Karl Rove sure isn’t feeling the Rickmentum:
“Palin has got a pretty active schedule in early September. I think Chris Christie and Paul Ryan are going to look at it again, and I wouldn’t be surprised if all three of them gave serious consideration to it.”
I hope Ryan runs. I would like to see a presidential candidate who perfectly embodies the punditry-versus-the-people dynamic. Vouchercare is wildly unpopular with voters, but with the Village Idiots cheering him on, Ryan just might be crazy enough to run on it.
Taylor
If Ryan runs, we’ll be hearing a lot about Obama putting Medicare cuts (raising the eligibility age) on the table during the debt ceiling negotiations.
In the words of Old Uncle Claudius, Let all the poisons hatch out.
Thoughtcrime
If Ryan runs, will there be a $15 admission fee to enter the primaries’ voting booths?
boss bitch
Paul Ryan is a WATB. He ran like a little bitch after that Obama speech. How is he going to handle an entire campaign of them?
kindness
I’m thinking Ryan has a death wish but is too stupid to realize it.
Butch
We should keep in mind that there’s no way that the necessary exploratory committees, advisers, and state and county machinery could possibly be set up in time for the primaries. It just isn’t possible for someone to “jump in” at this point.
eemom
oh pleez DougJ — HOW can you be so continually gleeful at the ever-widening circle of liars, thieves, lunatics and imbeciles setting their filthy eyes on the White House?
It is to weep.
me
Ryan wants to kill Medicare and Christie doesn’t hate muslims. Ryan, at least, could win the Primary. Unless he moves out to the offshore libertarian paradise; I wonder if any of his kids are named Andrew.
Three-nineteen
I only want Ryan to run now if he quits being a Rep to do it like Ron Paul did. Otherwise, I want him to wait until there’s the best possible chance of killing his political career.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
Whatever hopes might be raised by the idea of a Ryan Revolution are completely squashed by the reminder that Rove is still wasting air.
Alex S.
What do the republican handlers hope to accomplish by slicing up the same shrinking cake into even smaller pieces? Ryan and Christie will steal even more votes from Romney. Ryan is dead on the national level. Christie is ‘pro-muslim’, if you will. Also, if Rove thinks that Perry’s anti-FED rhetoric is going to hurt him, ha! They called Quantitative Easing II the coming of the Antichrist, well that’s what they get.
Culture of Truth
“Hedge fund manager Leon Cooperman told investors last week that he was thinking of running for president, Institutional Investor reports.”
Quicksand
Just summon Zombie Reagan already.
Napoleon
@Butch:
Bingo, other then Perry and Palin who have been more or less running this whole time any one else would be starting from a dead stop start. It can not be done at this point.
boss bitch
@Taylor:
I’m pretty sure Obama would love to have that debate. He wants to strengthen Medicare but his opponent wrote and voted YES on legislation that would end it. Bring it.
Keith G
The older conventional wisdom would point out that these guys need to be raising big money by now. I guess after Citizens United, more corporate money can be raised more directly and quickly. So, maybe they can hold out longer, but I wonder.
Villago Delenda Est
I’m looking forward to Ryan charging admission to his campaign rallies.
That should go over very well.
Villago Delenda Est
@Culture of Truth:
“Leon who?”
Dennis SGMM
@Keith G:
I’ve been hearing rumblings about Super PACs; unlimited donations and unlimited spending. Support from one of them might be sufficient to jump start a latecomer’s campaign.
Butch
@Napoleon: Agreed, Perry’s been planning his “surprise” announcement for a long time now and Palin has most of what she needs in place.
Ben Cisco
I’m already longing for the day when, in regards to Gov. Goodhair, I can channel my inner Phineas.
Suffern ACE
@Napoleon: Yes it can. Iowa republicans walk around with for sale signs on their backs. As Pawlenty drops out, his ground team just sells itself to the next guy. Newt’s team leaves and goes to Perry. Romney can’t buy everybody yet. It’s a silly system we have, but as long as the political help is for sale, it’s not too late until November.
Nemesis
The media love to build em up and tear em down. Media felated Trump. Media used Trumps wacky outspoken personna to sell ad time. More eyes, more $’s. Period.
