Tag: Campaign 2012

Unemployment Rate Shows Improvement Despite Republicans’ Best Efforts

Jon Ponder

chart-unemployment-rate-thru-11-2011

Three polls released in November found that about half of those surveyed believed that Republicans have sabotaged the economic recovery. That they would deliberately stall economic growth — a betrayal of the interests of their constituents — is a measure of how debased the Republican Party has become since the tea party seized control.

There have been improvements in the job market, despite their best efforts. Jon Terbush suggests the slight but steady uptick may help the president in the campaign next year:

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Trump Has Snit Fit, May Quit As GOP Debate Moderator

Pensito Editors

[Michele Bachmann] came up to see me four times. She would call me and ask me for advice. She said if she wins, she would like to think about me for the vice presidency. Most importantly, I did a two-hour phone call for her with her people. … And after all that, she announced she was not going to do the debate. It’s called loyalty. How do you do that? It’s amazing to me.

– The Donald, explaining why he’s thinking of quitting as moderator of the December 27 GOP presidential debate hosted by birther website, Newsmax.

Rick Perry: Gay, Gay, Gay

Jon Ponder

The blowback from the hate-filled ad targeting Iowa’s Christian bigot voters that Rick Perry released this week has been pretty hilarious.

photos-rick-perry-teletubby-brokebackIt has spawned all sorts of parodies, including the video above, as well as a Tumblr site and a series of Photoshop jobs in which gay icons like Tinky Winky, the late Rev. Jerry Falwell’s favorite Teletubby, are superimposed behind Perry.

And speaking of gay icons, here is a Dept. of There Are No Accidents alert: In the ad, Perry is costumed in a jacket just like the one worn by Heath Ledger in “Brokeback Mountain.”

But the blowback hasn’t been all fun and games for Rick Perry. On Wednesday, Tony Fabrizio, team Perry’s pollster and strategist, was outed on Twitter — “twouted?” — by Jimmy LaSalvia and Chris Barron, prominent members of GOProud, a Stockholm-syndrome support group for gay Republicans:

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Romney Admits He Has a ‘Limited Understanding of the Economy’

Jon Ponder

Steve Benen:

This exchange, from Mitt Romney’s chat with the editorial board of the Washington Examiner, seems like the sort of thing that might come back to haunt the former governor.

TIM CARNEY: The European Union might be on the verge of an economic meltdown and the U.S. is already getting involved at least indirectly. They opened the Fed window. The IMF, which we heavily fund, is sending money their way. Do you support this Fed and these IMF measures and, if this were still going on when you were inaugurated, what steps — what US aid — would you be willing to provide to Europe?

ROMNEY: Not much, because Europe is capable of solving Europe’s problems. I actually think that — I mean, I’m not an economist by training, but what limited understanding of the economy I have suggests it’s very difficult to cobble together Greece, Ireland, Italy and Germany with the same monetary policy and highly disparate fiscal policies. I don’t know how they hold it together. (Emphasis added.)

Gingrich Likely to Miss Filing Deadline in Ohio, Won’t Be on Primary Ballot in Missouri

Jon Ponder

photo-gingrich-downSigns are emerging that the campaign of GOP frontrunner and disgraced former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is in disarray. Gingrich, who has a reputation in Washington for being undisciplined, nearly missed the filing deadline to be on the New Hampshire primary ballot and then missed the deadline for Missouri’s primary altogether.

Even the Washington Times, a GOP propaganda sheet owned by the right-wing South Korean cult leader Sun Myung Moon, has taken notice:

“We are going to give it our damnedest. We are going to do everything in our capacity to meet this deadline,” Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammand said of the Ohio deadline. “As far as the next deadline, we’re on pace for everything else.”

Gingrich backers said the campaign could mount a write-in effort in Ohio if need be. But missing that state’s 4 p.m. Wednesday deadline would be the latest embarrassment for Mr. Gingrich’s organization.

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Bachmann Reminds Student That Gay Men Can Marry, As Long As They Marry Women – And She Should Know

Jon Ponder

From the first moment he burst onto the public stage with his jazzy hands, high-pitched feminine voice and sibilant s’es, Marcus Bachmann has registered at about an 11 on a scale of one to 10 on gaydars across the nation.

Marcus Bachmann
Marcus Bachmann
Adding fuel to rumors that he is closeted is the fact that he has made his living, in part, from one of the saddest rackets around: convincing gay Christians that they can be, or need to be, “cured.”

Here’s the rule, and you can take this to the bank: Heterosexuals who are secure about their own sexuality are not obsessed with homosexuality. People who are happily straight are apathetic about the mechanics of gay sex. They do not make it their life mission to suppress gay rights. They don’t spend every waking hour figuring out new ways to oppress gay people, and they never send their families out to picket funerals with signs that say, for example, “God Hates Fags.” And, especially, they don’t try to “cure” homosexuality with “pray away the gay” schemes like Bachmann’s.

Now, in the latest gaffe in her presidential campaign, Marcus’ wife, Michele, appears to have spilled the beans about their marriage. At a town hall in Waverly, Iowa, Rep. Bachmann was questioned about marriage equality by Jane Schmidt, a high school student:

JANE SCHMIDT: Then, why can’t same-sex couples get married?

BACHMANN: They can get married, but they abide by the same law as everyone else. They can marry a man if they’re a woman. Or they can marry a woman if they’re a man.

Hey, it worked for her, right?

Partial Transcript:

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Romney Self-Destructs During Softball Interview on Fox

Jon Ponder

The spin in the corporate media is that putative GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney wilted under tough questioning during a one-on-one interview with Fox News’ fake journalist, Brett Baier, earlier this week. But that is not what really happened. Baier lobbed a series of tough-sounding softball questions at Romney, but there were no “gotcha” questions. The topics he covered were predictable to anyone who has been following the GOP presidential campaign.

Romney should have been prepared with answers that deflected the implied criticism and steered the interview back onto his campaign talking points. That’s politics 101. Instead, Romney was defensive, over-used his fake laugh and even had the audacity to complain about being taken out of context less than a week after he approved an ad that deliberately took Pres. Obama out of context. His performance has been panned by pundits of all persuasions, and rightly so.

But it wasn’t because of Brett Baier’s hardball interview tactics. Not hardly.

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Oops! Michele Bachmann Promises to Close U.S. Embassy in Iran When She Is President

Jon Ponder

ABC News:

In light of the British Foreign Ministry pulling all U.K. nationals out of the British embassy in Tehran after students stormed the building in protest, GOP presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann told a crowd in Waverly, Iowa, today that she would close the U.S. embassy in Iran.

One small, tiny note: The U.S. hasn’t had an embassy in Tehran since 1980. Following the Iranian Hostage Crisis, where 52 Americans were held for 444 days, the United States cut all diplomatic ties.

According to reports, Bachmann applauded the U.K.’s move, adding, “That’s exactly what I would do [if I were president]. We wouldn’t have an embassy in Iran. I wouldn’t allow that to be there.”

Recall just a few weeks ago when Bachmann bragged to Fox News that she had a squeaky clean record.

“I haven’t had a gaffe or something that I’ve done that has caused me to fall in the polls,” she said.

Now — wait for it! — the walk-back:

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Rick Perry Turned 21 in 1971, the Year the Voting Age Was Lowered to 18

Pensito Editors

21

Age of Texas Gov. Rick Perry (b. March 4, 1950) on July 5, 1971, when Pres. Richard Nixon ceremonially certified ratification of the 26th Amendment to the Constitution, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18. In one of the most recent gaffes in his campaign for the GOP presidential nomination, Perry indicated he believed the voting age was still 21.