It’s difficult to judge, but I feel Obama made her do it
Obama forces yet another conservative politician to behave like an out of control lunatic, because he is a ruthless dictator:
Democrats see the chance that President Obama’s heated exchange with Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona on the airport tarmac in Phoenix could help him with the Hispanic voters he came West to court this week.
The run-in, captured in a photograph of the governor wagging a finger at the president as they discussed her book, “Scorpions for Breakfast,” lit up Hispanic radio stations and blogs all over the state. While it is difficult to judge whether the moment will have any lasting impact, Hispanic leaders said that what is being dubbed by some as the “dustup in the desert” could play in the president’s favor given the unfavorable view many Hispanics have of the governor for her advocacy of tough immigration measures.
“For that incident alone,” Robert Meza, a Democratic state senator from Phoenix, said Thursday, “85 percent more Latin people will gravitate toward the president.”
I believe Meza is being sarcastic there, so don’t jump all over him. He doesn’t have any idea whether this will matter in the election but he had to say something.
Obama is still not apologizing for forcing Governor Brewer to make a fool out of herself:
In an interview with ABC News that was broadcast Thursday, Mr. Obama said the conflict was being blown out of proportion.
“I’m usually accused of not being intense enough, right?” he said, laughing. “Too relaxed.”
January 27, 2012 8:55 am
Posted in: Clown Shoes
151 Comments
151 Responses
rob! - January 27, 2012 | 9:00 am · Link
Many people have suggested Obama’s greatest political skill is his seemingly Jedi-like ability to make his opponents go bat-sh*t nuts. Here we have yet another example of it.
Kay - January 27, 2012 | 9:03 am · Link
@rob!:
I don’t know anymore. I thought it was a tactic on Brewer’s part, but maybe she’s just as nuts as the rest of them.
Anyway! He’s clearly not losing sleep over it!
amk - January 27, 2012 | 9:07 am · Link
@Kay: If he did, he would be a walking zombie by now.
The guy is cool enough to say to the thugs FU without actually saying it.
BO_Bill - January 27, 2012 | 9:08 am · Link
The establishment of the Joe the Plumber vs. Obama Alpha-Beta relationship was easily predicted, and was consummated before the cameras with Barry’s shoulder slump. In contrast, the Alpha-Beta relationship between this particular physically small older lady from Arizona and Barry was a tougher one to judge.
But, again, the camera does not lie. We can readily observe Barry’s wince as his inner dictator is told to sit down, shut up, and assume the Beta role. Very predictably, he then stomped off a la Cartman.
The disconnect between what he is, and what he longs to be, defines his character, and his actions.
EconWatcher - January 27, 2012 | 9:08 am · Link
@rob!:
It’s the preternatural cool. He’s absolutely unflappable, as he would have to be to make it to the presidency as a black man. It drives them nuts.
As a somehwat excitable fellow myself, I’d really like to know how he does it. Yoga? Incense? St. John’s Wort?
Rita R. - January 27, 2012 | 9:09 am · Link
I would have so liked to see the Secret Service take El Bruja (La Bruja?) Jan down to the ground with some beefy guy’s arm around her scrawny neck and her arms pulled up and cuffed behind her back the second she lifted that bony finger and pointed it in the president’s face. Drunken old wingnut.
aimai - January 27, 2012 | 9:11 am · Link
Anyone can see from the picture—and I realize that pictures can be deceptive—that Obama remains completely calm and unflappable and even affable in that exchange. If you swapped out another person for Brewer, or even a woman holding up a baby for a kiss, Obama’s demeanour would be perfectly appropriate.
aimai
MattF - January 27, 2012 | 9:11 am · Link
FWIW, the Prez is making an interesting point here. His crazyfucker enemies accuse him of impossibly self-contradictory behaviors, so there is, literally, no way of satisfying them.
Emma - January 27, 2012 | 9:12 am · Link
@BO_Bill: You know, I usually read your stuff and say to myself not bad for a troll. This one, though, is special. You have reached word salad heights. Congratulations!
amk - January 27, 2012 | 9:12 am · Link
@BO_Bill: lol. still pissed off that your old lady came off as the vile curmudgeon that she is ?
Tone In DC - January 27, 2012 | 9:13 am · Link
@rob!:
Another aspect of this… his opponents since his senatorial run have all been batshit, and he just has to stay frosty while these idjits do what they always do naturally.
Just sayin’.
kay - January 27, 2012 | 9:14 am · Link
@amk:
I couldn’t do it. The constant dog whistling, the lying, the deliberate and incredibly rude attempts to humiliate or belittle him.
Even their “compliments” are tone-deaf and back-handed, see: Mitch Daniels acting as if it’s AMAZING and worthy of note in a SOTU response that Obama treats his own family decently. I don’t know how they get along in the world, these people, conservatives. It’s crazy how rude they are.
Emma - January 27, 2012 | 9:14 am · Link
@aimai: According to a GOP mayor who was present—I think TPM had the story—the president was calm and collected throughout and moved on, not because he wanted to blow the drunken witch off, but because he wanted to talk to himself and another mayor who were part of the welcome party.
Southern Beale - January 27, 2012 | 9:15 am · Link
Along those lines, I really don’t get why everything is always presented from the right-wing’s perspective. Every single news story and blog post I’ve read has all been about Jan Brewer’s finger-wagging, lefties say it’s disrespectful, righties call it standing up to a soshulis thug, whatever. Point being: it’s all focusing on Brewer.
But Obama saw that she was having a hissy and fucking WALKED AWAY FROM THE CRAZY LADY. That’s the kind of response that if, say, Bush walked away from, say, Gov. Jerry Brown wagging his finger at him, righties would be all BOO-RAH over. “He walked away from the crazy Gov. Moonbeam!” they’d crow. “He turned his back on him hardee har har har.”
I give Obama big props for basically ignoring her and saying with his actions that her hissy fit was beneath him. Take it up with the interns in the office, crazy lady.
My .02.
