October 12, 2012

Big Joe and the Joyful Noise

Big Joe and the Joyful Noise
By William Rivers Pitt
Truthout | Op-Ed

Friday 12 October 2012

Vice President Joseph Biden of Delaware dropped the hammer on Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan on Thursday, and it was a powerful thing to see.

Anyone who tells you the vice presidential debate was a tie, or that Mr. Ryan prevailed, is trying to sell you a diamond mine that ain't worth a dime. The ultimate impact and import of what went down during Thursday's debate won't be immediately known, but the simple fact is beyond dispute: Joe Biden owned the night, and owned his opponent, in a way rarely seen in modern debate history.

It was, in every respect, just what the doctor ordered for the Democratic presidential campaign: a high-energy, aggressive and fact-laden stand taken by a battle-scarred party elder who, for all time, dispelled any and all preconceived notions that he is some half-addled gaffe generator who cannot be counted on when the chips are down. Joe Biden came to play Thursday night, and the public works employees of Danville, KY, will be spending the next couple of days sweeping up little pieces of Paul Ryan because of it.

Biden - at times laconic, at times incredulous, at times simply pissed - gave a clinic on debate management over the course of 90 minutes. He left no stone unturned in attacking the weak points of his opponent's arguments and general philosophy, handily managed to make Mitt Romney the absent and hopeless star of the show, and in the process delivered a rousing defense of both the Obama administration and Democratic Party principles that was deeply reminiscent of Bill Clinton's speech at the Democratic National Convention. Mr. Biden's presentation was, like Clinton's, both folksy and factual, and - most important of all - he did not allow Mr. Ryan to slip even one lie into the conversation without covering it with bite-marks, bruises and blood.

(snip)

Biden was heated, and animated, and was not shy about telegraphing the disdain he felt for his opponent's arguments. Of course he will be criticized for that. Of course he will. Elements of the "news" media will certainly try to boil off the meat and focus on the dreck, for no other reason than to make their jobs easier, and that narrative will be promoted with vigor by the GOP's spin machine.

If that becomes the final takeaway from Thursday's debate - despite all the substance provided, despite all the facts deployed, despite all the heartily-welcomed challenges traded back and forth - then the political "news" media has officially lost any and all purchase on usefulness in this republic. What happened on Thursday night was nothing more or less than the best Vice Presidential debate in American history, and was the best debate - period - any of us have seen in a long, long time. If it is not reported this way, in detail, the political "news" media should be collectively shoved into a shot-weighted barrel and dropped into the Marianas Trench.

(snip)

This much is certain: what took place on Thursday night in Kentucky was a clinic, a deconstruction, a masterpiece, a thunderclap. The sun came up on Friday morning to shine upon a world that will never, ever underestimate Joe Biden again. For those who needed what he gave, it was a joyful noise indeed.

The rest: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/12075-big-joe-and-the-joyful-noise

October 12, 2012

My genius wife: "Know who Biden reminded me of tonight? Clinton at the convention."

Bingo.

October 11, 2012

Every time I think my capacity for horrified disgust is reached...nope, there's more.

This one just might take the cake. "Focus on jobs creation? Nah, let's launch a bullshit investigation into the 'Fixed Jobs Numbers' conspiracy theory espoused by leading economic theorists like Jack 'Fer Fuck's Sake' Welch and Donald 'The Walking Derp' Trump. After all, how can there be improved jobs numbers when we're sitting on every jobs bill in the House? IT MAKES PERFECT SENSE!!!1!!!!111!"

GOP Plans Congressional Investigation Into September Jobs Number Conspiracy

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) told Fox News on Wednesday that he would hold hearings into the September job numbers, buying into a widely-discredited conspiracy theory that President Obama faked last month’s figure to improve his re-election chances.

After the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released an unexpectedly strong monthly jobs report last Friday — finding a dramatic drop in unemployment to 7.8 percent and revised the number of jobs added in July and August up from initial estimates, a group of conservatives led by former GE CEO Jack Welch — suggested that the numbers could have been fudged. Issa has now promised to look into the matter...

The rest: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/10/11/994151/gop-plans-congressional-investigation-into-september-jobs-number-conspiracy/

There is no bottom to the barrel.



