Earth to GOP: Get a Grip

[DarrinS]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324894104578114791679213644.html?m od=rss_opinion_main





In January I was rebuked by some readers for predicting that the GOP would lose, and for saying it deserved to lose, too.

"It doesn't matter that Americans are generally eager to send Mr. Obama packing," I wrote. "All they need is to be reasonably sure that the alternative won't be another fiasco. But they can't be reasonably sure, so it's going to be four more years of the disappointment you already know."

I quote these lines less to boast about my prescience than to establish some credibility for what I'm about to say.

Fellow conservatives, please stop obsessing about what other adults might be doing in their bedrooms, so long as it's lawful and consensual and doesn't impinge in some obvious way on you. This obsession is socially uncouth, politically counterproductive and, too often, unwittingly revealing.

Also, if gay people wish to lead conventionally bourgeois lives by getting married, that may be lunacy on their part but it's a credit to our values. Channeling passions that cannot be repressed toward socially productive ends is the genius of the American way. The alternative is the tapped foot and the wide stance.

Also, please tone down the abortion extremism. Supporting so-called partial-birth abortions, as too many liberals do, is abortion extremism. But so is opposing abortion in cases of rape and incest, to say nothing of the life of the mother. Democrats did better with a president who wanted abortion to be "safe, legal and rare"; Republicans would have done better by adopting former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels's call for a "truce" on social issues.

By the way, what's so awful about Spanish? It's a fine European language with an outstanding literary tradition—Cervantes, Borges, Paz, Vargas Llosa—and it would do you no harm to learn it. Bilingualism is an intellectual virtue, not a deviant sexual practice.

Which reminds me: Can we, as the GOP base, demand an IQ exam as well as a test of basic knowledge from our congressional and presidential candidates? This is not a flippant suggestion: There were at least five Senate seats in this election cycle that might have been occupied by a Republican come January had not the invincible stupidity of the candidate stood in the way.

On the subject of idiocy, can someone explain where's the political gold in demonizing Latin American immigrants? California's Prop 187, passed in 1994, helped destroy the GOP in a once-reliable state. Yet Republicans have been trying to replicate that fiasco on a national scale ever since.

If the argument is that illegal immigrants are overtaxing the welfare state, then that's an argument for paring back the welfare state, not deporting 12 million people. If the argument is that these immigrants "steal" jobs, then that's an argument by someone who either doesn't understand the free market or aspires for his children to become busboys and chambermaids.

And if the argument is that these immigrants don't share our values, then religiosity, hard work, personal stoicism and the sense of family obligation expressed through billions of dollars in remittances aren't American values.

Here's another suggestion: Running for president should be undertaken only by those with a reasonable chance of winning a general election. It should not be seen as an opportunity to redeem a political reputation or audition for a gig on Fox News. Mitt Romney won the nomination for the simple reason that every other contender was utterly beyond the pale of national acceptability, except Michele Bachmann.

Just kidding.

Though conservatives put themselves through the paces of trying to like Mr. Romney, he was never a natural standard bearer for the GOP. He was, instead, a consensus politician in the mold of Jerry Ford and George H.W. Bush; a technocrat who loved to "wallow in data"; a plutocrat with a fatal touch of class guilt. His campaign was a study in missed opportunities, punctuated by 90 brilliant minutes in Denver. Like a certain Massachusetts governor who preceded him, he staked his presidential claims on "competence." But Americans want inspiration from their presidents.

Mr. Romney was never likely to deliver on that score. And though I have my anxieties about the president's next term, I also have a hunch the GOP dodged a bullet with Mr. Romney's loss.

It dodged a bullet because a Romney victory would have obscured deeper trends in American politics the GOP must take into account. A Romney administration would also have been politically cautious and ideologically defensive in a way that rarely serves the party well.

Finally, the GOP dodged ownership of the second great recession, which will inevitably hit when the Federal Reserve can no longer float the economy in pools of free money. When that happens, Barack Obama won't have George W. Bush to kick around.

So get a grip, Republicans: Our republican experiment in self-government didn't die last week. But a useful message has been sent to a party that spent too much of the past four years listening intently to echoes of itself. Change the channel for a little while.





Can't say I disagree with any of this.

[boutons_deux]

"the GOP dodged ownership of the second great recession"

which one is that?

the one to be caused by govt austerity if Barry allows all or most of Repug's budget cutting?

"Change the channel for a little while."

won't happen. The more the the Repugs blind themselves their ideological fantasies, the more desperately they are bound and committed to them, like any ideological/religious fanatics. As dubya said, "you Repug folks are either blindly ideological with us or you're against us (and we will purge you)"

[Sportcamper]

Some of us are concerned that “The Takers” now outnumber “The Givers”…

[DUNCANownsKOBE]

Finally, the GOP dodged ownership of the second great recession, which will inevitably hit when the Federal Reserve can no longer float the economy in pools of free money. When that happens, Barack Obama won't have George W. Bush to kick around.

:lol Republicans should really work not showing how excited they are about another recession hitting the country to make Obama look bad.

[LnGrrrR]

Some of us are concerned that “The Takers” now outnumber “The Givers”…

Those people are collectively known as "The Idiots."

[boutons_deux]

"Some of us are concerned that “The Takers” now outnumber “The Givers”…"

there will always be more Randian moochers than than adored 1%ers. And the more wealth the 1% sucks up, the more moochers there will be.

[boutons_deux]

Key West man writes ‘F*ck Obama’ on will and then kills himself


http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/11/14/key-west-man-writes-fck-obama-on-will-and-then-kills-himself/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29&utm_content=Google+Reader

[Winehole23]

how sad. amuses you, no doubt.

[boutons_deux]

Wisconsin Lawmakers Seek To Arrest Officials Who Implement Obamacare (http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/11/14/1187181/wisconsin-lawmakers-arrest-obamacare/)Rep. Chris Kapenga (R-Delafield) is one of the nine from Wisconsin who told the Campaign for Liberty he would back legislation to declare Obamacare illegal and allow police to arrest federal officials who take steps to implement it in Wisconsin. He said he believes the health care law is unconstitutional, despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that it passes constitutional muster.
“Just because Obama was re-elected does not mean he’s above the constitution,” Kapenga said.

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/11/14/1187181/wisconsin-lawmakers-arrest-obamacare/

Like the Bible-thumpers, the Constitution is whatever the fuck they want to make it out to be. Direct continuous, legal revelation from the spirits of Constitutions composers. :lol All as silly as "Christian" pastors claiming they know they heart of God (iow: "God needs LOTS of money!"). :lol

[boutons_deux]

how sad. amuses you, no doubt.

yep, hilarious. Put this guy up for the Darwin Award.

[boutons_deux]

Romney Co-Chair: Outcome Of Wisconsin Election Would ‘Absolutely’ Have Been Different With Voter ID (http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/11/14/1187861/romney-co-chair-outcome-of-wisconsin-election-would-absolutely-have-been-different-with-voter-id/)


HOST: Do you think photo ID would have made any difference in the outcome of this election?


