Yesterday, former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu (R), one of Mitt Romney's top surrogates, threw quite a tantrum, appearing in multiple interviews to condemn President Obama as a corrupt, anti-American foreigner who hates capitalism, rich people, and "American values."
McKay Coppins talked to a Romney campaign adviser who suggested we should expect to hear more along these lines.
"[Romney] has said Obama's a nice fellow, he's just in over his head," the adviser said. "But I think the governor himself believes this latest round of attacks that have impugned his integrity and accused him of being a felon go so far beyond that pale that he's really disappointed. He believes it's time to vet the president. He really hasn't been vetted; McCain didn't do it." [...]
"I mean, this is a guy who admitted to cocaine use, had a sweetheart deal with his house in Chicago, and was associated and worked with Rod Blagojevich to get Valerie Jarrett appointed to the Senate," the adviser said. "The bottom line is there'll be counterattacks."
In candor, I generally ignore reports like these. When reporting on a campaign, I care far more about what the candidates and their staffs actually do, not what they say they're poised to do. This report, in particular, might well be little more than an effort from Team Romney to satiate the right's unease with the trajectory of the race.
But the remarks Romney's unnamed advisor made to Coppins are harder to dismiss because we're already seeing evidence of this strategy being implemented. Remember, when Sununu was slipping deeper into his deranged anti-Obama breakdown, he specifically talked about drug use: Obama, Sununu said, "has no idea how the American system functions," in part because "he spent his early years in Hawaii smoking something."
What's more, as Igor Volsky noted, various Romney surrogates spent yesterday effectively accusing the president of being a foreigner.
This, for those keeping score at home, is what it looks like when a campaign loses its composure.
What's more, it's doing so on the strangest of pretenses. Romney believes the Obama campaign "impugned his integrity," so it's time to talk about youthful drug use? That's an oddly thin-skinned approach to politics at the national level.
For that matter, I'm not sure if Team Romney really wants youthful missteps to be back on the table. I seem to recall a certain haircut incident, for example.
I'm also not sure what makes Romney and his aides think attacks that flopped in 2008 will be any more effective in 2012.
It would appear that Team Romney, 110 days before the election, still believes their target audience is Fox News viewers, Limbaugh listeners, and folks who hang out at RedState.com. They're the ones who want to hear about cocaine, who believe Obama wasn't "vetted," and who see value in fighting the last war all over again.
But they're also a tiny sliver of the population, who bear little resemblance to the American mainstream.
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Opps...lol
http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/watercooler/2012/jul/18/picket-obama-bundler-bain-opens-obama-camp-more-cr/
Obama....fraud
http://news.yahoo.com/arpaio-obama-birth-record-definitely-fraudulent-010211250.html?_esi=1
If you believe Arpaio, then I've got some lovely swampland to sell you.
There is a meme going around that the only voters that matter are the 5 or 6 % of undecideds in the 5 to 8 swing states.
It's crap.
If the people who showed up in 2008 for Obama do not show up, it doesn't matter how overwhelmingly they poll.
If the people who delivered Reagan in a landslide over Mondale stay at home because they simply can't get fired up about Romney, then they will just as soon turn on the GOP for bolloxing up the country like they did during the Bush tenure. In their minds, they will "Teach the the GOP a lesson" by staying at home. "Teach the country a lesson" by letting it go to hell in a handbasket (as they assume it will) under a second Obama term. This is the sort of negative voter suppression ad that a MoveOn type Pac could play to in the last weeks of the election.
Playing to the base does matter- both for Romney and Obama.
Take a look at the sentiments out at the grassroots. Take for example Gwen Ifill's piece last night with WNYC's Anna Sale, who is traveling around blogging about how unfired up both the left and the right really are. (pbs link to @annasale segment)
John, it's July. Just because the SuperPACs are already flooding the airwaves with negative ads earlier than ever before, doesn't mean the average voter is going to be excited so soon.
Four Julys ago, we were just settling Hillary vs. Barack, and McCain was still an afterthought. After 8 years of Dubya and two wars, the left and center were eager to move on. This year doesn't have that sort of feel. Don't worry, they'll be motivated in November.
Psychiatrist confirms Arpaio Mental Heath certification a fraud.
Newsflash grumpy, that swampland isn't yours....the gov't owns it like they own you.....
So?
