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Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

When we show up, we win.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

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You are here: Home / The Beltway’s Greatest Hits

The Beltway’s Greatest Hits

by John Cole|  January 13, 20148:05 pm| 98 Comments

This post is in: Assholes, DC Press Corpse, Our Failed Media Experiment

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The first thing I thought about when I read this Politihoe piece on Hilary Clinton’s alleged “hit list” or, should you go the Hill route, the much more Nixonian “traitor list,” was this:

This comment DougJ from 2009 will never be wrong:

I’m watching Monica Crowley and Pat Buchanan on the McLaughlin group and so help me God, I am praying for a dirty bomb in Georgetown.

These people will destroy us all.

Don’t be fooled by Obama — we are fucked.

I hate these people.

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Previous Post: « Give her a little grace
Next Post: Remembering Aaron Swartz »

Reader Interactions

98Comments

  1. 1.

    Violet

    January 13, 2014 at 8:08 pm

    I prefer their 15 Chris Christie Controversies You May Have Missed.

  2. 2.

    ranchandsyrup

    January 13, 2014 at 8:09 pm

    Want to see Mitt Romney dance? He was at a conference for young, single Mormons.

    Rafalcaesque for me.

  3. 3.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 13, 2014 at 8:16 pm

    @ranchandsyrup: Fuck you, you bastard.

  4. 4.

    West of the Cascades

    January 13, 2014 at 8:17 pm

    The Kellers look positively benign and benevolent by comparison.

  5. 5.

    Ash Can

    January 13, 2014 at 8:18 pm

    @ranchandsyrup: I’d rather smear a can of Lyle’s Golden Syrup on my bare ass and sit on a fire-ant hill than click on that link.

  6. 6.

    ranchandsyrup

    January 13, 2014 at 8:19 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: does he really love America? That dance is s. Korean. You know which country borders s Korea?

  7. 7.

    jl

    January 13, 2014 at 8:20 pm

    @Violet: Thank you. I guess I should read it, to be prepared for probable survival of Christie long enough to limp along to eventual defeat in the next presidential cycle.

    But, a confession, Christie is a kind of distasteful boring subject and I have to admit that it has become to me a civic duty rather than a pleasure to keep up with his political troubles.

    Palin, Lil’ Newtie, the Saintorum, Mr Plan 999 from the Outer Limits, even Mitt, were more interesting. Christie is just an unpleasant dissembling thug in comparison.

    But on other hand, if Christie goes down, then there will be Jeb. Even more boring.

  8. 8.

    MikeJ

    January 13, 2014 at 8:21 pm

    All people who host chat shows
    And the guests who’s on them too
    And customs men who fumbling through your underwear insist
    I don’t think they’d be missed
    I’m sure they’d not be missed

  9. 9.

    jl

    January 13, 2014 at 8:24 pm

    And I am biased, but when I saw the phrase ‘mad bitch’ and the pic, I made the connection to Milbank before I thought about HRC. And I am not even much of an HRC fan, though admit that in every way she would be far better president than any GOPer or corporate Democrat.

  10. 10.

    maximiliano furtive, formerly known as dr. bloor

    January 13, 2014 at 8:28 pm

    @ranchandsyrup:

    France?

    /typical ‘Murkin.

  11. 11.

    James E. Powell

    January 13, 2014 at 8:29 pm

    If Hillary Clinton runs in 2016 every one of us who have claimed that Barack Obama being elected twice produced the most unhinged right-wing reactions in American history are going to be taken to school.

    I’ve got facebook friends who are no more than people who graduated from the same high school as I did. There are quite a few ordinary, average wingnuts among them. I’ve already seen some pretty outrageous stuff – “Killary, the Butcher of Benghazi” – I can only imagine what we will see during a campaign.

  12. 12.

    Mike in NC

    January 13, 2014 at 8:29 pm

    The only person I’d not care to see dance more than Mittens is Chris Christie.

  13. 13.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 13, 2014 at 8:30 pm

    @MikeJ:

    You may put them on the list,
    You may put them on the list,
    For they’d none of them be missed,
    I’m sure they’d not be missed.

    /Gilbertarian

  14. 14.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    January 13, 2014 at 8:30 pm

    @ranchandsyrup: China? Russia? Japan?

  15. 15.

    Baud

    January 13, 2014 at 8:31 pm

    @James E. Powell:

    If Hillary Clinton runs in 2016 every one of us who have claimed that Barack Obama being elected twice produced the most unhinged right-wing reactions in American history are going to be taken to school.

