Quote of the Day

This one comes by way of a Maureen Dowd column, marking the first time in at least two years that I've found anything she wrote interesting. Anyhow, she quotes GOP strategist, Alex Castellanos, as saying: "Republicans being against sex is not good. Sex is popular." Alex may look like the bad guy in "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly," but he's got a point.

Really GOP Women, Really?

Today Slate reports that support among GOP women is growing for...Rick Santorum. I don't have words.

The Sorrows of (Not-so) Young Mitt

Mitt's campaign looks to actually be in trouble. There have been other surges by other candidates but Santorum's rise is different. When other candidates rose in the polls against him, Romney could outspend them by factors of ten and beat them down. He's doing it again against Santorum in Michigan. But, for a a couple reasons, it may be less effective this time around.

Charlie Pierce outlines the first one in this post. Romney has already tacked so far to the right to try to win the base that he can't attack Santorum where he's really weak, i.e., his crackpot conservative stances. As Charlie puts it, "Romney has sold so much of his political soul to the wingnut base of his party on these issues that his positions on them are now indistinguishable from Santorum's...."

The second reason, put forward here, is that Mitt can't seem to crack into small donors and his well-heeled donor base may actually be running low on cash, or at least the will to spend it on Mitt. Of course, those people will probably come back for the eventual GOP nominee but that might not matter to Mitt if his well runs dry now.

more from Michigan...

Wow, didn't see this coming. An article by my friend and former neighbor suggests that poor Mittens is struggling in his former homeland.

Santorum to Female Soldiers: Don't Get Your Panties in a Bunch

We've been mostly pre-occupied with Romney and Gingrich in our examinations of the GOP nomination race but with Santorum once again gaining momentum, we, unfortunately, have to pay attention to the esteemed asshole from Pennsylvania. Yesterday, he gave everyone a reminder of just how retrograde his beliefs are when asked about the Pentagon's announcement that it plans to put more women near the front lines. I'll let the linked blog post and accompanying video do the heavy lifting but it essentially boils down to Santorum thinking that women's "emotions" would be problematic in combat. This primitive screwhead is currently polling second in the nomination race.

The Elevator Pitch

Via the Maddow Blog (which I highly recommend by the way), comes word that the Obama-Biden camp has a pitch for their campaign:

"Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive."

Putting aside the question of crowing about another human's death (I'm definitely squeamish about that), I think this pitch could be awfully effective for a couple reasons: 1) It's pithy, memorable, and specific, unlike "Win the Future," 2) The first part is basically "America, Fuck Yeah!" which is always a popular stance, and 3) It highlights accomplishments that are unquestionably the president's.

Rep. Hoekstra Warns Michigan of Yellow Peril

If we lived in a different media market, we would have seen a Super Bowl ad that has the political world talking. No, I'm not talking about Will Ferrell's ad for Milwaukee's Best beer. I'm talking about Rep. Pete Hoekstra taking a page late 19th century nativist politics, and airing this:



Hoekstra seems to have spent most of the day basically telling people that they're wrong to see this as racist. My big question is how he found an actor willing to play that role.

It's The Economy, Stup-mitt!

This ain't good for Mittens (but good for the other 99.9% of us!). Well, then again it probably made him richer. He'll need more pockets in his next bespoke suit.

Indestructible megalomaniac or supervillain?

Maybe this has already made the rounds, but I love it.  Sadly, I scored 60%.  Kind of scary, actually:

Welcome to the Supervillain or Newt Game, where you have to decide whether an idea comes from an indestructible megalomaniac hell-bent on ruling the world, or from a fictional supervillain.

How Amazing Indeed

It's been a while since we've had a video up here providing us ample opportunity for fawning over the First Lady. She was on Ellen recently and Ellen challenged her to a push-up contest. I think you all know how this will end up even without watching. But check out how Michelle is essentially staring Ellen down during the contest. It was all in good fun but you know that Michelle can turn on the competitive intimidation when needed.

Mitt and Newt

With Mitt's definitive win in Florida yesterday, the blogs are talking endgame. Despite Newt's declarations of scorched earth politicking, most are asking how long he'll actually stay in the race. Robert Wright at the Atlantic predicts 10 more days.

I feel like I'm also seeing a lot more deeper looks at Mitt today. Frank Rich wrote a very interesting piece on how little people seem to know about who he really is. Meanwhile, Charlie Pierce, who's blog on Esquire I only recently discovered and absolutely love for it's profane cattiness, submitted a fierce post on Mitt and his money-backed Florida win (he actually compares him to TV's Dexter).

Of course, Mitt made his own headlines today by uttering this deliciously tone-deaf gaffe: "I'm not concerned about the very poor." You don't say?

Jan Brewer is a Lying Liar

Brewer is in fact using the dust up with Obama in her re-election campaign. And she is now purporting to have said to Obama in the picture:  You only have one more year!  Yep, she's making up stories again only this time right on the heels of the real story.  Surely Arizona won't reelect her?