The Republicans just kill me:
One of the “gotcha” amendments to the House reconciliation bill now in the U.S. Senate comes from Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma). It proposes that we “reduce the cost of providing federally funded prescription drugs by …. prohibiting coverage of Viagra for child molesters and rapists.”
When you add up all the nonsense stunts they intend to pull in the Senate (warning, Politico link), as well as the fact that the wingnuts and unhinged teabaggers they have been whipping into a froth are now running around vandalizing shit and threatening people, all they are going to do is pull the Democrats in the Senate closer together and peel off some of the non-crazy GOP voters left (assuming their are any). It was no accident the Democrats got 60 votes in the Senate, including JOE F—ING LIEBERMAN- the Republicans were such jackasses that even Evan Bayh, who quivers with anticipation every time David Broder says bipartisan, was breathing fire and out for blood.
I do not know how he does it, but Obama always seems to have the dumbest enemies possible. Whether it is the guy who wasn’t happy enough with Seven of Nine (WTF, OVER? as we used to say in the Army), Mr. Crazification himself Alan Keyes, the morons that ran the Clinton campaign and forgot to pay any attention to the delegate count, and then the shit show fail parade that was the McCain team (“I don’t know how many houses I own- look, tire gauge, and being popular is bad- time to invade Russia!”), he just lucks out every time.
Or maybe it is not luck. Obama Akbar!
Napoleon
I saw today that the HCR plan that Coburn introduced earlier in the year did not have the no Viagra for child molesters provision either, just like Paul Ryan, who has been whining that the HCR law not taking care of the “Doc Fix” is phony accounting while his own plan he introduced a few weeks ago doesn’t address it either.
The Populist
I hope it backfires. The party of “life” really only cares when you are part of their village. Otherwise, you die if you piss them off.
SGEW
Not quite: he allows them to destroy themselves.
Call it rope-a-dope, call it jujitsu, call it “give ’em enough rope,” whatever. It what he do.
tatertot
If you want a little light relief from politics, have a look at North American Black Bear cam, starring Lily and cub Hope
http://www.bear.org/website/lily-a-hope/live-den-cam.html
stuckinred
We had wtf-k stenciled on our jeeps.
The Populist
I will call my shot. Who wants to take a guess at what state tries to secede first? I see it happening.
Menzies
I’m personally more worried that people often believe the crap spouted by “the dumbest enemies possible.”
dmsilev
Jack Ryan.
And really, you’re understating the massive awesomeness of his implosion. It was more like “Tried to bring his Hollywood wife to a Parisian sex club and have sex with him in public, leading to her filing for divorce”. Alan Keyes was *an improvement* in terms of electability.
You’re certainly right about Obama. It’s his true Jedi Mind Trick.
-dms
Menzies
@The Populist:
I say South Carolina. They’re fucked up enough already for it.
stuckinred
@The Populist: I’m in Georgia and I would put anything past a state with chickenhawk motherfuckers like Saxby and Newt runnin around.
Violet
@SGEW:
This. Obama is a master at letting his opponents screw themselves. Somehow he’s continually underestimated. Maybe it’s because he’s blackity, blackity, black. I dunno. I can’t imagine underestimating the guy. He’s as smart and savvy as they come.
The Populist
@Menzies:
To these people they don’t see Limpballs and Shrek as dumb. They see them as some kind of defenders of freedom because they are “one of them.”
This whole meme about not trusting the “elitists” (whoever that is…if they really want to call out elitists, let’s start with right wing businessmen) is old.
batgirl
@The Populist: I say we let any state that tries to secede go.
When I heard that woman threatening civil war all I could think was this time there won’t be a war. We’ll let you go. Buh-bye
Cat Lady
Obama-fu. That is all.
stuckinred
@The Populist: They aren’t dumb they are moneymakers.
bago
It’s a trap?
stevie314159
Luck? Luck? The Anti-Christ don’t need no stinkin’ luck.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
Some of it is, no doubt/ But a lot of it is a kind of clever triangulation that is clever because it’s not readily apparent, like the obvious sort Clinton used. It is more a slow con to divide wingnuts that don’t really know what’s happening to them, but they know something is, so they draw in closer and closer into an ideological fist, that causes them to piss into the wind and look like tight assed road blocking ninnies.
But of course, as folks know, I are a Obot cultist. So what doo I know. Ohmmmmmm!
freelancer
This morning, I sent this email to a friend:
“Seriously, who in the fuck are they going to run?
