I like Amanda Marcotte’s explication at Slate:
Now that the shock of losing has settled in, the conservative media has moved on to the important task of castigating the various demographics that broke for Obama, a reaction that can in no way be one of the reasons said demographics dislike Republicans. Since Obama won basically everyone but nonurban white men and their wives, there are a lot of different groups to hate on, but a clear front-runner in the Blame Game has emerged: single women, who gave 68 percent of their vote to Obama, compared to 53 percent of married women who voted for Romney.
There are many reasons for this divergence, including age, income, and racial differences between the single and married women, but right-wing media looks to be settling on a favorite explanation: Loose gals vote Obama. Unlike, say, Sean Hannity’s now evolving position on immigration, clearly morphing in order to somehow get his guys a few Latino votes, this impulse to label single women as sluts is certainly no one’s idea of voter outreach. But it does serve the dual purpose of demonizing Obama voters and reminding Fox News and rightwing talk radio audiences of their favorite porn narratives…
Because some things must be said (sung):
feebog
i was guessing Latinos, but whatever. They have not learned a single thing from this drubbing have they?
J. Michael Neal
I talked to a woman at Accountemps yesterday. I called in response to a voice mail that one of her colleagues had left on my voice mail on Wednesday about a job position. She said that that one was filled that same afternoon. She went on to say that they had no accounting positions they were looking to fill. At that point I expressed a certain amount of skepticism as to her assertion, but she insisted that they really had no accounting positions.
On its face that was a highly implausible statement. However, I don’t have to rely on a gut feeling, because I can always go to their website and look. Sure enough, a search turned up a list of about 60 accounting positions they are looking to fill within a 25 mile radius of my house.
What am I supposed to do? Apparently I rate low enough in their estimation of usefulness that they’ll not only blatantly lie to me, but they’ll tell blatant lies that are debunked with trivial ease. I want to call up my primary contact there and tell them what I really think and just flat out ask why they won’t consider me for anything they have. It’s probably not a good idea, but I have a hard time seeing what damage there is left to do to my chances of getting anything.
I never, ever want to hear American businesses claim that they can’t find skilled employees.
PeakVT
Single men favored Obama 56% to 40%, vs 38% to 60% for married men. Yet that never gets mentioned. Huh.
General Stuck
There’s a new new sheriff in town.
tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/11/obama-to-boehner-higher-taxes-on-the-wealthy-or-the-bush-tax-cut…
With the election over, Obama has the cards. All of them.
Robin G.
Can I just say how much I love being a married church-going white woman who voted for Obama? Moving the needle!
Suffern ACE
@J. Michael Neal: If you don’t call, I will. They are an agency. And a very large one. I wouldn’t get angry. But they are an agency and you should know what is going on.
Jay in Oregon
That John Barrowman video is awesome.
Of course, now I’ve got that song stuck in my head…
Michael
Good for a laugh: sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/61481_483831728305544_773793133_n.jpg
jeffreyw
I blame the single black Latino lesbian mothers with some college.
Cassidy
For fight fans, the UFC just signed it’s first two female fighters. If they market it as aggressively as they did back in the day, women’s MMA is about to make a huge leap forward.
Yurpean
How long until Republican calls for impeachment erupt over Petreus not resigning as soon as his affair was revealed (with a tie-in to Benghazi, of course)?
Robin G.
@Michael: There is never a bad time for Condescending Wonka.
freelancer (iPhone)
Captain Jack Harkness ftw. So funny.
Yutsano
@Jay in Oregon: He can sing, he can dance, he can play omnisexual immortal characters. Yup, half Scottish Americans rule.
Suffern ACE
@PeakVT: Well, since they’d probably assume that all white men who don’t vote republican must be gay or in otherways impaired, it might be best to let them let their freak fly.
Three-nineteen
You’re welcome.
blingee
Not related but this is a great article on the most powerful man in Washington that nobody has heard about (until fairly recently that is). Why do I almost always find these great articles from non-us sources?
stuff.co.nz/world/americas/7926020/Jim-Messina-The-man-behind-Obamas-campaign
Roger Moore
@feebog:
What they appear to have learned is that they need to work harder at turning out the base. It may even work for them in off-year elections, but I don’t think it’s going to work for the Presidency.
