2012 Elections
LIVE-BLOG Coverage of Republican Convention: Including Ann Romney and Chris Christie Speeches August 28th, 2012
I’ll be watching the Republican Convention in its entirety and commenting on the highlights here, including tonight’s big speeches by Ann Romney and Chris Christie.
The feed I’m using is on CSPAN online. My backup feed is: http://gopconvention2012.com/ If you have a third or a fourth feed that’s reliable, chime in below in comments and let me know. I’d like to have all these posted for people so that we don’t have anyone who can’t watch because they can’t find a good feed. UPDATE: Here’s a third stream – http://www.youtube.com/user/gopconvention2012/
Check back for updates on this thread as the day progresses (it’s chronological, so scroll down for the newer items in this thread). Chime in with your own reactions as well.
****************************************************
250pm CST — somewhat random people are speaking right now, with each given about a minute or so. I’m going to sound like a broken record on this — and few in conservative ranks seem to understand the importance of this — but Republicans really need to stop using the word “liberal”. This isn’t like how the Sears Tower was renamed the “Willis Tower” but I refuse to call it anything but the Sears Tower, because the Left purposefully insists people call them “liberals” because that word has been focus-group tested over decades and the American public does not have a bad reaction to it. If you say the word “Leftist” to an average person, they shudder and immediately conjure negative images of the Leftist you are talking about. Call a Democrat a “liberal” and YOU might know that’s a bad thing, but the average man-on-the-street thinks that means the person is “open-minded”. Republicans consistently rail against “liberals” and wonder why so many so-called independents tune them out…well, dummies, it’s because independents don’t have a bad perception of the word “liberal”. They, in fact, use that word when asking for a lot of something good…like a “liberal helping” of pepperoni pizza or “liberally pouring” more Waffle-Flavored Vodka into their drink. If Republicans truly wanted to change some minds out there and get people to listen to just how bad the political Left is in this country, everyone should exclusively use the word “Leftist” as the polar opposite of “Conservative”.
But, here comes speaker after speaker at the Republican Convention going on about “the liberals” some more. Dummies.
Learning to Like Mitt Romney — and then supporting him any way we can
I’m very impressed with the presidential campaign Mitt Romney’s ran so far, especially with his pick of Paul Ryan as his running mate. More than anything, that key decision called into question 80% of everything negative I felt towards Romney in the past — which, admittedly, was mostly based on the bad feelings I continue to have on a personal level for many of the “Romney Guys” who have wanted him to be the nominee since 2008. I’ve never seen much advantage to Republicans running “the guy who came in second last time” because John McCain was such a person (who came in second in 2000 to George W. Bush) and he squandered the eight years between his presidential races, putting little ground game together to warrant a “it’s his turn!” nomination.
Romney seems to have worked hard in the four years since he last ran for president and is better organized than any candidate I’ve seen run for national office in my lifetime. The media will continue to claim that Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign was “expertly organized”, but the real key to Obama’s victory last time was his skin color and the fact that almost everyone working in the agenda-driven had dreams of having a magical black man in the White House for the entirety of their adult lives. Couple this with Obama’s uncanny ability to make white people feel good about themselves for giving him whatever he wanted (a key point of Dinesh D’Souza’s documentary “2016: Obama’s America”) and the simultaneous double bank shot of the more aggressive Left intimidating voters by calling those who didn’t support Obama racists and you have the real driving force behind that 2008 win.
Mitt Romney is proving to be no fool, and he’s countered these race-based advantages with real ground game. I know that Romney actually wants to win this race and really become President, as opposed to John McCain, who mainly wanted to enjoy being a presidential nominee for a while. I will go to my grave believing that somewhere around September of 2008 McCain just completely gave up on the race and had no interest in really winning, leaving Governor Sarah Palin to pickup the slack and drag him towards the finish line. If not for her, McCain would have lost the race in Mondale proportions; his heart was either not in it, or perhaps he dreaded being the man “who stopped the first black President from being elected”.
