Another sad rundown on the fail parade that is the Romney campaign:
vMitt Romney could use a big moment.
Since he began stumping, the GOP presidential nominee’s campaign events have been nearly identical — perfectly staged and choreographed, but forgettable. If it weren’t for the occasional state flag hanging behind him, those watching wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the GOP nominee’s rallies in Pueblo, Colo. and Vandalia, Ohio.
But as Romney tries to reignite his campaign following a slew of polling showing him trailing President Barack Obama, some Republican strategists argue that he should stage a dramatic campaign trail moment designed to break through the clutter and move the needle.
The defining moment of the Romney campaign is his unwillingness to provide any details for his plans. The person he chose as his running mate has ideas the American people hate, and even those are idea free and devoid of details.
It’s the Call Me Maybe campaign, but no one likes the jingle.
ranchandsyrup
You can’t polish a turd. You can’t reaganify a turd.
Politically Lost
I have to say, when the GOP talks unspecified specifics the people listen.
jl
Maybe Romney should try a little sex appeal.
The Bidens are bogarting all the sex
http://wonkette.com/484883/the-bidens-are-bogarting-all-the-sex
Politically Lost
If Mitt puts it all on a white board, game over.
ronin122
Thanks, John. Between you and Doug, I’ll never escape having pop songs play infinitely in my head.
Cmm
The thing I kept hearing about Romney as it became more clear that he would be the Republican nominee was “the more you see him/get to know him, the less you like him.”. I certainly felt that way but I didn’t believe so many would. I like being wrong in this case.
Sophist(from droid)
“…Republican strategists argue that he should stage a dramatic campaign trail moment designed to break through the clutter and move the needle.”
I suggest having Ryan commit seppuku with a copy of We The Living.
Cmm
@jl:
Please god, no!
KG
And what the fuck, pray tell, would this dramatic moment be?
And shit, if you’re contemplating a dramatic moment in the general fucking election, well, you’ve lost and you’re done
James E. Powell
In my years of civil trial practice, I always tried to work out what the other side’s argument was or would be. What are they going to say?
In looking at Romney/Ryan as opposing counsel, I am wondering, what can they say that they haven’t already said? What could they say that could reignite or, in my view ignite, their campaign?
Yutsano
@KG: Oh I dunno, this could get fun. The more desperate he gets the more likely he’ll make an even bigger ass of himself and suddenly Obama wins Tennessee.
Mandalay
That is a failing which has been there since the start of his campaign, but hardly the defining moment.
That honor surely goes to his 47% speech. Romney himself validated the ongoing accusation that he is an arrogant elitist who doesn’t give a shit about anyone except the filthy rich.
Ash Can
Yes! I think it would be a fabulous idea for Romney to do something wild and crazy and attention-getting and perception-shattering and completely beyond the pale! Nothing could possibly go wrong!
DH
How about giving away free Atlas Shrugged paperbacks to the 47% of us who don’t want to take responsibility? How it could it fail?
Hunter Gathers
Romney has already had his ‘big moment’. It was last week, when he was caught on tape telling half the country to go fuck themselves. No amount of clever ‘zingers’, half-baked campaign stunts or ‘ideas’ are going to save his punk ass.
He’s fucked, he knows he’s fucked, his handlers know he’s fucked, his party knows he’s fucked and after Wednesday, the media might finally figure out that he’s fucked when he’s asked about that tape. There’s no good answer, he knows there’s no good answer and no amount of filibustering or trying to blame it on Obama is going to work. That doesn’t mean that the Chuck Todd’s of the world won’t keep fucking the chicken that is the ‘Mitt’s Comeback’ story the MSM is dying to tell, but it won’t fucking matter.