DARLING: Absolutely, I think so. We’re looking at all different kinds of precincts and all sorts of same-day registrations and I know people will go “oh, we don’t have fraud and abuse in our elections,” but what can’t we have voter ID when the majority of the people in Wisconsin wanted it. We passed it. The governor signed it. Why should one judge in Dane County be able to hold it up?

http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=205464&p=6193760#post6193760

"Why should one judge in Dane County be able to hold it up?"
:lol

All that WI Dem voter fraud put Bishop Gecko back in his McMasions.

[boutons_deux]

Holy shit! :lol



Mitt Romney: Obama Won With 'Gifts' To Blacks, Hispanics, Young Voters

"The president's campaign, if you will, focused on giving targeted groups a big gift," Romney said in a call to donors on Wednesday. "He made a big effort on small things."
Romney said his campaign, in contrast, had been about "big issues for the whole country."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/14/mitt-romney-obama-gifts_n_2133529.html?utm_hp_ref=daily-brief?utm_source=DailyBrief&utm_campaign=111512&utm_medium=email&utm_content=NewsEntry&utm_term=Daily%20Brief

Bishop Gecko, "if you will", Wall St, corps and 1% gave mostly heavily to you because they knew you'd "gift" them $Ts in tax expenditures, etc, while "broadening the base base" to the 99%.

You're one stupid fucktard. Your money can't buy you enough brains and honesty.

Just fucking go away.

[DarrinS]

Holy shit! :lol



Mitt Romney: Obama Won With 'Gifts' To Blacks, Hispanics, Young Voters

"The president's campaign, if you will, focused on giving targeted groups a big gift," Romney said in a call to donors on Wednesday. "He made a big effort on small things."
Romney said his campaign, in contrast, had been about "big issues for the whole country."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/14/mitt-romney-obama-gifts_n_2133529.html?utm_hp_ref=daily-brief?utm_source=DailyBrief&utm_campaign=111512&utm_medium=email&utm_content=NewsEntry&utm_term=Daily%20Brief

Bishop Gecko, "if you will", Wall St, corps and 1% gave mostly heavily to you because they knew you'd "gift" them $Ts in tax expenditures, etc, while "broadening the base base" to the 99%.

You're one stupid fucktard. Your money can't buy you enough brains and honesty.

Just fucking go away.


http://articles.marketwatch.com/2012-11-06/commentary/34950006_1_drug-makers-health-care-obama-administration








The stock market loves President Barack Obama. With all its cheating heart, and all its mercenary soul.

More than that, actually — it adores him. The love story of Wall Street and Obama is a bromance like no other, a man-crush for the ages.

Despite his threats to soak the wealthy for more taxes, despite Fed Chairman’s attack on savers, despite even his threat to kill special treatment for dividends, institutional investors have thrown themselves at Obama’s feet as they have not done in the first term of any president in the past century.

You could look it up. The S&P 500 has gained 76% since his inauguration in January 2009, while the Nasdaq 100 is up 128%.




Compare that to the S&P 500’s 13% decline and the Nasdaq 100’s 45% wipeout in the first term of his predecessor, George W. Bush; or the mere 25% gain in the first term of conservative icon Ronald Reagan; or even the 60% gain in the halcyon early 1990s in the first term of Bill Clinton.

The staggering advance of the market is probably one of Obama’s greatest accomplishments, and yet, in a rich irony, political sensitivities prevent him from bragging about it.

The beauty part is that this was not a coincidence, beginner’s luck or a historical fluke.

The administration and the Federal Reserve run by his appointed chairman, Ben Bernanke, have systematically stuffed big banks’ pockets with cash in an unending rescue effort, slashed interest rates to the lowest levels of the past 300 years, diverted senior citizens’ savings to revive the moribund residential construction industry and showered drug makers and insurers with fresh sources of revenue from his health care overhaul.

Little wonder then that Wall Street cannot bear the idea of parting ways with the Obama administration, and thus in the past two months has thrown a tantrum to protest the surprising advancement of challenger Mitt Romney in the polls.

Now that the president has won a second term, you can expect most of the sectors that have benefited from the present administration to keep on rolling. Here are some top prospects.

Health care

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the President’s health care initiative, set out new mandates, subsidies and credits to employers and individuals to increase Americans’ access to health care. Upon its passage in March 2010, investors began boosting the shares of drug makers, insurance providers and hospitals because they all suddenly had a lot more paying customers, courtesy of the government and taxpayers.

Shares of Pfizer (US:PFE), for example, had fallen 50% during the eight years of the Bush Administration, January 2001 to January 2009. In contrast, its shares are up 70% during the Obama Administration, almost in a straight line. Sixty-four percent of the gains in the maker of Viagra, Zoloft and Lipitor have come since ACA passed.

[boutons_deux]

Wall St gave something like 10:1 BishopGecko:Barry (at least that was what the non-dark money looked like, probably much higher ratio if the secret, dark money could be known)

[boutons_deux]

NRA-supported nearly all lost. The media has noted it, so:

NRA Lashes Out At "Dim Journalists" For Shattering Electoral Powerhouse Myth
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/11/14/nra-lashes-out-at-dim-journalists-for-shatterin/191377

RM has a great show on how little the right wing contributors got back on the campaign investments

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/

[ChumpDumper]

Holy shit! :lol



Mitt Romney: Obama Won With 'Gifts' To Blacks, Hispanics, Young Voters

"The president's campaign, if you will, focused on giving targeted groups a big gift," Romney said in a call to donors on Wednesday. "He made a big effort on small things."
Romney said his campaign, in contrast, had been about "big issues for the whole country."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/14/mitt-romney-obama-gifts_n_2133529.html?utm_hp_ref=daily-brief?utm_source=DailyBrief&utm_campaign=111512&utm_medium=email&utm_content=NewsEntry&utm_term=Daily%20Brief:lol

[boutons_deux]

BishopGecko's fantasy bullshit has LOTS of company

Do Conservative Pundits Ever Have To Be Right?

Conservative hand-wringing in the wake of President Obama's victory continues unabated, with both voters and strategists venting their frustration about the GOP's loss, while condemning (http://mediamatters.org/video/2012/11/09/david-frum-gop-has-been-fleeced-exploited-and-l/191294) the conservative media for leading followers to believe (http://mediamatters.org/video/2012/11/10/frank-luntz-fox-viewers-ought-to-be-outraged-be/191328) a GOP victory was imminent (http://ricochet.com/main-feed/Landslide-on-the-Horizon). (A landslide (http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/11/07/the-romney-landslide-that-wasnt/191203)!)


http://mediamatters.org/static/images/item/peggynoonan-jenniferrubin.jpg

Instead of being honest down the homestretch, conservative pundits on Fox News and at places like the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post fed Republicans a steady diet of falsehoods and Pollyannaish analysis (http://punditshaming.tumblr.com/) that ran counter to the clear polling data (http://www.cjr.org/swing_states_project/pundits_versus_probabilities.php) about the state of the race.

