Comments

1
Yeah, I'm really sad for him and his quarter billion dollars that he'll cry himself to sleep with.
2
He's sad that the Board of Directors did not select him to be President of the United States.
3
I thought only Democrats ate vegetarian. Republicans are supposed to eat vegetarians for breakfast.
4
Whatever, I feel nothing but contempt for him. He is so far up his own ass he has no idea about the reality in which the rest of us live. Romney has a sad? WHO FUCKING CARES! ??? His entire ideology and campaign is one fueled by hatred and disdain of most of the American people. He thinks just because he wants to be President he will be, because he is that privileged and that delusional. I doubt this is even a reality check for him. I doubt he will ever experience empathy or understanding in his lifetime and he will die completely bewildered as to why he didn't get his way just because he thought he should.
5
Wait, he's a vegetarian? WHY DOES HE HATE AMERICA?
6
I want to see lyin Ryan throw him under the bus. Preferably right after he shits himself in the one and only of the three scheduled debates.
7
No, you guys, it's a burrito made with vegetarians. Pure, American, USDA grade-A corn-fed hippies.
8
I feel a lot more empathy for people who have nothing to eat and nowhere to live because rich, elitist fucks like Romney don't believe our country's citizens should be entitled to food and shelter.
9
Hey, if I and 146,448,201 people can’t manage to care about or take any responsibility for our own lives, how the heck are we supposed to care when Romney has a sad?
For Pete Sake!
10
Romney has either borderline or full-blown antisocial personality disorder. He is incapable of feeling lonely, and the only sadness he experiences is when people refuse to cater to his every whim.

He belongs in a mental hospital.
11
All this is thin-skinned pontificating over inarticulate rhetoric, over an unfortunate moment when the candidate is strategizing without regard to careful word choice at a private fundraiser.
Meanwhile the issues of the day remain. High unemployment, the Mideast in flames, an out-of-control Federal Reserve, and dept to GDP ratio way too high.
If Americans sensibilities are so shaken by this that they elect Obama again, that's what will be sad.
12
Make that "debt" to GDP....
13
@11 AHAHAHAHAH. HAHAHAHHAHA. HAHAHA. (ahem) ha.
14
He's sad because he got caught. He's sad because he is not used to failure. He's sad because he knows he is a let-down to a lot of important-to-him people. He's not sad because his words hurt the 47%.
15
I'm cryin' all the way to my federally guaranteed doctor's appointment.
16
"Still, a flustered adviser, describing the mood, said that the campaign was turning into a vulgar, unprintable phrase."

Shitshow? Clusterfuck? Shitstained cumrag? Santorum explosion? Come on, NYT, don't be such a damn prude and tell us what the campaign is turning into!
17
"Ironic, isn't it Smithers? This anonymous clan of slack-jawed troglodytes has cost me the election, and yet if I were to have them killed, I would be the one to go to jail. That's democracy for you."
18
I'd be sad and pick at my food too, if I were faced with a vegetarian "breakfast burrito."
19
Picking at his food, wondering, "Where's the beef?"
20
@ 16,

Those would be the technical terms.
21
@11,
When Hilary Rosen made the comment about Ann Romney never working a day in her life, you had no problem with all the "thin skinned pontificating" about it... you did some pontificating of your own, in fact:

http://www.thestranger.com/slog/archives…

Don't be a hypocrite.
22
GaryDudeforRomney@11 - Really? Let's go down your list here, the "issues of the day":

High unemployment - Romney? Tax cuts and deregulation. Life will be so much better when we stop hassling the Chinese over the toxins they put in their exports. And giving the rich more money will create jobs because all the poor people will start buying things again. With all the money the poor don't have.

The Mideast - Romney? GDfR you are usually more careful in your trolling. Romney wants to "kick the can down the road." And you referenced that quote yesterday, so I know that you are familiar with it. Strike two.

Out-of-control Federal Reserve - Romney? Has he even spoken about that? Is he for audits? Or are you just hoping he will hand that off to back-to-the-gold-standard Ryan?

Debt-to-GDP - This is just a red herring you are throwing out. You are willfully ignoring the damage that Republican policies have done to this country. Charts like this one from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_… clearly show that no only is the debt vs. GDP ration nowhere near peak levels, it shows that the debt has trended down during Democratic presidencies and up during Republican ones.