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/03/bye_mitt.php?ref=fpblg
Romney (DOA, also, infamous flip-flopping pandering empty suit)
Gingrich (ambitious, but panicked and base-mongering)
Pawlenty (Former gov MN, but has become a total wingnut)
DeMint (Wingnut forever, plays to the base every chance he gets)
Palin (nuff said)
Ron Paul (somewhat sane wrt foreign policy, but his domestic/economic policy is completely batshit)
Jeb Bush (Bush? You gotta be kidding me.)
Huckabee (Religious Right puppet, current Fox News host, fundie American Taliban)
Paul Ryan (seems a bit sane, but his proposals for GOP policy would abolish Social Security and Medicare. Byebye Senior vote)
John Thune (WHO? Senator who beat Daschle. Substanceless. Apparently, the Beltway thinks he’s good-looking.)
Liz Cheney (see Jeb Bush, above)
Seriously, I’m able to disassociate from my own bias pretty well, and there are exactly two Republicans I can think of that are remotely capable of going head to head against Obama in the general.
Colin Powell
and
John Huntsman
However, Powell endorsed Obama, and Huntsman is Obama’s Ambassador to China. I see Powell being respectable and recoiling into private life, and Huntsman not aiming for the national stage until ’16.
So who?”
They are fucked. Remember during the campaign when McCain mocked Obama for not knowing the difference between Tactics and Strategy, the whole time, getting the definitions backwards himself? That is the perfect metaphor for the 21st century Republican Party.
stuckinred
@Violet: Rope-a-dope.
Bubblegum Tate
@Menzies:
Ditto. And if they threaten to secede, I say the official U.S. government response should be, “Hey, could you take Alabama with you?”
Dee Loralei
OODA Loop. He gets in their OODA Loop and then they do crazy stupid things. They can’t help themselves.Tom C. over at Benen’s old place used to talk about it during the primaries. I know he got it from someone else online, but can’t remember where. Man, I’ve learned lots from blog comments sections.
ETA: Seriously, if they want to secede, I say we let them go this time. Even if it’s my own state TN. I’ll move. Trade homes and jobs etc with someone out west or up North who wants to join the Christian States of America.
tammanycall
@The Populist:
Texas.
Chad N Freude
and elected officials who sexually harass congressional pages or who cheat on their wives or who solicit sex in public men’s rooms, and while we’re at it, prohibit coverage of Viagra for men whose use of it might conceivably (pun intended) result in an abortion.
Violet
@freelancer:
You forgot Rick Perry, Governor of Texas. He’s got great hair and wants to secede. Sounds like an ideal candidate to me. He recently said he has no plans to run for President, so he’s clearly interested.
Silver Owl
LOL! Colburn must have been thinking of some his colleagues and the Catholic Patriarch.
Chad N Freude
1st attempt in moderation because of repetition of V….a.
and elected officials who sexually harass congressional pages or who cheat on their wives or who solicit sex in public men’s rooms, and while we’re at it, prohibit coverage of Viagra for men whose use of it might conceivably (pun intended) result in an abortion.
Urza
I hate to say it, being not christian myself, but I really really want Obama to start quoting Jesus at these people.
Imagine, he can go for the straight quote, or he can start off with things like “and Jesus said, poor man, blow me, you get healed when you have cash” and then put the real quotes.
It serves 2 purposes if he does start with the biblical quotes. One to wake up some of those that are less far gone and actually believe the teachings of Jesus, which honestly almost any good citizen of any nation should. But two, it would totally piss off the self righteous bastards who think they have a monopoly on holiness, thus causing them to become even more unhinged and drive away those who can say they actually live a christian life.
Dreggas
@tammanycall:
If they do can we build a wall along the border…a really tall one, electrified even.
mcc
@freelancer: Mitch Daniels. He seems to have no immediately obvious drawbacks and he’s from a wavering purple state.
Seems a little difficult to make that into a campaign slogan though.
“MITCH DANIELS: THERE IS NOTHING OBVIOUSLY WRONG WITH HIM”
Rey
Why Scott Brown of course. Oh wait- bwahahahahaha!
Menzies
@Bubblegum Tate:
In that case, they need to take Georgia too. As someone said above, Saxby is such a “chickenhawk motherfucker” (I give Isakson points for defending from the “death panels” hoax) and representatives like Paul Broun are reasons enough to let them go if they do it.
