Monthly Archives: October 2012

Time for a Nate Silver Fix

Nate has become a combination blankie/pint of Haagen Daz for me.

He’s projecting that Obama will get 299 electoral votes on November 6, and Mitt will get 239.

He gives Obama a 77.4% chance of winning, and Mitt a 22.6% chance.

The right is so infuriated with Nate that they’ve labelled him with the worst insult they can think of — they’re not challenging his mathematical model, they’re calling him gay.  This comes from the paranoid nut job who started UnSkewedPolls.com.

Polls, Polls, Polls

The freshest polls, right out of the oven:

President Obama is up by 5 in Ohio, but by just 1 in Florida and 2 in Virginia (NYT/CBS).

President Obama is up by 4 in Pennsylvania (Franklin and Marshall).

President Obama is up by 5 in both Wisconsin and Iowa (PPP — leans Dem).

These are narrower leads than he’s had earlier in the race — you know, before the first debate.

Auto Makers’ Criticism Can’t Stop Mitt’s Lies

Something a little unusual here.  We expect to see the campaigns fighting with each other, but now the Romney campaign is fighting with GM and Chrysler, who have called Mitt out on his lying ads about the auto industry, including his false claim that jobs making Jeeps here will be moved to China.

The Romney campaign is dismissing the auto makers’ pushback and continuing their sleazy ads.  All they care about is winning Ohio, and one in eight jobs there is auto-related.

It’s hard to call something a new low in presidential campaigning, but this may be it.

Mitt has shown us that he believes the end justifies the means.  When he was running in Massachusetts, he got permission from the Mormon Church to lie about his position on abortion and pretend to be pro-choice, so long as he wouldn’t govern that way if elected.

Troubling, Very Troubling

Watching the Obama campaign send Bill Clinton to Minnesota and Joe Biden to Pennsylvania.

At this late date, you campaign in swing states and don’t waste time in solid states.  So you have to wonder how solid Minnesota and Pennsylvania are.

The Romney campaign claims they’re expanding the map not to get to 270, but to get to 300.  Since they lie about everything else, I sure hope they’re lying about this.

GM, Chrysler Hit Back at Lyin’ King Mitt

Both GM and Chrysler are hitting back at Mitt’s lies about the auto bailout in general and about Jeep moving U. S. jobs to China in particular.

GM says the Romney campaign is in a “parallel universe.”

It’s fine with me if he becomes president in that parallel universe, just not this one.

I can’t remember private companies calling out campaign ads for their lies in a presidential race before.

The “Post-Truth” Era

From Greg Sargent at The Plum Line blog, WaPo:

“Mitt Romney’s new television ad suggesting that the auto bailout will result in American jeep jobs getting shipped to China has been widely pilloried by news organizations, both nationally and in Ohio. The Romney campaign’s response: It is expanding the ad campaign.

“A Dem source familiar with ad buy info tells me that the Romney campaign has now put a version of the spot on the radio in Toledo, Ohio — the site of a Jeep plant.

“The move seems to confirm that the Romney campaign is making the Jeep-to-China falsehood central to its final push to turn things around in the state. The Romney campaign has explicitly said in the past that it will not let fact checking constrain its messaging, so perhaps it’s not surprising that it appears to be expanding an ad campaign based on a claim that has been widely pilloried by fact checkers.

“The move represents a gamble on Romney’s part. The audacity of this falsehood makes it easier for the Obama camp to raise doubts about Romney’s character, integrity, and honesty — and to make the case that Romney not only failed to support the bailout when Ohio needed it; he’s now lying extensively to cover it up. Yesterday in Ohio, Joe Biden slammed the Romney camp by saying: ‘Have they no shame?’

“As Steve Benen put it, this episode demonstrates more clearly than any other yet that Romney ‘believes we’ve entered a post-truth era and the disincentive has disappeared — he can repeat falsehoods with impunity without fear of consequences.’

“This falsehood is particularly pernicious — it plays on people’s fears for their livelihoods.

“Ultimately, this may be Romney’s only recourse. It’s the only response Romney has left to the fact that he got it wrong on a policy that helped save an industry linked to one in eight Ohio jobs, and Obama got it right. And who knows — it just might work for him.”  Emphasis added.

I, of course, hope Mitt loses, but I especially hope he loses big in Ohio.  He equates intelligence with wealth.  He thinks if you’re not rich like him, you must be stupid.

 

Frankly, My Dear Mitt, He Doesn’t Give a Damn

Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie:

“So I have to give the president great credit. He’s been on the phone with me three times in the last 24 hours. He’s been very attentive, and anything that I’ve asked for, he’s gotten to me. So, I thank the president publicly for that. He’s done — as far as I’m concerned — a great job for New Jersey.” 

Asked about touring storm damage with Mitt, Christie said this to the Three Stooges on Fox and Friends:

“I have no idea, nor am I the least bit concerned or interested.  I’ve got a job to do here in New Jersey that’s much bigger than presidential politics and I could [sic] care less about any of that stuff.  I’ve got 2.4 million people out of power, I’ve got devastation on the shore, I’ve got floods in the northern part of my state. If you think right now I give a damn about presidential politics then you don’t know me.”

 

Now This Is Just Sad

In the midst of the devastation and suffering from Sandy, narcissist extraordinaire Donald Trump is obsessed with that offer he made President Obama to release his college transcripts in exchange for a $5 million donation to charity.

If there’s one thing Trump can’t stand, like Glenn Close’s sick character in Fatal Attraction, it’s being ignored.

So because of Sandy, Trump is extending his offer, which was set to expire Wednesday at 5, until Thursday at noon.

Yes, Donald the Delusional, the only reason you haven’t heard from the President is because of Sandy.