Conflicting reports up on memeorandum about whether or not Romney is throwing in the towel and not spending any more of his fortune. This report claims they are done with the ad buys, this story seems to indicate they are going forward with a large purchase.
As to Romney, I have thought about this a good deal, and I simply can not narrow down what exactly it is that thoroughly repulses me about him. It isn’t the Mormonism, as I couldn’t care less about people and their religion unless they are chucking it in my face. I think it is equal parts his naked opportunism, who is supporting him (Hugh and company), and the fact that he is the one individual in the race that when I look at him, my inner self says “he is so totally full of shit.” I haven’t been so thoroughly convinced someone was full of it every time they opened their mouth since, well… Bill Clinton. It really is a mystery why I can not stand the man so much- he isn’t as objectionable as Tancredo or some of the others, but I just have had a knee-jerk dislike of the man since the beginning.
Jen
And if all my “Blink”-based psychobabble is correct, that’s all you need to know about him!
Derrick
Me thinks that your Bullshit Detector is insync with the most of us. I agree with a number of liberals that he might be the least dangerous of all of the Republican candidates but the guy just reeks of fake. The phrase “empty suit” just has complete new meaning after watching Mitt. As the Onion put it, he’s definitely the candidate that I’d want to crack over the head with a 2×4, you know if I went around doing that kind of thing.
stinky mcgee
He reeks of slime. He gives the impression that he will say absolutely anything to close the deal, like the worst characiture of a used car salesman. But I hope he gets the nomination. I’d relish the chance to run against him in the general.
MBunge
The problem with Mitt is that he’s never been kicked in the head by life. He seems smart and capable and all that but he also seems incredibly shallow, like someone who’s never had to sit down and deal with the fact that life can get pretty damn terrible at times. And it’s the fact that he shares this quality with George W. Bush that really hurts him with voters. Out of all the candidates, Romney most closely resembles Bush. A smart Bush, but still Bush.
Mike
Lavocat
Yes! It’s as though a bunch of corporate suits got together, from the entertainment industry, and put together, from scratch, the slickest version of a candidate that they could come up with.
And the focus groups just ate him up!
Actually, I think the Mormonism HELPS him; makes him feel a bit more exotic than he otherwise might be.
To me, he feels more 1950s than modern world. Maybe that’s why he seems so creepy: you just gotta wonder what’s beneath that smarmy mask. It makes me shudder to think.
Krista
That story of him strapping his dog’s carrier to the roof was all I needed to know about his consideration towards those who he sees as lesser than him.
PK
Hey John
What happened to the bullshit detector with Bush in 2000. Was it in hibernation? Sorry but I just cannot resist the cheap shot!
bdr
Listen to him york-york-york at his rehearsed jokes.
“You were endorsed by the New York Times – york-york-york. If that doesn’t tell you about the Senators conservative credentials, nothing will, york-york-york.”
Smackability quotient off the meter.
crw
To me, Mitt is a living embodiment of corporate sociopathy. I really hate to agree Huckabee, but he gives off the air of the slimey businessman who will smile, shake your hand and wish you well…then hand you a pink slip. The man is smart, calculating, rational…but not empathic.
He strikes me as the type who, as president, would have no problem smiling, shaking your hand and wishing you well…then signing the order to send you to Gitmo for waterboarding if he thought it would be profitable.
Hubris
Reason #6: Awkward, arrhythmic half-chants (“but they…uh…didn’t!”) by his supporters at rallies are vaguely reminiscent of a poorly executed, abortive attempt at the Running Man.
Caidence (fmr. Chris)
Could it be that you hate him because you can’t figure out why you hate him?
Rational? No.
Plausible? Entirely.
Psycheout
You’re not alone, Mr. Cole. Hilldog and Mittens have the highest negatives of the candidates. Your visceral reaction to both of these phonies is shared by the electorate at large.
