A New Thing

Big national campaigns almost always give us some memorable slogans or phrases.

There you go again.
Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy
Welfare Queens

Soledad O'Brien may have come up with one last night.  At about 5:10 she coins the phrase "The myth of the Deadbeat Nation".


And BTW - Bay Buchannan seems to be fairly gasping for air trying to beat this thing down.

Fast forward to the first coupla years of Willard's first term, and imagine what happens when he's faced with some majorly snarled problem in - oh, I dunno - the Middle East or SW Asia or North Africa or wherever.  We'll have Willard out front saying some kinda stupid shit that he thinks only Americans can hear, while his State Dept team is saying something exactly the opposite to the rest of the world because they're trying to keep from being barbecued inside our embassy in Western Fuckedupistan - and then we'll spend the next 7 or 8 years trying to get ourselves out of the shooting war that Sec Def Lyndsey Graham absolutely knew was a great way to settle the issue etc etc etc.

DO NOT put these clowns in charge of anything more complicated than a Saturday morning carwash down at the local high school.

Unproved

But wouldn't it be just too sweet if Obama's buttons were Union Made in the USA (which I think is verifiable), and Romney's buttons all had the Made In China label (probably not true).

Some Numbers

Willard committed a gaffe by saying what was actually on his mind yesterday.

He said (paraphrasing) 47% of Americans don't pay taxes and are incapable of taking responsibility for themselves, and feel entitled to the money that hard-working real Americans earn.

Here's an interesting look at where all those freeloaders live:

So lemme see

• of the 10 states with the greatest numbers of people Willard considers to be moochers and lay-abouts and shiftless no account sponges, 8 of 'em are standard traditional Red States.
• 6 out of the 10 states with the LOWEST numbers are Blue States.

(hat tip = Addicting Info)

But remember that in Repub World, this just means they need to vote for Willard so he can show them the error of their ways, and to save them from being further victimized by the Svengali Socialist Obama.

Quick Note

Headline:
Muslim World Pissed Off.
What - again?  What happened this time?  Somebody find some infantile graffiti like "Allah sux balls just like all the other gods"?

Headline:
Evangelicals Protest Removing "In God We Trust" From US Currency.
Hey, fuckwad - that coin that doesn't have your favorite team slogan on it?  It has your favorite team slogan on it - it's engraved on the rim of the coin.  Do you ever check anything out for yourself, or is it that you enjoy being made to look stupid?

Not to be too centrist here, but why the fuck do we have to put up with anything coming out of either The Arab TeaBaggers or The American Taliban?

Somewhere along the line, somebody has to get to these pricks with the news that 95% of the world's people don't see things quite the same as they do; and that when they go off like that they look proud to be ignorant; and that their temper tantrums are kinda fuckin' it all up for the rest of us.

Just sayin'.

The New News

I didn't know this bunch until today, so I don't know if they have real chops or if they're just out there with a camera and too much time and money on their hands.

Anyway, here's a taste of VICE:

It's Been Said

...Obama's the one they love to hate, but Romney's the one they hate to love.

The American Conservative:

A few times, Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan have made effective arguments about Obama over-promising and under-delivering. This has proved true with the economy, but it is also playing out in the Middle East. As someone who owes his political success to speechmaking, Obama has exaggerated the extent to which his oratory can solve the problems of that troubled region or even compensate for his own drone strikes.

But it is difficult to make this case when Romney’s alternative is simply chest-beating. If Obama speechifies, emotes and “apologizes,” Romney struts, baits liberals and says to hell with apologies—all while drawing fire away from his opponent.

Conventional wisdom now has it that political campaigns are all style and no substance, which may be why Obama's win in 2008 scared the fuck outa the right (including btw the Blue Dogs etc), and made it mandatory to block everything no matter what.  The thing Entrenched Interests in positions of power fear most is the prospect of losing their power.  They feel little compulsion to do anything of consequence moving us toward that "more perfect union" thing because they've come to believe their own sales pitch - and more specifically, they cling to the only little piece of the pitch that matters to them and their very ambitious staffers and campaign consultants; ie: "you can't do anything if you lose the election".  So it naturally boils down to "doing whatever's necessary to get yourself re-elected and we'll try to figure out something after November".  But guess what?  The election never ends.  The campaign is a permanent fixture.  You may have noticed this.

But in 2008, Obama represented a serious threat to that system.  And it's worse now because if he wins this time, he can put himself up as the most feared kind of Chief Exec - a guy with some decent things in place from his first term, plus a little momentum, not much really to lose and, as the economy stirs itself, nowhere to go but up in his second term.

So watch for the shit-shovelers to pile it on.

"Conservatives"

Here's a long one from Justin Rosario at Addicting Info:

Whenever conservative bloggers try to be clever and “expose” liberal myths, you just know it’s time to pull out the rain coat, ’cause there’s gonna be a whole lot of bullshit flying around. The latest example of this is John Hawkins’ “20 Obvious Truths That Will Shock Liberals” whose real title should be “20 Easily Disprovable Stories That Conservative Chumps Buy Hook, Line & Sinker.” Let’s take a look shall we?

--snip--

7) Out of every 100 cries of “Racism” you hear these days, 99 are motivated by nothing other than politics.

That would be because they are directed at Republican politicians and pundits passing around racist emails, calling President Obama a skinny little crackhead or man-child and demanding to see his “real” birth certificate because being born to an American mother and a Kenyan father magically makes you “not American” despite several past (white) presidents having a foreign national as a parent. When the Right stops using the Southern Strategy of racial resentment that they have flat out stated that are using, we’ll stop calling them racist.

It's worth keeping this one handy.

Suffrage

Let's Recap

Willard's been running for one office or another for goin' on 20 years.  You'd think he'd have a pretty good handle on what his position is on at least a few of these issues.

Think again.

Willard Fail

I don't follow him closely, but James Fallows doesn't strike me as the kinda guy who endorses particular candidates.  Looks a lot like that's exactly what he's doin' here.

Fair warning for what's ahead: I once worked for a Democratic president. As I say in a discussion with Ta-Nehisi Coates included in our new Atlantic eBook, in this election I prefer the Democratic position to the Republican in economic policy, in foreign policy, and in social policy. Weigh that as you may.

On the basis of the past 18 hours, I will now say that I also strongly prefer the Democratic presidential candidate to the Republican on temperamental grounds. Mitt Romney's response to the murder of American diplomats in Libya was his "3 a.m. phone call" moment, and what it revealed was not good.

"The other side" is apparently totally stuck in the bubble.  There is practically nothing coming from "conservatives" but the same old and tired meme about "Obama's Apologies".