(Mike Luckovitch via GoComics.com)
__
James Fallows at the Atlantic asks an expert: “Can the Romney campaign Be Saved?“:
Through this election season we’ve heard from Samuel Popkin, of UC San Diego, a political scientist and author of a recent book on how presidents position themselves for election and re-election runs…
Popkin’s book pays close attention to Harry Truman’s come-from-behind victory in 1948, as I described in an article earlier this year (now expanded in e-book form). The natural question is, How do the come-from-behind prospects look for Mitt Romney?
Every mistake a candidate can make, Romney seems to have made, and the frequency of mis-steps and “off-message” distractions seems to be going up. He’s never been ahead of Obama, and members of his own party seem variously to be despairing, calling for radical changes in course, or assuming failure and positioning themselves for 2016. Meanwhile Democrats are afraid of jinxing things by pointing out Romney’s continued struggles as the clock ticks down — and also genuinely worried about vote-suppression efforts.
What can Romney do?…
SPOILER ALERT:
“Barring economic collapse, Romney’s only shot is to get people to reassess him.
Prompting reassessment at this late date means finding new information that surprises people and makes them wonder if the case against Romney is badly flawed. This requires more than a kinder, gentler Romney or a stronger, tougher Romney that out debates the president. Either people rethink what policies and people he stands for or the election depends solely on who is motivated – and allowed – to vote.”
Luckily for Ann, not to mention Rafalca, R-money will still have his considerable fortune to console him. A fortune, according to Josh Harkinson at Mother Jones, “worth up to $378.3 million, some 50 percent more than the upper bound that typically gets reported” — once assets like the houses, cars, boats, a $10 million private charity, and the $100 million family trust fund are included.
Now it’s up to us, to ensure that every Obama voter gets to the polls, and that every Democratic vote is counted…
lamh35
Wow so Akin decided to stay in. How soon before Rove et al money comes in to help Akin and keep the Senate?
Dems Release The Hounds As Deadline For Akin To Drop Out Expires
AA+ Bonds
The Brooks column cited there is plenty wack even for Brooks: his argument is that Americans no longer respect bold entrepreneurs, defined solely as Wall Street jackasses who create financial swindles and collect fees on them
I mean Lord knows we now have a bright shiny CDO in every house that we use to cook chicken, thanks Entrepreneurs
AA+ Bonds
See you thought you didn’t have a jetpack but you did have one this whole time and it’s called a credit default swap and a second-string lax player from Wharton is hanging onto it but don’t worry, you are located directly beneath the jets and will benefit from it in due time, sort of a super-fast super-heated trickle down
cathyx
$378 million? I’d be happy with $1 million.
Maude
Experts make me break out in hives. It’s plain to see that Romney is not wowing the American people.
dmsilev
@lamh35: Well, according to TPM, the state GOP is at least making supporting noises. I assume Rove and company will dive in sooner rather than later; with enough nasty ads, they might be able to pull Akin over the finish line, and it’s probably worth their while to try.
Besides, if the SuperPACs have given up on Romney, there will be plenty of that Unlimited Corporate Cash ™ which will need spending.
LanceThruster
Great Glob of Kolob, I certainly hope not!
BGinCHI
If Romney loses the election, I expect he’s going to run ads after where he just looks into the camera and says:
I’m rich, bitches!
/in a poor imitation of Dave Chappelle
TenguPhule
And every diebold machine inspected, with a death penalty for tampering.
jl
@AA+ Bonds:
You got me to read that Brooks article, and I think my brain is damaged.
Brooks at his GOP hack worst, smarmily prettying up the Lyin’ Ayin Ryan vision of the world, and trying to make it acceptable to the public, so they will swallow Mitt’s mystery meat agenda.
It is interesting how this amazing innovative and apparently personally abusive genius Brooks talks about is launching his transformative projects off of stuff that would not exist if the government had not basically developed it itself. Space travel, internet, was not done by encouraging private enterprise to do it. Are all of the real inventors of the internet assholes? Did they all make piles of money off of it? I imagine a wide selection of personality types were involved.