Palli - January 27, 2012 | 9:15 am · Link
@Rita R.:
No, you would not have wanted that to happen-in Arizona? The retaliation from the wingnut militia would be a bigger bloodbath than what we have already seen in that state.
kay - January 27, 2012 | 9:18 am · Link
@BO_Bill:
Nah. She lied about that. A GOP mayor who was there said Obama stayed and spoke to the other three people.
I don’t know where Brewer was at that point. Looking for a reporter? Setting up a tv interview? Probably.
Southern Beale - January 27, 2012 | 9:18 am · Link
@MattF:
THIS:
This needs to be repeated, often. It’s not just the President who is accused of impossibly self-contradictory behaviors, it’s liberals in general. We’re crazy anarchists out to torch every Starbucks every time we Occupy, rally, or protest! Watch out that protest will turn VIOLENT! Or, we’re weak-kneed, lilly-livered appeasers who just want to hand out daisies and offer therapy and hugs to our enemies.
Which is it? Can’t be both!
JGabriel - January 27, 2012 | 9:18 am · Link
NY Times:
John McCain calling Obama prickly? Projection is not just a booth in a theater, John.
.
Hoodie - January 27, 2012 | 9:18 am · Link
@Kay: It was a tactic on Brewer’s part, but it plays bad nationally for Republicans. She came loaded for bear, clutching her little letter like a mom headed to the school board. However, like a lot of wingnut politicians, she lives in a bubble and thinks her audience is the only one that matters. She’s preoccupied with her little local wingnut agenda,which is mostly inchoate anger arising from boom fantasies that were dashed by a local housing bust that was one of the worst in the country. Obama is playing for the Latino vote and, more generally, the non-crazy, non-pissed-off person vote, across a broad swath of the country, and Brewer played right into that. Could be helpful, for example, in New Mexico and Colorado.
Josie - January 27, 2012 | 9:19 am · Link
It is so disgusting to see this old harpy assume her air of “aren’t I the cutest bleached blonde honey you ever saw” in the interview. Her demeanor there is so at variance with the one in the still with President Obama, it is laughable. I love the barely contained amusement in his face. That must have driven her right up the wall.
Raven - January 27, 2012 | 9:19 am · Link
Ya’ll are really going to argue with this moron? Really?
Jesse - January 27, 2012 | 9:19 am · Link
@BO_Bill: You know, I’d like to come up with something more incisive than telling you you’re totally full of shit, but it’s difficult, because you’re totally full of shit.
Maybe another way to say that is: the disconnect between who you are and who you long to be informs your character and your actions. In your case, an “alpha male” who, what, punches an old lady in the face? What’s the “dominance behavior” you’re longing to see here?
Amir Khalid - January 27, 2012 | 9:20 am · Link
Let’s see if Mitt or Noot can outdo this, either in graciousness or style:
JGabriel - January 27, 2012 | 9:20 am · Link
@BO_Bill:
... Jan Brewer’s alcohol-saturated breath hit him smack in the nostrils.
.
Tone In DC - January 27, 2012 | 9:21 am · Link
Is the troll Bill usually like this?
He makes Ewick von Ewick look good by comparison. And that ain’t easy to do.
Hill Dweller - January 27, 2012 | 9:24 am · Link
@BO_Bill:
That might make sense if Obama “stomped off”, but the GOP mayor that was standing right beside the President and “Otis”, completely contradicted her story.
Moreover, ‘Otis’ has repeatedly changed her story in subsequent tellings.
scav - January 27, 2012 | 9:26 am · Link
@Tone In DC: Nailed it. That’s pretty much BoB’s role in life, rather exactly like the little scale drawing of men figures, only he stands around to make anyone next to him look like a towering figure of goodness in comparison.
Brian R. - January 27, 2012 | 9:26 am · Link
Ignore the troll.
Cat Lady - January 27, 2012 | 9:29 am · Link
@MattF:
Obama is both an incompetent affirmative action teleprompter reading failure in way over his head while being a kenyan born secret commie muslim usurper half way through executing his nefarious plan to destroy america.
He must just sit back and laugh and laugh. Obama-fu.
JGabriel - January 27, 2012 | 9:33 am · Link
@kay:
Brewer was still there, she was the third person. The other two were local mayors, one Democrat, one GOPer.
Surprisingly, it was the Republican who contradicted Brewer’s story:
.
amk - January 27, 2012 | 9:34 am · Link
hey troll. Here is exactly what happened between the unflappable and the unhinged.
The Tragically Flip - January 27, 2012 | 9:40 am · Link
I can’t get past the fact that Obama put Brewer in that job when he picked AZ’s Democratic governor to be in his cabinet back in 2009. Brewer was next in line and became Governor by default.
It’s possible she still would have won the 2010 election, but she got a free 2 year head start as an incumbent, and with a Republican run legislative branch to boot. And there was no reason to assume in Jan 2009 that the 2010 election would be a wingnut stomping.
I also blame Napolitano herself for this unconscienable abandonment of her State to the clutches of a bunch of wingnuts. I know she was term limited but I really think she and Obama should have worked out a deal where she got a cabinet post after the next Governor was elected to not give the Republicans a freebie.
Chyron HR - January 27, 2012 | 9:40 am · Link
@Amir Khalid:
Hispanic voters abandon Obama for this Hermano guy! Democrats in disarray!
kay - January 27, 2012 | 9:41 am · Link
@JGabriel:
Thanks. She’s a mystery to me. For one, I don’t know why she doesn’t get a handle on that rogue, corrupt sheriff. What the hell is going on in that state she runs?
She has a county government that is completely a law unto itself, and she seems helpless to stop them.
It’s not like Arpaio is hard to find. He’s on national television once a week taunting prosecutors.
Hill Dweller - January 27, 2012 | 9:42 am · Link
@JGabriel: McCain, who has been driven crazy by Obama, sounds even dumber after seeing the AP video showing the President cordially talking to the two mayors standing beside ‘Otis’. He didn’t walk away, nor was he ‘stern’.
kay - January 27, 2012 | 9:44 am · Link
@Hill Dweller:
Let’s keep him around. His appearances and interviews in support of Mitt Romney are hurting Mitt Romney.
