Tuesday, February 10, 2015

AXELROD, YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARD.

This is masterful trolling:
Barack Obama was "bullshitting" his opposition to gay marriage and support for civil unions during his 2008 presidential campaign, according to a new book authored by former senior White House adviser David Axelrod. 
Time magazine reported Tuesday that the longtime Obama confidant said in his new book, "Believer: My Forty Years in Politics," that he counseled then-senator Obama to soften his position on gay marriage for political reasons. 
"Opposition to gay marriage was particularly strong in the black church, and as he ran for higher office, he grudgingly accepted the counsel of more pragmatic folks like me, and modified his position to support civil unions rather than marriage, which he would term a ‘sacred union,’” Axelrod wrote, as quoted by Time...
"I’m just not very good at bullshitting," Obama told Axelrod after one of those events, as quoted by Time.
Normal people will go, "Yeah, so?" Even Lincoln was doing the "If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it" thing as late as 1862. Getting elected President in a nation always verging on a majority makeup of Snopeses requires some finesse.

But among the abnormal, by which I mean conservatives, it's a different story. So roll out the argh-blargh and mutter-sputter! Joel B. Pollak at Breitbart.com:
OBAMA’S GAY MARRIAGE LIE WAS A LIE ABOUT HIS FAITH, TOO... 
"Obama Misled Nation” is almost a perennial headline–it applies to nearly everything the president does. Yet it is important to be clear about the nature of this particular lie. 
Obama did not just pretend to oppose a controversial position. He pretended to hold that view as a matter of his Christian faith
Thus he made Christians look bigoted -- by acting the bigot and thus getting them to vote for him! HE IS THE FATHER OF LIES! Next, Noah Rothman at Hot Air:
Obama... spent the next 16 years hiding his politically inconvenient opinions from the public until they became acceptable to a majority. There’s nothing especially shocking about that, but the fact that this fails to astonish is itself a lamentable condition. 
[Blink. Blink.]
...This level of cynicism, the expectation that obviously our political leaders would mislead us about what they truly believe, cannot be healthy in the long run. 
Yeah, the first two hundred years of knowing that politicians lie were alright, but now it's getting a little old. I know, let's elect that Duck Dynasty guy.

Most of the brethren apply their traditional Crisis of Credibility bullshit -- "It’s liars all the way down in this administration," hehindeeds Ole Perfesser Instapundit; "Obama lied about opposing gay marriage, contrived the 'God’s in the mix' stuff, isn’t an Honest Politician," huffs Guv'nah Charles C.W. Cooke; "Obama Adviser Says Obama Repeatedly Lied About Gay Marriage for Political Gain... Related: They Lied: Obamacare’s 12 false premises and broken promises," report those lovable libertarians at Reason (read the comments for extra libertarianism, by which I mean loss of faith in humanity).

But we see their point -- the political repercussions could be severe: Maybe word will spread to Alabama, and the Democrats will have a hard time winning elections there!

UPDATE. Oh man:


That monster! Or maybe the Daily Caller doofus who wrote this thinks Sasha and Malia are the monsters, for helping Nobama pretend he used to be regular Christian fag-hater in order to hornswoggle the American People into gayness. Just look at them in the picture, acting like a regular family!

Next we have neo-neocon. The entire tortured mess is hilarious -- sort of Murder in the Cathedral meets Blood Feud -- but there are two stop-the-show moments:
Over the years Americans have become cynical about lying presidents. Some date that cynicism—or at least a great leap forward for that cynicism—to the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal and the fact that Clinton survived it. The left, of course, says “Bush lied” about WMDs, but the right points out that Bush relied on intelligence reports around the world that were mistaken, and that is different than a lie, and that a lie would have been wrong.
So what if he turned a formerly functional Middle East republic into a slaughterhouse and killed thousands of innocent people? He may be a war criminal, but he's not a liar!
[NOTE: I haven't seen any reactions from the black religious community yet, but it's possible they might be quite displeased at this news. It's one thing to change your mind on something; it's another to lie to religious people about your religious beliefs.]
"Why is that white lady staring at us from the bushes? It's like she wants ask us something but she's scared."

164 comments:

  1. DN Nation10:22 AM

    Waaaah.

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  2. "We know we've said all along that Obama is a lying liar who lies all of the time and we screamed about the way he shoved the homosexual agenda down the throats of the members of the military in the showers and didn't do enough to protect traditional marriage from the ravages of queermonauts, but you all should be double-dog shocked to find Obama lied about gay stuff!"


    [Backwards flip onto the swooning couch]


    Too bad there's no way to convert the poutrage to energy, but everything would smell like fear sweat, the hot breath of angry people who never eat veggies to spite the First Lady and sharty underpants, so never mind.

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  3. Martin Pollard10:49 AM

    Cue the poutrage...

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  4. coozledad10:51 AM

    Just think what would have happened if Geogre Bush hadn't stuck to his guns about our arrogant foreign policy and all that nayshun bildin'.

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  5. Socialist Cubone11:01 AM

    Wasn't the point of the whole "evolving position" brouhaha that it was basically a brazen admission that he was lying about his opinion? Why is a slightly more brazen admission now proof that he's evil, and has destroyed America's faith in democracy?

