Friday Morning Reads: The Good, The Bad and The Hologram?
Posted: August 31, 2012 Filed under: 2012 presidential campaign, abortion rights, Barack Obama, Foreign Affairs, Mitt Romney, morning reads, Republican presidential politics, Republican Tax Fetishists, the GOP, U.S. Politics, We are so F'd, Women's Healthcare, Women's Rights | Tags: Clint Eastwood, Empty Chairs, Reagan ghost, RNC 51 Comments
Good Morning!
Kat is still out of power, so that means y’all are stuck with me today. 😉
I must admit that real life has been keeping us busy lately, as for the RNC Cavalcade of Comedic Horrors…well that is just one show I can’t even bring myself to watch. One thing is certain, when I do read up on the night’s performances, I have to think, what the hell is that. Take last night for instance, we had Mittastic and the fabulous Clint Eastwood.
Full transcript of speech here: TRANSCRIPT: Mitt Romney’s Speech at the Republican National Convention – ABC News
I guess it is all real, and not some dream where we find ourselves waking to Pamela Ewing in the shower. Romney accepts GOP presidential nomination
Of course, there were more of the comparisons between Obama and Carter: Romney calls Obama a ‘disappointment’
And promises to save America from Obama, Romney Vows to Deliver Country From Economic Travails
Alright, let’s pick through this speech of Romney’s with a few opinionated critiques:
3 Beefs With Mitt Romney’s Convention Speech
Mitt’s Safe and Unadventurous Speech- Howard Kurtz
Mitt Romney Takes It to Mr. Hope and Change – Ron Fournier
Mitt Romney, Capitalist Saint – Molly Ball
And finally the fact checkers: Fact-Checking the GOP Speakers
But, there was one act that seemed to have folks scratching their heads. Clint Eastwood gave a performance last night…to an empty chair.
Clint Eastwood Delivers Bizarre Rambling Speech To Empty Chair
Clint Eastwood opened up the primetime portion of the Republican convention with a rambling, mumbling and often incoherent address next to an empty chair that was meant to represent President Obama.
A creaky Eastwood began by defending Hollywood’s notorious liberal reputation to the crowd, claiming that there were in fact many independents and Republicans in show business.
“Conservatives by their nature play it close to the vest, they don’t go around hot-dogging it,” he said.
He went on to act out an interview with the empty presidential chair that noted, among other topics, Obama’s inability to close Guantanamo Bay.
“I thought it was because somebody had a stupid idea of trying terrorists in downtown New York City,” Eastwood said.
Eastwood, who did not seem to use a prepared text of any kind, went on for about 12 minutes. A Romney campaign official told CBS that Eastwood was “ad libbing.”
Here are a few links on that.
Eastwood’s ‘Invisible Obama’ skit amuses some, confuses others
UPDATE 3-Did Clint Eastwood lose the plot at Romney’s convention?
Eastwood goes off-script in Romney endorsement
For a full transcript: Clint Eastwood’s GOP convention speech: Full transcript
And then, The Gipper, Ronald Reagan was supposed to rise from the dead…
No…that’s not it.
Let’s try this one.
No that is not it either…
RNC Scrapped Plans To Debut Reagan Hologram (Which Is Real) This Week
Earlier this week when the Republicans announced a mystery speaker for the final night of the convention, some people joked that it would be a hologram of Ronald Reagan akin to the surprise Tupac hologram that took Coachella by storm. Well, it turns out that a hologram Reagan actually exists, it was going to make an appearance right outside the convention this week, but the RNC asked the makers to delay its because they didn’t want it to “overshadow” Mitt Romney‘s speech.
Overshadow Mitt’s speech, how could they even think that…I mean, maybe that is why Clint was talking to an empty chair?
Reagan hologram is real, was planned for RNC debut
Despite some conflicting reports, Yahoo News has learned that a holographic projection of former President Ronald Reagan is in the works and was originally intended to debut outside the halls of the Republican National Convention this week. But its official unveiling has been put on hold until later this year or early 2013.
“It wasn’t officially going to be part of the convention,” Tony Reynolds, founder of crowdsourcing website A KickIn Crowd, told Yahoo News in a phone interview Thursday. “It was going to be outside of the convention at the Lakeland Center.”
