As the world now knows, Florida Governor Rick Scott is petty enough to pout in his dressing room like a diva and delay a gubernatorial debate over a small battery-powered fan installed under his opponent’s podium. That’s the story that grabbed all the headlines, and as John pointed out last night, it may cost Scott reelection.
If FanGate takes Scott down, so be it: Al Capone was ultimately jailed for tax evasion, after all. But for many of us who watched the debate live, the fan standoff wasn’t even the weirdest part. What left the mister and I shaking our heads in wonder was Scott’s constant struggle — and consistent failure — to come across as an actual human being.
Here’s an example — a two-minute clip of both candidates’ closing statements. This should be a gimme putt for any half-way competent politician: There are no gotcha questions; it’s just you making a 60-second pitch for votes. Watch how badly Scott bungles it:*
I don’t speak much Spanish at all, but even I can tell he fucks that part up too. You can go to C-SPAN and watch any random clip of Scott speaking last night, and it will be just as cringe-inducing.
Even though the circumstances of their employment indicate that they’re evil, the handlers charged with installing human-like sound bites into this alien life form for regurgitation onstage are to be pitied.
The mystery isn’t how Scott was elected in the first place; he purchased the governorship straight up for $72 million. The mystery is how he ever functioned as a CEO. I’ve been acquainted with a few of that species in my time, and though they are frequently arrogant, ruthless pricks, all displayed at least a rudimentary trace of what we call “people skills.”
Scott’s wondrous Medicare fraud skill set must have conveyed itself to higher-ups early in his career by some means other than human interaction. Let’s just hope the goddamn fan was the seventh Horcrux.
*I apologize for the laggy audio, but trust me, it was just as surreal live.
Botsplainer
Love the title. Catchy beat you can dance to.
Belafon
I feel for the boy that has to die before we can finally be rid of Scott.
jibeaux
Am I the only one wondering who he diddled when he starts his speech with how he wants to thank his wife for standing by him? Or is that just psychological because he looks like a giant weiner?
Villago Delenda Est
@Belafon: The boy doesn’t actually die….Scott will just destroy the inadvertently created seventh horcrux, and his last possible link to humanity. All he has to do is express genuine remorse for his many crimes.
Scott will not do so. Nor will any of his Death Eaters.
Brandon
Is it hopeless to wonder whether the Village will look at Scott’s petulant hissy fit about a fan and declare that he has “disqualified” himself? I know it is asking too much, but this is seriously the type of red meat, non-substantive crap that they are supposed to go hog wild for. But I know, IOKIYAR.
c u n d gulag
ZOINKS!
What an ass!
Betty Cracker
@Brandon: I don’t think they’ll come right out and say he disqualified himself — that sort of opprobrium is reserved for Democrats who fuck up. But FanGate is dominating the news cycle, ensuring that the millions of voters who didn’t watch the debate will walk away with that impression of Scott. It’s a pity that his horrible mismanagement of the state and bald-faced corruption wasn’t enough to do him in and that it took a four minutes hissy fit, but here we are.
the Conster
@Brandon:
“Charlie Crist should be ashamed that he needed a fan”. /Chuck Todd
Emma
The android was programmed by the same guy who programmed the HAL9000.
Corner Stone
@Emma: “Just what do you think you’re doing, Charlie?”
aimai
Wow. You alluded to the “good boy” line before Betty but nothing prepared me for the real effect. Truly astounding. Plus i love “I’d love to get your vote.” This just adds to the “badly translated from the original martian” quality of the ending. He doesn’t ask for your vote politely, like Crist did, he simply casually gabbles it off like he is proposing to eat you for breakfast “I’d love to have your kidneys…just hold still while my men remove them” is kind of the way it comes off.
WereBear
It’s because the hissy fit will get wall-to-wall coverage. Rampant incompetence and gleeful corruption? Not nearly so much.
the Conster
Wow. Just… wow. Batboy meets Men in Black meets Max Headroom, and not in a good way.
gene108
What got me in his opening remarks is Scott said he lived in public housing as a kid. I fucking hate right-wingers, who survived childhood because of the social safety net, but want to cut it out for others.
dmsilev
I assume that if there’s a second debate, Governor Lex Luthor will insist on being allowed to wear his powered exoskeleton?