I agree Mike. But the negatives at this point work differently on Romney than they do on Obama. For a new entity, the neurological response is to heighten sensitivity in the olfactory centers. Romney is a new entity, so people are using their noses to detect if their is something fishy about Romney. The point is that if you color the first impression well, you have extremely more leverage in the fall. This conditioning does not matter for Obama because he is a known "food" item. Really, Rachel should have a cognitive pundit like Haidt on sometime to explain this sort of analysis. Whether you buy it or not, it is a fresh take on how our politics really work. He is at NYU now, so an MSNBC gig on TRMS or some other show would be easy..
Why not, it could be fun.
------------------
Further reading:
* Haidt, Jonathan. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion (Kindle Location 2651). Random House, Inc.. Kindle Edition.
Hey, Timmy,
Is that why Bush 43 just admitted he "crawled out of the swamp" in referring to his term as president and the attendant politics?
Smart folks don't go into the swamp without adequate preparations like a good boat, hip waders, and bug repellant. The Shrub had none of those, and worse, his guides consisted of Dick Cheney and Karl Rove... And when Colin Powell said, "This way!" the other two claimed to know a shortcut...
Not that you're not fighting the good fight, but has it occurred to you that arguing politics with someone who proudly proclaims his allegiance to Rand Paul for president in 2016 is like trying reason with someone who's wearing a propeller beanie and his underwear on the outside of his pants?
Thanks for the daily demonstration, little Timmy boy, of what it takes to be a rightwing f*ckwit, you worthless PoS.
Timmy, you're the only one who is owned around here; you're the one who is a slave to his own delusions and psychoses.
John,
While I agree with you that turnout of the decided vote is perhaps more important than swaying a small group of "undecideds", who in a race this polarized are among those least likely to vote at all, I differentiate between generally partisan, but less reliable voters and "the base". The real challenge in presidential election years is to get out largely apolitical voters who are either cynical or apathetic about elections, but once in the voting both are fairly predictable as to what party they vote for.
This is what negative advertising is aimed at, not at gaining the "persuadable" voter, but suppressing the opposition's soft vote.
I'd also like to point out that roughly 50% of the electorate in the '84 Reagan/Mondale race is now deceased, and given the increasing number of voters each cycle, "Reagan voters" will probably be no more than about 20% of 2012's total electorate.
Rypp, That's fair.
I was using it as a shorthand for the phenomena of "Reagan democrats" who as Thomas Frank examined in his book What's the matter with Kansas, can be persuaded to vote against their interests. Like the Freeport voters, whose district overwhelming voted for their current GOP representative in Congress (65%), and would otherwise vote for Romney. Lots of these employees at Sensata to be laid off due to outsourcing by Bain are conservative voters, and so the question arises: Why should Dems be unable to connect the dots for anyone other than immediate victims of people connected to Romney? Early framing of Romney can move those undecideds to the Obama side, or at worst will respond well to late campaign negative ads.
My point was not about late campaign negative advertising. I was pointing out a cognitive basis for early use of it to frame an unknown candidate.
Oh look it's TimMMMMMY!
The desperation level at Romney campaign headquarters has gone through the roof. Mitt Romney's entire candidacy is teetering on the brink of disaster and destruction thanks to his arrogance and obstinacy in refusing to let the people he is demanding install him as president look at his business record or his tax returns on half-a-billion dollars in personal wealth. Where the Obama campaign's attacks are strictly related to what Mitt himself is playing up as his main selling point to voters, the Republicans are now resorting to the most base and evil Tea Party slander, picking up attack lines from the very sewers of the right-wing political fringe. This is race-baiting, personally insulting, anti-American c.r.a.p. http://www.sunstateactivist.org
Boy, thats gotta be a "unbiased" site.....sunstateactivist....lol, even says progressive right on the front page. Obama is a fraud.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6M7Rp_Ghv6k
http://news.yahoo.com/arpaio-obama-birth-record-definitely-fraudulent-010211250.html?_esi=1
President Obama was born in Honolulu and his birth certificate is valid," Joshua A. Wisch, a special assistant to Hawaii's attorney general, said in a statement. "Regarding the latest allegations from a sheriff in Arizona, they are untrue, misinformed, and misconstrue Hawaii law."