But no oodles of quick major bank, which attracts a certain type of person.
Brooks writing disinformation and poisonous praise of jerks for dishonest ends. Well, at least Brooks tried a few times to write another kind of column, but those took work I guess, and it looks like Brooks is going full on vicious hack, all the time.
piratedan
@lamh35: DKos had the new ad that was released after the deadline passed, it’s in the diary…
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/25/1136357/-Claire-McCaskill-unloads-a-WORLD-OF-HURT-on-Todd-Akin
trollhattan
@BGinCHI:
But first, Tagg has to wear the ceremonial plaid jumper.
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/120106054623-santorum-senate-defeat-c1-main.jpg
Only then, can the giant box o’ riches be opened for all the little Willards to enjoy.
Yutsano
@lamh35: They may not have it. They have many more targets to defend besides Missourah. Akin may just end up wolf food since they’re losing North Dakota and Wisconsin as we type.
jl
And no, unless something major happens (cross your fingers and knock on wood it don’t) Romney will lose, and the Spoiler is nonsense.
Yeah, once some time ago Romney had some decent instincts. He did come up with Obomneycare. I have no idea whether any of those decent instincts are left, but if they are and he shows them, the wingnuts will not turn out and he will be toast.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
ABC is leading off with the same “How can Romney turn it around” story. Even played part of OFA’s 47% ad.
Redshift
My dad passed me the George Will column about Romney last week, because for some unaccountable reason he still finds Will insightful. (I stopped reading George Will when I was about nineteen, because I latched onto the fact that nearly every column contains a glaring logical error that undermines his entire argument.)
The short version of Will’s advice is that Romney has to convince voters that it’s a choice between his claims about Republican policy and the Republican caricature of what Democrats believe (y’know, dependency and all that.) If he can do that, he’ll win! (Of course, Will pretends it’s the truth, not a caricature, but still.)
Gosh, what a bold insight! Why haven’t they tried that?
trollhattan
@Redshift:
Here’s hoping dad hasn’t adopted Will’s dungaree position. Could make for some uncomfortable family events, provided you don’t already wear business attire.
22over7
@jl: Yeah, that’s the thing. If Romney shows a kindler, gentler side, the base will scream that he’s turned homo. If he shows a stronger side, I’m guessing he’ll sound like Allen West with his angel of death shaped like the American eagle.
This also assumes that he’ll be coherent, on point, and not too nasty. Doesn’t sound likely.
jl
@jl: And too many people understand the realities of life to go for the Lyin’ Ayn Ryan story tales of life, if they are clearly presented for what they are. So going mas macho will not work either with enough people who have lived through a major economic downturn and suffered the consequences. One of which is that things are effing out your control, and you gotta gut it out and maybe die trying. And maybe social insurance can be a good thing to make people’s lives better AND increase economic initiative, not destroy it.
@22over7: yeah, obviously from what I just typed, I agree with you that Mitt cannot go more brutal either.
dmsilev
Death Panel says no, pull the plug.
TenguPhule
“Sir, it is an Ex-campaign, its moved on, kicked the bucket, had its last Hurrah. It wouldn’t Voom if you stuck 2 million volts up its bottom.”
lamh35
@politicoroger
His daughter is 10. MT @markknoller Ryan said he bought daughter a Remington 700 .243 junior rifle last Xmas and “she’s been practicing.”
Roger Moore
@trollhattan:
And here’s hoping as few people as possible adopt his position on the Designated Hitter. George Will manages to sound like a pretentious douchebag even when he’s talking about sports.
lamh35
Romney Says Obama Did Not Raise Taxes ‘In His First Four Years’
It’s enough to see the expression of Paul Ryan’s face in the video.
Redshift
@jl: Well, according to Romney’s space policy paper released last week, the mission of NASA should be national security and creating technologies that can be rapidly commercialized.
Which I guess is what you get when you start with the idea that government should do nothing but the military and making things good for business and work backwards.
Conservative backwards logic can lead you to some really stupid places.
Patricia Kayden
“Either people rethink what policies and people he stands for or the election depends solely on who is motivated – and allowed – to vote.”
