The 2012 Three Ring Circus AKA The US Presidential Election

[Farnhamia]

OK fine, im an obamabot. i just signed up for the lottery to win the last dinner with the president promotion.

like i would be able to eat

or talk

in front of the president of the united states.

Or stopping grinning like an idiot. I know, I would be the same way.

[The Nuclear Fist]

OK fine, im an obamabot. i just signed up for the lottery to win the last dinner with the president promotion.

like i would be able to eat

or talk

in front of the president of the united states.

"So, what's it like being the most powerful man on Earth and being able to, at a moment's notice, sign away the world's fate to a hellish, radioactive inferno?"

"Pretty good, actually."

[Alien Space Bats]

Are we sure they are friends? They could have won this election if they had put forth a candidate that actually was worth the air s/he's consuming. None of them ran, Obama is holding a lead that while it looks solid isn't so solid to ignore the possibility of a President Romney. Imagine if he had to go against a candidate with more charisma than a moulding melon.

I suspect that the current meltdown was always in the cards.

Sitting Presidents generally fail to win re-election when their own Parties split with them (eg., Reagan's revolt against Ford, Kennedy's challenge to Carter, Buchanan's rebellion against Bush); if that doesn't happen, it's hard to defeat a guy who put together a majority just four years earlier.

This brings us to the second problem: On paper, stonewalling an opposition President seems like a good idea; in practice, though, not so much. For one thing, it unites his Party behind him; for another, it gives him a ready excuse (and a fair one, really) for not having gotten anything done (i.e., the bastards on the other side of the aisle never gave me a chance to pursue my agenda).

If you want to defeat a sitting President, you have to give him a chance to fail; that, in turn, implies that you have to give him a chance to succeed. Looking at the numbers (as I have been for months in the "horse race" thread), I have to say that Romney hasn't had a break all year - and that goes way back before he began to self-immolate through injudicious remarks, gaffes, stupid moves, etc.

And why hasn't he had a break all year? Because Democrats, however disappointed they may be over the shit they've seen for the last four years, never abandoned their man, because they never felt that he was to blame for the mess in the first place.

As a result, whoever the GOP nominated was always going to have this problem: Having to scratch together a win with 47% of the electorate - not Mitt Romney's "irresponsible 47%", but the GOP's 47% who are True Believers and will vote for the GOP regardless of who they nominate. They were always going to end up being a few percentage points short of an effective majority, and therefore forced to try and cobble something together under time pressure and against the odds.

Which brings us to where we are today, with the Romney campaign slowly sinking. Or maybe sinking's not the right word.

Maybe the right word is drowning:

Until the break point, a drowning person is said to be undergoing "voluntary apnea," choosing not to breathe. Lack of oxygen to the brain causes a sensation of darkness closing in from all sides, as in a camera aperture stopping down. The panic of drowning person is mixed with an odd incredulity that this is actually happening. Never having done it before, the body − and the mind − do not know how to die gracefully. The process is filled with desperation and awkwardness. "So this is drowning," a drowning person might think. "So this is how my life finally ends."

Along with the disbelief is an overwhelming sense of being wrenched from life at the most banal, inopportune moment imagineable. "I can't die, I have tickets to next week's game," is not an impossible thought for someone who is drowning. The drowning person may even feel embarassed, as if he's squandered a great fortune. He has an image of people shaking their heads over his dying so senselessly. The drowning person may fell as if it's the last, greatest act of stupidity in his life.

These thoughts shriek through the mind during the minute or so it takes to run out of air. When the first involuntary breath occurs, most people are still conscious, which is unfortunate, because the only thing more unpleasant than running out of air is breathing in water. At that point the person goes from voluntary to involuntary apnea, and the drowning begins in earnest. A spasmodic breath drags water into the mouth and windpipe, and then one of two things happen. In about ten percent of people, water − anything − touching the vocal cords triggers an immediate contraction in the muscles around the larynx. In effect, the central nervous system judges something in the voice box to be more of a threat than low oxygen levels in the blood, and acts accordingly. This is called a laryngospasm. It's so powerful that it overcomes the breathing reflex and eventually suffocates the person. A person with laryngospasm dies without any water in his lungs.

in the other ninety percent of people, water floods the lungs and ends any waning transfer of oxygen to the blood. The clock is running down now; half-conscious and enfeebled by oxygen depletion, the person is in no position to fight his way back up to the surface. The very process of drowning makes it harder and harder not to drown, and exponential disaster curve similar to that of a sinking boat...

