Hindrocket at the Powerline:
I’ve been watching presidential debates for quite a few years, but I have never seen one like this. It wasn’t a TKO, it was a knockout. Mitt Romney was in control from the beginning. He was the alpha male, while Barack Obama was weak, hesitant, stuttering, often apologetic. The visuals were great for Romney and awful for Obama. Obama looked small, tired, defeated after four years of failure, out of ammo. One small point among many: Obama doesn’t even know how to stand at a podium, as he continually lifted up one leg. He would be below average as a high school debater.
I feel like I am reliving the Commander Codpiece days again- I’m not the only one to think this is the same kind of homoerotic hero worship that brought us this masterpiece:
It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can’t get anyone to notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile.
You can almost see these guys chasing Mitt the High School quarterback down the halls, begging to hold his books and sniff the jock strap of their alpha male.
Not that there is anything wrong with that.
Short Bus Bully
I want a Daddy! A real Daddy to tell me where to pee!
Xecky Gilchrist
Obama doesn’t even know how to stand at a podium
He did OK standing at a lectern, though.
(ETA: looks like that misuse has become acceptable, but I’m going to be a stick in the mud about it. Also too: this sort of fluffery is very Bush-reminiscent, and it’s a good reminder of what the ‘nutterati want to write about Pres. Romney. That alone is reason enough to reelect Obama, let alone the policy horrors.)
eric
Lucky for Romney, Women think the same way and this will close the gender gap that is killing him. Man make up less than half the electorate and vote in smaller numbers. Seriously, once an ignorant ass tool, always an ignorant ass tool.
chopper
this ‘New Coke’ tastes even better!
Short Bus Bully
And also too, a Mormon alpha male? It is to laugh.
My wife is Mormon and so are my in-laws, I know this tribe well. Alpha males they ain’t, at least in the traditional sense. This is simply GOP projection. If Mitt doesn’t win he will go down in history as weaker than John Kerry.
Maude
Lifting up one leg is good for the heart. You are supposed to do that when standing for any period of time.
Maybe Mitt can give the guy a haircut.
BGinCHI
Being a dick = winning
If that’s what animates your party then you can’t wait until the next Daddy figure starts sending young men and women to war.
I’ll be amazed when history doesn’t repeat itself.
Keith G
It was an avoidable and uninspiring performance. Hopefully this will be corrected and this one night won’t make a significant difference.
beltane
Wait a minute. Yesterday Hindraker said Obama was the 2nd coming of Mussolini but today he’s Caspar Milquetoast? What will Obama be tomorrow, Xenia Warrior Princess?
Short Bus Bully
And I’m still of the opinion that Obama stepped onto the stage in FULL DEFENSE mode to avoid any indication of “Angry Black Man”, which as we all know actually does have traction in every news cycle in our fucked up country.
He was fighting with one hand behind is back and his feet tied together.
ruemara
Is it ok to not care? The debate was Obama trying to do standard debate against Wild Barrage of Lies with no real moderator. If you can be swayed by a fucking brand new Mitt Romney with about a month before the election, then you’re officially a moron. It was never going to be the ninja slapfight but with words that people were blowing it up to be. Jaysus.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Sweet jumping jesus. Why do they let his old coot out of attic
beltane
@Short Bus Bully: This is why he excels on the stump as opposed to debates. If he were to appear to show disrespect to a WASP overlord in a one-on-one setting the whole Village would have a collective cow. I hope this situation changes in my lifetime because I find it to be shameful and grotesque.
Violet
Probably a good time to point out that on CNN’s real-time reaction lines, women didn’t like Romney very much. The alpha male thing didn’t work very well with them. Men didn’t like Obama as much. So, yeah, the alpha male thing is a big deal for them.
Brooklyn Michael
Not that I’m ever really inclined to do so, but consider cutting Assrocket some slack. After all this time with nothing positive or even competent about the Romney campaign up to this point, you kind of had to expect him to go overboard with his first bit of actual good-ish news.
ranchandsyrup
5 people sent me this today. One of them tried to tell me that Assrocket is not a winger and is more “independent”. This is why I am just choosing to laugh today.
Hal
So much of the coverage today is about how Romney won, but because Obama did not call him out on his lies and distortions. The disappointment seems more profound from Obama supporters while Romney supporters are thrilled he did not spontaneously combust.
