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Let me file that under fuck it.

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Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / What a Novel Idea

What a Novel Idea

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I’m sure this is going to give Dan Senor and the idiots at the Weekly Standard an aneurysm, but tell me how this is the wrong position for the President of the United States to take:

Obama, interviewed for Sunday’s edition of “60 Minutes” on broadcaster CBS, said he understands and agrees with Netanyahu’s insistence that Iran not be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons as this would threaten both countries, the world in general, and kick off an arms race.

But Obama added: “When it comes to our national security decisions — any pressure that I feel is simply to do what’s right for the American people. And I am going to block out — any noise that’s out there.”

What a crazy position for an American President to take- to actually focus on American security concerns and American foreign policy goals. It’s almost like Obama understands we are not an Israeli client state.

Call me an anti-Semite, but I guess I just have no problem with my President looking out for US foreign policy goals. Crazy, that.

Reader Interactions

151Comments

  1. 1.

    Political Observer

    Wow, what a major gaffe by Obama. This week will be dominated by the fact that he called Israeli concerns over Iran and dead Americans in embassies “noise”.

    It’s all over Drudge already. We all know that’s just the first step into the media…

  3. 3.

    Gian

    but isreal needs to expand to it’s largest biblical borders for the rapture to come

    and dude, you really are up kinda late. it’s almost 10:00 in Cali

  7. 7.

    Political Observer

    @Mark S.:

    Pretty much. Notice all the Romney/Ryan and Super PAC ads during football today? Or during other shows, too?

    The Avalanche of Advertising starts this week! They’ve been holding back, but now it’s really going to open up. This is the week the Romney campaign reboots–and after three horrible weeks, they’re still essentially tied with Obambi.

  10. 10.

    The Dangerman

    I recall a week or 2 back when the media freaked over Obama saying he didn’t know if Egypt was an ally; within a few hours, the next day, the Egyptian Leader came to our aid in the unrest.

  11. 11.

    DPS

    By definition, “what’s right for the American people” is whatever a Likud Prime Minister says the U.S. should do. That is in the Constitution. Look it up. It’s somewhere there in the middle part. Also in that same part it says you have to meet with Likud PMs whenever they want, and also you have to be nice to them and tell them they look nice even if they kind of don’t.

  12. 12.

    Hill Dweller

    @Political Observer: The reboot was supposed to be last Monday, but Willard f’d that up.

    After his defense of paying a lower tax rate than a guy making $50,000/yr, I suspect the reboot will get scuttled again.

  15. 15.

    Political Observer

    @piratedan:

    I’m talking about the Gallup and Rasmussen tracking polls. Both show that his convention bounce has evaporated, no matter what PPP (Partisan Push Polls) and the NBC/Marxist surveys say.

  17. 17.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    No linky to troll, but no, I didn’t notice a single Romney or SuperPAC ad during the Ravens (w00t!!) game. And it was on WGAL out of Lancaster, too, so I reckon no one’s spending any ad money in Pennsylvania. Hmmm. Wonder why that is. Could it be … VICTORY!

  21. 21.

    Spaghetti Lee

    @Political Observer:

    Notice all the Romney/Ryan and Super PAC ads during football today? Or during other shows, too?

    No.

    I saw an Obama ad and a Jay Nixon ad in swing-state Missouri, if you’re keeping count.

  22. 22.

    Hill Dweller

    @Political Observer: Daily tracking polls? Really?

    The campaigns/parties have better pollsters than most of the media. Their behavior is a far more accurate barometer for the state of the race. Having watched the respective campaigns over the last month, who looks like they’re winning?

  23. 23.

    freelancer

    @Political Observer:

    The Avalanche of Advertising starts this week! They’ve been holding back, but now it’s really going to open up. This is the week the Romney campaign reboots—and after three horrible weeks, they’re still essentially tied with Obambi.

    Dude, ARIZONA became a tossup state last week. W to the fuck are they paying you to comment here?

  27. 27.