And exactly what policies are those? All we know about Romneybot is that he will lower taxes for himself and his rich buddies and repeal the Health Care Law.
He has to get at least 60% of the White vote. I guess he’s going to have to put out more dog whistles to get them. I don’t see any other path for his victory.
Redshift
@TenguPhule:
I think we really need to test that to be sure…
Jay C
That Mike Luckovitch cartoon at top really could use a sub-caption:
“…Or at least open a window!!!”
pluege
look for bus loads of koch thugs mobbing democratic leaning district polling places in swing states to intimidate democratic voters into not voting.
jackmac
The Republicans already tried economic collapse. And reassessment? Ain’t gonna happen.
KG
Of course Romney’s campaign is toast. He’s losing most, if not all, of the battleground/swing states. He’s running worse than McCain in some red states. He’s been running a terrible campaign that lacks focus or clear policy positions and might be the most undisciplined presidential general election campaign by any major party candidate in living memory.
I’m reminded of something Pat Caddel said in 2000 – I don’t know why, but this one thing has always stuck with me. As the shitshow was just getting going in Florida, he looked at the big map and said something along the lines, “look, Gore didn’t win his home state, if you can’t convince the people who know you best that you should be president, you probably don’t deserve to win” (he also pointed out that had Gore carried Tennessee or Arkansas, where Clinton wouldn’t have been a drag on the campaign, Florida would have been a historical footnote). Romney can’t win Michigan or Massachusetts – the two states that should know him best. That tells me most everything I need to know about this election.
jl
When people talk that all genius and innovators have to be egotistical assholes, the first person I think of as a counter example is Lenhard Euler.
But then, WTF did he really conribute? How often do we use the stuff he did today? And if he was so smart why wasn’t he rich?
He said he got his best ideas padding around the house in his slippers burping one of the many babies.
Well, they were probably feminized ideas of little worth.
Gauss in between. But attached enough to his first wife he almost lost it when she died, and seems to have encouraged his kids to emigrate to US where he thought they would have a better life. But kind of an Ahole in discouraging them going into math since he wanted to preserve the name Gauss for greatness in the field. (Yuck!). And not the most supportive professionally to colleagues.
I am sure there are many other examples of people who contributed more to our great comfort and prosperity now, than the jerk Brooks praises will ever even dream of. But those two come to mind right off the bat.
Edit: Deming, too, more recent example. Need to represent applied stats!
Enhanced Mooching Techniques
@lamh35: Romney seems to make a sport of stepping on his own talking points.
lamh35
Charlie Cook: Leading Dem & GOP pollsters & strategists privately say that the Obama lead is around 4-5 points http://www.nationaljournal.com//columns/off-to-the-races/pollsters-suggest-race-stabilizing-in-obama-s-favor-20120925 … #POLLS
MikeJ
@jackmac:
I remember back in June when all the nervous nellies were going on about the tax returns and saying, “why is Obama bringing this out now? Why doesn’t he save it for October?”
Obama defined who Romney was months ago. Anything people have believed for four months now isn’t going to get turned around in the next four weeks.
Spaghetti Lee
Can the Romney campaign be saved?
“I won’t kill you, but I don’t have to save you.”
lamh35
@Enhanced Mooching Techniques:
The Romney camp response ain’t any better.
Chuck Butcher
@Enhanced Mooching Techniques:
And the campaign is getting on it following him around with a broom and dustpan
Spaghetti Lee
“Luckily for Ann, not to mention Rafalca, R-money will still have his considerable fortune to console him.”
“Can money really buy happiness? I don’t know. How about you give me a hundred million dollars and I’ll find out?”
(I can’t remember who said something like that. I know Roger Ebert said something similar about immortality.)
KG
@lamh35: polls, like facts, have a liberal bias… haven’t you been paying attention?
Tony J
@lamh35:
I don’t blame him. The absolute minimum you can (or should) expect from a modern Presidential campaign is that the candidate does not go out of their way to punch themselves in the dick whenever they’re on camera. Romney doesn’t seem to have that essential quality. Every time he opens his mouth he looks a little bit sweatier and a lot more desperate.
