Symmetry required it: 2012 american general election thread #2

the marathon thing feels like kind of a big deal somehow. it's like, most ppl don't know the history of general motors in janesville, wi or exactly what happened during the debt ceiling negotiations. but lying -- by a lot! and wholly unnecessarily! -- about one's running time is a straight-up asshole move that ppl can readily identify

ryan is carcetti, no?
he can only make it so far using this model

xp such perfect shorthand for "you're full of shit and arrogant too"

JAY LENO: Mitt Romney told People magazine his favorite movie is O Brother, Where Art Thou? You know, the George Clooney movie? That was a good movie. Paul Ryan's favorite film is Throw Momma from the Train, 'cause it reminds him of his Medicare policies.

ha

"It looks like Hurricane Isaac has delayed the Republican convention for one day. This is a big storm. In fact, Isaac has scared more senior citizens than Paul Ryan." -Jay Leno

just the very idea that ryan is the BEST they've got. man oh man i mean that is so fucked up.

although you know at one point kerry and dukakis were the best the dems had. still, even kerry and dukakis look like abe lincoln and mary friggin' todd lincoln compared to ryan.

ps why am I googling Jay Leno jokes about Paul Ryan, it's Labor Day weekend, where's my fucking beer

yes but Clint was FUNNY y'all!

well there you go xp

I genuinely believe that comedy probably plays a bigger role than people think in defining national politicians. there was some papaer about the tina fey effect w/r/t sarah palin.

i liked the daily show thing on clint. that was funny.

love the 0 by the way. 0 is my new favorite number.

It appears that Mitt Romney will get absolutely no support from the African-American community—literally. According to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 94 percent of Black voters support President Barack Obama compared to zero percent of those same voters who plan to vote for Romney, the Republican presidential candidate.

ZERO PRECENT. hahaha!

well there is a margin of error, so its possible he will get -3%

i hope mitt loses worse than anyone has ever lost in history.

don't dis Alf Landon!

McGovern will take some beating...

yes but Clint was FUNNY y'all!

i had to post a comment responding to that. it's like they didn't even listen to the content of the speech. the problem isn't the way the information was delivered. the problem was that the information that was delivered seemed deeply ambivalent about Romney at best.

i don't know why i'm acting all surprised. jonah is just a paperback propagandist

the content doesn't really matter, there are more people who now know clint eastwood talked to a chair than actually watched the speech

You keep saying that things don't matter - lying doesn't matter, the content doesn't matter.

Has there been any discussion of the content of the chair? Was it oak, walnut, maple, or some other kind of wood? Maybe it was plastic or metal. Was it a folding chair or solid? I'm sure Eastwood didn't grab just any old random chair.

most stuff doesn't matter because almost nobody in america follows politics very closely

and the people who do already knew what box they were gonna check a year ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_6vnKiowzk

Also, the simple fact that Clint Eastwood felt comfortable riffing about how Obama’s got to go, has to help others get over that psychological barrier — which was a big theme of the whole convention — is a significant cultural breakthrough.

yep, big cultural breakthrough getting a speaker at the RNC to riff about how Obama should not be reelected.

newsflash: nothing matters, ppl are stupid, end thread now

glad we cleared that up

I watched this in a mcdonalds and the guy next to me asked who was on tv during the romney speech

if we ensure that republicans aren't voting for obama then we're getting somewhere!

People who hang out at McDonalds for free wifi and/or lack of anything better to do might not be representative of the electorate.

they're prob more representative than people itt

Whose company do you prefer?

eh

would you like friatees with that

McDonald's have TV sets? and TV sets broadcasting the convention?

yeah lotsa large mcdonalds have tv sets, almost always w/ fox news

would you like lies with that

Not sure if the photo here is meant as a sly joke or not.

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/08/a-poem-for-friday-2.html

You can never start your Christmas shopping too early.

http://www.tnr.com/blog/electionate/106822/the-rncs-sneak-preview-the-coming-republican-primary-bloodbath

yeah lotsa large mcdonalds have tv sets, almost always w/ fox

For real?? If you're not in a severely red state then that is kind of fucked up

Was in one in Virginia with Fox News on a few weeks ago.

you'll see it throughout purple states, depending on the political orientation of the business owner

Almost all McDonalds have large flatscreens in them now.

Driving cross country in 2010, NYC to SF on 80 - I was struck by how many public places in smaller towns, rec rooms and lobbies in hotels motels, chain restaurants, gas stations - all had official looking televisions installed, loudly blaring. And at least 80% of the time, they'd be tuned to Fox news. Not even entertainment; the cable news station. You'd literally be in a room for 25 seconds before you'd hear Obama criticism. It was eye-opening; when you live there, its consensus reality.

Yup. Every chain hotel I've hit in the U.S. in the last 1.5 years has the lobby screen set to cable news, and 4 out of 5 times or more is Fox. Similarly, screens in rental car joints are always on cable news.

"Yeah, it's annoying, but the manager wants us to put it on here"

i catch espn on public tvs more often, but when it's a news network it's definitely fox news

yeah i've had the same experience with everyone re: fox news. Assume everyone boring enough to open a franchise of something is conservative enough to enjoy fox news.

Romney is proposing an executive order requiring all costs from future regulatory measures to be offset by cuts to existing regulation and declaring that all new measures will require congressional approval:

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/mitt-romneys-rage-regulation/story?id=17128454#.UELaWlRV47A

well that will certainly reduce government and streamline processes