Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

T R E 4 5 O N

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

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

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

Second rate reporter says what?

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

This blog will pay for itself.

The revolution will be supervised.

I really should read my own blog.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Open Thread: Before the Beast Collapses, Completely Drained

Open Thread: Before the Beast Collapses, Completely Drained

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If I made this stuff up, you’d ding me for implausibility. Politico is happy to assure us that JEB! will overcome because “His team is selling a Trump vs. Bush vision that relies on big-money backers ignoring public data”:

Jeb Bush didn’t fix it. His attempted attacks on rivals have fallen flat. His $30 million in TV ads have failed to move his numbers. And now, with the Iowa caucuses less than two months away, he’s polling at a miserable 3 percent nationally.

But there’s one significant success that is keeping his campaign alive: Jeb Bush has convinced major GOP donors and supporters that the polls are wrong.

“I am like the Israelites following Moses, and I am not the only one,” said Mike Fernandez, the top donor to Bush’s super PAC, after a new CNN poll showed Bush an astounding 33 points behind the poll leader. “Unfortunately, it might not be that many of us.”

While rival campaigns boast that some Bush backers are making side bets on other candidates, hardly any Bush donors have publicly abandoned him — largely out of unwavering loyalty to an incomparable Republican dynasty and to a candidate many put on a pedestal in spite of his political shortcomings.

“Given the poll numbers currently, you would think there would be these massive defections from a campaign like this,” said Slater Bayliss, a Florida-based GOP operative and longtime Bush ally. “And the reason there haven’t been is Jeb Bush; because people believe he’s in it for the long haul and believe he’s a serious candidate — even in a cycle where serious doesn’t seem to be selling. They like him because he’s serious. Eventually, they think serious will sell.”…

All of Bush world’s operating theories about the race — the idea that a well-funded super PAC would give Bush an edge, that Donald Trump was a passing fad, that a decade-old record of governorship would matter and that the electorate would come around to Bush’s more accepting positions on immigration reform and Common Core — have turned out, so far anyway, to be wrong.

“Jeb just isn’t very talented at this. And the problem is that Jeb has been coddled by a group of people who worship Jeb,” said one high-level Republican strategist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “They ran a campaign based on what they wanted the party to be, instead of what the party was.”…

But in more private conversations, many on Bush’s payroll are turning to resignation and even gallows humor. One lamented to friends about not getting to spend the entire winter in Miami; others have been wondering aloud if the campaign will even make it through January to the first in the nation Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1.

“I think staff morale is exceedingly low,” said a Bush donor based in New York City. “I suspect they know they’re in a death spiral now. There’s no getting out of this.”

In spite of those worries starting to bubble to the surface, Bush appears resolved to fight on, still expressing steely confidence to close associates and anyone who questions his viability: “I’m going to win this damn thing,” he’ll often say…

I figured we all deserved a good belly laugh, after this unremittingly grim week.

What’s on the agenda for the start of the weekend?

Reader Interactions

164Comments

  1. 1.

    SiubhanDuinne

    You know, I care very deeply about the wellbeing of my fellow Balloon Juice commenters, and I must confess I am a bit concerned about RtR these days. Is he okay? In need of an intervention? Did he perhaps have an accident? Did ¡Jeb! throw him under one of the cash-filled Brink’s trucks?

    We are a community here. We care about each other. Please tell me that our colleague is all RIGHT and will live to RISE another day.

  4. 4.

    Jeffro

    “a cycle…where serious doesn’t seem to be selling…”

    Well, not on your side of the aisle, sir.

  5. 5.

    SiubhanDuinne

    “one high-level Republican strategist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.”

    This guy sure gets around.

  9. 9.

    David Koch

    By his body language and recent outbursts ¿Jeb ? knows he’s not going to win.

    This is just a long Bataan death march.

    I think the video is a lame attempt to boost his image with the Village and donors as he gets thrown out of the contest.

  10. 10.

    Roger Moore

    @Jeffro:

    “a cycle…where serious doesn’t seem to be selling…”

    Well, not on your side of the aisle, sir.

    If it isn’t selling on that side of the aisle, it’s only because there’s none for sale.

  14. 14.

    Roger Moore

    @David Koch:

    I think the video is a lame attempt to boost his image with the Village and donors as he gets thrown out of the contest.

    I would assume it’s an attempt by whoever made it to siphon off some of that sweet, sweet SuperPAC cash. Apart from all the opportunities to enrich friends and relatives by finding them jobs on the production team, there’s also commissions to be made buying TV time to broadcast it. Anything that comes out of a Republican SuperPAC should be assumed to be grift first and useful campaign spending somewhere way down the list.

  15. 15.

    Germy

    I saw this comment over at LGM, and it’s a good one:

    Murc says:
    December 4, 2015 at 12:27 pm
    I think Jeb! wanted to (still wants) to be President, but he’s completely unwilling to walk the walk and talk the talk you’re required to do to win a Republican primary these days, resents it in fact, and his palpable unhappiness and desultory campaign stem from that.