MomSense
I don’t know what to think anymore. In my opinion, that was an incredibly strange performance by Scott. I can’t imagine voting for that guy–then again I look at the House Republican Caucus and wonder just what kind of meth or pharmaceuticals people were on when they voted for those wahoos.
My oldest is always telling me that the problem is that at least half the country is stupid. And it seems like half of the half that isn’t stupid doesn’t vote in midterm elections which meets the Forrest Gump criteria for stupid.
When I factor in some of the asinine things I have heard in my persuasion and GOTV calls–I wanna be sedated. I guess this morning I’m on Team America – Yeah Seriously WTF??
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@the Conster: huh, just googling Scot he really looks like Max Headroom from his pictures. This guy was a CEO, much-less he was elected governor to large state and considered presidential timber?
gene108
Also, one thing I don’t get about Rick Scott’s description of his family is that his mother divorced her husband, when she was pregnant with Rick.
By not calling the husband his father, am I to assume his father is not the divorced abusive husband and if so, who is his father?
There’s just something there that does not seem to make sense to me.
Bil Clinton’s father, Mr. Blythe, died while his mom was preggers. She remarried after Bill was born. His step-father, Mr. Clinton, was abusive. The family tree in this circumstance makes sense. The Clinton family tree is easily communicated, but how Scott described his family makes no sense as to who is father is in the chain of events leading up to his mother’s divorce of the abusive husband.
P.S. I hope Bat Boy was not involved., with the Scott family. He is one of America’s true heroes.
Ben Cisco
Algorithms can only approximate, not duplicate.
Kevin
I love when he thanked his daughters, paused because he didn’t know what to thank them for, then decided “for being such wonderful members of our family”.
It sounds like he hired them and is thanking them for running the accounts payable department well.
Corner Stone
Obama Promises a ‘SWAT-like’ Response to Ebola
I wonder if he means they’re going to break into the wrong house, shoot the dog and confiscate all the loot?
gussie
@Kevin: I was thinking the same. ‘I want to thank my daughters for being my female children …’
Ruckus
@Kevin:
Well he does seem to use them like most CEO’s use employees, maybe he just sees them as something that can enhance his political life. I’d imagine it’s hard to have genuine love for anyone when your whole life is about fucking over everyone for money.
Cervantes
@aimai:
And it’ll work, too, on roughly 27% of the electorate.
PurpleGirl
@Emma: I think Rick Scott seemed closer to Max Headroom than the HAL 9000.
aimai
@WereBear: Dkos has a few diaries up about Scott with a number of jaw droppingly horrible video clips. The guy is like a parody of a human being. He doesn’t blink–at all. There are several clips where he refuses, over and over again, to honestly answer a question and simply repeats a deceptive, inaccurate response, in identical terms, over and over again without blinking once. His eyes are kept so wide open and with so fixed and glassy a stare that he looks like a really bad con man who is determined to keep you distracted from what his hands are doing as he pickpockets you.
He violates all normal rules of human engagement and gives off a stench of dishonesty–thank goodness he’s not the democrat in this race because it really does go beyond partisan identification. Anyone would say the same watching the clips without ID or even sound.
However, that being said, as Karl Rove famously observed the goal is to do politics in dumb show, news for people who watch with the sound off. My guess is that Scott has gotten by because 1) older republicans rote vote and 2) they do watch the news with the sound off and also with one eye, as background, so that they don’t really come to these interviews or debates with any kind of intentionality or awareness. Just like when you look in your closet for a piece of clothing you don’t really “see” everything that is hanging there–just the piece you are looking for.
Villago Delenda Est
@Kevin:
Given that his wife took over the family business when he got elected governor (the family business being theft and grifting) this is fully plausible.
Cervantes
@gene108:
I can understand that he thinks of his adoptive father as his father, and his biological (and wife-abusing) father as his mother’s (first) husband. As you say, he did not know the latter very well.
schrodinger's cat
@gene108: I also hate anti-immigrant candidates whose parents were immigrants, themselves.
