If you're like me (and to be honest, I'm pretty sure that you aren't - but I digress), you have to have a certain fondness for Newton Leroy Mephistopheles Gingrich. I mean, he may be an evil, bloated troll and a complete abject failure as a human being, but he, more than anybody else in America except Mitt Romney himself, is working hard to help ensure the reelection of Barack Obama.It's true that we liberals, progressives and real Americans can't afford to be complacent as we approach the election, but sweet flaming Baby Jesus on a popsicle stick! How can you not giggle like a schoolgirl watching the GOP flail away at each other like some kind of morally bankrupt Rock'em Sock'em Republicans?
Mitt Romney is going to be the Republican candidate: that's all but a mathematical certainty. But Newton (who is apparently blind to the open oozing wound where his soul might once have been) is charging in like a screaming toddler in the candy aisle, demanding to have his way, by golly! Dragging his animated wax replica of a wife behind him, he's going to keep stabbing away at Mitten's exposed back, trying to bring the Mechanical Mormon down.
Newton's faltering campaign is freshly energized by an influx of gambling money from a stereotypical mob boss straight out of Central Casting: Sheldon Adelson, who occasionally introduces himself as "the richest Jew in the world."With all these stacks of fresh, clean money piling up in the back room, Newton's SuperPAC (which Newton has no connection to, except that he set it up and put former staffers in charge) put out a short film and website bashing away at Romney's record as a "job creator."
And things are just going to get better.
"This is going to be Armageddon – they are going to come in here with everything they've got, every surrogate, every ad, every negative attack," Gingrich said. "At the same time we'll be drawing a sharp contrast between a Georgia Reagan conservative and a Massachusetts moderate who's pro-gun control, pro-choice, pro-tax increase, pro-liberal judge, and the voters of South Carolina will have to look and decide."And just because the Three Stooges have to have their Larry, the craziest of the evangelicals got together this weekend to decide on their favorite flavor of not-Romney, and it turned out to be Santorum Crunch. So we can look for waves of fun coming from that quarter, too.
All I have to say is, the Obama campaign should see if they can borrow some of these ads later on.
Newt is a woman scorned. And Hell hath no fury likehim/her.
ReplyDeletePerhaps when republicans wake up either Ron Paul or Jon Huntsman Will benefit. Which of course means the country might actually benefit too.
ReplyDeleteTruth - absolutely. But is there any chance that Newt might leave the country for a younger, prettier one?
ReplyDeleteRatNat - well, of course. When Ron Paul or Jon Huntsman benefit, taking votes away from Mitt Romney, the country will, by definition, benefit. From the second Obama term.
So, yes, you are completely correct. Just for all the wrong reasons, as usual.
Well, since Huntsman is announcing tomorrow he's dropping out the only remaining hope for real meaningful change rests with Ron Paul.
ReplyDeleteIn reality either Obama or Romney results essentially in the status qou. It is interesting that both Obama and Romney have hugely benefited from Wall Street donors and support.
Cynic, your description of Gingrich, charitable though it is, cracked me up. That he's not too embarrassed by his own past to avoid showing up in the public square speaks volumes about what exists in the very small corner of his mind where character ought to be: ego-driven power lust.
ReplyDeleteBTW, this "Georgia Reagan conservative" was born and grew up in Pennsylvania, and in recent years has been a resident of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
RN, there was an interesting story last spring or summer about how Wall Streeters were switching their allegiance, en masse, to Republicans. Their dalliance with Obama was tactical, temporary and of perceived necessity. They hoped to soften the consequences of having wrecked the economy by backing the winner in 2008. Little did they know they had no cause to worry.
ReplyDeleteRon Paul would be good for real, meaningful change, all right. If he gets his way, gold magnates in some very backward, brutal places will be empowered in the way of oil magnates. Speculators will put not just the U.S. but most of the world economy on conservatives' favored boom-and-bust regimen. Last but not least, militant racists will feel empowered in ways not seen since the 1950's.
On the bright side, Paul will never get the GOP nomination because the arms and military technology industries, and their agents in Congress, the financial industry and Republican establishment, won't stand for him to get it.
In reality either Obama or Romney results essentially in the status quo.