Zifnab
Yeah… um… no. Bill had his ups and downs, but the dude could actually play the sax, genuinely had a talent for speaking, and truly gave a fuck about running a good government. No one had to fluff Clinton for us until he looked good. And the man ran a tight ship in the White House – more or less. There’s a reason Republicans spent six years trying to bust his nuts and could only come up with a stained dress.
Right. I suspect you were still up in the hype back then. There’s a reason Clinton polled 20 points higher at the end of his second term than the beginning of his first. He did a good job.
That said, Romney hits me as another four more years of cronyism more than anything. I can easily see him installing a host of Brownies and Gonzolases in office. The bureaucracy would be a smoldering heap by the end of a Romney administration.
Jen
No one’s mentioned the “who let the dogs out”/”bling bling” campaign appearance. Sooooooooo painful.
ThymeZone
John, I know you haven’t been feeling up to par, but could anyone watch the debate last night and not say that McCain is “totally full of shit?”
Seriously. We had to attack Iraq because we couldn’t let 911 go by without a response?
Fuck me, just fuck me very much, with a sharp stick.
Caidence (fmr. Chris)
I can hear that conversation in my head.
SCENE: Closed discussion between RUSH LIMBAUGH, MICHELLE MALKIN, and other mavens of the “Conservative Establishment” entertainment industry
LIMBAUGH: Thanks for coming, everyone. Everybody get something to eat? We’ll have sandwiches later… Anyways…
The reason I gathered everyone here is because we need to revisit the official candidate for 2008.
MICHAEL MEDVED: I thought we were done with this in 2005.
LIMBAUGH: Not quite, Michelle will explain.
MALKIN: The 2000 candidate, “Bush”, was a perfect sell for 2000 — and he was OK for 2004 — but that was with Operative Rove close to the Candidate. On top of that, the Candidate did not hold well under fire over these last 8 years. We need more stress testing.
HINDERAKER: What do you mean didn’t hold up??? He was flawless!! Glorious!!!
LIMBAUGH: Easy there, John, you’re off air. It’s all on the level in here. The doors are closed and locked.
HINDERAKER: Oh, sorry. You can never be too sure.
SAVAGE: Can I ask for another gay… i mean, I need someone’s who’s gay… no no I mean, I need someone who’s less open to gay people. The Candidate was too easy on gays.
MALKIN: We went over this already. The gay vote is getting powerful.
SAVAGE: BUT —
LIMBAUGH: Here, Mike, have a cigar and shut up.
MALKIN: OK, Issue One: Candidate2008 has to be able to enunciate the English language properly.
ALL: (general agreement)
MALKIN: Issue Two: He must be able to frown. Smiling while talking about TWOT hurt our occupation of Iraq. Needs more communications work.
GOLDBERG: Also, the Candidate needs to agree that all liberals are fascists!
LIMBAUGH: Shut the fuck up Jonie! I said you could listen in. I swear, you take this shit too seriously.
TO BE CONTINUED
kwAwk
I think why people have such a gut wrenching revulsion to Romney is because he is so transparent. He isn’t lieing about his positions on socials issues like abortion and gay rights, he simply doesn’t care about those issues so his position on them flexes to meet the current demands of achieving his true goal, corporatism.
His is the true Southern Strategy campaign. Bring out all of the bigots, xenophobes, homophobes and religious nuts, pander to their needs, get them to vote against their best interests, and put in place a corporatist and economic elitist agenda.
He is so smarmy not because he is lying, but rather because his campaign strategy is so blatant and in your face.
Neal
That’s always been my problem with Romney. He just sends my “Bullshit-o-meter” up to 11. No matter what he says. He could say “kittens are cute” and I’d instinctually feel the need to disagree with him. Just because.
He does look robotic. Like he was assembled. Candidate model#54X6B or something like that. It’s so creepy.
Caidence (fmr. Chris)
What does Monica have to do with this?
/ducks
ThymeZone
Of course, then there is Romney:
myiq2xu
Strange, I get the same feeling with, well . . . Barack Obama.
Haltelcere
I don’t get a sense of depth with Romney. I don’t mean to say that he has a shallow personality, but instead that he hasn’t had a depth of experiences to draw from.
