Dave Weigel links to the Gallup poll that “Voters’ Reaction to Romney’s “47%” Comments Tilts Negative“:
… So, we’re only talking about a plurality. The lion’s share of voters are indifferent to the story. But there was a semi-popular theory, in the first 24 hours after the story broke, that voters might actually like the Romney comments. Multiple studies in multiple countries have found that most people think they’re middle class, even if they aren’t. Maybe these same people would embrace the “stuff it, moochers” argument!
Maybe they won’t.
But not to worry, Mr. Romney! Your Republican compatriots have many ideas as to how you can yet redeem your campaign! As Jonathan Chait explains, in NYMag:
… The upside of being a presidential candidate behind in the polls is that you get all kinds of thoughtful and workable proposals to right the ship. The solutions range from minor pedestrian issues of campaign mechanics to grand metaphysical decisions. Beginning with the former, some Republicans are upset that Romney is spending too much time raising money and not enough time holding rallies…
Other Republicans have more constructive advice, but only slightly more constructive. “Romney needs a big idea, then he needs to shift the debate to spending,” says GOP strategist Greg Strimple, declining to identify what the big idea would be. Peggy Noonan also has some practical advice:
What should Mitt Romney do now? He should peer deep into the abyss. He should look straight into the heart of darkness where lies a Republican defeat in a year the Republican presidential candidate almost couldn’t lose. He should imagine what it will mean for the country, for a great political philosophy, conservatism, for his party and, last, for himself. He must look down unblinkingly.
And then he needs to snap out of it, and move.
But where would he find this abyss? Is there one for sale? And what if he accidentally blinks? Does he have to start over? Would a series of shorter, more shallow peeks into the abyss possibly help, perhaps if he scheduled fund-raisers in between?
Bill Kristol advises Romney to “step down and we get the Ryan-Rubio ticket we deserve!” I suppose this might also happen if Romney tried the abyss thing and was somehow sucked into the vortex…
Well, given Bill “Always Wrong” Kristol’s record, we can predict one thing at least: Romney’s not stepping down. Dagnabit.
Rebecca Schoenkopf at Wonkette drew the short straw to report the opinions of John “Prolapsed Pig Rectum” Sununu. You should read her whole post, which is excellent, unlike anything that’s ever emerged from the angry little red wound of John Sununu.
Finally, Erick “Voice of the GOP Gated Commnity” Erickson was excited that “Mitt Romney’s Remarks are Another Chick-Fil-A Moment“:
… Mike Huckabee and others declared a Chick-Fil-A Day. On the appointed day, lines of cars stretched around city blocks. Lines of people stretched across parking lots. Turns out a lot of people agreed with Dan Cathy. But it also turned out a lot of people who did not agree, but were not offended and showed up to support Chick-Fil-A….
So it is, I think, with Mitt Romney’s comments. I think the media and the left have badly misread the American mood on this. On CNN yesterday, I spent a fair amount of time with Kate Bolduan and Joe Johns, two of my favorite people. They kept focusing on Mitt Romney’s characterization of the word “victims.”
What I explained to them and what I think the media misses is that many of the people the media would claim Mitt Romney described as “victims’ weren’t who Mitt Romney was speaking about. And those people intrinsically know it. They may technically fall into the category Mitt Romney described as government dependent victims, but they know he’s not talking about them. He’s talking about the people they also are talking about.
But more than that, and this is really what the left and media miss, a fair number of those people in the 47% are not there by choice. They are there by Barack Obama’s economic policies. And they absolutely understand that Barack Obama’s policies got them there. All they need to hear from Mitt Romney is that he really does get it and really will fix the problem, not just manage the decline of the nation as his primary opponents claimed he would….
This was posted to Redstate at 3:30am on Wednesday morning. It is totally not Mr. Erickson’s fault the announcement that “Chick-Fil-A Is Done Fighting Gay Marriage. Kind Of, Maybe.” would appear in the lamestream media only a few hours later….
***********
Apart from passing those anvils along, what’s on the agenda this morning?
raven
I thought it was going to be longer.
Mary G
This is the weirdest election. I don’t watch much TV, but I see some, and here in CA I have seen a total of like, two Barack Obama commercials (why? he’s going to win) and zero Mitt Romney commercials. I didn’t even know Diane Feinstein was running this year.
