Oh my gawl, you guys, did you hear? Uncle Joe used slavery as a metaphor for what Mitt Romney and Wall Street have planned for us hapless 99 percenters Negroes Latinos immigrants women seniors POCs LGBTers Americans and the Romney campaign is outraged by the slander! Outraged, I say! This is a new low in politics!
TO THE FAINTING COUCH!
“After weeks of slanderous and baseless accusations leveled against Governor Romney, the Obama Campaign has reached a new low,” press secretary Andrea Saul said in a statement. “The comments made by the Vice President of the United States are not acceptable in our political discourse and demonstrate yet again that the Obama Campaign will say and do anything to win this election. President Obama should tell the American people whether he agrees with Joe Biden’s comments.”
The Obama campaign isn’t having any of it:
The Obama campaign is refusing to back away from Vice President Joe Biden’s accusation that Mitt Romney and the GOP will put Americans in “chains” if they are elected.
‘We have no problem with those comments,” said Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports.”Pressed on whether President Obama himself agrees with those comments, Cutter said the full context of the remarks was important.
“[Obama] probably agrees with Joe Biden’s sentiments,” Cutter said. “He’s using a metaphor to talk about what’s going to happen.”
~snip~
“I appreciate the faux outrage from the Romney campaign. But if you want to talk about the use of words, then take a look at MR’s stump speech where he basically calls the president ‘un-American,'” Cutter added.Senior strategist David Axelrod also denounced the controversy, tweeting: “Enough phony outrage from Team Mitt, while they pour millions into ads that blatantly, brazenly lie about POTUS record on welfare to work.”
Yes. What Axelrod and Cutter said.
[full post at ABLC]
MikeJ
How many times have we heard about the “Democrat (sic) plantation”?
JPL
Joe said a lot of good things today but the only thing that will be reported is the chains. He shouldn’t have said that because it distracted from his message.
4tehlulz
CRY MOAR MITT
General Stuck
Looks like Team Romney is going with the Bambi method of po baby dear stalked by evil democrats. A sort of Red Dawn for The Heathers.
JPL
@MikeJ: Dems are held to a higher standard. unfortunately
Chyron HR
I demand that the Kenyan Muslim food stamp terrorist thug in the can-we-still-call-it-White House apologize immediately for this intemperate comment.
I also want an apology from the first lady, or as she’s known on Fox News, the “baby mama”.
Violet
They’re protesting so hard because Biden pulled back the curtain on their racism. Any non-white person in that crowd knows exactly what the Republicans want to do to them.
EconWatcher
When you recall how methodically the O team dismantled Mitt’s record at Bain, piece by piece, you can only imagine what they’ll do with the gift they’ve just been given, in the form of the Ryan budget bill. I’m expecting nothing less than a work of art.
And I agree that Biden’s “chains” reference was unfortunate, because it gives the press an alibi for ignoring the substance.
lamh35
@JPL: bullshit. what Biden says does nothing to distract from the message. No one even watched the speech except politicos like us and the MSM and news broadcast are still too fixated on Paul Ryan’s “blue eyes”.
Plus as this statement from OFA says, Biden’s been using a variation of this rhetoric for some time now.
” OFA response to Robney Camp-
From the Obama campaign: “For months, Speaker Boehner, Congressman Ryan, and other Republicans have called for the ‘unshackling’ of the private sector from regulations that protect Americans from risky financial deals and other reckless behavior that crashed our economy. Since then, the Vice President has often used a similar metaphor to describe the need to ‘unshackle’ the middle class. Today’s comments were a derivative of those remarks, describing the devastating impact
letting Wall Street write its own rules again would have on middle class families. We find the Romney campaign’s outrage over the Vice
President’s comments today hypocritical, particularly in light of their own candidate’s stump speech questioning the President’s patriotism. Now, let’s return to that ‘substantive’ debate Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan
promised 72 hours ago, but quickly abandoned.”
Hunter Gathers
Shorter Stephanie Cutter – Are you going to bark all day, little doggy? Or are you going to bite?
Valdivia
So right. I am glad he said it. I am glad they are not backing down and I am glad you pointed out they use that language all the time. What whiners.
jl
I was skeptical when commenters said so, but looks like Obama and Biden are baiting these whining hypocrites into whining all the time about everything, in order to illustrate their contemptible hypocrisy.
