The stimulus just gave us a sugar high too, as I recall.
President Obama’s standing in the national race ticked up after a successful Democratic convention, but that’s no cause for concern, Mitt Romney’s pollster Neil Newhouse said in a memo released Monday morning.
“Don’t get too worked up about the latest polling,” Newhouse wrote. “While some voters will feel a bit of a sugar-high from the conventions, the basic structure of the race has not changed significantly.”
They latch onto these expressions and beat them into the ground.
Scott S.
Yes, the basic structure of the race hasn’t changed significantly. Mitt Romney is still an unlikeable robot, Paul Ryan is still an unlikeable Randbot, and they’re still running behind everyone else.
schrodinger's cat
Well is it any wonder that the public does not want to vote for LiaR(omney) LiaR(yan). They remind voters of ex boss and class snitch respectively.
Ben Cisco
“Be assured.
BaghdadThe Romney campaign is safe, protected”Culture of Truth
I got your expression right here
MoJo:
“Snoop Dogg Endorses Obama With Profanity-Laced Tirade”
Felinious Wench
But why did only the Democratic convention eat the candy, Neil?
Alexandra
“the basic structure of the race has not changed significantly”
i.e. we’re still losing
Comrade Jake
The basic structure of the race really hasn’t changed. Jennifer Rubin is still forgetting what she wrote just a few months ago.
The Moar You Know
Can’t tell me that phrase wasn’t focus-group tested. Implies both infantilism and drug usage. Nicely done, soon-to-be-losers.
Matthew Reid Krell
Neil Newhouse = DougJ.
The entire Romney/Ryan campaign is nothing more than an elaborate troll.
jibeaux
@Alexandra: Exactly. While it’s pretty likely Obama will lose some of that bounce — because that’s why they call it a bounce instead of “something that goes up but doesn’t go back down again” — getting back to baseline = Romney still losing.
Linda Featheringill
Well, yes. We Obots were a bit high after the DNC. However, we’re still a bit high. We are filled with Yes we can.
The convention did a wonderful job of lifting Obama’s approval rating throughout the country. Most of the country thought the convention was a positive experience.
More people are really interested in this election than is usually the case. Perhaps democracy itself has stirred a bit more.
And Yes, we can.
kindness
Sugar ‘high’ vs. Teahaddist ‘low’.
Take your pick.
27% isn’t going to bump Mittens ’cause it’s the same damn 27% that supported him before.
Steve
David Axelrod nailed it on Twitter: “Anyone else find it odd that Mitt’s pollster put out a state-of-the race memo this morning that was almost entirely devoid of polling data?”
Cervantes
Newhouse’s polling firm is called Public Opinion Strategies, whence its domain name: pos.org.
I kid you not.
MattF
Well, this is the guy Mitt hired, so he’s got to be an expert and he’s got know what he’s talking about, right? Or, y’know, not.
eemom
omg….The Archies.
Yer KILLIN me here, dude.
Davis X. Machina
You’re seeing the effects of technology.
The advent of GPS and GoogleMaps has made it much, much easier to find a graveyard to whistle past.
Baud
FTFY
Linda Featheringill
The latest update on pos.org is the last week in July.
Ksmiami
All is well… References to animal house…
tamied
@eemom: I was thinking Def Leopard.
pragmatism
stinkier cologne: desperation or drakkar noir?
hep kitty
Great, now that song is stuck in my head!
jibeaux
@Baud: They seem to be going God-Baiting. OMG YOUR PENNIES MIGHT NO LONGER SAY GOD ON THEM. This is clearly a profoundly idiotic argument, so idiotic that it isn’t even getting anywhere with YAHOO NEWS COMMENTATORS. I mean, I haven’t checked youtube comments, but the desperation is just reeking.
hep kitty
@Linda Featheringill: Yes we can. No they can’t.
piratedan
the basic structure of the race…..
we plan on buying as many low information votes that we can with deceptive media ads and suppress minority voting by any means possible, no changes needed, who needs polls?
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
24 days until the first debate.