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  6. tigrismus11:08 AM

    I bet he also didn't really mean it when he said those pants didn't make my ass look fat.

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  7. Dean Golden11:14 AM

    As always, the distinction between personal belief and public action is lost.

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  8. Obama... spent the next 16 years hiding his politically inconvenient opinions from the public until they became acceptable to a majority.

    The real marvel to me is the rapidity with which public opinion has changed on gay rights. In a decade, Republicans will be claiming that liberals were the ones opposing same-sex marriage.

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  9. I remember this one president who kept yammering on about Compassionate Conservatism who somehow managed to govern as a hard-right conservative for 8 years. Now that was some brilliant lying.

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  10. AnneMarie Dickey11:30 AM

    You might want to check out what Rod Dreher has been up to the last couple of days. It isn't pretty (the obligatory daily attacks on trans women, name checking Dante and crying in a corner over the SCOTUS and gay marriage)

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  11. "Obama Adviser Says Obama Repeatedly Lied About Gay Marriage for Political Gain..."


    Shorter Wingnuts:


    "We thought Obama shared our hatred and disgust with those homos, and... and... all along... *sob, sniff*... WAAAHHH!".

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  12. DN Nation11:44 AM

    Gruberghazi part one million or so. THEY THINK WE'RE FOOLS! Well, yeah, because you are.

    So we'll have Z-list wingnut bloggers demand impeachment, pro-league hacks like Drunky Noonan and Chuckles Kraphammer contort their faces into baroque, tortured frowns, and on and on. These mensas feign intellectual heft to all of this, but really they just see Obama as their perpetual Mr. McMahon:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNgxyL5zEAk

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  13. Helmut Monotreme11:53 AM

    It's a slam dunk case of bearing false witness. There's no congress in the land that wouldn't impeach him for this.

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  14. carolannie11:59 AM

    Let them hate but also let them fear so that we may conquer

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  15. Bitter Scribe12:03 PM

    Sure, why not? They're already claiming they're the ones who really care about poor people.

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  16. Bitter Scribe12:08 PM

    IOW, he was wrong, and now he's right. A hard concept for some people to understand.

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  17. I can see the bumper stickers now:

    "Obama Lied and People Got Married!"

    That's bound to rack up some more GOP votes in key districts.

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  18. Gromet12:14 PM

    I'm still upset Reagan pullled that bait-and-switch with the Evil Empire. One day he was all "the bombing starts in 10 minutes," the next he was tongue-kissing Gorby in Red Square. Sure we won the Cold War, but with Moscow still on the map? Our victory tasted like ash.

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  19. John Wesley Hardin12:19 PM

    Wait a minute. Politicians in a representative republic modify their positions to more closely match the people they represent? What madness is this? You might as well just GIVE the country to the blahs and Latins.

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  20. John Wesley Hardin12:22 PM

    Right. Bush et alia lied the country into a long, disastrous war, but at least they never hid their contempt for gay people.

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  21. John Wesley Hardin12:30 PM

    And not even the radioactive ash of incinerated civilian populations. Dolchstoßlegende!

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  22. John Wesley Hardin12:33 PM

    "Chuckles Kraphammer contort their faces into baroque, tortured frowns" You've seen Krauthammer lately, haven't you? Here he is smiling.

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  23. beejeez12:35 PM

    They're still hiding them.

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  24. beejeez12:42 PM

    By the way, thanks a lot, Axelrod. Remind me not to tell you what I think of my mother in law.

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  25. When you're wrong, you should double down on your mistake and get the country further into trouble.

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  26. ...This level of cynicism, the expectation that obviously our political leaders would mislead us about what they truly believe, cannot be healthy in the long run.

    Aren't these people the "government is the problem" crowd? Wha'ppen?

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  27. In a decade, Republicans will be claiming that liberals were the ones opposing same-sex marriage.

    I'm hoping in a decade the entire apparatus will have devolved into a very bloody fight over money.

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  28. tigrismus12:56 PM

    Some say his heart is three sizes too small
    others think he hasn't got one at all

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  29. From the last:



    These guys have got me believing in life on other planets because they can't possibly be from this one.


    I think you have it backward Roy, It is we who are from different planets, or alternate universii, kicked out of that or the other for some unbeknownst to us form of apostasy to live among "them."




    ...

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  30. These guys can't get the concept of "Consent" straight...You are asking for the understanding of a "Nuance too Far."
    ...

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  31. JennOfArk1:00 PM

    ...This level of cynicism, the expectation that obviously our political leaders would mislead us about what they truly believe, cannot be healthy in the long run.



    "Compassionate conservative"


    Or better yet: "WMDs! YELLOW CAKE! MUSHROOM CLOUD!"

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  32. Marion in Savannah1:00 PM

    How long do you think it took him, practicing in front of the mirror, to get his "smile" to look EXACTLY like the Grinch's?

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  33. Oh and the Negroes,as they were the party that liberated them, as such.

    They ooze compassion from the soles of their hobnailed boots...
    ...

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  34. LookWhosInTheFreezer1:01 PM

    Thus he made Christians look bigoted -- by acting the bigot and thus getting them to vote for him!