The life that Romney’s campaign has left in it can be measured in hours, not weeks.
jwb
@James E. Powell: They’re down to their last zinger. Seriously, the only reason to be floating the zinger nonsense is that they know they’ve got little hope and any hope they have depends on them keeping enough hope alive that the money doesn’t completely dry up. So the promise of a zinger keeps things going through Wednesday night. What they do after Wednesday night, lord only knows, but it is unlikely to be pretty.
Violet
There is nothing he can do to make people like him. If they don’t like him after eight or twelve years of campaigning, they’re not going to like him because of one stunt. They may laugh at him harder, but that doesn’t mean they’re liking him more.
jl
@Mandalay:
” That honor goes to his 47% speech. Romney himself validated the ongoing accusation that he was an arrogant elitist prick who didn’t give a shit about anyone except the filthy rich. ”
So many of those defining moments. You could put yourself to sleep counting them up.
Then there is the product line Mitt’s pushing, which has some bugs
Shards o’ Glass
http://youtu.be/47dg1uxiF4o
I think there is come ancient Dan Ackroyd skit that give a more accurate picture, but this will do for now.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Like what? Burst in to song and do a soft shoe? What the fuck are they even thinking of?
Iriedc
Thing is, we haven’t just met Mr. Romney. He’s been running for a long time. Better theme might be “If you don’t know me by now.” (I’m partial to the Patti LaBelle version.)
DH
How about auctioning off rides in his auto elevator? It could put California back in play.
Richard
Romney’s plan: massive tax cuts for the rich, payed for by tax increases on everyone else and the effective destruction of programs like Medicare, Social Security and anything else that doesn’t benefit the investor class.
Odd that he doesn’t want to discuss the details of that plan until after the election.
Mnemosyne
G made me watch the version of “Call Me Maybe” that Jepsen did with Jimmy Fallon and the Roots. It’s pretty funny to see grown men playing schoolroom xylophones and yet it sounds pretty damn good!
Violet
This is so Romney. Looks the part, setting looks the part (family, experience), and he’s utterly forgettable. Five years from now, are non-political-junkies even going to remember who Obama ran against to win his second term?
jwb
@Yutsano: If you look at one of the charts that Wang published at the Princeton Election Consortium (the full version is here, you can see that if Tennessee comes into play, a whole other set of seven or eight states is likely to come into play as well. It’s at that point that the race turns from a rout into a landslide.
Mike G
Rmoney knows his idiot base. They don’t want substance, they’re bedazzled by simple slogans. The idea that a catchphrase, delivered with “resolve”, will make the whole world bow to their wishes; the empty-suit stagecraft of Reagan with his “There you go again” transparent banalities made him their hero.
These are the droolers who keep proclaiming that Reagan barking “Tear down this wall” in 1987 caused the fall of the Soviet empire.
Kane
His Olympic trip abroad was said to be his best opportunity to look presidential. His VP pick was said to be his most important decision yet as the selection would define what his campaign stands for. The convention was said to be his best chance to humanize himself and to reestablish the narrative of his campaign.
The trip was a shambles. He has run away from virtually every policy that his VP pick has stood for. And the convention was a bust as his unfavorables have soared to historic highs and his campaign narrative remains muddied at best.
But wait! A staged dramatic campaign trail moment or a few debate zingers could turn everything around.
Violet
@Kane: Success!
Kane
If only there was a young person willing to carve the letter B in their face.
MikeJ
Romney posed in front of a flag in Ohio? Did no one warn him about the Obama flag?
DH
How about this? He announces that HIS birth certificate is fake, and he is was born in Kenya! It would get everyone to give him a second look.
Violet
@Kane: I’m wondering if the Romney campaign would be stupid enough to stage their own assassination attempt on Romney, thinking it would elicit sympathy from voters.
Violet
Releasing twelve years of tax returns–complete returns, along with any related forms and paperwork–would get some attention.
Politically Lost
I’ll take a crack at how Mitt’s campaign reboots and takes the win. Bullet point style:
* Mitt will employ some mellow dog whistles personally. Ryan will get in on the act and the campaign will double down.