Emma
@PurpleGirl: Nah. The HAL was considerably more scary. I’ve lived through the Scott years in Florida and they are terrifying. It will take the state several decades to recover. And, just to top off the terror tank, there’s a real good chance, we’ll have him for more years.
mdblanche
My Spanish is a little rusty but I think he said it’s an hour to be your governess.
Ruckus
@aimai:
How else would you expect someone/something to act given his history? Everything is about money and how he goes about taking it from everyone. He has no, well until we get a better word, soul.
Botsplainer
@aimai:
shudder
Non-blinkers freak me the fuck OUT.
They’re nearly as off-putting as clowns.
SiubhanDuinne
Charles Pierce was over here last night — he commented briefly in John’s thread about “Rick Scott Debate Meltdown” thread — so naturally I was looking forward to what he would have to say. He did not disappoint.
gvg
Did you catch this? I think it was even more revealing than the fan tantrum. In a lightning round at the end of the contentious debate, each candidate was asked to say something nice about his opponent.
“I want to commend him on how he’s handled the Ebola situation,” said Crist. “It’s better to be prepared than panic.”
When it was Scott’s turn, he paused.
“That was pretty nice of him,” he said of Crist’s Ebola comment, offering no other compliment.
Bad manners, poor preparation
the Conster
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Romney/Scott 2016!! America the
BeautifulUncanny Valley!Roger Moore
@Brandon:
Yes, it’s hopeless to expect that. SATSQ.
Betty Cracker
@Botsplainer: OMFG, imagine Scott in a cloud costume! Jesus, I’ll never sleep again!
@Cervantes: I think that’s the story, but I’m not sure. He did thank his late mother for divorcing the abuser at least twice during the debate, in hideously awkward fashion every time.
His handlers should just drop the “act human” shtick and emphasize the durable, wipe-clean exterior or something else inanimate. It’s just too painful to watch Scott trying to project humanity. I hate the motherfucker, and I was nearly catatonic with pity.
Xantar
@gene108:
I hate the American voters who admire such politicians for rising up from that childhood. It’s like they can’t make a basic connection. Or they think social safety nets are magical programs that descend from on high and not something provided by the government that they want to cut so much.
Roger Moore
@mdblanche:
I thought he was saying he will not buy this record, it is scratched.
Thor Heyerdahl
Betty Cracker:
Or a clown costume even. Looks like autocorrect got you like the fan got Rick Scott.
But Scott in a cloud costume puts a whole new spin on “don’t piss on me and tell me it’s raining.”
mdblanche
@the Conster: Their campaign song will be “A Bicycle Built for Two.”
scav
@Botsplainer: Eeeehw, does that mean I have to watch it again or find other examples? I thought I was weirded out in part by his flat, oddly-unrhythmic blinking! Maybe I imagined it: a hallucination generated by his general lizard persona. A poorly translated and dubbed cheap-anamatromic lizard, but apparently one with a mother — his most vital selling point to get out there.
Corner Stone
@Xantar:
Ah, but you see there’s a fundamental difference! Scott might have been forced by his parents situation to take that govt help, but he pulled himself up and made something of himself. He’s a millionaire CEO and Gov for cripes sake!
As opposed to the tens of millions of black people who plot and scheme to get something for nothing from the govt, and then fail to achieve anything. All due to nothing but their inherent laziness!
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Corner Stone: That seems to be all cops can do these days. That was a staggeringly poor choice of phrase by him.
Scratch
You know, you watch something like Rick Scott and you begin to think that maybe David Icke actually might be right or something. Good lord.
Botsplainer
I think the GOP ticket in 16 is going to be something really stupid, and I mean stupid along the lines of Walker/Scott or the opposite.
NonyNony
@Belafon:
Eh – eventually Superman will show up from Earth-1 and cart him back off to be tried for his crimes against the DC universe.
Corner Stone
@Thor Heyerdahl:
I knew she meant clown costume but I started wondering on some level what did it mean if she really did want cloud costume?
cbear
Yep, and I’ll bet $10,000 of Mitt Romney’s money that it was a damn good investment for the slimy, bat-faced fuck.