How bad is Romney at this? Peggy frigging Noonan feels comfortable calling him a loser, and it’s September.
Spaghetti Lee
The Romney campaign has become unskewed in time.
SatanicPanic
At this point I think even Bill Frist would agree that it’s time to pull the plug.
jl
@Redshift:
krugman is also right that Romney and the GOP have the economics precisely backward.
The GOP approach is precisely the kind of reverse engineering industrial policy of which more honest and old fashioned conservative economists, and most mainstream keynesians, are skeptical.
The Romney approach is great for disguising the workings of corrupt crony capitalism, though. Hmm….. Naw, probably coincidence, huh?
The GOP crony capitalist con has been going on for so long, they are utterly confused people. Sound and fury signifying nothing. Literally nothing. Noise. Confusion. Ravings. Incoherent pitches to the gullible, contradicted the next sentence as needed for another swindler pitch.
Ben Franklin
WP is taking a giant shit today.
Ben Franklin
I look forward to Virgil Tibbs slapping Eric Endicott at the debates.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
__
Given the recent behavior of far too many of our devout Christians (so-called), this is a proposal I can really get behind.
BGinCHI
@lamh35: Fuck Charlie Cook.
In the bag for the establishment, always.
Roger Moore
@SatanicPanic:
Well the Romney campaign has clearly been brain dead for quite a while, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone.
MikeJ
@Ben Franklin: Don’t hold your breath. That ain’t Obama’s style. Which doesn’t mean he won’t trounce Romney, but it’s not gonna be the beatdown that that would thrill Dems but make Charlie Rose cry.
Felanius Kootea
Speaking of making sure every Obama voter gets to the polls, I have to move in late October this year and will be out of town at a conference November 6th (I’ll be in Illinois, I live in California). I’ve used California’s vote by mail ballots exactly once. Does the fact that I’m moving so close to the election (October 28th) make it difficult to both change my address for voter registration purposes *and* apply for vote by mail status? I’ve never had to move so close to an election before. Any tips would be appreciated.
Ben Franklin
Scott Walker wants the union refs back on the field asap after the Green Bay debacle.
Spaghetti Lee
@lamh35:
Holy crap.
Can any intrepid lip-readers discern what Ryan is whispering at about 0:14?
EconWatcher
Sully (yeah, I know) had some analysis up today suggesting that not enough House seats are really in play to give the Dems a realistic chance of taking control. Piffle, or not piffle?
Violet
Truth or snark? It’s so hard to tell.
Figure it must be a joke with the Gilligan reference:
BGinCHI
@Felanius Kootea: Pro Tip: get to the Hopleaf early if you want to get a table or seat at the bar. It fills up fast.
And don’t eat stuffed pizza at a chain place.
Oh…voting. No idea.
Spaghetti Lee
@EconWatcher:
I know this will sound stupid but…I don’t know for sure, but my instincts say no. One thing I think that Dems have to deal with from now on is that the margin of error is simply going to be smaller: We lost a lot of seats in 2010, in Virginia, Tennessee, Mississippi, etc. that we’re not getting back, at least not this cycle. But we also lost a lot of seats in suburban Chicago, upstate New York, suburban Philly, and the upper Midwest-places basically split down the middle party-wise. So I don’t see why it would be impossible, but gaining 25 seats in one election is always difficult.
BGinCHI
@Violet:
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
General Stuck
Romney says teachers should have limits on campaign/candidate contribution. Cause they ain’t peoples like corps, I reckon.
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
@EconWatcher: I agree. Think the statehouses really went to town with the gerrymandering after this census. Losing in 2010 was bad news in states that used to balance the parties. But then after Texas’s mid-decade realignment, what party is going to play along any longer with the idea that once you have the legislature and the governors mansion, you need to help the opposition?
dmsilev
@lamh35: They’re just fucking with us now, right?
