Day: November 10, 2011
Obama’s Approval Rising Among Independents
Andrew Sullivan, a former Republican-sympathizer who is now an independent, notes:
That’s a hell of a swing – from minus 21 to even in two months. And, remember, Obama does better against the actual Republican candidates.
It’s not, in my view, because Obama is performing well as a communicator. It’s because the GOP is revealing itself as unfit for governing responsibility. Once again, Obama’s opponents self-destruct. Of course there’s a long, long way to go, and Romney could beat Obama next year if he is the candidate and the economy dives after Europe swoons. But still: this is a pretty damning indictment of an opposition party when a president has a 9 percent unemployment rate and paltry growth. The last two months, as the GOP has put its candidates on display and as its congressional obstructionism has deepened, have been dreadful for the Republicans. Maybe they’ll learn after Tuesday’s votes. But maybe they can’t.
Cain’s ‘Princess Nancy’ Remark Unmasked His Mysogyny
Jonathan Chait on Herman Cain at the debate in Michigan:
At one point Herman Cain answered a health care question by referring contemptuously to Nancy Pelosi as “Princess Nancy,” misogyny dripping from every syllable. In that one ugly phrase — and it was all in the delivery — he ripped the mask off his cornpone persona and revealed the ugly interior.
There’s something about the dismissiveness of it that seemed to strike women the wrong way. Consider the instant Twitter reaction of Dana Perino, the former spokeswoman for George W. Bush and a conservative in good standing: “Ay yi yi, former Speaker Pelosi called a princess in the debate? Not fair. We may disagree on policy, but she earned the Speaker title.”
Herman Cain says he ‘probably shouldn’t have said Princess Nancy’ during the latest presidential debate. Ya think?
…But that’s where the modern day GOP is. This is the party of Rush Limbaugh, who grossly mispronounces one of the Cain accuser’s name, and throws in some slurping sounds just to up the hurl factor … It’s the party of John Derbyshire, who says women shouldn’t be allowed to vote because they’re too soft hearted and let Democrats get elected. It’s the party where women like Laura Ingraham and Ann Coulter make money bashing fellow women for daring to stand up to sexual harassers like Clarence Thomas and apparently, Herman Cain, and where meanness and downright nastiness is what is most valued in a female commentator (look at who rises to the top on the right: Coulter, Ingraham, Michele Malkin…)
McCain Predicts Rise of Third Party
Unless both parties change, then I think that it’s an inevitability. We aren’t doing anything for the people.
— Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), predicting a third political party will emerge in response to Americans’ economic frustrations and said it might as well be called “the Fed-Up Party,” Reuters reports.
Memory Lapse Collapse
By his sixth debate, you’d think Rick Perry would be free
Of the perception that he can’t debate effectively.
But when stating his vision for smaller government,
He couldn’t recall the name of the energy department.
But hey, give him credit — he did get two out of three!
