jim messina – Moe Lane

#rsrh QotD, Ace of AOSHQ sums it up perfectly.

“It” being the Jim Messina Meme Generator. If you don’t know what that is, OK, lucky you. Essentially, OfA campaign manager Jim Messina put up a picture of himself (you can click on the above link to see it) that had people on his own side going That’s not helpful, Jim. it’s so bad, in fact, that the mockery has already started – only, as Ace put it:

Now, via @bdomenech, a Meme Generator for adding snarky headlines to the Jim Messina Cry for Help.

The only problem is: There’s only one joke here with a couple of dozen variations. We are all thinking exactly the same thing, and what we’re thinking is: One day we will find his cache of Clown Paintings.

Which is why I haven’t really hit this. I mean, I’ve had horrible pictures taken of me myself. Admittedly, not this horrible – but still, pretty horrible. I’m just sorry that there’s nobody in this dude’s life who couldn’t have waved Messina off on this one – I mean, that’s one thing that Significant Others are for.

Obama’s bad fundraising quarter.

Yes, I can read. I can count and use a spreadsheet, too. That’s why I’m saying it was a bad quarter.

Executive summary: Obama for America’s (OfA) reported fundraising total for the second quarter is significantly less than what it needed to be in order to hit OfA’s stated ultimate fundraising goals for 2012 – as in, one half to one-third of what they need. And OfA is (grimly) aware of this, which is why they significantly downplayed their fundraising totals in their latest video, despite the fact that in raw terms the amount raised by OfA (47 million) looked highly respectable. Which they were: just not respectable enough.

First off, all numbers here assume a raw total of forty seven million, which is what is being reported in the media* as Obama for America’s take (as the below should make clear the DNC’s numbers should not be taken into consideration when assessing the President’s fundraising goal**). Now that this has been noted… OK, let’s walk through some numbers, here. Below the fold is a chart showing the amount of money that Obama for America raised in the 2008 election cycle. The links are all to official reports filed with the Federal Elections Commission, so I certainly hope that they’re accurate: Continue reading Obama’s bad fundraising quarter.

Jim Messina: heckuva job on Sherrod, guys. [Corrected.]

[UPDATE: The previous link was incorrect; now fixed. My apologies. – ML]

(Via AoSHQ) Every time I think that the Shirley Sherrod story cannot make the administration look more foolish, new details come out [link fixed – ML].

…three Democratic sources said deputy chief of staff Jim Messina singled out the White House’s initial response to the incident for praise in the regular 8:30 a.m. staff meeting Tuesday morning.

[snip]

One source, who is unhappy with the administration’s handling of the incident, paraphrased Messina’s remarks: “We could have waited all day — we could have had a media circus — but we took decisive action, and it’s a good example of how to respond in this atmosphere.”

No, in fact, it was not a good example*. It’s hard to see how it could be a worse one. The Right is hardly abashed that Ms. Sherrod ended up being maligned by the Obama administration and defended by Glenn Beck; the Left is infuriated** that their precious man-god stomped all over their favorite narrative before it could even get started; and the Middle is mostly going to take away from all of this the sight of the White House apologizing to a black woman for passing instant judgment on her based on the color of her skin, rather than the content of her character.

And, oh yes: there’s a media circus, too.

Moe Lane

Continue reading Jim Messina: heckuva job on Sherrod, guys. [Corrected.]