Besides, apparently we can’t even trust their “progressives” to vote for HCR.
demkat620
@freelancer: That was my question. They don’t have a bench.
One of my winger friends told me the 2012 nominee will come from the crop of republicans that won in 2008.
Weren’t a whole lot of them.
bodacious
OK freelancer……..I have a name to throw out there. Not for 2012 yet, but I do hope that Christine Todd Whitman, or someone from her Committee for Responsible Government (CRG) will someday make their way onto a ballot. Of course, Michael Steele used to hang with them, so there’s that. I look forward to the day when we have at least a two party system that functions again. Probably not gonna happen in my lifetime.
Tenzil Kem
“John Thune (WHO? Senator who beat Daschle. Substanceless. Apparently, the Beltway thinks he’s good-looking.)”
That’s because whoever said politics is showbiz for ugly people was right. Thune looks like the little brother of the alien bounter hunter from the X-Files.
stuckinred
@Menzies: That little scumbag Barrow was never a progressive. He was a punk when he was on the Athens City Council and he’s a punk now.
demkat620
@bodacious: Not likely. The base hates her. Too moderate.
morzer
@Silver Owl:
Catholics don’t have Patriarchs. They have Cardinals and a Pope. Patriarchs are Orthodox *s*.
Llelldorin
@General Egali Tarian Stuck:
That’s it exactly. It’s not that he plays 11-dimensional chess, it’s that he’s absolutely brilliant at giving the impression that he’s playing 11-dimensional chess. His opponents go crazy trying to find the nonexistent trap, look like paranoid madmen, and lose. Then Obama smiles knowingly, exactly like a guy who just won at 11-dimensional chess, and his next set of opponents become even more deranged and paranoid.
MikeJ
@morzer: Pope=papa=”patriarch”= Holy Father. All the same thing.
PaulW
@freelancer:
gogol's wife
@Urza:
Obama quotes Jesus all the time. And Saint Paul. He just doesn’t advertise it.
Davis X. Machina
“MITCH DANIELS: THERE IS NOTHING OBVIOUSLY WRONG WITH HIM”
Tell that to Doghouse Riley.
tammanycall
@freelancer:
There’s been talk about Bob McDonell, the Gov. of Virginia. He’s a total wingnut, but he looks the part.
And they’ve got to be looking at Petraeus, if not for 2012, then definitely 2016. (I know he’s not officially a Republican, but c’mon.)
Tenzil Kem
@Llelldorin:
And it looks this way simply because Obama is patient and willing to play a longer game than anyone else in the room. It’s not that he has an ace up his sleeve or a secret plan; it’s that he’s willing to wait until an opening presents itself. The ‘baggers thought HCR was over last summer, and then in November, and then with Scott Brown, and then we won.
SIA
Obama is an original thinker; almost every other pol in DC is not. Therefore, they can’t anticipate him. Plus he’s really smart, intellectually and emotionally. That’s why his enemies can’t decide on a battle plan and end up looking dumb. Next to him, they are.
WereBear
@batgirl: I say let the state put it to the vote. Needs 60% to pass, just like the Senate.
What could be more fair? And non-violent.
And whoever loses has to shut up forever.
Violet
@tammanycall:
Wasn’t he the one they gave a trial run to for the SOTU response? He did okay, which is good enough not to rule him out completely. How quickly we forget Bobby Jindal.
freelancer
@bodacious:
Former Head of the EPA? Win the GOP primary? Bwahahahaha! Good one! I don’t care if she was a Bushie, not a chance. CTW is spelled EPA in wingnutese.
The Bearded Blogger
@Llelldorin: Weighing in on Obama-Fu: I think it’s simpler: he knows Republicans will oppose anything he proposes, so he proposes things that make you look crazy if you do. This causes a frustration/doubling down positive feedback loop in a party that only knows how to double down.
I once joked that Obama could secure the 2012 election and beyond by going on TV with Nancy Pelosi and advocating commonsense safety advice, like using a seatbelt, not eating cholesterol and so on
The Bearded Blogger
@bodacious: Who knows, giants with feet of clay crumble fast. Maybe two sane parties by 2018?
MikeJ
@The Bearded Blogger: Perhaps Obama should tell Republicans he shouldn’t be president. Then we’ll see a 1950’s sci-fi movie robot logic circuit overload among the republicans.
