Friday Evening Open Thread
(Tom Toles via GoComics.com)
Jonathan Chait, formerly of TNR, now at NYMag’s Daily Intel, says that he’s “always had a soft spot for Mitt Romney, who strikes me, in a way I can’t completely define, as a good guy.” Which explains the general election demographic to whom Romney hopes his non-stop pandering will appeal: Totebaggers. And yet, even Chait admits that “Romney does lie a great deal“:
... Even by the standards of politicians, Romney seems unusually prone to dishonesty. Again, you can ascribe this to circumstance rather than character. I see him as a patrician pol, like George H.W. Bush, who believes deeply in public service but regards elections as a cynical process of pandering to rubes. I think you can plausibly make other interpretations, and you can separate Romney the man or even Romney the president from Romney the candidate. But I don’t see how you can paint Romney the candidate as in any way scrupulous about the truth in any form.
My own ‘plausible interpretation’ is that George H.W. Bush was a giant tool, born to a family of well-connected thugs, who had a political career as a way for his family and their cronies to loot the Treasury and our joint national inheritance. And that Willard ‘Mitt’ Romney is also a giant tool, and a sociopath, who’s having a harder time ascending to his fReightful throne in the Oval Office because (a) we’re all more sophisticated about Diebolding elections now; and (b) thirty-plus years of looting by two generations of Bushes and Bush-handlers have left so little for the rest of us that even the low-information voters have started to catch on. But, hey, I’m sure Willard—or, more likely, his paid surrogate—would be a perfectly lovely partner at the NPR phonebanks during pledge month!
So… apart from my personal biases, what’s on the agenda for the weekend?
Libyan detainees died after torture:
January 27th, 2012 at 10:04 pm
Driving up to Duluth for my cousin’s baby shower. Staying in a nice hotel with wifey, snowboarding at spirit mountain with the boy Sunday before returning home.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:04 pm
This is such unmitigated, close to pure bullshit.
Anne’s quite right. The deserting coward is the scion of a family of patrician thugs, merchants of death and collaborators with Nazis. Romney, OTOH, actually is an example of someone whose parents may have believed deeply in public service, but sees it only as a way to boost his ego and further add to his already ridiculously large fortune.
If either one of these two maggots actually believed in public service, they would have happily and cheerfully volunteered for their generations’ war which they both vocally supported, yet found some way to not actually participate in. Too busy in Mexican whorehouses and in French palaces, I guess.
The craven deserve no mercy.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:06 pm
Libyans fed up with lack of progress:
January 27th, 2012 at 10:06 pm
My personal bias is to consume as much alcohol as I can until I can no longer justify my personal bias. And then fly to Houston for a week.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:07 pm
LIBYA: TRULY A TRIUMPH OF PRAGMATIC LIBERAL INTERVENTION
January 27th, 2012 at 10:07 pm
Funeral…my age group (I’m 39) is starting to lose parents now. However, this man loved a good time, so we’re burying him, then throwing a party with live music and fine beverages. He’ll be pissed he’s missing the party.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:09 pm
Nothing very fun. Long-overdue haircut, mani-pedi, and dress-shopping. I have a major, very high-profile event to attend soon, and I don’t want to wait until two days prior to take care of all the boring necessities. But I truly hate all that stuff (although I almost always enjoy the results), so I’m not looking forward to the next couple of days.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:09 pm
@Villago Delenda Est:
They deserve to be stuck in a cage on the roof of the station wagon until they shit themselves.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:09 pm
@AA+ Bonds:
Cue up the Claude Rains Casablanca clip, Biff.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:10 pm
@Villago Delenda Est:
It always starts like it did during “victory” in Libya . . . our people start disappearing their political opponents, and we look the other way . . . and then they start ripping molars out of people from the wrong villages . . . and so it goes
January 27th, 2012 at 10:12 pm
Anyone see an opportunity for “Bush III” ads or mainstream media discussion this year, in regards to Romney? That’s basically what he is.
