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

ow

BO with Russian. EXISTING STOCK.

BO walks the famed walk from the Oval Office to the residence, colonnades on the left. It is at first a cocky, self-assured walk. As he walks toward us, however, the cockiness lessens and he literally gets shorter and shorter, ending up just 2-3 feet tall as he walks past camera on the left.

the left!

So in addition to cliched rightwing PAC stuff we have Romney himself saying stuff that Democratic cheerleader blogs like Washington Monthly correctly point out is absurd(Romney is now pointing out that Clinton was a fiscally smart Dem and Obama isn't--but neglecting to mention that Clinton raised taxes on the rich). But does this stuff even make it into inside the beltway op-eds or network tv or website homepage headlines? Probably not, but neither does Greenwald and others' coverage of civil liberties.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2012_05/the_clinton_doctrine_revisited037423.php

x-post- Hannity on Fox and others disappointed in Romney not emphasizing Rev Wright stuff.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2012/05/18/hannity_wright_and_the_dreams_of_the_gop_base.html

i just got an email from sarah jessica parker!!!

Are you selling oats?

oh snap

her face looks like a horse's.

That might be considered sexist by some (although if you will make fun of her hubby's looks, that will make it even)

her husband is a negligent killer.

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/05/obama-love-letter-truthers

Maybe the wrong thread as this issue is not likely to determine the election

v excited to party with SJP. bringing some schlitz and a bag of pretzels

But in a certain sense, the entire Romney campaign is one big dog whistle aimed at appealing to persuadable voters on the single issue of the economy, while letting the restive “base” hear all sorts of other things involving cultural resentments and the desire to return to the good old days before the New Deal and the 60s began to ruin the Founders’ design and defy the Creator’s moral code.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2012_05/the_big_dog_whistle037436.php

dog whistle

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/05/romney-fenced-immigration

another reason this election is so frustrating

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/05/federal-budget-tax-policy-austerity-mitt-romney-barack-obama-cbo-spending-cuts.php?ref=fpa

more reasons to be disallusioned

What was the allusion?

good point

http://nymag.com/print/?/news/features/barack-obama-2012-6/index1.html

Huge insider quoting article on the Obama campaign and how they will go negative but worry that they will have less money than the super pac and Wall Streeters supporting Romney

A prominent private-equity player in Gotham who supports Obama agrees with all of that but adds another insight. �Among rich Republicans, the view of Obama is that he’s the Devil,� this person says. �But on the Democratic side, certainly on Wall Street, there’s no visceral reaction against Romney. So if I give $10 million, I’m out the $10 million, and I’m gonna pay more in taxes if Obama wins. And I’m doing it against somebody who�I may not agree with his social views, but I don’t think he’s a bad person. And I’m not really into negative advertising, which is what a super-PAC would do � Then there’s the fact nobody on Wall Street thinks Obama gives a sh-- about them. They think his attitude is, �If I lose Wall Street, it’s not the end of the world.’ And they’re right.�

Whatever the causes, the consequences for Obama may prove dire. Burton reckons that, in the end, the cumulative spending on the Democratic side will be about $1 billion, compared with maybe $1.6 billion on the Republican side. And while the latter may be exaggerated for effect�other savvy Democrats put the GOP figure at more like $1.3 billion�there’s little doubt in either partisan camp that we are about to witness the improbable development of an incumbent president’s being financially overmatched.

It concerns me gravely,� Plouffe tells me. �From a political standpoint, I’m almost as worried about that as I am about the question of what the economy’s gonna do over the next three or four months.

Come back to the Five and Dime, Newt:

http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/05/mitt-romney-abc-washington-post-poll-favorability-barack-obama.php?ref=fpnewsfeed

Jesus Christ. $2.3 billion.

that's a lot of free speech

no Buffett Tax or Bush tax cut repeals regardless of who's in the Oval Office, methinks.

LOL Z S

no Buffett Tax or Bush tax cut repeals regardless of who's in the Oval Office, methinks.

this is more down to congress than anything else tho

Yep. But Congressional Dems will not likely be strong enough.

x-post-
Throughout the primaries, Romney routinely drew low marks from voters. That was particularly true among women, as Republicans drew criticism for trying to curtail coverage for contraception. But the survey shows Romney has rebounded with women. Forty percent view him favorably, up from 27 percent a month ago.

Polls. I don't get you American people (in poll cited by tpm).

yeah ignore "likability" polls. I'm very likable but I suck.

poll doesn't reflect anything more than Romney securing the nomination/GOP voters not having any other options

Someone should tell Plouffe that Shakey has guaranteed re-election, so no biggie

For those of you stuck in a cave for the next several months, here is the precis:

Romney's message: Obama is Satan. I am a super hero from whose anus sunlight floods.

Obama's message: Romney is a hearltess, soulless baby-eater. I am the Way and the Light.

In general, I agree that likeability won't move elections much--it's a threshold thing, and as long as you clear the "s/he'll do" bar, you're electable. But for a long time, Romney was falling well short of that bar. With so much economic data seemingly frozen in place in the iffy grey area, I assumed one of Obama's clear advantages in November would be that most voters like him, and most clearly don't like Romney. So I'm not suggesting this poll means that people are suddenly in love with Romney--really, who could love Romney except Mrs. Romney?--just that he's starting to clear the "he'll do" threshold. And I do think that matters in terms of Obama's chances. Whenever you'd write something like "this guy is so doomed," Shakey Mo, it was often after Romney had said something stupid. Just an opinion, but I think that between "that guy says some stupid thing" and "I have a visceral dislike for that guy," the latter is far more damaging.

(That last post might be enough to get iatee back on here: following an opening "Eh," he can patiently explain how I'm completely wrong.)

(has anybody tried bumping the sburbs thread?)

lol

wait where did iatee go?

Out to the country, got a big farm. lots of fresh air.

oh, figures.

Lots of peaches, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvcohzJvviQ

Bad news is he has to commute 40 miles each way to his job in the city.

He could no longer afford to live in his neighborhood.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/26/1095014/-Bain-Capital-and-Mitt-Romney-s-Best-Kept-Secret-Clear-Channel-Radio

"Corporations are people"

Barack, we hardly knew ye.

Am I just not remembering, or were monthly jobs reports as big a deal 20 years ago? I followed Bush/Clinton pretty closely, and while I remember attention being paid to the general unemployment rate and GDP numbers, I don't recall such life-or-death anticipation of every jobs report.

well we're in a pretty big financial hole, more than twenty years ago

Attempted augury of voters's November mood swings, five months in advance, so investors can buy the correct product in the presidential market?

Well timed.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SPYL8UC1UCY/S8d5EVWoyDI/AAAAAAAACIo/1Ff7p4ZgThE/s1600/The+Out+of+Towners+%281970%29.jpg

Guessing I'm probably the worst-dressed person ever to receive an e-mail from Anna Wintour.

obv you've never read The Zizek-Wintour Letters