Wisch also said that "not only are Hawaii's vital records some of the best managed, but they also have some of the strongest restrictions on access to prevent identity theft and fraud."
Obama released a copy of his long-form birth certificate in an attempt to quell citizenship questions.
Courts have rebuffed lawsuits over the issue.
Nope, only have to be a resident for one year and pay taxes for that year. A special assistant to a laywer?....a same lawyer that gives to Obama's lawyer lobby?....lol, pfft.
Apparently, our kookatarian Uncle Freedom lover assumes the campaign hinges on whether Obama was born in Hawaii. Sure hope Kook Boy is on the Romney staff.
Man, this birther crapola is such old silly stuff... Totally last year. Let's focus on the hot new "conspiracy tale" that's just hitting the airwaves...
The one about Hillary's aide, Huma Abedin, and how she's a secret Muslim who's achieved unprecedented influence over the Secretary of State...
And she's married to Anthony Weiner, who's Jewish, but he was secretly blackmailed by the Muslim Brotherhood after some compromising photos were sent via his cell phone...
Oh wait, those became public knowledge... Doubtless because he refused to accede to the blackmailer's demands...
Do us a favor, little Timmy, and join the ranks of "good Republicans" busy pushing up daisies.
But... but ... Willard, John McCain vetted you and took a pass .
Watcha Hidin'
Inquiring minds want to know .
Please go all racist to the point where the MSM can't hep but notice it .
Obama rope a dope .
You people look really stupid
exceptionally stupid
high school election stupid
Stay classy
Stay dupped....son
Dupped? I assume you mean "duped." I guess Republicans aren't any better at spelling than they are at economics--or ethics.
Lol, bet u spelled checked your reply genius...another elitist liberal douchebag.
Thanks for the demonstration of illiteracy, Timmy - can you spell "Timmy" successfully three times in succession (that means three times in a row, for an intellectually-challenged moron like yourself)
Timmy3 banned, multiple of Packers33, also banned. You don't ever need two accounts.
TCinLA, you're suspended for a day for violating #1 of the Code of Honor.
I thought big bad Bain was all on Romney's shoulders.....doh
http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/watercooler/2012/jul/18/picket-obama-bundler-bain-opens-obama-camp-more-cr/
That's somewhat disingenuous. Lavine runs Sankaty, which as I understand it is not involved in the ventures side of Bain. So Lavine doesn't actually feature in the story regarding Bain's shutting down of businesses and laying-off workers, as far as I can tell.
Yeah, still think so? I found his name pretty easy.
http://www.baincapital.com/Team/ManagingDirectors.aspx?viewType=ManagingDirectors
I think you misunderstood the point being made. Lavine is a director at Sankaty and has no oversight for the ventures side of the business. So Romney has direct accountability and Lavine does not.
Again, so?
Disgusted - me or Tim?
Our kookatarian Uncle Freedom lover, timmy.
Hey, Timbo! Anybody who quotes the Washington Times as a source has already lost the argument. Arpaio is a fool and the reporters at last night's press conference took him apart. Arpaio's top investigators sat there in the the room with him. Guess who they were? Jerome Corsi (swift boat provocateur) and his co-author of his new book about Obama's birth certificate. Arpaio spent over $10k of the taxpayers dollars on this, while ignoring over 400 cases of criminal child abuse occurring on his watch. Absolutely nothing new, just more of Arpaio's grandstanding to his terminally ill constituents from Sun City. Eighty years old and 60 years of ignorance.
Interesting that Sue Knew Gnu not only "misspoke" when he told Obama to learn to be an American, but he also managed to "inadvertently" slip "denigrate" into the conversation.
Next up: Limbaugh calls Obama deNIGrator in Chief."
In all of this, the Romney camp still fits in a lie about Pres. Obama's policies, which have succeeded. Romney has been dead wrong about everything. Dead. wrong. If we want to see someone in over their head, how about Romney's I-don't-know-what-I-said-but-I-stand-by-it style of replying to direct questions.
Sununu said that Obama spent his early years in Hawaii, so he wasn't learning how to be an American. I might be wrong, but I thought Hawaii became a state in 1959--several years before Obama was born.
Apparently, Sununu's grasp of history is as lacking as is his decorum.
Hawaii is like Puerto Rico....it is, but it isn't.
Michelle doesn't think her husband is from there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6M7Rp_Ghv6k
It's probably been challenging enough for him to learn how to be an American.
