I know national political media love this “bracketing” thing, new word, sounds vaguely businesslike and free market, they’re crazy about it, but does it strike anyone else as getting weirder the longer it goes on?
As President Obama embarks on a two-day bus tour through Ohio and Pennsylvania, two of his rival’s surrogates – Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty – are close on his tail with a bus tour that takes them through three of the cities Mr. Obama is visiting, blasting the president’s record as they go.
Jindal and Pawlenty, both popular Republican figures and potential vice presidential picks, kicked off the Republican National Committee-touted “Middle-Class Promise Gap Tour” with a press conference in a Courtyard Marriott parking lot in Maumee, Ohio just hours before Mr. Obama was slated to speak there.
I don’t know about “popular”. Here’s a local newspaper report:
In an effort to combat President Obama’s visit to Maumee on Thursday, two prominent Republicans addressed Lucas County a few hours earlier in support of GOP candidate Mitt Romney.
Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and former Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota spoke to about 20 people in front of the Courtyard by Marriott on Dussel Drive in Maumee.
First, Ohio and Pennsylvania both have GOP governors, so I don’t know where they are, or why they aren’t out in the heat performing this thankless task. Second, aren’t Jindal and Pawlenty really only “celebrities” to pundits and movement conservatives who attend CPAC? Most Ohio voters don’t know who Rob Portman is, and he’s an OH GOP Senator, allegedly, or so I am told.
If I’m an ordinary voter, am I going to be thrilled and excited that the governor and former governor of (random) “other states” are coming to visit because Mitt Romney is too busy jet skiing and what not? What does the governor of Louisiana have to say to me in Ohio, really? Maybe Mitt Romney is making them audition for VP. Again, interesting for them, but what does it have to do with any random voter in Ohio? Is this just for national political media?
Valdivia
It is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. Do these Villagers realize how pathetic these two guys seem? Is the Romney campaign trying to make stalking into some sort of genius move? It does nothing for them but make them look small and petty.
Ding dong
Yeah but Bobby Jindal is dark brown which makes him a carnival item so there is a draw there.
Anya
This just a proof that the Romney campaign is run by a bunch of 14-year old boys.
amk
LOL. Clueless mittbot campaign team’s high schoolish stratergy. No wonder murdock and establishment thugs are worried.
Jewish Steel
That word jumped out at me too.
Villago Delenda Est
Kay, never interrupt your foe in the middle of him making a bonehead mistake.
Marcellus Shale, Public Dick
i guess this is supposed to catch the one person who is upset they didn’t get a handshake? or have they set up a bunch of joe the plumber types to be disgruntled by the stump?
Kay
@Valdivia:
I think it sort of makes sense when “Romney” does it, or does it with in-state people (Walker and Ryan in Wisconsin) but can he outsource his campaign like this? I honestly feel he is foisting these people on OH and PA as a sort of pre-hire audition. It’s gross, because it has nothing to do with voters in those states.
Ding dong
@amk: murdock’s the teabagger from Indiana. Murdoch’s the oligarch plutocrat from Australia.
owlbear1
It really highlights how much of a vanity project the presidential race is for Mitt.
Valdivia
I wish someone with a megaphone and some snark talent with do some magic about the pranky, gimmicky and also totally stalkerish nature of the Romney strategy. Can’t they come up with their own stuff? They have to follow our guy around? I can’t wait for the fall when the rallies are big and the Romney team tries to do some idiotic thing like this.
Linda Featheringill
When Portman’s name surfaced a few weeks/months ago in connection with VP choice, I had to look him on on google. And I’ve lived in Ohio for more than four decades.
Jindal has a distinctive look and so is recognizable. Who the hell knows who Pawlenty is?
anthrosciguy
“Popular” is a relative term; “popular Republican” is an oxymoron. This method sounds like what they took a leaf from the Teabaggers and asked “what would an eight year old do?”. So it might play well with their base, which is a tiny minority most places. The real world, regular voters, will likely find this more and more juvenile as time goes by.
Are we absolutely sure all these guys (Bobby “ignore that volcano” Jindal et al.) are not undercover Democratic moles?