On edit: I banged out a quick BuzzFlash blog post on the matter:

How Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Scumbag) Makes Me Want to Break Things With My Face, Chapter MMMCCLXVI
http://truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/17571-how-rep-darrell-issa-r-scumbag-makes-me-want-to-break-things-with-my-face-chapter-mmmcclxvi

October 11, 2012

Hey, Joe

Note: I am almost completely positive I read the "Kitty Laser Debate Tactic" line here on DU, but I can't for the life of me find it. If anyone knows who said it, or where they said it, please post the thread link below so I can hyperlink to it in the article and give credit where credit is most definitely due. Thanks! - wrp

Hey, Joe
By William Rivers Pitt
Truthout | Op-Ed

Thursday 11 October 2012

(snip)

The real losers and failures last Wednesday were the denizens of the "news" media, and because of them, the American people at large lost big as well. In the week after that debate, the entire "news" media infrastructure unplugged its collective intelligence, sent the fact-checkers off on an extended lunch break, and extolled the virtues of Mr. Romney's "strong" performance without bothering to mention the degree to which he had lied, reversed himself and completely mischaracterized virtually every aspect of his campaign to date. One online wag surmised that Romney knew he was dealing with an utterly incompetent political media, and so deployed the "Kitty Laser Debate Tactic." Know how you can send a cat sprinting and gyrating around the room by flashing a laser pointer around? That's what Romney did with his "facts," and the media kitties went wild chasing after his little red dot, never once pausing to say, "Hey, wait, that isn't real."

Natch.

So here we are a week later, ensconced in a political world where facts don't stand a chance against a barrage of falsehoods, brazen liars are called "bold," and an entire election can swing wildly within a short span of days because the "news" media needs a close race to make money, and be damned to doing their jobs. It does not have to stay this way; Mr. Obama has pretty clearly seen the writing on the wall (in 50-foot tall Day-Glo letters) that he has to step up his game, that the media isn't going to help him, and that time is very demonstrably running out. The current dire poll numbers don't reflect last Friday's positive jobs report, so there may well be some movement away from the cratering phenomenon we witnessed this week.

And so much for all that.

For the moment, all eyes are focused on tonight's vice presidential debate in Kentucky. Joe Biden and Paul Ryan will engage each other in what has suddenly become the most important VP debate in modern political history. Unlike Mr. Obama, Joe Biden is not what anyone would call the quiet, retiring type, and if Mr. Ryan decides to go into full-lie mode, Mr. Biden might actually throw the podium at him. To be sure, Biden will be the aggressor tonight, but it would be foolish for anyone to underestimate his opponent. Paul Ryan is the lean and hungry type, and unlike his running mate (who looks like an egg-sucking dog every time he drops a whopper), Ryan can and does lie without so much as a muscle twitch to betray him.

They will debate Medicare, and Medicaid, and tax policy, and the details of the sulfurously disliked "Ryan Budget Plan." If Biden is firing on all cylinders, Romney's "47 Percent" beliefs, the GOP's all-out national assault on the rights of women, and the GOP's generally wretched record over the last decade will be brought into play. Romney will not be there, of course, but Biden will have a golden opportunity to begin the process of pinning Romney's dazzling array of lies and reversals on Ryan, and dare Ryan to justify or explain them. Joe Biden is a grizzly bear in human skin, and all the qualities that lead pundits to call him "gaffe-prone" are the same ones that could very well serve to blast Paul Ryan right out of the auditorium. Or not. Tonight will tell the tale one way or the other.

The president dropped the ball, the "news" media kicked it into the gutter, and now the eyes of the entire political universe are fixed on the Vice President. If Joe Biden can park it deep tonight, the Obama campaign can correctly claim to have gone a fair ways toward righting their listing ship. If not - if Joe blows it, if Ryan outduels him, and if the media once again decides to laud flash over substance - the time between now and election day will become very short indeed for the president to find a way to keep his job.

Three Tuesdays, plus five days, and counting.

The rest: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/12047-hey-joe-the-debate-faceoff-between-biden-and-ryan

October 10, 2012

"I think it's fair to say I was just too polite."

- President Obama, quoted by the Huffington Post, on why he didn't do well in the first presidential debate.

...and then there's this:

Gibbs: Obama Will Bring ‘Different Game’ To Next Debate

Robert Gibbs, adviser to the Obama campaign, promised supporters that President Obama would turn in a very different debate performance in his second debate against Mitt Romney and to channel their "nervous energy" into helping re-elect President Obama during an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Wednesday.

"This president's going to bring a much different game to this debate," Gibbs said, referring to the Oct. 16 presidential debate. "I guarantee you you'll see an energetic, enthusiastic president in that next debate."

(snip)

"I would tell them to take whatever nervous energy they have and whatever hand-wringing they will do over the next 24 to 48 hours and put that into a real effort to get this president re-elected," Gibbs said, referring to Obama supporters. "Get out there and register somebody to vote. Go to a phone bank. Make sure you tell your friends what's at sake in this race… Let's go out there and stop hand wringing and get to work."

