tagged w/ Presidential Candidates
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2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney carries some heavy baggage. From the millions stashed in the Cayman Islands, Swiss bank accounts and elsewhere...2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney carries some heavy baggage. From... more
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So Suddenly a Fun Candidate, starring Rick Santorum, is mostly a feel-good romp through two decades of conservative tropes in service to hailing the skills and bonafides of a schoolmarmish ultra-hard-right conservative whose only human emotion seems to be that of antagonistic prig in dire need of someone to lecture. If this is the conservative idea of a fun fellow, then I shudder to think what the average pastimes of Republican America might look like.
HERE follows sentence by 'idea' dissection.
Apparently there is simply no such thing as extreme, in Republicanism. There's not a damn thing that would count, and no end to the embarrassing crackpots to be held up as new exemplars of the movement. That Michele Bachmann was considered anyone, or Palin, or Cain, or the truly inexplicable Perry, or the once-disgraced Gingrich, who apparently has the remarkable superpower of making nearly everyone he has ever worked with hate his everloving guts; what a gallery of misfits.
http://tinyurl.com/6q5ohouSo Suddenly a Fun Candidate, starring Rick Santorum, is mostly a feel-good romp... more
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LOrion
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1 month ago
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Gingrich, as well as Texas Gov. Rick Perry, did not meet the state's requirement of 10,000 signatures and, therefore, did not qualify for the ballot, the Virginia GOP said via Twitter.
Meanwhile, Mitt Romney and Ron Paul did qualify.
Virginia requires candidates to submit petitions with 10,000 signatures from registered Virginia voters. Additionally, 400 signatures must come from voters in each of the state's eleven congressional districts. Virginia holds its Republican primary on March 6.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/24/politics/gop-virginia-primary/index.html?hpt=hp_t1Gingrich, as well as Texas Gov. Rick Perry, did not meet the state's requirement... more
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The documents, which include harsh, prejudiced attacks against the black community, are evidence of a libertarian movement trying to find an audience.
So as Ron Paul is on track to win the Iowa caucuses, he is getting a new dose of press scrutiny.
And the press is focusing on the newsletters that went out under his name in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They were called the Ron Paul's Political Report, Ron Paul's Freedom Report, the Ron Paul Survival Report and the Ron Paul Investment Letter.
There is no doubt that the newsletters contained utterly racist statements.
Some choice quotes:
"Given the inefficiencies of what DC laughingly calls the criminal justice system, I think we can safely assume that 95 percent of the black males in that city are semi-criminal or entirely criminal."
"We are constantly told that it is evil to be afraid of black men, it is hardly irrational."
After the Los Angeles riots, one article in a newsletter claimed, "Order was only restored in L.A. when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks."
One referred to Martin Luther King Jr. as "the world-class philanderer who beat up his paramours" and who "seduced underage girls and boys."
Another referred to Barbara Jordan, a civil rights activist and congresswoman as "Barbara Morondon," the "archetypical half-educated victimologist."
Other newsletters had strange conspiracy theories about homosexuals, the CIA, and AIDS.
In 1996 when the Texas Monthly investigated the newsletters, Paul took responsibility for them and said that certain things were taken out of context. (It's hard to imagine a context that would make the above quotes defensible.)
[snip]
When the newsletter controversy came up again during the 2008 campaign, Paul explained that he didn't actually write the newsletters but because they carried his name he was morally responsible for their content. Further, he didn't know exactly who wrote the offensive things and they didn't represent his views.
But it is still a serious issue. Jamie Kirchick reported in The New Republic that Paul made nearly one million dollars in just one year from publishing the newsletters. Could Paul really not understand the working of such a profitable operation?
[snip]
Undoubtedly the movement that Paul inspired has moved far beyond the race-baiting it engaged in two decades ago. Young people from college campuses aren't lining up to hear him speak because of what appeared in those newsletter about the 1992 L.A. riots. Rand Paul tried his hardest to place Paul-style libertarianism into the context of the Tea Party. And he will likely carry on the movement without this 1990s baggage.
But the questions remain. If Ron Paul is so libertarian that he won't even police people who use his name, if his movement is filled with incompetents and opportunists, then what kind of a president would he make? Would he even check in to see if his ideas are being implemented? Who would he appoint to Cabinet positions?