But, Biden was making a play on Mitt’s phrase about ‘unchaining’ the crony corporatist magick elixer of wealth for the deserving.
On other hand, the GOP and Ryan/Romney camp and wingnuts are insane, and what they will go berserk over is random to a normal person. So all you have to do is show a tad of humor and imagination in your phrasing, and the other lunatic side will go apeshit ballistic over something every couple of days. No point at all in saying Obama or Biden made a mistake.
It is like saying the victim in an abusive relationship ‘made a mistake’ when the nutcase partner starts beating them. There is always a purported pretext, no matter what you do.
Turgidson
Kinda think the rhetoric distracts from the message here, but so so so glad to see the Obama campaign keep swinging rather than walking it back or meekly conceding that maybe ol uncle Joe went a little too far. Let Mittens whine. That’s all he’s been doing for weeks now and it ain’t gonna win him the election.
edit: after reading the OFA comment on the matter, I’ll strike my first remark. Give em hell, Obama/Biden!
lamh35
@JPL: I know that we are held to a different standard and that fine, but that’s why I am glad that the O-team are not simpering away and issuing apologies at the mere request of the Robmey campaign. And whatever standards we are held up to, at the very least the O-team is willing to call them on their hypocrisy and stands by their guy. The same can’t be said about alot of Dems in the past
Tom Q
This is one of those things that the press will pretend to care about for 72 hours, then never mention again.
The beauty of the Obama folk is, they know this and give it the lack of attention it deserves. (As much as I liked Clinton in general, his whole rapid-response thing would have fought this tooth-and-nail, and certainly debunked it, but in general it would have been a waste of time. Obama’s better at figuring which battles matter)
Brian R.
@Hunter Gathers:
Bingo.
Cry for me, Mitt. Cry. The American people really love politicians who whine about what’s fair and what’s not.
Violet
Posted this in the previous thread but it fits better here. My favorite Biden comment today is this:
Good job, Joe! Keep painting Romney as Richie Rich—entitled, ultra wealthy and completely out of touch with the issues normal people face.
qwerty42
It’s almost as if they know they cannot stop the racist and quasi-racist comments from their folks, so they want to try to take the whole “racist” thing off the board. But the truth is, one of their folks, someone high up, will always blurt out something that *is* racist, and it will make the non-nuts embarrassed. They’ve had years to work on the faux outrage and victimization and such so they won’t stop.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@JPL: @EconWatcher:
And the only way to break the “Democrats are held to a higher standard” is for Democrats to stop accepting the “being held to a higher standard.” It reminds me of how ladies don’t say “fuck” or “shit” and the way to end the fainting was for enough women to say those words.
Todd
I <3 Stephanie Cutter.
lamh35
@EconWatcher: the press doesn’t need an alibi. They’d ignore it anyway to focus on how hot Ryan is. They’ve been ignoring Robmey’s lies forever and they will continue to ingnore whatever else they want. It’s why I call bullshit on this whole Biden thing distracting from the message that the MSM wasn’t reporting anyway, so how can it be a distraction.
Nothing from nothing leaves nothing.
The Thin Black Duke
@EconWatcher: The only folks that are gonna get upset about Biden’s use of the word “chains” are the folks that were gonna vote for Romney anyway. I’m old enough to remember my great-grandma talk about sharecropping and those “Good Old Days” is what the Ryan plan is gonna bring us back to. Poor people know that just because you can’t see the chains doesn’t mean they’re not there. And these days, “poor” translates as “not rich”.
KG
@Tom Q: internets has made our attention spaaaa…
Hey look, squirrel!
Shawn in ShowMe
Joe Biden is shrill. Provocative imagery is the exclusive domain of the GOP. I sure wish Dems would act like gentlemen and stop hitting Romney in the face. Hopefully Jon Stewart will give Biden the scolding he deserves.
Bulworth
I’ve put the smelling salts and the pearls and the founting couches away.
Legalize
@Violet:
That’s awesome.
Villago Delenda Est
My sympathy for Andrea Saul is, needless to say, so I shall anyways, minuscule.
red dog
Good for Joe bringing the GOP white guys to task for blatant racist voter purges. May they choke on their white hoods.
geg6
I heart the Obama team.
