Quick Candidates Condition Round Up...(PT 2)

[Sue U]

I can't see how that would help; most of them are pretty big dicks already.






(Thanks for the straight line!)

[Sue U]

Meanwhile, Michele "Who?" Bachmann is now desperately trying to convince someone -- anyone -- that she actually still exists, by saying the craziest things that pop into her pea-brain. Now, according to One-L, the other GOP candidates are all a bunch of Bolsheviks, and all the commie abortionists must be purged from government!

Bachmann ups conservative stakes, calls GOP rivals 'frugal socialists'
By Josh Lederman - 11/07/11 01:06 PM ET

Staking out her place as the most conservative candidate in the presidential race, Michele Bachmann unloaded a series of attacks on unnamed opponents on Monday, lumping fellow Republicans together with socialists and insinuating that her competitors are feigning their positions on social issues.

Bachmann’s remarks before social conservatives at the Family Research Council made clear that she sees pushing her opponents to the left as her best chance to reverse her slide in the polls and to reclaim her position as a major player in the Republican nominating contest.

"Too many Republicans, they also aspire to be 'frugal socialists,' " Bachmann said, vowing to eradicate socialism throughout the U.S. government if elected president.

But asked by a reporter which Republicans she was invoking, the Minnesota lawmaker demurred.

"That's part of the puzzle that you figure out when I give a speech," she said with a sly smile.

Calling out her opponents for being too soft on conservative values without naming names and opening the door for a tête-à-tête has been a consistent strategy for Bachmann since she started dropping in the polls in mid-August. She extended that approach on Monday to jabs at her opponents when talking about abortion.

"Some Republican candidates seem confused by what it means to be 100 percent pro-life," she said, adding that checking the boxes on opposition to abortion is not sufficient and beckoning voters to take a closer look at her opponents' records. “You won’t find YouTube clips of me advocating anything else.”

Although never uttering his name, Mitt Romney seemed to be the primary target of many of Bachmann’s pokes. But with new reports about a fourth women accusing contender Herman Cain of sexual harassment emerging just before Bachmann’s speech, one of her comments seemed aimed squarely at Cain.

"While this election season has been full of surprises, I assure you there will be no policy surprises with me," she said.

Cain and Romney have both struggled to persuade voters that their anti-abortion stance is genuine and absolute. While consistently maintaining that abortion is wrong, Cain has wavered on whether it should be illegal in all circumstances. And Romney critics have long maintained that he was solidly in favor of abortion rights when he served as the governor of Massachusetts.

Bachmann vowed to veto any new laws enabling regulations that she said distort the Constitution's commerce clause, and said any budget Congress sends to her that isn't balanced will also face a certain veto. She called social welfare programs and education the realm of the states, promising to remove the federal government from policy areas she said should originate with families and communities.

"If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat," she said, invoking a passage from the Bible's New Testament.

Questioned by an audience member who claimed Shariah Law has invaded the United States, Bachmann threw some red meat to the neoconservative element of the GOP base, arguing that the threat of Shariah Law holds serious, profound implications for the country.

"This is an issue that Americans are rightly concerned about all across the United States of America," Bachmann said. "It must be resisted all across the United States."

After surging to about 15 percent in the polls in August — around the time that she won the straw poll in Ames, Iowa — Bachmann has slid significantly, and now garners about 4 percent in most national polls of the Republican field.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/gop ... socialists

She really is batshit insane.

Bachmann/Cain 2012!!!!11!1!!!!!!

[Lord Jim]

Bachmann received a one-two punch that completely destroyed her campaign...

First, Perry's entry into the race immediately blew a hole in her support, cutting her poll numbers by about half...

Given Perry's performance, she might have been able to survive that, and come back, had it not been for Punch # 2:

Punch #2 was losing Ed Rollins and his team...

It's impossible to overstate the fatal blow this dealt to her candidacy. Rollins was the one who had kept Bachmann focused, disciplined, and on message, and kept her away from saying crazy/ignorant/stupid things...He was the main reason she was able to make credible performances in the early debates, and appear to be a serious candidate...

After he left, her diarrhea of the mouth problem re-emerged immediately (starting with that stupid thing where she repeated without checking what some woman told her about that vaccine causing mental retardation) and as a result when Perry went into free fall she couldn't capitalize because she had completely tanked her status as a serious candidate....

Time to pack it in Michelle....

[BoSoxGal]

Cain/Bachmann 2012!!

She can get the job by letting him put his hand up her skirt while she lays her head in his lap. Let's bring old-fashioned values back to the White House!

[BoSoxGal]

I am starting to feel really badly for poor Perry. He is SO not ready for prime time.

[Lord Jim]

I am starting to feel really badly for poor Perry. He is SO not ready for prime time.

Yeah, he's making Mitt Romney look like Daniel Webster....

[Grim Reaper]

And now Rick Perry is self destructing quite nicely:

[Sue U]

Now I'm sorry i didn't watch!

When are the candidates going to figure out that they're not doing themselves any favors with this endless and half-assed Gong Show remake?

[Crackpot]

It's good For Romney and everyone else wants their turn in the #1 spot.

[Sue U]

I'm convinced none of them are actually running for president, but are either trying to sell their crappy books/speaking gigs or auditioning for a spot on Fox News -- probably replacing Sarah Palin

Well, maybe Romney's running, but nobody wants him to actually BE president.

[Lord Jim]

It's good For Romney and everyone else wants their turn in the #1 spot.

At the end of the day, for better or for worse, Mitt Romney is going to be the nominee...

He's going to win the nomination, because except for Newt Gingrich, (who is completely unelectable) he's the only one who doesn't act like he just jumped out of a clown car...