    Jeb has been running as himself ever since he was running. He stands on his Florida record, which is pretty conservative but fails a number of litmus tests these days. He does it old-school, like his Pappy did.

    Thing is, it isn’t 1988 anymore. Jeb Bush can’t recline inside the country club with the other respectable members of the Republican aristocracy, only needing to occasionally venture out onto the balcony, hurl some red meat to the mad dogs, listen to them bark with a fond smile on his face for a bit, and then go back inside for another round of whiskies and maybe some pool.

    The mad dogs are inside the club now, upending the tables, taking huge chunks out of the patrons, smashing all the best booze. They have to be taken seriously now, placated, dealt with, or they’ll destroy you. Indeed, they seem intent on destroying the club altogether.

    Jeb resents that. You can tell he resents that. He hates those people. He’d use the word “proles” if he were smart enough. He paid his dues, dammit. He’s a fully made member of the Bush Crime Family, grandson of a Senator, son of a President and brother to another. He deserves respect and will not kowtow to people who are beneath him in an effort to get it.

    So he goes through the motions, but it’s just that; the motions.

    Thing is, he can’t just quit. He still has to deal with his various and sundry relations, including his dad (who won’t be around much longer but man, Bush pere is hangin’ in there, right?) and his brother.

    He can be beaten. That’s okay. Poppy got beaten a lot, there’s no shame in that. But he can’t quit.

  16. 16.

    Baud

    It’s dumb to release this at Chrismastime when no on will be paying attention.

    That’s why I scheduled my personal documentary, Baud!: The Musical, for mid-January.

  20. 20.

    redshirt

    Jeb has to think about his future grifting opportunities too. He has to handle this smoothly in order to ensure 100K speaking fees from 2016 on.

  21. 21.

    Germy

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Why has all the sidebar stuff moved to the bottom?

    I’m always scrolling quickly to the bottom of the page, and then have to go back up to the last comment. Like someone who has accidentally taken the elevator to the basement, and then has to ride back up to the first floor.

  24. 24.

    WaterGirl

    @SiubhanDuinne: Oh, thank god! Maybe that would have been obvious if I had been able to make it through all of those paragraphs about Bush, but I just couldn’t.

  25. 25.

    redshirt

    What do you all think Trump’s coat-tails would be like if he’s the R nom? Will he help or hurt Senators, Congressfolk, and state offices also running as R’s?

  26. 26.

    scav

    It’s so cute they’re wandering out into the same damn desert again, assuming everything is for sale and that they still really really really have the math. Guy has to self-fund and self-publish his own 15 minutes of fame. This theme keeps going through my head.

  27. 27.

    WaterGirl

    It’s hard to make changes to a live site. As long as we are seeing things we want coming back (recent changes, etc) I’m okay with Alain adding functionality and then fixing the spacing issues that result.

    Personally, I am thrilled to have the tabs with titles again. Having all those BJ tags open and having them all say BALLOON JUICE was sapping my will to live.

  31. 31.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @WaterGirl:

    Well, in all seriousness, I tried to post a similar comment last night, except instead of “RtR” I spelled out the commenter’s nym. Comment never appeared. It finally occurred to me that possibly he was banned at some point, and I seem to recall that if someone mentions a banned commenter by nym, that person’s comment disappears into the ether. So I figured that was what happened yesterday, and didn’t bother to rewrite everything.

    But this post about the ¡Jeb! documentary prompted me to try again. Sorry to cause you concern.

  32. 32.

    Matt McIrvin

    I saw one of his TV ads yesterday, and it was hitting as hard as possible on the patriotic war imagery, with old war vets talking genuinely movingly about getting their limbs blown off by grenades and then segueing awkwardly to urging you to vote for Jeb for his Leadership in a dangerous dangerous time. I got a definite impression that it was trying to get you nostalgic for Dubya. I guess that doesn’t fly any more.

  33. 33.

    redshirt

    Unlike many here, I have no one pied and rather enjoy the trolls, especially the themed ones. So RTR was a blast – and in 2012 too when he was super Romney supporter.

  35. 35.

    JMG

    @srv: They’re vetted as thoroughly as can be. We don’t even know whether or not he turned her weird or vice versa. Why don’t we just cut to the chase and say we will no longer admit anyone who’s not a Northern European white person into the country even as tourists?

  37. 37.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @redshirt:

    I’m very glad about restoring Recent Comments — but wasn’t that feature the culprit in all kinds of problems (slow lads, frequent crashes, ate lots of bandwidth, etc.) a few years ago, and the reason for discontinuing it? I hope they’ve managed to address those issues this time around.

    Edit: HAHAHA. I just noticed “slow lads.” Not what I typed, but I am leaving it uncorrected because I love it.

  39. 39.

    JPL

    @srv: uhoh.. How long before Trump mentions that Jeb’s wife is an anchor wife. She also had a few problems carrying goods from Europe without declaring them. hmm

  41. 41.

