Dave Weigel at Slate discusses “three lessons from Iowa“:
Lesson One: The Tea Party isn’t a small-government-first movement…. Sixty-four percent of caucus-goers called themselves “Tea Party supporters,” and 30 percent of them backed Rick Santorum — a social conservative who proudly defended his earmarks. Rick Perry, who campaigned desparately on the issues Tea Partiers say they care about — no earmarks! Term limits! Part time Congress! — got 14 percent of this vote. Michele Bachmann got 9 percent of it.
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Lesson Two: Money is speech, which means people can ignore it. Michael Li was the first to calculate how much the candidates spent for every vote. Santorum spent $1.65 per vote. Rick Perry spent $817…
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Lesson Three: Republicans aren’t so excited about 2012…
Ya think? More at the link; also, those precious votes cost Romney $113.07 each, which is pretty spendy for a race in which Willard’s handlers claimed he wasn’t really competing. I gotta say, seems to me, it’s all good news for President Obama!
So, what other encouraging news is on the agenda today?
SiubhanDuinne
O/T right from the get-go here, but with your love of cartoons and cartoonists, AL, I’m sure you’ll join me in a heartfelt RIP Ronald Searle. His name may not be as well known here as in the UK, but I think quite a few would recognize his wonderful and idiosyncratic drawings. I fell in love with his work when I was quite a little girl and have adored him for many decades since. He was 91; for someone of his gifts, that’s still too young.
As for Iowa, I can only imagine with what glee Searle would have skewered the lot of them with pen and ink.
rlrr
Any bets on when Shit for Brains will post a comment on how this is the beginning of the unstoppable Romney juggernaut?
PeakVT
So, what other encouraging news is on the agenda today?
The Iowa caucuses will start to fade from my awareness for three years or so. I may or may not help that process with the appropriate beverage later in the day.
Lupin
Even his dogs hate Glenn Greenwald:
Dogs are keen judges of character. You better watch out, Cole. You’re next.
Citizen Alan
It was the damnedest thing — I’ve got Veritas in the pie filter, but I could swear that even his pie quotes tonight sounded sad, depressed and defensive. Which was just hilarious to me.
NobodySpecial
You know, winning a caucus by 8 votes is funny all in and of itself. It smacks of ‘We’re losing, get some people off the street in here and promise ’em free beer!’
IM
@rlrr:
He could well be right (n the primary)
That said, the press seems to spin it as an setback for Romney.
IM
@Lupin:
He does have a sense of humor after all.
Joseph Nobles
@Lupin: Oh, shit, I do not wish a dog bite on the hand on even Glenn Greenwald. That happened to me once, and the hand was never the same. He better have gone to the clinic. Staph infections THAT FAST.
Phylllis
I understand the hoopla (election year! horse race! woo hoo!) but just saw the actual numbers. About 110,000 total participated in the Republican caucus, in a state with 608,000 registered Republicans (2010 data from Des Moines Register-most recent I could find in 8 seconds of googling).
Kirbster
Excellent ROI (in a financial sense) for Santorum, but I doubt he can duplicate it anywhere else. The votes might not look so cheap if one factors in the time he spent campaigning in-state.
In a Citizens United world, Iowans have sensed that their caucuses are about to become irrelevant despite all the attention from pundits and the media. They’re not going to vote strategically for an electable candidate; they’re going to say, “f*ck it,” and vote emotionally because it doesn’t really matter. “Take that, GOP establishment! You’re not the boss of me!” The SuperPAC money is payment for having to endure all the toxic advertising, and benefits the state economy regardless of who won or lost.
debbie
Best thing about Santorum’s showing is that Mitt will not be able to move toward the center, now during the primaries or later when the general campaign begins.
Xenos
Where does the catchphrase ‘ya think?’ come from? I started hearing it a few years ago but could never figure it out.
S. cerevisiae
Just for fun (?) I’m watching the Today show for the network spin and they keep talking about the Santorum surge. Do you think the writers are doing that deliberately?
NickM
@Xenos: I think Hannah Montana helped popularize it with sassy kids.
dead existentialist
@Lupin: So . . . Dog on Car, Man on Dog, Dog on Man. A new day is dawning.
Mino
Oof. A bad start today. The dogs next door cornered a yellow tom against the fence. It didn’t appear to be sick {before the dogs got it}. Rabies is a real possiblility. Will be sending the body off to Animal Control.
Chris
I agree with Anne Laurie’s “YA THINK?” reaction. Matt Taibbi had these guys pegged months and months ago. So did anyone who had even the slightest acquaintance with the conservative base of the last thirty/forty years.
No, as Taibbi said, “the Tea Party [Movement] is sincerely against government spending, with the exception of the money spent on them.” He also said “they’re full of shit. All of them” which still seems like the most concise and accurate depiction of them.
Elizabelle
I’m bored by Iowa and sickened by the Republicans.
Two cool distractions: First, NYTimes magazine this Sunday on Stephen Colbert:
How Many Stephen Colberts are There?