Kind of like the home-schooled kid who never fully experienced playing with other kids unsupervised on the playground (there are so many social lessons learned from playing on teeter-totters) and hence has a taint of social awkwardness, or like the person who was raised in a protected, separated environment, who has trouble conceiving and relating to alternate points of view, I believe that Romney isn’t able to fully connect to and grasp the difficulties many typical people face.
For example, Romney’s comment about his sons not enlisting and are instead showing support for the country by helping him get elected showed to me that the concept of someone either:
1) volunteering to be a soldier, to go through basic training, to be constantly moved about the country and the world during the term of enlistment, so that the person could learn skills, or enter a profession, or earn money to pursue an education, or have a chance to see the world,
or 2) volunteering to be a soldier, to postpone career plans, to make a sacrifice of time, and even health and life, so to contribute or give something back to country
is a foreign concept to him that he cannot personally relate to.
Just as President Bush has trouble relating to so many concepts and points of view not in tune with a sheltered, incurious, affluent life, I get the sense that Romney can’t truly relate to anything that isn’t part of a business plan or boardroom discussion or a Leave-it-to-Beaver family life.
Caidence (fmr. Chris)
Really? I thought you were planning on voting for him, primary and general.
Hold on, I’ve got some more unity “candy”…
/pssst! someone get the rope. myiq’s loose again! no no, wait for Zifnab to get him, and then we’ll hog tie him… yeah yeah…
//he doesn’t suspect a thing
Laertes
I don’t much like Republicans to begin with, but I can see the appeal, such as it is, of Huckabee and McCain and Giuliani and even Thompson.
Huckabee, nutty as he is, has boatloads of charisma. Of the other candidates in both parties, only Obama is even close. He comes across as the most affable and avuncular big-time politician since the pre-meltdown Bill Clinton.
McCain, whatever else he might be, is an honest-to-God War Hero. I’m not impressed with his alleged “maverick” shtick–it’s all MSM fluff and it vanishes when examined closely–but once in a great while he gives some hint of principle-related program activities.
Thompson kinda looked like Reagan, if you’d had too many drinks and the bar was about to close anyway. Dumb as a bag of hammers, but he had that “stern daddy” thing that makes Republicans go all moist. When he was awake, anyway.
Giuliani is batshit insane, which plays well with the GOP, and he Fucking Hates Liberals Guts, which is also going to win him some love from the dittoheads. One suspects that he’d insist on personally torturing terror suspects and political prisoners. I’m surprised he didn’t do better than he did. All this hate should have trumped his pro-choice cross-dressing serial philanderer stuff.
But Romney? His candidacy has never made a lick of sense. He’s so transparently a fake Republican that even a Big Fat Liberal like me can see it, and it’s not like I have any love for Real Republicans. He’s the Slick Politician straight out of central casting. The instant a show introduces this character you roll your eyes and change the channel because he’s such a caricature that you can see his entire story arc without hearing another word. (See also: Every single newsroom character in Season 5 of The Wire.)
Why did the GOP end up with such a sorry lot this year? Their party has been dominant for the better part of a decade. Even if you scrub all the reps and senators because it’ll be too easy to tie Bush around their necks, they outta have a deep bench of Governors. And these guys are the best they can do?
myiq2xu
Just the general, iffen he’s still around.
Politicians being full of shit isn’t a shock to me, I’m a liberal.
Keep your expectations low and you’ll rarely be disappointed
tim serbo
i lived in massachusetts when romney was elected governor, and i could never understand how my fellow citizens could vote him in. he was transparently phony, of course, acting out all the “leadership” moves recommended in publications like the harvard business review without it ever seeming to come from his heart (wherever that might be located). but it wasn’t the phoniness that skeeved me, it was my suspicion that he was something far different, far more sinister, when he was behind closed doors at home or in the ghastly mormon temple along route 2 in belmont. i pictured him in some sanctum sanctorum, peeling off his mask, unhinging his jaw, and feasting on live rodents.
but maybe that was just me.
