I’ve been quietly confident this whole election- the polling data has been consistent, and the Romney team has really proven themselves to be quite incompetent. Having said that, I’ve also sort of felt like Obama in the first debate- “How the fuck did we get to this where someone can just lie and lie and lie and get away with it, and not only get away with it, but half the country believes him?” It’s really mind-boggling to me.
How bad have our media failed us that Romney is actually making it to election day without having released his taxes? That his outright lies are called “partially true?” The whole thing is so damned depressing.
Tim C
On the other hand, it’s nice to have you on our side again John.
Barentw
True, but if Obama pulls it off we can cleanse ourselves in the sweet, sweet ambrosia of wingnut tears.
Just Some Fuckhead
Hopefully, candidates on the left will get the same lax treatment in the future.
Hahahahahahahahaha!
mcmullje
It’s making me crazy John. The major news stations have much to answer for.
I haven’t had the TV on too much but is there any national reporting about what’s going on in Florida?
Not Sure
Keep New York ultraviolet. The governor says any NYS resident can legally vote at any polling place in the state, because Sandy.
redshirt
I despair when I think this is even a competition – Obama should win 90-10%. But then, a rock with a (R) after its name would get 42% of the vote, automatically.
We’re pretty seriously split as a country right now. The way out? I think it’s tough talking Dems.
Take back the “Patriotism” mantle from the Repukes. Speak boldly, loudly, against the opposition. Be relentless in your pursuit of the equality and fairness. Be tough. Confidence inspires confidence.
The future is ours, if we seize it.
Comrade Javamanphil
Ari Shapiro admitted to me on twitter that Romney’s lack of disclosure is rather shocking but on his news reports…both sides! Ah well. For the want of a functional press corps.
Davis X. Machina
The Democratic Party in 1876 won 155 House seats, the Republican Party, 136.
The political price you pay for making a Civil War possible, even likely, killing 600,000 Americans in the process, seems to be losing elections for all of 10 years.
What the Romans were to roads, or the Germans were to fighting France, we are to not paying f*cking attention.
jl
But I hear Obama brought Christie and Springsteen together for a (presumably safe) man hug. I watched the clip of Christie’s testimonial on TPM and broke down in tears. Tears of what I cannot say.
The election campaign ended as a touching reality show up close in personal. Must be a famous poem about this, maybe written on some other planet that blew up shortly afterward, and thus lost to the galactic history books. But I will try to think of some approximation here on earth.
Cacti
Mittens is white privilege personified.
As a white guy voting against my tribal identity, I’m ready to see white resentment politics have a stake driven through its heart.
SatanicPanic
I comfort myself with the knowledge that the news media is getting more irrelevant every year.
Robin G.
If we win, I think it’s a big repudiation of the Republican methodology: Throw enough money and lies at an election and it’s yours. Not that they’ll stop trying, mind, but the non-kamikaze types who want results will at least ponder the effectiveness of the strategy, I think.
I have to admit, I’m freaking out about voter suppression right now, and the power outages and codes in the machines and a hundred and one other paranoid fears of how we could snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Being a lifetime Democrat leaves some PTSD kneejerk behavior, I think.
Betsy
Dude, I wondered this exact same thing last night, like are 48% realy idiots,racists, er whut, and the boyfriend said you take the 27 percent and add the fact the economy is not in great shape, and then another 20% will say Hey, let’s give the new guy a shake.
He convinced me people are not slime balls, racists, or idiots at nearly the level that Romney polls at.
cmorenc
There’s a huge chunk of the electorate that was only willing to view Romney in soft-focus because of the protracted period of tough economic times we’ve been through which Obama hasn’t been able to successfully fix yet. During times of great economic and social anxiety, many people grasp for superficially simple, clear solutions (what Romney offers) and lose patience with longer explanations for plodding progress, regardless of how sound they may be on careful examination. It’s really as simple as that.
Raven
What’s all this freaking out about the motherfuckers lying? Swift fucking Boat Veterans for Fucking Truth douche bags. Were all of you born last week?
Cacti
@Davis X. Machina:
Or, from 1932 to 1952, Democratic Presidents had a 20 year run where they ended the great depression, and defeated European fascists + the Empire of Japan.
So how did America say thank you? By voting the GOP back into power in ’52.
General Stuck
There is no doubt about it, and it would be wise to acknowledge reality that the republicans have built a huge and formidable megaphone with many eerie sounds like a Calliope from hell.
There is little bullshit they cannot spin into a portrait of reality they club the nation with. Mix that with a white majority jingoistic country, and they are rarely out of the game. They don’t even need Reagans anymore, and just any old shyster in a suit will bring out the faithful, and turn Butch Cassidy into Abe Lincoln.
I think Obama has done about as well as can be against the maelstrom of bullshit slung out by the wurlitzer with help from the msm. And we are exactly where we were in 2000, before the election, hopefully not after.
I think Romney is reduced to blowing smoke up the nations ass at this time, and I see no evidence the evangelicals will push him to victory like GWB in 2004. But who knows.
Agoraphobic Kleptomaniac
I’ve said this over and over again since I realized it, but Mitt Romney’s lies, use of those lies, and people not giving a shit about him using lies, are my existential moral crisis.
I’ve doubted why I should care about truth and the pursuit of it, and despaired at loved ones who support Romney in spite of the lies.
It really has kept me up nights.
Betsy
@redshirt: some of the phraseology could be lifted straight from the speeches at the democratic convention.. That seemed to get folks fired up and reminded them of what we’re all here for.
JWR
The reason I’m hoping that Nate Silver’s numbers turn out to be dead on is my probably misguided hope that the media will take note, and having taken note, learn something. (A guy can dream, can’t he?) But seriously, what I want is that the media choke on its own bile.
NR
@redshirt: You might as well wish for a pony that shits rainbows, because you have the exact same chance of getting that.
These days, the Democrats are dedicated to implementing the Republican agenda, just a little slower than the Republicans themselves are.
redshirt
Republicans are only still viable because of single issue voters. There’s a set of issues they’ve used reliably: Taxes, foremost among them. Defense used to be theirs – no longer. “Law and Order”. Abortion. Gay rights. Religion. Guns.
These single issues are enough for many folks to vote against their own interests in favor of this single issue.
So, we need to work on taking these issues away. Obama has done incredible work in moving the Defense button. The “Tax” button should be next.
I don’t think we’ll ever get “guns”.
eidelweiss
The poll aggregation sites (such as PEC and 538) say an Obama win. However, I cannot shake a bad feeling that Romney will somehow ride voter suppression and some other tricks into the White House. Someone shake me out of this night terror!
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
I’m feeling fairly confident, too, but I am especially looking forward to certain individuals going down in flames, chief among them Josh Mandel (and I’m 1,500 miles or so away from Ohio), Linda McMahon, Joe Walsh, and–it is to be hoped–West (Florida).
