Rick Perry vs. Barack Obama

[Winstonm]

Dear Rick Santorum:

 

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/NAWRL.jpg

[Winstonm]

MARQUETTE, Mich. (AP) — The question of whether Mitt Romney is conservative insane enough to deserve the Republican presidential nomination regained center stage in the GOP contest Sunday, with Rick Santorum saying the former Massachusetts governor fails the test.

 

There, Rick, FIFY.

[y66]

Who you gonna call?

 

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/02/29/opinion/022912krugman1/022912krugman1-blog480.jpg

 

Source: Krugman

[Winstonm]

Onion.com "Romney Thanks State He Was Born And Raised In For Just Barely Giving Him Enough Votes To Beat Total Maniac"

 

http://o.onionstatic.com/images/articles/article/27/27496/ROMNEY_THANKS-R_jpg_630x1200_upscale_q85.jpg

[kenberg]

Listening to the news (always a danger to the mind) I gather that exit polls show that "best candidate for beating Obama" is now pretty much the way people explain their choice of Romney. This is a sad state of affairs. The Republican Party will be running a candidate that they neither like nor trust in the hope that he can beat someone they hate. What a way to live.

[Winstonm]

More from that hit new comedy show: Rick Santorum for President!

 

Campaigning across Ohio this weekend, the former Pennsylvania senator has been calling for fewer children born out of wedlock and fewer single-parent families.

 

Now, this line isn't particularly funny unless you understand that the main character thinks it is immoral and sinful to use condoms, contraceptives, or to masturbate.

 

This leaves a last case scenario of young adult men holding in their seaman until they finally swell and explode. "That spot. Oh, that's where St. Johnny exploded."

[kenberg]

More from that hit new comedy show: Rick Santorum for President!

 

 

 

Now, this line isn't particularly funny unless you understand that the main character thinks it is immoral and sinful to use condoms, contraceptives, or to masturbate.

 

This leaves a last case scenario of young adult men holding in their seaman until they finally swell and explode. "That spot. Oh, that's were St. Johnny exploded."

 

 

Sorry to mention this, but the funny part is "holding in their seaman". Tom Lehrer addressed this in Be Prepared.

Yeah, I know, a bit gross.

[kenberg]

This morning George Will in

http://www.washingtonpost.com/todays_paper?dt=2012-03-04&bk=A&pg=23

more or less (mostly more) conceded that the Republicans have been unable to find a candidate that anyone can envision living in the White House. His plan B, as he calls it, is to take control of the Senate and keep control of the House. Apparently he is distraught by the fact that despite Republican's best efforts, once in a long while something actually gets done in Washington. Gotta fix that.

 

Me, I might think that if my party was unable to come up with a viable presidential candidate maybe we should rethink our fundamentals before trying to take control of anything.

[PassedOut]

His plan B, as he calls it, is to take control of the Senate and keep control of the House. Apparently he is distraught by the fact that despite Republican's best efforts, once in a long while something actually gets done in Washington. Gotta fix that.

I found in this a nice, but all-too-rare, counterpoint: The House intelligence committee: A rare example of bipartisanship

 

The House intelligence committee used to be one of the meanest snake pits in Congress, a place where members were so busy sniping at each other that they failed to provide effective oversight of the intelligence community. It was a model of what was wrong with Washington.

 

Amazingly enough, the committee has found its way out of the wilderness under a new chairman and ranking Democrat, Reps. Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican, and C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, who is from Maryland’s 2nd District. With their leadership, the House has approved intelligence-authorization bills by lopsided, bipartisan margins the past two fiscal years, after many years when the committee was too divided to pass such legislation.

 

“Rogers and Ruppersberger have made bipartisanship work,” says Gen. Mike Hayden, a former CIA director who struggled with the old, dysfunctional system. Back then, he recalls, “the committee was just wild — incredibly contentious and highly politicized. They have worked hard to get it back to business.”

More like congress used to work in the pre-Gingrich days...

[Winstonm]

In more bad news for the Republicans, it appears the economy is getting better, to boot...humor from Andy Borowitz:

 

BOROWITZ: In Positive Economic Sign, Republicans Starting to Say Obama Wasn’t Born in US Again

 

S & P Birther Index Posts Big Gains

 

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) – In what some experts are calling a strong indicator of improvement in the economy, Republicans in recent weeks have begun renewing their claims that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.