Caidence (fmr. Chris)
Keep your expectations low and you’ll keep getting candidates like Hillary, devoid of purpose and trained to manipulate.
Keeping your expectations low leaves you open to lowering them even further in the future. I remind you: Dubya. “Guy I’d like to have a beer with” was the winning criteria. You want to see shit fall that low again?
I wanted Obama from the beginning for the purpose of pushing the expectations higher, thus forcing Hillary to stop acting like a creature summoned from the occult. Unfortunately, Obama is faltering, and it would appear Hillary actually is some sort of creature.
You keep thinking he’s fucking around when he gives those shiny speeches. He’s actually changing the topography. Regardless of whether you like him or like his methods, he’s still a good player, and at least quite useful.
Krista
Yep. There are certain people in this world who just beg to be smacked across the face with a three-day-old flounder. Right now my short list includes the current El Presidente, Mitt Romney, Tucker Carlson, the lady in the First Response ad who says there’s such a thing as being “a little bit pregnant”, Rachael Ray, Jimmy Fallon, and my local 11pm news anchor.
Tsulagi
Me too. I think part of the reason is that while it’s easy to spot most coming out of Mitty’s mouth is opportunistic, self-serving bullshit like the Smirking Chimp, he has an additional irritant. You know he’s intelligent enough to know better and should have some shame causing Double-Gitmo to tone down the bullshit. But no, he stays the course.
Disagree. Bush just blows that fucker out of the water.
But in Bush’s defense, after seven years of this gutless, retarded spoiled brat, I don’t think he has the capacity to know better. The difference between truth/lie, fact/fantasy, honesty/dishonesty just doesn’t register. Nor does he give a shit. Thinking that anything that manages to tumble out of his mouth goes through some magical spin cycle approved by God just because he’s so special and Jesus loves him.
Graeme
He repulses me because he’s the same ego-inflated lying sack of a corporate salesman many of us have been stuck working with in the past. It’s completely obvious he doesn’t stand for anything, and his success in MA and his pandering in MI say all that need be said. Oh – that and the fact he keeps taking shots at ‘Hillarycare’ even though the Boston Globe did a story about how her national plan is basically a copy of his MA plan.
He’s Bill Clinton with John Edwards’ haircut. Fuck him.
Caidence (fmr. Chris)
It’s called Tolstoy Syndrome.
Bush has an immensely thorough case of it. *immensely*
Nobody knows what it is, so nobody recognizes it.
Graeme
He repulses me because he’s the same ego-inflated lying sack of a corporate salesman I’ve been stuck working with in the past. It’s completely obvious he doesn’t stand for anything, and his success in MA and his pandering in MI say all that need be said. Oh – that and the fact he keeps taking shots at ‘Hillarycare’ even though the Boston Globe did a story about how her national plan is basically a copy of his MA plan.
He’s Bill Clinton with John Edwards’ haircut. Boundless douchebaggery, and a Mormon (a religion so stupid it could only be ‘Made in America’) to boot. Fuck him.
The Other Steve
Oh, GW Bush is far worse than either of them.
At least Romney, you can see that he’s listening to the crowds when he panders. GW Bush just goes off on some weird angle and everybody in the crowd is like WHAT THE FUCK!?
cbear
Because he’s an asshole?
rawshark
I felt the same way about Clinton but he turned out to be a pretty good president IMO. What should I read from that concerning Romney?
jn
This is what troubles me most about him: how he seems to have no self-pride or self-respect to take credit for his successes. I think it’s related to him having a (seemingly) sheltered and privileged upbringing and not having to overcome the obstacles that most people have to do in order to succeed in life.
Stooleo
Tim, you just might be on to somthing.
Phoenix Woman
Don’t be dissin’ my man Mittens! We need him to pound McCain a little bit more! Besides, if we can pry loose a few more millions from Tagg’s trust fund, they’ll circulate in the general economy and provide Keynesian stimulus.
tBone
I never considered the idea that our leaders might be blood-drinking reptilians from the star system Alpha Draconis until I followed that link, but it would explain a good deal of the past 15 years.
tim serbo
Stooleo, i speak, as always, from the jungian depths of the collective unconscious. except when ordering lunch, of course.
