HawgWild: The Republicans totally could have taken back The White House. Totally. But, no. These yahoos are the choices we have been given.

I mean, I kinda like Huntsman. But a moderate Republican just isn't going to get the nomination.

Unfortunate, really.

Let's keep "pandering" to the "base" and hope for the best, I guess!

/idiots

It's hilarious that they don't realize that, by definition, the base will vote R no matter what, they have no where else to go... and yet they insist on pandering to them and no one else.

It's beyond "f*cking the chicken" really.

Whatever it takes to get elected.

They can let their hair down and get evil later.

So he flip flopped on flip flopping?

Iamjackscompletelack of surprise.jpeg

Dan the Schman: It's hilarious that they don't realize that, by definition, the base will vote R no matter what, they have no where else to go... and yet they insist on pandering to them and no one else.

Not sure It toally agree with this. Dont' get me wrong, the Republican strategy is going to destroy their party eventually. The country is getting more liberal, younger, and less white every year and the GOP base keeps shrinking.

That said, the base doesn't always just vote. In the short term, turn out is everything. Look at 08 vs. 10. The GOP didn't convert many, if any, voters in the 2010 elections, they just turned out in much higher numbers than the Democrats.

So as a short term strategy, pandering to the base makes some sense. Although, as said, in the long term it is going to destroy the party (which is a good thing for the country)

My mind has been blown.

/Maybe

First of all, I think the idea of sticking to a position once there is evidence showing that it's a terrible idea that will ruin our country is a bad thing, and if the alternative is flip-flopping, maybe flip flopping isn't such a bad idea. Sometimes ideas just don't work, no matter how nice they seem on paper, and sticking with them is stupid.

But in Romney's case, he's flip flopped to appease the crazier and more radical Republican fringe, so not so much a good thing. What I don't get is why the Republicans are empowering these know-nothing loonies in the first place. Why have they decided their vote is so important that they'll toss away the vote of the more sensible mainstream Republicans to pander to it? It's like they got into a positive feedback loop where the only way for any of their candidates to position themselves was farther and farther into the fringe.

Unless someone rewrites this narrative, I don't see how the Republican party can do anything but crash and burn and take good chunks of the US economy with it.

Howie Spankowitz: I've said it before and I'll say it again. Mitt Romney is the physical embodiment of every memo ever written by a public relations specialist.

In other words, a modern-day Warren G. Harding with a solid gold Mormon brain.

Someone needs to create a waffle with dripping syrup on it for Romney's new avatar.

deadcrickets: Someone needs to create a waffle with dripping syrup on it for Romney's new avatar.

Honestly, did you even expect him to embrace anything sensible?

R O M N E Y C E P T I O N

I heard Mitt Romney flip-flops on "tastes great" and "less filling". -Herman Cain

Yes, it's true: If you fail to adjust your thinking when the facts show otherwise you are doomed to failure in the private sector. However, this is not what Mitt is doing: he's changing his story based on what he needs to say to get elected.

There's a difference between openmindedness and lacking integrity.

namatad: Dan the Schman: HawgWild: The Republicans totally could have taken back The White House. Totally. But, no. These yahoos are the choices we have been given.

I mean, I kinda like Huntsman. But a moderate Republican just isn't going to get the nomination.

Unfortunate, really.

Let's keep "pandering" to the "base" and hope for the best, I guess!

/idiots

It's hilarious that they don't realize that, by definition, the base will vote R no matter what, they have no where else to go... and yet they insist on pandering to them and no one else.

It's beyond "f*cking the chicken" really.

DEMS vote D, GOPS vote R, all that is group in the middle praying that one of the two is less retarded than the other.

/single issue voter - pro-choice

Single issue voters - especially those who ought to know a president can't overturn roe v Wade, are much of the problem.

/also pro choice, but I'd give up lip service paid to that or various other issues if the overall candidate was better.

I suppose the paltry 22 comments here proves that not a f*ck was given...

xanadian: *rtfa*

*blinks*

Man, that's a whole different breed of crazy. Either he's an opportunist, or suffers from split personality disorder.

Oh he's an opportunist. Even if I agree with some of his views that he says now, I also know he will change his tune if he gets the nomination. He will say and do whatever you want him to say or do in order to get that vote.

/Ron Paul should get the nom
//hates the state of our corrupt electoral system

Romney's theme song (new window)

Either that, or this one (new window).

deadcrickets: Someone needs to create a waffle with dripping syrup on it for Romney's new avatar.

Bonus points if it's blue.

Or as he is known, Multiple Choice Mitt (new window)

Mugato: Um, the guy is a Mormon. They believed that black people were animals until the 1960s. They're the ultimate flip-floppers.

Wait, you mean they're not?

Dammit, I knew this would happen!

He'll flip-flop a rupture into time-space!

