Symmetry required it: 2012 american general election thread #2

Rance Pulliniks? Rience Priebus? these people are all made up.

Excellent defense--he wants to quibble over the precision of the 47% figure: "Look, Joe, I don't have the numbers in front of me."

Love the implication that no Obama supporter pays taxes yet all feel entitled to gubmint handouts.

― ella fingerblast hurls forever (suzy)

^^fucking this

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/09/17/rush-limbaugh-says-welfare-recipients-turn-out-to-vote-in-force-they-really-dont/

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/income_support_table.png

I wonder how much worse it's gunna get; a lot of it seems like the standard gnashing of a generation losing its hegemonic grip only multiplied by the fact that the group is comprised by the most resentful, small-minded victims of modernity. Like, there ain't enough Cialis and Rogaine in the galaxy that could compensate for this psychodrama.

I thought a huge number of the people not paying income taxes were retired or had everything deducted because of mortgage/kids -- many of them Republican voters this year, no?

And of course everyone of working age pays payroll taxes except the people who can live off investments or corporate income. Working for a wage isn't taking responsibility?

Don't remember if this was linked here, but it's very on point: http://www.theamericanconservative.com/we-are-not-all-entrepreneurs/

I thought a huge number of the people not paying income taxes were retired or had everything deducted because of mortgage/kids -- many of them Republican voters this year, no

exactly!!

The nonpartisan Tax Foundation has measured the top nonpayer threshold. This is the highest income taxpayer that owes no income taxes, setting aside unusual tax situations. They looked at how the top nonpayer threshold changed from 1993 to today for a married couple with two kids... That threshold drops slightly to about $50,300 this year.

http://keithhennessey.com/2010/04/15/off-the-rolls/

if i had a dime for every Obam-hating, tea-party sympathizing person in my very red state who makes about ~50k and essentially pays no federal income taxes...

Rance Pulliniks? Rience Priebus? these people are all made up.

I think clemenza was riffing on

http://www.baseball-reference.com/bpv/images/a/a4/Rance_Mulliniks.jpg

The numbers and actual reality don't mean shit; they're all about campaigning against the Great Moral Evil, that someone somewhere is getting away with something and not being punished for it. Outlays of public money are seen as rewards and rewards-only, not as a minimal stipend to keep you from dying in the fuckin' street. Taxes are always a crippling punishment, not a basic fee of citizenship and revenue to make sure shit still works.

They have no problem with handing out dumptrucks full of money to people; they only have weird and hypocritical means of making that morally justified. Because money transfers are rewards only, it's only morally right to reward people who've "earned" or are "deserving" it. Defense contractors? Sure! They punish wrongdoers and support the Party ideology! Poor people? They don't work and thus don't deserve to be rewarded.

These are rightwing authoritarian followers, ffs. Ideology rules all and stats saying otherwise are biased and thus malicious and always lying.

Yeah, I've been giving Redonkulous a new name every time I post about him. (xpost)

Reihan Salam said the videos "aren't necessarily fatal," then went on to express his amazement that Romney said this stuff (plus, rather clinically, pointed out who exactly it is who's not paying income tax). He's on Romney's side.

the 5 undecideds who remain are gonna be really pissed off about this

I’m just getting up to speed on this purported tape of Mitt Romney saying he thinks the 47% of Americans who support Barack Obama are moochers who believe the government has to take care of them. It’s rare when the impact of some gaffe or embarrassment or revelation isn’t overstated on first blush. But this may just be that rare exception. This tape strikes me as absolutely devastating.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2012/09/devastating.php?ref=fpblg

(xpost) If you think the election is already decided, I'd agree, this is just noise. I haven't felt that way, and still don't, so this is welcome.

Describing his family background, he quipped about his father, "Had he been born of Mexican parents, I'd have a better shot of winning this." Contending that he is a self-made millionaire who earned his own fortune, Romney insisted, "I have inherited nothing.

oh my God

Amazing thing is he really believes it.

itd be more amazing if as an obscenely wealthily republican he didnt believe it

That's the term I was looking for: Self-attribution fallacy

I have inherited nothing except my unfortunate whiteness.

I inherited dodgy follicles

Romney's campaign feels like what a Dan Quayle for President campaign might have looked like

Minus the charisma.

Quayle was more likeable than Mitt.

quayle was a bona fide conservative also, made the ticket to placate the hard right who didn't trust bush I. santorum's the closest to quayle today - openly proudly retrograde social policy bedrock, ranting about 'cultural elite', complete fucking idiot.

Quayle was not likeable at all! As a vice president he played Nixon to Poppy's Ike and was singularly terrible at it. Nothing worse than an unconvincing attack dog.

The sparseness of Romney's personality is nothing like the vacuity of Quayle's.

