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[Shinra]

The Monopoly man is so angry at Mitt Romney, bless his little golden heart.

[Bal]

Please, his name is Rich Uncle Pennybags

[Thad]

Also you guys seem to be giving Obama a lot of "weak civil record" guff considering the repeal of DADT

And you're giving him a lot of credit for repealing DADT considering his contribution was not vetoing it.

Don't get me wrong, not vetoing it is pretty fucking important, and I think we can reasonably assume that Bush/Romney/McCain/pretty much any Republican but Goldwater would have vetoed it.  But it's not like he actively campaigned for it.  It's not like he made it a pillar of the midterm elections.  He was so busy tripping all over himself to extend the Bush tax cuts so the Republicans could keep doing whatever the fuck they wanted that the DADT repeal pretty much came out of nowhere and surprised everybody.

It's a great, great thing.  But Obama had next to nothing to do with it.

and, if nothing else, the symbolic gesture of saying that gay marriage would be OK. Yeah yeah, not that he actually put any legislature into effect for it or anything and his track record suggests he won't, but it's still a nice starting point.

Wow, you're right, when you put it like that, his record on civil rights is AWESOME.

[Doom]

Good point on the DADT, is there any reading on the subject you'd recommend? I was unaware, sounds a bit like "after the fact" point-scoring on Team D.

And fortunate thing I didn't credit it as being awesome, then. I guess my view is a bit old-fashioned, where somebody suggesting that Gay Marriage could exist at all might cause their political career to spontaneously combust. But a bit of social acceptance, or even letting the issue exist is, as I said, Nice.

[TA]

There's a lot of backroom workings, a lot of currying favor and gathering votes, involved in something like the DADT repeal.  Just because the work doesn't happen in front of a microphone and a camera doesn't mean Obama wasn't doing a lot to get that repeal through.

Meanwhile, looks like we have a new dogwhistle.

[Thad]

Good point on the DADT, is there any reading on the subject you'd recommend? I was unaware, sounds a bit like "after the fact" point-scoring on Team D.

Yeah, it was pretty much part of the lame duck Democratic Congress cramming through everything they could in the last two months of 2010.

Oddly, I can't find a thread where we're actually talking about it passing (I can find in the LGBT thread where we talk about it being filibustered and where we talk about it going into effect, but not the part where it actually passed).

At the beginning of the Me Gridlock thread back in late 2010 I linked to a Washington Post article called In political gamble, Reid seeks votes that are sure to fail; that's pretty much what was happening in December of '010.  The Dems, knowing they were a month away from losing their House majority and several of their Senate seats, started pushing whatever the fuck pet legislation they could possibly think of; the DADT repeal, surprisingly, actually managed to pass.

And fortunate thing I didn't credit it as being awesome, then.

No, but you implied that it counterbalanced all the actual, concrete stuff he's done to undermine civil rights.

I guess my view is a bit old-fashioned, where somebody suggesting that Gay Marriage could exist at all might cause their political career to spontaneously combust. But a bit of social acceptance, or even letting the issue exist is, as I said, Nice.

It's nice, but as much as anything it's a sign of the times: we now live in a reality where a Democratic President believes that offering tepid support of gay marriage will earn him more votes than it costs him.  Obama's not taking a bold stand here, he's holding his finger in the wind.  (There was a rather fun segment on Daily Show a few months back about how in just a few years Fox News's rhetoric on the subject has shifted from "It will mean men fucking turtles and the end of civilization" to "Oh, Obama's only supporting gay marriage because it's such a popular position.")

Taking a bold stand would entail actually fucking trying to do something about it instead of pulling this "states' rights" horseshit.

Seriously, think about it for a minute.  A guy whose parents were a BIRACIAL COUPLE is espousing the stance that states should determine marriage rights for themselves.

Doesn't sound so goddamn bold to me; sounds downright craven under the circumstances.

There's a lot of backroom workings, a lot of currying favor and gathering votes, involved in something like the DADT repeal.  Just because the work doesn't happen in front of a microphone and a camera doesn't mean Obama wasn't doing a lot to get that repeal through.

I don't typically take a total lack of evidence as evidence, though.

Did Obama extend the Bush Tax Cuts in exchange for repealing DADT?  That would certainly imply he was a much shrewder negotiator than, well, any actual evidence I've ever seen of his negotiation skills.  But at this point I'm a lot more inclined to believe the Democrats are Occasionally Lucky than Secretly Competent.