Tom Hilton
@bago: The Audacity of Hope–it’s a cookbook!
The Dangerman
@freelancer:
Look no further than California for your answer. The Republicans here are a joke (see Schwarzenegger, Arnold, as the best they could do previously); now, we have Meg Whitman running for Governor (her commercials are on at just about every commercial break; this doesn’t bother me much as her Primary opponent is an even bigger knuckle dragger). I fear the General Election; she’s so loaded, it may be every commercial.
Anyway, they’ll run some business person (Whitman? Bloomberg? Other?) since whoever it will be is going to get trounced.
mcc
@Davis X. Machina: So it seems like what that article strives to point out is that Daniels is that he can’t balance a budget. Isn’t that just the same thing as saying he’s a Republican?
And I can’t help but suspect Bob McDonnell’s going to have a lot of trouble maintaining his centrist cover after everything Cuccinelli’s been doing.
Tom Hilton
@Dee Loralei: vaguely recall some posts to that effect. Looked for them on the Google, and came up with this clowncarrific bit of awesomely hilarious FAIL.
Mnemosyne
@Tenzil Kem:
I think you’re right. Playing the long game like that is absolutely maddening to observers sometimes (helloooo, DADT!), but better to take a long time and succeed than to push your luck and fail.
PeakVT
@The Dangerman: The presidential campaign finance rules might not allow for a self-funder. But if a rich dude can run on his own money, the Repukes would be wise (unlikely) to make him the nominee.
mcc
I clicked the link blind.
I saw the “AMERICAN THINKER” header load at the top.
I clicked “Back”.
gbear
@tammanycall:
Texas would certainly be the easiest state to part with, and it’s big enough to be a wingnut refugee camp for the whole country. It would also be the most entertaining state to watch freak out as all their federal goodies dried up. I like it already.
Napoleon
@freelancer:
Plus didn’t she have a book called something like “Taking Back Our Party” a few years ago that I understood argued the party had do ditch pandering to its extremist?
Keith G
@freelancer: Who they gonna run?
Jon Voight,
Edit – And/or Hayley Barbor
C Nelson Reilly
@freelancer:
smart money’s on Petraeus – Bin Laden’s head will be whipped out at the convention
Kirk Spencer
I still call this the Kansas syndrome, but… ok, here’s the deal for the next two, maybe more electoral cycles.
In a nutshell, they all believe they’re Gideon.
The extremists — the teabaggers mostly, but with some hangers on — will be the voting majority within the party in most states, and within most congressional districts. They are going to get the extremist Republican the nomination.
When the full election happens, this is going to cause a lot of the ‘leans Republican’ to look again, and either stay home or hold their nose and vote for the other side. Now for a number of reasons, some of the extremists will still win, and because it’s not a landslide defeat we enter a positive feedback loop.
The fanatics will declaim that the losers weren’t true enough to their faith, and will cast them and those who supported them out. They’ll also have driven out the apostates who didn’t vote for their Annointed One. As a result, even though they are smaller in numbers (but purer in faith), they still dominate the party. This time it’s a presidential election.
Right now, my guess is trying to figure out who best represents The Faith, as that will be the nominee. Note that I didn’t say Christianist, I said The Faith. True Conservatism, True Americanism, whatever it’s called, but it’ll be whatever the True Believers decide it to be.
That candidate — and the host of congressional candidates around the nation selected as True Believers — will lose. 2010 will see Republican gains in the house and maybe the Senate. 2012 will see a complete reversal — possibly (though it’s too early to tell) giving margins larger than held in 2009/2010.
Here’s the real kicker. They’ll continue to winnow down to True Believers, and continue to lose, and blame it on not being True Enough until they self-destruct. Now, self-destruction might take the part of “Republican Grownups” taking back the party, or it might be the formation of a new party that’s between the Democrats and these folk. I don’t know.
What I know is they’ve crossed the recovery line. There are too many zealots in positions of defacto power, and they aren’t going away.
For those who don’t recall, Gideon kept having to cut down his army till it was ‘right in the eyes of the Lord’, and then it massacred a foe that massively outnumbered it. The lesson taken to heart is that if you’re pure enough God will more than make up for lack of numbers.
Gideonites. Zealots. Fanatics.
Teabaggers.
Nellcote
RT @ebertchicago: GOP, having embraced Bankers, now embraces Bankers’ Hours.
