Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

When I was faster i was always behind.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

Bark louder, little dog.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

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

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

You are here: Home / There Are No Cats In The Rubin Con

There Are No Cats In The Rubin Con

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…and the streets are paved with cheese, the mice will tell you.

In other news, there are no problems in the Romney campaign at all and they expect to win handily, the Romney aides will tell you.  or, at least they’ll tell totally neutral and objective observer Jennifer Rubin.

Senior advisor Ed Gillespie told me a short time ago in a phone interview, “I’ve never seen a campaign in which there is such a wide gap between reality [and coverage].” He said, “We operate in reality, not reality TV.” He maintains, “The map is not shrinking.” When I asked him about movement in key swing states, he replied, “These are all tight as a tick.” He further argued that the race “is not stagnant,” but it does fluctuate “within a narrow band.” And he said the campaign is one of the most congenial he’s been on and the mood is “upbeat, positive.”

Earlier today, I separately asked senior advisor Eric Fehrnstrom to describe the mood in Boston. He put it this way: “I think the word I’d use to describe the mood in Boston is ‘determined.’ We have a highly motivated team focused on doing the things we need to do to win in November.” He resisted the notion that the team has had a rocky period. He shot back, “If anyone’s had a bad week, it’s President Obama. Gas prices are on the rise again, the Federal Reserve is gravely concerned about the lack of jobs, our foreign embassies are under attack and bad economic reports keep coming.” He points to Gallup and Rasmussen tracking polls, which show the race close.

So add “fluctuate within a narrow band” and “If anyone’s had a bad week, it’s President Obama” to “There are no tanks in sight of Baghdad” and “We’ll call you if we have anything” to the biggest loads of crap in the universe.  Also, there’s probably a reactor leak somewhere near the detention cells, but it was a boring conversation anyway.

<iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/3Wsp1kDAxWM?rel=0″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>

I wonder just how tight of a ball Jennifer here will curl up into once Romney loses.  She might implode.  I worry about her, you know.

Reader Interactions

135Comments

  1. 1.

    General Stuck

    I wonder just how tight of a ball Jennifer here will curl up into once Romney loses. She might implode. I worry about her, you know.

    Nothing a few bunker busters and maybe a daisy cutter or two over Iran can’t cure.

  2. 2.

    Patricia Kayden

    It seems that Romney supporters are depending on the economy worsening which I find interesting to win this election. A worsening economy doesn’t justify a Romney presidency. What would Romney do to turn the economy around? To get more people employed? To bring gas prices down?

    He’s not giving us any specific policies. The only reason we’re being given to vote for The Bot is that he’s not Obama.

  3. 3.

    the Conster

    Just finished watching Chris Jansing interview John Sununu on MSNBC, and he’s totally Baghdad Bob. He didn’t quite say Obama supporters were committing suicide by the hundreds at the gates of the 53%ers, but as an amateur psychologist, I’d say that he’s suffering from projection and definitely stuck in the first stage of grief.

  4. 4.

    arguingwithsignposts

    I wonder just how tight of a ball Jennifer here will curl up into once Romney loses. She might implode. I worry about her, you know.

    The FSM doesn’t love you that much.

    And I never knew “determined” was a synonym for “polishing the resume and LinkdIn profile.”

  5. 5.

    Cargo

    I remember 2004. I remember grasping like a liferaft at every tiny shred of poll data that showed Kerry might win. I remember dismissing the polls as biased when they showed Bush holding onto a narrow lead. I remember knowing deep in the pit of my stomach that Bush, as much as all my friends hated him, was going to pull this one off. The sight of his grinning face on TV nauseated me. I wasn’t crazy about John Kerry, but he was the only possible hope to get Bush out.

    In other words, I know exactly how Republicans are feeling right now. Choke on it, you fuckers.

  9. 9.

    WereBear

    I’m struck anew with how spot-on that Charlie Pierce column was, when he called the 47% video “Romney’s Lonesome Rhodes moment.”

    It is usually only in art that we can have something so focused and distilled. (And if this were fiction, the disgruntled Member of the Help would be someone whose family was ruined by one of those Bain plant closings.)

    I hope the person stays anonymous for many years, like Deep Throat, because that was a helluva risk. And how extraordinary that they were so circumspect about getting the word out that it was actually delayed by months because people stumbled upon it and yet none of them shared it enough for it to gain traction. It is explosive; and ignored.

    Because, the Romney campaign can throw up radar chaff as much as they like; it’s DOOM. They knew all along Romney couldn’t tell the truth; that’s why he was always Uncanny Valley in public. But that only laid the groundwork for what is happening now.

