[Official Thread] OBAMA WINS RE-ELECTION

[Mr Bean]

Okay a few questions
Did he ever mention Iraq or Afghanistan?
Did he ever mention Bush?
Did he ever mention this 12 million dollar job thing before?

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

"and to heal the planet". Implicit acknowledgement of global warming. Any more on that and he'd get boo'ed probably.

It wasn't an acknowledgement of global warming, it was Romney mocking the notion of global warming and Obama's pledge to do something about it; instead of pledging to do something important, like help Americans get jobs (drilling for more oil, no doubt.) I note that the crowd reacted with laughter at the remarks, showing what the intended message was supposed to be.

[General Mung Beans]

The bit about foreign policy pissed me off. If anything Obama has been abnormally aggressive and hardline to foreign powers and potential enemies. Then again even many left-wing Americans still really believe the Ayatollah sits at his home twiddling his mustache plotting the destruction of those plucky freedom loving heretics!

The part that personally annoys me is the GOP's automatic oppositon to any military spending cuts.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Okay a few questions
Did he ever mention Iraq or Afghanistan?
Did he ever mention Bush?
Did he ever mention this 12 million dollar job thing before?

Nope.
None at all.
Yes, he's made this "12 million new jobs" promise before. And, as usual, he did not go into specifics about how he really plans to do this.

[General Mung Beans]

Speaking of past Presidents I wonder how past Democrats will be treated at the DNC. Clinton's speaking, I wonder if Carter will be there.

[Patrick Degan]

So I'm watching the full video of Clint Eastwood's warm-up for Mittens at the convention.

Jeezus Fucking Christ.

Bill Maher once observed that the Republican Party was not running against the real President Obama but a fantasy-Obama they created for themselves. This performance (Clint in his worst role ever) symbolises that in a nutshell.

Clint Eastwood is talking to a chair, an Obama of the imagination.

Jeezus Fucking Christ.

Whichever "genius" at the RNC thought this was a good idea should be fired immediately and blacklisted. Eastwood is rambling and halfway incoherent. Talking to a chair and presenting himself as a senile old fool. Eastwood is destroying his own reputation, because the comparison to any of his movie personae will be unavoidable and there's no way he can look good as he maunders through this "routine". If this was meant to help bolster Romney by way of comparison with Clint, it's backfired horribly. This isn't Josey Wales or The Man With No Name or Dirty Harry or Will Munney we're seeing here. This isn't tough-guy Clint, just a sad, sad old man who acts as if his meds need adjusting. And if its meant to be comedy, it sucks donkey balls, because this spectacle is neither clever or funny. The sheep in the Tampa convention centre may be eating up this shit as if it were shrimp remolaude, but the sight of Clint Eastwood destroying himself like this is, to anybody with a functioning brain, simply uncomfortable to watch.

And this is supposed to bolster Romney? This?! The dribblings of a once-great movie presence who seems lost and confused and just pathetic?

Jeezus Fucking Christ...

[Block]

The bit about foreign policy pissed me off. If anything Obama has been abnormally aggressive and hardline to foreign powers and potential enemies. Then again even many left-wing Americans still really believe the Ayatollah sits at his home twiddling his mustache plotting the destruction of those plucky freedom loving heretics!

The part that personally annoys me is the GOP's automatic oppositon to any military spending cuts.

They only oppose cuts that don't come out of our benefits and pay.

[SirNitram]

I feel very bad for Mr. Eastwood. They hype their 'mystery guest', they bump the bio pic they polish..

And he wanders on stage, clearly with no one giving him a theme or having helped with a script or even a fucking COMB for his hair, and in front of millions, and now immortalized in digital media, he suffers through being an incoherent man complaining at a chair. He can't even form sentences at times. It's not funny or insightful, it's just kind of sad.

He's done better. With help and direction, he can probably still do better. But in a career I've admired, this has to be one of the lowest points.

[Crossroads Inc.]

For me, the truely sad part...
No one at the NRC, or on other Right Wing media outlets seemed to care.
I have yet to come across anyone in the audience with a "Oh this is awkward" face.
Instead for the whole 11min he was up there he got thunderous applause after applause.

Today people on right wing blogs are calling his speech "Brilliant' and saying HE should be the nominee instead of mittens.
For me, THAT Is truly the sad thing about this.

[Patrick Degan]

Clint Eastwood, the symbol of today's Republican Party: an angry, confused old white man screeching at the kids to get off his lawn.

[Patrick Degan]

Aaaaaaaaand... according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, Romney's post-convention "bounce" amounts to a lead that is within the margin of error for the poll: 44% to Obama's 42%.

I suppose it's the sort of bounce you can expect to get dropping a corpse from the roof of a five storey building.

