Really, really played.
And we’re all going to suffer for your party loyalty no matter the outcome of the 2012 vote — be it overwhelmingly and radically through Obama’s re-election, or slowly and techocratically through the the GOP establishment’s steady transformation into the pre-New Left Democratic Party.
Congrats!
Sincerely,
Those who don’t believe in a ruling class, and who don’t take kindly to being treated as subjects
cc: Mark Levin (h/t)
Cue: several semi-regular commenters here, to tell me how it could be worse, and how I should just shut up and vote or else we’ll get Obama, whose health care re-imagining is even more leftist than Romney’s.
So I should count my blessings.
Soothing tones of Herman Cain are on my teevee.
“The sole purpose of the middle class is to serve as a vast beast on which the progressive parasites may feed.” – Barack Obama, college thesis “Lenin and America: Hope for a Change without Violent Revolution”
Heh, rubes.
Or, should that be
Heh ™ rubes?
“Why do you Bag End purists insist on voting for Obama?!?!?”
It could be worse: Rick Santorum could have made it really uncomfortable for you to download barely legal porn without a modicum of social shame.
When Mitt Romney left office as Massachusetts governor, his aides removed all emails from a server computer in the governor’s office, and purchased and carted off hard drives from 17 state-owned personal computers, according to a current state official.
But a small cache of emails survived, including some that have never publicly surfaced surrounding Mr. Romney’s efforts to pass his now-controversial health-care law. The emails show the Republican governor was closely engaged in negotiating details of the bill, working with top Democratic state leaders and drafting early copies of opinion articles backing it.
Mr. Romney and his aides, meanwhile, strongly defended the so-called individual mandate, a requirement that everyone in Massachusetts have or buy heath insurance. And they privately discussed ideas that might be anathema to today’s GOP—including publicly shaming companies that didn’t provide enough health insurance to employees
link
Don’t blame me, I voted for Rick Santorum.
Because I hate gays and women and coloreds.
But obviously not the poor, because Rick not a real conservative Santorum buys into that whole Catholic social justice thing.
Think of this post and newrouter’s comment as a reminder that the most important election in 2012 is taking place in Wisconsin today.
Jeff, I know several months back you had a list of positions in which Obama and Romney agreed. If I remember correctly, you left it at 19 items. I’m sure it’s expanded by one or two by now.
Sometimes driving home from work I have an imaginary call with Sean Hannity where I get him to play a “Name That Candidate” game with me. I state a position and get Sean to guess who supports that position, Obama or Romney, then I read off your list of 19(?) items. Of course, Sean is guaranteed to win the game, because no matter who he picks he’s got the right answer.
In my imagination, this actually has an impact on Mr. Hannity and his listeners, who may let now their hearts be troubled that the GOP’s presumptive candidate is so close in terms of policy to Their Dreaded Enemy Who Must Be Defeated At All Costs Or The Planet Will End.
Leavitt is a moron, but that won’t prevent him from Making His Views Known, IYKWIMAITYD.
Just another empty-headed suit whose head isn’t quite empty enough to make him benign.
My expectations were never high. But they were higher than this.
http://evilbloggerlady.blogspot.com/2012/06/dirty-political-tricks-democrats-busing.html Dirty Democrat political tricks in Wisconsin?
gosh, newrouter, Mitt’s defenders always claimed Mitt took the best deal he could get, ’cause otherwise the Mass. Senate would have overridden Mitt’s veto..
Golly gee whiz…. say it ain’t so, Mitt, say it ain’t so….
I can hardly wait to see how the Mittbots defend Mittens on this.
I listened to Mark Levin for a few minutes last night, for the first time in ages, and I caught this part about Romney. He seemed at such a loss for words. I don’t think he can accept, mentally, that Romney is simply not worth supporting, even against Obama.
I was talking to someone once about the economy, and I mentioned I wanted to buy gold and land, had I the wherewithal. He said he simply could not bring himself to buy gold over stocks or other investments — because if he ever got to the point where he acknowledged that the currency was valueless he would simply descend into conspiracy theories and fear. It wasn’t a rational decision; he simply could not face the alternative (which he freely acknowledged).
I think Levin is there. If you accept that Romney is just Obama’s white half running for the seat, that raises the legitimate question of where do you go from there? And I think Levin cannot face the answers to that question.
At least he had the shocked tones of a man who was struggling.
Oh, wait, I mean — JeffG, how can you bring this up? Don’t you know we need a rock-ribbed steely-eyed strong-jawed big-haired Republican in the White House because then a Democrat won’t be in the White House?
Why do you hate rainbows and Sandra Fluke?
