I thought this Jonathan Bernstein piece had some interesting observations (via) about why the Romney campaign is so weak:
[…] But there’s a laziness to all of this too, which is also a function of how easily influenced Fox News and the rest of them are. In the old days, a campaign would come up with a theme or a line-of-the-day, and then would have to work really hard to insert it into the (neutral) media. Oh, you could do it, but it took message discipline and some real effort.But that’s not true with campaigns right now and the partisan press — and no question but that it’s far more developed on the Republican side, although it certainly exists on both sides. All Romney’s campaign has to do is pull out a sentence and call it a gaffe, and it instantly becomes one. It blows up on twitter, it goes straight to Fox News and most of the conservative radio shows…it’s all over the place. Indeed, if it’s in those places, it’s also going to be in Politico and Buzzfeed, too. So on the one hand, it must encourage laziness to know that all you have to do is come up with something vaguely appropriate to movement conservatives in order to get that effect; on the other hand, it must just feel as if you’re making something happen when you do it. And the more it hits the sort of things that the GOP-aligned media loves, the more you get the immediate effect. Really, for campaign operatives, it must be incredibly temping to do it.
I wrote about this hothouse phenomenon earlier, and this week’s events makes it even more apparent. The “I know I am but what are you” argument is weak sauce to start with, but thinking that a heavily edited 1998 video where Barack Obama discusses redistribution is some kind of a comeback to Romney’s devastating, recent 47% comments shows just how atrophied Romney’s campaign has become by relying on Fox News to amplify the nontroversy of the day. And the Friday tax dump of a letter from Romney’s accountants is something that Gretchen Carlson or Brian Kilmeade might want to wave around on Fox and Friends, but anybody whose skepticism isn’t powered by a check signed by Roger Ailes could see what a useless turd that document was. Yet these two things are how the Romney campaign “punched back” after one of the worst weeks for any campaign in recent memory. It’s just more evidence that campaigns grown and nurtured in the warm, fertile soil of the Fox Nation wilt and fall once they encounter the cold harsh world of a political press with more intellectual curiosity than Steve Doocy.
Just One More Canuck
My cat’s litter box has more intellectual curiosity than Steve Doocy
arguingwithsignposts
I wonder if someone could come up with a competition for the most creative way of saying “Both sides do it.”
aimai
From your computer to g-d’s ear.
aimai
danielx
This. As you note, the Romney campaign always functioned inside the Republican bubble during the primaries, as has Willard’s permanent campaign since 2006. They never really had to deal with serious, well-funded organized opposition. Dealing with reality – that is, reality outside the friendly confines of Fox News – doesn’t come naturally to them.
Mark S.
What was that term again, epistemological closure or something?
Gee
Agreed. But all they have to do is point to an outcome like the 2010 midterms and say “we are winning because of Fox News et al”. What is needed are devastating losses for like 4 election cycles before some sense can be knocked into them. Right now they wouldn’t know intellectual vigor even if it bit them in their ass.
MattF
Yes, there actually are people (voters!) who don’t regard WSJ editorials as revealed truth, who don’t watch FOX News, who don’t keep an eye on the Drudge feed. Romney’s campaign apparently believes that this group is a minority– 47 percent, to be precise– and that they can get 97 percent of the believers to vote R. It’s a fantasy, but when you’re plugged in, the high amperage running through your cerebral cortex makes you happy.
Soonergrunt
@ Mistermix, top:
You do realize, do you not, that you are describing a press corps that could theoretically be populated by potted plants?
dmsilev
It’s truly sad when your campaign can get worn down by the likes of Beard Blitzer.
Soonergrunt
@Mark S.: epistemic closure
mistermix
@arguingwithsignposts: I thought that was a fair statement. There are some echo chamber media outlets/sites on the left, but they’re in no way as well developed as the Fox ecosystem.