    Comrade Mary

    I see that someone’s tweaked the exclamation marks setting on PO. Well done! Shame there wasn’t an update on the content generator module.

  28. 28.

    ? Martin

    So our blog host has now gone from Republican to Democrat to Hitler doppelgänger wagering for a mushroom cloud over Tel Aviv.

  29. 29.

    GG

    @Cole: Isn’t. Bibi’s in srs trouble politically back home, and he’s shitt- shut up re US for once. Also too, I bet he likes Mittuns about as much as everyone else.

  30. 30.

    ChrisNYC

    Total game changer. AND another chance for Mitt to show off his foreign policy chops. Is it too late for one of his insane press conferences? Or maybe a press release attacking our Ambassador in Israel for being a coward?

  31. 31.

    Mark S.

    Obama has a lead in the last twenty polls = race essentially tied.

    But you were right, the Scranton to Oshkosh corridor is going to be big, especially since Obama is going to win all of those states.

  32. 32.

    KG

    @freelancer: I suspect Arizona is the next red state to turn blue, or at least purple. But I wasn’t expecting it to happen in this cycle. Then again, the Cardinals are 3-0, so anything is possible

  33. 33.

    LosGatosCA

    Nation’s don’t have allies, they only have interests.

    As soon as folks down at the Pentagon think they don’t need AIPAC as part of the MIC, they’ll be on their own.

    Don’t think the Israelis won’t sell us down the road if it suits their interests, See Suez crisis, USS Liberty, South African/Israeli nuclear technology discussions, etc.

  35. 35.

    Political Observer

    BTW check out this new ad from Romney. It has an interesting fact from the new Bob Woodward book that during the stimulus negotiations, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid putt Obambi on “mute” during their meeting.

    It’s utterly devastating.

  38. 38.

    Dr. Squid

    @Political Observer:

    check out this new ad from Romney. It has an interesting fact fSLAP!

    Romney doesn’t do facts. He just bitches about how the President makes him fundraise more.

    What happened to your endless buckets of money, boy?

  39. 39.

    LosGatosCA

    @Political Observer:

    Here’s the game with Rasmussen, he’s the (bad) Roger Ailes of polling, trying to influence the elections in favor of Republicans but he still wants to be considered a card carrying professional pollster.

    So, he tilts everything Republican during the cycle and then at the end he goes back to professional polling so his last few polls on record do not show systematic bias – but all the other polls in the cycle do.

    That way he claims not to be biased when he clearly is.

  44. 44.

    Dr. Squid

    @Political Observer: Since when, Slappy? Since they fucked up the last election?

    For the 2008 U.S. presidential election, Gallup was rated 17th out of 23 polling organizations in terms of the precision of its pre-election polls relative to the final results.

    Deep in the bottom 10? Good enough for private equity work.

  45. 45.

    Hill Dweller

    @Political Observer:

    It’s utterly devastating.

    You said the same thing about the “redistribution” attack, which just earned Willard more scorn.

    Regardless of Willard’s attacks, Obama can go to the “47%” well every day until the election. Willard called the elderly, working poor, soldiers and disabled people irresponsible, entitled “victims”. How do you think that plays outside the wingnut bubble?

    Your man is having to “reboot” his campaign six weeks out from the election. What message do you think that sends to the voters? Competence?

  47. 47.

    jwb

    @Comrade Mary: Seriously, I’m convinced there is automated trollbot software out there. I’m seeing the same trolling style way too often for it to be the work of just one guy. But they all sound just like PO.

  50. 50.

    eemom

    Call me an anti-Semite

    You know, you could have made the point without reiterating that tired old assholic trope.

  51. 51.

    Yutsano

    @Mnemosyne: Bob Woodward broke Watergate. Since then I’m pretty sure he has done pretty much jack and squat. Well he did write a tell-all a few years back but no one bought it.

  52. 52.

    Carolinus

    @Political Observer:

    The very next words that came out of his mouth were:

    “Now I feel an obligation – not pressure but obligation – to make sure that we’re in close consultation with the Israelis on these issues because it affects them deeply. They’re one of our closest allies in the region and we’ve got an Iranian regime that has said horrible things that directly threaten Israel’s existence.”