Anoniminous
@eemom:
Take your insulin and then groove to the sound.
danimal
The basic structure of the race is that Obama leads Romney in OH, VA and FL, any one of which will put Obama over the top.
beltane
Please don’t pay attention to the polling. Nothing to see here.
Brachiator
I’m sure that such manly confidence from the Romney camp just makes the GOP base burst out in starbursts.
Punchy
O’bizzle’s in the hizzle mah nizzles and y’all better kno’ fo’ shizzle that this beeyotch wont fizzle on the campizzle.
Spaghetti Lee
Oh, yes, those silly silly voters with their fancy new toy. We’ll set them back in line soon enough.
shortstop
This is my favorite part of any campaign season — as it becomes obvious to all sentient beings (not just those of us paying attention for months) that the Republican guy will lose to Obama, the GOP campaigns start whistling furiously past the graveyard. They’re just putting on a show, but there are a lot of 10-for-a-dollar rubes who never talk to anyone outside their own circles who really do believe that Romney will win. This guy (remember him, Rafer?) insisted a week before the 2008 election that McCain was going to crush Obama like a bug, and he doesn’t seem to have learned to read an electoral map since.
patrick II
They neglect to mention that the democrats sugar was contained in high glycemic foods like vegetables (facts) and fiber (arithmetic). Sugars contained in high glycemic foods will cause a sustained high which should last us through the election.
Much better for you than the shit sandwich the republicans were serving at their convention.
beltane
@patrick II: Even the Kool-Aid they served was laced with vinegar and tears.
Dennis G.
Good to see that Newhouse keeps saying helpful things. Why it was just a week or so ago that he defended running the racist welfare lie ads by claiming:
It seems that Mitt only hires spokesmen who are as good at shooting him in the foot as he is…
catclub
@Felinious Wench: The RNC candy was cyanide?
Comrade Jake
Newhouse does have a Baghdad Bob element to him, doesn’t he?
Ruckus
Paul Krugman today writes the last line in his Revenge of the Three-Legged Stool post
So the answer is, yes, he thinks we’re stupid.
May I suggest an alternative answer.
So the answer is, he is stupid.
Amir Khalid
@eemom:
You’re thinking of Sugar Sugar, an entirely different song.
catclub
@jibeaux: It would be great if they started minting $1Tr platinum coins and did not put IN God We Trust on them.
Argive
I wandered on over to some of my favorite loony right-wing blogs to see what they had to say about all of this desperation. My favorite was good ol’ Emperor Misha:
DID WE QUIT WHEN THE GERMANS BOMBED PEARL HARBOR?!
Raven
@Ruckus: Great comment there:
“the difference between intelligence and stupidity is that intelligence has its limits.”
Albert Einstein
Nethead Jay
@tamied: That was my thought too.
markus o'farkus
“They latch onto these expressions and beat them into the ground.”
I believe you meant to say “ram them down our throats”. Hoo boy, they love that one.
Xecky Gilchrist
some voters will feel a bit of a sugar-high from the conventions
Gotta watch that when a large fraction of your supporters are Type 2 diabetics.
Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker
@Argive: I heard some centrist pundit saying that no one would ever remember Obama’s DNC speech because no one wants to think about having to work hard and sacrifice, and I wished just one person on that TV crew could remember “I have nothing to offer but blood and toil, tears and sweat….
Nethead Jay
OT but I love this: Romney web team caught copying part of Obama site word-for-word.
Stupid and incompetent…
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
On my best anecdotal source for Villager/vapid-moron thinking (aka The Today Show) this morning they were talking about the 2016 race. Hillary, will she or won’t she? Even the Villagers know that Mitt is toast.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker:
I think the pundits are projecting their own ethic onto the American people.
Bokonon
Shorter Romney campaign: “voters are stupid and easily manipulated! They will forget their silly positive veelings for Obama once we start our CARPET BOMBING OF negative advertisements! BWAHAHAAAAA!”
It helps if you picture Snidely Whiplash rubbing his hands with glee as he thinks of his evil plan.
Joel
@eemom: Def Leppard, methinks.