Bachmann may be in the throes of the exact same dynamic. She has been treated well by media. Now, its time for media to toss her out like yesterdays newspaper.
Perry is hot now. Perry is a clown that has potential in the short term. When media has their attention distracted away from Perry by Paylin, then Perry is kicked to the curb.
Its a never-ending media search for eyeballs. Politics as entertainment. Facts, truth and the countries best interests be damned.
Nemesis
@efgoldman:
True dat.
The trick for goopers is to pander to the crazy in order to win primaries. To win the general, the gop must tack hard back to the middle for any chance of electoral victory.
Would be impossible with a representative media.
KG
@Napoleon: depends… they could “jump in” and write off Iowa (Bachmann as a neighboring favored daughter) and New Hampshire (same situation with Romney) and focus on Nevada (though Romney runs will well there) and/or South Carolina. Or just say to hell with it, those are four smalls states and I’m going to focus on running a more national campaign… if you don’t put too much emphasis on any one state (Mayor NineEleven in Florida), it could work. But you’re going to need a shitton of start up money…
Stooleo
O.T.
Billionaire to build libertarian island utopia.
What could possibly go wrong?
j
If he charges $15.00 for a town hall as a congresscritter, how much will he charge for an interview when he’s running for president?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/16/1007552/-Remember-when-Paul-Ryan-believed-in-holding-open-and-public-town-halls?via=blog_1
MazeDancer
Rick Perry wants to send predator drones to patrol the Southern Border. Wonder if Canada is thinking of stocking up to fly the Northern line when we all make a run for it if, heaven forbid, Perry – or any of them – gets elected.
Christie, fortunately, can’t win the nomination. He’s got excess backbone. He’s got that pop culture tough guy yelling thing Reality TV watchers like. And he’s not a 24/7 hater. Of Muslims, homosexuals, non-Christians. He’s even said nice things about the President. And he’s not certifiably insane.
True he’s obnoxious and unpopular in his state, but that’s not stopping Perry. And Christie’s size is not uncommon throughout the country and hasn’t been represented in national politics since television took over the media.
Brian H
The GOP: testing the outer limits of clown car physics since _________.
Steve M.
Doug, I agree with you 100% on this. It’s always fun when the pundits are too stupid to grasp a glaringly obvious fact (e.g., the impossibility of Jon Huntsman’s quest for the GOP nomination), but this would be an ideological version of that, and thus twice as much fun. The Village just has no idea how much ordinary Americans, including teabaggers, cherish Social Security and Medicare, and despise anyone who wants to destroy them. It will be lovely to watch the public hand those idiots Ryan’s head on a platter.
hilts
Jim “Fish and Chips” Treacher and CNN’s favorite wingnut pundit Erick Erickson defend Rick Perry’s comments about Bernanke
Treacher:
Erickson:
j
@kindness: He realizes that come 2012 he’s toast as a congressman. Running for president is an easy out, and a way to amass a huge war chest for his inevitable comeback run as a senator or other position.
Maybe Mitt’s veep?.
Butch
And in other Presidential news, on the anniversary of his death at age 42, Bachmann was taped wishing Elvis a “happy birthday.”
gnomedad
Voldercare?
Dennis SGMM
When the overarching goal is to get that black guy out of “our” White House it really doesn’t matter who emerges as the Republican nominee. Every last Republican dime and every last Republican vote will go to that person regardless.
phoebes-in-santa fe
@Butch: Don’t know if that’s true about Palin. She appears to have no campaign staff and no organisation on the ground in Iowa or anywhere else. Her fans on Conservatives4Palin say that if/when she announces, that a “groundswell” of support will just automatically arise and she’ll be on the way to the WH.
I’m skeptical of that thinking. They couldn’t even find enough people to sell tickets to that lousy movie about her…
cat48
It may be too late. Goodhair is taking off according to new poll today:
j
@Butch: “…Palin has most of what she needs in place”.
Like her own TV network and a pet “journalist” named Gretta and a lap dog named Sean.
