2012 GOP Presidential Campaign -- "This individual's going to accuse me of an affair for an extended period of time."

OK, we need a primary thread in this here sandbox.

― Lord Sotosyn, Monday, November 28, 2011 5:35 PM

so be it.

please media, leave herman cain alone. stop being mean.

poor hermie

Herman's dead--he sleeps with the fishes. We have to start planning strategy for Newt, Daniel, some way to Newtralize his Newtness long enough for him to get past Iowa.

from politics thread:

I don't know...effective, but too early, looks panicky. And in a poor economy, I think the flip-flop strategy will cause massive shrugging. I also suspect, as unfair as it may be, that for a number of voters, Democratic flip-flopper (i.e., Kerry) = weak, spineless, but Republican flip-flopper = pragmatic, has no choice but to head-fake all the wingnuts.

― clemenza, Monday, November 28, 2011 5:34 PM (20 minutes ago)

I think it's a mistake to group all 'flip-floppers' (barf) together. in a lot of ways 'spineless' vs. 'pragmatic' is actually pretty accurate when it comes to kerry vs. romney!

I don't think the flip-flop tag (or swift boats) lost kerry the election, but otoh I think it stuck because he couldn't sell a better narrative. he wasn't aiming for 'pragmatist' (after the primaries at least). romney might, but the question is more whether that's gonna sell to the base than to swing-voters. even after he gets the nomination, he can't step too far to the left w/ the currenct gop.

my motto: LET NEWT SURGE

btw, robert reich tweets this prediction about the general-election:

@RBReich
Robert Reich 2012 race: Romney/Rubio vs. Obama/Clinton.

Anyone want to give a Britisher the low-down?

Where I was:

No-one actually likes Romney so they tried-

Texan who is rubbish at public speaking

Pizza guy who is an awesome meme

-so I guess it is because to Romney? Or did Cain recover some how?

'because to Romney'? my inability to type properly added to being able to smell fried onions all day makes me wonder whether these are early warnings i'm having a stroke.

no now it's the speaker of the house from the 90s

everyone sorta hates him but he's 'smarter' than the other guys who aren't romney

and he has so much ugly shit on his resume that it all sorta cancels out for now

romney v. gingrich.

if gingrich falls, romney v. perry.

if perry falls, romney v. cain.

if cain falls, romney v. bachmann.

if bachmann falls, romney v. sant-- oh, never mind.

if bachmann falls, look for jeb bush to emerge from behind the curtain at the GOP convention.

lol at how much the gop are publicly not backing the guy who will eventually be their candidate. just give up and give it to him and use these 5 years to build a proper dude.

everyone sorta hates him but he's 'smarter' than the other guys who aren't romney

setting a high bar here.

how far down the list until jesse ventura has a chance?

he's right below santorum.

figuratively.

considering that this cheerleader pyramid began w/ donald trump, jesse venture prob could have had his moment in the sun if he had wanted it

Oh, I want Newt big-time, believe me--that's why I want him to stay out of his own way.

It is amazing to watch Cain (on CNN right now). He reminds me so much of when a quiet, credible student will tell me that some other student--maybe somebody who lies with great regularity, who's in trouble all the time--is doing something wrong. "Why are you doing this?" "I'm not." "Oh--*****, who never says two words, just decided to make this up for no reason?" "Yes."

cain should really draw from that funny-or-die skit. he should compile a list of each-and-every adult women in the U.S. who has never accused him of harassment or an extra-marital affair, and then insist on reading it -- top-to-bottom -- the next time a journalist mentions the accusations.

this has the added bonus of taking up a lot of time. he could make it even better by saying "999!" between each name.

999 as in the emergancy telephone number? oh wait that is 911 in america. 999% percent?

999 is the best economic plan for the 99%, as proven by science, 99 out of 100 times.

By the way, I think Gingrich's immigration bombshell in the last debate was (besides amounting to basic decency) political genius. I don't think it'll cost him much--he'll either win Iowa or he won't, regardless--but it would be a huge advantage if he ever got to a general, and it goes a long way towards getting the media on his side.

he'll either win Iowa or he won't

i will wager $1,000,000,000,000 that this is true.

I don't think it'll cost him much

it will definitely cost him if he keeps it up

he's already begun defending himself against it, e.g., his silly "citizen counsels will decide which undocumented-persons will stay and which undocumented-persons will go" proposal.

yeah for sure, this is not a free lunch

That's about how much he got from Freddie Mac, right? What I mean is his immigration stand won't ultimately decide whether he wins or not...I don't think so; if he sticks with it, what he loses on the one hand from the heartless-bastard side of the party, he gains on the other by contrasting himself with Romney's equivocation. (Just saw him on CNN, and he repeated almost verbatim what he said at the debate: that you just can't rip apart families who've been here 25 years.)

what he loses on the one hand from the heartless-bastard side of the party,

this is the only side of the party

or, at the very least it's the only side of the party that votes in primaries

well, i think gingrich can innoculate himself on the issue to some extent, at least vis-a-vis romney.

newt and rove are smart enough to know that you can't win elections on racism forever, but that 'heartless-bastard side of the party' is aka 'the gop base'

You gotta have some faith in people. (I learned that from Mariel Hemingway in *Manhattan*.)

