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

romney has engaged in a number of practices eg off-shoring that are deeply unpopular and its going to be an impediment to his election

you think a casino owner could be elected president, how about a mob boss

how bout JFK?

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, July 9, 2012 9:49 AM (26 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol good one sure

*I* don't give a shit how Mittens steals/keeps his money. Handing out speeding tix at the Indy 500, etc.

Charlie Rangel is getting reelected after storing cash in his freezer AND stealing votes in his primary.

rangel didnt keep cash in his freezer! that was bill jefferson

lol racist

how bout JFK?

You got the right ta-ta but the wrong ho-ho.

maybe it was in the cooler in his Caribbean condo

xxp

you as crazy as your mama!

I think we p much know who the idiots who will decide this election are

Hint: they're different from the idiots who say "Obama isn't PERFECT, BUT..."

xpost goes to show it's in the genes!

I think we p much know who the idiots who will decide this election are

― Pangborn to be Wilde (Dr Morbius), Monday, July 9, 2012 10:02 AM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you know nothing whatsoever abt it

you know what i do know? fuck this thread, enjoy the wank.

and scene

i'm with morbz that romney's wealth won't really matter as much as people think it will. america 2012 is a post-facts zone. take TPM's article from this morning:

So here we’ll have Mitt Romney — the millionaire outsourcer guy who claims to believe wealthy Americans are already doing just fine — saying it’s appropriate to hold the middle-class’s tax cuts hostage until the yacht-owning set that finances his campaign gets its tax cuts too.

There may be some nimble Republican politician out there who could dance around this problem, but I don’t think Mitt Romney can. Which is why the fight will be so clarifying and, I assume, why the White House and Obama campaign seem eager to relaunch it.

In the end, the legislative politics that determine what actually happens to the Bush tax cuts will be shaped by the election. Obviously, if Republicans win they won’t need to take anything hostage. But I doubt that’s enough to protect Romney from having to answer for the strategy as it exists right now. And I don’t think screaming “tax hike!” will suffice.

call me super-cynical, but i think screaming "tax hike!" will suffice for a lot of people, or at least that it will be more effective than screaming "he is rich!".

the quotes tpm called out from the stories on romney's hamptons fundraiser were choice

my cynicism may be a bit due to watching americans do nothing about climate change every day, but i would never trust the people of this country, collectively, to make decisions based off of facts

lol i feel the exact same way about the people at this fundraiser:

“We’ve got the message,” she added. “But my college kid, the baby sitters, the nails ladies — everybody who’s got the right to vote — they don’t understand what’s going on. I just think if you’re lower income — one, you’re not as educated, two, they don’t understand how it works, they don’t understand how the systems work, they don’t understand the impact.”

everybody who’s got the right to vote

hmmm

man poor nail ladies!

JUST SAY "KOREANS"

Burton and his colleagues spent the early months of 2012 trying out the pitch that Romney was the most far-right presidential candidate since Barry Goldwater. It fell flat. The public did not view Romney as an extremist. For example, when Priorities informed a focus group that Romney supported the Ryan budget plan — and thus championed “ending Medicare as we know it” — while also advocating tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, the respondents simply refused to believe any politician would do such a thing.

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/07/nobody-takes-conservative-wingnuttery-face-value

xp also from that piece Gukbe quotes from:

A few cars back, Ted Conklin, the owner of the American Hotel in Sag Habor, N.Y., long a favorite of the well-off and well-known in the Hamptons, could barely contain his displeasure with Mr. Obama. “He is a socialist. His idea is find a problem that doesn’t exist and get government to intervene,” Mr. Conklin said from inside a gold-colored Mercedes as his wife, Carol Simmons, nodded in agreement.

Ms. Simmons paused to highlight what she said was her husband’s generous spirit: “Tell them who’s on your yacht this weekend! Tell him!”

Over Mr. Conklin’s objections, Ms. Simmons disclosed that a major executive from Miramax, the movie company, was on the 75-foot yacht, because, she said, there were no rooms left at the hotel.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jguIhiy7mD8/T2iTwuQWGkI/AAAAAAAABak/qLPSDdGkouc/s1600/guillotine.jpg

lol Clintons:

“Obama is weak on the business of the White House,” says one senior House Democrat, who asked not to be named. “He doesn’t woo members or schmooze them, and his staff doesn’t invite people to the White House.” This disaffected Democrat describes Obama as “more constitutional law professor than politician,” adding, “he doesn’t smooth people or cuddle up to them. He sort of treats politics like changing diapers.”

That dynamic filters down into donor maintenance—the careful care and feeding of big-dollar, big-ego Democrats Obama needs now more than ever. A generation of the party’s largest spenders, spoiled by years of Bill Clinton’s tender ministrations, are feeling left out at a dangerous juncture.

“The fact is the president doesn’t build personal bonds the way other politicians do,” says one mega-bundler who recently hosted a fundraising dinner for Obama. “It’s just not the way he’s wired.” One Clinton ally likes to point out that Bill seldom went golfing without taking along a partner he could pump for intel—or a check. Obama tends to hit the links with a couple of longtime aides or close friends—using the outing as a release from the pressures of the job rather than an opportunity to shake the money tree.