J. Michael Neal
@Suffern ACE: When he was interviewing me, my primary contact there asked about my Excel proficiency. I said that, yes, I know how to use pivot tables in vlookup. In addition, I have programmed macros in Visual Basic. He said that that’s something I should make sure to include in my resume.
For some reason, I didn’t point out the part of my resume that says:
NotMax
As it is an Open Thread:
Not much for making predictions, but do have one that I feel is on solid ground.
In the 2016 race (and wish I could say it applied only to Republican campaigns, but doubt it), at closed to the press fundraising dinners and such, any hired help will routinely be frisked and patted down.
Mnemosyne
@J. Michael Neal:
I would call your primary contact, not to demand to know why they’re not finding work for you, but to tell her that you’re getting different information from different employees at her office and you’re trying to figure out what’s going on. It sounds like there’s an internal problem with that specific branch of Accountemps if you’re getting different stories from different employees, so you may want to try signing up with a different location.
I will tell you from many long years as a temp that if you want to get a position at a specific company or companies, you should call their HR department and ask what temp agencies they use. They’ll usually be happy to tell you (because the temp agency will screen you and make sure you’re not a weirdo before they send you over) and it’s the best way to get your foot in the door. I got my job at the Giant Evil Corporation by signing up with the temp agency they use the most and telling the agency that I was specifically interested in assignment at the GEC. They sent me out on a “test” assignment to a lesser company first to make sure I wasn’t a mope, but after that one ended they were happy to send me to the GEC. I was permanently hired after a year in this position and this is now my 5th year as an official employee.
ET
If anyone needs a laugh there is a new Henri the cat video on politics.
Castration without representation.
qwerty42
Obviously, part of a larger outreach to the many groups that have found no reason to vote for them. Cripes, for a “political party”, these people no longer even understand how “politics” works. Sounds as though they have become more an “ideology” or “cult”. The road back will be long and hard. The first thing they will need to do is stop going in the wrong direction.
aimai
I’m not sure that the usual rules about low engagement for the midterm will, in the end, apply in 2014 if the Obama campaign hangs on to its single women voters and its minority voters–I hope they realize they need to keep their ground game going and keep updating their voter lists. Its true that a lot of people will move into new districts if they are single, minority, female or at least move within their district. I’m betting that one reason Democratic voters drop off the radar screen in between election cycles is that they move and don’t reregister, or don’t know how to get re-registered, or lose track of their polling place. I wonder if Obama’s app, which is linked to people’s email addresses, will enable people to keep one stop shopping and registering for the midterms?
aimai
Xenos
If 53% of married women voted for Romney, what does that mean for the other 47%? Are they sluts, too? Or are they just honorary sluts, or class traitors to the housewifely profession?
It would be nice if they could clarify these details for the rest of us.
IowaOldLady
In my car this morning, I heard some Republican “thinker” say that they needed to reach out to different demographics, but they didn’t need to change their message to do it. All they needed was to have Marco Rubio and Susan Menendez etc on stage, front and center, and then everyone would know they were welcome in the GOP.
I can’t believe the extent to which they consistently substitute symbol for substance. But then, these are the same people who were sure Hillary Clinton voters would go for Palin. After all, they’re both women.
Paul
@General Stuck:
Yup. Isn’t it as easy as literally stepping over the fiscal cliff in January and then introduce a new bill with tax cuts for everybody except for the top 2%? Good luck to the GOP trying to filibuster a tax cut to 98% of all Americans.
NotMax
@qwerty42
What, and miss out on arriving at the Shining City On A Hill that surely, surely is just around the next curve?
Moses (supposedly) wandered in the desert for 40 years. The Republicans’ pack mentality will have them whiz past that record. Not that there’s anything wrong with that (for the rest of us).
Haydnseek
Where’s Reince Priebus? I really want to hear his excuses…….has anyone heard anything?
FlipYrWhig
@Xenos: Roughly 47% of women see themselves as victims and they’ll never take personal responsibility.