[…]
However, Reynolds says he discussed the idea with a number of Republican activists who asked him to delay the project out of concern it would overshadow Mitt Romney’s acceptance speech.
“At the time he hadn’t chosen Paul Ryan, so I think they were a little worried about his energy,” Reynolds said. “Even in a hologram form I think Reagan’s going to beat a lot of people in terms of communicating.”
Oh, so they are holding the second coming for a later time. Interesting.
Just a couple more links for you this morning. I found this next headline interesting as well:
David Koch breaks from GOP on gay marriage, taxes, defense cuts
And then Erza Klein has this offering, A not-very-truthful speech in a not-very-truthful campaign
Honestly? I didn’t want us to write this piece.
The original pitch was for “the five biggest lies in Paul Ryan’s speech.” I said no. It’s not that the speech didn’t include some lies. It’s that I wanted us to bend over backward to be fair, to see it from Ryan’s perspective, to highlight its best arguments as well as its worst. So I suggested an alternative: The true, the false, and the misleading in Ryan’s speech. (Note here that we’re talking about political claims, not personal ones. Ryan’s biography isn’t what we’re examining here though, for the record, I found his story deeply moving.)
An hour later, the draft came in — Dylan Matthews is a very fast writer. There was one item in the “true” section.
Jason E. Miczek – AP
So at about 1 a.m. Thursday, having read Ryan’s speech in an advance text and having watched it on television, I sat down to read it again, this time with the explicit purpose of finding claims we could add to the “true” category. And I did find one. He was right to say that the Obama administration has been unable to correct the housing crisis, though the force of that criticism is somewhat blunted by the fact that neither Ryan nor Mitt Romney have proposed an alternative housing policy. But I also came up with two more “false” claims. So I read the speech again. And I simply couldn’t find any other major claims or criticisms that were true.
I want to stop here and say that even the definition of “true” that we’re using is loose. “Legitimate” might be a better word. The search wasn’t for arguments that were ironclad. It was just for arguments — for claims about Obama’s record — that were based on a reasonable reading of the facts, and that weren’t missing obviously key context.
This link from TNR caught my eye, because of the use of one of my favorite classic films in the post: An Annotated Guide To Romney’s Abortion Comments
I sometimes get the sense that Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign is one big exercise in gaslighting the country. If you’re not familiar with the term, it comes from the 1944 Ingrid Bergman film “Gaslight,” in which a man tries to convince his wife that she’s imagining things and going insane when in fact he is an evil creep.
For the record, I am not calling Mitt Romney an evil creep.
Gaslighting is at times the only explanation for Romney’s willingness to say things that are breathtakingly false. The most recent example I have in mind is an interview he gave on Monday to CBS’s Scott Pelley that touched on his ever-morphing position on abortion rights. Unlike Herman Cain, who made absurd statements about his position on abortion during the primaries because he appeared to be genuinely unaware of the past 40 years in U.S. politics, Romney is not stupid. But he is banking on the hope that voters are.
Well, that last part about the stupid voters…you all know where we stand on that point. The article then takes us on a shorter version of Romney’s interview.
Scott Pelley: “The platform, as written at this convention for the Republicans, does not allow for exceptions on abortion with regard to the health of the mother or rape or incest. Is there where you are?”
No, my position has been clear throughout … uh … this campaign.
You got that, ladies? Like three-quarters of Americans, I oppose that constitutional ban in our platform. Just don’t ask me in front of a bunch of donors. And as I keep telling you, my position on abortion has always been clear. Marvelously clear. Ha ha. Ha.
Just take a look at the rest of the link, it is quite amusing.
And that is all I got for you this morning, catch y’all later in the comments!
peej
Carissa
ecocatwoman
grayslady
Minkoff Minx
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Morning, I wanted to include this link with the post yesterday, but it didn’t seem to fit in with the others. Father Benedict Groeschel, American Friar, Claims Teens Seduce Priests In Some Sex Abuse Cases
Okay, it is too early in the morning for me to start swearing.
Catholic Priest the Rev. Benedict Groeschel Defends Child Sex Abusers; Interview Then Retracted by National Catholic Register – ABC News
Critics slam New York friar who says pedophile victims seduce priests and coaches – NY Daily News
I have no words. Just speechless.
