Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

137 comments

  1. Shaun Appleby

    Someone was saying Romney had opened up a chasm below his feet that plummets straight to the seventh circle of electoral hell.  Do tell me more…

  2. Shaun Appleby

    Obama’s campaign is making a “huge” advertising investment in Florida:


    So the Obama campaign’s investment puts Romney in an extremely difficult spot: It could have the effect of either solidifying Florida as a toss-up that tilts Obama, or forcing Romney to spend heavily defending a must win state, protecting Obama’s lead elsewhere.

    Nate Cohn – Daily Breakdown: Fox News Poll Undermines Romney’s Theory Of The Race New Republic 13 Sep 12

    I wonder how the debate prep is going; methinks the Romney campaign may soon start suffering “crisis fatigue.”

  3. Peter Jukes

    …Yes you do have to kill. At least in the Moose World

    B.C. woman hits moose on way to visit sister who hit moose

    Two sisters from the northwestern B.C. community of Kitimat have both had close encounters with moose on the loose.

    A month ago, Yvonne Studley, 49, was badly injured when she hit a moose with her vehicle, so last Friday her sister decided to visit her in Vancouver General Hospital.

    But sister Connie Everitt, 51, also hit a moose and ended up in hospital.

    More bizarrely still, the caption of the picture for that piece talks of another story:

    A 68-year-old woman mistaken for a moose was shot by a hunter while enjoying a ‘boil-up’ in the woods (file photo)

    Either way, it’s great to see the Moose stirring its mighty loins again as the Election season really gets underway

  4. spacemanspiff

    lol! That pic always slays me.

    Back when Hillary’s campaign stumbled, people (correctly) pointed the finger at Mark Penn. I am wondering who the genius behind Romney’s campaign is.  

  5. HappyinVT

    In it he said that the middle class makes $250k and less, that POTUS lies in debates, and that neither he or Ryan has read a report that they cite on the campaign trail as being favorable to their ecomonic plan.  Not sure which is the most egregious.  Romney is reportedly planning to use the “there you go again” line because, of course, he cannot come up with anything remotely original.

  6. Shaun Appleby

    And having Michele Bachman in your Party must be like having a phone with a really obnoxious ringtone that you just can’t ever turn down or off.

  7. Shaun Appleby

    This is Romney’s executive business experience talking?:


    GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: You cite your own studies.  But one of the studies you cite by Martin Feldstein at Harvard shows that to make your math work, it could work, if you eliminate the home mortgage, charity, and state and local tax deductions for everyone earning over $100,000. Is that what you propose?

    MITT ROMNEY: No, that’s not what I propose. And, of course, part of my plan is to stimulate economic growth. The biggest source of getting the country to a balanced budget is not by raising taxes or by cutting spending. It’s by encouraging the growth of the economy. So my tax plan is to encourage investment in growth in America, more jobs, that means more people paying taxes. So that’s a big component of what allows us to get to a balanced budget.

    GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: But his study, which you’ve cited, says it can only work if you take away those deductions for everyone earning more than $100,000.

    MITT ROMNEY: Well, it doesn’t necessarily show the same growth that we’re anticipating. And I haven’t seen his precise study. But I can tell you that we can lower our rates –

    GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, you cited the study, though.

    Jonathan Chait – Romney: My Magic Tax Plan Will Repeal Laws of Arithmetic New York 14 Sep 12

    Ahh…  So some undefined CEO magic growth invisible to plebes, economists and mortals?  This is exactly the kind of policy you might concoct if you believed the incumbent was managing a recovery of which you would reap the benefit if only you could get elected by telling porkies and spreading insidious doubt.  A long con; I’m beginning to think that “mastermind” Mitt’s business experience amounted to an institutional version of running a Three-card Monty table.

    And simple arithmetic is suddenly a deadly political weapon in the hands of journalists?  Who knew?  Thanks, Bill.

  8. Shaun Appleby

    Paroled Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, zealot-porn movie “logician,” convicted fraudster and wannabe meth-chemist, turns out to have had a plea bargain with the Feds involving evidence against “Eiad Salameh, a notorious fraudster who has been tracked for more than a decade by state and federal investigators.”

    I’ve got to say the “film” end of this mystery is full of trap-doors and false trails.  It’s as fishy as Fulton Market:


    Though many key documents from the U.S. District Court case remain sealed, a June 2010 sentencing transcript provides an account of Nakoula’s cooperation with federal investigators in Los Angeles.

    […]

    In his debriefings, Nakoula said he was recruited as a “runner” by Salameh, who pocketed the majority of money generated by the bank swindles, according to James Henderson, Nakoula’s attorney.

    Producer Of Anti-Islam Film Was Fed Snitch Smoking Gun 14 Sep 12

    While the Right wishfully supposes this somehow implicates the Federal government with the “film” (well done, true patriots you lot) what it tells me is that the money to produce the film could have come from just about anywhere.

  9. janicket

    There’s a poll out from the oddfellows team of Yahoo and Esquire which asks the question regarding Obama and Romney:

    “Who would win in a fistfight?”

