From the depths of blinding abyss of sanity, Krugthulhu stirs as he detects the Very Serious People backlash from the Village over Mitt Romney’s very bad no good horrible week.
So running on the real policy issues by itself isn’t going to work. By all means, run on the real issues — but do so by creating a narrative, a pattern that registers with the public.
And Romney’s biography offers a golden opportunity to do just that. His policy proposals amount to a radical redistribution of income away from the middle class to the very rich; he’s also being highly dishonest about budgets and just about everything else. How to make those true facts credible? By associating them with his business career, which involved a lot of profiting by laying off workers and/or taking away their benefits; his personal finances, which involved so much tax avoidance that he’s afraid to let us see his returns before 2010; his shiftiness over when exactly he left Bain.
You could criticize the biographical focus if it were being used to convey a false impression of where Romney stands, but that’s not what’s going on here; instead, it’s being used to get the truth about the candidate past the noise and the media barrier. The truth is that the Obama campaign would be doing the American people a disservice if it didn’t make the most of Bain.
BEARD TENTACLES OF SANITY are imposed from multiple realities, and bravo for Krugs making this point about 24 hours ahead of when inevitably he’ll be proven right tomorrow when the Sunday Shows rally to Mitt’s defense. And if you’re wondering, Team Obama is already opening up the whoopass factory to acquire the requisite cans. Cases of cans. Great grosses of these cans, opened, inside each is this ad:
You will hear howling about this ad in the days ahead. It’s how you know it’s a winner.
Betty Cracker
Wow. Love the ad!
Culture of Truth
Hmmmm….. it seems like a good ad, but when Mark Halperin says it’s unfair, then we’ll know it’s working.
Arm The Homeless
As a resident of Flori-DUH, I would like to make my opinion known that this Ad is full of WIN!
Its just engrossing enough, with a powerful nose of snark to make people chuckle even after seeing it once.
I mean, it’s like a bad out-take on American Idol. Yet, instead of judges hitting buttons, the entire voting population just gets to point and laugh.
Marshall was right, expect the Mittens bomb-shelter videos soon… very soon.
Zandar
@Culture of Truth: Oh I’m dead sure Dickwhisperer/Bobo/Fonzi/Bowtie are going to define new parameters of harrumphing over this.
Comrade Mary
The Krugster is correct. I was already anticipating Obama tying in the Bain narrative to Romney’s platform and his embrace of the Ryan budget plan, among other monstrosities.
Apparently focus groups of likely voters just flat out refuse to believe that Romney’s financial platform is as bad as it is.
But when they get to connect Romney’s history with what they are told about his platform again, maybe this time they’ll believe it.
YellowJournalism
Love. Love. Love.
dmsilev
I’d be tempted to vote against Mitt Romney solely based on his singing “voice”.
Creepy Jury Trials Permanently Penned Mr. Devon for Silvering Ordinary Camshafts
I like the fact that the caption at the beginning says “The Villages”. Irony, thou art a bitch
Comrade Mary
I love the creepy echo they put on Mitt’s voice as they switch to the view of an empty factory.
Villago Delenda Est
That is a devastating ad.
Of course, the vermin of the Village will squirm.
They’ll say it won’t work…but the problem is, it will.
It will destroy their fucking horse race narrative.
Unless the narrative is like the ’73 Belmont Stakes.
Rmoney is doomed to join the ranks of Goldwater and Mondale.
Seventh alarm called in on OvenMitt’s flaming crusts.
jwb
Anyone know where the original of Mitt’s singing comes from? I’m curious whether that was MItt drifting out of tune or the producer’s altered it. In any case, extremely effective.
Culture of Truth
If he is elected, they will play Romney singing during the 7th Inning Wretch
Zagloba
That ad is a fucking gutpunch. Just saw it on Chris Hayes (Tivo’ed, of course.)
Also, why is Carville wearing sportswear from two different teams? Is this some kind of all-star-game thing?
Culture of Truth
Appropriate that Romney is singing at “The Villages”
Hal
Wow. Great ad, and I hate political ads. The creepy singing voice is perfect.
But damn Mitt, who told you you could carry a tune?
