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[PhoenixDark]

"I fought hard for the American People Rain or Shine."

"when I wasn't playing 100 rounds of golf at least"

 

[AlteredBeast]

Obama's face is about the same, it's just that his hair has really gone gray.


Luckiest? He's had to deal with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and the most partisan Congress and Republican Party in eons... I wouldn't call that luck.

Late on November 7th we'll be able to confirm if what you say holds true.

What would you call it then?

He runs for President of the world's most powerful nation only a few years after becoming a Junior Senator, riding the coattails of a few speeches he made in front of partisan audiences.

His opponent after winning the nomination was the worst since Mondale or Dukakis, who picked an even worse running mate in Palin. This at a time when a puffy shirt could have beat Abe Lincoln, with how negatively the country looked on the GOP. Unemployment was skyrocketing, housing crisis, stagnant and ridiculous wars, banking crisis, auto bailouts, etc. His bumbling 900 year old opponent offered little hope for change while Candidate Obama talked about little else.

The candidate who should have been sent to the slaughter last election, competent Mitt Romney, who led his state to amazingly low unemployment, raised taxes when needed, closed loopholes, passed the country's first legitimate step towards universal health care, and made hundreds of millions in business streamlining businesses was passed up by a man who had run for president 8 years prior and was smoked by Bush, the compassionate Christian whose idea of compassion is bombing arabs while providing AIDS relief in Africa, as if that cancels each other out.

Fast forward 3 years and the economy under President Obama is largely stagnant. Unemployment is still over 8% despite reigning over one of the lowest participation rates in over 50 years. The housing market continues to flounder. The debt continues to skyrocket. And the president's best idea for a line of attack is to go after millionaires, as if it will fix anything. *

Any other incumbent president would be paying swift boaters under the table to smear his opponent with insidious lies, but instead he doesn't have to because his opponent this time around no longer houses Sam Beckett trying to correct America's course before trying to leap home, his opponent is an out and out dishonest man who has never worked a day in his life in fear of not making the rent or mortgage and it shows. His opponent has been forced to do mentsl, lingual, and damn near physical gymnastics after taking both sides of nearly every issue ever while describing himself as "resolute". His campaign clearly has no idea what they are doing and lacks one ounce of the GOP swagger jn messaging and controlling the argument. He is a liar and a scoundrel, and his seemingly only good quality is that he is a great family man. He is the worst presidential candidate possibly of all time, especially when you factor in the fact that if the GOP had a clean, articulate young candidate with a competent campaign manager, they would probably be favored by 3 or 4% points nationally on the back of a campaign about hope and change being just another scam by a failed presidency. They would run videos of Obama on loops proclaiming how he would close guantanomo bay, get Americans back to work and how lobbyists would have no place in his white house, etc.

Instead you have the worst possible nominee at the worst time for the party. The GOP is filled with clowns, and unfortunately the ones with the loudest voices are drowning out the voice of any sane moderates left in the party.

President Obama is incredibly lucky. Not in the sense of having both houses of Congress to back him up and allow him to pass whatever, but in the sense that he has no competent opposition for presidency for the second straight election.

It probably helps that he really just is a regular guy. Extremely intelligent and charismatic, sure, but regular. No uneasy creepiness like McCain and no emotionless fakeness like everything Mitt Romney has ever been or done.


*not saying any of this is necessarily his fault, but he is president while it happens, despite the fact that he has opposition at every turn.

 

[Clevinger]

What would you call it then?

He runs for President of the world's most powerful nation only a few years after becoming a Junior Senator, riding the coattails of a few speeches he made in front of partisan audiences.

His opponent after winning the nomination was the worst since Mondale or Dukakis, who picked an even worse running mate in Palin. This at a time when a puffy shirt could have beat Abe Lincoln, with how negatively the country looked on the GOP. Unemployment was skyrocketing, housing crisis, stagnant and ridiculous wars, banking crisis, auto bailouts, etc. His bumbling 900 year old opponent offered little hope for change while Candidate Obama talked about little else.

The candidate who should have been sent to the slaughter last election, competent Mitt Romney, who led his state to amazingly low unemployment, raised taxes when needed, closed loopholes, passed the country's first legitimate step towards universal health care, and made hundreds of millions in business streamlining businesses was passed up by a man who had run for president 8 years prior and was smoked by Bush, the compassionate Christian whose idea of compassion is bombing arabs while providing AIDS relief in Africa, as if that cancels each other out.