Some Republican leaders are now promoting wholesale changes. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal urged Republicans to "stop being the party of stupid" and to reject the anti-intellectualism that has often defined the political movement. "We've also had enough of this dumbed-down conservatism," he told (http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=98F00774-4282-4951-9569-EC459F9223D5) Politico.

But "dumbed-down conservatism" is what drives the GOP Noise Machine. It's what Fox, Rush Limbaugh and other conservative media have been pushing for years and posting healthy profits in the process. If there's going to be widespread change within the conservative movement it's going to have to include the right-wing media. And for that to happen, accountability has to be finally introduced into the equation.

Currently it's a foreign notion among many commentators who boast dubious track records of being chronically incorrect. Early indications are that most conservative pundits won't face recriminations from within the GOP Noise Machine for getting (http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/10/28/time-for-dems-to-hit-panic-button) everything wrong (http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/11/05/How-Obama-Is-Blowing-the-Endgame) about the campaign. But will consumers finally revolt?

Note that last week CNBC's Larry Kudlow welcomed (http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000128314&play=1) Romney loyalist (http://mediamatters.org/search/index?tab=all&qstring=jennifer%20rubin&issues=&tags=&from=MM/DD/YYYY&to=MM/DD/YYYY&relevancy=0) Jennifer Rubin from the Washington Post onto his program two nights after Romney lost decisively. On the show there was no discussion about how all of Rubin's horse race insights had been monumentally wrong (http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/11/the-rights-jennifer-rubin-problem-a-case-study-in-info-disadvantage/264942/).

Kudlow politely declined to ask Rubin about her suggestion (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/post/obama-loses-his-2008-coalition/2012/10/30/b689b640-229a-11e2-8448-81b1ce7d6978_blog.html?wprss=rss_right-turn) that Romney might win nearly all the battleground states. (He won just one, North Carolina.) And he also didn't discuss the revelation that Rubin had misled readers (http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/11/07/wapos-jennifer-rubin-admits-she-misled-her-read/191214) in real time about the status of the campaign. The conservative CNBC host, among those who erroneously predicted (http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/49561468#49561468) a Romney blowout, politely demurred and accountability was ignored.

For weeks, if not months, Rubin's readers were led to believe the Obama campaign was crumbling and the incumbent was making one foolish move after another. After Obama won an electoral landslide, Rubin wasn't asked about her dreadfully erroneous spin. Neither was Kudlow's other guest, James Pethokoukis, a blogger from the American Enterprise Institute who forecast (http://www.aei-ideas.org/2012/11/my-2012-electoral-vote-map-and-popular-vote-predictions/%20-%20printMore%20Sharing%20Services%2030) Romney would win 301 electoral votes. (Romney won 206.)

Between the three of them, Kudlow, Rubin and Pethokoukis could not have been more wrong about the election; an election they allegedly studied intently all year long. And none of the three bothered to acknowledge their failings on CNBC that night.
The Weekly Standard's Jay Cost was another full-time campaign watcher who obsessively assured (http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/morning-jay-historically-speaking-obama-isnt-strong-shape_652813.html) readers that Obama's chances (https://www.google.com/search?q=Morning+Jay:+How+Romney+Can+Win&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a) were dim (http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/morning-jay-why-obama-trouble_648390.html). Casting a critical eye (http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/are-exit-polls-over-sampling-democrats_661861.html) towards polling, Cost presented his "interpretation (http://weeklystandard.com/blogs/morning-jay-why-i-think-romney-will-win_660041.html?page=1)" of what was happening in the campaign:
There was no way voter turnout among Democrats and Republicans would look the same as it did in 2008.

It did (http://www.forbes.com/sites/markadomanis/2012/11/08/nate-silver-jonah-goldberg-and-conservatisms-intellectual-decline/).

Cost's explanation (http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/morning-jay-barack-obama-and-triumph-identity-politics_662010.html) last week then, for why he got everything wrong about Obama vs. Romney? Answer: The Obama campaign "played to its base with a level of intensity rarely seen in the modern era." (Whatever that means.) And Cost was surprised that it worked.

Here's the real punch line, though, and here's why the conservative media have dug themselves such a deep, insular hole: Two days after Cost got everything wrong about the campaign, James Taranto at the Wall Street Journal linked (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324439804578109051314776698.html?m od=wsj_share_tweet) to Cost's post-election column (http://www.weeklystandard.com/print/blogs/morning-jay-shake-it-conservatives_662109.html) and urged people to read Cost's deep insights about the campaign. (Surprise! Taranto loved Cost's piece about how the Romney defeat did not represent a serious set back for the GOP.)

So Cost's penalty for completely misjudging the election was to be touted as a sharp thinker by the Wall Street Journal. The point being, within the GOP media bubble there's no price for having been consistently wrong about the campaign. There's no shame in announcing all the polls are wrong (biased!), and that Romney was surging to an easy win, even though both claims were pure fantasy.

That no-harm/no-foul rule also extends to the mainstream media. Five days after Romney's defeat, Face the Nation invited Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan to pontificate about the campaign. It was an interesting choice considering Noonan had botched the election, insisting (http://blogs.wsj.com/peggynoonan/2012/11/05/monday-morning/) the day before the vote that Romney was marching to victory over the "small and lost" Obama campaign.

Uninterested in polling data, Noonan sensed Romney's looming victory because "all the vibrations" were right. Plus, she saw more Romney/Ryan yard signs while out traveling in Florida.

I realize Noonan is not a data-miner and her writing style is more impressionistic. But she works for the largest newspaper in America and her (erroneous) election-eve analysis came down to "vibrations" and lawn signs? That's just embarrassing.
Noonan appears to be in no danger of having her reputation dinged by the media, though. What about angry conservative media consumers? Will they penalize any of the sites and pundits who emphatically misled readers, listeners and viewers about the state of the race?

Historically, there's little evidence of right-wing media outlets losing their audience in the wake of getting stories wrong, even getting them spectacularly wrong. There seems to be an almost tacit understanding among conservative news consumers that the GOP Noise Machine tells them what they want to hear about how crooked and un-American Democrats are. And that even if the stories don't hold up to scrutiny, consumers remain loyal.

But last week's election results seemed especially traumatic for Republican voters, so it's possible there could be fall out.

The Daily Beast's Michael Tomasky highlighted (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/11/12/the-gop-and-pauline-kael.html) this angry comment (http://www.redstate.com/2012/11/09/campaign-sources-the-romney-campaign-was-a-consultant-con-job/) posted by a dedicated RedState reader [emphasis added]:


The simple fact is that in the run-up to this election, we were fed a steady diet of lies, from all our "loyal" sources. We need to hold not only the Romney campaign accountable, but also the conservative press (specifically the Murdoch press - Fox was the worst of the bunch), and the establishment talking heads like Karl Rove and Peggy Noonan. We need to get clear about something: these people are selling us a product. They have been taking our money and telling us bedtime stories. We complain about the MSM, but can we honestly say that the conservative press has been more honest?