    That is one of the problems with never reaching Peak Wingnut. There is no control group by which you can reliably measure such things.

  16. 16.

    shelly

    January 13, 2014 at 8:31 pm

    Killary, the Butcher of Benghazi”

    Yikes, can you image the movie poster?

  17. 17.

    kdaug

    January 13, 2014 at 8:31 pm

    @jl: Agreed.
    But boring all the way down kinda beats witch denial or transvaginal probes.
    So: Given X, v: ho-hum or batshit insane, which opponent should X choose?

  18. 18.

    beltane

    January 13, 2014 at 8:32 pm

    @Ash Can: Come on, click on the link. The laugh I got from it temporarily pushed Mr. and Mrs. Keller out of my mind.

  19. 19.

    IowaOldLady

    January 13, 2014 at 8:32 pm

    Seriously, “I hate these people” is the only possible thing to say sometimes.

  20. 20.

    Belafon

    January 13, 2014 at 8:32 pm

    @ranchandsyrup: No thank you. I would prefer to think that the worst dancing ever is the 11th Doctor at Amy and Rory’s wedding.

  21. 21.

    aimai

    January 13, 2014 at 8:33 pm

    This “hillary hit list” thing is just so jaw droppingly stupid. Booman had a piece up about it which actually took it seriously. I lost all respect for him when he began angsting about how she and her team would have to “prove” themselves past this kind of scorekeeping.

  22. 22.

    Citizen_X

    January 13, 2014 at 8:34 pm

    @James E. Powell: I’ve been saying: on January 20th, 2017, eight years of appalling racism come to an end, and eight years of appalling misogyny begin.

  23. 23.

    Belafon

    January 13, 2014 at 8:34 pm

    @James E. Powell: And that will be enough of a reason for me to put a bumper sticker on my car, donate, and vote for her.

  24. 24.

    IowaOldLady

    January 13, 2014 at 8:36 pm

    @James E. Powell: “The Butcher of Benghazi” shows the extent to which they make up stories in their heads and then believe them. The rest of us can’t even guess what they are, much less refute them.

  25. 25.

    Baud

    January 13, 2014 at 8:37 pm

    At this point, I’m kind of hoping that Hillary Clinton is a stone cold killer.

    In fact, I’ve learned recently that America is in a mood to send a bully to Washington, so this can only help her.

  26. 26.

    Gex

    January 13, 2014 at 8:37 pm

    @Citizen_X: The Wingularity, then, might be theorized to be the day that a gay black woman is inaugurated.

  27. 27.

    GregB

    January 13, 2014 at 8:37 pm

    One of my wingnut co-workers refers to Secretary Clinton as the Bitch of Benghazi repeatedly in his postings on social media.

    The deaths are a tragedy, no doubt, but 4 dead for the political objective of removing Ghaddaffi is quite a bit better than the 4,000 dead at removing Saddam.

    Then again we know that rightwing math is pretty suspect.

  28. 28.

    rda909

    January 13, 2014 at 8:38 pm

    @jl:”…or corporate Democrat.”

    Wait, what? Hillary and Bill are literally the definition of “corporate Democrat,” so no, she would not be better than that. They helped start the DLC and she even ran it for years. She would be a horrific candidate for Democrats with all the division she and her husband stoke among Democrats, and especially since she cannot win a national election. This is just a statement of fact.

    Of course, we have midterms to win first in 2014 and shouldn’t allow ourselves to be distracted by these “divide and conquer” games though…

  29. 29.

    Corner Stone

    January 13, 2014 at 8:42 pm

    @rda909: I agree with you. Let’s install Barack Obama into a third term, and from there, King for Life.

  30. 30.

    Carolinus

    January 13, 2014 at 8:44 pm

    I guess the media needs some new tabloid BS to chase now that Gates has completely contradicted himself and rebutted the RW’s talking points about his book. He’s now saying Obama didn’t say he opposed the Iraq Surge for political reasons, instead that he said others may have, and that he was committed to the Afghan surge when it was implemented, but expressed concern about how the strategy was working out the next year, in private (cough) conversations with Gates. Gates also again says the President made all the right decisions on Afghanistan and that he agrees with the draw-down schedule:

    http://www.mediaite.com/tv/robert-gates-memoir-hijacked-for-political-purposes/

    GATES: “Well, first of all, what gets conflated is the fact that I said along the way that, when he made those decisions, particularly for the Afghan surge, in November of 2009, I absolutely believe that he was convinced it would work. I think that his reservations grew, and the way that I outline it in the book is that his reservation began to grow in the spring of 2010, but as late as December 2010 he was still saying we’re on the right track in Afghanistan. So, it was in our private conversations where he would express these reservations about whether it was working, but the decisions were right, and I believe that he believed that it would work. [crosstalk] But let me just say Matt that, in a way, it parallels president Bush in 2006, when president Bush began to have reservations about whether his strategy in Iraq was working.”