A Bachmann loss would be pure bliss, but I don’t think the polls look favorable….
Warren Terra
So far as I know, Mitt has never even fulfilled the quarter-assed pledge he did make, to release a second year’s tax returns.
On the other hand, I saw someplace that he supposedly promised to do so by the end of the year. I just hope that even after he loses tomorrow (knock on wood) he gets pressed to fulfill the promise. Wouldn’t want anyone to doubt his word, after all – could be bad for the political careers of whichever Romneyspawn inevitably follow in his footsteps.
Gin & Tonic
I will comfort myself in the knowledge that when the tax issue first blew up, back in June or whatever, I said Willard would never ever release his returns and it wouldn’t matter.
lamh35
So I posted earlier about Obama locking up the Christie vote by having Bruce Springsteen call from AF1 when Obama was making his daily call to the Hurricane Sandy elected officials. (Here’s the video of Christie describing meeting “the Boss” and the call: http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/christie-describes-meeting-bruce-springsteen)
So ok for some reason the Romney camp leaked that Christie refused to participate in a rally with Romney yesterday. Why in the world they leaked this story and thought it was a good story for them?
I’m with Josh Marshall.
Report: Chris Christie Declined Invite To Romney Event Sunday
gbear
Bloomberg news found out what was going on with Romney’s taxes. He wasn’t paying any.
Maude
Reagan lied during the 1980 campaign. He lied for 8 years.
People like to be lied to when it’s about what they want to hear.
Captain Haddock
I don’t find it depressing because there is a certain logic behind it – the owners of the media will squash any and all criticism of Romney because they see a financial interest in the GOP taking over again.
I guess, one some level, a self-interested and greedy corporate run media is better than rank stupidity.
But, at the same time I have relatives with barely two nickels to rub together that think they are somehow going to benefit from tax pollicies aimed at the upper 1%.
So, fuck it, I guess it would be depressing, but:
A. this election has gone on too long and its been exhausting.
B. This great $9 Malbec has kicked in :)
Davis X. Machina
@Agoraphobic Kleptomaniac:…and people not giving a shit about him using lies,
They’re not lies if they work.
Democracy is for closers.
Always be closing.
In a country that once wept for Willy Loman….
Agoraphobic Kleptomaniac
@Raven: A single PAC ad is a blip that can’t be entirely held responsible for 2004.
Mitt Romney is a self-sustaining tear in the fabric of reality.
Chris
So my Christie/Romney-adoring Republican friend who I’ve mostly not argued with chooses today to hit me with a “I hope Romney wins! Why should Obama get a second term?” Gchat, which has been the last half hour on Gchat. Feels good to actually unload on one of them. Cathartic, actually.
jl
“Some say” it all boils down to
America’s undecided voters
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/undecided-voter/1418227/
under_score
“How the fuck did we get to this where someone can just lie and lie and lie and get away with it, and not only get away with it, but half the country believes him?”
Even more mind boggling: I could put this quote as my FB status, and most local people will think I’m talking about Obama (I live in TX, enough said)
Truly unbelievable.
AA+ Bonds
The Obama campaign consultants worked the “issue” for as long as they felt it would be fruitful, and then dropped it.
Not that Romney’s tax returns aren’t a real issue – they are – but that’s only partially relevant to the narrative of the campaign, in the sense that public opinion forms the context for political consultants picking and choosing the “issues” that drive press coverage.
I don’t blame Obama’s folks, though. At the end of that “story” they would have been placed in the sound-bite-unfriendly position of explaining that Romney paid extra money to the government to conceal his rock-bottom tax rates.
Ruckus
How bad have our media failed us that Romney is actually making it to election day without having released his taxes? That his outright lies are called “partially true?”
That’s what happens when you consistently over pay
peoplewhores for shoddy work. They keep doing the same shitty job and even add more of the same. Either because they don’t know better or they start thinking their shitty work must actually be worth something.Odie Hugh Manatee
We used to have a media that would have dogged Rmoney to death about his tax returns. No more. They were bought up by wealthy people like Romoney and they have to perform their acts for their puppet masters. Now it’s 24/7 “both sides do it” news, that is unless the Democrats “do it”.
Money can’t buy you love but it sure can buy you everything else.
Ben Franklin
After watching FOX (brain bleach!) it’s seems the reluctant optimism, of which I am chief enabler, has reached the point where I am prepared to predict a landslide.
The Trifecta Press has been walking it back for the sake of honor amongst thieves.
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
@lamh35: And the fact that Christie said no makes for a big, ol’ turd sandwich (extra pickles) for Mittens. Oh, well, he can console himself in a pile of thousand-dollar bills in his 25,000 sq. foot mansion, dreaming about what might have been….
redshirt
Systematically, there are two main fixes to our current problems:
1. Limit money in elections. This must be done.
2. Limit ownership of media outlets in the same market. Diversity of voices must be maintained.
Keith G
I’ll see you that and raise you:
How has the right to vote been restricted in so many places without most of us marching in the streets? And it’s top down. The White House should have been raising hell about this at least a year ago.
I am beginning to realized that most of us are too egocentric and self satisfied to actually contribute in any positive way to a dynamic democracy. We do get the government that we have earned.
Keith
Thought for the day: if Sandy killed Romneymentum, shouldn’t the GOP have a conversation with God about why He wanted them to lose?
Seriously, TWO hurricanes, same party.
Evolving Deep Southerner
@Raven:
I know, I know. You’re right. But God damn, it seems to get so much more ridiculous and blatant every time around that you’d think people would just have to learn. But the numbers stay where they’re at. And from that, the only conclusion you can draw is that this country is going stupid. Who wants to acknowledge that?
geg6
I blame two things. First is the Reagan administration. Somehow, the media got turned from the great Fourth Estate that had developed over the course of the mid-20th century, the media that brought us Ed Murrow reporting on migrant workers and interviewing McCarthy, Walter Cronkite’s Vietnam show and editorial, the NYT publishing the Pentagon Papers, and the WaPo chasing down the Watergate story. And it seemed to happen during the Reagan years. I’m not sure I understand entirely what happened there, but that’s when the Village really began, IMHO. The second thing I blame is a direct result of the Reagan era, the dismantling of the regulation of the airwaves for the public good. Which led to corporate capture of the media and the consolidation of the media in the hands of just a few, whether individuals like Murdoch or corporations like GE or WaPo. They no longer fulfill the constitutional role assigned to them, that of keeping the electorate informed and officials accountable. They are no longer close to the electorate and view themselves as just as powerful and monolithic as any elected official. They are corrupt and rotten and not only neglectful of their duties but are actively seeking to profit from the sufferings of the citizens of this country as much as any Wall Streeter or bankster or oil company CEO. They can’t die off soon enough for me.
Schlemizel
@redshirt:
I think you just did an excellent job of laying out how the GOP manages to keep half the country in a state of stupidity.
