Sunday
Nov042012
The Commentariat -- Nov. 5, 2012
Presidential Race
Felicia Sonmez, et al., of the Washington Post: "On Monday, in the final hours of their 17-month, nearly $3 billion marathon, the two candidates and their running mates are scheduled to hold 14 events across eight states. For Republican challenger Mitt Romney, this last full day of campaigning is aimed at achieving what he has seemingly been unable to do over the first 522 days: overcome President Obama's razor-thin but steady leads in the states where the election will be decided. On Sunday, it appeared that Romney's task was getting a little harder."
Michael Shear of the New York Times on what the candidates did on the longest day. ...
... Here's a clip of President Obama speaking in Concord, New Hampshire:
... AND here's the Hon. Paul Ryan to remind us all that we have a Kenyan Muslim president. Shushannah Walshe of ABC News: "Paul Ryan squeezed in time on a four-stop, five-state day for a conference call with evangelical voters Sunday evening, issuing a warning about a second Obama term saying the president is putting the country on a 'dangerous path' that compromises 'Judeo-Christian, Western civilization values.' Evangelical leader Ralph Reed's influential group, the Faith and Freedom Coalition, hosted the call and Reed said 'tens of thousands' of Evangelical Christians were listening in." ...
... Julie Pace of the AP: "President Barack Obama's campaign is mobilizing a massive get-out-the-vote effort aimed at carrying the Democrat to victory, as Republican Mitt Romney makes a late play for votes in Democratic-leaning Pennsylvania. Obama was closing out the campaign with an apparent edge in some key battleground states, including Ohio. But both campaigns were predicting wins in Tuesday's election." ...
... David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "Aboard Air Force One from Concord, Mass., to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Obama called Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts." ...
... "Obama Should Resign!" Josh Voorhees of Slate: Meanwhile, with Chris Christie sidelined by his bromance with Barack, Mitt Romney has found a new attack dog in Rudy Nineleven Giuliani.
Felicia Sonmez & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "A new poll from the Pew Research Center found Obama with a three-point lead over Romney nationwide. Less than a week earlier, the same poll had the two candidates tied at 47 percent. But, by Sunday, Obama was ahead, 48 percent to 45 percent." (The multi-page feature at the WashPo still isn't working.) ...
... Reuters has the candidates in a dead heat: Obama 48, Romney 47. The poll also shows Obama with slim leads or ties in battleground states. ...
... Nancy Cordes of CBS News: "... as early voting figures pour in from half a dozen crucial battleground states, Obama campaign officials are exuding increasing confidence, even for them."
... Jon Ralston of the Las Vegas Sun: "It would be very difficult for Obama to lose Nevada, especially because I think more than two-thirds of the vote is in, so whatever turnout advantage the GOP has on Tuesday won't be enough. Obama, 50 percent; Romney, 46 percent; others and 'none of the above,' 4 percent."
... Think Nate Silver is an Obama supporter? Think again:
... Nate Silver: "It appears that President Obama is likely to go into Election Day with a very modest lead in the average of national polls." There Silver goes again, padding the numbers of the candidate who would be, at best, his third choice for president. What is a conspiracy theorist to do? ...
... Maggie Haberman & Emily Schultheis of Politico: "If [Romney pollster Neil] Newhouse is right, the majority of public pollsters will have egg on their faces."
Lizette Alvarez of the New York Times: "... the Florida Democratic Party filed a federal lawsuit early Sunday to force the state government to extend early voting hours in South Florida." Read the whole post. What a mess! ...
... CW: here's what I'm talkin' about. Judd Legum of Think Progress: "Last night, voters in Miami-Dade County, [Florida,] were forced to wait in line up to six hours to vote. In some precincts voters who arrived at 7PM were not able to cast their ballots until 1AM. In response, Republican-affiliated election officials in Miami-Dade have effectively extended early voting from 1PM to 5PM today by allowing 'in-person' absentee voting. But this accommodation will only be available in a single location in the most Republican area of the county." (Italics mine.)