- Sebastian Junger, "The Zero-Moment Point", The Perfect Storm

The process of uncontrolled collapse that you're seeing in Boston is what happens when a Presidential campaign begins to drown. In truth, most dying campaigns go through this, although not all campaigns that go through this die. Some get plucked from the icy waters of defeat by unexpected events, although very few go on to win once things get this bad.

Could a better Republican candidate have avoided this? Maybe. Could a better one have kept it from happening quite so soon? Perhaps. But the fundamentals of the race were always there: To win, the GOP had to find a way to tear large numbers of Democrats away from the President, and given that the GOP itself was the largest single obstacle to Obama's success, it would require an exceptionally perverse political universe for the President's own Party to abandon him in favor of supporting the people who were most responsible for keeping him from accomplishing what he wanted to accomplish.

Thankfully, the American political universe is not (yet) that utterly perverse.

[Cannot think of a name]

OK fine, im an obamabot. i just signed up for the lottery to win the last dinner with the president promotion.

like i would be able to eat

or talk

in front of the president of the united states.

For me: "Do not ask about marijuana policy...do not ask about marijuana policy...do not ask about marijuana policy...so, about marijuana policy..."

[The Emerald Dawn]

New thing that bugs me about Romney. His stammer.

Now I'm not making fun of people who have speech impairments, I understand speech impairments fairly well having grown up with a brother who has one hell of a stutter. "My b-b-b-b-b-b-b-brother", it is that kind of stutter my brother has, and it is a sad thing but still not any of his fault and no cause to poke fun.

No, what Romney does is say the same word fifteen times while trying to think of what the right thing to say is. It's dishonest, false, fake, it is a stalling tactic that most parents purge from their children by the time they are five because no one wants to listen to someone say "the" fifty times in a minute while stalling for time. Every clip where he speaks naturally, he doesn't have this problem. If he's prepared remarks beforehand, and had them properly assessed by fifty thousand polls to make sure they won't upset anyone, he's fine. But if he is asked to opine without that input, he sounds like a broken needle stuck on a divot in an LP's groove.

[United Dependencies]

Maybe the right word is drowning:

snip

The process of uncontrolled collapse that you're seeing in Boston is what happens when a Presidential campaign begins to drown. In truth, most dying campaigns go through this, although not all campaigns that go through this die. Some get plucked from the icy waters of defeat by unexpected events, although very few go on to win once things get this bad.

Could a better Republican candidate have avoided this? Maybe. Could a better one have kept it from happening quite so soon? Perhaps. But the fundamentals of the race were always there: To win, the GOP had to find a way to tear large numbers of Democrats away from the President, and given that the GOP itself was the largest single obstacle to Obama's success, it would require an exceptionally perverse political universe for the President's own Party to abandon him in favor of supporting the people who were most responsible for keeping him from accomplishing what he wanted to accomplish.

Thankfully, the American political universe is not (yet) that utterly perverse.

Well thanks ASB. Now I never want to go near water again.

[Equestrian Bluebloods]

Vermin Supreme for president

[Wamitoria]

The process of uncontrolled collapse that you're seeing in Boston is what happens when a Presidential campaign begins to drown.

And Paul Ryan appears to be trying to get the only life preserver.

[The Nuclear Fist]

The process of uncontrolled collapse that you're seeing in Boston is what happens when a Presidential campaign begins to drown.

And Paul Ryan appears to be trying to get the only life preserver.

I hope it turns out the life preserver is full of rocks.

[Disserbia]

How can people still vote Republican in the general election. Romney literally stands for nothing.

[The Emerald Dawn]

And Paul Ryan appears to be trying to get the only life preserver.

I hope it turns out the life preserver is full of rocks.

That's an awful thing to wish for.

Awful.

Those rocks did nothing to you to deserve that.

[Wamitoria]

And Paul Ryan appears to be trying to get the only life preserver.

I hope it turns out the life preserver is full of rocks.

It is. There's no way that he gets the nomination in 2016.

[The Nuclear Fist]

It is. There's no way that he gets the nomination in 2016.

Of course not. He'll be a RINO by then.

[Not Safe For Work]

I hope it turns out the life preserver is full of rocks.

It is. There's no way that he gets the nomination in 2016.

He'll be running as VP again, on the Palin/Ryan ticket.

By 2016, they'll have forgotten just how bad the 2008 ticket was, and 2012 is going to be blamed on Romney.

[Wamitoria]

It is. There's no way that he gets the nomination in 2016.

Of course not. He'll be a RINO by then.

Dear god, I'm not sure what they're policies will be if Paul Ryan isn't conservative enough for them.

[The Emerald Dawn]

Of course not. He'll be a RINO by then.