    But Obama has also done all these things like...mumble...something...mumble, to give Right Think Americans every reason to think he's a Muslim. So he's also tarnished the image of Muslims by not being one, which should make him the ultimate Christian Warrior which conservatives should applaud. Inconceivable!

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  35. I think we have found the definition of the phrase "he's got a face for radio"...
    ...

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  36. Double or nothing is in the rules. Everyone should get a second chance, or another house to burn down.
    ...

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  37. BigHank531:05 PM

    He's still paying for the PTSD therapy for that poor makeup person that glimpsed his teeth.

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  38. LookWhosInTheFreezer1:08 PM

    Is it any wonder they don't understand/respect science?

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  39. "After 9/11 I was pissed off about Chappaquiddick?"

    I have been picking the lizard brain so often in an attempt to figure out these fools, that it has closed for business today, so thats all I got.
    ...

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  40. LookWhosInTheFreezer1:09 PM

    He lies about EVERYTHING. Except for the doing coke thing, that part never gets questioned, for no particular reason.

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  41. DN Nation1:13 PM

    I can still see it when I close my eyes.

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  42. I want to shine this comment's feet.

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  43. We joke about it, but it's all too true: It doesn't matter what Obama says or does--Republicans MUST publicly denounce it.

    From the first weeks of his presidency when he got Republicans to denounce the notion that kids should stay in school, through the middle years when he got Republicans to denounce their own tax-cut plans, right up to today when he has Republicans denouncing their own bigotry: Whatever he's for, they're against.

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  44. Can I interest you in a lightly read copy of Dianetics?

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  45. If "lightly read" is a euphemism for taking the book with you to the bathroom on a sit down job and tossing it against the wall after a page or two, then I'll pass.

    If not, I will also pass...I am Sci-Curious, but not that curious...
    ;-)
    ...

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  46. glennisw1:35 PM

    A politician nuanced his positions! Stop the presses!

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  47. petesh1:37 PM

    Have you read even-the-liberal J. Chait on this topic? Probably not since y'all are smarter nor what I is. But just in case — DON'T.

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  48. glennisw1:38 PM

    It's telling that they see virtue in holding an untenable position and refusing to budget, despite the facts.

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  49. "Over the years Americans have become cynical about lying presidents. Some date that cynicism—or at least a great leap forward for that cynicism—to the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal and the fact that Clinton survived it."
    Although some date it a tad further in the misty past:

    http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1994/07/he-was-a-crook/308699/

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  50. edroso2:05 PM

    I did. Well, Sullivan retired, so there's an opening...

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  51. DN Nation2:12 PM

    So cute, the pivot from Obama = Evil to decrying how mean the libs were with Bush and Iraq.

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  52. "Why is that white lady staring at us from the bushes? It's like she wants ask us something but she's scared."You laugh, but do you remember who else was a deranged shrieking bigoted ex-Democrat dumbshit who hid in the shrubbery?

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  53. The left, of course, says “Bush lied” about WMDs, but the right points
    out that Bush relied on intelligence reports around the world that were
    mistakenAnd of course, when the right does that, they're lying, too.

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  54. coozledad2:17 PM

    Closed casket ceremonies for him, regardless of how he goes.

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  55. redoubtagain2:18 PM

    So let me get this straight, to these people:

    Bush's DoD firing Arabic translators 'cause they're gay=good

    Obama changing his personal opinion=bad

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  56. Gromet2:26 PM

    Over the years Americans have become cynical about lying presidents.
    Some date that cynicism—or at least a great leap forward for that
    cynicism—to the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal and the fact that Clinton
    survived it.



    No one was cynical in the 1930s or '70s or '80s -- Clinton invented it! By not getting impeached! Oh, if only 22 Senators had switched their vote to "Guilty" to achieve the necessary 2/3 majority and we had thrown the democratically elected leader of the free world out of office for lying about cheating on his wife -- then our naivety would be intact! Woe is us... All is lost...

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  57. gocart mozart2:28 PM

    That's our Bush!

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  58. EndOfTheWorld2:37 PM

    Brother Rod has finally weighed in, at the tail end of a post kvetching that John Rawls position of political liberalism would have placed him arm-in-arm with the God-botherers.

    "This is exactly right, and what galls so many of us on the Right about
    these matters. As O’Brien rightly points out, almost all of those
    participating in this debate arrive at their positions from axiomatic
    beliefs in what is Good — foundational beliefs that are irreconcilable.
    One reason liberals hold the high ground is that they really do believe
    that their views are objectively and obviously true, and that those who
    do not agree are, ipso facto, filled with irrational animus."

    Damn Liberals! Holding foundational beliefs that we don't have to reconcile is our thing! Get your own racket!

    "The fix is always in with these folks. Always."

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  59. JennOfArk2:43 PM

    The perfidy of those liberals - believing stuff they thing is true, rather than believing stuff they think is bullshit!

