For the 2nd electoral cycle in a row, The Republicans blew opportunities in senate races. The turning point in in the 2012 race, was Todd Akins winning the nomination for Senate in Missouri. The Democrats made this possible by supporting Todd Akins with ads. He went on to defeat John Brunner and Sarah Steelman. The latter 2 were electability and would have easily defeated Sen. Claire McCaskill. The Democrats knew that Akins was not an electable. The gambit work as Akins made offensive comments about rape and went on to lose. Senate Republicans now vow that there will be no more Todd Akins in future elections.
Read their lips: no more Todd Akins.
In the wake of the GOP’s Election Day beatdown, influential Republican senators say enough’s enough: Party leaders need to put the kibosh on the kind of savage primaries that yielded candidates like Akin — and crippled Republican prospects of taking the Senate in two straight election cycles.
It’s time, they say, for Washington bosses to be more assertive about recruiting and then defending promising candidates. They argue that it’s critical to start enlisting local conservative activists as allies and to ease the tea party versus Washington dynamic that’s wreaked havoc on the party.
All easier said than done, of course. Tea party types have relished showing the chosen candidates of the Washington establishment a thing or two — and it’s hard to see them laying down arms overnight. But after a sure-bet election in 2012 turned into an electoral disaster, Republicans say resolving their primary problem is, well, their primary problem.
Now, top Republicans are considering splitting the difference between the heavy hand they wielded in 2010 that prompted sharp blowback from the right and their mostly hands-off approach of 2012. Both strategies produced a handful of unelectable candidates, so senators are gravitating toward a middle ground: engage in primaries so long as they can get some cover on the local level.
One thing I dispute from this article is that Todd Akins was a Tea party candidate. He wasn’t since the Tea Party in Missouri supported Sarah Steelman. Akins was from the Santorum/Huckabee/Bush big government Progressive wing of the GOP. He would have lost a run off election. That is what is needed, mandatory run off elections if no candidate gets 50%. This will prevent a loon like Akins or an obvious false flag candidate like Sharon Angle from getting near a Senate candidacy.
Another item needed to make sure the Senatorial 2010 and 2012 debacles is message discipline. All new candidates should be given instructions on how to answer trap questions. Hopefully the GOP learned its lesson for 2014 and there will be no more Akins/Angle ssituation.
Tags: Missouri, Senate, Todd Akins
There will be no more Todd Akins. There will be more John McCains, Arlen Specters, John Boehners, etc.
We are screwed.
The Republican Party needs to start acting like a party—that is, with a national organization, coordinated goals and actual planning and instruction for candidates, instead of being merely a loosely-affiliated and vaguely defined brand name.
Gawd, ain’t that the truth! For people who are branded as lock-stepped fascist robots, we have all the discipline of a herd of cats. I have to give Democrats credit for one thing, they fall in line and speak as one as soon as the respective candidate for office is chosen…..they actually behave as though they’re a political party.
We need some of that -- as soon as we complete the circular firing squad we’ve assembled in our quest to punish the bastards responsible for November 6.
@ MacDuff:
The Democrats never stray from talking points.
tunnelrat wrote:
No, there will be more Marco Rubio’s, Rand Paul’s and Pat Toomey’s.
In case you think that my dire warnings about our debt and the Democrat’s intent to crash the system through it are bunk, read this from Timothy Geithne:
Eliminating the debt ceiling won’t allow the United States to borrow forever, though. Our creditors will put a stop to that sooner or later. Interest rates can’t hover at near 0% forever, either, and when the interest rates go up, we are well and truly fucked if we haven’t gotten our spending addiction under control. Now maybe Geithner is a complete idiot and doesn’t realize this, but I think it is more likely that he, too, knows that the creditors will sooner or later move to restrict our borrowing, and that when that happens the system will crash if it hasn’t been prepared for it (and by prepared for it, I mean stopped before it reaches that point).
Rodan wrote:
No they don’t. For a party that portrays itself as anti-business, they have an infinitely better understanding of marketing than Republicans.
Rodan wrote:
Akin is a jackass and bleep his puppet master Mike Shmuckabee.
@ Iron Fist:
Debt without limit! The progressives love this, so they can collapse the system.
@ Rodan:
I hope that you are right, it’s just that the current GOP establishment seems to prefer being the “Democrat-lite” party. I fear they lack the cajones to back principled conservative candidates.
Iron Fist wrote:
New Debt Ceilings Are a New Spending Floor
—apologies to Paul Simon, and “One Man’s Ceiling is Another Man’s Floor”
There is a debt ceiling here
Because we’re deeply in the red
And there’s some hard feeling on
The Congress floors
Because the Tea Party oppose
What the Democrats propose
To raise taxes and to spend a lot more
It’s just those no-budget blues
And when you spend without rules
A raised debt ceiling
Is a new spending floor
A raised debt ceiling
Is a new spending floor
Where did the Stimulus go?
Don’t you ask the CBO
No shovel-ready jobs materialized
They say that the economy
Has had a big recovery
But instead I believe my own eyes
They want to savage defense
And bloat up entitlements
Remember new debt ceilings
Are a new spending floor
New debt ceilings
Are a new spending floor
But the economy could be rebuilding
If Congress would just reshuffle the game
Stop spending more than it makes
No matter how much it takes
Regulatory agencies must be tamed
[Instrumental interlude]
New debt ceilings are a new spending floor
You bet
New debt ceilings are a new spending floor…
[Instrumental fadeout]
@ Speranza:
He was funded by Democrats. That says it all.
