the most important election of your lifetime: 2012 american general election thread

OH SO WE'RE ONLY WRITING ABOUT THINGS THAT ARE RELEVANT TO ASSESSING A CANDIDATE'S READINESS FOR OFFICE, ARE WE NOW, POLITICO?

I lol'd

white men: ready since 1492

so wait Politico hires hacks? Buy me a drink and call me Susan.

just when I was getting used to calling you surely

this is hilarious:

"This is really significant because throughout this campaign Romney has suggested that the experience that he's had in business gives him special insights into the economy and that would translate into jobs and growth and benefits to the American worker," Axelrod said. "This article speaks more to the kind of experience he has, the kind of insights he may have drawn from that experience. And it goes to the fundamental question of whether that is the experience that we need in the Oval Office. Do we need the philosophy that embraces outsourcing and offshoring as a positive tool in our economy?"

In response, the Romney campaign is drawing a distinction between "outsourcing," which can include moving jobs from one domestic firm to another, and "offshoring" jobs to another country.

"This is a fundamentally flawed story that does not differentiate between domestic outsourcing versus offshoring nor versus work done overseas to support U.S. exports," Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul said in a statement. "Mitt Romney spent 25 years in the real world economy so he understands why jobs come and they go. As president, he will implement policies that make it easier and more attractive for companies to create jobs here at home. President Obama's attacks on profit and job creators make it less attractive to create jobs in the U.S."

Obama hasn't done anything re offshoring and has no plans to, either. which is why Axelrod's comments elicit nothing but a cynical "oh, it's campaign time" shrug from me (and should elicit same in anyone w/ a brain). which makes it doubly rich that Romney's people are using it as yet another specious example of Obama's alleged attacks on "profit and job creators."

also, "outsourcing" a job from NYC to Tuscaloosca may not be as radical as "offshoring" it to Bangalore or Chongqing. but it's still a race to the bottom for American workers. distinctions w/ little-to-no difference and all that.

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2012/news/economy/1206/gallery.Obama-economy/index.html

If you scroll through all 13 (and ignore the first quarter), they don't look that bad except for the debt and home-value graphs. (Keeping in mind that you can manipulate any kind of data by messing around with scale--didn't really look at that.) But I don't think "don't look that bad" will be enough.

But here's where Republican are really mad at Obama (according to one person on Facebook and Republican strategist Ed Rogers quoted below in a Washington post op-ed)

Then there is the shameless, jaw-dropping gall of the president asking people to forgo life's small personal gestures like wedding gifts and birthday presents and instead send him a campaign contribution so that he will have a few extra dollars to protect his power and privileges. That's right, end the selfishness of giving gifts to loved ones to commemorate the milestones we share and send a humble tribute to Obama’s altar. Sheesh, I thought nothing a politician could ask for could shock me. But this breaks new ground, and I find it more repulsive than Obama's grandiose health-care takeover which, at least in theory, was an attempt to achieve some public good.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-insiders/post/president-obama-still-unprepared-and-ego-driven/2012/06/25/gJQALuGV1V_blog.html?hpid=z2

Ed Rogers shows off his dudgeon moves.

lol the actual campaign request is p. tone-deaf

Got a birthday, anniversary, or wedding coming up?

Let your friends know how important this election is to you—register with Obama 2012, and ask for a donation in lieu of a gift. It’s a great way to support the President on your big day. Plus, it’s a gift that we can all appreciate—and goes a lot further than a gravy bowl.

gravy bowl?

yeah people are always giving each other gravy bowls

I got three last year, one from my wife, one from mom & one from the chairman of the ways & means committee

obama ruining gravy parties for hard-working americans across the land. :(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgTrQa5epHI&feature=related

they obv wanted to pick something besides latte maker or vacuum pump.

any ppl appreciate gravy receptacles way more than they appreciate presidents

Someone wants me to send them my hard earned money? This is unheard of!

"I got married and all I got was this stupid presidency"

ha

Plus, it’s a gift that we can all appreciate

I really can't get enough of this

that statement is super lol in its blundering tone but ppl get gravy boats/bowls all the fucking time as superfluous wedding gifts; it probably ranks up there with coffee grinders and extra place settings in the overpurchased gift stakes

the overly personal tone of official communication from the white house really skeeves me out; emails titled "Hey", calls for birthday wishes to the president, euchh

huh. it turns out that 'gravy bowl' has an urban dictionary entry.

...

do not read it.

obv it involves feces

rong

guess again

but... it's an urbandictionary definition, it HAS to involve feces

okay honestly that is the tamest UD entry I've ever read

The WH spam talking about "Barack" is unbecoming for communications from the World's #1 Rogue Badass.

I'd use my coffee grinder more often if I didn't have to clean the thing.

I've almost given up telling students that referring to Important People by first name is not, er, formal.

whither Rihanna

xxpost DJP tame, sure but it was certainly unexpected

http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/06/romney-to-seek-retraction-from-washpost-127441.html

hmmmm

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2012/06/wapo_shuts_down_team_romney.php?ref=fpblg

people talk shit about wapo and of course Fred Hiatt is a vacillating milquetoast douchebag but sometimes it can report some fucking news.

sorry I'm having a really emotional day and fond memories of the reliable source column gossiping about the bush twins or something

Apparently nobody told Team Romney that you never go full retard:

Mitt Romney’s campaign is responding to evidence that Bain Capital invested in companies that sent American jobs overseas by accusing the Obama administration of “outsourcing” telemarketing jobs to Omaha, Nebraska.

so now it's a referendum on Bob Dole's 1996 health plan. wanna bet?

Rupert Murdoch ‏@rupertmurdoch
Met Romney last week. Tough O Chicago pros will be hard to beat unless he drops old friends from team and hires some real pros. Doubtful.

o shit

#14 on The National Post's "15 things you should know about Canadian identity" Canada Day piece:

HERE, MITT ROMNEY WOULD NOT STAND A CHANCE:

If U.S. President Barack Obama were running for election in Canada, he would win big. He has the support of 67% of Canadians, whereas Mitt Romney, the Republican, could count on just 17% of the votes. “Canada is, in U.S. terms, a Democratic country,” Mr. Bozinoff said.

Paul Ryan, questioned by George Stephanopopololpolous, averred that our rights are natural and therefore government is peripheral to the affirmation of them. It was as bold and fiery a statement of quasi-Randian thought as I've seen, and of course wasn't contradicted. Once again I ask, just about screaming in the dark, where is the liberal willing to explain in front of a camera why government is necessary? Coming after an Obama hack failing to answer the question about the Roberts ruling ("Is it a tax?"), it was more confirmation that we're fucked.

haha that is for sure an essential fact re canada

If you think government is evil, do not work in government. Otherwise yeah I'm 100% sure not only what you are saying is bullshit, but that you don't even truly believe it.

You cannot rant about wasteful government spending WHILE YOU EARN YOUR INCOME FROM SAID SPENDING.

what if he's a double agent? 00Ryan

haha u all remember this lil guy http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/07/gop-teen-idol-jonathan-krohn-defects-from-conservative-movement.php

I do remember him! That's hilarious. Amused that Politico thought to ring him up for a story.

corrupted by Wittgenstein

Attributing his newfound skepticism of the right to a close reading of German philosophy

Soon he'll be a law student with a bunch of dusty philosophy books on his shelf.