The comparison to 2010 is amazing. Meg Whitman and various Tea Party groups gave mail carriers all over the state hernias last time and now it’s zip, nada. I went to San Diego the other day and saw one Romney/Ryan bumper sticker, and one Obama/Biden. Last time they were all over by now.
One of the city council candidates did knock on my door the other day, though. Very nice person who I can support – we don’t do Republican/Democrat, but we do have vicious knockdown/dragouts over developers vs. environmentalists and that’s not even on this year.
As one of the moochers/takers/parasites/scum of the earth 47% (I get Social Security disability and Medicare) every time Mittens or Ryan or whichever nutjob you guys are featuring opens his mouth my rage rachets up a notch. I’ve even thought of starting a blog.
Linda Featheringill
I’m going back to bed and see if I can’t get another couple of hours. Fuss and bother and argle bargle.
BTW, Erik Erikson, I notice that Chick-Fil-A has recanted and now plans to see food and not religion.
c u n d gulag
Son of a son of other son’s of Erick, is as obtuse as ever.
Not that CNN would ever notice.
Does it ever occur to the suits at CNN that a lot of us have stopped watching it BECAUSE they started to include this nasty imbecile, and the Loesch-bag?
No, obviously not.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
Digging up details on the veterans bill filibuster. For some reason, I keep flabbergasting people by pointing out that Rs don’t want to pay for the troops they’ve broken.
Applejinx
Jon Stewart missed a trick on his Bullshit Mountain rant…
The Obama redistribution ‘gotcha’ quote was from 10/19/98.
Malia was born on July 4, 1998, Natasha (“Sasha”), on June 10, 2001. So Obama didn’t quite say that before ANY of his children were even alive- but his first child was four months old.
Maybe that just had him in a sort of redistributey frame of mind?
Romney would’ve put that infant to work!
Misterpuff
So Ryan is more Machiavellian than we took him for? He could peer into the mists, apply Randian analysis and determine Romney was a big fat FAIL, hooked his wagon to the falling star, just so Ryan would pick up the pieces and the top of the ticket when The Mittster finally acceded to the wishes of his party? Or will he burn up on upon hitting the atmosphere yoked to the Mitt meteor?
danielx
Ooooooh, Erick son of Erick has his finger on the pulse of the zeitgeist, as usual. Of course they know who’s he talking about, “those people”. You know, Cadillacs, young bucks buying t-bones…”those people”.
Except that Mittens didn’t say “the 47% except for retired white people and veterans and disabled people”, he said the 47%, period. Mittens isn’t discriminatory, the only factor he looks at is money. Either you’re poor and a parasite, or you’re rich and a victim of the poor. Moreover, a lot of those in that 47% don’t pay Federal taxes because of policies championed by…three Republican presidents – Nixon, Reagan and Bush II. Having to get into all those pesky facts is inconvenient and a real bother, since wingnut voters tend to view everything in – ahem – black and white terms.
These are tough times for wingnut pundits.
Randy P
Erickson’s commenters make me despair for humanity. It’s somehow worse than the trolls here. Not sure why. Maybe because they come across as more sincere and deluded than petty and nasty and deliberately deceptive.
“Romney has a plan to create jobs. It has to do with the free market or something.”
“Well then we better hope he gets elected.”
Mary G
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Yeah, when I saw that on Rachel Maddow I wanted to scream. Wrote the damn bill and then refused to vote for it.
Ben Cisco
Yup, just go right ahead, MoneyBooBoo. Ignore that Nietzsche dude.
JoyceH
@Mary G:
You should try living in a swing state. Here in VA we’re snowed under with political ads, sometimes three in a row in one commercial break. The Rove PAC ads are sooooo cheesy.
Schlemizel
You know the goopers remind me of fans of a marginally successful football club. They just LUVs them that gorgeous hunk of a backup quarterback!
The coach is screwing up and playing this guy who keeps throwing interceptions and calling bad plays while that perfect guy sits on the bench unable to step in and save the day. Kristol exhibits this thinking perfectly. If only rAyn were the top of the ticket & a brown one as VP we would win all the Hispanic votes and women would swoon over them and they would never make any of these mistakes and they would be perfect and we would have won the superbowl . . .
