The Politics Thread

[Wales2004]

Concrete or not, news outlets are referring to it as a factor. The filmmaker is reported to have gone into hiding.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2202080/Innocence-Muslims-creator-Steve-Klein-said-felt-guilt-death-Chris-Stevens.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

My position on voter identification hasn't changed. I have no problem with it but I think it should begin January 1st and not so late into this election cycle and registrants should be included in a national databse to prevent individuals from simultaneously being registered in more than one location. If a registrant moves, that information should be included.

[quartermainefan]

The video is amateurish crap that has a budget of 3 cents and isn't very funny.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/qmodVun16Q4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I was curious so last night checked it out. There were 12,000 views 12 hours ago and 122,000 now.

This is the part where I drive liberals nuts: That crackpot who made this has the right to make this just as much as Islamists in Iran, saudi arabia or wherever have the right to produce cartoons brainwashing kids to hate jews. The difference is we don't behave like animals killing people over something so ridiculous. And if people think Islam is a cancer maybe someone gave them reason to. Further, if you make a movie saying Islam is a cancer 8000 miles away, I am not sure how my killing some american that never heard of the movie standing right next to me fixes the problem. The world has danced around the sensibilities of these ridiculously sensitive murderers enough. They have a right to kill, but the Danish do not have a right to draw a cartoon? And then the world pretends these people have a point of view worth listening to.

Edited September 12, 2012 by quartermainefan

[marceline]

That mess looks like an SNL skit. Or a soap.

Edited September 12, 2012 by marceline

[Ann_SS]

Seriously, that smug self-satisfied smirk on Romney's face as he walked away is so telling. I bet his campaign staff is cringing.

Edited September 12, 2012 by Ann_SS

[JaneAusten]

http://www.salon.com/2012/09/12/mitt’s_shameful_libya_statement/

It' amazes me that Romney still slides by when he makes idiotic, insulting, distAsteful, or contradictory statements. I don't consider my self overly partisan, but I can't understand how he polls with 46% of the population wanting to vote for him. He's the most disingenuous candidate ever in the history of presidential elections.

[Delia]

The video oy...

Its such a stupid even offensive video, but to think some people take it as such a serious affront.

[quartermainefan]

I think Romney finally did himself in with this attack on Obama over this. When Peggy Noonan is openly criticizing you and she is the reigning doyenne of the republican cognoscenti, if you are a republican you are in trouble.

“I don't feel that Mr. Romney has been doing himself any favors, say in the past few hours, perhaps since last night,” Noonan told Fox News. “Sometimes when really bad things happen, when hot things happen, cool words or no words is the way to go.”

[DRW50]

I think this might help Romney, as he will be hyped as "tough" and "standing up to those America-hating libs."

However, the smile on his face sent a chill up my spine. More than once I've gotten the sociopath vibes from him but never as much as I did right now. It scares me.

[marceline]

He's already got the "anybody but Obama" vote. He could piss on an American flag and those people will vote for him but what he did today showed moderates and independents that he can't handle the job. I'll be interested to see the polls over the next week.

Sociopaths are much better at lying. Romney is simply a soulless imbecile.

[MichaelGL]

Boy, Fox News is in overdrive today, hyping up the response from the Obama admin in light of the attacks, as being apologetic. There seems to be quite a disconnect within the GOP today between those like Peggy Noonan and the people at Fox news/Romney campaign.

[DRW50]

I guess I wonder if a lot of independents may vote on the economy. The true believers, who are often uninspired by Romney, might be eating this up. It's very interesting that he does this right after receiving blistering criticism for being uninspired and having no passion or ideas.

[JaneAusten]

I don't see anyone jumping to Romneys defense except the same tired set of people who have excused his flip flopping and ignorant stmts already. He's gotten criticism from members of his own party, so I don't see how this stmt by him is going to gain him anything with independents.

[JaneAusten]

http://www.yorkdispatch.com/ci_21525518/divisive-voter-id-law-goes-before-pa-high

Voter ID goes to PA State Supreme Court

Voters have already been disenfranchised due to this. Read the end of the article about Jim Cramers father a vet who was Not going to be able to vote until he went on Twitter and complained a out it.