Hunter Gathers
Well, it’s not like those two have anything else better to do. Jindal’s job is evidently part-time, and Pawlenty hasn’t been drawing a steady paycheck for a year and a half. In T-Paw’s defense, there isn’t a lot of demand for jars of mayo sporting mullets these days. Or ever, for that matter.
JGabriel
Toledo Blade:
They might get a larger crowd if they advertised it as a talk on exorcism by Jindal.
At least, I’m pretty sure exorcism is more popular than the GOP platform right now. Certainly it has more charisma than Jindal & Pawlenty — which sounds like it could the name of the world’s most boring comedy C&W duo.
.
Redshift
Our local DNC member (who actually communicates about what they’re doing) circulated the DNC info sheet about this week’s events, and it refers to the Jindal&TPaw show as the “Failed Governors” tour. :-)
amk
@Ding dong: I know. I call rupie that way always.
Redshift
@Redshift: Oh, and in addition to taking a slogan out of the GOP playbook, it actually provides a nice bomb of detail for the press on their actual failures — like how TPaw left office with massive deficits and job losses.
Redshift
@Linda Featheringill:
That’s why he’s a top contender for the VP slot. The first rule of picking a running mate is that they shouldn’t outshine the top of the ticket, and for Romney, that means someone whose name you have trouble remembering after they’ve left the room.
PeakVT
Jindal and Pawlenty are out there to shore up the base, which needs to be kept distracted with voting against Obama. Otherwise, they’ll remember they’re voting for Romney.
quannlace
Are they going to be honking their horns as the buses ‘follow’ Obama
******
I guess that’s why Jindal refused the Medicare expansion money. He’s got better things to do!
Egg Berry
I’m sorry, Tim who?
scav
“Middle-Class Promise Gap Tour”
“Middle-Class Promise Gap Tour”
Not exactly rolling off the tongue for me. For one, it keeps getting twisted to “Middle-Class Promise Gaffe Tour” not that that means much more and then the brain wanders over to promise keepers and vaguely prehistoric ads about pants (often worn by middle-graders). Must not be the target audience tuned to those frequencies.
kay
@PeakVT:
I bet this actually true. Makes sense.
I wonder if they told Romney this was the point.
Davis X. Machina
@scav: Gap, huh? Where there is Gap, there are khakis…
Are they promising middle America free chinos? And don’t real Americans™ wear Dickies™ or some such?
scav
@Davis X. Machina: Khakis? ! Don’t those come from one of them those Islamo Stans wez figtin? And Chinos are clearly Red China Commie Pants! Mind the Gap!
Redshift
@scav: Yeah, makes you think that Frank Luntz is working for someone else right now. You really have to think to make that word salad add up to “gap in promises to the middle class,” and thinking isn’t their target audience’s strong suit.
Gretchen
@scav:
“Failed Governor’s Tour” rolls off the tongue much better.
dmsilev
@Redshift:
A black hole would outshine Mitt Romney.
Come to think of it, a black hole might make an ideal GOP candidate. “Romney/Singularity 2012!”
Valdivia
@Kay:
I guess it’s one of the rare cases when I disagree with you Kay (insert amazed emoticon here!)
It just seems very juvenile to have someone following Obama around. Even when it is local guys. It’s the sense that the Romney team follow Obama, like they can’t come up with their own ideas for events, etc. I don’t think it comes across as projecting strength specially when the group is so small as to be pathetic
texascowgirl
The Rmoney campaign is gonna need a lot more than these two knuckle heads to counter this line of attack. This shit is good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0tZK_qHHCc
“Romney is not the solution. He’s the problem” has a very nice ring to it. I knew going after Bain was good politics, but I admit I didn’t see the whole picture. The Obama campaign is saying, truthfully, that rich guys like Mitt Romney and their shady business practice are everything that’s wrong with the economy and why it crashed in 2008.
Maude
@Redshift:
For Romney, it means vanilla pudding.
Mino
I want to know if Mr. Jindal is busy telling Ohioans that his state’s population is different from them in their lack of need for government services. That’s gonna be a winner.
texascowgirl
Whoever this person is on Twitter, I love him or her.
LOLGOP @LOLGOP
————————————————
Mitt 2012. Because America needs a president who didn’t get bin Laden, didn’t want to save General Motors & hates his own health care plan.