But, as an ex-fan of one of those marginal clubs, I can tell you what happens when the guy on the bench is brought in to lead the dysfunctional, inadequate team: the fans start pining for the new guy on the bench to replace this loser the coach just brought in!
Patricia Kayden
The bottom line is that Mittens said he doesn’t worry about the 47%. I don’t see how he gets around that now. How can you be running for the highest office in the land, but not care about almost 1/2 of the population? Even if that 47% is made up of lazy Black people, shouldn’t you as the President care about their welbeing?
Wouldn’t it be too late for Ryan to top the ticket? Wonder why Kristol would make such a suggestion.
Schlemizel
@Ben Cisco:
No sweat! Rmoney has no soul, the abyss is powerless over him
presquevu
Is it correct to use Romney and deep in the same sentence?
Giving those AQ guys tasked with creating a hostage crisis RPGs for the job wasn’t smart.
Who’s coaching Mitt to suggest Hezbollah nuke Chicago? Sounds like Cheney – Rice – Rumsfeld redux.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Mary G:
Coattails?
For a state with an active movie industry, North Carolina pols are sure having trouble finding decent actors for their commercials. I think I would have been put off McCrory just for making me listen to his ads.
danielx
@Randy P:
Hey, the trolls here are at least trying to engage in dialogue, even if a lot of their comments are wrong and/or gloating in tone.
Besides, I have to confess reluctant admiration at their turd-polishing skills.
LE
@JoyceH: And thanks to Virignia we have to watch all that crap here in DC too. Don’t these idiots understand what oversaturation is? I bet most everyone is like me and changes the channel when they come on.
Randy P
@LE: Yeah, I remember that from when I lived in Montgomery County, MD. But I also kind of got into DC politics even though it didn’t affect me. Used to really enjoy the “DC Politics Hour with Kojo Nnamdi” on WAMU.
Never cared much about VA politics though. DC had all the interesting characters.
arguingwithsignposts
@LE: @Randy P:
Hey, at least VA is competitive. It could be a deep red.
mr.peabody
I must admit, it is highly amusing watching all of the Conservative pundits do a 180 every time Mitt does something stupid. First, they look on in horror, mumble some mild rebuke, then when they see the cars piling up on the highway, they start praising him for his genius! I was watching that fat tub of goo Erickson on CNN yesterday as he extolled the virtues of Romney’s vision of America. He was obviously proud that Willard had embraced his 47% meme, but he also had the look of a kid with his hands over his ears going “Lalalalala!” I can’t hear You! to Soledad O’Brien. Hilarious!
dr. bloor
I hadn’t really thought about it before, but contra the preferences of most politicians, I’ll bet fundraising is his favorite part of being a candidate.
debbie
And that’s the Republicans’ problem: they’re only listening to themselves. They have yet to really listen to ALL of the people. Their whole strategy was only about what they would do or say. They never took into account how Obama would react or what he would throw back at them. They’ve never had a long-term strategy that provided for more than one possibility. That’s why their only response now is “He lies.”
Irving
@debbie: Obama, OTOH, has been getting inside Romney’s head for a while now. It’s startling how easy it is for the Obama team to decide what Romney will talk about on a given week. Notice how Romney never gets a chance to talk about the economy anymore?
amk
@presquevu:
romney is in deep shit. There.
NotMax
Why do I envision Romney, the day of his inauguration (which ain’t gonna happen; speaking hypothetically here), announcing the issuance of shares in United States of America, LLC.
But only to the 53%.
ant
Noonan:
Has anybody ever backed up this notion with data anywhere?
I keep reading it, but it always strikes me as fishy when I see it.
Who started this, and why?
anibundel
Having watched Jon Stewart’s Genius rant “Chaos on Bullshit Mountain,” it is time to shower and then sit in traffic.
This commuting thing seems to keep happening to me in the morning. Obviously I need an intervention. There ought to be a law.
ericblair
@mr.peabody:
The funny bit is the contortions that idiots like EricPtr->Eric have to go through every time Romney tries to recover. That’s where a lot of the extra amusement happens, because the Rombot is bad at that part too. So Romney gets a rhetorical cut on the arm, and you can kick back and enjoy while he tries to mend the damage with a flamethrower and a floor stapler.
weaselone
@danielx:
You have to remember that members of that 47% who vote Republican are honorary 53%ers while members of the 53% who vote Democrat are de facto members of the 47%. It’s just like how Massachusetts where the revolutionary war began, member of the original 13 states and net federal taxpayer is an unamerican welfare state, while the states busy suckling at the federal teat in flyover country are real american bootstrappers.