[Max]

Romney is running a terrible campaign (the worst of any nominee since Dukakis) and deserves to lose. Obama has been a terrible president and also deserves to lose.

Romney was never my choice to be the nominee. Huntsman was. However, what pisses me off is this phony love affair that partisan Democrats have with the man (as it was the same type of phony love affair the Democrats had with McCain prior to 2007). Aside from the facts that he worked for Obama, and that he is not a partisan flame thrower, there is nothing in Huntsman's background to indicate a groundswell of liberal support for his presidential bid. Apart from civil unions, there is not a single issue I can think of where Huntsman is to the left of Romney; on some issues--such as guns and abortion--he has always been further to the right than Romney. (And the pro-gun control, pro-choice Giuliani was savaged by Democrats, so I can't imagine why they would take somebody who is considerably more conservative than him.) And like Romney, Huntsman is "filthy-rich" and part of the "cult" of Mormonism, but--in contrast to the former Massachusetts governor--he became the head of a big business solely because he inherited it from daddy. (Romney at least attained his position at Bain Capital without family connections, and gave away his inheritance to BYU.)

There's no doubt that the GOP would be in better shape right now if Huntsman was the nominee. But, he would still face a big charisma deficit compared to the president, and he also is/was not an aggressive campaigner. More problematic is the fact that the Obama machine would be hammering him for being a super-wealthy one-percenter (anybody would be delusional to believe otherwise), who headed a company that did a large amount of business with China. (These criticisms were never waged against Huntsman because he was never a serious threat to get the nomination, but if he had been, you can bet the Democrats would turn on him on a dime. Just as in 2000, when McCain was far behind Bush, every liberal and his mother praised the Arizona Senator, yet the living s#it was kicked out of him eight years later when he had a real chance at the White House.) If Huntsman actually was the GOP nominee, I could imagine Jane and Wales (who aren't nearly as partisan as the rest of the Obama supporters here) considering voting for him. However, it is a total fairy tale for me to believe that the die-hard liberals here would honestly vote for Huntsman over Obama, especially after tons of negative advertising that would have drilled home the point that Huntsman is a conservative.

With all due respect, I really don't think you want to go there. No sociopath lies with more ease than Bill Clinton. This perjurer is the most vile and disgusting man to ever occupy the White House. Everybody on the left claims to love him now, and remained shamefully silent in 1998. But, when push comes to shove, it is far from "right-wing extremists" who acknowledge this man's chronic lies:

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/M-X9tEOp19o" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The ironic thing is that Hillary's chances in 2016 would be far improved with a Romney victory (so I am perplexed why Bill is going all out for Obama). Even if the economy if doing decently four years from now, it is always very hard for a party to keep the White House for more than eight years. And if the economy is still in shambles, no Democrat (even one as strong as Hillary) has a chance of winning in 2016. (We saw this in 2008, when McCain was the strongest and most popular candidate the GOP could have nominated, yet he was doomed to lose because of the unpopularity of Bush and the terrible economy; though, if the Republicans had nominated anyone else, that person would have done twice as badly.)

Edited September 12, 2012 by Max

[marceline]

If we were talking about Romney saying something stupid about abortion, gay marriage or even Medicare I might agree with you but IMO even people who say that the economy is the only thing that matters (a tactic I have grown to loathe) can see what a completely incompetent fool Romney is on the international stage. The diehards may not care but independents generally are independent because they care about more than one issue. They care enough that they won't identify with either party. This will only push a few more away. They may not vote for Obama but they won't pull the lever for Romney either and for me that's all that matters.

If the RNC convention didn't bring them around, this won't. The entire convention was the RNC telling their that they have to suck it up and vote for Mitt no matter how much they may hate it.The RNC is the political equivalent of a teenage girl who couldn't get an abortion so she's going to wear big sweaters, have the baby on prom night, throw the kid in a dumpster and go off to Liberty University.