The Rich Get Bitchier

Today's column for the Daily Banter takes a look at the not-so-triumphant return of the Romneys.

So, what have they learned since the drubbing Mitt took last November?

Not a thing.

Here's the opening shot:

"It’ll be tough to hear this, I know, but Mitt and Ann Romney are still confused, bitter and just plain sick-to-death over the fact that they’re not in the White House right now. I mean, when you pay for something — whether it be goods or services — you’re supposed to receive it. That’s how the system works. It’s certainly the way it’s always worked for the Romneys in the past. It’s what makes this nation great, dammit, and if you make a deal with the country that involves spending millions of dollars for the presidency of the United States, then the country reneges on that deal, what results is anarchy. How can rich people ever trust the value of their money and privilege again?

I have no doubt you’ve missed the Romneys since the destiny Mitt had been promised since birth slammed headlong into the ugly reality of what the American people actually wanted. If Mitt Romney’s lightning-fast exile to historical oblivion shocked you, trust me, it shocked Mitt, Ann and the rest of their family even more."

Read the Rest Here

Gut Check

A good summation of the conservative way of seeing the world from Cesca today over at the Banter, in a piece called "Romney, Like Many Republicans, Trusted His Heart Over Reality."

"Instead of embracing the broad scientific consensus on the climate crisis, Republicans trust their gut that it’s not real (or not man-made, or both) and they confirm their whimsy with a relatively small handful of crackpot scientists — the Dean Chamberses of climate study. On austerity and deficit reduction, Republicans trust their gut that steep spending reductions following a deep recession will stimulate economic growth when, in fact, there’s not one single example of this occurring in the history of the American economy. Not one. Libertarian Republicans are even worse, believing that confederations combined with severely limited central governments will actually work when nearly all historical examples of such systems have failed. They believe the deficit has skyrocketed when, in fact, it’s dropped by $555 billion since Obama has been president. Too many conservatives believe the president wasn’t born Hawaii in spite of all the evidence proving he was. They also believe that Islamic evildoers are lurking around every corner waiting to crash airplanes into rural town squares. Hell, way too many conservatives believe that Jesus was a capitalist warhawk. Because they really, really want him to be."

I'm posting this here because Cesca makes a roundabout point that I've actually made a couple of times before. While not every single conservative is a die-hard religious fundamentalist, there's no denying that religion -- particularly Christianity -- and American conservatism are inextricably linked in the eyes of most people. If you're really into Jesus and believe that he's coming back soon to whisk his children up to heaven in a magic chariot while tossing the rest of us into the lake of fire for all eternity, there's a pretty good chance your politics land you squarely in the Republican registry.

What Cesca's getting at, and what I've always believed, is that the kind of faith that allows someone to abandon logic, reason and empirical reality in favor of an unwavering devotion to a 2,000-year-old book of wild stories -- millions of animals on an ark, walking on water, resurrection from the dead, people living to be nearly a thousand -- is the kind of faith that will allow you to believe in literally anything. It's not much of a stretch to go from thinking the world was created in six days, 6,000 years ago, to being utterly convinced that climate change is a lie, the economy is shrinking and the government is coming for your guns. Oh, and that Barack Obama is going to lose the presidential election because everyone hates him.

Conspiracy theories and insane fantasies aren't that hard to swallow when you've decided that proof doesn't really matter to you. And religious faith requires no proof at all, that's why it's called faith. But as I've said before, when you choose to replace a fundamental reliance on evidence -- the yardstick that measures our reality and which should be the same across the board for almost everyone -- with flights of fancy, what you get is chaos. That and the ability to fall for absolutely any bunch of nonsense.

Rob the Vote

I don't like to circulate stuff that I can't verify, but given that the source which is circulating this is someone I trust -- a former senior producer at NBC News -- I don't feel quite so bad about putting it out there.