PeakVT
How much of a hack is our Lady of Pink Himalayan Salt? Find out here.
EconWatcher
As Dieter from Sprockets would say, “The anguish is delicious.”
J.D. Rhoades
@Applejinx:
Two things: one, Obama never mentions redistribution of ‘Wealth,” as the Republicans claim. He talks about “resources” and it’s clear from the context, he’s talking abut governmental resources on the local level. Second, it should come as no great surprise that the tape was dishonestly edited to cut off the “rest of the story”:
http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/19/13971913-in-rest-of-98-clip-obama-speaks-of-competition-and-the-marketplace?lite
Donut
@Mary G:
All four of them elected either in 2008 or 2010, and most if not all of their respective bases will not give a shit about this now or at reelection time.
This shit was truly craven.
MattF
@ant: The ‘why’ is easy… President-While-Black, and all that.
J.D. Rhoades
@EconWatcher:
The wingnuts on line started trotting out the 9/11 clips last night. “If Obama’s elected, THIS IS GONNA HAPPEN AGAIN!”
Schlemizel
@ericblair:
The Nice Polite Republicans had some clown on from Gallup polling this morning who was doing a marvelous job of putting lipstick on Willards pig of a comment. He actually suggested that Americans agree with Rmoney, but first he had to lay out the case in GOP framing.
By the weekend shows I bet they are spinning the 47% BS as a win for Willard and unbridled honesty
TheMightyTrowel
@PeakVT: Oh! Pick me! Pick me! I know the answer! Pick me!
She’s the HACKIEST HACK ON HACK MOUNTAIN (where it snows bullshit and rains slug slime)
Patricia Kayden
@LE: I mute or change the channel if it’s a RMoney ad. Living in MD, we definitely are oversaturated with political ads, but I cannot imagine what Ohioans are going through!
PurpleGirl
@LE: I mute the sound. The commercial usually doesn’t last long enough to change the channel to something but the silence is nice.
Mary G
@Donut: We just need to give them lots of Democrats to fight with. I’m about ready to stop giving to Obama and parcel out my pennies to Tammy Baldwin, whoever’s running in Florida, whoever is running in Virginia, and whoever is running against Jeff Flake in Arizona. Suggestions for others welcome. I can’t believe that Linda McMahon could win and I gave to Elizabeth Warren already.
Nate Silver tweeted last night that the GOP Senate campaign is flailing, falling, failing and fucked up. OK, he didn’t put it that way, but my dander is up.
Rita R.
Just saw that beady-eyed guy from Politico whose name I can’t recall right now on Morning Joe, fresh from talking to “Boston,” with the scoop on what Romney’s team is going to do to try drag this crapfest of a campaign to victory. Three steps:
1. More Mitt! No, I’m not kidding, he said that. People need to see more of Mitt and know who he is. (Personally, I think they’ve seen quite enough, know who he is and don’t like him. But that’s just me.)
2. More appearances with Ryan. Kind of contradicts the first one I think — it goes from More Mitt to Hide Mitt behind the P90X dude with the questionable relationship to the truth who Republicans believe all the ladies think is hot but really only gets conservative old men warm and tingly in those special places.
3. Hail Mary pass on the debates. Apparently Romney has done five mock debates in two days. I’m thinking this may cause the Romneytron to short out.
So that’s the grand master plan. I say Obama wins re-election by 10 points and the Dems keep the Senate, take the House, and roll Justice Scalia down the Supreme Court steps after taking his lunch money, breaking his glasses and kicking him in the nuts.
jibeaux
@ant: They really, really, don’t like Obama. They talk to each other and they all agree. Therefore, he shouldn’t win.
I have a semi-serious but not really question. When the hell did the Republican party decide to become the emo party that doesn’t actually have any, you know, PLANS, for anything? They’re like a sophomore who has to write a 1000 word essay about a book they haven’t read, and they’re just bullshitting through with meaningless catchphrases.
xian
@Irving: i suspect Axe et al keep pocketing their planned lines of attack because Romney keeps shitting the bed. As soon as he comes up for air they can tip him back into his tailspin multiple ways.
