David Frum read the hacktacular piece at the Politico yesterday, and his conclusion was “The attacks will tiptoe up to the line of outright anti-Mormon bigotry.” He then goes on to explain it all may be a “head fake” to get Romney off his game. In Frum’s fantasy world, this is how Romney has behaved to date:
Perhaps this talk is a first draft of an actual campaign plan. But there’s another possibility, and it’s one that Team Romney should take very, very seriously: It’s a mind game.
Thus far, Romney has resisted the temptation and the pressure to campaign against Barack Obama personally. Romney has not accused Obama of anti-Americanism. Romney has not mocked or ridiculed the First Lady. Romney has conscientiously eschewed any line of criticism that could be construed — or even cynically misrepresented — as racially coded. He has had no truck with Birtherism, he cold-shouldered the theory about Obama as a “Kenyan anti-colonialist,” and he never confuses Obama and Osama.
Except, of course, this being David Frum, none of that is true:
But even if the Obama campaign is privately talking about exploiting Romney’s “weirdness” factor — Ben Smith and Jonathan Martin are very good reporters, so their story likely reflects real insider chatter — it’s deeply absurd for Romney and his advisers to feign outrage over it. After all, they have frequently insinuated in a variety of ways that Obama is vaguely alien, culturally suspect, and potentially harbors ill intentions towards America.
Indeed, Romney’s entire announcement speech was largely aimed at reinforcing the message that Obama isn’t one of us. He questioned Obama’s appreciation of America as “we” understand it, frequently described Obama’s policies as “European,” and suggested Obama has transformed our country into something no longer recognizably American. Romney has also accused Obama of “counterfeit values” that would “change the very character of America.” And Romney has also said: “I believe in the Constitution — and I believe in the greatness of America,” clearly insinuating that Obama doesn’t.
On still other occasions, Romney has explicitly stated that Obama’s American-ness and cultural instincts will be central to the 2012 campaign. “The American people have established a perspective on the President which is going to be lasting — that he has not understood the nature of America,” Romney said in February.
On a separate note, I know that the topsy-turvy rules of our discourse hold that being ”uncivil” or engaging in “personal attacks” is somehow worse than telling outright falsehoods, but Romney also repeated the lies that Obama apologized for America and that Obama made the recession “worse” even after they were exposed as false by independent fact checkers. This record makes the Romney campaign’s feigned concern about the state of our political discourse particularly laughable.
So basically, what we have here is two clowns at the Politico insert their own opinion into a piece, implying that the Obama campaign will engage in anti-Mormonism. Except no one in the campaign ever said that, and there is no record of any hint of anti-Mormonism in anything Obama has ever said or done. Then, a former Bush speechwriter, one of the members of the worst administration ever, the folks who willingly stated they were creating their own reality, claims that not only is it true the Obama team will be running on anti-Mormonism, but they are doing it to get Romney to lose his cool and say things he never would say. Except, of course, he’s already said those things and more.
Our entire fucking political discourse is like a hazy acid trip in which our pundits are all in a fugue state, discussing a fantasy world based on their own internal rapidly shifting alternate reality which itself was devised on a faulty premise that no one made. You and I are the lucky ones who get to see these freaks hiding in the light.
LittlePig
a former Bush speechwriter, one of the member’s of the worst administration ever, the folks who willingly stated they were creating their own reality
You left out “accessory to mass murder” and “pissed off North Korea to satisfy the rule of three”.
Frum is an exceptionally worthless bit of protoplasm.
BGinCHI
It doesn’t occur to right wing people who have never had to struggle, or had to work for a living, or get subjected to racism, that a guy who is half black and half white would probably not be too interested in attacking someone else’s religious beliefs.
But of course, since it’s the right that does this, they expect that everyone does it.
Their most fatal flaw is that they can never walk a mile in anyone else’s shoes.
They have no imagination. Only indignation and self-righteousness.
Baud
The real question is, if the Politico story were true, what would it say about Obama. I think you’re obfuscating because you don’t like what the answer to that question must be.
LittlePig
Only indignation and self-righteousness.
And projection that puts IMAX to shame…
Corner Stone
The whole Politico “Mormon” thing was a plant by the Romney camp.
It gives him a way to make this old news before the primaries and also makes it seem like the president is punching him as a threat, or equal.