Davis X. Machina - January 27, 2012 | 9:44 am · Link
Small victories dept. On the heels of voters’ approving a referendum re-instating same-day voter registration, Maine’s legislature today declined to take up another ALAC hobby-horse, photo-ID:
rlrr - January 27, 2012 | 9:45 am · Link
@JGabriel:
John McCain really needs to start enjoying a well deserved retirement, so he can catch up on Matlock reruns…
Roger Moore - January 27, 2012 | 9:47 am · Link
@Rita R.:
It might be nice to fantasize about, but it wouldn’t be worth the trouble. The wingnut freakout would have been 10 times worse if Obama had done anything other than sit there and take it, and 100 times worse if the Secret Service had stepped in and actually manhandled her. You would be hearing about how Obama can’t take criticism and sets his jackbooted thugs on anyone who disagrees with him, even a governor in her own state. And they’d be right to criticize. He wasn’t in any danger. Any intervention would have been uncalled for, and actually wrestling her to the ground would have been totally out there.
kay - January 27, 2012 | 9:48 am · Link
@Davis X. Machina:
Yay!
Voting rights people here think Maine’s success played a role in the Ohio Sec of State’s announcement yesterday that he wants the Ohio legislature to pull the voter suppression law rather than put it to a referendum. He’s afraid of a referendum, looking at Maine.
Ripple effects.
ericblair - January 27, 2012 | 9:49 am · Link
@Cat Lady:
This is Conspiracy 101 in a nutshell. $WORLDWIDE_CONSPIRACY is both a massively intelligent, all-seeing organization with power over the Earth itself, and a dumbass ingorant bunch of cowards who let a plucky troupe of little people grab their darkest secrets. If anyone denies $WORLDWIDE_CONSPIRACY exists or is indeed a worldwide conspiracy, obviously they’re part of the conspiracy and just goes to show how vast and powerful it is. QE fuckin D.
jibeaux - January 27, 2012 | 9:50 am · Link
I think it’s going to be a forgotten about non-story fairly soon—is anyone still talking about the Cambridge Cop / HLGates thing?—but it depresses the hell out of me that she’s going to sell a ton of books from it.
4tehlulz - January 27, 2012 | 9:52 am · Link
Anyone knows what was in the SECRET LETTER Brewer handed over to the president?
Have the Elders of Zion been brought so low that they have to resort to using drunks as couriers?
kay - January 27, 2012 | 9:55 am · Link
@4tehlulz:
Why can’t she just be a normal state politician and talk about what her state needs from the federal government? Demand, even, because that’s the conservative way. Demand ACTION.
Oh, right, because she’s a Tea Bagger, so she has to pretend 90% of her job isn’t asking the federal government for money.
Elizabelle - January 27, 2012 | 9:56 am · Link
@4tehlulz:
Arizona Republic had a PDF. Ask and you shall find.
http://www.azcentral.com/ic/ne.....letter.pdf
Boo - January 27, 2012 | 9:56 am · Link
@ BO Bill
Why do you take it as a fact that Obama stomped off? The only person who said that was Brewer, not exactly an objective bystander here. You are taking the word of someone who in the past has made unsubstantiated claims that beheadings were taking place in the desert or some such nonsense. This person is your source? Seriously?
artem1s - January 27, 2012 | 9:58 am · Link
JC was calling for imagery yesterday…the intertubes provide
http://preview.tinyurl.com/75xhjhj
kay - January 27, 2012 | 10:01 am · Link
@Boo:
Just so you know, BO Bill followed birthers, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin. They were all saviors, until they weren’t. For a little while he was in love with the airline pilot that landed the plane in the Hudson, until he found out the pilot was a union member.
This too shall pass.
4tehlulz - January 27, 2012 | 10:01 am · Link
@Elizabelle: Her claim that Obama loves this country will cost her the VP slot.
That originally was a joke, but it might actually be true.
aimai - January 27, 2012 | 10:02 am · Link
@jibeaux:
“Is anyone still talkign about the Cambridge Cop/Professor” thing? Yes, Jan Brewer brought it up in the passage in her book that supposedly the President objected to. The accusation was that he was scamming her and also too professorial just like he’d been during his jiu jitsu transformation of the crisis into the beer summit.
aimai
r€nato - January 27, 2012 | 10:02 am · Link
what a cunning stunt
General Stuck - January 27, 2012 | 10:03 am · Link
Maybe she read the cliff notes for To Kill A Mockingbird, and figured she’d run a program on Obama.
RalfW - January 27, 2012 | 10:03 am · Link
@Raven:
@Jesse:
I still can’t tell if Body Odor Bill is a spoof. But assuming he’s not, he does us a favor. We get to see what ricochets around the teflon tennis bubble of the right wing blog comment threads without ever having to go there ourselves.
So, uhhh, thank you, BO, you stink the place up just a bit, but help us avoid a lot of the cooties we’d get visiting your sweaty horde of pals.
Comrade Javamanphil - January 27, 2012 | 10:03 am · Link
@Hoodie: This. The GOP is the very definition of winning the battle, losing the war. The media is in perfect lock-step with this worldview (Politico: Win the Morning!) so that’s what gets covered (as noted, the skew in reporting on Brewer, not Obama’s natural reaction to calm the unexpected confrontation.) Strategeriests they are not.
Cacti - January 27, 2012 | 10:07 am · Link
For you non-Arizonans out there, I should mention to you that Jan’s nickname throughout the state capitol is “Otis”, in honor of a particular Mayberry character.
Someone should caption that finger-wagging photo as “The POTUS meets Otis.”
Elizabelle - January 27, 2012 | 10:08 am · Link
Brewer and others: cognitive dissonance, dialed up to 11. Or 13 or 19 …
Obama-fu even getting under the skin of that smart Governor Mitch Daniels, GWBush era cabinet wizard.