The only recognizable human quality Scott possesses is unmitigated greed, and virtually every law, administrative action or initiative he has proposed or passed has benefited either himself or his cretinous asshole buddies.
He needs to be shoved back down the shit-pipe or cave he crawled or flew out of.
KB
and the Romneybot 2.0
Belafon
@Thor Heyerdahl: My middle son is watching American Horror Story. In this week’s episode you finally get to see why Twisty the Clown wears that creepy smile. And while what was behind it is definitely not clown-like (I won’t spoil it for those who will watch it), my son went around afterwards going “I’m going to sue. I was promised psychological scarring and I didn’t get it.”
JPL
I use the good boy line a lot for Mr. Finch.
Belafon
@NonyNony: While I sort of see the Luther resemblance, the baldness and the ruthlessness, Lex was way more intelligent than Scott. Voldemort was just evil.
aimai
@Betty Cracker: Durable, wipe clean, material? Oh, how I love you.
Xantar
@Corner Stone:
Like this kind of Cloud costume?
cmorenc
@Betty Cracker:
In the 1960 Presidential election, it wasn’t any of the shady crap he committed as vice-president that did in Richard Nixon, it was the way the television cameras caught his five-o-clock shadow in his debate with John F. Kennedy. The majority of folks who watched that debate on television thought Kennedy had won it, whereas the majority of folks who listened to it on radio thought Nixon had won it. Nixon also had Scott’s problem of coming across like a re-animated corpse on TV.
Of course, Kennedy also had Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and the voters of the Woodlawn Cemetery Precinct to thank for his victory – they turned out nearly 100% for Kennedy and gave him his 8k margin in Illinois.
Mike in NC
Hey, Mitt Rmoney and Rick Scott are an inspiration for all Android-Americans.
Corner Stone
@Xantar: Yeeeaahhh. That takes it to a whole other level if that’s what Betty was envisioning when she said she’d never sleep again.
Alex S.
Scott is a cokehead.
JPL
@Mike in NC: lol
Rex Everything
“I want to thank my daughters for … uh … you know … well, I can fix them.”
Roger Moore
@cmorenc:
Which would be a stronger argument had Kennedy needed Illinois to win the election, but he would have won anyway even had it gone for Nixon.
Iowa Old Lady
In an earlier thread, I mentioned that I’m fleeing the country this afternoon, having already voted. But the Rs are still phoning me, saying they’ll send me an application for an absentee ballot and it’s important I vote because the D’s are turning out their voters early.
No ballot application has come, though I’ve been getting these calls for two weeks.
trollhattan
It’s hard not to compare-and-contrast with California and Meg Whitman, who spend a lot more than batboy only to be handed her ass in Tupperware by Jerry, who had everybody freaked out by waiting for long months to even begin campaigning, spending about seventy-five bucks in the process.
How did an out and out sociopath like Scott ever get elected? Compared to him, Whitman is delightful and charming and a champion of the downtrodden (none of which is remotely the case).
My takeaway is Scott still has an excellent chance of reelection, because Florida.
Kevin
@gussie: And thank you to my human female daughters. You almost make me forget that i really wanted a human male child instead.
Anoniminous
If anyone knows the company who makes the RomBot2012 and Scottronic (FL) please let me know. I am in awe of their technology and would like to go to work for them.
Corner Stone
Someone tell me what the hell is wrong with these people?
Operation against the Islamic State to be called Inherent Resolve
“According to CENTCOM officials, the name INHERENT RESOLVE is intended to reflect the unwavering resolve and deep commitment of the U.S. and partner nations in the region and around the globe to eliminate the terrorist group ISIL and the threat they pose to Iraq, the region and the wider international community,” the statement said, using one of the acronyms for the militant group. “It also symbolizes the willingness and dedication of coalition members to work closely with our friends in the region and apply all available dimensions of national power necessary – diplomatic, informational, military, economic – to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL.”
NonyNony
@Belafon:
This is true, but I swear every time I look at him I wonder why he isn’t investing in some green-and-purple battle armor.
