Symmetry required it: 2012 american general election thread #2

oh whoops

http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/431272_362750797133667_1097500403_n.jpg

(might be a 'shop)

dirty open secret: the "fox effect" is real among the manager & investor class. those decision makers would breathe a sigh of relief and get money "off the sidelines" if romney is elected, even if policy change is 0

i'm inclined to agree. all this bullshit about 'uncertainty' seems to be a stretch. yeah bro, 'uncertainty' is kind of the essence of our economy, pls stfu.

― it's smdh time in America (will), Friday, September 7, 2012 1:44 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The worst is when big wigs at my work explain weak sales and layoffs with "it's an election year".

Meaning: we are so well-entrenched in power that we can fuck around during election years and still get our bonuses and stock options.

I like this one:

http://grist.org/politics/as-romney-and-ryan-lie-with-abandon-how-should-journalists-navigate-post-truth-politics/

...Journalists fear making those kinds of choices for good reason. It’s absolutely verboten for a Very Serious Person in D.C. to behave this way. They rightly sense that it will limit their careers and their access to the halls of power. As a person of, ahem, modest ambition, I don’t mind all that much. But for ambitious journos in D.C., there are real perils to calling a spade a spade.

i think we'll see some kind of bump after the election, no matter who wins. my conspiratorial thinking is that fed governors are sitting on their hands hoping for "better" but will say fuck it an open up after november.

there's the josh barro joe weisenthal theory that our best hope for the economy is Romney because he's the only person who could wrangle another stimulus out of a republican congress

republican congress may have more luck wrangling some signatures out of him

I don't know why, but I've watched this twice already.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E65-wxgCfrY

it's an interesting thought-experiment but i really don't know. i kind of doubt on two levels, that romney COULD get something like a stimulus out of the GOP house, and would he even ask for one? doesn't the ryan pick suggest going all-in on austerity? (sorry for the "all-in" i guess)

http://i48.tinypic.com/10prjlx.jpg

romney stimulus would just be more tax cuts

there should be an employer-side payroll tax cut, my one right-ish idea i think it neglected. fuck, make it easier to hire people!

Boating vid:

"Have fun!"
"OK"
"Have a good day!"
"Enjoy!"
"OK"
"Have fun!"

i wonder if they'd go for some crazy idea like lowering the minimum wage back down (depends on how the senate turns out i guess)

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

haha this guy is bad at running for president

I had mixed feelings when Biden went after that. On the one hand, I hate it when Republicans do it, so part of me hated it. On the other, I thought "Great--instant karma for Republicans."

Oh the way motherfucker fake laughs as he says "I think they mean the same thing" would be the straw that would make me kick him out of my bar (if the scenario existed.)

When you give a speech you don’t go through a laundry list, you talk about the things you think are important.

guys... guys

The reference Baier makes about his American Legion speech the night prior to his convention speech consisted of one throwaway "thanks, military!" line iirc.

Also, Romney is tonedeaf as a motherfucker.

ya its funny because its the softest of softball apologetic fox news questions and romney still flubs it and is all aggrieved that guy asked it, bro he was trying to help you out

I wish more was made of Romney never mentioning Afghanistan

I could watch Bret vs Mitt videos all day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26ePA49HLes

ive alway stood by our troops and have nothing but the deepest admiration and appreciation for their service, anyone saying otherwise is just playing politics, trying to distract from the very real choices we face in this election, hail mormon satan

is that sooo hard

I wish more was made of Romney never mentioning Afghanistan

Republicans are funny about war, huh? They want it. They seek it out. But then they do everything they can to make people forget about it.

This is dumb, but whatever (the last frame/punchline makes up for it):

http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/290286_10151228066734744_1935901302_o.jpg

wow @ that first Romney vs Bret clip. That's amazing.

Baier just handed Romney the easiest/friendliest opportunity to deflect those attacks with a solid answer as to why he didn't mention the troops during his speech, and Romney laughs about this and then says you don't go through a laundry list in a speech, you talk about the things you think are important.

