Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Thad]

Not sure if you're making fun of me or of Democrats, but I can totally see them back-burnering this for a week, making the convention about Obama instead of Romney, and THEN starting back in with the negative stuff.  (Or letting their surrogates do it, more likely.)

[Shinra]

Romney's initial rescue attempt at Bain & Company was actually a disaster – leaving the firm so financially strapped that it had "no value as a going concern." Even worse, the federal bailout ultimately engineered by Romney screwed the FDIC – the bank insurance system backed by taxpayers – out of at least $10 million. And in an added insult, Romney rewarded top executives at Bain with hefty bonuses at the very moment that he was demanding his handout from the feds.

[...]

In March 1992, according to the FDIC documents, Romney approached the banks and played the bonus card. Allow Bain to pay off its debt at a deep discount, he demanded – just 35 cents on the dollar. Otherwise, the "majority" of the firm's "excess cash" would "be available for the bonus pool to its officers at a vice president level and above."

The next month, when the banks balked at the deal, Romney decided to prove he wasn't bluffing. "As the bank group did not accept the proposal from Bain," the records show, "Bain's senior management has decided to go forth with the distribution of bonuses." (Bain's lawyers redacted the amount of the executive payouts, and the Romney campaign refused to comment on whether Romney himself received a bonus.)

Oh man, that is GOLD.

So do you figure that'll be in campaign ads before the week is out, or will they take a break from bashing Romney to focus on positive campaigning next week?

I honestly don't know at this point. the Obama campaign practically sat on their hands through the Ryan VP selection when they could have skewered the GOP ticket over medicare. While we can argue about how effectively Romney accomplished it, I feel like it allowed their side to frame the Medicare debate in their favor when the ball was completely in our court. As much as I'd like to believe there was a strategy there, I'm completely unable to find one. I could see Democrats dropping the ball on this completely.

[Mongrel]

I could see Democrats dropping the ball on this completely.

I think we all could.

But man, once again, Rolling-fucking-Stone winds up looking like the last legitimate newspaper left in the US.

[Thad]

I'm still not sure whether Obama is a master strategist with some grand plan we just can't see yet, or a complete idiot.

He could be a really good campaigner, or a not-very-good campaigner who just got lucky.  (Like Karl Rove.)  And I think a lot of 2008 was down to Dean -- a guy who was a great campaigner even though he couldn't close the deal when he was the one running.

the Obama campaign practically sat on their hands through the Ryan VP selection when they could have skewered the GOP ticket over medicare. While we can argue about how effectively Romney accomplished it, I feel like it allowed their side to frame the Medicare debate in their favor when the ball was completely in our court.

Weeeell, but that first part is kinda it -- Romney just kinda flailed and flopped around and tripped over his dick like always.  What's his stance on Medicare?  "Well I totally oppose the Ryan plan, which is why I picked Ryan, because he supported it but now he doesn't, but I won't tell you what our plan is now."  Essentially the same as his stance on everything else, which is who-the-fuck-knows.

I think there IS a certain wisdom to not making a big deal out of the opposition's running-mate and just letting the press do that job -- it sure as hell worked with Palin.

That said, there's plenty left to do with Ryan.  Medicare's part of it, but painting him as the guy who's responsible for the past two years of congressional stonewalling could REALLY make him an albatross 'round Romney's neck.

And I think it's wise for the Democrats to make their convention about Obama instead of about Romney.  You want your candidate to stand for something, not just against it; make the challenger the guy who's defining himself in terms of "at least I'm not that other guy".

Plus there's plenty of negative campaigning to be done by SuperPACs, surrogates, and of course Romney and Ryan themselves just by opening their damn-fool mouths.  Not to mention the rest of their party -- who the fuck even knew who Akin was a couple weeks ago?  I'm not even sure I just spelled his name right and I'm not going to look it up.

[Brentai]

Guess Thad's already right; the focus right now is on making the President as transparent as possible.  Barack Obama hosts a Reddit AMA.

:pacosavatar:

JOXAM EDIT: I edited your link to link to the full site version of the story and not the mobile one.

[Thad]

Actually, re: Ryan/Medicare, I just heard on the radio that the Obama campaign took out an ad in the biggest paper in Tampa today with the "RYAN PLAN WILL END MEDICARE AS WE KNOW IT" message.  So yeah, they're hitting him on that, in Tampa, on the day he's the featured convention speaker.

[Ted Belmont]

[Classic]

Haha wow.
Suddenly I feel like I should be doing ad copy for political campaigns.

[Mongrel]

Hahaha, that is some grade-A king shit trolling.

[Thad]

So, uh.

Did the Republicans just bring up a Hollywood actor to criticize Obama for failing to close Guantanamo Bay or end the war in Afghanistan?  Is that really a thing that just happened?

[A²]

[Doom]

I said 8-10 years ago that Republican voters were mostly guys who win arguments with themselves in the car.

Now it's literally true with the RNC and their leaders!

[Thad]

Eh, I still like ol' Clint.  (Especially given that, as noted, half the shit he seemed to be complaining about was that Obama isn't liberal enough.)  Plus that speech sounds like it was far and away the most entertaining thing to come out of the convention, so I think I'm going to have to set aside some time to watch it.

I expect The Daily Show will cover it in tonight's special Friday edition.

[Shinra]

Actually watching Ron Paul delegates proposing amendments to the official GOP platform the first day of the convention was the most entertaining thing. Those amendments are why the gold standard is officially in their platform.


Also the GOP now has an official position on the national weather service and FEMA.

[Shinra]

Another Voter ID law was struck down, and they are going to take it straight to the supreme court.

[Zaratustra]

Clint Eastwood was possibly the only sincere person and certainly the only spontaneous person in the convention, of course he's going to come across as crazy.

[Smiler]

[TA]

[Cthulhu-chan]

uhhh

[Thad]

Hey, that dude could totally be Hispanic.

Somehow I doubt he's ever been pulled over for it, though.