Posts Tagged ‘2012 Election’

Romney-Obama Debate Roundup Part 2

Thursday, October 4th, 2012

More Romney-Obama debate reactions:

  • Larry Kudlow: “Mitt Romney politely cleaned Barack Obama’s clock tonight. A lethargic and at times tired looking President Obama was out-hustled, out-facted, out-energized, and out-informed by Former Governor Mitt Romney.”
  • The Daily Caller has more liberal Schadenfreude.
  • And Jim Treacher has still more. “I’m glad the Greatest President Ever spent so much time stressing the importance of education, because he just got schooled.”
  • The Washington Post called Romney “well prepared and aggressive.”
  • Romney didn’t just embarrass Obama last night, he embarrassed the media as well.
  • NRO writer Michael Knox Beran compares Romney’s debate performance to Napoleon at Austerlitz.
  • The ObamaCare death panels are now back in the discussion.
  • Final proof Romney absolutely stomped Obama? The New York Times called the Denver debate “unhelpful.”
  • Obama: the human smirk.

  • Romney Sweeps the Floor With Obama in First Debate: Roundup and Reactions

    Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012

    We now have a whole new Presidential race.

    I didn’t see the entirety of the debate, but in the parts I did see, Romney firmly trounced Obama. Romney looked sharp, engaged, lively and presidential. Obama looked like he was looking at his Blackberry when he wasn’t speaking.

    Nor am I alone in my judgment, as even the Obama-friendly press and liberal pundits said Romney won (some in NSFW language):

  • John Hindraker: “It’s over. I’ve been watching presidential debates for quite a few years, but I have never seen one like this. It wasn’t a TKO, it was a knockout. Mitt Romney was in control from the beginning. He was the alpha male, while Barack Obama was weak, hesitant, stuttering, often apologetic. The visuals were great for Romney and awful for Obama. Obama looked small, tired, defeated after four years of failure, out of ammo.”
  • Jonah Goldberg: “I had a pretty good feeling about tonight’s debate. But I had no expectation that Romney would simply control the night the way he did. I don’t think Obama did terribly on the merits, even though he clearly lost by a wide margin on points. But you don’t really score a debate like this on points. Romney simply dominated and deflated Obama.”
  • Rich Lowry: “It was overwhelmingly Romney’s night. He was more confident, more energetic, and better informed than President Obama. He exposed the president’s shallowness and got under his skin.” On Twitter, gay righty turned lefty Andrew Sullivan bluntly declared “this was a disaster for Obama.” Also: “How is Obama’s closing so fucking sad, confused, lame? He choked. He lost. He may even have lost election tonight.”

  • Hell, even CNN’s non-rightwing audience thought that Romney won the debate by a landslide of 67% to 25%.
  • All Washington Post columnists who weighed in scored it for Romney.
  • Even Chris Matthews though Obama got his clock cleaned.
  • Here’s the debate in full:

  • If Romney had debated and campaigned this well in 2008, he’d probably be President right now.

    More tomorrow.

    Cruz-Sadler Debate Goes About the Way You Would Expect

    Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012

    Ted Cruz pretty much wiped the floor with him, if the reports of our Demophilic media are to believed.

    Visibly angry, [Sadler] repeatedly accused Cruz of lying. The Republican largely kept his cool and cast his little-known Democratic rival as “unapologetically liberal” and a big supporter of gay marriage and President Barack Obama’s health care law.

    Even Paul Burka wasn’t impressed with Sadler. “Sadler was unrestrained. He called Cruz a liar, repeatedly.”

    Here’s the full debate if you want to judge for yourself:

    Help Me, Elspeth Reeve, You’re My Only Hope!

    Monday, October 1st, 2012

    Let’s talk about the ObamaPhone video, shall we?

    The video is both funny (the woman is an idiot with a comical voice) and politically useful (displaying, as it does, a sense of entitlement to government handouts).

    So, naturally, some liberals are crying racism. Here the general case of “some liberals” is best exemplified by Elspeth Reeve. If that name rings a vague bell at the back of your mind, its probably because she’s most famous for violating journalistic standards by improperly fact-checking the articles by her husband, Scott Thomas Beauchamp, when he was smearing American troops in Iraq in a series in The New Republic.

    Reeve has certified the ObamaPhone video as 100% racist:

    The racism comes in when Drudge, Rush, the people who giddily retweeted the link, do a mental calculation that if enough people would just see this video they would support Romney, because it plays on the same racist stereotypes that are usually trotted out this time of the election cycle. The video posted on Drudge and played on Limbaugh was a black lady who has all the standard visual cues of being poor — messed-up teeth and skin, her waistline, her yelling. Oh, and if cues aren’t enough, she talks in racial terms: “Everybody in Cleveland, all the minorities got a phone. Keep Obama president, you know, he gave us a phone, he’ll give us more.”

    Let’s dissect that a little. When Reeve says “do a mental calculation…because it plays on the same racist stereotypes ” what she’s saying is that she can read people’s minds, and she knows their intent is racist. And then she admits that the subject of the video talks in racial terms. So instead of putting the onus for bringing race into the discussion on the subject of the video herself who brings it up, she puts it on conservatives she can tell are committing thoughtcrimes because of her amazing telepathic powers.

