“Even the folks who won don’t seem happy”: Obama mocks Republicans at Ohio rally https://t.co/fsQkvaDWHb
— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) September 14, 2018
Especially for beloved commentor and Ohioan Kay:
Former president Barack Obama ridiculed Republicans at an Ohio rally Thursday evening, mocking members of the party for being “still mad” even though they control the White House and both chambers of Congress.
Obama made the remarks during a fiery speech for Democratic governor nominee Richard Cordray, who was previously his Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director.
“Even the folks who won don’t seem happy. Have you noticed that?” Obama told the Cleveland crowd, decrying the country’s “broken” politics. Republicans won the presidency, House and Senate, he said, but “they’re still mad, which is interesting.”
He went on to criticize the “forces of retrenchment and backlash and anger” as well as “some media outlets that like to do the fanning,” without naming any names…
In Ohio, Obama hit some of the same themes as he did in his Friday speech in Illinois, blasting Republicans for speaking out against Trump’s actions at times but not backing their words up with action.
“You will read quotes from Republicans saying, ‘Wow, this is messed up,’” Obama said. “Well, why aren’t you doing something about it? ‘Well, we can’t, because we really like these tax cuts for the wealthy. … So we’ll put up with crazy.’”…
And he urged the crowd to go to the polls rather than allow the voices of “demagogues” and fear-mongers to fill the void.
“That is an old playbook. It’s as old as time,” Obama said, adding: “Here’s the thing, in a healthy democracy, that playbook doesn’t work.”
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News update on last night’s Merrimack Valley natural gas explosions: So far, there isn’t much new to report, per CBS local:
• Sections of South Lawrence, Andover and North Andover impacted
• The issue is related to a high pressure gas main, possibly over-pressurized
• An estimated 8,000 gas meters in that region, served by Columbia Gas, were affected; multi-unit homes have multiple gas meters
• All residents of South Lawrence, regardless of utility provider, were asked to evacuate
• Andover residents south of Rt. 28 and Salem Street were allowed to return home early Friday…
• An 18-year-old man has died. At least 25 people injured
• 60-80 fires and 3 explosions, according to MEMA…
Not great news, especially for the family of that young man, but at least we can still assume it was human error, not human evil. If you look at a map of the affected region, you’ll see it’s a very built-up area. If you know anything about its history: Lawrence is a very poor, immigrant-intensive city, while Andover and North Andover are middle-to-upper-middle-income ‘bedroom suburbs’ for the techies and other professionals who work in Lawrence and the surrounding communities. None of the known Massholes among our BJ commentariat seem to have been affected (I’m some twenty minutes south of the site, and our natgas provider is *not* the one in Merrimack Valley, thank Murphy the Trickster God).
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Finally, in advance of this morning’s tweet dump…
"I just wish he'd stop tweeting" is "Please spare my vestigial conscience from daily reminders of my indefensible choices."
It doesn't work like that, buddy.
— Fred, Metastable Genius (@LesserFrederick) September 13, 2018
Friday Morning Open Thread: <em>‘Even the folks who won don’t seem happy’</em>Post + Comments (148)