Mnemosyne
@Mnemosyne:
Adding to my own comment … I think the fact that he patiently waits for an opening and doesn’t make a big deal about it when it appears makes it look like he got what he wanted because of pure luck, which makes his opponents think that his “luck” has to run out sometime.
Menzies
@stuckinred:
I guessed as much after hearing the story from dengre, but I live rather a few states away. Either way, it improves the case for letting Georgia go with whoever else wants to take it. Anything to get Saxby Chambliss the fuck out of the Senate – my dog belongs there more than he does.
gbear
I hear Norm Coleman is available.
At a very affordable price.
jerry 101
@The Populist: South Carolina.
It’s always South Carolina. I think that South Carolinans are still unsure about the wisdom of declaring independence.
From England.
Short Bus Bully
I’m saving the John Cole text from this post, made me laugh my ass off. It’s the reason I come to this little smelly corner of teh interwebz…
Violet
@C Nelson Reilly:
If Petraeus really wants to be President, it’s unlikely he’d run against Obama unless the economy is really in the toilet. If the economy is halfway okay, then Petraeus would be smart to wait until 2016 where the field is a bit more open.
The Populist
@batgirl:
Civil war. I see, kill the innocents because they are mad at Health care reform which basically is a regulatory overhaul.
Uh huh…nobody is losing their property over this, their guns, their bibles, their lives for God’s sake. These asshats cry about freedom yet tolerated Bush’s Patriot Act.
Wowzers…Go ahead and secede asshats. You want war? Guess you should get used to being called a fucking traitor.
Camchuck
@Chad N Freude:
It’d be worth another house vote if they could get ‘wetsuits’ written into the bill.
The Populist
@jerry 101:
Hehe, funny. Interesting, maybe we should let one go. Let the freaks move there and then anybody who wants to remain an American can come over here.
What we do is make the new country pay the costs of buying properties of any person who wants to leave dumbfuckistan or whatever they will call their new “god fearing” nation.
Dee Loralei
@Tom Hilton: Oh Tom, thanks for that! That was a riot of wrong I’m still chuckling.
Leelee for Obama
@Tom Hilton: Thanks, what the hell do I use to get the spit off my monitor, please?!
The Populist
Remember how worked up the militias were when Clinton was prez? He won another term. I would not worry. The tea baggers and secession freaks are a minority and will become even more despised should they act out on their wet dreams of violence.
The Populist
@stuckinred:
Right…just cause you make money doesn’t mean you are smart. I’ve known many a businessman with one basic idea make a killing but have no idea of where to go next.
They aren’t dumb but they are elitists.
Citizen_X
@Kirk Spencer:
That’s the WIngnut Event Horizon. The self-referential gravitational field is so strong nothing can escape to the outside world. I agree, they must continue to collapse upon themselves. The only question is, what kind of damage can they inflict on the way down?
Tenzil Kem
@C Nelson Reilly:
Is Petraeus enough of a wingnut to survive a GOP primary? Or well-regarded enough that he’d enter the general election with an insurmountable lead? It’s not like he’s got Eisenhower-level adoration from the public or anything.
The Populist
@freelancer:
Mitch Daniels?
Leelee for Obama
@Mnemosyne: Gandhi-First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
Obama-First they laugh at you, then they fight you, then they ignore you, then you win.
Similar plan, similar results.
The Populist
@Citizen_X:
We keep saying this yet there they are getting the shitload of tv coverage from our supposedly liberal media.
I dunno…I don’t think we’ve seen them cross the line of no return quite yet. Once they attack Americans or cities, THEN they are doomed.
Leelee for Obama
@The Populist: Pet rocks come to mind…and this new egg-cracker thingy that comes with a, wait-for-it, free scrambler in the shell thingy. In a recession so deep people are selling organs. If that asshat makes money, he’s gonna be the King.
Nellcote
Shouldn’t men have to send a seperate check if they want to be insured for dick disfunction?
Toni
@C Nelson Reilly: Petraeus supports repealing DADT, closing Gitmo, and opposes enhanced interrogation techniques. The last two especially are positions he has held before Obama became President. Plus he recently criticized Israel. There was an article in the Atlantic recently that says those and other views he has actually make him more of a big government liberal. I just think because he is a military guy there is a big assumption that he is republican which he might consider himself to be, who knows, but I don’t think he is conservative enough for the base.