Brian Sussman pointed out, and it’s a scary thought, that the kids who will vote for the first time in a Presidential election in 2016 will know nothing except the cradle to grave government-care promises of Obama and the Dumbocrats. They will think 8% unemployment is the norm, that almost 50% of the country on food stamps is a good thing and stimulates the economy, that the rich are anyone not on food stamps or some government program and that the nanny state is good for you. The Marxist dream for America.
The stock market is soaring today. I’m happy for those that have investments because I don’t want to see people lose the money they’ve invested. And Hostess? Loss of 18,500 jobs? Hey, that’s old news -- subject only for jokes about how much a box of Twinkies was selling for on Ebay.
@ tunnelrat:
Akins was a Big Government “Conservative”, not a Limited Government Conservative.
Carolina Girl wrote:
If Starbucks went out of business that would really depress them.
Iron Fist wrote:
If we lose any more credit rating points, the interest rates WILL go up.
Welcome to Zimbabwe -- where they actually had to put up signs telling people not to use Zim dollars in the public toilets.
I’m afraid that the GOP’s problems run deeper than just a few individual candidates. The rugged individualist spirit is disappearing in America and being replaced by spineless wimps who feel that everything should be provided for them at someone else’s expense.
There is no good way to counter the Democraps vote-buying scheme which I can see; we will need to be in a full fledged depression before people wake up and start pulling their heads out of their a**es, and by then it may be too late.
I am not being fatalistic, I just don’t see how the conservative message can penetrate the thick heads of the low-information voters in the current climate. Free shit and envy are big motivators and the Democraps use them like pros.
@ tunnelrat:
The Republicans have to get with the 21st Century. Not everyone wants free stuff. What hurt the GOP was the perception that they hated people. The Democrats got more votes because they came across like liking people. The media was huge factor as well.
@ Carolina Girl:
And they’ll have been taught by their Union teachers that the only way to fairness is through unlimited government. The concept of a limited government will have never been taught to them, neither by their so-called teachers nor their entitlement-crazed Generation Whatever parents. I don’ thold out much hope for this nation as a whole. I think collapse an d breakup are going to be our fate in the not too distant future, by which I mean around the year 2025. It could happen before then, though, if our creditors decide to spike our interest rates. How the bond market reacts to all this is the unanswered (hell, unasked) question.
The choice does not have to be between an Akin, O’Donnell, Angle, or Mourdock and a Graham, McCain, Jeb Bush or Colin Powell.
@ Speranza:
Two at one blow!
[/The Media are the Enemy]
Job #1 for the GOP is to shit-can the open primaries. If the GOP can’t control voter fraud in the general election, they sure as Hell can make the primary process open and transparent.
And abandon the process where one simply declares himself to be Dem or GOP by registering. You want a say in who runs the party, and who becomes the candidate? Pony up the dough, and take out a membership. And make sure that one has to be a party member for at least one calendar year in order to vote in any primary, so that a well-funded dark horse can’t game the system by showing up with busloads of “instant Republicans.” (That sort of BS does happen in Canadian political parties, which otherwise do have sensible rules that only members vote for candidates.)
Advantages: it make the party more beholden to the grass roots, and by providing ongoing funding from the grass roots, it might make the party a little less susceptible to corruption from moneyed interests.
1389AD wrote:
The Chicago Way leads to the Zimbab Way.
Rodan wrote:
They micro targeted very well. For example that Lena Dunham unbelievably stupid ad was micro targeted to young single women.
Iron Fist wrote:
They actually got four or five Islamic Jihad leaders.
@ Speranza:
I agree. We don’t need to be Progressive nor come across like angry scolds. Personally I don’t think the GOP will change nor learn its lesson. After the election people were open to changing, but now Conservatives are back in the bubble and lashing out at groups that vote Democratic and spouting conspiracy theories.
I think in 2016, Someone like Santorum will get the Nod and Deval Patrick will wipe the floor with him in a 40 state landslide. Then the GOP will learn its lesson but it will be too late.
That’s cute: violent Hooligans in Germany are no longer called Hooligans but “adventure-oriented fans”.
@ Alberta Oil Peon:
I like this idea.
@ Alberta Oil Peon:
That’s how NRA board elections work. The only people who get to vote are Life Members (and above) or Annual Members who have been members for at least 5 years.
@ Alberta Oil Peon:
That would work for me, but it doesn’t stand a whore’s chance in hell of actually making it here in America. They Party isn’t the one that makes the rulse about Open Primaries, I don’t think. VOter eligibility is something determined by the individual States. Here in Tennessee we might could get something like that through, because we have Republican super-majorities in both houses of congress and a Republican Governor. In other places, though, the Democrats would nix it because they do game the system, as Missouri proves. Now, the parties might could demand a run-off i no one gets above 50% in the primary, but even that may have to be determined by the individual States. The States have a lot of power in saying who gets what about elections, unless the Federal Government steps in like it did where Voter ID was the question in some states.
Rodan wrote:
Rick Santorum is finished. Is it asking too much of Republican candidates to keep their fat, ugly, unbelievably ignorant mouths the fuck shut when it comes to rape/abortion/incest/life of the mother, ‘gotcha’ questions?
Speranza wrote:
Proving that young, single women are also stupid in the main, or at least think more with their sex organs than similarly situated young men.
Guggi wrote:
Sort of like terrorism is now a “man made catastrophe”.
@ Iron Fist:
While it’s true that the states run their own primaries, the parties do have one way to influence how they’re conducted: They aren’t required to seat any given state’s convention delegates.
