The Commentariat -- October 5, 2012
Presidential Race
AND now, time for a little gallows humor:
David Horsey's column in the Los Angeles Times is well worth reading, too. Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. Oops! Akhilleus corrected me. Thanks to Janet for the link. ...
... Andy Borowitz in the New Yorker: "The White House today announced that it was offering a 'substantial cash reward' for information leading to 'the location and safe return of President Obama's mojo.'" Thanks to James S. for the link.
CW: we now know what's Mitt Romney's October Surprise is: he metamorphosed overnight from Severely Conservative Mitt to Massachusetts Mitt. ...
... Massachusetts Mitt, Day 2. Emily Friedman of ABC News: "Mitt Romney for the first time characterized his comments during a fundraiser that were surreptitiously filmed and caught the candidate essentially writing off 47 percent of Americans as 'completely wrong." "Clearly in a campaign with hundreds if not thousands of speeches and question and answer sessions, now and then you're gonna say something that doesn't come out right,' Romney said in an interview Wednesday night with Fox News' Sean Hannity. 'In this case I said something that's just completely wrong.'" CW Translation: "Really, I love you moochers. Vote for me so I can give you the freedom to get off the dole, you lazy bastards." ...
... BTW, in case you're wondering why Massachusetts Mitt said this yesterday to Hannity instead of during the debate with its reported 67.2 million viewers, it's because Obama -- and the useless Jim Lehrer -- didn't give him a chance (see the bottom of page 1 of the linked article). Which is, um, what I said yesterday.
... Severely Conservative Mitt, the Day the Tapes Surfaced: "It's not elegantly stated, let me put it that way. I was speaking off the cuff in response to a question, but it's a message which I am going to carry and continue to carry, which is that the president's approach is attractive to people who are not paying taxes because frankly my discussion about lowering taxes isn't as attractive to them. Therefore I'm not likely to draw them into my campaign as effectively as those in the middle." ...
... The Say-Anything, Do-Anything Wing. Dave Weigel of Slate: arch-conservatives now love Massachusetts Mitt, the guy they used to hate. Why? Because they smell a winner. They don't care WTF he says.
Steve Coll of the New Yorker is sort of upbeat & blames Jim Lehrer for the debacle. CW: either Lehrer was pretending to be totally uninformed or he is pretty damned ignorant. I'm guessing the latter. When he brought up "entitlements," I wanted to throw something at him. At least Obama gently corrected him on that. ...
... Democratic operative Bob Shrum in the Daily Beast: "Lehrer, who is already retired, was not only a pushover, but an interrogator from the pre-modern age -- and that too played to Romney's advantage. The debate was supposed to be about domestic issues. But in Lehrer's world, that didn't include women, African-Americans, Hispanic and the LGBT community -- or any of their concerns. The Republican, who had relentlessly pandered to extort his nomination from a skeptical extremist base, didn't have to repeat or defend his voter-alienating views on questions ranging from immigration to contraception. I blame Lehrer for that, but not for losing control of the debate. I felt sorry for him." Shrum writes that despite his poor performance, Obama did score certain points that matter to voters. BUT -- and this was the point in the debate where I went nuts -- Shrum concedes: "The president made the mistake of saying that he and Romney essentially agreed on Social Security -- where did that come from? -- even though Romney has supported privatization and his running mate has called Social Security a 'collectivist system.'"
... "Obama's Enthusiasm Gap." Matt Bai of the New York Times often has silly ideas, but his post in yesterday's Times is instructive: "Mr. Obama's goal, it seems, was to indicate his continued willingness to serve in a job he believes he can do better than the other guy, but that doesn't really seem to enervate or enliven him. That's a problem, and not only for the duration of the campaign." Worth a read. ...
... Dana Milbank: "Obama has set a modern record for refusal to be quizzed by the media, taking questions from reporters far less often than Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and even George W. Bush.... Obama has shied from mixing it up with members of Congress, too. And, especially since Rahm Emanuel's departure, Obama is surrounded by a large number of yes men who aren't likely to get in his face. This insularity led directly to the Denver debacle."
... Dizzy Prez. Al Gore dreams up a better excuse, one right up there with "the dog ate my homework": Obama was disoriented by Denver’s altitude after flying in from the Nevada lowlands." O-kay.
Amy Davidson of the New Yorker lists seven chances Obama missed to hit back at Romney. You may have additional ones of your own.
Governor Romney came to give a performance and he gave a good performance and we give him credit for that. The problem with it was that none of it was rooted in fact. -- David Axelrod ...