Trinity
@BGinCHI: THIS.
Turgidson
And Frum is supposed to be one of the sane ones.
Fuck this shit, I’m going to Mars.
Corner Stone
Also, MSNBC has gone full on wank mode for the “Obama needs to do SOMETHING!!” bullshit.
They’ve been pushing that BS hard freakin’ core for at least the last two days.
When you read from a M. Dowd op-ed you know you’re concern trolling at it’s best.
kindness
@Baud: Why would you suggest that something that is a fantasy of Politico writers should be used to judge anyone?
David
I think the story was planted by Weird Willard Winky in order to get some publicity and sympathy.
Update: I see someone else had the same thought.
Baud
@Corner Stone: I’ve noticed that too. Rachel was particularly unbearable last night.
Baud
@kindness: Because I’m full of snark today.
MattF
To the point: does anyone think Romney would hesitate for a nanosecond to ‘do whatever he has to’ to win the Presidency? I’m getting the feeling that Frum doesn’t really get that particular feature of Romney’s personality. And that’s not being anti-Mormon, just anti-Romney.
redshirt
I’m convinced by now this is strategy – fill the air with so much nonsense and artifice that partisans fall back to default values and will never believe anything otherwise. The muddled middle tunes out because “both sides do it”.
FUDD, writ large.
khead
Matt Miller, WaPo today.
Mnemosyne
@Baud:
So now we’re supposed to speculate on what it would mean if a fake story were actually true?
I think this may be Phase 3 of your ODS, where you start speculating about what might happen if the fake story planted in Politico were actually true. Either that, or you’ve been spending way too much time lately debating who would win in a fight, Thor or Captain America.
ETA: Ah, snark. Didn’t come across that way. Work Captain America in next time. :-)
opal
I watched a snail crawl along the edge of a straight razor. That’s my dream.
jwb
@MattF: Do you think Frum would mind if Romney did whatever he has to to win the Presidency?
kindness
@Baud: Ahhh, but you are honest which is better than most the MSM & politicians we discuss here every day.
Corner Stone
Also, this mom and dad who had their 12 yr old son come back to life after drowning off WA state?
Those people scare the shit out of me.
DZ
I did acid in the 60s. Even that was more rational than this
The Dangerman
I’ll be more succinct; they are Grade AA+ bullshit artists.
I’ve had my fill with snakeoil salesmen and I’ve had my fill with people that simply make shit up; at this point, if you aren’t an engineer or an architect or an MD or similar (i.e., someone that can actually build something or cure something based on objective facts), get the fuck out off the stage and let some people that have a clue fix things.
I wish our system allowed for the most expedient solution to this problem (up against the wall, Motherfuckers), but if the best we can do is force them into some sort of retirement (and tax the living shit out of them in the process), I’m all for it.
Corner Stone
@Baud: This morning they kept running the chyron (something like) “Dems demand Obama do something”
And they had some wicked concern trolling going on.
Hunter Gathers
I’ll never forget this epic post by one David Frum.
When the Axis Of Evil finally gets it’s shit together and builds it’s Death Star/Genesis Device/Hitler Cloning Masheen, I’m going to offer up David Frum as a sacrifice.
Violet
@BGinCHI:
So true. When they support issues or causes out of the conservative mainstream, it’s only because they’ve been personally affected by the issue or cause. Like Nancy Reagan and stem cell research (Ronnie’s Alzheimer’s disease), Grover Norquist supporting Muslims (his wife is Muslim), or heck even Megan Kelly supporting maternity leave because she’s had a kid.
The inability to see past one’s own experience is one of the hallmarks of being a conservative.
NonyNony
@Turgidson:
I like how former speech-writer for George W Bush, and the coiner of the phrase “Axis of Evil” with regards to Iraq, Iran and North Korea, is one of the “sane ones”. That says a lot about the GOP.
David Frum is a worthless piece of shit. He’s not worth listening to. Either he’s repeating something completely and blisteringly obvious that other commentators have already said or he’s attempting a ratfuck on the narrative (as he’s doing here). The worthless piece of shit is ONLY worth paying attention to so you know what the “Republican Elites” are thinking – and right now they’re thinking “FUCK – we need Romney to win this or we’re going to be stuck with Bachmann or Perry. FUCK!!!!”