I love how the pundits throw out the idea of a Jeb rescue operation at the convention (or as VP) – I hear it around the water cooler occasionally. Yes, that will certainly turn the tide for the GOP…
January 27th, 2012 at 10:12 pm
How much money in the bank do I need to have before I can be known to be both unscrupulous and a good man. Good lord. The careerism of the upper middle class press corps really rots their souls.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:13 pm
@AA+ Bonds:
Who said they are our people?
January 27th, 2012 at 10:14 pm
@Villago Delenda Est:
I hate to point this out, but Bush 41 actually did serve in WWII and saw combat. Unlike his AWOL son, and any Romney, who seemed to always find a way not to serve.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:16 pm
@Omnes Omnibus:
They became our people when we became their air force, cuz.
But I do understand that plenty of Americans like to pretend they’re not responsible for anyone or anything, especially the results of their actions
And when it comes to those disappearances in Libya, um, yes, that was the NTC’s rulers vs. those who fell out of favor
I realize that the American mainstream media got bored with this and so pretty much everyone on liberal blogs just plum forgot about it, but geez, Cole didn’t, y’all have no excuse
January 27th, 2012 at 10:16 pm
@rikyrah:
Yeah, but George H.W. Bush’s conduct was not being discussed. His wastrel son’s was. He also wasn’t just AWOL…he deserted. If you’re gone for more than 30 days, you get the promotion.
Also, there was a motivation for George H.W. Bush to make a big show of volunteering beyond a commitment to service. His dad was a Nazi collaborator.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:18 pm
I think what Romney triggers in the susceptible is the overwhelming urge to lick boots and kiss ass.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:18 pm
@AA+ Bonds:
You’re deranged. Please disappear.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:23 pm
@Villago Delenda Est:
I thought Chait compared Willard to Bush 41.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:24 pm
jeebus, get a room jonathan if you’re going to fellate someone so ardently. ‘public service’ my ass.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:24 pm
@burnspbesq:
Put some burn cream on it before I come back for yet another run on your ass
I know it hurts, baby, but being a liberal doesn’t make Vietnam reverse itself – did it the first time?
January 27th, 2012 at 10:24 pm
If you want to hear something amusing, check out the panic in David Brooks voice when he talks about Gingrich in the “Week in Politics” segment he does with E.J. Dionne
http://www.npr.org/2012/01/27/.....an-debates
“This is not a guy who has a firm grip on how to be a disciplined leader”
Hilarious, really.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:25 pm
Now it’s off to the bar, y’all play nice in the blood of Misrata
January 27th, 2012 at 10:26 pm
@AA+ Bonds: so your conclusion is that Libya would be better off if Ghadfi were still in charge. That’s certainly a valid position. Has anyone run it by the Libyans to see what they think? I’m guessing they’d disagree but, you could be right.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:26 pm
@AA+ Bonds:
Big leap from my question to that. Would it have been better to allow the slaughter of 10s of thousands – as appeared to be imminent? I think we are responsible for a lot in the world, both good and bad. Actions have consequences, but so does inaction. If people are killed and one could easily have prevented it, is one not morally responsible for that as well? There are few actions in foreign policy that do not bear risks and costs on each side.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:27 pm
@Suffern ACE:
It will be kind of fun to watch the FAIL media torture logic and language to make Willard into a palatable populist type for the horse race to come. And by fun I mean painful. Will it be Chuck Todd or David Gregory who tries to make the case that Mittens is more in synch with the Murrikan people than Obama?
January 27th, 2012 at 10:27 pm
@rikyrah:
Yup, you’re right. He did compare him to Bush 41. My bad.
Still, one of Willard’s problems is, like Bush 41, he doesn’t like this campaigning stuff. Have to get too close to the peasants, you know.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:32 pm
@Cat Lady: I mean his unscrupulousness is only on the outside. It’s what’s on the inside where he’s still beautiful. Not that you’d ever witness it. You just know it’s there.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:33 pm
@Cat Lady: I say chuck toad will be the first to mouth that blather.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:36 pm
@Cat Lady: Willard is whiter than Obama; you can’t deny that.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:37 pm
Actually, in terms of overall policy, George H.W. Bush wasn’t all that bad. He was willing to compromise with Congressional Dems, he raised taxes on the wealthy, and he was smart enough not to invade Iraq when given the opportunity.