    …

    GATES: “Well, what I say in the book was that the president conceded that a lot of the opposition to the surge had been political. He never said that his opposition had been political, and in fact, his opposition was consistent with his opposition to the war all along. The thing about Hillary’s comment, that caught my attention, was first of all, obviously, I was on the other side of that issue in the spring of 2007, but it was such an anomaly. Because in the whole time that I served with Secretary Clinton I never heard her, as Secretary of State, discuss domestic politics in any way shape or form as influencing her recommendations to the president or her views on issues of national security.”

    LAUER: “But this revelation, that perhaps her opposition was purely political because of the Iowa primary. Do you think that will or should hurt her in her political ambitions down the road?”

    GATES: “No, I think there’s a difference between when your in the Senate and you’re campaigning for office and when you have responsibility of office, and when she had the responsibilities of office I never heard her bring domestic politics into the issue.”

  31. 31.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    January 13, 2014 at 8:47 pm

    @rda909: A whole lot of PUMAs told me in the Great ’08 Primary Wars that this country would never elect a black man, that was just a statement of fact, Macomb County Bradley Effect Reagan Democrats. A lot of pundits told me for four years that Barack Obama was losing popularity with Democrats, they stated it as a fact.

  32. 32.

    Baud

    January 13, 2014 at 8:48 pm

    @Carolinus:

    I watched that live this morning. Gates was incoherent.

  33. 33.

    Poopyman

    January 13, 2014 at 8:48 pm

    @Gex: I can hear Dancin’ Dave now. “Question: Do you think having worked at the NSA will help or hurt Wanda Sykes in her run for the Presidency?”

  34. 34.

    Litlebritdiftrnt

    January 13, 2014 at 8:48 pm

    Someone please front page this it is epic

    http://www.babble.com/mom/new-heroic-women-commercial-will-make-you-cry-video/

  35. 35.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 13, 2014 at 8:48 pm

    The Dick whisperer whispers to himself.

    Often.

  36. 36.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 13, 2014 at 8:50 pm

    @Mike in NC:

    You’ve not seen Dancin’ Dave doing his thing, have you?

  37. 37.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 13, 2014 at 8:51 pm

    @rda909:

    I agree. Bill and Hill are DLC corporatists, in other words, Rockefeller Republicans. Obama is on the cusp of it, himself.

  38. 38.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 13, 2014 at 8:52 pm

    @Gex:

    Toss in Muslim for good measure…black lesbian socialist Muslim will cause heads in Riyadh to kerplode, which is a bonus.

  39. 39.

    Carolinus

    January 13, 2014 at 8:56 pm

    @Baud:

    @Carolinus:

    I watched that live this morning. Gates was incoherent.

    Which in a sane world should should mean no one would take his rambling charges seriously. He’s now qualified his indictment of Biden too. Now he’s saying he essentially agreed with Biden during the Obama Administration but has a long list of gripes from back when he was serving in GOP admins and Biden, as a Senator from the other party, opposed a number of his party’s legislative goals. So it’s all some ancient grudge he just can’t let go of:

    http://news.yahoo.com/katie-couric-interviews-robert-gates-161048345.html

    Asked to name specifically what Biden had gotten wrong, Gates ticked off a litany of what he termed errors in judgment, including Biden’s vote against a bill granting aid to Vietnam in the aftermath of the war when Biden had first joined the Senate. He also criticized Biden’s opposition to several Reagan administration defense bills as well as to the first Gulf War.

    Yet Gates also described Biden as a “stand-up guy” and acknowledged they had agreed on “almost every major foreign policy question that came before the Obama administration.”

    And then then there was this petty anecdote to add to his petty grudges:

    http://www.cbsnews.com/news/robert-gates-duty/

    “One time when I agreed with him on something — often Admiral Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and I would ride back to the Pentagon together from the White House — and Mullen turned to me at one point [and] said, ‘You know that you agreed with the vice president this morning.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, that’s why I’m rethinking my position.'”