The problem with “both sides do it” is when the person saying it uses it as a justification for some piece of shitty behavior by one side, or when the press uses it as a reason to ignore what one side is saying. That’s not what’s going on in this piece.
dmsilev
@Soonergrunt: Have you seen CNN recently? You probably should consider replacing ‘could theoretically’ with ‘is’.
c u n d gulag
ZOMG – 1998!
The Obama campaign should have asked, “Hmm… Was that when Mitt Romney was still pro-choice and pro-gay, or after he flip-flopped on those issues, like so many others?”
RedKitten
Hence Anne-toinette Romney’s bitching and moaning about how HARD this all is, and why don’t those big meanies just leave Mittens alone and appreciate how lucky they are to have one of their betters who is actually willing to lower himself to rule them?
Seriously, I think the Romneys thought that this was going to be a shoo-in.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
This is just pure anti-Caucasian racism that conservatives are expected to present logical arguments and use facts.
The rich white man just can’t get a break anymore.
Michael Bersin
Political press with intellectual curiosity? That doesn’t exist. It’s part of the same mythical world along with cafeteria food or a responsible republican economic plan.
Ash Can
I’ll be interested to see how this morning’s gabfests treat Romney’s tax info, as well as Paul Ryan’s admission that he failed to report a fifth of his income for a couple of years — which, considering how deeply it got buried by the parsing of Romney’s tax returns, was likely the main revelation of the Friday doc dump. (Not interested enough to tune in myself, though; I have too much RL stuff to do.)
NonyNony
@mistermix:
Meh. There’s a fundamental difference in how the right-wing echo chamber works right now and the Democratic echo chamber works. We could go through all of the differences, but the most salient one is that Democratic politicians know that it’s primarily about pushing narrative and they don’t believe what they read/hear there unquestioningly. Republican politicians seem to actually believe what’s going on in their echo chamber is reality. And that leads to the hothouse effect.
(I intentionally call it a Democratic echo chamber and not a left-wing echo chamber for a reason. There’s no such thing as a left-wing echo chamber in 21st century US politics. Echo chambers rely on “echoing”, and in the US today if you’re on the left you’re more likely to argue with another person on the left than you are to echo them. The Democratic party can have an echo chamber, the best that the left-wing could ever do right now is a “noise machine”.)
PreservedKillick
@c u n d gulag:
They are holding back on this one for when (if?) Romney actually gets to specifics. Right now, the lack of specifics is absolutely killing Romney, but none appear to be forthcoming and there are a lot of good reasons for that, most notably that the specifics will be truly odious.
But if they appear, and if they gain him some traction, “Who is Mitt?” will appear, I am sure.
I mean, if you flip/flop on your stance on abortion, it’s a fair bet you can’t be trusted to hold a position on middle class taxes, yeah?
22over7
Speaking of laziness, an AP article in my Sunday newsrag quotes two-term Rep. Tom Rooney (R-FL) as saying, “I literally get on a plane with a baseball hat and hope to God nobody knows who I am, because they’re just going to yell at me.”
The article also says, “Members of Congress are counting on the voters, faced with a straightforward choice in the election, to decide a way forward.”
Sounds like many members of our august Congress would like to get into the witness protection program.
Xecky Gilchrist
the cold harsh world of a political press with more intellectual curiosity than Steve Doocy.
You don’t even need to go that far. This is the party that fielded a VP candidate who couldn’t answer “what newspapers do you read?”
Ash Can
@RedKitten: They’re both in so far over their heads — especially Ann — that it really is kind of pathetic.
Schlemizel
@Just One More Canuck:
but in fairness both are full of sand and shit
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@Michael Bersin:
More or less agreed. I see little investigation or analysis going on. Was there before? I’m not sure. What’s for certain is that teh Right has completed the vertical and horizontal integration of their media empire and it’s pretty dominant. They stay on message and the rest of the press gets distracted by the New Shiny before any reflection on the last event can take place.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Gee: unfortunately that won’t work. Here is Cal beyond Arnold the GOP has been out of power since the late 90s. All they do is hunker down as their 39% and play obstructionist.