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  60. Although some date it a tad further in the misty pastYeah, never mind all the flagrant "fixing of the intelligence around the policy" about WMDs in order to lie us into a disastrous war, or blowing Valerie Plame's cover, then lying about it; back in the misty past there's GHW Bush pardoning people for illegally selling arms to Khomeini and lying about it; there's the Reagan administration's policy of illegally selling arms to Khomeini in the first place, and lying about it; there's the Reagan campaign's role in getting the release of American hostagages delayed for partisan gain; there's Nixon and Watergate, where it wasn't the crime, but the coverup; there's the Nixon campaign's role in sabotaging Vietnamese negotiations for partisan gain, while claiming a "secret plan" to end the war (Hint: liars); hell, every time we've let a Republican into the White House since Eisenhower, they've provided aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States while taking repeated dumps on the Constitution, and lying about everything including what color the fucking sky is. On the other hand, perhaps the real problem was that Bill Clinton wasn't removed from office over a goddamned blowjob. Who can say?

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  61. I'm not sure whether he just swallowed a live frog, or had a rattlesnake put in his stoma.

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  62. M. Krebs3:02 PM

    http://youtu.be/Of8JOVXYU0Q



    Someone needs to cut that down into 4 second clips.

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  63. The left, of course, says “Bush lied” about WMDs, but the right points out that Bush relied on intelligence reports around the world that were mistaken, and that is different than a lie, and that a lie would have been wrong.

    This is, itself, a lie. The intelligence that the rest of the world was looking at said clearly and unequivocally that Saddam did not have weapons of mass destruction. UN Inspector al-Baredi stated that directly in his reports, as did the intelligence agencies of France and Germany. The Nigerian uranium claim was debunked within days of Cheney making the claim, but he continued (and continues) to push it as the truth. Condi Rice's aluminum tubes claim was completely debunked by the United States Department of State and the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission before she even uttered a word about them in public--yet she insisted (and continues to insist) that the tubes were for nuclear centrifuges.

    The entire Bush administration, including Bush himself, knew the WMD claim was complete bullshit. Bush did, indeed, lie. The evidence is incontrovertible.

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  64. Gromet3:05 PM

    Why don't these Demonrats follow the Republican method of campaigning on completely unappetizing lunacy?? Get up there and give speeches about how the American people are moochers! Tell us we should have less choice and go to prison for more stuff, and that the environment we live in oughta be despoiled for a quick buck! People ADMIRE that kind of opposition to common sense!

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  65. The fact that he looked at your ass is cause enough for impeachment according to the Right. That he looked at it and then lied about it just makes it worse.

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  66. Gromet3:07 PM

    Silly you, looking for the barest whiff of consistency in their beliefs...

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  67. M. Krebs3:12 PM

    ...and that a lie would have been wrong.</i.


    It's funny, I don't recall hearing that part.

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  68. waspuppet3:25 PM

    "Some date that cynicism—or at least a great leap forward for that
    cynicism—to the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal and the fact that Clinton
    survived it."

    Others, who actually know something about America and how it works, would date it to Bush I's pre-emptive pardon of everyone (including, essentially, himself) who actively enabled Middle Eastern terrorism for the grand purpose of - well, enabling Central American terrorism. Or they'd date it to Gerald Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon, who sat in the Oval Office and personally ordered actual crimes.

    But, you know, why teach people anything when an informed public might not end up benefiting you?

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  69. gocart mozart3:27 PM

    “When we brought her to the front of the plane,” Axelrod writes, “Obama proceeded to blister her for a previous column she had written. No one got under Barack’s skin more than Maureen… He was patronizing and disrespectful…After that awkward encounter, she seemed to take particular delight in psychoanalyzing Barack and belittling him in print, which only deepened his contempt… ‘Why are you friends with her?’ he would demand after Maureen sent one of her acid darts his way.”

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  70. gocart mozart3:29 PM

    Penn “saw his mission as quashing any liberal impulses of the candidate or the campaign, and he justified himself with fuzzy polling numbers and smug self-assurance that made every conversation grating,” he writes. “I felt he spent as much time manipulating his clients as providing constructive counsel.”

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  71. BigHank533:37 PM

    Oh, wow. I had just assumed that "tigrismus" was one of Michelle's pseudonyms, but this apparently goes a lot deeper than I thought!

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  72. AGoodQuestion3:38 PM

    Some date that cynicism—or at least a great leap forward for that cynicism—to the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal and the fact that Clinton survived it.


    Wow, we really don't have Nixon to kick around anymore.

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  73. AGoodQuestion3:43 PM

    They certainly seem to reward it in off-year elections.

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  74. redoubtagain3:44 PM

    Wel, there were all those "crimes and misdemeanors" during the two Gore Administrations.

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  75. AGoodQuestion3:47 PM

    Yeah, it doesn't help her that Colin Powell said "This is bullshit" right before making his case to the UN. What does help her is how many people don't know/care.

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  76. BigHank533:55 PM

    No, look, both sides do do it. There's proof. And if you think there's a difference between gay marriage and half a million dead people in Iraq, it just goes to show how much of the lefty Kool-Aid you've drunk.

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  77. AGoodQuestion3:57 PM

    The President hates Maureen Dowd and is annoyed by Mitt Romney. Axelrod has no respect for Mark Penn. It's almost like these guys have been awake for the last fifteen years.

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  78. Why you feel it necessary to throw that execrable excuse of a president in our faces i will never know.

    I'll keep my eyeballs on you, sir or madam.
    ...

