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by Teh Nutroots | Oh man. Check out Sadly, No!'s two-minute version of the NRO symposium par excellence as they ponder the nation's Great Black Hope. Then click on the link to the real one and laugh even harder.
Continue reading "National Review Online Takes It to the Keyboards" »
by Blue Stockings | MoDo likes nothing better than a sentimental-yet-wryly-tongue-in-cheek journal of self-discovery. Are you wondering what MoDo is thinking now that her secret dorky crush has been elected president? (O Brave New World that has such people in it!) See The Tracks of Our Tears.
Shorter nutshell version:
Am I the only white person who finds it awkward talking to black people, now that electing Obama has made it de rigeur for the fashion-forward? Strangely, some interpret well-intentioned attempts to probe their feelings about the election as false or condescending. I must ask my African American friend to explain to me what her people want.
Continue reading "Shorter Maureen Dowd (The Tracks of Our Tears)" »
by Teh Puppet Mistress | None of us here or at Buck Naked Politics has ever mistaken Barack Obama for a progressive---so we are not going to suffer any pangs of disappointment as he continues to demonstrate this. And make no mistake; he has already begun to do so.
At this point, I am quite prepared to be contented that we have as our president-elect a fearsomely intelligent and--not to sound like Joe Biden--amazingly articulate Democrat and also (and this means a lot as well) the first African-American president ever. Obama must certainly be one of the most intelligent presidents elected in my lifetime. For now, that's change enough and change I can certainly believe in.
I do have Obama-supporting colleagues who are already bracing in anticipation for the inevitable let-down.
Via Balloon Juice, and writing about the Rahm Emanuel pick, Daniel Larison commented: "[Progressives] are going to find themselves very disappointed to discover that Obama is, in fact, a Chicago politician who is interested in pushing his agenda rather than being the national psychotherapist they seem interested in finding."
by Blue Stockings | This comes from Ken Ashford of The Seventh Sense and relates to the heart-breaking outcome of the various actions by states to ban gay marriage:
I have nothing against Mormons per se, but since it was the Church of Latter-Day Saints that funded Prop 8 in California, which isn't even their state, I think this call for a boycott of Utah might be a good idea....It's fine if Mormons don't believe in gays having equal rights, but.... wait, that reminds me of one of my favorite scenes from Angels in America:Harper: I'm a Mormon.Prior: I'm a homosexual.
Harper: Oh. [pause] In my church we don't believe in homosexuals.
Prior: In my church we don't believe in Mormons. (More)
And therefore....you make the logical leap.
Nice.
by Blue Stockings | Oh, Chris Matthews. All is forgiven. While we mention this video elsewhere, I just had to post it here and for prosperity. Or if not for prosperity, for my own entertainment. When I'm feeling blue, or down, or pessimistic that the wingers will go on causing trouble, I want to have it within easy reach.
H/t Rising Hegemon, where Res Ipsa Loquitur writes:
Wow, I just read at John Cole that this jackass is in line to lead the House Republicans? You know, I'm trying not to get all puffed up, what with president-elect Barack Obama, the increased Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, the impending smackdown of Joe Lieberman, and the coming civil war in the Republican party, but these guys are just making it too easy.
by Teh Puppet Mistress | At Jesus's General:
by Blue Stockings | John Amato has an awesome illustrated roll call of shame and perpetual wrongness at Crooks and Liars.
Thanks for the memories, but you were all completely "Irrelevant" during the historic victory that Barack Obama achieved during 2008 Presidential election. All your smears failed to change the course of history...Kudos to all. Thanks to you, conservatism itself is now ... Irrelevant.
Continue reading "The Wingnut Punditocracy's Long, Discreditable Slide Into Irrelevance" »
by The Puppet Mistress | Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Nachos:
If you were worried the Republicans might finally wake up after two straight ass-kickings, and realize the right-wing schtick isn't working anymore, rest easy.
The House Republicans have just selected their new leadership team. John Boehner (R-Oompa Loompa) will stay in charge of the dwindling Republican minority, but the second and third in commands will now be Eric Cantor and Mike Pence, two congressmen whose loyalty to the far right is only rivaled by their own stupidity.
Otto Man has a February 2007 Tweety interview of Cantor to prove it!
There are many things to be excited about with the election of Barack Obama, but the emergence of Republican-on-Republican violence is certainly at the top of my list.
