(Walt Handelsman at GoComics.com)
__
Professor Krugman does a little dance on the sad shambles of the GOP:
Sympathy For The Doofus
Mitt Romney is catching a lot of flack from his own side now, which seems premature; although the odds are now against him, this is by no means over. But let me say that even if he does spend election night weeping in his car elevator, his critics from the right are being unfair. Yes, he’s a pretty bad candidate — but the core problem is with his party, not with him.What, after all, does Romney have to run on? True, he hasn’t offered specifics on his economic policies — but that’s because he can’t. The party base demands tax cuts, but also demands that he pose as a deficit hawk; he can’t do both in any coherent fashion without savaging Medicare and Social Security, yet he’s actually trying to run on the claim that Obama is the threat to Medicare. On fiscal matters, doubletalk and obfuscation are his only options.
And no, Paul Ryan didn’t show that it can be done differently. His plan was, as I’ve documented many times, a fraud. Furthermore, he’s basically a Beltway creation; the Ryan legend was based on the desire of Washington type to anoint a Serious, Honest Conservative; expose him to the wider scene, and it all falls apart…
Mr. Charles P. Pierce reads the NYT and spots an exceptionally… Republican… statement:
… If the Republican ticket loses in November, the rush by Mr. Ryan and other 2016 hopefuls to position themselves for the Iowa caucuses “is going to look like Best Buy the night after Thanksgiving,” said Craig Robinson, a former political director of the Republican Party of Iowa. “I hate to say this, but if Ryan wants to run for national office again, he’ll probably have to wash the stench of Romney off of him.”
It’s time for an intervention, if not forcible detox. Kids, if you lose this time around, with eight-percent unemployment and the Middle East blowing up, and with a (shh!) Blah President, it’s not your candidate. It’s not your strategy. It’s your ideas, which the country is rejecting because the country just came through the most immense pillaging of its public wealth in the history of human thievery and it has made the link between the piracy in question, and the fact that one of the only two political parties that we permit ourselves to have has been staggering around on the sidewalk, singing old hymns in Latvian while pushing respectable citizens like Willard Romney into oncoming traffic because the party thinks he looks like the man who’s come to put in the microchip…
It could always be worse — you could be a Republican…
.
Mike S.
foist!
once evar
raven
Great Canned Heat reference!
Here’s another
Jamiroquai
I used to buy my faith in worship,
But then my chance to Heaven slipped.
I used to worry about the future
But then I throw my caution to the wind.
I had no reason to be care free
No no no, until I took a trip to the other side of town
Yeah yeah yeah, you know I heard that boogie rhythm
Hey- I had no choice but to get down down down down.
raven
Down With Tyranny on Ryan.
Arclite
It could be even worse than that, you could be a Libertarian (a Republican without all the cash and fancy propaganda media).
Patricia Kayden
I doubt Ryan can be a viable candidate in 2016. The Repubs need to find someone who can appeal to the middle. Ryan is an extreme conservative. His stance on birth control and abortion is offensive to many women.
Perhaps Rubio will be ready.
Linda Featheringill
@Patricia Kayden:
Ryan is also not as attractive to women as the Republicans would like.
I suspect that one of the reasons he was chosen as VP candidate was that he would attract the women. But, of course, he hasn’t.
We have one whole political party that really doesn’t listen to women and yet females outnumber the guys and certainly vote in greater numbers. What the hey?
The ladies that are faithful to the Republican Party would still vote R even if they sponsored an honestly attractive contestant. Why don’t they try it?
Comrade Javamanphil
BUt, but, CENTER-RIGHT NATION! ALL IS WELL! ALL IS WELL!
JPL
@Patricia Kayden: Rubio wants to rid the nation of that pesky Medicare thing. What makes you think he is moderate?
The republicans had a moderate running and he only lasted a few months.
RedKitten
Basically, it comes down to the Repubs fundamental disrespect for women. They think that we’re THAT easily distracted that they could throw a pretty face in front of us, and we’ll vote for it.
However, a)Ryan is NOT a pretty face. The man looks like a grown-up troll doll with an expensive haircut, and b) we like a pretty face, but are (usually) not willing to sacrifice our very rights in order to vote for one.
Yes, there are some baffling women who would happily vote for Ryan as President, despite his positions. But frankly, I think these women are in denial as to HOW Ryan’s various policies would actually affect them.
My guess is that they saw how many women swoon over BHO and are trying to recreate it, not realizing that BHO actually IS really damn hot, and that we also admire and approve of his philosophies and policies.
They call Obama an empty suit, but nobody ever personified that like the Romney/Ryan ticket.
raven
@RedKitten: Catch the replay of the first segment of Mornin Joe if you want to see some disrespect for a woman. Of course, if she keep coming back for it I’m not sure what that says?
Linda Featheringill
@RedKitten:
Women aren’t as visual as men. People have known this for a long, long time. Why don’t the Republicans recognize this? Why don’t they run focus groups? Why don’t they field candidates that women find attractive regardless of agreement on issues?
