Open Thread: Gold Gnome from Brazos
By Anne Laurie February 24th, 2012
For political completists, the New Yorker’s Kelefa Sanneh has a nice meaty summary of Ron Paul’s actual political career to date, as opposed to the gauzy claims and fables of both his supporters and his opponents:
... Paul is running for President again this year, in a field that many Republicans find disappointing. And yet, while Paul is doing better, state by state, than he did in 2008, he has conspicuously failed to establish himself as this year’s Tea Party candidate. Polls have shown that voters who support the Tea Party are actually less likely to support Paul—some have gone for Newt Gingrich, whose denunciations of Obama are pithier, or for Rick Santorum, who is more forthright in his defense of “traditional American values.” In South Carolina, where Paul received thirteen per cent of the vote, behind Gingrich, Mitt Romney, and Santorum, he did his best among voters opposed to the Tea Party. The Ron Paul movement has grown, but the events of recent years—the rise of the Tea Party, the fights over corporate bailouts, the messy passage of Obama’s health-care reform bill—have done surprisingly little to raise Paul’s standing among Republicans. Last summer, Jon Stewart mocked cable news channels for “pretending Ron Paul doesn’t exist,” and asked, “How did libertarian Ron Paul become the thirteenth floor in a hotel?” The answer is embedded in the question. People don’t think of Paul as a top-tier Republican candidate partly because they think of him as a libertarian: anti-tax and anti-bailout, but also antiwar, anti-empire, and, sometimes, anti-Republican…
If Ron Paul doesn’t win the Republican nomination, he will have to decide whether to support the candidate who does. Four years ago, he was incredulous when the John McCain campaign asked for his endorsement. “The argument was he would do a little less harm than the other candidate,” Paul said. “I said, ‘Well, I don’t like the idea of getting about two or three million people angry at me.’ ” Instead, he convened a press conference to announce an alliance between four independent candidates: Bob Barr, a former Republican congressman, of the Libertarian Party; Cynthia McKinney, a former Democratic congresswoman, of the Green Party; Ralph Nader, running as an independent; and Chuck Baldwin, a Baptist preacher, of the Constitution Party. When Barr declined, at the last minute, to join the press conference, Paul praised the remaining three—they all pledged to end the wars, uphold civil liberties, slash the debt, and audit the Federal Reserve—without endorsing any of them. Two weeks later, Paul changed his mind and endorsed Baldwin, partly, it seemed, out of spite for Barr. Together, the four candidates won about 1.6 million votes: a respectable sum, but a confusing statement, and a deflating end for Paul’s campaign…
There is only one politician whom Paul regularly praises in his speeches—a man he coyly refers to as a “senator from Kentucky.” If Paul sees a future for himself in the Republican Party, it is through his son Rand, who might have an easier time than his father in attracting traditional conservatives to his cause. (During his campaign for the Senate, for example, Rand Paul declined to rule out using force to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons.) Unlike most politicians on the verge of retirement, Paul can’t accurately claim that he has nothing to lose by breaking with the party that has been his home for all but one of his years in politics. Hope for his son’s prospects—and a disinclination to put him in an awkward position—might be enough to keep Paul from ending his political career with another third-party campaign. If he split the vote, indirectly helping to reëlect Obama, it might be a long time before Republicans were willing to get behind anyone named Paul.
What’s on the “quirky and unpredictable” agenda for the start of the weekend?
Posted in Election 2012, Free Markets Solve Everything, Open Thread
The flu sucks. That is all. I’m going back to bed now, because sitting on the couch for an hour exhausted me.
February 24th, 2012 at 5:16 pm
I rent a garage for my car and walk a couple blocks to it every day. To get there I walk under the El tracks. Today, painted on the underpass wall, was this:
I’ll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one.
Can’t tell you how much that made my day.
February 24th, 2012 at 5:18 pm
Whiskey, beer, and lawncare.
Wish me luck.
ETA: Did you know that one of the Four Dangers Destroying Men is a hot chick that looks like Charlize Theron? I was unaware.
February 24th, 2012 at 5:20 pm
Ron Paul is yet another grifter. He appears to be running a pretty bare-bones campaign, but he’s one of the best fund raisers among the Republican presidential hopefuls. Where do you think all that money is going? I’ll be very surprised indeed if a fair bit of it isn’t sticking to Dr. Paul’s hands on the way to wherever else it’s supposed to go.
February 24th, 2012 at 5:20 pm
@kdaug: It’s all in what order you do those.
February 24th, 2012 at 5:22 pm
Ron Paul is about as quirky and unpredictable as my Timex digital watch. He’s an accomplished grifter, as is his son, but there’s nothing quirky or unpredictable about him to anybody who is paying attention.
February 24th, 2012 at 5:22 pm
Oh please, please, please, let Romney or Santorum (whichever one wins the nomination) pick Aquabuddha as his running mate in a futile and ridiculous gesture meant to attract the Paulites!