Joel
@eemom: Def Leppard, methinks.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@tamied:
Ahem… Def Leppard.
/Def Leppard fan
:)
Calouste
@The Moar You Know:
Just as Romney said that Bill Clinton speech “elevated” the DNC. Because of course an old white man is higher in Romney’s mind than those angry n1@@3rs and hysterical women at the DNC.
Amir Khalid
I have to wonder just how bad the polling really is for the Republican party. There is no freaking way that Obama is ahead of Mitt by only a nose in the popular vote, if Mitt/Ryan 2012 is barely concealing panic in early September.
Redshift
@Linda Featheringill:
And not just us O-bots. My boss, a good guy who is too inclined to believe the Wall Street Journal, was undecided before the conventions. From the GOP convention, he got “they’re nuts, and Romney can’t be trusted,” and from the Democratic Convention, “I may not agree with the Democrats on everything, but at least if they want to do something, they’re well-intentioned.”
That’s where the bounce is coming from, and it’s not going to reverse. The positive feelings may subside, but people like that aren’t going to switch to Romney.
roc
Condescension and shame; perhaps the two favorite tools of the GOP.
Redshift
@MattF:
You can bet he’s good at telling Mitt what he wants to hear!
Violet
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:
Man, it’s that far away. Lots can happen between now and then.
Scott de B.
Oh, god, I just came across something great. Barack Obama did the audiobook for Dreams of My Father, a book in which some of the characters use, um. Colorful language.
If you want to laugh your ass off at Obama cursing up a blue streak, check it out:
http://www.regretsy.com/2012/09/10/barack-obama-is-tired-of-your-shit/
Maybe we can convince some rightwingers that this is the real Whitey Tape.
Birthmarker
A FB friend posted something from the Media Research Center by Kyle Drennen, who took exception with what I thought sounded like a very generic campaign story by Chuck
Todd. Please go to MRC and appropriately mock in the comments, DougJ. (I mean really, who pays attention to a word Chuck Todd says?)
Baud
@jibeaux:
Chuck Todd tweet:
h/t DougJ for retweeting, since I don’t follow Chuck Todd.
J.D. Rhoades
@beltane:
You know, I think people just saw that the rate went down and all this spin about how terrible the news was despite that just didn’t register. I know I was pleased to see it drop from 8.3 to 8.1 first thing, then vexed to come back and see a bunch of doom and gloom about it.
trollhattan
Know what’s better than a sugar high? The next sugar high. Since Obama is a sokkalyst, he’ll be giving us free sugar until the election.
The free sugar invoice can be paid for via F-35 funds.
Linda Featheringill
What do we know about the House and Senate? I’m fairly aware of my local races but what about the rest? How are we doing in the effort to take back the House? To hold the Senate?
Rafer Janders
@shortstop:
Under what name did he use to post as?
trollhattan
@Amir Khalid:
Karl Rove has secret numbers–lots of secret numbers. They all say the Republicans will hold both houses. Wait, that was 2006, ah, nevertheless I’m sure Karl has been sharing the new secret numbers with his
friendsfunders.NonyNony
@Amir Khalid:
Depends, I think. The popular vote totals may not be bad for Romney overall – but of course the popular vote totals matter exactly “jack” and “shit”. What matters are the vote totals in the states he needs to win to put his Electoral College totals over the top. And if the polling in those places hasn’t budged in months and he didn’t get a convention bounce in them and then if Obama got even a mild convention bounce, that difference in performance might be enough to set in a nice round of “circular firing squad” and a bonus round of “running around with your hair on fire” in the Romney camp.
For example, Romney and the super-PACs have been running ads nonstop in Ohio for months and have seen little shift in the polls from them. Since Romney has NO CAMPAIGN STRATEGY outside of “throw money at it until I win”, that has to be causing problems inside his campaign.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Redshift:
__
I’ve had similar conversations lately, with mildly right-of-center folks who watch a mix of Fox News and other networks. The “this isn’t your father’s Republican party, they’ve been hijacked by crazy people” message is starting to sink in. Better late than never.
Zach
Gotta have it really need it to get by, sugar high.