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/magazine/stephen-colbert.html?ref=magazine&pagewanted=all
Old Dan and Little Ann
I start my morning with 10 minutes of Morning Joe. Why? Don’t ask. But Joe S. told me it was a HUGE win for Romney. Whatever, shit head.
Elizabelle
Second, new movie — shot in Super 8 — during John Mellencamp’s 2009 tour with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson. Opens this week in Manhattan.
Sounds like a Super 8 elegy for dying American small towns.
http://movies.nytimes.com/2012/01/04/movies/john-mellencamp-its-about-you-by-kurt-and-ian-markus-review.html?hpw
Villago Delenda Est
It seems Rethuglicans are about as excited about 2012 as Mitch Daniels, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Mike Huckabee and Haley Barbour are.
And I don’t give a flying fuck about the natural serfs who are the teabaggers. It’s been documented for 30 fucking years that Rethugs don’t give a flying fuck about deficits, or borrowing and spending. The only actual fiscal conservatives left are Democrats.
However, the Rethugs are VERY interested in usurpers and melanin counts.
amk
Al Giordano was so damned close about IA.
Mittens ‘win’ could literally be counted with your fingers.
SiubhanDuinne
Holy shit! John’s “Back to High School” thread is up to 1034 comments.
So far.
Raven
@SiubhanDuinne: As Diane Keaton said in Love and Death. “that is so jejune”! I think that was after the Village Idiot’s Convention in Minsk which reminds me of the entire affair.
Elizabelle
@amk:
So glad to see some new posts by Al Giordano, particularly on US politics. He’s a gift.
re the High School thread: meh.
ned
Hee hee, Santorum surges from behind.
I think every one of us has had a little santorum in them at one point or another…
Josie
@amk: So glad that Al is commenting again on the political scene. His analysis is invaluable; he actually commits real journalism.
Elizabell, I honestly did not copy your comment. I guess that is great minds working together.
amk
@Elizabelle: Indeedy. Here is his take-down of cole’s bff.
El Cid
The Teabirchers support banning contraception because of the deficit, and all the spendin’, and because of the Founding Fathers. You people hate America, so you wouldn’t understand.
Villago Delenda Est
@SiubhanDuinne:
I tossed that thread aside yesterday morning. Too many Paulbot idiots.
JPL
According to TPM Bachmann has a news conference at ten. She canceled her plans to go to SCar. Shucks let the Mittfest begin.
amk
4tehlulz
Lesson 4: Going to the gutter will help you. I expect Romney’s (or whoever gets the nomination once Mitt chokes it away) acceptance speech will go full birther.
batgirl
@S. cerevisiae: Just think of all the googling going on today for Santorum, or better yet, Santorum surge.
JPL
@batgirl: Santorum surge brings up this headline
Out of Santorum’s Lean Operation, a Muscular Result
magurakurin
@SiubhanDuinne: that shit is fucked up. Damn. But the last 500 posts are really just the trolls talking to each other and the odd bystander unwittingly stumbling into the wake.
BJ trolls = people who seriously need hobbies. Fun is fun, but damn. I mainly hang out here to read some jokes and quips while waiting for the next swell to arrive on this wave starved little island I now reside on. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Internet. In fact I more or less have a serious addiction going on. But some of the trolls in this place…whoa.
Oh. And Glenn fucking Greenwald has well and truly lost the plot. That is for sure.
Jay in Oregon
@rlrr:
Could you be more specific? There are a lot of people who will answer to that name here…
Schlemizel
is there any chance we can leave that thread behind us? It was dead long ago.
Here is something worthwhile. TNC writes a beautiful piece on Ron Paul
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/01/the-messenger/250685/
dmsilev
@JPL:
One clown down. Perry is apparently “rethinking” his campaign, so I guess we can expect an announcement soon that he’s going to suspend his campaign to spend more time with his debate gaffes.
Unless Huntsman manages an upset in NH next week, we’ll be down to the Romneybot and 3 clowns in about a week.
Schlemizel
@Jay in Oregon:
It is a troll so successful it can troll without even posting! As much as I hate it you have to give it credit.
SiubhanDuinne
@magurakurin:
I couldn’t make a lot of sense of the whole imbroglio from the beginning and it was clearly so ugly I didn’t really try, and didn’t even look at comments in most of the related threads. But I was scrolling through the list of previous posts to see whether I had missed anything of interest on Iowa and noticed the comment count and was taken aback.
Glen Tomkins
Disintermediation
If they’ld cut out the middlemen and just give me the $817 direct, even I would vote for these clowns. But nooo!
Elizabelle
@JPL:
I saw that. Not an accident.
Kevin Drum gets it right, I think:
http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/01/somebody-wins-iowa-bowl
(italics by Elizabelle)
PS: if Iowa takes Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann off the national stage for a little while, at least, we must thank them for that.