Frum is a vile human being. He’s not the worst former Bush staffer in existence but he is a worthless piece of shit. And until he goes full David Brock with his repentance I will refuse to believe it’s anything but a scam to be able to put up the illusion of “respectability” and continue to Ratfuck the Republic for his masters. Pieces like this only make it obvious what the worthless piece of shit is doing.
Baud
@Mnemosyne: Just what we need, another Thorbot v. Captain America-bagger flame war.
JPL
@David: Right out of the Rove playbook.
gbear
@The Dangerman:
You’ve never worked with an architect before, have you?
Villago Delenda Est
Point one: Romney has proven he is a vile sack of shit. Examples:
1. Bain Capital destroying the livelihoods of thousands of actual productive (not parasite, like financiers) Americans.
2. The dog on the roof incident.
3. The valiant sacrifice of his sons to the US War Machine. Oh, wait, that didn’t happen. Their valiant sacrifice was to campaign for their dad.
bobbo
@Baud:
No, the real question is, if the Great Recession were actually the greatest period of economic growth and full employment in the history of the world, what would that say about Obama?
Huh? Huh?
Lev
I’m really not sure why the GOP thinks they’re doing a smart thing by voluntarily bringing up Mitt Romney’s Mormonism and trying to bash Obama with it. Yeah, I’m sure that between Black Christians, agnostics/atheists and liberals who HATE the Mormon Church for Prop 8, this is really going to hurt Obama with the base. NOT! And the public largely dislikes/mistrusts the Mormon religion, so the GOP is out there yelling about Romney being a Mormon in hopes of making the public dislike Obama for sharing their dislike of Mormonism (?), and reminding evangelicals that he is one.
Reminds me of the West Wing where Bartlet “accidentally” says that James Brolin’s character is an idiot in a hot mike situation, and later you learn he did it just to make the media talk about Brolin being dumb for a week. I have no idea if that was Obama’s intention, but this is just NOT A WINNER for Republicans in any way I can see.
ciotog
Well, give that Romney a cookie! What a moral exemplar he is.
Seriously, do they really think that’s something for which a politician should be praised?
rikryah
sometimes, I just love to linger of the post titles, because they are hilarious
and the post isn’t bad either.
Gin & Tonic
@gbear: We have a thread-winner.
TK421
“President Obama would never use anti-Mormon insinuations in his campaign!”
signed, The people who said President Obama would never threaten Social Security, launch an illegal war, or cut programs that help impoverished people.
Villago Delenda Est
@TK421:
Actually, he doesn’t need to.
The Republican primary field (led by mad eyes Bachmann) will do that well before Obama even knows who will face him in the general.
Roger Moore
@Violet:
Paging Andrew Sullivan. Paging Andrew Sullivan.
gnomedad
Time to re-watch Jon Stewart on Mittster’s “surrender to terror” withdrawal speech.
nancydarling
@redshirt: Tell me what FUDD means, please.
Amir Khalid
Are you sure you can’t write a post headline any longer than that? Really sure?
Also, complaining about hypocrisy in politics is like complaining that one’s steak has meat in it.
@Baud: If the story more than blue-sky speculation, why is Politico unable to pin it definitively on the White House? In the story, I see quotes from White House people mentioning Romney’s weirdness and history of flip-flopping. What I don’t see is anyone actually from there saying this is how Obama will campaign against Romney. The nearest thing to it is theprominent Democratic strategist aligned with the White House” — who, as is clear from the quote, is only speculating himself. Using the words “aligned with the White House” only suggests the person works there (or for the reelection campaign); it doesn’t state unambiguously that he does. I see no reason to take this Politico story seriously
Turgidson
@NonyNony:
Agree entirely. I wasn’t pointing out Frum’s alleged sanity because I’m disappointed to find out he’s actually a contemptable piece of shit (I knew that) – it was more “this douche is held out as a respectable voice, which means we’re beyond doomed.”
Frum has been trying to carve himself out some turf like Sullivan’s by not drinking all the Teatard kool-aid and strutting around like he’s a deep thinker. But even more than Sullivan, he is a conservative lollygagger who needs a non-Democrat to hold out as the picture of sanity and moderation. And this bullshit article suggests he thinks Romney can be that guy. Good luck with that, Frum, you useless piece of guano.