Culture of Truth
From the GOP convention, he got “they’re nuts, and Romney can’t be trusted,” and from the Democratic Convention, “I may not agree with the Democrats on everything, but at least if they want to do something, they’re well-intentioned.”
That’s very interesting. I think that’s what they were all going for, from the nun to Duckworth, to Castro, and Kerry, Biden, Clinton and both Obamas, in different ways, while also rallying the base.
Redshift
@Baud: One of the bizarre elements of this campaign is that there is no attack too low or too weird for Romney to personally repeat. A normal campaign has the candidate keep “above the fray” to some degree, and lets surrogates make the really vicious or wacko conspiracy attacks.
I wonder if these constant sneering attacks are a factor in Romney’s continued unlikeability. I also wonder if it’s related to his surrounding himself with yes-men who can’t tell him something he wants to do is a bad idea without getting fired.
Linda Featheringill
FWIW, it looks like Bachmann may be in trouble. Wouldn’t that be a shame?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/10/michele-bachmann-poll_n_1871069.html
Violet
Don’t know if anyone saw this tweet by David Gregory. It’s his only tweet since the end of MTP yesterday.
Yes, yes, why DID Romney “adopt softer tone”? Wouldn’t have anything to do with the interviewer not asking him any real questions, now would it?
The previous tweet Dancin’ Dave asks people what they thought of the show. The replies are hilarious–people essentially slam him for not knowing how to ask a follow up or any real questions. Heh.
Bulworth
@Scott S.: OK, I’ve read all the comments but this one still wins the thread for me.
DougJ
@Redshift:
Honestly, good for people like your boss. They may be the ones who save us — conservative people who have the sense to know that their party has gone batshit crazy.
Culture of Truth
This is also why I think Obama should pivot positive at the end, but also rail against a Congress that nearly wrecked our credit rating cause they’re Randian nuts.
People aren’t total idiots, and they know that’s the last thing Obama would do, and don’t blame him for that debacle.
The Moar You Know
@Baud: Bring that shit on. Every word out of his lying mouth about religion only reminds the fundies that he’s just as much of an infidel as Obama supposedly is.
I swear, if I tripped on my dick as often as Romney has been, I wouldn’t get out of bed.
Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker
@Redshift:
As much as a lot of older Democrats (none more than John Kerry) internalized the idea of a liberal media, Romney’s crew have figured out no matter how low they demagogue, they can count on Brokaw/Politico types not to notice
I expect this to be a major theme of the blind quotes explaining how Romney blew it (assuming, of coures, all usual caveats and caution)
The Other Bob
Mitt’s pollster is like the Captain of the Costa Concordia who told everyone to go back to their cabins when the ship was taking on water.
The Lodger
@Felinious Wench: Because the Republican convention was too busy drinking the Kool-Aid.
Thanks. Really. I’ll be here all week.
Redshift
@J.D. Rhoades:
Actually, I think it’s because political journalists vastly overrate how much economic reports affect polling and voting, vs. economic experience. They always expect the latest jobs report to have a major effect on polls (because it can have a major short-term effect on the stock market, probably), and furthermore, seem to believe that how successful an administration is at spinning jobs reports matters a great deal.
I believe the actual research shows that the economy affects polling and voting because of how a person sees the economy affecting them, not some high-level report. And furthermore, it’s based on whether they think it’s likely to improve, not just their current situation. The jobs report may figure into their perception of the future, but not as strongly as is commonly assumed.
max
@Argive: Misha? I haven’t read any of that crap in a long while.
Oh, but you’re a conservative sir, and I must. And I must say, Winnie may have been something of a racist and a hardcore imperialist, >a href=”http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/speeches/speeches-of-winston-churchill/1940-finest-hour/122-their-finest-hour”>but he wasn’t lying to the his people:
And on and on. Whatever he was, Churchill wasn’t a lying sack of shit. Whereas one could throw a bag of pebbles into a crowded room at a conservation convention and not one would reach the ground without bouncing off a dishonest ratbag.
max
[‘But please, *do* march those troops right up that hill into the teeth of those big guns.’]