Professor Paul Krugman takes on Mitch “Jindal” Daniels:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01.....ef=opinion
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q) - January 27, 2012 | 10:08 am · Link
@Raven: Nope. I’m baffled at why people do so. The way to stop this sort of nonsense here is the same is in 3D – do not engage. If it takes 4 over the top comments to get a response, you’ve taught the troll that the price of attention is 4 over the top comments. If a single one does it, we’ll cheaper still. Low level stalker disarming 101.
r€nato - January 27, 2012 | 10:08 am · Link
@The Tragically Flip: I thought Gov. Napolitano was great to have here, because it’s sure been wingnuts non-stop since she left. They have a veto-proof majority in the Legislature and ALL of the major statewide offices are held by Rethugs.
But let’s be clear; Janet left not just because DHS was a great opportunity to be part of a historic administration and leap to the national stage; she also saw the state budget disaster that was coming as a result of the Bush Recession. She bailed. I wish she hadn’t because Gov. Skeletor has savagely slashed education and safety net programs, but I can completely understand why Janet bailed.
Redshift - January 27, 2012 | 10:08 am · Link
@4tehlulz:
Apparently it was a request for a meeting about border security (leading to the conversation that she lied about their previous meeting in her book.) She handed the president a letter asking for a meeting when he was right there and she could have just asked him and his staff, which is how you can tell the whole thing was a publicity stunt—she needed a prop for the visuals.
Between this and Rick Lazio vs. Hillary Clinton (I’m sure there are other examples), “aggressively handing over a paper” really seems to be a strong signal of a bully trying to pretend they’re not weak while avoiding a stronger opponent.
nancydarling - January 27, 2012 | 10:12 am · Link
Don’t know if any one has posted this yet. It seems related. An Arizona judge has tossed a city council candidate off the ballot because she lacks “English proficiency”. It’s a border town where Spanish proficiency might be an asset,
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01....._LO_MST_FB
RalfW - January 27, 2012 | 10:13 am · Link
@The Tragically Flip:
“I can’t get past the fact that Obama put Brewer in that job ”
“I also blame Napolitano herself for this unconscienable abandonment of her State”
Your handle seems just about right, sir or madam.
.
JGabriel - January 27, 2012 | 10:13 am · Link
@rlrr:
I suspect McCain is secretly a Murder She Wrote fan who wants people to think he’s Matlock fan so they won’t make fun of his crush on Angela Lansbury.
.
Countme In - January 27, 2012 | 10:15 am · Link
@amk:
But just in case the Republican thugs don’t get it, which they don’t, being vermin filth: fuck you, thugs
RalfW - January 27, 2012 | 10:17 am · Link
@kay:
Well, I can’t imagine her pointy finger shaking would do a whole lot to intimidate or control that corrupt racist bastard.
Palli - January 27, 2012 | 10:17 am · Link
@Elizabelle:
Odd. A chatty handwritten letter on 8.5×11 stationary. Isn’t this unusual? Especially when a mistake in spelling is corrected.
To be catty: looks like high school cursive and I expected a heart with XXXXXs. “...I’d love…” really. An amateur’s attempt to reduce the significance of the President of the United States.
kay - January 27, 2012 | 10:17 am · Link
@Elizabelle:
It’s a weird sort of national dissonance too, which is surprising coming from a governor. States matter, in a presidential election, and swing states matter more than others.
The fact is, Obama and Democrats are going to run on the auto industry rescue in states that are dependent on that industry. They’re already doing it, and they’re going to continue to do it.
Mitch Daniels can say whatever he wants. They are going to hit Romney hard on that, and every conservative knows it.
kay - January 27, 2012 | 10:21 am · Link
@RalfW:
I actually think the results of that investigation are going to be huge.
My hope is it’s humiliating for all the many, many Tea Party politicians who endorsed him, stood beside him, kissed his ass. He’s corrupt. He’s a bigoted self-promoting creep, but he’s also deeply corrupt, and that’s actionable.
Upper West - January 27, 2012 | 10:21 am · Link
@r€nato: Why isn’t Janet N. running for Senate?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q) - January 27, 2012 | 10:22 am · Link
@kay:
It is surprising, but this particular governor has a lot in common with the former half-term governor of another “A” state. They are both not terribly bright, to put it as politely as I can, and both are totally resistant to advice offered by people with more knowledge and experience.
Redshift - January 27, 2012 | 10:25 am · Link
@Elizabelle: Wow. I hadn’t thought about it, but I guess the “request for a meeting” characterization was more BS from Brewer. It’s in there, but the whole thing is a rambling stump speech berating a straw man.
It still illustrates the same point, though. She wanted to pull the same stunt that wingnut columnists do—declare a “liberals believe this” straw man Obama and argue against it, so she put it in writing because if she actually had the argument with the real Obama, she’d lose.
Except she was dumb enough to do it when he was right there, so the effect was less “wingnut columnists” and more “your drunk Republican uncle.”
Not to mention crowing about job creation, when unemployment in AZ has pretty much tracked the decline in the national rate, which any sane person would interpret to mean that Obama’s policies had a lot more to do with it than Brewer’s.
rob! - January 27, 2012 | 10:27 am · Link
@Tone in DC:
“Another aspect of this… his opponents since his senatorial run have all been batshit, and he just has to stay frosty while these idjits do what they always do naturally.
Just sayin’.”
Yes, true, but after a while you have to wonder, how does he keep getting so lucky, only facing nutjobs? If he’s so weak in his re-election bid, as the GOP and the MSM keep saying, then why are all the GOP heavy-hitters (insert Christie joke here) sitting this one out? Could it be the smarter ones KNOW he’s getting re-elected, and don’t want to get their asses handed to them?
That leaves the nutjobs on the field, which seems to happen a lot to Obama. I’m not a big believer in the whole 11-dimensional chess thing, but you have to wonder after a while.