* The campaign will then meld ever deeper with the crazy and talk in terms of this being the last chance to save the republic from ___________. Fill in the blank with your favorite wingnut trope.
* There will be some military butch, i.e. that Obama isn’t man enough to torture, nuke Iran, invade Syria etc. …something like that.
* The economy will become better just by his presence. (Yes, the argument from the 47% tape will be repeated.)
* The campaign, Ryan, or Mitt himself will then go for the jugular and brag about the accomplishment of healthcare in Mass. (YES! this will also be repeated again before the election is over. Only, this time they’ll compare it to Medicare and that they’ll make Medicare better by voucherizing it. It’ll make perfect sense.)
* To finish, the “reasonable” pundits will be convinced by Mitt’s decisive come back and return to the fold and dramatically rally around their damaged candidate.
The blog fodder from this part will likely put DougJ in an alcohol coma and unable to come up with a song lyric for his titles. Cole will simply have an aneurysm while shouting FUCK OFF while hiding from a camera lens. Dennis will post another pic of Sherman on his march South only this time Sherman will be wearing an Obama T-shirt. Tom will find some tasteful art to depict Moral Hazard’s suicide at Brooks’ feet. ABL will only be slightly angrier but will tweet until her fingers bleed. Annie will post a ‘toon with lady liberty being sodomized by the Brooks Brother’s riot. Good old Sarah will provide color commentary like Statler and Waldorf from the muppets only with a cabana boy with an ounce of blow on his rod. Fortunately, Tim will post a pic of Max and cooler heads will prevail, including our President.
Yes, I read this blog way too much.
Mary G
Everything they try fails. The picture of him on the beach in France during his mission with “I LOVE ANN” marked out. Kinda cute, until you realize people his age were fighting and dying in the Nam. He isn’t a serious person and he is no actor so he can’t pretend to be one as well as Reagan did.
lacp
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Christ, I hope none of his handlers has seen The Full Monty.
Mandalay
Oh they know already, and have for a good while.
But advertising revenue drives how the media analyzes the campaigns, and they always need to show that the election is still up for grabs. Any issue, however implausible, will do: zingers, skewed polls, Libya, European economies. Or even a “dramatic campaign trail moment”.
I can easily imagine John King taking a deep breath and droning:
Yes, some polls do show that Obama is slightly ahead, but all that could change if the Greek government decides to ban pink toilet paper. That could provide a boost to Romney among working class whites in the Rust Belt, and of course let’s not forget that Iran wanting to wipe Israel off the map could be a factor among seniors in the South. This race is not over! Wolf?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
From the article
They’re obsessed with Daddy Reagan and the pipeline. Paging Dr Freud Dr Howard, Dr Fine
lacp
@Violet: As incompetent as they’ve been so far, this would be the one time they’d succeed.
Mnemosyne
@Violet:
Yeah, but even a fake assassination attempt would go a little something like this.
Kane
With every swing state turning pretty shades of blue, the Romney campaign has become less about gaining momentum and more about preventing a landslide.
jwb
@Politically Lost: You forgot mistermix, Betty and Kay. ETA: And Zander, Soonergrunt and Freddie.
MikeJ
@Mnemosyne: Who said anything about fake? Don’t you think the Republicans would be thrilled to a) get the sympathy vote and b) be rid of Romney?
JustAnotherBob
@Violet:
Let’s think that through for a moment.
OK, moment up.
The current would screw up the faked attempt and blow a hole all the way through the vital Mitt-parts.
Politically Lost
@jwb:
And, the bullet points didn’t work and the paragraph breaks are all ahoo.
Right.
Betty will have an appropriate wine foil sculpture accented with an ass crack.
Mr. Mix may have to revive DougJ. Failing that he’ll have to mix in the song lyrics.
And, Kay will just be her sensible self.
Sorry, I petered out at the end. It’s late and I’ve been on a SWTOR binge today.