According to the person who originally uploaded this video to YouTube -- a voter in Pennsylvania -- here's what happened:

"I initially selected Obama but Romney was highlighted. I assumed it was being picky so I deselected Romney and tried Obama again, this time more carefully, and still got Romney. Being a software developer, I immediately went into troubleshoot mode. I first thought the calibration was off and tried selecting Jill Stein to actually highlight Obama. Nope. Jill Stein was selected just fine. Next I deselected her and started at the top of Romney’s name and started tapping very closely together to find the ‘active areas’. From the top of Romney’s button down to the bottom of the black checkbox beside Obama’s name was all active for Romney. From the bottom of that same checkbox to the bottom of the Obama button (basically a small white sliver) is what let me choose Obama. Stein’s button was fine. All other buttons worked fine."

This could be a hoax. It could be a very serious miscalibration. Or it could be something unimaginably insidious. Regardless, I have a feeling you'll be seeing this 18-second clip quite a bit in the coming hours and days.

Update Here

Sunday Sacrilege

It's been a while since I've done one of these, mostly because I tend to spend my weekends trying to relax given that I normally put in 14-hour work days during the week.

Chances are you've seen this by now. It was shot in 2007, during Mitt Romney's first presidential campaign, and features an agitated Romney going at it with a conservative radio host in Des Moines over the subject of Mormonism. The video inexplicably popped back into the public eye over the past few days, more than likely as an attempt to embarrass Romney, who really does look quite a bit like Tom Cruise raving about Scientology throughout a good portion of the clip. Yeah, it's amusing to hear a grown man -- one who otherwise seems to be in possession of all his faculties -- actually arguing that when Jesus Christ returns to Earth during the apocalypse, he's going to govern from Jerusalem and, well, Missouri. But the reality is that the every faith-based religion's epistemology is pretty much nuts; you can't laugh at the outlandish notion of Jesus setting up camp in Missouri while seeing nothing crazy about believing in Jesus as the son of God who's going to come back to rule the planet in the first place.

I've said this before many times but it's one of those things that seems necessary to bring up each time questions of religion become a prevailing factor in our nation's politics: Under no circumstances should we be voting for someone based on which ancient superstition he or she adheres to or what magic entity he or she worships. I get that this is a tall order, but given the issues that face this country right now, I couldn't care less how a leader's "faith" guides him, given that faith is a ridiculous conceit somehow made less ridiculous only when it's applied to questions of who supposedly created the universe and what he expects from us. Faith won't get us out of the mess we're currently in. It's not a plan.

Romney truly believes that there's going to be Armageddon and that Jesus will eventually ride in from the sky on a winged horse and rule us all from Jerusalem and Missouri. Barack Obama, as reasonable and rational as he is, claims to believe almost the same thing or something at least equally crazy. Every four years we watch the people who want to be the leader of the free world effusively pander to those in the thrall of a mass delusion -- men and women whose childish beliefs are lent credence simply by virtue of the fact that we've decided that there's sanity in numbers and that reality is subject to consensus -- and just accept it as the way things go in America.

Romney's religious views are thoroughly insane. But they're no more insane than just about anyone else's religious views. It would be nice if we finally got to the point where our leaders could say that out loud.

Adding: Putting aside discussions about Romney's faith being so weird that it's not at all weird, the guy he and the radio host fall all over themselves to praise -- Cleon Skousen -- really was a fundamentalist far-right nutjob. Read on.

Now, from the DXM archive and for your Sunday reading enjoyment...

"The Sectarian Candidate" (Originally Published, 12.6.07)

***FROM THE CAMPAIGN TO ELECT MITT ROMNEY: NOT FOR PUBLIC RELEASE***

What follows is the initial draft of today's (12/6/07) scheduled speech by Mitt Romney, Republican candidate for President of the United States. The purpose of the address will be to allow Mr. Romney the opportunity to explain his Mormon faith to America, in the hope of creating a better understanding and acceptance of the faith's spiritual tenets and practices. The corrections, as well as the notes and instructions in boldface, have been written by Mr. Romney himself except where noted.

My fellow Americans,

You now have two earth minutes to surrender or be destroyed.

I come to you today, not simply as a proud citizen of this country, nor merely as a candidate for President of the United States, but as a man of faith.