Fast forward 3 years and the economy under President Obama is largely stagnant. Unemployment is still over 8% despite reigning over one of the lowest participation rates in over 50 years. The housing market continues to flounder. The debt continues to skyrocket. And the president's best idea for a line of attack is to go after millionaires, as if it will fix anything. *

Any other incumbent president would be paying swift boaters under the table to smear his opponent with insidious lies, but instead he doesn't have to because his opponent this time around no longer houses Sam Beckett trying to correct America's course before trying to leap home, his opponent is an out and out dishonest man who has never worked a day in his life in fear of not making the rent or mortgage and it shows. His opponent has been forced to do mentsl, lingual, and damn near physical gymnastics after taking both sides of nearly every issue ever while describing himself as "resolute". His campaign clearly has no idea what they are doing and lacks one ounce of the GOP swagger jn messaging and controlling the argument. He is a liar and a scoundrel, and his seemingly only good quality is that he is a great family man. He is the worst presidential candidate possibly of all time, especially when you factor in the fact that if the GOP had a clean, articulate young candidate with a competent campaign manager, they would probably be favored by 3 or 4% points nationally on the back of a campaign about hope and change being just another scam by a failed presidency. They would run videos of Obama on loops proclaiming how he would close guantanomo bay, get Americans back to work and how lobbyists would have no place in his white house, etc.

Instead you have the worst possible nominee at the worst time for the party. The GOP is filled with clowns, and unfortunately the ones with the loudest voices are drowning out the voice of any sane moderates left in the party.

President Obama is incredibly lucky. Not in the sense of having both houses of Congress to back him up and allow him to pass whatever, but in the sense that he has no competent opposition for presidency for the second straight election.

It probably helps that he really just is a regular guy. Extremely intelligent and charismatic, sure, but regular. No uneasy creepiness like McCain and no emotionless fakeness like everything Mitt Romney has ever been or done.


*not saying any of this is necessarily his fault, but he is president while it happens, despite the fact that he has opposition at every turn.

Also, his senate opponent was a joke as well after his real opponent had to withdraw his candidacy due to a sex scandal.

 

[AlteredBeast]

Also, his senate opponent was a joke as well after his real opponent had to withdraw his candidacy due to a sex scandal.

I was going to mention that, too, but I already typed a crap ton on my phone and I was paranoid that it would freeze or close on me.

 

[PantherLotus]

Good post AB, but don't forget that the converse of your essential argument ("President Obama is blessed with really incompetent enemies") is at least partially true: President Obama makes his enemies look incompetent.

I mean, the whole cool customer thing is probably a bit overblown, but seriously, he's one of the most disciplined men in politics I've ever seen ('92 forward). Outside of some tangentially ridiculous stuff (Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Fast & Furious, Some continued/worsened Bush policies), the man has exactly zero real scandals. Clinton can't say that. Bush can't say that. McCain can't say that. Reagan couldn't say that. Romney is getting close to not being able to say that.

So he's extremely clean (not in the racist way, but in the political way), he's extremely disciplined, he rarely gets flustered or off message, he's obviously conciliatory even to his detriment with his own base, and he holds that impossible, razor-thin middle ground of safe and harmless dad of two teen/pre-teen daughters and fucking-ruthless Chicago-Style political savant with a knack for watching his enemies crumble around him with no apparent direct action on his part.

Shit's uncanny. Every one of his opponents that I can think of just completely loses it.

 

[AlteredBeast]

Good post AB, but don't forget that the converse of your essential argument ("President Obama is blessed with really incompetent enemies") is at least partially true: President Obama makes his enemies look incompetent.

I mean, the whole cool customer thing is probably a bit overblown, but seriously, he's one of the most disciplined men in politics I've ever seen ('92 forward). Outside of some tangentially ridiculous stuff (Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Fast & Furious, Some continued/worsened Bush policies), the man has exactly zero real scandals. Clinton can't say that. Bush can't say that. McCain can't say that. Reagan couldn't say that. Romney is getting close to not being able to say that.

So he's extremely clean (not in the racist way, but in the political way), he's extremely disciplined, he rarely gets flustered or off message, he's obviously conciliatory even to his detriment with his own base, and he holds that impossible, razor-thin middle ground of safe and harmless dad of two teen/pre-teen daughters and fucking-ruthless Chicago-Style political savant with a knack for watching his enemies crumble around him with no apparent direct action on his part.

Shit's uncanny. Every one of his opponents that I can think of just completely loses it.

Agreed on all counts.

 

[PantherLotus]

I don't even know what to add after that. I'm trying to imagine what an actual Obama scandal would look like. Outside of really over the top conspiracy theories where it would take 10 pages to connect the dots (...so we start with Geithner, right?"), what could possibly mar his record?