I think we can make progress on guns once the manufacturers stop getting a good return out of the NRA. It might be an extended period of low crime (like we have had over the last 20 years or so) along with a market saturation (which we have had for some time which is why they keep having to amp up the fear) and it stops being a political plus (there is the key). Nit sure when we get to that last one but damn I hope it is in my life time
redshirt
@Keith: Hurricanes only come from God when they smite Democratic chances. Other hurricanes are random weather events – what are you gonna do?
Robin G.
By the way, here’s a question: is Mitt just going through the motions, as you kind of have to at this point? Does he know how slim his chances are? Or have the Yes Men protected him from reality? That would make for an awfully entertaining show…
NotMax
Occurs to me that someone who can countenance lying so readily and unabashedly would have no qualms whatsoever about lying on his tax returns.
AA+ Bonds
@geg6:
This was real, but it was a very short period of time. To use the term loosely, we are seeing regression to the mean.
Hill Dweller
If/when Obama wins, I’d love to see Rove get his comeuppance. That overrated hack had hundreds of millions in dark money and a boatload of Senate Dems defending their seats, but he blew it.
smintheus
If Obama wins, as expected, I’m going to bet that the TV pundits on Election Night and media nitwits in the weeks to follow will spend more time discussing what it means for the Republicans in Congress and the Republican Party than analyzing what it means for Obama and the Democratic agenda.
PsiFighter37
@geg6: What happened was that the Equal Time doctrine (IIRC, that is what it was named) was abolished under Reagan – hence the rise of turdheads like Rush.
Yes, Saint Ronnie is responsible for people like him and Michael Savage and Sean Hannity getting to spew forth eternal diarrhea of the spotted mind every weekday on your AM dial.
(did that movie reference work? I hope so, because that is one of my favorite movies)
danimal
A win tomorrow (which I predict will occur) will be a major turning point for liberalism/progressivism/soc!alism. Despite conservative best efforts, the economy is almost certain to grow over the next four years, and the Kenyan usurper AND HIS POLICIES will get credit. The headwinds Obama faced over the past 4 years have been fierce; the next four years should be a chance to show real progress under left-of-center leadership. The momentum from the economic expansion will likely lead to a roaring economy in 2016. Republicans will have to change their game in order to compete.
While the GOP has been as virulently anti-Obama today as they were virulently anti-Clinton yesterday, there is a difference in the politics. Clinton was a centrist with liberal accents, Obama has governed as a liberal with moderate instincts. Clinton’s success can be attributed to co-opting Republican issues; Obama’s success can be attributed to overcoming Republican obstinance. In 2016, the general economic trend of the past quarter-century will be inescapable: Clinton: 8 years of growth, Bush: 8 years of stagnation and financial collapse, and Obama: 8 years of rebuilding to a strong economy.
Tomorrow is conservatism’s last gasp. In the coming years, the GOP will have to move leftward in one or more significant ways if they want to compete. They may not want to do that yet, thinking that they just need a ‘true conservative’ to represent them. It may take them another election cycle or two before they learn the lesson. I think the GOP will drop most of the Tea Party rhetoric, but they may not make a clean and public break for a while. In the meantime, Dems and liberals will have the driver’s seat. Good days ahead! Despite UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH!
How’s that for Hope and Change?
Southern Beale
Yes well, we invaded and occupied an entire sovereign nation on less.
Media is the problem. Don’t know how to fix it.
PsiFighter37
@Robin G.: I think he’s protected by the Yes Men (if the leaked internal polls to the UK conservative tabloid are any indication).
Which is why I cannot wait for Willard Mittens Romney to concede tomorrow night and cry like the little shithead spoiled child he’s always been. Hopefully he deuces himself at the end for good measure.
AA+ Bonds
@Betsy:
It may be true, but it’s a terrifying way to pick a leader when there is always the existing guy, one “new guy”, and no one else.
Schlemizel
@Hill Dweller:
not in this lifetime – to quote the great Homer J.:
“I will never get my comeuppance! You hear me! No comeuppance!”
Paul
Amen. If people on the left had bothered to vote in 2010, there wouldn’t have been any voter suppression in 2012. And now they are complaining…
Bubblegum Tate
@eidelweiss:
I’m with you, actually. I feel like the fatal flaw of all this polling is that it assumes no voter suppression, and the GOP is going heavy on the voter suppression.
Hungry Joe
Has Romney really “gotten away” with not releasing his taxes? I mean, it was reported that he didn’t release them (not as much as it should have been, but still … ). I suspect that most people know about it, and that any effect it might have had on voters has had that effect. And remember, the Obama guys certainly could have run ads about it.
Devil’s advocate (what the hell — there’s nothing else going on in the world): Why should a candidate release his tax returns? The IRS sees them, and if they aren’t kosher the (non-)taxpayer ponies up what he owes, plus a fine; if they really aren’t kosher, he goes to jail. Isn’t that enough? Did we see Roosevelt’s tax returns? Truman’s? Ike’s? Kennedy’s?
I haven’t really thought this through. Just … wondering.
AA+ Bonds
@Hill Dweller:
I mean, he will get a lot of money if/when Obama does/doesn’t win. Forever.
“Comeuppance” would be an indictment.
redshirt
@Schlemizel: Dems may gain advantage on the gun issue if they can set the terms of the “Defense” and “Law and Order” issues. If Dems are seen as the authority on those two issues, then perhaps over time people will see any attempt to regulate gun ownership as that – regulation. And not “COMIN’ FER MY GUNS!” hysteria that plays out now.
ranchandsyrup
“Turnout is going to determine the winner of this election”
Oh, thank you pundits for clearing that up.
Maude
@Hill Dweller:
If Rove fails, he gets more work. IOKIYAR
danimal
@Keith: Amazing, isn’t it, how those ‘not-at-all-related-to-climate-change’ hurricanes have come home to roost for the GOP.
FlipYrWhig
@geg6: I feel like what happened, and this is hard for me to fathom, is that the media decided that they really did care when conservatives told them they were biased against them. Maybe it was because the owners of the papers told them to be nicer to the people who bought the ads, or because subscription revenue started to fall and the investors started to panic, or something. But that was the undoing of the media as an engine for creating an informed citizenry and the beginning of its transformation into something that cowers before the right, pokes at the left, and generally wastes everyone’s time.
AA+ Bonds
@Hungry Joe:
Probably the best way to view it. The issue appeared not because it was relevant (although it was relevant) but because the Obama campaign consultants got on the bus. As far as they were concerned, it served its purpose and ran the narrative for a surprising number of weeks.
PsiFighter37
@ranchandsyrup: And if democracy were exercised to its fullest, the Republicans would never again win a fucking national election.
Fuck Rick Scott, Jon Husted, and the rest of those fucking clowns who think democracy = they are Emperor Palpatine and we = Jar Jar Binks enabling them as he did in Episode II.
FlipYrWhig
@ranchandsyrup: Also, this game is going to be won by whoever scores the most points.