    Mary G

    @scav: “Can’t Buy Me Love” starts playing in my head every time I look at a poll and see Jeb Bush sinking, which I do often. Cheers me up every time. He’s not even in the top 5 of the RCP average poll of New Hampshire, which is where he was supposed to clean up.

  42. 42.

    shortstop

    I savor every stumble, each more humiliating than the last, on the journey that is the fall of the house of Bush. Please let Jeb! stay through New Hampshire so we can see him thoroughly embarrassed there. And please let Poppy live until at least late January 2017, so the wife of the guy who beat his ass in 1992 can deliver his eulogy.

    I sound unkind, don’t I? Well, that’s all right.

  45. 45.

    shortstop

    @Mary G: He just announced earlier this week that he’s opening four regional offices in NH. I was like, just now you’re doing this? Can’t anybody on your campaign play this game?

  47. 47.

    dmsilev

    @shortstop:

    And please let Poppy live until at least late January 2017, so the wife of the guy who beat his ass in 1992 can deliver his eulogy.

    I had been hoping that Poppy would live long enough to see his son face-plant, but you’re right, lasting that little bit longer so that he sees Hillary in the Oval Office would be the icing on the schadenfreude cake.

  48. 48.

    Germy

    @shortstop:

    the journey that is the fall of the house of Bush.

    But aren’t there some younger Bushes waiting in the wings? And handsome, too?

    We’ll never be rid of that house…

  49. 49.

    shortstop

    @Germy: I think maybe they’re done at the national level. But it could be I’m once again underestimating the power of voters to forget truly terrible shit.

  51. 51.

    Roger Moore

    @dmsilev:

    I had been hoping that Poppy would live long enough to see his son face-plant, but you’re right, lasting that little bit longer so that he sees Hillary in the Oval Office would be the icing on the schadenfreude cake.

    It would also be great if Jimmy Carter manages to hold out long enough to say something nice about him at his funeral- the kind of grace and class that all know Carter is far more capable of than any Republican in living memory.

  53. 53.

    Trentrunner

    @Germy:

    The mad dogs are inside the club now, upending the tables, taking huge chunks out of the patrons, smashing all the best booze.

    This is close, but not quite accurate. Let’s try this:

    The mad dogs are inside the club now, shitting on the floor, vomiting on the pool tables, then eating each others’ shit and vomit, and then vomiting and shitting it out, only to have the cycle repeat, until no one can tell who shit what or who vomited what and it doesn’t even matter because the entire place looks and smells and feels like shitted vomit vomited up and then shit out.

    This, ladies and gentlemen, is your 2016 GOP.

  54. 54.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Germy: GEorge P Bush, Jeb’s son, is Texas Land Commissioner, which I vaguely recall the late Miss Ivins saying was traditionally launching pad for Senate or Governorship. The Freudian Loop-de-loop may swing on another generation

    @shortstop: That’s why I can’t figure out Christie running this time around, another couple of cycles and anything short of a conviction would’ve made everybody forget the bridge while he pretended to be an above-the-fray elder statesman, and made some serious bank. Then again, no one expected the Trumpish Imposition!

  57. 57.

    Calouste

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Christie might be trying to outrun the indictments. In any case, in the last poll in New Hampshire he was at 10%, above Bush and on the heels of Rubio. He might become the establishment candidate if he can pull of a good showing there.

  58. 58.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Roger Moore:

    One never knows, of course, about someone who is 91 years old and is being treated for brain cancer. But all the reports I’ve seen, both in the press and from people who know and spend time with him, indicate that Jimmy Carter is doing remarkably well. He’s still working on Habitat for Humanity projects, still teaching Sunday School every week he is home in Plains, and as engaged as ever on the great issues of the day.

    If he can’t live forever — and he can’t — I would like to see him outlive Poppy Bush and the last remaining Guinea Worm on the planet. If he outlives Dick Cheney, too, that’d be gravy.

  59. 59.

    Steeplejack (sky-high wi-fi)

    Middle of West Virginia. This flight cannot end soon enough (40 minutes left). Wi-fi has sucked, and the guy jammed in next to me is an “encroacher.” Grr.

  60. 60.

    The Republic of Stupity

    “I am like the Israelites following Moses, and I am not the only one,” said Mike Fernandez…

    Right… more like the troops following Custer…

  61. 61.

    Germy

    @Calouste: Did team Romney find something bad when they examined Christie’s fitness for VP? If there IS something bad, will Jeb’s team dig it up?

  63. 63.

    Steeplejack (sky-high wi-fi)

    @Germy:

    The other thing is that the seats are significantly narrower on this flight. I could almost not blame the encroacher except he’s really working it. I’m leaning out into the aisle and scrunching in when traffic goes by.

  64. 64.

    shortstop

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    no one expected the Trumpish Imposition

    I wish to bigamously marry this witticism.

    And y’all are right, of course. The Bushes, especially George P., may rise again. So for now I shall just enjoy Jeb’s abject humiliation, Poppy’s bewilderment and Babs’ simmering rage.

  65. 65.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @SiubhanDuinne: My understanding was that bringing back the Recent Comments was a major goal in the retooling of the WP back end.

