Wednesday Open Thread [3.21.12]
Mitt Romney is your nominee. Or then again maybe not. The sound of the celebrations of the Republcan side is …. is….. deafeningly quiet. I would more describe it as a half interested groan. Even though Mitt Romney has no real meaningful opposition, he may still fail to capture a majority of the delegates until June, unless of course Santorum and Gingrich drop out and endorse Romney now, and that is not going to happen. So given that, I would have to say Mitt Romney is the weakest presidential nominee on the Republican side since Wendell Wilkie.
REPUBLICAN PRIMARY – PRESIDENT
NATIONAL (Gallup Tracking): Romney 34, Santorum 30, Gingrich 13, Paul 10
LOUISIANA (Magellan–R): Santorum 37, Romney 24, Gingrich 21, Perry 3, Paul 3, Roemer 3, Bachmann 2, Huntsman 1
An interesting tidbit from a PPP poll:
Q: Has the Republican presidential primary given you a more favorable or less favorable impression of the Republican Party, or has it not made a difference?
More favorable: 14
Less favorable: 57
No difference: 26
Not sure: 2
GENERAL ELECTION – PRESIDENT
NATIONAL (Rasmussen Tracking): Obama d. Romney (46-45); Obama d. Santorum (48-43)
NEVADA (Rasmussen): Obama d. Romney (50-44); Obama d. Santorum (52-36)/ If Obama is winning Nevada by this much in a Rasmussen poll, then Nevada is no longer a swing state. It is a safe blue state.
VIRGINIA (Quinnipiac): Obama d. Romney (50-42); Obama d. Santorum (49-40); Obama d. Paul (49-39); Obama d. Gingrich (54-35). And Virginia is starting to look like a safe blue state as well.
GENERAL ELECTION – U.S. SENATE
MASSACHUSETTS (PPP): Elizabeth Warren (D) d. Sen. Scott Brown (R), 46-41
VIRGINIA (Quinnipiac): Tim Kaine (D) d. Fmr. Sen. George Allen (R), 47-44.
Not much news there. Ok, name the Author and the Subject. And no, Joe Biden was not quite this bad. But he was a Democrat.
“He is as rotten a human being as can be found anywhere under the flag; he is a shame to the American nation, and no one has helped to send him to the Senate who did not know that his proper place was the penitentiary, with a ball and chain on his legs. To my mind he is the most disgusting creature that the republic has produced since Tweed’s time.” Hint: this is preWW1
@walt “Not much news there.”
I’m not so sure, This one is a huge turnaround. Brown has had a bad week.
MASSACHUSETTS (PPP): Elizabeth Warren (D) d. Sen. Scott Brown (R), 46-41
This race will be a barnburner with $$millions to spend. Perhaps it will be the most expensive Senate race in history. Warren is such an anathema to the GOP, expect to see many happenings.
No, it wasn’t Senator Scott Brown. The Subject was William Andrews Clark, Sr. And the Author was Mark Twain. Read it again. It’s as fine as American English prose get.
Thank you to the Delaware women’s basketball team for taking us with you this season on your magical ride. They have been great ambassadors for the state.
A top tweet on dkos right now:
Our old friend Ginger Gibson makes the big time.
Holy Moly! If you haven’t seen this bit of genius jourmalism on dKos, run right over. And put down any liquids before watching the video.
Conservatives with cameras get their full metal ignorant on — this time trying to corner Bono for some bit of perceived hypocrisy. And guess what? It wasn’t even Bono!
Are you SURE Breitbart is dead?
try this one on for size – who says the GOP isn’t the American Taliban??
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/15/1074724/-Violence-Against-Women-Act-and-Senate-Republicans-Battered-women-leave-us-alone-
and Please sign the petition if you have not done so already…THX
Ginrich recently said romney is a weak front runner, romneys response, what does that make ginrich. Iwill say the same thing to delaware dem, if romney is a weak front runner, and him and president obama are close in most polls, what does that make president obama.
It makes Romney an Etch-A-Sketch!
This may be my favorite RMoney campaign gaffe ever.
@Rusty–Obama is a big disappointment to most liberals, but he’s still a much better choice than anyone on the Republican slate.
@Aoine–
Why should someone who is guilty of “Violence Against Women” suffer a harsher punishment that someone guilty of violence against a man?
Should an abusive lesbian woman in a relationship w/ her victim be held to the same standard as a straight couple where the man is the abuser?
@anon40 “Why should someone who is guilty of “Violence Against Women” suffer a harsher punishment that someone guilty of violence against a man?”
The VAWA is mainly a series of program to help women who’ve been subjected to violence. It’s not about punishment.
Thank you LE – and VAWA also covers same gender couples as well as men
and you are correct – VAWA is programs/plans etc to help victims of abuse – as well as programs to correct the habits of the abuser to help maintain nuclear families
so for all those “family values” folks – try reading up on stuff before you comment – because your comments remove all doubt that you are indeed as ignorant as you seem.
Pandora, why is this your favorite campaign gaffe, please explain
It’s the perfect gaffe, Rusty, because it’s true and feeds into every fear Conservatives have about Mittens.
This is the hands-down, undisputed world champion of political gaffes. The only thing that would have made a little better would have been if Romney had said it himself instead of his chief campaign strategist.
Pandora, you, and the dnc, and the msm, all misinterpret these remarks. what eric meant was that the romney campaign would completely reorganize for the general, instead of state to state, whole country, etc, ect. Romneys policy positions will remain the same, conservative. I know that is like a foreign language to you guys, so you probably dont understand. So I will explain it a simpler way.
1. Gop primary, get 1144 delagates.
2. Shake the etch a sketch
3. Win 270 votes in the general election
@Rd “Romneys policy positions will remain the same…”
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA !!!!!
or by “same” do you mean “without moral conviction” or “inconsistent”?
You’re truly gullible, Rusty. That’s the spin they tried to put on it afterwards, but everybody heard what he said, and it isn’t what you’re claiming.
You really have to learn not to be so trusting, or you’ll find yourself ripped off by Republicans/conservatives the rest of your life.
Don’t take my word for it, Rusty. Here’s the WaPo’s Chris Cillizza on it:
“All political gaffes are not created equal.
Some come to define campaigns, others disappear in a single news cycle (or sometimes less).
So what differentiates the gaffes that enter campaign folklore from those that even the most committed political junkies struggle to recall even a few weeks after they happen?
It’s actually a relatively simple answer: Gaffes that matter are those that speak to a larger narrative about a candidate or a doubt/worry that voters already have about that particular candidate.”
It’s actually a relatively simple answer: Gaffes that matter are those that speak to a larger narrative about a candidate or a doubt/worry that voters already have about that particular candidate.”
Spot on. David Plouffe couldn’t come up with a better analogy. Ohio Art, the makers of Etch a Sketch, saw it shares more than double on Thursday. I expect to see these symbolic toys (which still make great birthday gifts) at every campaign rally until Election day.
This is not going away anytime soon.