NotMax
@Cacti
The U.K. voted out Churchill and his party just a couple of months after V-E Day.
elaine benes
I’m feeling confident in OFA, Nate and Sam, but whoa mama, the wingnuts are fucking convinced that Willards gonna win 325+. Romney landslide bitchez!
While I know they’re delusional and hate teh maths, a tiny sliver of me worries there’s some sort of fix in the works (bigger than the FL/OH shenanigans).
Thankfully I have lots of wine to get me through the next 24-plus hours.
FlipYrWhig
@Paul: Nah, people “on the left” still voted in 2010, but people who like Obama better than they like Local Democrat Jones stayed home, and angry old white people got good and riled. So it’s not really the same people complaining.
Paul
@Hungry Joe:
In Romney’s case, it was critical for the voters to see them. He may have had illegal accounts abroad. Rumors are that he was part of an amnesty deal offered by the IRS. and this was the big reason Romney refused the media and the voters to see them.
But most voters don’t seem to care. Obama hasn’t fixed all the world’s problems in less than 4 years. And he is black.
bemused
@geg6:
Even though I was busy with young kids and not that tuned into politics during the Reagan years, it still was noticeable to me that in 1980’s it became about “me, me, money, money”.
The GOP is fighting a losing battle with demographics. Even Sen. Lindsey Graham said just a couple of months ago that they were losing the demographics race badly. “We’re not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for the long term”. It’s not for lack of trying by Fox, Rush and the whole rightwing media machine and the Village idiots letting journalism done but they still are in trouble. That does encourage me.
Hill Dweller
@Schlemizel: I doubt he’ll get any criticism from the Village, but the Wingnut Billionaire Brigade, who fed him all that money, will likely want some answers. Without their money, Rove loses whatever power he has/had.
redshirt
@AA+ Bonds: Yeah. Remember when folks were questioning why Obama was using the tax issue months ago, rather than save it for closer to the election?
The thought was, I think: Set the narrative earlier in the race, then let it simmer without active pushing. It might look petty/negative in the final days for the Obama team to be pushing the tax return issue. They framed it months ago, and it stuck.
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
@smintheus: You got that right… I’ve already seen a slew of articles about the impending Republican civil war (a battle I look forward to with delight!). They’ll shed a few more moderates, tack further right, and continue to toddle towards extinction.
Schlemizel
@redshirt:
100% agreed – pretty much what I was trying to say at the end there. If we get past the CUMMIN FER YER GUNS the issue has no political advantage & it (and the NRA if there is an FSM) are dead
Nick
@Cacti: In all fairness, Truman did get re-elected in 1948. And don’t forget that in the UK it was the Conservatives who were the ones in charge during the Depression and WW2 (as the largest party in the National Government coalition) — and immediately after WW2 ended the public gave Labour a landslide victory. There’s no bad thing in switching parties if you’re looking to the future — as long as both parties can be trusted.
And that’s the difference — the Republicans now can’t be trusted, just as the Democrats could not be trusted in the 1870s.
Robin G.
@Bubblegum Tate: Me three. I really, really, really want FL and OH to not matter tomorrow night.
FlipYrWhig
@elaine benes: There’s no fix in the works. They just got all excited about those Gallup polls and are going to trust them until proven otherwise. Sweet, sharp, prickly otherwise.
AA+ Bonds
I’d just hope that after four solid years of getting called s*ci*lists for proposing alternatives to poor, sick people dying hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, liberals are smart enough to hear this song playing in their heads.
redshirt
@elaine benes: I’m worried about fraud/suppression too. BUT! Obama is the POTUS and has the weight of the DOJ behind him. His election team is the best and knows well what the Repukes are capable of trying.
So, in sum, as with many/most things: Chill, Obama’s got this.
mikefromArlington
Wonder if fox will stop talking about Bengazi after tomorrow
PeakVT
No, Cole. If you’re a true liberal, the time to be depressed is after Obama wins. I’m sure someone here can give you a reason if you can’t find one on your own.
Ash Can
There are the racists, who will vote for Romney just to get the colored guy out of the White House. There are the GOP tribalists, who will vote for Romney just to get the Democrat out of the White House. There are the morons who believe the Fox News and Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and e-mail rumor nonsense about Obama and Pelosi running human trafficking operations out of the ATF and registered Democrats all having satanic symbols tattooed on their faces in invisible ink. There are the wealthy folks who believe that a Romney presidency would make them even wealthier. And weaving in and out of all of this is a strong thread of denial — the belief that Romney wouldn’t do any of the crazy shit he’s talked about during the campaign; that he said all that just to keep the wackos happy and would be a wise moderate once he got into office, because, hey, Massachusetts. Romney has said everything at one time or another, and has offered very few details which would lend his policies any clarity. As a result, people remember what they want, believe what they want about him, and project their own values and priorities upon him, because he’s a blank screen. The people who believe he’d be a good president do so because they’ve picked out the bits of “evidence” they want, and ignored all the rest.
Narcissus
Somebody needs to make a Pundit Accuracy Index, so whenever a pundit says something, you can go to the Index and see if they’ve ever been right about their predictions.
I have no ideas or skills that could make that happen, but it sure would be useful.
Schlemizel
@PeakVT:
Because we are going to have to put up with 4 more years of gooper obstructionism & the national pain it will cause
How’d I do?
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
@FlipYrWhig: “Well, you have to take things one election at a time… We didn’t come here to lose… I’m just happy to be here….”
You really can trot out the sports interview cliches and appply them to election day!
moops
Yahoo front page news since the moment it was minted:
Obama, Romney pursue last votes in close race
By KASIE HUNT and NEDRA PICKLER | Associated Press – 6 hrs ago
It wasn’t true then, and isn’t true now. I don’t see AP or Yahoo News doing any sort of “walk back” on their coverage. Why should they ? Who holds any news outlet accountable for being grossly wrong ?
redshirt
@FlipYrWhig: I think the change in media is easy to explain: Corporate ownership.
TV stations used to be owned by TV stations; newspapers owned by newspaper people.
But then de-regulation happened, and GE and Disney and Newscorp started buying up every and any media outlet they could, such that now, the vast majority of the MSM is filtered through just a few corporate outlets. Corporations want what they want, for themselves, which is usually $.
De-centralizing media ownership is the way trough this Village madness.
Emerald
@Hill Dweller:
Actually, it seems Rove has made out like a bandit business-wise. He took those billionaires to the cleaners. The Republican consultants have been skimming off the vast majority of that dark money in consultant fees, or so the ether tells me (no linky–can’t remember where I saw this–might have been Rachel, if hazy memory serves).
It’s all part of the winger way of life, doncha know. Profit über alles.