February 24th, 2012 at 5:23 pm
After hitting the wall after a whriwind bay area trip it’s a good time to get my balance back. J Edgar should do the trick!
February 24th, 2012 at 5:23 pm
I’m not surprised that Paul hasn’t pulled in any of the Tea Partiers. He styles himself a libertarian but Tea Partiers are really conservatives who like some libertarian ideas but who really like government regulation that benefits them and find many of Paul’s philosophical idea liberal.
February 24th, 2012 at 5:25 pm
@BGinCHI:
The response to that is always “Enron.” And then the person tries to change the subject.
February 24th, 2012 at 5:26 pm
Here it is adventures in…..tater tots. My daughter was toying with the idea of a “tater tots bar” for her SO’s birthday party featuring various dips & toppings. Then she decided that ordinary tots were too boring so after peelng roughly 10 lbs of potatoes & conducting various other arcane rites she has arrived at the deep frying stage and I have sampled rosemary asagio tater tots, basil & truffle oil tater tots, jalapeno chili tater tots with more to come. A very yummy if not particularly balanced substitute for dinner.
February 24th, 2012 at 5:27 pm
@Violet: Wait, I take it the writer of that scree means that corporations get off while actual human beings get punished (killed). Yes? What am I missing?
February 24th, 2012 at 5:28 pm
Got a catch a flight out at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning, which is no fun at all. On the flip side, I’ll have a weekend to spend with family before diving into a week’s worth of conference-going.
February 24th, 2012 at 5:29 pm
@gelfling545: I love tater tots with truffle oil. Great, now I’m peckish.
February 24th, 2012 at 5:29 pm
@Citizen Alan:
Rand Paul has shifty eyes. He’d be a great addition to the ticket with Romney and his soulless eyes.
February 24th, 2012 at 5:29 pm
@gelfling545: Clocked, an ultrahip eatery in Athens serves em and gives you bubble gum for dessert!
“In July 2001 David Zwart and Lisa Yaconelli moved their furniture from their Portland Or apartment into 259 W. Washington and started a burger joint. Two children later, they continue to bring you great burgers, the best of Ultraman, and tater tots.”
February 24th, 2012 at 5:30 pm
For some bizarre reason I read that entire piece of crap article you posted and now regret that time I have now lost forever. I could have spent it doing something so much more worthwhile like surfing granny porn.
February 24th, 2012 at 5:30 pm
@dmsilev: That reminds me of a really bad joke from my childhood in the ‘70s:
Where did they find Tony Orlando?
February 24th, 2012 at 5:31 pm
I spent the evening conferring with my mother and youngest sister about a wedding present I want to have made for the middle sister, who’s getting hitched on 30 June. We plan to ask the seller for blue and green stones instead of pink and purple.
Tomorrow I’m doing this and then going to a toddler’s birthday party.
February 24th, 2012 at 5:34 pm
@BGinCHI:
I have no idea what the writer meant. I’m just relating what I’ve heard as a response.
February 24th, 2012 at 5:38 pm
The Romney Cadillac thing is really exploding now, judging by Google News. Bloomberg, NYT, Politico, WP - everyone piling in. They all loathe Mitt, even Politico.
He does not want to win. He is doing classic self-sabotage in a particularly transparent way. Even his back story is classic – a failed candidate’s son tries to avenge his father, but without any inner fire or conviction.
And this time around, he made a messy gaffe in his home state just four days before the vote. In a way that maximizes the fallout during the pivotal weekend media coverage.
Freud would have a field day with this puppy.
February 24th, 2012 at 5:39 pm
Always worth a read…...
http://kunstler.com/blog/2012/.....-make.html
February 24th, 2012 at 5:40 pm
Oh, big woo-hoo – found out the jury selection I was scheduled for Monday morning was cancelled.
‘Cause I don’t do Monday mornings.
Especially after lawncare.
February 24th, 2012 at 5:40 pm
@bondirotta:
Strapped to the roof of the car, I presume?
February 24th, 2012 at 5:41 pm
Apparently Santorum is giving a speech tonight outlining what he hopes to accomplish during his first 100 days as president.
Dkos has made up a list of their predictions of his first 100 days in office.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/.....via=blog_1
This is all tongue-in-cheek. Sort of. Maybe.
:-)
February 24th, 2012 at 5:42 pm
@gelfling545:
I’ll be over avec beer. Where’s “over” again?
February 24th, 2012 at 5:44 pm
Because folks figured out that his elevator doesn’t go all the way to the top.
February 24th, 2012 at 5:44 pm
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: 13th Floor Elevators
February 24th, 2012 at 5:47 pm
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: How many shows do you do on Saturday?
February 24th, 2012 at 5:47 pm
Big weekend here. John’s birthday is tomorrow and we’re going to dinner with another couple at Applebee’s. We’re hoping to run into Bobo at the salad bar. Then I go to work tomorrow morning to conduct a FAFSA completion workshop and then out to dinner with John’s daughter and her fiancé. Then Sunday we have a standing rib roast on the menu.