Richard Fox
The Best Obama Political Ad of the Silly Season. It has all the elements of a classic. The build, the middle that hits like a deafening roar, brought to a climax with a lethal sting. All done in half a minute while serenaded by Romney’s off key warbling. I am thrilled this is out now– the timing is brilliant. It will stay in the mind, gel the conventional narrative, and affect the outcome of the election, in my opinion. And Happy Bastille day all, btw.
Davis X. Machina
@Villago Delenda Est: 45% is still the absolute floor. You’ll never see another Landon, or Goldwater, or McGovern. The partisan trenches run uninterrupted from Switzerland to the North Sea. 200 yards gained is a major offensive.
Comrade Mary
Oh maaaaaaan — check this out from the Boston Globe today:
LexisNexis, how the fuck does it work?
SIA
The only thing that could improve that ad would be Romney driving away at the end with Seamus strapped to the top of the car. the Romney distilled to thirty seconds.
Villago Delenda Est
@Zagloba:
Because Carville is a vile, two faced asshole. The man literally sleeps with the enemy.
Fuck him. Death is too good for traitorous shit like Carville.
dmsilev
@Comrade Mary: Allow me to channel the Post’s Fact Checker ™ for a moment: “All that shows is that Romney was tangentially involved with Bain. Obama is still a liar. I’m bipartisan and neutral! Lalalala I can’t hear you!”
Did I miss anything?
Valdivia
this ad is brilliant and brutal. the howling will be heard from the moon.
fraught
“America” sung in Willard’s own out of tune musical scale. Romney at his faux-wasp worst. A man riven inside by warring self images. Thinks he’s adorable up there singing badly as only an over priveleged brat who thinks every day is his birthday would
Brian
Oh OH OH yea… def need a new pair of pants after that ad.
dmsilev
@SIA: Someone yesterday noted that Romney was going down the Nixon trajectory, except of course that taking cover behind his dog might not be such a great idea this time round…
Comrade Mary
Boy, some people take their allegiance to sports teams very, very seriously.
/ducks
PeakVT
@jwb: I don’t think (read: I hope) the O-Team didn’t fuck with the sound. That would be too easy to figure out and blow into a major nontroversy.
Linda Featheringill
I thought the ad was too simple and not very informative. But then, I’m a political addict. And we BJ-ers are very well informed.
The test, of course, will be to wait and check for signs of pain from the other side.
Great production values, naturally. And I like that the only sound is Romney’s voice. That way, if the ad is run a zillion times, the target of people’s irritation will likely be Romney. Velly clever, those Obots.
Comrade Mary
@jwb: No, he sounded that bad in the first place. All they did was add a little echo in the scenes that didn’t show him in the ad.
All we need now is a Star Trek mashup of the song to go with this classic.
mattH
Solid. More like this.
elmo
Yikes. I know from the comments above me that I’m in the minority, but it didn’t work for me AT ALL. The singing was so awful I just wanted to stop paying attention, and I didn’t particularly want to read the stuff on the screen. And playing it through the whole ad just gave me an uncomfortable, “we’re pointing and laughing cause he can’t sing” vibe, and I just want to turn away.
But I also can’t stand most comedy shows or movies that are vastly popular, because of the same discomfort with public embarrassment. It’s the same circuit, and I know most of the viewing audience doesn’t share it.
So, I won’t enjoy the ad, but if it’s effective, go Team!
Linda Featheringill
@PeakVT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJlepw4VUus
Might be the original of Romney singing.
MikeBoyScout
Smells like . . . victory.
pseudonymous in nc
That ad definitely qualifies as bitch-slap politics. That flat rendition is enough to catch the viewer’s attention without the standard tropes of political ads. And it’s out of copyright too.
I’m starting to wonder whether Team Obama already knows (at least roughly) the contents of those tax returns that went to the McCain camp for vetting.
And the Globe decided to do its own fuck-you after that official request for a retraction. “Archives? We has them.”
amk
@Zandar: Who the fuck is fonzi ? Others I get.
dp
Wow. Are we sure a Democrat is running this ad? I seem to have slipped into an alternate universe.
amk
@Comrade Mary: You better believe they’re believing it now.