StonyPillow
Part of this is the Harlem Globetrotters effect. Bob Shrum and a small cast of losers have been playing the Washington Generals to their Harlem Globetrotters for so long, the Republicans have lost their “A-game”. They’re so far gone, they still think they have their “A-game”.
The sure way to tell they’re back as real competitors — first they’ll crush the Tea Party. Probably won’t happen before they deny Obama a third term.
lamh35
WTF?? He saysthat Romney shouldn’t just continue to run on the last four years, because…
umm wasn’t that Romney’s whole rationale for running??? what the hell is he supposed to run in then???
I’m pessimistic by nature but I am really beginning to believe these GOP. run amuck stories
lamh35
WTF?? He saysthat Romney shouldn’t just continue to run on the last four years, because…
umm wasn’t that Romney’s whole rationale for running??? what the hell is he supposed to run in then???
I’m pessimistic by nature but I am really beginning to believe these GOP. run amuck stories
MikeBoyScout
mistermix, it is not only the laziness of Fked News but the MSM in general.
Dependence upon this laziness is a huge weak blind spot of those who would hoodwink us. It is up to us to take advantage of the blind spot with the terribly flawed candidacy of Slick Willard.
Gekko/Galt is the anvil
We are the HAMMER!
Hammer it home
Mark S.
Geez, I’m kind of glad we didn’t elect Walnuts president:
Well that’s pretty mavericky. But wait, McCain just swallowed his neocon pills:
I would think the worst possible course of action would be to stay in Afghanistan indefinitely. We’re never going to fucking “win” there. You’d think a veteran of the Vietnam War might appreciate that.
GregB
Bay Buchanan wants to try to skim “some of the cream off the top” of the 47%.
What a fucking horrible human.
MattF
@lamh35: Oh noes, this is the second time in a week that I’ve agreed with something Bill Kristol said. We need to start that countdown to the Mayan Apocalypse.
Jennifer
@Soonergrunt: episiotomy closure
lamh35
geez, what does WP have against the Ipad? it never lets me delete stuff>
Schlemizel
@GregB:
Oh, thats understandable. After all those lucky duckies making 30k a year to cover a family of 4 have plenty of cream to skim.
Gee
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Then God help us all
ChrisNYC
Watched part of Meet the Press. Kelly Ayotte’s explanation of why it’s a-ok for Romney to call 47% of his fellow citizens dirtbags was so weak that David freaking Gregory was forced to express flabbergastedness. “Are you really blaming the President for dividing the country when the Governor said that half of all Americans are victims who can’t be convinced to take personal responsibility?”
amk
bill effing kristol: Obama has turned around the financial meltdown ‘pretty well’
MikeJ
@StonyPillow: I’m fearful about ’16. I don’t know if the rest of the Democratic party has watched Obama and learned how to run a campaign. I just fear Mark Penn will be out there again.
Ash Can
@lamh35: Holy crap. Bill Kristol said what?? Move over, Peggy Noonan, looks like you’re going to have company on that ice floe.
Shalimar
@RedKitten:
Is Anne-tourette too obscure to make the french queen reference obvious? She does have a tendency to say inappropriate things.
dmsilev
@ChrisNYC: They’ve lost Dancing Dave? Truly, the end times are nigh.
Brookish
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
We need Texas tp turn purple or something. Anything to get them to come out of their obstructionist mode
Kerry Reid
This is also the result of a party that has given up any pretense in being interested in governing. As long as you’re doing what you think you need to do to win, who cares if you actually have any kind of plan for what you want to do once you’re elected other than MOAR WAR! MOAR TAX CUTS! END WELFARE! SAVE ZYGOTES! NO GEYZ OR WETBACKS ALLOWED!
