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

I remember in '08, with a month or two to go--around the time McCain had pulled even--Limbaugh or Hannity or someone started speculating furiously that plans were underway for Biden to intentionally self-destruct so they'd have an excuse to put Hillary in. In the context of Biden's gift for unintentional gaffes, it was fun trying to imagine how spectacular an intentional one would be.

http://rortybomb.wordpress.com/2011/12/28/the-era-of-the-ron-paul-newsletters-isnt-even-past/

What I find interesting is how much the discussion is focused on the past-ness of these newsletters. The newsletters stopped with their racist, bigoted and survivalist themes by the mid-1990s, and people are now debating how much they should reflect on both Ron Paul and libertarianism. Whatever the results of that debate, they represent an era now over – Dave Weigel and Julian Sanchez argued that “the best refutation of the old approach is not the absence of race-baiting rhetoric from its progenitors, but the success of the 2008 Ron Paul phenomenon.” But if you strip away the ugliness and just focus on the underlying political strategy and the coalition it hoped to bring into existence, the newsletters have not only survived but they form the core of the Tea Party movement.

What Ron Paul actually thinks of these newsletters is a bit of a mysterious, as he often dodges hard questions about them. It is clear that Ron Paul has, to use Dara Lind’s phrase, a “Libertarianism for White Dudes” problem. The ability to discriminate against a minority at one’s lunch counter is the core of freedom, but a woman’s ability to have some autonomy over what is going on in her uterus is incidental to liberty (Ron Paul has declared Right-to-Life is “the most important issue of our age”).

But I want to abstract away from both Ron Paul and the ugly tone and language in the newsletters. What was their political strategy? As Dave Weigel and Julian Sanchez dug up, there was a very clear path. According to Rothbard in 1992, they could gather disaffected working and middle class people by exposing an ”unholy alliance of ‘corporate liberal’ Big Business and media elites, who, through big government, have privileged and caused to rise up a parasitic Underclass, who, among them all, are looting and oppressing the bulk of the middle and working classes in America.”

Take white middle-class people and explain to them how the safety net is ok for them because they are part of the virtuous hardworking backbone of the country, but it’s a dangerous creation because people elite liberals will use it to create a mass, dangerous Other that don’t deserve to be part of it.

we don't have an NRO thread so i'll just put this here

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/286726/front-page-voyeurism-heather-mac-donald

i mean holy shit

[Approved commenter] Jenna
: 12/28/11 15:30

If American society has reached the point that a newspaper article about bad sex between two teenagers with autism is considered a human interest story and we feel compelled to defend the insensitive and disgusting journalist who wrote it, it doesn't matter how bad the politicians in Washington are because we have far more serious problems.

I'm very fond of Jenna -- she comments often and just as wittily.

The “Aspergians have sex” story

clinton makes it 'obama 2.0' and gives the campaign a fresh media narrative.

ok now you sound like gabbneb

ehh I'm not arguing it would change anything about obama, I'm arguing the media eats gimmicky shit up

I was Gabbnebbed last night on a different thread. It's a ferocious accusation.

it's really just the flipside of being morbzed

One of these days I plan to Clemenza somebody. I'm just not sure yet what that might entail.

You replaced him when he was banned. To be fair, though, he "crunches data" and such.

as opposed to making a reference to a 1876 election

One of these days I plan to Clemenza somebody. I'm just not sure yet what that might entail.

wild gossipy political horserace fiend

= enjoys politics...Guilty as charged, as I've said many times.

as opposed to making a reference to a 1876 election

― iatee, Wednesday, December 28, 2011 4:01 PM

I don't understand your problem with Rutherfraud Hayes.

u act like you're ashamed of it. embrace ur inner clemenza. enjoy politics w/ pride xp

You replaced him when he was banned. To be fair, though, he "crunches data" and such.

― Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, December 28, 2011 4:00 PM (1 minute ago)

he blends it actually

lol that took me a second

Here I am during a march last year we held in honour of Mark Halperin:

http://www.pridemarch.com.au/images/lead%20banner%202011.JPG

lol

well this is touching

how is perry transformed

“I really started giving some thought about the issue of rape and incest,” Mr. Perry told a local pastor who had questioned whether he had changed his position on the issue. “Some powerful stories in that DVD.”

that kind of personnel move look like a huge admission of weakness, esp if there is no immediate health- or scandal-related reason to get rid of biden

Correct. Won't happen absent the latter.