... Andre Tartar of New York: "'Let the people vote' former Florida governor -- and former Republican -- Charlie Crist tweeted, presumably to current governor Rick Scott, who ignored pleas from Democrats and even members of his own party to extend the early voting window." ...
... Adam Estes Clark of the Atlantic has a good post on the Florida early voting fiasco, too. One thing: the three counties where the mess is worst comprise 32 percent of all the state's Democratic voters. ...
... More from Amanda Terkel of the Huffington Post. ...
... Here's the Miami Herald story on "The Debacle in Doral."
Steven Greenhouse of the New York Times: "In labor's last-minute campaign efforts, canvassers in Eau Claire, Kenosha, La Crosse, Racine, Green Bay and other [Wisconsin] communities carried the same message: Do not forget to vote, and when you do, cast ballots for President Obama and Tammy Baldwin, the Democratic candidate for senator."
Monica Davey & Michael Wines of the New York Times on the get-out-the-vote efforts in Ohio.
A Fox Detroit poll, reported Sunday, shows Romney & Obama in a dead heat in Michigan. CW: Nate Silver has Obama with a 98.8% chance of winning Michigan. (Click on Michigan on the map on the right side of the page.)
Bill Clinton writes an op-ed for the Des Moines Register, countering the paper's endorsement of Rmoney. Paul Ryan endorses himself in the same paper.
Mark Leibovich of the New York Times on Bill Clinton's latest resurrection: "Whoever wins Tuesday, the 2012 campaign has solidified (or restored) Mr. Clinton's status as the hardest-working man in a game he loves and plays like no one else."
Paul Krugman expands on an earlier blogpost about Republican incompetence & Democratic competence to handle disaster relief: "For the response to Sandy, like the success of the auto bailout, is a demonstration that Mr. Obama's philosophy of government -- which holds that the government can and should provide crucial aid in times of crisis -- works. And conversely, the contrast between Sandy and Katrina demonstrates that leaders who hold government in contempt cannot provide that aid when it is needed." ...
... CW: I just watched "Seal Team 6." I hope a lot of undecided voters did, too. It certainly reinforces Krugman's point. Maybe Romney has it on the TiVo for playback Wednesday when we can all hope he has nothing else to do.
** David Corn of Mother Jones: "... the 2012 campaign has been profoundly shaped by Romney's willingness to obfuscate and dissemble far beyond the admittedly low norm of modern American politics.... The Republican presidential candidate built much of his campaign on basic untruths about the president. Romney blasted Obama for breaking a 'promise' to keep unemployment below 8 percent. He claimed the president was 'apologizing for America abroad.' He accused Obama of adding 'nearly as much debt as all the previous presidents combined' and of cutting $500 million from Medicare. None of this was true. (See here, here, here, and here.) ... As significant as Tuesday's outcome will be for this much-divided nation in determining future policies regarding the economy, present and future wars, abortion rights, climate change, the social safety net, and much more, it will also provide an answer to a critical bottom-line question: In politics, does reality matter?"
Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic: "The gap between what Obama and Romney believe -- and between what each man proposes to do -- is larger than it has been for any election I can remember." CW: If you're not happy about voting for Obama, read Cohn on "The Most Important Election of Our Lives."
Peter Wallsten & Jason Horowitz of the Washington Post: "Mitt Romney has largely avoided discussing the details of his Mormon faith throughout this year's presidential race.... But the revival this week of a testy 2007 interview caught on video offers a reminder of the struggles Romney has confronted as a politician wary of being defined, or confined, by his faith. The video, which has become an Internet sensation in the closing days of his campaign..., shows Romney sparring off-air with an Iowa radio talk show host over the tenets and beliefs of Mormonism -- including a discussion of abortion and the second coming of Jesus Christ -- and scolding the interviewer for bringing it up." ...