I wish that there were more distinctions between the parties on civil rights, civil liberties, and financial regulation. But I don't get that. What I -do- know is that on none of the points you cite does Romney have anything to run on.
23
I liked #romneyshambles, but #moneybooboo is good too.
24
He "picked at" his breakfast burrito? I'm sorry, real Americans eat them one handed like a candy bar! @5 you're right, he DOES HATE AMERICA!!!
25
@ 11. Strategy sessions don’t cost 50K a plate.
26
@18 That goes double for me if it was airline food. OTOH, if it came from the nice Mexican joint around the corner, wasn't cheap on the tasty cheese, and was served with some decent hot sauce, I think I'd manage just fine. As an omnivore, I can testify that there's nothing necessarily unappetizing about a meatless breakfast.
27
I must admit to being at least a little sad for anybody who has a buck for every poor person in America and doesn't wake up every morning really excited about all the good he can do in the course of the day.

But when he's sad because he's campaigning so hard and so badly to fuck the country so unrighteously, my sad gets tempered into sarcasm.

Poor baby. It'll all be better soon. It'll get worse before it gets better, but we're down to the last six weeks. Then we'll get you some of that caffeine free Dr. Pepper that you love so well.
28
Oh, poor @11 - do we need to make a vegetarian breakfast burrito for you too? Will that fix teh sad?

But seriously, this moment sounds like something right out of "Citizen Kane": Romney as Orson Welles as Charles Foster Kane staring glumly into the abyss, his furrowed brow expressing confusion and disillusionment over the fact that a few negative stories in the press have thwarted his ascent to the heights to which he believes his wealth and ambition entitle him.

I don't feel sad for Romney, so much as I pity him. Despite his wealth and privilege, he's just another in a long line of little men with big dreams that he doesn't have either the intellect, drive or character to achieve.
29
@16 - They are unprintable because it requires the use of phonemes that no human language is equipped to convey. In describing the doomed state of the campaign, that adviser inadvertently summoned several elder gods.
30
@11 Hey Dude Gay For Romney, how many days until the election again? Here's a clue: NOT ENOUGH FOR YOUR GUY TO PULL IT OUT.
31
@ 21, when your candidate is an angel sent by the heavens (as a paid shill must treat his employer), then the only rules are, If it's good for my guy then it's right; if it's bad for the other guy then it's right; if it's good for the other guy then it's wrong; and if it's bad for my guy then it's wrong.
32
Way to cherry pick the Gallup analysis for the Kool-Aid drinkers here.

According to Gallup:

A substantial majority of Americans have already made up their minds about their vote choice, so it is likely that many of those who claim to be "more likely" or "less likely" to vote for Romney are, in essence, indicating that the comments reinforced their pre-existing vote choice. This may be particularly true of Democrats, who have the strongest immediate reactions, with more than two-thirds saying the comments make them less likely to vote for Romney. Given that Gallup Daily tracking data show that only 5% of Democrats are voting for Romney anyway, it is unlikely that these sentiments from Democrats will significantly change the course of the election.

Similarly, since 92% of Republicans are voting for Romney, it is unlikely that the 44% of Republicans who say the comments make them more likely to vote for Romney will affect the race.

True, the comments didn't play well with independent voters. Those who care about the comments were against them by a 2:1 ratio. But it's also true that independents were the least likely of all voter groups to care about the comments.

The bottom line, according to Gallup:

Any longer-term impact of Romney's comments would eventually show up in Gallup Daily tracking of voter preferences for president, although there has been no evident change to date.

Oh, and I would note that the race is once again the same tie in the Gallup poll that it was before the conventions: Obama up 1 point, with a 3-point margin of error. Also, Obama's 9-point post-convention advantage in his approval rating is gone: up 2 points, with a 3-point margin of error.

Yep, Romney's comments were obnoxious. I think they'll hurt the Republicans down-ticket, and maybe both in the presidential race and in the long run, but only if the Democratic Party and the Obama campaign (especially the latter) can get off their collective asses for once and shove those words down Republican throats now and forever.

It doesn't matter whether The Slog's Kool-Aid drinkers pronounce themselves offended. What really counts is whether the cross between John Kerry and Bill Cosby at the head of the Democratic ticket will send his flying monkeys through the air to rip the stuffing out of the scarecrows.

So far, I have seen no sign of this. It's not enough to have it amplified on Rachel Maddow's show, which is more than cancelled out by Fox News. Where are the Democratic surrogates? Where the fuck is Obama?
33
#10, the same was true of Bill Clinton, but things worked out pretty well in the 1990s, as I recall.
34
Oh, and if the Democrats at the national level had any brains (which I often doubt, having observed their loser act for so many elections), they'd have been out there within minutes saying, oh-so-mournfully, "What happened to the Republican Party that Ronald Reagan always talked about? You know, the big tent for everybody? Could it be that the 'big tent' was never anything more than an empty lie?"