FlipYrWhig
@Paul: That’s why the screeching in the media has already begun about the need to get a deal _before_ January: to prepare the groundwork for pointing fingers at how it was really Democrats’ fault, not Republicans’, that taxes got hiked in the first place.
quannlace
I mean, I know I’m clueless. But why does Petreus haveto resign? Does the CIA have a moral’s claus? An extramarital affair is one of the lower sins these days.
Mnemosyne
@Haydnseek:
True — as the head of the RNC, Priebus is actually responsible for even more failure than Romney since he was supposed to be coordinating the Senate and House races as well.
Jay in Oregon
@Yutsano:
Barrowman has a recurring role on that new CW show, ARROW (being a reimagining of DC’s Green Arrow with more of a Batman twist).
Woodrowfan
Ok, where can I find the ongoing count for the popular vote? TPM doesn’t seem to have it.
scav
The tribe of Americans In Name Only is acquiring a certain stature and political oomph. Growing daily, especially if you wear the secret sunglasses.
redshirt
So, better dating potential as a Democrat. Don’t discount that! Sex sells!
Scamp Dog
@aimai: I’m a middle-aged white guy, so I can’t claim my story is directly relevant to your question, but I dropped by the OfA office that I volunteered at around noon today, and asked about what would be going on for the 2014 campaign. The guy who ran the office said that personally, he wanted a little time off, and I can’t blame him: the paid staff were putting in an insane amount of time, 6 or 7 days a week. But they were having a potluck for the volunteers Saturday, so I’ll be going to that.
The other staffers there this afternoon were females, one each of white, Hispanic and Asian, so I guess I do have a bit of data for you there.
At any rate, don’t wait for someone to contact you, get in touch with them and get to work! :)
General Stuck
@Paul:
By issuing a formal veto threat via his press sec, he just stated the obvious. “I own you motherfuckers on tax policy at this point in time”. He doesn’t have to face the voters again, and the wingnuts do, and will get blamed for their tax increases if they don’t agree to split the two.
And if they don’t and all expire, then Obama can propose new tax cuts and become the tax cutting president of the tax cutting party (for the middle class) and steal the issue from nutters like candy from babies. The same way he did with national security. He did have to win the election though.
Mnemosyne
@quannlace:
Because having an extramarital affair makes you a serious security risk and opens you and the agency up to corruption.
Think of it this way — if the Iranians had this information, would they be worried about Petraeus’s morals, or would they be thinking of ways to use the information against him to get to their goals?
NotMax
@Woodrowfan
Here.
Cassidy
@Mnemosyne: That’s not it. There’s a General Office going through CM right now for having an affair with a female subordinate and then coercing her to continue the affair including at least one instance of forced sexual acts.
Woodrowfan
It means that he admits that he knew that having an affair was a security risk AND HE DID IT ANYWAY. That’s poor enough judgment to end your career. “Sure, i knew it opened me up to blackmail, but I couldn’t keep my zipper closed.”
quannlace
But it’s already out in the open. There’s no secret left to hide. Nothing to exploit or blackmail.
Woodrowfan
@NotMax: Thank you!
Mnemosyne
@WWStBreitbartD:
It would be nice if you could come up with something more recent than 6 years ago. I mean, since both sides are the same, I’m sure that Marcotte has been calling women who testify in front of Congress whores or something, right? Oh, no, wait, that was your guy who was doing that.
Woodrowfan
@quannlace: But it shows poor judgement, that he was willing to risk blackmail to get off.
And if it did involve an underling or there was sexual harassment then it’s game over even without the security angle.
Frankensteinbeck
@IowaOldLady:
They substitute symbol for content in everything. Look at their positions on the military and sexuality.
@quannlace:
Short answer: Yes. It does. Seriously.
RaflW
@aimai: You named a major reason that motor-voter is important, and why Repubs often don’t like it. Having people get re-registered when they update their driver’s license is handy and democratic. Also, often Democratic too!
Suffern ACE
@Xenos: Actually, let’s think about this a second. if PEAK VT is correct, and single men and single women actually vote for Obama in the same percentages, and Married women and Married Men vote in very different percentages, aren’t the married women the ones who are unusual and need analyzing? Maybe they voted for Romney because they aren’t slutty, but are in loveless marriages and need a good affair?