    Say what you like about Thurston Howell the III; he was never cruel or contemptuous towards the other castaways.

  10. 10.

    Tonal Crow

    Another day, another load of Romney bullshit.

    Please consider using the term “bullshit” at least once in every thread where you discuss Romney. It’s always apropos, and it’ll encourage search engines to associate the term with Romney.

  11. 11.

    BGinCHI

    @the Conster: Saw him on Andrea Mitchell the other day and even that lackluster interviewer (to be charitable) wanted to put a slug in his cranium.

    That guy is a top shelf dickhead.

  12. 12.

    shoutingattherain

    I wonder just how tight of a ball Jennifer here will curl up into once Romney loses.

    Tight as a tick. Don’t you read your own copy?

  15. 15.

    Tonal Crow

    I wonder just how tight of a ball Jennifer here will curl up into once Romney loses. She might implode. I worry about her, you know.

    I’m worried about the earth. I think we need to ask Stephen Hawking whether that might create a black hole.

  18. 18.

    BretH

    This Washington Post comment on Rubin’s piece gets a gold star:

    “The orchestra plays on, even as the deck tilts, the lifeboats are launched, and seawater floods the engine room.”

  19. 19.

    beltane

    @kd bart: My mother attended a Dukakis event and came home with a T-shirt that said “1988-Year of the Democrat”.

    The schadenfreude, it is sweet.

  20. 20.

    Tonal Crow

    @Patricia Kayden:

    It seems that Romney supporters are depending on the economy worsening which I find interesting to win this election. A worsening economy doesn’t justify a Romney presidency. What would Romney do to turn the economy around? To get more people employed? To bring gas prices down?

    He’ll wave his lilywhite Republican hand and rainbow-flavored unicorn-ponies will explode from his ass and bless everyone with zero taxes, complete freedumb, God everywhere, no gays, thousands of guns, and as many copies of “Atlas Shrugged” as they want.

  22. 22.

    Cassidy

    thousands of guns

    Is there a sign up list, just in case? I’m pretty specific about my guns. No Hi Point for this guy, uh uh.

  23. 23.

    ericblair

    @BretH:

    If you had recently received bonuses of $37,500 or $25,000 for you work on the Campaign you too would be spinning like a top…

    Hey, they’re senior management: stock price is tanking, so all the bigwigs need retention bonuses so they don’t jump ship and keep doing the, um, great work they’re obviously doing. Now, if the stock price was through the roof, obviously all the bigwigs need performance bonuses to reward their stellar performance. Simple. Oh yeah, though, we need to become more efficient and competitive, so 10% paycut for the proles and no holiday parties either. It’s MBAriffic!

    Looks like they’re still committed to the initial campaign logic: Unemployment Bad means Generic Republican wins by Default. Too bad Unemployment is somewhat better, Romney isn’t Generic enough anymore, and they haven’t locked him in the basement for the rest of the campaign, because By Default still looks like the thickest of the thin reeds these assholes have got left.

  24. 24.

    WereBear

    @BGinCHI: At least, until the Professor made wine from coconuts.

    The difference money makes is that if you’re an asshole, and you’re poor, you can tell yourself it’s because you have no money. Rich dicks? They’re just dicks!

  26. 26.

    ppcli

    If anyone’s had a bad week, it’s President Obama. Gas prices are on the rise again,

    Gas prices! Ah, the memories of summer that brings back.

    You know, I was noticing the absence of the constant Fox News drumbeat about gas prices, since they were way down for a few months. Apparently the president is to blame if they go up, but should get no credit at all when they go down.

  28. 28.

    The Dangerman

    I’ll confess to being a Nervous Nellie, but Romney pulling a Dewey out of his ass concerns me greatly. Don’t know the mechanics of how it would occur, but I think the Rightwing, in the US and Israel, is extremely dangerous and really, REALLY wants not only Obama to lose, but don’t want to have their asses handed to them in the House and Senate makeup.

  29. 29.

    MikeJ

    @ericblair: If you want to bend over backwards being fair, it looks as if the bonuses came right after the convention. There could have been a previous agreement that they’d get bonuses upon winning the nomination. If that were the case those staffers would have done their jobs and earned the bonus.

    I have no idea one way or the other if such was the case. I’m just happy to see them blowing money that could be buying ads.

  30. 30.

    Comrade Mary

    So add “fluctuate within a narrow band” and “If anyone’s had a bad week, it’s President Obama” to “There are no tanks in sight of Baghdad” and “We’ll call you if we have anything” to the biggest loads of crap in the universe.