Writing a scathing critique of the right-wing media's debacle, The Atlantic's Conor Friedersdorf noted (http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/11/how-conservative-media-lost-to-the-msm-and-failed-the-rank-and-file/264855/)that in covering the election, the biggest news story of the year, "the conservative media just got its ass handed to it by the mainstream media."

Indeed it did. And unless people start demanding some much-needed accountability (http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2012/11/05/everything_except_the_polls_points_to_a_romney_lan dslide) from the GOP Noise Machine, the conservative drubbings will continue.



http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/11/14/do-conservative-pundits-ever-have-to-be-right/191374

[boutons_deux]

Ignoring History, Fox's Hannity Claims Voter Fraud in Philly Precincts Where No One Voted For Romney
"Is it possible the Governor Romney didn't appeal to a single voter -- not one -- in these places?" Democratic strategist Mo Elleithee explained to Hannity that Romney, George W. Bush, and John Kerry all had won precincts where their opponents won zero votes. Nevertheless, Hannity insisted that the possibility of this happening is "zero," adding, "I don't believe it. I think this is voter fraud."



About 94 percent of the 633 people who live in that division are black. Seven white residents were counted in the 2010 census.




In the entire 28th Ward, Romney received only 34 votes to Obama's 5,920.




Although voter registration lists, which often contain outdated information, show 12 Republicans live in the ward's 3rd division, The Inquirer was unable to find any of them by calling or visiting their homes.




Four of the registered Republicans no longer lived there; four others didn't answer their doors. City Board of Elections registration data say a registered Republican used to live at 25th and York Streets, but none of the neighbors across the street
Friday knew him.




The ward's 15th division, which also cast no votes for Romney, also cast no votes for McCain in 2008. Thirteen other Philadelphia precincts also cast no votes for the Republican in both 2008 and 2012.




Nationally, 93 percent of African-Americans voted for Obama, according to exit polls, so it's not surprising that the president did even better than that in some areas.


Finally, the article commented that "in 2008, McCain got zero votes in 57 Philadelphia voting divisions." Thus, it is not surprising that Romney saw a similar result.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/11/14/ignoring-history-foxs-hannity-claims-voter-frau/191370

Don't disturb Fox assholes' paranoid fantasies with facts. :lol

[LnGrrrR]

I love how Peggy Noonan can pretty much say, "Ok, here are all the things I was wrong about..." and then continue knowing nothing will come of it. Hilarious. I wish I could do that at my job. "Ok boss, I know I said this wouldn't take down the four-star's comm, but I was wrong about that. Let's move on."

[boutons_deux]

5 Ways the Right-Wing Is Taking Crazy to New Heights


1. Restaurant owner imposes nonsense “Obamacare surcharge,” threatens to reduce employees’ hours.


John Metz, the guy who owns the Hurricane Grill & Wings chain and is a franchisee of dozens of Denny’s and Dairy Queen restaurants, has said he will reduce employees’ hours and pass a 5 percent surcharge onto his customers because Obama was re-elected. His specific argument is that he has to take these steps because of how much Obamacare will cost his businesses.

Get a load of this (via the Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/13/john-metz-hurricane-grill-wings-dennys_n_2122412.html) [5]):

"If I leave the prices the same, but say on the menu that there is a 5 percent surcharge for Obamacare, customers have two choices. They can either pay it and tip 15 or 20 percent, or if they really feel so inclined, they can reduce the amount of tip they give to the server, who is the primary beneficiary of Obamacare," Metz told The Huffington Post. "Although it may sound terrible that I'm doing this, it's the only alternative. I've got to pass the cost on to the consumer."

It sounds terrible, because it is terrible, Mr. Metz. Metz isn’t the first business owner to threaten workers’ stability or increase costs for consumers in the name of Obama’s re-election. As Forbes’s Caleb Melby points out (http://www.forbes.com/sites/calebmelby/2012/11/12/breaking-down-centi-millionaire-papa-john-schnatters-obamacare-math/) [6], Papa John’s CEO John Schnatter has threatened to increase prices on his pizzas by 10 to 14 cents per pie, though if he “were to fairly reflect the increased cost of doing business onset by Obamacare” the price increase would be “[r]oughly 3.4 to 4.6 cents a pie.” Not only are these business owners exaggerating how much Obamacare would cost to make a political point – they also assume that customers wouldn’t be willing to pay an extra 4 cents to ensure that the person making their meal has health insurance. And that is pretty sad.

2. Georgia state senators hold four-hour briefing on Obama “mind-control technique” conspiracy.

We’ve all heard our fair share of Obama conspiracy theories, but this one is noteworthy in that it comes from inside the Georgia state Capitol. Mother Jones reports (http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/11/georgia-senate-gets-52-minute-briefing-united-nations-takeover) [7] that majority leader Chip Rogers convened state legislators in mid-October to listen to a four-hour presentation given by tea party activist Field Searcy.

About 23 minutes into the briefing, Searcy explained how President Obama, aided by liberal organizations like the Center for American Progress and business groups like local chambers of commerce, are secretly using mind-control techniques to push their plan for forcible relocation on the gullible public:

They do that by a process known as the Delphi technique. The Delphi technique was developed by the Rand Corporation during the Cold War as a mind-control technique. It's also known as "consensive process." But basically the goal of the Delphi technique is to lead a targeted group of people to a pre-determined outcome while keeping the illusion of being open to public input.

Uh, right. Read more about the conspiracy and watch a video of Searcy’s presentation here (http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/11/georgia-senate-gets-52-minute-briefing-united-nations-takeover) [7].

3. Montana state representative asks to be paid in gold and silver because he fears the collapse of U.S. currency.

This one comes to us via the Billings Gazette (http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/columbia-falls-lawmaker-asks-to-be-paid-in-gold-and/article_762bb10d-237d-522f-bdaf-608967a96387.html) [8]:

A legislator from Columbia Falls is asking the state to pay him in gold and silver coins because he is skeptical about the future of the dollar.

Republican Rep. Jerry O'Neil justified his request in his letter to Montana Legislative Services this week by saying a clause in the U.S. Constitution says no state shall "make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts."

O'Neil writes that he thinks the high national debt makes it possible that the bottom will fall out from under the U.S. dollar.

O'Neil says he does not know how Legislative Services will respond.

I have a few guesses about how they’ll respond.

4. Conservative columnist goes full racist: “Maybe minorities' values need changing.”

There were too many racist dog whistles to count during this election season. But this column (http://townhall.com/columnists/dennisprager/2012/11/13/maybe_minorities_values_need_changing) [9] by right-winger Dennis Prager isn’t a dog whistle so much as it’s a blow horn. A big, sad, loud blow horn trumpeting a pathetic resistance to accept that women’s and minorities’ priorities are legitimate.

The headline (“Maybe Minorities' Values Need Changing”) and lines like “there is no debate over whether the minorities' (and single women's) values are correct or whether the values of the white males are correct” tell you pretty much everything you need to know about Prager and his ideas.