3 words, Hang him high!
This comment is about what I felt like watching the Eastwood thing:
Agree.
Agree, agree.
It appears that many people are just “blown away” at Mitt’s speech and his reference to “the rose” and his parents long standing marriage.
Just for the record, having watched and listened to Mitt lie his way through the last year in his quest for the crown, I have my doubts as to the veracity of his father gifting his mother with a rose each and every day of their married lives. Just a little too much “cute” for me to swallow.
This one reference alone is what is sending the pundits “over the moon” in the act to humaize Mitt aside from the fact that he sides with the wealthy while promising solutions without specifics but a lot of pain and suffering being heaped on those who are not.
Forgive me if I don’t appear to be “buying” into the narrative that raised a lump in the throats of those who were “touched”.
Perhaps I have been exposed too much to those “wonderful stories” of humble beginnings offered by most of the speakers whose focus is in depriving others of the rights as they wring a tear or two from the audience.
Color me jaded.
Pardon me but I don’t understand why people even care about things like “the rose”. They are indicative of nothing about the candidate. I don’t care about their families or fabulous personalities, other than how it might affect what they do in their elected position.
We are not voting for “best friend” or any such tripe. Politicians are not our friends but people we elect to enact policies we want. If a politician can;t or won’t tell you what their policy position are, in some detail and how they get there, screw them cause they’re conning you.
The Republican party, and their nominees, cannot honestly tell people what they will do once in office because almost no one would vote for them. Thus empty platitudes and dishonest attacks on their opponents. If they had a good case to make, they would do it.
Exactly. Presidents are supposed to work for us. I don’t care what their cutesy habits are.
And daily roses don’t make up for lack of access to contraception. That rose-a-day guy fathered a son who tossed the family dog up on a roof rack.
Watching a Mitt Romney speech is like watching that old Robot Lincoln from the Disneyland. The man does not appear to have a human side to him and is programed to say whatever he needs to say to reach his current power or money goal. Talk about no moral core!
The first thing I thought, when he mentioned the rose was, even if he was spending a buck a rose, that’s $365 a year on a frivolous gesture that poor people could not possibly afford. It showcased Romney’s deafness to the plight of the poor and working homeless in this country.
They can swoon about the rose all they want. In my opinion this was the most disastrous convention since the Democrats’ in ’68. There will be little or no bounce from this. They looked like a bunch of amateurs. If there’s one thing Obama’s people are good at, it’s putting on a show. I’m guessing it’s going to eclipse the Republican convention and the Republicans should be grateful for that.
They should show selected reruns of the RNC during lulls in the convention.
Good idea! That will keep the crowd interested and laughing! 🙂
Janice, that is the first thing I thought about, too. How many ordinary people could afford the gift of a single rose for a loved one every day for years? Did Mr. Romney carry the roses home himself or have them delivered at additional cost?
It was like a lovely story from some imagined golden past. The whole convention had a “Twilight Zone” quality about it.
I have to admit I didn’t start at the top of the comments and missed this Pat, and I agree, too. Just realistically it doesn’t make sense. If I was going to give the benefit of the doubt to this story, it would be George Romney had done this on occasion. The every day thing is a stretch and the horror ending was a movie.
I was waiting for this: Mitt Romney Convention Speech – The Manufacturing of Willard Romney, Human, Is Here – Esquire
Headline at Maddow Blog
“Movie star debates chair, loses”
LOL!
I hate to be catty (well maybe not) but that picture of Romney and Ryan – does Romney have a problem keeping his dentures in?
Just finished the article on David Koch – he disagrees with three of the main pillars of the GOP platform, but he’s still going to support them with megabucks, because it’s a good investment? The logic is mindboggling – oops, I meant outstanding.
HT, I want to commend you again for the excellent job you did blogging last night’s GOP laugh fest. You were very funny and insightful. Bravo, my Canuck friend! ( And I mean that term nicely – I have Canuck ancestry myself. )
I echo Beata’s comment. Marvelous job last night. Thanks.
As far as David Koch goes, his main issue is probably making and keeping more money for himself. I doubt anything would overcome that with those dudes.
Invisible Obama now has over 42K followers on twitter.