(speaking of good material for the next round of "romney flip-flop" ads)

okay, 61 calls from cain to this new accuser.

sadly, she is going to be dragged thru the mud. there's already stories circulating about how she is in financial distress and has faced evictions and bankrupcies over the past 20 years.

she shld blame herself for not being rich iirc

“Rather, this appears to be an accusation of private, alleged consensual conduct between adults - a subject matter which is not a proper subject of inquiry by the media or the public. No individual, whether a private citizen, a candidate for public office or a public official, should be questioned about his or her private sexual life.”

lol

It's too bad no one seems to use the word 'bloviator' any more. It would be a perfect fit for His Newtness.

i love how whenever you see a picture of herman cain now it's capturing him in the middle of some denial, joining the scene in media res while he fans the flames of a new allegation. he's always defensively poised, half-impatient half-indignant

u r addicts. someone tell Newt.

surely Obama is on the heartless bastard side of the Dems, no?

surely.

my 10 year-old daughter just said herman cain should compose a song to respond to the allegations of infidelity.

he does have a marvelous singing voice.

I already joined Newt's 2016 street team.

also Ditka is gonna be vp, you heard it here first

I was hoping that a Google search of "Newt's Street Team" would return some really cool images, but no luck.

http://www.allwwewrestlers.com/Mean_Street_Posse.jpg

oooh i saw a recent picture of the mean street posse the other day. if it weren't for joey abs looking exactly the same, i'd have had no idea it was them though.

(picture has been saved for future 'seeing 'taker in a pet shop: hal(o)l of fame wrestlers pictures thread', no need to blow my load herre)

cain is going to drop out of the race very soon. watch for it.

Gingrich already trying to re-establish how much he hates Mexicans lol

English as the "official language", support for draconian anti-immigration state laws etc

cain 're-assessing' his candidacy.

“He is not thinking of dropping out of the race,” Gordon added. “He is simply reassessing the state of the campaign. We intend to be full speed ahead.”

Yeah, he'll be out by Thursday, at the latest.

u guyz are a Roman Colosseum crowd

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/15/Roman_Legion-Hare_frame.png/220px-Roman_Legion-Hare_frame.png

Gingrich is really into "brain science." You know, because he's so smart. Which will help him, you know, destroy Obama in the debates. That smart smart Obama.

This'll be everywhere today:

http://www.youtube.com/v/Lb9hisd60bE&fs=1&hl=en

The echo of Hillary in New Hampshire is...well, not that he deserves as much, but I'll resist easy shots.

I still think--assuming monstrously-rich is the story of Romney's tax returns--that the best timing is to get it out there now. (Money at that level is an abstraction to me, but I'm guessing he's worth much more than 50 million.) Is there a point at which a candidate is legally obligated to release his or her returns?

― clemenza, Friday, December 30, 2011 3:39 PM (32 minutes ago)

how touching, kinda surprised he didn't kick her to the curb when she became sick like he did with his first wife

Cliffs would be helpful on posts like this.

Gingrich, talking about his mother, got choked up like Hillary in New Hampshire four years ago.

Donna Brazile was just on CNN talking about Romney and his tax returns--it's not his wealth, she said, it's a question of how much he's paying in taxes. So: she's either keeping tabs on this thread, or--can't be true--there's some co-ordination of talking points going on.

Follow-up:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/12/us/politics/12romney.html

The article's from 2007, but I'm going to hazard a wild guess that he's done okay the past four years.

Santorum thrives in Iowa

brb, getting this tattooed on my torso in gothic script

http://nynerd.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/rick-sanctorum.jpg

aaaaaaaahahahahaha

http://yfiles.tumblr.com/post/15049774621/evaluating-the-gop-primary-field

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/if-i-were-campaigning-for-president/2011/12/30/gIQAP1oERP_story.html

Palin's turn is worth it for the very carefully placed "whatever" and "gripin'."

https://motherjones.com/files/images/santorum_burrito.jpg

That Santorum family picture just kills me every time it comes back around.

It looks like a still picture out of Arrested Development.

Mom- "this is just not going to fly"
Daughter 1- "dad is so lame"
Son - "man I am so high"
Daughter 2- "please lord destroy this world"

guy in balcony running sound "wtf did he really say that?"

his wife's mouth is an overlooked treasure in that photo that i've lately come to appreciate

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/12/ron-pauls-abortion-problem.html

But in signing the pledge, Paul may have ended up doing himself nearly as much harm as good. Alone among the signatories, Paul appended a “clarifying statement” in which he reiterates his opposition to banning abortion on the federal level.

who says he's not prepared to be president? he's already issuing signing statements

remember how I once said I didn't know many Ron Paul supporters irl amongst my friends?

i was wrong :(.

i'm a little tired of hearing the whole debate 'if we didn't have to pay taxes, we'd be able to afford health care"

Greenwald on progressives' Paul/Obama "evil evil evil" fallacy:

http://www.salon.com/2011/12/31/progressives_and_the_ron_paul_fallacies/singleton/

Ron Paul's abortion position:

...he supports federal action to define life as beginning at conception, but doesn’t want to ban abortion at the federal level, saying that it should be left to the states.

