Symmetry required it: 2012 american general election thread #2

It would be easier to take "booing God" as valid criticism if it weren't being offered by a party whose entire message is YOU AND NO ONE ELSE IS THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE

and so it begins http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/09/romney-gop-michigan-pennsylvania-pull-out.php

holy shit

Holy crap.

That is NUTS.

so they're gonna bet the house on... Florida, Colorado, Ohio and Wisconsin? I can see Romney taking maybe two of those.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/romney-thanks-state-he-was-born-and-raised-in-for,27496/

In a show of respect to the Romney campaign, we should condense the number of revived politics threads.

Quick question unworthy of its own poll: Who's less culturally relevant at this point, Ann Coulter or Dennis Miller?

at least Ann Coulter gets invited to the networks.

o man dennis miller

Miller deserves whatever shameful non-entity status he is currently struggling to maintain hate that fucking guy

Does he still have an edge on Victoria Jackson though?

Paul Ryan's ex-girlfriend looked like a cross between Lindsay Lohan and Katherine Heigel.

hahaha max yes! thank you

http://gawker.com/5940781/is-paul-ryan-lying-about-climbing-40-mountains-too-what-is-his-deal

lawl i totally missed that, nice one

what a bunch a goofs http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/09/rnc-staffer-plays-obama-supporter-in-gop-ad.php

It’s a lighthearted ad...

smdh

starting to think Romney's campaign team is even worse than Gore's in 2000

But he's got Karl Rove created super-pacs bombing the airwaves in states like mine (Virginia) with other more effective ads. Saw a new one this morning re health care and how a Canadian woman saved her life by coming to the US for treatment, rather than waiting for a months later and she would be dead calendared appointment in the Canuck version of Obamacare!

And they're doubling down on the welfare lie one too I read

imho the welfare lie is just not a winner for them, not enough racists left to dog whistle to

i hope you are right about those people lagon

also the fact that theyre using outright lies is already starting to bite them back

i can never figure this stuff out, is romney *actually* pulling out of penna and mich or is this some kind of feint

it seems like leaving PA is conceding race to me, but i believe that he thinks he has no shot of winning it (he doesn't) and his only path to winning is thru heavy investment in OH, FL, VA what's the 4th? CO?

They could be holding off for the final two weeks, watch this space.

CO and Iowa, right?

guess the PA voter ID law wasn't enough to tip it for Rmoney

bush lost PA by 4.17%, won OH by 3.51%. i believe u have to be competitive in PA to have a shot in OH, but i'm not an expert and am just making up things that sound right in my head

(that was in 2000)

romney's campaign is bursting with money like a fat tick ready to fall off the dog. it's too bad he has nothing to say.

i still believe <conspiracytheory> romney is planning to steal a bunch of the money in the chaos of his landslide loss </conspiracytheory>

itll be p interesting if romney spends all that money in five states, preempt all tv shows just romney ads 24/7

and now... suzanne sommers of thighmaster(tm) with a few words to say about Mitt Romney.

Show us your sick abs, Paul.

now FOX furiously masturbating over Woodward book that PROVES Obama was the intransigent one omg!!

there are def diminishing marginal returns to tv ads, if that weren't the case money would be a lot more important than it is

hope you're right

lil post on the topic http://themonkeycage.org/blog/2012/09/06/pushing-back-against-the-claim-that-money-doesnt-matter-in-politics

Is it too early to speculate what this election's October surprises might be?

Paul Ryan will be involved, methinks.

http://i.imgur.com/V2rFT.png

otm

money matters a lot in certain elections, just not really in presidential elections, and not in the way that people tend to think it does ie lobbyist buys yr congressman's vote vs lobbyist has a job because of that money and donates to his friend and gives him some useful briefings on energy policy

ya i mean i generally agree that fundraising disparities dont matter as much as people think but of course thats all sort of vague

recently read something re the corrupting effect of campaign donations arguing that it was more of a gift economy type situation rather than straight up quid pro quo that i thought rang p true

yup

and w/ political ads / yard signs etc the fact that there are diminishing marginal returns to that kinda spending doesn't mean that every campaign hits the diminishing marginal returns. but presidential elections def do. if that weren't the case there would be a lot more than a billion dollars being spent on this. that's chump change.

i still believe <conspiracytheory> romney is planning to steal a bunch of the money in the chaos of his landslide loss </conspiracytheory>

well, this is essentially his modus operandi

That's probably true even if he wins.

romney will be hired by his erstwhile super pac

Saw a new one this morning re health care and how a Canadian woman saved her life by coming to the US for treatment, rather than waiting for a months later and she would be dead calendared appointment in the Canuck version of Obamacare!

Link? In ~2009 there was a woman who did the rounds with a story of headaches and blurred vision that she blamed on a brain tumor. Turned out she had a Rathke's cleft cyst, probably an incidental finding. Her case was properly triaged to low priority. She paid out of pocket to go to Mayo for (unnecessary) surgery then sued the provincial govt for the expense. Is this the same story?

Those job numbers