He's as clean a figure as we've seen in the last ... 50 years?

That's probably why every single thing these boneheads at Fox and in the bone-yards of conservative think tanks come up with looks and sounds so ridiculous (other than it being ridiculously thin, obtuse, absurd, silly...). Birth Certificates, Secret Muslim, Secret Marxist, Solyndra...

If you ask me, I think liberals have more valid complaints with his results, particularly the off-shore drilling thing in NC right before the BP spill, some of the civil liberties stuff, and some of the stuff mostly out of his control (not fighting harder for bigger stimulus, ACA, gay rights until recently, immigrant rights until recently, not insisting on holding Cheney/Bush/Wall-Street/Anyone accountable for anything, etc).

Everything conservatives have on him is either a philosophical difference trumped up and dressed in apocalyptic language or some seriously retarded bullshit, and mostly both at the same time.

 

[Aaron Strife]

I don't even know what to add after that. I'm trying to imagine what an actual Obama scandal would look like. Outside of really over the top conspiracy theories where it would take 10 pages to connect the dots (...so we start with Geithner, right?"), what could possibly mar his record?

He's as clean a figure as we've seen in the last ... 50 years?

That's probably why every single thing these boneheads at Fox and in the bone-yards of conservative think tanks come up with looks and sounds so ridiculous (other than it being ridiculously thin, obtuse, absurd, silly...). Birth Certificates, Secret Muslim, Secret Marxist, Solyndra...

If you ask me, I think liberals have more valid complaints with his results, particularly the off-shore drilling thing in NC right before the BP spill, some of the civil liberties stuff, and some of the stuff mostly out of his control (not fighting harder for bigger stimulus, ACA, gay rights until recently, immigrant rights until recently, not insisting on holding Cheney/Bush/Wall-Street/Anyone accountable for anything, etc).

Everything conservatives have on him is either a philosophical difference trumped up and dressed in apocalyptic language or some seriously retarded bullshit, and mostly both at the same time.

While we're on the love train that is Obama, he's also a damn shark when it comes to getting things done. Healthcare could have been better, stimulus could have been bigger, financial regulations could have been tougher, but the point is he got all of those done and then some while clowning the GOP, who has been fighting tooth and nail to prevent any of it from happening. The only political fight he "lost" was over the debt ceiling, and I put lost in quotation marks because the GOP split the damages. And while HCR wasn't a winner at first, John Roberts closed the deal and the public seems to be getting a better grasp on what's actually in it versus what GOP scare tactics have told them, and surprise of surprises, it's polling on even-to-positive grounds now.

Hell, the quasi-enforcement of the DREAM Act shows how Obama gets results in spite of Congress.

I think Obama's going to go all-out in his second term. There will be a serious attempt at tax and SS/medicare/medicaid reforms, coupled with the Jobs Act and a comprehensive immigration reform bill. It'll probably require some shrewd maneuvering if the GOP still holds the House, but it'll get done and he'll leave office as the president who turned the economy around, stabilized the debt, ended the wars, took a huge leap forward in enacting universal healthcare, and put Hispanics in the blue column for a generation.

And on January 20, 2017, at the swearing-in of President O'Malley, Barack Obama will be sitting there cool as a motherfucker.

 

[PhoenixDark]

This thread sure descended into delusion/knob slobbing, holy hell

I think Obama's going to go all-out in his second term. There will be a serious attempt at tax and SS/medicare/medicaid reforms, coupled with the Jobs Act and a comprehensive immigration reform bill. It'll probably require some shrewd maneuvering if the GOP still holds the House, but it'll get done and he'll leave office as the president who turned the economy around, stabilized the debt, ended the wars, took a huge leap forward in enacting universal healthcare, and put Hispanics in the Democratic column for a generation.

And how's he gonna do that with republicans controlling tee house. They won't pass anything with him outside of minor window dressing stuff.

 

[Aaron Strife]

This thread sure descended into delusion/knob slobbing, holy hell

Fuck, you're right. Time to get on the new bandwagon

And how's he gonna do that with republicans controlling tee house. They won't pass anything with him outside of minor window dressing stuff.

Easy, Democrats win back the House

 

[pigeon]

And how's he gonna do that with republicans controlling tee house. They won't pass anything with him outside of minor window dressing stuff.

This will just cause them to get marginalized further and their demographics shrink even more. Believe it or not, most Americans believe that the government should govern.