Yutsano
@Violet: VICTORY!!
Oh wait…
jwb
@MikeJ: More likely is Rove leaking some of Romney’s taxes—assuming there is a single year besides the ones he’s already released that’s not lethally toxic—and blaming it on an Obama dirty trick.
Kane
@Violet: I’m guessing that Ryan would support that idea.
Politically Lost
@jwb:
There’s just too many front pagers.
Sooner will again mistakenly claim he’s not the smartest.
Zander will search and find the actual bottom, deepest, darkest depths of the wingnut crazy and hack it triumphantly on the kitchen floor for us all to admire.
Freddie will write just one more chin scratcher that we’ll all try to patiently ignore, only some of us will take the bait.
Chuck Butcher
I’ve thought about what Mitt could say or put forward as a detailed plan to change the direction of the electorate and come up bone dry. It isn’t that there isn’t a thing to be done, the problem is that if it looked good to the shifting electorate it would be shit for the “base.” I don’t get why they are so damned worried about that base*, those fuckers would vote for Attila because he’s not Obama.
I doubt the Prez is going to do anything special in the debates or the rallies that he hasn’t been doing, kind of “if it’s working, don’t mess with it.” I’d be pleased if he hung one of Mitt’s lies around his neck, but I doubt it.
*well he’d catch unmitigated hell from EE and his sort, but so what?
jwb
@Kane: After Wednesday it will almost certainly become clear that the debates are not going to change anything in Romney’s favor. You know darn well that the Republicans are then going to try something ridiculously desperate—especially if the House margin keeps shifting against them. The moment that concerns me is the moment when the GOP brain and money trust realizes they are out of acceptable options.
max
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Like what? Burst in to song and do a soft shoe? What the fuck are they even thinking of?
He should form a garage band! (I’m going to double mint my gum here) To wit: The Replacements – Treatment Bound – Hootenanny (1982) –
There’ll be no pose tonight
No money in sight
Label wants a hit
And we don’t give a shit
Cuz where gettin’ no place
As fast as we can
We get a noseful
From our so-called friends
We’re gettin’ nowhere
Quick as we know how
We whirl from town to town
Duluth to Madison
Treatment bound
[…]
Second thing we do
Is walk around
Go to the job
Or try to hold one down
There’s no mass appeal
Carton’s asleep at the wheel
Yesterday’s trash
Too bored to thrash
—
{pause} Obviously, I don’t think this will succeed. But it couldn’t be any worse than what the ‘strategists’ are offering.
max
[‘And Willard and the Randroids is an excellent band name!’]
jwb
@Politically Lost: I remember the old days when the number of FPers was small enough that we could attribute them all to being alter-egos of Tim F.
SFAW
Defining moment? Shake up the debate and campaign?
If Mittens pulled something like this during the debate, it would almost certainly stop Obama in his tracks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_JOGmXpe5I
Maybe this one as well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGQ-ISsDm8M
Yutsano
@jwb: We are all DougJ now.
jwb
@Yutsano: Yes, and the story at the time was that DougJ was Tim F.’s most magnificent creation.
TheMightyTrowel
OT moving sucks but i think i am gonna like the new neighbours. the place to my left has FSM and nerd bumper stickers, the place to my right has rainbows, pro equality and puppeh bumper stickers.
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
Are these the same strategists who two weeks ago were recommending that he reset his campaign by calling the media and giving a big speech – two weeks after he’d just given a big speech at his convention?
Serious question. How much money is there in being a strategist. And where do I sign up?
fuckwit
Most people are finally tired of this shit.
At this point, they’ve seen it before, and don’t want anything to do with it anymore. They’re tired, cranky, struggling, and haven’t the patience for this crap.