It would have been much smarter to nominate Cantor than Ryan.
ETA:
Yes, BHO is hot. And totally unavailable. Sigh.
NYT
Its interesting that Romney is such a target for conservatives even though he is only a few points down with 5 or 6 weeks to go.
I think its because:
1. For years the GOP has argued that taxes on dividends should be lower than on income because it encourages job creation. But Romney receives 20m in dividends every year and employs only his household staff and before that probably fired more than he hired.
2. The GOP conveniently ignore payroll taxes in all their arguements in order to reduce top rate income tax. Romney opened up a can of worms on that with his 47% speech.
3. He clearly cares nothing about the social issues as he’s done a 180 on all of them since his governorship days. Shows whats really important in the GOP.
Every day he stays in the race does permanent damage to the tax cutting agenda. Which is their only real agenda, at least domestically.
Skippy-san
All of this Democratic over confidence is worrisome. Democrats cannot let up for a minute. They got run hard all the way to the finish line and not just beat Romney but throughly discredit him and his ideas. The election won’t really be a success unless the “zombie eyed granny starvers” are professionallu and financially destroyed.
We live in a country where a significant number of citizens willfully choose to be ignorant. Who really believe that there are literally millions of “moochers” and cling to ideas about “young bucks with T-bones and cell phones”. They won’t listen to reason-they have to have it beaten over there head that the world has changed.
Romney is dangerous and the election is not over till its over.
pluege
“pillaging” is the right word for what the plutocrats have done to average Americans for 30 years – the reagan legacy. But what is truly amazing is that the republicans continue to run on the ‘let us screw you some more platform’. Its like the guy who just robbed you asking for the keys to your home. The chutzpah is astounding. Unfortunately, way too many Americans are ready to hand the keys over.
arguingwithsignposts
This is an Open Thread, right?
FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS SACRED, WILL SOMEONE FIX THE GODDAMN COMMENT SYSTEM!
This has been going on for MONTHS now, and fuck if any of the front pagers have so much as mentioned it to explain WTF is going on, or if anything is being done to remedy the obvious multiple comments and page-load time out bullshit.
Seriously, this is beyond ridiculous.
Yeah, yeah – yada yada yada you get what you pay for.
Schlemizel
@Comrade Javamanphil:
As proven by the election of a right of center President 4 years ago.
While I rejoice in the self-immolation of the modern GOP I lament that the result is a Democratic party that has shifted so far to the right that a decent, Wall Street friendly guy like Obama is now considered a leftist. We need to have a sane right of center GOP so that we can have an actual left of center party again.
This fall looks like it will be popcorn season as the GOP eats itself. I hope it is the start of a purge that will return sanity to the GOP but think that is still at least 2 more cycles away.
Josie
@raven: I reacted this morning to Morning Joe like John Cole did to the NFL. I changed the channel and will not watch MSNBC in the morning until that hateful man is off of the air.
TheMightyTrowel
@arguingwithsignposts: golf clap. you forgot FYWPWARPF
TheMightyTrowel
@arguingwithsignposts: golf clap. you forgot FYWPWARPF
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@RedKitten:
“The most important sex organ lies between the ears.”
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@RedKitten:
“The most important sex organ lies between the ears.”
Mino
If Obama is toxic to foreign governments because he doesn’t schmooze, why does everyone want him re-elected? To Faux Dems on Morning Joe: too hard to connect the dots??
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
Not sure this was a FYWP moment. I got a database connection error when I tried to post. The hosting company needs to seriously look into the connection between the HTML server and the database server.
arguingwithsignposts
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: This is just one instance, though. This shit with the multiple comments has been going on for quite a while, even when page load times have been acceptable.
gene108
@Patricia Kayden:
There’s no way Rubio can thread the needle on immigration, i.e. attract the Hispanic vote, while reassuring the right-wing base he’ll deport all the Hispanics.
Also, too I think he attempt to introduce a pro-immigration bill that got co-opted by President Obama’s decision to allow illegal immigrants brought here as a kid to stay in the country may make Rubio too impure to win the 2016 Republican primaries.
Huckabee, who I think would’ve been a hard candidate to beat in 2008 – he was the only Republican talking about helping the middle class – got disqualified in the primaries because he raised taxes as governor, due to a Arkansas SCOTUS ruling about adequately funding all school districts.
Omnes Omnibus
@Skippy-san: There is a difference between overconfidence and recognizing that you are winning. From what I have seen, the Dems at all levels are recognizing that they are winning and looking for ways to take advantage of that fact. The idea, for example, of moving money to down ticket races is not a bad one. Yeah, I know it isn’t over until all the votes are counted, but there are stages between panic and overconfidence. It might be nice if everyone could spend some time in those.
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: Ah, the middle path.