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  79. AGoodQuestion4:02 PM

    One thing that makes me cynical is when the people manning the Overton window weep crocodillically about how politicians won't be themselves and tell us how they really feel.

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  80. It's butts within butts, my friend.

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  81. Bush didn't lie. He catapulted the propaganda. There's a difference, people.

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  82. satch4:28 PM

    "People ADMIRE that kind of opposition to common sense!"

    The thing is, this really IS common sense to your typical Pug. They really believe that the 47% of the population of America (they wouldn't stoop to calling that 47% "Americans") really ARE moochers; that there SHOULD be more prison sentences because nobody goes to prison unless they DESERVE it; that corporations really WOULD protect the environment if there were fewer regulations, since it's the regs themselves that prompt corporations to skirt them; and that we already have plenty of choices, thank you very much, and providing more would be an onerous burden on the Heroic Producers.

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  83. Steve-O4:31 PM

    To be fair, for anyone who doesn't "believe" in evolution, the whole concept of evolving on an issue is going to be hard to grasp.


    For the more, um, educated?, of the bunch, changing your mind makes you a horrible liar. And when you point out one of theirs, it's [throws smoke bomb] [disappears].

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  84. I enjoy the thought of rod crying in the corner, anyway.

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  85. satch4:41 PM

    Here's a thought: should we be taking Axelrod's account of what went on behind the scenes as the whole, unvarnished truth? I mean, there are times when Axelrod starts to sound uncomfortably like Mark Halperin.

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  86. We could if they'd allow us to dig him up.

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  87. Jay B.5:05 PM

    It's funny. I hadn't actually realized some neocon whore wrote the "he didn't lie, he was just catastrophically wrong" think piece just over the past couple of days. Cited here -- the idea they didn't lie was rather exfoliated in 2006 in this MoJo piece. It'll never pierce through, but it's incredibly important to continually point out that the Administration was both "wrong" and "pathologically lying" about everything, all the time.

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  88. Ted the slacker5:23 PM

    Politician hoodwinks the religious base. UNPRECEDENTED IN POLITICS EVER.

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  89. montag25:27 PM

    Hmm. I don't understand why Mr. Obama is hiding his light under a bushel basket. He's great at bullshitting. Why, I'd almost say--if Axelrod isn't just gilding his own lily--this constitutes false modesty on Obama's part. (There's certainly no false modesty on Axelrod's part, is there? He's right up front about his mad skillz at steering candidates.)

    But what is still absolutely flabbergasting is neo-neocon trying to date the national ennui to Clinton's lying about a blowjob. Talk about pitching a hefty part of American history into the memory hole, not to mention his elision of the salient fact that the intelligence upon which Bush depended was itself made up of conscious lies, concocted, packaged and delivered to Bush's doorstep in order to justify Bush's public lies. In legalspeak, that's evidence tampering and misprision of a felony in furtherance of a criminal conspiracy.

    The truth is that the public came to the conclusion that all politicians lie looooong before Clinton ever appeared on the political scene. There might even be a clue to that in the 37% turnout in the 2014 election.

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  90. AnneMarie Dickey5:34 PM

    Hey Aimai :) Good to see you.

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  91. Wasn't this one of neo-neocon's arguments against Obama's use of the veto? He was only supposed to use it for stuff he really, really, believes.


    This rather reminds me of something that Fred Clark at Slacktivist points out which is that for your real true christian its not possible that non believers simply don't believe what christians do--they really have to be lying, they really have to be faking it. If you read the Left Behind series or read evangelical approaches to, say, the Jews or the Gays the basic idea seems to be that they know they are sinning, they know that Jesus is really the only true god, but they are so stiff necked and proud that they refuse to admit it. Similarly, I think neo neocon and these people think that its not really possible that Obama has an actual political agenda that he protects--he can't really care about the ACA or anything else where he's threateninga veto. Its just because he's so contrary.

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  92. Actually I think this is going to become another casus bellow (thanks roy!)--it relates to the argument that you don't hear anymore about how he "wasn't properly vetted" so that if the voters "had only known" that he was black (f'rinstance) they never would have voted for him. Now we are going to hear endlessly--or at least till they start frothing at the mouth and falling over--about how Obama has betrayed his own african american voters by being pro gay marriage. How if they'd only known they never would have voted for him so his election is illegitimate and McCain or Romney gets a do-over.

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  93. ken_lov5:53 PM

    At what point will conservatives realise this constant Obama-bashing serves no strategic purpose whatsoever? I think it's great, because they've gotten so locked into turning any topic into reflexive abuse of Obama, they're going to have real trouble coaxing the base into doing anything else come 2016.

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  94. billcinsd6:03 PM

    Matrybuttshka

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  95. GeniusLemur6:15 PM

    "Americans have become cynical about lying presidents. Some date that
    cynicism—or at least a great leap forward for that cynicism—to the
    Clinton/Lewinsky scandal"
    Hey, stupid, others would date it to WATERGATE, when the president was shown to be abusing his power at the highest levels for the most spiteful reasons, and got away more or less unpunished.
    Oh, one more detail? That president was a LAW AND ORDER REPUBLICAN.