I just heart them to death.
General Stuck
Most Americans are not used to seeing democrats put on the mean jeans and stare down the chickenshit republicans and their smear tactics. Obama has mothballed the weather vane for which way the wind is blowing, and commenced to laying political waste on the republicans. Maybe he’s had enough, I know I have. And it is always delightful to watch the wingnuts wave the fainting hanky of poutrage.
We may win or we may lose, but we will never be here again.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
Romney is a douchebag. And so is Saul.
Joe Biden’s next statement should be about putting those two idiots in chains.
MikeJ
How long until a rightblogger has an article called, “well maybe we should!”
I’d guess before COB tomorrow.
JPL
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
@lamh35:
After the 2010 elections where they hid from their votes, you both might be right.
jl
Made this point in previous thread, but I have been hearing radio news reports last couple of days that a lot of credit card claims are being thrown out of bankruptcy court hearings due to incorrect and incomplete documentation. This morning, heard report that judge said that in 90 percent of the cases in his bankruptcy cases in his court, the credit card claims he saw were either incorrect or incompletely documented.
So, just maybe Biden said something that was true. Call me old fashioned, but truth has some advantages often overlooked in these newfangled times.
Funny, I cannot find much on this spat of bogus credit card claims being thrown out of bankruptcy hearings on internet. Anyone know about it or have a link?
Steve
The Romney campaign is absurdly whiny. Ryan was introduced on Saturday, and by Sunday I was already seeing “Stop the Unfair Attacks on Ryan” graphics on Facebook. It’s like they have no cards in their deck except the one which says PERSECUTION.
hitchhiker
Why doesn’t somebody ask them why the word “chains” makes them think of black people? It’s not like no white prisoner has ever been made to wear chains. What’s up with that?
Maxwel
No prisoners!
lamh35
Oh, and I see the Robmey camp’s “joe biden’s “chains” as racial code words and raise them a pursuit of restoring “Anglo-Saxon relations” with US allies
hmmm, which is worse?
Violet
@hitchhiker: I actually saw a chain gang in Washington State a few years ago. They were cleaning up the roadside. Not sure if they were actually wearing chains, but they were in prison garb and a guard was holding a sign saying “Chain Gang at Word” or something. That’s how we knew it was a chain gang.
Violet
@hitchhiker: I actually saw a chain gang in Washington State a few years ago. They were cleaning up the roadside. Not sure if they were actually wearing chains, but they were in prison garb and a guard was holding a sign saying “Chain Gang at Word” or something. That’s how we knew it was a chain gang.
jl
@hitchhiker:
“What’s up with that?”
Pure bullshit.
NonyNony
@JPL:
I dunno. His message might have been “Hey watch this people – Mitt Romney is a whiny douchebag bully who can dish it out but hates it when people hit back.”
Which given how the Obama campaign immediately essentially said “Mitt Romney is a whiny douchebag bully who can dish it out but hates it when people hit back” suggests to me that Biden was baiting team Romney and hoping that they’d whine about it.
Either that or the Obama team has decided that the “Romney is a whiny douchebag” message should be underscored every time Romney gives them an opportunity to use is. Which, given that it’s Romney, is pretty much every time he opens his mouth these days.
Violet
@Violet: GAH! FYWP! I can’t edit. That was supposed to be “Chain Gang At Work” Wtih a K. Ugh.
LanceThruster
Dems are the Ni-Clang of the world
Yes they are…think about it
Dems are the Ni-Clang of the world
Think about it…do something about it
We make them paint their face and dance
If they won’t be a slave, we say that they don’t love us
If they’re real, we say they’re trying to be a obstruct
While putting them down, we pretend that they’s above us
Dems are the Ni-Clang of the world…yes they are
If you don’t believe me, take a look at the one you’re with
Dems are the slave of the slaves
Ah, yeah…better scream about it
We make them bear and raise our children
And then we leave them flat for being a fat old motthem hen
We tell them home is the only place they should be
Then we complain that they’s too unworldly to be our friend
Dems are the Ni-Clang of the world…yes they are
If you don’t believe me, take a look at the one you’re with
Dems are the slave to the slaves
Yeah…alright…hit it!
