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Gee what an amazingly despicable character with many obvious and longstanding moral failings. Remind me again who hired him for that job?
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Feb 2, 2014 20:11
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FMguru posted:As one of the writers at Baloon Juice pointed out, the only thing its missing is: “As a college freshman, he once was found palming a Ghostflame Sliver card in a Magic: The Gathering tournament.” I'm just trying to picture the war room session where they reviewed this response letter before releasing it. "Guys, uh, do you think maybe we should edit out the bit about his high school social studies teacher? Like, it might come across as a bit, uh, petty or something?" "Are you KIDDING? That's the best part of the whole thing! poo poo's all good. It's go time!"
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Feb 2, 2014 20:16
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Oxxidation posted:I'm sure it's been said, but this is one of the most astonishingly pathetic smear attempts I've seen in recent memory. In other startling allegations, Governor Christie's office claims that David Wildstein once was known to terrorize classmates by standing very close and "not touching them, not touching them, not touching them."
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Feb 2, 2014 20:39
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David Wildstein: always picked last for dodgeball, first for Port Authority jobs.
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Feb 2, 2014 20:41
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If Christie wanted to convince me that he'd never engage in petty political retribution, this is a weird way to go about it.
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Feb 2, 2014 20:43
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"See how bad I am at political retribution? I tried my hardest and the best thing I an come up with is 'he did badly in high school social studies'. I don't have enough aptitude for this to do anything as sophisticated as the traffic scandal."
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Feb 2, 2014 20:48
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Which team do you like this year, Mitt? All of 'em, Katie! 
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Feb 3, 2014 02:13
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Joementum posted:Which team do you like this year, Mitt? Karl Rove is reporting that the broncos may still have won the game!
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Feb 3, 2014 03:59
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Dr. Tough posted:That guy is pretty much the worst person The Hill could have put in front of a camera. Since he's been governor, the most noteworthy things I can think of that have happened were that the sales tax was raised from 5% to 6%, a stormwater tax was enacted to pay for mitigating the damage that storm runoff causes to the bay, and the gas tax was raised to pay for the DC/Baltimore commuter rail line to run on the weekends. Internet commenters love to howl about the stormwater tax ("rain tax") and about the fact that MD has relatively strict gun control laws. I don't know how much of the gun stuff was his doing though, if any. I'm sure there's been a bunch of other stuff I'm not remembering, he's been pretty progressive overall so it pisses off a lot of the right people. You could probably do a whole offshoot of the Freep thread about things that people say on Post/Sun comments about him/Baltimore City/PG County.
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Feb 3, 2014 04:27
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Joementum posted:Which team do you like this year, Mitt? Some of my best friends own football teams.
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Feb 3, 2014 04:40
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Dr.Zeppelin posted:Since he's been governor, the most noteworthy things I can think of that have happened were that the sales tax was raised from 5% to 6%, a stormwater tax was enacted to pay for mitigating the damage that storm runoff causes to the bay, and the gas tax was raised to pay for the DC/Baltimore commuter rail line to run on the weekends. Internet commenters love to howl about the stormwater tax ("rain tax") and about the fact that MD has relatively strict gun control laws. I don't know how much of the gun stuff was his doing though, if any. I'm sure there's been a bunch of other stuff I'm not remembering, he's been pretty progressive overall so it pisses off a lot of the right people. You could probably do a whole offshoot of the Freep thread about things that people say on Post/Sun comments about him/Baltimore City/PG County. Wasn't he the one who debated Rick Perry on CNN as well?
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Feb 3, 2014 14:08
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Dr.Zeppelin posted:Since he's been governor, the most noteworthy things I can think of that have happened were that the sales tax was raised from 5% to 6%, a stormwater tax was enacted to pay for mitigating the damage that storm runoff causes to the bay, and the gas tax was raised to pay for the DC/Baltimore commuter rail line to run on the weekends. Internet commenters love to howl about the stormwater tax ("rain tax") and about the fact that MD has relatively strict gun control laws. I don't know how much of the gun stuff was his doing though, if any. I'm sure there's been a bunch of other stuff I'm not remembering, he's been pretty progressive overall so it pisses off a lot of the right people. You could probably do a whole offshoot of the Freep thread about things that people say on Post/Sun comments about him/Baltimore City/PG County. Basically, he is a NE big city mayor who enacts the same sort of policies most big city mayors enact. You have a lot of former PG County whites like most of my former coworkers who need someone to blame for their county becoming so "dark," (largely the fault of DC gentrification pushing people out of NE and SE DC) and the former mayor of Baltimore is a good scapegoat because he's a short white liberal who raised a tax. These people complaining are middle class white flighters who wanted McMansions and had to move out to Calvert County or Stafford, VA to get them. The commute sucks and makes them angry and irrational. These are not the sort of voters who will decide a Dem primary.