 

[PantherLotus]

You know something that won't get passed because of the tea party? Bush Tax Cut extensions!

WHOOPS

 

[Aaron Strife]

You know something that won't get passed because of the tea party? Bush Tax Cut extensions!

WHOOPS

Doing nothing pretty much takes care of the deficit on its own. Check one on my Dream Obama Second Term.

This will just cause them to get marginalized further and their demographics shrink even more. Believe it or not, most Americans believe that the government should govern.

I'm inclined to agree with this. If Obama wins a second term and Republicans hold the House, voters will have an expectation for them to work together, and whenever the question of "Who's cooperating more Obama or Republicans" is asked, Obama always wins.

And I think there are some Republicans who will care more about their own legacy rather than defeating Obama at that point who can maybe be coaxed along on some of his bigger initiatives.

 

[PantherLotus]

But the deficit isn't the problem. I'm glad defense gets the bulk of the hammer and taxes go up, but cutting spending is cutting jobs, and taxes going up on people that have either been laid off or haven't gotten raises in six years is a terrible, terrible thing.

The cuts need to be slimmed down and the tax increases need to be targeted. The ol' scalpel-not-an-axe idea that Obama originally professed.

 

[Aaron Strife]

But the deficit isn't the problem. I'm glad defense gets the bulk of the hammer and taxes go up, but cutting spending is cutting jobs, and taxes going up on people that have either been laid off or haven't gotten raises in six years is a terrible, terrible thing.

The cuts need to be slimmed down and the tax increases need to be targeted. The ol' scalpel-not-an-axe idea that Obama originally professed.

You're totally right, but I do think it's something that has to be dealt with down the road, and the baseline - Congress doing nothing - at least gets us most of the way there.

Wish that progressive caucus budget had a chance at passing.

 

[Measley]

If Dems don't take the House in 2012, they can take it back in 2014. Anyone thinking that American public is going to tolerate four more years of Tea Party B.S. are kidding themselves. Even the old guard Republicans within the House and Senate are getting tired of the Tea Party antics. I'm willing to bet that Boehner would prefer a more moderate Republican controlled House than the crazy group of Republicans he has now.

 

[Stinkles]

This thread sure descended into delusion/knob slobbing, holy hell



And how's he gonna do that with republicans controlling tee house. They won't pass anything with him outside of minor window dressing stuff.

delusion and knob slobbing. That's pretty low and personal. Come on. We are all better than that, including you. The thread direction was about comparing philosophy and action, not about hagiography - Obama has been fighting the most recalcitrant congress and senate in decades, against absolutely despicable, near treacherous obstruction from a bizarre pastiche of the former GOP and has still gotten stuff done. While I think it's pretty fucking pathetic that we as Americans are excited that we have a president who hasn't been in a financial or sexual scandal, it's still ultimately the best of a bad lot and that's what we as Americans need to start with before we get anywhere fucking close to something that's objectively good. The current path of unopposed right wing corporate control of democracy is fucked, so forgive us if we do our best, with our votes, to slow that.

Unless there's a magical suoercandidate we don't know about.

 

[Al-ibn Kermit]

I think the most rational explanation for the apparent aging of presidents is that most take the office at an age (early 50s) where aging is rapid.

I think people who take care of themselves can look fairly similar from age 30 all the way up to 50, if they're lucky; virtually everyone sees dramatic changes from 55-65.

I'm not saying that their hair never goes gray, but that it probably happens all at once at some artificial point.

Ronald Reagan was 70 when he took office and by the time he left, he still had totally black hair. And Mitt Romney is right now 65 and only has those two perfectly symmetrical white side-burns. Of course they dyed their hair.

 

[PantherLotus]

A few days old, but I love it when Taibbi brings the wood:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/romneys-free-stuff-speech-is-a-new-low-20120713

(snip)

That set of facts alone made the “free stuff” speech shockingly offensive. But the problem isn’t just that Romney’s wrong, and a hypocrite, and cynically furthering dangerous and irresponsible stereotypes in order to advance some harebrained electoral ploy involving white conservative voters. What makes it gross is the way he did it.

Romney can’t even be mean with any honesty. Even when he’s pandering to viciousness, ignorance and racism, it comes across like a scaly calculation. A guy who feels like he has to take a dump on the N.A.A.C.P. in Houston in order to connect with frustrated white yahoos everywhere else is a guy who has absolutely no social instincts at all. Someone like Jesse Helms at least had a genuine emotional connection with his crazy-mean-stupid audiences. But Mitt Romney has to think his way to the lowest common denominator, which is somehow so much worse.