We are obviously going to have to adjust for the fact of Mitt Romney's dishonesty. -- David Plouffe of the Obama campaign, acknowledging the campaign would change debate tactics
... Tim Dickinson of Rolling Stone: "Mitt Romney turned in a polished performance in last night's presidential debate -- and revealed himself to be an accomplished and unapologetic liar. In an evening where he sought to slice and dice the president with statistics, Romney baldly misrepresented his own policy prescriptions, made up numbers to fit his attacks and buried clear contrasts with the president under a heaping pile of horseshit." Dickinson lists five big lies. ...
... Jonathan Chait of New York: "Romney won the debate in no small part because he adopted a policy of simply lying about his policies." ...
... David Gergen???
... Romney Lies about Green Jobs Failures. Kevin Drum of Mother Jones: when does 1/2 = 4% or 9% ? When Mitt Romney speaks. ...
... "Sick Joke." Paul Krugman: "'No. 1,' declared Mitt Romney in Wednesday's debate, 'pre-existing conditions are covered under my plan.' No, they aren't -- as Mr. Romney's own advisers have conceded in the past, and did again after the debate.... What Mr. Romney actually proposes is that Americans with pre-existing conditions who already have health coverage be allowed to keep that coverage even if they lose their job.... As it happens, this is already the law of the land.... It applies only to those who manage to land a job with health insurance in the first place (and are able to maintain their payments despite losing that job).... The number of jobs that come with health insurance has been steadily declining over the past decade." ...
... Greg Sargent: "Romney has made this claim on national TV before, only to have his campaign clarify that he only would guarantee protection for those with preexisting conditions who have had continuous coverage.... After Romney's claim last night, the Romney camp again clarified this difference. This is now a pattern: While millions are watching, Romney claims he favors the ban on those with preexisting conditions. Then his campaign issues a clarification watering it down that almost no one will see. The reason for this is obvious: Polls show strong public support for keeping that ban."
Deficit Hawks Pounce. Washington Post Editors: "President Obama has no adequate plan to cope with the frightening level of debt the U.S. government is accumulating. Republican nominee Mitt Romney has a plan to make it worse. To understand that harsh assessment, you have to spend a few minutes with some facts that Mr. Romney did his best to obscure Wednesday." ...
... Tales from a Debate. The Obama campaign begins to hit Mendacious Mitt. This ad is going up in swing states:
Jonathan Bernstein in the Washington Post: "The question for the press over the next few days is increasingly clear: Will the big story be about Mitt Romney's debate victory? ... Or will it be about Romney's repeated failures to stick to the facts? ... Paul Ryan's convention speech wound up being covered mainly for its mendacity, and that became the story. It seems that there are at least as many factually challenged comments from Romney's debate performance as there were in Ryan's speech, although it may have lacked any screaming-headline lies." ...
... Seth Michaels of Working America: "As a person playing the role of a political candidate in a debate, Romney did just fine.... However, Romney let loose time and time again with jaw-dropping dishonestly. It was reminiscent of Paul Ryan's convention speech in its open contempt for truth.... Going in front of nearly 60 million people and dancing around the facts like this ... is disdainful of voters. You don't lie like this to people whose intelligence you respect -- and as his now-famous fundraiser comments show, respect for voters is not really his strong suit.... Will the press cover this debate like theater critics, looking to see who sang and danced better? Or will they look at the substance?" Via Greg Sargent. ...
... Apparently, the public doesn't mind being disrespected. The bottom line on a longish piece by Lori Montgomery & Peyton Craighill of the Washington Post: "Romney's newly aggressive stance appears to be helping his cause, at least initially. A CBS News instant survey of uncommitted voters found that they favored Obama by a significant margin on the tax issue going into Wednesday's debate. Immediately afterward, the numbers flipped." ...
... Jim Rutenberg & Peter Baker of the New York Times are not interested in tackling substance. Of Romney's lies, here's all they wrote: "Mr. Obama's aides said if there was one silver lining in the night it was that they could seize on what they called inconsistencies between Mr. Romney's stances during the primaries and those of this late campaign period." ...
... The man on stage last night doesn't want to be held accountable for the real Mitt Romney. He knows full well that we don't want what he's been selling for the last year. If you want to be president, you owe the American people the truth. -- Barack Obama, at a campaign rally yesterday ...
... In the same report, Rutenberg & Baker write that at a campaign rally in Denver Thursday, President Obama "went straight at [Mitt Romney] with a forceful argument that Mr. Romney's words of moderation masked extreme conservative policies.... In general, advisers suggested that Mr. Obama had prepared for a different Mitt Romney, one who had promoted a conservative message to the Republican base this year.... Instead, he was confronted by a candidate using a softer tone.... Some of the weaknesses in the president's performance, advisers said, were the result of a strategy of not turning off the narrow slice of swing voters, who are often repelled by personal confrontations. And, they said, he had been expecting the debate moderator, Jim Lehrer, to ask more pointed questions...."