Ours too.
Continue reading ""When Will They Ever Learn?" Apparently, Never" »
by The Puppet Mistress | Blue Texan points out that the right wingers have suddenly raised the bar for what constitutes a mandate. All things considered, Obama's historic win was...historic.
I think a "landslide" probably should be reserved for any EV count over 400. By that measure, it wasn't a landslide. But...
- Obama received the most votes of any presidential candidate in history -- over 63M, besting W's 62M in 2004.
- Obama received a higher percentage of votes (53%) than George W. Bush in '04 or '00, than Clinton in '96 or '92, and more than St. Reagan in 1980 (50%). He matches George HW Bush's mark in '88 -- and posted the highest percentage by a Democrat since LBJ's 61% in 1964.
- Obama received more electoral votes (364) than George W. Bush in '04 (286) and '00 (271), more than Carter in '76, and more than Nixon in '68, Kennedy in '60, and Truman in '48.
- Obama brought with him increased gains in the Democratic Senate and House -- the first time Democrats have extended their majorities in back-to-back elections since the 1930s.
Bottom line: the size of Obama's win crushes either of W's, who posted two anemic, 1-state wins, and lost the popular vote in 2000. And this is the guy who they chriped for years about having a "mandate" and was going to remake the country with permanent majorities for the GOP and Peggy Noonan was savoring.
He also links to this excellent nutshell summary of how McCain managed to lose it all.
BTW, the blogger formerly known as "Captain Ed" a/k/a "Special Ed" had a different interpretation of the data. Or, as Whiskey Fire puts it, "Nation Apathetic about Obama, If You Look at Data Like a Moron."
Continue reading ""Landslide"/"Mandate" v. "Not a Landslide/Not a Mandate"" »
by Damozel | I normally wouldn't draw our daily dose of snark from the same blog two days running, but TBogg is a master, and this---like yesterday's---is masterly, both in its ruthless efficiency and accuracy in identifying and lancing the latest unattractive inflammatory groundswell and its peerless use of pop culture references as the instrument of choice. Yesterday, it was Galaxy Quest. Today: one of my top five all-time films, Life of Brian.
Obama got elected three days ago and the wingers are all depressed, which they consider to be proof that they are also now, and destined in the future to be, oppressed. They're always mad, but now they're even madder---as well as in a panicky tailspin---and so the leading lights of the right are busily organizing a Republican Resistance movement.
Sadly, their defeat has forced them to confront how much they actually hate one another. None of them can agree even on the fundamentals of how to build a better GOP.
TBogg considers the struggle of the emergent warring sects to find some common ground, and their ensuing abject failure:
Divided we stand"...no...wait...um... "united we flail" ...no, that's not it. Crap, I think I wrote it down on a Wendy's napkin. Look in the back seat of my car.... Oh, here we go....
He's got the list, the clip, and the final word.
by Blue Stockings | Sadly, No! has published what might be the definitive post on wingnut rage, fear, and screeching.
Why are they so afraid all the time? What are they so afraid of? Is chronic craven fear really the trait that distinguishes the crazy-asses of the Republican base from normal people?
So it seems. I've finally worked out the answer to the question: Why, oh why do they hate us liberals so?
They hate us for our fearlessness.
They're in a perpetual state of bug-eyed rage and panic, alternating with fear and fury. How it must gall them that liberals don't share their fear of the monsters under the bed; that we have, in fact, put away childish things and moved on.
by Damozel | Here's a post by Roy Edroso at Alicublog. It's full of truth:
Matthew Yglesias observes that the cry of "he must govern from the middle" is already going up. But these people don't know where the middle is. The government owns a majority interest in several heretofore private banks, is embroiled in foreign adventures for which it cannot pay, and, from the looks of the various referenda results, is riven with significant cultural divisions. It looks more like Lord North's Britain than what we usually think of as America. The new President is better advised to seek solutions rather than some mythical center line to toe.
Have a look at the prominent conservative thinkers (I know, I know) who are working on a conservative "game plan", trimming like little Clintons in search of the Joe the Plumber vote that brought John McCain all the way to 163 electoral votes. They're looking for the middle because they have nothing else to do. It's a fittingly harmless occupation for people who are not going to be making policy anytime soon.
