Symmetry required it: 2012 american general election thread #2

thought about trying to figure out how the fuck half this thread is now about TVs in McDonald's but

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A puff Ryan Lizza piece on the Barack-Bill relationship. I laughed out loud at this bit, echoed in today's NYT story about Obama's personality:

Throughout 2008 and 2009, Obama rarely contacted Clinton, a decision that the Clinton circle attributes to Obama’s loner personality. A Democrat deeply familiar with the relationship complained that the press has often made it seem that Clinton harbored “lingering resentments” from the primary battle: “It’s always sort of implied that it’s Clinton’s fault.” The truth, he added, “is that Obama doesn’t really like very many people.” He ticked off the names of some of Obama’s longtime friends: the Whitakers, the Nesbitts, Valerie Jarrett. “And he likes to talk about sports. But other than that he just doesn’t like very many people. Unfortunately, it extends to people who used to have his job.”

http://www.newyorker.com/images/2012/09/10/g290/120910_r22537_g290_crop.jpg

JOLTIN JOE LOOKIN PEAKED

Can't wait to read that New Yorker article. Can you blame the guy? People suck.

Carnac the Magnificent, minus the hat. "Dolly Parton, Mount Rushmore, and a diseased yak..."

"Boobs like mountains, boobs on a mountain, and something you use to throw people off how bad the first two gags in this joke were."

journalism self parody http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/80604.html

after reading this i looked for the satire tag

Reporters feel like both campaigns have decided to run out the clock with limited press avails, distractions, and negative attacks, rather than run confident campaigns with bold policy platforms or lofty notions of hope and change — leaving the media with little to do but grind along covering the latest shallow, sensational item of the day.
“Until the candidates restore joy, it’s impossible for us to be joyful,” NBC News senior White House correspondent Chuck Todd told POLITICO.

I like how the example of big ideas they should be talking about is, "Who will give you a lower marginal tax rate in 2014?"

oh how we long for the days of Al Gore's earth tones

I am sort of curious about what the DNC convention's going to be like, particularly since Obama's mentioned (spoilers) that his second term will involve even more making compromises that the left won't like (and the right won't give credit for).

Like, does he have a platform to argue from as regards "Vote for me and I'll get done all this shit that I've been unable or unwilling to get done so far?", or is the conference just going to be big screens alternating between the ACA logo and Mitt Romney's face?

“It’s fun. It’s funny,” Malkin explained to POLITICO. “Clint Eastwood resonated with voters outside the snotty, derisive NY-DC-Hollywood axis. He braved derision and ridicule for standing on the convention stage. Activists on the right wanted to demonstrate … their appreciation. As always, humor is the best medicine.”

I've read about various antecedents for Clint--Harvey, The Sixth Sense, others--but didn't come across this one:

http://cineawesome.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/King-of-Comedy-2.jpg

I'm not sure if the cardboard cutouts make such conversations more or less surreal.

some dem apparatchik ((c) alfred) on cspan today mentioned something like "buiding our economy from the middle class up" which i thought was just a perfect sad slogan for democrats

It's indictment of our times. You can't even talk about the poor as worth helping if you want to get elected.

I think a lot of technically-poor people probably self-identify as middle class, is the thing

http://asociologist.com/2012/02/03/americans-80-or-45-middle-class-or-response-categories-matter/

I think a lot of technically-poor people probably self-identify as middle class, is the thing

― iatee, Monday, September 3, 2012 9:38 PM (9 minutes ago)

oh totally, it's just sad

dems not trying to help working class

For the purposes of the argument, any American with a mortgage probably identifies as middle class.

http://mlkshk.com/r/J28P
http://mlkshk.com/r/J28Q

Ewwww.

The thing with "middle class" is that in the national fiction of the classless society, it's the only class anyone's allowed to talk about or belong to. So Republicans talk about how tax hikes on people making over $250,000 are going to hurt the middle class, and Democrats have to frame arguments for the safety net strictly in terms of the middle class.

yup

anyway I take back what I said earlier itt about paul ryan's lies not being a big deal, I was at the gym this morning and the today show was on and matt lauer was tearing paul ryan apart in an interview about his speech. the today show! 'mainstream journalists mention it when politicians lie' is a weird fad, I wonder if it has any legs.

it might not even be a good thing, cause the big lies generally aren't true/false things, they're in the framing

paul ryan is just bad at lying/doesnt get it

I feel like his whole career has involved lying tho and it got him pretty far

maybe things are different 'on the big stage'

yeah its just the classic transition to the big stage

ha xp

but i do think that years of blogger complaints abt he said/she said reportage is starting to affect the mainstream, especially what w/former outsider bloggers rising in the ranks, arguably its been going on for a while w/outlets employing fact checkers as the first acknowledgement that something might be wrong w/their coverage

I can personally vouch that the New Yorker fact checks some pretty tiny stuff in, say, bio pieces about very minor musicians

ya i meant this relatively new development of writing articles for the public specifically checking facts like http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker rather than the waning traditional behind the scenes practice

never thought abt that tho its kind of interesting how one is on the rise while the others disappearing

im fb friends w/a nyer fact checker, just someone i met once at a party, maybe you talked to her, and the circle of life is complete

technically-poor ppl, wake the fuck up

poors are just those who have yet to wake up to personal responsibility start creating jobs

I saw more coverage in the Washington Post this morning re Ryan's lies about how many marathons he ran, and his time in the one he ran. Maybe this lie has, uh, legs.

paul ryan invented the marathon

More from yesterday:

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/09/fact-check-paul-ryans-jimmy-carter-comments/

The runner "Steve Prefontaine" was actually based on a young Paul Ryan.

He was running carrying an old person on his back and pushing a welfare baby in a jogger stroller. If he wasnt under such an unfair load he totally woulda been sub three.

he created 5 businesses while on route

http://www.salon.com/2012/09/02/paul_ryans_marathon_lie/

How fast can he run a 440 while undergoing electroshock?

it's super hilarious to me that Ryan is being painted/outed as a liar, not for his political speech, but for talking shit to Runner's World

dude CLEARLY didn't spend much time interacting with other runners, or else he thought he could hypnotize them with his magic abs

al gore is fat!!

Generally I think runners who could approach sub-3 hours in the marathon don't have a lot of love for P90X types.

that doesn't really make sense, just felt like throwing that out there.

xp

http://static8.businessinsider.com/image/4c0533797f8b9a3c3bdf0000/gore-kiss.jpg

http://nighthawknews.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/godfather_kiss_of_death1.jpg