  40. 40.

    Roger Moore

    January 13, 2014 at 8:56 pm

    @Citizen_X:

    I’ve been saying: on January 20th, 2017, eight years of appalling racism come to an end, and eight years of appalling misogyny begin.

    Nominate Kamala Harris, so we can has both!

  41. 41.

    Roger Moore

    January 13, 2014 at 8:58 pm

    @GregB:

    Then again we know that rightwing math is pretty suspect.

    Gastritis broke their calculators.

  42. 42.

    danielx

    January 13, 2014 at 8:58 pm

    OT, kinda, but yet another reason – as if one was needed – to detest Republicans. Don’t like the terms of your divorce settlement, even though you’re worth a metric shitload of money? Get your friendly Republican state legislator, to whom (along with his wife the Light Guv) you have contributed the low, low price of $11k, and he’ll write legislation tailored by your divorce lawyer to fix you right up!

    The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has done a nice job of lifting rocks and exposing squirming political creatures during the reign of Koch Bros. homunculus Scott Walker; I’m sort of surprised a strip mine hasn’t been proposed for the site of the publication’s headquarters. All in the interests of the state’s citizens, mind….

    These people are corrupt swine.

  43. 43.

    Baud

    January 13, 2014 at 9:04 pm

    @Carolinus:

    Our country is run by high schoolers.

  44. 44.

    WereBear

    January 13, 2014 at 9:05 pm

    @ranchandsyrup: No dear heavens nooooooo!

  45. 45.

    IowaOldLady

    January 13, 2014 at 9:05 pm

    @Baud: Only the athletes apparently.

  46. 46.

    Glocksman

    January 13, 2014 at 9:09 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    I remember back in 1992 that candidate Clinton made noises about opposing NAFTA and other so-called ‘free trade’ agreements.

    I also remember that President Clinton was one of the biggest boosters of ‘free trade’ agreements.
    Shit, NAFTA wouldn’t have passed if it weren’t for the fact that more than half of the support in Congress came from Republicans.

    The Clintons are the definition of ‘corporate Democrat’.
    That said, President Hillary Clinton is definitely preferable to President Chris Christie or President Tyler Rick Perry.

  47. 47.

    Ernest Pikeman

    January 13, 2014 at 9:09 pm

    @Carolinus: Was Gates always this dumb? This is just Old Man Yells at Cloud, pt. 35679.

  48. 48.

    jl

    January 13, 2014 at 9:11 pm

    @kdaug: Thanks for steeling my resolve. You are correct. The danger of people like Christie and Jeb, is that they will deliver the same goods as the others. Maybe more slowly, or prettied up more, or with some sugar to help the goods go down, and make it taste a little sweeter before he poison sets in. But they want to take us as the more obviously dangerous people.

  49. 49.

    mdblanche

    January 13, 2014 at 9:12 pm

    Dana Milbank never struck me as a beer kind of guy. I always figured his drink was a saucer of milk.

  50. 50.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 13, 2014 at 9:14 pm

    @Glocksman:

    That said, President Hillary Clinton is definitely preferable to President Chris Christie or President Tyler Rick Perry.

    Amen. Even corporatist Dems are preferable to anything the GOP has to offer, and those are the only two choices we will have.

  51. 51.

    jl

    January 13, 2014 at 9:15 pm

    @rda909: HRC is HRC, not Bill. And this is 2014, not the late 1990s. IMHO, HRC’s economic positions were at least as, and arguably more liberal than Obama’s in 2008.

    I think at this point, I would trust HRC on economics more than WJC, since he is still talking neo-liberal nonsense half the time he opens his mouth on econ.

    But, if HRC campaigns for 2016, we will have time to make up our minds on her merits versus those of her opponents.

  52. 52.

    WereBear

    January 13, 2014 at 9:16 pm

    @Gex: Make her an atheist and you’re there.

  53. 53.

    mai naem

    January 13, 2014 at 9:16 pm

    This is such a fcuking obvious “Both Side Do It” to Chris Christies retaliation crap.

    Of course maybe somebody should let Politichoe know that when Bill Clinton is convinced to come to some fundraising event for some pol who didn’t endorse Hills, he causes a traffic jam unintentionally.

  54. 54.