[Terralthra]

Clint Eastwood, the symbol of today's Republican Party: an angry, confused old white man screeching at the kids to get off his lawn.

And angry confused old white man arguing with an imaginary Obama.

[Patrick Degan]

The Clint Eastwood debacle was brought to America courtesy of Mitt Romney and his own staff:

August 31, 2012
Before Eastwood’s Talk With a Chair, Clearance From the Top
By MICHAEL BARBARO and MICHAEL D. SHEAR

TAMPA, Fla. — For all the finger-pointing about Clint Eastwood’s rambling conversation with an empty chair on Thursday night, the most bizarre, head-scratching 12 minutes in recent political convention history were set in motion by Mitt Romney himself and made possible by his aides, who had shrouded the actor’s appearance in secrecy.

Mr. Romney privately invited Mr. Eastwood, of “Dirty Harry” fame, to speak after the actor had given him a gravelly, full-throated endorsement at a star-studded fund-raiser at the Sun Valley Resort Lodge in Idaho this summer. “He just made my day. What a guy,” Mr. Romney joked with his donors that night, flanked by the fake log columns of the lodge.

Thus began an effort by Mr. Romney’s campaign over several weeks to inject a Hollywood-style surprise into the highly scripted, tightly controlled convention where Mr. Romney would formally accept the nomination of the Republican Party to be president.

Behind the scenes, Mr. Eastwood’s convention cameo was cleared by Mr. Romney’s top message mavens, Russ Schriefer and Stuart Stevens, who drew up talking points that Mr. Eastwood included, in his own way. They gave him a time limit and flashed a blinking red light that told him his time was up. He ignored both. The actor’s decision to use a chair as a prop was last-minute, and his own.

“The prop person probably thought he was going to sit in it,” a baffled senior aide said on Thursday night.

Mr. Eastwood’s rambling and off-color appearance just moments before the biggest speech of Mr. Romney’s life instantly became a Twitter and cable-news sensation, which drowned out much of the usual postconvention analysis that his campaign had hoped to bask in.

It also startled and unsettled Mr. Romney’s top advisers and prompted a blame game among them. “Not me,” an exasperated-looking senior adviser said when asked who was responsible for Mr. Eastwood’s speech. In interviews, aides called the speech “strange” and “weird.” One described it as “theater of the absurd.”

Ann Romney, who made the rounds of the three network morning shows, hardly pretended that she was happy as she was repeatedly asked about the speech. “I was thrilled for his support,” she said on NBC, trying to be positive. Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin said on MSNBC that he “cringed” as he sat in the hall during Mr. Eastwood’s performance.

The speech was a reminder of how fleeting a successful political moment can be, and how carefully staged events can be upset by an unpredictable turn. And it suggested a slip-up inside the button-down, corporate-style headquarters of the Romney campaign in Boston.

Romney advisers so trusted Mr. Eastwood, 82, that unlike with other speakers, they said they did not conduct rehearsals or insist on a script or communicate guidelines for the style or format of his remarks. For Mr. Eastwood, the convention speech was a bit part in a career that has had its political moments. Angered by zoning laws he did not like, he served one two-year term as mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea in California. In 1988, George Bush briefly considered choosing him as his running mate; he picked Dan Quayle instead.

During the weeks after Mr. Romney extended the invitation in Idaho, the actor’s role in the convention lineup was kept secret. On the public schedule, his slot was listed as “to be announced.”

As the last night of the convention approached, planners tried to keep a lid on the story even as Mr. Eastwood’s name leaked out on the Internet, hoping his appearance would be the good kind of a surprise, not the bad kind.

“If we announced it, it wouldn’t be a mystery anymore,” Mr. Schriefer told reporters, playfully.

Another adviser said that several top aides had reviewed the talking points given to Mr. Eastwood just a few hours before his appearance. They included a request to mention the millions of people who remain unemployed — something Mr. Eastwood did, though he misstated the number.

As actors sometimes do, he improvised.

Instead of reading off a teleprompter — something Mr. Eastwood is said to despise — he pretended to have a sarcasm-filled conversation with President Obama, seated by his side.

“What do you mean, shut up?” Mr. Eastwood said, mumbling to a befuddled audience. A moment later, he stopped again, saying, “What do you want me to tell Mr. Romney?”

“I can’t tell him that. He can’t do that to himself,” Mr. Eastwood said. “You’re getting as bad as Biden.”

Initially, there were no plans for Mr. Eastwood to take a chair onstage. But at the last minute, the actor asked the production staff backstage if he could use one but did not explain why.

Had Mr. Eastwood appeared earlier, many fewer people might have noticed. The networks began their hour of convention coverage at 10 p.m. Eastern time, which meant that Mr. Eastwood was the first act of the night for their millions of viewers.

He was scheduled to speak for about five minutes but stayed onstage for more than twice as long, throwing off the schedule for Mr. Romney.