Villago Delenda Est
Look, the entire press corpse reeled when Colbert mercilessly mocked them in 2006, particularly the utterly worthless sack of rancid shit that is Richard Cohen.
Villago Delenda Est. As we’ve learned, to include their families, to make sure it can never regenerate.
dmsilev
@Ash Can: And, in one of the less-appreciated benefits of global warming, that ice floe will soon melt and deposit the residents into the Arctic Ocean.
Chris Andersen
The right-wing noise machine increasingly reminds me of a junkie reacting to their next hit.
NonyNony
@amk:
First thing I’ve heard in a month that has me worried.
I hear Bill Kristol say that Obama has turned around the financial meltdown “pretty well” and suddenly I’m worried that in the next week or so we’ll be looking at a total collapse of the global economy.
Bill Kristol is never right. And that has me worried.
Kerry Reid
@amk: I know it’s just a typo, but I love that the article talks about “the Mitt Romney” in the way that I might say “the Barcalounger.”
MikeJ
@MattF: Don’t panic, Kristol didn’t say Obama had turned around the financial crisis. He said that he had turned around the perception. That’s why he followed with the sentence, “Bill Clinton’s speech at the convention was very important in that way.”
Clinton’s speech obviously had nothing to do with the recovery, but Kristol is arguing that Obama has managed to make the election about stuff other than the economy.
Ash Can
@Jennifer: I think of that every time I see that phrase too. Makes it seem all the more painful.
amk
@NonyNony: Right, the guy has got a reputation to maintain.
jwb
@amk: Shit, Bill Kristol is never wrong, so I’m wondering now in what respect his statement here is wrong.
ETA: Also what NonyNony said.
ChrisNYC
@dmsilev: He did try. He gave her a couple of chances to say something that made sense. And he did a moving bit about the “culture of dependency,” complete with graphs. “Listen Kelly, the dirtbags on foodstamps repulse me too, but what’s the Governor’s plan to ween them off?” That was the gist.
Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker
@ChrisNYC: the Governor said that half of all Americans are victims who can’t be convinced to take personal responsibility?”
Credit where it’s due, there’s been a tendency among the media, even the not-worst of them, to let this slip into “I’ll never convince that 47% to vote for me”. The difference between that and what Romney said, and what the Coiffe That Grovels cited here, is not small. I shall now think a good thought about David Gregory.
There. Done. I’m seeing references to a “speaker phone story” about RAHM! and Pelosi from Woodward’s new book is causing some gossip, but no links. Anybody know what that refers to?
BGinCHI
mistermix, if you’re reading comments, how was The Master?
Did Doug share his Junior Mints with you?
Soonergrunt
@Jennifer: Not going there.
Not gonna do it. Wouldn’t be prudent at this juncture.
J.D. Rhoades
@RedKitten:
They all did, right down the line. Since January, I’ve been hearing from the local wingers that it doesn’t matter who they run, that “Obamanation” is such an “abysmal failure” due to the economy that they’re just going to waltz in. Some of them are still saying that.
Just One More Canuck
@Schlemizel: Scully’s litterbox smells better
J.D. Rhoades
@amk:
Kristol? Oh, shit, we’re doomed.
jeremy
@MikeJ: I’m not worried about 2016 because Obama and his campaign strategists will be in the power position. President Obama will care about a Democrat carrying on his legacy so he will put in a lot of effort to make sure that a Democrat wins the Whitehouse again. Mark Penn has been discredited and I highly doubt he will get hired for any campaign in the near future especially since no one wants to deal with him now. Plouffe, Axelrod, and the rest of the team are the big time players in Washington right now. And with OFA anyone who wants the Democratic nomination will have to kiss the ring of President Obama and his political team. That is another reason why former President Clinton is getting cozier with President Obama.
Kathy in St. Louis
If this is, indeed, the way the game is played today, then I’d be pulling out the tapes from Romney’s run against Ted Kennedy where this guy says he’s more liberal than Ted Kennedy, where he goes on and on about a woman’s right to choose, etc. Was he lying then, or is he lying now?