NotMax
@Narcissus
The conglomeration of bytes in the ‘100% wrong’ section would tip the internets over onto their side.
aimai
I just heard a female undecided voter from South Boston describe her dilemma this way:
“I am angry with Scot Brown because he didn’t keep his promises and didn’t do what he said he’d do in 2010 so I don’t want to vote for him. But I am afraid to vote for Elizabeth Warren because she is “too left” and I think she won’t work well and be bipartisan with the Republicans in the Senate.”
You can’t say she’s an absolute moron because she is at least oriented as to time (2010 was two years ago, not now) and place (she identified herself as coming from South Boston.) Hell, she even knows there are two political parties. But after that what she thinks politics, policy and parties are for is anybody’s guess. At that point she is, basically, flying by the seat of her pants. She has no idea what happens in the Senate, or why, she just has been told over and over and over again that “people need to work together” in a “bipartisan fashion” to “get things done.”
aimai
PeakVT
@mikefromArlington: No, because Benghazi and Solyndra are all they have after 4 years of an administration so squeaky clean that people would let their firstborn eat off of it.
Cacti
@FlipYrWhig:
I’m anxious, but more pre-game jitters than a sense of impending doom a la 2010.
I just think the Republican rank and file are so deep into their closed information feedback loop, they can’t contemplate anything but a Romney win.
Keith G
@Bubblegum Tate:
Unlike you and eidelweiss (may you bloom and grow), I feel the good guys will squeak by.
But if we don’t. If indeed there is a loss due to third-world style political tactics, what should the left do?
I have an opinion and it ain’t pretty. Yet my fear is that the great many, even the heroic typists here, will complain for a bit than go back to business as usual. Wolves tend to gobble up sheep.
GxB
I’m sure it’s already been touched on, but the speculation as to why Rmoney is campaigning tomorrow, Election Day, in Cleveland and Pittsburgh: to fuck up infrastructure/be a nuisance in large liberal leaning cities of contested states. Sounds about right to me, still running around with the scissors and talking big – what a smegwipe.
redshirt
@PeakVT: And those 2 things are absolute non issues.
Obama’s first term has been perfect. Can’t wait for the second!
Go Bronco Bama!
Schlemizel
@Hill Dweller:
You are assuming that the people dumb enough to give him millions in the first place will suddenly become smarter. I expect them to get shorn again
PS – wth does spell check not recognize “shorn” its a good English word
Haydnseek
@eidelweiss: I agree. I lost confidence in the whole process after the Great Theft of 2000. As for the night terrors thing, I suppose we could sleep in shifts……..
blingee
The way I see it, Obama has 4 years to basically shore things up so that the next republican president can only screw things up so bad. I’m thinkin maybe Jeb.
Either way, America is screwed when someone with the character of Rmoney can basically get this close. It should have been no contest months ago.
It had bugger all to do with the first debate…just like Obama winning will have bugger all to do with the hurricane.
PsiFighter37
@mikefromArlington: One of my conservative friends on Facebook has been bitching about Benghazi the past few days. That means we’re winning. Any time the conservative pony ride is about to end, they start whining about non-issues in the vain hope that someone, anyone, will give them the time of day.
@moops: Well, Yahoo is trying to save their corporate bacon nowadays, so they’ll say or do anything for attention. To me, that explains the dregs that is the comments section on almost all their articles.
GregB
Obama wins NH by at 4%.
My prediction.
FlipYrWhig
@aimai: Some of that is Scott Brown’s whole shtick, isn’t it? “Lookit me, bein’ bipartisan!” But, yeah, it’s weird that she would take “Scott Brown is willing to work with the other side in the Senate” and twist it into “Elizabeth Warren is unwilling to work with the other side in the Senate” without taking into account how many people are on each side and what they’re trying to do.
gogol's wife
@blingee:
My thoughts exactly. I can’t believe we’re having to bite our nails at this point.
redshirt
@GregB: My prediction: Obama approximate 310 EV’s, 52% of PV.
Roger Moore
@Hill Dweller:
Why? I’d much rather watch him become the Republican Bob Shrum, convincing everyone that he’s their ticket to victory, only to have him ruin one promising Republican’s career after another.
redshirt
@FlipYrWhig: Scott Brown drives a truck, don’t you know? Just like me!
PeakVT
@moops: OMG, not Pickler! Why is she working for the AP and not writing copy for cereal boxes somewhere? No, don’t answer that…
PsiFighter37
@Hill Dweller: You think Rove actually gives two shits?
Grifters gonna grift, baby. It’s not about the destination, it’s about the UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH JOURNEY!!111
pea
o/t
i love you balloon juice people, i have followed you now for years. (God i love humans who can think!)
in any case,
since my brains are about to explode (does anyone think anything will be settled after tomorrow?)
may i ask,
who are you trusting your money to to take care of the 4pawed sandy victims?
Hungry Joe
@FlipYrWhig:
Reminds me of one of the games in the ’78 (?) World Series. The Yankees were leading the Dodgers 3-0, or something like that, in the sixth or seventh inning. “The Dodgers,” Howard Cosell informed us, “have got to get on the board.”
Democrat Partisan Asshole
@Ash Can: Timely. I just had my elderly mother very patiently explain to me that the Republicans had no intention of ever going after the unions, and that all the problems in the country can be traced to Mexicans.
There’s no place to go with that level of denial.
Sadly, she’s still not nearly old enough to stop voting.
Hal
Please. When this election is over, I hope I never have to hear some iteration of “Obama’s first debate with Mitt Romney.”
JPL
@Paul: Which is why both The Economist and Financial Times endorsed him. The MSM not so much.
Ben Franklin
What is the definition of ‘landslide’?
5+?
El Cid
Tomorrow may only be the beginning of the battle to know who’s to be given the most powerful governing position in the most powerful nation-state ever to have existed.
Roger Moore
@danimal:
And how there was no Katrina-like failure for the party that emphasized competent management at FEMA. Amazing how that works.
danielx
@Just Some Fuckhead:
And pigs might have wings, too. Hey, we can dream.
Hill Dweller
Twitter is saying the SEAL who shot Bin Laden, Paul Davis, died today in a battle.
NotMax
Will be of interest tomorrow to see how many votes Virgil Goode siphons off in Virgina.
Litlebritdifrnt
@JWR:
Saw a great tweet today “KEEP CALM AND TRUST NATE SILVER”
That will be my mantra all day tomorrow.
moops
@blingee:
That’s the part that is the most depressing. A vulture capitalist as their candidate after Wall Street blew up the economy, and the media still pick the horse race narrative, and actually get close to making it actually true. feh.
Keith G
@Hungry Joe:
So much has changed since those times.
Then, being President was more of a capstone honor, an ultimate call to duty (or an accident of history). Now it can be a smart business move.
Then, local economics exerted much pressure on ones life path. Now, a dozen of so multinational corporations can determine the fate of tens of millions – and can be very nourishing to up and coming politicos.
So yeah, if a applicant to sack groceries at Safeway needs to pee in a cup, we need to see a decade’s worth of tax filings from a candidate.