Oddly enough though, AlterNet readers will probably find a few things to agree with in the piece:

The Democratic Party, and the left generally, have done a magnificent job in identifying conservative values as white male values.

Right, because they are. (Thanks for the compliment!)

5. Convicted con man whines about how “difficult” the next four years will be.

Here are a few choice lines from Conrad Black’s whiny missive for the National Review (http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/333269/rendezvous-disaster-conrad-black) [10]:

“In the last 40 years, as many as 20 million unskilled peasants have illegally entered the U.S.”

“This president could not run on his record and just smeared his opponent as a rich asset-stripper, and frightened women voters with fatuous red herrings about ‘reproductive rights.’”

“For the first time, a coalition of pigmentational minorities and government employees and other benefit recipients outvoted the bulk of the traditional white majority. If this is the template for America’s electoral future, strains unimaginable since the Civil War will result.”

Those are some strong moral judgments coming from a man convicted of defrauding shareholders of $6.1 million.

http://www.alternet.org/print/news-amp-politics/5-ways-right-wing-taking-crazy-new-heights

[johnsmith]

Boutons, just start a new thread like your VRWC one. Fuck man.

[boutons_deux]

johnsmith! :lol

get a grip, man!

[boutons_deux]

Focus On The Family Claims Marriage Equality Passed Because Voters Are ‘Unchurched’ (http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/11/15/1200641/focus-on-the-family-claims-marriage-equality-passed-because-voters-are-unchurched/)

In addition to the financial mismatch, those states are also among the most unchurched in the nation—reflecting a discrepancy in the way voters there regard marriage compared to other areas of the country.


“This debate does not end here, but it’s unfortunate that a majority of our state has concluded that the institution of marriage exists solely to ratify the emotional connection of adults,” said Joseph Backholm, executive director of the Family Policy Institute of Washington. “As is always the case when adults decide they’re the most important people in the world, it’s the kids that will lose.”

http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/11/15/1200641/focus-on-the-family-claims-marriage-equality-passed-because-voters-are-unchurched/

Ah yes, the lying, slandering, slimy, sociopathic Repugs as the party of Christ! :lol

[boutons_deux]

Another Right-wing intellectual leader and thought-dictator sounds off.

Beck: Obama's Re-Election is the 'Worst Choice in the History of Our Planet'

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/beck-obamas-re-election-worst-choice-history-our-planet

:lol

[DarrinS]

I feel safer knowing that Right Wing Watch is aggregating my "news" for me.

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/beck-obamas-re-election-worst-choice-history-our-planet




fify

[SnakeBoy]

Finally, the GOP dodged ownership of the second great recession, which will inevitably hit when the Federal Reserve can no longer float the economy in pools of free money. When that happens, Barack Obama won't have George W. Bush to kick around.

If this comes to pass then the rest of the authors points aren't all that relevant. The gop will win with or without changing their positions on social issues.

[boutons_deux]

fify

thanks for YOUR unique, creative insight

[boutons_deux]

Virginia GOP Official: Obama Will Go To Hell (http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/11/16/1202211/obama-hell/)


http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/11/16/1202211/obama-hell/

The Confederacy Still Crazy After All These Years

[boutons_deux]

Maine GOP Head Suspects Voter Fraud Because ‘Dozens, Dozens Of Black People’ Voted (http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/11/15/1194481/maine-gop-dozens-black-voters/)


In some parts of rural Maine, there were dozens, dozens of black people who came in and voted on Election Day. Everybody has a right to vote, but nobody in town knows anyone who’s black. How did that happen? I don’t know. We’re going to find out….

I’m not politically correct and maybe I shouldn’t have said these voters were black, but anyone who suggests I have a bias toward any race or group, frankly, that’s sleazy.


http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/11/15/1194481/maine-gop-dozens-black-voters/

Says the typically sleazy Repug greasebag. Must be from northern Maine.

[boutons_deux]

...

[boutons_deux]

Fox Repug Propaganda working relentlessly to LIE LIE LIE

Fox News Captions Footage Of Illegal Border Crossings With ‘The Hispanic Vote’ (http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/11/15/1198301/fox-news-captions-footage-of-illegal-border-crossings-with-the-hispanic-vote/)

http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Screen-shot-2012-11-15-at-12.57.03-PM-300x166.png


http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Screen-shot-2012-11-15-at-12.57.28-PM-300x167.png

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/11/15/1198301/fox-news-captions-footage-of-illegal-border-crossings-with-the-hispanic-vote/

[boutons_deux]

'From Gingrich to Santorum to Perry to Bachmann, I Think Any of Them Could Have Won'
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/gingrich-santorum-perry-bachmann-could-have-won

Repugs! :lol

[TeyshaBlue]

http://latino.foxnews.com/index.html

lol thinkprogress

[Clipper Nation]

thanks for YOUR unique, creative insight
You're both obnoxious partisan sheep...

[boutons_deux]

You Lie

[TeyshaBlue]

No, he's dead on.

[boutons_deux]

you right-wingers just can't take my incessant bitch slapping

"Mama, make Boutons stop!"

[TeyshaBlue]

:cry

[boutons_deux]

Franklin Graham: Obama won because ‘we’ve turned our back on God’ “We need someone like a Jerry Falwell to come back and resurrect the Moral Majority movement where you get people that have a moral background who are willing to come together and vote for moral issues that are important to this nation.”

“If that would take place, we would see a great change in this country, but our country is in trouble. It’s in trouble spiritually. We’ve turned our back on God.”


http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/11/16/franklin-graham-obama-won-because-weve-turned-our-back-on-god/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Another polticized "Christian" asshole who proclaims himself as knowing the mind of God and wants to force his ethics and morals on everybody. On CBN, of course.

[boutons_deux]

Democrats Plan to Grow Government by Ensuring 'Everybody is Committing Homosexual Acts and They're High on Drugs'
Pastor Kevin Swanson of Generations Radio this week said that Democrats are deviously working to “strip back” government control over marijuana and homosexuality “in order to maximize the immorality of the people” and “increase the size of government.”

The “Democratic vision in a nutshell,” according to Swanson, is “to make sure everybody is committing homosexual acts and they’re high on drugs, and then they vote for Democrats to increase the size of government and provide pretend security for the people high on drugs.”

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/swanson-grow-government-ensuring-everybody-homosexual-high-drugs

The Hits Just Keep On A Comin! :lol

[Clipper Nation]

you right-wingers just can't take my incessant bitch slapping

"Mama, make Boutons stop!"
I'm not a "right-winger," I'm a registered Libertarian... you're a blind partisan sheep, tbh, it is what it is....

Political parties love people like you and Darrin, because you'll never call them on their bullshit or hold them to their promises...

[boutons_deux]

Libertarian

:lol a right-winger by another name. :lol

I'm not partisan, I'm anti-REpug/VWRC/1%/right-wing

[Clipper Nation]

Libertarian

:lol a right-winger by another name. :lol
Try centrist, i.e. fiscally conservative and socially liberal...