Come on, folks. Other than yourselves and the usual suspects on MSNBC, where are the Democratic attack dogs? Isn't someone going to let the surrogate pit bulls out of the kennel?
35
Maybe he's listlessly wondering whether a rogue server brought him the veggie burrito with the hidden camera in it.
36
@21,

You're asking a Republican not to be a hypocrite?
37
@36 It must be something to have to go through life wondering every minute if your own hired help hates you so much they would betray you. The sad life of a prick. It's practically Shakespearian.
38
@37 Oops, meant for @35
39
@34: when your opponent is busy destroying himself, get out of the way.

i assume the reagan GOP you're suggesting the dems express nostalgia for is the same one that expanded the EITC (leading to the situation that the GOP is trying to hang around obama's neck)? just like the he-who-cannot-be-named administration did.
40
Mister G, bray all you want. Your guy is still in a hole any way you measure it. The question is how big of a hole is it. It might be a big hole. It might be fairly small hole. But he's in it. He can definitely get out of it, but he needs to hurry the hell up, because it's late September and people are starting to make up their minds. Maybe this whole 47% thing won't make a big difference, but it can't help. We won't really know if it had an effect on public opinion for a few days. (It really had no effect on me because my mind is made up.)

But here's a larger point: If you're Romney, you can't have this constant crap dripping onto the news (sorry about the analogy) because, after a while, it starts to define who you are. Look at the significant advertising advantage Romney has. Not only does he have the ads. He also has the conservative punditry and a friendly mainstream media that absolutely refuses to ask any tough questions, in addition to holding Obama to a harsher standard. How has this all helped Romney? Romney's strategy was to make the election a referendum on Obama. However, the seemingly endless bad press is now making it a referendum on him. That is not what Romney wanted.

And as mentioned above, attack dogs are not necessary, or probably even desirable.
41
I'll feel empathy for him when he gets his ass clobbered in the election. Not before.
42
#40, to quote something else from the Gallup survey used as the basis of the story that you and I are commenting on:

Still, the long-term impact of any news event that flares up in the heat of a presidential campaign is difficult to determine. This is particularly true in today's more polarized news environment in which audiences of conservative-oriented vs. liberal-oriented media outlets are likely to hear quite different interpretations of the flap, and from different commentators.

You seem to think that Obama can just sit back and wait for the news media to deliver him the votes. That's a hopelessly outdated view. We don't live in a world of three homogenous networks, all of them trying to be The New York Times on screen.

We live in a highly fragmented media landscape, where the Kool-Aid drinkers of both tribes increasingly listen to only their their own chieftains. What's left of the networks and newspapers does cover these things, but they are relentlessly "objective" about it, and many people tune it out anyhow.

Democrats have this extremely frustrating habit of simply assuming that people will figure it out on their own, and act accordingly. They cling to it in the face of a mountain of contrary evidence.

Meanwhile, Obama's electoral and favorability advantages gained from the convention have vanished, yet for some reason the Kool-Aid drinkers here think things are in the bag because Romney made a gaffe.
44
Meat is for winners.
45
#43, come on, look at the list of those polls. Huffington Post is serving themselves and their readers the Kool-Aid they want to drink. They're no more credible on the numbers than Red State is.

The only times the race has been outside the margin of error was when Obama's surrogates went after Romney on his taxes, and then after the Democratic convention, which by any possible measure was head, shoulders, kneecaps, and toenails above the Republican show.

Since then, the race has once again pulled to within the margin of error. As for being "the only one in the room who's figured it out," that depends on which room. Here, yes. Out in the wider world, hardly.
46
Shouldn't he feel sad that he's wasting all those billionares' money on a campaign that he's not going to win? Yes, very sad indeed.
47
I'll grant this much: As soon as they find the authentic video of Mitt Romney with his mouth on a Boy Scout's dick, or vice-versa, I will agree with those here who think that Obama's got it sewn up. Until then, I say it's a tight race, and that the biggest issue is the Democratic Party's decades-old habit of feeling smug about themselves.
49
@30: Perhaps 10, or even 5, years ago and I would say that you would be correct. However, because of the more granular and higher frequency of the news cycle, the Internet and Twitter, the next 48 days provide plenty of time for game changers.
50
#48, it's weighted toward the Kool-Aid crowd. But then, we've already established that you can't handle anyone who isn't a tribal cheerleader.
51
@49 - Agreed, but it's not such a great position to be in when a game-changer is an absolute requirement. Without one, I think we can all agree that Romney has lost this election.