J. Michael Neal
@The Dangerman: You’ll need some accountants for that business.
huckster
now why would it be in the interests of the Obama campaign to say a damn thing about mitt Romney right now? the answer of course is that it wouldn’t be, which is why it didn’t happen.
FlipYrWhig
@Amir Khalid:
This may well be the same person “familiar with Administration thinking” they keep going to for damaging red herrings to dangle before the blogosphere.
MikeJ
@Corner Stone:
I thought it let them say, “You call us racists for every little thing we do like waving posters of Obama with a bone through his nose or email jokes about the white house watermelon patch, so we’ll claim you’re attacking his religion when you call him weird.”
Turgidson
@Lev:
I don’t think it’ll work either, but it does seem sort of like a clumsy attempt to bring it up early when no one’s paying attention in the hopes that it’ll get litigated and forgotten before the race gets serious. I don’t think Romney’s nutjob rivals will play along.
Iriepirate
Why would it be bad to point out the sheer lunacy of the LDS faith? For fucks sake, they believe Native Americans are burnt Israelites, and that God is a dude who lives on/near a fucking star. And all this bullshit was founded by a polygamous, petty criminal. AND PEOPLE WANT TO GIVE A PERSON WHO BELIEVES THIS NONSENSE THE NUCLEAR CODES. A person’s faith is absolutely fair game with politics. That’s why we aren’t seeing an Atheist/agnostic president any time soon. And that’s why it is OK to mock Romney as an absolute dolt.
jl
If you are an abject and cynical hack masquerading as a journalist, the are-mormons-weird-gate angle is win win win, regardless of whether Romney planted it or not.
First off, it’s multipurpose, and can be used for both GOP primaries and general election. It can be used to try to help or damage Romney, depending on the weather, what the serious daddy GOP paymasters decide is best, and how it juices the ratings, and how much attention you get for it.
There is no substance to it all, and there never will be. Who wants to talk about the minute incomprehensible details of the Trinity and the nature of Jesus? This ain’t Alexandria in 340 AD, people won’t click on a link or turn on the tube for that stuff, let alone get out and riot in the streets.
So, what will it be about? Are Mormons weird because they look like milk fed plump white dorks, or what? It can be used as the media McGuffin to introduce a rehash of rehashes of empty trivial gossip and fake tendentious journalistic hack posturing about political posturing.
Whoever thought up Is Mormons Weird Gate, is a modern US journalistic genius. No question about it. It is completely worthless piffle and a total winner.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@MikeJ:
Romney’s Deeply Held Religious Beliefs(tm) demand Rommeny be a racists as a mater of faith. It logically follows that any accusation against Romney of racism is simply anti-Mormonism since Romney only degrades backs because God tells him to.
Jamie
This is just textbook Republican games. Frum wants to make Mormonism off-limits, and so describes this opponent of doing everything he is doing in the very article in which he does it.
The simplest way to understand these people is to view every word they say as projection.
Amir Khalid
@FlipYrWhig:
If it’s a real person at all. For all I know, that attribution could just be code for “I pulled this out of my ass”.
NonyNony
@Turgidson:
Yah I figured as much. I actually meant to include a postscript to that post where I indicated that I knew you weren’t personally holding the worthless piece of shit up as one of the sane ones, but that I was more railing against the fact that the vile piece of excrement is being held up by other pundits as a sane Republican pundit. When it’s clear that the horse’s ass is just positioning himself in a particular way to Ratfuck the rest of us.
But I forgot to because the worthless piece of shit in question and the fact that he gets taken seriously by Very Serious People induces anger in me to the point where I ramble on and on about what a worthless scumbag he is instead of remembering my Internet Niceties…
(I honestly can’t say why such a useless piece of cow manure like David “Let’s Piss Off North Korea For No Good Reason” Frum raises such irritation in me. I think it’s because so many people are buying into his re-engineering of his persona and think he’s actually contrite about the crap he helped unleash on the country when in fact he’s just positioning himself to give us all another good Ratfucking as soon as he gets the chance.)
cat48
Romney already made an Ad about that article, attacking Obama. Scarface showed it this am.
jacy
@opal:
Funny, I have a dream where I tie Mitt Romney to the top of a station wagon and drive cross country.