    Unfortunately, those of us without Elspeth Reeve’s extra-sensory perception are left at a loss to figure which amusing videos, at least those whose subjects happen to be black, are in fact racist. Given that I happen to be a white conservative living in Texas (and therefore someone already with a -5 on saving throws against liberal accusations of racism), obviously I need help in determining such things.

    So where else can I go except the source itself? Help me, Elspeth Reeve, your psychic powers are the only hope I have for determining whether an amusing video that involves black people is racist or not!

    Help me out here, Elspeth: Is Afro-Ninja racist?

    How about this black woman saying Obama is going to pay her mortgage? Is that racist?

    How about Obama stumbling around while answering a question? Is that racist?

    How about Obama talking about visiting all 57 states? Is that racist?

    How about black comedians dealing with racial issues. Is that racist? (NSFW warning applies to the language in the next few videos.) Is Dave Chappelle playing black white supremacist Clayton Bigsby racist?

    How about Richard Pryor and Chevy Chase’s word association test?

    How about Clevon Little in the famous sheriff-welcoming scene from Blazing Saddles?

    Help me out here, Elspeth. Put your psychic powers to work. Which of these are racist, and which are merely funny?

    Related posts by:

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  • Dear California: You Know That Money Will Be Wasted, and You Know Those Tax Hikes Will Be Permanent

    Friday, September 28th, 2012

    I’ve got another Texas vs. California piece coming around on the guitar, but I thought there was enough here to warrant a separate post.

    Hold on to your hats, but it seems that California voters might, just might, be catching on that the Democrats who run California’s state government are wasting their money.

    I will now wait for the indignant shouts of incredulous outrage to die down.

    Support for Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan for billions of dollars in tax hikes on the November ballot is slipping amid public anxiety about how politicians spend money, but voters still favor the proposal, according to a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll.

    Well, I did say “might.”

    The findings suggest that voters are leery of sending more cash to Sacramento in the wake of a financial scandal at the parks department, spiraling costs for a multibillion-dollar high-speed rail project to connect Northern and Southern California and ill-timed legislative pay raises.

    If voters aren’t willing to stop spending for a $100 billion train to nowhere that everyone know will never be completed, and which would lose even more money every year if it was, when will they?

    Brown’s measure would temporarily raise income tax rates on high earners for seven years and boost the state sales tax by a quarter-cent for four years in a bid to avoid steep cuts in funds for schools and other programs.

    Note that word: “temporary.”

    Anyone with even a passing knowledge of the way politics actually works knows that there’s no such thing as a “temporary” tax hike. The only thing that prevents Democrats (and establishment Republicans) from spending every cent of every tax collected and more is booting them out of office. Raising taxes simply ensures that they’ll spend all the new revenue and additional money they don’t have on top of that. And with the fiscal tsunami California is facing from bloated government, spiraling debt, and gold-plated public employee union pensions that will bankrupt the state, those “temporary” taxes will never be repealed. Ever.

    And two or four years down the line, the next Democratic governor will be asking the voters to approve another “temporary” tax hike…

    Team Gallego Lies About Rep. Canseco

    Friday, September 28th, 2012

    As previously reported, the Texas 23rd Congressional District is one of the most closely watched races in the country. As such, it’s no surprise that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is rolling out attack ads against incumbent Republican Rep. Francisco “Quico” Canseco on behalf of Democratic challenger Pete Gallego.

    And, much like the national Democratic attack ads, it’s filled with lies.

    But don’t take my word for it. WOAI in San Antonio has done the heavy lifting in debunking team Gallego’s claims:

    The New York Times Really Does Think You’re a Moron

    Wednesday, September 26th, 2012

    Right after I talked about how the mainstream media thinks you’re stupid enough to swallow badly skewed polls, Jim Geraghty reports that the New York Times is proving my point all over again by publishing a poll with more Democrats and fewer Republicans in the sample than in 2008 exit polls.

    Ohio 2008 exits: 39% Democrat, 31% Republican, 30% Independent.

    Ohio New York Times/Quinnipiac 2012 sample: 35% Democrat, 26% Republican, 35% Independent.

    In this sample, the partisan split is D+9 compared to D+8 four years ago, and the GOP is five percentage points smaller than in 2008.

    Pennsylvania 2008 exits: 44% Democrat, 37% Republican, 18% Independent.

    Pennsylvania New York Times/Quinnipiac 2012 sample: 39% Democrat, 28% Republican, 27% Independent.

    Somehow a D+7 split has turned into D+11 split, and Republicans’ share of the electorate is nine percentage points less than they were four years ago.

    Florida 2008 exits: 37% Democrat, 34% Republican, 29% Independent.

    Florida New York Times/Quinnipiac 2012 sample: 36% Democrat, 27% Republican, 33% Independent.

    Each party’s share only shifts a few percentage points, but the overall split goes from D+3 to D+9.