MattR
@General Stuck: See dmsilev
Ben Franklin
@MikeJ:
Oh, he will slap down, but in a nuanced manner
SatanicPanic
@Tony J: I can’t wait for the Halperin Game Change 2 book. Ryan isn’t quite as ridiculous as Palin, but this campaign is in total much crappier than McCain/Palin. Watching Republicans flail is so satisfying but we’re getting such a huge helping this time I’m worried I might have a stomach ache later.
feebog
There are I think, two final nails to be nailed into the coffin lid: the first debate a week from now, and then the jobs report the following Friday. If Obama kicks the Rombot 2.0 to the curb in the debate, followed by a decent jobs report of 150 to 200K jobs added, the cake is baked. November 6 will just be the icing.
Ben Franklin
@SatanicPanic:
A least one additional Season of SNL will cure your solar plexus.
Roger Moore
@SatanicPanic:
Is that “Electric Boogaloo”?
General Stuck
@MattR:
I don’t think they are fucking with us. I think they have been fucking with us for 30 plus years, and now they are being themselves.
feebog
@ Felanius Kootea:
Reregister with your new address and ask for an absentee ballot at the same time. Easy to do in California.
trollhattan
O/T Sigh, see what happens when you give Pammy Geller free time and a copy of Adobe Illustrator?
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/09/savage-subway-posters-instantly-defaced-in-nyc.html
lamh35
Obama Says ‘Goofed Off Way Too Much’ in Grade School
I can hear RWNJobs now…”I knew it…WHERE ARE YOUR TRANSCRIPTS OBAMA!!!!’
Triassic Sands
“Barring economic collapse, Romney’s only shot is to
get people to reassess himsteal the election.lamh35
McCaskill getting ready to open a can of Whoop ass on Akin.
jennifereduffy:
As predicted, deadline passes for Akin to exit race and McCaskill launches TV ad that cites legitimate rape comment. Game over. #MOSen
@dawnec1957:
@jennifereduffy Local news just stated McCaskill was waiting for his decision. She has a “large” war chest because of holding back til now
JPL
@General Stuck: They are the working class. In our new society we have makers and takers. What do teachers make anyway?
btw…kidding folks
SatanicPanic
@Roger Moore: It’s just too easy to make a joke about Romney being able to dance like a robot.
MattR
So I just finally figured out what the lyrics mean to the song “Tomorrow” by Silverchair. I’ve always really dug the song but incorrectly thought the lyrics were childish and nonsensical (which was forgivable since they wrote the song as teenagers)
But after hearing the song on the radio, I checked the wikipedia page and the lead singer said that it was based on a TV show or documentary where a poor person took a rich person to live with him in the slums for a day. The rich guy obviously hated it, but he wasn’t allowed to leave until the next day.
peggy
@jl:
Romney did NOT come up with Obamacare. He was forced into it.
A coalition of the hospitals (Healthcare for All) and the church coalition group Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO) forced him and the legislature into supporting it. When the leg wavered, GBIO ran a petition campaign that garnered enough signatures to guarantee passage, and the bill we wanted got approved.
Violet
@lamh35: One of the smartest people I know was a poor student in high school. He likes to show people his transcript, full of C’s and I think even one D. When he got to college he had a 4.0 all the way through, went on to a prestigious medical school, got an MD and a PhD, got into one of the most competitive residency programs in the country, followed by an even more competitive post-doc program and is now an esteemed scientific researcher in a cutting-edge field.
Turns out he was just bored in high school.
feebog
@ @ Felanius Kootea:
Here is the online link:
https://rtv.sos.ca.gov/elections/register-to-vote/
Linda Featheringill
House seats:
Dunno.
HOWEVER, it looks like several races are close enough that we gotta try for it. We have to give it a shot. We’ll win some and maybe we’ll win enough.
I personally think that every Republican incumbent should be made to answer for their votes over the last two years.
Roger Moore
@SatanicPanic:
jl
@peggy:
” Romney did NOT come up with Obamacare. He was forced into it. ”
Thanks for the information. I did not know that. OK, then. The more moderate decent Mitt may not be an option.
Too bad for him. And for us (since he still could win).
Cacti
My question remains, do we reach a point where it becomes obvious to Goopers that Romney is going down, and they decide to stay home?