 

While most economists agree that any significant improvement in the US economy is generally accompanied by an uptick in GOP questions about Mr. Obama’s place of birth, there is now an econometric tool for measuring the increase in those claims: the so-called S & P Birther Index.

 

The Birther Index, established in 2008, measures the occurrences of such words as “birth certificate,” “Kenya,” and “wasn’t born here” in Republican statements about the President, and has proven to be a surprisingly reliable tool for tracking improvements in the economy.

 

Now, the really funny part about this is that it was meant as humor, but Floyd Norris of the New York Times decided to check it out and found out it was right!

 

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/birther-charts.png

[blackshoe]

I found in this a nice, but all-too-rare, counterpoint: The House intelligence committee: A rare example of bipartisanship

 

 

More like congress used to work in the pre-Gingrich days...

 

Interesting. Raises a question, though: is the measure of a "good" committee (or a "good" Congress) one that gets bills passed? Does not the content of the bills matter?

 

Put it another way: perhaps a "good" Congress is one that passes no bills that are detrimental to the country. I would also note, in the case of Gen. Hayden's complaint, that "good for the CIA" and "good for the country" aren't necessarily the same thing. The same would be true of any other government agency.

[kenberg]

Sure, we should not just pass a bill, any bill, just so we passed a bill. But if we agree that the intelligence agencies are doing an important job and have needs, then some good bills need to get passed. Probably this means having people work together. I don't get to, or want to, flunk all of my students because they fall short of perfection.

 

It's fair enough to ask what they are passing as well as how much they are passing, but if they are not passing anything except gas then things are not going to go well. Or so think those of us who believe that government has an important role in the future of the country.

[Winstonm]

Doesn't it seem odd when a right-wing radio show host hoards more of the headlines than the presidential candidates? And what was that non-apology apology of his?

 

That the GOP candidates refuse to condemn Limbaugh shows to me how broken the GOP is when they fear antagonizing a radio show host and his audience more than they respect the basic ethics of a civil society.

[Winstonm]

Demented Senator thinks he is still a candidate for President, vows to "Outcrazy them all!"

 

Saying "the time has come for a new policy" in Syria, veteran Republican Sen. John McCain called Monday for U.S.-led airstrikes on President Bashar al-Assad's forces in an effort to protect civilians from a bloody yearlong crackdown by the regime.

[Elianna]

More from that hit new comedy show: Rick Santorum for President!

 

 

 

Now, this line isn't particularly funny unless you understand that the main character thinks it is immoral and sinful to use condoms, contraceptives, or to masturbate.

 

This leaves a last case scenario of young adult men holding in their seaman until they finally swell and explode. "That spot. Oh, that's where St. Johnny exploded."

 

How are young men going to explode from hugging sailors? You do realize that there are female sailors, so the young men don't need to fill up with semen. :)

[kenberg]

The reason that this thing about Rush Limbaugh is important:

 

I am not a fully committed liberal, not by a long shot. But there are many true weirdos on the Republican side. Yes, on the Democratic side also. But compare: Back in 92, some nutjob rapper did Clinton the enormous favor of suggesting that a week be set aside for killing white people instead of black people. She was, I suppose, trying to be witty. Clinton made a big show out of rejecting this sort of thing. He made it clear that yes, he is a liberal, no, he won't be pandering to the nuts in his presumed base. A PR stunt no doubt,but a lot of politics is PR. Many people in the political center felt a lot better about voting for him after that. Of course the real target was Jesse Jackson, who cooperatively tried to defend the comments.

 

If Republicans want to get the vote of people like me, it's not an impossible dream. But first they have to tell people like Limbaugh to eff off. They flunked the test.

 

 

Added:

I see that I have been scooped on this observation.

Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sister_Souljah_moment, reports:

In 2012, during the round-table discussion section of March 4 edition of the Meet The Press, its host David Gregory asked one of the panelists Mike Murphy whether the controversy of the conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh's verbal attack (during his radio show) on a Georgetown University law student and feminist Sandra Fluke, describing her as a "slut", "prostitute", "round-heeled" etc, was a Sister Souljah moment for Mitt Romney (the presumed front-runner in the 2012 GOP Presidential Primaries). Murphy replied, "My view is - it could have been and should have been. ... I thought it was a lost opportunity for his campaign." In the same show, another panelist Savannah Guthrie earlier said that had Romney responded forcefully against Limbaugh, that would have shown some political courage, some backbone and ultimately that would have helped him with conservatives.