Baud
@Redshift:
He’s never won over the GOP base (and the base is quite right in not trusting him), so he’s forced to keep saying crazy things to keep them high on anti-Obama hatred. He’s the political equivalent of a heroin dealer.
Redshift
@The Other Bob:
Or like Dan Senor, telling is how great the Iraq War was going.
Oh, wait, he actually is a spokesman for the Romney campaign! You can’t make this stuff up, no matter how hard you try.
danah gaz
Even if true, this is good news for Mitt how?
Violet
@Baud: A heroin dealer at least has the good sense to get them hooked so they have to come to him for their fix. Romney never got them hooked during the primaries.
He’s more like a fake heroin dealer–he looks like he’s got the good stuff, but he’s really selling maple sugar in a bag. By the time anyone figures it out, he’s run all the other dealers out of town. All the junkies are stuck trying to get high off the maple sugar or frantically trying to find another dealer.
Yutsano
@Argive: Did they seriously invoke Chesty?? ROTFLLMAO!!
Baud
@Violet:
So what you’re saying is that it’s really the GOP base that’s got the sugar high?
Birthmarker
Who was it in the last campaign (seems like it was a Republican strategist) who said that McCain had no strategy, only tactics, and he just went from one tactic to another? Romney’s campaign is making the same mistake.
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
@Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker: Those yes men will write books exonerating themselves and will be called to our broadcast studios to provide analysis of our future campaigns. I wouldn’t worry about them.
Betsy
The Rs will be hearing from their big donors, the Sugar Lobby:
Big Sugar. Fattening our kids and killing endangered Florida panthers since 1837
Betsy
FYWP
Argive
@Yutsano:
They do that all the time. Misha loves WW2 metaphors. And there’s basically no conspiracy theory regarding Obama that he won’t embrace immediately. It’s entertaining in a trainwreck sort of way.
JPL
On the NYTimes on the right hand side of the front page they have this headline under Times Wire..
Does Mitt Romney Deserve Credit for Bin Laden’s Death?
I tried to click to the article but it says page not found.
edit.. it links to the article.. http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/10/does-mitt-romney-deserve-credit-for-bin-ladens-death/?src=twrhp
15% of repubs in ohio..not 27% think Romney deserves credit.. oh my
Violet
@Baud: I think they’re on the downward slide after the sugar high.
I just want to say that I want to grind the Republicans into dust. I want them to lose and lose in a big, big way. I hope Dems don’t get complacent. We have a chance to run up the score. Let’s do it.
For every “former Republican” who is now thinking of voting for Obama, if there’s a good opening in a conversation, remind them that the Republicans in CONGRESS are responsible for a lot of the crazy shit they’re seeing. Every time a Republican Congressman says or does something stupid, point it out. The more coattails we can get the President, the better off we’ll all be.
Redshift
@Birthmarker: I suppose that’s not surprising, since his campaign is being run by a lot of the same people. I guess we should just be glad that Republican presidential campaigns have entered into their own Bob Shrum era, where the only “strategists” they hire are the ones who are the best at describing how glorious their past losing campaigns were.
Humanities Grad
@Argive:
Wait a damn minute here. As a historian, I’ve got a take issue with this.
By the end of 1940, Britain was already producing more aircraft than Germany. Now the Luftwaffe did have a numerical advantage over the RAF at the start of the Battle of Britain, but it wasn’t nearly as crushing as it’s often made out to be, and it was already slipping away.
And on Guadalcanal, the Japanese _never_ had the Marines outnumbered. There were always more, usually a LOT more, U.S. troops on Guadalcanal than there were Japanese troops.
And I know, neither of these was really his point, but lord, if you’re going to be using historical examples to make your point, can you at least be arsed to get your facts right?
danimal
@Linda Featheringill: If a Bachmann-level GOPer went down to defeat, THAT would seriously impact the national conversation*. They say all the crazy stuff because they know they can never go too far right. If a Tea Party leader like Michelle! were to lose, there would be dramatic ramifications.