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  96. JennOfArk6:17 PM

    Well, the non-Christians are wicked; they also "know" that the bible is the Truth - just as the Believer himself "knows" it's true because that's what everyone has told him from age 3 onwards, what more proof do you need? - but the wicked are just spitting in God's face.


    And of course you can't explain otherwise to them about this or anything else because any attempt to do so elicits shrieks and the codewords they've had drilled into their heads by conservative media.


    And really, this disbelief that liberals believe the stuff they think is true is very telling, since we all know that people who hold irrational beliefs cling to them all the harder when presented with evidence of their irrationality.


    To sum up, people are fucking morons.

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  97. GeniusLemur6:19 PM

    Sure. See, the admirable people brag about how they never changed any of their opinions after age 18. It's in the book by that guy Republicans claim to hate but keep taking cues from. I forget the title, has something to do with "My Struggle"

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  98. GeniusLemur6:21 PM

    Still others say it's made of rotting shit, like his brain.

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  99. tigrismus6:21 PM

    Nice pivot from "almost all" to "liberals."

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  100. I had no idea Bachmann used to be a Democrat.

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  101. JennOfArk6:40 PM

    What's funny is how thoroughly he has been supported by church-going African Americans in his support for gay marriage. Everyone was expecting some big falling-out, but for the most part, the black religious community said, "what he said makes sense, we're fine with it." I'm not sure solidarity had nothing to do with it, but think more than that the community trusts the president and is open to hearing what he has to say and judging it fairly.

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  102. Ellis_Weiner6:47 PM

    Does "the right point out" that the intel it relied on was wrong because it stovepiped self-serving bullshit in order to "conclude" what it wanted and believed all along? Surely they do. If they don't, it would be wrong!

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  103. The most transparent Administration in history doesn't want us to get our information about the TPP from the HuffPo.

    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/01/30/1361160/-Obama-Tells-House-Dems-to-Get-Informed-on-the-TPP-But-He-s-the-One-Restricting-Access-to-the-Text

    The Republicans are whores. Obama (like Bill Clinton) is a whore from the GOP wing of the Democratic party.

    Hurray for the slightly less evil assholes!
    ~

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  104. Hating Hitler---#NotAllRepublicans


    http://youtu.be/L5csB6QGw4U

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  105. I call bullshit on Washington's "I cannot tell a lie" claim.

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  106. https://twitter.com/ColMorrisDavis?original_referer=http%3A%2F%2Flittlegreenfootballs.com%2Farticle%2F44313_The_Other_Shoe_Drops-_Brian_Williams_Suspended_for_6_Months&tw_i=565320417075007489&tw_p=tweetembed

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  107. cleter9:10 PM

    Yeah, well, if we're going to get upset about presidential lies, get back to me when he tells us that Iraq is buying uranium from Niger.

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  108. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person9:37 PM

    Breaking: the Preznit is a politician, and sometimes fibs a bit. Film at eleven!


    You woke me up for this? Jesus, I gotta work inna morning... [rolls over, rearranges cat, turns out light]

    ReplyDelete
  109. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person9:48 PM

    So, basically, he was against teh gaii before he was for it?

    ReplyDelete
  110. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person9:56 PM

    It has long been hypothesized that *this* world is the afterlife,. and not the nice one upstairs, with harps and milk and honey and shit, but rather the belowstairs one with Rock n Roll, pizza, sexytime without Angelic chaperonage, 12-year-old Scotch, Magic Fingers, and, unfortunately, *those* people. [Makes another tick in the "mmmmm, could be" column]...

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  111. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person9:58 PM

    Yup. "Higher Truth". What a dogawful concept...

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  112. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person10:05 PM

    elles sont toutes GrochoMarxists...

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  113. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person10:11 PM

    Well, be fair, if Liberals aren't Evil, what the hell is the concept good for?

    ReplyDelete
  114. M. Krebs10:12 PM

    Well, if I may channel Larry Wilmore, Obama is black and he's president. Everything else is just noise.

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  115. M. Krebs10:17 PM

    Wait, I know. Strom Thurmon?

    ReplyDelete
  116. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person10:21 PM

    The makeup crew hates when they see Kraphammer on the guest list. "hey Ray, call downstairs, we need another five gallons of Hi-Hide Tan #2. The Grinch is on tonight". Takes half an hour to cover all that green...

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  117. M. Krebs10:30 PM

    Microsoft hired that fuckstick Mark Penn as "Chief Strategy Officer" in 2012. After a couple of good years, his impact is beginning to take hold. If it weren't a sucker's game, I'd sell MSFT short.

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  118. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person10:33 PM

    He told the truth about one thing, and did it on national TV: They weren't under the couch...

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  119. M. Krebs10:36 PM

    Sullivan will be back. He just saw a way to attract as much attention to himself as possible as he retreated to his lair to work on some book got a contract to write. I'm guessing he'll be back within two years.

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  120. M. Krebs10:39 PM

    Well, to be fair, a lot of people have no memory of Nixon or Reagan.

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  121. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person10:40 PM

    There’s nothing especially shocking about that, but the fact that this fails to astonish is itself a lamentable condition.

    [Blink. Blink.]


    This construction has become a regular trope among the keyboard Kommandos' Vapid Response Team. I swear, they must be doing it just to see if our heads'll do a full Linda Blair one day...