There is no similar feeling towards “keeping the first black president in office”. The race card officially expired at twelve noon on January 20th, 2009 when Barack Obama took the oath of office and became the 44th President of the United States. America elected its historic and unprecedented “first black president”…but that moment is now a part of history, destined to ultimately be best remembered as the day Aretha Franklin wore a gorgeous gray hat and America allowed into office the man who would soon be seen as “worse than Jimmy Carter”.
Read the rest of this entry »
INPUT NEEDED: Have you seen any good Romney/Ryan tee shirts?
[ UPDATE: So far, of all the pro-Romney shirts, I like the "Retro Eagle" one above the best, from the Romney official site. For some reason though, Republicans still can't get the shirt ordering right, even in 2012. They should be making these Athletic fit, so they are nicer. Give people what they want, and the size and fit they wear, and they'll wear this stuff nonstop until election day. I would, at least. My boyfriend Justin too ]
I just got back from not only a screening of “2016: Obama’s America” but also a trip to Chick-Fil-A in Orland Park, Illinois. It’s been a fun day. The only thing that would have made it better is if I had a great Romney/Ryan tee shirt to wear on jaunts like this.
I just haven’t seen any I liked yet.
Have you spotted a great 2012 campaign tee shirt that you like wearing, or wish you had?
I really need to get one and would love suggestions from you.
**********************************************************
UPDATE #2: I’d really like to find a good “You Didn’t Build That” shirt…but something along the lines of “Yes, I Did Build That”…but with clever imaging.
For instance, in 2008, my campaign uniform consisted of this red “Hot for Hillary” shirt from Urban Outfitters that I wore from October or so in 2007 through June of 2008. Then I switched to a “Democrats for McCain” tee shirt I had made myself here in Chicago in a little tee-shirt shop that went out of business in 2009. Did I mention the owner of the shop was kind of nasty to me about not supporting Obama, but I had to get the shirt made that day for something so I gave her my business anyway. And then Barack Obama gave her the business because her shop was one of many small businesses to close since he became president. It’s schadenfreude-tastic when that sort of things happens to those on the Left.
Is there a pro-Romney/Ryan 2012 equivalent of this kind of shirt?
If not, I might have to have Justin design one tomorrow.
******************************************************
QUESTION: How do you like this for a slogan: It’s time for some R & R? And then I’d have a nice pic of Romney and Ryan
I’d also think something along the lines of “How’d all that Hope & Change work out for you?” would be good.
…or how about “After 4 years of Hope and Change…it’s time for some R & R”…with nice shots of Romney and Ryan
Thoughts?
Romney/Ryan Headed for Landslide Victory?
An electoral college computer model which has accurately predicted every Presidential election since 1980 is signaling a landslide victory for Romney in November, 320 to 218.
While media outlets generally call the race with a slight Obama victory, those analyses rely on current polling data and do not take into account how trends will break as the election nears. This model, on the other hand, examines more meaningful data like economic statistics from individual states. It suggests voters hold Democrats responsible for high unemployment, and Republicans responsible for low per-capita income. Democrats tend to lose the White House anytime unemployment is above 5.6%.
It’s worth noting that Dick Morris has been predicting a big Romney win for awhile now.
Of course it’s still too early to truly call this race and anything can happen between now and November. Still, the results of this prediction have to be concerning to the Obama re-election team.
2016: Obama’s America…is it playing near you?
Here’s how you can see where the movie, 2016: Obama’s America, is playing in your area.
There are no locations that are easily accessible to us here in Chicago…so we’ll have to drive to the suburbs to see this. Perhaps Justin and I can get that Chick-Fil-A we were after the other day and after lunch see the movie this week (and hope we don’t get another flat tire on the way).
Has anyone seen the movie yet? If so chime in below with a review.
For those who have not heard of this yet, here’s the movie’s official synopsis:
2016 Obama’s America takes audiences on a gripping visual journey into the heart of the world’s most powerful office to reveal the struggle of whether one man’s past will redefine America over the next four years. The film examines the question, “If Obama wins a second term, where will we be in 2016?”
Across the globe and in America, people in 2008 hungered for a leader who would unite and lift us from economic turmoil and war. True to America’s ideals, they invested their hope in a new kind of president, Barack Obama. What they didn’t know is that Obama is a man with a past, and in powerful ways that past defines him–who he is, how he thinks, and where he intends to take America and the world.