Mr. Stevens, in an interview, said he would not discuss internal decision making, but he said that Mr. Romney was backstage during Mr. Eastwood’s remarks.

“He spoke from the heart with a classic improv sketch which everyone at the convention loved,” Mr. Stevens said, calling it “an honor that a great American icon would come and talk about the failure of the current president.”

Rush Limbaugh called Mr. Eastwood’s performance “bold.” But other members of the party faithful were not so sure. As they flew home from Tampa on Friday, some delegates grumbled that Mr. Eastwood was a waste of a prime-time slot that might have been better used to feature other speakers or the biographical video of Mr. Romney’s life.

Mr. Eastwood is generally liked and respected in Hollywood, where his colleagues often do not agree with his politics. Leonard Hirshan, Mr. Eastwood’s manager, said the actor was traveling and would not be available for interviews.

Mr. Hirshan said he had heard a chorus of response since the speech, divided evenly between those supportive and those critical. Mr. Eastwood’s next film, “Trouble With the Curve,” is set for release on Sept. 21.

“He does these things for himself,” Mr. Hirshan said. “It’s his private life. He believes in what he’s doing.”

Jeremy W. Peters contributed reporting from Kenner, La., and Michael Cieply from Los Angeles.

Upshot: Romney decides to pull an unplanned surprise to give the convention an extra punch, invites Eastwood, his staff doesn't bother to give him a script much less rehearse him, and leave themselves wide open to get sandbagged by The Man From Bizarro-World.

[Haruko]

My favorite (for its comedy) response to Mr. Eastwood's speech was the following, as described on the Wiki:

Breitbart.com editor-at-large John Nolte was more positive in his review, stating that the performance was "funnier, fresher, edgier, and braver than anything those comedy cowards Chris Rock, Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert have done in 15 years."

Heh, someone really hates Mr. Stewart and Mr. Colbert. Not sure why he thinks them cowards, though seems he thinks them on a leash.

[Dalton]

Just bravado from a Breitbart blowhard.

[Dalton]

Romney's bloviation bullshitteryfest has received the lowest ratings for a candidate convention speech since they started polling that sort of thing in 1996. Even Kerry did better.

Linky

[CaptHawkeye]

I guess that's just what happens when the party you associate with has done an absolutely bang up job tarnishing its reputation for the past 12 years.

You could argue that Romney's speech just wasn't very charismatic, but only idiots would care about his style vs. what he's saying. National Conventions are little more than giant PR events though, so anyone's speech is just going to be a whole lot of bluster. They don't make or break the candidate, but they do give insight to how things are going so far for them.

Like I said, it's too bad Romney decided to throw in his lot with a bunch as unsavory as the Republicans.

[Patrick Degan]

Like I said, it's too bad Romney decided to throw in his lot with a bunch as unsavory as the Republicans.

From what's been gleaned of the record of Bain Capital (now under a tax investigation launched by the New York state attorney-general's office) so far, it would appear the GOP fits him just fine.

[CaptHawkeye]

He's also made occasional quips and historically taken stances on issues that are surprisingly left wing. He's often had to back down from publicly stating these views after Limbatron turned the reactionary hate machine on him. Admittedly we don't know if he's turned into a hardcore Tea Partying Republican hate machine, but his history has indicated stances certainly no more right-wing than Obama's. I don't blame people for not liking him, i'm just willing to give the man more credit than most. He might very well be much more progressive than anyone has him pinned for, he's just using the Republicans as a stepping stone. Though i'm not asking anyone to accept that as fact.

I won't be voting for him, consorting with the current trend in Republicanism is a no-no for now. I just think it's worth pointing out that he's not that much different from Obama, and he's far, far superior to narcissistic wackos like Ron Paul, Michelle Bachmann, and Rick Perry. Things could have been much worse.

[Block]

He's also made occasional quips and historically taken stances on issues that are surprisingly left wing. He's often had to back down from publicly stating these views after Limbatron turned the reactionary hate machine on him. Admittedly we don't know if he's turned into a hardcore Tea Partying Republican hate machine, but his history has indicated stances certainly no more right-wing than Obama's. I don't blame people for not liking him, i'm just willing to give the man more credit than most. He might very well be much more progressive than anyone has him pinned for, he's just using the Republicans as a stepping stone. Though i'm not asking anyone to accept that as fact.

I won't be voting for him, consorting with the current trend in Republicanism is a no-no for now. I just think it's worth pointing out that he's not that much different from Obama, and he's far, far superior to narcissistic wackos like Ron Paul, Michelle Bachmann, and Rick Perry. Things could have been much worse.

Economically he'd have to be to the Right of Obama, unless he's very strongly against the way he made his money.