Ben Franklin
Gawd. This is almost like the first debate thread, sans mention.
OK Since we’re numbers oriented, versus intuition, I say Obama wins by 5 points.
AIFAGAS
parrot
what’s an ‘our media’? what’s an ‘us’? these words, what are they?
JPL
@redshirt: my prediction is Obama 272.. Romney takes VA, NC, FL, OH but the Pres runs the table on the rest. Actually I want the pres to win more but the Ohio must win stuff is getting old.
geg6
@GxB:
If that’s true, it’s another fuck up. If he thinks there are no efficient Dem machines in either of those cities, he’s living in cloud cuckoo land.
Emerald
@Litlebritdifrnt: I trust Nate Silver, and I trust Sam Wang even more also too.
He’s got it at 309 EVs with a “random drift” prediction of 98.2%, and a “Bayesian” prediction of 99.8%, as of 8:00 p.m. EST.
Science.
Me likey.
PsiFighter37
@JPL: We’re going to win more than 272. Mainly because I don’t want to pass out from alcohol poisoning by 3 AM when they finally call the race.
Eli-Victor Cruz-Manning
What the hell, Cole — no elation that your Steelers beat my Giants yesterday. They just really looked tough.
And yes, I agree, the political situation is pretty depressing at the moment, but I’m optimistic that it’s going to change.
JPL
@Hill Dweller: Any sources?
jl
I don’t care. I am following the Christie/Bruce/Obama/Mitt/Sandy melodrama over at TPM. Almost as good as Jerry Springer and Oprah combined.
Mitt’s guy is saying that Christie could sure have hell left NJ in the middle of a superstorm and stumped for Mitt in PA, if he really cared….
Edit: and since the excuse for the GOP is that Sandy did it, will that make Sandy the slut homewrecker, or will Christie be pegged as the jerk baby daddy? Tune in Wednesday for a very special episode…
Mnemosyne
@Keith G:
You’re kidding, right? The majority of Americans have always been okay with restricting the vote for the wrong kind people as long as you don’t publicly turn firehoses on them. Conservatives have been trying to reverse the Voting Rights Act since the day it passed Congress.
PsiFighter37
Oh, and for anyone who wants to know my prediction – and I’ve been telling my buddies at work for a long time…
Obama gets 332 EVs. I think the popular vote will come in between 3-4%, with rounding causing it to be 4%.
Mitt gets 47% of the vote and will forever have that tattooed onto the magic underpants.
Democrats will pick up Senate seats relative to the 53 they have now. Joe Lieberman will wonderfully be but an irrelevant assclown in less than 2 months when Chris Murphy takes his seat.
But we don’t take the House, but I predict Eric Cantor makes his move and sticks a shiv deep into Orange Julius’ back to become Speaker. God help us all.
Roy G.
As good as it will feel to metaphorically drive the stake through the zombie tomorrow, i’m afraid they will just keep on with their undead pace. I had an exchange on a friend’s fb this AM about voter fraud. He was convinced that voter fraud was the reason Al Franken beat Norm Coleman, and all my links showing voter fraud is statistically insignificant and that the MN Supreme Court ruled unanimously for Franken, this guy just KNEW the facts were wrong.
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
@Ben Franklin: AIFAGAS… what means?
NotMax
Just saw an ad for some service on Bing that filters news results by political spectrum preference so one can stay ensconced in a reality-limited bubble of reinforced comfort all the time.
Sigh.
McLuhan was so close.
The medium is now the massage.
JPL
@PsiFighter37: yup.. my point is he doesn’t need Ohio. The President’s lead in Ohio is higher than Nevada but the news media gave him Nevada over a week ago. Your work encouraged folks to go to the polls and tomorrow night when I can go to bed at nine I will say thank you.
Schlemizel
LOVE this from the one, the only, tbogg
http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/2012/11/05/everything-old-is-new-again-2/
PsiFighter37
@JPL: That better mean you’re on the West Coast, or else 9 PM is freakin’ early.
Cmm
@PsiFighter37:
And don’t forget the month long spasm of hysteria after the 2008 election when Rush and his ilk were claiming that Obama was planning to reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine, with no basis at all in reality.
sylvan
I’m really going to miss Morning Joe cherry-picking one or two outlier polls and then spending the next half-hour debating what they actually mean.
Keith G
@Emerald: Sam Wang has allowed me to get to sleep at night. Wishful thinking is wonderful, but empirical data is better.
SiubhanDuinne
@Captain Haddock:
I’ve laid in a supply of Apothic Red. $7.99/bottle at Kroger (with the loyalty card).
Hill Dweller
@JPL:Apparently, the dead SEAL story is false, and being spread by a wingnut.
trollhattan
@jl:
Sandy must be a Fluke.
Sandra’s revenge!
Roger Moore
@Schlemizel:
It never gets old, does it?
NotMax
Sounds like a brand of smokeable stuff from Stargate.
But I’m sure it is delisch. Enjoy.
Cmm
@mikefromArlington:
Hell they are still going on about the 2 New Black Panthers who were out near a polling place in2008. So I doubt it.
digitals3rf
Nervous enough to wish for Virginia to be called Obama in the 7pm EST hour. If that happens, champagne corks can start popping in Chicago because the rest of the uncertain EVs will fill in shortly.
This guide shows how the most likely Obama path could go and the very long flowchart to a new dark Rmoney age.
Democrat Partisan Asshole
@NotMax: That might be the scariest thing I’ve read in a long time. Not good for democracy, or mental health for that matter. I go out of my way to hit the conservative sites.
Keith G
@Mnemosyne: Slow down Pilgrim. You would be wise to assume that I was not speaking about “the majority of Americans” (as you put it).
Gregory
Almost as bad as the fact that Republicans will continue to complain about the “liberal media.”
lamh35
@Hill Dweller: twitter is gonna be a madhouse tomorrow.
On a good day you have any number of dead celebrity breaking news or in this case some breaking news that just ain’t true followed by mea culpas from the perpetrators of the myths.
Some leftwingnutor rightwingnut just spreading false shit.
Ugh can’t wait.
can we institute a try to keep it truthful rule at BJ for any news out the precincts tomorrow?
JPL
@PsiFighter37: They could call Ohio and the rest of the east coast by nine. If the race is tight then who knows. Let’s just hope not.
Ben Franklin
@West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.):
5 points
Davis X. Machina
@Democrat Partisan Asshole: Newspapers in the 19th century were plentiful and partisan. Most cities of any size had three or four. New York had a dozen.
You could get all-Whig, all-the-time media if you rolled that way.
NotMax
ONE. MORE. DAY. for you-know-who to conjure up a new moniker.
(Sorry about the all-caps bold, but couldn’t resist.)
trollhattan
@JPL: Predicting the first call for Obama happens at 9:30 pst.