His Mormonism is already a big, bitter, pill for the fundigelicals to have to swallow. At what point do they say “f*ck it, I never wanted him anyway”?
greenergood
@lamh35: So Ryan’s daughter is getting ready to win in the real ‘Hunger Games’.
Mike in NC
Everybody Hates Mitt
raven
@Violet: I’m not all that smart but I was bored and in trouble and the school and courts were happy to run my ass into the Army on my 17th. One of my primary motivations for getting a doctorate was to thumb my nose at all of them.
quannlace
Who is that skinny, older, white haired guy I keep seeing these days standing behind Romney? Campaign strategist, publicist?
JPL
@Mike in NC: The first debate Romney will take Scott Brown’s approach and say he doesn’t look half white to me. I do expect attacks, lies and more lies.
Davis X. Machina
@Violet: Not uncommon, except for the going-on-to-college stuff, which is too often forestalled by a record like that.
High school qua school rewards a lot of things, and they’re not all positive, and conversely no small number of things conducive to success at higher levels of academe aren’t rewarded there. Chess club is full of crazy-bright, disaffected kids.
peggy
@jl:
I’m not saying Romney was forced kicking & screaming into approving Obamacare. The executive did implement the bill well.
raven
@Davis X. Machina: In the GED world we have the “Bill Cosby” effect. About 10% of GED grads don’t prepare at all, the just take it an nail it. When I took it they were basically reading comp questions. It’s much tougher to pass now.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
I was having a super boring day at work. Then my passport came in the mail! Yay passport! Then about 4:00 pm my boss handed me a flight itinerary to Puebla Mexico for 3 days. I don’t speak Spanish, but that’s OK. My cell phone doesn’t work outside the USA anyway.
I leave in 8 hours, and I’m kinda freaking out.
Cacti
@raven:
Some of life’s truly sublime moments are when you’re able to flip the bird at everyone who told you what you couldn’t do.
patroclus
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: Pobrecito!
raven
@Cacti: It was and it was an honor to work with research participants who had the persistence to return for their credential as well.
MattR
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: “No hablo espanol. Habla ingles?” = I don’t speak Spanish. Do you speak English? (Hablan if addressing a group)
“Donde esta el bano?” = Where is the bathroom?
Everything else is just details
(espanol and bano have tildas over the n but i am not even gonna try to make wordpress do that. pronounced banyo and espanyol.)
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
@lamh35: Makes sense to me. Occidental is one of those schools for kids of above average financial means and average GPAs.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@MattR:
I feel better already. I was NOT ready for international travel but I’m sure my very efficient multinational German employer will get me through it. But I’m still freaking out.
Gotta go pack. Thanks for the vocab. I’ll have a long plane flight to practice it.
Ruckus
@Violet:
Turns out he was just bored in high school.
This sounds just like me. All except for the college, medical school, PhD, residency and scientific researcher.
ETA Actually close in college though.
peggy
@Felanius Kootea:
Registering to vote may be very tricky. The final deadline in your new state may be very soon. MA has an excellent webpage on elections, try state.gov- good luck.
You need to prove your identity and that you live at the new address. IANAL but maybe a notarized lease or property title or mortgage. Normally a utility bill suffices, but you won’t have received one. Probably a phone call is necessary.
MikeJ
@BGinCHI:
Notorious John Birch Society member Josh Marshal has it at 3.5% in the national vote. Calling it 4 or 5% doesn’t seem out of line.
MattR
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: Even if your phone wont have coverage, there may be an app or something that you can download beforehand (if you have that kinda phone).
PS. I am sure it will be fine and that the vast majority of people you have to deal with will speak enough English.
raven
@Ruckus: Stay with it dawg.
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: Ok. A quick guide to talavera pottery. You need to look at the solid colors for the detailed lines and colors. The more lines in detail, the higher the quality. Do not buy cheap pottery in expensive guise.
Also, bring a fall jacket. It is a lot cooler in central mexico than you think it should be because of elevation.
Because I know it’s business, I won’t talk about wrestling and where to go. Puebla is nice.