I like this clemenza fellow and his support for my boyfriend, Mark Halperin.

“I really started giving some thought about the issue of rape and incest,” Mr. Perry told a local pastor who had questioned whether he had changed his position on the issue. “Some powerful stories in that DVD.”

ha my friend went to a fire safety training day & the guy concluded by intoning "I've seen some powerful fires ...... on video".

I think it will still be a very close race, because enthusiasm for Obama among liberals is rather tepid also.

Sure, but that's relative to whether it's support for him against Romney or against one of the more monstrous candidates, right? Romney's current attempts to slap on some monster make-up aside.

The “Aspergians have sex” story

actually i was surprised by the comments under this breathtakingly hateful NRO post. most were aghast at the poster's condescending attitude toward aspies - or in heather mcd's awful neologism "syndroids." reliably a couple trolls like jenna let rip, another d-bag compared the autism epidemic to global warming lol/smh.

the corner has become totally dominated by trolling and appears to be un-moderated or edited these days.

i mean, jesus, even for a right-wing website that post was just monstrously insensitive. you'd think a bunch of professional christians like the nro editors would exercise a little uh empathy for people struggling w/autism.

For relaxing times...make it Santorum time.

Not on the couch, dammit!

RT @CNNExpress: @OccupyCaucus vowed to obstruct Paul's Iowa office until RP promises to not close the EPA. #OccupyCaucus #RonPaul #iowacaucus

RP genocidal killer of Americans in the name of 'liberty'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=V4matEbGCBg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=V4matEbGCBg

f it

lol

is this shit even legal? http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2011/dec/29/tdmain01-va-gop-will-require-loyalty-oath-in-presi-ar-1573870

http://www.fangraphs.com/not/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/1245036228_41fab64009_o-229x300.jpghttp://www.fangraphs.com/not/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/RonPaulAstros-228x300.jpg

What a goofnugget.

is this shit even legal?

Primary elections for nominations within political parties are considered to be an internal affair of the party, so they have a much lower legal threshhold for pulling stupid shit like that. Think of the VA republicans as a bunch of shriners or masons and it becomes clearer just how idiotic their party rules can get without breaking any laws.

i keep seeing things like 'iowa is a caucus not a primary, so anything is possible". can someone explain to me what is different about a caucus (compared to what, a regular primary?) that makes this so?

In a primary election, the results are compiled statewide, so statistically speaking the local variations are smoothed out. As I understand it, with caucuses, each local caucus is a statistical unit, so local quirks and variations are preserved.

Another weirdness of caucuses is that attending a caucus requires a greater commitment of time and energy than going to a polling place, voting, and then going home. You have to come, then stay to the bitter end if you want to be sure of the outcome.

Don't people also advocate for candidates at caucuses before the vote takes place?

I'm from a primary-holding state, so I'm sort of vague on all the odd bits about how to caucus.

primary is just a straight ballot vote; most GOP primaries are winner-take-all but that may have changed in a few places.

caucuses are more like a big meeting. people physically get together in a big room (a high school gym generally) and, at the appointed time, bunch together with the other supporters of their first choice.

if there aren't enough people in a bunch, at that time, to meet the lower threshold %, then all those people have to choose someone else, and after another half-hour or so resort themselves for another count (or go home i guess). and that's where the unpollable combo of secondary & tertiary preferences combined with local relationships and just lucky charisma or whatev comes into play.

i dunno what those lower % thresholds are btw. 5? 15? in small communities or if there is low turnout, there's plenty of room to game this shit because the margins are so wacky. it's also why organization matters, a network of folks to just be at these places and hopefully yak their way thru the night. and also why long-duration enthusiasms like ron paul's core of fanatics can have a big effect over flash-in-the-pan polling leads like newt gingrich's.

idk how many rounds they go through either. probably when there are no more candidacies left below the margin. we could probably go to wikipedia or sth right?

Surely sometimes the second or third choice for a voter whose first choice becomes unavailable is: fuck this, I'm leaving.

This was taken at last year's Democratic caucus in Nevada. Look's quite bizarre.

http://www.american-buddha.com/aeyes29d.jpg

Yeah the caucus really seems to favor pauls campaign