Symmetry required it: 2012 american general election thread #2

Dr. Casino, why aren't you O's speechwriter?

Just FYI, since I can't search on zing, Colbert just fucking killed it re: Romney tape in his opener.

addendum, he should probably throw in a line like "And that's the system we've been following for (however many years). President Reagan," blah blah blah, just to make it clear to people who don't know these things that it's not some new-fangled Obama redistribution scheme but just the facts as they stand.

I guess it wouldn't really get him anywhere for all that - - - it could, as you imply, cost him some votes in New York and it's not like he's going to win Mississippi regardless. In terms of big-picture "looking like the grownup in the room" stuff it might be kinda good, and it is a topic where it'd be nice if the public got educated a little bit. But it's probably a digression, fundamentally.

the trick is to find "we help each other" platitudes that don't openly celebrate the keyword republicans will try to pull from 15 year old tapes

Maybe my real thinking here is that it's about finding analogies and angles on redistribution that remind Americans it's actually something they like in lots of contexts. Dems have allowed Republicans to turn half of (what used to be) their platform into dirty words over the last few decades, would be nice to use Romney's all-revealing Secret Speech as a springboard to retake the initiative on this stuff.

Get "safety net" back in there for chrissakes! "You know, Governor, there's a reason they call them 'safety nets'... it's nice to have something there to land on, if you lose your job because some... you know, some corporate raider decided, you know, this factory is turning a profit but we could turn more of a profit by some kind of financial wizardry, load the place up with debt and let the employees go while someone at the top gets rich...I think that's a situation where you say, the people who got hurt here were working hard and playing by the rules, and there should be a safety net there to help them bounce back."

you guys there is basically no magic fanfic speech that can change everything, if there were they would have discovered it using some focus group and computers

Barack the Magic Fanfic

(sorry, hate to evoke that whole ugly episode)

Over four years he's had to go from saying "people making for 125k can afford to help" to "people making 1m can afford to help" because it's unfortunately hard for people to assume he's not threatening them. It's not even about offending particular states - though that would obviously be a headache. It's that if he actually went on about the national redistribution of wealth on a state-by-state basis or scolded Mitt for not appreciating the government he might as well sing the Internationale. The good news is that Mitt has gone so incoherently right-wing that he doesn't have to scold Mitt or defend Big Government, he just has to know what payroll tax is.

ive heard abt using dog whistle tho maybe that could work, tbf i dont really understand it, maybe the dogs then convince their owners or something

xxpost You're right, of course...just grumbling into the night that if the Democratic Party wanted, at the party level, to articulate a coherent, progressive agenda, there would be language to do that, and it might get a better response than anyone thinks.

When you're writing folksy "you know"s for Obama to insert you may have taken the imaginary speechwriter gig too far.

tbf i am the kind of guy that has included "uh"s in outlines of lectures just cause i can hear the rhythm of how it's going to come out in my head

if youre gonna do it you gotta go all in

so maybe this is why on some level i weirdly relate to and sympathize with pathetically awkward, over-rehearsed-but-not-getting-any-better-at-this Mittens

He really nailed the timing on his "I thought being rich and famous would make me happy" joke I thought, seemed to enjoy himself.

http://s0.2mdn.net/viewad/3731861/tpp-12003-300x250-G2.jpeg

same cover image as season 2 of his quirky sitcom, wherein the redhead teenage daughter goes goth and the hot wife starts up a catering business and he gets demoted at work to working in the shipping room

season 2 dvd boxset, i mean

The teacher guy from Glee should play Ryan in the inevitable crappy movie based on this election.

If I cared about tell all political campaign books I'd be excited about the one about the Romney campaign.

I suspect the heart of it is in that Joe Trippi line about how any three consultants from either party would have told him six years ago "Lose the Swiss Bank Account", but he never listens - like, it's not enough that the people vote for him, they should come to him and love him for who he is, and any of the help who suggests changing just don't get it.

