Wednesday Open Thread [9.19.12]
Mark Halperin: “Make no mistake, the President still has a major and vital advantage in the Electoral College. For Mitt Romney to win, he is going to need to triumph in states where he is now behind and even some local Republicans say victory seems a reach. Given recent state public and private polling, it is worth asking: Can Romney get to 270 without winning Ohio or Virginia, two states previously thought of as must-wins, but where Obama seems to have a solid lead.”
Peggy Noonan: “I think there is a broad and growing feeling now, among Republicans, that this thing is slipping out of Romney’s hands.”
Mark McKinnon: “I’ve been asked how Romney turns things around at this point. I’ve been a consistent voice warning against writing off his campaign in September. Because I’ve been there before when people wrote off the Bush campaign in 2000. But, now I honestly don’t know what Romney can do to win support from the voters he needs to gain a majority. I thought the debates would be an opportunity, but he has dug his hole so deeply now, I don’t know if he can pull himself out. Does he get up and say, ‘I was just kidding. I don’t see half of America as victims. I just needed to raise some money, and I got a little carried away talking to the 1 percent.'”
Clint Eastwood: “If somebody is dumb enough to ask me to go to political convention and say something, they’re gonna have to take what they get.”
And here is the entire full length video that Mittens so stupidly requested.
Jonathan Chait: ‘…the video exposes an authentic Romney as a far more sinister character than I had imagined. Here is the sneering plutocrat, fully in thrall to a series of pernicious myths that are at the heart of the mania that has seized his party. He believes that market incomes in the United States are a perfect reflection of merit. Far from seeing his own privileged upbringing as the private-school educated son of an auto executive-turned-governor as an obvious refutation of that belief, Romney cites his own life, preposterously, as a confirmation of it. (“I have inherited nothing. Everything I earned I earned the old fashioned way.”) …The revelations in this video come to me as a genuine shock. I have never hated Romney. I presumed his ideological makeover since he set out to run for president was largely phony, even if he was now committed to carry through with it, and to whatever extent he’d come to believe his own lines, he was oblivious or naïve about the damage he would inflict upon the poor, sick, and vulnerable. It seems unavoidable now to conclude that Romney’s embrace of Paul Ryanism is born of actual contempt for the looters and moochers, a class war on behalf of his own class.’
The conservative Weekly Standard: “Plenty of conservatives are pushing back against the worldview espoused by Mitt Romney in his “arrogant and stupid’ remarks at a private fundraiser earlier this year.
The conservative case against Romney’s analysis is multi-pronged. His description of the 47 percent who don’t pay income taxes as “dependents” flies in the face of the conservative view that Americans should be paying fewer, not more, taxes. And historically, most Americans have not paid income taxes. Moreover, most of those who don’t pay income taxes still contribute to the federal government in the form of payroll taxes and other federal taxes and fees. The political argument, that those who are “dependents” won’t be voting for Romney anyway, is demonstrably wrong, and the content and tone of Romney’s remarks don’t strike many conservatives (and others) as particularly presidential.”
Indeed.
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20120919/NEWS02/309190039/Constable-plan-gives-NCCo-Council-pause?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Home|s
Looks like Navarro wants the NCC Sheriffs and Deputies commissioned as Constables.
I can’t imagine how Obama wins Virginia, but there it is. Surely Romney will pull it out by carpet bombing Virginia with attack ads about coal or gay marriage or something. Even if Romney still loses, an attack campaign might help George Allen. Obama needs to run up the score in VA to beat Allen.
Puck, why do you say that? He won it in 2008, by 6 points. And Obama has been consistently leading in most Virginia polls all year long. And not by 1 point, but by several points, and now, in the latest poll, by 8 points. Virginia has drastically changed demographically in the last 20 years.
I can understand you saying that about Indiana and North Carolina, where Obama’s wins in 2008 were by the slimmest of margins. But, and repeat this aloud after me please: VIRGINIA IS NOW A BLUE STATE.
Well, I just have an image of VA as a deeply conservative state with regional polarization. A state that is vulnerable to high GOP turnout and soft Dem turnout. I guess I’ll have to pay more attention.
I haven’t followed it on a technical level but in 2010 VA Republicans picked up 3 Congressional seats, and this year George Freaking Allen was running ahead or even with Kaine until just today, and is still within striking distance (although Kaine has momentum). That’s not the behavior of a blue state. I did just learn that their legislature is heavily blue though, even after losing seats in 2010, so that’s something.