All they would have to do to end the open primary BS is announce that no delegates will be seated from those states.
Iron Fist wrote:
Yeah but their votes counted just as much as yours and the Democrats gladly took their votes.
Iron Fist wrote:
It means that we are producing a nation of “Julias” and Sandra Flukes.
@ Speranza:
A better answer would be to simply say that unlike Barack Obama, they don’t support the murder of infants that are born alive. Obama’s position on abortion is the real extremist position.
Speranza wrote:
Yep. Newspeak
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
A Speranza said, their votes count. A lot of them will lose their love for abortion once they’ve had one, but there are more coming up through the ranks every day. Democrats rely on the votes of the ignorant. Hence their heavy investment with the “Teacher’s” Unions, which make sure to bring forth a new crop of ignorants with every election.
I think of the “ObamaPhone” woman as a perfect example of what we are up against. Uninformed and lazy. Romney is offering her an improved job climate where she can work and purchase her own cell phone. Obama gives her a free phone. What would you expect of somebody in that position?
The Deomcraps are seem as compassionate by measure of the free stuff they dole out. How do we explain to people that these things are not really free?
@ Storagemanager:
It’s the only real solution. Israel has given peace a chance at every oppertunity through 60 years of wars and innumerable terrorist actions. It is time to give real, unlimited war a chance.
Iron Fist wrote:
Plus, using “teachers” and “education” as buzzwords to justify out of control spending is very hard to counter. You can explain why these buzzwords are nonsense, but that takes several full sentences—and many attention spans are not long enough for that.
@ Iron Fist:
How about Republicans try to win them by pointing out our policies mean they can make more money. A better approach to younger voters is needed. But I am lone voice on the Right in this regard.
@ tunnelrat:
Obamaphone™! Keep Obama in Prezdunt!
@ buzzsawmonkey:
Brainwashing would be a good counter argument.
@ buzzsawmonkey:
People are conditioned to believe that Public education is free education. Most people don’t realize that the taxpayers’ pay more for those “free” educations than a comparable private school education would run. If you can even compare a private school education to a public school education. Private schools aren’t in the habit of graduating illiterates. Public schools, especially in the inner city, OTOH, do it all the time.
@ buzzsawmonkey:
Starting with the fact that hiring teachers isn’t the job of the federal government.
Same goes for cops and firefighters, yet I lost count of the number of times Obama talked about them during the campaign.
@ tunnelrat:
Fortunately, most of those people are in solidly Democrat area, so it really doesn’t matter how they vote.
Rodan wrote:
The people who care about this know this. They are the Young Republican clubs on campus. Most people don’t expect to ever get rich, and so do not Care that the Republicans offer the only viable path to realizing that dream. Free Cable resonates much more strongly in the youth than the promise that if they work hard they can get ahead. Most people don’t want to work hard. If you give them the oppertunity to scam their way through life, a majority will take it. Those are the voters that the Democrats count on to keep them in power. You don’t see the Democrats trying to peel off the Conservative vote. They have the PARASITE vote locked up, and that is enough to win a national election these days. Indeed, I am surprised that we were able to hold the House. The House is supposed to be more democratic (small “d”) and the Senate more conservative. We’d hold more of the House if they reapportioned it, and gave representation to smaller groups, but it’s been about a hundred years since they’ve done that. It is no coincidence that the Democrats held the power throughout most of that time.
Iron Fist wrote:
Two problems: first, that what has been done to education and discipline in public schools makes it impossible for the students to learn. I’m no fan of corporal punishment, but when a teacher can be disciplined for defending him- or herself, there is no way order can be maintained; likewise, “zero tolerance” penalizes the victim with the victimizer while letting the teachers and administration off the hook where maintaining discipline is concerned. That incompetent teachers, protected by their union, and promulgating a poor substitute for education have made the schools a joke is another problem.
On top of this is the sad truth that a great many parents do not value education; they value the gaining of the credential which is supposed to certify that education has been obtained. But a high school diploma or a college “degree” which owes more to social promotion, remediation, and easy college loan money does not represent what it is supposed to represent.
lobo91 wrote:
True.
@ Iron Fist:
I disagree with this. The reason many Young people don’t vote Republican is because we come across like angry scolds. Young people don’t like to be lectured and all we do is lecture them.
Reagan did not have this attitude and he won the youth vote in 80 and 84. He was able to connect with young Americans. The modern day GOP doesn’t want to and assume all the negative stuff about young people.
I am starting to this its a lost cause anyway because Conservatives are set in their ways no amount of electoral defeats will change this.
@ buzzsawmonkey:
Federal grants to pay for teachers, cops and firefighters are a terrible idea, because they end up becoming permanent. Once the grant gets close to running out, instead of the local government figuring out how to pick up the tab, they complain about how they’ll be forced to lay those workers off in order to pay for “tax cuts for the rich”.
Rodan wrote:
How do you propose to not “come across like angry scolds” when pushing a conservative message?
Getting stoned on someone else’s dime with a free phone and consequence-free sex sounds a lot more appealing to most people than the promise that hard work and self-discipline will pay dividends down the line.
lobo91 wrote:
Preach it, brother!
@ Rodan:
http://www.google.com/search?q=santa+obama&hl=en&tbo=u&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ei=X2yqULLiGOTe2AW-z4HoCg&ved=0CCsQsAQ&biw=1680&bih=904
@ Rodan:
A little history for you: for most of the 20th Century, the two main parties in Canada were the Liberals, and the Progressive Conservatives, and policy-wise, there wasn’t much daylight between them, and both drifted to the Left. We also have a more or less Marxist party, the new Democrats, but they have never formed a national government, fortunately.