ReplyDeleteHonestly I just can't squint hard enough to see it that way. Obama is hardly owned by Wall Street and the banks. I'm so fucking tired of hearing people say that. He had to save our banking system from collapse. Short of nationalizing the banks, I don't think there was any way to do that without the fat cats getting in one last feast. Obama finally appointed a chief for the Consumer Protection Agency. It's the republicans who want to go back to unlimited usurious interest rates on sub-prime loans. It's the republicans that want to roll back the puny regulations we still have in place. Regulations are meant to protect us. I mean, right?
Romney is filled with bitterness. His hatred and disloyalty to the president is appalling and frightening to decent people. His honesty is non-existent. His disgusting phony cheerfulness when he campaigns proves that a Romney presidency is a catastrophe for all living things which must be prevented at all costs. You should completely hate his guts, Les, for having the unmitigated gall to demand that his opponents all unite behind him and cease all political attacks after only two states have made their choice. You might consider a revenge vote for Obama.
OTOH, Obama is a loving, fun and caring person. And one helluva statesman. I just can't see any parallel whatsoever.
F.J., I support Obama and want to see him re-elected. But I do so with eyes wide open. After following his rise to the presidency and first three years in that office, his M.O. is clear.
DeleteWe have excellent economists in academia who could've served Obama and the country well as his top advisers. Instead, he surrounded himself with Wall Street insiders, and has continued to do that.
Obama might not be "owned" by the financial industry, but when it came time to launch health care reform, his opening gambit was to declare very publicly that universal, single-payer health insurance (Medicare Part E) was off the table because the health insurance is one-sixth of the economy. (Universal single payer would all but end private health insurance as a business.) Obama could at least have put single-payer on the table as a bargaining chip — the most basic move of political horse trading. But he didn't. And because he didn't, we will have weaker, less comprehensive health care reform. For example, the Affordable Care Act still leaves out millions of people who need health insurance.
When it was time to put the spurs to the Justice Department to hold banksters and others legally accountable for wrecking the economy, throwing millions out of work and screwing millions more out of homes and out of trillions in lost investment returns, Obama instead blandly told us it's time to look forward, not backward. (The same thing he said about not going after Bush administration lawbreakers.)
So, while Obama might not be exactly owned by the financial industry, it's not too much to say he's clearly exhibiting the effects of running with a bad crowd.
Obama has done some good things and will continue to do some good things. I'm anxious to hand him attaboys whenever he does. I'm not wearing any rose-colored glasses, though, and suggest you shouldn't either.
President Paul would be more likely than President Obama to be able to get nothing done and I find it amusing that people who decry the power of the Executive none the less dream of President Terminator.
ReplyDeleteOh no! Has it already been four years since we were last forced to participate in the dog and pony show we know as election year?!? I haven't quite recovered from the '08 go around!
ReplyDeleteBottom line for me - any candidate who includes in their platform a desire to rescind a woman's right to choose is NEVER going to get my vote - period.
I think the current state of the GOP shows its hopeless miring in nostalgia -- nostalgia for a return to powerful myths the party and many supporters have long cherished. Even if they were to win the next election, which I don't suppose they will, in the long run they know, at least in some dim way, that they have lost, which probably accounts for the desperate, angry "take back America" rhetoric we have so often heard. What they want is to take back the sanctity of their myths: "whiteness," "pure capitalism," and all that rot.
ReplyDeleteWell we do remember a movement that made a great dramatic thing out of myth and fake nostalgia, but I'm tired of comparing the psychology of those people with these people.
DeleteThey'll take it back from my cold, dead fingers. . .
Hello. I'm from Massachusetts, and I remember quite vividly how Governor Rmoney vowed to continue to support a woman's right to choose, and how he amiably worked with the late Senator Kennedy to pass health care reform in this state.
ReplyDeleteThese facts need to be repeated. I believe people can change their minds on issues as they grow and mature. However, Gov. Rmoney had his change of mind on the abortion issues as a mature politician, not as a youngster. And he is on record saying that the Mass. Health Care reform would be a good blueprint for the country.
He is an unctuous pandering flip-flopper with almost no core values. The one exception being his valuing the idea of being POTUS, even when that means he must walk away from his stated core beliefs.
He's a political chameleon. This year and what he wants now calls for him to be a deep shade of red-state red. Sure enough . . . ;)
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