"One last thought you guys..."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYyrNbGcdD4
@ 0:40

Wow, what a dick.

there's just something in Romney's inability to get the tone right that's Quaylish though. I mean this as high praise, Dan Quayle is my favorite politician of all time & I will always write him in for President. Thank you President Quayle

Romney vs. Quayle: You say potato, I say potatoe.

ya i def see some quayle in the rombot

Quayle was not likeable at all! As a vice president he played Nixon to Poppy's Ike and was singularly terrible at it.

Well, maybe not likeable...but incompetent enough that he did not seem as malevolent as Romney.

Standing Firm leaves no doubt that Dan Quayle is the most misjudged figure in modern political history. Prior to 1988, Quayle had never lost an election. Not for Congress. Not even for the Senate. Heading into that year's Republican Convention, Quayle was considered one of the party's brightest young stars - a man of unusual political instincts who, when it came to campaigning, had a reputation as a giant killer. He would become the first in his generation to hold national office, but only after a tumultuous contest that frequently put him on the defensive. With gritty honesty and admirable self-deprecation, Quayle describes what it was like to weather that 1988 media storm, and the other squalls that followed. Poignantly, he also talks of the self-confidence and Christian faith that gave him the courage to stand firm and record some of the most noteworthy contributions of any Vice President ever...

Those adverbs!

romney video is the lead story on bbc news lol

with gritty dependent clauses and poignant adverbs, Quayle triumphed

^^^ book description from www.vicepresidentdanquayle.com/

never mind me I'm just goin down memory lane here now

Then he talks about raising his douchebag of a son who got turfed out in the primaries the other week.

the 5 undecideds who remain are gonna be really pissed off about this

There have been swings in the last month. People can decide to stay home, too.

Yeah good luck there:

"Mitt Romney wants to help all Americans struggling in the Obama economy. As the governor has made clear all year, he is concerned about the growing number of people who are dependent on the federal government, including the record number of people who are on food stamps, nearly one in six Americans in poverty, and the 23 million Americans who are struggling to find work," Romney spokesperson Gail Gitcho said in a statement. "Mitt Romney's plan creates 12 million new jobs in four years, grows the economy and moves Americans off of government dependency and into jobs."

that Dan Quayle autobiography is 70 cents on amazon (1 cent used)

i wonder how many jobs get created every time one is sold

Enjoying the roffles here:

Nine hundred of Mitt Romney’s biggest benefactors — from Wall Street traders to hedge fund managers — gathered in a ballroom in Midtown Manhattan on Friday morning to send their candidate on the two-month sprint to Election Day.

Spencer Zwick, the campaign’s national finance chairman and a longtime Romney loyalist, took to the lectern to boast: “It is really turning into a cause. The momentum continues.”

But the donors, being data guys, knew Romney’s momentum had stalled. And when they looked up at the Jumbotron to watch a biographical video showing the GOP nominee as warmblooded, goofy and even a bit frugal, it was the culmination of much of what Republicans say is wrong with the Romney campaign: There is a great story to be told, and it isn’t being shared with the country.

I'd pay the extra sixty-nine cents for a new copy of Quayle's book, but that's just me. ($75 for a signed copy of Standing Firm on AbeBooks--as dirt-cheap as that gets for the top two spots. Mondale's signed bio goes for $125.)

great story == goofy Mitt... for president?

David Frum on Twitter:

"Only this guy can help Romney now."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLsDvGlIDh0

A fairly evenhanded (and perhaps even more damning) take on the context of Romney's comments.

Jonah knows there's a problem.

I like how pretty much all the reactions on the right can be summed up as 'why doesn't he talk like this all the time! we'd surely win!' Yeah have fun with that.

Pretty squishy, for sure: "I have my doubts," "let me concede," "I suspect," "I’m not sure it wouldn’t help." God, he sounds like me.

The odd thing about Goldberg's column is that it blandly compiles a list of facts showing that Romney apparently has no feel for the bedrock of political reality whatsoever -- and then he dismisses everything he has to say about Romney's inability to understand basic facts about the electorate as having no importance to the election.

He also claims that the "bitterly clinging to guns and religion" comments from Obama during the 2008 campaign did no apparent harm to Obama at all, which seems an odd argument coming from him.

Wait, I just read this at Balloon Juice:

Corn also just said that the fundraiser took place at the home of private equity muckity muck Marc Leder, who made headlines when he threw a sex party in 2011. (That ought to go over well with the values voter crowd.)

Apparently he does stuff like this as well:

http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/parties_high_bar_hnNHG3a85TrmiVmoXP5ohP

I feel like there should be some mention of the fact that "red states" are net recipients of Federal money, and "blue states" are net exporters of tax dollars.

http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-08-18/politics/30039546_1_blue-states-federal-taxes-red-states