    Good luck with your RW spinning though.

  56. 56.

    dogwood

    Interesting choice of words by the president. I think he’s baiting Romney now. Foreign policy is serious business and Romney doesn’t know jack shit. In that leaked video, the real scary stuff is his cartoonish attempt at talking about dirty bombs. He had know idea what he was talking about. One of the things that has always amazed me in elections is the way we judge people’s foreign policy “experience”. Unless you’ve served at Foggy Bottom or in some part of the national security apparatus, you don’t have much real experience. What I have always used as a measure is foreign policy “interest.” Has the candidate been actively interested in foreign policy issues? Does he/she have a sophisticated view of the world? What does the candidate’s foreign policy team look like? What amazes me about Republicans is their willingness to turn over national security to politicians who have no interest in it. Remember, Sarah Palin just needed to study up a bit and she’d do fine. Bullshit. Nobody should be president who hasn’t been interested in issues of public and foreign policy for most of their lives. It’s not a job for retired prom queens or hedge fund managers who would like to live in the White House, fly around on AF1 and fuck up the tax code.

  57. 57.

    Spaghetti Lee

    @Mark S.:

    Oshkosh-Scranton corridor! Boy, that takes me back. I actually love threads like that one. It’s like looking back at the stupid way you dressed in high school. People were seriously freaking out about Obama losing Pennsylvania and Ohio because of that? How many points is he up in those states now?

  60. 60.

    ChrisNYC

    The thing about Reagan should be a rotating tag line come November 7. Cannot TELL you how many times I’ve read that on wingie sites since, well, since the last time Mitt was winning, which was NEVER.

  63. 63.

    Mnemosyne

    @Yutsano:

    I mostly remember Woodward from this movie, where he is played to perfection by Will Ferrell (the role of Bernstein is essayed by Bruce McCulloch).

    “You smell like cabbage!”

  67. 67.

    Comrade Mary

    @Calouste: And now you know … THE REST OF THE STORY!

    (And is it just me, or was the In Memoriam section of tonight’s Emmys way too full of people from my youth and adulthood?)

    (Also, too, this just killed.)

  69. 69.

    Matt B

    @Political Observer:
    In the Gallup tracking poll. Which maybe suggests that you shouldn’t put too much stock in the Gallup tracking poll.

    Don’t stop believing, though! It brightens my day every time I read that Mittens shares your delusions, and that he sees nothing wrong with how his campaign is going.

    By the way, how much money do you have on Romney at Intrade? Seems like someone with your degree of confidence ought to be seeing a pretty amazing opportunity in the markets.

  75. 75.

    Or something like that.Suffern Ace

    @The prophet Nostradumbass: Well what else are we supposed to do on this thread. Attack Cole for stating that us interests are what we want the president to look after? We’re fairly moderate democrats here, although often fairly obnoxious. We’re not the types to say, god damnit. Fuck American interests. We want to be ruled by Indonsians!

  76. 76.

    Mnemosyne

    @The prophet Nostradumbass:

    Like anyone here is going to argue with John’s point that the president of the US should put the interests of the US ahead of those of any other country?

    We’re a cranky bunch, so we’ve got to get an argument going in the thread somewhere.

  77. 77.

    Mnemosyne

    @jwb:

    I was hoping for a clip with more lead-up, but there didn’t seem to be one. Unfortunate, because it works better when you see Warren trying to talk his way free, only to get those two words in reply.

  78. 78.

    FormerSwingVoter

    I’ll bet the troll is wrong! Likely on basic facts!

    …

    So, like, where do I collect my prize?

  80. 80.

    GregB

    The outrage meter over the “one of the closest allies” will fly off the machine.

    Israel is mandated by God to be our bestest and mostest closest ally until the Apocalypse.

    How DARE President Obama imply there are other allies in the region!

  81. 81.

