The Republican Thread

[lostfan]

Because they can't win on the issues. Even when they have facts, they are so unconfident in those facts that they exagerate them to try and make their point even more and then end up looking foolish.

lol, I could easily say this about virtually anyone running for office at any given time.

[NorthSideSox72]

Because they can't win on the issues. Even when they have facts, they are so unconfident in those facts that they exagerate them to try and make their point even more and then end up looking foolish.

 

 

lol, I could easily say this about virtually anyone running for office at any given time.

Exactly, and I'd add that this hyperbole and run to the gutters we see from both parties in the past decade or two is the single biggest current problem in politics in this country.

 

[Balta1701]

Exactly, and I'd add that this hyperbole and run to the gutters we see from both parties in the past decade or two is the single biggest current problem in politics in this country.

The single biggest current problem? I think that's hyperbole.

[NorthSideSox72]

The single biggest current problem? I think that's hyperbole.

Tell me a bigger problem in the current culture of politics. Not an issue - but a behavior, tendency, or method.

 

[Balta1701]

Tell me a bigger problem in the current culture of politics. Not an issue - but a behavior, tendency, or method.

The complete sellout of the government in exchange for campaign finance contributions and the explosion of this system of legalized corruption that we currently have.

 

I don't think any other problem is even close.

 

If I had to pick a 2nd...I'd go with the decline of the 4th estate as a skeptical organization and the rise of cheap and easy "he-said, she-said" reporting or the rise of "here is verbatim what their press release said" reporting.

 

The idea that there has been this decrease in comity from an era like the last decade or two where we had things like the Willie Horton ad, the Southern Strategy, machines like the Kennedys, a Congress loaded with legitimate racists...etc. strikes me as wrong.

[NorthSideSox72]

The complete sellout of the government in exchange for campaign finance contributions and the explosion of this system of legalized corruption that we currently have.

 

I don't think any other problem is even close.

 

If I had to pick a 2nd...I'd go with the decline of the 4th estate as a skeptical organization and the rise of cheap and easy "he-said, she-said" reporting or the rise of "here is verbatim what their press release said" reporting.

 

The idea that there has been this decrease in comity from an era like the last decade or two where we had things like the Willie Horton ad, the Southern Strategy, machines like the Kennedys, a Congress loaded with legitimate racists...etc. strikes me as wrong.

Campaign finance I'll give you as a rival for the hyperbole and extremism. The others, not in the same ballpark, IMO.

 

[Balta1701]

Campaign finance I'll give you as a rival for the hyperbole and extremism. The others, not in the same ballpark, IMO.

At least you see that I wasn't being hyperbolic when I said I didn't think yours was anywhere near the top.

[Rex Kickass]

The idea that there has been this decrease in comity from an era like the last decade or two where we had things like the Willie Horton ad, the Southern Strategy, machines like the Kennedys, a Congress loaded with legitimate racists...etc. strikes me as wrong.

 

There is a lot less comity these days than there was a generation ago, but not on the campaign trail. The lack of comity is in the Senate and the House, where there is an absolute lack of insulation from the campaign trail - and candidates these days are being seen as having to toss aside support for things that are right and make sense for fear of letting the other side get a political point.

[southsider2k5]

According to Harry Reid, the greatest living Americans are Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd.

[EvilMonkey]

According to Harry Reid, the greatest living Americans are Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd.

A drunk who killed a woman and a former head of the kkk. Nice. And they say the witch in Delaware or where ever it is isn't smart enough to be in the Senate.

[southsider2k5]

A drunk who killed a woman and a former head of the kkk. Nice. And they say the witch in Delaware or where ever it is isn't smart enough to be in the Senate.

 

Well that, and they are both dead...

[Balta1701]

A drunk who killed a woman and a former head of the kkk. Nice. And they say the witch in Delaware or where ever it is isn't smart enough to be in the Senate.

To be fair...former Senator Byrd founded a local chapter of the KKK with about 150 people or so in the 1940's, but he was not the national head of that organization at any point. The highest rank he achieved, according to Wikipedia, was "Exalted Cyclops".

 

You can decide yourself whether I wrote this post to defend him or simply to use the phrase exalted cyclops.

[NorthSideSox72]

A drunk who killed a woman and a former head of the kkk. Nice. And they say the witch in Delaware or where ever it is isn't smart enough to be in the Senate.

I'd rather not have either of them in there.

 

I've said before, Reid is probably my least favorite current Senator, at least of ones I know much about. Unfortunately, the GOP challenger in his election (Angle) is, amazingly, even worse.

 

[EvilMonkey]

I'd rather not have either of them in there.

 

I've said before, Reid is probably my least favorite current Senator, at least of ones I know much about. Unfortunately, the GOP challenger in his election (Angle) is, amazingly, even worse.

I bet she would at least pick people who were alive.

[Cknolls]

Jake Tapper, ABC:

 

TAPPER: But what do you say to people who argue you are demonizing an organization for a charge that nobody knows if it’s true or not?

 

AXELROD: Well I’m not demonizing the Chamber of Commerce. I’m simply suggesting to them that they disclose the source of the $75 million that they are spending in campaigns and put to rest, put to rest the questions that have been, that have been raised.

 

TAPPER: Isn’t that like the whackjobs that tell the president he needs to show them his full long-form birth certificate so he can put to rest the questions that have been raised?