    MikeJ

    January 13, 2014 at 9:23 pm

    @mai naem:

    This is such a fcuking obvious “Both Side Do It” to Chris Christies retaliation crap.

    And might actually be a legit story if they could show Clinton using her power as an elected official to punish people who got on her bad side. And they don’t have even an unsupported claim of that happening.

    There’s a big difference between, “I’m not going to use my standing as a private citizen to campaign for your reëlection” and “I’m going to use the power of the government to harm you.”

  55. 55.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    January 13, 2014 at 9:26 pm

    @aimai: Ed Kilgore at WaMo has a sensible rejoinder to the Hillary “hit list”:

    I don’t know what the full book has to say, but this excerpt is rather pathetically inadequate to its stated theme. Turns out someone in the 2008 Clinton campaign was in charge of keeping up with and rating various Democratic pols in terms of the help or hindrance they offered HRC. This, combined with the Scary Clinton Legend (mostly, of course, about Hillary) of long knives and long memories, is supposed to show the unholy hell those who slighted (or worse yet, were “traitors” towards) HRC are about to endure if she glides to the Democratic nomination and then the White House.

    Now if I were helping fold a presidential campaign for someone who (a) needed to write a lot of thank-you notes, and (b) might want to run for president again, you’d better believe I’d have a rated list of leading Democrats—for purposes of avoiding slights and identifying future persuasion targets, not plotting vengeance. Why are we to assume it was a get-even tabulation? Ah, because we know how Hillary is, right?

    Nobody sensible should read and believe anything from Politico without independent confirmation.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  56. 56.

    Baud

    January 13, 2014 at 9:28 pm

    @MikeJ: @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:

    I only saw a tweet about Hillary’s “hit list” early today, and I knew it was a fraud without even reading the story.

  57. 57.

    Chris

    January 13, 2014 at 9:29 pm

    @IowaOldLady:

    “The Butcher of Benghazi” shows the extent to which they make up stories in their heads and then believe them. The rest of us can’t even guess what they are, much less refute them.

    This is why I simply don’t talk politics with Republicans anymore. Well, one of several reasons, but that one’s enough in and of itself; they simply don’t live in reality. They’re so, permanently hooked on the Fox News feed that it’s like talking to a flying-saucer conspiracy theorist. Every topic you bring up, they’ll have a half-dozen well prepared “facts” ready that they got from the Murdoch-tube that morning, every one of them bullshit, but every one of them requires you to go online, figure out what the fuck they’re talking about in the first place, find out that it’s bullshit and then come back and explain why that is. And once you’ve walked them slowly and carefully through that entire process, they’ll either just refuse to believe you anyway, or they’ll concede the point (but a week later when it comes up again they’ll have forgotten all about that) and then immediately move on to their NEXT bullshit talking point… and then you have to repeat the procedure all over again.

    Even under the most optimistic conditions, it’ll be dinner time before they’re even capable (as in, in possession of enough facts and disillusioned of enough bullshit) of holding a conversation on any given topic. Who has the time and energy? It’s like trying to discuss World War Two with someone who thinks there really was an International Jewish Conspiracy and Poland really did attack Germany in 1939.

  58. 58.

    mai naem

    January 13, 2014 at 9:34 pm

    @MikeJ: Not only that but the Clintons aren’t allowed to decide who they want to support within their own party but Christie is allowed to retaliate against a person of the opposition party for whom it would be perfectly normal to support their party’s candidate. WTF?

  59. 59.

    Kropadope

    January 13, 2014 at 9:37 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: That may be so, but I have a pretty good record of only voting for winning Democrats and I personally have little to no inclination to vote for Hillary.

  60. 60.

    karen

    January 13, 2014 at 9:40 pm

    @Baud:

    Male bullies – strong and Presidential

    Strong women – bitches who need need to go back to the kitchen.

  61. 61.

    Baud

    January 13, 2014 at 9:44 pm

    @karen:

    Oh, good, you got the memo. ;-)

  62. 62.

    Glocksman

    January 13, 2014 at 9:46 pm

    @Chris:

    It’s like trying to discuss World War Two with someone who thinks there really was an International Jewish Conspiracy and Poland really did attack Germany in 1939.

    But..Poland did attack Germany.
    I saw footage of the Poles attacking the Gleiwitz radio station on the Fox newsreels. :)

  63. 63.