RSA
Fred Thompson wishes he’d thought of this four years ago.
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
@Redshift:
And one less bridge.
soonergrunt
Christ, the Romney campaign looks more like a college frat every day.
on a side note, in-flight internet is the shit.
Mino
@Hunter Gathers: Ooh, jars of mayo sporting mullets is inspired.
Valdivia
@soonergrunt:
I love love when they have it. The flight goes by so fast. Enjoy your vacay, we want pics of you wearing a Twilight tshirt ;)
@texascowgirl:
lol. and thanks for the link to the ad.
Yutsano
@soonergrunt: I was gonna say, aren’t you in SD with the Soonerspawn? And I almost yelled at you. :)
@Valdivia:
THIS!!
@Cain: One must occasionally hold one’s Brahmin tongue. :)
Cain
Yes, Jindal has a disinctive look. I would not call him a handsome nor attractive. Nor would I call him particularly smart, so I’m not sure why Louisiana elected him.
actually I had more harsh things to say.. but wisdom reigned.
cat48
I think bracketing looks desperate & is often just rude. The bus honking, etc. Maybe the crazy teabaggers like it? A lot of the baggers are just loud bullies so it might appeal to them.
Joey Maloney
@texascowgirl: Wow, that’s going to leave a mark.
Linda Featheringill
@dmsilev:
Actually, a black whole is one of few entities that I might vote for out of fear.
scav
@Valdivia: What it could be also interpreted as is a least-cost dumb-ass application of a location strategy taught in business schools. Usually told like this: McDs spends a great deal of effort gathering data about possible fast-food locations, taking into account local populations and businesses, competitors, market cannibalization, left turns v right turns into the proposed location, etc. before deciding where to locate their next franchise. Wendy’s strategy is just to locate next to a McD’s.
SiubhanDuinne
I enjoyed this paragraph from Kay’s first link:
“The Romney campaign had never officially reserved the space” = their usual level of competence.
“The RNC said the event was moved due to rain” = their usual level of veracity.
soonergrunt
@Valdivia: “we want pics of you wearing a twilight tshirt”
And people in hell want ice-water.
Kane
Jindal is most popular for ending on national television any hopes he might have had for national office in his pathetic response to President Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress.
And Pawlenty is most popular for his cowardice in refusing to say to Romney’s face at the debate what he had been saying in interviews. He was so popular that he bowed out of the presidential election before Michele Bachmann.
kay
Rob Portman, John Boehner, John Kasich.
The best he could do in Ohio were these two?
SiubhanDuinne
@Kay:
He’s in charge of the Romney Family Olympics, for Pete’s sake!!
gocart mozart
Yeah, I think it’s all part of the audition.
Valdivia
@Yutsano:
see I knew you and I were separated at birth or somethin’ :D
@soonergrunt:
Just teasing you. I loved that you would put up with the Twilight panel for the sake of the soonerdaughter.
JGabriel
OT:
This video apparently went viral back in April, but I hadn’t seen it until today. Google Glasses with the ads that the original video left out, ADmented Reality.
Seems like a much more realistic portrayal of what Google Glasses will be like.
.
Valdivia
@scav:
thanks for explaining this. I guess the Romney campaign is being run like a business consultant gig and that is why nothing they do ever makes sense to me. Have they drank so much of that Kool-Aid that they don’t see how politics is just a tad different than McDonald’s?
pseudonymous in nc
Of course it is. They get to travel on the bus, complimentary cookies and coffee, and file their reports. The Rmoney campaign knows that the horserace press gets discombobulated if there isn’t an “at the same time” element to the day’s news cycle, so they can provide it with a couple of lame surrogates and lame events.
JPL
@gocart mozart: If Romney is looking for someone who excites the masses, he’s in trouble.
Raven
@JPL: What’d ya do about the tiller?
satanicpanic
20 people? That’s about ten people each. My amateur punk band regularly draws more than that. That’s the kind of draw that guarantees you’ll be playing at 1 am on a tuesday night.