There's been some concern over the past few months about my religious beliefs, specifically, questions in regard to the Mormon faith itself. Many Americans want to know what it is, what it stands for, who is behind it, is it just as warm and cuddly as that "Big Love" show, what is its relation to Christianity?

I'm here to tell you that you have nothing to fear -- that the Church of Latter Day Saints has a plan for your life, and that it involves tax evasion and three wives in every home. The church and its storied belief system were founded by the great Prophet Joseph Smith, who, when he wasn't searching for buried treasure, trying to con local hillbillies, or sitting in a jail cell, dedicated his life to pulling a "religion" out of his ass in an effort to rip off his arch-nemesis, the U.S. Government spreading the word of the one true God. (Remember to pause dramatically in between one, true and God)

Prophet, Seer and Revelator Smith was the sole vessel for the most recent Testament of Jesus Christ, as told to him by several "angelic beings," including the resurrected prophet known as "Moroni." (The "C" is silent.) These were called hallucinations "Revelations." To make a very long and unbelievably convoluted story short, after transcribing the word of God on a set of mysterious, invisible golden plates, Prophet Smith built a brand new ponzi scheme church from the ground up and took himself and his followers west due mostly to the fact that they were run out of almost every town they tried to settle in, to Utah.

The faith the Prophet founded was special, like no other (insofar as it was, in fact, like every other faith simply because Prophet Smith created it by unimaginatively swiping tenets and concepts from already established religions like Christianity and Judaism). As such, it developed many dupes followers during its formative period -- the lengthy era between the church's inception and its final settlement in Utah.

Along the way, the Prophet was visited by many more visions -- even Jesus stopped by the see him, at one point presenting him with the "New Covenant" (what became known as "The Principle"). This dictated that polygamy was not only condoned, but demanded by God. (Look stern)

David Koresh Joseph Smith of course passed this commandment on to his people -- particularly the women, whose subservience was now nothing less than a holy mandate under pain of eternal torment -- and thus, plural marriage became a staple of this new religion , one that would only be truly abandoned when the entire state of Utah found itself ostracized and excluded from the union, and eventually the government began confiscating everything polygamist families owned.

As it grew, Mormonism became the church of inclusion and equality, unless you were black, gay or a woman which helped to make it the fast-growing faith that it is today.

It also is and always has been a religion of peace (not counting the Mountain Meadows massacre of 1857, in which Mormon militiamen executed hundreds of unarmed men, women and children, then tried to pin it on the local Indians) .

(***Note from Campaign "Technician": Please be aware that Romney-VI will need to be plugged into the charger for at least an extra 20 minutes to remain animated for this length of time.***)

As I stand before you to ask you to elect me to the highest office in the land, I want to reassure you about the warm relationship the Church of Latter Day Saints has always shared with the United States government -- which I hope to be the leader of in the near future. Mormons have always had the utmost respect for the United States when they weren't trying to secede from the union or were arrogantly refusing to recognize the jurisdiction of the U.S. government. And while none of Joseph Smith's insane pronouncements or prophecies ever came true, that's no reason not to believe that Scientology Mormonism is not a legitimate faith -- one that can and should be accepted by both the American people and the government we all hold so dear.

And about faith in general, I must say this...

"There are some who may feel that religion is not a matter to be seriously considered in the context of the weighty threats that face us. If so, they are at odds with the nation's founders, for they, when our nation faced its greatest peril, sought the blessings of the Creator. And further, they discovered the essential connection between the survival of a free land and the protection of religious freedom. In John Adam's words: 'We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion... Our constitution was made for a moral and religious people."** (I like this. Gotta keep it. It'll piss off the bloggers.)

"We separate church and state affairs in this country, and for good reason. No religion should dictate to the state nor should the state interfere with the free practice of religion. But in recent years, the notion of the separation of church and state has been taken by some well beyond its original meaning. They seek to remove from the public domain any acknowledgment of God. Religion is seen as merely a private affair with no place in public life. It is as if they are intent on establishing a new religion in America – the religion of secularism. They are wrong."** (This is great. It'll show those God-haters who believe in all that science. Remember to keep this in.)