That said, I simply don’t trust Romney. Especially given the current radicalized state of the Republican party.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:41 pm
Weekend plan? Caulk a little bit of roof to stop the ceiling drip behind the desk. Find out how many kinds of feedback it takes to get a field effect transistor to actually behave like its datasheet.
Hide from the ‘phone and watch a Kung Fu movie. With any luck politics will manage to go on without my attention for 2 days.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:42 pm
@RossInDetroit: Caulk the phone to the roof; you should be undisturbed during your Kung Fu movie.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:44 pm
@Darius:
He started out way back in the Paleolithic as a relatively enlightened moderate New England Republican. Remember those? Was a supporter of Planned Parenthood, among other Commie plots and offenses against common decency.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:44 pm
I read Chait’s piece as being “I come to bury Caesar not to praise him.”
The giveaway was “I always liked Mitt Romney”. No one likes Mitt Romney unless their livelihood depends on it. By saying, “Hey, I like Mitt Romney!” he can more easily point out what a weaselly liar he is.
As for HW, I voted for the guy. I admit it. Of the last five GOP Presidents, wouldn’t YOU rank him as least odious? OK, Ford, but he hardly counts. He’s like half a president.
A third.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:45 pm
Jonathan Chait via Anne Laurie @ Top:
Why do so many damn people perceive a “patrician” where I see an over-privileged, unscrupulous, spoiled frat-brat?
.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:47 pm
@Omnes Omnibus:
At 8:00 yesterday morning my buddy Wojciech and I were wandering around up there with cups of coffee looking for a leak. Next door a kid’s arm emerged from an upper story window and plucked one of four Red Bulls off of the chilly sill.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:48 pm
@Hawes:
Sure, and chicken pox is not as bad as Ebola or cancer. That doesn’t mean I want it.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:49 pm
@Hawes:
Yes, I would. But I still didn’t vote for the fucker.
.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:49 pm
OT but good news from Indiana:
The “Let’s Drug Test Them Shiftless Nears” bill, him dead mon.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:49 pm
doing estate inventory and finding old gems…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcXh67JUeQw
January 27th, 2012 at 10:49 pm
Weekend plans? mix of good and bad.
Saturday is the funeral for my great-aunt, a wonderful lady who died at the ripe
oldyoung age of 83.Sunday there’s a model train show and flea market I’m gonna go visit.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:50 pm
Jesus fucking Christ. Nobody’s holding a gun to Mitt’s head and forcing him to do whatever it takes to win the nomination. I just lost 10 IQ points and a few degrees off my moral compass reading that post.
Also, that is hands-down the most terrifying picture of Mitt Romney I have ever seen.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:50 pm
Why will no one listen to me when I explain what a waste of time this all is.
One year from today we will be celebrating President Obama’s second inauguration, and ALL these clowns will be a distant and rapidly fading memory, lacking even the pathetic senatorhood of John McCain to persist in claiming attention.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:50 pm
@AA+ Bonds: I assume from these comments and other comments on other threads that you don’t actually know any Libyans. I wonder if you know any other humans.
The last 40+ years in Libya have been brutal. Could you perhaps acknowledge that what happened BEFORE this spring was not publicized and at least you now know?
I don’t remember you copying and pasting the atrocities that went on for more than forty years in the comments section here.
I know you cool kids like to get outraged, but seriously, find a few Libyan friends first. It’s not so simple or black or white.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:52 pm
@eemom:
Because then we’d miss out on 10 months of perfectly good arguments. Sun shines, make hay.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:54 pm
Totebaggers is perfect, for middle/upper-class white people who see Romney as a “good guy”—personal scandal-free, handsome family, the presidential look, the sense that he’s not as far wingnut as he’s been running in the primary.
And Romney is not as crazy-wingnut as Gingrich, Santorum, Paul, Cain, Perry, Bachmann, etc.
All that appeals to well-off, notionally independent voters who generally vote Republican anyway.
The totebaggers.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:54 pm
Did Chait spend so long at TNR because he had the necessary willed ignorances going in? Or did his time at TNR produce the lesions whose consequences you see in the quote above?