The fact is, the dialogue of conservatives moved so far to the right under Bush---driven by various blowhards and nutjobs, while the more tempered conservatives kept opportunistically quiet as long as they got tax cuts for this silence---that what these people think of as "The Center" remains far to the right of even a moderate Democrat---or even some moderate Republicans. They've lost any sense of where the true center lies. On the wingnut continuum, Andrew Sullivan is a wild-eyed liberal.
I expect that everything that the (according to Paul Krugman and me) far-from-far-left Obama does while in office will cause them to fume and rage impotently. Obama wasn't my first choice---I admit I initially preferred John Edwards and then Hillary---but now I've seen more of him, I'm all for Obama. I would like for his to be a popular administration. But here's the thing: he's never going to be able to please the wingnut base and I hope he won't bother to try.
Continue reading "Governing from the Center of the Wingnut Continuum" »
by Nicholas | OMFG!! It looks as though John McCain’s dignified concession speech is about as good as it gets as far as the Republicans are concerned. Of course, any losing side in an election will hold an inquest, examine where its weaknesses were and generally make plans to do better next time. One or two sacrificial heads may roll -- that is to be expected -- but in general it’s always a good thing to keep recriminations as restrained as possible
Things in the Republican camp may be a bit more vigorous than that right now. If we are to believe what we read and hear (And why shouldn’t we? The meltdown is delicious!) there is a vast build-up of latent hostility between the McCain camp and the Palin camp that is about erupt into a bout of name calling , finger pointing and backstabbing . And Sarah herself it seems, is not the adorable bimbo everyone thought she was. Okay, she was a bimbo, but not adorable (Well, some people thought she was adorable. I always found her repulsive). We all know that she had no idea what the function of the Vice President is, and that she seemed to think that the First Amendment existed to protect her from the probing questions of reporters. Now it appears that she didn’t know which countries were included in NAFTA. And she thought that Africa was a country, not an entire continent. Yes, she could always be advised about these facts but surely, someone who wanted to understudy the presidency, who has reached the age of 44 and who has been through university, should already know these things. These aren’t arcane details of something outside the mainstream -- these are essential facts.
Have a look at this page from the Huffington Post and make sure you play the clip from The O’Reilly Factor on the Fox News network, which isn’t exactly known for its love of the Democrats. Tantrums? Paper throwing? Making her staff weep? So much for adorable. America had a narrow escape last Tuesday.
by Teh Nutroots | Angry wingers gird up their nuts to defend the honor of St. Palin. Check out TBogg's response: By Joe the Plumber’s hammer, by the sons of Wasilla, you shall be avenged.
by Blue Stockings | Hey, who doesn't love a party? Bring back the party of Republican Party Reptile and former Rolling Stone reporter P.J. O'Rourke and it might even be possible for them to realign the realignment. But they're not going to get a fair share of the youth vote if they keep trying to combine "small government" with social conservatism. Kick the Christianists to the curb, GOP!
In the meantime, I say we jump on the bandwagon and make 'em eat universal health care and gay marriage. Ambinder has the whole tale, along with their plangent appeal for a new beginning or whatever.
....and drivels.
People are in for a rude awakening. And a mature conservative movement, with both an ear and a solid voice, will be needed.
Sadly for K-Lo & Co., no such exists. Thanks Christ they're out of power.
by Blue Stockings | I'm not sure how we managed to miss this, but it should become a classic. It begins:
Come with me to the pumpkin patch
And see what is most scary!
The GOP turns ghouls to glee
And bites off the heads of fairies! (More at Jesus's General)
The picture alone is worth a click.
Jesus's General has also posted---approvingly of course---the video of the mean lady who sent tiny Obama supporters off weeping and candyless. That'll teach the little socialists not to share!
Three days until the election, in arguably the biggest and most important swing state, Republicans held a rally and forgot to highlight their presidential nominee.
Uh...oops? CNN [via Memeorandum] on a Palin rally in Polk City, Florida.
[O]n closer inspection, the GOP nominee’s name was literally nowhere to be found on any of the official campaign signage distributed to supporters at the event.
[M]embers of the audience proudly waved “Country First” placards as Palin delivered her stump speech. Those signs were paid for by the Republican National Committee. The other sign handed out to supporters read “Florida is Palin Country,” but those signs were neither paid for by the Republican National Committee nor the McCain campaign.
The "diva" has officially dumped her political sugar daddy.