Mitt Romney will bring the reasonable words to the Saturday Radio Broadcasts. He’ll speak to us all in the dulcet tones of Uncle Sugar—our favorite uncle! Huzzah!—telling us all to do our duty like the good
little boys and girlscitizens that he knows we are.God bless us! Every one!
This is like when the asshat (I know, I know ther’s so many hence the total failure at name recall) working for McCain during the last primaries went public with the whole gosh it would be wrong to go negative on the first viable black presidential candidate and I won’t be party to that.
When McCain didn’t fire him the same day, you just knew it was over —’cept for the voting of course.
Sorry I can’t remember who said it or what he said. But it was around the time that McCain pointedly rebuked his own supporters for saying mean things about Obama. Somebody warming up the ralliers called him a socialist I think.
Steve Somebody? Asshat, indeed.
I think it was a different asshat than that asshat leigh.
If Romney loses, it’s his own fault, not the fault of those he failed to win the support of.
I’ve always said I’d vote for an empty soup can over Obama, but I don’t think I can pull the lever for someone that isn’t repulsed by the socialist concepts of government healthcare and punitive taxes on success.
I’d hoped the man would tack right, but these early signals tell me he just don’t care about the right. But I should care about him? Don’t think so. The asshole is wooing Bill Clintons base, and taking the conservative base for granted. Don’t blame the voters when that asinine strategy blows up in his face.
Ernst, if it’s the one I think you’re talking about, it was worse than calling Obama a socialist. The silly bastard actually used Obamas middle name!
McCain couldn’t very well afford to associate with that kinda freak show, now could he?
because if he ever got to the point where he acknowledged that the currency was valueless he would simply descend into conspiracy theories and fear
It took me a while to get past that very issue, but I was able to rationalize and justify what would otherwise be “irrational” decisions – yes, the little cabin in the north woods is a vacation home, yes, I am well-supplied for hurricanes and other natural disasters, yes, I really enjoy shooting and just have to have a collection, etc., etc., etc.
The summer of Obamacare, I got over it. Every step I take right now is planned around around what would have been unthinkable ten years ago.
Hey, even paranoids can have enemies.
That’s the rally I was thinking of Lee. I think the particular asshat was Romney’s addman. He was a registerd Democrat who liked the cut of the Maverick’s jib, as I recall. I think he ended up resigning because he couldn’t work against hope and change and historical firsts.
Bastard shoulda been fired long before, however.
I published a post on this yesterday and one of my commentators, Pathefinder’s Wife, wrote:
Count me out at this point — you all want to keep driving on with this mission, go right ahead, but from what I see there is no “lesser of two evils” in this anymore.
http://thecampofthesaints.org/2012/06/04/would-you-buy-assurance-from-this-man/
[…] Update! Jeff feels that congratulations are in order. […]
^ This.
The Greatly Overrated Party needs to convince me why I should vote for Mr. Romney, other than being Not Named Barack Obama. And so far, they’re not doing a great job, as I consider “Who else you gonna vote for, buddy?” less than persuasive.
“The silly bastard actually used Obamas middle name!”
Billy Cunningham, radio host from Cincinatti O.
I would disagree, Jeff, only in that a lot of Romney’s biggest cheerleaders knew full well what they were getting, and they were right on board with it. They are firmly of the “Big Government OUR way” mentality, which is exactly what they tried to accuse of Santorum.
Oh well. The decision is still there: either vote or don’t. I’m assuming I will, but I can understand those who choose the other option.
“Billy Cunningham, radio host from Cincinatti O.”
Oh, he’s been saying for months now on his weekly Sunday night talk show that Odumbo will be re-elected; because the moochers are too many, the fear of being called racist is still too strong, the GOP is too weak-kneed, etc…
Good times.
Good times, bad times, end times…whatever.
Burt, if I vote, it’ll be for Gary Johnson, assuming he’s on the ballot. I have no reason to vote for Romney, and votes are affirmative. You can only vote for, not against, more’s the pity.
Oh, doy.
Leavitt was the governor of Utah during the 2002 Winter Olympics, which Romney saved from certain doom.
They’re BFFs.
Which, that explains the choice more than Leavitt’s thinking, but it also makes it less likely Romney will tell Leavitt to stuff it.
I’ll also only vote depending on how the voter ID thing works. Due to a difference of opinion with the “great” state of Texas on what credentials to present to get a license, I renewed my license in OK, so I don’t have a TX driver’s license.
I’ll find out how persnickety they are in the run-offs next month.