PeakVT
@Mary G: I think Florida is safe for Nelson. Virginia and Wisconsin are probably where your money would do the most good.
@TheMightyTrowel: Close. It’s actually Big Koch Candy Mountain.
jibeaux
@J.D. Rhoades: Well, if Obama wanted to avoid that criticism he should’ve done more about terrorism when he was president in 2001!
xian
@ant: @ant: Ezra Klein has repatedly debunked it. Obama has a very slight advantage in the fundamentals of the race.
TheMightyTrowel
@PeakVT: I should have guessed – that’s the mountain with the pink-salt salt mines worked by peasants, children and old people.
Uncle Cosmo
@Patricia Kayden:
Kristol’s comment reminds me of glibertarian friends who gleefully pounced on & paraded any shred of evidence that Obama’s birth certificate was bogus. They were way too intelligent to actually believe that, but they hoped against hope it was true, because it would make things so much easier for their side.
It’s not too late for Ryan to top the ticket–if Mitt either withdraws or is by some act of fate removed. He’s not going to bow out after 7 years of running for the office–after all, “maybe the horse will learn to sing”…
Which leaves Thugs like Kristol squatting at the intersection of Stochastic Terrorism & Wishful Thinking. Not that they’d actively encourage anyone to do anything drastic, mind you. But it would make things so much easier for their side…& the longer & louder Far-Wrong pound-its repeat this sort of notion, the more likely some Teahadist with a loose grip on sanity & access to weapons will take the hint. Let’s hope Romney’s Secret Service detail stays on its toes….
beltane
@jibeaux: It’s the Fox News effect. While Fox may have helped the GOP a great deal initially, it has gradually caused them to make the transformation from mainstream political party to emo performance art troupe.
Now that the Republicans have categorically written off 1/2 the population, how long will it be until they explicitly declare that they only want the votes of 27% of Americans? There is over a month left to this campaign, more than enough time for Romney & friends to alienate even more segments of society. Who will he shit on next?
Jay in Oregon
@jibeaux:
I suspect that’s how most of them got through school. That, or coasting on “gentlaman’s C’s” from being legacy admissions.
Our Awesome Meritocracy, indeed.
NotMax
@jibeaux
The ‘fortune cookie masquerades as policy’ gambit (IMHO) certainly goes back to Ronald “It’s morning in America” Reagan, and Gerald Ford’s laughable plea to have everyone wear a WIN (Whip Inflation Now) button.
Might even concede at least the roots of that party tenet as far back as Hoover’s campaign (A chicken in every pot).
EconWatcher
@beltane:
Well, we have to remember this: No matter how badly it goes for him, the Mittster will almost certainly win the white vote, and a substantial majority of the straight white male vote.
On behalf of straight white males everywhere, what can I say? I’m embarrassed. Apparently, the privileged perch we’ve enjoyed for so long wasn’t based on smarts….
MikeBoyScout
Gekko/Galt is the anvil
We are the HAMMER!
Hammer it home
Billy
I like Noonan’s advice. Because it could be fairly paraphrased as “get desperate. get really desperate. i mean total desparation!”.
Because desperation is the anvil that the world has tossed Romney, and he really doesn’t handle it well having not had much practice with it.
Ash Can
“We”? Since when did Kristol join the ranks of us DFHs?
beltane
@EconWatcher: Have faith! I can certainly imagine Mitt Romney making some comment attacking straight white men whose wives work outside of the home. If Mitt’s wife never had to work outside of the bedroom, any SWM whose wives do are obviously losers and deadbeats.
bago
Isn’t the role of a technician to spot and fix technicalities?
Ash Can
@Rita R.:
This campaign gets more awesome by the day.
The Thin Black Duke
@beltane: Yeah, but. Point is, it doesn’t matter what Romney says, those dumb angry white guys are gonna vote for him anyway, guaranteed. Depressing, ain’t it?
Steeplejack
Deleted because FYWP.
beltane
@Ash Can: Is it really wise for a Mormon to be throwing a Hail Mary pass at the debates? The one thing everyone should have realized by now is that Mitt doesn’t do bold very well.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@NotMax:
Mister, we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again
Steeplejack
Here are the three links for Jon Stewart’s opening rant about Fox News last night. Really awesome–maybe his best stuff in years.