Most presidents have something under the hood – wit, warmth, approachability, something. Even the most liberal football fan could enjoy watching an NFL game with George Bush. And even a Klansman probably would have found some of LBJ’s jokes funny. The biggest office in the world requires someone who buzzes with enough personality to fill the job, and most of them have it.

But Romney doesn’t buzz with anything. His vision of humanity is just a million tons of meat floating around in a sea of base calculations. He’s like a teenager who stays up all night thinking of a way to impress the prom queen, and what he comes up with is kicking a kid in a wheelchair. Instincts like those are probably what made him a great leveraged buyout specialist, but in a public figure? Man, is he a disaster. It’s really incredible theater, watching the Republicans talk themselves into this guy.

 

[Ecotic]

Romney looks like Bilbo Baggins at the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring, someone's whose youth has been artificially stretched beyond its natural limits (by the unnatural Mormon lifestyle). Ice milk and vitamin C(hurch) do wonders apparently.

 

[PhoenixDark]

A few days old, but I love it when Taibbi brings the wood:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/romneys-free-stuff-speech-is-a-new-low-20120713

Someone should ask Romney if his 100k salary from Bain in 99-02 constitutes as free stuff since he wasn't doing any work there

 

[The Chosen One]

I hope Romney enjoyed it while it lasted because he'll never again be able to sing America the Beautiful in public again. At least not without the entire audience having involuntary imaginary of Romney outsourcing and hiding secret money in island tax shelters. That ad is cold blooded...wow. Even though it wasn't over-produced or had any gratuitous special effects, it actually comes off like a horror movie at the end just by gradually giving Romney's singing an echo along with the desolate imagery.

Anyway, if Obama wins this November, he'll get about a 6-8 month "mandate" assuming he can win by at least 3-4 points in the popular vote. During that time, Republicans will have to give at least the appearance they're working with him, so Obama should be able to pass some modest agenda items.

And yes, if the Republicans retain the House in this '12 election, no way they'll keep it in '14 if they continue not to pass anything meaningful. Either Republicans will be forced to do some governing between now and '14 or the Dems will take power then in the House and Obama can go buck wild in his final two years.

Besides in a couple of years, there will be a lot less grassroots energy to obstruct Obama at every turn. I'm sure in a couple of years, GOPers will be more concerned with quashing potential Obama successors and finding their new white hope. Just look at most Dems between '06 - '08. During that period even though many of them still hated Bush on some level, they mostly became apathetic toward him and were looking to the future. If you remember a lot of the cries for impeachment gradually faded away during this time and all energy was put forth in getting a Dem in the White House in '08.

 

[codhand]

A few days old, but I love it when Taibbi brings the wood:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/romneys-free-stuff-speech-is-a-new-low-20120713

dayum Taibbi don't hurt em

 

[teiresias]

Someone should ask Romney if his 100k salary from Bain in 99-02 constitutes as free stuff since he wasn't doing any work there

My fantasy is that this is posed as debate question . . . the pandering, worthless press doesn't have the balls to ask it though.

 

[Manmademan]

What would you call it then?

He runs for President of the world's most powerful nation only a few years after becoming a Junior Senator, riding the coattails of a few speeches he made in front of partisan audiences.

His opponent after winning the nomination was the worst since Mondale or Dukakis...

whoa whoa...aren't we skipping over "incredibly hard fought primary with a well funded Hillary Clinton?" I'm not sure i can chalk that one down to luck. Part of that was insane levels of charisma and epic speeches, but the Obama primary campaign was simply flat out better run than Hillary Clinton's. Any other candidate would have been steamrolled. She was the presumptive nominee going in, and even with the mistakes made, Clinton ran a good campaign overall.

But yes, I agree that once the primary was done, "any democrat" would have won the office no matter which republican was the opponent. Mitt wouldn't have done any better than McCain to be honest. But even if we look at the general election, Obama embraced a true 50 state strategy that put previously out of play states (north carolina, virginia, indiana) in his column, and has the GOP on the defensive where they never thought they'd be. His campaign legitimately expanded the electoral map in a way that Clinton's team did not and would not have, and that's paying dividends in 2012. This is not luck, this is strategy.

Fast forward 3 years and the economy under President Obama is largely stagnant. Unemployment is still over 8% despite reigning over one of the lowest participation rates in over 50 years. The housing market continues to flounder. The debt continues to skyrocket. And the president's best idea for a line of attack is to go after millionaires, as if it will fix anything. *

Disagree with you here. The economy was in epic levels of collapse in Q4 2008 and Q1 2009. The US economy lost nearly a million jobs in one month alone (January 08 by itself was over 800,000 jobs lost) and at the highest point, unemployment was at double digits.