    And there was no way it was coming back without some sort of retooling. I ran some simulations on my test server using the site as it was then and … nope.

  67. 67.

    Anne Laurie

    @Baud:

    That’s why I scheduled my personal documentary, Baud!: The Musical, for mid-January.

    Excellent plan! Hobbyist sale sites like Etsy always expect a ‘bump’ when the paycheck-to-paycheck demographic files their 1040EZs and has a little ‘fun money’ coming in…

  68. 68.

    Felanius Kootea

    @JPL: Uh, so is Trump’s wife. I’m surprised his followers haven’t turned against her yet – she isn’t from Western Europe.

  71. 71.

    Calouste

    @Germy: “Christie” and “fitness” in one sentence, you don’t see that often.

    I don’t think Christie had much to offer to Romney. Even Romney wasn’t deluded enough to think that Christie could bring him New Jersey, and he was probably afraid of being overshadowed by someone who actually has a personality, even if it is a revolting one.

  72. 72.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @shortstop: I shall just enjoy Jeb’s abject humiliation, Poppy’s bewilderment and Babs’ simmering rage.

    I’ll admit I take great pleasure that the old vipers lived to see this faceplant. It galls me every time I hear someone wax nostalgic for the allegedly kinder, gentler Republicanism of Poppy Bush. He may not be as nasty as Bar (who is, aside from Cheney and Rove?), but he was a race-baiter, a red-baiter and a demagogue.

  74. 74.

    Ruckus

    @Germy:
    Jeb’s team dig it up? Do you think there is that much competence in total in that group? I’d bet no, going by the fact they work for Jeb.

  76. 76.

    David Koch

    Holy Cow!

    Zack Greinke leaves Dodgers signs with Diamondbacks.

    whole new ballgame in NL West

  77. 77.

    Ruckus

    @Calouste:
    I think it was more that Mittens took one look at Cristie and decided that he wasn’t going slumming. Cristie probably wouldn’t have given him any votes from anywhere that he didn’t already have, why take the risk of having a crude, boorish running mate who might cost him votes many places.

  79. 79.

    JMG

    @Iowa Old Lady: I am considerably larger than you, but way back in 1984 when NBA teams traveled on commercial flights I was on a redeye from LA to Atlanta with the Celtics. They all had first class seats, but 6-8, 250 Cedric Maxwell came back into coach and sat with his wife and small child. He slept until the lights came on at the gate. It’s what you get used to, I guess.

  82. 82.

    Ruckus

    @Iowa Old Lady:
    I decided long ago that airplane seats are just fine. This happened one day when I sat down and there was no room for my legs. My knees were jammed into the seat in front of me, the person sitting there could not have reclined his seat, it was that tight. And then my seat mate came down the isle. I’m 5’11” (or used to be, I may have gotten to the shrinking age last yr) and my new seat mate was at minimum 6 inches taller than me. I told him I would never again complain about leg room. And I’m not changing that now.

  83. 83.

    David Koch

    @Germy:

    but he’s completely unwilling to walk the walk and talk the talk you’re required to do to win a Republican primary these days

    It’s not that he doesn’t want to, it’s that he can’t.

    How is he going to bash Mexicans (like Trump does) when he’s married to one.

    I think the bigger issue is he’s a bumbler. He tried to attack Latino “anchor babies” and then made things worse when he tried to take it back by slurring Asians.

  84. 84.

    eemom

    I will say this for Jebby: he provides some much needed comedy relief in an increasingly horrifying political climate.

  87. 87.

    SRW1

    The only reason why ‘Lousy Salesman Can’t Resurrect Shitty Brand’ is a viable headline is because some of the economic elites in the US have the political instincts of ringworms.

  94. 94.

    David Koch

    there’s also commissions to be made buying TV time to broadcast it.

    Can someone explain how this works. Why would you get a commission for placing an ad?

    Does this happen in commercial advertising – for example, when Pepsi places an ad on ESPN does Pepsi’s advertising department receive a commission for doing their job?

  95. 95.

    David Koch

    anyone who likes Women’s Soccer, the college Final 4 is on ESPN-U right now. Really good game btwn Duke and FSU.

  96. 96.

    Applejinx

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): In the nicest way possible I can’t help but think “screw the lot of ’em” and would like to see the whole aristocracy, both true (Bushes) and would-be (Clintons) fake-smiling as they watch President Sanders getting sworn in.

    What, you thought I was going to say Trump? Nah. With Bernie you get all that plus everything positive about Clinton, issue-wise. I just like having a good working option (who polls better against Trump) who is an experienced politician, but is completely not part of the system that’s been screwing us all my life.

    I completely sympathize with wanting to watch the Bushes forced to watch the Clintons take another turn, though. If you get into the pro-football-ness of it all, that’s a memorable end zone taunt, arguably more of an epic dis than electing an outsider.

    But I don’t think the beltway soap opera and pro-football-ness of it actually helps us, so I’ll gladly pass up the extra salt in Bush wounds. Fuck the lot of ’em. I want them to be irrelevant.