Dear god, I'm not sure what they're policies will be if Paul Ryan isn't conservative enough for them.

The 2016 GOP platform includes mandatory prison time for not including god in every sentence.

[The Nuclear Fist]

Dear god, I'm not sure what they're policies will be if Paul Ryan isn't conservative enough for them.

It will make Attila the Hun green with envy.

[Wamitoria]

Dear god, I'm not sure what they're policies will be if Paul Ryan isn't conservative enough for them.

The 2016 GOP platform includes mandatory prison time for not including god in every sentence.

And executing climate scientists.

[Alien Space Bats]

The 2016 GOP platform includes mandatory prison time for not including god in every sentence.

"Welcome to McDonald's, and God bless you. May I have your order, by the grace of God?"

"My God, I thought you'd never ask. I'd like a Quarter-Pounder with cheese, large fries, and a Coke, by God."

"Any dessert for you, God willing?"

"God, no."

"That'll be $9.53, by God. Pull around to the second window, and have a Godly day."

[Myrensis]

The process of uncontrolled collapse that you're seeing in Boston is what happens when a Presidential campaign begins to drown.

And Paul Ryan appears to be trying to get the only life preserver.

I really don't understand why Ryan agreed to run with Romney. He's a Tea Party poster child, he had to have known it would damage that image tying himself to Romney's wild veering back and forth from "trying to prove his conservative chops" to "trying to appeal to moderate and/or not insane voters."

[Ashmoria]

OK fine, im an obamabot. i just signed up for the lottery to win the last dinner with the president promotion.

like i would be able to eat

or talk

in front of the president of the united states.

For me: "Do not ask about marijuana policy...do not ask about marijuana policy...do not ask about marijuana policy...so, about marijuana policy..."

i wonder what people DO talk about. he has had quite a few of these things but ive never read a report by someone who won.

id love to find out whether or not he is planning to end the war on marijuana. it would save sooooo much money ...lives.....give additional tax revenue....empty out prisons...

i dont think he'd tell me.

[Cannot think of a name]

The process of uncontrolled collapse that you're seeing in Boston is what happens when a Presidential campaign begins to drown.

And Paul Ryan appears to be trying to get the only life preserver.

Totally read this while smoking a cigar:

Conducting a PowerPoint presentation is a lot like smoking a cigar. Only the person doing it likes it. The people around him want to hit him with a chair.

Ha ha...suck it, no one cause I'm smoking alone but whatever...

The Stench and Gilligan. They don't even respect each other. If you can't get the guy on your side to not think you're a doofus...how is he gonna get anything done? Or are they just going to be Laurel and Hardy to John Boehner and AM radio?

[Cannot think of a name]

For me: "Do not ask about marijuana policy...do not ask about marijuana policy...do not ask about marijuana policy...so, about marijuana policy..."

i wonder what people DO talk about. he has had quite a few of these things but ive never read a report by someone who won.

id love to find out whether or not he is planning to end the war on marijuana. it would save sooooo much money ...lives.....give additional tax revenue....empty out prisons...

i dont think he'd tell me.

Well, I'd be showing up in a '67 VW Bus, and a ratty one at that, with a three inch goatee and half my clothes made of hemp...if he wasn't bracing for that question after 5 seconds with me he's not as good at his job as we'd like to think. Could be worse, I used to have long hair...

I imagine people are very vanilla and not very detailed when talking to him, overwhelmed by the office...like, even if it was Bush II, I'd like to think I'd be all, "Are you out of your damn mind?" but I'd likely be, "Nice to meet you Mr. President, it's an honor" or some bullshit like that.

[Choronzon]

The only question I have for Obama his why he wants to run again after what hes had to put up with.

[Ashmoria]

New thing that bugs me about Romney. His stammer.

Now I'm not making fun of people who have speech impairments, I understand speech impairments fairly well having grown up with a brother who has one hell of a stutter. "My b-b-b-b-b-b-b-brother", it is that kind of stutter my brother has, and it is a sad thing but still not any of his fault and no cause to poke fun.

No, what Romney does is say the same word fifteen times while trying to think of what the right thing to say is. It's dishonest, false, fake, it is a stalling tactic that most parents purge from their children by the time they are five because no one wants to listen to someone say "the" fifty times in a minute while stalling for time. Every clip where he speaks naturally, he doesn't have this problem. If he's prepared remarks beforehand, and had them properly assessed by fifty thousand polls to make sure they won't upset anyone, he's fine. But if he is asked to opine without that input, he sounds like a broken needle stuck on a divot in an LP's groove.

i believe that is a symptom of forcing himself to lie.