    I have typed and deleted and re-typed and re-deleted something very vulgar. I am ashamed and if you can figure it out, you should be ashamed, too.

  31. 31.

    Tonal Crow

    @The Dangerman:

    I’ll confess to being a Nervous Nellie, but Romney pulling a Dewey out of his ass concerns me greatly. Don’t know the mechanics of how it would occur….

    [ETA: If it’s close,] I do hope it’s a Dewey, since he lost. I’m more concerned about another Bush v. Gore. My guess for how they’d pull it off: watch the voting machines. Which is why we shouldn’t ever use machines to cast ballots, only to count hand-cast paper ballots, and then only when properly supervised and supplemented with public sampling hand-counts.

  32. 32.

    hep kitty

    As Dems, would we put up with this sort of crap from our candidates, from our party, if they completely fringed out like that?

    I think not. I wish those “both sides do it” people would mull that over for a few seconds or however long their brief attention spans last.

  33. 33.

    pattyp

    I can’t speak for Boston, but gas prices have been dropping in my neck of the woods (Daytona Beach), about 10 cents in the last month.

  34. 34.

    maya

    What would Romney do to turn the economy around?

    Upon his election, he’ll immediately kick-start a Federal Training Program to create 1 million new less than minimum wage, no benefits, gardeners and pool boys to coincide with his massive tax cuts for the rich. The program will be paid for by a sir-tax on baby food.

  36. 36.

    ding dong

    jennifer rubin will spontaneously combust from the vapors shes emitting with the other gases being emiited from other conservative gasbags combined with the fired and brimstone speech given by franklin graham immediately following the election.

  39. 39.

    The Dangerman

    @Tonal Crow:

    My guess for how they’d pull it off: watch the voting machines.

    One possibility; of course, the voting machines would be considered to be correct and all the pollsters (except Rasmussen and the other hacks) would be proven to be right.

    My concern is gas prices; notice how when things were going well it was a “great” time for a refinery fire? Shit, right out of the Enron playbook.

  41. 41.

    Wag

    @hep kitty:

    As Dems, would we put up with this sort of crap from our candidates

    We did for years. I remember the Mondale campagn in ’84 before getting whacked by Reagan.

    I hope that with this election the GOP is getting ready to enter a period of relative political Purgatory similar to what the Dems had in the 1980’s.

  42. 42.

    ericblair

    @MikeJ:

    If you want to bend over backwards being fair, it looks as if the bonuses came right after the convention.

    That’s true, and no, I don’t give a crap about fair, since these dicks don’t seem to be losing any sleep over whether they’re ever exaggerating things just a weensy bit about the President. Boss’s toadies get Big Bonuses, typical asshole Boss. We’re all just trading potshots until the next Rombot self-inflicted shotgun pedectomy anyways.

  43. 43.

    NCSteve

    I am pretty sure that Jennifer will be writing columns about the Romney transition team taking over its offices in Blair House and whether John Bolton will be the most awesome Secretary of State ever for days after Obama wins until finally, they have to gently pry her away from her keyboard and send her to a “special resort” for a rest.

  46. 46.

    SFAW

    @Comrade Mary:

    I am ashamed and if you can figure it out, you should be ashamed, too.

    If I couldn’t figure it out, but came up with my own vulgar expression, should I then be ashamed?

  48. 48.

    WereBear

    All these clowns are getting paid to do what they do. I’m sure they are sorry they can look ahead and see that the tracks are ending at the side of a mountain, but lying is what they do for a living.

    To con artists, the world is full of marks.

  51. 51.

    hep kitty

    @Wag: I reckon we just got too hippy-ish. I have to admit, I was a kid back then. Maybe Mondale was supported by the Black Panthers or something. And then there was that damned totally gay cartoon by Marlo Thomas.

  52. 52.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    @Patricia Kayden:

    He’s not giving us any specific policies. The only reason we’re being given to vote for The Bot is that he’s not Obama.

    From Romney’s 47% transcript:

    Audience member: When the [unintelligible] in September, the markets are going to be looking—marginal tax rates going up, overheads going, fine, but sequestration under the debt ceiling deal—what do they call it?

    Romney: Taxageddon?

    Audience member: Yeah, they call it that. The Obamacare, taxes on dividends and capital gains—I mean, the markets are going to be speaking very wildly in October on all of those issues.

    Romney: They’ll probably be looking at what the polls are saying. If it looks like I’m going to win, the markets will be happy. If it looks like the president’s going to win, the markets should not be terribly happy. 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. If the president gets reelected, I don’t know what will happen. I can never predict what the markets will do.