I'm not partisan, I'm anti-REpug/VWRC/1%/right-wing
The fact that you blindly dry-hump anything related to the DNC suggests otherwise, son....

[boutons_deux]

Try centrist, i.e. fiscally conservative and socially liberal...


The fact that you blindly dry-hump anything related to the DNC suggests otherwise, son....

link?

[boutons_deux]

Arizona Gun Store Refuses To Sell Guns To Anyone Who Voted For Obama (http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/11/16/1208221/arizona-gun-shop-obama/)http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/obama-pintetop-large-1.jpg

Effective immediately, if you voted for Obama, your money is no good here. You have proven beyond a doubt that you are not responsible enough to own a firearm. We have just put a sign up on the front door to save you the trouble of walking all the way in here….


http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/11/16/1208221/arizona-gun-shop-obama/

And these stupid fucks are licensed to sell guns? :lol

[boutons_deux]

James Dobson Gives Away the Game, Admits the National Day of Prayer Task Force Prayed for Obama's Defeat

Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, now the host of Family Talk, admitted on his radio program today that the National Day of Prayer Task Force, chaired by his wife Shirley Dobson, were praying for Obama to be defeated on Election Day. Religious Right activists have lambasted Obama with false smears that he had “cancelled” the National Day of Prayer and defended the event as “not politically inclined,” even though it regularly hosted anti-Obama speakers like David Jeremiah and Harry Jackson and both Dobsons are closely tied to the GOP.
Dobson: Many, many, many Christians were praying and we really need to address that issue first: where was God? Because there were these ’40 Days of Prayer,’ there were several of those that took place, where people fasted and prayed for forty days asking the Lord for His intervention on Election Day. We did a program last week where my wife Shirley came in with her vice-chairman John Bornschein and told how three hundred Gideon prayer warriors came to Washington, went to every single office of the House of Representatives and the Senate and prayed for the occupant, prayed for our representatives, went to the White House, went in a vigil to the Supreme Court, which is now at great risk, and went to the Pentagon. People like that were praying all over this country and the Lord said no.


Nance: He said no.
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/dobson-admits-national-day-prayed-obama-defeat

:lol Looks Dobson and his fellow "pastor" "Christian" tax-exempt political hacks, hustlers, and scammers don't KNOW THE MIND OF GOD so well after all! :lol

Or maybe, as the Yalies tell us: "NO means YES and YES means ANAL!" :lol

[boutons_deux]

10 Reasons the GOP Is Really Messed Up -- According to Republicans


1. Bobby Jindal: G.O.P. = “the stupid party”


The Republican governor of Louisiana made a grand show of great offense at Romney’s remarks, stating such offense in multiple media outlets over the course of several days, and with a flourish on Fox News Sunday [5], where Jindal’s consternation seemed as much focused on the bad politics of the Romney comments as it was on the contempt shown by the nominee for everyday Americans. On Fox, Jindal’s segment (which also featured Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker) was set up with a snippet of video featuring Jindal saying: [6] “We've got to stop being the stupid party. You know what I mean by that. Certainly, we need to stop making stupid comments.”


Interviewed by host Chris Wallace, Jindal elaborated:


If we want people to like us, we have to like them first. And, you don't start to like people by insulting them and saying their votes were bought. We are an aspirational party.


Let the Democratic Party be the party that says demography is destiny, that says we are going to divide people by race, by gender, by class. We as a Republican Party, believe our conservative principles are good for every single voter. It's not just a marketing campaign. It's not just having better PR folks. We're going to go and convince and fight for every single vote, showing them we are the party for the middle class, upward mobility. We don't start winning majorities and winning elections by insulting our voters.


2. Lindsey Graham: “We’re in a big hole,” and Romney keeps digging.


When he’s not busy trying to turn the Benghazi tragedy into a scandal, the U.S. senator from South Carolina apparently spends his down time trying to figure out how to fix his own party. Appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Graham offered a laundry list [7] of things the Republicans had gotten wrong -- including anti-immigration rhetoric and the scapegoating of the poor. From the MTP transcript:


SEN. GRAHAM: We’re in a big hole. We’re not getting out of it by comments like that. When you’re in a hole, stop digging. He keeps digging. The Hispanic community, 71 percent voted for President Obama, and they’re all disappointed in President Obama. There’s high unemployment among the Hispanic community. President Obama did not embrace comprehensive immigration reform like he promised. But they voted for him because he’s a lesser of two evils. Self-deportation being pushed by Mitt Romney hurt our chances. We’re in a death spiral with Hispanic voters because of rhetoric around immigration.


Earlier this week, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., made a trip to Iowa, home of the infamous caucuses that kick off the presidential campaign season, to lay down his marker on what will likely become the G.O.P. position on immigration reform. “People understand that we need to do something to address these issues, and we need to do it in a reasonable and responsible way,” Rubio told Politico [8].


But Graham’s critique of Romney and the G.O.P. agenda didn’t end with the DREAM Act or border security. Graham went on to slam the party for targeting the poor. He said:


You know, people can be on public assistance and scheme the system. That’s real. And these programs are teetering on bankruptcy. But most people…on public assistance don’t have a character flaw. They just have a tough life. I want to create more jobs and the focus should be on how to create more jobs, not demonize those who find themselves in hard times. Our party can adjust. Conservatism is an asset. But rhetoric like this keeps digging a hole for the Republican Party and if we don’t stop digging, we’re never going to get out of it.


But, as Michael Tomasky points out [9] at the Daily Beast, it's hard to see how any truly "conservative" proposal could help those struggling to stay economically afloat. From voucherizing Medicare to privatizing Social Security, the G.O.P. agenda adds up to a life on the economic margins for all but the well-off, and any philosophical retreat from such plans leaves Republicans with little to distinguish them from conservative Democrats.


3. Bill Kristol: “We have a huge middle class problem.”


The Weekly Standard editor and opinionator got himself into some hot water with fellow right-wingers on November 11 when, in that earlier appearance on Fox News Sunday, he suggested that Republicans needed to accept that Obama had something of a mandate, and that maybe the world wouldn’t end if millionaires were made to pay a higher tax rate than they currently do.


A week later, Kristol showed no sign of backing down, though he did suggest that a minor increase on tax rates for millionaires should be part of a small, stop-gap deal to avoid the automatic spending cuts set to go into effect January 1 if Congress doesn’t act, and then negotiate a larger tax-reform deal later on. From the FNS transcript [10] for the November 11 show:


I think we have a huge middle class problem. There, the particular nominee Republicans had was, you know, unfortunate in that respect. Four years after a huge Wall Street crisis, you nominate someone from Wall Street.


But I think honest debate, fresh thinking -- leadership in the Republican Party and the leadership in the conservative movement has to pull back, let people float new ideas. Let's have a serious debate. Don't scream and yell what one person says. You know what? It won't kill the country if we raise taxes a little bit on millionaires. It really won't, I don't think.


