Sandbagging

Adding (0.00 / 0)

If I were a political leader (a governor or president, in particular), I would be undermining the notion that a chief executive can save or damage an economy. No one truly understands the economy. We should judge our leaders by how they deal with the inevitable down times and how they invest surpluses when we have them.

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by: JimC @ Thu Apr 16, 2009 at 09:37:43 AM CDT

Time will tell but... (4.00 / 4)

Time will tell if any of the theatrics of yesterday moved Americans toward their rhetoric.

Off hand, I don't think it will work.

Every rally (and boy NH was among the worst offenders) came across as a gathering of completely unhinged. Their words and signs have no connection to reality and I think the American people get it.

April 15, 2009 may have been the last gasp of a dying wackadoo fringe element of society. I think the vast majority of the people realize that the hateful words spewing about the President prove beyond a shadow of doubt they are nuttycakes.

2012 starts today.

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by: Ray Buckley @ Thu Apr 16, 2009 at 10:18:17 AM CDT

Mostly agree (0.00 / 0)

I sometimes worry about a tinfoil effect. People wearing tin hats try to wrap them around the president. Maybe the individual messages don't stick, because of the hysteria, but they slowly chip away. It's almost llke, He must be doing something bad. Look how much those people hate him.

You can't lose sleep over the crazies, though (any more than we already do).

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by: JimC @ Thu Apr 16, 2009 at 10:52:24 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

this is not (4.00 / 5)

any kind of an organized or coherent movement. These are angry people who don't really even  understand what they're angry about, they don't have a grasp of facts  - they're just pissed off. Great for a mob, but not so much for a movement.  

member of the professional left  

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by: susanthe @ Thu Apr 16, 2009 at 10:25:29 AM CDT

And (4.00 / 1)

Great for the media. Which seems more and more like the point.

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by: JimC @ Thu Apr 16, 2009 at 10:49:10 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Everything old is Jung again. (4.00 / 2)

Bad things are happening
 and the world is changing
   in ways that we can't control
     and don't understand,
       and we are fearful,
         and our fear makes us angry,
           and there has to be some malign force behind all these changes,
because you can't be angry at nothing, only at something,
 and whatever it is it has to be the enemy
   of the things we love
     and the truths that comfort us
       and the beliefs we were raised in,
         and why do they hate us,
           why do they want to destroy our rights, our birthrights?  
How is that not malice and tyranny?  
How can we not fight that with tooth and nail and gun?
Just point the way so we can fight it.
Please,
    won't somebody point the way?

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by: Tim C. @ Thu Apr 16, 2009 at 12:31:00 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Don't understand what they're angry about, for sure (0.00 / 0)

My response to these people who say things like "Obama is tearing up the Constitution!  He's turning this country into a dictatorship!" is - ?? We had the torturing people in secret prisons stuff, and the government spying on its own people, but now is the point you're concerned about shades of "dictatorship"?

They usually look at me blankly and appear to think that "torturing people in secret prisons" refers to Gitmo or something.

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by: Vis Unita Fortior @ Thu Apr 16, 2009 at 20:01:56 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Fringe (4.00 / 2)

Talking Points Memo has a good piece upabout the fringe elements at work yesterday, particularly in Texas:

As they struggle to find political footing, rump Republicans, (even the formerly mainstream among them) are beginning to dabble in right wing extremism. That's not hyperbole. Indeed, you need look no further than Texas Gov Rick Perry, who seems to have gotten a bit carried away yesterday at a Tea Party Protest in Austin. "We've got a great union," Perry said, "There's absolutely no reason to dissolve it."

But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that. But Texas is a very unique place, and we're a pretty independent lot to boot."

This is illustrative, I think, of a problem that, in the United States at least, seems to particularly afflict conservatives--specifically, that even brief electoral reverses lead mainstream Republican politicians (like Perry), and members-in-good-standing of the conservative movement to find it difficult to steer clear of the line between loyal opposition and truly fringe ideas.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo...