  98. 98.

    JPL

    @Felanius Kootea: She’s classy though. She’d be the best first lady evah! A supporter mentioned that they couldn’t wait until he won cuz his wife would bring back some class to the White House. Nothing says class to his supporters as someone with nude photos.

  99. 99.

    craigie

    @shortstop:
    Hi Doll. I was wondering if you would clock that – it was fun to see you still in here.

    Somewhere along the way, I got a much more “serious” job and couldn’t devote the time that these threads really deserve. But I’ve been dipping into them all along.

  100. 100.

    scav

    @lamh36: Smells of a strong desire to link himself to the gathering wave, rather than being pulled under by it. Because whatever he was doing wasn’t working.

  101. 101.

    John Revolta

    @David Koch: I would think the sales guy at ESPN would be the one getting the commission. The Pepsi guy would be the one getting the kickback.

  102. 102.

    lamh36

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): not to get too much OT, but I know ur are the Hamilton-STAN here at BJ, did you know that the guy who did the costumes for Hamilton also did the costumes for The Wiz Live musical!

  105. 105.

    trollhattan

    @redshirt:
    I assume, like a remora whose shark has been caught, finned and dumped into the sea, he will circle and ensucker himself to either a semifinalist or the finalist shark (whale in the case of Christie, which ain’t happening). So much talent can’t be on the sidelines in the tussle for control of Amurka.

  106. 106.

    lamh36

    @scav: not many options, but if there is any truth to reports that someone maybe Rahm threatening Black leaders bout protesting and about Rahm folks having that LaQuan tape for over a year, but held it until at least after the election, and then not even planning to release it until the reporter filed the FOIA filings.

    options or not, how are the people of Chicago supposed to trust Mayor Rahm after this?

  107. 107.

    Mike J

    @John Revolta: Buyers are actually valuable, if they’re good at their jobs. Knowing where to buy is as important as the rate.You want to spend the least money to reach your target audience, not just the least money.

  108. 108.

    jl

    Matt Taibbi wrote recently that Jeb? would be a natural as a low-key vulgarian commercial lawyer handling mixed-use development projects in the burbs of Tallahassee.

    I will watch this mini-documentary, which will surely be stirring evocation of quiet heroism, and which might unlock the secret truth! Who or what is the real Jeb??

  109. 109.

    David Koch

    @Baud: I get how you get a commission for selling product, in this case, selling advertising space on a tee vee channel. That’s always been true: give sales staff an incentive to increase sales. But what I don’t get is why would you get a commission for buying. I mean, there’s no incentive needed to spend an allotted budget.

  111. 111.

    Relax

    The donors are still onboard, and so long as that’s the case, we’re going to be just fine.

    We’re in this for the long haul.

    Look at my name above.

    In the words of the QB of my beloved Packers, R-E-L-A-X RELAX.

    Jeb Bush is going to have the most incredible ground game the world has yet seen in New Hampshire, we’re in the mix in the Granite State. Live Free or Die, baby. It’s a traffic jam for second place. If we even come in second we can spin it as “the great comeback” and have nice springboard right into Nevada and South Carolina, the latter of which has been very, very good for the Bush family in years past.

    Done? Ha. This party is just getting started.

  112. 112.

    John Revolta

    @scav: @Mary G: And speaking of “Can’t Buy Me Love”…………….

    NEW YORK (AP) — A drum kit that Ringo Starr used to record some of the Beatles’ early hits has sold for $2.2 million at an auction to Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay.

    Starr used the kit in more than 200 performances between May 1963 and February 1964. He also played it on recordings including “Can’t Buy Me Love,” ”She Loves You,” ”All My Loving” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”

    1963 Ludwigs. I wonder if my ’65 kit would get that kinda lucre?

  113. 113.

    Peale

    @JPL: I will laugh so hard I will be unable to vote if “ban anchor spouses” gets big enough for Trump to cudgel Bush with it. I won’t make it through the primary season, actually. I can see trump doing it, too, and Jeb too hapless to bring up Donalds current and former wife.

  116. 116.

    scav

    @lamh36: Lost trust, absolutely, but I’m note entirely sure how much he ever actually had, making him about par with most of the other mayors I can remember. Or, I may just come from a long-term don’t trust the mayor et al lineage.

  117. 117.

    David Koch

    @Peale: Trump is vulnerable on “anchor spouses” as he has been married to two “anchor spouses”.

    Of course Trump can use the hysteria to attack Cruz for being foreign born to a foreigner. .

  119. 119.

    Gimlet

    More “open thread” news

    From MJ

    On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will examine the bedrock principle of “one person, one vote” in a major case that could yield the Republican Party a critical advantage in future elections.

    Texas residents Sue Evenwel and Ed Pfenninger want the court to create a uniform national standard for drawing legislative districts based on the total number of eligible voters in them, as opposed to the total number of people, which is the standard that Texas and many other states use now. Such a change would effectively diminish the political clout of urban areas, which have large populations of people who can’t vote, such as felons, children and noncitizens.