One of the party’s most prominent donors underscored how the Clintons were far more attentive to him than Obama, whom he is backing. After holding a 2008 fundraiser for Hillary, he noted, he received a gift tea set and note from her, then a personal phone call. It was “maybe an inexpensive, maybe $40 tea set,” he says, but along with the call reflected a level of attention he now finds lacking. This donor does not fault the president himself for not being more personally involved. What’s galling, he says, is poor staff; a lack of follow-up and insufficient stroking of egos, such as invitations to social and other events at the White House.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/07/08/obama-s-money-worries-the-republican-superpac.html

Bill Clinton and the Tender Ministrations

The Screaming Lobster of Grope

i'm with morbz that romney's wealth won't really matter as much as people think it will. america 2012 is a post-facts zone. take TPM's article from this morning:

call me super-cynical, but i think screaming "tax hike!" will suffice for a lot of people, or at least that it will be more effective than screaming "he is rich!".

― Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Monday, July 9, 2012 11:20 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

its telling that you have to alter the charge against mitt to make this point, its not his wealth its how he made it, and furthermore how that speaks to the kind of guy he is - like if mitt was some likable guy who could relate to people and seemed to care at all abt them then it wouldnt matter as much that he made his money in a parasitic industry, but the fact is he seems to have no awareness of the inner lives of others he made his money in a way that doesnt care abt them and is currently unpopular leaves him open to the attack that hes callous, which he v much is

this along w/the logistical ground game is one of the primary ways in which campaigns can effect the outcome of an election, via defining their opponents, besmirching their good name - of course the flip side is making themselves look like upstanding citizens

the easy argument to make against this 'everythings is fucked this doesnt matter because people are stupid' but some might find that somewhat lacking in nuance

seriously tho has anyone looked into romney's real age? with that amount of money in an ira he could be upwards of 300 years old. the media is falling down on the job here.

romney is p old irl

romney is richard alpert

The patriotic spin against Romney's wealth and where he puts it from Maryland governor O'Malley:

The chairman of the Democratic Governors Association continued, “I’ve never known of a Swiss bank account to build an American bridge, a Swiss bank account to create American jobs, or Swiss bank accounts to rebuild the levies to protect the people of New Orleans. That's not an economic strategy for moving our country forward.”

http://www.politico.com/blogs/politico-live/2012/07/omalley-romneys-swiss-banks-account-is-unamerican-128269.html

the respondents simply refused to believe any politician would do such a thing.

I've said this before: Basically honest people just refuse to believe that the system OR individual people are this corrupt or duplicitous. People I have told truths to scoff and say it's not possible that what I'm saying is true because it's outrageous conspiracy theory, the utility companies would never play so dirty--after all, they're subject to the same laws as the rest of us.

or people could just be judging from past experience re politicians carrying through on fire breathing promises and human nature re the need to pander in elections

i mean theyre right that romney doesnt believe in or plan on carrying through on a lot of the stuff hes saying

right. getting into office is the entire point of what he's saying. once there no one will remember what he promised because of the constant noise in their heads.

this is the real problem with the filibuster & congressional sclerosis if u ask me: electoral promises have to veer really far from expected reality. if an elected majority could do anything like what is promised then promises would be verifiable.

yep

let those who won an election govern

that's how I feel about judges and justices: give'em the microscope only when their reputation precedes them (i.e. Bork).

"congressional sclerosis"

I like this phrase

anyone read the Mann-Orstein book yet? I've been waiting a month for the library to release a copy.

nah it's on my endless list tho

anyway, stoked:

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/07/ron-paul-could-force-convention-speech.html

He was the one guy who always laid off Romney in the debates, though. Plus Junior's future.

“Obama is weak on the business of the White House,” says one senior House Democrat, who asked not to be named. “He doesn’t woo members or schmooze them, and his staff doesn’t invite people to the White House.” This disaffected Democrat describes Obama as “more constitutional law professor than politician,” adding, “he doesn’t smooth people or cuddle up to them. He sort of treats politics like changing diapers.”

There were stories like this about GWB from Republican congressmen (Dick Army named, iirc) who thought that Clinton had done a much better job at making them feel less horrible about themselves. I like the image of Obama going to fundraisers and being like "Fuck you, pay me."

clinton really spoiled everyone huh

sometimes he would come and tenderly minister to me in the night

someone make a "Fuck you pay me" Obama gif.

http://i.imgur.com/So38o.png

tee

More weirdness from the Obama e-mail campaign. Yesterday, an "I will be outspent" e-mail (fine); today, "Re: I will be outspent," like I'd written back in the interim.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/president-obama-mitt-romney-deadlocked-in-race-poll-finds/2012/07/09/gJQAaJwdZW_story.html?hpid=z3

Now, the campaign appears destined to remain extremely close in the final four months before Election Day.

Washington Post insight