    Mnemosyne

    @FormerSwingVoter:

    Dude, if you can’t be bothered to so much as reference an obscure comedy featuring Dave Foley as Bob Haldeman, don’t even try.

    ETA: Personally, I’m just killing time until G gets done in the bathroom and I can neti pot today’s pollen load out of my nose. Not sure what your purpose here is.

  86. 86.

    Sarah, Proud and Tall

    @Political Observer:

    It has an interesting fact from the new Bob Woodward book that during the stimulus negotiations, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid putt Obambi on “mute” during their meeting.

    You don’t participate in many telephone conferences do you?

    ETA: other than those of the “hello honey, what’s your name? Oh you came already? That’s ok honey, speak to you again soon” variety.

  87. 87.

    Jebediah

    @Alison:
    For me, I get to see what some of the current RWNJ talking points are without having to actually talk to one of those useless skinbags.

  89. 89.

    Or something like that.Suffern Ace

    @GregB: I figure that’s the quote that would get everyone hopping. Look Israel has been very loyal to the us over the years. But most of our allies manage to not insult our intelligence by pretending that the have this one little bitty favor to ask.

  91. 91.

    kay

    “If Governor Romney is suggesting we should start another war, he should say so”

    I think we’re going to be hearing that line again, in the debates, at least I hope we do. There’s no public support for more war(s)

    I wonder what Dan Senor’s response will be.

  92. 92.

    Mnemosyne

    @Sarah, Proud and Tall:

    You’d almost think that Pelosi and Reid are actually in a different, co-equal branch of the government from the president and needed to discuss a few negotiating points in private.

    Nah, couldn’t be, amirite?

  93. 93.

    Calouste

    @Sarah, Proud and Tall:

    It also seems like a lot of people don’t understand how teleconferences work. “Mute” is usually used in reference to muting yourself so that you don’t accidentally interrupt the main speaker or the main discussion that is going on. Woodward is probably too old to understand all that new technology.

  94. 94.

    Yutsano

    @Sarah, Proud and Tall: Now now dear. Expecting our resident trolls to do anything but hang out in Mom’s basement and engorge themselves on Cheetos is asking a lot. We shouldn’t tax the per thang.

    @kay:

    I wonder what Dan Senor’s response will be.

    Is it too much to hope for spontaneous combustion?

  95. 95.

    danielx

    @kay:

    Likely something like this:

    Why yes. Yes, the Governor is suggesting that we should leap into another war, and I for one believe it can’t happen soon enough. War is the force that gives our lives meaning. All right thinking Americans support our government’s wars, particularly if they’re Republicans and most especially if they own shares in Northrop-Grumman, Lockheed or General Dynamics.

  97. 97.

    kay

    @Yutsano:

    Romney, in response to a question on whether it is “fair” that he pays a lower tax rate than someone who makes 50k says “that’s the right way to grow the economy”

    Weeks of debate prep, and that’s his answer.

    In response to a question on the uninsured?

    The emergency room.

    I’m not making this up. I don’t think debate prep is sticking.

  98. 98.

    Cacti

    It’s funny to see the right wing noise machine in panic mode. I’m guessing this latest non-troversy is to cover up Mitt stepping on a rake again…

    Saying that him paying lower taxes someone who makes $50,000 per year is “the right way to encourage growth”.

  99. 99.

    Yutsano

    @kay: He got reamed by the teatards for his recent heresies. He needs to shore them up again. But he’s listening to the wrong advisors. We are not all tea folk.

  100. 100.

    Jewish Steel

    @kay: But Robert Portman does the best Obama impression!

    Am I the only one who suspects he does it in blackface?

  101. 101.

    kay

    @Or something like that.Suffern Ace:

    It’s a great debate line. I would bet my house that there is no public support, zero, for another ME war. Obama knows that, even if Dan Senor doesn’t.

    Conservatives don’t listen to anything Obama actually says, so I think he can use it again.

  102. 102.

    Rita R.