    One again, the New York Times thinks Republicans are too stupid to figure out the con. If they’re going to be that absurdly biased, why not just cut out the middleman and poll Obama for America staffers directly?

    Remember: The business model of The New York Times is to envelop liberals in a soft, warm, comforting cocoon of reassurance that their ideas and leaders are popular. You saw this in 2010, when it dangerously blinded them to the coming Republican wave until too late. The same patterns is repeating itself this year.

    A Bit on Polling (or, Why the Media Thinks You’re a Moron)

    Tuesday, September 25th, 2012

    Remember how how incredibly tight the 1980 election was? How Ronald Reagan managed to edge Jimmy Carter at the last minute despite losing Texas and New York?

    Probably not, mainly because that didn’t happen. But as Jeffrey Lord’s story makes clear, that was the narrative the New York Times was pushing most of the fall, and they had “polls” to back it up.

    In the pantheon of lies, damn lies, and statistics, polls aren’t even as valid as statistics. At this point, polls by the usual MSM suspects (NYT, PPP, CBS, MS/NBC, Time, Newsweek, NPR, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times, just to name a few) aren’t designed to gauge the race, they’re designed to encourage Democrats and discourage Republicans. They are, as Lord notes and Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee admitted to Ed Rollins, offering up “in kind contributions” to the Democrats.

    So let’s take a brief look at the many ways in which the MSM is distorting polls for the benefit of Obama and the Democrats.

  • Dick Morris (who knows a thing or two about polling) thinks the idea that an Obama victory is in the offing is bunk. “All of the polling out there uses some variant of the 2008 election turnout as its model for weighting respondents and this overstates the Democratic vote by a huge margin.” He also notes that even the skewed polls show Obama at less than 50%, and “the undecided vote always goes against the incumbent.”
  • By one analysis, pollsters are oversampling Democrats by an average of 6.1%.
  • More evidence that the media is oversampling Democrats.
  • A technical analysis of how that dynamic applies to Pennsylvania.
  • Jay Cost notes that “polls that do a poor job of differentiating enthusiastic non-voters from enthusiastic voters are going to overestimate Obama’s margin.”
  • Every week you see the media going to bat for Obama, and every week we see more evidence of lack of enthusiasm on the part of Democrats compared to 2008. 2010 did happen, no matter how much the media would like to pretend it didn’t. The Tea Party hasn’t gone away, nor suddenly decided that they like Obama’s free-spending ways after all. The fundamentals of our ailing economy and staggering unemployment haven’t gone away either. And remember: Republicans now outnumber Democrats in party identification.

    There’s a lot better chance that this election’s results will look like 1980 than that they will look like 2008.

    LinkSwarm for September 23, 2012

    Sunday, September 23rd, 2012

    Random swarm of interesting links for your amusement and edification:

  • Just in case you didn’t notice, in Obama’s interview with Univision (where he faced much tougher questions that from America’s lapdog media), Obama pretty much admitted that he failed, because “you can’t change Washington from the inside.” Really? I’m sure that platform would have gotten you a lot of votes in 2008.
  • Nice George Will profile of Tea Party-backed Utah congressional candidate Mia Love.
  • Why Wisconsin is in play in 2012.
  • Mitt Romney donated $4,020,772 to charity in 2011. Meanwhile, Obama was too busy to donate $400 so his half-brother could eat for a year.
  • Barack Obama is so awesome he can fit 18,000 people in a 5,000 seat arena.
  • In what high esteem to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid hold Obama? Take a look:

  • More Shenanigans on the Round Rock ISD board.
  • Don’t read this if you love dogs or have high blood pressure. More of that special quality of service we’ve come to expect from United Airlines.
  • Finally, Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Most Embarrassing Emmy Awards Outfit of All Time:

  • Proposed Romney Ad: Burying the American Dream

    Thursday, September 20th, 2012

    FADE IN: Long shot of funeral.

    CUT TO: Shot of Obama in a black suit standing near an open grave.

    Obama: The American Dream enjoyed over 200 years of life.

    CUT TO: Men with Obama For America t-shirts with shovels picking up dirt from a pile labeled DEFICIT SPENDING and tossing it down into the grave.

    Obama: But it’s time for us to bury it today. It’s outlived its usefulness.

    CUT TO: Several young children at the bottom of the grave, already partially buried, as dirt rains down on their heads.

    Child: Wait, we’re not dead! Stop burying us!

    CUT To: Obama.

    Obama: It was a fine dream, but we have to move on to another dream: Of a government welfare state present at every moment of every American’s lives…

    CUT TO: Men shoveling in more dirt.

    Obama: From the cradle…

    CUT TO: Children in hole.

    Obama:…to the grave.

    Children: Stop! Just give us a chance! We want our dreams too!

    CUT TO: Obama.

    Obama: Farewell American dream. It was nice while it last.

    CUT TO: Children in grave.

    Children: Stop! Stop!

    CUT TO: Long shot of funeral, as the men continue to fill the grave.

    Children: (screaming) STOOOOOOOP!

    FADE OUT


    Anyone know the best way to send this to Romney, Restore Our Future, or American Crossroads?