Meh. All this does is keep the race more lively than it would have been if Obama had crushed Romney. The last thing the press wanted was a cakewalk for the next 34 days, and Obama unfortunately obliged.
The Moar You Know
Just so we’re clear, we ARE talking about a guy who gave himself the name “Hindrocket”.
chopper
@ruemara:
pretty much. try running this country for 4 years straight, then be at the top of your game debating a shit-flinging gibbon with multiple personality disorder.
Tractarian
Well, that’s what the right wing thinks, but that is manifestly not what history shows. People thought Al Gore was a dick. People thought Bob Dole was a dick. Nixon was a certainly a Dick (and a dick), but people didn’t realize it until after he was elected twice. Same thing with W.
Point is, if people think you’re a dick, you don’t get elected president.
That is a big problem for Mitt Romney.
Linda Featheringill
youtube.com/watch?v=jebDlVAcpGo&feature=player_embedded
If you haven’t seen this, watch.
Obama takes Romney to task for his lies during the debates last night.
Robert
I was a high school debater. The winner of the tournaments was almost always a calm, composed debater supporting everything with facts. Debaters like Mitt Romney, lying and talking a mile a minute in front of lay judges, wouldn’t get out of the preliminary bracket. Even in collegiate LD debate where speed is essential, composure and clarity are valued over aggression and strawmen.
eemom
It’s Sunday already?
flukebucket
Yeah. It reminds me of this sad spectacle.
Violet
@Tractarian: So in your example, people who were dicks did get elected president, but not if the electorate knew it beforehand. Does the electorate know/think Romney’s a dick?
taylormattd
Hey John, the republicans in Maine are attempting to make hay over one of my Daily Kos WoW guildies:
wonkette.com/485923/stunning-maine-gop-discovery-dem-challenger-is-socialist-video-game-psycho
Short Bus Bully
@beltane:
Exactly. And it fucking infuriates me for several reasons:
1) Obama can’t unload on Mitt because the context of any points he scored would be lost in Drudge, Fox, and everyone else banging the ANGRY BLACK MAN drum for the remaining month of the election cycle.
2) Firebaggers call Obama weak for having to play politics this way when he is instead being smart stepping to the side of the huge bear trap laid not too sneakily in front of him.
Imagine the self control it takes to do this kind of shit in front of the world.
The Red Pen
@Xecky Gilchrist:
At least you are not stuck in the mud alone. I, too, cringe at this misuse.
Tractarian
By the way, for those who are interested, Sully has had a nice night of sleep, apparently did a bit of waking/baking, and has now realized that it is a bit too early to start calling Mitt Mr. President.
Chris
I remember the Bush era too. All those years of hero worshiping, of talking about how he wasn’t stupid, he was a Great Man, in his own folksy and inarticulate way, and it was all the rest of the world that was just too stupid and unamerican to appreciate his awesomeness. History would vindicate him. He’d be the next Truman, the next Lincoln, the next Jackson… Einstein, Newton, Surak.
Nowadays, of course, they say “Bush was a liberal,” they totally DID TOO protest his big-spending RINO ways, and whine about how unfair it is when anyone brings him up.
Maude
@Short Bus Bully:
Romney was like watching a science experiment go wrong.
Great post title.
bemused
@ranchandsyrup:
I think you should send them Coles’ “sniff the jock strap of their alpha male” line.
Keith G
@Tractarian: One correction for historical accuracy. Prior to the 68 election Nixon was called Tricky Dicky for a reason We all knew he was a giant dick. it was just that he was able to convince the right number of voters that he was the type of dick they wanted on their side.
Tractarian
@Violet:
Yes. He has historically low favorable/unfavorable ratings.
Plus, look what has just happened. He has just had the best moment of his campaign so far. Why> Because he was aggressive, combative, and relentless in attacking the President.
He is being celebrated for being a dick.
Short Bus Bully
@Linda Featheringill:
Oh boy, here we go. Fuck yeah.
“If you want to be the President of the United States you owe the American people the Truth.”
MOAR of this pleaz.