  53. 53.

    Chris

    @The Dangerman:

    Me too. Plus, as Toby Ziegler so eloquently puts it, it’s just not a good idea to tempt the wrath of the whatever from high atop the thing.

    The reason Dewey vs Truman happened and left the press with egg all over its face, though, is that the media were going off of telephone polls at a time when a large part of the country still didn’t have phones, and those people tended to be Truman supporters. I don’t see that being the case here – if anything, polling still undercounts Democrats in the same way it did then, though they’ve gotten a lot better at compensating for it.

    But yeah, it’s never a good idea to get overconfident. (Dewey did, and look where that got him…)

  57. 57.

    SFAW

    @NCSteve:

    John Bolton will be the most awesome Secretary of State War and Killing Brown People

    Fixed to reflect Bolton’s “personality” more accurately.

  58. 58.

    PaulW

    If you can find a clip of Kevin Bacon screeching “ALL IS WELL” during the riot at the end of Animal House, you may find it an apt metaphor for how the Romney campaigners are trying to maintain calm as the rest of world is seeing chaos in their ranks.

  60. 60.

    Culture of Truth

    I’ve volunteered on many campaigns. Sometimes, you know. Other times, it looks bad but you don’t know. Team Romney has to hang in there and hope the debates turn things around a bit, and all the last minute deciders break his way. Plus gotv heavily favors him. A silent majority, if you will.

    I doubt it, but this is their job, for a few more weeks, at least.

  61. 61.

    MattF

    Oh, Rubin and Sununu are just hacks. Lying, whatev, is what they do. If there’s a chance that someone, somewhere, somehow will hear them and think, “Maybe voting for Mitt isn’t a waste of time and energy” they’ve done their job, and not badly, either.

  63. 63.

    Chris

    @hep kitty:

    As Dems, would we put up with this sort of crap from our candidates, from our party, if they completely fringed out like that?

    Fuck no. Are you kidding me? When our party “fringed out” in the late sixties/early seventies, you had Mayor Daley reacting by beating the shit out of the “fringe” in Chicago, and he wasn’t exactly the only non-fan.

    Go back another generation and you’ve also got the Red Scare, during which time liberals like Walter Reuther, Hubert Humphrey and the Kennedys led the charge to purge the “far left” from unions, party machines, and pretty much all parts of civil society. (And contrast that with the way the Republicans never cut their ties to the far right fringe lunatics, even when they didn’t let them take charge of the party – they were too valuable a source of votes for that).

    No, there’s no way a teabagger equivalent could take off in the Democratic Party without us slamming the door on it. Not a chance in hell.

  65. 65.

    Culture of Truth

    In my paper this morning there was an article by an analyst at CNN who asked of Obama supporters, would you be willing to put down a small but non-trivial amout, betting on the election, like $100, that Obama will win? And I reacted, “hell yes.” I’m cheap but I’d take that bet cause I could use the free money.

  69. 69.

    Enhanced Mooching Techniques

    @Tonal Crow: will you guys calm down. 2000 was a statistically tied race, not a curb stomping like this one is becoming. Do you really think the Nat Silverman’s of the world aren’t going to cry bullshit if say Ohio, Florida, Virgina, Michigan, Colorado, Pennsylvania all go from +7 Obama to +13 Romney over night?

    Additionally, what Republican is going risk going to jail over Mitt Romney??? GW Bush was popular with the right so one of them would be willing to take the hit. The Mitbot is loathed on Right just as much as on the left.

  71. 71.

    Chinn Romney

    There are plenty of reasons to bash the Romney staffers, but this isn’t one of them. It’s sort of like when the Steelers visit Foxborough. You have to say that things are looking good, and we’re going to win. Even though you know Tom Terrific and the Gronk are going to feast.

    Sorry, not the best analogy, but I figure the Fat Man is either going to burst like that Monty Python diner, or the Steelers are going to implode real soon. Best to get the shots in while you can.

  72. 72.

    Brachiator

    OT Live streaming of the flight of the space shuttle Endeavor to LAX

    At the NASA site

    http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

    A list of San Francisco landmarks has not been released — but we would guess the Golden Gate Bridge will be included. Officials have advised onlookers to head toward:
    •Bay Area Discovery Museum, Sausalito
    •Chabot Space and Science Center, Oakland
    •Exploratorium, San Francisco,
    •Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley
    •Monterey Bay Aquarium
    •NASA’s Ames/Moffet Field, Mountain View

    The shuttle is scheduled to reach Los Angeles airspace about 11:30 a.m., and is expected to circle the Southland at least once before touching down at Los Angeles International Airport about an hour later.