I don't really understand why Republicans don't take Obama's offer to raise taxes for everyone below $250,000...


4. Newt Gingrich: Romney “insult[ed] all Americans.”


In an interview with KLRU [11] in Austin, Texas, former House speaker and Romney rival Newt Gingrich got his digs in on Romney, and implied that the GOP needed to stop insulting potential voters -- a pretty novel idea coming from a guy, as digby notes [12], who, throughout the presidential campaign, referred to Obama as “the food stamp president.”


During the interview with reporter Evan Smith, Gingrich states that it wasn’t just Latinos and blacks Romney that Obama won, but Asian-Americans, as well -- so, if I'm reading Gingrich correctly, he's saying it can’t just be the food stamps. But the former speaker doesn’t stop there: He goes on to knock Romney and his billionaire superPAC donors (at least one of whom, Sheldon Adelson, began the 2012 campaign as Gingrich’s billionaire superPac donor), suggesting that Romney would have spent their money more wisely had he just used it to buy votes more directly. From the transcript, via Hullabaloo [12]:


NEWT GINGRICH: This is the hardest working and most successful ethnic group in America, okay. They ain’t into gifts. Second, it’s an insult to all Americans. It reduces us to economic entities who have no passion, no idealism, no dreams, no philosophy, and if it had been that simple, my question would have been “Why didn’t you out-bid him?”


EVAN SMITH: Right, “You had the money…” you could be in the gift-giving business if you had elected to be.


NEWT GINGRICH: He had enough billionaire supporters that if buying the electorate was the key, he could have got all of his super PAC friends together and said, “Don’t buy ads, give gifts.” It’d be like the northwest Indians who have gift giving ceremonies. He could have gone town by town and said, “Come here and let me give you gifts. Here are Republican gifts.” They could have an elephant coming in with gifts on it.


5. Raul Labrador: Republicans are defending big business, which loves big government.


While the bigger-deal mouthpieces of the Grand Old Party are suddenly paying lip service to the struggles of the middle class and the dignity of the poor, the Idaho congressman goes one step further, calling out his Republican brethren for their love of big business. Displaying his neo-libertarian streak, Rep. Raul Labrador, as part of the November 18 Meet the Press roundtable segment, suggested that the party’s problem is that it just talks the small-government, no-handout game, but when it comes to corporations, government and subsidies rule. And voters don’t like that, he said.


The issue with Romney, according to Labrador, is that he wasn’t really a conservative, and was not convincing trying to play one on TV.


From the MTP transcript [7]:


I think the problem that Romney had throughout the campaign is that he couldn’t talk about conservatism like conservatives talk. As I heard somebody say, he talked about conservatism as if it was a second language to him. We ...believe in small government, but we also believe in the individual. There are too many Republicans here in Washington, D.C., and they are actually defending big business. They are defending the rich. I didn’t become a Republican to defend the rich. And what we need to understand is that big business loves big government, because they get all the goodies from big government. They get ...less competition. The more that government grows, the more that big business actually benefits from the tax code and from the regulations...


6. Peggy Noonan: A kinder, gentler Tea Party needed.


On the November 11 edition of CBS News’ Face the Nation, former Bush 41 speechwriter Peggy Noonan fingered the Tea Party movement as the G.O.P.’s true nemesis, even though she contends that the movement was useful, up to a point. (Noonan is now a columnist for Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal.) Her remarks rankled the Tea Party-heads at Glenn Beck’s The Blaze, and Tucker Carlson’s The Daily Caller. Noonan’s remarks on “Tea Party rage,” from the FTN transcript [13]:


I think the Tea Party is going to have to look at itself. It's been so helpful to the Republican Party in the past. It saved it by not going third party in 2010, helping the Republicans sweep the House. But the Tea Party-style of rage is not one that wins over converts and makes people lean toward them and say, “I want to listen to you.” I think a friendly persuasion has to begin now from the Republican Party to the people of the United States.


7. Ralph Benko: GOP’s “Bush Mandarins” ran from Reagan agenda.


Could it be Peggy Noonan whom Benko, a champion of returning U.S. currency to the gold standard, had in mind when he penned his take [14] on his party’s woes for Forbes -- a magazine run by a Republican presidential also-ran? (Steve Forbes’ 1996 and 2000 primary campaigns focused on the notion of a flat tax, in which the same rate would apply to store clerks and billionaires alike.)


Benko's prescription for the restoration of the Republican Party to all its Reaganesque glory was music to the ears of Richard Viguerie, a godfather of the religious right, and the direct-mail kingpin once jokingly known as Reagan's postmaster general. Viguerie loudly touted the Benko article, "The End Of The Karl Rove Death Grip Signals A Reagan Renaissance," on Viguerie's own ConservativeHQ Web site.


The enormity of (and surprise at) the defeat of Romney is a huge setback — and perhaps fatal — to the Bush Mandarins’ hegemony over the GOP. If so, the potential re-ascendency of the Reagan wing of the GOP will prove very bad news for liberals and excellent news for the Republican Party. The Reagan wing now can resurge. A resurgence already has begun.


8. Mike Murphy: Demographics add up to “an existential crisis for the Republican Party”


At least as famous for his punditry as for his political consulting prowess, Mike Murphy -- who worked on Mitt Romney’s successful gubernatorial campaign in Massachusetts -- is not mincing words. The G.O.P. is doomed because, he said on the November 18 edition of Meet the Press, “We don’t know how to win.” And some of the problem there, by Murphy’s own estimation, is that, unlike him, a lot of Republican political consultants are not so great. (Are you listening Karl Rove?) From the MTP transcript [7]:


MR. MURPHY: Look, there’s a huge donor revolt going on. I mean, we have now lost the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections. This is an existential crisis for the Republican Party, and we have to have a brutal discussion about it. We alienate young voters because of gay marriage, we have a policy problem. We alienate Latinos -- the fastest growing voter group in the country -- because of our fetish with so-called amnesty when we should be for a path to immigration. And we have lost our connection to middle-class economics. We also have an operative class and unfortunately lot of which is incompetent. We don’t know how to win. So, this isn’t about new software in the basement of the RNC. It’s not about a few Spanish language radio ads. It’s a fundamental rethink that begins with policy because the country is changing and if we don’t modernize conservatism, we can go extinct. The numbers are the numbers.


9. Karl Rove: The ground game sucked, and consultants made too much money. (Srsly.)


Perhaps the biggest loser in election 2012 -- aside from Romney himself -- is Karl Rove, former presidential aide to George W. Bush, and the man who engineered Bush’s 2000 and 2004 electoral strategy. Since leaving government life, Rove has been doing double-duty as both the sugar-daddy front-man for American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS -- the big campaign machine designed, in the post Citizens United world, to funnel tons of money into advertising and other services that ultimately support Republican candidates.