Bloomberg. I am not going to do the fucked up blockquote thingy.
resident Barack Obama has gained an advantage over Republican Mitt Romney in a Pew Research Center Poll showing public confidence in either one’s handling of the economy shifting toward the president in the past month.
Obama leads Romney by 50 percent to 43 percent among registered voters surveyed, Pew reports, with the Republican Party’s presumed presidential nominee losing 3 percentage points of support since its previous poll in early June.
Public opinion on which candidate would do a better job of improving economic conditions has shifted from an advantage for Romney in Pew’s June survey to support for Obama in the latest survey of 2,373 registered voters conducted June 28-July 9.
PeakVT
@PeakVT: Nice gibberish. What I meant to say was that I don’t think the Obama team would screw with the sound. And it appears they didn’t, which is good, because they would almost certainly be excoriated for it if they had.
amk
@dmsilev: It’s like the guy was singing his own eulogy.
Richard Fox
Mockery when it hits the mark is the ultimate political weapon. Even beats tons of $$ blasting out from the opposition. (Well, maybe. But it sure helps…)
geg6
Saw that on Chris Hayes this morning. Fucking brilliant. Me likey that Chicago politics style. Hit ’em hard. And then hit him harder.
Those tax returns must be fucking toxic. The fear is palpable in the Mittbot. It’s not yet time for the kill, but O is just winding up. The October debates will be epic.
jwb
@PeakVT: They did futz the sound; there’s no doubt about that. That empty reverb effect shifts over the course of the ad. I’ve listened to a number of Mitt’s singing performances and while he does occasionally drift off pitch, I haven’t found an instance where I can hear him drift as far off as he does in the ad. On the other hand, they somehow got hold of an isolation of Mitt’s voice, because in the other examples I found on YouTube he starts singing and then the crowd joins him, which helps keep him close to pitch, even though he always has difficulty negotiating the climactic high passage.
NonyNony
@dp:
Yeah.
Is it at all possible that if Obama wins this time around the Democratic Party and their political advisers will finally – FINALLY – stop trying to tailor their campaigns to win the bi-partisan support of the students of David Broder and may actually start tailoring their campaigns to win the support of, you know, most of the country instead?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
Apparently I’ve schedule my shipment of several pounds of organically grown heritage popcorn for a date too distant. Must check to see if it will ship early.
Comrade Mary
@amk: Check out the Fonzi of Freedom tag, or this pithy summary from John:
Valdivia
If they are whining about his singing voice they are losing. This ad is devastating. Specially because Romney has made it such a staple to sing that song as proof of his Believe in America bs.
dopealope
That is an excellent ad. And it’s refreshing to see the Democrats on the offensive. Maybe this will motivate the downstream candidates to play hardball …
jwb
@Linda Featheringill: That does seem to be the original, and it provides the isolation mike. It could be the futzing of the reverb simply magnified the tonal drift.
Joy
F-ing brutal. That’s going to leave a mark.
amk
@Comrade Mary: Globe is like a dog with a bone it won’t let go, isn’t it ? Good for them. Wonder what mittbot did to them as govnor to piss them off
SIA
@dmsilev: true except Nixon has some native feral intelligence. I’m starting to think Romney is just a dog-abusing, pathological-lying old fashioned DUMB ASS!
jwb
@Valdivia: the sound is brilliant and viscerally hits you with the message that Romney is out of tune with America. The reverb tells us that there is no one there to come to his rescue. He’s alone and isolated. You get this message whether or not you see the images. Perfect for TV.
the Conster
Like was said on Up, Republicans go for the jugular and Democrats go for the capillaries. Not this time motherfuckers. This is only July – what’s coming in October? This is going to be a smorgasbord of wingnut tear soaked deliciousness.
Valdivia
@jwb:
exactly! it’s truly the kind of ad that leaves you cold because it encapsulates perfectly who Romney is. Singing, while the ship sinks, telling us America the Beautiful while he stashes his money elsewhere.
amk
@Comrade Mary: uugghh. Wish I hadn’t asked. Thanks.