  73. 73.

    Violet

    @pattyp: Just heard a local news piece about how gas prices are have been dropping in my state too. The gas price talking point is not a winner.

  74. 74.

    Margarita

    So add “fluctuate within a narrow band” and “If anyone’s had a bad week, it’s President Obama” to “There are no tanks in sight of Baghdad” and “We’ll call you if we have anything”

    No, not at all. I just think that the .. uh.. their appeal is becoming more selective.

  75. 75.

    Roger Moore

    @J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:

    Romney: They’ll probably be looking at what the polls are saying. If it looks like I’m going to win, the markets will be happy. If it looks like the president’s going to win, the markets should not be terribly happy. 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. If the president gets reelected, I don’t know what will happen. I can never predict what the markets will do.

    Shorter Romney: If I win, the job creators will come back from Galt’s Gulch and the economy will recover.

  80. 80.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @Yutsano: Gas prices are also going down because summer’s over. One thing that would drive gas prices back up in shit starting in the ME.

  81. 81.

    WereBear

    The sick part is, I believe they could have sold Romney in 2000.

    An upright, uptight, Family Man to contrast with that big hound dawg, Clinton? A Holy Businessman to keep that economy train a-rollin’? A distinct lack of Republican backstory which illustrates their inability to handle a catered picnic?

    Woulda worked.

  83. 83.

    Kay

    I can’t help it, I think they’re hilarious:

    During her 10 minute speech to the crowd, Ann Romney said she was here in Iowa to talk about “the good side” of her husband that “very few people know about.”

    He’s good, but very few people have realized that over his lifetime. She knows not why. It isn’t that he isn’t good, though. It’s just a matter of spreading the word.

  85. 85.

    Roger Moore

    @Chris:

    I don’t see that being the case here – if anything, polling still undercounts Democrats in the same way it did then, though they’ve gotten a lot better at compensating for it.

    Maybe not. Nate Silver had a great article recently about how the polls didn’t make any sense until you divided them between ones that include cell phones and ones that didn’t. Apparently, the cell phone only group skews heavily Democratic, even when you include other demographic factors. If you look only at the polls that exclude cell phones, it’s a pretty tight race. If you look at the ones that include cell phones, Obama is pulling steadily away.

  86. 86.

    Enhanced Mooching Techniques

    @Chris:

    No, there’s no way a teabagger equivalent could take off in the Democratic Party without us slamming the door on it. Not a chance in hell.

    TL:DR version; the Democrats remember what the Civil War did to their party to clearly to ever tolerate control by the fringe.

  87. 87.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    @Suffern ACE:

    If he can’t ever predict what markets will do, what is that preceding paragraph supposed to be?

    There’s just so much great stuff in that quote.

    It’s almost a shame that the rest of the stuff from the video has been overshadowed by the 47% comments because I’d like to see Romney directly questioned on the paragraph I highlighted above.

    Romney thinks he’s so awesome that all he needs to do is be elected. Romney doesn’t need to implement policy or change regulations to get the economy going…Romney just needs to be elected. And even though he’s certain that that is all it will take, he can’t really predict what the markets will do.

    Romney’s 3 point plan:

    1. Get elected POTUS
    2. ???
    3. Profit!

  90. 90.

    Roger Moore

    @WereBear:

    The sick part is, I believe they could have sold Romney in 2000.

    Sure, but part of that is that he would have been able to play the center-right technocrat, a role he has some experience carrying off. Today, he has to flip back and forth between center-right technocrat for the swing voters and foaming at the mouth crazy for the base, and he’s just not capable of doing it.

  91. 91.

    Kay

    @BGinCHI:

    I think she’s hurting him, I really do. She needs to consider the other option there.

    Why, Ann? Why so few who recognize his goodness? Is it… us? We’ll try to be better.

  92. 92.

    Gex

    This will play nicely into their victimization mindset. When Romney loses, their projection mechanism (their strongest defense mechanism) will just KNOW that the election was stolen.

    Hell, even if the election was clean as a whistle, they’d think it is stolen because brown people are allowed to vote (the Republican fear) and women are allowed to vote (the Republican and Libertarian fear).

  94. 94.

    Hungry Joe

    @Chinn Romney:

    Exactly. Who on what about-to-be losing side ever admits it? Otherwise we’d hear …

    Baseball manager in playoffs: “Can we win? Are you kidding? Have you seen their rotation? Do you know who they’ve got in the 3-4-5 spots? It’ll take an act of God for us to keep from getting swept.”