To sum up today ladies and gentlemen, let me make one final point about my particular faith -- and it is one which simply cannot be argued with.

The beliefs of Mormons are no more curious...

No more outlandish...

And no more preposterous...

Than than the beliefs of any other faith.

Thank you, and God Bless America.

(**Actual excerpts from Romney's prepared address. By the way, to learn every dirty little secret about the real history of the Church of Latter Day Saints, and its extremist spinter cell, the FLDS, I highly recommend reading Jon Krakauer's excellent 2003 bestseller Under the Banner of Heaven.)

Quote of the Day

"Does deploying these ads at the last minute really seem like a move from a campaign that feels confident it’s going to win? These are some of the ugliest and most dishonest attacks of an unusually ugly and dishonest campaign. They’re the kind of ads you expect from a secretive outside group, not the campaign itself. They’re the kind of ads a campaign keeps in a glass case labeled, 'Break in case of emergency.' They feel desperate."

-- Salon's Alex Seitz-Wald on the rash of almost unimaginably dishonest last-minute campaign ads from the Romney camp and what they may say about its state-of-mind heading into election day

Romney's spent the past several months running the most brazenly mendacious campaign modern politics has ever seen -- one that goes far beyond the kind of pernicious spin we've come to expect from political candidates and into the realm of flat-out, easily debunked, staggeringly audacious lying. The idea that he could get any worse than he's been since the campaign began in earnest is kind of tough to wrap your head around -- and yet it's happening. When you lie so bombastically that the very people you're attempting to endear yourself to begin not simply calling you out for it but publicly saying that your surrogates who spread the same lie are "full of shit" -- that's when you know you're a scam-artist who's making the most desperate and cynical play for power the American people have probably ever seen in any of their lifetimes.

Storm Scourge

Today's column for the Daily Banter is, I admit, a bit of a retread of what I posted here yesterday regarding the GOP's inexplicable demonization of government workers like teachers, police and firefighters -- and how it should be forced to account for that view in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

I expand a little bit on the subject.

Here's a quick excerpt:

"The fact remains that Romney would decimate FEMA if elected — because FEMA is a governmental agency and the government is an intolerable evil to today’s Republicans, an affront to American individualism and personal responsibility that should be put asunder whenever and wherever possible. This overarching article of faith extends well beyond big, robust entities like FEMA, though. These days, Republican ire and derision is aimed not simply at the programs and agencies themselves but at the average people working for them. And that’s why I’m curious that no one has, in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, forced Romney, Ryan and the rest of the Republican deficit-hawks and archenemies of government to confront another of their recent public crusades.

Read the Rest Here

Never Forget

By now you probably know that Mitt Romney is refusing to answer reporters' questions regarding his suddenly infamous stance on FEMA offered last year. Today at Romney's "relief rally" in, of course, Ohio, this was the one-sided exchange that occurred between campaign journalists and Romney:

"'Governor, are you going to eliminate FEMA?' a print pooler shouted, receiving no response.

Wires reporters asked more questions about FEMA that were ignored.

Romney kept coming over near pool to pick up more water. He ignored these questions:

'Governor, are you going to see some storm damage?'

'Governor, has Chris Christie invited you to come survey storm damage?'

'Governor, you've been asked 14 times. Why are you refusing to answer the question?'"

But it's right about now that I think Romney, Ryan and the rest of the Republican deficit-hawks and archenemies of government and those supposedly frivolous "entitlements" it dispenses should be forced to face another of their recent public crusades. Over the past two years we've seen something unprecedented in conservative politics: the outright demonization of once-revered government employees, including teachers, police and firefighters. Police. And firefighters. You know -- first-responders. The people who were out there last night risking their lives to save others as Hurricane Sandy pummeled places like New York, New Jersey and Maryland.

This unconscionable show of disrespect has manifested itself in the dismissal of the 9/11 first-responders aid bill as "a massive new entitlement program"; the crushing of teachers' collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin; the reduction of pension payments to firefighters and the laying off of thousands of police officers in, ironically, New Jersey; and a general willingness to insult local and state workers as being an overpaid burden on the middle class.