The lies, the smarmy spoiled rich-kid Bush-shit air of entitlement, the character assaults, the trickle-down Reaganomics, the sleazy, evasive, non-specific hand-waving, the reckless war-mongering, the village middle-way bullshit, the newsmedia happytalk propaganda and “both sides do it” conceit… and the fucking television. If it’s on the tube, it’s probably a lie. If it says “… and I approved this message…”, it’s almost certainly a lie.
I think the majority of people– the ones who don’t listen to Limblow or watch FAUX– are disgusted with the whole Rethug program.
And, whatever their feelings about Obama, it’s pretty clear that he’s way, way better than the alternative.
James E. Powell
@Chuck Butcher:
I don’t know if their internal polling shows it or if it’s just a lingering fear from the primaries, but I get the impression that Romney/Ryan are worried that the rabble-base could break loose from them.
I do not see any other reason for the “no work for welfare” or “he’s going to give your money to the [insert racist epithets]” ads being run so many times. It isn’t like his base doesn’t believe that anyway. So it’s like he’s doing it to show that he will stand up to that [insert racist epithet]. Now why would he have to keep doing that?
If he slides left on an issue that the rabble-base has been shouting about for the last three years, Obamacare = Nazi Muslim Communism and all that, they will know that he lied to them during the primaries. They hate that kind of thing.
Can you imagine the general election results if just 3% of them stay home?
Chris
@Kane:
Except most of the idiot base doesn’t buy him anymore than we do. Everything I’ve seen from Republicans has been anti Obama, not pro Mittens. Lots of “at least he’s not That One,” lots of whining that Obama’s bad too and the press won’t report on his badness, and most damnigly of all, the platitudes like “look, NO candidate’s perfect!” and “we’re not looking for a Saviour, that’s what lefties do!” But I’ve met very, very few Republicans who can say with a straight face that “he’s the man we need.” Not even the George Bush refrain, “he’s a good man.” Deep down, they hate him too, and if he loses this election, they’ll crucify him worse than McCain.
sharl
@Mnemosyne:
That was fun! Thanks for linking it.
Cmm
@Mnemosyne:
Wow! I had read the book but had never seen the movie though I knew Christopher Walken was in it. But given his usual roles I had always assumed he was the bad guy! Imagine my surprise when I saw President Jed Bartlett hiding behind the baby!
wasabi gasp
It’s tape a kid to weather balloon time.
Chris
@Chuck Butcher:
What does it MATTER? He pathologically wants the approval of his peers in a way that dwarfs all other concerns.
Brutusettu
It’s not like Mitt is telling the story of a high Sith priest that could bring economies back from the dead.
He’s way less detailed than Palpatine.
Debbie(Aussie)
@Politically Lost: Thank you so much.
I dropped my iPod I was laughing so much.
Jewish Steel
My monthly drunkening. I go out and tear it up with the five black lesbians in central IL and some poetry professors.
Whee!
J. Steel +5/?
balconesfault
Wingnuts have been complaining for 4 years now that McCain wouldn’t hammer Obama over Rev. Wright in the debates … and that that alone would have changed the dynamic of the election.
I’m just praying soooo hard that Mitt’s team think that’s a winner to bring up on Wednesday.
steveday
“Cogito ergo sum”(“I think, therefore I am”)René Descartes
“I am rich, therefore I am smart” Willard M. Romney
Lurking Canadian
I don’t know. If Romney were to douse himself in aviation kerosene then light a match, that might be a campaign changing moment that would get people talking. Probably win him some sympathy from swing voters, too.
hueyplong
He’s had several defining moments. As a result, he has effectively been defined and is trailing in the polls.
I don’t think it’s unfair to note that any future “defining moment” in the campaign is, likely as not, to be another Romney FUBAR.
It would be odd if months and months of relentless self-immolation were to be reversed due to something initiated by Mitt Romney himself.
TR
@Mandalay:
Yep. The media needs a horse race and will engineer it by any means.
All the more reason to run up the score. Just donated $300 to the DCCC by Act Blue’s page. Hope others are donating and/or volunteering too.