    Low-ranked tennis player who somehow made it to the third round: “How do I like my chances against Nadal? Let’s put it this way — I changed my flight home to an hour earlier.”

    No, you have to keep churning out positive fantasy. It’s in your contract.

  96. 96.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    @WereBear:

    The sick part is, I believe they could have sold Romney in 2000.
    An upright, uptight, Family Man to contrast with that big hound dawg, Clinton? A Holy Businessman to keep that economy train a-rollin’? A distinct lack of Republican backstory which illustrates their inability to handle a catered picnic?
    Woulda worked.

    It did work.

    “upright, uptight” – Bush was a teetotaler who went to bed at 9pm

    “a Holy Businessman” – the first “CEO” President

    “a distict lack of…backstory” – did you ever read Shrub : The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush?

    “inability to handle a catered picnic” – That’s My Bush!

  97. 97.

    SFAW

    During her 10 minute speech to the crowd, Ann Romney said she was here in Iowa to talk about “the good side” of her husband that “very few people know about.”

    Listening to NPR last night (Moth Radio Hour, I think), there was a neuroscientist talking about using PET/brain scans to try to predict (or perhaps correlate) certain brain activity in serial killers.

    The interesting part was that he read his own – not realizing it was his, at first – and saw some of the same things he saw in serial killers’ cortexes or amygdalas or something. And when he asked friends and family for their assessment of his personality, they ALL said that he was, basically, a sociopath.

    Hmmmm … now why did I think of that, when we’re talking about Mittens? Thinking …

  98. 98.

    PaulW

    @Culture of Truth:

    Plus gotv heavily favors (Romney).

    No, Get Out The Vote heavily favors Obama because that’s what his campaign is relying on: they’ve had their ground operations up and running since FEBRUARY. Romney’s campaign is relying on the massive amount of SuperPAC money and buying their way in October to victory with an avalanche of negative ads and swift-boat attacks.

    Problem is, between now and October there’s still a lot of time for Romney to p-ss off even more voters than he already has: and if what happened with Palin in 2008 is any evidence, when people start HATING you it’s next to impossible to win them back.

    There’s a reason why tracking Romney’s Unfavorable numbers is the key to the election, not the money or the economy (a solid majority of voters have already concluded Obama isn’t on the hook for the after-effects of Bush the Lesser’s disastrous economic reign). As long as Romney’s Unfavorable numbers trump his Favorables – even among Republicans! – there is no way he can win.

  100. 100.

    Rommie

    Yeah, and Napoleon was just mopping up the win when he sent the Imperial Guard in at Waterloo.

    Baghdad Bob would break down into uncontrollable laughter if he had to pass on Romney “everything is OK, nothing to see here” missives from Bullshit Mountain.

  101. 101.

    BGinCHI

    @Kay: It’s always the “you people” move.

    Methinks they’ve been down this road somewhere else in their lives. Resentment born of perceived envy is really the rich couple’s burden, isn’t it?

    Thank god the middle class is spared this pain.

  102. 102.

    Culture of Truth

    @PaulW: Perhaps I wasn’t clear, but I didn’t say that gotv favors Romney, I said Team Romney has to hope that it does.

  104. 104.

    Edward J. Smith, Captain, RMS Titanic

    @BretH: As I noted yesterday, Mittens wanted to trade places with me. No thanks: I have all the disaster I can handle right here. I also turned down his offer to make me a campaign adviser.

  105. 105.

    WereBear

    @Roger Moore: I agree.

    I still think Romney is the worst candidate of my lifetime, and possibly beyond. He’s stiff, obnoxious, has a snotty mate and cyborg children, and his business acumen is based on cheating and stealing. His false persona is only exceeded in its most disgusting dimensions by his actual persona.

    It is possible that by comparison, Al Gore, in campaign mode, would come off as a more warm personality!

    I was simply observing that in an election against a Democratic opponent who has a very warm, accessible personality, they run the robot technocrat; which is always an uphill battle.

  106. 106.

    Kay

    @BGinCHI:

    I can’t stand the pitying way she talks to women. That’s how I perceive it. That she feels sorry for us. I just refuse to accept that from her.

    “I would not trade places with you, ANN“.

  107. 107.

    cmorenc

    @Patricia Kayden:

    He’s not giving us any specific policies. The only reason we’re being given to vote for The Bot is that he’s not Obama.