Butch
@phoebes-in-santa fe: I prob’ly should have left Palin out of my example. I’ve thought for a long time that all she actually wants is the attention; being preznit would be too hard.
trollhattan
@ DougJ FTW on the post title. Just bought his latest CD, coincidentally.
Mittens may get “last sane man standing” award but the Republicans will be nominating a mental case. The only remaining questions are which one and which DSM categories will apply.
Captain Haddock
I think every Democrat in my family would vote Christie. I am not a huge fan of his, but he has that “familiar” look that would win the Northeast easily.
cmorenc
@Butch:
Palin’s fundamental problem is that in dithering as long as she has, she’s left a void for her brand of candidate that’s been successfully seized by Bachman, who’s far more competent at the actual art of politics and has a vastly better work ethic at it. IMHO if Palin tries to enter at this point, it will likely wind up badly damaging her remaining potential career as a political grifter, because of how starkly it will illustrate how much of a has-been story she’s become, and just how completely Bachman’s taken over her spotlight.
Bulworth
@hilts: Jim Treacher? Never heard of.
eemom
I think Palin must secretly be seething with rage over Bachmann. That she fantasizes to the point of orgasm about clawing Bachmann’s eyes out.
And anyone who thinks that’s sexist can kiss my ass. It is the only thing I find remotely pleasant about any of this.
Roger Moore
@phoebes-in-santa fe:
Of course not. Those things cost money. Palin is a grifter, pure and simple. She’s grabbing as much money as she can by playing potential candidate. At the last possible moment, she’ll come up with an excuse not to run and pocket all the money she’s collected. I’ll be shocked if she actually runs.
eemom
@cmorenc:
zactly. That is why I think that.
trollhattan
@j:
Never believed she’d run and it seems less likely with each passing day. She loves money, attention, money and attention and she’s getting all four now. Why mess things up?
Now, she may also have a Super Secret diary entry in which she
predictsprays really hard that a brokered convention drafts her–“Please help us, Saint Sarah(tm) from the Evil O’Bama.”–but that ain’t happening.Sly
@Stooleo:
Hurricanes, for one thing. Genetically enhanced super mutant killers with dive suits grafted onto their bodies, who serve as protectors of zombie-like orphan girls who suck vital fluids from your body with giant syringes, for another.
Southern Beale
Just heard about this on the Ed show. Apparently there’s bad blood going way bewteen the Bush crowd and the Perry crowd. Apparently Perry used to say publicly that Bush wasn’t sufficiently conservative, marking him as Disloyal. You know how the Bushies hate that.
In other news, Michele Bachmann wished Elvis a happy birthday today, ‘cept he DIED 34 years ago today. His birthday is in January.
{ facepalm }
She better not take that shit to Memphis, they will eat her alive.
Mike in NC
Here comes Ross Douchehat to make the case that only Governor Krispie Kreme can save the GOP in 2012:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opinion/chris-christies-cue.html
Southern Beale
@Sly:
Petri dish being the operative words. Libertarianism is like a fucking virus.
eemom
@Roger Moore:
ah, but even so — she’s still gotta be furious about Bachmann.
trollhattan
@eemom:
Agreed. But really, they’re good friends!
Violet
@cat48: Don’t read too much into that. There’s always a honeymoon phase for new candidates, especially if TPTB/MSM have determined them to be viable, interesting or saviors. Perry’s only been a candidate for a few days. Check back in two or three weeks.
Libby
I’m so old I remember when Fred Thompson was the great white hope of the GOP. Maybe he could jump in again. Everybody loved those cigar smoke blowing videos…
Bulworth
I think Palin is running for VP again. That’s the only sense I can make of her attention-grabbing stunts.
Southern Beale
@Stooleo:
I see he’s only given $1.25 million to his Libertarian island dream. Don’t think it will get too far with such a meager investment. Then again, maybe the free hand of the market will come in and give this idea some momentum.
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA who am I kidding?
Southern Beale
@Bulworth:
Yup. She was trying to upstage Romney to show what a great limelight-catcher she is.