“Chaos on Bullshit Mountain”:
“Your campaign got blown up by Jimmy Carter’s grandson?! Oh, the Habitat for Humanity!”
“It’s like Romney jazz–it’s the words you don’t hear.”
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
“Part 2: Video Distractions”:
“By the way, what about this new, very pertinent video of Obama that Fox has made hay of all day? When was that video recorded?”
Foxbot: “That was recorded in 1998.”
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
“Part 3: The Entitlement Society”:
“Now in that 49% [of moochers] Hannity is including those on Social Security and Medicare, or, as I like to call them, his audience.”
jeffreyw
Most awesomest awesome thing today, so far.
Nethead Jay
@Mary G: Richard Carmona is running in Arizona and Tim Kaine in Virginia, both very worth supporting. Agreed about Tammy Baldwin but Bil Nelson looks safe in Florida, so I wouldn’t bother there. Other than those, maybe take a look at Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota. She’s within range and her opponnt Rick Berg is horrible.
BenA
@JoyceH:
I’ve seen next to no ads in PA. I keep waiting for the blitz and it hasn’t happened yet. I did get a ton of Obama during the Olympics… but that was about it. It might have something to do with the choice of channels I watch… it also might be because the Romney campaign never thought PA was in play… which shocks me a bit because PA swung right in 2008.
ericblair
@Ash Can:
I enjoy the part where the incompetent arrogant manager, having caused some totally preventable clusterfuck, swoops in to heroically save the day, with predictable results. It’s not a whole lot of fun for the hapless staff, who get blamed for every balls-up they tried to prevent, but for the Romney staff, fuck em.
jibeaux
@jeffreyw: Someone is going to have to explain these click and drag xkcd ones to me. I just don’t get ’em.
BenA
@ant:
I was wondering the same thing and I’ve heard Republicans and even some ‘mainstream’ pundits saying the same thing.
I think three reasons they say this: Bad economy, because Jimmy Carter… and… he’s black.
I also think it’s a function of the right wing echo chamber… everyone they know and talk to think that he’s the worst president since forever… so of course he was going to lose.
Mark S.
@beltane:
What would that Hail Mary even be? Mitt actually taking a position on something?
ericblair
@Mark S.:
Underpants Mitt
1. UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH!
2. ???
3. WINNING!
Cmm
@BenA:
I’ve read that the R’s have given up on PA because it’s too far toward Obama to spend on the ads. I guess they have all their eggs on having the voter interference win the state so why waste the money on ads? So don’t expect the blitz to materialise unless there is someone down ticket they decide to try to save once they give up on Romney.
Wonkette has a delicious take on the Noonan column:
http://wonkette.com/484641/peggy-noonan-cuts-a-bitch
Napoleon
@BenA:
I think the economy was 100% of the reason. If Obama is reelected in a lot of ways you can argue that it is completely unprecedenteded.
NotMax
@Mary G
Not the Senate, but some moolah for Graves, running against Bachmann in Minnesota (and not at all out of the question for him to take it due to redistricting) might help.
So far as the Senate goes, incumbent Jon Tester in Montana is in a tight race with nutball GOPer Denny Rehberg.
Xecky Gilchrist
He should imagine what it will mean for the country, for a great political philosophy, conservatism, for his party and, last, for himself.
I appreciate that there’s a distinction made between conservatism and a great political philosophy.
Nethead Jay
@jeffreyw: Thank you for that link. I was gonna look for something like it today, after spending way too much time clicking and dragging just about every inch of that map yesterday, all the while giggling like a madman. Xkcd is awesome :D
the Conster
@Napoleon:
The problem with basing the whole rationale for voting for Mitt on the bad economy assumes that the rest of the country has no memory of 2000-2008 like Fox News conservatives do. That’s their problem, and it’s only going to get worse.
Shawn in ShowMe
@Napoleon:
The punditry’s problem is they keep comparing Obama to past presidents as a group. The only guy who was in Obama’s predicament was Herbert Hoover in 1929. Obama stopped The Great Depression. Hoover didn’t.