Jebediah
@scav:
I love when Goopers refuse to believe that politics is in any way different than business. I love it even more when it leads to funny failures. I am convinced that this juvenile idea of following the President around like a puppy will destroy any remaining image of Romney as tough, resolute, strong, etc. Well, whatever remains after that picture of him on the back of his wife’s jetski. Manly!
ETA: Even though right now it isn’t Mitt himself doing the following around, I still think it will reflect badly on him and his campaign.
JPL
@Raven: Nothing yet. I am going to buy some vermiculite to add to the soil. Did you use any? A neighbor’s son does some landscaping on weekends while he is in college. I had him dig some holes for me to plant 21, 2 gal gardenias. He used an auger. I might see if he has a tiller.
Elie
Slightly off topic, just saw a link on Rachel Maddow’s blog characterizing Obama as “depressed” because they can’t keep up with the Romney money machine. For what its worth, I hope everyone is contributing what they can…Romney is an inferior candidate and person but he is the mask in front of a very dangerous and hugely evil power that would completely take over this country. I am very concerned but still hopeful. No matter how much of a buffoon the Bishop appears, he is pulling in big big money and we have to understand what that means… I am not sure, in relation to the topic of this post, what it will mean for “boots on the ground”, but theoretically, I guess the Romney campaign could buy votes through purchasing services in small businesses or paying for huge campaign staffs. So far, that hasnt happened but he has the money to do it..
I don’t want to be a downer for me or anyone else — but I am nervous.
Linda Featheringill
My local heat index is 108. Phooey.
Team Romney is arranging things that are both boring and counterproductive. Blah.
US grains are under attack from the sun. And most local newspapers in the grain-growing states don’t want to talk about it. Sigh.
And bad guys in general have more money than I do. Grumble.
On the other hand, I do have an orange kitty streeeeeeeeetched out in front of me. So there’s that. :-)
gelfling545
@gocart mozart: So the one somebody actually shows up & listens to gets the VP spot?
Crusty Dem
@dmsilev:
With Hawking radiation, you might be right.
If there were such a thing as a “popular republican governor”, I guarantee Mitt Romney would not be the GOP nominee. When the closest they come to that is Chris Christie (not a VP candidate, due to ego, poor behavior, and the fact that he’d make Mitt look even more like a robot than he already does), they’re really not close. My bet is on Pawlenty – just because of you put him next to Mitt, Mitt may actually appear human.
Jebediah
@Elie:
I’m not too worried about that. He doesn’t seem interested in a big operation, unlike the President’s campaign with its bazillions of locals in every area. He seems to think he will win by buying lots of ads. Probably another MBA/business consultant-type idea – “Lean operation! Minimal staff! Next quarter will look great with the reduced payroll!”
I think regular people will hit their saturation point when the ad bombardment starts in earnest. At some point he will have to debate, and I am convinced that no matter how badly its rigged in his favor – both format and softball questions- viewers will see what a prickly douche asshole-boss type he is. It might even be bad enough that the press corpse might be forced to actually acknowledge it.
dmsilev
@Linda Featheringill:
Ah, so you are in the target demographic for the perennial Cthulhu For President campaign: “Why settle for the lesser of two evils?”
JPL
@Raven: Saw another snake last night. This one was in the pond. 3 so far this year. I only saw one the first three years in this house.
JPL
@Jebediah: The news media won’t acknowledge it. Bush’s debate performances were awful and Gore smirked or Kerry sounded elitist.
Raven
@JPL: The gardener does. We’ve also been using the dreaded compost from the water treatment plant. ewwwwwwwwww
Raven
@JPL: There was a 7 ft black snake in the basement of the house next door. I’m sure our spring clearing and grass planting project put them on the move. We find skins around from timt-to-time.
BruceFromOhio
@kay: Think about Maumee in the heat – these three are about as welcome as a gonorrhea infection. Ohioans despise Kasich, can’t figure out who Portman is supposed to be, and the rest of America hates Congress. A couple of out-of-staters can’t do much worse. I’ll also reckon that the ex-guv tour is now programmed into the campaign playbook after the implied success of a certain Alaskan ex-guv.
