They are terrified:
A prominent Republican senator just told me that if Romney can’t win in Michigan, the Republican Party needs to go back to the drawing board and convince somebody new to get into the race.
“If Romney cannot win Michigan, we need a new candidate,” said the senator, who has not endorsed anyone and requested anonymity.
The senator believes Romney will ultimately win in Michigan but says he will publicly call for the party to find a new candidate if he does not.
“We’d get killed,” the senator said if Romney manages to win the nomination after he failed to win the state in which he grew up.
They really have no one to blame but themselves. They’ve spent so much time lying about everything and creating an echo chamber to reinforce and transmit those lies within the so-called “conservative” movement that quite simply, anyone who appeals to the wingnut base is someone so twisted as to be utterly repugnant to the rest of the nation.
matryoshka
Awwwww. Who are they going to draft–Scarah Palin?
Comrade Mary
Hang the village, hang the village …
There is no way they can bring in Jeb and respect their own rules for candidates, but given that they can’t even fucking count the votes properly in their own caucuses across several states, maybe they’ll try anyway.
Warren Terra
An enjoyable fantasy, but I have faith in the power of unbelievable amounts of money to slime Santorum and depress overall turnout until Rmoney ekes out a win in Michigan.
Although, I saw that a Republican Senator from Ohio has switched from the Rmoney camp to the Santorum camp, and in any case I’ve never been good at predictions …
qwerty42
I believe the wingnuts see that as a feature, not a bug.
kindness
This from the party that thought their foundation could be built upon Teahaddism.
Turns out Americans don’t really like Teahaddists. Karl Rove is feverishly trying to figure out how to turn this on it’s head and blame Obama.
geg6
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
That is all
EdTheRed
I believe this thread should be re-titled:
Panic! At the Bubble
Suffern ACE
@kindness: I believe that’s the point of the whole “he’s so divisive” “the most divisive President in History” meme. Basically, it blames the president for the fact that your neighbors have gone off the deep end.
Benjamin Franklin
Jeb: “If nominated, I will not run. If elected, I will not serve.”
piratedan
let them bring whoever they want to the dance, we’re still gonna burn the barn down, hopefully they’ll still be inside.
Comrade Mary
OMG-OT: More proof that Obama hates the ghey. Surely Limbaugh is right and Republicans can win on moral — #sputter# — let me try that again — surely they can — BWAH! — aw, fuck it, they’re toast.
Rick Taylor
I wrote a comment on a Not Romney youtube video pointing out that none of the other candidates looked electable to me. I got a serious reply from someone saying they were still hoping Sarah Palin would enter the race.
Soonergrunt
@geg6: This.
Tom Hilton
Which is Mitt’s theme song? “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want”? Or “Oscillate Wildly”?
Martin
Less denial in my version.
Brandon
Unfortunately for us entertainment seekers, Santorum looks to have sadly peaked, as other FPers have noted. But a narrow Romney win in MI with lower total votes and % than ’08 is total win for me.
Drive-By Nomad
Utterly. Repugnant.
les
@qwerty42:
You’re right; but it only works if they can implement their gerrymander/vote suppression plan. Unfortunately, they are…
JPL
TooManyJens mentioned Jebb down below.. My response was
The savior is the brother of the one that led us to a cliff and he happened to marry an undocumented immigrant. There’s a few other things that might come out also, too, i.e. avoiding customs.
good times
BGinCHI
@Tom Hilton: Frankly Mr. Shankly.
Villago Delenda Est
BGinCHI
I can’t wait to drink Mitt’s bitter, bitter tears this November.
Poopyman
Panic in the streets of DC? I thought you were referencing Sunday’s weather forecast. Taint no panic in DC’s streets, son. Now, if you’d looked in the boardrooms on K Street ….
And srsly, “The Senator”? Do I care about another unsourced article?
Martin
@Benjamin Franklin:
Uh, nobody is going to volunteer to have ‘GOP Mondale’ tattooed permanently on their forehead. And anyone who is stupid enough to do so is probably too stupid to do any better than Romney.
Comrade Mary
@Tom Hilton: I think this might be Obama’s response to emo-progs.
beltane
The Michigan primary is not a best of seven series. Romney cannot “ultimately” win it, he has to win it the first and only time. The senator who said this sounds exactly like the troll Veritas telling us Romney.Has.It.In.The.Bag.
Suffern ACE
@Brandon: Too bad. I guess his “I would have opposed the bailout, too. I would have opposed it even more and much faster than my opponents. And I’m also nuts.” approach didn’t inspire as much confidence as expected.
Benjamin Franklin
@Martin:
I’ve always said Jeb was the smarter son.
JPL
@Comrade Mary: You are good.
Brachiator
@geg6:
Oh yes!
However, the primaries are just getting started. The GOP will end up with a candidate, probably Romney, and they will then get him to make a VP choice that will make the unsettled fundies happy. Romney will continue to push himself as Mr Businessman, able to leap stagnant economies with a single bound.
But I could also see Jeb being pushed forward as a uniter of a fractured party.