Z
That super sheltered, retro-50’s thing is very Mormon. You’d have to grow up around/with Mormons to know that it is just a cultural thing. (It doesn’t necessarily mean there are bodies in the basement)
Grumpy Code Monkey
Yeah, we invaded Afghanistan just for shits and giggles, not because the Taliban were harboring the people actually responsible for 9/11 or anything.
It’s bad enough that the Bushies push the lie that Saddam was responsible, but after all, Iraq was on their agenda the whole time. But McCain’s spouting the same shit?
Jesus. The memories of the whole Lincoln S&L fiasco should have been enough for people to write off McCain, but if he’s spouting crap like that, he should be flogged.
D-Chance.
Shockingly, I agree with most everyone on Romney. I look at him, with the perfect hair and perfect smile… I listen to him talk… and I find myself not believing one damn word that comes out of his mouth. The first thing that comes to mind is “phony”.
As for McCain. This is getting hilarious. Liberals cry that he’s conservative, while conservative cry that he’s liberal. Stalkin’ Malkin is even claiming she’ll voter Hillary instead of McCain, and I wouldn’t put it past Limbaugh, Hewitt, and others to make similar statements. Anyone who can piss off both nutroots and wingnuts must be doing something right… ;)
LiberalTarian
You know, if MittMcSter stays in the race a day or two more I think I’ll donate to his campaign and send him a nice little card. Their agony is good for my party.
The Other Steve
Or absolutely everything wrong.
Did you hear he has a secret plan to win the war on terror? He’s not even going to share it with Bush, because it’s so secret only he can implement it.
ThymeZone
You’ve just explained a pretty good chunk of history.
cbear
Thank you. I try to live a simple life and have found that most phenomena can easily be explained through the judicious application of Occam’s Razor Principle.
If it walks like a duck…
Fred
As a Democrat,all I can say is if Mittens get nominated,I’ll be forced to vote for Hillary.I know McCain’s old and a bit of a warmonger,but,dammit he’s honest.Well,as honest a politician can be nowadays.
Every time I see or hear Mittens more than a few seconds,I feel like I need a shower.
Raenelle
From the beginning, I’ve always had a gut-level negative reaction to George Bush. He always really creeped me out, and I’ve spent the last eight years (since before he even got the nomination) trying to find something, anything, that he did, or is, that I can approve of. No one in the universe is completely without redeeming qualities, so he MUST have some. It makes things too easy for me; I don’t have to think at all–if Bush values it, it’s bullshit or dangerous or infantile or negligent or sneaky. Knee-jerk rejection of Bush, without the need to think at all, has been a very reliable measure. And that’s just not healthy for me–the lazy habit of non-objective prejudice. So, I’ve kept looking. What the fuck is positive about him? The most I could come up with was (1) that the sides of his face don’t match (one side looks lost and puzzled; the other, angry), and that’s always sort of amusing; (2) as someone else noted once, we all know how to spell incompetent now. That was about all I had. Until I found out that he had signed the bill making dog-fighting a federal crime. Good for him.
Bella Kaldera
I grew up Mormon and I met Willard M. Romney at the Weston Stake Center when I was a teenager. His dad was speaking at a Stake conference that day, I think I fell asleep (it was a defense mechanism passing out in church I used to do it a lot) anyway I met Mitt at that time and I thought he was an asshole. My opinion hasn’t changed either. For me the Mormon thing DOES matter, because that friggin’ cult destroyed my family and stole large chunks of my childhood. I’ll never forget the John Birchers recruiting in church, I’ll never forget being taught just how they planned to take over the world. I’ll never forget the abuses I suffered that were justified through Mormon Doctrine. Having a Mormon, any mormon in the white house would for me be like having a member of the Taliban as president (especially if the Taliban beat your mother with a car antenna for some absurd reason). I hates ’em, I hates ’em forever.