Amir Khalid
I was just wondering: How do the locals pronounce “Des Moines”? I’m guessing that it’s not as not as per the French “deh mwan”.
magurakurin
@SiubhanDuinne: I actually waded through a lot of the other threads and much of the one in question. Like I said, I probably need an intervention. But I was surprised as well when you said it was now up to 1000. I assumed it would have burned itself out long before now.
The whole thing was pretty silly. I can see slagging Greenwald now and again for laughs. But he really isn’t worth getting all that worked up about.
amk
@SiubhanDuinne: So batshit bachmann and birdbrain perry will drop out today ?
Schlemizel
@Elizabelle:
No, we don’t want to thanks them for that – we wanted them to drag this out for weeks 8-{D
@Amir Khalid:
Dah MOY-nns (rhymes with groins)
magurakurin
@dmsilev: Romneybot and 3 Clowns is my new band name
Litlebritdifrnt
The Guardian has a neat piece up introducing Santorum to the Brits who have never heard of him.
You have gotta love the title “Bullets, Lube and Paper Tigers”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/04/history-of-rick-santorum-iowa?CMP=twt_fd
Elizabelle
@Schlemizel:
You’re right on the dragging out. Seeing Bachmann and Perry and as many loons as possible is money in the bank for Obama.
My bad.
Also: are you feeling better these days? Hope so.
Schlemizel
@Elizabelle:
Thanks – still no taste & no moisture. Wake up 8-10 times a night with my mouth glued shut. I’m trying to remain positive.
Years ago I read about a guy that got hit by lightning 4 times, he sort of jokes about it as in “Don’t know what God has against me.” A couple years later I read that he had been hit 6 times and some casino paid him to perform out there talking about his experiences. Later I read he had been hit 8 times, more than once while he was inside of a shelter. He was angry, bitter and resentful of God.
While it has not been lightning every time I understand the changes this guy went through.
Schlemizel
crap! I typed a word meaning a place of business where people can risk cash on the off chance that they will be rewarded with larger amounts of same but those chances are actually illusionary (NO, not Wall Street – the other thing) so I am in moderation! I hate WP
Steeplejack
@Amir Khalid, @Schlemizel:
Every native I have known pronounces it “Duh-Moin.” No s at the end.
Schlemizel
@Steeplejack:
sorry, your right, I got carried away trying to figure out how to do the phonetic.
gnomedad
@SiubhanDuinne:
xkcd meme update: Someone is WRONG on
the internetBalloon Juice!a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Joseph Nobles: Actually pasteurella infections are the immediate onset of concern, and are specific to animal bites, especially dog/cat. Medical attention required, in any case.
/geek pedant
pseudonymous in nc
@Schlemizel:
That’s a fantastic piece. TNC fundamental generosity as a writer allows him to take the conversation in directions that not many people with his kind of biggish-media platform are capable of.
chopper
@Steeplejack:
yet the next state over, Des Plaines is pronounced ‘dez planez’.
still not as bad as the way locals pronounce Bourbonnais.
Schlemizel
@pseudonymous in nc:
TNC & his little blog are a gift. He makes up for the sins of so many, more well known, bloggers. Because of his incredibly thoughtful and well reasoned posts he is a delight to read. Because of the iron hand he takes in his comment section it is a haven of sanity, it rare that I don’t learn something or see a new way to view an issue there. There are disagreements and arguments but never a pissing contest and trolls are dealt with properly.
Schlemizel
@chopper:
How about Lima, Ohio or Monticello, MN? The great think about American English is we have managed to mangle words from every other language in the world.
Amir Khalid
@pseudonymous in nc:
Agreed. Ta-Nehisi Coates is a far more sensible thinker, and thus a better writer, than Glenn Greenwald. He brings up what Greenwald willfully overlooks. Ron Paul talks a good game, but if he were elected could he make any of it happen? None of his appealing proposals to legalize pot and end US involvement in foreign wars could happen on just a president’s say-so. And what of the rest of a Paul presidency: would Americans like that as much as they’d like being free to smoke pot, or not having to send sons and daughters abroad to fight dubious wars?
I should add this: a US president like Paul, whose approach to foreign policy is to tell the world “You guys are on your own, bye-bye”, is pretty much the worst thing that could happen, not just to America but to Earth as a whole.
Mnemosyne
@chopper:
Near me, it was more like “Diss Planes,” but we were in northeast Illinois.
In Chicago, they have a Goethe St. Pronounced “GO-thee.”
WaterGirl
@Mnemosyne: For me, in one of the closest suburbs to Chicago, it was “Dess Planes”.
Anne Laurie
@chopper: As ugly as the accepted mispronunciation of Dee-TROYT? Or my personal favorite, the Michigan town known as PEER-eee, which is spelled “Pierre”?
Origuy
Sacramento had a Goethe Park, which they have renamed, pronounced GAY-tee. It was named after Charles Goethe, who was an advocate of eugenics and a white supremacist.
Brazil, Indiana is pronounced BRAY-zil.