No matter what happens, it will be an ugly fight.
beltane
@Brandon: Santorum peaked? For a second time? This means Newt will get to enjoy a second chance at being the top not-Romney. The GOP bench is so thin they get to take turns filling this position.
Brandon
I guess they need to find someone else.
dmsilev
Teh funny:
The Romneytronic 3000’s emotion circuits have registered a sad state.
Stooleo
@Tom Hilton: “Unloveable”
General Stuck
I think Jeb is smart enough to not self immolate for the team. Because ‘the team’ is being run by crazy people, and that won’t change by him simply entering the race. The wingers with a brain cell that were electable, saw that coming and stayed out. Until 2016. They are going to have to pick somebody though, and it could go either way, imo, at this point. If they stick with the clowns in the ring now, they could lose it all, big time. Or, they can pick someone at the convention who likely won’t win, but isn’t crazy, and will maybe not drive a stake through the heart of their so called party. Newt just got 10 mil more from his wingnut sugar daddy, so he has gas money and won’t quit till that runs out. And Santorum is still riding his not Mitt wave, that is headed straight for the rocks. I am very uncomfortable being comfortable about ours and Obama’s prospects at present. My life experience tells me that is usually when things go the most wrong, but not always. But I can muster no reasonable or respectful fear of any of the four remaining idiots in the GOP race.
JPL
@dmsilev: just needs a little lube job.
Comrade Mary
Ooh! One for Ron Paul.
trollhattan
Where’s “Truth” in Latin(tm) to remind us Mittens is, for practically the First Time Evah, going to unleash millyuns of dollarz and destroy the primary competition, just as he’d going to destroy Obama [my spelling] in November?
Where?
MattF
So, looking back over the wreckage, I think there was a turning point when Romney released that flatly dishonest ad, quoting Obama out of context. Maybe not immediately– the winger media claimed it was a Romney victory– but the bad news eventually sank in: Republicans were about to nominate a pathological liar. Oopsie.
Tom Hilton
Of course, if by some fluke one of these clowns (Romney or Santorum) actually wins the presidency, it’ll give new meaning to “November Spawned a Monster”.
Martin
@Brandon:
Fear not, for Nooooot has gotten another $10M out of Adelson. The entertainment shall continue!
Benjamin Franklin
@General Stuck:
Mitch Daniels?
Anonymous At Work
To me, the big question from the article is what ABC News does if both Romney loses Michigan and the anonymous US Senator does not follow through in calling for a new candidate? Nothing, most likely, despite an anonymous source burning them.
Steve
Mike DeWine absolutely destroyed Romney in the process of switching his endorsement.
Possibly the first good thing the esteemed ex-Senator has ever done.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Stop making me want to back Markos stupid idea of messing with the Michigan primary. It’s still stupid, but I would love to push the GOP off a cliff.
dmsilev
@beltane: Not necessarily true. As Iowa proved, it’s entirely possible to first win and then lose the same state. It’s apparently at least possible that the same thing might happen in Maine, with the Rombot’s victory (excuse me, VICTORY!) being supplanted by Ron Paul’s merry band of nuts.
We are fast approaching peak schadenfreude.
Bill
At first I thought this would be about the “Capitol Building Bomber”. How much you wanna bet that will be entrapment of another mentally ill kid.
We need to start a big “Write in Sarah” promotion in Michigan, to really mess up their primary.
scav
What about Holding Our for a Hero? (I went with Frou Frou but other options are available).
TK-421
This sounds similar to the Florida line- Mitt must win, or we have to do something drastic.
Meh…Mitt will win Michigan, and then have a surprise loss somewhere else, and then a new
line in the sand will be drawnstate will be deemed MITT MUST WIN OR WE DO SOMETHING DRASTIC, which he’ll win, then he’ll lose somewhere else, etc.It’s going to be Mitt. And if I were a partisan Dem, I’d be happier having President Obama match up against Mitt than against Santorum. BooMan has it right: President Obama will smash either Mitt and Santorum, but the Congressional races look better for Dems with Mitt.
JGabriel
Deleted by author for wrongness. Mis-read the article.
.
Brandon
@beltane: Santorum peaking twice sounds vaguely nasty. It is a bit sad though, as you note, that their bench is so thin that the Republican base is giving second-second chances to fill the roll of “not Mitt”.
General Stuck
@Benjamin Franklin:
Doubt it, his wife put the stop to that before, and Daniel’s is an asshole, but also smart enough to not risk ruining his winger creds entering this gathering horror show we will all get to witness the closer we get to Nov. the GOP is going to have to figure a way to get control of its crazies that are now in the drivers seat. Won’t happen soon enough for this election, I don’t think. But who knows, crazy times produce crazy stuff, so we shall see.
JPL
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): GA has an open primary and although it’s tempting, it’s so icky just thinking about pulling santorum’s lever.
trollhattan
@Martin:
Seems that all realllly beeeeg campaign donors need to, before the campaign begins, buy a crapload of teevee stations so they can just pay themselves to run all these attack ads.
Or do the Adelsons already have that covered?
Villago Delenda Est
@TK-421:
Um, why aren’t you at your post?
Democratic Nihilist, Keeper Of Party Purity
Smells like VICTORY!
