I got kind of sick of the Rob Ford stuff, too over-the-top, too much of a cross between Justin Bieber and Nickelback. But when I started to hear that he might have a chance at re-election…just think of the Slate article “Why Rob Ford is North America’s Greatest Politician”. It sounds like his chances aren’t great, admittedly, but I came across this morning and thought “there’s that number again”:
Depending on who you ask, Ford has the hard-core support of between 20 percent and 35 percent of Torontonians.
What number is halfway between 20 and 35? This constant crosses national borders, even though they’ve got the metric system.
NobodySpecial
And now you know how much a loonie is worth.
Higgs Boson's Mate
Our own US of A put George W. Bush in the White House twice, Doug. Nothing to see here.
Svensker
The problem with a parliamentary system and 3 parties, two of which are liberal/socialist. The crazies can, have, and will continue to win, with not even close to a majority of the vote.
Punchy
Looks like they’re Dodging the real question. The Kia takeaway from the Ford survey is whether he would willingly Honda veer the mayorship if voted out. He seems like a complete dick; I bet he believes the Porsche all not be allowed to vote, and only the rich and Olds in Toronto should cast ballots.
negative 1
How could you get sick of Rob Ford? We need wingers like him in this country. Sure he’s offensive, callous and self-impressed, but so are our republicans. But he’s entertaining, and ours are not. Plus, when you hear about assholes like Corker and your first reaction is ‘are these guys smoking crack’ at least with Rob Ford you know the answer.
Gene108
Rob Ford is not only a guy folks can have a beer with, but he’s also a guy you can snort a line of cocaine with off a hooker’s boobies.
What’s not to like?
David in NY
I was distressed that John Rogers recently said, “It was just a joke, people!” As if Columbus said the world was really flat, or something.
jl
The number will bounce around some once we weight people’s votes by their wealth, which is as God and the Holy Blissful Founders intended:
Tom Perkins’ Latest Idea: Give The Wealthy More Votes
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/tom_perkins_wealthy_taxpayers_should_get_more_votes
I also see in TPM that Obama’s chief henchman, the thug Biden, outlawed the Republican Party today. Well, actually he said that will three for four, or maybe more responses to the state of the union address, it was a splintered up so much, it really wasn’t one party anymore. But, it obviously is signalling a pogrom against the GOP.
I await Biden’s abject apology.
Splitting Image
@Svensker:
Candidates in local elections don’t officially run under a party banner, so that is not really the problem here. Ford only had one major opponent last time and won with a comfortable margin.
Not that it isn’t obvious which party Ford belongs to.
Gex
@Svensker: Our purity trolls are jealous!
SatanicPanic
@Punchy: My bet is on the mercurial Ford being found under a bridge drinking Thunderbird and his reelection campaing stalls out for good.
jl
@Splitting Image:
” Not that it isn’t obvious which party Ford belongs to. ”
Dude, Rob Ford belongs to ALL the parties, and all night long!”
Punchy
@SatanicPanic: That would be more likely had he been born 8 days earlier, making Ford a Taurus.
ThresherK
I’m not looking this up, but asking:Is there really a Slate article titled that, or is it just become a shorthand for every tiresome contrarian thing Slate is capable of doing?
catclub
@jl: I think Perkins is trolling for attention. Pretty effectively, too.
MattF
@jl: Perkins: “The fear is wealth tax, higher taxes, higher death taxes — just more taxes until there is no more 1%,” he said, as quoted by CNN Money. “And that that will creep down to the 5% and then the 10%.”
But… what’s his point, exactly?
jl
These damn kids don’t stop, I’m gonna Ram those Brandrover puns up their Packard where the sun don’t shine.
Splitting Image
The other thing about Ford is that, as much of a train-wreck as he has been, his incompetence has meant that Toronto is actually getting off relatively easy (so far). Carefully examine Ontario’s geographical relationship to its neighbours Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania and you will get a good picture of how a guy like Ford got his moment in the sun. A lot of Ontarians winter in Florida too.
The real danger for Toronto is Tim Hudak, currently leader of the opposition for the provincial government. Hudak is an ALEC stooge who is ready and waiting to do to Ontario what Scott Walker, Rick Snyder, John Kasich, Tom Corbett, and Rick Scott have done to their respective states. Same shit, different country. Ford would probably have done their work cheerfully but he is a coke-addled moron.
Gex
@MattF: Does he not understand how numbers work? There is ALWAYS a top 1% and a top 5%. Sheesh.
ETA: Those at the top could lose quite a bit of their wealth and still never have to work again, their children will never have to work, their grandchildren will never have to work, etc. They will still inhabit a completely different world than the rest of us. They will be fine, even if they deign to allow the rest of us to have a little bit of economic security.
NonyNony
@SatanicPanic:
Naw. Ford needs a good scandal involving Escorts. That would set the Tempo for him to Focus on a way to Escape the Probe that he’s under now.