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So, in 1996 he did not deny writing them, but twelve years later he did... I wouldn't trust that man half the distance that I can throw the Eiffel Tower in Paris.The documents, which include harsh, prejudiced attacks against the black community,... more
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August 16, 2011 1:31 pm ET
Right-wing media attacked President Obama for traveling on buses that reportedly cost $1.1 million each on his bus tour through the Midwest. But Secret Service officials have said the buses will pay for themselves over time [and have also said there has been "demonstrated need for [the buses] for some time" [http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2011/08/15/139652118/a-different-kind-of-party-bus-for-obama]; additionally, the buses will be available to the eventual Republican nominee during the 2012 election, as well as future presidents.
Drudge Hypes Cost Of Tour: "Armored Buses Cost $2.2 Million." On August 15, the Drudge Report posted a series of links [http://www.drudgereportarchives.com/data/2011/08/16/20110816_020417.htm] about Obama's bus tour beneath a picture of one of the armored buses, including a link to an April 21 Politico post about their then-projected "$2.2 million" cost: [Drudge Report Archives, 8/15/11]
AFP: "The Service ... Reason[ed] That The Initial Total Outlay Of 2.2 Million Dollars For Two Buses Would Soon Pay For Itself Over A Projected 10-Year Lifespan." An August 15 Agence France-Presse (AFP) article stated:
The US leader swept onto the campaign trail Monday with a sleek and even sinister looking set of wheels with blacked out windows worth $1.1 million.
The shiny, black armored bus, bristling with secret communications technology, with flashing police-style red and blue lights on the front and the back, made its debut on Obama's three-day tour of Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois.
The vehicle was commissioned by the Secret Service, which has always hired buses for election campaigns and retrofitted them to provide suitable protection for presidents and rival party nominees.
But the Service decided to commission its own vehicles, reasoning that the initial total outlay of 2.2 million dollars for two buses would soon pay for itself over a projected 10-year lifespan. [Agence France-Presse, 8/15/11, via Google News]
Secret Service Spokesman Ed Donovan: "The Reality Is That We're Overdue For Having This Type Of Protective Asset In Our Fleet." From the April 21 TPM article:
"We've never been fully comfortable with the security provided by a bus we lease and then try to retro-fit," Secret Service spokesman Jim Mackin told TPM.
"This would be just like other vehicles we're adding to our fleet," Mackin said. "We'd use them for the campaign, but they're not for campaign purposes. They would be part of our fleet -- just like our limos, just like our follow-ups, just like our emergency vehicles."
[...]
"The reality is that we're overdue for having this type of protective asset in our fleet," Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan told TPM. [Talking Points Memo, 4/21/11]
Donovan: "Designing Our Own Vehicle Really Gave Us A Level Of Security Which We Don't Get When We Lease A Bus." The TPM article further stated:
[Donovan said,] "We've had protectees in buses since at least 1980, Ronald Reagan, Gov. Reagan, was in a bus during the campaign. It's overdue because designing our own vehicle really gave us a level of security which we don't get when we lease a bus."
In the past, the Secret Service has enhanced the security features of buses leased by presidential campaigns, and they say having their own secure buses that can be used during campaign trips just makes more sense.
"If we have a candidate who has leased a bus and we're going to be protecting that candidate, we're going to look to enhance the security of that vehicle," Donovan said. "This is just the next step, and as I said, something that we're overdue for." [Talking Points Memo, 4/21/11 http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/obama-to-use-new-secret-service-bus-on-campaign-trail.php]
Donovan: "We Have Demonstrated The Need For These Buses Going Back To 1980." The August 15 AFP article stated: " 'We have demonstrated the need for these buses going back to 1980,' said Ed Donovan, a Secret Service spokesman, recalling the days when future president Ronald Reagan stormed the country by bus." [AFP, 8/15/11, via Google News http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g2Jxv8XiM1FRcsCIM9Nvz_X5z0iA?docId=CNG.5546416fb2b33bb880d4246e81a40a68.6c1]August 16, 2011 1:31 pm ET
Right-wing media attacked President Obama for traveling... more
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—-or-presidents/
Mitt Romney would have us believe that a proven track record of running a successful business will produce similar results in the White House. It’s a message that resonates well with voters who often lament that government should run more like a business. It sounds good in theory, but how it plays out in practice is a different story.
Leadership in the public sector requires a different skill set than in the business world. CEOs can put their initiatives into action without having to negotiate and broker deals with legislatures and without worrying about transparency, public opinion polls and re-election.—-or-presidents/
Mitt Romney would have us believe that a proven track record... more
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srpr
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3 months ago
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Video at the Link
Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry's campaign is facing meltdown after one of the most humiliating debate performances in recent US political history.
His chances of securing the Republican nomination slipped after one painful minute in which he could not recall the name of a government department he is planning to kill off.