JGabriel - January 27, 2012 | 10:27 am · Link
@RalfW:
I don’t know either, but the guy posted one comment, and, so far, already has 11 responses discussing it.
I wish I had that dude’s hit rate — minus being called an idiot by, well, everyone.
.
Boo - January 27, 2012 | 10:29 am · Link
@kay:
Thanks Kay. Its just amazing to see people like BO Bill with such stunning ignorance, and being so proud of their ignorance.
JGabriel - January 27, 2012 | 10:33 am · Link
@rob!:
Assume nutjobs is synonymous with Republicans, and the wonder is significantly reduced. Obama is simply very good at bringing out the crazy in his opponents and letting voters note the contrast with himself on their own.
.
General Stuck - January 27, 2012 | 10:38 am · Link
@kay:
Romney has managed to piss off about every block of gop voters going for the base tea tard vote in the primary. And the tea tards don’t really believe he is one of them, although he had to try and fake it.
He is getting votes now because the rest of the field is either nuttier than he has been, or more pragmatic goopers see his organizational advantage more able to compete against Obama in a GE. But message wise for a general, he will be like a newborn calf abandoned in the wild, with far too many questions arising than he can possibly answer with any believability, and unable to motivate two of the most important of GOP groups of voters, the tea tards and evangelical base. You can ad onto that alienation of Hispanics, swing voters, or anyone not a business, or countryclub republican. He will still get 45 percent of the vote, maybe. But that will be about it. This morning the GDP numbers were higher than expected, and a whole slew of economic indicators are pointing north for moderate, but steady job growth the rest of the year.
And his brittle, shallow persona will not warm the heart of anyone except the Koch brothers.
the fake fake al - January 27, 2012 | 10:38 am · Link
Serious question, does the SS check her before she approaches the President? I hope so. Her looked a little nuts there.
J - January 27, 2012 | 10:39 am · Link
Lest we forget, Gov. Brewer is a habitual liar. Remember her story about her father fighting Nazis in Germany.
r€nato - January 27, 2012 | 10:40 am · Link
@Upper West: that’s a good question. Prior to Obama’s election, common wisdom had her running against McCain in 2010. Since then, there’s been absolutely no rumors whatsoever about her return to Arizona. No idea either if she’ll stay on for a 2nd term at DHS.
It’s interesting that Obama has had virtually no turnover in his Cabinet.
r€nato - January 27, 2012 | 10:40 am · Link
@J: and Mexicans beheading people in the desert.
She really is not a very bright lady. Like W, a figurehead of the far right wingers.
The Tragically Flip - January 27, 2012 | 10:41 am · Link
@RalfW:
I realize it is amazing that I might blame more than 1 person for the outcome of an event, but it is true, I blame both Obama and Napolitano for this. Somehow I hope your mind can encompass this great complex moral ambiguity that it was both stupid for Obama to offer a job to someone where her taking that job would entail giving his political adversaries a free promotion and additional latitude to fuck with him, and extremely selfish for Napolitano to accept that job when it meant abandoning the people of her state to the tender mercies of a crew of howling winged monkeys.
Brewer’s promotion has hurt a lot of people in AZ, and Obama getting a silly scolding is pretty far down the list of bad outcomes of this decision.
I really don’t remember a Republican president picking a cabinet nominee where doing so would give the Democrats a free Governorship or Senate seat, it was a big deal that Obama did so, and I think a big mistake that ought never to be repeated. Brewer is a self-inflicted wound, and people who pointed that out at the time were told to shut up, give Obama a chance, 11 dimensional chess and all the usual stuff.
I also hope that when McCain kicks the can, and Napolitano starts sniffing around for his Senate seat, that people remember this and find a better Democrat to run for that seat.
Anya - January 27, 2012 | 10:41 am · Link
I am gonna add to the “why do you argue with BO Bill” chorus. Please stop giving this idiot (deliberate or otherwise) any attention. Why is it so hard for some of you to ignore his bigoted ass?
handsmile - January 27, 2012 | 10:45 am · Link
On Wednesday, it was Jan Brewer’s turn to take a hit for Team GOP. And she got to be crowned “Queen of the Day” for it. Mission accomplished
A brief and trivial incident became the day’s dominant story in the national corporate media. Obama’s SOTU address and the overwhelming popular support for its proposals, as well as the daring and successful rescue of captured American citizens, were deemed to be of lesser import.
Similarly, one intention behind the protracted series of GOP debates has been to keep the corporate media’s attention focused upon Republican discourse: pre-debate hype, the event itself, post-debate “analysis” and spin. Day after day, week after week, the lead national story has been bookies’ tips on the horse race.
Jan Brewer is a far-right harpy who has a book to peddle. Her past lies and lunatic pronouncements have not turned her into a national laughingstock. Her vicious policies have not turned her into a national disgrace. She remains a loyal and reliable party apparatchik.
As risible as we may find this incident, there will certainly be more to come in the months ahead. Because the disruptive effect works. And the one time that Obama is in fact aggressive or “thin-skinned” in his response, GOP prayers will have been answered.
kay - January 27, 2012 | 10:45 am · Link
@General Stuck:
I just don’t think national pundits recognize how big the auto industry recovery is here. It’s in the newspaper every day. Every single day. Romney is going to have to address it, and they are going to make him answer for that every single day.
Too, I noticed so far he’s slow. He gets it, but it takes him weeks. I can’t imagine why he wasn’t prepared for the tax return boondoggle, for example.
He’s not going to have weeks, in the general. He’s going to have hours.
dww44 - January 27, 2012 | 10:47 am · Link
@JGabriel: Is this original to you? I’ve not seen it before, but it most definitely fits here:
kay - January 27, 2012 | 10:47 am · Link
@handsmile:
Obama’s SOTU address and the overwhelming popular support for its proposals,
I agree with you. When I saw it, I thought, “they don’t want us talking about income inequality, or tax rates”.