In the 1980′s, true conservatives were getting disgusted with the Progressive Conservative Party, and disgusted with the progressive Liberal government of commie Pierre Trudeau and his successors. They formed a new party, the Reform Party, which started in Alberta, and grew through the West, and even elected one or two MPs from Ontario, IIRC. Reform never formed a government, but it was very influential, and became the de-facto “conservative” voice in the country.
The Progressive Conservatives saw the handwriting on the wall, and realized that they would never again form a government without the support of Reform. So they wound up merging with Reform, and called the new entity the Conservative Party of Canada. CPC went on to form several minority governments, and now has a comfortable majority. The Liberal Party got their ass whupped in the last election, and the New Democrats (hard socialists) now form the official Opposition. But the New Democrats are no longer a national party in any meaningful way. They picked up a mess of seats in Quebec that were formerly held by the explicitly-separatist Bloc Quebecois, and actually lost a few seats in the West. So they are now the regional party for Quebec.
Anyway, that’s the Coles Notes version.
I think the time is ripe for something similar in the USA. Perhaps the Tea Party needs to become an actual party, and run candidates. Take a run at the fis-con wing of the GOP, and scoop up enough votes that the GOP leadership comes to the realization that will never win the Presidency without Tea Party support.
Note that Preston Manning, the founder of the Reform Party, and arguably the architect of its successful subversion of the PC party is alive and well, and working in a conservative think-tank. He might be a good person for Tea Party activists to cultivate as a consultant.
Note also that Reform, and later the CPC, strictly soft-pedaled the So-con land mine issues of abortion and capital punishment. Many So-cons belong to the Party, and some are MPs and Cabinet Ministers, but So-con issues are simply not priorities. It is understood that such things will be dealt with in due course, and the time is not right now.
@ Alberta Oil Peon:
That idea is a lot easier to execute in a parliamentary system like Canada’s than it is in the US, though. Coming in third under your system still gets you something.
Alberta Oil Peon wrote:
The Tea Party’s great weakness was, and is, its lack of organization beyond producing its local demonstrations. This made it possible for Democrats to produce false-flag candidates, and made it possible for false-flag “spokespeople” to crop up.
I understand that the liberty-based sentiments of those participating in the Tea Party events naturally make the formation of a more formal structure difficult. But this left a vacuum which was, and will continue to be, easily exploited by those for whom the Tea Party message is anathema.
Rodan wrote:
You keep saying this, but the demographics just don’t bear this out. First and most obviously, there are Young Republicans. While I’d hazard a guess that they are more religious than not religious types in there, that kill syour premise that we come across as “angry scolds”. Frankly, one doesn’t have to support rap music to not come across as an angry scold, and I gather that that is your primary bitch with the Republican party. Point blank, do you think that the values rap music tries (and succeeds) to inculcate are in any way positive for America? How is the glorification of pimps and the denigration of all women as “hos” useful for society? That’s not one we are going to see eye-to-eye on, but that isn’t the reason that a majority of young people (especially college-age people) vote Democrat. They are taught to vote Democrat by most if not all of the authority figures in their lives from kindergarden until they graduate from college. The vast majority of these “teachers” will be Democrats, some more openly than others, but that philosophy wil impact their teaching in the classroom. While I only had one teacher in my school career that thought it was her mission to make me a Democrat, enough of my teachers challenged my beliefs for it to be clear that the majority of them had an axe to grind on the issue. And my public school education was (especially in high school) at a better public school. Public education isn’t the only problem that America faces, but it is certainly one of the major reasons we have the electorate that we have.
Guggi wrote:
Sounds like ferb to me.
Iron Fist wrote:
Yup.
lobo91 wrote:
Yup.
Iron Fist wrote:
Too many of those women have been raised in fatherless homes. They’re so desperate for connection with any sort of male that they give themselves to anyone who will have them, without regard to the consequences.
@ Iron Fist:
Until they get to college. Then, the majority of them will be socialists or outright Marxists.
@ Alberta Oil Peon:
Sounds like a plan.
@ buzzsawmonkey:
How about not lecturing people on their lifestyles. If someone wants to get stoned with their own money and have sex, that’s on them. We should focus on on how Conservative polices means they will be able to live the lives they want without being serfs to the government.
We can’t claim we want small government and then advocate the government be some nanny in society. It’s the Left that want the nanny state, not real Conservatives.
@ Rodan:
How is saying that there are consequences to one’s actions adocating a nanny state? The truth is that there are consequences to your actions. You know I’m all for legalizing drugs, but using drugs has consequences, just as using alcohol (a legal drug, after all) has consequences. It is the message that there are Consequences that the youth doesn’t want to hear. When you are nineteen,you think you are ten feet tall and bullet-proof, but the truth is that you are very mortal. That is the message that conservatives preach, and that is exactly the message that young people don’t want to hear.
Rodan wrote:
As I have said before, “lecturing people on their lifestyles” is not only appropriate, but necessary. That doesn’t mean making laws to change their lifestyles, but it is perfectly appropriate to state that, for example, marriages get tax breaks because it is in society’s interest to encourage married couples over single parenthood.
The Left, by the way, is constantly scolding. Look at its wars on large sodas, transfats, and salt; on smoking; on driving and using energy, and on what kind of energy can/should be produced; on what kind of lightbulbs you can use that energy on; on how it is your duty to scrabble through your garbage like a raccoon to make it easier for an overpaid union thug to “recycle” your garbage. The list goes on and on.