Ben Franklin
@raven:
it was an honor to work with research participants who had the persistence to return for their credential as well
For psych research, it’s usually a matter of unfucking their psyche..
Mnemosyne
@lamh35:
Meh. That’s probably about the age I was when my dad had me take a hunter education course (I may have been 12). He still brags about how I got the highest score in the class (probably because I took all of the information about How Not To Die In the Woods Due To Your Own Stupidity seriously, unlike the grown men in the class with me). And I even did pretty well on the shooting portion.
Never had my own gun, though.
lamh35
Wow, umm awkward!
Mitt Romney tries to lead a chant. Big mistake.
Mitt Romney Stops Supporters from Chanting ‘Ryan’ to Ensure They Say His Name Too
Mnemosyne
@Felanius Kootea:
I’d go straight to the source if I were you:
http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/
MikeJ
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: I was amazed when I started doing international stuff how much I could understand in meetings due to a) having taken latin in HS and b) the fact that much technical vocabulary doesn’t translate. “Application server” translated to “application server” in German, Swedish and Italian, even though all three languages could have very easily conveyed the same idea.
Little things tripped me up more. Germans were puzzled when I mentioned an “ES thirty five hundred” until I translated to “three thousand five hundred”.
Ruckus
@raven:
Great advice.
But the timing is about 20 yrs too late, and even then that would have been pushing it to get all that done before retirement (which is pretty much here).
Baud
@lamh35:
They’re not booing. They’re chanting Rooo-mney.
Ruckus
@MikeJ: I always heard 3 and a half thousand. Or time was 3 1/4 pm.
Felanius Kootea
@BGinCHI: Thanks? :)
Davis X. Machina
@Ruckus: I never got used to halb zehn being 9:30 and not 10:30.
Felanius Kootea
@feebog:
@Mnemosyne:
@peggy:
Thanks all for the helpful links. It says the deadline to register to vote by mail in CA is on October 30th. I move to my new apartment on October 28th. I think if I apply to vote by mail in person (with signed lease in hand) before I leave for Chicago, I should be okay.
raven
@Ruckus: I finished when I was 50.
MikeJ
@Ruckus: Three thousand five hundred might not have been idiomatic, but they understood it.
You ever hear those radio broadcasts for people learning english where they use simple vocabulary and very few idioms? All of my speech turned into that, even when I got back to the USSA. Of course my interlocutors were doing the same thing for me. Thank god we shared perl as an expressive language. The Italian keyboard did make that hard though. Couldn’t find the punctuation keys I needed (I had enough experience with the others I got used to them but was only in Rome a month.)
geg6
@lamh35:
Oh, sweet naked Jeebus, for real? How could this guy have been running for president for at least the last seven years still be this awful on the stump? I mean, I know he’s terrible everywhere, but I think he hid it better before and how do you lose that after seven years of constant campaigning?
I’m utterly stunned by how awful both Rmoney and everyone even peripherally attached to his campaign is. W is looking like a genius next to this guy.
raven
@Ben Franklin: Nah, this was simple educational research, a qual study looking at why they quit, why they went back and what the preparation process meant to them.
SFAW
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
There’s
a fishan app for that.SFAW
@lamh35:
“Heh, I was just kidding around. You liberals have no sense of humor.”
Turgidson
@EconWatcher:
Probably too early to tell. It wasn’t clear just how big the Teabagger wave was until much closer to election day, if I am remembering right.
Even harder to predict than usual, because while a clear Obama romp would probably lead some Romney voters to stay home, that very same dynamic will compel Rove and the Kochs to dump bajillions of dollars into swing districts accusing the Democrat of being a gay married terrorist who eats babies, just to keep the house in Orange Julius’s hands. And their money is probably far more effective swinging low-visibility house districts than the presidential race.
Also too, an Obama romp might cause some typically apathetic Obama-leaners to stay home since they’ll think it’s in the bag. That could be a problem downballot too, even if Obama is safely reelected anyway.
trollhattan
@quannlace:
That’s Ann.
Violet
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
Have a great time. Take your phone because you never know and if it’s a smart phone you might be able to find wifi.