Ash Can
Yeah, what would be the metric version of 27 out of 100?
NonyNony
@Ash Can:
27 pour cent? 27 por ciento? 27 per cent?
MattF
@Gex: Ah. So, his point is “I’m innumerate.” Shoulda seen that one myself.
SiubhanDuinne
@Punchy:
It’s just the way he Rolls.
As for you, you’re just Chevying us with your Jeep puns. You must’ve Saturn your ass all day thinking of those, and there are probably Morris where they came from. Lotus alone already before we start Nashing our teeth.
Neutron Flux
Johnny Cash in the post title. Nice.
Amir Khalid
@NonyNony:
0.27? Null Komma siebenundzwanzig? Duapuluh tujuh peratus?
Villago Delenda Est
@jl:
Tom Perkins is tumbrel ready, today!
Chyron HR
@jl:
Dear Tom;
The 1% can either pay for food at homeless shelters or they can be food at homeless shelters. We’re nice so we’ll let you guys pick.
Comrade Mary
@jl:
You mean all the working class immigrants who support Ford, right?
Imma leaving some links for you guys just one more time.
Comrade Mary
@jl: OK, you weren’t talking about Ford. I’m just super-primed on this point. Sorry.
NotMax
27% is a full derp.
20% is a triple hemiderp.
35% is a full derp with a half-twist
No idea why that was dragged in, but I suppose one could do measurements in derpimeters.
jl
@Comrade Mary: That’s OK. Accura information about the political situation in Toronto is appreciated.
Roger That
I mean yeah I thought Ronnie Dobbs was hilarious but not as my mayor.
Cephalus Max
FSM you people are out of control with the bad puns. I’ve got to stop reading this thread for my own safety.
cckids
@SatanicPanic:
Shouldn’t that be “in a VAN, down by the RIVER”. Fits Rob Ford, somehow.
NotMax
@NotMax
Not that it matters (was just goofing around) but meant to type triple hemisemiderp above.
muricafukyea
Jesus fuk. Is it really that hard to understand Ball Juice Doug? It’s no different than the US in this way. If people show up to vote then the reasonable guys win. The problem is people don’t show up to vote. Especially for municipal elections. Only old stupid white fuks show up to vote for their favorite old stupid white fuk.
Calouste
@Svensker:
Doesn’t have anything to do with the method of representation (parliamentary system) as it does have to do with the method of electing (first-past-the-post vs proportional representation).
Just One More Canuck
what a crappy article – there was one small sliver of accuracy, where the author referred to a “weak field of candidates”. Ford’s main opponent was an even bigger jerk than Ford who was coming off a scandal-ridden time as a provincial cabinet minister who then bailed so that he could be crowned mayor of Toronto. Unfortunately for Smitherman, everybody hated him. Ford was still able at that time (at least outwardly) to keep his demons under wraps and was, as I’ve said before, a popular councillor who looked after his constituents. He was still widely regarded as a buffoon, but was seen as less objectionable than Smitherman et al. But had there been an actual credible opponent, from left or right, Ford would have been dust
Goblue72
@muricafukyea: except in this case, Ford pulls a lot of support from working class immigrants, who are not old white people.
Mathguy
It’s clear that we have a universal constant, to go along side Planck’s constant and others:
C=0.27 wn/hu, where the units are wingnuts per human.
Joel
Why did Toronto amalgamate with the suburbs anyways? Seems like a dumb idea to me, but what do I know.
Bill Arnold
@MattF:
If he wasn’t joking when he said this, or talking about irrational fears, then he’s kinda dim. I assume one or both of the former.
And what about voting by corporations, and for that matter congressional representation apportioned by number of humans + corporations within a state? Why didn’t he go there? A corporation-count arms race between states would be … amusing. The winner would probably have all but 49 of the House seats, for a decade.
feebog
@Cephalus Max:
Ah, we are just Toyota with you now.
mds
@Splitting Image:
Actually, when the “not Ford” vote was split between the self-identified liberal and the incompetent “centrist” technocrat, I think a variant of the classic provincial and federal 3-party election split is still the problem here.
A comfortable margin of 47.1% to 35.6%, with that third candiate from above taking 11.7%. Pantalone bows out, and it turns from “comfortable margin” to “nailbiter.” So again, Ford wins with an electoral minority because the opposition vote is split between center and left, yet this doesn’t resemble the Tory-Grit-NDP situation at all?
Thor Heyerdahl
@Joel:
That was thanks to another Conservative stupidstar Mike Harris.
Thursday
@cckids:
You leave Vancouver out of this!
Thursday
Thing is, Rob Ford spent ten years as a councilman actually working quite hard (and very visibly) for the folks in his district. He’s got a lot of people who are perfectly happy to overlook damn near anything because he actually returned their calls and worked for them for a decade.
A story for those folks with political aspirations, I suppose.