I think that as progressives we always have the impulse to sit back and analyze why the other side is doing something. My new golden rule is, “Treat people and situations the way you see them treating people and situations.” The right has no such analytical periods, nor any qualms. If Obama had tapes with hugely conservatvie statements on them Karl would have ads playing day and night in Cal. and Mass.
Chris
@Gee:
Rather more than 4 cycles. It took ten cycles of Roosevelt and Truman before they finally calmed the fuck down enough to run Ike.
slag
Let’s not forget how this phenomenon influences the “honest” Republican sycophants, such as Brooks, Noonan, et al. It takes some extreme intellectual laziness to…let’s say…blame torture on liberals. Or to tell us all that we need to just keep on walking. But these sycophants have the benefit of not being Faux News or Limbaugh, so they must be intellectual!
I’m so old I can remember when Bill O’Reilly was the epicenter of crazy on Faux News. He’s practically their token liberal now.
Bill Murray
@NonyNony:
well the stock market is doing alright and corporate profits are very high. so for the people Kristol knows or cares about, pretty well does describe how things are going
Bill Murray
@Xecky Gilchrist:
didn’t she who must not be named answer “all of them”? sure she had no specifics and probably meant both the Wasilla Times and the Wasilla Weekly Shopper, but it was an answer
eclare
Great observation.
Montysano
My Facebook friends from back home in Indiana are rabid Obama haters. Their latest favorite meme is the “apology tour”. They recently posted a link to a list of Obama’s “Top Ten Apologies”…none of which contained the word “apology” or “sorry”, but rather were various examples of diplomacy (which is for sissies, amirite?).
Brachiator
Doesn’t quite make sense. McCain didn’t fall for the wingnut shit or rely on it to the degree that Romney has. Fox News kissed up to Romney, but it was clear that it was merely a marriage of convenience.
For reasons that no one has yet adequately explained, Romney keeps pitching to the wingnuts, but so desperately and stupidly that conservatives have to bend over backwards to simultaneously hide their disgust and pretend that he is making sense.
Romney has stubbornly refused to divulge anything about his personal taxes, including a lame attempt at misdirection by attacking his opponents on the same issue. He has done this when he was presenting himself as a conservative. He did it when he was presenting himself as a moderate.
He and his core staff have been using the same play book since he has been in politics. The stuff was always weak, and looks ridiculous on the national stage.
Romney has never been a particularly strong candidate, but he has always been an insecure overachiever. He got the nomination, but doesn’t have a clue what to do next other than throw money at the problem. His biggest problem is that he believes his own bullshit. He is also strangely stubborn about small things and too blind to his own weaknesses to change his strategy.
Conservative media will continue to prop him up, or cry about his inadequacy and increase their attacks on Obama.
The rest of the press corps will downplay most stories about Mitt’s incompetence because they want access for future stories.
And unless Romney can demonstrate that he can do something other than smile and say stupid shit at fundraisers, not even the most strenuous huffing and puffing from Fox News will save him.
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
@Bill Murray: Its a sign that Geithner really does have to go if Kristol is at all impressed. No argument there.
Hopefully Kristol will say something nice about Panetta. Compare him to Rumsfeld. Something that should push him out the door.
Hungry Joe
@Just One More Canuck:
I have a cat named Scully, and I’m going to have to disagree with you on this one.
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
@jeremy: I think Alexrod has already said this is his last campaign. There is a lot of money to be made starting his own crossroads democratic PAC. Sorry, but I think that’s how political careers work on all sides these days.
Todd
@Brachiator:
The CEO/financier skill set in a nutshell.
Why do these guys get so overpaid and revered in our society again?
Team Dem could do a lot worse than to tie his character flaws to the problems with economic inequality.