*and not because the Village idiot would be silenced, she’d wind up with a national gig on Fox within minutes of a loss.
Baud
@Humanities Grad:
We’re in a post-truth era. Unfortunately, it’s retroactive.
@Redshift:
That is beautifully put.
Betsy
@jibeaux: Your pennies don’t say God!
And, the stuff in your health care plan that people like? Well, we have it too! Only, without the part that makes it work.
Amir Khalid
@The Other Bob:
The captain of the Costa Concordia also deserted his post to get on a lifeboat, and defied Coast Guard orders to return to his ship. I wonder how far one could extend that analogy.
patroclus
I LOVE sugar!
Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker
@JPL: they’re probably referring to a poll of Ohio Republicans, which is pretty fucking amazing.
piratedan
wow, just got push polled here in Az….. makes you wonder what is afoot, it was local congressional and national races, strangely enough, not about the Senate.
Argive
@Humanities Grad:
I am also a historian. I’ve been reading Misha for years; by now I’m quite used to his historical errors. There are some real howlers buried in the A-IR archives.
Turgidson
@NonyNony:
The popular vote totals will be interesting. Unless Romney stages a big comeback – and there’s little to suggest he has one in him based on the campaign so far – Obama is looking pretty good to be in the low-mid 300s as far as EVs.
The popular vote could be surprisingly narrow in comparison, as Obama’s standing in the blood red states he’s not contesting has only gotten worse and Romney’s margins in some of those states might be pretty massive.
Then again, this is all sort of a chicken-egg thing. If it’s pretty clear that Obama’s going to win in a walk, some of the red state voters, particularly as you go further west to states that will still be voting as some of the swing state results begin coming in (I’m thinking AZ in particular), won’t bother to vote, bringing the national margin back in line.
I hope my comrades here in CA turn out in force to run up Obama’s margin here and prevent any downballot flips.
Anne Laurie
@Redshift:
That would be true of the Mormons. At this point, I think a lot of the ‘outside’ professionals who aren’t part of Romney’s permanent staff are blatantly signalling “don’t blame us, there’s nothing can be done with a client who won’t listen”. They’ve conceded this November already, and are doing CYA to set up their next gigs as pundits until they can shill for the 2014 races.
I remember some of McCain’s highly-paid staff getting gigged about this around October 2008, but it looks like if Romney can’t beat Obama, he’s at least determined to set new “election was effectively over by [date]” records!
Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker
@danimal: Steve King is also said to be in a tight race. Could Louie Goehmert lose his competition as nuttiest nut job in the GOP caucus? Will Virginia Foxx have to step up her game? Will Todd Akin claim the crown?
Geoduck
OT, but if anyone out there is having trouble linking to other sites, the major hosting/domain provider GoDaddy got hit with some sort of hacker attack and much of their system is currently FUBAR.
Birthmarker
My attempt to post the Bluto speech. Sorry if it trashes. I can’t manage to link here.
? Martin
Wait, and this is his positive spin? Romney has never been ahead in EV polling. Ever. Not even close. If the basic structure of the race has not changed significantly, then Romney is still fucked.
Birthmarker
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7vtWB4owdE&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Bluto speech
Hill Dweller
Romney has now incorporated the anti-God attack on Obama in his stump speech, which is a sure sign he’s panicking.
Birthmarker
“A really futile and stupid gesture…”. Bhwahahaha!!
Tom Q
@Turgidson:Agreed. I always felt the fact that, in 1980, John Chancellor came on the air at 6PM Eastern (3PM West Coast) and announced that Reagan was kicking Carter’s ass might have contributed to the Congressional wipeout Dems were dealt. An awful lot of the losing long-time Dem Senators (Magnuson, McGovern, Church) were in the Western and Mountain time zones, and just a sliver of drop-off might have been the difference in their races.
Humanities Grad
@Argive:
Ah. I’ve been missing out then. I suppose I should browse through that sometimes, I’m always a big fan of unintentional hilarity (it’s the only thing that gets me through grading a stack of term papers…).
Linda Featheringill
@Geoduck:
trouble linking other sites:
Absolutely. Thanks for the info. I’ll try again later.
mdblanche
@Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker:
Fix’d.