... Here's the video. It has almost a million-&-a-half hits. When I looked at it the other day -- after a reader called it to my attention -- it had about half that number of hits. Romney does seem somewhat unglued:
Dave Weigel of Slate: Obama's super PAC ads are better than Romney's super PAC ads. CW: wonder if that's because billionaires & multimillionaires like Karl Rove aren't all that good at relating to real people. They figure it's just as good to plug in an actress pretending to be a Real Housewife of White America & saying she's worried about scary Republican talking points. ...
... Byron Tau of Politico: "The Obama campaign has purchased banner ad space at almost twenty national and local websites on the eve of Tuesday's election.... The campaign has also targeted swing state newspaper websites and Latino-specific sites."
Remember Seamus. Kerry Lauerman, writing in Salon, asks animal experts how the Romneys' dog felt about his infamous trip to Canada in a crate atop the family station wagon. The story also includes details about the Life of Seamus which I didn't know: like, for some odd reason, he ran away from home a lot.
Will Farrell will do anything to get you to vote -- for Obama:
Congressional Races
Evan McMorris-Santoro of TPM: the campaign of Connecticut's U.S. Senate GOP candidate Linda Wrestling Lady McMahon has been distributing "doorhangers that Democrats say they've discovered in minority neighborhoods this weekend ... [which read] 'Vote Barack Obama For President and Vote Linda McMahon For U.S. Senate.' ... It's a surprising suggestion from a Republican who, along with her husband, has given $150,000 to help make Romney the next president of the United States." A spokesperson for McMahon "alleged that [Democratic candidate Chris] Murphy's campaign 'is telling people that it's illegal to split their ticket,' and that was the reason for the McMahon doorhangers. The Murphy campaign called the claim 'ridiculous' and 'desperate.'" Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link. Obama cut this ad for Murphy:
Some brief testimonials for Elizabeth Warren:
Other Stuff
What Did He Know & When Did He Know It? Matthew Purdy of the New York Times examines the role of former BBC chief Mark Thompson in squelching the BBC's Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal. Thompson will become New York Times CEO next Monday.
News Ledes
New York Times: "The gas shortage that has strained the New York region seemed to ease on Monday as lines at many pumps shrank, more gas stations reopened and mandatory rationing was enforced in some areas."
New York Times: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday reiterated his willingness to attack the Iranian nuclear program without support from Washington or the world, returning to an aggressive posture that he had largely abandoned since his United Nations speech in September."
Reuters: "The average U.S. price for a gallon of regular gasoline took its biggest drop since 2008 in the past two weeks, due to lower crude oil prices, a big price drop in pump prices in California and Hurricane Sandy, according to a widely followed survey released on Sunday." CW: looks like an Obama plot to me.
Reuters: "Five bombs exploded in the heart of the Bahraini capital Manama on Monday, killing two people, officials said, in rare attacks targeting civilians during the 21-month-old uprising against the kingdom's U.S.-backed rulers."
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Reader Comments (17)
So here is how the MSM is reporting Republican voting chicanery and voter suppression.
Tonight on NBC, there was a report that problems in Florida and other states were the result of misunderstandings and "unclear" voting rules.
Seriously? Misunderstandings? Lack of clarity? Then they went on, in typical "both sides do it" fashion to compare the Teabagger Steal the Vote groups with liberal groups who plan to have their own people watching to make sure that GOP thugs do not intimidate voters.
In fact, if you didn't know anything about the GOP efforts to rig the election, you would think Democratic groups were trying to do the same thing, or were, at least, trying to unfairly smear Republicans.
And so it goes with the "Liberal Press".
And make no mistake, if I thought there was a leftist bias in the media that was trying this sort of thing, I would not be happy at all. The fact is that the right gets to fuck us all in the ass then blame us and the media for the fact that their dicks are buried in our collective rectum.
The 2007 Lord SB video was exactly the person who debated Obama, an arrogant, supercilious, bully.