In fact, it was only four months ago that Mitt Romney said this:

"(President Obama) wants to hire more government workers. He says we need more fireman, more policeman, more teachers. Did he not get the message of Wisconsin? The American people did. It's time for us to cut back on government and help the American people."

Uh-huh.

If yours was one of the 70 homes on fire last night in Breezy Point, Queens, those government employees stared down 80-mile-an-hour winds, waded through waist-deep water and used row boats to save your ass. They carried you down ten flights of stairs in the dark if you were a patient at NYU's Langone Medical Center and needed to be evacuated because the entire complex had lost power. They patrolled flooded streets in the blinding rain, cracking open cars in Lower Manhattan to make sure you weren't drowning in one of them.

They did their jobs -- and as usual, they did them exceptionally.

Show a little fucking respect, Mitt.

Quote of the Day, Jr.

"What you are going to see over the next week is an overt effort by Democrats to politicize the issue of disaster response. They’re right to do it. Conservatives are already complaining about this, but the attempt to wall disaster response off from politics in the aftermath of a disaster is an attempt to insulate Republicans from the consequences of their policies... The GOP is the party arguing for splurging on a long vacation at the beach rather than repairing the roof. Naturally, they want to have this argument only when it’s sunny and never when it’s raining. There’s no reason to accommodate them."

-- New York Magazine's Jonathan Chait on why it's essential for the Democrats to use Hurricane Sandy to point out the political differences between President Obama and Mitt Romney

I'm not sure I can add anything to that.

Chris Cross

Politically, this really is the quote and image of the day: ardent Romney supporter Chris Christie addressing Fox News's couch-of-dingbats this morning and enthusiastically praising Barack Obama's response to Hurricane Sandy. He's so effusive, in fact, that it's actually a little uncomfortable to watch because you keep waiting for the screen to suddenly go to color bars or a "Please Stand By" slate as you hear Roger Ailes storming into the studio in the background shouting, "What the fuck is going on?!"

It's sad that what should be standard operating procedure -- leaders of different political stripes coming together during a time of crisis -- seems so shocking in our current political climate. Either way, this kind of pro-Obama PR on Fox News, of all outlets, is exactly what the Romney camp doesn't need right now. Although Romney's in Ohio today staging a "flood drive," because apparently, as Cesca said last night on Twitter, Ohio is Manhattan's route to the sea.

The Pulpit Bullies

Today's column for the Daily Banter takes a look at what a vote for Mitt Romney inadvertently rewards: the scorched-earth, hostage-taking politics of the right.

Here's the opening shot:

"One of the realities of modern politics that I’ve never been able to get my head fully around is the desperate desire of the right to revel in the suffering of its political adversaries. I get that I shouldn’t be surprised by it, since it’s the traditional behavioral pattern of most schoolyard bullies, but it’s still always seemed staggeringly unproductive — not to mention dangerous for the country — to rally around a cause or candidate solely because doing so “pisses off liberals.” Things like hypocrisy, the naked contradiction of previously embraced views and the potential detriment to self-interest don’t even enter the conservative thought process these days so long as something provides an opportunity to point and laugh. I think this goes to the argument that modern conservatives seem to be interested only in power for power’s sake, while just about everyone else across the political spectrum is interested in actually governing; it doesn’t matter if they act like children because they’re not really in it to make a difference anyway. Mitt Romney is, in many ways, the living embodiment of this cynical political ethos — or at the very least the current world champion of exploiting it."

Read the Rest Here

Quote of the Day

"Mitt Romney is a very different candidate, one with the vision and determination to cut through business-as-usual politics and finally put this country back on the path to the zombie apocalypse."

-- Joss Whedon, who, I believe now more than ever, is god

True Believers

As promised, today's column over at the Daily Banter has to do with Richard "Howling Mad" Mourdock and his BFF, Mitt Romney.