I vote that somebody on the right is trying to yell “Morman! Morman! Morman!” at the top of their lungs like a claxon. I’m sure there are many on the right who think they would benefit from that.
Lev
@Turgidson: Neither do I. The calculation has to be that every sentence with “Romney” and “Mormon” in it takes away X amount of his support, and while I could understand going postal if someone mentions Romney’s faith in an attack, gratuitously bringing it up to try to damage Obama somehow is a fucking mistake. They have no idea what they’re doing.
I particularly like the sanctimonious tone they’re taking, the whole “Is this the hope and change that Barack Obama wants to bring to Washington?” Sorry, Repubs. That shit’s old and weak, Clinton got nothing with it in Spring ’08 and neither did McCain later that year. It’s about as with it as a Fibber McGee reference.
Corner Stone
@MikeJ: Nah. IMO, this was a move by the Romney camp to elevate his stature and give him the level playing field to seem worthy of attack by a sitting president.
At the same time they can beat the Mormon thing into the heads of every R voter until they’re not so sure why they hate him anymore. I mean, if Obama is attacking him, it must mean Romney’s got the juice, amirite??
jl
If it is a real and ‘serious’ GOP strategy to help Romney, I guess it is a ‘good’ idea (Sorry about the scare quotes, but I don’t want to insult the words ‘serious’ and ‘good’ by using them in this context).
Maybe Romney is not considered a real Xtian by a lot of teabaggers and wingnuts, and maybe never will be. But if he can be protrayed as an official victim of multicultural/secular/brown person/liberal commie s o s h u l i s t uppity and sneering prejudice, that might win some over.
Lose on the Christian sect angle, but win on the tribalism angle. And if they can ever spend a moment on what Mormon religion really teaches (I doubt it) it might not be so weird (as if anything can be as weird as Xtianism).
les
@Baud:
Wow, man, that’s, like, profound, man. What if, like, somebody who’s not Obama, but, like, worked with Obama, and who didn’t mention Romney’s religion, had mentioned Romney’s religion and said it was, like, weird, man! What if? And then, like, man, that would mean something about Obama, man! And what would, like, I think about Obama then, man? heavy, man, heavy, like, I don’t know what to think. Wadda you think, man?
Hal
@Baud:
And Jon Stewart, who last night was criticizing Newsweek for their Bachmann cover which he says was unfairly and purposely done to make her look crazy. He then as proof showed photos of her in the mag which, according to him, where very photogenic, so why that cover?
What killed me was he then read off Bachmann’s asinine statements, and said they don’t need a photo to make her appear crazy. They have her words, so why not just go with that?
Which leads to the question to Stewart, what is your problem? You say Bachmann’s nuts, but shame on Newsweek for not have an appropriately glamorous photo on the cover?
OzoneR
@Baud:
It would say the left is wrong about him.
Corner Stone
The R’s will vote for Romney. They will swallow hard and vote.
Corner Stone
@les: Chong…is that you, man?
TG Chicago
I love the fact that Cole’s evidence that this was not an anti-Mormon dog whistle is the fact that “no one in the campaign ever said that” they were going after Romney’s religion.
Yeah, that’s how people usually do dog whistles. By first going to Politico and explicitly announcing that it’s a dog whistle.
I guess now we can never refer to any anti-Obama messages as dog whistles unless we can show that the GOP operatives went to Politico to explicitly announce that they were going after Obama’s race. Good plan.
Hal
PS:
Does anyone every have to directly bring up Romney’s religion? Like Obama’s race, I’m sure his opponents must have factored in at least some people not voting for the guy because he’s Black. The same goes for Romney. Everyone knows he’s a Mormon. No need for Obama to bring it up. In fact, I expect the first people to really bring it up will be the Repubs themselves,
Maybe they are the actual source to this story.
Violet
@Roger Moore:
So true. He’s one of the worst offenders.
opal
@jacy:
Either way, things are going to get ugly.
MaxxLange
Perhaps the purpose of this entire exercise is to make Mormon-bashing off limits in the Republican primaries, by framing it as an Obama-ite evil? Never mind that Obama, you know, hasn’t done it. Who is Frum supporting in 2012, has he said?
amused
I think it would be fun if someone asked Mittster what he thinks about this.
