The Obama Diary

Greatest ad ever?

Steve Benen last August: “‘Corporations are people’? In this little figure of speech, wouldn’t that make Mitt Romney a metaphorical serial killer?”…..

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Thanks saintroscoe

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Michael Tomasky (The Daily Beast): Why Mitt Romney Will Prove To Be a Feeble Presidential Nominee …. I wrote about his reactionary tax plan and his refusal to release his own taxes, and what an unfortunate (for him) cocktail those two ingredients will make for him …. Now, the Bain attacks put into sharp relief another reason for his weakness. He has just one argument, and the Bain “creative destruction” narrative comes close to killing it.

…. Toss in that ghastly remark about it being all right to discuss inequality in “quiet rooms,” which I feel certain we haven’t heard nearly the last of …. He meant corporate board rooms, where everyone would agree with him. An astonishingly frank moment, like the comment about liking to be able to fire people. I know he was talking about insurance companies, but here in the 99 percent, we don’t “fire” insurance companies, or usually doctors and certain other service professionals. We change them. It was a word choice that really did reveal a world view.

….Oh, he’ll get 47, 48 percent of the vote, because we’re a divided country …. but a majority will not want to change horses, especially when the other horse is carrying Romney’s kind of personal baggage and is promising policies that are warmed over versions of the policies that created the economic crisis in the first place. I have no great confidence in the brilliance of Obama’s political team, but this should not be too hard, even for them, and Mitt can find himself a nice quiet room in La Jolla to go ponder the what-if’s.

Full post here

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This Is Our Time

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Slate

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The UK Independent: As we’re sitting down to lunch at a restaurant in Washington DC, a smartly dressed man approaches Candace Gingrich-Jones. “I just wanted to say hello,” he announces, cheerfully, “because I know your brother.”

Ms Gingrich-Jones has two stock responses to people who greet her in this fashion. The first, to those who seem friendly, is to politely say how nice it is to make their acquaintance. The second, to anyone who claims to be among her famous half-sibling’s enemies, is to smile archly and respond: “You are not alone!”

…. Regardless of whether Newt Gingrich ends up as the GOP contender in November’s election, Ms Gingrich-Jones will be working tirelessly to ensure victory for his opponent, Barack Obama.

“No matter who the Republican candidate is, I will do everything I possibly can to ensure they don’t win,” she says. “President Obama has done so much for the gay community. From repealing ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’, to getting a hate-crime prevention act passed in 2008, to anti-discrimination policies in the workplace, to laws giving gay couples hospital visitation rights. It would be a disaster if he were to lose.”

Full article here