FlipYrWhig
@the Conster: Big Media is already itching to tell stories about how Campaign Obama is a meanie-head. So we’ll be hearing a lot about negativity and what it means and whether it’s a distraction, etc.
jwb
@FlipYrWhig: Fortunately, such stories don’t hurt the Obama campaign.
gogol's wife
@PeakVT:
I heard the original when it happened, and I think it’s pretty much the same. It was horribly out of tune.
Great ad!
This is helping me recover from the fact that all I could find on the Bain issue this morning in the NYTimes was a front-page story, “Romney Demands Apology from Obama.” I have a house guest for two weeks from Russia, and I can’t scream the way I could to let it all out if I were just here with my husband!
It’s torture.
pete
The ultimate killer (aside from the implicit compariwsn with the President’s Al Green homage) is the SLOGAN: Damn straight, Romney is not the solution, he’s [an abso-fking-lutely perfect embodiment of] the problem.
gogol's wife
@elmo:
I know what you mean. I have the same feeling, but I’m trying to watch it through the eyes of the public that’s interested in “American Idol,” and they’re going to be gripped by it. It’s so “pitchy”! And the juxtaposition of his teary sentimentality about America with his actual career is wicked.
Mino
@Comrade Mary: Like what the voters got after filling their state leges with Republicans in 2010. They can’t believe what they elected.
Mino
@Valdivia: Actually, he’s in better voice here than in some others where he is just horribly, horribly flat.
Thank you, Obama team, for picking one that is not too painful to hear.
Mino
@geg6: Can’t wait for his Bain guest tomorrow. Must watch TV, indeed.
the Conster
@FlipYrWhig:
Won’t matter. If the media’s concern trolling Obama’s ads, then it’s still a win for Obama because he still gets to define Romney. Nothing sounds like and resonates like the truth, and as long as Mitt doesn’t release his tax returns, Obama gets to set all the terms of the debate, because it’s his job that’s at stake. This is a job interview, and Romney’s a shifty beady eyed cheating squirming snake who nobody likes regardless of what Bobo thinks.
WereBear
Been living there for years now. “The media is in the tank for the right wing, the news isn’t the news any more,” sounds so syfy channel they just blink and let it slide right off their brain.
Even though it’s true.
NonyNony
@FlipYrWhig:
You mean the media is going to be broadcasting stories about “How Barack Obama says that Mitt Romney is a lying douchebag former Wall Street CEO, here let’s give some free airtime to this campaign ad where Obama calls Romney out for being a lying douchebag jobkiller and then talk about it for 20 minutes, and let’s have people who make six figures a year on defending Mitt Romney and how awesome he is”.
Yeah – if they go to the mat for Romney with all they’ve got I might start believing that the media really is in the tank for Obama. Because the best thing they could possibly do for Romney is ignore the story and let it die. No matter whose side they take – Obama or Romney – if they keep the story alive and active it’s bad for Mitt Romney.
Valdivia
@the Conster:
I agree. I also think that the Romney camp and the media in general think they can just destroy Obama’s favorables by yelling mean mean mean, liar liar. Obama is a very known quantity. The voters like him. So I think he is pretty well insured on that score. Also–the constant complaining makes Mitt looks weak.
NonyNony
@Valdivia:
YES.
Number one complaint I always hear from my Republican family members is that Democrats are spineless whiners.
They already don’t like Mitt Romney because of RomneyCare (sigh) and because he’s a lying douchebag (point in their favor) and because he’s Mormon (double sigh). But the more he whines about how “unfair” people are being the less sympathy he’s getting from them. One of them told me the other day that he’s going to write in Ron Paul because he hates Romney so much. I don’t think the complaining about how it’s “unfair” is going to help him – if it’s unfair he needs to hit back with his version of the truth. He’s not doing that, or when he does people don’t believe it (see “lying douchebag” above).
