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

black Politico writer suspended for calling Romney "white folks"

thats retarded. you could call him a cracker ass cracker and it wouldnt offend me.. because its true

olitico suspended its White House correspondent late Thursday night for suggesting that Mitt Romney is more comfortable around white people than minorities, a comment that quickly drew the ire of conservatives.

Romney is more comfortable around toasters than people

Alfred OTM that Politico's writing is terrible but just... I can't even

xp

the horrible ethnic slur "white folks"

it evokes such painful associations

no one is actually complaining about this because they think the term "white folks" is offensive, right? this is all because dude flat-out called Romney a racist

xp

I hope that Politico writer has learned his lesson from all this criticism. He took a bad misstep when he called out Romney for only being comfy with other white folks, when the real determiner isn't the whiteness of his soulmates, but their wealth and insular smugness. Romney is def very stiff and uncomfortable around working class white folks.

fuck politico

what the fuck

"Romney is very, very comfortable, it seems, with people who are like him," Joe Williams said during an appearance on MSNBC. "That's one of the reasons why he seems so stiff and awkward in town hall meetings, why he can't relate to people other than that. But when he comes on Fox and Friends, they're like him. They're white folks who are very much relaxed in their own company."

Politico journalists have a clear and inflexible responsibility to cover politics fairly and free of partisan bias. This expectation extends to all of the public platforms in which we and our reporting and analysis appears, including cable TV and social media platforms like Twitter.

Regrettably, an unacceptable number of Joe Williams’s public statements on cable and Twitter have called into question his commitment to this responsibility. His comment about Governor Romney earlier today on MSNBC fell short of our standards for fairness and judgment in an especially unfortunate way.

Joe has acknowledged that his appearance reflected a poor choice of words. This appearance came in the context of other remarks on Twitter that, cumulatively, require us to make clear that our standards are serious, and so are the consequences for disregarding them. This is true for all Politico journalists, including an experienced and well-respected voice like Joe Williams.

Following discussion of this matter with editors, Joe has been suspended while we review the matter.

Harris

VandeHei

i don't know, Dan, it really reads like he got fired for describing white people as white.

remember the rules, everybody

Politico journalists have a clear and inflexible responsibility to cover politics fairly and free of partisan bias

Please fire all of the staff then as they never hide their bias very well

okay maybe it's just me but I wouldn't say that about anyone unless I clearly intended to signal that I think the person I'm talking about is a gigantic racist

which, you know, if Romney is a racist, that would be a fact and not something you should lose your job over for mentioning

i mean, i think you're right, that he was at the very least saying that race plays a major role in the construction of a Republican audience, particularly as mediated by foxnews, which, as you said, is just a fact. but it seems really weird to say he apologized for his "poor choice of words"--what can that mean but the phrase "white folks"? are they not white folks or what?

but it seems really weird to say he apologized for his "poor choice of words"--what can that mean but the phrase "white folks"? are they not white folks or what?

sorry but this is some nro-level obtuseness. 'he was just trying to describe his coloring! nothing else!' obv there's subtext here. (nb i don't think it's subtext that should cost him his job)

okay. i'm not saying that that's actually why conservatives are mad at him. i'm basically saying that politico doesn't have a leg to stand on here.

I just wonder why Politico particularly cares that political pundits are complaining about them

tbh i kinda feel like if you work for politico, u gotta realize that they're not exactly ethical paradigms. their guiding philosophy seems to be insider access, so if you compromise that for any reason, you're probably deadweight. whether it's fair or not.

it's so frustrating that the fact that racism is at the core of what republicans are about in 2012 can't even be very mildly named without someone getting fired. i mean, i guess politico just sucks, but honestly.

I think you might be underselling hating women / the gays.

I think both you might be underselling hating the non-rich.

Gawker vs. Politico

http://gawker.com/5914657/dont-read-politico-urge-politico-editors#13403971310684

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