    Kropadope

    January 13, 2014 at 9:47 pm

    @karen: I think Baud’s bully characterization better reflects Hillary than “strong woman.” I also think he’s right that America’s in the mood to send a bully to Washington, so when she gets elected I promise to make a point to blame every Republican I know, personally, for her election. “Obama was ready to work with you, you had your chance, now you’ve ruined both parties.”

  64. 64.

    rda909

    January 13, 2014 at 10:10 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Huh, well I never told you those things. I knew President Obama would win because of how Barack was building his campaign in ways I had never seen on a national scale before, and from people I know in Chicago who had worked with him for years who said he as trustworthy as can be, and was a man of impeccable integrity in his personal life.

    I’ve worked on campaigns for and against either of the Clintons since their days in Little Rock. Hillary cannot win a national campaign.

  65. 65.

    ascap_scab

    January 13, 2014 at 10:12 pm

    Oh come on. Hillary will never run for Prez ’cause (according to The Globe) she has a terminal brain tumor. Dig her grave now.

  66. 66.

    Belafon

    January 13, 2014 at 10:14 pm

    @Kropadope: Just because you only vote when you’re sure they’re going to win doesn’t really prove much. I personally vote to try to get the best people available into office.

  67. 67.

    Kropadope

    January 13, 2014 at 10:18 pm

    @Belafon: No, no, no. I don’t only vote when I’m sure they’re going to win. In fact a couple I was pretty sure weren’t gonna make it, such as Deval Patrick 2010, which I made a point to volunteer on. Also, I did vote those elections, not sit them out. I voted for David Cobb over John Kerry, secure in the knowledge that my vote is worth approximately a warm bucket of spit in a presidential election in the great state of Massachusetts.

  68. 68.

    kindness

    January 13, 2014 at 10:20 pm

    Many of you are sounding a whole bunch like firebaggers. Yea it sure does suck to have someone in office you can agree with only some of the time. Did you all forget dubya? Shit I still remember Reagan and foolishly thought no one would ever be worse. Damn!

    So yea, if it comes to it I will happily vote for Hillary instead of what ever neofascist the Republicans end up nominating. And like it. Because I remember what it was like not agreeing at all with the man in the big white house.

  69. 69.

    Kropadope

    January 13, 2014 at 10:26 pm

    @kindness: I’m right there with you on supporting less-than-perfect candidates as the best viable option. If I lived in Missouri instead of MA, my vote my have been for John Kerry, for example. I don’t foresee a circumstance where Hillary is the best viable option. Any a-hole the Republicans can puke up is a better option than allowing the Democrats to become a mirror image of the Republicans.

    Oh, unless they nominate Rand Paul. In that case the best viable option is Canada.

  70. 70.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    January 13, 2014 at 10:32 pm

    @rda909: Well, I’ll have to take your word for it. After all, you are some random person on the internet.

    @Kropadope: Any a-hole the Republicans can puke up is a better option than allowing the Democrats to become a mirror image of the Republicans.

    I’ve heard that song somewhere before, when was it….? All I remember is it worked out really well.

  71. 71.

    rda909

    January 13, 2014 at 10:37 pm

    @jl: Given Hillary’s decades long professional track record, I do not for second think she’d as liberal or more than President Obama has been. Hillary would not have brought Elizabeth Warren into the national spotlight and created the CFPB. Lanny Davis would be on the Supreme Court had she won. I have serious doubts should would’ve pushed for or signed the substantial credit card regulations President Obama championed. While I applauded her intentions at the time for “Healthcare for All” in the 1990s which was similar to what we have now, she and Bill of course were not able to even come close to accomplishing progress on it, and the overall vision between each is stark:

    President Obama:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpAyan1fXCE
    “I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care program. [Applause.] I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14 percent of its Gross National Product on health care cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody. And that’s what Jim is talking about when he says everybody in, nobody out. A single payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. And that’s what I’d like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we have to take back the White House, we have to take back the Senate, and we have to take back the House.”

    Hillary Clinton:
    “You know, I have thought about this, as you might guess, for 15 years and I never seriously considered a single payer system.”
    http://www.pnhp.org/news/2008/march/hillary_clinton_on_s.php

    Yes, she does talk about, as does President Obama, how single-payer isn’t feasible in the short term, but she consistently over the years has said that single-payer isn’t even her goal in the long term either. The opposite of President Obama. And on and on…she RAN the DLC, for cryin out loud.