TheF79
Anyone find any examples in the wingnut-verse of right wingers upset with Romney’s hard moderation tack? As far as I could tell, he waffled on whether he would cut taxes (and a revenue-neutral tax cut doesn’t really shrink “big gov’t” or drown it in a bathtub), other than PBS he declined to outline any huge reductions in government functions (passing on Dept of Educ. for example), he praised regulations as a necessary feature of free-market economies, he didn’t talk about killing social security or medicare (lazy moochers and their entitlements), etc. If I was a red-meat conservative, I’d find very little in that debate to like, yet everyone on the right seems to be going ga-ga for Romney’s performance in the debate. It seems like the praise is based SOLELY on the fact he was a big dick – can you imagine how Romney’s talking points would have played out in the Republican primary debate?
bemused
@The Moar You Know:
Seriously?
BGinCHI
@Tractarian: Agreed, which is why I added the para after the dick/winning comment.
Romney isn’t like W. W was a lot more likeable by comparison. Bush was a smirky dick and Romney is just a total can’t-stand-the-sight-of-him dick.
Napoleon
@Tractarian:
You obviously did not meet my dad back in 1968. Nixon was the only politician he whould get physically worked up about when he was talking about him (though Dole almost had that effect on him as well).
ranchandsyrup
@bemused: ’tis a good line. I’m going to let them have their VICTORY in this battle. One of them attempted to preempt the “Romney lied” angle, which I took as a tell.
Chris
@TheF79:
Don’t bet on it. They fundamentally don’t give a shit about policy, only tribalism. What they wanted to see was a rich white man smacking the uppity near-person who usurped their White House back in his place, which as far as they’re concerned is what they got last night. Don’t expect them to complain about actual policy reversals, most of them probably didn’t understand it anyway.
Rico
Alpha male QB? Hardly…
Wasn’t GWB a cheerleader at dear old Andover.
Talk about overcompesation.
“At Cranbrook, Romney was a manager for the ice hockey team and a member of the pep squad,[19] and during his senior year joined the cross country running team.[15] He belonged to eleven school organizations and school clubs overall, including the Blue Key Club booster group which he started.[19]”
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitt_Romney
Short Bus Bully
@BGinCHI:
No, he’s a lie to your face and feel no shame EVER sociopath. Much more dangerous than just being dickish.
bemused
@ranchandsyrup:
Interesting. They don’t care about Republicans lying. They admire it.
Chris
@Napoleon:
My grandad served in Southeast Asia in the good old days and, I’m told, was one of the people who met (or “met”) Nixon this one time he was touring the troops (don’t think he was POTUS yet). Thought he was an asshole.
Why Bob Dole, though?
Chris
@bemused:
Well, yes.
One of the Republicans in Congress supposedly said “I didn’t like Nixon until Watergate” after that whole thing came out.
They’re not good people. Independently of ideology and greed and all that, they’re just really fucked up people.
trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
That’s a mighty, mighty big
dog whistlefoghorn right there.bemused
@Chris:
Pathological.
ranchandsyrup
@bemused: I think most people are more comfortable with a lie when it confirms their narrative. Its a question of degree. Knowing the person who tried to pre-but the “Romney lied” argument, she is just ecstatic that there is good news to root for and didn’t want anything to get in the way of it. It wasn’t self awareness that drove her to do that.
bemused
@ranchandsyrup:
Reality doesn’t have a chance.
TooManyJens
@taylormattd: They really don’t understand how much more relatable they just made Lachowicz to a lot of their constituents, do they?
ranchandsyrup
@bemused: Nope. I will remember it fondly. I get the feeling that the post-truth era will resemble the dark ages.
Napoleon
@Chris:
Dole had a very sharp wit and was a bit of a hatchetman when Ford ran (remember, he was his VP pic and famously accused Dems during that campaign of willy-nilly starting every war the country had been involved in). Personally I like Dole and his humor, but I could get it that he is not to everyones taste. I kind of assume it was the Ford run that did it with my dad.
MikeJ
@Keith G:
Too late.
bemused
@ranchandsyrup:
I haven’t lost all hope that some day the anti-reality folks will be relegated back to shouting gibberish while standing on their soapboxes on street corners while passersby scurry away.
Cain
OK folks, you need to have some fun. Feel free to watch this and let your cares drown in mirth.
Mitt Romney Gangnam Style
Your welcome.