Zelma
I am listening to John and all the other folks who tell me not to panic. Tomorrow I will be a Democratic poll watcher at my obscenely rich, disgustingly Republican NJ beach town (which mostly missed the worst of Sandy, although tell that to the local business who were flooded and will need SBA loans to keep in business.) I will call the all too few local Dems and drive them to the polls. I will ferry voters from shelters to their polling places in towns to the north. I have talked to my politically connected son who assures me that I can relax, that everything will be fine. And yet, I panic.
I have been voting for nearly 50 years; became a Democrat when the Republicans nominated Goldwater but supported Nixon in1960. (Fortunately I was too young to vote!) Have never voted for a Republican for president, although I have supported local Repubs for Senate and Congress.) All this by saying that I have NEVER felt so fearful that the Republican candidate might win, not even in 2004.
The fact that Mitt Romney is even close is a black mark on the so-called “liberal” media. This is a man who has stonewalled about releasing his tax returns, apparently for good reason. And yet, the media has allowed him to get away with it. This is a man who has LIED, continually and blatantly, and nobody has called him out on it. This is a man who has refused to tell the public who his supporters are, who his bundlers are, and no one in the media has been outraged. This is a man who has supported the most radical positions on women’s rights and a host of other issues, and half of the voting population doesn’t even know this. This is a man who represents the oligarchy pure and simple, and half the population doesn’t even know what an oligarchy is. This is a candidate whose party as adopted a policy of voter suppression, and most folks don’t even understand what’s happening.
While I have disagreed with Republican presidential candidates for nearly half a century, I have never before feared for the survival of representative government in the USA. Tonight I do.
Mnemosyne
@NotMax:
The good news, of course, is that he will disappear for about six months after tomorrow. Unfortunately, he will resurface in time for the 2014 midterms to screech about UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH.
Mnemosyne
@Keith G:
So which “most of us” were you referring to since you weren’t referring to your fellow Americans?
NotMax
@Davis X. Machina
One difference being that the ‘other’ newspapers were not disappeared.
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
@NotMax: Dude, don’t encourage him! He promises to be here tomorrow night, but I doubt it. He’s clearly hard-hard-hardcore Repub. Perhaps as he reaches puberty, he’ll see the errors of his ways.
Chris
@bemused:
“Me, me, money, money” indeed.
Tangentially related: I watched License To Kill (1989) again the other day and I’d forgotten how much the movie lambasted Reagan era America. The bad guy feeds off of the “money money money” ethic of the eighties at every level – the Wall Street yuppie who manages his money, the televangelist who distributes his drugs, the Southern small businessman who brings them into the country, not to mention the ex Contra psycho who handles his hits. And the whole subtext that Reagan era America is really nothing but a higher priced version of the banana republics Sanchez hides out in.
Like, DAMN. And they say Bond’s right wing. Heh.
redshirt
@Zelma: The only way Obama loses is massive fraud/suppression. Can it happen? Yes. Is it likely? To a degree – but enough? I am confident the answer is NO.
Obama will win tomorrow. The Senate will remain D tomorrow. The house will move towards the Dems. It will be a great day.
NotMax
@ West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
Actually, I question whether he (or she) has any core political loyalties or convictions other than being virulently anti-Obama.
lamh35
hmm, now Christie’s people are saying that it’s not true that Christie denied Romney request to do a rally
Christie adviser denies report about Romney invitation
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/11/05/christie-adviser-denies-report-about-romney-invitation/
Schlemizel
@redshirt:
Nah, a GREAT day would have the House going full D. But tomorrow will be good enough for now, the fight for sanity continues
Spaghetti Lee
@NotMax:
Trolling blogs. Does that count as a conviction?
NotMax
Almost unmentioned, generally speaking, is that there are 11 state gubernatorial elections to be decided tomorrow, too.
Chris
@Zelma:
I feel you, I really do. Hope to God this time tomorrow I can look back and laugh at how silly I was.
NotMax
Only after arraignment and trial. :)
redshirt
@Schlemizel: Oh, no doubt. That would be a spectacular day – I’ll do the Snoopy dance outside for hours. But it’s not likely. Possible, yes, but against the odds. I hope we can get it close enough so that there’s a chance for deliberation in the house. Surely, there’s a handful of R’s that could be twisted on given votes. Maybe?
Ruckus
@smintheus:
Fuck the politicians.
It would be even nicer if they’d discuss what it really means to us. Course it would have also been nice if they had been discussing the truth for the last few decades.
Steeplejack
@gbear:
Without the evidence of Romney’s tax returns, we don’t know how much he paid in taxes, but that Bloomberg story does not say “he wasn’t paying any.”
PsiFighter37
Nate Silver just posted his last update – 91.5% chance of winning. Florida is now a light shade of blue.
Time to bring it home tomorrow, people. This is FUCKING IT. Gametime, people.
FlipYrWhig
@Ben Franklin:
In the case of a Democratic victory, it’s whatever the margin of victory was, times two. In the case of a Republican victory, it’s the margin, divided by two. Thus Obama ’08 is just one of those things, coulda gone either way, really, but Bush ’04 is total domination.
NotMax
Picked out my first drinking game phrase for mañana:
“Romney still has a path to 270”
Horse race addiction. It’s an ugly thing to be subjected to.
AA+ Bonds
@PsiFighter37:
Assuming he’s judged by the different standards he’s always demanded, he’s putting his career on the line with that one
redshirt
@FlipYrWhig: The Tea Bagging governor of Maine got something like 34% of the vote and was immediately all “MANDATE”.
Republicanism today is a mental disease.
Schlemizel
@redshirt:
Seriously? Have you seen what the goopers have been doing the last 20 years? People who are not 100% doing as told get the ax.
I just found this image & it is now my favorite idea for the proper solution for the wingnuts
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-G5V-UFbdlms/UBmXfajEYCI/AAAAAAAABM8/IdN6TAZUGs8/s1600/guillotine.jpg
jl
@trollhattan:
” Sandy must be a Fluke.
Sandra’s revenge! ”
I hope it is a Mittsaster tomorrow, and Sandy and Mitt can run off and ruin stuff together somewhere else.
What I like is that Mitt has worn exactly the same shit eating humiliated clueless tighty whitey boss smile from start to finish in the general. One would think that as the unthinkable happened (Unlimted Corporate Cash did not pull it out) there would be some change.
Well, cross your fingers. I am doing some phone banking tomorrow afternoon, sfter a few weekends of precinct walking, so if anything, so I am not assuming this thing is in the bag, but looks good. Fivethrityeight has a 90 percent probability of an Obama win. Too close to Wang’s 98 percent for my comfort after knocking Wang a couple of days ago.
gnomedad
I just have to believe that there are many people, not necessarily sociopaths, who just can’t think of themselves as anything but Republicans.
Joseph Nobles
Nate Silver just put Obama’s chances at 91% with latest polls.
Chris
@AA+ Bonds:
Yeah, he really is. One more reason to pray he’s right.