    In 2012, the Evenwel-led Titus County GOP was a screening of Dreams From My Real Father: A Story of Reds and Deception, the docudrama that suggests Obama’s real father was Frank Marshall Davis, a man the film’s promotional material describe as a “Communist Party USA propagandist who likely shaped Obama’s world view during his formative years.” On her Facebook page, Evenwel has also approvingly touted a story from the conservative website WorldNetDaily questioning whether Obama was really born in America.

    A Christian fundamentalist who works as a security guard in Porter, Texas, Pfenninger operates a YouTube channel where he’s posted hours of videos of himself expounding on his beliefs. For instance, he’s described the Catholic Church as “the Mother of Harlots.” He’s also said that Jews are “enemies of the cross,” and that God created Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust because he “wanted the Jews back into the Land.” Pfenninger also cites the Bible to justify his belief that women with short hair are somehow shameful.

  120. 120.

    trollhattan

    @Relax:
    Ya know, at some point “relax” crosses into a different category altogether when you check for breathing and a pulse only to find none. The good ship jeb has docked at the coroner’s.

    But by all means, stay on the grift as long as possible. And don’t stiff the vendors, like Carly.

  121. 121.

    Ken

    hardly any Bush donors have publicly abandoned him

    I see the rich aren’t immune to the sunk costs fallacy.

  122. 122.

    lamh36

    @scav: Right… just hearing from folks in Chicago, Rahm is pretty much done. They to a man/woman are pretty dialed in and they think there’s no way he gets in front this story.

    The also mentioned, that alot of the same folks who were bragging about the votes they were able to “deliver” to Rahm for his reelection are eerily silent since this whole thing began…not a good sign, IMHO

  124. 124.

    Mike in NC

    @Relax: Back again for a few minutes, are you Relax Retard? The Bush name is poison in NH and he’ll never get make it past the #5 spot. Your stupidity is really quite impressive. Arbusto’s laughable PAC has poured $30M down the drain so far. But keep on repeating those lame wingnut talking points.

  125. 125.

    John Revolta

    @Mike J: @David Koch: I’m sure there is art and nuance involved in such a gig. I also suspect that when one is buying and selling airtime for political campaigns that things get more………interesting.

  127. 127.

    trollhattan

    Jesus, between Lemieux and Loomis they have me wanting to do all my shopping under the freeway, or something.

    Michael Walsh of Schenectady, a Wal-Mart maintenance worker for 18 years, was fired on Nov. 6, a few days after he turned in $350 in cash he found in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market.

    He was called into a manager’s office, interrogated and terminated for “gross misconduct.”

    His offense? He waited about 30 minutes before he turned in the money.

    “The only thing I did wrong was hesitate,” Walsh said, who is 45. “I didn’t steal anything. They didn’t give me any warning. They just fired me.”

  131. 131.

    Gimlet

    @JPL:

    Might be amusing if they question the plaintiffs about the fine points of their suit and its implications. They’ll probably look around the courtroom for their promoter to mouth answers to them.

  132. 132.

    Chris

    @Germy:

    1) This is a great summary.

    2) A lot of what you said applied just as much to Mittens four years ago. The guy clearly loathed having to put himself on display for the rubes (if it’s humiliating for Bush, imagine for a CEO. These people are supposed to interview for his approval, not the other way around). And it actually seems to run through the entire movement. Reagan’s victory was supposed to have re-consecrated the government as Republican territory forever; this generation’s grown up in a time when the GOP was accepted as the dominant party; and they’re really angry that there are still people who don’t understand this.

    3) “He does it old-school, like his Pappy did.” You know, I just realized; not only is Jeb not “the smart one,” but he and his dad were both way out of their element. They had the same problems – stuffy establishment elitists who couldn’t connect with voters. Bush father, too. He got his ass handed to him in 1980, won the election in 1988 by riding the coattails of the guy who beat him, then lost it four years later to a guy who, like Reagan, knew how to politic far better than he did. Dubya was the smart one – not just in his generation, but in his entire family. He was the only one who was smart enough to realize that just because you’re American aristocracy doesn’t mean the White House is going to be handed to you on a silver platter. And then put in the work necessary to connect with the voters.

    4) Good God, am I enjoying watching Jeb get his ass handed to him month after month in the polls.

  133. 133.

    David Koch

    @John Revolta: The problem has always been if you give campaigns a personal incentive to enrich themselves by placing commercials, then they’ll won’t spend on more important factors like GOTV and field organizers.

  135. 135.

    Gimlet

    Gated community?

    From the NY Daily News

    He had a fake federal air marshal ID in one pocket, a Ruger .380-caliber pistol in the other and was driving around Long Island with ballistic body armor and a loaded AR-15 assault rifle. He also had an arsenal of weapons at his gated home

    Seven illegal firearms, three high-capacity magazines and 8,300 rounds of ammunition were found in the 49-year-old’s SUV and Syosset home after an exhaustive search, police confirmed.