JohnnyMac
Everybody thinks they’re middle-class because the campaign to vilify the working-class was so successful.
What are people going to think they are when the campaign to vilify the middle-class is successful?
Tom Q
@Napoleon: It’s unprecedented only if you take a tunnel vision view of the current standing of the economy and assume nothing else matters or mitigates.
As I said here yesterday: FDR got 60% of the vote and carried all but ME & VT with 16.1% unemployment in 1936. Reagan had 7.5% unemployment in ’84, and it was Morning in America — 59% of the vote and every state but MN & DC. Why was 8.1% unemployment, in that context, supposed to be so lethal? Especially given how everyone sentient knows Obama rescued us from a far worse downturn. It’s true that GDP in ’36 and ’84 was superior to what we have now, but it’s also true that the current economy, while stumbly, is clearly not in recession, and has been generating job growth for two years or more, with the unemployment rate unmistakably moving in the right direction.
Plus, while the economy means alot, it’s not a be-all/end-all. Obama gets points for his foreign policy triumph (bin Laden), his major achievements (health care above all), his personal charmisma and avoidance of scandal, his fully united party. These are elements many of which were not available for incumbents like Bush I or Ford, who lost with similarly mediocre economies.
DGarr
What the “secret” tape reveals:
Finally, the real Romney. Finally, what voters have been waiting for.
Mr. Romney, out of robotic mode, speaking from the heart.
For the first time, we hear this man speaking confidently, eloquently, because he is saying what he believes. Comfortable because he is with his own kind, speaking is mind.
The stress of concealment, not possible entirely to hide, reveals itself in Mr. Romney’s breathless jerky voice, the uncomfortable laugh, the unfocused eyes, the awkward body movements–as his body literally rebels against the lies he is telling.
We had thought he was just a candidate uncomfortable with oratory.
No, he is a man hiding from the wider public his true beliefs.
Yes, Mr. Romney has finally revealed what he believes.
And that is the problem.
Villago Delenda Est
@ant:
It’s bullshit, and all the proof we need is to look back at the Klown Kar Kavalcade that was the GOP primary. All the pundits’ “A team” candidates, save for, you guessed it, Rmoney, said thanks but no thanks last year to participating in the Kavalcade. Which left Rmoney wide open to take it, and he couldn’t close the deal even then.
This election has been Obama’s to lose, no matter what the state of the economy, for the last two years.
All Nooners is doing is setting up the “Rmoney failed us!” narrative to calm the faithful and reassure them that “Conservatism” has been failed, yet again, by an unworthy champion.
bcinaz
Makes me wonder about the legendary Turn-Around Skills Mitt allegedly possesses. He bragged about liking to ‘fire people’ and has yet to fire a single person from his incompetently run campaign. He’s the guy at the top of his ticket and he’s dragging everything down around him. Is this all ego or just cluelessness? And if your entire calling card is the ability to borrow money and make other people pay it back, then maybe you are running for the wrong office. You need to get yourself elected, as a Republican, to the House of Representatives.
hitchhiker
somebody already pointed out this e-son-of-e inadvertent clarity:
See, what he thinks the media misses is that when white people hear that, they know he’s talking about black people.
Might as well just be blunt, Erik. We know what you’re talking about.
Kane
@Villago Delenda Est: Wait for the Obama didn’t win, Romney lost meme.
feebog
Oh Peggy:
The rMoney should’nt be losing in this lousy economy meme keeps popping up. Laura Ingram said the same thing last week in her rage against the -machine- robot.
Do Republicans all think we have collective memory loss? Do they all think that they can just wipe away 8 years of the Bush Administration trashing this country? Do they think we have forgotten how Bush stood by and did nothing while we bled 700K jobs every month?
Ben Cisco
Our media sucks.
That is all.
flukebucket
@feebog:
I keep seeing that too and it is such bullshit. As if any Republican candidate could just ride in and save the day. Mitt is the best they had and that says all anybody needs to know about the Republican party.
Sly
When you think about it, Romney was only wrong about which people have a victim mentality and who will never learn to embrace personal responsibility.
Tom Q
@Kane: Which will be the rationale for “This is still a center right country, and Obama/the Dems better cut Social security and Medicare if they know what’s good for them”
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
@Ben Cisco:
Chuck Todd was smart, once. I remember him in 2008, hovering in front of an e-board, counting votes for Keith or Chris or Rachael.