    And of course, none of this matters if the Democrat loses the election, so that is first and foremost, and Hillary has proven to me that she’s a terrible campaigner. Anyway, let’s win the 2014 midterms first….whaddaya say?

  72. 72.

    Kropadope

    January 13, 2014 at 10:39 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Don’t compare Hillary Clinton to Al Gore. Hillary Clinton is actually awful. Perhaps with a President Santorum (I know, blech) we may finally achieve Wingularity.

    A step backward that enables three steps forward I’ll count as a win.
    President Hillary is full march backwards and declaring it to be forward.

  73. 73.

    rda909

    January 13, 2014 at 10:41 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I knew you’d come around, fellow random Internet person.

  74. 74.

    rda909

    January 13, 2014 at 10:45 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: Yes, if she becomes the Democratic option, I’ll be voting for her in the general, but until then, I’ll be doing all I can to make sure she isn’t my option, since she cannot win a national election.

  75. 75.

    Cacti

    January 13, 2014 at 10:53 pm

    @rda909:

    And of course, none of this matters if the Democrat loses the election, so that is first and foremost, and Hillary has proven to me that she’s a terrible campaigner.

    That plus the fact that she’d be second only to Reagan for oldest first-term POTUS in history, makes me more than a little wary of her as the presumptive nominee.

  76. 76.

    muddy

    January 13, 2014 at 11:06 pm

    For the first time ever I had a thought in common with Barbara Bush (the old one) when she said there had been enough Bushes, there were other families. I feel the same about Clintons.

  77. 77.

    jl

    January 13, 2014 at 11:11 pm

    @rda909: OK, point taken. But Obama is quite conservative and DLC himself on many economic issues, many of which do not make big news like health care reform.

    But, I agree, let’s go for the 2014 before we spend a lot of time fighting over 2016.

    And you are correct about campaigning. If HRC had not learned anything about the Democratic nomination process, good chance she won’t be the candidate even if she runs. If she surrounds herself with Mark Penn types again, I wont’ be enthusiastic for her in the primaries.

  78. 78.

    Suffern ACE

    January 13, 2014 at 11:26 pm

    Of course she keeps lists. When you have been around as long as the Clintons, the lists get very long and difficult to keep in your head. Much more practical to write things down so you don’t confuse Dana Millibank with Dana Carvey. I stopped worrying about “enemies lists” like this long ago. It’s like worrying about “files”. I’d worry more about disorganized people in office.

  79. 79.

    muricafukyea

    January 13, 2014 at 11:29 pm

    Sigh…the only universal thing that always seems to be true is that Conservatives always think they are winning and Liberals always think they are losing. Wr0ng way Cole mentioning Ball Juice Doug’s comment for example.

    2012 election was perfect example. Conservatards were convinced the polls were skewed and “oh that debate did you see that omg” fukhead Sullivan freakout…lol. Of course the usual suspects right here on Ball Juice piling on. Annoying as fuk around here around election time. Only place more annoying is the Orange Satan.

  80. 80.

    rda909

    January 13, 2014 at 11:37 pm

    @jl: Actually, no he’s not. He has a long history of writings and public appearances long before he became a politician showing that he’s not conservative on most issues. I think the mistake that is so often made is that he’s a believer in “politics being the art of the possible,” so the privileged among the liberal ranks get impatient as he helps those in most need first…the incrementalism debates…but on issue after issue, his history shows he’s very liberal across the board.

    In fact, the DLC started including him on in their marketing materials, and Obama publicly called for them to take his name off their stuff.

    Regardless, neither you nor I will ever vote for him again, so these debates are secondary to winning as many elections as possible in our lives going forward, so that we can eliminate any control Republicans have over our government….forever. Deal?

  81. 81.

    srv

    January 13, 2014 at 11:47 pm

    @Suffern ACE:

    the lists get very long and difficult to keep in your head.

    When I met Bill, I literally had no idea who he was (1990). He didn’t have an aide whispering in his ear as he ran the line for intros. At the end of the night, he said goodbye to 30 some people he’d never met by their first names.

    They do not forget, and they do not forgive. He who introduced me went with Obama in 2008 and that family has not heard the end of that, and they were core to his ’82 election.

    That said, the Clinton machine is spinning up, and their rallying cry is: “There’s only one way Hillary is not President in 2016. She’s either dead or dying.”

    You can take that to the bank.

  82. 82.

    Yatsuno

    January 13, 2014 at 11:51 pm

    @muricafukyea: Herp de derp.