    @Hueso:

    Yeah, “Pelosi muting Obama” being a bombshell is the one that pretty much sold me on it being DougJ as well. Although it’s almost too obvious. Maybe it’s a double twisting back maneuver — since he’s usually better, you think it can’t be him, but then you decide it’s so meant to be bad that it’s great, so yes, it’s him! Or maybe he’s just tired this late.

  103. 103.

    ChrisNYC

    OT — So guess whose fault it is that Mitt Romney has so few campaign events? Obama’s.

    Romney, who has come under fire from Republicans for not holding enough public events, told reporters that it was Obama’s decision to not use federal funds in 2008 that is forcing the Republican to spend more time behind closed-doors fundraising instead of out greeting voters.

    Romney held no public events on Saturday, instead fundraising in California. He had one rally on Sunday in a Denver, Col. suburb. His campaign is launching an Ohio bus tour on Monday with vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan. Romney won’t join the bus tour until Tuesday.

    “I’d far rather be spending my time out in the key swing states campaigning, door-to-door if necessary, but in rallies and various meetings, but fundraising is a part of politics when you’re opponent decides not to live by the federal spending limits,” Romney said without being asked about his campaign schedule.

    From Politico.

    Someone has forgotten about PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. Obama’s gonna have fun with that.

  104. 104.

    RandyH

    He called all those annoying skreeching sounds Netanyahu and the neocons have been making lately exactly what they are: “noise” and he did it in such a cool, casual way. Just brushed it off his shoulders. Loved it.

  106. 106.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Or something like that.Suffern Ace:

    PO is one of the masters of doublethink, of erasing a past that isn’t ideologically convenient and substituting a fantasy that better meets the assumed needs of the moment.

    Never mind that reality is Reagan was ahead, shitstain repeats his lies, like those of his foul, criminal master, hoping that they will stick.

    He’s operating under a very shitty assumption…that anyone here is as gullible as the teatards, who are natural serfs.

  107. 107.

    jonas

    73% of the country has Obama’s back on this one. I really, really hope he nails the point home in the debates and ads around the clock: Romney’s first foreign policy goal is war with Iran. Number two is piss off China and Russia all the time because he thinks its 1982. But if you like more Americans in body bags and $10 a gallon gas, by all means, vote for Mitt.

  109. 109.

    kay

    @Cacti:

    I agree. It’s a terrible answer to the tax question, which is an inevitable question, and one he’ll get again.
    I think the emergency room answer to the uninsured is bad, too.

  110. 110.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Cacti:

    It’s funny to see the right wing noise machine in panic mode. I’m guessing this latest non-troversy is to cover up Mitt stepping on a rake again…

    The Sideshow Bob of Presidential politics, Mittens is.

  111. 111.

    Or something like that.Suffern Ace

    @ChrisNYC: I actually imagine him waiting until the end of the event and counting the money himself.

    “I’d come to Ohio, but there’s no money in Youngstown that’s worth my while to collect. I’d send Ryan to collect it, but he’s not really all that good with money and not really all that trustworthy when you get right down to it.”

  112. 112.

    patroclus

    At the Kos convention in Austin a few years back, I spoke with John Dean about the movie “Dick” which some have been discussing. He thought it was hilarious and that they had “really done a number” on everyone involved in the whole Watergate scandal and he was exceedingly proud that he got a “credit” on the film. I also asked him whether his reaction was the same as the “John Dean” in the film when the dog-walking girls told him all about Nixon’s perfidies, and he said “No, but it should have been.”

    He also thought that Madonna’s “Blonde Ambition” album and tour was curiously similar to his “Blind Ambition” book.

  113. 113.

    ? Martin

    @kay: This is the favor our shitty media is handing Obama. By not challenging these assertions by Mitt, they’re teeing up the ball for Obama to do it himself in the debates. And they’re soooooo easy to attack.

  114. 114.

    kay

    @Jewish Steel:

    I think the “imaginary Obama” effect is going to be in play in the debates, where conservatives are debating an “Obama” they invented.

    It doesn’t matter really. Romney can debate the imaginary Obama, and the actual Obama can use the time to speak to the audience.