Maude
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
No need to mess with the Michigan Primary. GM already did.
BGinCHI
@JPL:
I see what you did there.
Someone at a press conference should ask Santorum whether he has ever masturbated. And when he says “No” every man in America will see the liar he is.
Brandon
@Martin: Oh goodie. At some point a post title on the Republican primary needs to use Pink Floyd’s “The (Freak) Show Must Go On”.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Martin:
Amen. A whole bunch of huge egos didnt want to take that risk when the economy looked a lot weaker. To say nothing of the fact that Mitt and his millions are unlikely to go away quietly.
David Koch
Michael Steele just reported on Hardball that internal GOP polling show them bleeding badly because of the contraception debacle.
Brandon
@BGinCHI: That’s where the Press Corpse misses good ‘ole nasty Sam Donaldson.
Rafer Janders
@General Stuck:
Maybe Zombie Reagan could run?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@David Koch: Did you hear Steele babbling about the “magisterium” and Sunday sermons? These people are so fucking weird.
David Koch
This unanimous senator has to be Lindsey Graham.
scav
@David Koch: hahahahahahaha, oh I could go several ways but I’m giggling too hard. . .
ETA: no no, drop the tone, it’s a mad chortle.
Martin
@trollhattan:
No, that’s really Rupert’s territory. Adelson isn’t in it for the money – he just wants someone to nuke Palestine.
Brandon
@David Koch: I had my money on DeMint.
JPL
Shocking breaking news..Christie vetoed the civil rights marriage act. He’s still hoping for a Jeb/Chris ticket. Yup, that will win a lot of votes.
Soonergrunt
Not wanting to step on John’s thread with another of mine so soon, so it’s a comment:
Foster Friess (of aspirin between the knees fame) thinks that rich people shouldn’t pay any taxes and should be thanked for being rich.
Rafer Janders
@BGinCHI:
When Rick Perry (who?) was touting the virtues of abstinence at one of the debates, I really wish the moderator had asked him “Governor Perry, were you a virgin when you married?”
You just know that the good ‘ole boy in Perry would have died to have to claim that he was ever a virgin, and certainly that he’d only ever had sex with one woman, and we all would have known it was a lie. But it would have forced him to claim that if he was going to have any consistency with the path he was advocating all others take.
eric
@Martin: that money is to go after santorum in the nastiest way possible so there is no blowback on romney….good times
Mnemosyne
The big money boys created a monster and thought they would be able to control it. You’d think at least one of them would have seen a version of Frankenstein at some point.
Soonergrunt
@David Koch:
Where do you want your internets delivered?
TooManyJens
@Soonergrunt:
JFC, first self-deportation and now self-taxation. I’m waiting for self-drafting and self-jailing.
Bobby Thomson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOU-QqWAtvw
shortstop
Ah. I’m feeling a little bit Nelson Muntz.
eric
@Rafer Janders: Perry’s sex with a woman assumes facts not in evidence…..
TooManyJens
Oh, and if we’re playing “guess the senator”, here are the male GOP senators who have not yet endorsed anyone: Alexander, Barrasso, Boozman, Chambliss, Coats, Coburn, Corker, Cornyn, Crapo, DeMint, Enzi, Graham, Grassley, Heller, Inhofe, Isakson, Johnson, Kyl, Lee, Lugar, McConnell, Moran, Roberts, Rubio, Sessions, Shelby, Toomey, Vitter, Wicker. I’m not even going to try to narrow it down by who can and cannot be considered “prominent.”
trollhattan
@Soonergrunt:
Well, [my George Will imitation] the reason they’re rich is because they’re awesome and it’s certainly not fair to tax awesomeness, now is it?
Maude
@Soonergrunt:
#70
He’s had his 15 minutes of fame, get the hook and pull him off stage.
scav
@Soonergrunt: Ah yes, after self-deportation, we now have self-taxation. This is the buy and bag your own aisle at the supermarket theory of small government.
ETA: Note to self. Read faster, this is BJ.
eric
@TooManyJens: you can self-tax, but you can’t self “satisfy?” I am all in — this cycle is peak wingnut.
Villago Delenda Est
@David Koch:
On one hand, I find this plausible.
On the other hand, it’s Michael Steele, who has an axe to grind.
The gripping hand is not sure what to make of it.
SIA
@General Stuck: Yes. I fear the fey.
Soonergrunt
@Villago Delenda Est: I see what you did there.
Calouste
@eric:
I think Perry has kids, which in this case would be facts in evidence. Well, unless proven otherwise of course.
Comrade Dread
Personally, I think it would be hilarious if Santorum and Romney split enough states so that Ron “GOP: ‘Who?'” Paul’s supporters stealthed in delegates throw the nomination his way.
Watching the GOP collective’s heads explode at having to try to rally behind crazy uncle Ron would be amusing.
A brokered convention that came up with Palin would be a close second.
Jeb would be third.
Martin
@Soonergrunt:
Hmm. If rich people are so awesome, maybe we should eat a few of them.