The campaign stalking story looks great: juvenile, reactionary, and low-hanging fruit for the DC set with nothing else to write about. I see multiple wins for Team Obama.
xian
@scav: sure, but if you’ve ever tried to play chess by the “just copy the other person’s every move” approach you quickly learn that you have become the other person’s slave and can be easily manipulated. This is a writ-small version of the way the Obama team eventually learned to manipulate the very strict rules of “oppose Obama” and “oppose taxes” that the Republicans in congress were using to determine their every move.
Jay C
So this is the GOP’s newest campaign strategy? Send B-team hacks like Bobby Jindal and Tim Pawlenty to “bracket” President Obama’s campaign stops? Like a giant being stalked by dwarfs….?
Sounds to me like the political equivalent of the out-of-town tryout for a Broadway show: if it don’t play in Peoria, etc.
JPL
Let me know when Christie starts his campaign tour for the prized v.p. slot.
scav
@xian: Didn’t mean to imply in the slightest it was a smart move or a strong one on their part. Only works for Wendy’s so long as enough people see the two firms’ burgers as indistinguishable so that Wendy’s can capture the the people who don’t want to wait in line or don’t want to make the left turn into McDos.
HRA
@Elie:
I have noticed the president not being more like his self during his campaigning. My first thought was his being tired juggling his job with his campaigning. The truth is nothing could be really done about those fat cats R’s dishing out the big money to Willard while the D fat cats are sitting on their
wallets. I wonder where are the spokespersons for the DNC? All I see is Rendell who does nothing for the campaign at all except diss it at every turn he gets on TV. We need more of Ted Strickland!
I, too, am nervous but get a good reprieve reading the above comments by these superior people on this blog. Thank you all.
xian
@scav: sure, understood. also the market for “what burger do I want today” is somewhat different from the market for “what president do I want for the next four years.”
Linda Featheringill
Money for the campaign:
I think it’s impossible to match the Republican money machine for sheer volume.
We’ll have to strive for spending our money better. Perhaps someone will publish some recommendations for small donors, in an effort to get the most bang for our buck.
karen marie
@JPL: That’s good, isn’t it?
Valdivia
@HRA:
I haven’t seen Obama look down on the trail. He actually looks like he is having a good time. Though YMMV.
I do think the money issue is something to worry about and can’t believe the millionaires on our side are just sitting on their hands.
JPL
The money problem is going to hurt the senators and representatives the most. The Koch’s aren’t going to blow their wad on Romney unless he becomes a better campaigner. Senate and representative seats are easier to buy.
JPL
@karen marie: So far I’ve only seen rat snakes and then a small black pond snake. The tadpoles and lizards don’t think it is so good.
Elie
@HRA:
Yeah — thanks! I am not going to be bogged down into inaction. I am sending money and volunteering..
It just hits you sometimes. He and we know that the dragon just have Romney’s face mask, though I believe that things are coming apart underneath it.
All elections are important, but this one is, I believe, pivotal…
I hope that Obama is breaking out his Lincoln biographies…
Cacti
Pawlenty I could at least see the logic of him being from another midwestern/rust belt state.
As for Jindal, why would anyone from Ohio give a fuck about what the governor of Louisiana has to say?
Kyle
The GOP promises there will be a gap between middle-class expectations and their actual living standards.
Alternately, they promise you can work at The Gap after vulture capitalists like Rmoney send your jobs to China.
Elie
@Valdivia:
I think we may be having a “clarification” on what “sides” mean. I think that the meaning of this election is starting to surface but is not sharp to everyone as it is going to be very soon. I don’t think, for example (noting even Bill Clinton’s comments, Ed Rendel and lovely Corey Booker), that some of the Democratic “WE”, may not be on our side, if you know what I mean. I think that is part of the issue: does Obama surface that now or keep quiet about it?
I work for a huge health insurance giant. We were going gand busters with new hires up to March when suddenly we stopped all hiring AND just layed off some folks last week. We NEED the people but we are just trickling in new hires. Accident? Don’t think so. All the Republican Governors have made work force cuts among state employees. Accident of bad budgets? Think again..
I don’t think Obama can talk about this directly, but WE can.. and I hope people are sharing information like this among our friends and neighbors.
FlipYrWhig
So is Romney’s big strategy to lay low for a bit until he can use this year’s Olympics as a reminder of how he had something to do with the Olympics once? It seems like he should be hustling a bit more, not coasting, if his objective is to win.
