado does make great phones, but they definitely ain’t cheap.
I had a pair repaired a few months ago, though. You might want to call them in Brooklyn and check on that, if the shipping won’t be prohibitive.
SFAW
@Tone in DC:
Northern Ireland would be a good start. Followed by Egypt. Because both those locations love Catholics-who-beat-on-non-Catholics so much – and the locals should be allowed to show their love.
1badbaba3
@WereBear: Try as I might, I have never taken to Vertigo as I have certain of his other films. It used to bug me as it is considered one of his best films.I kept thinking I was missing something. Then I learned to accept the fact that I’m just not a Kim Novak fan. I think Hitch and I agree that she is a poor substitute for Her Serene Highness, Princess Grace of Monaco.
Kane, OTOH, rocks hard. And Mitt should heed the words of Boss Jim Gettys. The ones about needing a lesson. Who better to teach those lessons than a college professor who does this President thing in his spare time?
Amir Khalid
@Tone in DC:
Call them in Brooklyn? You mean, from Kuala Lumpur? I am not thinking this is practical for me. I shall have to do the commute out to the Malaysian distributor, in Petaling Jaya. Kenny and Esther, the couple who run Audio Perfectionist, are very nice people, and if they still like me I might get a few ringgit off the regular retail price for the new SR60i model.
WereBear
@1badbaba3: Ah, but her Serene Highness; would she accept the role the way Kim Novak does? I think not.
Grace Kelly had trouble thinking herself a pawn. That is why she thought marrying that idiot would would still let her do what she wanted. And she was mistaken.
It’s perfectly fine not to like Vertigo. It’s not a movie that wants to be liked. It wants to scare the living beejezus out of you.
WereBear
@Amir Khalid: I think looking for repair might still be a lower cost option. We support our local music store, and he is still handy with a soldering iron.
However, once our local vacuum repairman got inundated by the craptastic manufacturing values of today’s vacuums, I gave that up and bought a new one.
Buying a Bissell designed for pet hair seems to be working.
Amir Khalid
@WereBear:
That works for regular household appliances, but hi-fi gear is another kettle of fish. I wouldn’t dare take the Grados to a third-party repairman. I plan to bring them in, and see if I’m offered a repair option. If not, then I guess I’ll have to buy new ones.
WereBear
@Amir Khalid: Oh, I meant seeing if your store had that available to you. I agree, you can’t let just anyone mess around with them.
Tone in DC
@SFAW:
Heh.
Tone in DC
@Amir Khalid:
Did not know where you were. Apologies.
Good luck with the ‘phones, in any case, dude.
Another Halocene Human
NoScript identified 15 scripts on BJ today and my browser is creaking to a halt.
Thanks to ABL I not only watched Obama’s Anger Translator but the entire season premier of Key and Peele. Very funny, not to mention wrong, especially the way they ragged on Li’l Wayne.
Another Halocene Human
@EconWatcher: Limousine liberals. Don’t understand what MHP was trying to tell at them so hard the other day. Poor people pay plenty of taxes, more in the red states as far as I can tell, and VA is one of them, tax wise.