Villago Delenda Est
@Redshift:
This, right here, fascinates me as a political observer.
I just can’t believe how utterly incompetent the entire Rmoney campaign is, from top to bottom, from stem to stern. It’s embarrassing. It’s great for Obama and Biden, but it makes me cringe. OFA isn’t going to have to work up a sweat on this campaign, which is a real letdown, because it would be a joy to watch them stretch and see exactly what they can do, but there’s absolutely no need for them to do so.
Rmoney’s people are so busy screwing the pooch.
Villago Delenda Est
@Humanities Grad:
Those “facts” have a liberal bias! We’re not going to use those liberally biased facts, no way, no how!
The Germans DID bomb Pearl Harbor! They did, they did, THEY DID!
Violet
@Villago Delenda Est: Maybe they’ll lend their energy and skill to close Senate and House races to run up the score.
Thlayli
@Argive:
Err, no. Actually, Mish, they would be speaking Russian.
HTH. HAND.
Argive
@Villago Delenda Est:
According to Jennifer Rubin, the Romney campaign has 23 offices across Pennsylvania. That’s nice. Obama has approximately double that number of offices, half of which are in the populous southwestern part of the state. In ’08, Obama had 35 offices in Philadelphia alone, and that number doubled in the four days before the election.
Donald G
So, all that UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH couldn’t even buy the Republicans a sugar high. Not even after the crowd-pleasing spectacle of an old man yelling at a chair?
What are they blowing the money on, hookers and coke?
Audit the super-PACS!
dance around in your bones
@Anoniminous:
Sorry, didn’t last 20 seconds. Heard it too much as a tweenie, and it sucked even then.
This reminds me that, as an adult, a co-worker was all excited about getting tickets to go see The Monkees, and I said “You know that’s a fake band, right?”
She was much younger than me.
Cmm
@Redshift:
The pundits and Villagers don’t have a true experience of the economy because they have largely been sheltered from it. Same with the Wall Streeters. It is all theoretical to them. Thats why they make so much of things like the unemployment numbers. The people living the real economy know whether things are sugar or shit, and don’t need a report from Washington to tell them.
Villago Delenda Est
@Violet:
I think that’s exactly what they’re going to do.
I recall four years ago, when I was working on the Jeff Merkley campaign, how we included pitches for Obama and Dem congressional candidates by congressional district in the phone bank pitch.
These people have brains. They’re going to do the exact same thing, probably down to state legislative races. They’re that good.
Jim, Foolish Literalist and Fact Checker
Am I epistemically closed, or is Bob Woodward’s book being greeted with a yawn? I see headlines here and there, but it seems like the left blogosphere doesn’t consider it worth responding to. If so, it’s long overdue.
Villago Delenda Est
@dance around in your bones:
They may have started out as fake, but the fact of the matter was, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork were actual musicians, and while Mickey Dolenz and Davy Jones were not up to their level, they made a serious effort.
Much to Don Kirschner’s displeasure, they started acting like an actual band, asserting creative control, which is why Kirschner’s next project was “The Archies”, totally composed of faceless studio musicians who could be hired and fired at will, because the public face of the “band” was animated charcters.
quannlace
So much rightwing flailing to try to find some comfort in the wake of the latest polls. The usual that it’s MSM in the tank for Obama. I.E., a big media conspiracy.
My favorite. The resurrection of the ol’ Magic Negro theory. I was listening to Michael Medved; his explanation of Obama’s good approval numbers? People are too intimidated by polls; if they say something negative about Obama, they’ll be accused of being racist.
Sure. People are intimidated by a two minute conversation with some guy with a clip board; who they’ll never see again. That makes sense!
Just another facet of ‘They voted for him cause of white guilt’, and ‘people were just bamboozled by Obama’s ‘hope and change.’ Wish I guess segues into the 2012 addition of ‘sugar high’
LanceThruster
@Villago Delenda Est:
x2
There was a lot of talent there. Leon Russell was a Monkee-man session musician and Rodney Bingenheimer (Mayor of Sunset Strip) auditioned for them.
quannlace
Yes, I lie awake nights, worrying that someone is going to strike off ‘In God We Trust’ from my semi-copper pennies.