Gindy51
@Mnemosyne: Knowing the GOP, they fuck it up and it would be a success.
AxelFoley
@Politically Lost:
[slow claps]
That was epic.
Paul
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
How about release his tax returns like everybody else had to do? Or if that is too hard to do for the liar, how about just telling us which deductions will be gone to fund his millionaire tax cuts? Will the mortgage deduction be gone if Romney wins?
General Stuck
At the end of his rallies, Mitt could smash his guitar to bits like Pete Townsend , and define himself as a crazy rock and roller. No way it could hurt. And the base loves to see their candidate break things.
kay
People in Ohio got the (latest) crazy anti-Obama movie in the mail this week.
I didn’t get one, but I heard about it.
It’s NINETY minutes long. No one I talked to watched the whole thing but it’s shockingly racist, I heard.
Images of Obama and the man who they claim is his father and repetition of scary words over and over again. It’s cheesy, too, red circles drawn around both men’s noses to show how their facial features are similiar, that sort of thing.
The people I talked to thought it was disgusting and unhinged, but I only talked to a few people.
I can’t believe Republicans are a national US political party with this vile, hateful shit they’re selling. I wonder what they have to do, how far they have to go, before they’re marginalized and/or rejected by normal people.
General Stuck
Probly not for much longer in their present form. The rational, if wrong GOP, and its 3 decade long run as a cohesive political movement, imo, died the day Sec Paulson went begging to congress for a plutocrat bailout. The vacuum of failure of conservatism, was quickly filled by mostly southern crazies, whose agenda was more resentment and nihilistic intent than anything resembling helpful for the country as a whole. Not to mention more overt racism. And they are getting ready to pay the piper in a big way.
This gap is widening daily, and after the debates could become a chasm of calamity for the nutters. Throughout the country, when all but the 27 percenters have had their fill of this nonsense that could well surpass their dislike of Obama. Then the faithful will have it out, because they cannot live without power, or access to power. And who knows what will come out the other end of that beast.
Comrade Jake
Mitt should suspend his campaign, call off the first debate, and convene a meeting in DC to talk about the economy. Now that, my friends, would be a defining moment.
kay
@General Stuck:
I don’t think he’s up ten in Ohio, but other people do, they think it’s breaking open.
I think he’s up FIVE in Ohio :)
I just don’t think it’s “over”. I know them. We still have 30-some days of crazed, vile screeching to endure. They’ll be rolling out new ‘tactics’ the morning of the election. These last weeks are where it gets insanely hateful. I can’t even list the conservative campaign orgs anymore. There are hundreds of them.
I haven’t seen a single canvasser, though, and we would have seen them by now.
General Stuck
@kay:
You know Ohio politics way better than I do. I just see the polling progressively getting wider for Obama, also more and more anonymous right wing elders from that state are saying it’s over, and maybe in a big way against the GOP/ For no other reason than the epic disaster that is Mitt Romney, whose incompetency as a candidate is record setting imo. He is not likely to get any better, and probly worse before election day. But then there is always Diebold et al.
Bex
@General Stuck: Reminds me of when Pat Boone tried to redefine himself as a biker guy. Painful…even though hardly anybody cared.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Mnemosyne: Needs more cowbell.
kay
@General Stuck:
Today is the first big, statewide GOTV canvass in Ohio, because early vote starts October 2nd, so that’s nice, that we can move to GOTV while they’re still “persuading” with vile, unhinged racist movies.
Then I can listen to earnest pundits claiming Romney wants to clarify his position on “the issues”. It’s such nonsense. Romney and his affiliates want to throw a massive amount of toxic shit at Obama, hoping something sticks. But that all goes under the punditry radar. We’re going to pretend it’s not happening.
The Other Chuck
Oh I think Mitt has had plenty of “defining moments” already. What he needs is an UNdefining moment. Something like one of those Men In Black memory erasers used at the debates ought to do it.