Cacti
@Kyle:
Or, the GOP promises there will be a gap between what was a middle class standard of living for your parents, and what you can expect in your lifetime.
burnspbesq
The attendance data are highly amusing.
Cacti
@FlipYrWhig:
Mitt doesn’t need to hustle. He’s got the White Horse Prophecy on his side.
Cacti
@burnspbesq:
Other than devoted political junkies, who the hell goes out of their way to see a governor that isn’t their own?
Ruckus
@Valdivia:
they don’t see how politics is just a tad different than McDonald’s?
No. No they don’t.
And that is a big part of our problem. Too many think that gov is just like a corp. Should be run like one, should have accounting like one. Should even have the same structure, IOW the head is appointed by the board of directors, not the shareholders. If you look at mittens this way, his entire gig makes sense. If on the other hand you have any sense of reality and politics then…
Valdivia
@Elie:
I think that is absolutely right. And also, one more reason to keep the eye on the prize and work our ass off.
gogol's wife
@Valdivia:
I just sent Joe Biden some cash. I have no desire to have dinner with Sarah Jessica Parker, but coffee with Biden sounds like fun. But I’m still depressed about all the money Romney is getting! The Republicans I know seem to think they have a great candidate.
kay
@FlipYrWhig:
The Olympics is another stumper, for me. I’m fine with the Olympics, but I don’t know what it has to do with anything.
What can he possibly do there, anyway? Shake hands? Stroll around with a sweater draped over his shoulders?
I’m having trouble picturing how that turns in to this big gamechanger.
Plus, what about the horse? Doesn’t he have to stand next to his wife, and the horse’s support staff?
PeakVT
@kay: I’m confident the Brits would rather not have him there. Like they need another bigwig with a foreign security detachment wandering around London.
Lee Hartmann
I’m forced to drive along Dussel Drive in Maumee about
once a month to see my father, and I don’t see any reason
why anyone would stop there, even if Jeebus were making
an appearance.
Chris
@Ruckus:
I fully support the creation of a board of directors to appoint the leaders of our government. We can call it a “Politburo.” It will be different from life in the Soviet Union because shut up, that’s why.
rikyrah
kay,
OT, but did you see your favorite GOP Senate candidate was caught in drag, complete with pics?
LOL
rikyrah
For those concerned about having Obama people on tv, here’s the thing, there’s far more for the MSM to pretend that they have ‘balance’ by putting the likes of Harold Ford, Jr. and Cory Booker, and Ed Rendell on tv.
There are 42 members of the Congressional Black Caucus, 40 of them are Democrats, yet Ford and Booker get more time on tv than all the 40 Dems put together. Some of them, I wouldn’t want on tv, but some of them would be firecracker, on point with talking positions for the President, yet they can’t get on tv…wonder why that is…just asking.
Ed Rendell? His ass isn’t even a Governor anymore. They should put on Schweitzer or O’Malley. or if they have to have a former Dem Governor, do Strickland.
This really is the election for the actual soul of America, which is why this President has to win, and I have to say this again to my fellow White people on this blog- please get out and talk to your fellow White people that have a tradition of voting against their own economic interests, while clinging to that Whiteness. That the President is losing working class White folks to Willard can only be explained by race…period. They gotta stop clinging to that Whiteness.
gvg
It seems to me many Republicans are running against Obama/Democratic president not FOR Romney. This looks like that kind of thing which makes me wonder if the idea actually came from Romney. His campaign has to have approved it but it’s so pointless. McDonald’s/Wendy’s won’t work for them. Potential GOP voters are not that like potential democratic voters and a GOP campaign can’t succeed going to all the same places.
It does sort of strike me as VP tryout which makes the attendance number pretty much no to both of them. I sure am getting the impression he’s having trouble finding someone to accept.
Evolving Deep Southerner
@Elie: I’m telling you. Being the incumbent POTUS is worth half a bill in a campaign. Especially when you can make the opposing money seem gaudy and tainted. And Rmoney’s campaign money is profoundly gaudy and profoundly tainted. Point that out. Neutralize it. The fuckers who don’t get it would have never voted for Obama anyway.