Downpuppy
One area where you’d think they’d have to at least do some basic arithmetic is tax policy. But noooooo.
Just throw out the big lie & a couple shibboleths & pretend.
scav
@Montysano: Tell them to apologize to their spouses by slapping them and to report back on progress.
trollhattan
@Brachiator:
In the future, everything I will need to remember about the WMR Failboat is encapsulated by Eric Fehrnstrom’s Etch-a-Sketch quip. I think they truly believed they could run waaaaay enough right to land the nom (the political equivalent of capturing the Special Olympics 50-yard dash crown) then casually reinvent and reintroduce themselves to an easily duped electorate.
What they failed to recognize/acknowledge was the requirement to remain nuts to keep the
orcsbase happy. Insert quip about wrestling with pigs whilst avoiding getting muddy, here.The incredible aloofness, pretensions of royalty and startling discomfort with anybody not a fellow millionaire are deliciously ironic bonuses. How do you get folks of the Ozarks to the polls in November when you’re no more identifiable to them than a commie, African Muslim?
quannlace
But even that is done in the laziest manner. The Romney campaign is like Pee-Wee Herman,”I know you are but what am I?”
It’s totally reactive. They don’t come up with something new or original. They just take something Obama says and twist it around as a kind of ‘attack.’
‘You didn’t build that.’
“Obama’s apologizing to the terrorists.”
“We’ll change Washington from the inside.’
It just comes across as both silly and desperate
Brachiator
@trollhattan:
The weird thing is that they didn’t even try to reinvent themselves. They were surprisingly comfortable with birthers and other deep wingnuts and figured that lies and obfuscations would be good enough for moderates and independents. Might have worked had not the mask slipped, revealing Romney’s contempt for most Americans.
I am record here very early on as suggesting that the GOP would neutralize themselves by picking Mittens. They spent years falsely portraying Obama as being an elite, aloof aristocrat who did not understand America. Then they chose Romney as their candidate, a man who is actually an elite, aloof aristocrat who does not understand America. The cognitive dissonance is both amazing and amusing.
TOP123
@PreservedKillick: Good comment, but I particularly want to complement you on your toasted cheese.
bemused senior
I posted this before in what turned out to be a dead thread, but the thing that struck me about the bonuses to the Rmoney campaign advisors was its congruence with corporate practices in general, to wit:
1) Set a goal that you can measure, not necessarily (or usually) the same as what you really want accomplished. 2) Discover that achieving the goal leaves you pointed in the wrong direction. 3) Reward the top dogs for getting to the goal anyway.
In this case, the goal was winning the primaries, instead of winning the primaries in a way that left the candidate in a posture to win the general. So the incentivized minions pushed the campaign so far right that even a better candidate than Romney couldn’t pivot toward the center.
bemused senior
I posted this before in what turned out to be a dead thread, but the thing that struck me about the bonuses to the Rmoney campaign advisors was its congruence with corporate practices in general, to wit:
1) Set a goal that you can measure, not necessarily (or usually) the same as what you really want accomplished. 2) Discover that achieving the goal leaves you pointed in the wrong direction. 3) Reward the top dogs for getting to the goal anyway.
In this case, the goal was winning the primaries, instead of winning the primaries in a way that left the candidate in a posture to win the general. So the incentivized minions pushed the campaign so far right that even a better candidate than Romney couldn’t pivot toward the center.
Bubblegum Tate
I’ve noted with some amusement that wingnut blogs are in the odd position of both being part of the GOP candidate hothouse (dutifully following Fox News’s lead) and being hothouses unto themselves. Erick, Son of Erick’s declaration that commenters citing fact checkers wil be banned is just the most recent example, but the wingnut blogs I look at are in a constant state of crackdown against any sort of dissension. Facts? GTFO. Different ideas? GTFO. Deviation from the Standard Wingnut Hymnal? GTFO. They ban anybody who contradicts them, and it’s impossible to see that as anything but depseration.