When Obama wins a 2nd term, he will not have a "mandate" in the eyes of the GOP. It is impossible for a black President to have a mandate in the eyes of a racist, regressive party. It seems like they should abandon the pretense and just wear those damn hoods already. I suspect their rage will not be contained. However, I don't see much difference from what is in play now. The subtly has long since fallen by the wayside. Any meme about the Democrats interfering with the vote won't gain traction outside of the crazies. The GOP has an in-your-face public record for attempting to suppress the vote in every way possible. They mostly lost at the Judicial level. I believe that the sleeping giant of Hispanic voters will assert themselves when they have the ongoing assurance of some protection from Obama's administration.
Obama's 2nd term should kick-off a shit storm of organizing to establish standard voting rules, to energize Hispanics and women, and to challenge Citizen's United most rigorously. Four years isn't very long. Each election, the GOP requires more resources to stop their criminal actions. Lord I would love to see their antics prosecuted under Federal statutes.
In the very small chance of Lord SB squeaking out a win, people will not go quietly into submission. You see the anger now from those who have lost jobs, homes and savings often misplaced onto Obama. Add to that the anger of losing civil rights and freedoms. We are not a patient people.
@Marie-
Hmmm....I watched "Seal Team 6" too, but I think that "undecided" voters could not remember the time it was aired, nor can they work their DVRs. I find them obsessive, ignorant and ill-informed asswipes.
Here is a comment from Ann in Michigan to Nate Silver's blog tonight. I think she gets it right:
..."What is very interesting is the future.
Nate Silver had a link on his twitter feed to the just-released you gov survey of over 36,000 likely voters - huge sample!
The back data broke it down by age groups, sex, race and geographic (NE, Midwest, South & West).
The groups that give majority support to Romney are:
(1) Over 65 by around 60% and the 45-64 group by just barely 51%
(2) Men
(3) White
(4) South - losing the other 3 geographic areas.
So Republican supporters are old white men in the South (and subsets of the same).
The women go to the Dems, as do minority groups and Hispanics.
And most importantly, from the Republicans view for the future, the under under 45s by miles.
SO women (who number slightly more than men in the population), minorities (non-caucasians and the fastest growing racial demographics) and those who are going to be around to vote a long long time go Dem.
No way to build a party when you rely upon a demographic that is gonna die off in the near future (over-65) and who are a shrinking racial group and the fewer of the sexes!
Unless the Republican party changes they will become more and more marginalized as their base, as some put it, ages out or more bluntly DIES!"
****************************
HUZZAH!
RTFS!
If only Obama, when beginning his new term, would set the Justice Department on the GOP election fraud...but he won't of course. And it probably would take a Romney win, as Diane suggests, to energize the public to do so. I tell my doctor I use Xanax for funerals, family death phone calls, cat euthanasia...now I can add election anxiety.
And what if we have a repeat of 2000, with the election not settled? I might have to take to drink.
@ Diane
I'm already sharpening my pitchforks. I've got dibs on the Mutant McConnell. The permanent layer of goo covering his outer shell means I'll have to be precise when I pierce the piggy, but I'll come through for the team.
Robert Scheer of Truthdig who has been pretty hard on Obama on many occasions sums up his assessment:
"To employ the vernacular used in my day job teaching college students, I give Obama a generous B- grade for initiating a national health care plan that, while flawed, is a start, ending discrimination against gays in the military, easing the student loan crisis, signing equal pay legislation and appointing reasonable Supreme Court justices, among other achievements. Meanwhile, the rapacious capitalist turned candidate Romney—poster boy of the 1 percent—denigrates the less economically fortunate among us while growing filthy rich by slicing and dicing good American jobs out of existence and exploiting every tax loophole to aggrandize his own fortune. He earns a solid F and makes Obama look quite good in comparison."
