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Sunday Afternoon Open Thread: From the Sublime to the Ridiculous

Posted: September 23, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: 2012 elections, 2012 presidential campaign, Barack Obama, Civil Rights, Mitt Romney, open thread, U.S. Politics | Tags: , , |30 Comments

Good Afternoon!

Dakinikat clued me in about a terrific speech that First Lady Michelle Obama gave to at the Congressional Black Caucus Dinner last night.   She spoke movingly of the importance of voting rights as “the Civil Rights issue of our day.  Here is a bit of that.

You can watch the entire speech on YouTube.

From the WaPo:

Speaking in Washington at the foundation’s annual Phoenix dinner, the first lady likened turning out the vote to the civil rights struggles of previous eras.

“Make no mistake about it, this is the march of our time,” Obama told the audience at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. “Marching door-to-door registering people to vote, marching everyone you know to the polls every single election.” That effort, she said, “is the movement of our era — protecting that fundamental right, not just for this election but for the next generation and generations to come.”

Obama did not refer explicitly to voter-ID laws that that have been passed or proposed in states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida, but she warned against being dissuaded from voting.

“We cannot let anyone discourage us from casting our ballots,” she said. “We cannot let anyone make us feel unwelcome in the voting booth. It is up to us to make sure that in every election, every voice is heard and every vote is counted. That means making sure our laws preserve that right.”

On Face the Nation, Bill Clinton commented on the small portion of his income that Mitt Romney pays in taxes.

Former President Bill Clinton said low tax rates like the one paid by Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney aren’t helping the economic recovery, adding to Democratic criticism that Republicans disregard the needs of average Americans.

“I don’t think we can get out of this hole we’re in if people at that income level only pay 13, 14 percent,” Democrat Clinton said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” today. “It’d be interesting, I think, for the American people to see how the ordinary income years were treated, but apparently we’re not going to get to see that.”

That was a nice little dig. Here’s hoping Clinton keeps on throwing elbows right up till November 6.

Robert Gibbs worked on managing expectations for the first presidential debate on October 3. He told Fox News that Romney has a big advantage over poor President Obama.

“Mitt Romney I think has an advantage, because he’s been through 20 of these debates in the primaries over the last year,” Gibbs said Sunday on Fox News.

The Republican presidential nominee last took part in a debate on February 22, when CNN hosted a debate in Arizona. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas were also on stage with Romney.

“Having been through this much more recently than President Obama, I think he starts with an advantage,” Gibbs said.

Romney would be wise to have his surrogates do the same thing, but he’s probably too arrogant to say that Obama is a superior debater. Besides, I think the only reliable surrogate Romney has left is John Sununu, and he would most likely prefer being waterboarded to praising the president.

And now for the ridiculous…

This morning, RNC Chair Reince Priebus argued tried to convince George Stephanopoulos that the past week was a good one for Mitt Romney. Check out the double take Stephanopoulos does when he finally gets what Priebus is saying.

Bwaaaahahahahahahahha! From the New York Daily News:

As Mitt Romney tried Sunday to change the course of his campaign, the head of the GOP was looking backward, declaring the party’s nominee “had a good week” — and leaving many wondering what a bad week looks like.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus spun like a toy-store top when asked about the impact of a leaked video that caught Romney portraying 47% of Americans as moochers at a fund-raiser of wealthy GOP donors.

“It probably wasn’t the … best week in the campaign,” Priebus said when first asked about the gaffe on ABC’s “This Week.”

“I think we had a good week last week,” he said later, clinging to the belief that the 47% comments had a positive role in focusing the conversation on entitlement programs and spending. “We were able to frame up the debate last week in the sense of what future do we want.”

Wow, you have to be either really brave or incredibly stupid to go on national TV and try to sell that kind of bullsh&t.

So what have you up to today?

30 Comments on “Sunday Afternoon Open Thread: From the Sublime to the Ridiculous”

  1. bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
    September 23, 2012 at 4:17 pm

    New poll shows Obama up by 5 points in Ohio.

    One day before Mitt Romney’s campaign starts a three day bus tour in Ohio, a new poll indicates the Republican nominee is behind President Barack Obama by five percentage points in the Buckeye State.

    Just over half – 51% – of likely voters back the president, while 46% support Romney, according to a new survey released Sunday and conducted by the University of Cincinnati’s Institute for Policy Research.

    The survey was taken September 13-18, mostly before video emerged of controversial comments Romney made at a May fundraiser, in which he argued nearly half of Americans are “victims” who are “dependent” on the government because they don’t pay federal income taxes.

  2. RalphB's avatar RalphB says:
    September 23, 2012 at 4:26 pm

    Obama 51, Romney 46 in Ohio.

    President Barack Obama leads Mitt Romney by 5 percentage points in Ohio Newspaper Poll

    Another in a long line of polls the wingers can “unskew” to make Romney the real leader. The feedback loop of ‘Fox, Talk Radio, winger blogs, candidates’ is an amazing thing.