And this isn't just a US problem. This was a worldwide economic collapse. Europe is fucked to an even greater degree, and the crisis there is dragging down the economy despite there being fuck all we can do about it.

The fact that we're back to 8% unemployment and in a slow recovery is a miracle, given that congressional republicans aren't just "not helping", they're doing their best to collapse the economy outright by holding the debt ceiling hostage for no good reason.

And this is luck? Obama is lucky to have an obstructionist congress willing to wreck the economy over insane ideological grounds? No, obama made a mistake in trying to bargain and compromise with republicans who had no interest in actually governing during most of his first term. I don't think anyone disagrees with that. That being said, His best line of attack recently (and the point where his approval began recovery) was not "running against millionaires", but running against a dysfunctional congress, and using executive orders to get things done since congress is unwilling to act.

President Obama is incredibly lucky. Not in the sense of having both houses of Congress to back him up and allow him to pass whatever, but in the sense that he has no competent opposition for presidency for the second straight election.

It probably helps that he really just is a regular guy. Extremely intelligent and charismatic, sure, but regular. No uneasy creepiness like McCain and no emotionless fakeness like everything Mitt Romney has ever been or done.

Someone beat me to it, but this isn't luck. Obama is incredibly disciplined. Part of the reason he has no reasonable opposition is that it's impossible to attack him personally, or the decisions of his administration with a legitimate argument. One could argue that things could be done differently, but you can't claim the man is outright fucking up like Bush II, Selling arms for hostages like Reagan, breaking campaign promises like Bush I (Read my lips...), or lying under oath like Clinton. Most of the attacks against him have been reduced to insane right wing birther nonsense, and because of this NO COMPETENT REPUBLICANS HAD ANY DESIRE TO RUN AGAINST HIM. Competent republicans do exist, and they all bowed out. They're also staying as far away as they possibly can from the Romney VP slot for the same reason.

I freely admit there are some points where the man legitimately lucked out (Bin Laden raid, Health Care decision) and things went his way for no good reason, but look at the pattern here- at some point you have to realize this isn't luck, this is a skilled politician who makes it look easier than it really is.

 

[cartoon_soldier]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/15/mitt-romney-bain-capital_n_1674209.html

A corporate document filed with the state of Massachusetts in December 2002 -- a month after Romney was elected governor -- lists him as one of two managing members of Bain Capital Investors, LLC "authorized to execute, acknowledge, deliver and record any recordable instrument purporting to affect an interest in real property, whether to be recorded with a Registry of Deeds or with a District Office of the Land Court."

 

[Loudninja]

Gillespie On Romney’s Leave Of Absence: ‘It Was Not Part Time

Romney senior adviser Ed Gillespie said that documents saying Mitt Romney was said to be taking a part-time leave of absence from Bain Capital to run the Olympics do not describe the reality of what happened on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday.

“You know there may have been a thought at the time that it could be part time. It was not part time,” Gillespie said. “The Olympics was in a shambles.”

Gillespie also cited former SEC chairman Harvey Pitt as saying that it’s “standard procedure for someone who still has the shares to sign the SEC form even if you’re not making the day to day decisions and you’ve taken a leave of absence.”

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/gillespie-on-romneys-leave-of-absence-it-was

So much spin today already.

 

[Manmademan]

Gillespie On Romney’s Leave Of Absence: ‘It Was Not Part Time


http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/gillespie-on-romneys-leave-of-absence-it-was

So much spin today already.

Amusing that Romney is simultaneously trying to run on his record at Bain as CEO, while running the hell away from it and claiming that being named as CEO doesn't mean he actually did any work

 

[Hitokage]

...Obama embraced a true 50 state strategy that put previously out of play states (north carolina, virginia, indiana) in his column, and has the GOP on the defensive where they never thought they'd be. His campaign legitimately expanded the electoral map in a way that Clinton's team did not and would not have, and that's paying dividends in 2012. This is not luck, this is strategy.

 

[Black Republican]

how u could u people laugh at romney being sent to die like this?:-(

gop set him up

 

[Manmademan]

deanscream.gif

can't tell if you're agreeing or disagreeing with me there- I'm aware dean was the "author" of the 50 state strategy.

 

[Plinko]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/15/mitt-romney-bain-capital_n_1674209.html

This is hilarious.

The next 3 1/2 months are going to be hilarious.