    The results:

    Obama 58%, Romney 22%, no opinion 20%.

  12. Shaun Appleby

    Of recent events in the Middle East and Africa:


    So the Butterfly Effect set off by a low-budget bad propaganda film gotten up by two-bit frauds and Christian supremacists, and then promoted by two-bit Egyptian and Libyan fundamentalists, has provoked some squalls and cost the lives of four good men.

    The storm provoked by this butterfly has revealed character on an international scale. The steely determination of an Obama to achieve justice, the embarrassing grandstanding of a Romney, the destructive hatred of a handful of extremists in Cairo and Benghazi, and the decency and warmth toward the US of the Libyan crowds, all were thrown into stark relief by the beating of the butterfly’s wings.

    In the end, the violence and extremism of the hardliners on both sides is a phantasm of the past, not a harbinger of the future. The wave of democratic politics sweeping the region has left the haters behind, reducing them to desperate and senseless acts of violence that will gain them no good will, no popularity, no political credibility.

    Juan Cole – Romney Jumps the Shark: Libya, Egypt and the Butterfly Effect Informed Comment 13 Sep 12

    Personally I think Juan, who is conceptually invested in the success of the Arab Spring movement, tends to be a bit optimistic but I share his view more closely than that of our mainstream media.  Cole points out, interestingly, that the Muslim Brotherhood lost the election for prime minister last Wednesday in Eqypt, an event I did not notice mentioned by our somewhat insular commentariat.

  13. Shaun Appleby

    Netanyahu’s bigfoot impersonation the other night went pear-shaped for him:


    “Who are you trying to replace?” the opposition leader, Shaul Mofaz, asked of Netanyahu in the Knesset on Wednesday. “The Administration in Washington or that in Tehran?”

    David Remnick – Neocon Gambits New Yorker 12 Sep 12

    Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, immediately distanced himself from the public debacle:


    Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Tuesday that “Israel and the United States should find a way to resolve their differences behind closed doors.”

    Attila Somfalvi – Barak urges discretion on Israel-US differences Yedioth Ahronoth 11 Sep 12

    Let us hope cooler heads prevail; Netanyahu is on the brink of precipitating not only a crisis in US-Israeli relations but quite possibly a disastrous war for all concerned.  I’ve never seen sentiment towards Israel at such a low ebb among liberal media and progressives as in recent days.

  14. Shaun Appleby

    Of Romney jumping the shark over the tragic events of Tuesday would be less damaging if the Right had not become habitually and reflexively strident in their inability to admit a mistake, or even a tactical error, and move on.  No…  They drill-down to the most inexcusable aspect of the affair, that Obama somehow “sympathises” with a jihadist street mob, and restate it endlessly as if truth were measured in decibels or word counts.  It defies all political sense.

    This, in turn, catches the attention of Romney’s campaign, ever attuned to the whims of their “base,” who feel empowered or obliged to reinforce what would be best forgotten at every media opportunity for another few news cycles.  Their echo-chamber has really become a tar-pit for Romney and a profound weakness of the entire movement.

    It’s almost as though they think saying the most damnable nonsense and still getting 27% of the popular vote is some kind of victory.  Can someone explain this to me?  This is the Fox News business model, not a political strategy.

  15. Shaun Appleby

    The Romney campaign process soap-opera fall season has commenced:


    This article is based on accounts from Romney aides, advisers and friends, most of whom refused to speak on the record because they were recounting private discussions and offering direct criticism of the candidate and his staff, [Stuart Stevens] in particular.

    Mike Allen and Jim Vandehei – Inside the campaign: How Mitt Romney stumbled Politico 16 Sep 12

    Romney comes in for a bit more direct criticism than one would expect at this stage; half of his staff are probably already looking for book deals.  This is not the kind of stuff you want competing for news cycles seven weeks out from election day.

  16. Chris Blask

    I thought I would drop in at Redstate and the first thing I run into is this article:

    The Film Maker Is Arrested

    By: Erick Erickson (Diary)

    Glenn Reynolds has all the details on the arrest of the film maker who made the movie that Barack Obama says caused riots throughout the Middle East.

    I’m going to be charitable here and presume that the man was arrested on other issues that would not have come to light had such much light been pointed in his direction this past week. Note in the picture it is local authors, not federal authors putting him in a police car. That suggests to me there is more going on here.

    But, presuming that, if we really are dealing with people who really are rioting because of a badly produced movie that’s been on the internet for a while and they weren’t offended until subtitles were added a week or so ago, are we not now conveying a strong message to them that, in fact, the government can punish blasphemers? And if so, doesn’t that now give them incentive to riot every time someone in the United States pisses them off?

    Or maybe it really wasn’t about a movie and the movie is just the scapegoat.

    Oh, jeez, where to start?

    How about with the first comment?

    He wasn’t arrested, nor was he in handcuffs. It was a “voluntary interview” reviewing his probation. One of the requirements of his probation is that he cannot access the internet without the approval of his probation officer. Since the “movie” was on YouTube, it’s reasonable to question how it got there. Let’s not make stuff up. It looks bad for the movement as a whole.