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  122. M. Krebs10:50 PM

    Looks like Jon Stewart is packing it in -- like Colbert and Letterman.

    Noting the widespread media coverage of [Brian] Williams’s woes, Mr. Stewart wryly added, “Finally someone is being held to account for misleading America about the Iraq War.”



    Is this the year when the 20th century really ends?

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  123. AGoodQuestion11:07 PM

    You're quite right on this. On the other hand, if these people start making noise about how Obama backstabbed church-going blacks on gay marriage, I don't think that church-going blacks will really be the target audience.

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  124. AGoodQuestion11:15 PM

    Feel free to lament it in private, Rothman.

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  125. montag211:33 PM

    To be fair, no small number of people in this country can't remember what they had for lunch, let alone twenty-five years ago.

    That said, I'm pretty sure that neo-neocon thinks BCE stands for Before the Clinton Era. Everything else is ancient history, as if Clinton represented the beginning of political corruption. He's definitely someone who believes Iran-Contra was just a hiccup in Reagan's elevation to sainthood, that Watergate and its cover-up were Communist plots to subvert a "strong" President, and that the John Birch Society was just a social welfare organization.



    Once one has leapt off the cliff of sanity, no one up above mistakes the flailing arms for flying.

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  126. JennOfArk11:46 PM

    I love ColMorrisDavis. My twitter alter-ego follows him.

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  127. JennOfArk11:49 PM

    I'm monumentally bummed by Jon's resignation. I don't think I could have survived the Bush years without him.

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  128. brandonrg11:54 PM

    Both LG&M and now Roy have linked neo-neocon in the last couple of days. I must be missing something, because I have no idea why I should be caring what she has to say. Looking at several of her other front-page articles, she seems to be a generically vapid conservative full of dumb ideas of things that just aren't so. Am I missing why she's getting this attention?

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  129. Yep.

    Compellingly fitting that his vanity project ... oh, sorry, his "experiment in new journalism" ... ended in a paroxysm of treacly adulation & shameless self-congratulation.

    He will be back.

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  130. smut clyde2:11 AM

    hiding his politically inconvenient opinions from the public until they became acceptable to a majority

    Sometimes Americans want politicians who will Lead them with Leadership, and sometimes they want politicians who will reflect and represent their own policy preferences; so it is fortunate that you have Rothman to explain which is appropriate in any particular case.
    In this specific area, it would seem that Americans wanted a president who would forcefully impose his own policy, but Obama was doing the opposite, so he was wrong. Who would have guessed it?

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  131. For many of them, there's no difference between the two. Their personal belief in ALMIGHTY GOP JESUS means everyone needs to knuckle under to their personal interpretation of the Bible.

    Oddly enough, though, most of these same people manage to carve out personal exemptions for their own behavior. Marriage and family values are sacred, but it's okay to spend your money on a prostitute and a box of diapers, or to try to pick up men in public restrooms, or to hike the Appalachian Trail.

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  132. Penn is just one more example of the new American "failing upward" practice in business. The bigger the disaster you helmed, the more companies want you to come aboard and create a new disaster. Penn has managed to royally screw every job he's ever had--which had resulted in an unending stream of ever-more-lucrative job offers as companies bid for his catastrophe-creating services. Tina Brown is his female counterpart--she's managed to bankrupt or nearly bankrupt every magazine she's touched. Yet, she's considered a publishing genius and is much sought-after.

    I often wonder how one manages to become so successfully incompetent that corporations are willing to offer you millions to wipe out their profitability.

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  133. I'm glad Jon Stewart framed the Brian Williams scandal that way. Nobody else in the mainstream seemed willing to, and it's the most relevant part of it.

    The media in 2003 was a morass of lies and fabrication. The fact that Brian Williams got a little too excited about being embedded with the troops was only a small part of it. It makes sense in context, and I thank Jon Stewart for reminding everybody about that.

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  134. You might as well ask "at what point will conservatives realize that none of the crap they've been predicting will ever come true." For six years they have fed the True Believers a steady diet of FEMA camps, round-ups of gun owners, confiscation of private property in the name of the UN, the imposition of Sharia Law, Obama's turning the nation over to the Caliphate, and the impending destruction of our monetary system as all businesses become nationalized and profits are outlawed.

    At the end of Obama's presidency, they'll be telling the True Believers that the ONLY reason none of these things happened was because Rush and Hannity and Beck were all on the case and thus kept the most lawless president in world history from accomplishing any of these things.

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  135. satch8:50 AM

    *cough*DickMorris*cough*

    As an aside, I couldn't immediately remember Dick Morris's name, so I Googled "Toe Sucking Political Adviser", and the first 15 entries that popped up referred to him.

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  136. They seem ridiculous to us, but not to the conservative base.

    The Obama-bashing served them quite well in the mid-term elections. Many of the candidates ran and won on a platform of "We hate Obama." I feel rude to contradict you, but that's a strategic purpose. I suspect that their mass hatred of him will continue to be useful during the campaigning leading up to Election 2016.

    Conservatives often consider the mid-terms the time when they beat him in an election. The fact that he wasn't running made no difference at all.