Puck: Lots of blue states lost House seats in 2010, in part because several Blue Dog Democrats lost to actual Republicans. Look at the bozos currently running Pennsylvania, for example.
My bad – VA state house is not blue; Senate is 20-20 and GOP controls House, along with a Repub governor.
http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Virginia_General_Assembly
Indeed. Once and a while, the other party wins in a blue state. Maryland is indisputably blue. But it elected a Republican Governor in 2002. Did that mean it became a red state instantly.
There is no doubt anywhere on this planet or on Mars that Illinois is a blue state. It elected a Republican to the Senate and nearly elected a Republican as Governor.
Hawaii, freaking Hawaii, had a Republican Governor from 2002-2010.
No, what I am talking about is presidential year demographics. And on the presidential level, Virginia just might become as reliably blue as Pennsylvania.
voter suppression voter suppression voter suppression. In Ohio, almost 800,000 people (the moochers) will have their voting rights challenged by the Teahadis…. that is enough to give the state to Romney. Its also happening in PA, VA, WI, Fl……. all those swing states. I can see a way Romney wins…. sorry… gets to be president, and it will make Bushie’s first term seem totally legitimate.
We still have one Republican senator – yeah, I’m looking at you Tom Carper.
If a Republican wins the Presidency through voter suppression, surely he will understand he is the last Republican president, at least under our current system of democracy. That is a sobering thought.
In some ways Bush already was that president. He won via voter suppression, and then changed democracy by appointing judges who gave us the Citizens United decision. Next time it might be a bolder move.
not that it’ll stop them from trying
Sussexwatcher and I agreed to disagree a couple of days ago about how accepting of gays the town of Milton is. It was and is my contention that the Milton area is not as “gay friendly” as Lewes and Rehoboth are. Maybe the town of Milton has gotten more comfortable with gay people, but I’m not sold that the “Milton area” is. I don’t want to extrapolate too far from this one example, but I have to share a story about my brother in law, who lives just outside of Milton. All through the primary season his front yard sported three Marie Mayor signs. He had a bunch of nice things to say about her. Then he found out she was gay. I just drove by his house, and in his yard now is a Steve Smyk sign, as well as a Lopez sign. Like I said, this is just one example, but I suspect it has played out in more than one location around Milton. There are a lot of Smyk signs as you drive out of town on Cave Neck Road. I’ll also guarantee that Smyk is going to pick up close to 100% of Lynn Rogers’ supporters, not that that is saying much given his dismal showing in the primary. I think Mayor is going to need to win the Lewes area big time in order to stand a chance to win the seat.
Please don’t tell him that Obama is black.
Alan Grayson apparently immolates himself again, by making unsubstantiated claims against his opponent. Grayson demonstrates once again the fine line between genius and insanity. (Note: All the links in his post go to his fundraising page).
I was just putting a pot of rice on for dinner when I heard on the radio about arsenic in rice.
it’s all about quinoa, my friend.
Such a group of bitter little libbie, Etom’s. Isn’t it time go have your food stamp cards renewed?
Sounds like Grayson hit it out of the park to me. Long’s ex-wife described him as “very abusive” in the divorce proceedings. And the first link goes to the CBS report on it. I still don’t understand why everyone freaks out when a Democrat is willing to fight as hard as his opponent.
you’re right rockland….. actually i think im getting my next weekly handout directly from your retirement account. Im gonna use to to pay for my big gay wedding!
hey rockland …food stamps are a Republican program if you don’t like them vote Democratic
Ok, Rockland, I’ll bite. What the hell is “Etom’s”? Also, it’s fascinating that you call us “bitter”, yet you drop in just to issue playground taunts because we noted that your candidate is losing. I’m curious, what level of personal satisfaction do you get from this childish behavior, and why aren’t you able to find it when speaking with people you respect?
“…and why aren’t you able to find it when speaking with people you respect?”
Lots of Republicans have “respect” beaten into them when young, and thus it’s not a real thing… only feigned. Respect that is demanded by a parent and not truly earned is always feigned.
I’ll bet he doesn’t even respect himself… because he’s never truly earned it.
“Lots of Republicans have “respect” beaten into them when young, and thus it’s not a real thing”- maybe, but lots don’t too!
“Lots” of Americans confuse respect with fear, regardless of political affiliation.
NCC Council rejects Janet Kilpatrick’s Get Off Of My Lawn ordinance.