Symmetry required it: 2012 american general election thread #2

From Mr. "Sarah Palin gives me starbursts" it's almost sober.

Meanwhile, ORLY:

“It looks right now like it’s probably going to be Obama, so you have to start planning for that, even if it’s not what you would prefer,” said the chief executive of one of the largest companies in the United States who has criticized the president and spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to give a frank assessment of the state of the race. The executive added that plans were under way to work with a second Obama administration on selling a plan to avoid the fiscal cliff with major tax and entitlement reform that includes some new revenues.

“We don’t really care if our taxes go up a little if we can just get this done and take this threat away from the economy,” the executive said, adding that support from CEOs could give cover to Republicans in Washington concerned about supporting any new taxes and angering tea party hardliners and anti-tax advocates such as Grover Norquist.

They don't care BUT it's sure be nice if they don't BUT...

i'm not particularly enthusiastic about four more years of obama (tho certainly not as dystopian as some) but i am SUPER ENTHUSIASTIC about shoving obama down the throats of these fucking assholes for four more years. let them cry about how the world is going to end while he does a serviceable job of keeping the union afloat.

Yeah, that's pretty much where I am.

everything would be fine if grover norquist, 6'9", 280 pounds (all muscle), ripped and refusing to take no for an answer, hadn't threatened to beat anyone who rebels against his no-tax pledge to a bloody pulp.

http://i49.tinypic.com/qn18gh.png

Mitt Romney has a 227% chance of winning? I don't really get it, but at least it doesn't beat Barack Obama's 373% chance of winning, which is up from his 371% chance of winning on Sept 16

i think the model had a hiccup

http://i45.tinypic.com/syux6f.jpg
Grover Norquist outside of the Republican National Convention, August 28, 2012. (photo: Associated Press)

"Grover wouldn't even let us accept a 10:1 spending cut / tax increase deal. He lifted this enormous boulder over his head, slammed it down on Mitch McConnell's hand, and then wiped the bloody, mangled hand all over Paul Ryan's slacks just before an important press conference."

- John Boehner

http://images.politico.com/global/2012/09/120926_romney_ap_605.jpg

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/9/21/1348239903935/Psy-performs-Gangnam-Styl-010.jpg

It could only help him.

Gopnam style

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2012/09/27/bls_benchmark_revisions_government_finds_386_000_new_jobs_.html

Note that this also means that the Obama Era has crossed the symbolically important zero line. More Americans are employed today than were when he took office.

Don't think this is a story the obama campaign will really want to hype up too much, though

and even though it means that the romney campaign would lose the ability to say "more jobs have been lost than gained since obama took office!", they can still just slightly modify it to say "under obama we've added practically zero jobs!" or whatever. ignoring the uphill climb that it took to get back to zero, of course, but it scarcely matters when you're just trying to distort facts and fool everyone (aka the modern political campaign)

well more americans are *unemployed* than when he took office too

and some of us are making less.

and frequently unsatisfied with our "quality" American health insurance plan.

i'm not particularly enthusiastic about four more years of obama (tho certainly not as dystopian as some) but i am SUPER ENTHUSIASTIC about shoving obama down the throats of these fucking assholes for four more years. let them cry about how the world is going to end while he does a serviceable job of keeping the union afloat.

― Mordy, Thursday, September 27, 2012 4:25 PM (42 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

for reals. enough time just needs to pass for us to be able to say to people, hey remember three, four, five years back when you were talking about how you heard some whispers about the president ushering in martial law.

would assaassination lists, extrajudicial execution of citizens and codified indef detention go in italics too?

Centrist Dem blogger Kevin Drum re drones and politics:

There's no question that fighting a counterinsurgency is hard. And it's fundamentally different from fighting a conventional war because it's difficult to separate militants from civilians — something that insurgents explicitly count on. But even if you accept drone strikes as a legitimate part of counterinsurgency, and even if you accept that civilian casualties are an inevitable part of that, "double tap" strikes are simply heinous. They're also far more likely to turn the indigenous population against you, which makes them counterproductive as well as immoral. After all, it's not as if top al-Qaeda leaders are the ones likely to be conducting rescue operations. At best, you might get a few foot soldiers but nothing more.