[/Quote]

 

As a child I was told various cautionary tales. One involved a man, his possessions and a donkey. He was riding his donkey with his possessions and was criticized for over-burdening the poor animal. So he got off and walked in front, and was criticized for stupidity since he could not keep a close eye on his possessions. So he walked behind and was criticized for letting his donkey go first. In frustration he decided to lift the donkey on his own shoulders, but of course the donkey fell and broke his neck. The moral being that if you try to please everyone you end up pleasing no one and lose your ass in the bargain.

Republicans need to decide: Go after votes from people like me, or go after votes from people like Limbaugh. Going for both won't work.

Edited March 7, 2012 by kenberg

[PassedOut]

Republicans need to decide: Go after votes from people like me, or go after votes from people like Limbaugh. Going for both won't work.

When you get right down to it, all of the republican candidates except Ron Paul are pants-pissers: Rush Limbaugh instills fear in GOP candidates

 

So lets get this straight: These guys want us to believe theyre ready to face down Vladimir Putin, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong Eun, the Taliban and whats left of al-Qaeda. Yet theyre so scared of a talk-radio buffoon that they ignore or excuse an eruption of venom that some of Limbaughs advertisers nine, at last count, have said they would no longer sponsor the show find inexcusable.

Benjamin Netanyahu is no buffoon, and he'd wrap any of the three around his little finger.

[luke warm]

Benjamin Netanyahu is no buffoon, and he'd wrap any of the three around his little finger.

agree... watched his speech last nite at aipac, he was brilliant... imo he hit just the right balance between u.s.a/israeli solidarity and israel's sovereign right to make its own decisions, especially as those decisions affect its very survival

[PassedOut]

Newt Gingrich intensifies Deep South strategy, shifting resources to Alabama, Mississippi

 

Gingrich plans to continue to talk about energy and gas prices, putting ads on air about his pledge for $2.50 per gallon gas.

$2.50? That's the best he can do?

 

Michele Bachmann promised $2.00.

[hrothgar]

 

Newt Gingrich intensifies Deep South strategy, shifting resources to Alabama, Mississippi

 

$2.50? That's the best he can do?

 

Michele Bachmann promised $2.00.

 

I almost feel sorry for Newt...

 

It's obviously that the only role he has in the race is as a "spoiler", preventing the anti Romney forces from uniting around Santorum.

(If this were to happen, the race could turn around very fast as contests swing from a proportional representation format to winner take all...)

 

Newt's an idiot, but he's smart enough to understand that he's being used.

I don't think its sitting very well.

 

So, the next time you hear him boviating about Washington insiders and "elites", please recall his only purpose in the race (trying to ensure that Romney wins)

[luke warm]

i could be wrong, but i think after yesterday it doesn't matter if newt gets out... romney got what he wanted, he's over that magic 400 delegates after super tuesday... looks like he can't be beaten now

[blackshoe]

There's still a general election to come…

[Winstonm]

This Limbaugh incident keeps getting weirder. The most current Republican to fail to castigate Limbaugh is Michelle Bachman, who, on CNN, refused to condemn Limbaugh and instead twisted the conversation to complain about the treatment from the "liberal media" of herself and Sarah Palin.

 

When you are so terrified of pissing off the wingnut crazies in the party that you eschew taking a stand for simple decency, the party has reached a point where it is no longer functional, viable, or necessary.

 

That the spokesperson for conservatives has changed from William

F. Buckley to Rush Limbaugh says all that need be said about the disintegration of conservative leadership.

[PassedOut]

That the spokesperson for conservatives has changed from William F. Buckley to Rush Limbaugh says all that need be said about the disintegration of conservative leadership.

If Buckley were alive today, he'd roll over in his grave.

;)

[luke warm]

This Limbaugh incident keeps getting weirder. The most current Republican to fail to castigate Limbaugh is Michell Bachman, who, on CNN, refused to condemn Limbaugh and instead twisted the conversation to complain about the treatment from the "liberal media" of herself and Sarah Palin.

i think what bachman said concerns mainly bill mahr and his calling those two, and others some pretty vile names that nobody (no liberal politico, also) really complained about... is there a double standard, in your opinion?