BGinCHI
@Comrade Dread: How many GOPs are looking back fondly at the McCain candidacy?
kindness
@JPL:
That’s because we all know what is gonna come out the other side….ewwww!
ira-NY
For ’12 the GOP brand may be so tarnished that no viable new candidate may be willing to step forward.
Soonergrunt
@Maude: No. Keep linking him to Lil Ricky as much as possible. Particularly if Lil Ricky wins in Michigan.
SIA
@JPL: Ewwwwwwwwwww.
jimmiraybob
So, has anyone speculated on what Foster Friess gets if Santorum becomes president? FDA? NIH? State Department? Department of Lady Parts Regulation? Cabinet jester? Will the Vatican get a cabinet-level position? So many questions.
handsmile
Mittens may now lose his second caucus state after an original declaration of victory. The Maine Republican Party has agreed to “reconfirm” its official figures from last weekend’s caucus tally, and will now include tomorrow’s results from one county whose voting was postponed due to a snowstorm. At the moment, Rmoney leads Paul by less than 200 votes from 5,600 tabulated thus far.
Even should he eke out a victory in his “home” state, Mittens has sustained so much damage, has become a figure of such ridicule, that a GOP coup d’etat seems to me far more likely than a coronation.
While I don’t know who might lead that putsch, I will opine with absolute conviction that it will NOT be Jeb Bush. That surname is toxic in national politics for at least a decade. Moreover, it would require fratricide of Biblical proportions, only this time with Abel slaying Cain.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Tweety addressing an issue I’ve been wondering about: Romney’s manic union-bashing. 25% of Republican primary voters in 2008 self-ID’d as part of a union household. Way to preserve that ‘white working class’ vote everyone agrees he’ll desperately need to beat Obama, if and when.
les
@Villago Delenda Est:
Loverly.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@jimmiraybob: Foster looks to me to be a man who would enjoy a Carribean embassy, Nevis or St Kitts perhaps.
Benjamin Franklin
@shortstop:
I raise you one,
President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho…
eric
@Calouste: given the rumors about sir rick, i have no reason to believe they were not sired by a different horse.
lamh35
Obama Administration Wouldn’t Defend Blocking Military Benefits From Same-Sex Couples
Compare that with this:
NJ Gov. Christie Vetoes Gay Marriage Bill
SIA
@SIA: Or, what kindness said.
Villago Delenda Est
@Calouste:
Perry may “have kids” but we’d require DNA scans to verify that they were, in fact, the result of his loss of virginity and subsequent sexytime.
This is one of the little catches about establishing your credentials in a patrilineal situation.
Linda Featheringill
Rick Santorum:
I noticed that Rick tried to speak about something other than sex while campaigning in Michigan so he talked about how wrong the auto industry bailout was.
He doesn’t want to be President, does he?
LongHairedWeirdo
That’s not true! It’s *liberals* that do that! I know this because I saw it on a right wing website!
More seriously, yeah.
How old are you? I was born in ’66, and so I was getting old enough to get the culture vibe of abortion debates as they were happening. And I was quite scornful of people talking about holding an inquest over a bloody tampon or sanitary pad, and people who acted as if birth control could be outlawed, if RoeVWade were challenged. And I believe that everyone agreed with me that the shrill, shrieking people were wrong, wrong, wrong about such outlandish bullshit arguments about the need to protect abortion rights.
Color me embarrassed…
But that’s kind of the point. It was reasonable, back then, to think that people were shrill, shrieking idiots, because as soon as people started scorning birth control, other people would scorn them, and call ’em completely fucking loony.
But when people did start scorning birth control, it became useful, so the people who should have called ’em completely fucking loony decided to use the birth control hatred, instead.
And, if you understand what I’m saying here, then you’ll see that *this* is not a non-sequitur: this is why Ron Paul’s racist newsletters disqualifies him from any leadership position, in my mind.
eric
wouldnt it have to be The Huckster if it really played out? Mean? check. overly religious? check. partially vetted? check. I cannot imagine he is really looking at 2016…..perhaps, but he is the only one i see riding a white horse.
shortstop
After Romney stopped being a kid in Michigan and before he became guv of MA, did he put down roots anywhere he could plausibly call a kind of hometown? I know he wandered hither and yon without ever really imprinting himself anywhere. I’ve never really bought that Michigan claims him, but then, does anywhere? He’s a man without a state, as well as a moral center, personality or prayer of becoming president.
Marc
I’d just like to see the republican nominee give their acceptance speech wearing a German WW I helmet.
JPL
@SIA: I could not vote for him even with out diebold machines.
Villago Delenda Est
@kindness:
Um…jackpot?
Raven
There’s blood in the streets, it’s up to my ankles
Blood in the streets, it’s up to my knee
Blood in the streets in the town of Chicago
Blood on the rise, it’s following me
BGinCHI
@Marc: Like Arte Johnson on Laugh In.
eric
@Marc: or perhaps, during the acceptance speech…..men in red Church attire jump out — “No one expects the Inquisition….”