Plus he’s at least as intelligent as the Gene Hackman/Kevin Spacey movie version of Luthor. Who was a moron that could convince people he was superintelligent by surrounding himself with idiots and telling everyone else he was smart.
drkrick
@cmorenc:
There were quite a few civic-minded corpses in GOP-controlled districts in downstate Illinois, too. Nixon looked hard at challenging it and was informed by his allies there that it was a rock none of them wanted to turn over.
Steve in the ATL
@Roger Moore: And if you ignore the many deceased voters who chose Nixon in downstate Illinois.
Corner Stone
@trollhattan:
Does anyone know if Jerry Brown and Joe Biden like each other? What would happen if Jerry and Onion Joe did a road trip?
feebog
@Botsplainer:
Not if they both lose their election this year. In addition to the stench of corruption that surrounds both of them like a thick fog, the anchor of losing their Governorship will sink them.
NonyNony
@trollhattan:
IIRC, Scott ran unopposed last time.
No wait – not unopposed. Opposed by Alex Sink who as I recall didn’t actually do much.
Also, yes, Florida.
Kevin
This clip is even better. He malfunctions slightly.
MomSense
@Kevin:
That was really creepy. The manufacturer needs to work on the blinking software. I had dolls when I was a kid that blinked more realistically than that.
Betty Cracker
@Corner Stone: For fuck’s sake. The person or people who feel a burning need to name courtesy bombing operations need to be drop-kicked into a toxic waste dump. Colbert used a random name-generator to come up with something much better: Operation Turgid Panther.
Villago Delenda Est
@mdblanche: “Your hovercraft is full of eels.”
trollhattan
@Corner Stone:
Best poli-buddy movie, evah.
My hunch is they’d either hit it off like gangbusters or loathe one another, as their personalities are vastly different. But gawd, it would be fun to watch Jerry lecture on Aristotle and Joe counter with the finer points of rebuilding a Rochester Quadrajet carb.
Villago Delenda Est
@Betty Cracker: In the military, they come up with names for every operation, and as I understand it, it’s a fairly random process in the first place, subject to executive approval to avoid snark ala Colbert. There are of course exceptions when the assclowns in the White House, usually “war time preznit” wannabees, get involved in the operation naming process.
For example, the great Mesopotamian Adventure was not named “Operation Iraqi Liberation” because of the unfortunate acronym that it formed which hit too close to home.
mdblanche
@Anoniminous: I believe the RomBot2012 was built by the HAL Plant in Urbana IL and the Scottronic (FL) was built by Old Glory Insurance to drum up business.
Betty Cracker
@Villago Delenda Est: IIRC, back in the Bush the Lesser error, they forgot the snark filter and named one “Operation Mountain Thrust,” which occasioned many snickers back in the old cube farm.
shelley
Wow, watched this and the video of the ‘Fan’ beginning. If only all debates were that entertaining. What statement did Scott’s people make in defense of refusing to come out?
Roger Moore
@mdblanche:
They would have gotten them built by MomCorp, but then they’d be Hecho en Mexico and not be eligible to run for the presidency.
Villago Delenda Est
@cmorenc:
GOP mythology, as others have pointed out earlier upthread. Wasn’t nearly as decisive as they’d have you believe, and the problem with all the Rethugs rising from their graves downstate was quietly swept under the rug..
Mike J
@mdblanche: HAL gets a bad rap. His failing is that he was told to value completing the mission above the lives of the crew. There are any number of war movies where that’s considered an admirable quality.
Villago Delenda Est
@shelley: They claim that the debate rules didn’t allow for “electronic devices” including fans.
The moderator looks to me to be stupid enough to buy the official Rick Scott version of the debate rules that Christ’s people probably never saw.
JPL
@shelley: Did you watch the video that Kevin at 74 linked to.
It was Crist’s fault.
JPL
@Villago Delenda Est: Scott’s folks are saying it wasn’t about the fan. They didn’t think Crist was going to show up. I know it makes no sense because Crist was on the stage and Scott wasn’t but that’s their story and they are sticking to it.
