the most important election of your lifetime: 2012 american general election thread

ABC News reporter, wiping slobber from chin, said, "Ann Romney, Governor Romney's secret weapon, is a secret no more."

Lol yeah this is less than nothing. A personal attack that will be rather weakly blown up to fill otherwise dead air.

I've been pretending that I think this whole thing is nothing, because I don't want everyone jumping on me for thinking it's something. But, as always, I think some of the substance is pretty interesting (not any impact on the election, which of course is non-existent).

1) Does Ann Romney being rich preclude her from speaking out about (or understanding) economic anxiety?
2) Once she does, is it okay for Rosen to ridicule her?

It's also spilled over into Rosen's sexuality and the Catholic League and adoption: http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/04/is-this-all-there-is-war-on-moms-adoptive-parents-define-campaign-news-day-1.php. Those of you who hate all this will applaud Alec MacGillis's piece:

Apparently, we’re supposed to shrug at all this, roll with it. Deny or complain about the reality of the modern news cycle, and you’re a nostalgic prude. But I’m willing to suffer that label. This stuff is ridiculous, and I’ve been through enough of these campaigns to know that it’s getting worse. When the possible future First Lady, a woman who by most reports is as dignified as they come, is dragooned into setting up a Twitter account late on a weekday night so she can tweet her outrage over a line spoken on a news network no one watches, and her grown sons then chime in with their own go-mom tweets, and the rest of us get breathless ("game on!")—well, it’s time to pause for at least a millisecond and recognize that while this is how it is, it doesn’t have to be this way. We do still have personal agency. We can shut it off, put it down, and get the nail clipper.

1) Does Ann Romney being rich preclude her from speaking out about (or understanding) economic anxiety?

It didn't prevent Eleanor Roosevelt. But Ann Romney lacks Mrs. Roosevelt's curiosity (evident even in the twenties and early thirties). As for Rosen, she proved she's an amateur by making a remark that thousands of bloggers left and right would turn into front page news. When you're working for the frontrunner that's not what you do.

she is not working for the frontrunner

1) Does Ann Romney being rich preclude her from speaking out about (or understanding) economic anxiety?

no. it does, however, give others due cause to doubt her ability to really understand the economic concerns of the poor and middle class.

2) Once she does, is it okay for Rosen to ridicule her?

sure. but it's also okay for others to take offense at that ridicule.

I loved this:

Barbara Bush joined in the chorus of those defending Ann Romney today, saying on Fox News that “five boys is a handful, trust me. Raising George Walker was not easy.”

Mom and Obama united as to who's really to blame.

wasn't Ann Romney in Throw Momma from the Train?

btw the #AskRomney hashtag on twitter is full of cheap, obvious lulz, but lulz nonetheless.

#AskRomney when you saw the Trayvon Martin story on the news, how surprised were you that black people still exist

#askromney how many people say ritt momney on accident?

#AskRomney Why didn't you become Batman? You have enough money to be Batman. Are you afraid to be Batman?

#AskRomney a/s/l?

#AskRomney Which days in her life did Ann Romney work? Please specify

#AskRomney If I put on the sunglasses Rowdy Roddy Piper gave me, will you look like an alien?

btw how many Pavlovian base bonus pts for both "Hilary" and "Rosen"?

Show us on your abacus.

http://www.catsafterme.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/vincent2.jpg

every story/tweet ive seen abt this is the press complaining abt the presses frivolousness in reporting it, like guys you dont have to talk abt it you know

let's get back to the dog on Mittens' car roof

thats least funny, the dog pooped all over the car

btw morbs i think you should agree to do some sort of penance if obama wins and the economy doesnt implode, like eat a keyboard key or something, think abt it

wait, so did Hillary Rosen tell Ann Romney to go home and get her fucking shinebox or something?!?

mitt said he consults anne re economy and this lady on the tv who doesnt work for obama but maybe has some ties to the dnc said basically wtf does anne romney know abt the economy shes never had a job

btw morbs i think you should agree to do some sort of penance if obama wins and the economy doesnt implode, like eat a keyboard key or something, think abt it

― lag∞n, Thursday, April 12, 2012

now what shall you eat I wonder

are you taking sides here al you think obamas gonna lose

prob. has a lot of experience hiring and firing interior designers and whatnot

are you taking sides here al you think obamas gonna lose

― lag∞n, Thursday, April 12, 2012 9:02 PM

He'll likely win but the economy's going under again in the next five years at most. Europe is at best unsettled, we've imposed no meaningful regulation on Wall Street, the JOBS Act is a joke, and income inequality is worse than it was under Bush ten years ago.

lol five years ill mark that prediction on my calendar

here hold my marker

you should maybe go for like 8 youre p much guaranteed to get a recession during that period

lagoon: i know what Hillary Rosen said. i was making a joke b/c Phil D posted a pic of Billy Batts from goodfellas.

ah lol that makes sense

i think you should agree to do some sort of penance if obama wins and the economy doesnt implode

I've never predicted either will/won't happen. In the first case, I don't care.

When she was prez of RIAA, the station mgr of WFMU reg called Rosen 'The Worst Woman in the World.'

I was riffing on Alfred's "show us on your abacus." Went with the wiseguy joke instead of the lol old joke. What a disaster.

lol five years ill mark that prediction on my calendar

That prediction was actually rather restrained and conservative. I would endorse it without much trepidation.

seeing as rescissions happen like every 6 years its not any sort of meaningful prediction was my point

I am willing to bet against a recession this year, I'll bet you a beer morbs

seeing as rescissions happen like every 6 years its not any sort of meaningful prediction was my point

― lag∞n, Thursday, April 12, 2012 9:52 PM

I hope you're right but you're not, as Cliff said to Clair Huxtable.

what am i not right abt here alfred

Distinctions between "recession" and "downturn" or b/w "slower recovery than expected" and "it will remain shitty" are meaningless when we've done little to prevent the spiral from starting again.

your argument is extremely vague!

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/images/2009/Aug/Jobs-Loss-Recovery-1.png

"recession" is the least of our worries when predatory lending continues and regulation of the financial sector is nominal at best

the gray parts are recessions

thats all fine and good al but then what are you predicting will happen in the next five years exactly

recession has a very strict definition alfred, and it's not 'the least of our worries'

"exactly"? We're not economists. Like I said, I'll take a recession over another crash.

what in particular are you predicting

that the economy is no longer in a "recession" means bloody little to the long-term un(der)employed.

I'm heartened that companies are hiring again but I remain depressed about a banking system that was neither disciplined by DC nor learned nothing about what happened in 2008, which makes another meltdown inevitable.

you mean a melt down on par w/the one we just had, another 'great recession'

no it means plenty to the un and underemployed, because there is a big difference between 8% unemployment and 13% unemployment eisber, even if you are currently unemployed

and anyone who believes that Obama's "populism" is anything but crude electioneering intended to keep the dirty hippies quiet is a fool.

Pundits say "recession" because they're afraid of the implications of "depression" or, my favorite 19th century word, "panic."

no pundits say recession because it is a word with a precise and useful definition