Ash Can
@Comrade Jake: This gets me thinking. What if Mitt decided a good game-changer/redefiner/show-stopper would be to call off the debate at the very last minute and make a big speech on the economy instead, loudly proclaiming that it was far more important than debating Obama? Of course, the speech would be devoid of substance and the tactic would blow up in his face with enough force to obliterate his circuitry from the shoelaces up. But I think he’s dumb enough to think something like that would work. (I should say, more specifically, that I don’t expect him to do it, but I think it’s possible that it would cross his mind as being an actual option.)
kay
@General Stuck:
I’m helping with a health care event at the senior center on 10/4 and I’m seriously considering addressing the movie.
“Raise your hand if you received a crazy movie from GOP subsidiaries last week. Discuss.”
Romney should have to own this. Obama endorses his ads. Romney The Coward gets a complete pass.
It’s just bullshit and contra to the OBSERVED REALITY of voters here. Let’s discuss what’s really going on here, seniors.
SFAW
@Lurking Canadian:
I don’t think yellow is a good color for Mitt. Well, other than the streak down his back, that is.
@Politically Lost:
Well, you certainly nailed re: the FPers here. I’m a-guessing that Cole is about to extend you an invite for you also to become an FPer on the site. What’d that be, John, #283?
@Comrade Jake:
Ah, but would it be good for John McCain?
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
Hey, there’s already one Christopher Walken sub-thread in here, go find yer own!
General Stuck
@kay:
LOL, give em hell, Kay!!. I’m about out of outrage on all this garbage. After near 5 years of it. My hope is more and more decent people will resent the truly absurd level of hate and lies, now coming from the core of the GOP, and enough of them will turn these haters out. If not, well then, ain’t that America.
Patricia Kayden
“The defining moment of the Romney campaign is his unwillingness to provide any details for his plans.”
Ding ding ding ding ding!
So with only 4 weeks left, when is Romneybot 2.0 going to give us the goods on his plans to create 12 million jobs and get this economy moving?
Repubs should just face the fact that NONE of their prospective Presidential candidates were going to beat President Obama. Not Bachmann, Cain, Gingrich, Santorum or Huntsman. Romneybot was the BEST of the bunch.
kay
@General Stuck:
I’m polite in person :)
I live here. I can’t run around screaming. I’ve settled on “voucherize” to describe the Romney-Ryan Medicare plan. I WAS saying “it’s like a COUPON” but coupons are sort of homey and frugal and familiar.
“Voucherize” sounds horrible.
pamelabrown53
@kay: Do it, Kay. It’s high time those vile shenanigans are tied around Romney’s neck. It’s high time that people understand the consequences to themselves and their families if they vote Romney/Ryan.
Betsy
@Violet: Ann would manage to bitch about it in a completely prickish way and squander any sympathy vote.
That’s after you count all the people who wish the assassination attempt had been successful, which would include a large number of the GOP base.
chopper
i officially love this campaign. does anybody think mittens is just going to up and start campaigning tomorrow? of course not, it’s going to be a fail parade every day until the election.
this, friends, is going to continue, and in a fucking hilarious manner.
pluege
The defining moment of the Romney campaign is his unwillingness to provide any details for his plans
that’s not really the case. The problem with romney’s no details isn’t the no details – republicans ALWAYS do that, his problem is in not getting the corporate media to not talk about the no details. republicans have given nothing but platitudes since reagan, and always lying platitudes to mask the true nature of the policies and how much they hurt average Americans. Prior to this year, the corporate media always ran with it like they’re the greatest ideas ever.
its also not the case that the no details are the defining moment of the romney campaign – many Americans could give a crap about details – they don’t understand them anyway. If it sounds good they’re fine with it – Americans luv them sum lipstick on a pig. The defining moment has been romney coming off as a prick aloof rich guy that cares nothing for America or Americans; that he cares only for himself and his plutocrat buddies.