January 27th, 2012 at 10:55 pm
@eemom: Yes, fine, but what shall we do in the meantime? Question our belief systems?
January 27th, 2012 at 10:55 pm
Also too, Chait can go fuck himself. He’s capable of intelligent comprehension, but chooses more often than not to be an emmessemm hack. He’s like Dana Milbank without the occasional wit. Move on.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:55 pm
@eemom: This.
Watching a mother bear deal with her cubs is more exciting and enlightening. And educational.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:57 pm
@TooManyJens:
That line belongs in a Monty Python routine.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:57 pm
Is this a joke? Isn’t the test of character doing something when it’s hard? Anyone can tell the truth when telling the truth brings with it no bad consequences.
What a weird thing for Chait to say. Quite frankly, it makes me quite suspicious of his own character.
January 27th, 2012 at 10:58 pm
@slag:
Or doing the right thing when no one is looking.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:03 pm
@RossInDetroit:
Minor correction. Hope ya don’t mind.
.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:06 pm
@JGabriel: We argue over which one is more horrific as well.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:08 pm
@Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, but it’s the mocking I’d miss more than the arguments, ‘cuz laffs.
.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:10 pm
@JGabriel: It’s a fair cop.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:10 pm
Been waiting for an OT.
Some of you may have been vaguely aware of a story about a high school student in Cranston, RI, who was the plaintiff in an ACLU-sponsored suit to remove a prayer banner that’s been hanging in her school for decades (begins with “Our Heavenly Father”.) Last week a Federal judge (Republican-appointed) in RI sided with her/the ACLU and ordered the banner taken down. The school covered it while deciding whether to appeal. In the spirit of the history of religious tolerance on which RI was founded (irony alert) the poor girl has been subject to the most hateful harrassment. To support her, the Freedom From Religion Foundation from somewhere in the Midwest wanted to send her flowers. They went through four local florists who all refused to fill the order, then found a florist in nearby eastern Connecticut to fill the order.
Now it turns out that that florist is getting not just overwhelming compliments, but a ton of extra business as people from all over the country call in, and they delivered “two more carloads” in the day or two after.
I’m ashamed and embarrassed about all the RI residents who have no clue why this state was settled, or what Roger Williams stood for.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:14 pm
gopolitico (ir)responsibly speculates that the tundra twit is noot’s ‘secret weapon’. Is the lunatic ‘base’ still with moose mama ?
January 27th, 2012 at 11:15 pm
@Lojasmo:
Seems like there are enough of us we should have a BJ “Drinking Liberally” in the Twin Cities some weekend
January 27th, 2012 at 11:17 pm
I am very concerned about this. I think Ms. Warren is making a big mistake.
http://balkin.blogspot.com/201.....ssing.html
January 27th, 2012 at 11:19 pm
Did anyone else watch Maher’s debacle of a show? The former MTV veejay turned Reason contributor made me want to reach through the TV and choke her.
Martin Bashir was the only one making sense, but he couldn’t get a word in.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:20 pm
@burnspbesq: Agreed.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:22 pm
A little while ago, and I can’t remember where, I read a Victoria Jackson quote, the gist of which is that most people are not as educated or as informed as she.
I larfed and larfed. Bu today I read an article about her (in the LA Weekly) and her home life and upbringing and parents. Seems like she was pretty much fucked from the get-go. (Her dad “doesn’t like fat people” which I guess included his overweight son. “We always just thought he was stupid” – nice Dad-liness there.)
Apparently, while on SNL, she gave audiobooks of the Bible to her cast mates. They did not appreciate the thought.
This should be a link to the story online.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:22 pm
@slag: It’s not weird when you consider the circumstances Chait finds himself in. He wants to call Kevin Drum a liar for saying that Romney tells the truth. But that is just not done. So he concocts a very strange set of ethical standards whereby Romney’s lying is excused, but Drum’s isn’t.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:22 pm
@Hill Dweller:
Which one? Doesn’t the word “debacle” apply to nearly all of Maher’s shows?
January 27th, 2012 at 11:22 pm
Will the Press Gore the Mittster?