The most depressing part of all this is that you can't just blame this on one guy, and hope that it might change once he's out of office. Bush started it, and Obama has ramped it up. What's more, there's no partisan pushback at all. To repeat something I said last year, Republicans are in favor of anything that kills more bad guys, regardless of collateral damage, and Democrats are unwilling to make trouble for a president of their own party. Put those two things together, and drones have become stealth weapons both politically and technologically. Everybody is in favor of them.

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/09/drones

Yeah, I don't really see how a position either way on drones could affect your vote this year since neither side is offering an alternative. Unless you want to vote 3rd party, in which case, more power to you. But I guess there are other ways to try to influence the political process: letter writing, protests, and such.

guys guys hear me out

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/sep/26/rep-allen-west-why-black-americans-should-vote/

Al Sharpton had a picture of Romney with a pitchfork today after that Bain video came out where he's talking about "harvesting" companies that they bought.

http://i.imgur.com/3s42s.gifhttp://i.imgur.com/3s42s.gif
http://i.imgur.com/3s42s.gifhttp://i.imgur.com/3s42s.gif

Well, I'm beginning to see the light
Well, I'm beginning to see the light
Some people work very hard,
But still they never get it right
Well, I'm beginning to see the light

I dunno what took the Romney camp so long to lower expectations for the debates.

http://wonkette.com/485330/mitt-romney-to-stone-cold-politifact-barack-obama

Byron York whistles past the graveyard...again.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/romney-vows-to-stay-course-as-worried-gop-begs-for-tougher-campaign/article/2509173

And Politico basically goes "DUH":

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=0665D7E1-13A2-45EC-876F-271DC28CA86A

"Grover wouldn't even let us accept a 10:1 spending cut / tax increase deal. He lifted this enormous boulder over his head, slammed it down on Mitch McConnell's hand, and then wiped the bloody, mangled hand all over Paul Ryan's slacks just before an important press conference."

- John Boehner

wait what is the source for this!? I can't believe this is a real thing Boehner said in public

Meanwhile in Akinworld:

Since polls remain tight, however, Republicans see a path to victory without any more off-script comments from Akin. “You know, if you’re that close with Claire McCaskill, then there are some ways to win this without ever having to be in public — or being public in controlled ways,” another Republican strategist who has worked on several Missouri campaigns said. “You wage a campaign without him physically being there, (with) television ads that are very tightly scripted, through mail pieces.”

“He’s an idiot, and everybody knows it,” the source continued. “But, he’s our idiot and he could be helpful to us but only if they get him under control.”

xpost Shakey, after the clock thing and now this I'm beginning to wonder.

I'm with Kevin Drum. I still think Akin can win this, and the GOP will view this as an excuse to keep saying repugnant bullshit as long as there's a base willing to encourage it.

still not understanding how Akin's idiocy is in any way divergent from mainstream GOP

exactly!!

Policy-wise it's not any different, but claiming that the female body has a way to kill real rape sperm off is pretty (o_O) even for the mainstream GOP.

wait what is the source for this!? I can't believe this is a real thing Boehner said in public

dude

"Dude" is a pretty dubious source.

Like, which dude? Some dude?

I'd trust ship as a source

x-post re Akin-- they started with this:

Last year, Akin, vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), and most of the House GOP cosponsored a bill that would have narrowed the already-narrow exceptions to the laws banning federal funding for abortion—from all cases of rape to cases of "forcible rape."

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/08/todd-akin-paul-ryan-redefining-rape

yeah i don't know who the dems have running for Ryan's seat, but the ads should just be Akin's words/ language from the bill with Ryan giving a big thumbs up

source: i heard it from some dude

Rob Zerban vs Paul Ryan in Wisc.

http://www.salon.com/2012/09/12/poll_ryans_race_closer_than_expected/

it'll be interesting to see if ryan acknowledges the dude

Zerban wants 2 debates too

source: i heard it from some dude

http://live.drjays.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Big-Lebowski.jpg

Shakey, after the clock thing and now this I'm beginning to wonder.

...why you're still reading Shakey's posts?