What is necessary is to make people realize how much the Left is constantly scolding them, and what an intrusion it is into their lives—and that an Obamaphone™ is not a sufficient tradeoff for this interference.
@ lobo91:
The main thing that coming in third gets you is that #1 and #2 will look at your policies to see which ones they can steal to give them an advantage over the other.
That’s how Canada wound up with single-payer health care. The Liberals stole that platform plank from the CCF party (Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, predecessor of the NDP).
And we are stuck with it, now, although we are trying to nibble away at the edges, and some doctors are opting out of the system, and direct-billing. Ultimately, we will probably get a mixed system, like that in France, which is vastly superior to Britain’s dreadful NHS.
Iron Fist wrote:
You might want to read this
links to Westwoods article are imbedded.
@ Iron Fist:
The answer is in this very statement. Young people are rebellious and hate authority. Right now we are painted as the establishment. What Republicans need to do is appear as the rebels. We need to paint the Democrats as the establishment and oppressors. We need to promote that we are fighting for liberty and to allow people to live the lives they want. The current Republican Party appears very Statist. The Democrats are the actually statists and we need to make them show their statist totalitarian attitude.
Rodan wrote:
my exact sentiments…a new GOP does not and should not have to answer for every person and every lifestyle….less is more
@ Iron Fist:
Drop the consequences part and promote the freedom part. People learn the hard the way the consequences of their actions.
Rodan wrote:
While I agree with your overall premise, I have to point out that while young people are surly and authority-resistant, they are not really rebellious. They love the trappings of rebellion, but they are solidly conformist.
@ eaglesoars:
About the only thing dumber than taking political advice from Democrats on how to run our party is taking political advice from 18 year olds.
@ heysoos:
Yup, that is my attitude. Just promote freedom. If a person messes up, that’s on them.
@ eaglesoars:
I seem to miss where the GOP has fought to legally ban abortion. I think most everyone in the GOP knows that horse has left the barn. What the pro-life crowd mostly wants is that abortion as a legal matter be left up to the States, as it strictly should be according to the Constitution. And for the Fed to stop funding abortion. Let those who want it, pay for it.
MSLSD sickos say that Hamas rockets aren’t all that good so why are Israelis making such a big deal?
Hamas Rockets Score Direct Hits On Two Israeli Schools…
eaglesoars wrote:
Becoming anti-Christian along with the Democrats isn’t going to win these people’s votes, though I hesitate to ask why this particular woman has any more reason to be held up as an example than any other. Are we going to start taking electoral advice from Meghan McCain now? We might as well fold the party, because what comes out won’t be distinguishable from the Democrats. Ideed, if we are going to fold we should try to out-bid the Democrats on the “Free Shit from the Government” front, since that is really what made the difference.
@ buzzsawmonkey:
The GOP has done this since 91/92. It’s gotten us nowhere and has backfired.
When I entered HS in 1989, it was cool to be a Republican. Being a Republican meant you had money, got hot chicks, drove a nice car and went on exotic locations. When I graduated in 93, being a Republican was no longer considered cool. It meant you were some angry scold mad at the world. I saw first hand how the GOP’s change of approach turned people off.
If we promote Liberty, people will listen to us.
@ heysoos:
Since you’re a Stones fan, this one’s for you:
Deference to Obama
—apologies to the Rolling Stones, and “Sympathy for the Devil”
Let me please introduce myself
I’m a man of hope and change
I’ve been in office for almost four years
It’s racist if you say my name’s strange
I did a bailout for GM when it was going down the drain
Made sure my cronies were first in line
Bankruptcy laws were rearranged
Pleased to meet you—hope you guessed my name
But what’s puzzling you is the nature of my game
I slept right through the Benghazi night
When the mob for the consulate came
Yes they killed four Americans
Christopher Stevens screamed in vain
I claimed to know ’twas a video
Sparked world riots when the rocks were thrown
Pleased to meet you—hope you guessed my name
But what’s puzzling you is the nature of my game
I watched in glee while the jihadis
Built nuclear bombs with no action by me
I shouted about Romney’s tax returns
While I concealed my past history
Let me please introduce myself
I’m a man of hope and change
And I’ve made sure nobody can buy a home
‘Cause mortgages stay out of range
Pleased to meet you—hope you guessed my name
But what’s confusing you is the nature of my game
Though I condemn the West as colonial
And will impose on it Third World squalor
I rejoice in living a life that’s baronial
As I laze behind the White House doors
So, if you meet me, show me deference
Bow to me as I bow to the Sauds
While I further same-sex matrimonials
And subject you to foreign gods
Pleased to meet you—hope you guessed my name
Can I interest you in a sweatshirt
Which displays the logo of my fame?
Mmmmm, meanness
Gets ’round
Woo, woo
Woo, woo
Oh, yeah—get on down
Oh, yeah—oh, yeah
Tell me subjects—what’s my name?
Say, dependents—what’s my name?
You on foodstamps—what’s my name?
Hey, you voters—you’re to blame.
Ooo, oooh
Ooo, oooh
Ooo, oooh
@ buzzsawmonkey:
I think the GOP should hire a PR firm and behavioral scientists.
Did you call me?
Rodan wrote:
60% majority of those same people think the Baalestinians are right
Rodan wrote:
If only things actually worked that way in the real world.
But they don’t.