Roffle. When even Erick Erickson has to go 'uh, well'...

"I think that's the problem," Erickson said, responding to a question about the accuracy of the 47 percent number. "He was off the cuff. He was at a closed-door meeting. He didn't think he was on the record. Even at his press conference later he said he wasn't very articulate. He's going to have to explain that. Even conservatives like me who don't think this is as damaging as a lot of people say, have to concede the remark was really inarticulate at best and really dumb."

On Romney's debate prep:
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/322386/prep-school-robert-costa

The Ohio senator spent weeks preparing for the meetings and reviewing tapes of Obama speeches and debates. His ability to uncannily mimic Obama’s mannerisms has kept Romney’s interest, sources say.

“Senator Portman is invaluable,” O’Donnell says. “When we worked with him during the McCain campaign in 2008, he was able to capture the style and the substance of Obama. He is able to make the candidate believe that it’s the opponent, and not just an exercise.”

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4f/Rob_Portman,_official_portrait,_112th_Congress.jpg/220px-Rob_Portman,_official_portrait,_112th_Congress.jpg

Hope Romney goes "Well Rob" at some point.

Just a lonely guy thinking bout things:

Mr. Romney himself seemed pensive on the early-morning flight Tuesday from California to Utah, sitting alone with a white legal pad and a pen as he picked at a vegetarian breakfast burrito.

portman has to be better than armisen

vegetarian breakfast burrito shows sage judgment & smart long-morning planning, vote romney 2012

portman has to be better than armisen

lol

“Senator Portman is invaluable,” O’Donnell says. “When we worked with him during the McCain campaign in 2008, he was able to capture the style and the substance of Obama. He is able to make the candidate believe that it’s the opponent, and not just an exercise.”

feel like value of portman, wrt: 'invaluable' could be better calculated with reference to mccain's debate performances (that one/lizard step/&c)

Burrito/Ryan 2016

To be a little fair to Portman, I'm sure he wasn't responsible for running McCain through the process of walking to a podium

but was he responsible for requesting that McCain imitate a Gila monster while walking to the podium

(Nice script, Casino!)

picturing portman in blackface doing his obama impression while romney jots notes and mumbles to himself this is invaluable

didn't mccain use michael steele?

xpost

I was trying to think of a diplomatic way of expressing the same general concern, but that about sums it up.

Obama people need to run clip of Reagan calling '86 Tax Reform Act – which did more to remove the poor from tax rolls – "the best antipoverty, the best pro-family, the best job creation measure to come out of Congress."

ha mccain and steele both have strong presidential candiate stand in vibes

picturing portman in blackface doing his obama impression while romney jots notes and mumbles to himself this is invaluable

― lag∞n, Wednesday, September 19, 2012 10:52 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

irl lol

Reagan remarks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wiZowRJeto

apparently the steele thing was retracted? weird.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/09/26/who-played-obama-in-mccains-debate-prep/

Apparently Portman played Joe Lieberman for Cheney! He's the GOP's own Rich Little I guess.

its weird but the gop seems to really have lost it for reagan recently like they went from jumping all over each other to see who could genuflect before him the hardest in the primary debates to barely talking abt him at the convention, it may have dawned on them that there are plenty voters who werent even born when he was president and it was just too long ago for people to really give a shit at this point

now I'm sad Hillary didn't get the nomination

maybe romney shitting on Reagan's EITC was just him being ahead of the curve

Also that of the two candidates, they don't have the one closest to him.

its weird but the gop seems to really have lost it for reagan recently like they went from jumping all over each other to see who could genuflect before him the hardest in the primary debates to barely talking abt him at the convention, it may have dawned on them that there are plenty voters who werent even born when he was president and it was just too long ago for people to really give a shit at this point

Let's see how long it takes for them to drop their Carter steez

A similar argument happened in 2008, remember? Obama's all "Why do I give a fuck about the sixties and Vietnam?"

McCain went full-on "Losing My Edge" at the debates with all the historical refs

Ha ha