Chris Hedges, on the other hand, from the same journal, decries the rapaciousness of power hungry humans who foul our politics, religions, corporations, etc. Power* is the key word here which is many times connected to sexual deviates. Clinton for him would be a good example. After reading Hedges, you almost want to throw up your hands and say, what's the use of fighting for anything if everyone in the ruling class is corrupt and the sans-culottes––Hedge's term for the lower class––is at their mercy and stands literally with their pants down. I prefer to think there is a middle ground here and am not without hope.
*Came across someone who is quoting that ubiquitous "Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely," and they invariably tend to leave out the TENDS. Although in Hedge's case there would not be that caveat.
Safari,
Oh man! I wanted McConnell! Damn. Some people have all the fun.
McConnell is all yours. I want a bit of sport before the spit. I want the smarmy weasel Cantor and I'll have my noble bulldog Frida run him to ground. She so loves to make her toys squeak.
Diane,
Ha! Love to hear that little prick Cantor *squeak*....I'm gonna have to start referring to him as Squeaky from now on. Can you sic Frida on Norquist after she finishes with Squeaky? Then Issa, then.....
Re: Let me just change my spots; I just watched LSB radio interview. Couple of things I noticed. Did anyone think the twisting off of the water bottle cap was akin to twisting off the head of the radio host? Getting up out of his chair twice, he was dismissing the host but it wasn't his office so he had to do the physical action himself. "Sick and tired of people, radio shows, reporters..." I read that as "I'm better than you and richer than you and you should not be able to pick on me because I'm better than you and richer than you" Strange logic, logic that works for people with money from childhood; and works on only people that are employed by such people. Ties in with "I like to fire people."
Uptight and arrogant; strange brew. Relaxed and arrogant is much more attractive; you see that combo in great athletes, Jeter the Cheater comes to mind.
More weird logic; the melting together of knowledge and belief. Mitt gets pretty heated about the host's ability to grasp Mormon doctrine. The host had some points of reference, a previous interview of Mitts. Mitt argues only a Mormon like himself could understand the nuance of Jesus in Jerusalem and Jesus' summer home in Missouri. What Mitt professes is belief not knowledge.
That belief alone makes him not qualified to be president.
Finally, there's the look, the Mitt look; the ten thousand dollar bet Mitt stare. If only everything was for sale, including the earnest radio host. Mitt can't get it; won't get it, never will get it; somethings ya just can't buy.
If I was a believer one of the things I would believe; Jesus wasn't too crazy about money changers. Mitt's a money changer.
@Diane & @JJG. Your observations about Mitt's Mormons R Us tirade are just right. Notice how Romney assumes -- just as he did in the 2nd presidential debate -- that he is the all-knowing authority on something because of his resume'. Anyone who disagrees with him or even suggests there might be some other equally valid point, is unqualified to question him.
In the debate, Candy Crowley asked him what he would do on the off-chance that his fiscal assumptions didn't work out and his numbers didn't add up. Romney answered indignantly, "Of course they add up. I was someone who ran businesses for 25 years." Since Crowley & Obama didn't run businesses for 25 years, they couldn't possibly know anything about federal budgets. Romney was asserting his authority & their inferiority. And that was that.
Similarly, the radio interviewer, who apparently is not a Mormon, couldn't know anything about Mormonism or even about what Romney had said in a previous interview about Mormonism. The poor doofus just didn't have the resume'. (I don't know anything about Mormon scholarship, but I know that some of the best scholars of Christianity are not Christian believers.)
This is Romney's assumption of superiority we've seen so often, like when he told that citizen at a state fair, "Corporations are people, my friend." The "my friend" is a shorthand diminution to let the citizen know that he is unqualified to question Romney.
Forgetting about matters of faith, Romney simply assumes that he is right about everything. If he thought of something, if he said something, it has to be correct because Romney is always right. There's the "I stand by what I said, whatever it was" coming into play.
So Seamus loved riding on top of the car because Romney said Seamus loved riding on top of the car. Romney should be president because he said so.