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Feb 3, 2014 16:55
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Chokes McGee posted:I don't like what's going on in this post. Not the implications, not the comparison, not the distant fact it may happen. No sir. My guess is that Romney won't run again and that he is satisfied with having one-upped his dad by actually becoming the Republican presidential candidate and making it to the general election. Also, if I recall correctly, a lot of people in his family did not want him to run for a second time in 2012.
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Feb 3, 2014 17:39
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He said people who lose elections are branded as losers by the party for life. The odds of him running again are essentially 0, he'd have to be crazy(er).
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Feb 3, 2014 17:43
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Math Debater posted:Also, if I recall correctly, a lot of people in his family did not want him to run for a second time in 2012. I've always heard the inverse of this, that Ann and his sons were instrumental in cajoling him into running at all, which at least initially he wasn't all that eager to do.
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Feb 3, 2014 19:00
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My republican friends on Twitter and Facebook already freaking out about O'Malley. Somebody with money's afraid of him.
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Feb 3, 2014 19:02
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If they're already freaking out over an uninspiring white guy from the east coast, they should give up on GOP Presidential politics. It's not getting any better for them.
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Feb 3, 2014 19:13
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Captain_Maclaine posted:I've always heard the inverse of this, that Ann and his sons were instrumental in cajoling him into running at all, which at least initially he wasn't all that eager to do. Either way, it seems doubtful that he'll run again in 2016.
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Feb 3, 2014 19:14
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Captain_Maclaine posted:I've always heard the inverse of this, that Ann and his sons were instrumental in cajoling him into running at all, which at least initially he wasn't all that eager to do. I think this is just a pretty standard line nearly all candidates give to make it seem like they're being called into service. No one runs for president if they don't actually want to personally.
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Feb 3, 2014 20:22
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The X-man cometh posted:My republican friends on Twitter and Facebook already freaking out about O'Malley. Somebody with money's afraid of him. That's a bit farfetched, they probably just don't want him to have to leave the show before they find out what Littlefinger was up to.
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Feb 3, 2014 21:29
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ReidRansom posted:I think this is just a pretty standard line nearly all candidates give to make it seem like they're being called into service. No one runs for president if they don't actually want to personally. Oh I know there's a history going all the way back to Washington (and even farther if we include non-American electoral politics) of the reluctant candidate-hero being persuaded by friends and family to put country before his own preferences and run for high office, but in Romney's case I seem to recall more than one post-mortem account that imply pretty heavily that R-Money really didn't have his heart in it and Ann was the considerably more eager one of the two of them.
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Feb 3, 2014 21:30
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Romney spent six solid years and a small fortune running for President full time, I'd buy that he did it all to fulfil the white horse prophecy before I'd believe his heart wasn't really in it, although I'm sure losing multiple debates (not to mention whole states) to a clown like Gingrich is going to give a guy a few regrets.
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Feb 3, 2014 21:38
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UltimoDragonQuest posted:If they're already freaking out over an uninspiring white guy from the east coast, they should give up on GOP Presidential politics. It's not getting any better for them. It's more that people who don't know each other are repeating the same talking points about welfare state and rain tax. They have to be getting it from somewhere.
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Feb 3, 2014 21:46
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The X-man cometh posted:It's more that people who don't know each other are repeating the same talking points about welfare state and rain tax. They have to be getting it from somewhere.  Only one 2016 aspirant has a full opposition research unit up and running and distributing talking points (and they're not a Republican).
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Feb 3, 2014 21:52
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Math Debater posted:My guess is that Romney won't run again and that he is satisfied with having one-upped his dad by actually becoming the Republican presidential candidate and making it to the general election. Also, if I recall correctly, a lot of people in his family did not want him to run for a second time in 2012. The only way I see Mitt running again is if: -Hillary doesn't run for some reason. -and the Republican field remains completely stupid. If those two conditions play out, I can see Mitt making the effort. Otherwise, there is no way he moves beyond considering it.
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Feb 3, 2014 22:28
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He'll stick his head out and if he sees the shadow of any more viable candidate we'll get six more years of Ann Romney bemoaning the fate of the country that didn't want Mitt to be President.
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Feb 3, 2014 22:42
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Romney still seems like the 'best' GOP candidate for 2016, for the same reason he was the best candidate last time around - he has a record as a centrist compassionate conservative, and he's not allergic to implementing healthcare. If Romney was still able to campaign as Massachusetts-Mitt he'd have a far better chance of securing women and minorities than any other GOP potential. He's actually the centrist candidate the GOP desperately need.
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Feb 3, 2014 22:42
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The real problem with another Romney run is that he has difficulty having a sense of humor about himself, which I think is the swiftest way to exorcise the ghosts of any failed campaign.
