US POLITICS SPRING 2011: Let's just call off this country.

Indiana governor Mitch Daniels says he's not gonna run for president. He says he's having too much fun cutting off money for Planned Parenthood in Indiana

George Will's cock was limp this morning, by the way.

He's trying to get excited about Pawlenty, but I guess it's not working

so either Romney or Pawlenty is going to become the "serious person's" GOP Prez candidate of choice then.

xpost

Rick Perry!

the odds of 'romney or pawlenty' seem 75% at this point

romney/pawlenty would be the Human Centipede of presidential candidates.

where does huntsman fit into all this

no chance in modern gop

huntsman doesn't seem to have the willingness to devour Teabag shit that romney or pawlenty do. though time could prove me wrong about that.

Huntsman is an excellent, reasonable public servant who has no business running for president in 2012.

ok kinda figured that would be the case

he's the sort of guy who would inspire Betty Draper's new husband to mount a campaign for.

Pawlenty would lose his home state. NEVER a good look.

it's like if mitt romney just spent 3 years working for obama to improve his resume xp

huntsman is kind of like a real-life Bill Henrickson (minus the polygamy). also, the universe (and the GOP) can't handle two viable Mormon presidential candidates.

With a caveat: I'm amazed by how forthrightly Huntsman has been about his moderateness.

Huntsman gave a very sound, reasonable explanation this morning of why he took the Obama post. As one of the commentators more or less said, he's going to earn a lot of admiration on his way to fifth place.

if I were him and I rly rly wanted to be president I would have stuck w/ china, done something harmless for a few years, used some 'outrage moment' to switch parties, run as a dem in 2012

Good New York article on Roger Ails and the trouble in FOX News this quarter. Excerpts:

Beck had been hired to solve a problem that had vexed Ailes for years: The five-o’clock hour continually failed to attract an audience, which delivered a weak lead-in to the shows that followed. Fox executives dubbed the slot the “black hole.” Ailes had unsuccessfully cycled through a slew of anchors, from John Gibson to Laura ­Ingraham. Ingraham’s turn was especially rocky. She would scream so loudly at her staff off-camera that producers in the newsroom would turn on the monitors for fun and watch the unfolding drama.

---------------------

All the 2012 candidates know that Ailes is a crucial constituency. “You can’t run for the Republican nomination without talking to Roger,” one GOPer told me. “Every single candidate has consulted with Roger.” But he hasn’t found any of them, including the adults in the room—Jon Huntsman, Mitch Daniels, Mitt Romney—compelling. “He finds flaws in every one,” says a person familiar with his thinking.

“He thinks things are going in a bad direction,” another Republican close to Ailes told me. “Roger is worried about the future of the country. He thinks the election of Obama is a disaster. He thinks Palin is an idiot. He thinks she’s stupid. He helped boost her up. People like Sarah Palin haven’t elevated the conservative movement.”

In the aftermath of the Tucson rampage, the national mood seemed to pivot. Ailes recognized that a Fox brand defined by Palin could be politically vulnerable. Two days after the shooting, he gave an interview to Russell Simmons and told him both sides needed to lower the temperature. “I told all of our guys, ‘Shut up, tone it down, make your argument intellectually.’ ”

best part of that nymag article is when ailes tells david axelrod that he believes Obama wants to create a national police force

Huntsman is an excellent, reasonable public servant who has no business running for president in 2012.

He's now flipflopping on nearly everything, and being called a fibber on other things-

from Washington Monthly blog:

Yesterday, Huntsman told reporters, “I didn’t push mandates with the legislature. You want to get that right.” But there’s ample evidence that he did push mandates with the legislature, and he’s not getting this right.

Flip-flopping can be embarrassing for a presidential candidate, but dishonesty has the potential to be far more damaging. Huntsman isn’t even a formal candidate yet, and he seems to already be slipping into some disturbing habits.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_05/flipflopping_is_bad_lying_is_w029741.php

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_05/political_whiplash_huntsman_sc029709.php

romney/pawlenty would be the Human Centipede of presidential candidates.

― I-95 Phuck Phace (Eisbaer), Sunday, May 22, 2011 10:27 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

where does huntsman fit into all this

― cop a cute abdomen (gbx), Sunday, May 22, 2011 10:28 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

i really wish these two posts hadn't been back to back

Why do I get the feeling this same group of four or five Republicans will run again and again for the next 20 years?

Also, is it too early to even hypothesize who the Dems will run for 2016?

Will we have a country left?

probably hilary lol

i kind of think that all of these guys are sacrificial lambs. next year's Bob Dole.

get the feeling huntsman wants to place or show max.

if I were him and I rly rly wanted to be president I would have stuck w/ china, done something harmless for a few years, used some 'outrage moment' to switch parties, run as a dem in 2012

lol totally just remembered that next year is 2012, jesus

talking about the year 2016 makes my brain hurt

is gabbneb around to dull the pain

Catholic bishops boost Ryan

The Catholic Church is weighing in on the contentious House budget debate.

The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops sent Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan a letter yesterday commending his "continued attention" to Catholic social justice “in the current delicate budget considerations in Congress.”

"The budget is not just about numbers,” Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan wrote in the letter. “It reflects the very values of our nation. As many religious leaders have commented, budgets are moral statements."

I thought that pack of scoundrels condemned the budget a couple of weeks ago?

catholic academics wrote boehner a letter asking him to care more about the poor

catholic bishops seem to care about abortion, mostly

aborting the poor

The poor: abort/retry/cancel?

/cancel/ignore

well, that and blaming all the kid-touching on the '60s

xxxp

Catholic University professors and the social worker grad students sat in silent protest while Boehner gave the commencement, while most of the graduates gave him a standing ovation.

3 of my roomies are CU grads of this year and none of them went to commencement

--in protest--

i didn't go to my commencement ... b/c i didn't give a shit.

catholic academics wrote boehner a letter asking him to care more about the poor

catholic bishops seem to care about abortion, mostly

― ban drake (the rapper) (max), Sunday, May 22, 2011 10:15 PM (1 hour ago)

yup

that actually infuriated me more than just about anything else the last couple months

So I guess we're gonna have to hear this dumb argument re Medicare and Medicaid for awhile:

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said “there will have to be a deal” on raising the nation’s debt limit before August, when the country will be unable to pay its bills. But he said the deal will have to include significant spending cuts.

“To get my vote we’d have to do something significant both short term and long term and long term means Medicare and Medicaid” cuts, McConnell said.

President Brown to Paul Ryan plan: drop dead

lol

hands up anyone who didn't see that coming

can i just reiterate that i love that we refer to scott brown as "president brown"