Perry reeled off two of the three departments he wants to axe, but could not remember the third. Some Perry supporters declared his campaign over and suggested he head back to Texas to focus on his job as governor.
Perry, conscious of the damage he has done to his chances, came out to face the media in the spin-room immediately afterwards rather than leaving it, as is normal, to his press staff. "I'm sure glad I had my boots on because I sure stepped in it out there," he said.
The Republican presidential debate in Rochester, Michigan, had been predicted to be dominated by the sexual allegations against one of his rivals, Herman Cain. Instead Cain escaped unscathed and all the focus was on Perry's gaffe.
Perry's moment of embarrassment came when he was asked about one of the main planks of his policy for cutting federal spending, the elimination of three departments.
"It's three agencies of government when I get there that are gone: commerce, education, and the uh ... what's the third one, there? Let's see." He went on to say: "The third one. I can't." He made it worse by adding: "Oops."
Fifteen minutes later he attempted to undo the damage, saying: "By the way that was the department of energy I was reaching for a while ago." But it was too late.
Although he has millions of dollars in campaign funds accumulated it will be hard for him to recover. A Perry donor sent a tweet to the Washington Post: "Perry campaign is over. Time to go home."
Larry Sabato, profesor of politics at the University of Virginia, tweeted too almost immediately on seeing Perry stumble. "To my memory Perry's forgetfulness is the most devastating moment of any modern primary."
Perry's brain freeze, reminiscent of some of the awkwardness associated with George Bush, was shown live on television nationwide and will be shown repeatedly over the next few days.
He was already struggling in the polls, having dropped from frontrunner status to single-digit figures. He alienated many Republicans when he described as heartless anyone who did not agree with his relatively liberal approach to the children of illegal immigrants.
He had been talking before this debate about pulling out of future ones, an acknowledgment that he is a poor performer.
Cain, asked afterwards if Perry was finished, was charitable. "I would not say that. The American people can be very forgiving," he told NBC, which hosted the debate.
Cain acknowledged the last 10 days had been rough as he faced allegations from four women of sexual harassment. Although the debate bad been billed as primarily about economics, one of the journalists on the panel asked him about the allegations.
The mainly Republican audience booed the journalist for raising the issue and applauded Cain when he complained of being tried in the court of public opinion.
There were further boos from the audience when the journalist asked Mitt Romney, the former government of Massachusetts, about the allegations. He sidestepped the question, to applause from the audience.
Romney gave another confident, calm performance that will have cemented his frontrunner status. With Cain facing the sex allegations and Perry's campaign in deep trouble Romney's chances of securing the nomination increased on Wednesday night.
Although there is resistance to him among rightwingers, he is doing much better and is more relaxed than he was in 2008 when he lost out in the race for the nomination to John McCain.
The former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is at present in third place in the polls and could face scrutiny over his role as a consultant to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the organisations that provided the mortgages to those with poor credit ratings, precipitating the economic slump.
The organisations hired consultants and lobbyists to avoid federal regulation.
During the debate Gingrich claimed he had warned Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac against giving out such mortgages. He received $300,000 in 2006 for his consultancy role.
The other candidates on the stage failed to make any significant impression.Video at the Link
Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry's campaign is... more
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pdy
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3 months ago
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“(I)f anyone will not work, neither should he eat,” Bachmann said.
What this Republican presidential candidate is apparently overlooking, however, is that the number of job openings in the country is far, far less than the number of unemployed.
According to the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are 3.1 million job openings in the country.
The number of unemployed, though, is 13.9 million, says BLS. That’s more than four times greater than the number of jobs available.
Add in the fact that a majority of those 13.9 million Americans (52 percent) are not receiving any unemployment benefits whatsoever, and it stands apparent that Bachmann’s goal is already underway: they have no money to buy food to begin with.
http://www.rob-servations.com/1/post/2011/11/starve-the-unemployed-bachmann-says.html“(I)f anyone will not work, neither should he eat,” Bachmann said.... more
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Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann's paid campaign team in New Hampshire has jumped ship from her political operation, WMUR reports.
The news comes as only the latest bump in the road for the conservative congresswoman ahead of 2012. According to WMUR, five staffers left Bachmann's Granite State team.
After reports surfaced on the Bachmann campaign shake-up in New Hampshire, the GOP candidate told Radio Iowa, "That is a shocking story to me." She denied such changes to her Granite State team taking place and explained, "I don't know if this is just a bad story that’s being fed by a different candidate or campaign. I have no idea where this came from, but we've made calls and it’s certainly not true."
Ed Rollins stepped down as Bachmann's campaign manager last month and additional advisers to the presidential contender subsequently left her team.