 

[codhand]

This is hilarious.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/barack-obama-names-alan-moore-official-white-house,6960/

 

[Tim-E]

I wish there was a way to watch a live feed of the people at Romney headquarters freaking the fuck out over the last week. I'll bet that office has been in constant hysteria.

 

[Omiee]

Havent been following us politics since the republican primaries. But is this the first time during the election obama chose the attack?

http://www.telegraaf.nl/buitenland/12564143/__Obama_basht_Romney__.html

Pretty good add if u ask me.

Really hope obama can stay in office. A republican in the white house with a republican congress is not something most of the world wants. I bet war with iran would be one of his first things to do as president.

 

[Tim-E]

Havent been following us politics since the republican primaries. But is this the first time during the election obama chose the attack?

Obama has pretty much been on constant offense the entire last two months, with Romney's camp doing little more than responding, responding, responding without much room to make the narrative their own.

 

[Omiee]

Obama has pretty much been on constant offense the entire last two months, with Romney's camp doing little more than responding, responding, responding without much room to make the narrative their own.

When can we expect the debates to start? I bet obama would wipe the floor with romney.

I hope they have at least 4 debates.

 

[RustyNails]

how u could u people laugh at romney being sent to die like this?:-(

gop set him up

They're just clearing the way for the Huckabee/Christie 2016 ticket. Cue fat jokes.

 

[Manmademan]

When can we expect the debates to start? I bet obama would wipe the floor with romney.

I hope they have at least 4 debates.

nah. the major networks are too spineless to actually set up the difficult questions to really grill romney. Expect plenty of softballs all around

 

[Tim-E]

When can we expect the debates to start? I bet obama would wipe the floor with romney.

I hope they have at least 4 debates.

The schedule is:
First
October 3, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado
Vice presidential
October 11, Centre College, Danville, Kentucky
Second (town-meeting format)
October 16, Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York
Third
October 22, Lynn University, Boca Raton, Florida

Romney doesn't respond well to pressure when he's going to be forced to answer something he's not particularly comfortable with. He's based his entire candidacy on his experience at Bain, and now he's dodgy when talking about his history there. He also can't trumpet his governor because he basically created the state version of the national legislation that republicans hate with everything in them.

They should be particularly hilarious.

 

[Loudninja]

They have excuses for everything dont they?

Former Bain Manager: Romney’s Departure Took Years Because It Was Complex Process

“It took several years for us to sort out how to put the management team in place—there was a management team in place already—but for example we had to negotiate with Mitt because he was an owner of the firm, he’d created a lot of franchise value, and we were going to pay him for that,” said Conard. “We had to recognize that other partners would leave, senior partners would leave over time; that whatever we did for him was going to be reflected in what we did for everyone else who left the firm. And we had a very complicated set of negotiations that took us about two years to unwind.”

Conard also confirmed that Romney was absent from Bain between 1999 and 2002 even though his name remained on SEC filings. “It was ten years ago, so can I remember every single meeting? No,” he said. “But I remember that Mitt was gone. We had a management team that was working hard to manage the company

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.c...-manager-romneys-departure-took-years-because

Everything is the Olympics fault apparently.

 

[Tim-E]

"But we still decided to pay him for three years worth of work even though he totally didn't do any, despite his signature being all over documents from 1999 to 2002. That was a long time ago and I don't remember if that was Mitt at those meetings or not! You'll have to excuse my dodgy memory!"

 

[Chumly]

So if Romney didn't do anything then he was paid for doing nothing. Hard to argue you deserve tax cuts for doing nothing when most people will never earn that much in a year.

 

[Hitokage]

can't tell if you're agreeing or disagreeing with me there- I'm aware dean was the "author" of the 50 state strategy.

Celebrating!

 

[Tim-E]

I think if Romney had released his tax returns in the primaries the problems he would have with them wouldn't be too severe this far into it. But now that he's being successfully defined as an out of touch CEO who doesn't care to outsource or fire people and as a guy who dodges paying his already low American taxes by funneling his money into offshore accounts, I think he's entered "damned if you do, damned if you don't" territory with them. I don't think people are going to stop calling for these to be released at this point and with him constantly dodging the point it just makes it look so much worse for him when it's customary for candidates to release them. If he released them now, they likely would provide enough ammo to strongly reinforce his piss poor image for the rest of the campaign.

 

[Dude Abides]

Romney really handed Obama a gift with this idiotic response to the offshoring attacks. He should have just said Obama hates capitalism or something. That wouldn't have hurt him - Romney the corporate dbag is aleady baked in. Instead he denies it and now he looks like a liar, which is much worse and cements his image as a phony.