I mean, that question came up for a reason and I don't doubt some people in the military community sincerely wanted to know the answer because they perceived it as a lack of respect on the part of someone who wants the job of commander in chief, and Romney treats it like some kind of a joke and proceeds to characterize the issue as one more part of a "laundry list" that he apparently does not think is important.

basically that came off as so ungracious and disrespectful.. I mean I knew he was a bad candidate but that's next level

let me reiterate my disdain for the troops

I could watch Bret vs Mitt videos all day.

They have the same love/hate chemistry that Kurt Loder used to have with Madonna.

Fox News viewers probably think of Bret Baier as one of the station's liberals

He used to be fairly neutral until he took over Brit Hume's job.

I hate 'em both, but I get the same enjoyment as I would watching two Hooters patrons getting into a fist fight.

Ann Romney interview from local NBC affiliate in Iowa:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=469363476428124

Brit Hume, who covered Clinton for ABC News in the nineties, said on Wed night that Bill was the "most charming" and "intelligent" politician he'd ever met.

"You are asking questions that I don't want to answer. Stop trying to take me off message!"

Just spent happy hour with a couple people "relieved" (in the words of one guy) that Joe Biden "proved" Dems could be as "tough" as the GOP when prosecuting the war on terror. I said I wished he would develop the kind of scalp which would demand the use of hairplugs in twenty years.

wow she is terrible. i didn't catch her speech at RNC, only snippets. was it decent? everybody was riding her dick for like a week.

it was bad IMHO people were just being nice

Brit Hume, who covered Clinton for ABC News in the nineties, said on Wed night that Bill was the "most charming" and "intelligent" politician he'd ever met.

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, September 7, 2012 9:01 PM (58 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

republican embrace of bill is the strangest thing

That local TV interview with Ann Romney is hard to watch. I know I'll get almost zero agreement here, but I do feel some sympathy for her. A candidate's wife is just not going to be prepared for that kind of interview. I realize it's hypocritical, that they can go out and solicit votes without being answerable for specific policies, but that's just sort of the way it is. If Michelle Obama were caught in an interview like that, where she suddenly (and unexpectedly) started getting pointed questions about the things that anger Obama's critics from the left, my guess is that a) she'd handle it a million times better, because she has a lot more poise and is more articulate than Ann Romney, and b) she'd deflect those questions just the same. But I've never seen her get asked questions like that, because that's the understood agreement. And I think that's fine. Hillary would be the most obvious exception to this, and I'm sure there are others. And I'm not saying Michelle couldn't handle those questions, just that I'm positive she'd stay clear of them. Unless I'm wrong--maybe she has had to field them.

And I'm not trying to make it a gender thing--if the woman were the candidate and the man the putatively non-politcal spouse, ditto, there'd be that zone of safety or whatever.

I honestly can't watch any show where the people talking to each other aren't in the same room together. I hate Nightline, those sports shows, etc.

Even worse when one of those people is on the phone.

anderson cooper is joining you on sattelite phone from the supermarket and wants to know what kind of chips he should bring

I hadn't even thought about that as I watched, but you're right. It felt like an ambush to me, and I wonder if the interviewer would have approached it the same if he'd been sitting right across from her.

xxxp Unfortunately since Mitt comes off just as defensive and evasive, I think it has more to do with the nature of their campaign than it has to do with spouses in general. Also they are VERY obviously trying to use Anne to make that "Mitt and Republicans can't be terrible for women" so you get what you get then.

"republicans can't be bad for women, some of them are married to women!"

I don't disagree with any of that, Alex, and I'm 1,000% in favour of going after Romney himself as pointedly as possible--and mbush him whenever you can. It just doesn't feel right with her. I don't want to get dragged into being the Morbius here, but I think you could also say that Michelle was used the other night to make the Barack is a caring person argument, and I wouldn't want to see someone start throwing questions at her about drones and such. I'd just prefer it be limited to the candidate, knowing full well that the spouse is going to be out there campaigning and getting a free pass.

"ambush"

This thing is, she goes on the program ostensibly to talk about policy. "I'm here to talk about jobs and the economy."

So it's basically that she's deflecting policy questions except for the one area where she can unleash a few talking points.