Michael Cooper, et al., of the New York Times do write about This Week's Mitt and demonstrate how he is different from Last Week's Mitt, but in terms of analysis, they write that he "used striking new language" and "may be sowing confusion about how [he] would govern." This is the most oblique & obscure translation of "Liar, Liar!" I've ever read. ...
... Oddly enough, Cooper & the same do a much better job of yelling "Liar, Liar!" in a blogpost that covers much of the same material. The post, of course, does not go out to readers of the print edition. It's almost as if, um, the Times has a totally different readership in mind for its online & print editions.
Scott Wilson & David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Obama sought to put a sluggish debate performance behind him Thursday with a pair of combative speeches in swing states, as his campaign advisers acknowledged that he would have to change his approach before meeting Republican nominee Mitt Romney again on a national stage."
Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "Criticizing Mitt Romney in the first presidential debate, his voice now indignant, now deeply sarcastic, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. delivered the kind of impassioned response to the Republican nominee on Thursday that many Democrats said they wished they had heard from President Obama."
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Obama's campaign raised more money in September than any candidate has raised in a previous month this year.... Several sources said the president's haul last month exceeded the $114 million he raised in August, in part on the strength of donations that flowed in after the Democratic National Convention and former president Bill Clinton's well-received speech."
Allen McDuffee of the Washington Post: "A new ad out of Mitt Romney's campaign claiming that President Obama will raise taxes on the middle class by $4,000 solely relies on an article from the conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI).... The ad also says AEI is a nonpartisan, independent organization. By law, this is true.... However, ideologically, one would be hard-pressed to find somebody at AEI who didn't identify themselves as conservative. But how many in the public will know that?" McDuffee also points to Romney's reliance on an AEI opinion piece during the debate. Though McDuffee doesn't make this clear, Romney merged one conservative's opinion piece into "six other studies"; it was actually one opinion, repeated or mentioned in 5 other venues, including the Wall Street Journal op-ed page, if I recall.)
As P. D. Pepe points out in today's Comments, Robert Scheer of TruthDig viewed the "debate" between Obama & Romney as one between Tweedledee & Tweedledum. Their differences -- especially as to controlling Wall Street excesses -- are miniscule. CW: And it ain't gonna change without a Constitutional amendment to curb campaign finance "free speech."
Other Stuff
Quotes of the Day. The death penalty? Give me a break. It's easy. Abortion? Absolutely easy. Nobody ever thought the Constitution prevented restrictions on abortion. Homosexual sodomy? Come on. For 200 years, it was criminal in every state. -- Justice Antonin Scalia, explaining why some cases are easy
Remember the Supremes! -- Kate Madison, explaining why you should hold your nose & vote for Obama
Alex Seitz-Wald of Salon: when the jobs numbers look good, Fox "News," et al., have the jobs-report conspiracy theorists at the ready.
Denise Grady, et al., of the New York Times: "The nation's growing outbreak of meningitis, linked to spinal injections for back pain, was a calamity waiting to happen -- the result of a lightly regulated type of drug production that had a troubled past.... The outbreak, with 5 people dead and 30 ill in six states, is thought to have been caused by a steroid drug contaminated by a fungus. The steroid solution was ... concocted by a pharmacy in Framingham, Mass., called the New England Compounding Center. Compounding pharmacies make their own drug products, which are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration."
News Ledes
ABC News: "The D.C. transit system must allow a pro-Israel ad that equates Muslim radicals with savages, a federal judge ruled Friday. A spokesman for the Metro system said it would comply with the judge's decision and that the advertisements would go up over the weekend."
New York Times: "American officials confirmed Turkish news reports on Friday that two Tunisian men had been detained in Turkey in connection with the killing of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in the attack on a United States diplomatic post in Libya on Sept. 11.... It remained unclear whether the two were considered to be suspects or witnesses in the violent attack in Benghazi...."
** Bloomberg News: "The unemployment rate in the U.S. unexpectedly fell to 7.8 percent in September, the lowest since President Barack Obama took office in January 2009, as employers took on more part-time workers."
AP: "The potential scope of the meningitis outbreak that has killed at least five people widened dramatically Thursday as health officials warned that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of patients who got steroid back injections in 23 states could be at risk. Clinics and medical centers rushed to contact patients who may have received the apparently fungus-contaminated shots. And the Food and Drug Administration urged doctors not to use any products at all from the Massachusetts pharmacy that supplied the suspect steroid solution." See also today's Commentariat.
ABC News: "Authorities are looking closely at the possibility that a friendly fire accidental shooting is at the heart of the incident that killed Border Patrol Agent Nicholas Ivie and wounded a second agent, sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News. A third agent was unharmed in the incident."
Washington Post: "The Secret Service has formally adopted new policies on the use of alcohol and social media, banning excessive drinking and the sharing of work-related information on sites including Facebook five months after more than a dozen employees were accused of drunken partying with prostitutes in Colombia."