SIA
@JPL: Just close your eyes and think of Ohio.
jheartney
I keep thinking that at some point the GOP money daddies will grok that 2012 is a lost cause, and that it’ll all be about the recriminations on Nov. 7. If they ram Mitt down the teahadists’ throats, they’ll be the ones to blame for the ensuing debacle. OTOH if they let the crazies have their frothy candidate, who then goes on to a really humiliating defeat, then they can say in 2016 that maybe it’s time for a relatively sane candidate.
Raven
@LongHairedWeirdo: Born in 66. Sheeeet.
Maude
@Marc:
LOL
BGinCHI
@Raven: Me too. Like all good-looking people….
Donald G
I understand that John McCain is available.
Villago Delenda Est
@Soonergrunt:
Bananas Foster and Rih!
What a team!
Raven
@Marc: Why WWI, the Nazi’s were not there yet?
Raven
@BGinCHI: Ha, I was at Ft Campbell in boot camp.
Villago Delenda Est
@BGinCHI:
“Very interesting….but SCHTOOPID!”
bemused
@Soonergrunt:
I’m betting he believes he became fabulously wealthy entirely through his own herculean determination and hard, hard work with no lucky breaks or outside support.
Raven
@BGinCHI: In breaking news from Athens, we just got word that CAT is going to build a manufacturing plant that should bring 4000 jobs here!
makewi
An anonymous Senator has me convinced!
Anoniminous
I’ll take that nice hot panic with a side of schadenfreude covered in Hardy-Har-Har sauce.
There are these things called “Filing Deadlines” and they are in the dim distant past so the GOPers are stuck with the candidates they have, unless it goes to a brokered convention.
At which point a nice round of internal GOP faction fighting is almost certain.
Villago Delenda Est
@Raven:
He’s into Pickelhaubes
shortstop
Donald G: Mmmmmmm, Grumpy and That One: The Rematch. Just the thought of it makes me all warm and glowy.
Calouste
@eric: Huckabee? Maurice Clemmons
handsmile
@Raven:
Were they very tiny boots? Or are you actually a Truman baby? (I myself was hatched during the succeeding administration.)
Donald G
@Raven: Also a 1966 baby here, as well. Also a long-haired weirdo (albeit with a bald-patch forming where one used to have an uncontrollable Dennis the Menace cowlick).
Gravenstone
At this point, I think the Republicans are just looking for someone whose coat tails won’t be radioactive levels of toxic. If they can hold the House and maybe tighten the Senate, then they’ll be satisfied, regardless of which clown takes the center ring.
jl
Did Jeb Bush register for the GOP disaster brokered Convention draft? Not sure he would be interested.
If the primaries turn into a disaster, what loser would they bribe, threaten or blackmail into standing in front of the convention as the backroom brokered nominee.
Wouldn’t need a helmet, would need a face mask to deflect all the trash the delegates of Newt, Rih and Ron throw. Probably have to clear the convention hall before the lucky candidate could make his acceptance speech.
I thought the Republican’s were hairy chested bravely manly men, but this Senator is terrified. Well, I, a softy liberal is not terrified. I will brave the sh*tstorm with calm.
Anyway, after Romney carpet bombs MI with 1000 percent negative attack ads, he will have a chance.
Frankly, I do not see a problem here at all. What is this Senator so worried about?
MikeJ
@Calouste:
Dan Savage has kids too.
jl
Romney would be the perfect back room brokered nominee. And Romney would insist that the deal be done in quiet back rooms.
I think that sense of decorum says ‘Presidential’ to the US voters.
Not sure if some one who loses the primary can then be brokered into the nomination. Might be some problems with that. I will read up on it.
bemused
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Just because Republicans are part of a union household doesn’t mean they love or even like unions. I know many people working in union jobs who bitterly trash their unions. A big disconnect, I know, but it’s as common as senior citizens who attended tea party rallies with signs, “Hands off my SS”.
Anne Laurie
@JPL:
Back in 1999, the rumor I kept reading about was that “the smarter brother” had been dumb enough to leave a paper trail on his long career of helping the ex-Batista Cuban emigres loot Florida’s public treasury for “agriculture” (turning the Everglades into sugar plantations) and “development” (slapping up all those crappy condos & exurbs that are now underwater). Dubya was perfectly happy to let his handlers steal everything they could lift, but he was too lazy to make the offers in writing. Jeb! tries to take his franchise national, his long career of ‘fvck a buncha rednecks and snowbirds, gimme yer sweet Latino cash’ goes viral as fast as Willard’s SuperPAC can hit “send”.
BGinCHI
@Raven: Congrats. Hope they aren’t union IL jobs……
jimmiraybob
@eric:
Having followed the discussion since its inception I think it’s a good concept. I’d just refine it to peak still-somewhat-in-the closet wingnut, which appears to be over, and the next phase, peak we’re desparate-and-nobody’s-hiding-the-crazy-anymore wingnut (also known as peak burn the village wingnut).
Elliecat
@BGinCHI: Yeah, my thoughts exactly.
AxelFoley
@piratedan: let them bring whoever they want to the dance, we’re still gonna burn the barn down, hopefully they’ll still be inside.