    Over in hard-core GOP-land, it’s been an article of faith ever since the 2010 elections that all they had to do in order to win the not-47% portion of the electorate was to nominate a decent not-Obama candidate, and the difficult condition of the economy would be enough to bring aboard even voters not in sync with the GOP on social issues. Among the really hard-core (the ones we refer to as “wingnuts”) it’s also been an article of faith that if only they managed to explain clearly and often enough how radical and incompatible Obama was with mainstream American values, and break through the liberal MSM bubble protecting him, then his defeat would be assured.

    If and when Romney loses in November (which now looks much more likely than not), the reaction will momentarily be frustrated incredulity, followed quickly by “GOP conservatism was failed by an insincerely conservative, flawed candidate foisted on us by the GOP establishment, but it wasn’t conservatism itself or its naturally greater attractiveness to the electorate with a better candidate that failed” type of thinking. One unfortunate downside to the astonishing ineptness of Romney’s campaign (and to a considerable extent, that of John McCain in 2008) is to provide persuasively credible evidence for this as the definitive explanation, rather than as evidence of any need to re-examine whether their basic principles and view of events are in need of an attitude adjustment.

  109. 109.

    The Dangerman

    @The Dangerman:

    …the voting machines would be considered to be correct and all the pollsters (except Rasmussen and the other hacks) would be proven to be right.

    Note to self: more coffee before blogging (or driving).

  110. 110.

    Culture of Truth

    One unfortunate downside to the astonishing ineptness of Romney’s campaign (and to a considerable extent, that of John McCain in 2008) is to provide persuasively credible evidence for this as the definitive explanation

    Too true. Prolly would happen anyway, but now they will just double down on the crazy with no looking back.

  111. 111.

    SFAW

    @WereBear:

    I still think Romney is the worst candidate of my lifetime, and possibly beyond. He’s stiff, obnoxious, has a snotty mate and cyborg children, and his business acumen is based on cheating and stealing. His false persona is only exceeded in its most disgusting dimensions by his actual persona.

    Will you STOP trying to sugar-coat things?

  112. 112.

    Kay

    Campaign filings, and disclosures filed by major “super PACs” supporting both candidates, challenge the appearance of financial strength that Mitt Romney enjoyed over the summer.

    We wuz had.

    God, but he is pure Wall Street.

  113. 113.

    JGabriel

    __
    __
    Jennifer Rubin:

    [Gillespie] further argued that the race “is not stagnant,” but it does fluctuate “within a narrow band.”

    The water is never stagnant; Brownian motion keeps it circulating even in tight confines!

    .

  114. 114.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Roger Moore:

    Shorter Romney: If I win, the job creators will come back from Galt’s Gulch and the economy will recover.

    Translation: If I win, the parasites will be able to leave their armed compounds and again feast on the blood of the masses.

  115. 115.

    BGinCHI

    @Kay: If you were a sister wife you wouldn’t have to trade places.

    You could be a fellow helpmeet and toil alongside her in choosing window treatments, private tutors, and which Cadillac to drive.

  116. 116.

    Roger Moore

    @cmorenc:

    One unfortunate downside to the astonishing ineptness of Romney’s campaign (and to a considerable extent, that of John McCain in 2008) is to provide persuasively credible evidence for this as the definitive explanation, rather than as evidence of any need to re-examine whether their basic principles and view of events are in need of an attitude adjustment.

    Yep. They aren’t going to steer away from crazy conservatism as long as they keep running inept candidates, and they aren’t going to find any competent candidates as long as they keep demanding ones who follow all the rules of crazy conservatism. I can only see two long-term outcomes:

    1) The crazy conservatives get frustrated and/or die off and lose control over the party

    2) The Republican party decays into an insane rump

  118. 118.

    Kay

    @BGinCHI:

    I had the funniest encounter at the community college. I went for “constitution day”, where they invite the county parties (R and D) to set up tables with candidates. So this young woman comes up to me, and I didn’t have a chance to say anything to her, and she volunteers (defensively) that “there’s nothing in the Bible that says Christians can’t vote for non-Christians”.

    So I know what she’s referring to, but I have to play dumb because I’m polite, so I say “President Obama is a Christian, I believe” and she says “I’m talking about Mitt Romney”. She’s just getting that out there, that there is NOTHING in the Bible preventing her from voting for Romney :)

  120. 120.

    JGabriel

    __
    __
    Jennifer Rubin:

    Every day you see a steady drip of reports from purported Mitt Romney advisors expressing gloom and doom, if not outright panic. Top Romney advisors on the record tell Right Turn, in essence, that this is bunk. … They remain on message, suggesting the complainers are either from outside Boston or lower on the totem pole in the campaign.