MomSense
@Villago Delenda Est:
My hypothesis is that he thought the debate would be taped and edited favorably (for Scott) for later viewing and after he found out that wasn’t the case, there was some version of O’Reilly’s fuck it we’ll do it live going on back stage.
Corner Stone
Perusing Google News for headlines is almost as humorous as the NewsMax snippets.
Someone tell me how these two headlines:
U.S. Jobless Claims Fall to 14-Year Low
Industrial Output in U.S. Rises by Most Since November 2012
Somehow equals this one:
Ebola Is a Midterm Issue, and It’s Not Helping Democrats
Ahh, wait I see. The third story was co-written by Chuckles Todd.
Nebber mind!
jonas
Well, Obama fucked up his first debate with Romney in 2012 (though not as badly, to be sure) and still won. What Crist did was a brilliant bit of trolling, though, because all the press will be talking about is not Scott’s sub-par debate performance — which people generally get over — but refusing to come out to debate at all because his opponent had a small fan at the podium. How fucking stupid can you get?
Villago Delenda Est
@CONGRATULATIONS!: He meant the SWAT team from the TV series, which never fucked up, because on TV the cops never fuck up.
Villago Delenda Est
@JPL: It makes no sense because you’ve got the moderator stating, out loud and everything, that it was about the fan, and that’s what Scott’s foul minions told him.
Now they’ve got a new theory? What, a dog ate their homework?
The lot of them should be put up against a fucking wall, with their families being billed for rounds expended.
mdblanche
@Mike J: Well, the RomBot’s ethical subroutines were subcontracted to Aperture Science, but its user interface and singing abilities are pure HAL.
@Corner Stone: ct;dr
Ripley
Free samples or it didn’t happen.
Corner Stone
“Now we can’t say that the intense Ebola focus is HURTING Democratic candidates — we haven’t seen data or evidence to back that up. But we can safely say that the focus isn’t HELPING them.”
HAHAHAHA
Villago Delenda Est
Can you imagine the panic amongst the Scott lackies?
“ZOMG, Crist has got a fan! A fucking fan! We have to DO something about that fucking fan!”
Villago Delenda Est
@Corner Stone: The sooner Chuckles the Clown is transformed into something useful, like fertilizer, the better.
Calouste
@Villago Delenda Est: They keep changing the story until something sticks. Like the Ferguson Police Department.
It like a variant of Goebels’ “Big Lie”. People are not willing to believe that someone would like that big, or as in this scenario, that people would just lie all the time.
? Martin
@trollhattan:
California is full of people that thought ‘Hey, I know, lets immigrate to America’, whereas Florida is full of people that thought ‘Hey, I know, let’s move to Florida’.
Villago Delenda Est
OT, but over at Powder Blue Satan he’s got a link to a YouTube clip by some assclowns who call themselves “The Right Brothers” who have composed a little ditty that they have turned the comments off on because, well, they’re cowardly little shits like their deserting role model.
scav
@JPL: That is one weird argument. Clearly not aimed at anyone who actually saw the beginning and has a basic weighting of truth > party. Doesn’t make much sense from a logical political PR sense of “Wouldn’t you want to be front and camera-center exactly when your opponent fails to show up?” POV. So presumably they’re aiming to flip the debate neuron permanently in one direction for people really not paying attention and with limited practical reasoning. That’s a sad thing to be explicitly grabbing for, all in all. Wish they were a less numerous part of the electorate all the same.
rikyrah
Nina Turner for Ohio secretary of state: endorsement editorial
By Editorial Board
on October 14, 2014 at 1:30 PM, updated October 14, 2014 at 3:09 PM
The best-known job of Ohio’s secretary of state is to be the state’s chief elections officer. Even though incumbent Republican Jon Husted has handled all other aspects of the job with distinction over the past four years – including the practical side of elections management – and even though he has been a voice of reason on redistricting reform, his miscues, mistakes and outright partisan manipulation of the state’s early-voting rules disqualify him for a second term.
With her passionate advocacy for easier voting access, Nina Turner, the Democratic state senator from Cleveland for the 25th District, better exemplifies the priorities Ohio’s chief elections officer must have.