    That is reasonable, fact based and accurate – including the last sentence about the Right’s Leading Blogger and spokesperson damaging the side’s credibility by getting all the facts wrong.

    Of course the other comments smooth out the image of a horde of rabid xenophobes and create a zone of sanity.

    Well, maybe not…

  17. janicket

    The well-oiled campaign juggernaut is “retooling” its brilliant messaging for the stretch run:

    http://politicalticker.blogs.c…

    Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is launching a new effort this week to inject energy and fresh policy details into a campaign that Republicans have criticized as listless and light on substance.

    Romney will deliver a series of high profile speeches in the coming weeks, including one at the Clinton Global Initiative next week in New York City, to flesh out more specifics on what, exactly, Romney would do differently from President Obama if he captures the White House in November.

    Could glimmers of reality be leaking through the shutters on the campaign bus?

    A Romney campaign official acknowledged to CNN that Romney has not done enough to give voters a sense of what he would do if elected.

    “Polling shows that voters recognize that Gov. Romney has a plan, but they want more details,” said the official, who was granted anonymity to discuss internal campaign strategy. “Voters feel like they want to know more. It’s not only true of Gov. Romney but also President Obama.”

    Notice the flailing swipe at “both sides do it” in that last sentence.

    But of course, this is not the sign of a failing campaign lunging desperately for a game changer, any game changer, nossirree!

    The new focus on policy detail comes amid reports of campaign infighting, with chief strategist Stuart Stevens bearing the brunt of the blame for a Republican convention that failed to deliver any serious momentum for Romney.

    Campaign sources refused to characterize the new substance offensive as a strategy shift in the face of stagnant poll numbers, even though Republicans in Washington and elsewhere have said privately since the Democratic National Convention that Romney needs to shake up his message if he wants to win.

    Meanwhile, the spinning on tactics has reached wind farm proportions:


    Another Romney adviser embraced the challenge of being an underdog and said incumbents typically lead their challengers until the closing days of a campaign.

    The adviser said the campaign made a calculated gamble to lay low during the Democratic Convention, even if it allowed President Obama to dominate that week’s news cycle and secure a post-convention bump.

    “We went dark over the convention and that saved us $20 million and we did it very deliberately knowing that when we came out of the convention we’d have less of a bump,” the adviser said. “$20 million is $20 million, and you’re competing against that other message. We are very disciplined about it. We would rather spend our $20 million now in an uncluttered environment.”

    And in succinct summation of the Romney run for President:

    Asked to describe the new tone of the Romney message, the adviser answered, “It’s just a winning the election package.”

  19. HappyinVT

    daveweigel 7:09pm via TweetDeck

    It didn’t take. RT @PeterAlexander: In LA today, Romney received his first intelligence briefing, per campaign.

  20. fogiv

    top 5 headlines:

    Romney: Nearly half ‘believe they are victims’

    Romney Distracted by Comments on Government-Dependent ‘Victims’

    Romney: Nearly half ‘believe they are victims’

    Highly Cited:Inside the campaign: How Mitt Romney stumbled

    US requests WTO consultations with China over auto export subsidies

  21. HappyinVT

    … So there you have it: Mitt Romney is just another practitioner of what I call reverse class warfare: the mindset that our economy would take off if everyone had “skin in the game” and wealth were even more concentrated at the top than it already is.

    In the video, Romney is expressing a deeply ingrained belief among the Republican rank-and-file. The party is now virtually defined by reverse class warfare. It decries the “victim mentality” – yet it claims victimhood at the hands of the poor. It exudes contempt and disdain for fellow citizens –  yet it accuses the president of “pitting Americans against each other.”

    The substance is hardly new – by now I find it as boring as it is depressing – but I must say I found Romney’s tone to be strikingly contemptuous. And his people wonder why their candidate is having trouble connecting with voters!

    Newsflash: Romney isn’t simply a stiff. He’s a jerk.

    The American Conservative  

  23. HappyinVT

    itvnews 8:43pm via Tweet Button

    Video claims to show US presidential candidate Mitt Romney describing Obama supporters as tax dodgers and scroungers itv.com/news/update/20…

  24. HappyinVT

    CINCINNATI –  President Obama today sharpened a personal line of attack on his Republican rival,  mocking Romney’s tax proposals and renewing a charge that he is an outsourcing “pioneer.”

    “I’ve actually done my own taxes,” Obama said, showing a hint of disdain for Romney at a rally in Eden Park. “I don’t know about some of these other folks, but I’ve done them, you know…  So I know we can make it more simple and more fair.”

     http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/po…

    Reminds me of a woman I worked with many years ago who told her children that she and her husband had to go “do their taxes” when they wanted to be intimate.  Apparently they did their taxes alot.

  25. Chris Blask

    Kansas considers removing Obama from ballot

    A GOP-controlled board in Kansas is trying to decide whether to remove President Obama from the state ballot over objections about his birth certificate.

    The State Objections Board — consisting of three of the state’s top Republican elected officials — ruled Thursday it did not yet have enough information and postponed a decision until Monday.

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