Romney has taken the exasperated parent's final answer -- "because I said so" -- to extremes. So in his mind he is neither a bully as Diane writes or arrogant as JJG writes. When he expresses his opinions, he is merely correcting us rubes. That's not arrogance or bullying; its doing you a favor. Now say thank you, you ignorant schlubs.
Marie
wondering since Mittens is top dog at home- did Seamus have to wait in line for his meal too?
@CW your comments re TPM post ending with "we're all Kenyans now" was wonderful.
On a pitchfork subject...let's not pick them off one at a time...
Invite Norquist, et all to a nightshade dinner.
what is that quote about women prefer poison?
mae finch
Just read a terrific article in the Atlantic, Andrew Cohen on voter fraud. Best line "But doing nothing after the election of 2012 is not an honorable option." If nothing else read the last 3 paragraphs, for some good suggestions.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/11/no-one-in-america-should-have-to-wait-7-hours-to-vote/264506/
Anyone thinking the idea of election rigging is pure fantasy might want to consider this:
http://www.salon.com/2012/11/05/ohio_republicans_sneak_risky_software_onto_voting_machines/
John Husted and the company responsible for a number of statistically unbelievable election results in the past have added a mysterious software patch to all ES&S voting machines in Ohio, hours before the election and have tried to keep this a secret. ES&S was the company responsible for electing Chuck Hagel over a hugely popular incumbent in 1996 and then giving Hagel one of the largest (and statistically unlikely) landslides in Nebraska history six years later.
Also, the last minute software patch "improvement" ploy was used in Georgia in 2002 when another popular Democrat, Max Cleland, who had a lead going into the election and was beaten by chicken hawk Republican Saxby Chambliss by another statistically unbelievable seven points.
They're at it again, folks. And they don't give a fuck who knows it. Their attitude is "what you gonna do about it, huh?"
"Software patches" at the last minute before a presidential election? Really? Why not just say "Romney wins" and be done with it?
By the way, the top four companies supplying electronic (read: untraceable) voting machines which will be used by millions of voters are all Republican owned and operated and all have been at the center of myriad controversies involving election finagling (or, okay, let's call it what it is: stealing).
Software security experts who work for the military and the banking industry have said flat out that the kind of buggy, easy to hack software employed by these people would be cause for an immediate investigation in their industries.
But if it's being used to pick the next president? The firewall I constructed on my lap top is safer than this shit.
This is fucking banana republic bullshit, not America. This is farcical. The lines in Florida, last minute "patches", voter IDs where none are necessary, shutting down voting in Democratic counties and districts, Supreme Court selection of a president by fiat. When will this shit end??? When will we put these jabbering monkeys in prison and end this GOP thievery?
(Check out the Atlantic article suggested by Diane. This is some seriously disgusting shit. Seriously.)
PD,
Chris Hedges is hardcore. I love that guy. Even when I disagree with him, I am never without admiration for his critical thinking and skill as a writer. And one thing is for sure, if the GOP gangsters steal this thing for that smirking, lying, misanthropic Rat, we'll be without more than just pants: sans-culottes, sans-chemise, sans-chapeau, sans-chaussure, and pas de chance.
In a word, fucked.
Akhilleus:
The solution is to drink alot of sans-cerre and we won't mind.
Victoria,
A very wise solution.
Sancerre is a great choice. I was thinking of absinthe, but I'm not sure I can obtain the specific species of that potable that caused my old friend Baudelaire to spout:
Enivrez-Vous
Il faut être toujours ivre.
Tout est là:
c'est l'unique question.
Pour ne pas sentir
l'horrible fardeau du Temps
qui brise vos épaules
et vous penche vers la terre,
il faut vous enivrer sans trêve.
Always be drunk.
That's it!
The great imperative!
In order not to feel
Time's horrid fardel
bruise your shoulders,
grinding you into the earth,
Get drunk and stay that way.
(I have to remember to use the word "fardel" more often. In current usage it means "Modern GOP"