I don’t know what else would explain it, since women are so sex crazed these days apparently.
Enhanced Mooching Techniques
Trying to demonize the hottest part of the electorate. That’s going to work so well.
Measles Montgomery
That’s my mother! She’s single (ok, “widowed” but that’s single!) and she voted Obama! She and her single (also widowed) neighbor in the condo downstairs. Single and ready to mingle!
I can’t wait to tell her she’s a slut. Of course, I can hear myself repeating the word louder and louder, because she won’t be able to make it out the first time.
Roger Moore
@Xenos:
They probably belong to some other grouping that Republicans have a hard time appealing to, like racial/ethnic minorities, highly educated professionals, homosexuals, non-religious people, etc.
Haydnseek
@Mnemosyne: It’s odd. By now, every Repub. has had ample time to join the collective freak-out. As one of the biggest fish of all, he’s conspicuous in his silence, especially given the incessant flow of insane whackaloon statements that issued from him during the campaign.
Xecky Gilchrist
Marcotte is a treasure.
I would respectfully request, along these lines, that someone fix the blogroll link for Pandagon. (ETA: It should go here: rawstory.com/rs/category/pandagon/ )
22over7
@quannlace:
At first, since I hadn’t heard the details of his affair, I assumed it was with a goat. I mean, have you seen his picture?
But then I realized that it had to be because of the security risk.
RaflW
@IowaOldLady: Isn’t it amazing how the party that decries identity politics has no analysis other than identity politics?
Yep, that Colin Powell, only votes back because…
You do wonder if any in the GOP ever even read the stories about how a significant majority of campaign donations this cycle from military/DOD individuals went to Dems.
Given how impermeable their bubblewrap is, I doubt it.
Jay in Oregon
I think this guy has a unique perspective, and as a white heterosexual male I think he needs to be listened to.
youtu.be/yXeKrbtMz2M
Linda Featheringill
@J. Michael Neal:
Don’t know if you’re still hanging around but . . .
Why don’t you call your primary contact and say something like “I was visiting your website and noticed all these positions within commuting distance. Why don’t we talk?”
If she/he brushes you off, then you can unload. But there is a chance that this approach might be fruitful.
lol
@Paul:
Good luck? They *already* killed that bill during the 2010 lame duck (after stalling it before) and suffered absolutely no consequences for doing so.
Hence the deal trading a full extension for DADT repeal, START, etc.
What makes the “I’d give Obama credit if he’d just *try*” crowd so frustrating is that Obama will try and they won’t even acknowledge he tried much less giving him credit for doing so.
J. Michael Neal
@Linda Featheringill: I’ve already tried that, several times. Then I get either, “I think you’ll be bored in that position,” or, “That position doesn’t pay enough to meet your desired salary.” He says the latter despite my having told him several times that I’m willing to work for less than my desired salary. That is just, you know, a desire.
Actually, the reason I put the figure for desired salary where I did, at $40,000-$45,000 a year, is because several other people have told me that, if you put it too low HR people will just set your resume aside. The advice was that putting it lower than that when I have a master’s in accounting would be a mistake. So, of course, it’s now being used against me in the other direction.
The fact is that they have no intention of putting me forward for an entry level accounting position (you know, the kind that don’t need the years of specific experience that I don’t have). They’ve made that clear in several different ways. That’s why I’m not sure that getting mad could do any real damage, because I think my prospects are about as close to zero as they can get anyway.
Felonius Monk
Gee, for the hell of it, I played that “Single Ladies” video and the first thing that started was an ad for Flushable Dog Poop Bags. Is there a message there?
bcinaz
I admit it, I am just wallowing in Schadenfreude right now. Clicking on every twitter link to read about, the Romney Con Game, and Romney the Mark, and Romney the Cash Cow for bullshit consulting firms with first class sales teams. The tech failure, the poll failures and ultimately the failure to grasp reality. Also too, just love reading about Turd Blossom and how much he covered himself in glory. The fact that he was the “Deputy Chief of Staff” in Ws 2nd, is well, you know, incredible.
trollhattan
@quannlace:
I can think of at least one reason: Darryl Issa.
DPS
Just in case anybody hasn’t caught this yet, Petraeus was boning his own biographer.