We insult them every day on TV
And wonder why they has no guts or confidence
When they’re young we kill their will to be free
While telling them not to be so smart we put them down for being so dumb
Dems are the Ni-Clang of the world
Yes they are…if you don’t believe me, take a look at the one you’re with
Dems are the slave to the slaves
Yes they are…if you believe me, you better scream about it
We make them paint them face and dance
We make them paint them face and dance
We make them paint them face and dance
We make them paint them face and dance
We make them paint them face and dance
We make them paint them face and dance
Litlebritdifrnt
@jl:
No help other than purely anecdotal, an old school friend of my boss came to him for help when he was sued by a credit card company for a 10K balance. He said he remembered getting the card but couldn’t figure out how the balance was so high (he didn’t understand the 29% interest rate and the late fees and over limit fees that were getting tacked on every moth). We answered the lawsuit in time and then sent a Request for Production of Documents to the attorney for the CC company asking for a copy of the original signed application. Just checking my computer and it has been four years since we sent that and never heard another word.
Jay C
Good for team O – they seem to have an amazing knack for knocking the spin right the F out from under the GOP on just about any issue. And this is just another one: Rather than bring up anything like real issues: you know, any of that boring junk like policies or anything – the Romney crew seem to have installed “whiny griping about ‘low politics‘” as the default response to virtually any and every critique.
I would LOVE for the Obama machine to make this into an ad: major issue differences between the parties? Democrats: Policies, A, B, and/or C. Republicans: “Waaaah! You’re being MEAN!!!”
MikeBoyScout
Wait. What?
Didn’t Ann Coulter DEMAND! Andrea Saul be fired last week?
This is an all time low!!!
How dare Slick Willard deny the Harpy in Chief!
I don’t know about you guys, but I refuse to get all outraged for Mittens until he fires Andrea Saul.
The gall of some people!
Donut
@JPL:
When we ignore that supposed higher standard and throw as many temper tantrums as the GOP, then the point of being held to a different standard is moot, and what the Village says about it is moot. The way to win in these silly situations is to keep proviking them and to react exactly as Cutter and Axelrod did. The GOP only gets a pass on this stuff because they don’t give a shit what the media says about it. They don’t give a shitmehst their centrists and compromisers say about it. They throw the hissy fits and hype it umm
President Obama is also recycling Seamus jokes. Should he let up on that, too? They need to keep it up, the Obama camp. They are making very few mistakes right now.
The Moar You Know
Yes, he should. Because I do.
scav
@jl: There is from the NYT yesterday: Problems Riddle Moves to Collect Credit Card Debt Here, I’ll add a quote because it’s the NYTwall.
TBogg
Andrea Saul is a strong black woman. There. I said it.
Anton Sirius
@jl:
Here’s an article in the Senile Old Lady from a couple of days ago…
gogol's wife
I am happy with the attitude the Obama campaign is projecting these days. I haven’t been getting any panicked e-mails from them about fundraising (I know, that will resume at the end of the month), and I love the way they’re reacting to Romney/Ryan. It also cheered me up today to call Harry Reid’s office (at the suggestion of commenter Karen Marie) and commend him for his good work. They sounded so glad to hear it.
John
@MikeJ:
I don’t think we’ve heard that from a Republican nominee for president or vice president, have we?
David Hunt
@lamh35:
The Mancrushian Candidate
hells littlest angel
I fear that Biden’s remark will cost Obama the black vote.
dogwood
Since there was so much hoopla over the Ryan pick, I decided to go to CSPAN today and watch Joe Biden in action. The Romney campaign is making a mistake by shinning a spotlight on Joe. Biden is a terrific campaigner. Since I was born in ’54, I have no recollection of Kennedy/Johnson as campaigners, but assume their skills and differing personas made them a terrific 1-2 punch. Obama/Biden are the best presidential campaign duo of my adult lifetime. They essentially say the same thing but in a way that is authentic to their individual personality and character. Crowds love Joe Biden. That the media essentially ignore him, does not diminish that fact.
Roger Moore
@David Hunt:
Win!
gnomedad
But the “taxation is slavery” stuff is totally awesome.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@hells littlest angel: Well, I doubt Thomas, Steele, and Allen were going to vote for him anyway.