  115. 115.

    patrick II

    While it is true that Romney is every bit as bad a candidate as we say in comment threads for the last week, his underlying problem is that Republican policy sucks. And, while he believes the economic part and is honestly selling lower taxes on the rich people will not buy it after the experience of the Bush administration. Selling the position of the republican party on planned parenthood and women’s health is absurd. Carrying the republican anti-immigraton policy on his back while trying to get hispanics to vote for him is incoherent. Mitt makes no sense because the republican party makes no sense. Mitt seems uncomfortable talking because it is tough to lie and justify the republican party platform. He is a bad candidate but made to seem worse by bad policy.

  116. 116.

    Pseudonym

    @The Dangerman: Well, that comment surprised the hell out of me too, but my first reaction was to think that the Obama admin had an intentional diplomatic strategy in mind. One of the critical flaws of Republican foreign policy and diplomacy is that it all looks to be targeted for domestic political ends and not actual foreign relations.

  118. 118.

    kay

    @? Martin:

    I’m genuinely surprised they haven’t come up with a better answer for the uninsured than “the emergency room”

    When did Bush say that? 2005? I think Democrats ran against that in 2006.

    It’s a worse answer now of course, because Romney’s telling people he’ll take coverage AWAY from the uninsured. They’re going BACK to the emergency room.

  119. 119.

    Pseudonym

    @Political Observer: I am utterly flabbergasted and scandalized that Obama was acting as a head of one of the three branches of the federal government and the joint heads of another of those branches of government, the one given primacy in the actual Constitution, had their own concerns to discuss. Yawn. Your entire campaign of aspersions—leading from behind, apology tour, sympathizing with enemies, etc.—not only lacks association with reality but directly contradicts your alternate strategy of Obama the tyrannical dictator (with his czars) who has no regard for constitutional restrictions.

  120. 120.

    kay

    @Jewish Steel:

    Romney is coming to Toledo on Wednesday. I wanted to go because I have heard he’s having trouble filling seats. He’s coming to the same venue where Bush had an event in 2004, and I happened to see Bush’s crowd because I was in the juvenile court, which is right around the corner from the venue. I wanted to compare.

    But, Obama is having a GOTV event that same day one county over at a college, so I committed to going to that.

  121. 121.

    Pseudonym

    @dogwood: I’ve been accused on occasion of having a foggy bottom myself, but I suspect that doesn’t count much for foreign policy experience.

  122. 122.

    Pseudonym

    @Mnemosyne: I wouldn’t mind someone getting Jennifer Rubin, e.g., or Jeffrey Goldberg, or John Bolton, to speak up about where their sympathies would lie should a diplomatic or even military crisis erupt between an Obama-led US and a Bibi-led Israel. Does that make me an anti-Semite?

  123. 123.

    Pseudonym

    @Pseudonym: Or to imagine what their reactions might be if Obama flew over to Israel and went on TV hinting at supporting Labor or Kadima candidates and insinuating that there might be consequences if those candidates didn’t win?

  124. 124.

    PeakVT

    @patrick II: Both Rmoney and Repuke policies are bad (synergy!), but a good candidate could sell America on bad policies (again) at this point in time. I don’t think the converse – Rmoney would win with non-insane but still conservative policies – is true. (Then again, if the Repukes were not insane, they would have worked with Democrats in 2009-2010, the economy would now be growing strongly, and Rmoney would be getting absolutely crushed in the polls.)

  126. 126.

    El Cid

    They’re essentially tied in the polls. Also, elections these days mostly end in ties, because they’re all “essentially” ties, which is why we always have two Presidents, one from each party, because the candidates end up with essentially the same number of votes.

  128. 128.

    Joey Maloney

    @Or something like that.Suffern Ace:

    I actually imagine him waiting until the end of the event and counting the money himself.

    Like Chuck Berry’s whiter, stupider brother. (Chuck counted the money before the event, and wouldn’t go on stage if everything wasn’t in order.)