  83. 83.

    Forked Tongue

    January 13, 2014 at 11:54 pm

    @Baud:

    Hey. Chris Christie. Hilary here. Seriously, you want this to be over who has the biggest stones?

    At least I can see mine.

  84. 84.

    Another Holocene Human

    January 14, 2014 at 12:29 am

    @MikeJ: aiiiii, I just wanted Endeavour last night on Netflix, not cool!

  85. 85.

    Another Holocene Human

    January 14, 2014 at 12:30 am

    @James E. Powell: I’m afraid you’re right. And in that case, the only thing to do is to hold out for the candidacy of Chirlane McCray.

  86. 86.

    Another Holocene Human

    January 14, 2014 at 12:41 am

    @Gex: Don’t forget disabled! Know Your (1990s) Memes!

  87. 87.

    Another Holocene Human

    January 14, 2014 at 12:47 am

    @Chris: It’s a political Gish gallop. The only way to fight back is to make them ridiculous. Fortunately, they do half of the work for us.

  88. 88.

    Another Holocene Human

    January 14, 2014 at 12:53 am

    @rda909:

    In fact, the DLC started including him on in their marketing materials, and Obama publicly called for them to take his name off their stuff.

    He did? That’s awesome.

  89. 89.

    Bob In Portland

    January 14, 2014 at 12:55 am

    To John Cole:

    Saw “True Detective” tonight.

    Yes.

  90. 90.

    rda909

    January 14, 2014 at 1:13 am

    @Another Holocene Human: Yea, there was a dust-up about it early on in the 2007-2008 primary season, since Hillary of course was all proud of her DLC mentality, and also it was coming out how during John Edwards’ time in the Senate, he was one of the only Senators to score higher on the DLC Scorecard than Hilary did (a fact so many privileged progressives would try to ignore).

    And to top it off, one of the other leading Democrats involved in the campaign, Joe Biden, was one of the few others who had never been a DLC member.

  91. 91.

    cmorenc

    January 14, 2014 at 2:56 am

    @jl:

    But on other hand, if Christie goes down, then there will be Jeb. Even more boring.

    If Nov 2016 does come down to Clinton v Bush, IMHO more voters will rather see a second act for the Clintons in the white house (and female voters a woman president) than would rather see a third act for the Bush clan in the presidency. Bill and Hillary have traveled far better through the past decade than have the Bush clan with most of the public.

  92. 92.

    AxelFoley

    January 14, 2014 at 3:38 am

    @jl:

    But on other hand, if Christie goes down, then there will be Jeb. Even more boring.

    Jeb will go down, too. The stink of Bush is still on us.

  93. 93.

    AxelFoley

    January 14, 2014 at 3:42 am

    @Corner Stone:

    Still a dumbass with Obaman Derangement Syndrome, I see.

  94. 94.

    AxelFoley

    January 14, 2014 at 3:43 am

    Make that Obama Derangement Syndrome.

    But you’re still a dumbass, Corner Stone.

  95. 95.

    Patricia Kayden

    January 14, 2014 at 7:43 am

    @James E. Powell: Your friends must know that their rage against Mrs. Clinton will be ineffectual inasmuch as she probably will win in a landslide against any of their Clown Posse. They need to start crying from now. Love it!

  96. 96.

    fidelio

    January 14, 2014 at 1:05 pm

    @mdblanche: I just want to admire the sheer beauty of that cut for the rest of the day.

  97. 97.

    kathleen

    January 14, 2014 at 3:14 pm

    If you really want to fall into flat despair, read “This Town” by Mark Leibovich. The writer pretends to be all bemused and above it all, but you can tell he’s desperately proud of being one of the gang. And the people and events he catalogs are way beyond revolting.

  98. 98.

    kathleen

    January 14, 2014 at 3:20 pm

    @cmorenc: I am hoping Hillary Clinton does not run and finally (finally!) leaves the national stage. @James E. Powell: I hope Ms. Clinton feels as you do and gives this a pass. Let her go home and count her millions, travel the world making speeches, whatever, just make her go away.
    I am a woman of her generation, and her assumption of status because SHE MARRIED IT is so irritating I can’t explain it to anyone but another original feminist.
    What has she done on her own, other that delay health care for a generation, accomplish nothing as Sec. of State (well, what were her initiatives and how did they fare?) and “stand by her man?”
    Make her go away.

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