PreservedKillick
@bemused senior:
Indeed. But the practice in question smelled like a stay package to me. Those guys wanted to bolt and they got paid to stick around.
Downpuppy
@PreservedKillick: I see the bonuses more like athletic BS, where you keep giving the managers bigger votes of confidence up to the day you axe them. Last thing he wants is to look like a loser – self fulfilling, idnit?
gene108
Team Obama doesn’t leave a lot of openings to hit him with.
No personal scandals, no real scandals in his Administration and a very likeable President, who in a better economy would be getting ready to pull a Reagan-1984-style-ass-whooping on the Republicans.
Second, it doesn’t help the Republican Party has abandoned all pretense of not giving a damn about the non-.01%.
I know people, who’d qualify as the top 2% and truly wealthy do look at them like they are middle-middle-class and not upper-middle-class, because they have bills to pay, a mortgage to cover and are one lay-off and extended period of unemployment away from being really screwed.
Tonal Crow
Yes. Also Republicans have forgotten that propaganda is lies intended to deceive others into supporting Republicans, not truth that Republicans themselves should believe. They’ve entered a downward spiral of Kool-Aide intoxication.
Cacti
It’s not just the media hothouse. Mitt’s entire mortal experience has been a hothouse.
When he was born, his father was already a big swinging d*ck in the US auto industry when it was at its peak dominance. When he was a teenager, he was the son of the governor, and was apparently free to terrorize classmates with impunity.
As a leader in the Mormon church, his congregants were expected to follow his directions without question. And in his business career, he had all of the advantages available to the son of a retired CEO.
He’s never had to answer hard questions, deal with scrutiny, or ask anyone for anything. He comes off as an entitled prick because he is one.
RandyH
Where it gets really interesting is to watch Fox try to explain away why their own polling doesn’t at all match up with all of the Good News about how They’re Winning. Baghdad Bob redux.
catclub
@MikeJ: I really really hope that Obama stays very hands on in the party for the next twenty years or so.
Gore was a fool to run away from Clinton, but any democrat running away from Obama ( at least in his present status as smartest and most popular politician in the US) would be insane.
Another Halocene Human
@22over7:
Now that’s comedy.
Another Halocene Human
@Schlemizel: have plenty of cream
to skim-y skin.Fix’d.
Another Halocene Human
@jeremy: That is another reason why former President Clinton is getting cozier with President Obama.
Heaven help us. No–heaven forfend.
Another Halocene Human
@Bubblegum Tate: Sounds like the old Bro Jed board (right wing evangelical fundamentalist crazy) in the 1990s. The man was ban-happy but the trolls kept coming back for more…
Also, makes me reflect that I must have a sneaking respect for Breitbart. His followers are lost and ineffective without him. He was a master of the fine art of trolling AND parlayed that into wingnut welfare. Troll and get paid for it? Get out.
Another Halocene Human
@Downpuppy: What an idjit. Bill Gates put MS over the top in part by fostering a corporate culture of being constantly under siege, the underdog, fight like our jobs depend on it. (The other side of that was successfully selling directly to C-level executives who would then override their IT (and publishing) departments. It was utter genius and probably cost the US economy billions in lost productivity.)
RaflW
Late to the party again. But I think the GOP makes the huge mistake of thinking that the 1.8 million average weekly viewers of FOx (in an election year…) are representative of even half of the nation, much less most voters.
Sure they have high ratings, for a cable news network, but something like 298 million people don’t watch Fox on any given week. It’s insane to base a party on that demographic.
Hob
@Mark S.:
Well, of course “the worst possible course of action” is always an option one should leave on the table. If you don’t keep all your terrible ideas on the table at all times, where will you keep them? Probably in a kitchen drawer, and then they’ll get covered up by takeout menus or something and you’ll never find them, and you won’t be able to remember what you were planning to never, ever do.
Mike G
A bar set so low a turtle could walk over it.