Read more here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/21/michele-bachmann-2012-new-hampshire_n_1024036.html
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Based on this and the article on NPR today, nothing she has done has been successful. She needs to go home and be that submissive wife now and leave us alone!Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann's paid campaign team in New... more
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Imzadi
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4 months ago
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Help a Middle Class Presidential candidate receive press
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Sarah Palin has announced she won't be running for President. As if the country was waiting with baited breath for this media whore to waste our time again.
See front page story on CNN.com for details.Sarah Palin has announced she won't be running for President. As if the country... more
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JustZ
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4 months ago
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"Rachel Maddow Monday night eviscerated Rick Perry’s disavowal of the beliefs he wrote about in his nine-month old book, Fed Up! Perry now claims he never suggested social security is unconstitutional, blah, blah, blah… It’s in the book!" http://tinyurl.com/4xo8hc2"Rachel Maddow Monday night eviscerated Rick Perry’s disavowal of the... more
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LOrion
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6 months ago
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The Des Moines Register objected Friday to the Tim Pawlenty campaign sending an email blast with a portion of a front-page profile about the candidate that left out less-than-flattering paragraphs and an anecdote about a de-pantsing incident.
Register Managing Editor Randy Brubaker said the campaign distorted and excessively used the Register’s content without permission. Brubaker said the version of the article republished by the campaign – more than 20 paragraphs, highly edited – went beyond fair use and infringed on the news organization’s copyright.
The newspaper typically allows campaigns to reprint or reproduce three or four paragraphs, or about 200 words, of an article, Brubaker said. But it doesn’t allow selective editing within the excerpt.
The Pawlenty campaign’s “in case you missed it” media blast had the subject line: “Des Moines Register — Candidate profile: ‘You can be both nice and strong,’ says Tim Pawlenty.”
But the campaign left out the first two paragraphs of the article, which quoted a friend describing how Pawlenty, then a Minnesota state legislator, sneaked up and yanked down the fellow lawmaker’s pants as he stood at home plate during a baseball game a decade ago.
The campaign also deleted all references to how the former Minnesota governor raised the cigarette tax, allegedly ousted Republicans from the party for overriding one of his vetoes and used his executive powers in a way the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional.
The edited version removed all criticisms from fellow Republicans that raised questions about how he balanced the state’s budget and a classmate’s comment that his fantasy football teams were terrible.
“We promoted the full link and encouraged people to read the entire article,” Pawlenty spokesman Alex Conant said. “We simply provided excerpts.”
Friday evening the campaign sent a new email saying it was simply linking to the story — not excerpting — at the Register’s request.
http://caucuses.desmoinesregister.com/2011/08/05/register-objects-to-use-of-story-by-pawlenty-camp/
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He's toast. Now the rest of the country is learning what we Minnesotans have known for a long time. And he is Minnesota's worst Governor ever - can you imagine him being the GOP Presidential candidate? LOL!!!The Des Moines Register objected Friday to the Tim Pawlenty campaign sending an email... more
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Imzadi
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The Liberal Mob is a politically oriented blog with an obvious liberal slant and a vaguely irreverent attitude. We would like to promote common sense progressive approaches to the problems facing America and the world today. We reserve the right to blog about additional topics, especially on slow news days.
http://theliberalmob.blogspot.com/The Liberal Mob is a politically oriented blog with an obvious liberal slant and a... more
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Between Cain and Peter King, the GOP is officially the party of Islamophobes...
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Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain defended his statements on Muslims in a meeting with bloggers Saturday, saying he would allow a Muslim to enter his administration like anyone else -- even while he continued to say he would use special precautions to keep out terrorists.
In May, Cain said he would not allow a Muslim to work in his cabinet because of "creeping Shariah law." At the conservative Right Online conference Saturday, the presidential hopeful said he's not racist, but careful.
"I am not anti-Muslim. I am anti-terrorist," he said. "My statement has been misconstrued several times. I've even been called a bigot, because I've expressed a desire to be cautious if I were to consider a Muslim for my administration."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/18/herman-cain-muslims-right-online_n_879852.htmlBetween Cain and Peter King, the GOP is officially the party of Islamophobes...... more
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Imzadi
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8 months ago
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Last month, Meyers posted an open letter online challenging Bachmann to a constitutional debate.
"I have found quite a few of your statements regarding the Constitution of the United States, the quality of public school education and general U.S. civics matters to be factually incorrect, inaccurately applied or grossly distorted," Myers wrote. "As one of a handful of women in Congress, you hold a distinct privilege and responsibility to better represent your gender nationally. The statements you make help to serve an injustice to not only the position of Congresswoman, but women everywhere."