(It’s infuriating when you know that if he were a Republican, it wouldn’t matter how many times he was wrong, he’d fail upwards all the way to fucking Glenn Beck status).
AA+ Bonds
@jl:
He majorly changed his speaking style in the last few months, though, probably with a vocal coach; he pretty much stopped ending any sentence in a speech with a “definitive” low pitch or a “petulant” high pitch, instead ending every sentence on a midpitch, following a high pitch for the middle of the sentence, that made him sound like a concerned preacher
Listen to him in the primaries or before – he spoke like a trained CEO, always ending on the low pitch
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
@FlipYrWhig: I can still hear Shrub’s smug-yet-whiny words after that election: “I have earned political capital, and I intend to use it!”
And so he did, to drive down our standing in the free world and send the economy straight to the toilet. Well done, W.
muddy
@gnomedad: “My family has always been Republican.” Not mine, thank the gods, but I hear this a lot.
elaine benes
@flip @redshirt:
I know, I know. Like I said, I’m pretty darned confident in the Obama machine.
NotMax
@West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
Dubya’s oft-repeated, oft-emphasized pledge to cut the deficit in half by the end of his 2nd term seems to have fallen into the memory hole.
trollhattan
@Joseph Nobles:
I’ve been waiting for the forecast and nowcast to close up–and now they’re within a tenth. me likie!
AA+ Bonds
@NotMax:
He’s done a great job of staying away from his friends
Joseph Nobles
The only thing that bothers me about Nate’s projections, assuming I understand them correctly, is that they only reflect chances of the final results assuming equal access to voting.
Joel
@AA+ Bonds: Doubtful, really. 91% is still 1-in-10 odds. We’re not talking about lottery tickets or the 1999 Rams winning the Superbowl, here.
Keith G
@Mnemosyne: Christ on a cracker. I was refering to my fellow Americans, just not en toto. I was referring to the only “us” I know – the politically active left-of-center types (Americans all)that I have lived and worked around for many, many decades.
It has been clear that voter restriction has been the urgent emerging story of this decade, but so much attention was elsewhere it seems. Too bad.
Kitty
From deranged Teabagger FB “friend” (wife of real friend)
How the F do you respond to something this stupid!?!?!?
Ruckus
@aimai:
I do agree with you but have a slightly different point of view about why.
Do you know or understand the senate rules?
Do you know or understand the house rules?
I sure don’t but knowing that would make congress/politics a lot easier to understand.
Do you understand the voting rules where you live, let alone the other 49 states?
Our laws and structure can make it seem like why do I bother to even try.
Are zomney’s tax returns important? Yes they are but would you understand them if you could see them? I’m pretty smart but I’d bet money it would take me a lot of investigating to have any clue. Look at the financial world, how much of the nuts and bolts of current investing law do you or could you really understand? And on and on…
I’m not picking on you just trying to show that even a very smart person such as yourself has to put in a lot of effort to understand why so much is beyond most people. Even if they have the ability they don’t have the time.
Democrat Partisan Asshole
@jl: He doesn’t know. He’s being told by his people that it’s in the bag.
trollhattan
@Joel:
Better odds of survival than being launched in the Space Shuttle; much worse than the odds of a commercial air flight.
Michael
Nate is predicting Romney gets 48.2% of the two-party vote. But with a little bit over 1% going to 3rd parties, I would LOVE to see Romney end up with 47% of the total vote. Would be so very delicious.
Ruckus
@Keith G:
Not only pee in a cup but provide credit history as well. And we are supposed to trust some fuck who won’t show us how bad he fucked us.
trollhattan
@Democrat Partisan Asshole:
I believe this to very much be the case. He’s surrounded himself with yes men for his whole life.
He’ll still have his money and his church–but I repeat myself.
Uncle Cosmo
@NotMax: Sorry, not the same thing at all. Churchill ran a national-unity government; his cabinet included a number of Labourites (e.g., Clement Attlee, who replaced Winnie as PM). Brits looked to him as a wartime leader, the embodiment of opposition to Hitler. In July 1945, the question for the British electorate was which party they wanted to run things in peacetime. And it is worth noting that the Tories had been in power from 1931 until that national-unity government was formed in 1940, i.e., during the worst of the Great Depression and the near-disastrous run-up to World War II. It was only natural for Brits to conclude that the Tories had made a fair botch of things in peacetime & it was time for Labour to have a shot.
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
@Joel: Kurt Warner to Isaac Bruce, babeeeee!
AA+ Bonds
@Joel:
Really? You really don’t think it’ll have an impact on how many people want to read Nate Silver on Nov. 7th if he has 90+% chances for Obama and Romney somehow wins? Emotions run high.
Steeplejack
@SiubhanDuinne:
Apothic Red is now my go-to everyday red.
Chris
@Uncle Cosmo:
This.
And while I kind of think Churchill was kind of a fucking nut, his war cabinet was actually a war cabinet, not a Cabinet Of Funnelling Money To Military Contractors And Leveraging The War For Campaign Commercials.
Svensker
@Schlemizel:
Love it.
SiubhanDuinne
@GxB:
Stealing.
moops
@Chris:
(It’s infuriating when you know that if he were a Republican, it wouldn’t matter how many times he was wrong, he’d fail upwards all the way to fucking Glenn Beck status).
I think we can make a legitimate movement if Obama loses the election that Nate Silver must be a leading national pundit and put on every show, giving the rules of how our punditocracy is selected and elevated to power. Colossal self-deception is a part of the formula. Add a dash of false balance and both-sides-do-it and he should have his own show.
Uncle Cosmo
@Kitty: @Kitty: Ask him if this was the video they really were watching. And if he sang along.
Kitty
Thanks @Uncle Cosmo, but this is a teabagger I’m dealing with. It would only confuse her cause it’s not Murikin talk.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Raven: Born last week? See above:
rikyrah
1. The MSM have covered for Romney the entire time.
2.Steve Benen should have been on somebody’s show every damn week talking about WILLARD’S LIES. The thing is, their lazy asses would only have had to crib from Benen’s column- he did the work FOR HIM.
3. UP until about 5 months, ago, all I heard was that nobody could win the Presidency, if they got less than the 31% of Latino votes that McCain got. Willard never left the 20’s with Latino voters…..so, tell me how it’s close.
4. The voter suppression of the GOP should have been leading every damn newscast, but it was only with ‘ certain folks’.
They let Willard not talk to them. They didn’t ask him shyt when he came on their shows. I hate these unprofessional kiss ass muthafuckas with the heat of 10,000 suns.
fuck ALL of them. …they know who they are.
dsale
@Chris: This is why I’ve always enjoyed “Tomorrow Never Dies,” in which the Bond villain is a thinly-disguised Rupert Murdoch. Also, Michelle Yeoh.
NotMax
@Uncle cosmo
Oh fer Pete’s sake. Did I anywhere or in any way state or imply that it was “the same thing?”
Sheesh.