I don’t know how to stop it from happening.
balconesfault - January 27, 2012 | 10:48 am · Link
@Southern Beale:
You forgot limosine driving elitists who don’t really believe global warming is bad, or lack of opportunity is a blight, or a large segment of the population being without access to healthcare without risking bankruptcy is a tragedy – but rather we just want to control everything and make crap up to justify our desires.
kay - January 27, 2012 | 10:49 am · Link
@Anya:
I’m sorry, for my part. I’ve just been messing with him a long time, and I fall back into it. I will do better :)
jibeaux - January 27, 2012 | 10:49 am · Link
@aimai: Yeah, I saw that passage. I guess I mean this is just going to be another sound-and-fury forgotten-next-week episode. That book of hers must be dated as hell.
IrishGirl - January 27, 2012 | 10:49 am · Link
@Kay: It was a tactic, I’m pretty sure. She has staged things here in AZ before and will characterize it one way for her base and then another way for the rest of the voters. She wanted some publicity and she got it, but it will only help her with those who already don’t like the President or are looking for another excuse to decide not to like him.
r€nato - January 27, 2012 | 10:52 am · Link
@IrishGirl: I don’t even understand WHY she did it, other than to sell books, to look good to her teabagger base or just sheer spite. If it’s any of those reasons, then she’s a very small-minded person.
She’s not up for re-election until 2014, so there’s no advantage to her political career whatsoever. I sure hope she’s not thinking she might be a viable VP candidate. She’s already well out of her depth as governor.
amk - January 27, 2012 | 10:53 am · Link
@The Tragically Flip: So in short, janet = wonder woman and super girl mix who single handedly prevented AZ going crazy ? Nutz.
r€nato - January 27, 2012 | 10:55 am · Link
@amk: Janet was a centrist and an ally of convenience with Joe Arpaio. I’m thinking that was an act of expediency; she was a state-level official, Joe was county-level. There was no need to pick a fight needlessly with a guy well-known for vindictiveness.
When needed, she didn’t hesitate to engage in Clintonian triangulation.
That said, compared to what we have now, yeah she was Wonder Woman and SuperGirl. The Repubs have a veto-proof majority in the Legislature and control all of the statewide elective offices. The state Dem party really needs to step up its game; this place isn’t the deep South, despite appearances.
ericblair - January 27, 2012 | 10:55 am · Link
@General Stuck:
The bigger issue he’s got is that the attacks on his record and his big-ass pile-o-dough came from fellow goopers. Republicans have been very good at inoculating their followers against any attack from unapproved sources, so when a Dem attacks Romney over taxes it’s just jealousy and gets ignored. Attacks from Gingrich and Santorum aren’t as easy to dismiss, since by their sources they must have some merit. We’ll get the usual we’ve-always-been-at-war-with-Eastasia history denial, but won’t work as well as usual.
Anya - January 27, 2012 | 10:59 am · Link
@kay:
What’s weird is Daniels got brownie points from Sully and Tweedy because he was so reasonable in complimenting the President for being a family man. This is either indicative of our diminished political discourse, or the low expectation for republicans.
Elizabelle - January 27, 2012 | 11:00 am · Link
@nancydarling:
Nancy: they conduct government meetings in English.
I agree that bilingualism is incredibly useful in a border town (especially) and, really, for all of us.
Problem is that Ms. Cabrera is not bilingual. Despite graduating from a U.S. high school.
And the Arizona constitution expects local government meetings to be conducted in English.
From earlier NYTimes article, and the reader comments were interesting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01.....wanted=all
When I read the articles, I did wonder what Balloon Juice commentariat would think.
General Stuck - January 27, 2012 | 11:00 am · Link
@ericblair:
Exactly. Newt and Rick have helpfully cut off about all Romney’s escape routs to the pol equivalent of he said she said between the two parties.
kay - January 27, 2012 | 11:01 am · Link
@General Stuck:
Hysterical, Stuck. You can’t leave us again, because these lines are the best.
Now I can go to work :)
Bago - January 27, 2012 | 11:02 am · Link
Dubstep in the desert, that’s almost burning man! Oh, wait.. Dust up in the Nevada desert? That’s almost burning man!
r€nato - January 27, 2012 | 11:03 am · Link
@Elizabelle: if it’s the law (and in the state constitution), then it’s the law.
I do think that it needs to be ensured that she really isn’t English-proficient, rather than someone who simply speaks Spanish more than she does English.
General Stuck - January 27, 2012 | 11:03 am · Link
@kay:
Have a good one, Kay :)
Amir Khalid - January 27, 2012 | 11:06 am · Link
@Anya:
It’s charitable to show BodyOdor_Bill once in a while that we do notice his ramblings— even if they’re nonsensical and often full of hate. and there’s always a chance that saying, “Hey, BO_Bill, your ramblings are nonsensical and full of hate” might someday register on his consciousness and make him a better, well, troll.
Besides, aren’t trolls part of the in-house entertainment?
kay - January 27, 2012 | 11:07 am · Link
@Anya:
Ugh. I saw that. They’re deaf, too, then Anya. I heard that as patronizing, clear as a bell. I’m going with my own impression, rather than Andrew Sullivans. I believe the implication is that Obama is an anomaly, singular among black men in treating his family well. It’s just not a compliment. I suppose there’s a way to deliver that sentiment if it’s well-intentioned, but not in a SOTU response, certainly. Maybe in a casual interview? A more personal setting? Maybe.
I don’t know who raised these people. Wolves?
Yutsano - January 27, 2012 | 11:11 am · Link
@Amir Khalid:
Troll quality has been slipping as of late however. Methinks we need to lodge a complaint with management.
Davis X. Machina - January 27, 2012 | 11:17 am · Link
@Yutsano: Sign of an economic uptick, fewer trolls? Or are they all just in Statue-of-Liberty suits advertizing tax-preparation storefronts?
Soprano2 - January 27, 2012 | 11:19 am · Link
Finger pointing is an extremely hostile gesture. I wonder how many men saw their mother scolding them in that picture, and cringed for Obama.