Rove famously melted down before the Fox News television cameras on election night when, in the midst of doing his moonlighting gig as a Fox commentator, he refused to accept the results of the Obama campaign’s win in Ohio, where the G.O.P. pulled out all the stops to make voting difficult for people likely to pull the lever for the president.


Now Rove is trying to explain away why the $390 million forked over by the 1 percent and funneled through Rove’s outfits bought, well, not much of anything. But for every media buy Rove’s organizations made, political consultants got a cut, and Rove acts as though he had no control over the payment structure.


As Lucy Madison writes [15] at CBSNews.com:


Rove, who essentially created the model for post-Citizens United outside donor groups - or so-called "super PACs" - with American Crossroads, the group he co-founded, also conceded that super PAC money could have been more effectively spent in the 2012 campaign. He argued that too much of that money had gone to consultants, not targets.


Rove's group certainly did not produce the kind of financial return for which it had aimed: According to a study [16] by the Sunlight Foundation just 1.29 percent of the nearly $104 million American Crossroads spent in the general election ended up going to a winning race.


Kevin Drum, writing at his Mother Jones blog, notes the irony [17]:


If conservative billionaires are looking for something else to be mad about, I'd recommend the Romney campaign's apparent habit of paying about 50 percent more for TV spots than the Obama campaign. That helped line the pockets of the consultants who both recommended the buys and got the commissions for placing the spots, but it didn't do much to win the election.


In the end, it turned out that one side ran its campaign like a business, while the other side ran its like a local PTA. Ironically, it was the ex-community organizer who did the former and the ex-CEO of Bain Capital who did the latter.


But, wait -- it gets even better. Rove goes on to complain that the G.O.P. ground game just wasn’t up to snuff. As Madison notes, Rove, writing in his November 7 Wall Street Journal column, opined:


Tactically, Republicans must rigorously re-examine their '72-hour' ground game and reverse-engineer the Democratic get-out-the-vote effort in order to copy what works. For example, a postelection survey shows that the Democratic campaign ground game was more effective in communicating negative information. It would be good to know why -- and how to counter such tactics in the future.


(Note the use of the third person, as if Rove himself were not a Republican strategist.)


That whole reverse-engineering thing? Rove’s old buddy, Ralph Reed, was supposed to be doing just that [18] for the G.O.P. through his Faith and Freedom Coalition, which was believed to have had a budget of tens of millions for the express purpose of applying Obama-style high-tech turnout strategies to drive socially conservative voters to the polls.


After the 2008 election, Reed told a conference [18] of activists last June, he “felt like I had been hit by a truck,” and vowed “never to get out-hustled on the ground again.” Out-hustled he was, but for every microtargeted communication and fancy app employed by Faith and Freedom Coalition, you can bet a consultant took a cut.


So maybe Reed felt like his was run over by a tank on Nov. 7, 2012 -- or maybe he just repaired to his $2 million home in Duluth, Ga., and slept soundly.


10. Meghan McCain: Karl Rove sucks.


McCain, daughter of Arizona senator and 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain, is a political force in her own right, and a pundit whose birthright is forgiven by the sheer fun of her delivery -- especially post-election. For the Daily Beast, McCain delivered a scathing on-camera commentary (video on last page of this article), complaining of the stupidity of the G.O.P.’s reliance on white men, which she says “is not a demographic anymore,” to deliver the goods on election day.


But the worst of her ire is reserved for Rove. “I hate Karl Rove,” she says in the video. “I have hated Karl Rove before anybody else hated Karl Rove. I hated Karl Rove when I was, like, 14 years old. I hate -- hate -- Karl Rove. I think he's an idiot, a pretentious blowhard, and I think he was ruined a lot of things for the Republican Party during the Bush administration. All these millionaires that keep giving him $400 million for him to not win one election -- maybe it's not working! Maybe it's not working.”


Transcript of Meghan McCain's video, part of her "Stark Raving Meghan" series.


So, Republicans, we lost again. I have voted three times in my life, and I have never voted for a winning candidate. I'm sick of this friction' track record. Everyone knows I'm Republican; I worked very hard trying to get Mitt Romney elected, defending him on television hundreds and hundreds of times. And Republicans, we lost because we were talking about rape and abortion and we can't get behind our gay friends getting married…I don't want everyone to break out the ice cream and Nora Ephron movies, because in all failure, there is opportunity. I am many things, but I am no freakin' pessimist. I think we have a chance to rebuild right now, and I think it can be awesome, and we have another four years. People just have to stop listening to frickin' right-wing lunatics like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity -- 'cause see where it's gotten us? I think losing -- a lot. And losing early.


I frickin' hate it when election nights are called early. I always think it's gonna last all night and then it's called at, like, 11.


I hate Karl Rove. I have hated Karl Rove before anybody else hated Karl Rove. I hated Karl Rove when I was, like, 14 years old. I hate -- hate -- Karl Rove. I think he's an idiot, a pretentious blowhard, and I think he was ruined a lot of things for the Republican Party during the Bush administration. All these millionaires that keep giving him $400 million for him to not win one election -- maybe it's not working! Maybe it's not working.


Give me five freakin' dollars -- I'll tell you for free what we gotta do. You can't keep going and trying to get white men, because they're dying off; it's not a demographic anymore. We need the single women. But you don't care. Seriously, I hate Karl Rove. Karl Rove needs to go away and retire, and just crawl back to the hole he emerged from...Everybody hates Karl Rove; he's like a Bond villain.

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/10-reasons-gop-really-messed-according-republicans (http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/10-reasons-gop-really-messed-according-republicans)

:lol Repugs are so fucking stupid, even in post-disaster introspection. Their hate-destroy-govt, protect/enrich-1% ideology makes them stupid (eg, nominate Bishop Gecko), and KEEPS THEM, and their ignorant, suckered base, STUPID.

[boutons_deux]

Rubio, pointing to his head to indicate emptiness, refused to grip scientific fact, mentions some sacred text.

http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/gty_marco_rubio_cpac_jp_120209_wblog-300x168.jpg

RUBIO: I’m not a scientist, man. I can tell you what recorded history says, I can tell you what the Bible says, but I think that’s a dispute amongst theologians and I think it has nothing to do with the gross domestic product or economic growth of the United States. I think the age of the universe has zero to do with how our economy is going to grow. I’m not a scientist. I don’t think I’m qualified to answer a question like that. At the end of the day, I think there are multiple theories out there on how the universe was created and I think this is a country where people should have the opportunity to teach them all. I think parents should be able to teach their kids what their faith says, what science says. Whether the Earth was created in 7 days, or 7 actual eras, I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to answer that. It’s one of the great mysteries.

http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/11/19/1213261/marco-rubio-flirts-with-creationism-says-hes-unsure-how-old-the-earth-is/

[ploto]

Trying to figure out whether Rubio actually believes that or he thinks he has to pander to the far right so much that he can not answer a simple question...

[ChuckD]

My two favorite bumper stickers of all time:

Focus on your own damn family

And

The moral majority is neither

The GOP ain't winning anything important until they internalize both of these.