So he can cross his fingers and hope one happens, or he can act like a leader and do something about it.

Describing how EXACTLY he intends to balance the budget and create jobs, instead of vague platitudes about "role of government" or "job creators" could be a game changer. Clearly, just complaining about Obama while refusing to detail any of his own policies whatsoever isn't working.

It's not working for you, either, Gay Dude Against Obama, but I understand that it's the only ammo they've given you.
52
They're gaffes, and they aren't the "game changers" the Kool-Aid drinkers imagine them to be. Maybe this is simply a matter of perspective. There aren't all that many benefits to getting a lot older, but one of them is that, after 10 presidential elections and countless others for lower offices, you've seen a whole lot of this shit before and don't get as excited about the latest "game changer."

Fact is, Obama's numbers are pretty much the same as they were before the conventions started. Remember 2008, and the Republicans going apeshit about Reverend Wright, and about the tape of Obama's patronizing comments about working-class whites in Pennsylvania? Guess who got elected anyway?

Or how about Reagan, who was famous for saying that trees cause air pollution? Voters hardly ever care about that kind of crap, even when they ought to. As for what Romney said, come on, since when haven't the Republicans been calling Democrats a pack of shiftless welfare rats?
53
"Gay" Dude for Etch-A-Sketch. Romney said that the entire 47% that won't vote for him are people who don't pay taxes, and are dependent on the government, on welfare, and think they are entitled. I pay income taxe. I'm not on welfare, and I don't feel entitled. I'm part of the 47% that won't vote for Romney. There are plenty of people who dont pay taxes who will vote for him.. Romney didn't misspeak, nor was he being inarticulate in his statement. He said what he believes boldly and clearly. Now that his statements have been exposed Romney is outright lying about what he said.

Again, why do you idolize this man? (Why do you run away when pressed for answers?)
55
What makes me sad about this whole thread is that nearly all the commenters are one-sided inarticulate slobs. There are very good reasons why most Americans react negatively to the idea of a Liberal and you are certainly revealing why. What a tower of Babel.

Romney should be sad and contemplative. He tried to walk the narrow line of political schizophrenia and fell off over trivial reportage. What he didn't say is that a lot of his 47% comes from areas of high government endowments. Why would these people vote for him? A lot of them can't stand effete smarmy marmy pussies that most of you read like. You need to go get out of doors away from the rest of the inbred lab mice and take a deep whiff of the human race, American style. Just watch out that someone with blood doesn't try to remove that superior grin from your face while you're remarking on the mote in their eye.

What Romney should be ashamed of is worshiping the god of mammon rather than the bearer of love. So should Obamarama when you get right down to it. 'Let's just throw some more tax payers' money at ward 8' to reinforce the notion that we should feel sorry for them and they need help being human beings.' I guarantee you that all those welfare state programs the liberals are so fond of won't slow the constant stream of homeless I see on the public roads every day way out here in the sticks. It will go for bleeding hearts trying to stop the ones that nature left behind from killing each other.

I do not want any one who is perfect, much less a perfectionist as my leader. That's why I celebrated when McCarthy and Hart fell off their pedestals. The same with Romney. The Republican party missed the boat when they put ole preppy cowboy George in there with his criminal cohorts. I doubt if the GOP will sail on an even keel for a long time. And the Democrats won't take over again, either. You think the Tea Party is bad - wait for the next chapter.

What they need to do with Obama is take away his check book and charge card and tell him not to get out of the oval office chair until he has come up with some things that work. And don't send us another 2 mile long sidewalk out here in our rural village. We don't even have a motel to make a profit from the construction workers. Figure it out. It's not about a lot of smart aleck remarks that a 13 year old would make.
56
#54, it's their. I learned that in the fifth grade, but you must have been staring out the window that year.
57
It might not be a great idea to assume it's in the bag, given that 22% of those polled have said they could still change their vote.
58
"We don't live in a world of three homogenous networks, all of them trying to be The New York Times on screen."

Oh, for those days again. We had no idea how good it was, and how bad it would get.
59
Yeah, well it's been that way for going on 20 years now. The Republicans know it, but the Democrats think everyone still tunes into the Huntley-Brinkley Report and sits down with the evening Seattle Times. Oh, and check this out: Apparently someone's starting to notice that the race is tied at 47-47 in the Gallup tracking poll, but not Obama's campaign manager.

What's next? A week of windsurfing at Hood River?

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