Death Panel Truck
@Napoleon: Dole in ’76:
“I figured it up the other day: If we added up the killed and wounded in Democrat wars in this century, it would be about 1.6 million Americans — enough to fill the city of Detroit.”
He later had to walk that one back.
ranchandsyrup
@bemused: You’re right. I was overly dramatic. Going through the next 100 double downs by the reality impaired will not be fun, though.
Cheers, Bemused. Have a good one.
The Red Pen
@bemused: Yes, Hinderocker gave himself the “Powerline” nickname “Hindrocket.”
They’ve since taken down the nicknames, but as I recall, one of the other guys also had a name which invoked images of something forcibly shoved up his ass.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@taylormattd: Beware the WRECK LIST!
bemused
@The Red Pen:
He’s actually a lawyer? I can’t imagine who in the hell would hire him for anything, let alone some legal work.
bemused
@ranchandsyrup:
Actually, it’s the 27% who are overly dramatic.
Ash Can
The results of the debate just reinforce it: The only way a GOP presidential candidate can win nowadays is to cheat.
blingee
You are such a tool Cole by linking to that garbage right wing site. Some days I don’t know who’s side you are on. Wouldn’t trust you to be on the other end of a rope that’s for sure. Fortunately you are not smart enough to be a snake in the grass about it like the Arianna Huffs and Cenk’s of the world.
You are probably just eating Greenwalds boogers again.
hep kitty
@Hal: I can understand that, 11 dimensional chess and whatnot. But I reeeeally had a problem with the President letting the whole “you stole $700B from Medicare” lie just slip right by.
It was at that point I wanted to throw something.
uptown
Obama was painfully boring (instead of just boring), but…
the local Seattle news all seemed to lead with Obama’s sound bites afterwards. Rmoney was not to be found, so I’m betting that Obama won this in retrospect.
hep kitty
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: An oozing boil on a warthog’s backside has more charm.
(Pre-emptive apologies to all oozing boils on warthog backsides worldwide)
Mnemosyne
This only reinforces my impression that the only people who were impressed by Mitt Romney last night are white men. And Romney already had their vote locked up.
Tractarian
@MikeJ:
Too late for what? The link is Gallup showing a whopping +12 for Obama on job performance. That’s his best number in EVAR.
Are you saying Obama will inevitably take a polling hit because of last night? Well, at least he’s got a decent-sized margin for error.
hep kitty
Rape charges dropped b/c disabled victim, with the mentality of a 3 year-old and the ability to move one index finger only, because of lack of evidence of lack of consent.
My god, republicans must love this story
The Moar You Know
@blingee: Derf, were you punched in the face repeatedly as a child?
Just curious.
g
@Chris: They fundamentally don’t give a shit about policy, only tribalism. What they wanted to see was a rich white man smacking the uppity near-person who usurped their White House back in his place, which as far as they’re concerned is what they got last night. Don’t expect them to complain about actual policy reversals, most of them probably didn’t understand it anyway
Ugh.
Sheesh! Is this they got? Dubya used to cross his damn leg over the other every time he stood at a podium!
Donut
@ruemara:
I think it’s worth saying over and over until it sinks in with the emo-progs and the MSNBC personalities.
The strategy was dependent upon a moderator who was willing to take control and keep to the fomat. Lehrer failed, the strategy fell apart, and Obama did not do a good enough job adjusting on the fly. The only flaw in the strategy was trusting in the format. And then the candidate fucked up. He is a human being, after all.
The debate is one event that can be chalked up in the lose column, but that is the only iffy moment Obama has had. At all.
Camp Obama has recognized the problem and is fixing it. Look at what the prez is doing today. It’s a multiple-day process to recover from this.
There is no way that Romney massively moved the straggling undecideds into his camp. No way. Democrats need to chill the fuck out. Take a deep breath. It’s going to be okay.
TooManyJens
@Donut:
This is the part where Mitt would call babies parasites and release page 52 of his 1996 tax return and generally just flail around in clueless desperation. Obama’s a little more level-headed, thank goodness.
beergoggles
If that jockstrap isn’t off colt mccoy’s ass, I’m not interested.
And yes there is a facebook page idolizing colt mccoy’s ass…
Just Some Fuckhead
@Ugh.:
Wasn’t he dreamy?
priscianusjr
@Violet:
priscianusjr
@ranchandsyrup: