2721

A commenter on this post on politicalwire.com writes:

Mitt’s smart enough to know he is done. It must be incredibly painful having to go out and perform, like an East German circus polar bear being cattle prodded in the nuts when he doesn’t dance on the ball when he is told.

2722

Barack Obama is a black, African socialist who believes that unborn babies belong in the bottom of a bucket, because that’s the easiest way for people (who don’t want to choose to turn gay to avoid the whole problem) to continue having immoral sex without consequence, which is demonstrably against God’s 10,000 year plan.

What’s a little flip-flopping against that?

2723

So, basically, wait for the polls to close and then check?

That probably would be much better for my sanity.

2724

At the risk of getting sucked into Timex’s surreal reality vortex, I’m just going to say context matters and leave it at that.

I took Wednesday off. I have a date with a bottle of Vodka (I don’t drink normally so that’s probably over kill.) In '04 I was convinced Bush could not get re elected, so I have precedence for crushing disappointment.

2725

If the idea is one of marginal efficiency, then he’s already on record as saying the states are more agile responders to state-based issues, so why is it unreasonable for me to read the above statement with the tacked on “Therefore we should abolish FEMA and let the states handle it?”

You don’t see why it’s unreasonable to append that?

2726

In the new reality, nothing anyone says actually applies to the context in which he or she said it.

The President made several references to terrorism in his Rose Garden speech the day after the Libya attacks? Those were non-sequiturs and had nothing to do with the attacks Obama was addressing.

Romney, asked a direct question about Federal Disaster Relief answers that funding should be shifted to the states and private organizations and further states and talks about the immorality of deficit spending? He was off on a tangent completely unrelated to the question. More non-sequiturs.

These “words” you people seem so fond of lavishing attention on have no objective reality. They are just abstractions, devoid of meaning or context.

2727

By that logic, Romney also wants to get rid of the Department of Education, the Department of Defense, the National Parks, the IRS…after all, those are all powers that “can” be stripped from the federal government and given to the states. Therefore, you can jump to any conclusions you want.

Oh, and I have seen specific evidence that Romney doesn’t believe that FEMA should be stripped from the federal government: His campaign official who clarified that point in the linked article:

“Gov. Romney believes that states should be in charge of emergency management in responding to storms and other natural disasters in their jurisdictions,” Romney spokesman Ryan Williams said in a statement. “As the first responders, states are in the best position to aid affected individuals and communities, and to direct resources and assistance to where they are needed most. This includes help from the federal government and FEMA.”

So people jumped to the wrong conclusion based on his statements, and he clarified his position. That’s not backpedaling; that’s clarification.

2728

Thank you, I was trying to find a way to say that but couldn’t, well done. :)

2729

Yeah totally, totally. Also, if FEMA had proven Bush-era-incompetent this time, he could have just as easily clarified that what he meant was we should get rid of FEMA. It’s win/win!

2730

Actually, the word terror only occured once in that speech, right? After talking about 9/11, right?

How many times during the debates have candidates directly answered the actual questions asked of them?

I mean, we’ve actually talked about exactly that already, right? How various answers were only tangentially related to the question asked? This is what politicians do in debates. They stay on message.

Romney certainly suggests there that he is in favor of pushing power to the states. He doesn’t say he wants to abolish FEMA.

Again, that’s why the article had to fall back on quoting a HuffPo headline, rather than something Romney actually said.

2731

We need a like button. I don’t know how this isn’t obvious but apparently … yeah.

2732

BRAVO BRAVO! Though honestly both sides suffer from it from time to time. I believe in some of the ideals of republicans, just the not the batshit crazy rheroric they’ve been indulding in lately.

2733

He also talked about visiting the graves of troops at Arlington Cemetery, and wounded troops at Walter Reed; does that mean that the people killed and wounded in Libya were already buried at Arlington and hospitalized at Walter Reed? No, because he was addressing other topics as well, including the 9/11 attacks. He talked specifically about Benghazi, then generally about the 9/11 attacks, then generally about sacrifice, then generally about service, and then generally about “acts of terror.” You don’t think that maybe he was talking about acts of terror in general, but not specifically saying that the attack in Libya was motivated by terrorism?

And if he wasn’t saying it was motivated by the video, then why did he mention the part about “We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others”? That part was specifically saying that the attack in Benghazi was motivated by the video.

No, of course it was related to the question. He was asked about FEMA running out of money, and should more responsibility be shifted to the states, and he said that yes, we should try to shift more responsibility to the states whenever possible, and we should look at what programs can have their federal burden reduced so that we don’t go further into debt. But saying, “We should start moving power back to the states when possible” is not the same as saying, “We should shut down FEMA completely.”

2734

Charles Pierce essay.

Barack Obama owes more than I’d like him to owe to the Wall Street crowd. He probably at this point owes a little more than I’d like him to owe to the military. The rest he owes to the millions of people who elected him in 2008 — especially to those people whose enthusiasm I neither shared nor really understood — and he will owe them even more if they come out and pull his chestnuts out of the fire for him this time around. He may sell them out — and, yes, I understand if you wanted to add “again” to that statement — but they are not likely to revenge themselves against the country if he does and, even if they decided to, they don’t have the power to do much but yell at the right buildings.
On the other hand, Willard Romney owes even more to the Wall Street crowd, and he owes even more to the military, but he also owes everything he is politically to the snake-handlers and the Bible-bangers, to the Creationist morons and to the people who stalk doctors and glue their heads to the clinic doors, to the reckless plutocrats and to the vote-suppressors, to the Randian fantasts and libertarian fakers, to the closeted and not-so-closeted racists who have been so empowered by the party that has given them a home, to the enemies of science and to the enemies of reason, to the devil’s bargain of obvious tactical deceit and to the devil’s honoraria of dark, anonymous money, and, ultimately, to those shadowy places in himself wherein Romney sold out who he might actually be to his overweening ambition. It is a fearsome bill to come due for any man, let alone one as mendaciously malleable as the Republican nominee. Obama owes the disgruntled. Romney owes the crazy. And that makes all the difference

2735

No, politicians always answer specific questions very directly when asked. That’s why we know everything about what happened in Libya, from the second debate:

QUESTION: We were sitting around, talking about Libya, and we were reading and became aware of reports that the State Department refused extra security for our embassy in Benghazi, Libya, prior to the attacks that killed four Americans.

Who was it that denied enhanced security and why?

OBAMA: Well, let me first of all talk about our diplomats, because they serve all around the world and do an incredible job in a very dangerous situation. And these aren’t just representatives of the United States, they are my representatives. I send them there, oftentimes into harm’s way. I know these folks and I know their families. So nobody is more concerned about their safety and security than I am.

So as soon as we found out that the Benghazi consulate was being overrun, I was on the phone with my national security team and I gave them three instructions.

Number one, beef up our security and procedures, not just in Libya, but at every embassy and consulate in the region.

Number two, investigate exactly what happened, regardless of where the facts lead us, to make sure folks are held accountable and it doesn’t happen again.

And number three, we are going to find out who did this and we’re going to hunt them down, because one of the things that I’ve said throughout my presidency is when folks mess with Americans, we go after them.

See? He very specifically answered who denied extra security for the embassy in Benghazi. He did not, for example, just avoid the question and talk about what he would do going forward, without really addressing the question at hand.

2736

Wow.

Scumbag Romney Holds Fake Sandy Hurricane Relief

Harsh language warning.

2737

I still don’t understand the whole point – if anything, it makes the attacks seem more awful if they were motivated by a silly video.

2738

Another example, Jeep and GM yesterday finally felt compelled to call bullshit on the ads Romney is running in Ohio:

“Jeep has no intention of shifting production of its Jeep models out of North America to China,” Gualberto Ranieri, the company’s senior vice president for corporate communications, wrote Thursday in a blog posted on Chrysler’s Web site.

“Despite clear and accurate reporting, the take has given birth to a number of stories making readers believe that Chrysler plans to shift all Jeep production to China from North America … . It is a leap that would be difficult even for circus acrobats.”

Chrysler last year announced a $500 million investment to expand and modernize part of the Toledo Assembly Complex.

The planned expansion will add about 1,100 jobs, putting total plant employment at about 3,000.

http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-mo-autos-marchionne-romney-jeep-20121030,0,2649025.story]http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-f...0,2649025.story

Noting that Chrysler production plans for Jeep had entered the public debate, Marchionne said, “I feel obliged to unambiguously restate our position: Jeep production will not be moved from the United States to China.

“Jeep is one of our truly global brands with uniquely American roots. This will never change. So much so that we committed that the iconic Wrangler nameplate, currently produced in our Toledo, Ohio plant, will never see full production outside the United States,” he continued.

“Jeep assembly lines will remain in operation in the United States and will constitute the backbone of the brand,” Marchionne said. “It is inaccurate to suggest anything different.”

http://www.freep.com/article/20121030/BUSINESS01/121030036/1205/business01/Romney-implies-GM-used-U-S-aid-create-jobs-China]http://www.freep.com/article/20121030/BUSI...eate-jobs-China

“We’ve clearly entered some parallel universe during these last few days,” GM spokesman Greg Martin said. “No amount of campaign politics at its cynical worst will diminish our record of creating jobs in the U.S. and repatriating profits back to this country.”

How does the Romney camp respond?

Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul tells @detnews on GM, Chrysler statements: “Their comments don’t refute anything in our ad”

Because the ads don’t actually say that Obama’s bailout has resulted in jobs being shifted over seas. It may be strongly implied but it’s never actually said so, strictly speaking, those ads are true. Like this new radio ad:

Barack Obama says he saved the auto industry. But for who? Ohio, or China? Under President Obama, GM cut 15,000 American jobs. But they are planning to double the number of cars built in China — which means 15,000 more jobs for China.
And now comes word that Chrysler plans to start making Jeeps in — you guessed it — China. What happened to the promises made to autoworkers in Toledo and throughout Ohio — the same hard-working men and women who were told that Obama’s auto bailout would help them?

None of the words in that ad actually relate to one another. It’s just a stream of non-sequiturs that listeners can use to construct novel opinions. It’s like a party game of sorts.

2739

I so wish this forum had a like button.

2740

If you were looking for a signpost as to where this thing is right now: Romney is campaigning in Florida and Virginia tomorrow. They know that Virginia is trouble and Florida is not locked down for them by any means.