Around here, the standard excuse for flip flops is that a smart politician changes his stance on issues as the situation warrants. Not sure it's really a good line of attack against Romney...

Mitt Romney truly is the Kama Sutra of pols.

My head Hz now.

Mugato: Um, the guy is a Mormon. They believed that black people were animals until the 1960s. They're the ultimate flip-floppers.

One time I was on the metro and these Mormon missionaries get on. I started rolling my eyes, thinking they were going to go around and try to convert people.

Instead, this grungy older man starts asking why the religion had dropped polygamy if that's what god had wanted. The missionaries kept trying to explain that god had changed his mind, but this guy was having none of that. His argument was that if there's all-knowing god, he wouldn't be flip-flopping on these kinds of small issues. Either god wanted polygamy and the Mormons disagreed to gain widespread acceptance, or god wanted monogamy but the Mormons were greedy and took multiple wives.

The Missionaries weren't able to answer that, so they got off at the next stop.

But of course, I live in San Francisco and when Mormon missionaries come here, they don't come here to convert so much as to be converted. (And yes, by that I mean exactly what you were thinking when I said "San Francisco.")

we must flip-flop deeper!

Mugato: Um, the guy is a Mormon. They believed that black people were animals until the 1960s. They're the ultimate flip-floppers.

They are. As are ALL humans.

HawgWild: The Republicans totally could have taken back The White House. Totally. But, no. These yahoos are the choices we have been given.

I mean, I kinda like Huntsman. But a moderate Republican just isn't going to get the nomination.

Unfortunate, really.

Let's keep "pandering" to the "base" and hope for the best, I guess!

/idiots

Actually, we should stop assuming the Republicans are really capable of doing anything except pandering to their increasingly-rabid base. They couldn't even take back the Senate without their base getting in the way and running the purity test that the Republican runners wouldn't even pass.

The Republicans have been getting a lot of assumed credit when, in reality, they really don't know how to run their party. Dubya essentially destroyed the idea of lockstep, and now we have three different groups of people--Baggers, RINOs, and the Rich--trying to put Humpty back together with the glue of rhetoric. And as we have all seen, all they can do is pine for the 'good old days' (as most right-wingers do) and biatch about how the current-day GOP isn't worth shiat. Meanwhile, the serious problems of lashing together the stupid, the easily-led, and the wealthy aren't even addressed because it's impossible to figure out.

We should give the Republican Party the credit it is due: it runs a very good marketing system. But outside of that, 2010 shows that there were serious issues with the party that the lockstep approach hid from view. Now that everybody in the GOP is questioning what it really means, they're about as an effective governing force as a dead worm.

We should not see this as a party as much as a corporation that is being robbed blind while the cubicle dwellers hide out and try to ignore the steadily increasing volume of nonsensical memos. Much like the businesses they want America to look like, the Republican Party is Enron right before the news broke.

shower_in_my_socks: This is what is scary about Romney. People say he's a moderate. No he farking isn't. He's whoever he needs to be to get votes. If he's elected and he thinks being an extreme right wingnut will help him, then that's exactly who he'll be. You have no farking idea what this soulless, two-faced shark is going to do.

He would govern by polls. Which isn't magnanimous, but it's better than governing by bad ideology -- which is what we'll get with the rest of the Republican field of 'true believers.'

I want all the Republicans to lose, and lose badly, but if one has to get anywhere near the office, Romney is only one I can reasonably assume isn't going to screw up the nation unless Americans demand he do so.

Can we lose this absurdly nuanced idea of "flip-flopping" and focus on lies instead?

Speaking of Romney, has anyone else been seeing those "I'm a Mormon and I totally resemble a human!" commercials? It's seems weird that they are popping up now that we're likely to get a Mormon presidential candidate. Are they part of his campaign or is it more of the Mormon church slyly supporting him in their own way?

Dan the Schman: It's hilarious that they don't realize that, by definition, the base will vote R no matter what, they have no where else to go... and yet they insist on pandering to them and no one else.

Problem is, they know if they don't energize the base with divisive social issues some of them may not bother to vote at all.


shower_in_my_socks: This is what is scary about Romney. People say he's a moderate. No he farking isn't. He's whoever he needs to be to get votes. If he's elected and he thinks being an extreme right wingnut will help him, then that's exactly who he'll be. You have no farking idea what this soulless, two-faced shark is going to do.

Your choice is now between The Smiler and The Beast.

odinsposse: Speaking of Romney, has anyone else been seeing those "I'm a Mormon and I totally resemble a human!" commercials? It's seems weird that they are popping up now that we're likely to get a Mormon presidential candidate. Are they part of his campaign or is it more of the Mormon church slyly supporting him in their own way?

They popped up after the Tony awards as a response to the popularity of "The Book of Mormon" musical. But no doubt the LDS Church wants Mitt to benefit as well.