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

sorry to be so cynical about Barr's candidacy guys

GOP Superpac's plan for expensive nasty ad attacks on Obama:

“The world is about to see Jeremiah Wright and understand his influence on Barack Obama for the first time in a big, attention-arresting way,” says the proposal, which was overseen by Fred Davis and commissioned by Joe Ricketts, the founder of the brokerage firm TD Ameritrade. Mr. Ricketts is increasingly putting his fortune to work in conservative politics.

The $10 million plan, one of several being studied by Mr. Ricketts, includes preparations for how to respond to the charges of race-baiting it envisions if it highlights Mr. Obama’s former ties to Mr. Wright, who espouses what is known as “black liberation theology.”

The group suggested hiring as a spokesman an “extremely literate conservative African-American” who can argue that Mr. Obama misled the nation by presenting himself as what the proposal calls a “metrosexual, black Abe Lincoln.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/us/politics/gop-super-pac-weighs-hard-line-attack-on-obama.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120517

that ad!

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m464sfoVlO1qa9bmvo1_250.png

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m464s48mM31qa9bmvo1_250.png

The ad plan proposal says this:

“Our plan is to do exactly what John McCain would not let us do: Show the world how Barack Obama’s opinions of America and the world were formed,” the proposal says. “And why the influence of that misguided mentor and our president’s formative years among left-wing intellectuals has brought our country to its knees.”

But also this:

Lamenting that voters “still aren’t ready to hate this president,” the document concludes that the campaign should “explain how forces out of Obama’s control, that shaped the man, have made him completely the wrong choice as president in these days and times.”

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/05/17/us/politics/super-pac-storyboard.html?ref=politics

Mr. Obama misled the nation by presenting himself as what the proposal calls a “metrosexual, black Abe Lincoln.”

Uhhh...

this surely isn't going to succeed.

The insular right-wing bubble trying to foist their paranoia on everyone

That storyboard is totally... something.

Medium shot directly into a beautiful little home on a beautiful little street... BO enters from the left, rapidly pushing a gurney... he looks to us and gives us "that grin."

Soccer mom, hopeless and lost, in utter despair.

Surely the 2008 election would have gone the other way had anyone known about this rev wright fellow

Should we have KNOWN?! Perhaps there is no more important question.

It would have been better if a snake came out of the egg

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/05/joe-ricketts-man-behind-new-super-pac-loves-corporate-welfare

He owns the Chicago Cubs and they need taxpayer dollars. He's probably glad Obama is a White Sox fan and not a Cubs fan.

Joel
He should spend that $10M on a pitcher.
The Tick and Marino Eccher like this.
31 Minutes Ago from slate.com · Reply

LOL!

Mr. Obama misled the nation by presenting himself as what the proposal calls a “metrosexual, black Abe Lincoln.”

if anything keeps me on the side of Obama (his warts and all), it's the sheer utter repulsiveness of his loudest right-wing opponents.

xxp in related news, George W. Bush and Tea Party fan Curt Schilling is also out trolling for taxpayer $$$

http://espn.go.com/boston/mlb/story/_/id/7938433/curt-schilling-video-game-company-asks-rhode-island-more-help

Former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling asked Rhode Island for additional help to save his video game company Wednesday, prompting state leaders to consider whether the firm is viable enough to justify further investment.

Schilling, an ESPN baseball analyst, briefed Gov. Lincoln Chafee and the state's Economic Development Corp. board in a closed-door session.

Following the meeting, Chafee would not say what Schilling is seeking from the state. The governor said the question before state economic development officials was, "How do we avoid throwing good money after bad?"

Schilling declined to answer questions, saying only: "My priority right now is to get back to my team."

Concerns about 38 Studios' financial health arose when it failed to make a scheduled $1.1 million payment to the Economic Development Corp. on May 1.

The business was lured from Massachusetts in 2010 after Rhode Island offered a $75 million loan guarantee that state officials said would help bring hundreds of jobs and millions in tax revenue.

free markets for thee, government cheese for me!

"the face of a hauntingly unemployed american"

Not quite evil sheep level trainwreck, but it promises to be a fun ad

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/05/here-is-a-line-of-gop-candidate-butt-plugs-.html

ow

BO with Russian. EXISTING STOCK.