J.D. Rhoades
Exactly. The minute I heard the Romneybots using the term “desperate” this early in the game, I knew this one was a winner. They don’t usually haul that word out unless they’re really hurting.
the Conster
@Valdivia:
Romney and the media’s only hope is to try to define private equity as some capitalist star spangled magic carpet ride to success for everybody if only there were less taxes and regulation for the Bains of the world, but with that ad, Obama cut them off at that pass too. They’re just warming up, and Mitt’s got nowhere to go since he won’t talk about being governor, or Mormon. His whole rationale to run is that he’s successful, and Obama’s people are making sure that voters understand how he became that way. Karl Rove must be alternately horrified and amazed at what Team O hath wrought.
Valdivia
@NonyNony:
it also just plays into every stereotype of the bully who can dish it but can’t take it. we all know people like that and Romney just exudes it. I hope he keeps whining. I hope he does it in person, with surrogates, ads etc. The more he argues about this and complains the weaker he looks and the worse off he is.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy eh? :)
@the Conster: yes and I love the fact that the Reps thought they had this in the bag. Who did they think they were running against?
Linda Featheringill
@gogol’s wife:
Welcome to your house guest. Would he/she be interested in the election pageantry? The process is pretty colorful at the moment.
JoeShabadoo
That ad is just brutal.
JPL
@Comrade Mary: The one, two punch. The Ryan Plan is devastating and only adds to our mighty debt.
The President also has to talk about Romney’s no more free stuff and explain that it doesn’t mean free stuff to Monsanto and Exxon but takes food out of the mouth of children.
amk
@the Conster: Yup. By the end of this campaign, Obama would have made the word ‘private equity’ as toxic as libruls.
Let the media clowns whine. Let the grey lady and wapo concern troll. This team is not backing down, see bill clinton, bory cooker bitch slap.
gogol's wife
@Linda Featheringill:
I talk to her about it, and she’s mildly interested, but she spent the winter standing in freezing temperatures protesting Putin, and that’s a REALLY hopeless situation, so to her our little problems seem so minor.
JPL
Both of my adult sons were over this morning and although they both thought the ad was devastating, one thought it should have been run by a super pac. He doesn’t think the President should be so negative. I laughed.
Valdivia
@JPL:
I actually love that the ad has Obama walking in the White House. Like he is coming over to destroy you :)
JPL
@FlipYrWhig: You know who thinks the President is mean, the guy someplace at the bottom of the deep blue sea.
the Conster
@JPL:
Not only is it an Obama ad, but I notice that he approves this message, personally with his presence in the WH, BEFORE IT EVEN STARTS – he’s owning it, taking responsibility for it, promoting it, and then fist pumping it. He’s got this. No wonder Romney’s whining already – it’s all he’s got.
RedKitten
It’s almost like Obama has pulled a DOUBLE Rove. He’s attacked Romney’s sole “strength” and has turned it into a liability. PLUS, he’s taken the Republicans’ usual M.O. (turning strengths into weaknesses) and is using it against them!
The campaign-fu is VERY strong in this one.
BTW, did anybody hear anything about Biden’s appearance to the NAACP? How did it go?
amk
@the Conster: Good point.
JCT
Poor, poor Tricky Mitt.
Oh well, this is what happens when you underestimate people because they are N-CLANGs or “affirmative action” types. Wingnuts honestly believe Obama is stupid. The Romney team was in no way really expecting this and not only are their pants down, they are looped around their ankles – at the top of a staircase.
I would bet money Team Obama knows what those tax returns look like (someone must have squawked) and they know Romney just can’t release them.
As folks keep pointing out, once McCain saw them he dropped Mitt like a hot rock and went to the Tundra Twit. Obviously Mitt was *willing* to be the VP at that time and, quite frankly, McCain probably knew that a McCain / Romney ticket would have won — imagine, a Foreign Policy expert (cough, cough) and a financial wizard, a dream ticket. And once the economic meltdown hit it would have been a slam dunk, because Mitt could have been poised to be the financial “savior”. But the tax returns sank the whole thing. They must be fucking toxic beyond belief.
I wonder if over in Romneyland those idgits are busy coming up with their own “singing” video of Obama. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
C’mon, Barack — you’ve got your foot on their neck, time to step hard….
JPL
@RedKitten: Biden was booed but it was when he said it was time to go. Biden certainly does know how to do his job!!!
Mino
@JPL: Romney believes in free for me, but not for thee. And “thee” is everybody else.