Please note that the title of her book was “All In.” I’ll say.
gelfling545
@J. Michael Neal: You could contact the general office & ask to be assigned to another recruiter explaining calmly that there seem to be communication problems between you and the current one.
geg6
@DPS:
Jeebus. What a cliche of a man.
All the Emessem are just stunned and in shock over this. They lurrrrrrrrrrrrved them some St. Patreus. Another sweet, sweet moment of schadenfreude for me. The tears of neocons and wingnuts and bobbleheads are sooooo delicious!
Suffern ACE
@lol: it kind of goes with the notion that the president can initiate his own tax bills. Or the senate can introduce their own.
Hal
It’s fascinating to me because women on average live longer than men. Even if these married women feel secure with perhaps double incomes now, between divorce and widowhood, not to mention the possible need for Nursing Home Care, you would think the Democrat would be preferred.
Of course when I think of these things, I’m always somewhat distracted buy the old guy with the keep your Government hands of my Medicare sign, and my confusion ends.
Digital Amish
“Campaign Sources: The Romney Campaign was a Consultant Con Job”
Finally, a modicum of reality from RedState.
mainmati
@J. Michael Neal: Go on LinkedIn (if you aren’t already on there). Create a profile with your resume and photo. Find out if there is a LinkedIn group for accountants or for your particularly specialty of accountancy. I don’t work for LinkedIn but my professional services firm uses it all the time (plus our own sources). Join associations and attend meetings. Meet people. Getting a job is mostly about personal contacts, especially for professionals like yourself. That’s the way the world works. Good luck.
Bruce S
Fuck Sean Hannity and his sudden love for Brown People. What a shameless display of cowardly opportunism. How stupid does he think folks out there are?
This is absurdly opportunistic crap – and thank God that crackpot Af-Am Mormon, Mia Love, lost her crappy little congressional race. I would have really gotten sick of that crazy over the next couple of years. She would have been a “superstar” among the low-bar lowlifes of black Republicans (Cain, West, Steele, Thomas – and, of course, the worst National Security Advisor in my lifetime.) Good riddance to a weird creep.
Dexceus
@quannlace: Well, it means he was willing to risk blackmail over getting laid. And then there is the fact that it came to light due to the FBI investigating her for getting into his email and other Classified material.
Gretchen
@Dexceus: Yes, that was the killer – he let a reporter into his classified email. It wasn’t just the affair.
Teejay
Let “Good news for John McCain” be officially replaced by
“Let’s check with the Fox Decision Desk”.
Teejay
@Bruce S:
He thinks they’re very stupid as a matter of fact.
Patricia Kayden
@Digital Amish: Very interesting article. The bottom line is that Republican operatives were willing to lie to their constituents and make believe that Romney was up in the polls — the unskewed polls of course, not the polls that those of us based in the real world relied on.
A disdain for reality = a losing strategy. But at least we know that Rove and other con artists made a lot of money off Super Pacs. Good for them. Wish I had no conscience and could do the same in 2016 when they run with Santorum.
Patricia Kayden
@Digital Amish: Great article, although at the dreaded RedState.com.
The bottom line is that a disregard for reality = losing Presidential strategy.
But at least Rove made a lot of $$$ from Super Pacs. Good for him.
fuckwit
@J. Michael Neal: Fuck those corporate scammers. They take huge chunks of your pay to line their own pockets anyway– the customer pays them, what, 3 times what you are paid?
And, you don’t mention your age, but everything about your story just SCREAMS “age discrimination”. Temp agencies want 20-year-old kids. You can do better than that.
Hang out your own shingle as an accountant. Find people on Craigslist looking for accounting help (“Gigs”, I think they are called). Volunteer at some non-profit, or the local PTA, or somewhere else where people who have high-profile day jobs also volunteer or will notice you, a wow them with your amazingness. Have a look at websites that are for freelancers (there are lots in the software world, maybe also in the accounting world too?). Participate in the web forums of your favorite accounting software, or set up a shingle doing training on it. Attend conferences and trainings in your field and make contacts.
I worked for a temp agency once. Luckily, I haven’t needed to since, and hopefully never again.