  3. dakinikat's avatar dakinikat says:
    September 23, 2012 at 5:39 pm

    Priebus is the slimiest of the slime. That guy has no integrity. He’ll say anything. Michael Steele was reality-based and honest. I guess that’s why they no longer wanted him to chair the party.

    • bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
      September 23, 2012 at 5:53 pm

      I guess so. Plus, Steele is …. black. I think they just picked him to prove they’re not racist and then they proved it anyway.

      • dakinikat's avatar dakinikat says:
        September 23, 2012 at 6:03 pm

        Usually, these guys are supposed to stick to talking points and throw read meat. This guy does nothing but bob and weave and lie. He’s not very skilled. But then, they’re not going to get very bright people if they continue to support what they support. No one with a brain could possibly defend their platform. It’s their version of radical religious rule. The Taliban have nothing on them at all.

    • NW Luna's avatar NW Luna says:
      September 23, 2012 at 9:34 pm

      I keep wanting to read his name as “Prince Rebus” …. He’s certainly an wealthy entitled Republican who’ll say whatever he gets paid to say.

  4. Eric Pleim's avatar Eric Pleim says:
    September 23, 2012 at 6:57 pm

    A few more “good weeks” like that and Romney will be consigned to the dustbins of history.

  5. pdgrey's avatar pdgrey says:
    September 23, 2012 at 6:57 pm

    Sky Dancing has had some great post lately, when I have to work it takes a while to catch up! So glad you posted the videos of everything I missed.
    Being from Florida, when Alan Grayson lost I knew the Tea Party madness had taken hold. He has written a good column
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-alan-grayson/social-security-republicans_b_1906501.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

  6. RalphB's avatar RalphB says:
    September 23, 2012 at 7:30 pm

    Watching 60 Minutes and gotta ask. Does Scott Pelley throw nothing but softballs right over the plate? He may as well be a Romney campaign operative. It’s pathetic!

  7. pdgrey's avatar pdgrey says:
    September 23, 2012 at 8:07 pm

    I know this is not important but Mittens listed the USA a foreign country on his tax return. But just maybe if he doesn’t feel that way, his money does.
    http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2012/09/21/mitt-romney-calls-usa-a-foreign-country-in-his-tax-returns

  8. RalphB's avatar RalphB says:
    September 23, 2012 at 8:37 pm

    Fuck Scott Pelley!!!!! Poll: Obama Leads In Florida By 4 Points

    http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/poll-obama-leads-in-florida-by-4-points

    • bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
      September 23, 2012 at 10:26 pm

      Mitt Romney’s image with Floridians has taken a turn in the wrong direction since his party gathered in Tampa for its convention. His favorability has dropped a net 9 points from +2 at 49/47 over Labor Day weekend to now -7 at 44/51. Romney’s comments about the ‘47%’ this week aren’t doing him any favors. 89% of voters are familiar with them and 50% consider them to have been inappropriate to 44% who were ok with them. Most troubling for Romney independent voters considered the comments improper by a 58/37 margin and he trails Obama by a 51/40 spread with those folks who could determine the final outcome in the state.

      Romney is toast.

  9. ANonOMouse's avatar ANonOMouse says:
    September 23, 2012 at 8:53 pm

    Thanks for the info on Priebus’s performance this morning BB, I just couldn’t sit through the Political shows today. Like everyone else here, I’m suffering outrage fatigue.

    As for Priebus, after watching his performance at the RNC I think the guy is having a bit of wrestling match with alcohol. That certainly would explain his total disconnect from the reality of Romney’s clusterfuck campaign week.

    • bostonboomer's avatar bostonboomer says:
      September 23, 2012 at 10:25 pm

      I can’t watch any of the shows. I just read about them later. I can’t stomach actually watching.

      I absolutely hate Scott Pelley, so I empathize with Ralph. I started to read the transcript, but got disgusted.

  10. pdgrey's avatar pdgrey says:
    September 23, 2012 at 9:24 pm

    I really enjoyed this from Alan Greyson
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-alan-grayson/social-security-republicans_b_1906501.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

  11. RalphB's avatar RalphB says:
    September 23, 2012 at 11:11 pm

    The always marvelous Paul Krugman on Romney as The Confidence Fairy.

    The Optimism Cure

    Mitt Romney is optimistic about optimism. In fact, it’s pretty much all he’s got. And that fact should make you very pessimistic about his chances of leading an economic recovery.
    […]
    It’s all kind of sad. Yet the truth is that it all fits together. Mr. Romney’s whole campaign has been based on the premise that he can become president simply by not being Barack Obama. Why shouldn’t he believe that he can fix the economy the same way?

    But will he get a chance to put that theory to the test? At the moment, I’m not optimistic.

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