Adam
Most of these explanations of Obama’s strategic sense only make sense in the context of him being ahead. They also should account for how he won the Democratic Primary coming from behind and how he managed to get offered tenure at UChicago Law despite being a very very young, black liberal teaching about affirmative action.
He’s really a machine. It’s a little mind-boggling to think about it.
Leelee for Obama
@Nellcote: Yes, they should. And it pisses me off to no end that they are covered for limp dickitude when women can’t get contraception paid for.
horatius
Also, as TPM noted, the amendment does not have the word Viagra in it. Not even in the title.
Coburn’s balls will be squeezed by the Pharma lobby if he dares put that in there.
cleter
Typically, the GOP nominates somebody who ran before or was a vp candidate. You get to be the GOP nominee when it’s your turn–Reagan, Bush I, Dole, with Bush II being sort of an exception. That would leave us with Romney, Huckabee, or Palin. I would guess Palin, so she can recreate the Mondale-sized loss, to complete the cycle Obama started with his Reagan 1980-sized win in 2008.
HumboldtBlue
Aint gonna be Petraeus. He’s too smart, too honorable. It aint gonna be Petraeus.
cleter
Shame Alf Landon’s dead. Mitch Daniels looks the most like Landon, I guess.
Just Some Fuckhead
How long til Coburn has to apologize to Rush Limbaugh?
jerry 101
@Keith G:
You could totally be on to something there – Jon Voight. They love actors (see Reagan, Schwarzenegger (before he got all librul), etc.
Plus, he’s spent the past couple of years auditioning for the part, or something close enough (I’m pretty sure he’s played the President (oddly, he was FDR – who, I’m sure, Voight hates) and the Secretary of Defense in recent years).
I also agree re: Haley Barbour. Not a big name now, but he’s got plenty of industries in his pocket – Gambling, Military, and Oil will all be big fans. Plus, he’s term limited in 2011.
I betcha that Bob Riley of Alabama’s thinking of pulling the trigger, too. Though his backing of an attempt to make Alabama’s tax structure more progressive a while back would doom him with the modern teabagger. (I was just reading about him – he’s an odd bird – corrupt, but also a bit of a technocrat – weird for a republican).
Mitch Daniels is another wonky, but more popular, Republican. But he’s also doomed with the teabaggers. He proposed a temporary income tax hike, and pushed through a health care bill for low income hoosiers. Not a real UHC thing, but more than Indiana had been doing.
Here’s one – Butch Otter. A Catholic from Idaho. And his name is “Butch”. Seems like an empty suit with a winning smile and a full head of hair (or a good hairpiece). He could be a guy the teabaggers get all excited about. If he can get the financial backing.
Dave Heineman of Nebraka’s another empty suit with a winning smile and a full head of hair. HIs biggest accomplishment is getting the Republican dominated Nebraska legislature to pass the biggest tax cut in Nebraska history. Yeah, betcha that was a tough bill to pass.
So, there you have it. They aren’t going to run another grumpy old senator, so the odds on favorites are left-over turd from 2008 like Palin, Romney, or Huckabee or an empty suit from a state with limited resources. Or, Haley Barbour.
Betcha Haley Barbour gets the nod. He’s got a lot financial backers, he’s in deep with the powerful elite in Washington, but he’s been out of Washington long enough to remove the taint. He’s been eyeing a run for a long time, too, I believe. And Republicans are fond of handing the nomination to the next guy in line.
Shade Tail
I don’t think Obama is lucky to have dumb enemies, per se, because these are the same wing-nuts we’ve had since at least 1993 (arguably 1980). I think it is two things:
1) He’s lucky that a lot of America has finally woken up and no longer buys their bullshit.
2) He’s smart enough to actually call them out on their bullshit.
I think #2 is the biggest one. Remember that Gore and Kerry both ran for President when democrats were still stuck in “America is smarter than that” mode. “Oh, we can’t stoop to answering their dumb-ass accusations, because that will just dirty us up. We need to rise above that.”
And the result was that the GOP was allowed to splatter them with mud with impunity, and they narrowly lost the election. If Gore had actually pushed back against Bush’s bullshit, Bush would never have been able to bring the margin close enough for the Supreme Court to give him the election. If Kerry had pushed back against the Swiftboaters and other mud flingers more aggressively, Bush would have been a one-term president.