I think David Brooks had it exactly right in yesterday's NY Times when he likened the GOP nomination race to a Marx Brothers Movie, and cast Mitt as Zeppo Marx:

In the Marx Brothers movie that is the Republican presidential race, Mitt Romney is Zeppo. He doesn’t spin out one-liners. He’s not the rambunctious one. He’s just the earnest, good-looking guy who wants to be appreciated.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/08/opini ... avidbrooks

[Gob]

Ok, in that case, who is;

Groucho?
Chico?
Harpo?
Gummo?

[Lord Jim]

Well, Herman Cain is obviously Chico....

With all the broads he's kissing...

[Gob]

Rick Perry: "Well, things certainly seem to be getting better around the country."
Herman Cain: "Well, I wouldn't know about that; I'm a stranger here myself."

[Lord Jim]

Well, that's the most ridiculous thing I evah hoid...

[Scooter]

Now that's Rick Santorum.

[Lord Jim]

And now Rick Perry is self destructing quite nicely:

Oh my God...

First of all they're not "agencies" they're "departments"...

I didn't watch the debate last night, but I saw this a little while ago on Morning Joe....

Unbelievable...what can you say...just unbelievable...this mo-ron couldn't remember the name of a department that he wanted to eliminate? (A department I would also like to eliminate, btw)

You can't do a Saturday Night Live routine on Rick Perry, because the man is a walking, talking Saturday Night Live routine himself...

Aw geez, does it get any more embarrassing than this?

I find myself in complete agreement with James Carville, (I hate it when that happens) when he said a few days ago:

"Somebody should do an intervention on Rick Perry. The man is hopeless. Somebody should put their arm around him and say, okay Rick, let's just forget about this, let's go home and go back to Texas, do some Tequila shots, go fishing and catch a ball game...I was hoping Perry's campaign would amount to something and he'd rough Romney up some, but this is just too painful to watch..."

You know you're in trouble when you're a Republican candidate for the Presidency, and James Carville is taking pity on you....

ETA

In the last election cycle, I thought Mitt Romney was the weakest candidate in the field...

But he looks like Winston Churchill compared to this gang of garbonzos...

Rick Perry, Michelle Bachmann, Herman Cain, Ron Paul...

It is to weep...



Dutch, we really miss you...

[dgs49]

Interestingly, Jim, you omitted Mr. Newt - by far the best performer in all of these debates.

Current polling indicates he is pretty much at the same level as Cain and Romney right now.

It is tempting and easy to say that Newt is so personally repugnant that he has no chance, but if the voters start to listen to what is being said his prospects will improve dramatically. And don't lose sight of the fact that there will eventually be Presidential debates between the nominee and Barry. Newt would chew him up like candy.

And Mr. Reagan was not such a sterling performer in forums like this. His strength was in speaking on his own, or one-on-one.

It is a pity that presidential politics has devolved to such a state. It is inconceivable that any human could go through this interminable meat-grinder without a major gaffe. I was embarrassed for Rick Perry last night. The expression, "shot himself in the foot" is more than apropos.

[Lord Jim]

Interestingly, Jim, you omitted Mr. Newt - by far the best performer in all of these debates.

I agree with you 100% on that Dave, and if you go back and look at my post debate analysis posts over the past few months, you will find that I have repeatedly made note of that fact...

And just a couple of posts ago, I exempted Newt from my general criticism:

At the end of the day, for better or for worse, Mitt Romney is going to be the nominee...

He's going to win the nomination, because except for Newt Gingrich, (who is completely unelectable) he's the only one who doesn't act like he just jumped out of a clown car...

Gingrich is not one of the clown car candidates...

In the last debate before this one, when it looked like Perry was going to invite Romney to take off his coat and go out to the parking lot where "they could settle this like men, Texas style" Gingrich was the only one who looked like an adult, and a statesmen....

But the fact that he's the brightest kid in the class, doesn't make him a winning candidate for the Presidency....

First of all, beyond his debate performances, he has no campaign organization, and Ron Paul is raising more money...

As Mary Matlin (James Carville's saner half) correctly observed, winning in Iowa is about neighbors getting other neighbors to leave the warmth and comfort of their homes in the dead of winter to spend four or five hours in their local high school cafeteria...

To make that happen you need a well organized ground game....

Newt doesn't have one...

You can skip Iowa and make a splash in New Hampshire, but Newt doesn't have an organization there either...

You can't skip both Iowa and New Hampshire, and expect to have your campaign catch fire later...(President Giuliani can tell you about how well that works )

But laying the lack of money and organization aside, even if he had those things, he would still have to overcome an enormous amount of "personal issue" warts that are very off putting to many GOP primary voters...

Not to mention his complete lack of "charisma"...

In fact, Newt is so lacking in charisma, what he projects might fairly be called "anti-charisma"

ETA

Gingrich can't "press the flesh" effectively; he can't connect on a visceral, personal, level with voters; if you've ever seen Gingrich in the middle of a group of average Americans, he looks hopelessly awkward and uncomfortable; he makes Richard Nixon look like" Mr. Warmth" by comparison...

That sort of thing may seem trivial and superficial on an intellectual level, but the fact of the matter is that it has real significance if you want to wage a successful Presidential campaign....

Ronald Reagan had it...

Bill Clinton had it...

Even George W. Bush had it...

(Al Gore didn't have it...One of my favorite stories about Gore was the time someone handed him a baby, and rather than kiss the baby...which is politics 101; you're running for office, somebody hands you a baby, you kiss the baby... Prime Time shook it's hand... )

[Scooter]

President Giuliani can tell you about how well that works

Maybe Rudy should think about entering the race this time around; he certainly outclasses the rest of this cast of loons by a country mile.