Sununu was born in Havana, Cuba.
No, Timmy. Get out a geography textbook. Hawaii is what's known as a STATE. You know. One of those things we have 50 of. Like Texas. Or Utah. They're all viewed EQUALLY by people.
Puerto Rico is NOT a state. It doesn't have two senators, or a voting representative in the House. Its residents don't vote for U. S. president.
There's a big difference between the two.
mpguy,
To people like that, Ideological Soundness trumps objective reality every time.
Considering the header I would like to thank timmy for the demonstration in real time.
That has been freaking amazing.
He does in fact prove a point .
You have to remember Steve Doocy is his hero.
Love how liberals deflect and misfire when faced with facts that they havn't been TOLD by main stream media and liberal lapdog sites like msnbc....lol, cracks me up. If msnbc or any liberal site reports on what I posted about Obama's lapdog at Bain i'll print it and eat it....
Love how liberals deflect and misfire when faced with facts that they havn't been TOLD by main stream media and liberal lapdog sites like msnbc....lol, cracks me up. If msnbc or any liberal site reports on what I posted about Obama's lapdog at Bain i'll print it and eat it....
What deflection? What misfire?
Paul..., Ninz, sick...:
I was joking the first time I mentioned "totally spoiled hyperactive children" in connection with a troll, but I'm beginning to wonder if it is a real phenomenon on the internet.
Yes entropy, It is the fault of our liberal public schools where first graders are given access to computers even before they can write. This is what comes from "socialism" : )
This is just one of those ADD Ron-ulans. He'll be better after he freshens up with a mid-life Huggie change. And we'll be better off when he gets banned.
Until then, there is the ignore feature.
I'm not a Facebook user, but I recently heard of a good feature they've got over there. I can't recall the formal name for it, but it involves banning a person in a way that does not deactivate their account. It doesn't interfere with them doing and saying whatever they want, but only makes every thing they do invisible to every other user. I like the idea because simply banning a tr0ll encourages them to re-register, whereas if they are rendered invisible they could go on maybe for months screaming into the void before they figured out what had happened (or get bored with the lack of reactions and give up).
RoMoney wants to take off the gloves. Bring it on. They say Obama was "smoking something" - kind of normal really. I know some folks who "smoked something" too!
On the other hand, RoMoney dressed up like a State Trooper, put a flashing light on his car and pulled people over on the highway, bullied classmates and forcefully administered a haircut. Normal? Not so much. Pranks? - more like crimes.
Now we find that he lies constantly and doesn't seem to care or even realized that these lies are captured on tape and, apparently, in "ink" by the SEC. While that seems to be a normal progression from impersonating an officer and bullying classmates, I wouldn't classify it as "normal" mature adult behavior and certainly is not what I want in my "employee." Has anyone informed RoMoney that if he succeeds in becoming POTUS, that he works for We, the People - not the other way round? It doesn't seem that he gets it.
Considering what has come out so far, there has to be much, much more to come. Ding, Ding, Round 1!!!
Is this the Sununu (John H.) who was born in Havana to Palestinian/Lebanese parents--one of whom was born in El Salvador?
If so, does Mitt believe this guy is really the best one to carry YOUR "Obama is not American" message? If it's Sununu's son, also named John E., it still constitutes a bit of a problem for someone with such a rich, mixed international cultural heritage, since, like Obama, his father was also born abroad.
Hey, call Bachman. More proof of those Islamic infiltrators . . . oh wait . . . wrong party! nevermind . . . .
This is way too sad to comtemplate that this is my country.
It's the father who is the Romney surrogate.
I am sick of this campaign already. I just can't wait to vote against Romney.
one person who is not in the senate is valerie jarret.
Valerie Jarrett, one of President Obama’s closest advisers, introduced to the president’s political circles by her father-in-law, a communist sympathizer who worked with the radical Obama mentor Frank Marshall Davis....oh yay!
she is still not in the senate, no matter who her father-in-law might have known.
Who let the McCarthyites out?