Do not recommend drinking the water in Mexico. Bottled water is fine.
Learn a few words in Spanish, like “Por favor” (please), Gracias (thank you) and the other things people have listed. People in other countries like it when you try using their language even if you suck at it.
Have fun. I love Mexico. The people are great.
Wumpus
The amazing thing is that back in the spring the Very Serious People were saying, “How can Obama possibly hope to win this? His only chance is a Harry Truman like turnaround!”
Of course they were full of it all along. Mitt’s the guy who needs the miracle.
Ben Franklin
While we’re all masturbating in a frenzy, there’s this….
The short video shows a young woman attempting to register voters outside the grocery store, but asking first: “Would you vote for Romney or Obama?”
When the unidentified woman shooting the video then asks the registration worker who she works for, the young lady admits, “I’m actually trying to register voters for a particular party, because…we’re out here in support of Romney, actually.”
Then the woman asks her who is paying her for this work and the young lady, after a moment’s pause, says, “We’re working for the county clerk’s office.”
The woman is, understandably, aghast at the registration worker’s response and asks again incredulously, “You’re working for the county clerk’s office?!”
“I believe so. Yes,” replies the worker, shortly before the video ends.
As it turns out, the registration worker was not working for the El Paso County Clerk’s office, according to responses sent to The BRAD BLOG by the CO Secretary of State’s office as well as the El Paso County Clerk. Instead, she was a paid employee of the state Republican Committee, as confirmed by the local GOP Chairman. And, incredibly enough, both the Sec. of State and County Clerk, both Republicans, assert that what the registration worker is seen doing in the video, screening out potential voters based on who they might vote for, is absolutely legal in the state of Colorado…
Ben Franklin
video, here…
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=9583
BGinCHI
@MikeJ: I just don’t like Charlie Cook. I don’t care if he’s 100% right.
MikeJ
@BGinCHI: He used to come out to the Fairfax Dems meetings. I always thought he was ok, even if I thought he was wrong about some stuff.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@Violet: Has everyone just assumed that he knows “cerveza” already?
BGinCHI
@MikeJ: OK, I’m glad to hear that. Some of my DC connections don’t speak too highly of him.
Anne Laurie
@Ben Franklin: I posted that video yesterday. Thanks for the update, but the takeaway remains: the Dems better be out there hustling, both to register voters and to get them to the polls!
Ben Franklin
@Anne Laurie:
Mea Culpa. It’s hard to keep it up. :)
trollhattan
@Ben Franklin:
Well, the air is thin there.
Tonal Crow
Ha! Bullmitt’s campaign stalled weeks ago, and has now begun spinning. The very last thing you want to do in that situation is “pull up” (pull back the stick, raising the elevators), because that will only reduce your airspeed, which deepens the stall and makes the plane less stable.
Counterintuitively, you must push the stick, lowering the nose, to gain enough airspeed to produce enough lift to end the stall.
The upshot? Lyin’ Ryan is telling Bullmitt to crash. I wonder whether the cartoonist knows this and is making a sly joke?
—
Another day, another load of Romney bullshit.
Tonal Crow
@TenguPhule:
And how, pray tell, would you “inspect” a vote-casting machine to ensure that it has not been subverted? Give as many details as you can think of.
mainmati
@piratedan: Good, short and to the point but MO is pretty conservative so they will need to air that ad repeatedly and follow it up with yes this means you voters getting hurt messages.
Ksmiami
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: Puebla has great cuisine and beautiful flowers and is the main center for the day of the dead festivities… I’m jealous
General Stuck
@lamh35:
Looks like the rubes are falling head over heels for boy wonder. Too bad he is second fiddle this election. That could be dealt with in his stump speech. Flashing the crowd his long knives and a shit eatin’ grin.
gelfling545
@lamh35: See, this is the problem with lying. You need to keep track of what lies you told and to whom and the truth sometimes slips out.
Ruckus
@raven:
50 seems like 3 lifetimes ago.
Ruckus
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
And really that’s the best way to drink bottled water.
AxelFoley
@pluege:
I wish they would. I WISH the fuck they would. This ain’t 2000.