Blow like Hootie.
Sexy back
I’ve always been fascinated by establishment media’s need to turn every prominent Republican into a hot, sexy hunk or hunkess. But this may take the cake:
He may not drink or cheat, and he lacks the fictional ad-maker’s charisma, but Democrats, despite the potential perils of such a strategy, remain determined to paint Romney as a throwback to the “Mad Men” era — a hopelessly retro figure who, on policy and in his personal life, is living in the past.
That’s right, instead of (Politico) comparing Mitt Romney to an archaic, sluggish, out-of-touch old man, they compare him to a young, handsome, sex symbol whose main traits are that he’s smooth and cool.
Update. Commenter Alexandra finds an even better one…the NYT on Andrew Breitbart. Brace yourself:
piercing blue eyes and ruddily handsome Celtic features
It was the third of September, that day I’ll always remember
It won’t be long now til we have a new Republican Vice-Presidential nominee. Will it be an affable heartland himbo, a blue-eyed wonk, or a stay-at-home mom turned reformer? Who can tell? The only thing we know for sure is that the selection will be a cagey, game-changing move that puts Democrats on the defensive. It was a little less than four years ago that supposedly centrist people were saying things like this about Sarah Palin’s insane convention speech:
Still absorbing her speech last night, I’m trying to understand how Sarah Palin could be so apparently unfazed by her current situation: She’s in charge of a state government, just gave birth to a Down syndrome baby, has a pregnant teenage daughter and now it’s “Gotta run, John McCain wants me to be vice president.” But she’s not only coping with the slings and arrows; she has fired back with gusto. It must be more than just religious faith, ambition or ideology.
She reminds me of another prominent Republican woman from the West: former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
[….]Maybe there’s something about growing up in a challenging, male-dominated physical environment (desert, tundra), in a family where everyone’s expected to get his or her job done (and there’s no time for drama, fuss or introspection), that turns certain girls into very confident women — women who love to play against the big boys, and love to win.
Just imagine what they’ll write about Rob Portman or Paul Ryan.
Update. Yes:
there’s no time for drama, fuss or introspection
Heh indeedy.
It was the third of September, that day I’ll always rememberPost + Comments (106)
Early Morning Open Thread: Willard Got Nuthin’
(Nick Anderson via GoComics.com)
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Via Greg Sargent, Maeve Reston of the LATimes points out that cutely sloganed travel mugs are not going to sway many female voters to Romney’s camp:
… Romney has at times boxed himself in. He has pounded Obama for job losses among women during his tenure, yet rarely acknowledged that many of those cuts were in government jobs that would be sliced further under his proposals, which would shrink government employment by 10%.
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Though middle-of-the-road female voters tend to be more concerned than conservative women about maintaining the nation’s social safety net and expanding healthcare access, Romney has vowed to repeal Obama’s healthcare law, rein in the growth of programs like Medicare and get rid of government aid to Planned Parenthood. He rarely touts his own efforts to expand access to healthcare in Massachusetts, because the program has become such a liability for him among Republican voters…
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White House spokesman Jay Carney hinted at that strategy Thursday when asked to address Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen’s comment that Ann Romney, as a stay-at-home mother, shouldn’t be advising her husband on the struggles of working women. Like Obama’s top campaign advisors, Carney was critical of Rosen’s comments, and eager to move on to the more substantive policy debate.
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“We should also focus on where we disagree,” Carney said, ticking off a series of Republican positions that the White House argues will hurt women. He noted that the Republican budget, which Romney has endorsed, would cut funding for programs that support low-income women and children, including Head Start, the Women, Infants and Children program, and supplemental nutritional aid for pregnant mothers…
And for all that noise & effort, Romney’s well-publicized duck behind his wife’s mommy-skirts was only the second most pathetic family-related pandering by a GOP candidate this week!
Apart from Republicans seeking their natural level (subterranean), what’s on the agenda for the weekend?
Early Morning Open Thread: Willard Got Nuthin’Post + Comments (70)
“Pro-Life” Community Very Upset More Women Will Not Be Collateral Damage in Their Religious Jihad Against Abortion
Responding to this WaPo piece that Komen is funding breast cancer screening at Planned Parenthood, LifeNews has a sad and breaks out some major-league bullshit:
Komen for the Cure has officially buckled to pressure from Planned Parenthood and 17 affiliates of the national breast cancer charity will provide grants for the abortion business this calendar year.
Komen had long been a subject of national controversy in which pro-life advocates initially boycotted Komen and then celebrated earlier this year as it appeared the breast cancer charity had made the decision to revoke funding for the abortion business. After massive public pressure, media attacks and lobbying from Planned Parenthood, Komen indicates the abortion business would be eligible for funding but did to say whether funding would be continued.
Leading pro-life groups had hoped Komen would keep their de-funding decision in place via a change in grant-making criteria making it so organizations like Planned Parenthood that do not do mammograms would no longer be eligible for so-called pass-through grants in which they merely provide referrals to legitimate medical centers and physicians who do.
If they are so convinced they are right on the issue, why must they LIE about EVERYTHING? The money is not going to fund abortions. It’s almost like we need a commandment against lying for these fundamentalist evangelical lunatics. Wait, what?
Train Wreck in Action
If you have Showtime, turn on the ‘comedy’ special with Bryan Callen called “Man Class.” Partial birth abortion, colon cancer, and parvo are funnier. It’s so bad I’m tempted to make a #douchebag tag for this website.
Talkin’ to Lilly Ledbetter
These are actually good points (even if they’re being made by Ruth Marcus):
Take, for example, the issue of equal pay. The first legislation that Obama signed into law was the Lilly Ledbetter Act, which reversed a 2007 Supreme Court decision that made it harder for women to bring lawsuits about pay discrimination. (The court said that Ledbetter had waited too long to complain that she had consistently received smaller raises than her male counterparts, even though she hadn’t known of the pay disparity.)
[….]What is Romney’s view? Asked about it this week, his campaign at first demurred, then issued an unenlightening statement affirming Romney’s dedication to “pay equity.” Well, duh. No modern candidate is going to announce that he — or she — supports unequal pay for equal work. But given that only five Republican senators voted for the Ledbetter law — the four female GOP members and Arlen Specter, who was soon to be an ex-Republican — it’s fair to ask Romney’s view. Pay disparities, and disputes over what, if any, legislative measures should be taken to address them, aren’t disappearing any time soon.
Likewise, what is Romney’s view on the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, which established domestic violence and stalking as federal crimes, and provided funding for services for victims? Republicans in Congress are holding up reauthorization of the measure because of protections it would add for undocumented immigrants and gay men and lesbians. Asked about the issue four years ago, Romney drew a blank. “I’m not familiar with the act,” he said during an “Ask Mitt Anything” forum in New Hampshire. This might be a good time to bone up on it.
Equal pay, adequate legal protection, and access to reproductive rights are too important to be subsumed by some idiotic Politico/Halperin dust-up about an obscure “Democratic strategist”.