Lojasmo - January 27, 2012 | 11:22 am · Link
@Tone In DC:
Yeah, he would simply post niggerniggerniggerniggernigger if it wouldn’t get him banned.
Alas, he would have to make another troll account, but it wouldn’t link to his shitty racist pizza blog.
GregB - January 27, 2012 | 11:23 am · Link
According to the local New England wingnut media, posting a huffy FaceBook message, a la Tim Thomas, is the most bravest, heroic thing since Captain Sullenberger landed his jet in the Hudson.
Jan Brewer’s finger waving is like George Washington crossing the Delaware.
Enhanced Voting Techniques - January 27, 2012 | 11:28 am · Link
@BO_Bill: You know else shut down his inner dictator?
HITLER
Obama in Arizona was just like Hitler marching into Pear Harbor in 1917
/snark
Tone In DC - January 27, 2012 | 11:29 am · Link
@scav:
LULz.
dogwood - January 27, 2012 | 11:30 am · Link
@kay:
Kay – This. If you live in a solid blue or solid red state, a presidential election is viewed through the lens of the national media. But if you live in a state where real campaigning takes place, your perceptions are much different. Local media matters in swing states. Local journalists ask more specific and probing questions than the national gassbags do. When candidates appear locally, then local tv and print media trump national media in providing information to the voters.
Tone In DC - January 27, 2012 | 11:32 am · Link
@rob!:
LULz.
I don’t play chess, but I am very glad BHO apparently does.
Tone In DC - January 27, 2012 | 11:36 am · Link
@Lojasmo:
Good one.
Troll B O B sounds almost as subtle, and just as inherently brilliant as Ewick, in any case.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q) - January 27, 2012 | 11:41 am · Link
@kay:
Wolves would do a remarkably better job. They are pretty socially proficient. Though I recognize that’s a common saying. But rather like “sweat like a pig,” it isn’t correct as used. Pigs don’t sweat, which is why you can’t raise them in a desert – they need mud or other damp areas to stay cool.
/pedant
Anya - January 27, 2012 | 11:45 am · Link
@kay:
Totally agree with you, kay. They (Sullivan, Tweedy and the rest of the talking heads) have the same blinders on. When I listened to Daniels speech, I felt the same way you felt. It’s also what every Republican asshole says about the President when they’re complimenting him “he’s a family man.”
slag - January 27, 2012 | 11:46 am · Link
@Chyron HR:
Hermano!
Hill Dweller - January 27, 2012 | 11:50 am · Link
(per TPM) Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton joined Mesa Mayor Scott Smith in saying Obama wasn’t tense at all during yesterday’s encounter with Brewer. So, three of the four people present have one story, while Brewer has another.
ira-NY - January 27, 2012 | 11:50 am · Link
Is she Jane Hamsher’s mother?
They sure look and act alike.
Anya - January 27, 2012 | 11:51 am · Link
@Amir Khalid: I wouldn’t mind, if he was a better troll; but this particular troll is tiresome and his arguments have become stale.
Villago Delenda Est - January 27, 2012 | 11:51 am · Link
@BO_Bill:
You’re late for your job cleaning up spilled soda and gum under the seats down at the Octoplex, asshole.
nancydarling - January 27, 2012 | 11:53 am · Link
@Elizabelle: ArkansasTimesblog proprietor, Max Brantley posted this cover of the”Southern Legislative Dictionary” to accompany the article.
http://www.arktimes.com/Arkans.....egislators
amk - January 27, 2012 | 12:03 pm · Link
@ira-NY: ouch.
different-church-lady - January 27, 2012 | 12:06 pm · Link
@BO_Bill: I can’t quite figure out what the tell is here, but the Real Brick Oven would have been more infuriating somehow.
Benjamin Franklin - January 27, 2012 | 12:09 pm · Link
@Anya:
Arsonists are difficult to ignore. As maniacs go, they are the top spot.
different-church-lady - January 27, 2012 | 12:10 pm · Link
@Cat Lady: It’s kind the way Clinton was somehow both an uncouth hick and a smooth operator at the same time.
metricpenny - January 27, 2012 | 12:21 pm · Link
@r€nato:
I see what you did there. Thanks for not using the actual word even though the shoe fits in this case. For my money, you win the internets today.
President Obama rules the high ground. His opponents and detractors require a space shuttle to even get near him.
Tone In DC - January 27, 2012 | 12:27 pm · Link
@r€nato:
...very punny, veeeery punny. Ya did that in one swell foop.
piratedan - January 27, 2012 | 12:29 pm · Link
@kay: it’s because they are all part of the big scam, Kay. Joe rounds up “illegals” who have to be housed “somewhere”. That somewhere happens to be “for profit” prisons because there’s no other place to put them. Guess who’s chief of staff is the primary lobbyist for the “private” prison industry…. why it’s none other than Cactus Barbie herself. Guess who pays to house those folks while they are detained and awaiting their hearings, why its you and me, the American taxpayer. So you pass an unenforceable law that makes it suspicious to be brown in Arizona, round up folks who don’t carry ID on them, profit!
Mouse Tolliver - January 27, 2012 | 12:40 pm · Link
If this woman doesn’t literally eat a bowl of scorpions for breakfast every morning, that is the stupidest title I’ve ever seen.
r€nato - January 27, 2012 | 12:45 pm · Link
@metricpenny: well, if I had used the actual word it would not have been funny, merely accurate.
JGabriel - January 27, 2012 | 12:45 pm · Link
@dww44:
As far as I know. I just mimicked “Denial is not a river …” I think I’ve used it at BJ before, though.
.
r€nato - January 27, 2012 | 12:46 pm · Link
@Mouse Tolliver: if I ate scorpions for breakfast, I’d be bitter and angry and drunk all the time too.
piratedan - January 27, 2012 | 12:47 pm · Link
@amk: not completely because she could and did veto a whole boatload of wingnut crap and was busy holding the state lege’s feet to the fire when it came to funding for education (as per the directive established in the state charter). The Sec of state was our miss Jannie and with Ms. Napolitano leaving, it was open season on minority rights, the poor and the kids, namely if you weren’t a Mormon white guy, you were SOL. I understand that he chose Napolitano to help with his relationship with Mejico and someone who understood the issues that come with maintaining a border but a LOT of Arizonans wish he had selected someone else.