RedKitten
@JPL: Sweet. Yeah, Biden is a great speaker. Warm, funny, down-to-earth but doesn’t “talk down” to people. Even people who think he’s gaffe-prone can’t help but like the guy.
Mino
@JCT: Corn from MJ says he is getting tips from everywhere. To know Mitt is to really hate him, evidently.
Jay in Oregon
@NonyNony:
Channeling all of the asshole GOPers who tried to claim that Kerry and Obama would be “soft on terrorism”: If Iran or North Korea start making bellicose threats, is Romney going to whine that they are being “unfair”?
Anton Sirius
I think the best part of that ad is actually the decision to put the “I approve this message” bumper up front. That’s the horse head in the bed. That’s Obama telling Romney, “This is just a taste of what’s coming. I’m not running and hiding, I’m-a gonna go Anderson Silva on your punk ass.”
And Romney, being a textbook bully with daddy issues, is going to collapse into a whimpering ball the moment someone pushes back. Poor bastard’s going to be a total wreck by the debates.
Also, @pseudonymous in nc: I think they have at least some tax return dirt as well. The McCain team leaked like a sieve during the 2008 campaign. Why would they clam up now? And if Obama’s team does have that info, I’d expect the bombs to start dropping, oh, right around the RNC convention, when a lot of folks will be paying real attention to Romney for the first time…
the Conster
@RedKitten:
My sister’s convinced Obama’s the Kwisatz Haderach. I used to laugh, but now there might be something to it. If there’s anyone who could convince me that he sees how event probabilities play out into the future, it’s Obama.
JPL
At intrade Romney is still at 96% to win the nomination but some of the comments are interesting. A Santorum supporter is feeling pretty lucky.
NonyNony
@Valdivia:
They thought that they were running against an “affirmative action President” who “outsourced his autobiography to Bill Ayers” and who “needs a teleprompter to get through a speech”. Put a smart white man up against him and he’ll fold like cheap suit. The only reason McCain lost in ’08 was because the economy tanked in the month right before the election and the proles blamed Bush instead of Jimmy Carter when it was totally Carter’s fault.
It still amazes me that anyone who lived through the ’08 campaign could underestimate Obama’s campaigning ability. I figured the rank and file of the GOP would buy into the “he’s a stupid black man” narrative because, well, racism sells in the 21st century GOP apparently. But I didn’t think that the guys at the TOP actually thought that way. Maybe they mistook Obama’s honest desire to govern the country as a President instead of as the head of the Democratic Party as a sign of stupidity or something.
patrick II
@elmo:
I half agree with you. I generallydon’t like to publicly embarrass people for entertainment– I hate Simon Cowell who has made a living embarrassing people for fun and money.
However, it is different when the person being embarrassed is powerful enough to fight back. And it is also different when someone should be embarrassed by the lies they tell or the money they have stolen — but refuse to be. Mitt isn’t embarrassed by this — he is full of anger and disdain — he doesn’t think someone of lower class should call him on his lies and thievery.
japa21
Boy, has this campaign learned the lesson from 2004. Don’t wait for the opponent to define you, start on the offensive from the beginning. This is a form of swiftboating except for the fact that everything being said is truthful.
There a lie in this ad.
Here is where Romney is in a bind. He can go and complain all he wants, and if the media allows him to do so without showing this ad and others, the public is going to say what the hell is he whining about. Do we want a whiner in the WH? And if the media shows the ads to provide some perspective, people are going to say, wait, all those things are true aren’t they?
It is a no win situation for Romney.
I am starting to think that even the voter suppression laws won’t save Romney. It would make it closer, but not carry him over the finish line. That means we need to make an even stronger push on down ticket races and continue to fight the suppression laws, because without winning back the House and keeping the Senate, the best Obama can do is protect the status quo and not move forward on anything.
japa21
@JPL: It will still be Romney, but if Santorum somehow or other got the bid, Obama wins with over 60% of the vote. Maybe 73%.
JCT
The real goal is to take this brush and paint all of the Tea Party nitwits that are down ballot with it.