Midnight Marauder
@Corner Stone:
The presidential hopes of Rick Perry would like a word with you…
redshirt
@nancydarling: Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt and Deception (or Disinformation).
I think the acronym defines the last 15 years of the American political scene. It’s been refined to a science.
BGinCHI
@TG Chicago: Please leave my city.
You are an idiot.
Roger Moore
@Violet:
I don’t know if he’s an especially bad offender, but he’s an especially obvious one because he winds up going against the Republican mainstream so often because he fits so badly with their usual demographic. I guess he’s just proof that their true core demographic category is people with no empathy beyond personal experience, rather than any specific ethnic group.
Uncle Clarence Thomas
.
.
Fortunately, no one is falling for this Republican disinformation ploy. President Obama would never conduct a campaign like this simply so he could personally be elected president of the United States, just as he would never campaign on a big-ass jobs program. So stop your weeping right now, balloonemos.
.
.
TooManyJens
@TG Chicago:
Yes, I’m sure that’s the conclusion the Republicans would like you to take away from this.
If Ben and JMart had not planted the idea that “weird” was a dogwhistle for “Mormon,” would you have thought of it independently?
nancydarling
Thanks, red. I try to keep up. Sometimes hard for a relatively old lady.
Maude
It certainly has gotten Romney a lot of attention. It also makes him seem very important.
TooManyJens
@FlipYrWhig: I thought “aligned with the White House” was a particularly hilarious dodge. I keep picturing some dude standing outside the White House, facing in the same direction. Which for all we know is who they went to.
Derf
Cole you poor sad sack of a twice Bush voting idiot.
You are in fact creating your own reality here with this piece which is in fact just helping to give that horseshit politico piece more credibility than it deserves.
I still wonder if you do this on purpose. Same as your concern trolling about Obama but never quite enough to make it seem deliberate.
Being that you voted for the Texas dummy twice I’m pretty sure it’s just because you are an idiot.
The Spy Who Loved Me
Funny how Frum is held up as “one of the sane ones” when he’s ripping into Republicans, but let him criticize the other side, or piss on your parade in any way, and he suddenly becomes nothing more than a hack. Get fucking real. The hacks are here, on the front page and in the comments.
Corner Stone
@Midnight Marauder:
Until he tosses his hat and raises $250M then I maintain Romney will be the R nominee.
Major Mel Funkshun
Who moved the rock?
Redshift
@The Spy Who Loved Me:
If you had something remotely approaching a clue, you would get that he’s not being held up as “one of the sane ones” here even when he says something slightly less insane than the rest of them. He’s being held up as sane by the Village, and the only question is which side of that equation is deserving of more mockery.
Idiot.
TG Chicago
@TooManyJens:
You asked: “If Ben and JMart had not planted the idea that “weird” was a dogwhistle for “Mormon,” would you have thought of it independently?”
Yes, I would have. Honestly, I find Mormonism to be kinda weird, so it’s not much of a stretch for me.
Mnemosyne
@The Spy Who Loved Me:
I think the term you’re searching for is “even the conservative David Frum …” It doesn’t signal total agreement with him. It signals that even a conservative moron like Frum manages to sense that there’s a problem.
TG Chicago
So what’s the Balloon Juice party line?
a) Obama’s political team is way too angelic to say something like this. Politico made up the entire story.
b) Somebody attached to Obama’s political team did, in fact, describe Romney as weird, but they are too angelic to ever possibly bring up religion, so they meant weird in other ways.
c) Something else (please explain)
Also, has anybody from the Obama camp denied this story? If not, why not?
MaxxLange
They probably meant that he seems like a slick, management consultant huckster.
TooManyJens
@TG Chicago: The idea of a BJ party line is pretty laughable, but my answer is c) The burden of proof, or at least of some kind of evidence, is on people claiming that the ones associating “Mormon” and “weird” were the Obama camp, not Ben and JMart. Because if you read the piece (and Ben’s twitter feed), that’s exactly what happened. “Huh, they say ‘weird.’ I bet they mean ‘Mormon.'”