I think she hates Bachmann though. Wonder if she’ll be sucking up to Perry. Of course she will, what am I thinking?
kindness
C’mon people… Palin is a grifter. All she wanted was another round of being the headlines again. Helps fund the grifting. She’ll never give up the easy money train. She won’t trade the visibility and the ‘it’ person meme. Her life is now a reality show and she likes it that way. Real running a government is hard. Why do you think she only lasted 1/2 a term as governor in Alaska?
The real problem we liberal fascists now have is puncturing the Ricky Perry balloon. He is one the Village is fighting to fluff and I mean that in a porn way. They’ve already told us they will overlook Perry’s willingness to pull Texas from the Union, his willingness to call the Fed Chair treasonous & to suggest a sitting President is against America and unpatriotic. No….the fix is in & it’s name is Perry.
Gotta start busting his chops now & NEVER let up.
Big Baby DougJ
@Steve M.:
Yes, I agree that was a different kind of case, because while Scarborough’s belief that Huntsman would win was (past tense here, right, he can’t still believe this) stupid and pathetic, at least Scar et al. were supporting a decent, reasonable candidate. So that was sad, but almost admirable, whereas the love for Ryan is just sad and stupid.
Violet
@trollhattan:
She’s getting less and less of it as time goes by, though. Her reality show wasn’t renewed, her second book did significantly less well than her first and the crowds were much lower. She showed up to help Bristol pimp her book and couldn’t even draw a reasonable crowd. Her movie bombed. Her bus tour was ridiculed.
I know she’s got supporters, but from lurking at her fan site, Conservatives4Palin, it’s clear that if she doesn’t run they’re going to feel like jilted lovers.
She’s smart enough to see all that and running for Pres may be her best hope to keep the gravy train running longer term. If she doesn’t run now, her supporters may well abandon her because they’re True Believers and they’re really hanging their hat on her running.
Kilkee
@Roger Moore: Agreed. I’m betting every last (i.e., both) nickel I have that she’ll fall back on the “difficult to take so much time awaay from Trig, et al.”) gambit.
Southern Beale
Perry/Palin 2012! Please, make it so!
Big Baby DougJ
@trollhattan:
Glad somebody got the reference!
trollhattan
@Big Baby DougJ:
I’m both aged and irie.
Bulworth
I think she’ll eventually say something along the lines of “There wasn’t a strong enough demand from my followers, etc”. Blame them.
TK421
Yes, Pundits vs. the People is truly the battle of our time. Remember when the pundits launched a war against Libya without Congressional approval? And how about those pundits who offered to cut Medicare and social Security (which would throw my parents out into the street)? Gotta stop those pundits.
Amanda in the South Bay
@Napoleon: Certainly says something about the American political system, right? If you haven’t declared yourself a candidate 14.5 months before the election, you haven’t a chance.
dedc79
I’d be remiss not to link to a Lee Scratch Perry song
Violet
@Bulworth:
Don’t think she can do that. They’re the ones donating money to her. She’s smart enough to know she can’t piss them off.
@Kilkee:
Of course she won’t actually follow through with getting anywhere close to the nomination, unless it were some kind of brokered thing at the convention so she could avoid all the hard work of campaigning and those pesky debates.
But if she doesn’t run, the money is going to dry up. I don’t know how she plays this so she keeps stringing along all the old, white men who hang posters of her in those running shorts on their walls.
Villago Delenda Est
@Violet:
Plus, her documentary was a total bomb. In the bad sense of “bomb”.
No matter, she’s got a nice chunk of change to see her through her golden years, assuming she hasn’t foolishly pissed it away on silk undies for her studmuffin.
hilts
Sarah Palin is a mama jellyfish who doesn’t have the guts to run for president.
The unfortunate thing is that she’s catnip to dummies like Chris Matthews, John King, and Wolf Blitzer, etc and they will continue to send camera crews to chase after her whenever she goes out in public.
Dennis SGMM
Scratch Perry? Only if I wanted smell bullshit.
Violet
@Villago Delenda Est:
Yeah, I mentioned the movie. There was some story about a guy who tried to show it for a fundraiser for a animal shelter (or something like that) and not only did hardly anyone come, the fact that he chose that movie as a fundraiser turned people against the organization. She is NOT popular with most people.