LanceThruster
@Hill Dweller:
Yeah, cuz it’s not like LDS benefit from any church/state separation.
What.a.maroon.
Or something like that.Suffern Ace
@quannlace: That would be the Bradley effect. If there’s one thing those conservatives know, though, its that you just can’t say anything negative about the president. Maybe they are concerned that the blue helmets will con git em.
Villago Delenda Est
@quannlace:
The scary thing is, there are probably people who do exactly that though. It’s more important to them then where their next meal is coming from.
bemused
@quannlace:
Medved thinks some people would be too embarrassed to thought racist? Now that’s hilarious. If anything, racists feel emboldened to reveal themselves, to come out of the racist closet, so to speak.
dance around in your bones
@Villago Delenda Est:
I bow to your superior knowledge – all I remember about the Monkees was that stupid TV show and the blatant rip-off of the Beatles. I simply never listened to them afterwards, so if they improved as a band and started asserting control over their music, good on them :)
Actually, I think it was my younger brother who listened to them more. I was into Jimi and Janis and Jim and Jefferson Starship and Country Joe and…..(ok, you can fill in the blanks) by then.
I was just flabbergasted that someone would pay money to see them (this was in the 80’s!) and that same person won tickets off a radio station to see Randy Newman, had no idea who he was, and let me go drive 30 minutes to said radio station to pick them up in her stead.
I was fucking thrilled.
P.S. The show was great.
shortstop
@Rafer Janders: Mike K.
Ben Cisco
@Comrade Jake: I was hoping someone would catch that.
Triassic Sands
It’s been years since I agreed with a Republican on much of anything, but, at this point, I don’t see much to fault with that statement. If the little nudge that Obama seems to have gotten from the convention is still around in a month (or even two weeks), then the statement above may prove to be wrong. Until then, it seems to me like business as usual.
Mitt Romney, possibly the worst Republican presidential candidate in living memory, could still eke out a close victory (bad economy/high unemployment + racial bigotry + voter suppression + stupid/ignorant/fickle electorate (might)= narrow Romney victory).
Obama, who was dealt a much worse than average Republican economic shit sandwich, could have done more (but not much with the current insane GOP) and certainly could have appeared to care more, but, whatever his shortcomings, he’s done a vastly better job than any Republican would or could have done, especially since Republicans are incapable of rational thought due to their crippling ideological fervor and their fundamentally flawed views of…well…everything.
In some ways, this is the weirdest election of my lifetime. Even more than in 2008 it is vital that a Republican not win the presidency, but it’s really almost entirely about avoiding disaster, since it’s hard to imagine anything (new) good happening in Washington, DC until the Republican Party is rendered utterly powerless, and there isn’t any likelihood of that happening this year.
It is unfortunate that Obama, our first minority president, won the presidency at a time when the structure of our politics and the insanity of the Right severely limit the good a president can do. I’ve been quite unhappy with the president for a number of his policies, but I have to thank him for preventing things from being worse. The media sneer at that kind of achievement, but it’s a lot more than nothing and something I’m willing to settle for between now and 2016.
Mnemosyne
@dance around in your bones:
They’re definitely a pop band, not a rock back, but “Daydream Believer” and “Pleasant Valley Sunday” are two of the great American pop songs.
And they hired some great songwriters — “Daydream” was written by John Stewart of the Kingston Trio and Gerry Goffin & Carole King wrote “Pleasant Valley.” I think Neil Diamond wrote at least one Monkees song, too.
ETA: Also, too, Davy Jones was a Tony-nominated Broadway star in “Oliver!” so I don’t think I would say he was “not a musician.” He didn’t play an instrument, but he was a trained vocalist. (Not that you did, but someone above did.)
JR in WV
@Villago Delenda Est:
What they need to do is to put all the energy into congressional races, to keep the Senate and turn the House.
Then we can take the country back from the thieves and nazis…