    Shorter Romney Advisors: Pay no attention to the lower 47% of our campaign staff.

    .

  122. 122.

    BGinCHI

    @Kay: Just wow. It’s like pre-Stockholm Syndrome by Proxy.

    Being a born and raised rural midwesterner, I see how these young people get bad ideas and how they begin to struggle out of them. College is the best way to get on that road. I bet you that young lady is looking for ideas and answers: she already has a critical mind, even if it’s still flooded with family/local culture misinformation.

    I have hope for these young folks. I really do.

  123. 123.

    Brachiator

    @JGabriel:

    RE: Gillespie] further argued that the race “is not stagnant,” but it does fluctuate “within a narrow band.”

    The water is never stagnant; Brownian motion keeps it circulating even in tight confines!

    Mitt is circling the bowl. Let’s hope the voters flush him down the toilet this November.

    @cmorenc:

    If and when Romney loses in November (which now looks much more likely than not), the reaction will momentarily be frustrated incredulity, followed quickly by “GOP conservatism was failed by an insincerely conservative, flawed candidate foisted on us by the GOP establishment, but it wasn’t conservatism itself or its naturally greater attractiveness to the electorate with a better candidate that failed” type of thinking

    But part of the “ineptness” of Romney’s campaign is that he, like Akin, says exactly what many Republicans believe. And the official GOP propaganda channels (Fox, Rush, etc) stridently insist that Mittens is totally on message.

    The modern Republican Party is incapable of any kind of reflection. If Mitt loses, he is personally a failure, not the GOP. If Mitt somehow wins and throws the country into chaos, it won’t be his fault, but that of the Democrats and the lazy ass 47 percent for failiing to rise to the challenge.

  125. 125.

    different-church-lady

    Eric, buddy, hate to tell you this but the price per gallon at the service stations in my hood dropped 10 cents a couple of days ago.

  127. 127.

    Chris

    @Brachiator:

    When I was young and stupid (eg as late as a year ago) I remember thinking that the best thing that could happen to the GOP was to have its ass kicked with a True Believer at the helm, someone it would be impossible to dismiss as a RINO as they do McCain and Romney. But you know, I can’t for the life of me imagine who that might be
    No matter who it is, the conservative movement cannot fail, only be failed.

  129. 129.

    different-church-lady

    @Roger Moore: You know what’s mind blowing about that quote? He spends all this time predicting what the markets will do, and then two sentences later he says he can’t predict what the markets will do.

  130. 130.

    PaulW

    @Culture of Truth:

    Perhaps I wasn’t clear, but I didn’t say that gotv favors Romney, I said Team Romney has to hope that it does.

    It won’t happen. Early voting is already starting, especially in the form of absentee balloting. And there’s that recent Balloon Juice entry noting how in Iowa there’s a 6-to-1 advantage among Democrats asking for absentee ballots (which can also work as ballot-by-mail I believe). That points to a more energized Democratic voting bloc (as well as a Democratic bloc figuring out how to get around voter suppression efforts).

  131. 131.

    PaulW

    @Chris:

    No matter who it is, the conservative movement cannot fail, only be failed.

    The best way is if the ticket topper was Rush Limbaugh and the veep candidate was Grover Norquist. But like all great con artists, they know it’s better to hide in their offices and let other people take the fall for them.

  133. 133.

    LAC

    Well, since Rubin has been operating out of Romney’s colon for the last 6 months, she should be used to fitting herself into small spaces. Now, when she crawls out after the November election and realizes that track star Paul Ryan will not go out with her, that might cause the flood of bitter tears.

  134. 134.

    jim filyaw

    some of the things i’ve looked forward to for months with delicious anticipation is reading this twat’s first post-election columns along with those of the other wapo cow, kathleen parker.

  135. 135.

    Tonal Crow

    @Enhanced Mooching Techniques:

    @Tonal Crow: will you guys calm down. 2000 was a statistically tied race, not a curb stomping like this one is becoming. Do you really think the Nat Silverman’s of the world aren’t going to cry bullshit if say Ohio, Florida, Virgina, Michigan, Colorado, Pennsylvania all go from +7 Obama to +13 Romney over night?

    And so? You think Silverman outranks Roberts/Thomas/Scalia/Alito/Kennedy? Mind, I don’t think it’ll happen this time, but neither do I discount the possibility that the swing states “swing” to +0.001% Romney due to various fraudulent election practices.

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