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Feb 3, 2014 22:46
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dusty posted:Romney still seems like the 'best' GOP candidate for 2016, for the same reason he was the best candidate last time around - he has a record as a centrist compassionate conservative, and he's not allergic to implementing healthcare. That man has no chance of making it out of the GOP primary and even if such a candidate ended up the President he would in effect be rubberstamping all the poo poo-rear end legislation that comes out of the House and Senate right wing supermajority, so eh.
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Feb 3, 2014 22:49
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dusty posted:Romney still seems like the 'best' GOP candidate for 2016, for the same reason he was the best candidate last time around - he has a record as a centrist compassionate conservative, and he's not allergic to implementing healthcare. Yeah, but as several incarnations of this thread have shown pretty extensively, centrist candidates with any sort of actual chance of appealing to women and minorities might as well be V.I. Lenin in the eyes of the party demagogues. He's (at best) so tepid with the party base that he'd have to fritter away any centrist positioning lest the vote Santorum or whoever the hell else during the primary. Which brings us back into etcha-sketch territory again.
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Feb 3, 2014 22:50
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dusty posted:Romney still seems like the 'best' GOP candidate for 2016, for the same reason he was the best candidate last time around - he has a record as a centrist compassionate conservative, and he's not allergic to implementing healthcare. Rob Portman could easily pick up that mantel - but I can't see him getting anywhere in the conservative primaries.
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Feb 3, 2014 23:21
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Brigadier Sockface posted:Rob Portman could easily pick up that mantel - but I can't see him getting anywhere in the conservative primaries. He supports marriage equality, no chance in hell. Also he'd have to be pretty beefy to pick up a mantel; those sumbitches are heavy
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Feb 4, 2014 00:54
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The hero America deserves. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CQv5sEVXyU
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Feb 4, 2014 02:50
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Beamed posted:Wasn't he the one who debated Rick Perry on CNN as well? Yes, for some reason Perry thought that telling the richest state in the country (thanks in no small part to the government) to be more like Texas would resonate because government and regulations are bad. DynamicSloth posted:
I was under the impression that O'Malley was a Clinton surrogate in 2008 and I kind of doubt that Clintonland is scared of the guy at all. More likely the rain tax thing just went viral to the conservative base because of what a dumb soundbyte it is with no context. All of the conservatives I interact with live here though so I can't really say if and how he's getting play elsewhere.
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Feb 4, 2014 03:55
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Obama aides going on the record and criticizing HRC's 2016 strategy, saying she's making the same mistakes as 2008. Snippet: quote:“I just don’t see any strategic value in stories positioning her as inevitable or the pre-emptive nominee, and I don’t think people who are out there talking about this help her, and I think she should make that clear,” said Joel Benenson, Obama’s chief campaign pollster and now the top White House pollster. “She doesn’t need this. If she decides to run for president, everybody knows she’s going to be able to raise money, everybody knows she’s going to be extremely formidable, that she’s going to have a significant network of supporters around the country — so what’s the value of all this in 2014?”
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Feb 4, 2014 05:17
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To be honest 2008 was kind of a fluke and Hillz was the presumptive nominee until Orator Imperator Barack Obama showed up with his soaring rhetoric and wide-eyed idealism to whisk away the primary voters. Clearly that ain't happening in 2016 and nobody who could conceivably serve as a similar foil is even mentioning a run or has outright denied one.
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Feb 4, 2014 05:31
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Yeah, those criticisms ring pretty hollow when you consider that there's nobody close to being an Obama 2008 level candidate, Hillary 2016 is a lot stronger than Hillary 2008 and Hillary 2008 had a really strong showing anyway. Plus, it seems disingenuous to suggest that Hillary 2008's biggest flaw was that she 'acted too much like the presumptive nominee,' because you can tout that you're the presumptive nominee and not have a miserably run campaign. Also, Iraq etc
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Feb 4, 2014 05:40
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Hillary could have taken an ad out during the Superbowl saying she for sure hasn't made up her mind and no one needs to raise money for her yet and she'd still be the presumptive nominee with the biggest PACs. Ready for Hillary started without any permission or direction from Clinton land (it's since been folded into the nascent Hillaryland domains) and raised more money than any other Presidential PAC this early.
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Feb 4, 2014 06:41
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Ah, so Joel Benenson wants a 2016 campaign job.
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Feb 4, 2014 13:34
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O'Malley 2016 exploratory committee is now official. A little surprised he's the one going this early. He could have Cardin or Mikulski's seat if he wants it, easily (no idea if he'd want it). One of them will likely be gone in a cycle or 3. May as well get out in front of everyone else and get the publicity if you really want to run, I guess. I expected someone with no other possible future other than the presidency or a cabinet secretary appointment, like Schweitzer.
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Feb 4, 2014 18:17
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