January 27th, 2012 at 11:23 pm
@JGabriel:
Taking this question seriously, I think a lot of people just don’t feel that an egalitarian society can govern itself as well as one with an elite ruling class. Not everyone, but enough people feel uncomfortable with the idea of democracy that they look for seemingly superior people to run things. And there’s never a lack of volunteers from the GOP.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:23 pm
@Hill Dweller: Don’t tell me Martha Quinn has gone to the dark side.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:25 pm
@Hill Dweller: I wanted to strangle Rohrbacher. Just so he would shut up. Perhaps if I used the DJ to smack him with.
Yes, the Most Obnoxious award would be a real tough call.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:26 pm
@Omnes Omnibus:
And when people are looking, all constraints are off, apparently.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:26 pm
@RossInDetroit:
That included a number of the Framers. It’s why we have a bicameral Congress. The Senate was designed to be a check on the animal spirits of the popularly elected House.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:28 pm
@RossInDetroit: Well, if one pictures patrician as FDR or even Buckley, Romney falls short. Too needy.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:29 pm
@Suffern ACE: Minor correction: Kevin Drum != David Frum. Or vice versa.
But I think I get your point. Which is kind of disturbing.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:29 pm
@WereBear (itouch):
Ol’ Surfin’ Dana has a sell-by date. The demographics of his district are changing. It will still be Republican, but before too many years go by he will be replaced by a Vietnamese-American who will probably be even more conservative.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:30 pm
@Omnes Omnibus:
I don’t think Americans know what a real patrician is. Money and privilege instead of class, breeding and education.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:31 pm
@RossInDetroit: I wouldn’t mind being ruled by a patrician if I could join the thieves’ guild or maybe sell sausage rolls.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:32 pm
Did Chait get wind of some horrible fate that awaits BoBo? And is he positioning himself as BoBo’s replacement?
January 27th, 2012 at 11:32 pm
Obama is on Leno in a few minutes. I usually forgo the “pleasure” of watching Jay, but this is a guest that can get me to tune in…
January 27th, 2012 at 11:34 pm
@RossInDetroit: Possibly so. We have them though. Romney just isn’t one.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:34 pm
@burnspbesq:
Yep.
ETA: What I mean is that now it’s a race to see who can false-flag the other into bankruptcy first.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:34 pm
Since this is an open thread and all, I will throw out a question that’s been bugging me for a few days:
Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of pundits talking about the fact that Newt has no chance but Romney puts a lot of states in play. Specifically, they talk about Ohio being a swing state and Romney having a good chance in Michigan given his father’s history as the Governor.
So here’s my question: are these pundits high or am I? Because I look at a Republican Party that has spent three years ranting about auto industry bailouts and I think “they’re doing to the Rust Belt what LBJ did to the solid south. Maybe they’re not losing it for as long as the Democrats lost the south, but how can they possibly hope to carry states where a significant portion of the electorate draws their paychecks (directly or indirectly) from GM, Chrysler, and Ford?” Am I missing something, or do the constant refrains of “Obama should not have bailed put the auto industry”—i.e. “Obama should not have saved your job”—effectively put Ohio and Michigan (and probably Indiana, which also has a significant auto industry base) out of play for the Republicans?
Sub-question—are there really enough Michiganders who think fondly enough of the guy who was governor four decades ago to have any statistical impact on his son’s candidacy all these years later?
January 27th, 2012 at 11:35 pm
@JasonF: I don’t know if you are high or not, but I think you are right.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:36 pm
@burnspbesq: caver in chief ? (channeling pl crowd).
January 27th, 2012 at 11:38 pm
@burnspbesq:
... and that’s one of the reasons it irritates the shit out of me the degree to which we put them on a pedestal.
@JasonF:
Based on the backlash of the last year or so, I think you’re right – the Rust Belt isn’t in a very pro-Gooper mood right now. Go figure.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:40 pm
@JasonF:
I recently checked the MI polls to see if I should cross over and ratfvck the GOP primary. Mit has leads ranging from 10 to 20 points over Newt. Probably more by now. He’s basically untouchable.
But the auto industry statements are a real hazard to him in the general. His father was President of AMC and Mitt is on record as saying that the US auto industry should have gone bankrupt instead of being rescued. Big Three employment is not what it was in the ‘70s in MI, but a lot of people know what a disaster losing the industry would have been.