  131. 131.

    amk

    @ChrisNYC:

    Obama seems to be doing the triple juggling act rather well – fucking running the fucking country, fucking doing the fucking fund raisers and fucking holding the fucking campaign events.

  132. 132.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Villago Delenda Est:
    I think the goal of these trolls actually IS to hijack threads, because making them look like idiots is still better for conservatives than lengthy discussions of Obama’s virtues. They usually show up when the topic is ‘Yes, Obama’s doing the right thing.’

  136. 136.

    J.D. Rhoades

    Remember when the wingnut position was “we should never consult with our allies about anything, ever, and if they don’t like what we do we should make fun of their food”? Now it seems to be “We need to be Netanyahu’s bitch or Obama hates Israel.”

  137. 137.

    J.D. Rhoades

    How many US servicemen do you want to see dead or crippled to protect Israel—who is not our friend, and only nominally our ally?

    I think the money quote from last night is, “if Governor Romney wants to start another war, he should come out and say it.” I want to hear that repeated from now till election day. I want Obama to put it to Romney in the debate: “do you want to start another war, Governor, yes or no?”

  138. 138.

    Kirbster

    The political ads will quickly reach the point of diminishing returns. American voters may not be too bright, but they do know where the “mute” and “change channel” buttons are on the remote control.

    And the only polls that count are the ones on November 6th.

  139. 139.

    arguingwithsignposts

    Oh my god, he’s back. Romney’s campaign must have put a new deposit in his paypal account!

  140. 140.

    LanceThruster

    @Cacti:

    Re: Stepping on the rake again.

    That reminds me, I haven’t seen a graphic with Mittens as Sideshow Bob.

    Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

  141. 141.

    debbie

    If anything is devastating, it was Romney’s remark that there was no need to reboot his campaign because it was he, not the campaign, who made the 47% remark.

    Error, admitted. As the stern sinks below the waves…

  143. 143.

    BobS

    @eemom: That tired old assholic trope only exists because of the tired old assholic tropes of assholic twats like Dershowitz and his ilk.

  146. 146.

    Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God

    @Calouste:

    It also seems like a lot of people don’t understand how teleconferences work. “Mute” is usually used in reference to muting yourself so that you don’t accidentally interrupt the main speaker or the main discussion that is going on.

    It’s also the usual way for two or more parties in the same room to make sure they’re all on the same page before speaking to the important person on the other end of the line.

  147. 147.

    LD50

    @Political Observer: I know you’re just being a dickhead and don’t even really believe anything you’re saying here, but with Rasmussen included, Obama currently leads the electoral college 328 to 206, basically the same numbers as we’ve had for months now.

  149. 149.

    KXB

    Most lobbying groups succeed in their efforts because the benefits of group efforts far outweigh the costs. OTOH, people who may be opposed to the actions of the group may not be motivated enough to organize in opposition. So, AIPAC benefited because Israel enjoys a general feeling of “they are one of us” among Americans. But, when AIPAC starts lobbying for America to go to war, after having been at war for 11 years, then voters will start to think, “Maybe what they want is not what is best for us.” Obama understands this.

  150. 150.

    Another Halocene Human

    @dogwood: That’s an insult to prom queens. The former Miss Delaware won the first US Masterchef and she showed real GAATSU (guts), drive, and determination.

  151. 151.

    Pococurante

    @Pseudonym:

    I wouldn’t mind someone getting Jennifer Rubin, e.g., or Jeffrey Goldberg, or John Bolton, to speak up about where their sympathies would lie…

    Well there is what Goldberg said just today:

    What’s illegitimate, and let me just put this as bluntly as I can, I’ve been watching the relationship between the U.S. and Israel for 20 years, more than 20 years, very seriously. And I’ve never seen an Israeli prime minister mismanage the relationship with the United States, with the administration, the way this prime minister has. Obama’s not blameless. The first year, the peace process was a disaster. But, you know, one person here is the senior partner, and one is the junior partner. And Netanyahu’s turned this into a story about himself and Obama.

    Goldberg has been hypercritical of Netanyahu for many months now.

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