    “At this time we don’t see any immediate threat to the public,” Nassau County Police Department spokesman Det. Lt. Richard LeBrun told reporters.

  137. 137.

    rikyrah

    Ron. ‏@RonnieSnark 14h14 hours ago

    This entire production is @ViolaDavis’ Emmy speech realized. The only thing that separates us from anyone else is opportunity. #TheWiz

  138. 138.

    scav

    @Amir Khalid: Well, somebody had to take over the waiting for the great pumpkin duty. Earn a little spare change before the legendary Brinks trucks showed up again.

  139. 139.

    NotMax

    Trying to convince voters to buy the Jedsel.

    (Sound of Sisyphus derisively snorting and giggling in the background.)

  141. 141.

    Jeffro

    @Germy:

    he [Jeb]’s completely unwilling to walk the walk and talk the talk you’re required to do to win a Republican primary these days

    Which is kind of ironic and karmic and cosmic all at once, because the reason that the loons have pushed/been pushed so far right is…because W & Co. gave modernism conservatism in all of its facets the old college try and it blew up in their faces at every turn. It can’t be failed, so this go ’round the GOP base is making sure that its leaders don’t fail it.

    Jeb? would basically like to campaign and govern from the W playbook but he can’t – a majority of the party has decided to (has been encouraged to?) double down instead of rethinking its stupid budget-busting, foreign-interventionist, xenophobic ways.

  143. 143.

    David Koch

    @Jeffro: ¿Jeb ? is shocked that the Frankenstein monster his family created, from Willie Horton to stealing Florida to invading Iraq to demonizing gays and minorities, has turned on him.

    It’s like the chemist who’s shocked when his garage meth lab explodes.

  146. 146.

    Matt McIrvin

    @redshirt: Hillary has been the Great Satan for the American paranoid right since long before anyone had heard of Barack Obama. If she becomes President, I promise you the freakout is just beginning.

  147. 147.

    redshirt

    @Matt McIrvin: Oh sure. But that’s a different kind of lunacy, one I’d rather deal with because it means we have sane leadership. This election insanity is a bit more stressful because you have to consider the possibility of President Cruz. Get your habits ready, ladies!

  149. 149.

    J R in WV

    @David Koch:

    No, no, Pepsi doesn’t do ads, they hire various ad agencies to do that, who bills Pepsi for creative work, shooting and production costs, etc; and a commish on the $450,000,000 worth of air time bought for the ad campaign.

    Just like Jeb? and his henchmen don’t make TV ads at all – they hire consultants who ahve done it for years, who contract with ad agencies to shoot the story boards developed by the consultants. And all those layers get paid either a contracted amount of money and/or a percentage of monies spent under their supervision.

    Jeb? didn’t make the commercial infommercial about himself, although he certainly had final approval (which is why it is probably terrible!) over each phase of the work. He had a senior manager in the campaign staff hire someone to manage the creative work and contract for the actual production work.

    This is why millions of dollars can be spent on a Republican campaign with very few minutes of advertising hitting the eyeballs of voters – the grift factor is high, sky high! This is why people want to work on a political campaign at a high level, even if the candidate has no chance in hell. There is an ocean of money, and it is wasy to take buckets full legally.

    See?

  153. 153.

    RaflW

    Jeb Bush has convinced major GOP donors and supporters that the polls are wrong.

    So he’s unskewing them? Is that what we’re to understand? Because that worked great for Mitt.

  156. 156.

    Elie

    @J R in WV:

    Same thing they do to the country when they are in charge. Incompetent grift costs us trillions and the country gets an abundance of incompetent clowns who get people killed and bankrupt the economy.

  158. 158.

    David Koch

    @Matt McIrvin: I think he means there will be a short honeymoon ranging from 3 to 8 months before the media turns. At first the media will indulge in the difference of a woman in office (the first state of the union, the first press conference, first address from the oval office, the first pitch on opening day of baseball, etc), then they’ll quickly return to Broderism (why won’t Hillary lead by resigning and letting dear sweet Paul Ryan become president).

  159. 159.

    James E Powell

    @Ruckus:

    Romney already had the kind of Republican or Republican leaning voters that Christie would attract. He needed a RW darling. Cf. Dan Quayle.

  160. 160.

    James E Powell

    Given the poll numbers currently, you would think there would be these massive defections from a campaign like this,” said Slater Bayliss, a Florida-based GOP operative and longtime Bush ally. “And the reason there haven’t been is Jeb Bush

    The reason there haven’t been is Donald Trump – They are hanging on in expectation of Trump’s demise.

    If & when that happens, it’s going to be Lord of the Flies on Wingnut Island.

  161. 161.

    mclaren

    The LGM comment copied by Germy misses many important points. Let’s debunk these claims one by one:

    I think Jeb! wanted to (still wants) to be President, but he’s completely unwilling to walk the walk and talk the talk you’re required to do to win a Republican primary these days, resents it in fact, and his palpable unhappiness and desultory campaign stem from that.