Here's an excerpt:

"Mourdock’s status as one of the new breed of unpolished, ideologically pure Tea Party darlings that have seized the imagination of the right over the past four years — make no mistake, in direct response to the election of Barack Obama — is really what’s at the center of this latest mess for the GOP. He’s like a child. He doesn’t know any better. He just blurts out what’s on his mind. Mourdock’s the picture of unfiltered conservative sincerity. And that’s what allowed him to wipe the floor with longtime Indiana Republican Senator Dick Lugar back in May of this year: the fact that he appeals to the batshit crazy beliefs and superstitions of the base and, upon winning, immediately throws down the eliminationist gauntlet by declaring that his idea of bipartisanship in Washington is 'Democrats coming to the Republican point of view.' The no-longer-fringe right of today eats that crap up like soma."

Read the Rest Here

Adding:



That didn't take long at all. Boo-ya.

Howling Mad Mourdock

The Romney campaign has said that the above ad will continue running in support of Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock of Indiana -- this despite Mourdock being the latest Neanderthal idiot to make a really ill-advised comment about abortion. Surely you've heard by now, but Mourdock said Tuesday night that pregnancies resulting from rape are "something that God intended to happen," which echoes in a slightly more delicate manner Tea Party darling Sharron Angle's argument a couple of years back that a rape pregnancy was an opportunity to turn "a lemon situation into lemonade."

Look, don't be shocked by this. Don't be shocked at all. This is what the modern conservative movement believes, lock, stock and barrel -- Romney included. He may be trying to "distance himself" from Mourdock's comments, but he agrees with them entirely and so does his running-mate, Paul Ryan; any concession otherwise is made simply for the sake of political expediency (because an artful politician knows that you can think these things but you can't under any circumstances say them out loud). These people have ceded their ability to be reasonable and humane to the will of a magical deity they believe in to the point of madness and whose demands they expect everyone else to bend to as well.

Chances are this will be my next Banter column, so stay tuned.

Quote of the Day

"The multiculturalism movement must be unmasked for the fraud it is. There are superior cultures, and ours is one of them."

-- Mitt Romney, March 4th, 2010

Yeah, this quote is actually more than two years old, but I just happened to stumble across it while I was digging through the DXM archives looking for something. It's from Romney's book, No Apology: The Case for American Greatness..

Jesus, I wonder why Obama's kicking Romney's ass among Latino voters and just about anybody else not white and "real" American.

Misinformed Mitt

Today's column for the Daily Banter takes a look at what could very well be the cause of Mitt Romney's screw-up on Libya during last week's debate.

If this really is the case, it's definitely cause for concern and the best example yet of how media outlets that cater only to conservative biases are poisoning our politics.

Here's the opening shot:

"Last week on the Bob & Chez Show podcast that I do with him, Bob Cesca brought up a fantastic point about the second presidential debate that I have to admit I’m ashamed I hadn’t considered myself. It had to do with Mitt Romney’s epic blunder on Libya, wherein he tried to call Barack Obama out for supposedly lying about how long it took to label the deadly attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi an act of terror. Romney really thought Obama had walked into a bear trap by bringing the whole thing up, since as far as Romney was concerned it took 14 days for the president to call the attack terrorism, but in short order he found that it was he himself who’d carelessly stumbled into the trap, since his attempted 'gotcha' moment was debunked on the spot by debate moderator Candy Crowley; the truth was that Obama had called the incident an 'act of terror' almost immediately after it happened.

The question is, why was Romney so sure he was right? Why was he 100% confident that Obama hadn’t, in fact, mentioned terrorism following the Libya attack until two weeks after the fact?"

Read the Rest Here

Battle Royale

Today's column for the Daily Banter of course deals with last night's debate -- a debate for which Barack Obama was apparently coached by Samuel L. Jackson -- and its aftermath.

