Symmetry required it: 2012 american general election thread #2

someone needs to do a video of those pained lil emphasis face romney was doing after every line

also not seeing mentioned: he was talking v fast

i watched clint's speech again this morning and i think ppl are right that it was totally out of place at RNC, but i don't think he was crazy. he sounded like a guy who really liked obama at one point but had serious questions for him and who was maybe trying to convince himself to vote for romney but really doesn't like him and by the end of the speech i thought maybe clint was still going to vote for obama this election.

hah

someone needs to do a video of those pained lil emphasis face romney was doing after every line

yessssss

The biggest problem with Clint's speech, besides having an old man talking to a chair, was that the big buildup line was "you don't have to vote for someone just because he's nice" after an hour of establishing that Romney is really, really nice

also the part where he said we should bring the troops home tomorrow at the RNC

"don't settle" is a weeeeeeird thing to say at a romney event

I believe the original plan was to have Trump on stage as Obama, in blackface. At least, that seems the most classy - and by extension, Trumpy - explanation.

i watched clint's speech again this morning and i think ppl are right that it was totally out of place at RNC, but i don't think he was crazy. he sounded like a guy who really liked obama at one point but had serious questions for him and who was maybe trying to convince himself to vote for romney but really doesn't like him and by the end of the speech i thought maybe clint was still going to vote for obama this election.

while i think clint was fine in a "grandpa gives a speech at the kiwanis club" way that certainly won't make america reconsider the fifty odd years they've been paying money to see him in movies, a movie star alienated by obama trying (and possibly failing) to convince himself to vote for romney by arguing with a chair on stage at the rnc during prime-time is about as crazy as it gets.

also the part where he said we should bring the troops home tomorrow at the RNC

only for Romney to get on stage and say "you know what we should do, is invade Syria, Iran and Russia"

bring the troops to syria

still consider it Clint's best performance since In The Line of Fire if not Unforgiven.

ACADEMY VOTERS, PLZ GET OVER YOUR LIBERAL BIAS AND CONSIDER THIS PERFORMANCE

Liked it better when the invisible negro was a six-foot rabbit.

I feel totally trolled by this Clint Eastwood business, but I'm not even remotely sure who/what is behind it. If someone simply wanted to get people to talk obsessively about the RNC, A+ work! Done! Apologies for butting in just to say that, but has there been any discussion of whether or not Eastwood was told to go out there and just "go nuts"?

seems highly unlikely

i dunno, it definitely is keeping people from talking about how fucking weird mitt romney is and how he was trying to play up his...bill clinton voice? i heard it on the radio on my way home from work, so i didn't see the little faces he makes, but i could almost hear them.

It's working if so - I've only been catching it via here and the Guardian, but I have no idea what Mitt said about a) the Mormon church and b) Bain Capital, which is odd considering his speech was supposed to be about them.

The biggest problem with Clint's speech, besides having an old man talking to a chair,
The biggest problem with Clint's speech, besides having an old man talking to a chair,
The biggest problem with Clint's speech, besides having an old man talking to a chair,
The biggest problem with Clint's speech, besides having an old man talking to a chair,
The biggest problem with Clint's speech, besides having an old man talking to a chair,
The biggest problem with Clint's speech, besides having an old man talking to a chair,
The biggest problem with Clint's speech, besides having an old man talking to a chair,

have we mentioned the fact that there is an obama tumblr now

I came to the same conclusion as La Lechera overnight: Romney's speech was so thoroughly mediocre, Eastwood may have done him a favour by deflecting attention away from it. His five-point recovery program reminded me of SCTV's Goin' Down the Road parody: "There'll be lots of jobs! Good doctorin' jobs and lawyerin' jobs--jobs for everyone!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPFAAGC0Jxo

also "weirdest thing i have ever seen" is a prestige event, politically speaking, right?
everyone wins
oh and also romney will protect our freedom of religion and the sanctity of marriage

wut?

I don't think the Eastwood speech was at all designed to keep attention off Romney. From what I hear, the Romney camp was increasingly upset as Clint's speech progressed.