Anoniminous
Gallup 5 day moving average has:
Santorum 34%
Romney 30%
Gingrich 14%
Paul 11%
Romney has dropped 7 percentage points and Frothy is up 17 poinst over the last ten days. Newt has lost 14% and it is very likely he will continue to lose loosely attached voters as the Not-Romney majority switch to the Flavor of the Month (Santorum) with, this point, nothing to indicate a halt or reversal of the trend.
Marc
@Villago Delenda Est:
There’s also the Producers Approach. He’s a man with a plan…it’s winter for Poland and France…
Sloegin +4
Bush and Christie would pretty much only put their names into consideration at the convention if blackmailed into doing it.
Marco Rubio is angling for veep, but only on a boat that floats. Doubt he’d jump into some last minute convention cluster-fun.
Huckster-Mooselini for the Apocalypse ticket!
harlana
@Raven: great news for a great city!
harlana
for once, they really don’t have a plan, do they?
((chuckles maniacally to self))
Anniecat45
@ Annie Laurie —
I thought it was George because he won his race for Texas governor in 1994 whereas Jeb wasn’t elected in Florida til 1998?
cmorenc
Let’s get this straight about the prospect of some “new” person becoming the nominee from a brokered convention (other than the four currently declared candidates still running). Each of these four will have put in the exhausting grind of actively campaigning for ten to twelve months at that point, participating in numerous debates, primaries, and caucuses, and winning a considerable number of delegates, just none of them individually with enough to lock up the nomination. And as a result of “brokered” negotiations, at least two of these men who have for a year been seeing themselves as a would-be President of the United States, having worked hard toward that end, are going to willingly agree to commit their delegates to some other candidate who hasn’t put in the work they have, hasn’t competed in any primaries or debates, hasn’t paid the sort of dues they have? Or even if they don’t agree, are going to gladly tolerate the GOP establishment hijacking their delegates out from under them for a candidate who hasn’t earned the right to the nomination other than what a handful of top honchos think might be best for everyone?
That ought to go real well. NOT!
feebog
There isn’t enough popcorn in the entire country if that happened.
Seriously, would she even win Alaska?
Odie Hugh Manatee
@EdTheRed:
Melissa Harris Perry was on with Al Sharpton and she said that the mess on the right is the fault of the President. She explained that he’s a strong and popular candidate whose policies are working. The economy is improving so the Republicans can only muster crazy candidates to run against Obama since nobody else wants to lose against him this fall. I agree with her, the mess on the right is President Obama’s fault.
Thank you Mr. President! Keep up the excellent work!! :)
Mike in NC
Maybe a brokered GOP convention would result in them choosing — wait for it — George W. Bush! Grover Cleveland did it, so why not Dubya? He also has a lot of unfinished business, you see.
General Stuck
@cmorenc:
Nobody cares about the hard work and fee fees of the remaining candidates, especially rank and file republicans. As every poll shows they don’t like their choices in the field and is why their voters are playing musical chairs for a dif candidate with each new primary. The activist folks for those candidates will be up in arms at such a call for an ‘open’ convention, but that is about all. The GOP and it’s voters want to beat Obama, and having all of their candidates at this point with unfavorables in the pits, makes that a futile enterprise with the current choices.
It would cause a lot of uproar overall, but an unelectable nominee has the potential for sinking what is left of a GOP brand, and leaving Obama and dems with such a tidal wave win, causing their very worst fears to come true. If the powers that be didn’t already acknowledge that possibility by purposely putting in new rules to allow for it this time, then it would be impossible.
But I agree that it must be a base wide approved action, or close enough to that, without causing everything to implode. That is their choice and dilemma, and it would be a last resort to hopefully deter a full frontal disaster. Rock and hard place
RossInDetroit
@Mike in NC:
Bush 3; The Electric Boogaloo. Because there were so many unanswered questions…
chris
@Villago Delenda Est: Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle FTW!!
RossInDetroit
I’ve said this before, but what the hell…
What happened to the GOP’s bench and rotation? They always had their shit figured out before game time. No last minute scramble to fill positions. Now they’ve got a third stringer on the mound and the bat boy’s making a bid for his job.
Jeebus H Christ on a road trip. At least pretend you know how to play this game, Republicans. You’re embarrassing America.
Splitting Image
@eric:
On paper, Huckabee does seem to be the guy they want. Unfortunately, he pardoned Maurice Clemmons, as mentioned above, as well as Wayne Dumond.
They way things are going right now, Dumond is probably the more toxic of the two. With the GOP fighting an all-out war to restrict women’s control of their girlie bits, a Presidential candidate who pardoned a convicted rapist so he could rape and murder another woman isn’t going to help their party any.
Of course, that really just underscores how bad things are for them. Jon Huntsman was probably the best candidate they had, and his campaign didn’t do much but give people the impression he was a bit of a weenie. Aside from him, they don’t have much of a bench. With Chris Christie vetoing the gay marriage bill and the Virginia legislature sending a bunch of horrible bills to Bob McDonnell’s desk to sign, they’ll end up having as much trouble righting the ship as anyone else.
Out of the rest of the country, the only GOP governors who seem to have kept their noses reasonably clean are Brian Sandoval in Nevada and Susana Martinez in New Mexico. Residents of those two states may be more familiar with their dirt than I am, so maybe they wouldn’t be any better than Rick Santorum once people got to know them.