“As secretary of state, for me, it’s about making sure that you expand and protect that access to the ballot box,” Turner, 46, said during the endorsement interview, adding that it doesn’t matter what voters’ “political affiliation is; [I’ll be] pro-voter. The voter will always be at the center of my universe.”
We take Turner at her word on that, as someone who stood up to Democratic Party insiders during the battle over Cuyahoga County reforms. At the same time, worryingly, she’s been strongly partisan during this campaign. The see-saw partisanship of Ohio’s secretary of state, depending on which party holds the office, has ill-served the state and needs to change. Turner must resolve to change it.
http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/10/nina_turner_for_ohio_secretary.html
Bostondreams
@NonyNony:
Well, in the comics, Lex Luthor is currently a member of the Justice League and partners with Bruce Wayne in a Lexcorp-Waynetech merger. This bodes ill for the future of Florida.
? Martin
In a just world this would completely bury Gardner:
Add one more journalist to the list of people that will never be asked to host Meet the Press.
Villago Delenda Est
@scav:
The 27%. Their target audience, their base.
Roger Moore
My theory is that Scott’s team thought it was the Go Big Red Fan, and Crist was going to use it to receive coded messages. It’s as plausible as any other explanation.
Botsplainer
Booo!! Banned by Raw Story for referring to the GamerGate MRAs as fat, unbathed, compulsive masturbators who have convinced themselves that they’re aspergers sufferers by feigning symptoms in order to be left alone in gamer world, when in reality, they’re really just a bunch of assholes.
I’m disappointed. They’re in a thread that’s going to go into 1000 “you are so an evildoer and here’s the evidence and personalities” and “nuh-uh, you’re the ethical problem, not me, the death threats aren’t so bad and CheetoDust201 was harrassed one time, too, by real life sluts ” comments. I suspect they’re at 500+ already.
I was simply trying to get to the nub of the matter in short order.
Their fathers would have done them a favor by breaking all their action figures, torching the dungeon master manuals, burning their comic books, smashing their electronics and then signing them up for little league teams that they just dropped them off at.
scav
@Villago Delenda Est: Zactly. but having to explicitly reach out to grab them and hold hard isn’t exactly a blinding display of confidence and pride in what just went down.
Corner Stone
@? Martin:
What does that fool think he’s doing? It’s not his job to report the facts, much less ask a Republican to answer a question truthfully!
How very uncivil!
Now. Where is my goatee trimmer and freshly dusted fainting couch?
mike in dc
@Botsplainer: I assume I should see what you did there.
By the by, apparently Alison Lundergan Grimes is not dead after all. Got a bounce from the debate and one poll has her up 47-43, another 46-44 over “One(last) Term” McConnell.
replicnt6
@cmorenc:
I hear this a lot (when the subject comes up), but I’ve never had anyone actually explain to me how Nixon would have managed to win with the 246 electoral votes he would have had with the addition of IL’s 27.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1960
Villago Delenda Est
@scav: True dat, but they’ll take what they can get at this point, methinks.
Villago Delenda Est
@Ripley: Gas, grass or ass.
No one rides free in the Scottmobile.
Corner Stone
@mike in dc:
Now’s the time when it’s crucial for her to really galvanize her base in Kentucky.
Villago Delenda Est
@Corner Stone: May FSM make it so.
I would so enjoy a total disruption of the Village Narrative come election night. Just to watch the vile vermin squirm.
JPL
@? Martin: It seems as though some Republicans have a problem with the truth.
Villago Delenda Est
@JPL: Well, of course. Facts DO have a liberal bias, you know.
Botsplainer
@Corner Stone:
On wingnut radio, she’s running commercial time far to the right of McConnell on immigration.
I was laughing my ass off.
mdblanche
But… but… Chuck Todd…
@Villago Delenda Est:
I’m sure if Grimes does something as shrill and uncivil as disrupting the Narrative by winning, she’ll be blacklisted by Meet the Press forever. So she’ll have that going for her too.
Corner Stone
@Botsplainer:
Not unexpected. But she won’t be the issue on immigration reform.