WaterGirl
@Yutsano: I love you for writing that. Here I am – 7 or 8 hours late to the thread – reading what Violet wrote and thinking, no, that should be VICTORY!, but knowing that I’m too late.
kay
@pamelabrown53:
I don’t know. It would be cathartic for me, but old people are genuinely clued into the Medicare threat, IMO, and I don’t know how to defend Obama on charges that his father isn’t his father, which is the premise of the movie.
The premise of the movie is really that Obama is a scary black man, but just like when we were supposedly discussing the details of state birth records when we were really discussing scary black men, no one is going to follow my lead there.
I’m tired of talking about one thing when the whole fucking room knows we’re REALLY talking about something uglier. I’m out of patience.
I’ll probably stick to “voucherize”. I’ll end up sputtering mad if I don’t.
Soonergrunt
@jwb: There is a non-zero probability that one or more of us are just that.
Haven’t you noticed how DougJ and I never post at the same time? Creepy, innit?
eclare
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: LOL
psychobroad
@Mnemosyne: That was really cute!
SFAW
@Soonergrunt:
Well, normally I’d question it, but seeing as how you’re about four inches taller than Doug, and he types left-handed, I think you’re just trolling with that one.
Rand Careaga
@General Stuck:
I’m personally agnostic on electronic fraud, but years ago wondered why Diebold didn’t just go ahead and market it as a feature rather than a bug.
hitchhiker
Reminds me of the diehard home team fans who never stop thinking that AprilMayJuneJulyAugust of mediocre baseball will somehow be erased a spectacular Sept that will get their guys into the playoffs.
It could happen!
The team will find its mojo at the last possible moment, and the other guys will just implode at the mention of their name.
Patricia Kayden
Paul Ryan refusing to give specifics to Fox News on Tax Plan:
paul-ryan-to-fox-news-i-dont-have-the-time-to-explain-how-we-will-pay-for-our-tax-plan
R & R don’t even want their advocates to know the specifics of their policies. Amazing.
Amir Khalid
@Bex:
I have that album, and I like it. The squarest, most uptight guy in pop music covers Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Metallica, Guns’N’Roses, and Ronnie James Dio. Lots of people didn’t get the joke. But I thought it was a heckuva brave, if kind of dumb, album to make.
Southern Beale
That’s so unfair, John. Ryan & Romney have a plan to take on chronic Lyme disease. LOL
Tonal Crow
Bullmitt’s hit the reset button and shaken the Etch-a-Sketch so much he broke ’em.
Remember Bullmitt, when your campaign plane is stalled and is beginning to spin, whatever you do, keep the stick back in yer gut!
—
Another day, another load of Romney bullshit.
Tonal Crow
@Southern Beale:
So he’s gonna support CO2 limits after all?
Mr Stagger Lee
@Violet: Must read the book Favorite Son. The TV version with Harry Hamlin and Linda Kozlowski was wickedly fun.
Tonal Crow
@General Stuck:
Oh yes there is. If you don’t cast your vote on a hand-filled paper ballot, put it into a ballot box yourself, and if those ballots aren’t counted at the polling place under public supervision, your vote easily could disappear into the ether. Yeah, that means absentee ballots too, bucko.
Tonal Crow
@hitchhiker:
The Cubs are headed to the World Series! I swear!
SFAW
@Tonal Crow:
FTFY
g
@Violet:
The thought that someone feels strongly enough about him to attempt that is not very convincing.
General Stuck
@Tonal Crow:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premier_Election_Solutions
Possible. Much easier to dispose of digital info than that on paper. But it can be done. The reason I used Diebold for Ohio is that they have a large component of electronic voting machines that are Diebold made, and a history of mystery with Diebold and its people.
History, it’s what for breakfast, bucko.
Montysano
@Patricia Kayden:
They’re just trolling us now, right?
Will
So…he should just whip it out? Is that what they’re sayin?