Several media outlets reported on Myers' challenge. As a result, she said, people have threatened violence against her and threatened to publish her address online, the Courier Post reports. Myers' high school has also reportedly received inquiries regarding Myers' letter.
"A lot of them are calling me a whore," Myers said of the online remarks against her. Added her father Wayne Myers: "I personally did not think there would be a reaction like actual stalking and the vitriol that's coming out."
Myers has also seen a good deal of positive feedback online. Bachmann's office has said it would not respond to the debate challenge.
As leader of the House Tea Party Caucus, Bachmann has expressed an unwavering commitment to the Constitution, even organizing classes on the Constitution for members of Congress. She's used her platform as a Tea Party leader to build a national profile and may soon enter the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
Yet as Bachmann becomes a more prominent political player, she has been subject to more scrutiny. Websites like Factcheck.org have dinged her for untruthful statements, such as the claim that Democrats "secretly" hid $105 billion in spending in the health care reform bill. She also dubiously claimed last year that President Obama's trip to Mumbai was costing $200 million per day.
In March, Bachmann claimed that the battle of Lexington and Concord, which began the Revolutionary War, took place in New Hampshire. That battle actually took place in Massachusetts.
She has also wrongly claimed that America's founding fathers "worked tirelessly until slavery was no more."
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Wow, a teenager gets mass threats for calling out Bachmann's bullshit. Just goes to show what kind of morons we have in this country when facts apparently don't matter, and you're willing to threaten violence against a high school student who has enough moxy to openly challenge a factually challenged congressmen for her outright ignorance regarding the very thing she claims to stand for.
I for one would enjoy watching this bimbo getting schooled by a 16 year old girl!Last month, Meyers posted an open letter online challenging Bachmann to a... more
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Reporting from Washington and New York -- Donald Trump, whose public flirtation with a presidential run has overshadowed the early stages of the Republican primary race, announced Monday that he will not be a candidate in 2012.
Speaking at an event to announce NBC's fall network lineup in New York, Trump said he would continue hosting his reality show, "Celebrity Apprentice."
"I will not be running for president, as much as I'd like to," he said.
In a statement, Trump said the decision "does not come easily or without a regret," and said that he believes that had he run, he could have won.
(more at link)Reporting from Washington and New York -- Donald Trump, whose public flirtation with a... more
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From the moment Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech electrified the Republican convention, she was seen as an unbending, hard-charging, red-meat ideologue—to which soon was added “thin-skinned” and “vindictive.” But a look at what Palin did while in office in Alaska—the only record she has—shows a very different politician: one who worked with Democrats to tame Big Oil and solve the great problem at the heart of the state’s politics. That Sarah Palin might have set the nation on a different course. What went wrong?
It’s hard to escape Sarah Palin. On Facebook and Twitter, cable news and reality television, she is a constant object of dispute, the target or instigator of some distressingly large proportion of the political discourse. If she runs for president—well, brace yourself! But there is one place where a kind of collective resolve has been able to push her aside, make her a less suffocating presence than almost everywhere else: Alaska.
During a week spent traveling there recently, I learned that Palin occupies a place in the minds of most Alaskans roughly like that of an ex-spouse from a stormy marriage: she’s a distant bad memory, and questions about her seem vaguely unwelcome. Visitors to Juneau, the capital and a haven for cruise-ship tourism, are hard-pressed to find signs of the state’s most famous citizen—no “Mama Grizzly” memorabilia or T-shirts bearing her spunky slogans. Although the town was buzzing with politics because the legislature was in session, talk of Palin mainly revolved around a rumored Democratic poll showing her to be less popular in Alaska right now than Barack Obama. The only tangible evidence I saw was her official portrait in the capitol and a small sign in the window of a seedy-looking gift shop advertising “Sarah Palin toilet paper.” Alaska has moved on.
So has Palin. Two years after abruptly resigning the governorship, she is a national figure, touring the country to promote her books; speaking out whenever moved to on important issues of the day; and serving, mainly through Fox News, as the guardian-enforcer of a particularly martial brand of conservatism. Though she still lives in Alaska, she has all but withdrawn from its public life, appearing only seldom and then usually to film her reality-television show, Sarah Palin’s Alaska.
But if she decides to run for the White House—and she’ll have to make up her mind soon—all of that will change. As much as Alaska might like to forget Sarah Palin, and she it, her record there, especially as governor, will take on new salience.
Full Article: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/06/the-tragedy-of-sarah-palin/8492/1/From the moment Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech electrified the Republican... more
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