@ buzzsawmonkey:
I saw that before…I can easily hear it in my head and consider it near perfect…a tough song to parody I should think
Alberta Oil Peon wrote:
Iron Fist wrote:
I posted about her WSJ piece the other day when I was on one of my stop-blaming-Romney rants.
When she starts paying her own tuition and her own taxes, I’ll consider that maybe she has been introduced to reality.
gotta hop -- the beagle is out of pee pads.
Rodan wrote:
But it really never is just on them. If a person messes up, really messes up, they go to prison. Then we are paying for their room and board for years. Then there are their victims. Let’s just assume that they don’t kill anybody, but society has already paid a cost for their messing up. Sure, they’re suffering consequence once they get caught, but what happens until that point? Society is on th ehook for them, one way or another.
Rodan wrote:
You have a drastically skewed concept of the Reagan era. I was a senior in 88. All through my high school career Reagan was strongly disliked as an out of touch old man and we waited for the.day he would be gone. And I was in Wyoming probably the most consistently conservative state ever.
I’m not at all convinced that specifically “appealing to” young people/old people/women/Hispanics/Blacks, etc., is the future of the Republican Party and I don’t think I ever will be. The Democrats have branded themselves as the “pandering party” and we’ll never be able to, or should we strive to “out pander” them.
We talk a lot about Reagan, and Reagan’s message was not tailored to interest groups; it tended to be a broad message that appealed to a broad range of people and that’s why Reagan was successful.
At it’s root, the Republican message is not gender, race or ethnicity specific, it’s about what’s important to all of us; basic economic prosperity and national security.
If the Democrats want to divide us into interest groups, let ‘em, and let us provide a simple message that highlights our fundamental sameness rather than accentuating our differences.
@ lobo91:
I really think The GOP needs to hire a PR firm. But lets be honest, we can change our image all we want but it will only help on the margins.
I still think 70% of the problem is the 800 lib. Gorilla name the media. Until this is addressed, the GOP can run a porn star and they will still paint us as bad.
@ Mars:
Not for me growing up. Reagan was viewed as cool guy who let people make money.
I guess everyone has different recollections. Coldwarrior had the same experience as me.
Rodan wrote:
The Libertarians keep telling themselves that, but elections tell a different story. The Libertarians have never elected a single United States Congressman from any district anywhere in America. Sorry, but them’s the cold, hard facts. Liberty doesn’t sell in America, not to the majority of the populace. The freedom people want is Freedom from Responsibility, and that is exactly what the Democrats promise. Conservatism preaches exactly the opposite: individual responsibility for one’s self, and further responsibility to the Nation as a whole. That was the ideology that Romney represented against Obama’s Free Shit Army, and we see which vision won out.
Mars wrote:
That was the teachers’ attitudes, certainly, but among me and my friends it was different. We took an especially hard line toward Libya in the “Line of Death” confrontation. As I’ve said, though, the teachers were plain about where they stood on the issues. I’d say that most of the kids naturally gravitated to the line of thought that would get the least static from their teachers.
@ Iron Fist:
I see your point and its valid. But thinking government can change people’s personal behavior is not the answer. The truth is there is no answer to any of this.
I think the real problem is the media. That is the 800 lb gorilla in the room. Until something is done about that, the GOP can change its image all it wants. But it will only do good at the margins.
Oy.
Mike C. wrote:
children…LBJ was my HS entering prez….
yikes
It would be nice of the f*cking republicans would come around and try to impose their will on the rank and file…maybe then they would listen. I welcome them the attempt to try.
@ Iron Fist:
The Democrats pretend to be friends with people and non judgmental. That’s how they do it. They have the media on their side. That’s the key.
We can all argue here which approach is better but it doesn’t matter with a media that is an arm of the Democrats.
Well I think lily made the point on the overnight thread that listening to an Obama voter was eye opening. If the GoP went out and asked people why they voted for Obama, it might be eye opening. Then that is the bloc they have to work with to win in the future.
So far GoP weaknesses:
1. Open GoP primaries that the Democrats control. That seems almost idiotic.
2. Entrenched leadership that is unable to understand the current population.
3. Letting socon issues rise from grassroots efforts to national platforms
4. Failure to run negative against Obama and far enough in advance to set doubt in peoples minds about who Obama is.
@ Rodan:
Do you really foresee the media continuing on in it’s present state? Because I do not.
Ford was pres when I was in hs
Another factor that has hurt the GOP. There has not been a successful Republican Presidency since Reagan. The last 2 Republican Presidents where failures. The reason people cut Obama slack is because Bill Clinton was successful. People associate that Presidency with good times. Obama is a failure, but they think he needs more time. That is what is at work here.
Mike C. wrote:
It does explain a lot…
@ Rodan:
I agree about the media. This election showed that the Old Media is still the Media that swings the biggest hammer. The media has never before been so in the pocket of the President. They made Obama, they kept him in power, and they know this. Look at the scripted “Press Conference” that they had the other day. Do you think even Clinton would have gotten such a pass? Especially after having ignored the media for the last 8 months. Clinton would have never gotten away with ignoring the press the way Obama has. Time will tell if that is the new standard for Democrats, but it probably is. Shrinking audience and revenue may not matter to these people. They can look ahead to the same brick wall we can see us rushing towards, and they are doing all that they can do to propel us towards it. They are either ignorant tools or complicit.