Some (not all) elements of the Republican Party are adopting increasingly whacko fringe positions, in order to gin up their base in a dangerous fashion. Barack Obama was elected in open, democratic elections, and these types of Republicans don't want to accept the results. Talk like Perry's borders on anti-Americanism, and is an attack on the very fundamentals of our democratic processes. Compare that to Al Gore, who, after the election was stolen in 2000, went on tv and said, time to put this behind us and accept the results.  He was heroic; Perry is dope-ic.  

I don't know what the relationship is anymore, but his number one political advisor used to be David Carney, he who ran draft Sununu back in 2002, he who paid to have petitions solicited to place Nader on the ballot in 2004, he who worked for John H. Sununu in both the State House and the White House.  



"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt    

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by: Kathy Sullivan 2 @ Thu Apr 16, 2009 at 12:50:59 PM CDT

Fighting the urge to agree (4.00 / 1)

I really want to believe the other party is rational, or that in its confused, post-loss state, the fringe elements stand out. The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity. (Quoted without aid of Google, I could be off by a word or two.)

But all the evidence supports your point.

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by: JimC @ Thu Apr 16, 2009 at 13:21:11 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Carney is still with Perry (4.00 / 2)

ccording to recent news reports, Carney is still consulting for Rick Perry.
http://www.newsmax.com/politic...

Am I wrong, or did John H. Sununu say he was going to involve Carney in the NHGOP when he became chair? Does John H. Sununu support this crazy talk that Carney's guy in Texas is spouting?



"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt    

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by: Kathy Sullivan 2 @ Thu Apr 16, 2009 at 13:43:59 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

What could possibly go wrong? (0.00 / 0)

OT, but I see no open thread.

In a new YouTube video, [Ron] Paul advocates a return to the days when Congress issued letters of marque, which give privateers government permission to hunt down pirates. The letters are authorized by the Constitution, and were used frequently in the country's early days. Not so much since, however.

The congressman believes this would be cheaper than using the U.S. military, and that it would have a deterrent effect as well. "I think if every potential pirate knew this would be the case, they would have second thoughts because they could probably be blown out of the water rather easily if those were the conditions," Paul said in the video.

http://www.salon.com/politics/...

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by: JimC @ Thu Apr 16, 2009 at 14:10:41 PM CDT

It's a great idea (4.00 / 2)

I've been trying to find something to do after I graduate and the prospects for a would be pirate hunter sound promising.

The pirates carry all their cash prizes with them when they're at sea, right? Right? Oh.

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by: Alex Gallichon @ Thu Apr 16, 2009 at 15:33:01 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Win-win (0.00 / 0)

I said to someone earlier that this will solve unemployment for some people, 'cause a lot of these bozos will get killed.

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by: JimC @ Thu Apr 16, 2009 at 15:36:22 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

New AE Series (0.00 / 0)

Dog The Pirate Hunter.

Shivver me timbers, bruddah.

Whack-a-mole, anyone?

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by: Jack Mitchell @ Thu Apr 16, 2009 at 16:12:03 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

The Saga Continues. (4.00 / 3)

Joe the Plumber Campaign Savior Journalist Privateer.

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by: Tim C. @ Thu Apr 16, 2009 at 16:42:10 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Don't let Fox off the hook. (0.00 / 0)

They called them "FNC Tea Parties", and they sent their hosts to headline them.  You can't say they had nothing to do with the protests if the crowds are being drawn by their media figures.

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by: This Was The Moment @ Thu Apr 16, 2009 at 18:28:37 PM CDT

Not my intention n/t (4.00 / 1)

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by: JimC @ Thu Apr 16, 2009 at 20:08:34 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Next year they will shoot cookies (0.00 / 0)

Joe Scarborough had this take:

"You look at these huge rallies, and I'm not going to mention names of people on networks that made sexual jokes, childish sexual jokes, about tens of thousands of Americans who went out and wanted to get involved in their government. I mean, it was really middle school jokes being made. I didn't hear those jokes being made when people on the left protested over the past eight years. And I would expect that from bloggers on the left. I would expect more than that from news outlets and it happened on several networks yesterday."

Joe didn't "mention names," but we will - Anderson Cooper, Rachel Maddow, David Shuster and Keith Olbermann. Did we miss any?

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvn...

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by: JimC @ Fri Apr 17, 2009 at 08:55:51 AM CDT