MikeJ
@John: It was in the primaries.
dogwood
@Donut:
The beauty of today’s Seamus joke is that Romney himself set it up. You have to be completely lacking in self awareness to state that you can’t put a windmill on the roof of a car and think that your opponent won’t jump at the chance to bring up Seamus. Gail Collins must be ecstatic.
Brachiator
@JPL:
Seems to me that it is a vivid part of the method.
Come on, the Republicans have been braying that the Democrats are commies. Might as well toss this shit back in their faces. And the Republicans want to insist that Obama is only the president of black people. Might as well insist on the essential unity of all the 99% against the oligarchs.
Let’s see, now, what was the phrase? Oh, yes.
“Workers of the World, Unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains!”
Now, any pearl clutchers can retire to their sitting rooms. There’s a battle on. It’s time to fight for the win.
jl
@Brachiator:
I just searched youtube for ‘Biden, today’ and half of the first page is Obama/Biden chains black racist slavery ‘fauxtrage’ clips from wingnuts, showing why Barack and Joe will lose, and by a landslide.
Weird. Seems like the wingnuts are putting the Democratic ticket’s best lines on youtube. Are they Dem moles or what?
I can see the average person listening the chains ‘slander’ and nodding in agreement, and going WTF? to the racist business.
Mike
Go to ABC News and you can see Jake Tapper putting an out of context picture of Biden speaking to a bunch of black highschoolers underneath the headline.
When is Tapper going to finally make the jump to Fox News where he belongs? Outrageous bias and manipulation of the news…
Anyways, it doesn’t matter. This story will not move one vote. It’s a distraction, but distractions are good nowadays, since we are leading.
the Conster
Yeah, Romney seems to think whining = winning, because nothing says strong leadership like a bunch of grown men running to daddy to tell the bad men to stop. What the fuck over. When my kids whined, I made fun of them and they figured it out and stopped when they were 3 years old. If Team O doesn’t do another “where are the tax returns” ad it will be OK with me, as long as they can provoke Romney into incessant whining about “dirt”, “fairness”, “new low”, etc. etc. Put your man pants on Mittens.
Steve
This might be even bigger than the “lipstick on a pig” controversy that dramatically impacted the course of the 2008 election.
Brachiator
@hells littlest angel:
Now, that is funny.
Emma
@JPL: And the more Democrats try to comply with the Villager’s demands they more they lose. Time to unapologetically kick ass.
folsom ca
@jl: It is in the Sac Bee Monday August 13, 2012, New York Times, by Jessica Silver-Greenberg. If I knew how to link I would. The title is Credit card firms’ legal tactics lashed. good luck.
Joseph Nobles
Biden should apologize for this remark along this lines:
Dropping the mic is strictly optional.
mclaren
Counting down to the first reference to Joe Biden as an “Uncle Tom” in…3…2…1…
ABL
@hells littlest angel: FTW.
g
@JPL: You don’t get how the game is played. It doesn’t matter what Biden said. If he’d left off “chains,” Andrea Saul would have cherry-picked some other word – maybe “the” or “and” – to clutch her pearls about.
Ms. Saul seems to be quite one-dimensional when it comes to response statements. She’s in a perpetual state of agreived outrage. Girlfriend doesn’t know how to stop. I recall that Ms. Saul reinforced Mitt’s recent plea for civility in the campaign (he wanted Obama to stop talking about Bain) by following Mitt’s plea with a statement calling the Obama campaign “desperate liars.”
Meanwhile, what’s wrong with “chains?” Didn’t Mr. Romney’s pet rock star/gun-nut recently say that Barack Obama was the epitome of everything that’s wrong with humanity?
Didn’t Rience Priebus recently accuse President Obama of having “blood on his hands?”
“Chains?” Is the Romney campaign playing the race card here?
ABL
@Violet: Ha! That’s great.
Citizen_X
So, the Romney/Ryan campaign is still going with the “Stop hitting me!” theme? Good luck with that.
Lojasmo
@General Stuck:
They said Clinton was a bulldog. P’shaw.
Patricia Kayden
Watching Ed Schultz on MSNBC and he just showed a clip where Santorum made comments about Obama putting people in chains with Obamacare during the Repub primaries. Where was the outrage then? Repubs are such hypocrites that it’s laughable.