Timmy, go read Arthur Miller's The Crucible, and when you're finished, consider that the "blacklist" tactics back then included Ring Lardner, Jr. who later gave us M.A.S.H. and the following singer who appeared on CBC only after Tommy Smothers basically "held a gun" on the network higher-ups... And even then, their comedy show was a short-lived beacon of light; be grateful we live in these times, youngster. A modern parallel would be akin to Jon Stewart's show being lifted and there not being the alternative that cable offers today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXnJVkEX8O4
Here is what "obamanation" gives us.....
http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2012-07-17/story/saturday-night-flash-mob-takes-over-jacksonville-wal-mart
http://www.kgw.com/news/Flash-mob-targets-Troutdale-Albertsons-store-159463245.html
And here is what Timmy gives this site:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apmir1AURIE
What happened??!!??!! Give us the scoop, Kook Boy.
Does anyone else find it interesting that not even Timmy thinks Romney will win this year? After all, if he did, why would he be wanting Rand Paul to win in 2016.
Look "Tiny-brain Timmy", It doesn't F***ing matter where he was born. CATCH ON! His mother was born here so he's an AMERICAN citizen... I just don't understand (well actually, I do) why you racist nutcases can't get that through your head. You just can't believe that a black man (and democrat no less) could be in the White house as President and not as the butler... I think you and others like you are afraid he's gonna make all the black people rich thru welfare programs and make slaves of all the white people. He's worked hard to make things better for ALL americans despite obscene opposition in Congress which is more than I can say for the prior Republican administrations who just want their rich friends to get richer.
You're such an idiot
Well, for some value of the word, yes he is, but mainly his defects are ethical/moral.
This post prove one thing, R-money campaign going to bring out all the crazy Orily, redstate.com, Drudge reports, Faux news, Limpbaugh conspiracy theorist stories... That been debunk time and time again... The lazy media playing it on a loop over and over again....
But the fact remain for R-money to produce his Tax return for 11-12 years, name his bundlers, his shell accounts for foreign companies who avoided paying American taxes, produce his 59 points economic plan in details (check his website) their no details just platitudes.
So their nothing to get excite about R-money, as-of-today he's a empty suit and most people who supporting him are just because they hate Obama... R-money campaign is sinking further into a dark hole of insanity...
Right out of the surrogates, Sununu, Cheney, drug addict Limbaugh, Trump, Sheriff Arpaio's mouths. Alist only a Mother could love.
Playground politics at its best.Mean spirited, vacuous, infantile comments all round.When are American politics going to rise above this nauseous drivel and ascend to meaningful, substantive, informative policy discourse in order to solve the economic morass the country is presently wallowing in ?
When politicians eventually grow up and start taking problems seriously instead of grandstanding while wasting precious time in getting this country back on it's feet.That goes for the media too as it seems content to deliver petty,snide comments from a cranky old political "has been" as if his comments were in the remotest bit helpful.
Ah yes, contemporary British politics are such a great example.
Playground politics at its best.Mean spirited, vacuous, infantile comments all round.When are American politics going to rise above this nauseous drivel and ascend to meaningful, substantive, informative policy discourse in order to solve the economic morass the country is presently wallowing in ?
When politicians eventually grow up and start taking problems seriously instead of grandstanding while wasting precious time in getting this country back on it's feet.That goes for the media too as it seems content to deliver petty,snide comments from a cranky old political "has been" as if his comments were in the remotest bit helpful.
Romney is still trying to change the subject from his record at Bain, which just keeps unfolding new layers every week. The issue is hitting home negatively against the Romney campaign, and the smartest thing they can do (politically) is to distract the media. Romney will announce his VP pick (probably later this week), and that will succeed at changing the top news story of the day. I am becoming amazed at how juvenile of tactics the Romney campaign is resorting to.
Hiya, Steve..thanks for the report on the sociopathic, pathological liars for willard. I see your own blog is infiltrated with the brainwashed idiocy of a ron paul supporter. Doesn't speak well for his "candidate".
It is obvious that the Romney Campaign is back on the "Obama is not a real American" thing. He repeated the Foreign this and Foreign that....does Mr Romney misunderstand how this country works so much that he thinks President Obama is a Dictator and that we don't have a Congress that passes laws? How can everything that happens in this country with respect to the Economy and what direction this country is taking be the SOLE responsibility of President Obama when everything has to go through the Congress?
This signals a PURE desperation on the part of the Romney campaign because the fact is the US Citizens know MORE about Obama and how he will work than they do know about Romney who will not lay out a single plan that he SAYS he has.