If Mitt is the GOP candidate I see a lot of MI Republicans sitting this one out. That will help a lot of down ticket races.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:43 pm
@burnspbesq: Or maybe she figured since our side cannot compete with third party spending so she might as well bankrupt Scott Brown’s campaign.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:44 pm
@RalfW: Mrs. O?
January 27th, 2012 at 11:45 pm
@WereBear (itouch):
congratulations, you have just described every hack ever hired by Marty Peretz. Chait can go suck a bag of salted dicks, the fucking putz.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:45 pm
@slag:
Don’t be disturbed just because you understand what I was trying to write. the next thing I write will be unclear and most likely wrong and order will be restored.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:46 pm
@JasonF:
Sadly, they aren’t necessarily wrong.
The biggest factor in a presidential election is always the economy. The more it sucks, the more it will hurt the incumbent party, and vice versa. And unfortunately, the economy still sucks, and sucks pretty hard in a lot of states and for a lot of potential swing voters. The simple fact is that “generic republican” probably beats Obama if the election were held on Tuesday. I know that sounds crazy, but you have to remember that elections like this are won and lost among roughly 10% of voters who are most likely to decide their support on this basis. This is a big reason why the Dems had such a strong showing in 2006 and 2008, and its the main reason the Republicans had such a strong surge in 2010.
The second biggest factor is the actual candidate, how likeable and/or moderate they are. Its a smaller effect, probably only worth a few points, but its a real one and can tip the balance.
The good news is that neither Romney nor Newt is a likable as “generic Republican”. Newt is poison. He’s extremely unpopular and unliked, and he would get crushed by Obama. Romney is less so, because he’s much less well known by a lot of swing voters (amazing, I know, but true) and because he’s generally more moderate than Newt on most issues. An election between him and Obama is, at least at this point, pretty much a coin flip. That can change based on the economy and campaign.
Christine O’Donnell was the ultimate example of this. Mike Castle would have won that race, but he couldn’t get past the teabaggers in the primary. Substitute Romney for Castle and Newt for O’Donnell and you get a rough idea of what these pundits are talking about.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:47 pm
@JasonF: To more specifically address your question: No, Romney does not really put Michigan in play.
He puts Ohio in play, but that’s more a factor of the job situation in Ohio sucking enough that they’ll reflexively vote against the incumbent (like they did in 2008 and 2010). And since the numbers are so close in Ohio, that kind of swing can swing the state back red.
Newt, however, is unlikable enough to still lose a state like Ohio despite the factors against Obama.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:51 pm
On the topic of The Talented Mr Romney, did you know he paid a 50% tax rate:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/a.....?ref=fpblg
Well, not really, but the little weasel is trying so hard on this one.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:55 pm
@Anya: Mr. Kenyan Soc1alist himself. Starting now.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:55 pm
The idea that the candidate is at heart a decent guy, lamentably compelled to pander for votes in a way he’d rather not lower himself to do, was also widely ascribed to John McCain. And it was bullshit then, too.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:55 pm
Oh fer cripes sake. It’s a used episode.
Shows how little TV I watch.
Nevermind.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:57 pm
@JasonF: Have you been reading any of the posts here by front-pager Kay? She is particularly fascinated by Romney’s constant trashing of the Federal bailout of the U.S. automakers, and in particular she wants to see his tap-dancing when he comes to that area to campaign.
Kay is in rural NW Ohio, somewhere outside of Toledo (west of the city, I think). She says there are stories in the Toledo Blade and other local papers almost every day regarding the bailout, and there is apparently much gratitude and appreciation there, including (IIRC) among blue collar workers who have been voting Republican, at least up to now.
Kay thinks this will be a problem for Romney. She lives in a very red county, and she gets around quite a bit. I don’t readily dismiss her views on this topic.
January 27th, 2012 at 11:58 pm
@MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson: That would almost make sense if it was applied to a business Romney was currently running. He could say, hey, between RomneyCo and my individual income, I pay a much higher percentage. Trouble is, there’s no RomneyCo. It’s just him, the individual, living off interest income.
