Look, as a Democrat, I’m happy when people talk up Donald Trump and Sarah Palin as potential GOP nominees, not just because they’d make terrible general election candidates but because the GOP “brand” is hurt by its association with these two grifters. So I’m not bad that Mark Halperin is talking them up, not at all. But, seriously, why is he doing this? What’s in it for him? (h/t commenters hilts)
And she quit the governorship — I’m not here as an apologist for her — under the laws of the state her family was going to be bankrupt by litigation and public records requests. She wasn’t interested in doing that. I’m not saying that’s a positive for her, but I don’t think it’s a reflection of her ambition, her level of ambition or her interest in public service.
[….]I think he’s (Trump’s) much more serious about running before than you do. He spent a fair amount of time about talking to people working for his campaign. I don’t know why he would have gone through hours and hours of meetings if it were all just a charade.
[……] [H]e (Trump), like Sarah Palin, looks at this field and says, this is a field that can be taken down by a strong, late entry. And if you’ve got the ability to manipulate the media as both of them do to an extraordinary extent, you could imagine a scenario of getting in late and riding a populist wave to the Republican nomination.
We’re going to get some form of serious GOP daddy in 2012, someone that Ruth Marcus can imagine having a thoughtful conversations about the moral imperative of moving towards Vouchercare. Perhaps the Village can celebrity makeover Palin or Trump into such a daddy, but I doubt it.
Wag
Fixed
Pass the popcorn
Hill Dweller
Halperin tried selling this nonsense on O’Donnell’s show last night, but LOD was having none of it. He looked pissed by the end of the segment.
I suppose Halperin is accustomed to the Morning Joe fellatio, and was caught off guard by the ridiculing.
The very same people who were ripping Palin a few months ago are now back to praising her. I swear these “journalists”(not just at Fox) are given marching orders, and mindlessly follow them.
Hunter Gathers
There are only 2 who can pull that off: Mittens and T-to-the-Paw.
Problem is that Mittens has absolutely no idea who he really is, and T-to-the-Paw looks and acts like he would be the sort of guy who could get his ass kicked by a 8 year old girl. Neither are fluent in TeaTard, both are as personable as a cardboard box and both will have to pivot so hard to the right in order to get the nom that they’ll be dead in the water by the time the conventions roll around, high unemployment or not.
There is one who could pull off the GOP Daddy vibe and excite the TeaBillies at the same time – Paul Ryan.
arguingwithsignposts
Is halperin the one who shows up in the comments defending his honor, or is that another village fluffer. I get all these pasty white bohs confused. They all look alike.
Violet
Maybe he can see the crazy on the wall and figures one of them is more likely to win the nomination than anyone expects. And he wants to be on their good side and have bragging rights if they do win. So the time to start praising them is now.
Also, too, starbursts. And face time on a reality show.
Joseph Nobles
If Halperin is not a Palin apologist, why is he repeating her bullshit uncritically?
Spaghetti Lee
@Hunter Gathers:
I dunno-Wonder Boy’s sinking like a rock. They stamped his name all over this vouchercare business because they thought it would help his image as a genius, but the only thing it’s getting him so far is blame. He’s the guy who wants to take away medicare.
Violet
@Hunter Gathers:
I think Ryan looks too young to pull off the GOP daddy vibe. Maybe in another 4 or 8 years. Right now he looks like a good VP candidate. Young, full of “ideas”, tea party splooge all over him.
burnspbesq
The press continues to struggle with arithmetic.
This article says that the New Jersey Republican Party is “reimbursing” the state for the cost of Christie’s helicopter trips to watch his kid play baseball.
http://www.northjersey.com/news/NJ_Gov_Christie_GOP_reimburse_state_for_2_helicopter_trips_.html
However, the payment being made is less than $2,200 for two trips on a helicopter that is said to cost $2,500 per hour to operate. Trenton to Somerville is probably 15 minutes each way. Trenton to Montvale is at least 30 minutes each way, probably a bit more. “Reimbursement” looks like it would be somewhere north of $3k. But only a DFH would care.
Mike in NC
The maggot known as Halperin is a fucking Village Idiot. So what else is new?
BC
Yeah, I saw that Halperin interview and just decided the mf doesn’t know up from down.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
After watching Rachel Maddow tonight, I’m more convinced than ever that it’ll be Pawlenty. I hadn’t realized that the Republican party hates Romney as much as I do. Huntsman is running for 2016, when he’ll be crushed by HuckaDaniels. Ruth and the Davids and Mark Halperin will work themselves into a swoon over T-Paw’s plain-spoken midwesterness, or maybe his midwestern plain-spokeness. Maureen Dowd will wear herself out using the Mullet as a metaphor. Richard Cohen and Mika Brezinski will scold liberal elitists for mocking the candidate for his refusal to commit to a belief in evolution. There will be three or four racist gaffes by staffers and/or surrogates between the convention and Election Day, and Fred Hiatt and his Merry Band will blame Obama for playing the race card.
I was vaguely interested in Grifterella (and Rudi Grifterello) trying to steal Romney’s thunder. Palin is five tuns of resentment stuffed into a petite woman’s frame. Romney– trust fund baby, Ivy Leaguer, New Englander, media favorite–must set off all her persecution triggers.