Also, you don’t have to think the Obama team is angelic to think that this particular move wouldn’t make a lot of sense. The Republicans in the primary are already going to go after Romney’s religion; there’s no reason for the Obama camp to say a word. And sitting back and letting the Republicans beat the tar out of each other is exactly their style.
@MaxxLange: Unpossible!
RossInDetroit
Nothing to see here.
Weird is the new normal.
Self-employed is the new employed.
Debt is the new savings.
Austerity is the new prosperity.
I read it in the GOP play book.
Mnemosyne
@TG Chicago:
Your comment seems to imply that there’s no possible way anyone could describe Romney as weird based on his actions and political statements, so therefore the only possible explanation is that they’re referring to his religion and not, say, his pretending that someone pinched his ass while he was walking through a crowd or tying his dog’s cage to the top of his car and driving at 60 miles an hour while it shits all over the windshield.
Nope, the only reason to think someone like that is “weird” is if you’re thinking of his religion, because those are totally normal things that everyone does, amirite?
Mnemosyne
@TG Chicago:
Also, too:
Denied what? That they’re planning their strategy for the 2012 election? You mean that a president who plans to run for re-election would actually make plans and have strategies in place against his likely opponents? Oooh, what a scandal! Better get those impeachment proceedings started!
Amir Khalid
@TG Chicago:
The Politico story doesn’t come within a mile of establishing that anyone from anywhere actually said anything about Obama’s strategy to oppose Mitt Romney. So there’s not really something for them to deny.
How do you deny speculations like Politico’s that are only hinted at, rather than asserted outright, without giving them more weight than they deserve? Should Obama’s people say? “None of us said the things about Mitt Romney that Politico wouldn’t come out and say that we said!” ?
Bellwetherman
The odious Ross Douthat blogged the Politico story in yesterdays NYT. I’m a critic of Obama, but this full court press by the more moderate wingnuts smells like a preemptive smear job, in case their Bain man is the last republican left standing.
TG Chicago
@Amir Khalid: They could just say “Politico’s baseless insinuation that we will be introducing Romney’s religion into our 2012 campaign is false and odious.”
If that’s the case, why not say so?
handy
@TG Chicago:
Seriously, what have they got to hide, amirite?
Stefan
@Mnemosyne:
Come on, it’s obviously Thor. He’s the God of Thunder! He could fry Steve Rogers to a crisp!
Joseph Nobles
@TG Chicago: Ben Smith’s story underscores that NO ONE in the Obama camp mentioned Romney’s religion at all. So what you’re driving at, I don’t know.
Stefan
Your comment seems to imply that there’s no possible way anyone could describe Romney as weird based on his actions and political statements, so therefore the only possible explanation is that they’re referring to his religion and not, say, his pretending that someone pinched his ass while he was walking through a crowd or tying his dog’s cage to the top of his car and driving at 60 miles an hour while it shits all over the windshield.
Or, say, his habit of violently flip-flopping and contradicting his previously deeply held beliefs every five minutes. Nope, nothing weird at all about having a complete gaping hole where your personality should be.
les
@Corner Stone:
A blast from the past, or I’m stuck in the past, or something. Baude’s snark just hit the chord; but as (I think) Pet Seger said, if you think you remember the 60’s, you weren’t really there. So, I don’t remember.
TG Chicago
@Mnemosyne: I don’t think the ass-pinch gag is that weird, really. The dog thing was incredibly dumb and cruel, but it happened almost 30 years ago. Has he done anything like that in the last couple decades?
And flip-flopping (re: #98) isn’t weird at all for a politician.
TG Chicago
@Joseph Nobles: Here’s what I’m driving at. Imagine for a moment that Obama’s political team decided that they wanted to use Romney’s religion as a wedge issue. In that scenario, how likely is it that they’re going to run to Politico and openly announce that they’re going after Mitt’s faith?
So the fact that they didn’t come out and say “Mormons are weird” isn’t as meaningful as many people (including Cole) like to believe.
Trump never said “Obama is a foreign black Muslim terrorist!”, yet folks here never had any trouble getting that clear inference from his birth certificate silliness. You were right; that was indeed what the birth certificate thing was about, even if Trump never said so to Politico.
That’s what I meant about the “angelic” comments earlier. Do you think that Obama’s political team is unwilling to make sly inferences while keeping plausible deniability?