You mark my words, that is Obama’s real strength. He learned that lesson pretty damn well.
And the rest of us had better keep that lesson in mind also. I still see liberals who haven’t learned it. “Oh, responding to Faux ‘News’ bullshit only legitimizes it. We can’t stoop to that level.” No, you can. And you damn well better, because not pushing back will let them convince a lot more people that they aren’t lying through their teeth.
CalD
CSPAN has actually been quite entertaining the last couple of days. (You know you’re a nerd when…)
Leisureguy
I think Obama somehow induces his enemies to underestimate him, unaware of the trap they’re building about themselves. Certainly that seemed to be what happened this time: the GOP invites Obama to speak without a TelePrompTer and he gets to make his points and exposes their lack of ideas; then he invites them to a televised sit-down, which totally blindsides them and lets him spell out for everyone what the proposal contains and, in front of everyone, accept some GOP ideas and incorporate them into the bill, and then the GOP still votes unanimously “no” and says that the bill will bring Armageddon…
Well, I’m in Monterey, and Armageddon is looking damn good so far. No horses yet, though.
By being reasonable and patient, he allows them to work themselves into such a rage that they don’t stop at their feet, but work their way up their legs and into their head.
mcc
“Butch Otter”?
Sounds like something you’d read on craigslist m4m
Phoebe
@Urza: Oh that is lovely.
Nellcote
@The Populist:
IRS offices in Texas excepted.
Nellcote
@The Populist:
We could look to the Haiti model to see what they would owe in reparations to the US.
Mike in NC
He was great in “Animal House”, or was that another Butch Otter?
He has a shot: fat, old, rich, corrupt white guy from the deepest swamp in the Deep South. A tough sell outside the 28% still clinging to the GOP, however. He even makes a whackjob like Newt Gringrich appear principled and honest.
Make it so.
jerry 101
@Shade Tail: Obama’s secret is that he mocks and laughs at GOP bullshit.
He doesn’t try to explain it away, he doesn’t avoid it.
He mocks it. And he makes people who fell for the bullshit feel a bit foolish.
It’s really the only antidote for that old possibly apocryphal Lyndon Johnson story about spreading ummm…lies…about your opponent. Spread an outlandish lie (in the LBJ case, about his opponent, a pig farmer, taking immoral liberties with the sows) just to force your opponent to deny.
Well, Obama figured out you don’t deny bullshit. You laugh at it and mock it. No sweating or getting flustered. Just say…”yeah, you gonna believe that? really? really? cuz that’s a load of pig poo”. Nobody wants to feel like a fool.
maryQ
I think I just injured myself laughing at this.
I’m going to sue you, John Cole.
maryQ
I think I just injured myself laughing at this.
I’m going to sue you, John Cole.
Uloborus
I don’t know. I mean, Obama’s strong across the board, but I always thought his trick was that he acted like an adult. Not a statesman or professor or anything, just an adult. He explains everything, he’s scrupulously polite, he never panics. People don’t really vote for the guy with the best command of the issues. They vote with their guts. And they look at Obama and say ‘He seems smart and reasonable.’ and they look at the Wingnuts and say ‘They seem like crazy fuckers.’
And this *is* a trick. Swing voters don’t seem much impressed with intellectuals in general. But the Republicans see this as some kind of weakness and go ballistic. He just stands back and lets them commit suicide.
catclub
Ron Paul is already about 73 or 74, so is Colin Powell.
Too old.
Haley Barbour has the political skills, but I think even the GOP
would have a hard time nominating a southern good old boy and expect him to have any chance outside the south.
He talks like he has marbles in his mouth.
John Thune sounds just right – empty suit, tall. Not as evidently crazy to the politically uninterested as DeMint or Coburn.
mclaren
And yet…despite all the stupidity of Obama’s opponents, despite their manifest craziness, despite their complete lack of viable ideas or credible policy proposals, Obama’s opponents have managed to battle him to a near-standstill in every single area of policy that matters.
Financial reform? Off the table.
Public option? Off the table.
Single-payer HCR? Off the table.
U.S. out of Afghanistan? Off the table.
Bank regulation to prevent ripoffs of the consumer? Off the table.
Reinstate usury caps, like every other civilization for the last 5000 years? Off the table, no, no, noooooooo, we’ve got to continue to make it legal to charge 500% for predatory loans and 37% on credit card interest when the overall rate of inflation is 2%.