Violet
I still say that if Bachmann runs and gets a little momentum going, keep an eye on Palin. Hell hath no fury like a Palin scorned.
Martin
@Joseph Nobles: Pageviews.
Seriously, this is not hard, guys. Halperin has ads to sell and if needs to rub a little wingnut cock to make the car payment, then he’s going to do that.
boss bitch
Here Comes The Paul Ryan Presidential Campaign
burnspbesq
Krugman has Romney figured out.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/02/the-unbearable-cynicism-of-being-mitt/
Suffern ACE
Thank God Halperin is on the case to see though that media manipulation and let us know about it.
I’m beginning to feel sorry for Mittens, though. He got 25% of the primary vote last time and he must have been running an insurgency candidacy for all the love shown for him. Halperin is giving credit to Trump for spending – HOURS – preparing to run. Which is probably about as much time as I’ve contemplated throwing my own hat in the ring.
Morbo
Did anyone else happen to catch Michael Steele interviewed by Rachel Maddow? He was… surprisingly coherent, probably made more sense than he did at any time during his chairmanship. Makes me wonder the same thing: who’s paying him now vs. then?
Chris T.
I think the right phrase here is “slouching towards Vouchercare”. It has two big pluses: it has a sort of internal rhyme (slouch/vouch); and more importantly, it will make the Bible-Thumpers think of the phrase “slouching towards Bethlehem”. :-)
Spaghetti Lee
Maybe they should just be honest and make a reality show out of it: http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/153/8/8/who_wants_to_be_a_candidate__by_jupiterwave-d3hu63q.jpg
JenJen
I can’t wait to hear what Mark McKinnon has to say about all of this.
/snark
@Suffern ACE:
Mittens, nuthin’! I’m feeling sorry for Tagg and Trick and Tab or whatever his sons are called. Dad’s going on a “let’s blow your inheritance just for the helluvit” bender again!
MagicPanda
SATSQ: 1) Halperin is an idiot. 2) Drudge rules his world.
mclaren
As William Shakespeare wrote:
Doubt thou the stars are fire; Doubt the diamond is a jewel; Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt Reagan was a highly-respected fool.
There is no limit to the capacity of groveling bully-worshiping toadies and lickspittles in academia and the press to fawningly build up the myth of the alleged intellectual and moral magnificence of any brainless sociopath nominated for president.
James E. Powell
@Suffern ACE:
There is no way I feel sorry for Mittens. He is a Grade-A, US Prime Asshole. He doesn’t even have the character, intellectual honesty, or just plain self-respect to defend his own health care plan. He lost last time with a Republican primary electorate that was far less radical right than the one that is going to show up this time. I don’t know if he realizes it or not, but there is a black man in Our White House and the wingers want to go at him with pitchforks and torches. They will never trust a man who has no history with the core values of the Republican Party: fundamentalist Christianity, race-baiting, and willful ignorance.
cmorenc
Why is anyone giving any attention to the inane drivel of “this is good for John McCain” Mark Halprin? (originally said in commenting on McCain’s inability to remember how many houses he owned, 6? 7? 8?)
ChrisNYC
Halperin is doing this because he is pissed off. He thinks, and has always thought, that Obama has it easy — because he’s black so the press goes easy on him (not my thought, Halperin’s). He said the coverage of Obama in 2008 was shameful or whatever word he used. He hopes Palin gets in because she “puts Obama in his place.” (A phrase Halperin actually used. Lovely.)
slightly-peeved
Isn’t Trump’s main gig at the moment The Apprentice? Where his role is to sit through long meetings.. As a charade? What Trump has Halperin been watching?
Joseph Nobles
@ChrisNYC: To be fair to Halperin, “puts Obama in his place” is a phrase he used, but he used it to explain the thinking of Republicans who were excited about Trump. That’s not necessarily how he feels about it.
In fact, I agree with him on the general attitude of Republicans looking for a candidate to support in the primary. They do want someone who is going to put Obama in the place they think he should be in. That’s why I think the nominee will be Herman Cain if Palin stays on the sidelines. He’s charismatic, he’s not afraid to call it like he and other wingnuts see it, and he’s a sacred “job creator.” If he can calm the fears of more moderate Republicans in private while whipping the Tea Party into a frenzy in public, it’s Cain 2012 all the way.
Rita R.
The media are just B-O-R-E-D by the current slate of GOP presidential wannabes — Pawlenty, Huntsman, Romney, the libertarian dude from New Mexico nobody knows… you get the point. The thought of covering this crew for the next year and a half has left them desperate for a GOP celebrity to inject some fun in their lives — Sarah! Trump! Rudy! The Pizza Guy! Not only that, they know that viewers will be just as bored by T-Paw & Co., and that’s not good for ratings, clicks, ad sales, etc. The fact that it looks like at least crazy Michelle Bachmann is getting in has given them some hope…
alwhite
@Joseph Nobles:
I agree with your assessment & want to add one more bit. If the movers and shakers come to the conclusion that they are not going to beat Obama in ’12 they might really like Cain in the same way, and for the same reason, they chose Steele to be their chairman. “See, we even let one of them run the party, we ain’t no racists”. Knowing he would then be ‘dead’ for ’16 so they could avoid having to do that again.