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  137. Buchanan's book sounds dumb. Luckily, I don't think anyone outside of his fan club will be convinced by it. He seems to be on his own weird path nowadays.

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  138. Not anywhere mean enough, in my opinion.

    Yes, intelligence was fixed. Evidence was fabricated. There should have been a relentless investigation to find out exactly who did these things, and serious punishment for those responsible.

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  139. You're right that she's vapid and dumb. As far as why Roy links to her, it's just for the tasty mangoes.

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  140. Yup. She supposedly voted for Carter in 1976, but ever since he betrayed the nation and its Christian faith, she's been outraged by the Enlightenment.

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  141. if these people start making noise about how Obama backstabbed
    church-going blacks on gay marriage, I don't think that church-going
    blacks will really be the target audience.Nope, the target audience will be those to whom these same people have been babbling about Obama conspiring with all the black people to start a race war and kill whitey.


    "ERROR. LOGIC FAULT DETECTED."


    Jeez, Computron, I told you to leave your cognitive dissonator in place.

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  142. Helmut Monotreme9:09 AM

    Doesn't "selling short" explain a lot of this?

    ReplyDelete
  143. Well, "hid in the shrubbery" wasn't intended to be a euphemism, but the judges will accept your answer.

    ReplyDelete
  144. Too bad Mickey Kaus doesn't show up under "fucks goats."

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  145. Here's a thought: should we be taking Axelrod's account of what went on behind the scenes as the whole, unvarnished truth?No, because from the viewpoint of neo-neocon and her ilk, he's a liberal, and liberals lie all the time. Not about Obama and the same-sex marriage thing, though, that's gospel. As is anything else unflattering to Obama. Anything that makes him look good, however, is a sign of Axelrod's fundamental dishonesty.


    "ERROR. LOGIC FAULT DETECTED."

    Shut up, Computron.

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  146. tigrismus9:44 AM

    he's on the first page of pundit blows goats though.

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  147. Clifford Beall9:58 AM

    This is the least surprising "revelation" you can imagine about Obama. Find me the fainting couch, he actually believes in New Testament Christianity instead of Old.


    Also, if you look at his two opponents, both McCain and Romney changed positions on all kinds of things for political reasons - for instance immigration, abortion, gun control, and health care.

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  148. gocart mozart10:31 AM

    I'm shocked! Shocked that politics was going on in a presidential campaign. What next, will some lawyer be exposed for spinning facts in his clients favor?

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  149. Magatha11:33 AM

    You know, I knew he was confined to a wheelchair, and I always assumed it was some kind of degenerative disease, so I hated the fact that I was creeped out by his facial expression when it might be a symptom of his disease. But then I checked the wiki, and he was paralyzed in a diving accident a long time ago. So now I think he made his face all by himself simply on account of being mean.

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  150. Magatha11:36 AM

    I want to throw a bouquet and make sure this comment catches it.

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  151. M. Krebs11:45 AM

    I didn't mean that the way I wrote it. The phrase "to be fair" is now dead to me.

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  152. That's the way they see it alright.


    In a way, I envy people who can believe that we really DO live in a world so fair, so merit-based. In such a world, people who are incredibly wealthy have legitimately earned what they have. People who beg on street corners have simply made bad decisions. Everyone has control over their own fate. Everyone deserves what has happened to them, good or ill.


    What I wouldn't give to live in such a world!

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  153. Jay B.1:02 PM

    "Generically vapid conservative" pretty much sums up our general media, at least half the electorate and certainly our Congress. If we ignore what they are saying and what they believe, how exactly do we cope with the results?

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  154. Pseudonym2:52 PM

    Calling Saddam-era Iraq "functional" is arguable at least, but "republic"?

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  155. J Neo Marvin3:45 PM

    I cried because I had to shine shoes all day until I saw a man who was shining feet.

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  156. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person9:00 PM

    Can't point & laugh if you can't see it...

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  157. Smarter than Your Average Bear9:31 PM

    "He pretended to hold that view as a matter of his Christian faith. "
    What he's not a Mooslem any more? Damn, I just can't keep up with all these changes - next thing you know they'll be telling me he really isn't a Kenyan

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  158. I am not so enamoured as I once was as he strays into the both sides morass a bit too often and has the occasional war criminal as a guest, but back in the day, he was the shit.

    I'd have to say that blogs and running into like-minded souls such as yourself, were the keys to my salvation.
    :)

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  159. I would also add that for the heavy breathing brethren will almost certainly take the opportunity to hate Obama, super Hate him during the next election as some form of "payback" for our completely illegitimate "hatred" of Dubby...

    Ken, it is a mistake to attempt the use of reason to cypher the ways of the wingnut.
    ...

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  160. fourmorewars12:33 AM

    The whole politicians-lie thing, I can't be the only one it drives up the wall. As a piece of apocryphal helpfulness in explaining politicians' LYINGGGGG, I'm sure others have heard the anecdote of the baseball manager who's standing on the field next to a reporter, and yells to his shortstop that he wants him to make extra sure his throws are right in the breadbasket because the first baseman hasn't been catching them well...and he lets on to the reporter that his exhortation is really intended for the shortstop, who's been throwing badly, but he couches it as if it's someone ELSE'S weakness?

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