Link: http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/gibbs-obama-will-bring-different-game-to-next

OK.

If that's the attitude they're bringing to the next debate, my mood is substantially improved.

No More Mr. Nice Guy.

Biden has to park it deep tomorrow, but I am confident he will do just that.

Three Tuesdays + six days and counting.

The race starts now.

October 9, 2012

The election is four Tuesdays away.

October 2, 2012

Scott Brown campaign ads and the local news: a Boston perspective

Had the local news on over lunch. A Scott Brown ad ran in each of the first three commercial breaks. All three were "Warren thinks she's an Indian" ads. Cuz that's what matters.

As the hourlong news broadcast went on, Brown continued his saturation bombing of the airwaves: one every commercial break, like clockwork. Exactly one Warren ad aired during that hour, her excellent response to this Native American onslaught. I dug the timing, and hope the 5 to 1 ad ratio augers in her favor. "More and Dumb" has a way of beating "Less and Smart" in ad wars...but methinks Brown might be overplaying a weak hand.

What an unreconstructed bag of smashed assholes is Mr. Brown.

October 2, 2012

Before anyone assumes Obama has the debate in the bag and Romney is doomed...

...remember:

* Romney has been debating on a regular basis since 1994. Granted, Ted Kennedy cleaned his clock, wristwatch and microwave timer in '94, but that was the beginning of 18 years of experience;

* Romney debated several times in 2002;

* Romney debated a bunch of times during the 2008 primaries;

* Romney debated approximately 42,955 times during this last round of primaries;

* Romney has been practicing his ass off for Wednesday night, while Obama has been kinda busy with other things and stuff;

* Obama has not debated in four years.

Now, Romney's performances in '08 and '11-'12 did not set any records for excellence, but experience - especially recent experience - is going to count for something.

Also, there is the simple fact that Obama is going to have to remember SO MUCH when it comes to Romney's reversals, flip-flops and outright lies in order to use them to good effect. The volume is just so vast...and any soldier will tell you that the problem with having lots and lots and lots and lots of ammunition is the fact that you have to carry it.

I expect good things, and am looking forward to Wednesday light like a little kid on Christmas Eve. I'm not saying "Don't get your hopes up," but I am saying "Don't be surprised if the Walking Derp does better than you expect him to."

September 28, 2012

If anyone here needs a smile...

Look at his face. Look at her face.

Yes, Virginia, there is justice in the world.

Happy Friday, all.

September 27, 2012

Jonathan Chait | The Poetic Justice of Romney’s Self-Immolation

I’ve been wrong before, and I’ll be wrong again, but I may never have been as wrong as I was when I initially predicted that Mitt Romney’s heinous diatribe against 47 percent of America would have little direct impact on the election. It’s an absolutely crushing blow. Obviously it doesn’t guarantee his defeat — if a secret video surfaces depicting Obama promising to impose Sharia law in his second term, Romney will stand a good chance of coming back — but it destroys his public standing in ways that make a comeback nearly impossible. Here is Obama’s latest ad using Romney’s comments: ***Video at Link Below***

(snip)

Worse still, the comments destroy Romney’s fundamental credibility. Here America sees what he says behind closed doors. Nothing he can say in public can possibly overcome the damage of these comments, because voters will quite correctly assume that he is telling them what they want to hear. George W. Bush’s campaign figured out how to do this to both Al Gore and John Kerry — by painting them as liars, Bush destroyed them as a message delivery platform. Romney has, essentially, done it to himself.

(snip)

It will be fair because Romney has spent the last five years refashioning himself in the image of his party, discarding his most decent elements along the way, only to be caught in the end speaking bluntly. I’ve argued that the comments reflect his true beliefs now, but it scarcely matters. America has now seen Mitt Romney talking about us (or 47 percent of us, which offends many more of us) behind our backs.

And then, finally, there is a poetic justice in the substance of Romney’s self-immolation. This is not a random gaffe, a joke gone bad, or even a terrible brain freeze. It is Romney exposed for espousing a worldview that is at the heart of his party’s mania. The idea he summed up at that fund-raiser was a combination of right-wing fever dreams I’ve been analyzing since Obama took office — the Ayn Randism, the fact-free class warfare, the frantic rage at a changing America. The Republican Party is going down because its candidate was seen advocating exactly the beliefs that make the party so dangerous and repellant.

The rest, with vid: http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/09/poetic-justice-of-romneys-self-immolation.html