If this were 2008 we'd be hearing nonsense about 25 dimensional chess, but it's clear that the Romney campaign is simply incompetent.

 

[cartoon_soldier]

I think if Romney had released his tax returns in the primaries the problems he would have with them wouldn't be too severe this far into it. But now that he's being successfully defined as an out of touch CEO who doesn't care to outsource or fire people and as a guy who dodges paying his already low American taxes by funneling his money into offshore accounts, I think he's entered "damned if you do, damned if you don't" territory with them. I don't think people are going to stop calling for these to be released at this point and with him constantly dodging the point it just makes it look so much worse for him when it's customary for candidates to release them. If he released them now, they likely would provide enough ammo to strongly reinforce his piss poor image for the rest of the campaign.

I think at this point most people realize there is something in those tax returns Romney doesn't want people to see.

TPM put it nicely, the only people who really know how good or bad it will be is McCain's team since they have seen 28 years worth. And Steve Schmidt said back in January that Romney shouldn't release them.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2012/07/romneys_big_tax_return_tell.php

He shouldn`t release information that disadvantages himself and opens up a lot of attacks.

So if Romney didn't do anything then he was paid for doing nothing. Hard to argue you deserve tax cuts for doing nothing when most people will never earn that much in a year.

It is fucking mind boggling that none of the networks asked Romney about the 100k.

Also, Obama's Firms ad is at 500k+ views.

 

[Tim-E]

It is fucking mind boggling that none of the networks asked Romney about the 100k.

I'm assuming that Romney's team set up some really soft rules that the networks had to follow before allowing Mitt to be interviewed by them. He never does interviews outside of conservative circles, so I imagine that they were willing to do whatever to get him on because it's a rarity for them to get anything.

 

[MonkeyKing]

I hope Romney enjoyed it while it lasted because he'll never again be able to sing America the Beautiful in public again. At least not without the entire audience having involuntary imaginary of Romney outsourcing and hiding secret money in island tax shelters. That ad is cold blooded...wow. Even though it wasn't over-produced or had any gratuitous special effects, it actually comes off like a horror movie at the end just by gradually giving Romney's singing an echo along with the desolate imagery.

Anyway, if Obama wins this November, he'll get about a 6-8 month "mandate" assuming he can win by at least 3-4 points in the popular vote. During that time, Republicans will have to give at least the appearance they're working with him, so Obama should be able to pass some modest agenda items.

And yes, if the Republicans retain the House in this '12 election, no way they'll keep it in '14 if they continue not to pass anything meaningful. Either Republicans will be forced to do some governing between now and '14 or the Dems will take power then in the House and Obama can go buck wild in his final two years.

Besides in a couple of years, there will be a lot less grassroots energy to obstruct Obama at every turn. I'm sure in a couple of years, GOPers will be more concerned with quashing potential Obama successors and finding their new white hope. Just look at most Dems between '06 - '08. During that period even though many of them still hated Bush on some level, they mostly became apathetic toward him and were looking to the future. If you remember a lot of the cries for impeachment gradually faded away during this time and all energy was put forth in getting a Dem in the White House in '08.

Thats reasonable....but I don't agree. I think the GOP will be just as obstructionist as they've been all along, if not more so. You don't spend four years demonizing a guy then turn around and start making compromises with him. How could they? They've been calling the guy everything under the sun except for his name. He's a radical Marxist, he hates America....hell he might not even be eligible for the office in the first place! How do they back down from that rhetoric and start working with him? Can't do it and they don't want to.

What will happen is, Romney will be blamed for the loss. It won't be that Obama "won" the election, it will be that the GOP lost it by running a bad candidate (which has some truth in it). The ideology isn't at fault, nor is the party or it's tactics. They just didn't have the right guy. Romney wasn't conservative enough.

The 2014 campaign begins immediately after the 2012 election, so the GOP will dig in its heels and prepare for the next round. Over time, I've come to realize that the "election" is never over. There is no break from one campaign to the next, there is no period where things are settled and we get down to business. The GOP will make courtesy noises about working together, then they will stake out unreasonably positions and announce that the other side is too radical to work with.

 

[Tamanon]

I'm assuming that Romney's team set up some really soft rules that the networks had to follow before allowing Mitt to be interviewed by them. He never does interviews outside of conservative circles, so I imagine that they were willing to do whatever to get him on because it's a rarity for them to get anything.

I would hope no network would do that. If there's one group of people that shouldn't have interview rules it's politicians.