 

AXELROD: The president’s birth certificate has been available to people.

 

TAPPER: The long form?

 

 

 

Absolutely assinine that this is in the news. But, you have to rally the base somehow, despite how patently dishonest and slimy you look.

[Balta1701]

Absolutely assinine that this is in the news. But, you have to rally the base somehow, despite how patently dishonest and slimy you look.

Did you just become a birther?

[Rex Kickass]

Jake Tapper, ABC:

 

TAPPER: But what do you say to people who argue you are demonizing an organization for a charge that nobody knows if it’s true or not?

 

AXELROD: Well I’m not demonizing the Chamber of Commerce. I’m simply suggesting to them that they disclose the source of the $75 million that they are spending in campaigns and put to rest, put to rest the questions that have been, that have been raised.

 

TAPPER: Isn’t that like the whackjobs that tell the president he needs to show them his full long-form birth certificate so he can put to rest the questions that have been raised?

 

AXELROD: The president’s birth certificate has been available to people.

 

TAPPER: The long form?

 

 

 

Absolutely assinine that this is in the news. But, you have to rally the base somehow, despite how patently dishonest and slimy you look.

 

I can't figure out what you think is assinine. The idea that people want the Chamber of Commerce to disclose who is funding their millions of dollars in partisan political advertising or that people are still talking about the President's birth certificate?

 

[NorthSideSox72]

Jake Tapper, ABC:

 

TAPPER: But what do you say to people who argue you are demonizing an organization for a charge that nobody knows if it’s true or not?

 

AXELROD: Well I’m not demonizing the Chamber of Commerce. I’m simply suggesting to them that they disclose the source of the $75 million that they are spending in campaigns and put to rest, put to rest the questions that have been, that have been raised.

 

TAPPER: Isn’t that like the whackjobs that tell the president he needs to show them his full long-form birth certificate so he can put to rest the questions that have been raised?

 

AXELROD: The president’s birth certificate has been available to people.

 

TAPPER: The long form?

 

 

 

Absolutely assinine that this is in the news. But, you have to rally the base somehow, despite how patently dishonest and slimy you look.

I agree, it is assinine that we still have people bringing up Obama's birth certificate.

 

[StrangeSox]

To be fair, he did correctly characterize them as whackjobs, but the comparison to questions regarding the US Chamber of Commerce funding is weak. There is ample evidence that Obama was and is a US citizen, but we have no indication of where the CoC funds are from.

[Balta1701]

To be fair, he did correctly characterize them as whackjobs, but the comparison to questions regarding the US Chamber of Commerce funding is weak. There is ample evidence that Obama was and is a US citizen, but we have no indication of where the CoC funds are from.

Actually, we have a very strong indication that the CoC gets money from overseas to run some portion of its operations. It holds fundraisers overseas, even in places like Dubai, and has corporate members who operate solely overseas. The question is not where it gets its money, we already know it gets money from overseas...the question is how it is bookkeeping its money; if its raising money overseas and using that money to run its operations, and that step frees up domestically raised money to be contributed to a campaign.

[EvilMonkey]

ANd yet he is saying 'I don't have to prove thier guilt, they have to prove thier innocence'. I wonder who is next on the Obama admin hit list. He is making Nixon's enemies list look weak by comparrison. Going to go down as the most petty President in history.

[Balta1701]

ANd yet he is saying 'I don't have to prove thier guilt, they have to prove thier innocence'. I wonder who is next on the Obama admin hit list. He is making Nixon's enemies list look weak by comparrison. Going to go down as the most petty President in history.

Let me turn it around and ask you this question; why should anyone be able to keep their funding sources on a U.S. political campaign secret?

 

Is that not an area that a priori we'd expect that openness would be a good thing and secrecy would almost always be a bad thing?

[NorthSideSox72]

ANd yet he is saying 'I don't have to prove thier guilt, they have to prove thier innocence'. I wonder who is next on the Obama admin hit list. He is making Nixon's enemies list look weak by comparrison. Going to go down as the most petty President in history.

Well that's a bit much - most petty?

 

Anyway, the real solution to all of this is real campaign finance reform, which seems unlikely. This is one of the few true failings of the Constitution, leaving the financing of campaigns in the hands of the campaigners. Not that I blame the framers, because they probably couldn't have forseen this, but its a serious hen house problem that needs to be addressed.

 

[KipWellsFan]

ANd yet he is saying 'I don't have to prove thier guilt, they have to prove thier innocence'. I wonder who is next on the Obama admin hit list. He is making Nixon's enemies list look weak by comparrison. Going to go down as the most petty President in history.

 

Those last two sentences are supposed to be in green right?

[EvilMonkey]

Well that's a bit much - most petty?

 

Anyway, the real solution to all of this is real campaign finance reform, which seems unlikely. This is one of the few true failings of the Constitution, leaving the financing of campaigns in the hands of the campaigners. Not that I blame the framers, because they probably couldn't have forseen this, but its a serious hen house problem that needs to be addressed.

Can you think of any other President that has verbally attacked people like Obama has? He has lashed out as Joe the Plumber, Limbaugh and other talk radio hosts by name, BP (well, they deserved most of that), Sarah Palin, now the Chamber of Commerce. 'Can't I just eat my damn pancakes?' Who is next?