That comb over is another reason to hate Todd Akin.
quiet man wrote:
I foresee it getting worse. They were able to destroy the Presidency of the 43rd President. The media created Obama and got him elected in 08. The media successfully shielded Obama from his policy failures and got him re-elected. They are riding high right now.
heysoos wrote:
Same here. Nixon was elected in November of my Freshman year. Yikes indeed……
@ darkwords:
The Obama voter…there is no reaching that person with policy issues; there is no reaching that person with the media in constant attack mode on almost every front in their other ear. And I think we will not be able to be a bigger santa claus to them than the democrats.
Iron Fist wrote:
They don’t even have to be criminals. Having a kid at 17 is pretty much going to ruin their lives just as surely as going to prison will.
But according to Rodan, we shouldn’t suggest that that’s not optimal behavior.
@ quiet man:
The Media will collapse as the economy collapses, but then it will be too late for a course correction. They are already losing viewership/readership/marketshare, but not swiftly enough. The average American still relies on the alphabet soup networks to tell him the “news”, if he is actually interested enough to tune in. Most people hear only soundbites, and they only occasionally pay attention to them. The younger you get, the worse that gets. The college age people think Stephen fucking Colbert gives them “news”…
MacDuff wrote:
Carter was president when I graduated and joined the military.
Anyone who thinks the military doesn’t care about who’s president wasn’t in the military when Reagan took office.
@ lobo91:
Yeah, and no matter how you euphamize it an abortion takes a human life. But don’t say that! People might lose their self-esteem or something.
@ Iron Fist:
That’s why I think all these debates are pointless until we come up with a media strategy. They basically have near dictatorial powers.
@ Rodan:
How much do you trust them after Benghazi and all the other news they held until after the election?? Russians always knew the news was the opposite of Pravda printed it. We need to bypass this dead media and create our voice in the new.
But catching the attention is the main difficulty. Lets give them a free music download or ringtone for coming.
@ Iron Fist:
They are looking at their phones..watching youtube, playing games.
We need to take it as a given no news will reach them via the alpha-bitter clingers and there we have todays battle.
Speranza wrote:
Never again…AGAIN
@ quiet man:
Obama can anally rape a young boy on TV and the media will blame the young boy. Most Americans are not political junkies and still rely on legacy media for news. They believe anything the guy or lady on the 6 O’clock news tells them.
Rodan wrote:
Then the REAL 1% will buy up assets for pennies on the dollar. I don’t know if they can actually control what they are unleashing.
quiet man wrote:
I will be detailing something similar to that soon.
Storagemanager wrote:
And see, that is how the biased media lies to people and never even notices it. These “activists” were anti-Semitic pro-terrorist supporters, but the same media that would never call David Duke a mere “activist” will, in a heartbeat, so lable these ideological compatriots of the Nazis.
Rodan wrote:
Clueless or uninformed, even the well-educated are stuck in normalcy bias. They think they are safe because they always have been. They don’t know that the system is broken.
@ lobo91:
70 percent of the military went for Romney. We absolutely care who is in.
Melanie Phillips talks about a big legal challenge to twitter libel in England.
http://melaniephillips.com/a-watershed-moment-against-the-sadistic-twitter-mob
quiet man wrote:
Three ringtones for the Tea Partiers under the sky
Seven for the bloggers coming into their own
Nine for the old media, sure to lie
One for the candidate out on his own
Pursuing his Washington office try
One ringtone to call them all, one ringtone to find them
One ringtone for liberty—you know, just to remind them
In the town of Washington, by and by
bluliner10 wrote:
Which is why the administration went to such lengths to prevent the military from voting.
Storagemanager wrote:
“Hate Speech” defined at last.
Storagemanager wrote:
Hmm, curious how they’re all chanting rhymes in English, no? It’s also curious that the international press is so incurious that they’re being played.
Rubio…
“”I’m not a scientist, man. I can tell you what recorded history says, I can tell you what the Bible says, but I think that’s a dispute amongst theologians and I think it has nothing to do with the gross domestic product or economic growth of the United States,” Rubio told GQ when asked how old he thinks the Earth is.”
this makes sense to me
@ yenta-fada:
That is the question.
@ buzzsawmonkey:
One ring for self-rule. Good one!
@ heysoos:
@ heysoos:
link…
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/268679-rubio-ok-to-teach-qmultiple-theoriesq-on-earths-age
heysoos wrote:
That’s a great answer.
@ Mars:
That’s why I think all these debates on how to improve the GOP are useless. The media is 70-80% of the problem.
Rodan wrote:
yep. it was hip to be gop.
yuppies were admired when i was in HS. reagan won the mock election in 84 70-30 and this was in a heavily dem/union area
@ bluliner10:
And I’ll. Bet the 30% were the samepeople that my base had to mobilize all security forces to watch during the Rodney king riots.
Genesis never says day. It says disorder to order in stages directed by G-d
Roflbuzzsawmonkey wrote:
@ coldwarrior:
That was my experience. The term Republican meant money, cars and women.
@ Storagemanager:
I do not believe that Turkey will actually co-operate with Saudi Arabia. Erdogan is casting about for allies. The Saudi royals are busy buying up property in Spain because they know their best days are behind them. Appeasing Islamists since the 70′s isn’t working by this point. The Saudi rulers will take their money out, imo, and wait in safety until they see who the winners will be.
…that damn music is the work of the devil! and commies!
…those young kids are a bunch of losers, they don’t want to work
…those kids have no respect!
blah blah blah blah blah…the endless diatribe of the elders, been going on for ever. socrates was particularly good at it:
“The children now love luxury; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are tyrants, not servants of the households. They no longer rise when their elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize over their teachers.”
“The Earth is degenerating today. Bribery and corruption abound. Children no longer obey their parents, every man wants to write a book, and it is evident that the end of the world is fast approaching.”