Given that Gutfathers Pizza went bankrupt around here there may be a few holes in that ‘job creator’ story. Not enough to interest the press enough to question it but it would be out there.
bemused
I watched Lawrence and Halperin the other evening and it was quite amusing. LOD just wasn’t going to play the silly political pundit game of pretending that Palin or Trump are anything but self-serving clowns. I’ve really become nauseated by Halperin’s bullshit Villager analyses on cable tv and the rest of the opinionators sagely nodding in agreement so it was refreshing to see LOD not giving him a free pass. A rare experience for idiot Halperin and company and he didn’t seem to enjoy it.
Woodrow/asim Jarvis Hill
@Morbo:
MSNBC, actually.
Comrade Javamanphil
@Suffern ACE: This was my takeaway as well. Every villager believes in the village but somehow thinks they transcend it. Idiots. But always wrong Halperin is really the worst of the worst. His analysis is so predictable, so transparent and often so brief one has to wonder if Time pays him more the less he says. But I chalk it up the laziness and a desire to reduce everything to bland mush.
Chris
@boss bitch:
Sounds like the North/South ticket that Kennedy and Johnson offered in the 1960s, in an attempt to keep the two increasingly hostile factions of the Democratic Party together. If you’re at a point where you start having to do that as a policy, your party’s in deep shyte.
Not to mention that which faction gets the VP slot makes it clear to all which faction is the junior partner in this arrangement.
Chris
@James E. Powell:
Well, of course.
No, the man’s a complete political whore and flip-flopper, but that was kind of part of his charm. At least you know what you’re getting: a corporate prostitute who’d be following his own self-interest in all respects. It’s distasteful, but the man has a firmer grip on reality than, well, the rest of his party.
kd bart
For Halperin and the rest of the Villagers, it is all about creating a horse race. A close elections means ratings, page views and possible book contracts. It means more income. Obama romping to an easy electoral victory does nothing for the bottom line. They’ll do anything to make it a close election.
arguingwithsignposts
@Joseph Nobles:
The great part for the moment is that Obama’s “place” is at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. They really hate that, and i love the fact that it eats at them so.
bob h
Note that Chris Christie, with his sure animal instincts, gave her a wide berth as she passed thru God’s Country.
Ghanima Atreides
dude, the GOP is still trying to suppress Palinism.
It started right before the midterms, when they had wrung every drop of populist hysteria out of her.
She can win the nom, she cannot win the general.
The conservative elite is pants-wetting terrified of her.
Look at Dr. Krauthammer.
I hated Palin when I was a conservative because I could see she was was going to destroy the GOP.
I lurve her now that im a flaming liberal. ;)
She is running, im just not sure for what. But the best thing is she gets it. The dishonest old wide boys that used the shit out of her the last time around are going to get the surprise of their lives when the servant becomes the master.
She has the gripping hand now, and she knows how to use it.
Bill H.
Because he is a complete idiot, who co-wrote the most trivial book in the history of politics, a collection of 100% unattributed gossip, and is still trying desperately to be taken seriously. He thinks that by saying something other than what everyone else is saying he is “defying conventional wisdom” and that if he makes enough wierd predictions he will get lucky and one of them will actually happen, causing him to become known as a deep thinker.
Nutella
@alwhite:
And in the same way they chose Keyes to run against Obama for the Senate. The dems have a black guy? Hey, we’ve got a black guy too!
It worked out so well for them then.
ChrisNYC
@Joseph Nobles: Yes, he did use it in that sense. But I think it also reflects his own thinking. He’s said too much that goes in that direction to discount, imo. Remember? The reasoning for the “this is excellent news for McCain” about the many houses comment was that it would give the McCain campaign an excuse to “take the gloves off.” I’m not saying Halperin’s racist! I’m saying he has a long term beef with Obama and the media coverage he gets/got and wants a GOP challenger who will “say what no one else will.”
Nutella
Halperin is always stupid but he can be sneaky. Saying this
is both stupid and sneaky. Costs of litigation and public record requests about a governor are borne by the state, not by the ex-governor personally. But dragging in her dear family (again!) is another chance to bring in the mama grizzly theme.
ChrisNYC
@Joseph Nobles: Oh and also, totally agree on the general idea of what the TPers want. I don’t think Cain or Palin will get the nom. But, a big part of Cain’s appeal is that the guy is black, right? In the wingers’ heads, that means he doesn’t have to hold back from going after Obama.
It’s funny to me because it seems like the same reasoning behind Palin 2008 — “let’s get a lady! the Clinton voters will flock to a gal and it’ll show that we’re a modern party!” They really have convinced themselves that “diversity” is all a big show.
mds
@Chris T.:
Most Bible-Thumpers wouldn’t recognize a reference to “The Second Coming” if William Butler Yeats had it tattooed on the fists he was punching their illiterate dumbshit faces with.
OzoneR
@ChrisNYC:
But obviously if Obama would just stand firm, he can “control the narrative”