Man, if he wins, he should kick her to the curb. I'm not kidding. I really doubt he's enjoying all the mavericky fun playing second banana to Palin as much as Palin would have us believe:
Continue reading "Now That's Mavericky! Palin to McCain: "Dear John..."" »
From Fables of the Reconstruction:
She's George W. Bush without the intellect.
Continue reading "Snark O' the Day (Second Course): Who is Sarah Palin?" »
by Teh Nutroots | ...that is to say, the Megan McArdle employed by The Atlantic as their so-called econoblogger?
Susan of Texas provides a clue.
The first time, you think Megan has a tin ear for insulting and potentially damaging comparisons.
Barack Obama will break 90%--or do really well, with third-world dictator popularity levels.
But by the second time, you know it's deliberate.
This is not particularly urgent, since my voting "options" were New York and DC; in both places, the question is not who will carry the state, but whether Obama will get a mere 80% or so of the vote, or achieve Saddam Hussein-like vote totals*. *Before you say it--no, not by fixing the election, by being so popular that he achieves fairly what Saddam achieved by force.
Gaaaaah. That just might be a "subtle" enough dog-whistle to confuse the people who read her column (judging strictly by the comments).
Continue reading "Snark O' the Day: Who is Megan McArdle?" »
by Blue Stockings | It's really just more of what---incredibly---we've become used to. According to The New York Times Caucus, McCain and Palin can count on the voters who hate Muslim-Americans (which, of course, Barack Obama is not). How edifying:
NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. – “John McCain! Not Hussein!”
So goes the latest popular chant on the campaign trail with Gov. Sarah Palin, demonstrated at a morning rally in central Florida...
A similar chant, “Vote McCain, not Hussein,” was heard at a campaign event for Ms. Palin in Williamsport, Pa., earlier this week.
Senator Barack Obama’s middle name is Hussein, a fact that some of his opponents say proves that he is a Muslim. Mr. Obama is, in fact, a Christian.
Continue reading "McCain-Palin: Have They Finally Locked Up the Racist/Xenophobe Vote?" »
by John Q | And great was the Snoopy-dancing and blowing of raspberries among these guys based on the results of one lone Zogby poll giving McCain a 1% lead.
To which Gavin M. replies:
It must be difficult not being able to draw continuities between DARK TIME and LIGHT TIME, such that when the sun unexpectedly goes down in the evening it’s EATED BY THE SUN-EAT SERPENT, and when it startlingly comes up in the morning it’s MIRACLE HOORAY LIGHT. And then ONO! IT’S EATED BY THE EAT SERPENT, and then O HAI, IT’S MIRACLE HOORAY LIGHT, and on and on throughout your whole gaping lessoff existence — a ‘lessoff’ being like a moron except not even one.
We can be thankful that for most of us, here in the most advanced civilization the world has ever known, with unparalleled opportunities for self-refinement and the pursuit of practical reason, when something weird and unexpected arises — such as an election poll that gives a result unreflected by any other such poll — we go “Dude, that’s actually weird,” and are like, “You know, maybe there’s a reason.”
At this point a prediction is in order, and we feel that we can give it with some confidence. Barack Obama may win the presidential election, or else not win. We predict that this will depend on two things: cause and also effect — and that it will not be the result of building an airstrip out of palm fronds and sitting in a wicker control tower wearing a set of headphones made out of two halves of a coconut shell, willing the planes to come and deliver a bounty of cargo.
Of this we are greater than 97.2% sure.
In the meantime, the McCain camp has sent out a memo on the surge that is occurring during the final hours of the campaign. Ambinder's got the whole thing right here. Read it your self. Ambinder says:
The last thing the McCain campaign needs on election day is demoralized Republicans. Hence this memo, which recapitulates what Davis and co. said on a conference call with reporters this morning.
I will tell you something that I probably shouldn't. It irritates my co-bloggers.
I for one wouldn't care that much whether Obama wins or loses if the times were even slightly less desperate. He's got plenty of presidential bids left in him.
McCain and Palin and the GOP deserve to have to unscramble the mess that Bush has made. If I thought there was a chance either one of them could fix even one of the problems without making it even worse, I'd be all for it. The best we can hope for is a president who can steer a steady course through a typhoon of Bush-related consequences. Whatever he does, whichever ticket occupies the Oval Office and environs is going to be damned if they do and if they don't.
Continue reading "The Right: Rage, rage Against the Dying of the Light!" »