    Au contraire, the main requirement for winning a Republican primary today is hard cash. Jeb has gotten a tremendous lead in piling up mountains of money. The second requirement? Cementing the Republican party donor base. Jeb has done that. Despite his currently crappy poll numbers, Jeb’s donors aren’t leaving. The third requirement is of course swift-boating the opposition. Jeb has done a beautiful job of ratfvcking Rubio, to the point where Rubio’s potential donors are scared away by the Bush smear campaign. Can you say “McCain 2000”?

    Jeb has been running as himself ever since he was running. He stands on his Florida record, which is pretty conservative but fails a number of litmus tests these days. He does it old-school, like his Pappy did.

    Thing is, it isn’t 1988 anymore. Jeb Bush can’t recline inside the country club with the other respectable members of the Republican aristocracy, only needing to occasionally venture out onto the balcony, hurl some red meat to the mad dogs, listen to them bark with a fond smile on his face for a bit, and then go back inside for another round of whiskies and maybe some pool.

    This completely misunderstands the 2016 Republican primary election dynamic. To beat Hillary, the Republicans need a sane-seeming nominee. The crazies (Huckabee, Rubio, Cruz, Trump) can’t make it past Super Tuesday and don’t have the funding or the solid wall of donors behind them unwilling to defect. Bush’s strategy? Simple — wait out the crazies. When the flame out and augur in, he’s one of the last few electable candidates standing. At that point, it doesn’t matter whether the Republican’s rabid teahadist base likes him — they’ll have to support him or face eight years of Hillary. Romney was repugnant to much of the Republican base because of his Mormonism, his similarly centrist positions on abortion, etc., and the Repubs eventually forced themeslves to line up behind Romney. The same thing will happen with Jeb.

    The mad dogs are inside the club now, upending the tables, taking huge chunks out of the patrons, smashing all the best booze. They have to be taken seriously now, placated, dealt with, or they’ll destroy you. Indeed, they seem intent on destroying the club altogether.

    Not so much. The mad dogs of the base elected clowns like Michelle Bachmann — where is she today? She’s gone. The mad dogs of the Republican base made Glenn Beck a superstar. How is Glenn beck doing today? He’s vanished into the nether regions of the telesphere. Let’s not confuse populist rabble-rousing for billionaire donors willing to back candidates with triple digit millions of dollars for the long haul. Don’t confuse very early pre-2016 opinion polls (which mainly track name recognition right now) with post-Super-Tuesday polls which will show a completely different terrain in the harsh light of electability in the general election.

    Jeb resents that. You can tell he resents that. He hates those people. He’d use the word “proles” if he were smart enough. He paid his dues, dammit. He’s a fully made member of the Bush Crime Family, grandson of a Senator, son of a President and brother to another. He deserves respect and will not kowtow to people who are beneath him in an effort to get it.

    So he goes through the motions, but it’s just that; the motions.

    Just like his brother, the Drunk-Driving C Student. The main difference is that the general public is now wise to the diabolic malevolence of the Bush crime family, so Jeb can’t pass himself off as a “compassionate conservative” anymore. He also faces the fatal antinomy of either having to run away from his brother’s garbage fire of a presidency (thus rendering his entire candidacy suspect and his platform suspect), or he must embrace the massive fuckups of the Drunk-Driving C Students (which recent history shows appalls even the Republican base). So the problem isn’t Jeb, it’s the fact that American people have gotten clued in to the colossal criminality of the Bush gangsters. That makes his candidacy problematic.

    Thing is, he can’t just quit. He still has to deal with his various and sundry relations, including his dad (who won’t be around much longer but man, Bush pere is hangin’ in there, right?) and his brother.

    He can be beaten. That’s okay. Poppy got beaten a lot, there’s no shame in that. But he can’t quit.

    Jeb can’t quit because, like the Corleone family, the various politicians and billionaires owned by the Bush crime family lose their value if not used regularly. Without a Bush in the White House to dole out bribes to giant corporations, there would be little incentive for giant multinationals to pay those bribes to the Bush crime family. Google “the Carlyle group” which pappy Bush currently runs. That’s a military-industrial bribery-and-human-trafficking-and-drug-running juggernaut, and the wheels won’t continue to grind without plenty of grease from a Bush presidency.

    Do you think it’s just a co-inky-dink that a CIA torture jet crashed in Mexico in 2007 carrying 4 tons of cocaine during the presidency of the Drunk-Driving C Student?

    You can’t get the CIA to ship 800 pounds of Bolivian marching powder onto a black ops torture jet without a member of your family in the Oval office making phone calls. That’s why Jeb is running, and why, when he loses, another Bush will step up to run in 2020.

  162. 162.

    sm*t cl*de

    @Trentrunner:

    The mad dogs are inside the club now, shitting on the floor, vomiting on the pool tables, then eating each others’ shit and vomit, and then vomiting and shitting it out, only to have the cycle repeat, until no one can tell who shit what or who vomited what and it doesn’t even matter because the entire place looks and smells and feels like shitted vomit vomited up and then shit out.

    The Aristocrats!

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