It seems pretty clear to me that Todd has a deal with her to show up when she needs him to be her +1. I think she needs some of that money to pay him off. And I don’t think she spends money wisely. I wouldn’t be surprised if she hasn’t saved very much of it, really.
eemom
look, even if she NEVER intended to run for president herself, Bachmann absolutely has eclipsed her in the public mind, probably for good. Amongst other things, the Moosilla is rapidly approaching the sell-by date on her starburst appeal — whereas Michele still has plenty of weenie-eating miles on her twatometer.
All of that’s gotta be KILLING Palin. Ya know, it’s one thing to never have any real intention of running for president, and it is quite another to have the opportunity SNATCHED from you by a younger, hotter copycat act.
I luuuuuuurves it.
Dee Loralei
@Southern Beale: Most of Memphis would, sure. But out here in the ‘burbs, Marsha Blackburn is our Congresscritter and Bachman is a more crazy, stupider (totally a real word) Blackburn.So, I think they’ll just love her to death. Bless their hearts…..
Alex S.
@eemom:
It’s got to hurt her that Bachmann actually is a few years older.
hilts
@eemom:
Bachmann is older. Palin was born on born February 11, 1964, while Bachmann was born on April 6, 1956.
sixers
If Paul Ryan runs I don’t know how I will be able to make it through the New Year! Wahhhh!
Sin,
John Cole
trollhattan
@Violet:
Hey, keeping in mooseburgers and Manolos costs real money. Also, too, snow machines and li’l Duffel’s sweatsuits.
eemom
@hilts:
@Alex S.:
fer realz? I didn’t know that.
Shit, then Bachmann is even older than I am.
I guess I’ve never looked at her closely. Does she look older than Palin?
J. Michael Neal
@eemom:
Up close, yes.
Alex S.
@eemom:
In my opinion, only her eyes tell her age – which is why she uses a lot of make up, I guess.
benjoya
scratch perry? who dubbed him frontrunner? see what i’ve done?
trollhattan
@eemom:
She’s on her way to becoming a social x-ray from “Bonfire” ala Nancy Reagan. These are her remaining golden moments before she morphs.
“All photographers must use portrait soft filters.”
–Bachmann campaign directive
hilts
@eemom:
Regardless of the age difference between them, I’m fairly confident that Palin is insanely jealous of Bachmann’s win in the Ames Straw Poll. Palin’s problem is that her cowardice will prevent her from entering the race. Her only recourse against Bachmann, Perry, and Romney is to keep up her stupid dog and pony public appearances in order to steal the spotlight away from them.
Djur
@hilts: That’s rich from Jim Treacher, after his pants-pissing jihad against David Letterman. (He did it here, too.
Caz
Paul Ryan would destroy Obama in the election. So would Christie. I think you progressives should be rooting for someone like Huntsman to win the nod. You have a death wish if you want Paul Ryan to win the GOP nomination. He is a strong speaker, has conviction, is experienced, is very smart, and doesn’t make the type of gaffes that you all like to make fun of, like Palin’s Paul Revere statement and Bachmann’s ____________ (insert Bachmann “idiotic” quote here).
trollhattan
@Caz:
“I’ll have what he’s having.”
Would love to know how reality looks from far, far afar.
Jeffro
@Roger Moore:
Exactly right. Also explains why she has no staff – overhead costs money, ya know. An on-again, off-again bus tour to nowhere, she can screw up all by herself.
Jim Treacher
Pants-Pissing Jihad is my favorite GG Allin record.
Villago Delenda Est
@Caz:
If that were true, then they’d be in the race right now.
The thing is, it’s only true within the narrow confines of your totally addled what passes for a brain.
Ryan is having to put up velvet ropes at his constituent meetings to keep embarrassing questioning away from him. Christie will be lucky to escape Trenton with a full term behind him.
nellcote
I always thought Huntsman was going for name recognition in 2016 rather than seriously contending for 2012.
Palin will run for the senate from her compound in Arizona.
Tugg Romney
I’m starting to wonder if Karl is as smart as he’s reputed to be. Palin, really?
Or is this what that 11 dimensional chess looks like?