Just keep pointing out that they support all the stuff that Romney does and see if we can get Obama a real working congress — that will pull us out of the dumpster.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Valdivia:
Well, duh, a President who’s near. And they know that those folks aren’t as smart as the Confederate Party.
Ben Cisco
Great line.
NonyNony
@japa21:
It’s going to be Romney. I don’t think it’s even an option that it will end up being someone else. If they uncovered video of Romney performing Satanic sacrifices or having sex with some underage boy or something else that could lead to actual criminal charges that would be sufficiently sensational so as to get the folks who typically don’t even care about politics to notice they might – MIGHT mind you – be able to switch nominees. Anybody talking up anything else on InTrade is trying to make a quick buck off the gamblers.
On the other hand – there’s no guarantee that there won’t be some ugliness at the convention. The Republican party is in full schism mode at this point, and if it gets ugly enough I could see the libertarian wing enacting their own little “Brooks Brothers Rebellion” protest during the convention. That rebellion would be enabled if Romney’s overall popularity is down to the point where the primary reason that people voted for him in the primary (i.e. his “electability”) is shattered.
Valdivia
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): @NonyNony:
any professional running for the office of the Pres should never ever underestimate the other guy. The fact they did is pure racism as you guys say.
Lurking Canadian
That’s going to leave a mark. Win or lose, nobody will be able to say the president didn’t swing for the fences.
There’s a kind of parallel to the re-election of Jed Bartlett. For the Obama team to tell the truth about Romney will be spun as “unfair” and “negative”. So you can imagine somebody in the WH saying, “Look, no matter what we do, they’re going to gripe that it’s too negative and partisan. So, since they’re going to say that anyways, why don’t we just curb stomp him on national TV?”
Calouste
@JPL:
Team Obama probably has a nice reply line ready implies that Romney would have send a letter to bin Laden asking him to stop pestering the US, rather than having it personally delivered by a SEAL team like Obama did.
Lee Hartmann
Awesome. More, please.
catclub
When Mitt Romney asks for an apology. Obama should say:
Pakistan wanted us to apologize for sending a Seal Team to Kill Bin Laden. We didn’t.
Bex
@NonyNony: They’ve started to believe their own chain emails.
NCSteve
What I love about the ad is the tag line at the end. Makes you circle back and think about the stuff you read earlier that you may have just passed by if you have perfect pitch and are in pain. And, at last, a bumper sticker the “don’t follow politics but I vote” people–who decide all elections in this country–can get their heads around.
But here’s the thing. I’ve been laughing and pointing at the Republicans for months because they no longer have the ability to distinguish between what will make their deranged base feel all happy and energized and high-fivey and what is persuasive to the “don’t think following politics is a prerequisite to voting” crowd who actually let these commercials affect their attitudes.
I’m not saying I find the ad suspect just because it tickles our lizard-brains here on the BJ commenter left. Because, unlike the crew at another prominent liberal websites I could mention, folks here are on average, better at the analytic and critical thinking thing than either wingnuts or firebaggers.
But I am saying I want to see some kind of actual evidence–I’m not picky: a focus group, anecdote about somebody’s Aunt Minne, something–that shows it works on the people it has to work on before I do more than say “thanks for tickling the liberal base’s collective lizard, guys! Now get back to work.”
trollhattan
@RedKitten:
Biden’s Memorial Day speech was one of the best by any politician, ever. He’s become very “comfortable in his own skin” the last year or so, and it portends well for the campaign. It makes Willard’s veep selection of more than passing interest.
As to the OP ad, mark, it haz left one. I can envision the Obama folks relying entirely on Willard’s videos and quotes for their material–for Pete’s sake, he’s that repellant.
Maude
I saw a bit of an ad running in NJ last evening. It about was outsourcing and insourcing. The man’s voice was conversational. It was an excellent ad.
Ever who did this ad understands perception.
I was impressed.
Chris
@Davis X. Machina:
This. I mean, I won’t say never, but in the present climate, Romney losing by any more than 45 is inconceivable.
Chris
@Davis X. Machina:
This. I mean, I won’t say never, but in the present climate, Romney losing by any more than 45 is inconceivable.
TenguPhule
No its not.