[Patrick Degan]

I'm sorry, but there's just no justifying Mittens. Since he's now publicly rejecting all his earlier moderate and liberal stances, and has accepted as his running mate a dedicated rightwing hate machine eager to destroy what's left of the New Deal, it means one of two things: either he's fully converted into a culture warrior, or he's saying anything —anything at all (as evidenced by the outright lies both Romney and Ryan have uttered during and since the convention)— just to gain power. Either way, this is a man who is not to be trusted with power. Especially as Romney has as one of his advisers on constitutional and judicial policy one Robert Bork. No, I'm sorry, but Romney's earlier words and stances count for nothing now. He's the front man for every retrograde element in the body politic who want to remake this country into worse than what it was during the Robber Baron era and would try to cut back civil liberties —particularly for women and the LGBT community— as far back to the 50s and past that point as they can get away with. This same crew are also just itching to ram this country into another war and that's what we'll get with a Romney presidency. Things are much worse than if Ron Paul or Rick Perry had won the nomination —Romney has a better chance of winning election because he looks more reasonable than they do.

[CaptHawkeye]

I'm sorry, but there's just no justifying Mittens. Since he's now publicly rejecting all his earlier moderate and liberal stances, and has accepted as his running mate a dedicated rightwing hate machine eager to destroy what's left of the New Deal, it means one of two things: either he's fully converted into a culture warrior, or he's saying anything —anything at all (as evidenced by the outright lies both Romney and Ryan have uttered during and since the convention)— just to gain power. Either way, this is a man who is not to be trusted with power.

Arguably this same complaint is applicable to Obama. Even worse as claims such ending the Bush Tax Cuts and shutting down Guantanamo Bay never happened.

As for Paul Ryan, he's as bad as Sarah Palin. But his position as VP makes any of his proposals and plans little more than paper theory. Unless Romney dies in office he wouldn't be in the position to do anything too stupid. His nomination could be a pragmatic move on Romney's part to further gain support amongst hardline Republicans. Of course even if it is, it's an unfair risk to put a man like Paul Ryan so far up the line of succession.

Especially as Romney has as one of his advisers on constitutional and judicial policy one Robert Bork. No, I'm sorry, but Romney's earlier words and stances count for nothing now. He's the front man for every retrograde element in the body politic who want to remake this country into worse than what it was during the Robber Baron era and would try to cut back civil liberties —particularly for women and the LGBT community— as far back to the 50s and past that point as they can get away with.

I'm always wary of this kind of hyperbole from either side. Bush had one the most destructive Presidencies in recent history and last I checked the US military wasn't shooting at Unions and protestors. I agree that the stance on the Republican Party is socially backwards, but i'm not arguing that a Romney Presidency is a good idea.

This same crew are also just itching to ram this country into another war and that's what we'll get with a Romney presidency. Things are much worse than if Ron Paul or Rick Perry had won the nomination —Romney has a better chance of winning election because he looks more reasonable than they do.

You know Obama hasn't been so terribly carefree about Iran either. He may have ended Iraq but his stance on Iran is nearly as frightening as Bush's was in 2003. Romney looks more reasonable possibly because he is more reasonable. He still believes in Global Warming and stated he feels humans are causing it once or twice. He's a Mormon, so he's fairly low key about the bible thumping shit Bush popularized. He historically supported the Log Cabin Republicans though recently stated he does not believe in gay marriage. If he had said he would ok gay marriage he wouldn't have a shot at the Republican nomination though. All the more reason not to consort with that party, but it's not like he would have stood a chance as a Democratic runner against Obama.

Anyway I won't be voting for him. I've never entertained the thought.

[UnderAGreySky]

Arguably this same complaint is applicable to Obama. Even worse as claims such ending the Bush Tax Cuts and shutting down Guantanamo Bay never happened.

This is blatantly unfair. Obama tried to shut down Gitmo and was blocked. Obama tried to end the Bush Tax cuts and compromised, and is campaigning on ending them for the 1% at least, which does make some sense in the real world. You can't hang this around his neck.

As for Paul Ryan, he's as bad as Sarah Palin. But his position as VP makes any of his proposals and plans little more than paper theory. Unless Romney dies in office he wouldn't be in the position to do anything too stupid.

Are you saying that Dick Cheney had absolutely no influence on GW Bush's decisions between 2001 and 2008? Are you Americans willing to take the chance that "Oh as VP he'll be out of the way!"?

[Flagg]

Did you hear that giant sucking sound last night? It was the well used rectums of the entire GOP clenching at the sight of Michelle Obama destroying Mitt Romney without saying word one about him.

[Dalton]

A coworker just related a story about a discussion she had with a Republican supporter. Apparently this person gets all her news from Fox and was smitten by the story of Mitt Romney's family emigrating from Mexico and working their way up from nothing!