Barney
Scott’s closing speech would fit in well in a “beauty pageant car-crash interviews” compilation.
MrChaz
My question is not how he functioned as a CEO, it’s how he avoided jail after HCA was convicted for defrauding the government with false medical billings and other fraud committed during his tenure there for a total 1.7 billion in criminal fines and charges.
However I see good news for Mr. Scott. I think the evidence shows that he’s not a psychopath. Some studies have shown a psychopath has many traits that work well for a CEO! This is from a Forbes article about “The Wisdom of Psychopaths”, by Kevin Dutton:
“Psychopaths appear, through some Darwinian practical joke, to possess the very personality characteristics that many of us would die for,” Dutton writes. Exceptional persuasiveness, captivating charm, and razor sharp focus under immense pressure (like war zones) seem to come naturally to psychopaths. Dutton presents a battery of research spanning several centuries to back up this assertion.”
Given his unfocused, unconvincing closing argument we can argue that at worst he’s a sociopath. Assuming he’s not an alien, of course. ;-)
JimmyCrackedCorn
Every ad from now until election day will be. “Rick Scott, not Florida seniors’/voters’ biggest fan.” Its going to be hilarious.
I’m honestly surprised how on the ball Crist was. Nailed Scott with “pleading the fifth” about the fan and his ads have been pushing that hard.
Craig
I haven’t personally inspected the fan in question, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that it has a switch and a motor, but probably not a lot of transistors, diodes, or vacuum tubes.
A fan is an ELECTRIC device, but not an ELECTRONIC one. There is a difference, it is important, and words do mean things.
Like I say, haven’t looked inside the fan, and for all I know, it might have some kind of sophisticated control device that bounces lasers off Charlie’s skin to work out where his skin is warmest, and direct just the right level of breeze to his forehead or his neck. But it doesn’t seem like the way to bet.
Kathleen
@the Conster: Or, “Charlie Christ should be disqualified for needing a fan”. Chuck Todd
Tree With Water
“My mom is watching from heaven”?
Move over, Checkers.
Kathleen
@Betty Cracker: Also, too, maybe they should offer an extended warranty?
Kathleen
@? Martin:
Kathleen
@rikyrah: Thanks for the link, rikyrah. I’ve heard her radio ads (not seen anything on TV) and she is very impressive. But too partisan? She’s a Democrat for crying out loud. And she already said her focus was “pro voter” regardless of party.
I’m glad she got the endorsement. Plan to vote early tomorrow at the BOE downtown.
Uncle Cosmo
@Emma: “Crazy, Crazy, give me your statement, do…“
Uncle Cosmo
@JimmyCrackedCorn: Oh, jeebus, the possibilities for a devastating spot:
JustRuss
Note to Rick: The next time your handlers tell you to pander to the wimmins, naming members of your family doesn’t cut it. Alsotoo, go back to Spanish class, or please, just do not go there.
The Other Chuck
I’m loving the hashtags on this:
#Fangate
#Fantrum
#Fanghazi
Sondra
Did any of you notice that he was sort of falling off of the podium and had his head tilted to the right the whole time? What kind of body language is that?
His only other pose was that horrible smile with his big ears sticking out and his eyes all crazy looking straight head in a an unblinking stare.
Someone who speaks body language, needs to speak up…we could use the help.
The Other Chuck
@Sondra: Higher than a weather balloon is my guess.
Sondra
@dmsilev:
That was the second debate. One more is scheduled.
Sondra
@The Other Chuck:
OK then. I hadn’t thought of that. Maybe he’s just medicated.
SWMBO
@Roger Moore: Give the guy a break. His handlers told him there were a lot of aliens in Florida and he was just pandering to them. So his Klingon was a little rusty, you gonna hold that against him?
Then there is this:
http://www.tampabay.com/news/bizarre/after-2010-campaign-gov-rick-scott-gave-back-dog-reagan/1270497
He ditched Reagan!
E.
Anybody thinks an insane debate performance can kill a winger campaign, I offer you Jan Brewer, current governor of Arizona. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxjPGp3BoXg