Geoduck
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
Appears to be a more wide-spread problem, whatever it was: I was getting that message from other sites as well.
raven
Goldie Hawn is quite the articulate buddah head!
jwb
@arguingwithsignposts: The unpredictable commenting system is part of the charm to the place. Sort of like the Tardis in Dr. Who.
arguingwithsignposts
@jwb: Sure, just like the unpredictable refs are part of the charm of this year’s NFL season.
Gin & Tonic
@NYT:
But that’s just it, the vast majority of his earnings are not dividends, but carried interest and capital gains. If you make money from dividends, that means you’re invested in companies which are making money and paying it out to shareholders (and have presumably paid corporate taxes on it, hence the “double taxation” argument.) If you make money on capital gains, that means you’ve invested in companies which are increasing in value but have not paid out anything to shareholders, thus there is less (or no) reason for the preferential treatment of that income.
raven
@arguingwithsignposts:
My life is sunshine, lollipops and rainbows,
That’s how this refrain goes, so come on, join in everybody!
arguingwithsignposts
@raven: on the big rock candy mountain?
raven
@arguingwithsignposts: YES!
debit
@raven: Candy mountain!
Ed in NJ
@gene108:
None of this will matter in 2016. The only thing that will matter is how the economy is doing. If things have not gotten appreciably better, all these issues will be meaningless. Rubio is well-positioned either way, not because he’s a moderate, but because he’s perceived as one. That goes a long way with the punditry. See Paul Ryan re: perceptions.
LanceThruster
Morning Blow (and Rmoney and mini-Money) are saying that Pres. Obama’s statement of “bump in the road” re: events in the ME is the unconscienable and is reflective of the “mass chaos” in the ME. Joe S. even tried to compare it to the ME in ’79 with Iran and Pres. Carter.
Thank goodness some of these countries aren’t going through the birth pangs professor war criminal Condi Rice spoke of.
cmorenc
@Patricia Kayden:
You do realize that ROMNEY was the GOP establishment’s notion of “someone who can appeal to the middle”, whom they backed up with money and organization to overcome more extreme candidates like Santorum or Bachman whom they knew had little chance of winning the general election because of that? You do also realize that a huge part of Romney’s present difficulties are rooted in the fact that candidates positioned to appeal to the middle are unacceptable to a large-enough portion of the GOP base that like Romney, they have to paint themselves indelibly into too many extreme corners to be able to successfully tack back to the middle?
The GOP is basically fucked until enough of the base undergoes a fundamental ideological makeover.
cmorenc
@Ed in NJ:
Being perceived as “the one” four years out is not nearly the advantage being perceived as “the one” a year out from the next election is. See, e.g. Pawlenty, Tim for but one recent example.
mai naem
@LanceThruster: Every time election time rolls around, Scarbo transforms into Reince Preibus and starts spouting off Republican talking points. Shit that he knows is total BS and he spouts if like he believes it.
Suffern ACE
@LanceThruster: SO basically they want the president to piss his pants. Good to know that if elected, republican foreign policy will be based on bladder control issues.
patrick II
I agree with Krugman and Pierce that incoherent and bad policy is the problem. I would also say that Mitt is a bad republican politician because he cannot tell the necessary lies smoothly. He certainly is willing and he tells them often, but he can’t make them ring true. He is no George Will who can pompously lie or Sean Hannity or Bill O’Reilly who can lie with passion. Romney is an awkward liar and it makes him into a awkward candidate. When he is telling what he thinks is the truth, like when he is talking about horses or the laziness of the help, he is a much more sincere sounding guy. That guy would have a chance if his ideas just weren’t so vile.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@arguingwithsignposts: Personally, I’ve never had it happen without at least a timeout. But really, what part of “this time it looks like a database connection issue” did you miss? Things like this often have multiple causes, and the best you can do is chase down each of them and thereby cut down on the frequency.
@Geoduck: When I see that, I can almost always look up the troubled sites and find that they are all hosted through the same company/data center. It only takes one hardware failure to break database-driven sites.
rikyrah
love that graphic
Jay
Didn’t we have about a dozen Republicans competing for the nomination? You know, Bachmann, Santorum, Trump, that pizza guy, and a bunch of others? We’ve seen what the Republican bench looks like, and it didn’t look good.
jayjaybear
@cmorenc: Or the most fundamental biological makeover…
jayjaybear
@cmorenc: Or the most fundamental biological makeover…
Craig
@cmorenc:
The GOP will not reform until the current crop of senior citizens are too feeble, or too dead, to vote.
Petorado
I’m convinced the Republican vision for America is to create a nation in which there are no benefits to living there, save the fact you are free to do whatever the heck you want — unless someone uses their rogue freedoms to do it to you first.
J R in WVa
I got the database connection error around 3-4 am last night. V. surprising what with being the only person awake and on BJ in the whole world.
LanceThruster
@mai naem:
Excellent description. He needs waders for all the fertilizer he’s slinging.
LanceThruster
@Suffern ACE:
Yeah, and Depends in that case as well.
yopd1
How long until Pam “Atlas Juggs” Gellar starts whining about her first amendment rights being trampled and blaming the Jihadists for defaming her posters.