Jeb might be the best of the lot after all. He might not do better than losing the same 35 states than the guy in the article thinks Gingrich and Santorum will lose. For Gingrich, though, I personally think the number might be closer to 45.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
If Romney gets the nomination, and loses, it will be because he isn’t ‘conservative’ enough. The next slate of candidates will be equally crazy.
If Frothy gets the nomination, and loses, then there will confusion, darkness, rending of garments, and gnashing of teeth among the crazy Jesus brigade. They will accuse Democrats of stealing the election, and the crazy will get ramped up to 11. The more moderate low info voters might actually see them for what they are when there is more violence in the streets.
Benjamin Franklin
@RossInDetroit:
What happened to ‘speak no evil of any Republican?’
I blame the Tea Party.
cmorenc
@RossInDetroit:
It’s inaccurate to characterize Romney as a “third-stringer”. More aptly, he’s like a #1 draft choice quarterback for an NFL team badly in need of one, where the question is about the soundness of his personal characteristics, but not his athletic talent. But then, come the actual first season, he turns out to unexpectedly be a bust who throws way too many interceptions, gets sacked too often, says awkwardly embarrassing things to the media he shouldn’t, and loses the confidence of his teammates. That’s Romney at the moment.
General Stuck
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
It would be that, plus the moderate swing voters and even soft republicans are, or have come to the conclusion the guy is a pathological liar. His approval with indies has tanked, as has his favorables with all voters. At present, he may have money, but he is just as big a walking disaster as any of the other candidates, or getting there rapidly.
Comrade Mary
@Raven: Georgia’s a right to work state, isn’t it?
Good for the people in Athens, but Caterpillar fucked over the city of London and the government of Canada in the process. Nothing like taking several million dollars from Canadian taxpayers, moving to slash wages in a (union) plant by up to half, and then closing shop when the workers refused to join the race to the bottom. (It wasn’t as if their wages were unreasonable: they were very close to what competitors offered. This wasn’t a 10-20% cut: this was 50%. Cocksuckers.)
cmorenc
@Splitting Image:
The huge problem with nominating Jeb in 2012 is that it will be impossible for the GOP to pretend (as they now do) that some mysterious person whose name is lost to history was President immediately before Obama. You have a problem when putting your own last name in a campaign ad is of itself a problem.
RossInDetroit
@cmorenc:
That’s a better analogy but I’d say the interceptions, sacks and stupid statements should have been part of the scouting report. Mitt had strong negatives going into this and they still couldn’t do any better.
I’m not concern trolling the GOP. I’m just trying to understand how their legendary party discipline and control fell apart and why. The Tea party certainly figures into it but I don’t see how that led to Mitt.
pseudonymous in nc
Talk of brokered conventions is political catnip, but let’s think of it this way: if the GOP decides that the presidential nominee is a sacrificial lamb designed to win the downticket (keep the House, take over the Senate), then who’s it going to be? Looking at the toss-up Senate races, which are mainly midwestish, then you have to think Rih is the salvage candidate.
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
I see what yewwwwwww did there.
harlana
perhaps a brokered convention is statistically impossible, but a girl can dream, can’t she? if Palin resurfaces, however, i’m investing in a set of noise-canceling headphones.
jheartney
@pseudonymous in nc: The way you win the downticket is to win the upticket. If the topline is losing, it’s a matter of how bad the damage is downticket. For that, the Romneybot is your man; Frothy and Noot are both disasters, Jeb doesn’t want it, and anybody else will be even worse.
Splitting Image
@cmorenc:
This might be delving into the sports metaphors a little too deeply, but that is probably a better description of Sarah Palin in 2008. Romney at this point is the well-travelled backup who could never quite get the starter’s job, but whose new team insisted (after signing him to a monster contract after the star went somewhere else and the team failed to land anybody as a free agent) that he’s got the goods and only needs a chance to prove it.
SiubhanDuinne
@TooManyJens:
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, Lamar! Alexander was relatively sane. And he was a Governor of Tennessee, and ran for Preznit once, so I think his “prominent” credentials are in order. I’d put a little bit of discretionary money of him.
SiubhanDuinne
@Raven:
@AxelFoley:
Smoke! Smoke! Sign of the devil! Sign of the devil!
City on fire!
Witch! Witch! Smell it, sir! An evil smell!
Every night at the vespers bell —
Smoke that comes from the mouth of hell —
City on fire! City on fire!
Mischief! Mischief! Mischief…
SiubhanDuinne
@SIA:
LOL excellent!
jl
IMHO, people should wait to see what the umpty ump gazillion bucks of Romney allies’ negative attack ads do to Rih before they get excited and pee their pants. Even if they are prominent Republican Senators.
SiubhanDuinne
@Raven:
Heard that on the WABE drop-in during ATC tonight. That’s pretty exciting. Makes me feel very optimistic about the shift in the economy.