Elie - January 27, 2012 | 12:54 pm · Link
@kay:
How they treat him is the only way they have of making themselves stand out from him.. albeit at a cost. If they did not do that, if they treated Obama with the normal respect any President should be accorded, it would highlight how little substance there is in their grievances. By acting angry and offended, they try to convince passive viewers of these exchanges that something negative is going on—that Obama must be doing something to illicit that kind of response.
They are empty and vacuous. They know it. He knows it. I think that a growing percent of the population are also starting to know it… its some sort of emotional fakery to lead to assumptions about Obama that are negative since the actual things that he does would not lead to that conclusion…
Yes, he knows it and of course he uses it to set them up. I bet he has some laughs (bitter) with his staff about it.
auntieeminaz - January 27, 2012 | 12:54 pm · Link
@r€nato: “cunning stunt” is the perfect way to characterize what happened on the tarmac!
grandpa john - January 27, 2012 | 12:59 pm · Link
@Hill Dweller:
Guess which one the MSM will go with
JordanRules - January 27, 2012 | 1:03 pm · Link
@r€nato: Yep. You win, 10 toes down.
Diamond cut brilliance.
John Puma - January 27, 2012 | 1:06 pm · Link
Has anyone yet suggested that this was the perfect opportunity for Mr Obama’s first use of his newly acquired powers if indefinite detention of US citizens without charge or trial?
scav - January 27, 2012 | 1:08 pm · Link
@John Puma: Whow, it BoB gonna love you — you make him look life size!
JordanRules - January 27, 2012 | 1:10 pm · Link
@piratedan: Reward for the country did not outweigh the risk for the state with that appointment IMO. But other appointments will undoubtedly serve the country exceedingly well with little risk and hopefully become entrenched for the long run.
piratedan - January 27, 2012 | 1:20 pm · Link
@JordanRules: well the thinking was that Brewer was noting more than a caretaker and the numbers showed that Goddard was doing well until that touchstone piece of legislation that became SB 1070 was passed and signed. Then everyone ran amok with the “Illegals are amongst us!” meme completely forgetting that this has long been the case in the state, hence the reduced costs in housing, landscaping and agriculture while folks blithely look the other way. Hell the AZ DPS numbers even proved that immigration had been trending down in the last five years but Jannie said that there were headless bodies and the love affair that the old folks have for Sheriff Joe who’s been beating that drum for years. That was then followed up by Grijalva’s misstep on the boycott and the Faux News guys were in bidness. No one took a deep breath, no one bothered to look at the numbers, they hit the fear button and rode that pony to exhaustion.
Southern Beale - January 27, 2012 | 1:33 pm · Link
Also in Arizona, the Secret Service is investigating this cop who posed for a picture proudly holding a bullet-riddled Obama T-shirt.
Arizona: still assholes.
JordanRules - January 27, 2012 | 1:42 pm · Link
@piratedan: No doubt SB1070 got her elected and she got a visibility and invincibility boost during her temp tenure aided by all that other typical wingnut BS you highlighted. Perfect storm I suppose and costly for sane Arizonians.
Suffern ACE - January 27, 2012 | 1:48 pm · Link
@Southern Beale:
Liberals want to inflict trauma so they can give out hugs?
shortstop - January 27, 2012 | 2:07 pm · Link
He tried to walk away from her in an intimidating fashion while she was schooling him, but he tripped over all the headless corpses buried out there under the tarmac. Point Brewer!
Hey, what’s with all the references to the community college dropout being a drunk? I know she always sounds that way, and her behavior is consistent with an addict’s, but is that it, or is it general knowledge (except to me) that she’s an alcoholic?
brantl - January 27, 2012 | 2:09 pm · Link
@BO_Bill: Apparently you’ve never seen the demeanor of a parent with a spoiled child. Hard to beleive you’re an orphan, but maybe you are.
Tone In DC - January 27, 2012 | 2:16 pm · Link
@Southern Beale:
That is truly foul. And he calls it a “political statement”. Maybe like that noose that George the Macaca had in his office years ago.
JGabriel - January 27, 2012 | 3:21 pm · Link
shortstop:
Apprently it’s common knowledge among the Phoenix press corps that Jan is an alkie. So much so that they’ve nicknamed her Otis, after the Mayberry town drunk.
.
Lojasmo - January 27, 2012 | 4:18 pm · Link
@Yutsano:
Henceforth, dougj’s NRA handle shall be “lazy Doug J”
May it be so.
Hey…whither veritas?
eyelessgame - January 27, 2012 | 4:41 pm · Link
@r€nato:
About those beheadings. I happened to have DVRed, and last night watched, a Criminal Minds repeat last night – in which, in a border town, undocumented immigrants were being beheaded, and their heads left as intimidation to law enforcement.
It aired originally in early 2010, or in other words within a few months before the Arizona governor made apparently serious comments claiming undocumented Mexican immigrants were being beheaded in the desert.
So having heard now – for the first time – about Jan Brewer’s claim of beheadings… I’m just thinking, um.
debbie - January 27, 2012 | 7:16 pm · Link
@ JGabriel:
Ha! You should have heard him discussing Obama’s policy toward Iran yesterday on NPR:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetw.....oward-iran
A small highlight: “”History will judge this president incredibly harshly, with disdain and scorn for his failure to come to the moral assistance of the 1.5 million Iranians that were demonstrating in the streets of Tehran.”
Spoken by the man who thought Quadaffi was a man he could work with.
Cain - January 27, 2012 | 9:34 pm · Link
@JGabriel:
WTF happened to the democrat? Good on the republican guy for saying the truth. Commendable.