Every single improvement, every single reform…all off the table.
Sounds like these “stupid” “crazy” “idiots” and “fools” are winning the policy battle inside the Beltway hands down.
Mnemosyne
@mclaren:
So, mclaren, when are those takeovers of emergency rooms by angry mobs that you promised us going to happen? Funny, it only seems to be the teabaggers who are getting violent.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
@Mnemosyne:
Mclaren is a glass half shattered kind of guy.
Dr. Loveless
@The Bearded Blogger:
This. Remember when he made that broadcast to schoolkids urging them to study hard and eat their vegetables? Wingnut parents lost their shit and pulled their kids out of school that day so that Dear Leader Barry Hussein Osama couldn’t plant Satanist Islamo-Soshulist earworms in their tiny brains. That was just full of awesome and win.
Hell, Obama could probably kill every teabagger in the land, just by giving a radio address touting the health advantages of continued breathing.
Laertes
You can’t be serious.
Obama campaigned on escalation in Afghanistan.
Two of those items are related to Health Care Reform which, I don’t know if you’ve been reading the news lately, was sort of a big deal the other day. You want to quibble about the details, you’ll just sound ridiculous. It was a huge win and everyone except you knows it.
As for your bank/finance items, just wait. They’re up next. Given the momentum he’s got after winning the health care battle, I like his chances. The Democrats have had a taste of victory, and if I were you I’d be very afraid that they’re going to crave more.
gwangung
Sure, he is. He plays the “more progressive than thou” game very seriously.
Only assholes play that game, though. Most progressives I know of have gone through that phase.
mclaren
Ah, the two clinical sociopaths show up — General Fake Name and Mnemosyne, the Buono and Bianchi of the online commenting world.
Since essentially everything out of these two sociopaths’ mouths is a lie, there’s no point in responding to them other than to point out that they are, as usual, lying.
mclaren
@Laertes:
Absolutely. I’m hopelessly ignorant. Those “two items” would presumably be single-payer and the public option. Great!
Please show me the sections of the HCR bill that just passed which implement a public option or single payer.
Tick…tick…tick…
I’m waiting.
You’re so hopelessly stupid and so shockingly uninformed, you don’t seem to realize that the HCR bill as passed into law has no public option and no single payer provision. Oh, and by the way — before you make a fool of yourself by gibbering drivel about the magic of the exchanges… Fact is, the exchanges have been artificially limited to such a small number of people (3 million nationwide) that the newly-created exchanges will have less negotiationg power with the giant private insurance cartels than large group health insurance plans like those enjoyed by the teachers unions et. al., and thus the insurance offered to people in the exchanges will be more expensive than the already unaffordable insurance offered by cartels like Wellpoint. Or so says the GAO in its analysis.
Too bad, you lose again. Try another lie. Maybe you’ll get lucky and someone will believe it.
asiangrrlMN
It became clear to me during the silly season that Obama was simply a different kind of politician. He did not follow the polls. He did not ‘get angry’ when the lefty pundits said he should. He did not do any of the conventional wisdom things he should have done, and he won. I know this sounds trite–but he’s a brilliant man who is comfortable with himself, loves and respects his wife, and treats other people graciously. He kept asking us to be our better selves, and most people resonated with that. In addition, he trusted us to know the difference between the appearance and the substance. For those of us tired of having politicians talk down to us and lie to us and promise whatever just to get in the White House (not to mention all the fucking negative campaigning), it was a breath of fresh air.
I appreciate that about him still. I may not agree with everything he does or says (and I don’t), but I can appreciate his reasoning behind his decisions because he sees fit to let people know where he stands (as much as he can).
CaptMaggie
With my tongue firmly planted in my cheek, I have often wondered why the Christian right hasn’t embraced Obama. It seems as though the water always parts before him, first it was Blair’s divorce scandal in the Illinois Senate primary, then the Ryan sex scandal in the general election. The whole world saw the rest in the Dem primary and the general. Somebody is laying the smackdown on each of his foes.
Sam Hutcheson
As an official O-bot from the way back, I’ll give you my favorite metaphor for “Obama-fu” or “11th dimensional chess” or whatev.
He’s Mr. Miyagi.
In the latest production, Nancy Pelosi played “Danny” and John Boehner was “Johnny.” Thought he had it won when he swept the leg. They’re always constantly shocked by the crane-kick to the face.