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[Büge]

How the Tea Party are harassing voters

[patito]

I think when Rommey said him paying 13% and the rest of the people paying 35%, and that this stimulates investing, the suggestion here is that people like him are the only ones who should be investing anyway, everybody else doesn't need to invest that's how the economy works.

[Thad]

Romney criticizing teachers' unions.

I know unions aren't popular among Republicans, and "education reform" has been a major part of the platform for years and years, and it's become fashionable even among moderate Democrats to blame teachers' unions for problems in our education system.  I get that there's currently tension between Rahm Emmanuel and the Chicago teacher's union.  I get all that.

But still and all, going after teachers' unions seems like a pretty bad idea, politically.  People tend to support teachers.

(There IS an interesting bit in the middle of the article where Romney praises public schools and says they're just as good as private schools, which suggests another of his attempts to connect to the Common Man.)

I'm not sold on Brent's minesweeper idea, but when he says stuff like this it's certainly tempting.

[A²]

Paul Ryan can't stop masturbating to Ayn Rand.

[Brentai]

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-mitt-romneys-47-percent-poll-20120925,0,5822326.story

Expected evidence of excrement confirmed on bed.

Some choice tidbits:

Most raised the Romney comment themselves, without being asked.

"I am one of 47%, even though I pay income taxes,” said Michael, a 27-year-old sandwich shop manager in Indianapolis. “I don’t make $100,000 to $250,000 a year that he thinks is middle class.

Now that's interesting.  Not only does he remember the Middle Income redefinition, he's also correctly quoting it as starting from $100,000 as opposed to $200,000 like the MSM kept reporting.  Either Michael here is an outlier in the paying attention department or that bit is more common in the public consciousness than I thought.

Michael, who is married to a dog groomer and has a 1-year-old, said he typically votes Republican but can’t get past what he viewed as Romney’s contempt for half the population.

Huh!

Oh, and one for Thad:

"It just validated things I had felt about him before,” said Tim, a software company employee who lives near Minneapolis.

There you go.  It's more "proof that the world is round" than "wait a minute, the world is ROUND?"

Oh, and one more for me:

He said he had already begun to have doubts about Romney because of the Republican’s hasty criticism of President Obama following the attacks on U.S. diplomatic posts in Libya and Egypt.

(Also, RE: Ryan.  I would just like to remind everyone once again that I never completed college because I couldn't afford it, and Ryan's tuition was fully paid for by federal benefits.  So, you know, if I ever meet the man in person, I hope he brings a mouthguard.)

[Thad]

Now that's interesting.  Not only does he remember the Middle Income redefinition, he's also correctly quoting it as starting from $100,000 as opposed to $200,000 like the MSM kept reporting.  Either Michael here is an outlier in the paying attention department or that bit is more common in the public consciousness than I thought.

I'm thinking outlier.  Looks like a guy who's been paying close attention here, largely because:

Michael, who is married to a dog groomer and has a 1-year-old, said he typically votes Republican but can’t get past what he viewed as Romney’s contempt for half the population.

Huh!

Right.  This is a guy who's PREDISPOSED toward voting for Romney but keeps being hit with reasons not to.

Also, the phrase "typically votes Republican" suggests to me that he's more politically engaged than the average person.  He's only old enough to have voted in two presidential elections up to this point.  It could be that "typically" is a bad choice of words on the reporter's part, but if that's what the guy actually said then that implies he's probably voted in some midterm elections too.

Oh, and one for Thad:

"It just validated things I had felt about him before,” said Tim, a software company employee who lives near Minneapolis.

There you go.  It's more "proof that the world is round" than "wait a minute, the world is ROUND?"

Well sure.  The people who already knew Romney was a tool and Republicans don't like poor people aren't the ones I'm confused by.

And even though the guy voted for Reagan it doesn't sound like he was a fan of Bush.  I think the "people who don't even pay income tax" talking point is more recent than the Reagan Administration, though it strikes me as pretty much in keeping with Reagan's policies and rhetorical tactics.

[Brentai]

I dunno, stating a lack of concern about government beneficiaries seems actually toned-down from turning them into political boogeymen like Reagan did.

Which begs the question of whether or not Romney's mistake was simply not being mean enough.

[Classic]

He doesn't beat the 47% with a belt because he doesn't care. It hurts him more than it hurts us.

[Ziiro]

Joe Scarborough Reacts To Romney-Ryan Chant: 'Sweet Jesus'

I keep skipping back to :45 to listen to it again. It's so painful.

[Shinra]

Joe Scarborough has clearly given up at this point.

[Thad]

Scarborough's always (or at least "always" since leaving office and becoming a pundit) been pretty interesting about bucking party orthodoxy.

He really loved Howard Dean in 2004.  And I think it was genuine interest, not just the idea that he'd be easy for Bush to beat.

[Thad]

The whole Tumblr is pretty great.

[McDohl]

So hey.  Mother Jones follows up last week's 47% with another tasty tidbit, to mirror Romney going back to the 90s to find Obama's socialist agenda.

http://m.motherjones.com/politics/2012/09/1985-romney-bain-harvest-firms-profits-video

Bain capital is in the business of harvesting corporations for profit.

[Doom]

Since the subject has shifted back to Mother Jones, I wanted to comment on what Thad was saying earlier.

Yes, people should see the corruption in the system and these candidates more readily. However, they're generally inclined not to and the state of the Media as the 4th Estate is largely a joke. So it's really fantastic for me to hear people discussing politics and expressing disgust on the streets of Annapolis for the first time all year. The 47% stuff was probably the campaign-sinking gaffe. It pierced the bubble of ignorance.

Remember, you and I are political junkies even if we think we just casually read news sources and post in a discussion thread once or twice a day. The fact that we even consider our news sources and their biases puts us in like the top 10% of voters to begin with.

So... awesome work, Mother Jones.

[Thad]

No, I GET that -- see my comments earlier about how most people haven't been paying close attention and probably won't until the debates.

What I don't get is that this shows a fundamental lack of understanding of the fundamental nature of the Republican Party.  This isn't Deep Political Understanding stuff, it's the shit your ill-informed right-wing friends say when they get drunk and start complaining about welfare.

This isn't stuff you don't know if you're lowest-common-denominator.  It IS lowest-common-denominator.

[Doom]

I'm having a bit of trouble appreciating the difference, but I'm already on the side of the equation that can't see the GOP as anything but evil. Before, especially to try to honest in good faith with Conservative members of the boards, I tried to understand the Conservative mindset. But now... I dunno. It just seems so obvious and repulsive. Progression is a good thing, where we grant people more civil rights we never should have denied and we stop actively harming the country to win the national equivalent of a school-yard grudge. It's like it's hard to see anything in the GOP platform past looting the country for millionaires while being racist, sexist and homophobic. And it's gotten worse after the God Damn Bush Years.

With the recent remark that "All the angry white men are dying off as a voting majority", I think we inch ever closer to the day that the GOP eats itself and everybody has their own 47% moment of revelation. Or maybe, God willing, we get some political party diversity.

Edit: v   Ahhh.

[Royal☭]

I think Thad's point is why are we all repeatedly surprised when someone says the Emperor isn't wearing clothes, especially seeing as how the Emperor has made public nudity part of his platform for the last 30 years.

[Mongrel]

So apparently, Romney's favourite novel is Battlefield Earth.

O_______________o

[Ziiro]

Let me source that for you

[Rico]

What I don't get is that this shows a fundamental lack of understanding of the fundamental nature of the Republican Party.

Or, as the Onion put it when the 47% bit came out, "Romney Still In Hot Water After Reading GOP Platform Verbatim"