I’ll probably gain 10 lbs. but he has his double knee replacement on Wednesday so I’ll probably drop them while he’s in the hospital and then rehab center. And then get plenty of exercise at home after that, helping him get around for a couple of weeks.
February 24th, 2012 at 5:55 pm
@Anne Laurie:
Bad linky. You fix?
February 24th, 2012 at 5:59 pm
The Good Doctor’s district is our southern neighbor. He is a rather silent neighbor and not much of a political or legislative voice except when he is getting ready to run for President. I would bet that shallow intellects like Sully and the Fonze like him a whole lot more than most of the folks who know him best down here along the Texas coast.
February 24th, 2012 at 6:06 pm
@Amir Khalid: I swear it was working when I posted! I blame Billy Beane…
February 24th, 2012 at 6:08 pm
Don’t see a link to original article.
Here is it.
February 24th, 2012 at 6:18 pm
Going to a dinner tonight, where I am up for an award. Most likely no chance I will win it, given the competion, but the event will be at a really nice restaurant, and they make killer Rob Roys.
Tomorrow, golf of course, it was 82 here today in SoCal, looks like winter blew right by us. Sunday, finish a project replanting climbing vines on the fence lining the driveway. Monday, I’m going to jail. Actually the Supermax prison in Florence CO, should be interesting.
February 24th, 2012 at 6:26 pm
Which is funny because he’s a conventional (of the Ultra-Right Wing) 60s-era Fundamentalist Christian Republican, and not at all a Libertarian.
He’s just not a Neocon.
February 24th, 2012 at 6:30 pm
Can you have your cake, and eat it too?
http://www.aclu.org/blog/natio.....-both-ways
February 24th, 2012 at 6:34 pm
@Anne Laurie: First give me the administrator password for the website. Then you can blame me all you want. You wouldn’t be blaming me for this problem though because I can fix it in about 30seconds. I would also fix that annoying problem where you click anywhere on either side of an image and it’s a link to the image.
February 24th, 2012 at 6:34 pm
@geg6: He’s doing both knees at once? Damn. I always thought they did those things one at a time. Best of luck to him.
February 24th, 2012 at 6:39 pm
@feebog: For a visit? Long-term or short-term?
February 24th, 2012 at 6:46 pm
@feebog: Appeal went poorly?
February 24th, 2012 at 6:47 pm
@feebog:
Most important, will they still let you post comments here?
February 24th, 2012 at 7:03 pm
@Amir Khalid: Even in SuperMax, you get an hour a day out of solitary. Whether feebog chooses to use that time to comment here is another question.
February 24th, 2012 at 7:12 pm
Is Make-A-Wish pulling a Komen?
Has anyone seen the ad for a vacation package (for 2) for a 5 star resort in Hilton Head, SC for $99 bucks a night with proceeds going to the Georgia and Alabama chapters of Make-A-Wish? The whole thing sounds great until the end when they say the offer is limited to married or engaged couples only. Singles or others in ‘non-approved’ relationships need not apply.
As a single woman who travels extensively, I just find the whole thing so offensive. If I’m paying for the package, what business is it of their’s what my marital/relationship status is? In fact, what difference does it make who I’m traveling with if I’m willing to pay the same price as everyone else? There’s certainly no legal basis for making this stipulation, so it seems to be based on the religious/political agenda of someone either in Make-A-Wish or from the resort they are willingly collaborating with.
Apparently the lessons of Komen about politicizing the mission are lost on these folks. Wonder if they provide wishes to children whose parents aren’t in ‘approved’ relationships?
February 24th, 2012 at 7:19 pm
@Pongo: Speculating wildly here: the resort might have made the rooms available with that condition attached.
February 24th, 2012 at 7:31 pm
@Pongo: That condition always sounds like the wind-up for a timeshare sales pitch. Are you sure it isn’t?
February 24th, 2012 at 7:44 pm
@BGinCHI: Analogously, reminds me of a nice, snarky, spray-painted graffito years ago (like about 25 years ago) on a rail overpass on the Washington Capitol Beltway. The overpass crossed the highway a couple of hundred yards in front of the Washington Area Church of the LDS, which is a totally OTT Disney Castle that rises high above the trees bordering the Beltway like a surreal hallucination. The graffito read: “Surrender, Dorothy”, a line from the Wizard of Oz. The authorities always eventually painted over it and for a long time the bridge got tagged again. I can’t imagine how many hundreds of thousands of commuters and interstate travelers viewed this and chuckled.
February 24th, 2012 at 9:44 pm
@Jimbo316: Yes, I remember that, and yes, I chuckled.
February 24th, 2012 at 10:03 pm
@Gin & Tonic: Yeah, I’ve never ever heard of this before (and have interacted with 4-5 Make A Wish kids and their agents before), scam is more plausible.
Capitalism. M-A-W probably gets a $5 donation for every timeshare sold or some rot, just like Komen’s non-relationship with the pink pistols. There’s no official relationship with either.
February 25th, 2012 at 12:37 pm