-- Assyrian tablet, c. 2800 BC
WOE IS US!!!!
heysoos wrote:
now that is a very good answer.
Rodan wrote:
I think I hit on the disparity. Cw was from a liberal area I was from a conservative one. It comes down to the rebellion issue.
strangely we were conservative on almost everything else. The yuppie thing and all.
The Earth may be several hundred million years old, but it doesn’t look much over 6000—and Gaia, like any woman, should be glad she doesn’t show her age.
@ Mars:
No, I think it was more the first term military members. They don’t have long term plans to do this. They really don’t understand the missions, especially the OEF deployments. Then they are the “99%” who have to do all the ‘hard stuff’ while the officers and SNCO’s/CPO’s sit around drinking coffee.
Rodan wrote:
and as for the ‘bible thumpers’ in the gop. they turn me off quick. not because i dont follow the message, i go to my own orthodox christian church and frankly dont need to hear it from a stinking politician.
so imagine how much of a turn off they are to those who are not churched. no one wants to hear fire and brimstone from a politician who is correctly perceived as probably in a dalliance with his secretary or has a drinking problem or has something to hide.
people can see through the act pretty quick.
waldensianspirit wrote:
That’s right. Chaos to cosmos.
Mars wrote:
do not misunderstand, swPA was always very very conservative / church going / hard working when the dems ran the show. there was a time when dems were hawks and loved america as well. these weren’t the current version of democrats who lived here.
@ Mars:
I was in Queens, NY. The stock market was booming in the 80′s SO we associated Republicans with making money since we saw people doing good. SO there’s that factor.
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
As usual — Spot. Freaking. On.
@ coldwarrior:
Yup.
@ Speranza:
Apropos of nothing, one of the really great treats available at Starbucks this time of year is the “Cranberry Bliss Bar” -- really, really good but overpriced like you cannot believe.
Todd Wilbur has reverse engineered it and now I have the recipe. No more paying $13.95 for 8 slices.
@ tunnelrat:
What’s even more interesting is that this program was started under George Bush and had a very government sounding name.
It was the Narcissist in Chief who changed the name of the program to reflect his largesse to the little people at taxpayer expense.
Carolina Girl wrote:
Also, it began as “lifeline” land lines so that people could have minimal phone service to call 911 or get a job. The promiscuous handing out of cell phones, without checking whether someone already had a “government phone,” is a feature of the current regime.
Rodan wrote:
And we were in the midst of a ahuge oil boom.
Rodan won’t like to hear this:
I’ll say right now that I will never vote for Chris Christie, even if it means Hillary Clinton in th eWhite House. Christie should be anathaema to the Republican Party. Bsides, what makes them think he can win nationwide? He won’t pull the base any more (or even as much as) than Romney did. He has topped out in New Jersey. He can’t even bring his home State to the cause.
New Thread.
@ Iron Fist:
the B list the the real A list.
the A list need to be removed from consideration.
coldwarrior wrote:
No kidding
Iron Fist wrote:
Someone needs to start a “Jeb Bush is a nebbish” campaign.
@ coldwarrior:
Absolutely. I wouldn’t want to vote for Bush, and I am certain that the majority of the country won’t want to vote for yet another Bush. After all, neither his father nor his brother were exactly towering successes. The country isn’t secretly pinning for a return of the Bush Regime, for all that unemployment was better then. As we just saw in the last election, people aren’t exactly beating down that particular door.
@ coldwarrior:
google says that is misattributed to socrates but maybe he thought it
The A list is there by open primary and RINO power
@ waldensianspirit:
Any way you cut it, their “A List” is a losing ticket. Christie lacks appeal outside of his region, and Bush has the misfortune of his surname. The country will not elect another Bush. Not this soon fter his brother’s disasterous Presidency. Sorry, but th emedia will trot out Katrina and claim the Bush is a Conspiracy to drown Black People!!!!!11ty!! You know that as well as I do. Bush is unelectable because he’sa Bush, no matter what you feel about his personal ideology.
@ Iron Fist:
Chris Christie definitely lost my vote this weekend. His buffoonery on Saturday Night Live, without a message of hope to those still suffering the effects of the hurricane was garbage. When Gulliani went on after 9/11, it wasn’t to joke around. It was a solemn reminder that we are not allowed to die with the victims of that day. We had to move on. He did not crack jokes.
waldensianspirit wrote:
I seem to remember arafat making the same argument.
OTOH, reminds of the caliber wars on gun forums that break out from time to time. Which is better 9mm vs .40 vs .45 ACP. Usually someone who feels his favorite caliber is being dissed, often 9mm invites someone to take a few rounds. Wonder how this mslsd jerk would like a few of them bearing down on him or his family day after day.
@ coldwarrior:
Socrates didn’t have to put up with cRap music and wiggers.
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
The Osprey wrote:
Not everyone likes Rock or country music. Everyone has their own choices. That’s what free markets are about.
Carolina Girl wrote:
I hate Starbucks.
@ Speranza:
I think their coffee sucks.
Give me a cup of Sheetz Dark Roast for $.99 (24 oz.) with my customer card, thank you.
Speranza wrote:
I can’t afford boutique food and as far as sweets are concerned, they mess up my blood sugar too much. We buy coffee at the dollar store and make it in a Mr. Coffee from the thrift shop.
@ Alberta Oil Peon:
“Britain’s dreadful NHS” ? What do you know ? The NHS has the support of the vast majority of the UK population so just desist from the smugly contemptuous attitude.