(And I wouldn’t be sympathetic to RomneyCo either, because that whole “double taxation” premise is an outgrowth of the legal contrivance that a corporation ISN’T the same as the people who own it, “limited liability” and all that, so you don’t get to count the taxation twice to beg for pity while also playing games with whose income it is.)
January 28th, 2012 at 12:01 am
@Felinious Wench: Like Jeff Goldblum said in The Big Chill, “They throw a great party for you on the one day they know you can’t come.”
I’m working all day. I found out Thursday that the CEO’s presentation on the first of the month, for which he’d told me previously he only needed some mocked-up screenshots, actually requires a working system, at least demoable. It’s just dumb luck that I found some open-source code that does about 70% of what I need out of the box; otherwise I’d be COMPLETELY fucked.
January 28th, 2012 at 12:04 am
@Jebediah: Thanks for the link, although I only made it through two pages. What a completely fucked up family. She’s really is a horrible person, but I can feel a little sympathy because it’s obvious the whole brood suffers with mental illness.
January 28th, 2012 at 12:04 am
@sharl:
I can second that from 45 minutes north of Kay. The prospect of losing the Big Three scared the whiz out of people and it’s still a serious issue. Mitt’s a native son here but that’s not stopping a lot of people from being royally offended that he’d have parted out their towns and state because it was consistent with GOP orthodoxy.
January 28th, 2012 at 12:04 am
@MikeJ:
It was actually “Kennedy”. I think she is around my age, maybe a little bit older, so I remember her hosting some of the late night alternative music programs on that shitty network.
She is now an extremely annoying glibertarian.
January 28th, 2012 at 12:06 am
@FlipYrWhig:
“People are corporations too, my friend.”
January 28th, 2012 at 12:08 am
@MildlyAmusedRainbowPerson: If only…
January 28th, 2012 at 12:10 am
@TooManyJens:
Chait certainly has a warped view of what defines a persons character. So abandoning your principles and habitual lying to win the nomination doesn’t reflect on ones character or integrity? Shit I learned all the lessons growing up then.
January 28th, 2012 at 12:13 am
@sharl: That’s a great point, sharl. I do read and enjoy Kay’s posts, and while that’s not what got me consciously thinking about this issue—it was a Larry Sabato column comparing Newt’s chances with Mitt’s—I’m sure Kay’s great work was swirling around in the back of my head and led me to make those connections.
January 28th, 2012 at 12:14 am
@WereBear (itouch):
Bashir made the most salient points of the night, but he was only allowed to make a few. The other two buffoons on the panel were sucking up all the oxygen.
Bashir was right when he said the Brewer situation was the culmination of years of crazy shit from Republicans. They’ve tried to undermine his intelligence, citizenship, patriotism, work ethic. It really is appalling when you look at the bigger picture. Yet the beltway keeps asking Obama why he is so polarizing.
January 28th, 2012 at 12:16 am
@Hill Dweller: Kennedy? Not a surprise.
January 28th, 2012 at 12:20 am
People who “believe in public service” are teachers and librarians and (at least some) policemen/women, and they tend to get by on salaries of between 40 to 50K per year despite their minimum six years of higher education. And these public servants are scorned and despised by the Romneys, Gingriches and Santorums of this world, whose idea of “public service” is feeding at the trough by right of birth (and the glorious whiteness of their skins).
January 28th, 2012 at 12:25 am
LOL. Whatever happened to the “sweet” Anne Laurie who started out with blog posts like this:
Three year anniversary coming up, Anne Laurie!
January 28th, 2012 at 12:28 am
@Hill Dweller:
Fucking fifth columnists who deserve to be hanged.
January 28th, 2012 at 12:29 am
The reason I respected Jeffrey Dahmer is that I just got a really strong sense that he didn’t enjoy eating people, but did it out of a sense of grim obligation.
January 28th, 2012 at 12:32 am
@Tom Levenson:
Or maybe he’s been brutal towards Romney and he’s deploying a rhetorical device. Which any of you would know if you actually read him instead of gasping because he was at TNR.
January 28th, 2012 at 12:44 am
@stormhit:
Intentional Grounding. Ten yard penalty and loss of down.