BO walks the famed walk from the Oval Office to the residence, colonnades on the left. It is at first a cocky, self-assured walk. As he walks toward us, however, the cockiness lessens and he literally gets shorter and shorter, ending up just 2-3 feet tall as he walks past camera on the left.

the left!

So in addition to cliched rightwing PAC stuff we have Romney himself saying stuff that Democratic cheerleader blogs like Washington Monthly correctly point out is absurd(Romney is now pointing out that Clinton was a fiscally smart Dem and Obama isn't--but neglecting to mention that Clinton raised taxes on the rich). But does this stuff even make it into inside the beltway op-eds or network tv or website homepage headlines? Probably not, but neither does Greenwald and others' coverage of civil liberties.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2012_05/the_clinton_doctrine_revisited037423.php

x-post- Hannity on Fox and others disappointed in Romney not emphasizing Rev Wright stuff.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2012/05/18/hannity_wright_and_the_dreams_of_the_gop_base.html

i just got an email from sarah jessica parker!!!

Are you selling oats?

oh snap

her face looks like a horse's.

That might be considered sexist by some (although if you will make fun of her hubby's looks, that will make it even)

her husband is a negligent killer.

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/05/obama-love-letter-truthers

Maybe the wrong thread as this issue is not likely to determine the election

v excited to party with SJP. bringing some schlitz and a bag of pretzels

But in a certain sense, the entire Romney campaign is one big dog whistle aimed at appealing to persuadable voters on the single issue of the economy, while letting the restive “base” hear all sorts of other things involving cultural resentments and the desire to return to the good old days before the New Deal and the 60s began to ruin the Founders’ design and defy the Creator’s moral code.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2012_05/the_big_dog_whistle037436.php

dog whistle

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/05/romney-fenced-immigration

another reason this election is so frustrating

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/05/federal-budget-tax-policy-austerity-mitt-romney-barack-obama-cbo-spending-cuts.php?ref=fpa

more reasons to be disallusioned

What was the allusion?

good point

http://nymag.com/print/?/news/features/barack-obama-2012-6/index1.html

Huge insider quoting article on the Obama campaign and how they will go negative but worry that they will have less money than the super pac and Wall Streeters supporting Romney

A prominent private-equity player in Gotham who supports Obama agrees with all of that but adds another insight. �Among rich Republicans, the view of Obama is that he’s the Devil,� this person says. �But on the Democratic side, certainly on Wall Street, there’s no visceral reaction against Romney. So if I give $10 million, I’m out the $10 million, and I’m gonna pay more in taxes if Obama wins. And I’m doing it against somebody who�I may not agree with his social views, but I don’t think he’s a bad person. And I’m not really into negative advertising, which is what a super-PAC would do � Then there’s the fact nobody on Wall Street thinks Obama gives a sh-- about them. They think his attitude is, �If I lose Wall Street, it’s not the end of the world.’ And they’re right.�

Whatever the causes, the consequences for Obama may prove dire. Burton reckons that, in the end, the cumulative spending on the Democratic side will be about $1 billion, compared with maybe $1.6 billion on the Republican side. And while the latter may be exaggerated for effect�other savvy Democrats put the GOP figure at more like $1.3 billion�there’s little doubt in either partisan camp that we are about to witness the improbable development of an incumbent president’s being financially overmatched.

It concerns me gravely,� Plouffe tells me. �From a political standpoint, I’m almost as worried about that as I am about the question of what the economy’s gonna do over the next three or four months.

Come back to the Five and Dime, Newt:

http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/05/mitt-romney-abc-washington-post-poll-favorability-barack-obama.php?ref=fpnewsfeed

Jesus Christ. $2.3 billion.

that's a lot of free speech

no Buffett Tax or Bush tax cut repeals regardless of who's in the Oval Office, methinks.

LOL Z S

no Buffett Tax or Bush tax cut repeals regardless of who's in the Oval Office, methinks.

this is more down to congress than anything else tho

Yep. But Congressional Dems will not likely be strong enough.

x-post-
Throughout the primaries, Romney routinely drew low marks from voters. That was particularly true among women, as Republicans drew criticism for trying to curtail coverage for contraception. But the survey shows Romney has rebounded with women. Forty percent view him favorably, up from 27 percent a month ago.

Polls. I don't get you American people (in poll cited by tpm).