– Jeff. Bummblrfuck shot the Fed wad to no good end, and niether he nor Romney, shouild he win, will have much of a wad left to shoot. Neither one will be able to right the ship of state, but that also means that niether one will be able to mess things up much more than they already are. If we have a salvation going forward it will come in small jerks and starts where the reins of power are nibbled piece by piece back to the states/people.
– Here in San Diego the school system is on the verge of simply closing down, and as a result, three of our four candidates for Mayor have plans to run the district directly under city control, with a panel of oversite for any and all spending, chaired by parents and local citizen leaders.
– That is what may turn us around, not anything or anybody in Washington.
– Obamacare is dead at birth, theres no money for bailouts or stimulous programs, so Obama or Romney – flip a coin, slip on your gas mask and pull a lever. Don’t matter.
LOOKIT LOOKIT LOOKIT!
http://venustransit.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/kiosk/dataset/Venus_AIA12s_193In/phase/ingress
Howso? It’s not like Romney wasn’t all for Romneycare.
I think his choice is best explained by the fact that he’s a liberal Republican technocrat who doesn’t even sound terribly comfortable faking his way through conservative talking points.
Sigh. Even the NRA is filled with trepidation on this one. And they were ready to endorse Harry Fuckin’ Reed.
The only thing that will get me somewhat supportive of Romney is contemplating Supreme Court Justice Eric Holder.
Damn. Why couldn’t we just let Sarah Palin whip the snotshit out of Obama, as she could more than likely do?
Heh. Someone’s not very happy!
I like the strategy of working at the state/local level, and pushing back against Washington, regardless of the party in power there.
So give Mitt his 4 year term, deny him a honeymoon, and don’t let up on him, up to and including running a more favorable candidate against him in the ’16 primaries.
Hell, jdw, Romney might appoint Holder to the Supreme Court just to show what a good aisle-reacher-acrosser he is.
Our only hope is that Walker wins and wins big. If he loses, the FrumDreherFriederdorfs will point to that and use it justify to conservatives why we need to be pragmatic and compromise and work with Democrats to get things done, —all things that they want to do anyways.
And will do if they think they can get away with it.
– Personally, I think that the Walker thing in Wisconsin is critical. A win will show the backlash has not only persisted since 2010, but is growing in strength, and regardless of yammering to the contrary on the part of Lefty pundits, it will be a harbinger for everything coming up.
– Who knows, it might even serve as a wakeup call to Romney. One can hope.
Romney might appoint Holder to the Supreme Court just to show what a good aisle-reacher-acrosser he is.
Great. Something else to lie awake and worry about.
My only consolation is that I can refuse to vote and it won’t make a difference, on account of living in Clownifornia. Or I might actually punch the dot for the losertarian candidate this fall, as it will be of no consequence.
The most annoying part of a Romney presidency may be the inevitable wagging fingers and yapping pundits who will scold anyone not sufficiently supportive of Mittens’s big government agenda, be it a trade war with China or a legislative meatloaf made from rearranging Obamacare and slapping Willard’s smiling face on it. Or some other fresh bureaucracy, like the way Bush 43 gave us DHS.
“I think [Obama] is great.” — Matt Romney campaigning for Mitt
There is an I told you so missing in this post.
[…] Jeff Goldstein is pointing out today that Romney supporters got played. How? Romney just selected Mike Leavitt as his transition leader. Mr. Leavitt was Bush II’s head of HHS and now is pushing for Obamacare’s state exchanges, and making money doing so. Conservatives are worried. Romney was a big proponent of exchanges and supported them as governor, and now has named a leading Republican advocate of them to a key post. The Romney campaign still insists to Matt Lewis that they still plan on repealing Obamacare. But even if we trust that’s the case (something that deserves greater skepticism given the Leavitt news) the question is what replaces Obamacare. Romney has been incredibly vague about how he would reform the health care system in the absence of Obamacare. The danger is that he could end up replacing it with a system that still has exchanges, but exchanges that are billed as having fewer regulations, lower subsidies and giving more flexibility to states. The problem is that this would still put the basic exchange infrastructure in place that a future Democratic administration could build on so the country would eventually wind up with Obamacare anyway – or something worse. […]
Long time reader, first time commenter. (I started reading PW when LGF was sane.)
I’m not sure what to make of this post. Soooo, what do we do now, incite a rebellion? Have all 57 states secede?
That would be less a reach-across and more a reach-around.
hcrawford —
I wish I knew. Many of us have decided what we’ll do is work hard on down ballot elections. We either re-take the GOP, or else this is its swan song, in my opinion.
levin said tonight he thinks scott walker should be the next speaker of the house. i like that but i think rick santorum would be better. he has experience in that cesspool.
Levin is just talking. Why would a governor decide to run for congress and start all over as a freshman?