Here's an excerpt:

"On that subject there was my favorite post-debate quote of the night, one of those statements that’s so awe-inspiringly hypocritical that it leaves you stunned that there are still new depths of bullshit to plumb in American politics. After the whole thing was over, Romney campaign manager Stuart Stevens said about Obama, 'He tried to do a somewhat charmless version of Joe Biden, but I don’t think it worked particularly well. When you saw a different Al Gore in every debate, I think people find that disconcerting. One thing they want in a president is a steadiness and a dependability. They see a person one week ago and they see a different person tonight, and they think, what’s next?' Given that Stevens works for Mitt Romney, the most rawly cynical and opportunistic political cipher our system has ever had to suffer through, this is the kind of comment that makes you wish there was a disappointed Bond villain nearby who could pull a lever and suddenly drop him into a tank full of sharks."

Read the Rest Here

Attitude Adjustment

Today's column for the Daily Banter, not surprisingly, has to do with last night's presidential debate and what it means for Mitt Romney, Barack Obama and all of us.

Despite lying his ass off, Romney scored big in Denver. The question now: What effect will it have on the campaign?

Here's an excerpt:

"I’ve been saying for a while now that premature gloating on the part of Democrats probably isn’t wise since, despite the growing lead Obama’s opened up recently and the momentum his campaign has enjoyed, there’s still enough time before election day for everything to change. Yes, it’s unlikely, as we’re constantly reminded by those who study the polls carefully, understand conventional wisdom inherently and know election year history like some people know NFL stats. But here’s the thing: This race isn’t like any we’ve seen before. Why? Because our national political climate isn’t like any that’s come before."

Read the Rest Here

Creepy and Weird

Today's column for the Daily Banter takes a look at Shepard Smith's stark assessment of our national political climate come to utter fruition.

He called it -- and Mitt Romney is proving him right.

Here's the opening shot:

"The closer we get to the November election — the more pronounced and desperate the entirely contrived machinations from the various candidates become as time ticks inexorably toward the moment of truth — the more I can’t help but keep the brilliant words of Shepard Smith in mind. You’ll remember he said back in May of this year, in a moment of absolute, blank-faced clarity, 'Politics is weird. And creepy. And now I know lacks even the loosest attachment to anything like reality.' At the time, what led him to this stark assessment was an official statement issued by Mitt Romney which attempted to follow up one of the most vicious and bitter grudge matches in Republican intra-party politics with a seemingly benign and even friendly 'no hard feelings' directed toward Newt Gingrich, who had just dropped out of the presidential race..."

Read the Rest Here

Quote of the Day

"Romney is an almost perfect amalgam of all the great out-of-touch douchebags of our national cinema: he's Greg Marmalard from Animal House mixed with Billy Zane's sneering, tux-wearing Cal character in Titanic to pussy-ass Prince Humperdinck to Roy Stalin to Gordon Gekko (he's literally Gordon Gekko). He's everything we've been trained to despise, the guy who had everything handed to him, doesn't fight his own battles and insists there's only room in the lifeboat for himself – and yet the Democrats, for some reason, have had terrible trouble beating him in a popularity contest."

-- Matt Taibbi, in a piece which wonders why Barack Obama, while pulling ahead in almost every poll, isn't completely obliterating Mitt Romney

A Better Off Dead reference.

For that, Taibbi has my eternal love and respect.

This Means War

Today's column for the Daily Banter expands a little on something I alluded to yesterday: the conservative media's reaction to the secret recordings of Mitt Romney. The reality is that they can barely hide their giddiness at the prospect of finally getting the war of ideas they've always wanted.

Here's an excerpt:

"Rush Limbaugh’s claim is not only that Mitt Romney is right in his assessment that there’s a steadily growing 'taker' class in this country which is content to sit on its ass and leech off the supposed hard work of the 'makers,' but that it’s an argument that should’ve been front-and-center in the presidential race from the very beginning. In the minds of Limbaugh and the rest of the far-right, the only thing stopping the rallying cry of the resentful from being shouted from the rooftops has been a lack of balls on the part of Romney, who obviously and somewhat wisely considered such stridency to be politically toxic. But now, thanks to Romney being forced out into the open and put in a position where he really has no choice but to cop to what he espouses when he thinks the cameras are off, the most important debate to be had in this election is actually possible."

Read the Rest Here