Immersed in exotic locales across four continents, best selling author Dinesh D’Souza races against time to find answers to Obama’s past and reveal where America will be in 2016. During this journey he discovers how Hope and Change became radically misunderstood, and identifies new flashpoints for hot wars in mankind’s greatest struggle. The journey moves quickly over the arc of the old colonial empires, into America’s empire of liberty, and we see the unfolding realignment of nations and the shape of the global future.
Emotionally engaging, 2016 Obama’s America will make you confounded and cheer as you discover the mysteries and answers to your greatest aspirations and worst fears.
Love him or hate him, you don’t know him.
QUESTION: Could Obama Lose Illinois? ANSWER: Not unless it’s a Mondale-grade super loss
Conservatives are an interesting breed because of the amount of “imagination time” they for some reason engage in. ”Imagination time” is what I like to call the more “out there” theories and speculation that conservative writers flash as BREAKING NEWS headlines…which then prompt conservative readers to text, Twitter, and email these articles breathlessly to all their friends. The cynic in me thinks the conservative writers do this whenever they either need traffic to their sites or it’s an otherwise slow news day and they have nothing else to write about, so they go on a wild tangent just for fun.
80% of the time “imagination time” involves Hillary Clinton in some way, as she’s the favorite doll conservative writers bring out for this kind of imaginative play…since she’s always behind some sort of alleged palace coup, assassination attempt, or scheme to usurp either Joe Biden or Barack Obama or both. No human being on the face of the planet delights and inspires conservatives’ imaginations more than Hillary Clinton. She’s like catnip for conservative writers.
Today, however, the fantasy du jour is that “Barack Obama could lose Illinois!”. Technically, that’s true, in the sense that ANYTHING in life is possible. Obama could lose all 50 states (or 57, according to how many he said there were back in 2008 on the campaign trail). It is a statistical possibility that Obama could indeed lose every state, but that’s not likely to happen. There’s never been a candidate who lost EVERY state in modern times (if ever). Walter Mondale sure came close, by carrying only Minnesota back in 1984. I’d wager that if everything went as horrible for Barack Obama as it possibly could go between now and November he’d still win Hawaii, California, Minnesota, New York, and Illinois. No matter what.
Read the rest of this entry »
Canary in the Coal Mine for Obama’s Chances in November? Looks more like cooked goose in Ohio
.
Thanks to I’m 41 for these pictures. Great shots of Ohio coal miners emerging from the bowels of the Earth, sooty and tired, to line up for hours to meet Mitt Romney and shake the hand of 1/2 of America’s Comeback Team. Click above to embiggen.
Ohio is my home state but I have not lived there since, really, 2001 or so. I just can’t imagine Ohio going to Obama in 2012 though. A lot would have had to have changed in the state for it to fall to Obama again. From what I can tell in the conversations I have with my friends back home and the ground reports I get from Ohioans, the feeling seems to be very anti-Democrats because of a great many stupid things the Left has done to Ohioans in the last four years.
The dumbest of which is, of course, the bizarre War on Coal that Obama and Biden declared.
Bizarre, however, if you don’t really look hard at what’s holding the Democrat Party together these days. It’s all about pitting interest groups against one another in the hopes that some groups feel like they have no choice but to vote Democrat while other groups feel like they need to vote Democrat to stick it to competing groups they hate. The Democrat Party is held together with hate and conflicting group interests. It only continues to survive because Republicans are largely too stupid to run any interference that would cause the Jenga Tower of identity blocs to collapse upon itself.
Read the rest of this entry »
Megan Fox calls out “new standard of crap journalism”
If you remember during the Republican primary, Herman Cain was railroaded by strange accusations from a woman who claimed she met him, a married man, at a hotel and was then shocked and outraged when he “groped” her. There were no witnesses, no police report and no evidence, just her word and Gloria Alred’s muscle. (Alred, when not playing a judge on daytime TV, only litigates against Republicans running for office whom she can destroy by her mere presence.) Cain sustained multiple Alred bombs until finally succumbing to the pressure and stepping out.
