Associated Press
Just a couple of weeks ago, Newsweek ran a cover story on Mitt Romney and "The Wimp Factor." So last night, John Sununu engaged in a little projection.
Former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu, known for his candor, took a jab at former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell's book, "A Nation of Wusses," and launched an attack line at President Barack Obama.
"Obama hasn't passed a budget in four years, he's a wuss," Sununu, a Republican, said Thursday on CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight." "Obama has rejected the recommendation of his own Simpson-Bowles, on a budget package, he's a wuss. He wants to lead from behind, he's a wuss."
It's always heartening to see Team Romney raise the level of the public discourse. We've gone from "Obamalogna" to "wuss" in just a couple of days. How inspiring.
As a factual matter, this is an odd line of criticism. As we've discussed before, Romney's afraid to offend conservatives; he's afraid to push back against extremist rhetoric; he's afraid of the religious right; and he's afraid of Limbaugh. He's afraid to release his tax returns because he thinks Democrats might be mean to him; he's afraid to disclose his bundlers because he worries sunlight may scare his wealthy benefactors away; and he's afraid to take a firm position on key issues because he thinks he'd lose.
If the race comes to down to a debate over who's earned the "wuss" label, the Republican's in trouble.
For that matter, Sununu isn't exactly making a strong case. Obama "hasn't passed a budget"? Presidents don't pass budgets, John, Congress does. The president didn't adopt the recommendations of the Simpson-Bowles commission? The Simpson-Bowles commission members didn't even reach an agreement among themselves.
But in the bigger picture, I'm struck by the degree to which the president's critics still haven't decided how to define him, and frequently contradict one another. As we discussed a few months ago, at different times over the last four years, Obama's detractors have said he's a ruthless Chicago thug and a weak pushover. He's a bystander who goes golfing too much and an activist president who engages too much. He's sticking to the Bush/Cheney script on national security and he's putting us at risk by abandoning the Bush/Cheney national security agenda. He's cutting cherished entitlement programs like Medicare and he refuses to cut entitlement programs like Medicare. He's too mean to Wall Street and he's too nice to Wall Street.
If the right would just pick a caricature and stick with it, their criticisms would at least be more coherent.
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Now that's a pretty good piece of writing!
Busy urinating on fire hydrants again, I see. You bridge trolls must have bladders that hold gallons.
difficult to imagine just how big of a loser you would have to be to chase me across different threads just so you could post this same sentence over and over again.
Yes.
What is also difficult to imagine is just how big of a loser you would have to be to post bullsh*t posts like you do numerous times on numerous threads on this site.
Just sayin.
"If the right would just pick a caricature and stick with it, their criticisms would at least be more coherent."
If the reich would just acknowledge "reality" the wouldn't have to lie every time they opened their mouths either...The GOTP does what it does because they've never had to encounter a President like this after a historic economic meltdown that was created on their watch like this! They have nothing but hate and lies!!!
OBAMA 2012!!!
They know don't need to be consistent because their audience doesn't care. My crazy cousin who watches fox news will sit there and happily spout several conflicting arguments. If you call him on it, he'll just call you a bleeding heart, knee-jerk liberal (or something worse) and dismiss whatever you have to say.
You know . . . like shooter and bannedagain . . . only it's scarier in person.
I agree with this piece, but something similar could be said about Obama's supporters: they can't decide whether Obama's a fabulously successful president who's managed to get tons of historically important legislation passed into law, or a victim of Republican lunacy who's been unable to accomplish much significant at all due to his opponents' intransigence.
Re: #6
President Obama has been a successful president who has managed to get some historically important legislation passed into law - and also saved us from a Depression instead of a really bad recession.
AND
He could have gotten more accomplished without GOP obstruction.
EXACTLY Maphi!
They have to fling all that sh*t at the wall, because they can no longer use the one word that REALLY applies to the President.
And if you don't know what that is, go ask the sadoldvet. . .
Two responses to Sununu.
"Lead from behind? How many bin Laden's has your side taken out?"
and
"By the way, have you produced documents to show to Michele Bachmann's satisfaction that you aren't part of a Muslim Brotherhood infiltration?"
Mitt is a dartboard full of bulls eyes. Pretty much anything that someone can imagine that is negative about Mitt's character or lack there of is true.
No wonder Bush 41 fired this moron.
The Romoney folks are obviously taking their cues from the Federalist campaign of 1800.
david frum has a new piece on how fauxnews and the wingnut email machine makes noise about obama being gay.....
The Fox News Wink: Is Obama "Gay"? or "Gay Gay"?
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/08/fox-news-email-chains.html
So, isn't David Frum a conservative?
He's that rarest of beasts, a semi-sane conservative.
Of all the things these guys accuse the Obama administration of,this nonsense
"Obama hasn't passed a budget in four years, he's a wuss,"
Shouldn't be part of them.Have they heard of the Budget Control Act?
It seems to me,the Obama administration knew their counterparts,were not negotiating in good faith,so they had to come up with budgets for 2012 and 2013 in BCA.
Why oh why can't we have a better media/press corps?
Because the media/press is owned and given their daily talking point memo by the teapubs. There isn't a journalist in the lot of them that call themselves journalists.
Rachel is the only one that actually does research and they all fear her.
That's because they rely on the fact that their Republican base couldn't remember anything they said past two minutes.
Ok folks, with today's announcement that grain prices are going up due to the drought, any bets on when the first Romney ad will come out blaming the higher prices on Obama?
that's a sucker bet. It's already in production.
Steve listed a bunch of things that Romney has done that has shown that he is a wuss. However, so far he has stood up to Ann Coulter and not fired Andrea Saul. He does seem to have a little spine to him.
That has the qualifier of "so far". Darth Limbaugh's words have now reached the Mittbot yet. Once they do, she's toast.
Has anyone introduced legislation that would criminalize this behavior?
Something like: Any challenged ad automatically gets reviewed and determined by a fact-panel within 4 hours of contention.
If ad is truthful as to its pertinent facts, the ad will be re-shown in the same market(s) and in the same or better time slot and will be paid for by the challenger.
If ad is not truthful as to its pertinent facts, the ad will be replaced by an ad of the same length from the challenger in the same market(s) and the same or better time slot, paid for by the original liar.
One challenge per ad version.
It's actually pretty easy.
Politicians would have to dance the nifty-squirm to vote "no" on that one.
And they would be in court for 20 years to determine what is actually a lie and what is an exaggeration. After the phony court deals with Faux Fake and BS Gnewz, and Citizens United I doubt reality would play a part in that court either.
You Republican morons would have nothing if that happened. Be careful what you ask for, little Stepford troll.
Streakers (remember them?) and graffiti vandals do it for the attention. So do trolls. NEVER respond, and they soon wander away, in search of more fertile ground.
-I, too, love the Green Stars. But I get them the old fashioned way- I earn them.
Sununu is fat, old, and on his way to a heart attack soon. His historical significance runs as shallow as Mitt Rmoonie's!
This is a very dangerous pick! Read Ayn Rand!!!! Objective ethics is not a philosophy that supports the idea of protecting the value of a middle class. Google Ayn Rand. There is and interview online that Mike Wallace did with her that is very telling. Much of the speech of Ryan that is significant is straight from Ayn Rand. Robber's unite!!!