Maybe the White House should possibly do Bruce Braley a favor and, you know, shut up or something? – At least, that’s probably how Braley is feeling right now. Personally, I think that Barack Obama should come stump for the guy. Oh, wait, that’s because I don’t have Braley’s best interests at heart.
Moe Lane
PS: And, of course, as I’m writing this up I see this:
Krauthammer: Obama humiliated by lack of demand for him on campaign trail http://t.co/B6xhsnPBPK
This is not what you tell people when you’re trying to keep a loss from being a rout:
Understanding full well Obama’s unpopularity is a drag on some Democrats in tight congressional races, White House officials are signaling to party leaders and campaign managers alike there will be no consequences should they run away from the president in order to win.
This is what you tell people when you think that there’s going to be a rout, no matter what, but you want to maybe rebuild something from the shattered fragments afterwards. It’s also a tacit admission that you’re expecting this preemptive forgiveness to be largely if not almost completely an academic exercise anyway. If I was a more reckless man, that’d be grounds for a DOOM call right now.
Via
Too late? WH officials telling top Senate campaigns there won’t be any retribution if they go after Obama http://t.co/oDzrLTxHvD
This song first showed up in 2008, and it did not age well. I’m going to put the lyrics under the fold, largely because people need to be reminded about just how messed up some parents can get when it comes to using their children as political props, but let me just note something first: lots of those kids are now trying to find summer jobs. Good luck, kids! – Because the folks that would hire you for said summer job can just as easily get a fifty year old these days, and frankly they’d rather have those.
…I was struck by this line. “Most of our Democratic voters aren’t aware there’s even an election on November 4th.” Which is funny, because most of our Republican voters are aware, and are grimly looking forward to it; but that’s not what struck me. What struck me is that this DCCC ad isn’t geared towards boosting the enthusiasm of those Democratic voters. It’s geared towards boosting the enthusiasm of its own cadre of volunteers.
:pause:
Dudes. It’s October. Getting your people ready to get pumped for the election now is a little, erm, tardy, if you know what I mean? Should have been done over the summer… oh. Right. The Democrats mark time by Barack Obama’s clock, these days. Silly, silly me.
You can expect to see some variant of this in ads over the next month.
The first bit is from 2010: it shows then-Representative Bruce Braley pretty much backing the President to the hilt – and, to be fair: in 2010 that wasn’t such a bad strategy in Iowa. Back then people liked Barack Obama – well, more accurately they liked who they thought was Barack Obama. It’s all different four years later, but This Thing Of Ours is notoriously indifferent to the suffering that can ensue when a statement that one makes comes back and bites one on the rear.
The second bit is from yesterday, and it’s going to be replayed forever. Here’s the transcript:
Now, I’m not on the ballot this fall. Michelle’s pretty happy about that. But make no mistake: these policies are on the ballot. Every single one of them.
Just after that, every Democrat in America running in a tough race started to swear. Because the reason why they’re in tough races is because people don’t really like Obama’s policies right now. Especially in the states and districts that are hosting the tough races. The plan Democrats had was to not talk about it, not openly support the President, and to generally distance themselves from both Obama’s administration and his policies; apparently, however, nobody bothered to tell Barack Obama that, because he just stepped all over that narrative*. Whether this was done out of malice, or just stupidity, is beyond the scope of this post: suffice it to say that Bruce Braley (and the rest of his compatriots) are not going to be able to spend October running away from Barack Obama, either.
Early in the 2010 cycle, Barack Obama told an Arkansas House Democrat that he needn’t worry about voters because “you’ve got me.” Today all four Arkansas House seats are held by Republicans.
…in the process of noting something that should be obvious: to wit, that going from the bad end of 55-45 in the Senate to in control would be, in fact, indicative of a wave election. Just saying.
Barack Obama’s making a very stupid mistake, here.
[Former President George W.] Bush, who said that he calls former president Bill Clinton several times a year, including last week when his granddaughter was born, noted that President Obama hasn’t called him since Osama bin Laden was killed.
“He has not [called] on a regular basis, which is okay. It doesn’t hurt my feelings. It’s a decision he has made. Presidents tend to rely on the people they’re close to…and I understand that,” Bush said.
It’s always arrogance that gets the powerful, in the end. Arrogance and pride. Because here’s the situation – and I write this with an enormous grin of schadenfreude on my face from thinking about how progressive activists will react to what I’m about to write – it’s clear by now that George W Bush knows how to beat a terrorist insurgency, and Barack Obama does not. Barack Obama’s previous Iraq policy was a miserable failure. Barack Obama’s foreign policy staff was incompetent. The President himself demonstrated that, when it came to terrorists and figuring out why they hate us, Obama was fundamentally intellectually incurious and far too prone to episodes of epistemic closure. Do I need to keep using all those progressive antiwar sneers as handy flails, or has everybody gotten the point by now? Continue reading Barack Obama needs to ask George W Bush for help with Obama’s foreign policy.
As Congress examines security breaches at the White House, even opposition lawmakers who have spent the last six years fighting his every initiative have expressed deep worry for his security.
…I had a more measured response planned, but Charles Cooke wrote it for me, and I’m not going to give Peter Baker the satisfaction of knowing that he made me swear at him. But, yeah: this is the sort of nonsense that we have to deal with: people who work with monsters… and then assume that the rest of us are just the same kinds of monsters, just with a different colored tie.
It’s really kind of horrible, when you think about it.
Not much point to further commentary on this, except to note that this is precisely what happens when somebody assumes that they know everything, and nigh-deliberately learns nothing. Although I will admit that it’s not like this is the first time that the people, to more or less quote Glenn Reynolds, have disappointed the Democrats. That dang messy objective reality…
PS: It will be fascinating to see who, if anybody, will attempt to justify this rather inane comment by Barack Obama. Because somebody of course will try. I recommend a reaction to said attempts of basic contempt, with just enough pity to give the whole thing a little flavor…
PPS: Hey, which Democratic candidates agree with Barack Obama on this one? Anybody? Anybody?
(Via comments here) …Oh, but you are going to love this.
I’m going to get a transcript up as soon as I get one, but the short version: Barack Obama is a lying, cheating, no-good, paranoid manipulator who keeps telling you that he’s going to change, but never does. And his friends are just as bad… but you can do something about his friends.
John Jordan, a California winery owner and head of the group Americans for Shared Prosperity whose work in outside groups has gained attention in the last year, is planning to air two women-focused spots nationally over the next few days during major news shows like “Meet the Press” on NBC and on Fox News, as well as digitally across national print publications including POLITICO.
[snip]
…the ads he commissioned from Florida-based ad-maker Rick Wilson feature a woman speaking direct-to-camera about issues like the economy and national security, in a 30-second spot and a 60-second one. She accuses Democrats obliquely of treating women like single-issue voters, and talks about President Barack Obama as if he’s a boyfriend she’s stuck with for a few more years. “The goal here is to communicate with women voters in a way that outside groups and campaigns haven’t,” Jordan said.
I know Rick from online: he knows exactly where the boot needs to go in on this topic, and my but didn’t he just? – And the truth of the matter is, it’s all freaking true. The Democrats pretty much do treat every group in their coalition with neither consideration nor respect; and there is in fact a limit to how often you can lie to a person’s face before she starts to realize that she’s being played. Particularly if there’s somebody out there willing to, you know, actually try to present an alternative.
PS: How effective is it? Well, Vox reportedly hates it, in much the same way that a classical Central European vampire hates sunlight and whitethorn. So there’s that.