Morning from CC’s in the French Quarter. My house is miserably hot and I can’t open windows because of the neighbor’s noisy generator and its impact on my ears. I’m trying to get everything charged up here. I may not go home for awhile since it’s really unpleasant with the noise. I can take losing power but I can take the sound of a jet airplane engine vibrating my house and ears.
I’m on the city wireless and it is slow ….
Hope you have a great day! More power to you, literally. 😉
I hope I get it soon. I’m going kinda of crazy go nuts. Either I’m home and hot and bored or in someplace that has more people in it than there should be per the fire codes. The City’s free wifi is so clogged right now I keep getting thrown off the web.
I know exactly what you mean. When I lived in the Cascade foothills outside Seattle, we would lose power after the periodic wind storms. When it would first happen, the silence was wonderful. You just don’t realize how much noise from electronic appliances bombards us each day. I would relish the few minutes of peace until the generators started.
janicen, I grew up in the Cascade foothills. So rural that we were off the power grid; my dad had a power generator which we rarely used. My parents’ friends would come up to visit and would comment on how quiet it was. Some were even bothered by the lack of city noise!
Do you still live near that area?
Condolences. Loud noise is so unpleasant. Raises the blood pressure, too. Especially low noise that you can feel even through earplugs. I hope you can stay (relatively) cool and in calmer surroundings.
No, NW Luna, sadly we do not. We moved there in 2000 and lived there until 2008 when we moved back to Virginia. My husband and daughter were both born in Virginia and always longed to come home. (I don’t know what it is about Virginia people but damn it’s in their blood. There was a visible change in my daughter the second she would set foot on VA soil whenever we came back for a visit.) I was the holdout because I absolutely loved the Pacific Northwest. I love the climate and the people and the topography. My allergies and arthritis were better there too. But after I suffered through having two close family members die while I was all the way across the country, I decided that I didn’t want my husband and daughter to go through that with their remaining relatives so I relented. I can’t wait to visit again.
Does this remind anyone else of the RNC and the Mittster?
Jezebel: Gina Rinehart, the World’s Richest Woman, Is Really Sick of How Jeal-Jeal the Working Poor Are
Here’s another guy who will soon be morphed into a “victim” by the wingnuts.
Lake Park man allegedly obsessed with Fox News, GOP is in jail after threats made to girlfriend
Another example of how the Republican Party is a danger to others.
People are being driven to insanity by these wankers. Fox is home to the unhinged.
It’s about fucking time Bernanke said/did something!
Bernanke: Spending Cuts Harming The Economy, May Lead To Further Fed Stimulus
“So in September the Fed is going to take actions that were already overdue in July, and necessary partly to offset earlier inaction,” tweeted University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers. “#woohoo.”
Bernanke finally realizes the accuracy of Dr. Dakinikat’s writings!
Kat and every other reputable economist seem to pretty much agree on the need for some stimulus. That includes a lot of the people who signed the ridiculous “Economists for Romney” thing.
It is really a big deal that bernanke said it so bluntly.
It is all about the Keynes. McConnell and crew should be sent to prison for treason along with all the republican governors and boehner and any one sympathetic to the tea bagging of America.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/08/31/coulter-says-she-laughs-and-laughs-and-laughs-at-unemployed-youths/
And this is why we hate you, Ann.
What a pathetic slug! She’s detestable on multiple levels.
You know, as mad as I can get at the stupid Democrats, and I know we have had some BAD moments, I am proud of myself for never being in the position of explaining this kind of crap.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/08/31/rnc-delegate-offended-by-mexican-working-at-epcots-america-pavilion/
Thank Dog for those favors. I would throw up my hands in shame.
Really funny!
Hey Ralph, I watched Morning Joe this morning so you didn’t have to. Joe actually said one of the funniest things about Clint.
It was like the Turkey is ready to be brought out at Thanksgiving and someone throws up on the table cloth.
He did another riff on Gone with the Wind, like a epic story being told and then at the end, Rhett Butler just sits on the porch a plays the banjo. I really can’t remember it all I was laughing.
That turkey analogy is more apt than he realizes. 🙂
The twitter stream for InvisibleObama is pretty funny.
Invisible Obama campaign poster 🙂
Does anyone else find that idea really, really, creepy?
Oh yeah. Definitely creepy.
The RNC was worried it would up stage Mitt, ya think?