The media went along with Alred’s claims, never questioning the background of this Chicago woman who at one time lived in Obama-goon David Axelrod’s building. (I don’t even remember her name, nor do I care to.) She wasn’t important, it was taking out Cain that mattered. Since the media set a new standard of guilty until proven innocent, Kevin DuJan of HillBuzz and I set out to investigate claims made about rumors of President Obama’s sexual escapades with Larry Sinclair in the back of a limo in Chicago in the 90′s. After all, we had as much evidence as anyone in the press who was convinced Cain was a groping maniac. Sinclair has been telling his story to anyone who would listen since 2008, and none of the main press was among his audience.
Now the Romney tax return business has gone to the top of the headlines with Harry Reid declaring he got a phone call from an unnamed source who told him Romney hasn’t paid his taxes in 10 years. Instead of demand the source, the press has demanded Romney prove his innocence. Working from this example, it is now fair game to throw out any allegation ever insinuated about Obama and demand he prove otherwise. Here are a few accusations that might be fun to bat around.
Read more at IntolerantFox
BRAINSTORM: What do YOU think would be the most effective thing to print on palm cards to hand out for the elections?
Please use this thread as a brain storm to come up with ideas on what to print on palm cards to hand out for the elections.
Palm cards are little, smaller-than-a-postcard handouts that you see a lot of fast food places, dry cleaners, etc. slip under the windshields of cars or put by the doors of people’s houses. They need to be colorful, have a great eye-catcher for a graphic and the reverse side needs to have (at most) four or five bullet points of information that people will absorb without even realizing it.
Justin and I are going to start making little trips into Iowa and Wisconsin next month to canvass for Romney/Ryan and get a feel for what’s happening on the ground out there.
I prefer to make up my own cards that say what I want them to say instead of getting anything official from a campaign — especially this year, as I have no personal connections to either Romney or Ryan or anyone working for them. That sort of frees me and my friends up to do our own thing to make people question the wisdom of re-electing Barack Obama without having to toe any line that the RR-camp has set.
So, palm cards should not be pro-Romney as much as they are creatively and subtly anti-Obama.
The meme of “How has Hope and Changed worked out for you?” is a powerful one.
I like putting the $700 billion in cuts to Medicare via Obamacare up at the top of the list of points to cover.
Record high unemployment and over a Trillion in wasted spending via the Obama Stimulus of 2009 is another good one.
Nonstop race-baiting, excuse making, and blame-gaming is something else that people got instead of Hope and Change.
What do YOU think would be great on a little palm card that would make people stop and think if they read it or found it left somewhere like inside a library book or on the seat of a bus?
Full Disclosure: I have not laughed this hard in years (maybe not since the “Where’s the Beef?” Wendy’s commercials)
Is Joe Biden the new Clara Peller?
The resemblance is kind of uncanny.
I honestly never thought I’d ever see anything that made me laugh as hard as when I was a kid and the old “Where’s the Beef?” commercials for Wendy’s would come on the TV. I swear my parents bought a VCR just so we could tape these and play them over and over again in the days before YouTube. All of us would practically roll on the floor laughing to the point of tears when Peller would deliver her lines.
That’s sort of what happens when Joe Biden opens his mouth, only he’s not the spokesperson for a fast food chain intentionally trying to tickle our ribs.
He’s being serious (I think) when he says crazy things, or uses accents when speaking that even George Lucas wouldn’t have foisted onto Jar Jar Binks.
Part of me wonders if Biden is a double-agent who’s been working against the Democrats from within for years…like a new Mada Hari for our side with that lingering passing resemblance to Clara Peller.
I have never had any desire to download a ringtone but I swear when Justin gets out of the shower I’m going to ask him to put Biden’s “gonna put y’all back in chains” on my phone. And then I’m going to deliberately put the number out there for telemarketers to call so I can hear it go off all day long.
This ad is so funny I wish it was a feature-length film.
For those too young (or too scared of Michelle Obama’s crusade against other people’s obesity) to recall, here are more the “Where’s the Beef?” commercials after the jump:
Read the rest of this entry »