Losing focus on Romney is the last thing his campaign needs. Their goal for the RNC was to build excitement for Romney, and I think they failed miserably.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slagiV7oOhc&feature=plcp

nope

xp I hope so. His humanoid speech gave me the creeps. I guess everything about the RNC in general gives me the creeps though.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/08/31/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-a-convention-polling-bump/

All told, Holbrook expects to see a 3.8 percent point bump for Romney and 1.8 percent point increase for Obama.

“Right now, the two candidates are in a tight race, with Obama holding a slight advantage in the polls,” he writes. ”Based on my bump predictions, I expect that the race will continue to be tight after the conventions but that Romney will hold a slight lead.”

There is one new variable, introduced in 2012, that Holbrook was not able to account for: Clint Eastwood delivering a monologue to an empty chair. All bets are off on what that will mean in ensuing poll numbers.

so that's why i wonder if maybe eastwood just decided to let it all hang out and talk to a chair and why he made that decision

It was Romney's job, more than anyone else, to build excitement for Romney. Not surprisingly, if you've spent any time watching Romney, he failed to do that. (I'm of course not saying Eastwood's speech was designed to deflect attention, just that he may have fortuitously done so.)

apparently it's Rubio's job to excite Cuban-Americans on Facebook.

that klein piece is v strange, keeps referencing this unexplained 'expected election outcome'

Not surprisingly, if you've spent any time watching Romney, he failed to do that.
Seriously, it's like he has chosen to sing a song that is way too high for his range.

I dunno if Nate Silver writes his own headlines at NYT but someone wrote this:

In Prudent Speech, Romney Seeks Role as Generic Republican

Dreher on Clint:

But man, that was embarrassing for all concerned, not only for a doddering old white man, but for the entire Republican Party. Not that it much matters, but the conservative Celebrity Auxiliary is exceedingly lame. It feels like they deploy U2, and we deploy Stryper.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/08/31/blogs/538-romney-cloud/538-romney-cloud-blog480.jpg

murder tag clouds

old man yells at word cloud

http://i.imgur.com/Y6AJQ.gif

Inside the beltway media insider (and knucklehead) Chris Cillizza take:

Romney did what he needed to do in his speech, a workmanlike address in which he made a strong case against the incumbent and a slightly-less-strong case for himself.

The most quoted line of the speech will almost certainly be this one: “President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet. My promise … is to help you and your family.”)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2012/08/30/republican-national-convention-night-3-winners-and-losers/?hpid=z2

gettin some "secret" charismatic starpower at the convention is probably the smartest thing the GOP has done this entire election cycle

― chicago rap twitter luminary (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, August 29, 2012 3:58 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

man am I happy to have been totally wrong about this lol

funniest RNC convention ever

The most quoted line of the speech will almost certainly be this one: “President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet. My promise … is to help you and your family.

this line made me wanna murder motherfuckers tbrr

Ever so suave:

http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/08/31/781511/rnc-delegate-offended-by-presence-of-mexican-at-disneys-epcot-center/?mobile=nc

Don't tell this guy about the new Tres Caballeros ride in Mexico.

Maybe the outcome this entire election basically will be decided by whatever news events happen the week before.

Also, big effing deal about 'family'. Congratulations on meeting an impregnating a woman, Mitt!

My promise … is to help you and your family... unless you live near the ocean.

Maybe the outcome this entire election basically will be decided by whatever news events happen the week before.

pretty sure the outcome of this entire election has already been decided

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/the-morning-plum-why-are-obama-swing-voters-sticking-with-him/2012/08/31/65b46edc-f35a-11e1-adc6-87dfa8eff430_blog.html

this is a good piece, greg sargents been making that point for a while, its kinda indicative of the romney camp altogether that they cant really get it together to emotionally manipulate people, like they have a candidate who looks like a tv president and they think thats a good set up, and they also think that the most obvious base underestimation of voters intelligence and motivation should work too, fucking w/voters heads is a subtle art, you cant just be lazy cynical about it, its p hard to get elected president

btw

http://i.imgur.com/l7xOI.gif