This position is just weird. His fealty to state's rights borders could more accurately be termed fellatio.

the idea that abortion should be a state decision is fucking horseshit. shouldn't be anybody's decision.

just will make the current conditions where it's hard to get em in the midwest even more difficult when huge pockets of territory ban it

i gave this one a good go, but Greenwald is so fucking asinine. how many times does he have to repeat his premise that you can support an individual candidate's stance w/out endorsing the candidate? he has no evidence that you cannot do so, so he's really tilting at windmills here.

check it out: i agree w/ ron paul's policy of ending the war on drugs

i do not endorse ron paul for president.

holy shit, someone call up Greenwald and tell him!

yeah for fuck's sake I agree with a lot of his platforms (and disagree with a lot of others)...wow mindblowing greenwald!

so, no diff from Bam

youre oversimplifying his central point.

or misidentifying it really. (He's just pointing out that others have SAID he has endorsed Huntsman or Paul when he has not)

hes just pointing out that people are holding him to the same standard he always holds them to, the crazy enraged ninny

imagine glenn greenwald not understanding really simple things http://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2011/12/ron-paul-not-civil-libertarian-last.html

cool that Katrina vanden Heuvel supports ron paul's race war platform

that's actually an excellent essay by gg there, if you can deal with his breathless style, which I can't always. it's in some ways an expansion of that yglesias post i linked yesterday: that a paul nomination might actually be the best scenario for liberals because it'll both push Obama (presumably) to the left on these issues and all but ensure his re-election in a general

greenwald was caught up in an idiotic twitter beef yesterday, which tangentially involved a poster here too. his coldness and seeming aversion to social norms is one of he reasons i vastly prefer him when he's writing about law/policy rather than "politics", but still he's spot on in that essay

to clarify it was gg who was being idiotic, not the beef itself

The thing I loathe most about election season is reflected in the central fallacy that drives progressive discussion the minute “Ron Paul” is mentioned. As soon as his candidacy is discussed, progressives will reflexively point to a slew of positions he holds that are anathema to liberalism and odious in their own right and then say: how can you support someone who holds this awful, destructive position?

He needs to stop making assertions that are clearly based on his own anecdotal evidence (or worse, just shit he imagined). Ron Paul has more liberal support than any other Republican candidate, and any cap on that support is due to the very distinctions GG is spelling out. Dude who supports going back to the gold standard is never going to get wide cross-party support no matter how great he may be on other issues.

yeah i also hate his meta columns: the audience for columns like this are like the twelve fellow journos he beefs with on twitter

I thought Greenwald would kick it on New Year's Day, lying on the grass in sandals with his boyfriend.

that photograph still haunts my dreams

http://www.out.com/sites/out.com/files/GlennGreenwald1.jpg

aw

The dog on the left is "Addington," his boo's is "Russert."

cool cargo shorts

the very same people who in 2004 wildly cheered John Kerry

Oh yes, who cold forget Kerrymania? Everyone was putting JK pictures in their trapper keepers, women were pissing their pants when he spoke at the Iowa County Fair. It was a crazy time for sure.

spent all of 2008 mocking John McCain’s wealthy life courtesy of his millionaire heiress wife and will spend 2012 depicting Mitt Romney’s wealth as proof of his insularity

Yes, democrats kept a laser-like focus on this one issue for all of 2008.

That combat experience is an important presidential trait was insisted upon in 2004 by the very same people who vehemently denied it in 2008, and vice-versa.

lol this totally did not happen.

I think the main slogan for Kerry's campaign might as well have been "You should see the OTHER guy"...

I kinda feel like gg's columns become much better when you imagine him saying, "or whatever you know what I mean," after every assertion.

lol he likes ron paul lol

I am sure this has been discussed before but wow his bf should be out of his league no?

esp considering gg's personality

but but he is famous blogger!

I caught the last 10 minutes of Gingrich's press conference today--New Year's or no New Year's, attention must be paid to the gossipy horserace--and it was encouraging for anyone still living the train-wreck dream. He's not going to win, but it does appear ready to go down in flames. There was a great moment where his inner Nixon got the better of him: acknowledging that Romney's ad-barrage had driven him down to low double-digits, he fairly hissed that "If I'd spent three-and-half million dollars going after Romney, he'd be down to 3%."

it = he

I am sure this has been discussed before but wow his bf should be out of his league no?

esp considering gg's personality

I know, right? Otoh, this picture should give all single people hope because if GG can pull a hot piece like that, theoretically anyone can.

Given the concerns I have for some of the Republican field’s focus thus far, I must implore the candidates to do something that sounds self-promoting, but whatever. Candidates, please turn to Chapter Three of “Going Rogue” and read what it takes for our country to step toward energy independence. Note the lesson I share in the same chapter about taking on the “elite,” the crony capitalists and the permanent political establishment to get a job done.

The "but whatever" is the touch that spins this straw into gold.

I am sure this has been discussed before but wow his bf should be out of his league no?

thatsracist.gif

gonna miss you on ilx gman