In fact, not a single God damn soul who did not vote for Obama last time will vote for him this time except the youngsters who are voting in their first Presidential election or those who otherwise could not vote last time.
Obama won with that cohort pretty comfortably last time. I think he will again, with final numbers eerily similar to his final numbers against McCain.
Evolving Deep Southerner
@rikyrah: Those people make the networks’ core audience uncomfortable and apprehensive.
kay
@rikyrah:
Of course I saw it. I got like 12 emails. I think the whole thing is hilarious, because his spokesperson was so clearly embarrassed by it.
It doesn’t matter. Josh Mandel isn’t going to be a US Senator :)
mai naem
@Cain: I’ll say harsher stuff about Jindal. I think he converted to Catholicism because of politics and while that’s his business I find it revolting. I understand somebody converting under duress or pretending to be another religion under duress but Bobby Jindal’s is just for politics. I just wish some smartass Hindus would set up a Hindu school and apply for some of that state voucher $$$. The worst part if that Jindal knows better. He’s Ivy League educated. He worked for McKinsey. This is not some dry drunk fratboy.
Kathleen
@rikyrah: Mandel reminds me of the not Toby HR guy on The Office. I think the character’s name is Gabe.
David Koch
The Village has always been out of touch with average voters.
David Koch
This is what they did 4 years ago. There entire strategy was aimed at pleasing the Village. No policy. No issues. No values. No GOTV. No local media. No social media. Just what can we do to get the attention of MoDo and Sally Quinn.
And they’re doing it again.
Cain
@JPL:
I saw a snake too while I was out running.. a cute little garter snake. I wanted to pick it up and huggle it and maybe even call it ‘george’!
Cain
@mai naem:
Bah.. I wish but Hindus don’t like to bring attention to themselves. They are a silent community that rarely interacts outside it’s own (first generation.. I can’t really say about second, not that I interact all that much with them either.) They are also natural republicans if it wasn’t for the immigrant thing. Damn weasels.
I’m probably a total coconut, more midwest then indian, although I have a strong indian background.. but I’m usually pretty critical of indian communities. I suppose the same can be said of other ethnic communities as well.. but whatever. Probably wrote more than I wanted to. :)
Tripod
@Cacti:
More C suite management school clap trap. Cross train your guys. Put the CFO in an operations position for a day to get a taste of the biz.
It isn’t his underlings, it’s HIM. Look at the way they ran that debate prep guy in and out. RMoney is a drooling business school moron who doesn’t want to be told what to do by anyone.
binzinerator
@kay:
Didnt think about that — thats gonna clinch everything thats said about Mitt’s elitest privileged rich-asshole self, isnt it?
Whats amazing is Mitt and his campaign didnt think about that. They must really think thatll make him look good, which for rich elites i suppose it would in fact be a feather in their cap. He really cannot relate to ordinary people, can he? Its not a caricature, its what he really is.
Jebediah
@JPL:
True – I am just hoping Rmoney is so truly awful that even the press lickspittles will have to, if not actually acknowledge it, at least not deny it too strongly.
Maybe a lot of people will watch and see for themselves, regardless of press spin.
kay
@David Koch:
I just saw the new China outsourcing ad they’re running in Ohio. It’s brutal.
I sort of like that it’s the campaign and not a PAC; “I’m Barack Obama and I approved this message”
Seems somehow braver than Romney’s PAC ads, which are all over the place, but w/out his name, of course.
Ohio Mom
@mai naem: There may not be a Hindu school in Louisiana asking for voucher funding but there is a Muslim one — to the great dismay of some of the legislators who voted for this program.
(via http://dianeravitch.net/)
forhttp://m.livingstonparishnews.com/mobile/news/article_6c2da5fe-c1e5-11e1-ae3b-0019bb2963f4.html
sab
This governors tour is sort of working. My local (Ohio) newspaper put the Pawlenty/Jindal story on the front page, above the fold, with big headlines, on the front page. They put the Obama visit to town below the fold. They did cover Obama’s visit in the local section with a story about how it was really screwing up traffic.
Sitting President visits our town for the first time since Nixon, and that’s less newsworthy than the visit of an out of state retired governor. Go figure.