January 28th, 2012 at 12:50 am
@Hawes: “OK, Ford, but he hardly counts”
Ford pardoned Nixon
For the first time, we gave up the pretense that even the president wasnt above the law, and paving the way for the Iran Contra pardons, the Scooter Libby pardon, and “looking forward, not backward”
I would argue that Ford was the most odious or recent R presidents
January 28th, 2012 at 12:55 am
@jefft452: Ford, when he was in the House, led the movement to impeach Justice Douglas (my totes fav Justice of all time) on purely ideological grounds.
January 28th, 2012 at 1:03 am
@JasonF:
He left office the same year as Woodstock, when I was 17. So that makes me just marginally able to remember his name, which means anybody younger than myself (60 @ the time of the election) will not have the slightest clue, much less loyalty or fondness.
January 28th, 2012 at 1:09 am
@butler:
No, I’m sorry. You have a couple of things wrong here. The economy is important, but vastly overinflated. More importantly, polls show the American people think Obama will do a better job fixing it, and Bush put them here.
The best sign is the one you mention. Obama has been polling neck and neck with ‘generic Republican’. This is insane. Generic candidates score way higher than actual incumbents, because generic candidates are perfect. The same holds true for candidates still in primaries, because the undecideds don’t really know them yet.
The point of that is, this is as good as Romney gets. His numbers will only go down from here. He should be flying high, instead he’s losing in most polls. We still need to vote fanatically and campaign like gangbusters to make absolutely sure, but Romney’s odds are so bleak he may take the GOP congress with him.
January 28th, 2012 at 1:19 am
@Frankensteinbeck: Seconded. The economy is of course an important factor—and a genuine recession during the campaign period is a kiss of death to the incumbent—but 1) it’s the direction of the economy, not the simple stats that decide presidential elections (otherwise Reagan could never have carried 49 states with 7.5% unemployment) and 2) voters have always weighed a variety of factors in addition to the economy (foreign successes or failures, scandals, significant accomplishments), and Obama is so strong in those departments that a merely somewhat improving economy (like we’ve had for the past several months) is plenty enough for him to win comfortably.
I’ve recommended, in the past, Lichtman’s Keys to the Presidency system—not as an ironclad roadmap, but as an overview of the more extensive criteria voters use in renewing or rejecting incumbent presidents. He gives the economy its due, but doesn’t hold it up as be-all and end-all, the way so many Beltway pundits do.
January 28th, 2012 at 2:38 am
Senator DiFi’s husband, Dick Blum, owns a controlling stake in 2 for-profit ‘higher ed’ companies with a combined worth ~ $930 million. Student graduation rates for this type of enterprise are terrible, 30%-ish at best.
The business model: federal loans + least sophisticated segment of society = dollars from US treasury go into Blum’s pocket + dupes get stuck with the bill but lack degree, skills and employment prospects.
To be sure, the Bushes and their ilk are looters, but lets not pretend this is a one side of the aisle phenomenon.
White House Chief of Staff Merri-go-round:
Goodbye JP Morgan’s Bill Daley, Hello Citigroup’s Jack Lew!
January 28th, 2012 at 3:27 am
who believes deeply in public service
romney? seriously? chait is either completely clueless or totally delusional. romney believes deeply in enriching and aggrandizing romney – period. nothing else.
January 28th, 2012 at 6:11 am
@Ben Cisco: How about MRIs for all elected representatives to insure their frontal lobe is developed enough for human empathy.
January 28th, 2012 at 7:25 am
@slag: Thank you for that clarification! I was sitting here trying to make sense of why, how, or in what world Kevin Drum would be defending Mitt as telling the truth.
January 28th, 2012 at 9:52 am
@AA+ Bonds: InnaGaddaffiDaAwesome Baby! He was the shit, right?
Did you even try to be a human shield? If not, then your bona fides blow and Amy Goodman thinks you’re an asshole.
January 28th, 2012 at 11:25 am
@Hawes: May you the last Hawes to ever vote for a Bush. Or any other Gooper. We’ve done too much for this stinking burg of a country to leave its affairs up to those venal royalists.
January 28th, 2012 at 11:33 am