Wonder WTF happened. Too many jello shots with Luke, maybe?
That said, he’s getting hammered on the twitter for that absurd comment.
uptown
@bcinaz:
Mitt’s working to plan…
he runs the business/campaign into the ground and then takes what’s not nailed down.
matryoshka
@Rita R.: “So that’s the grand master plan. I say Obama wins re-election by 10 points and the Dems keep the Senate, take the House, and roll Justice Scalia down the Supreme Court steps after taking his lunch money, breaking his glasses and kicking him in the nuts.”
I like the cut of your jib, lady.
Mike G
I am. And I’m laughing my ass off.
The vulture capitalist is doing what vulture capitalists do — incompetently running the operation into the ground while bragging about how awesome he is and preening for the cameras, then making off with as much loot as he can carry.
Rethugs, the thing about keeping predators as pets and gleefully watching them attack others is, eventually you become the prey.
dww44
@c u n d gulag: Just an hour ago I happened on an interview of Zbigniew Brzezinski by one of their female anchors (whose name does not come to min) about whether the administration could have PREVENTED the Libyan violence and killing of Ambassador Stevens. She kept trying to get him to commit to a direct or indirect criticism of Obama and Clinton et.al. and finally he said, “The only responsible thing I can say is that I don’t know”. My husband, who despises TV talking heads of all stripes, said aloud, “Well, thank goodness for that answer”.
dww44
I keep hearing and reading this. I’ve never felt that the election of a Republican was an assured event, even a year and a half ago. Have I been living too far into my liberal bubble?
dance around in your bones
All I see with the RomneyTron is Commander Data who has fried out a computer chip or come into contact with a large magnet.
At least Data had the ability to express empathy.
Look into the abyss, MItt, look DEEPLY into the abyss.
Kyle
@dww44:
Because street mobs in Arab countries are eminently controllable and predictable from the White House if only you have the Right People running things. What a dumbass loaded question.
It will be a frosty day in hell before you’ll ever hear a media gasbag ask Bush or Cheney that question about 9/11.
Ben Cisco
@Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God: Good, he deserves that sh*t.
unspiek
Well, there is a steady, solid, conservative available for the top spot, were rMoney to walk the plank off the R ticket.
And it would save everyone time and trouble, since the Democrats have already nominated him, too.
Tim I
Has Peggy Noonan started drinking absinthe? She really needs to go back to Scotch. The abyss? WTF!
Djur
@BenA: What I recall Nate Silver saying is something along the lines of the economy being a drag on Obama’s reelection chances, but only to the point of possibly overriding Obama’s incumbent advantage.
America likes to reelect its presidents. For most of the 20th century, incumbents have generally only been defeated in situations where they were either unpopular with their own party or the economy was weak and the opposing candidate was very good.
Bush II: reelected
Clinton: reelected
Bush I: weak economy + skilled opponent
Reagan: reelected
Carter: weak economy + skilled opponent AND unpopular with own party
Ford: arguably an outlier considering he was never elected, plus Carter won by a nose
Nixon: reelected
LBJ: unpopular with own party
JFK: assassinated in first term
Eisenhower: reelected
Truman: reelected
FDR: duh
Hoover: weak economy + skilled opponent
…
Also, it’s important to consider that the economy’s impact on elections is both derived from the current state and the perceived trend of the economy. Reagan was reelected in a landslide while the economy was still fairly shitty because it was improving.
The economy is improving — not as quickly as it could be — but the only way this election would be a shoo-in for the Republican candidate would be if the economy was actively getting worse.
Djur
tl;dr of above: This election was never really Romney’s to lose — the economy isn’t bad enough and Obama is personally popular. Romney is a crappy candidate, but Obama will win this on his own merits.
Fred Fnord
I thought his head was stuck in his own personal abyss, and had been for years?
JS
@amk: I think the phrase we’re looking for is: Romney really stepped in it with those 47% comments. He’s in deep Mitt now.
Paula
@Steeplejack:
BOTH SIDES DO IT! HIPSTER DAVID BRODER! WHAT WAS THAT RALLY ABOUT? BELIEVING HIS OWN HYPE! I LIKE COLBERT BETTER!