I mean, the best case scenario here is that instead of going the full Trump (ie hitting him for his religion), they’re going for an Al Gore/earth tones thing (if you actually take what they’re saying at face value). Or Kerry seems French. I didn’t like that stuff when it was done in 2000 and 2004, and I’m not going to start liking it in 2012 just because this time it helps one of the good guys. Means and ends, y’know?
TooManyJens
@TG Chicago:
Now imagine for a moment that they didn’t plan to use Romney’s religion as a wedge issue. How would the interview with Politico have gone any differently?
Mnemosyne
@TG Chicago:
Yep, nothing’ strange about a presidential candidate pretending that he got groped in a crowd. But I’m guessing you laughed your ass off when Bush went around during that debate with Kerry saying, “Anybody want some wood?” and snickering.
Or, y’know, that it’s all totally made-up bullshit because even the Politico story admits they didn’t talk to anyone in the White House. But why let that stop you when you can drop onto your fainting couch at how mmmeeeeaaannnn Democrats are if an anonymously sourced story is actually true and not Republican consultants trying to immunize themselves for when they go after Romney’s religion full-bore?
Do I think that Obama and his team are angels? No. I think they’re smarter than you give them credit for and will prefer to lean on “RomneyCare is awesome — thanks for the ideas we used in ObamaCare!” attacks that will be much more damaging among Republicans than silly insinuations about religion.
TenguPhule
Yes. Now report back to school for remedial english lessons.
Mnemosyne
Also, too — I wouldn’t be surprised if Obama drops a snarky line here or there about Romney’s religion, but it would probably be a lot more subtle than “ha ha he’s a Mormon!” More like, “My esteemed opponent knows what it’s like to be a member of a minority religion” so he can hit Romney’s Mormonism and the “Obama is a Mooslim!” rumors with the same hammer.
Kathleen
John, I love your rants. You and TBOGG are two of the funniest writers on the Internets.
Dazedandconfused
It’s not idiotic to want to paint Obama as the one engaging in an attack on Romney’s Mormonism at all. It inoculates (a bit) against the inevitable whisper campaigns and attacks from the evangelicals. “Are these whispers from Obama or Michelle?” would be a thought in their mind, one that serves Romney well.
It’s actually pretty smart, and Frum may be playing along.
Karen
Uncle Clarence and TG Chicago could read in Politco that Obama didn’t say Mitt Romney was really Casey Anthony (who is now the most hated person in the US) and automatically make the jump that means that Obama has really accused Romney of really being Casey Anthony.
Obama didn’t accuse Mitt Romney of being a Martian so according to Uncle Clarence and TG Chicago, that means Obama has really accused Mitt Romney of being a Martian.
So…..if Obama doesn’t say that Mitt Romney is something, that SURELY means that Obama is really accusing Romney of being something.
How does that circular logic work for you?
Cacti
I suppose it could have come from the Romney camp, but here’s the problem with that bit of strategery. Closer examination of the tenets of Mormonism by the media and general public will make it seem MORE weird, not less.
Warren Jeffs was recently convicted for his strict adherence to the marriage doctrines of Mormon church founder Joseph Smith.
Joseph Nobles
@TG Chicago: Imagine for a moment that George Bush planned and executed the 9/11 attacks for the purposes of invading Afghanistan and Iraq. He’s not going to run to the media and say, “Hey, we attacked ourselves in a false flag operation!” So the fact that they didn’t come out and say it wasn’t a false flag operation isn’t as meaningful as many people think.
Hob
@Hal:
I’m glad Jon Stewart exists and he’s usually a smart kid, but sometimes he just doesn’t seem to get really basic concepts, like magazine covers. Of course they picked a photo that looks extreme– it’s illustrating a story whose theme is that Michele Bachman is extreme! The photo doesn’t substitute for the whole story, it invites you to read the story and gives you an idea of what it’s about. If they do a story about high unemployment, should they use a picture of prosperous-looking people working happily at their jobs? Was it unfair for the poster for Jaws to show the shark with all his teeth out about to eat someone, since there are long stretches of the movie where he’s not doing that?
If Newsweek ran a cover story about how Obama is an evil fascist who wants to destroy America, and they used a photo in which he happened to look like the Red Skull, the story would be bullshit because the story is bullshit, not because of the damn picture.