SiubhanDuinne
@Raven:
@BGinCHI:
Ah. Year of the Horse. Me too, only 24 years earlier :-(
Midnight Marauder
@Splitting Image:
Susana Martinez is another one of those “rising stars” I am totally unworried about:
She straight up destroyed an industry that was actually thriving under former governor Bill Richardson.
If this is any indication of her competency level, bring this clown on.
Midnight Marauder
@cmorenc:
So…basically…Mitt Romney is Ryan Leaf?
Or maybe JaMarcus Russell?
@RossInDetroit:
Negroes in the White House.
Open and shut case, Johnson.
Brachiator
Strangely, more GOP leaders are moving toward Santorum:
Maybe someone high up is thinking that Romney has to be rejected early on so that Santorum or Gingrich can have a chance to rack up primary victories.
It’s getting good.
Evolving Deep Southerner (tense changed for accuracy)
@TK-421:
I was with you up until then. How would the Congressional electoral outlook be better for Democrats with Romney and not Santorum as the nominee?
mclaren
John, you’re making way too big a deal about this. You’re wildly overgeneralizing from Romney’s crash-and-burn doomed-to-fail attempt to force a party based on evangelical fundamentalist fanatical Christianity to accept a Mormon (which those loons regard as a satanic cult) as their presidential nominee.
No. And no. And no again.
The chaotic failure and self-destructing flameout of Romney’s candidacy says nothing about the Republican party’s political stance or how voters in general regard Republican policies.
Romney is dying because he’s a Mormon and as I’ve repeated until I’m blue in the face, the fanatical Dominionist evangelical Christians who make up the base of the Republican party would rather vote for the corpse of Stalin than for a Mormon.
You’ve all ignored the elephant in the room. You all keep talking about Romney’s “authenticity problem” and Romney’s policies. None of that matters dick to the people who vote in Republican primaries. The Republican party has become a fundamentalist religious cult. All the Republican primary voters care about is whether a prospective nominee is part of their fundamentalist religious cult.
Romney isn’t. Santorum is.
End of story.
That’s all there is to it, people. Romney will not be the Republican presidential nominess, regardless of what the bobblehead pundits and the oh-so-wise-sounding Balloon Juice front pagers tell you.
The Republican party is a doomsday cult. If you’re not a member of that doomsday cult (the dead will rise in Megiddo, the seas will turn to blood, the seventh seal will open and the sun will go dark, it’s all spelled out in the Book of Relevations, which the wack jobs who vote in the Republican primaries believe to be literally factually true because they’re fanatical fundamentalist religious cultists), you don’t have a chance in hell of becoming the Republican presidential nominee.
It’s pretty much the same deal as if some candidate was ideal in every way as a liberal paragon, except he totally 100% rejected environmentalism, were to try to become the Democratic nominee.
Never. Going. To. Happen.
Imagine a liberal candidate who stood foursquare in favor of women’s rights, immediate action against global warming, a big hike in the minimum wage, ending pointless foreign wars, raising the budget for social services while cutting back the military, ending the federal government’s erosion of civil rights…but constantly told everyone “and as for the rain forests, pave ’em over and make into parking lots!”
This guy could never become the Democratic nominee. Ever.
Same deal with Romney. The fact that he is a Mormon is a deal-breaker. No matter what else Romney says, no matter what else Romney does, he’s still a Mormon, and that makes him unacceptable to the Republican base.
That’s what’s going on here.
Do not draw any larger conclusions about the alleged effect of the Republican party’s policies on voters in the general population. This isn’t about that. It’s about Romney being a Mormon. And that’s all it’s about. But that’s enough to prevent him from becoming the nominee.
Villago Delenda Est
Well, there’s your problem, right there.
OvenMitt’s campaign is all about how great OvenMitt is, and how he’d be a wonderful President.
Whether or not the serfs will be better off is beside the point.
Persia
@JPL: A vote for Paul or Gingrich is a vote for chaos. I’m all for chaos.
jheartney
@mclaren: I dunno if you’re right, but that was one righteous rant.
S. cerevisiae
@eric:
I see what you did there…
Smedley the Uncertain
@Calouste: Are they his?
The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge
@mclaren:
Yeah, this is all 100%, no-money-back, spun glass bullshit. The preachers that the GOP honchos get their advice from may be as down on the Morons as you say, and they may encourage their flock to vote for other candidates in the primaries, but said flock doesn’t know the difference. The Morons are a Christian Church (“Christ” and “Church” are right there in the name!) that supports right-wing causes all the time with big money. That’s all they know or care about.
Their preachers may disagree, but what are they going to do? Tell their sheep to vote Democratic, or through inaction, allow them to vote Democratic? Yeah, dream on!
Jay
Who’s the senator in that article? DeMint?
Taylor
@Villago Delenda Est:
This.
barry
“The senator believes Romney will ultimately win in Michigan but says he will publicly call for the party to find a new candidate if he does not.”
He’s lying. If Santorum is ahead, he’ll join the parade.
Later, when Santorum loses, then he’ll talk smack.
Lex
It’s too late. I mean, it’s mathematically too late. In fact, it was mathematically too late three weeks ago.
So if you want to lob rotten vegetables at Jeb, Christie or whoever, you’ll need to wait ’til 2016.