[Shinra]

There's a lot of backroom workings, a lot of currying favor and gathering votes, involved in something like the DADT repeal.  Just because the work doesn't happen in front of a microphone and a camera doesn't mean Obama wasn't doing a lot to get that repeal through.

Meanwhile, looks like we have a new dogwhistle.

I don't think I'd call that a dogwhistle. It's pretty clear that the home of the lynch mob wants to send a message.

[Doom]

No, but you implied that it counterbalanced all the actual, concrete stuff he's done to undermine civil rights.

My mistake. Thanks for the links, I'll have to read up a bit later, work soon.

Also if you thought lynching a chair was some sort of... limit? A line of sorts?

Well, maybe Mitt Romney just rocketed past that line when it became feasible to openly speculate on if he had a tanning accident.

Ahahahaha holy fuck.

[Shinra]

There is now a plausible scenario that ends with Democrats controlling the house and senate.

[TA]

No, but you implied that it counterbalanced all the actual, concrete stuff he's done to undermine civil rights.

My mistake. Thanks for the links, I'll have to read up a bit later, work soon.

Also if you thought lynching a chair was some sort of... limit? A line of sorts?

Well, maybe Mitt Romney just rocketed past that line when it became feasible to openly speculate on if he had a tanning accident.

Ahahahaha holy fuck.

Right.  "Tanning accident".  Right before stumping to a Hispanic audience.

I must admit, I can't recall ever seeing someone put on brownface for a campaign spot before.

[TA]

Jesus babyfucking christ.

[Shinra]

At this point in the speech, he refers to the crowd as his esses, and asks anyone if they want to join him for a siesta after the show. It didn't end up in the video, but at one point he puts on a sombrero and does a hat dance.

[Brentai]

Oh God his new strategy is to make all the liberals die laughing.

Please God it's working too well, make it stop.

[Thad]

Right.  "Tanning accident".  Right before stumping to a Hispanic audience.

I'd definitely say it's the result of tanning and not dye as the article suggests -- looks to me like he's got tanlines from either sunglasses or goggles.

Where's he been recently?  There are places where you could feasibly get a tan in September just by being outdoors for an afternoon.  Particularly places where Univision has a presence.  (Today's forecast high here is 103.)

I certainly won't rule out racist, tone-deaf pandering from Romney, because who let the dogs out, but a sudden and obvious tan COULD be a coincidence.

There is now a plausible scenario that ends with Democrats controlling the house and senate.

I don't know how plausible it actually is, but it's possible, anyway -- especially given how badly I expect Romney to start doing in the polls and how many voters vote straight party ticket.

I think that's the money shot -- never mind Obama's victory margin, if the Democrats retake the House, THAT'S the mandate you guys have been talking about.

And as I've said, I'm a lot happier voting Democratic for the House and Senate than for the White House.

[Shinra]

I'm hoping that if we manage to struggle back to a three house majority, the first thing we do on opening day of the senate is nuclear option and tell the republican senators to go piss up a rope. You know they'll do it to us the first time they get a majority back. In the unlikely event that there is a real mandate from the American people to the Democratic party for the second time in 4 years, we'd better not fuck it up with our loser mentality of "well, what happens if THEY get a majority in four years?"

[Thad]

I gotta say the photo on CSM that's currently at the top of Google News sure as hell doesn't LOOK like a natural tan from the sun.

[Brentai]

And then I will mount my unicorn and gallop off into the sky to live in a castle made of oiled-up cheerleaders.

In all seriousness, yes, a clean-sweep government IS a much more satisfying scenario than an Obama landslide.  A Congressional landslide and an Executive squeaking victory would probably be the correct message, but that's way too complicated to set up.  This possibility, though, it opens up a brand new game: push for a liberal turnout on the message that, yes, there IS a way to end the crippling gridlock that has prevented our recovery for the last four years.  "We know Mitt Romney isn't the solution, THIS is the solution" will be a fucking dead-on bullseye if we can get the message out in time.

[Mongrel]

I want to cheer for that, but the ugly part of me wonders what happens if the Dems do win a crushing victory but completly fuck everything up anyway.

[Bal]

I guess armed overthrow of the government is the only solution.

[Shinra]

Romney's campaign is giving up on NM.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — In the latest sign that Republicans are failing to gain traction in New Mexico, national party leaders are pulling three key staffers from their effort here to elect Mitt Romney.