Horsebolt McStabledoor: oh, and...
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That's not Callista.

mc_madness: Politics are a waste of time and energy.

I haven't voted/given a shiat about any election since birth.

Newsflash: you can't make a difference with your one vote so why give a fark?

I don't know how you can call yourself an MC. That shiat didn't even rhyme.

RminusQ: Not a goddamn person in that room, Newt included, even knows who Saul Alinksy is, other than a punchline.

soooo much this. But it's a jewish name, so it must be evil, amirite?


(looks up Saul Alinsky)
Lulz, Yeah, he was pretty evil...JFC...


what a teleprompter may look like

TV's Vinnie: So, South Carolinans completely overlook a double-adulterer and tax cheat, so long as he promises to torment the darkies?

It's 1861 all over again

IronTom: Read it again. I don't like the situation, not saying that if they stopped buying vices and expensive food that they would be self sufficient. I just say I don't like to pay for their food stamps if they can afford cigarettes and drugs, or really at all.

You seem pretty convinced that most or all of the 30 million Americans getting welfare assistance are drug abusers.

Do you have data to support this, or do you always assume the worst of poor people?

WhyteRaven74: Fentanyl Bomb: This day in history. Newt-style. A redemption song.

The Concorde begins service between Paris and NYC.

Also this:

1793: During the French Revolution, King Louis XVI, condemned for treason, was executed on the guillotine.

YoungSwedishBlonde: Elites in Washington? You mean like the guy who was third in line to the Presidency at one point?

Which Secretary of State is that?

Fentanyl Bomb: Fista-Phobia: If they want to stick their dick in the mash potatoes, so be it.

Well, if I knew it was going to be that kind of party...

Exactly.

Horsebolt McStabledoor: oh, and...

That's not Callista Bisek on the left. That's just some random staffer. It's of course possible that she was working his staff as well, but he didn't marry her.

Lando Lincoln: Don't Troll Me Bro!: Bucky Katt: Rick Perry's endorcement sure paid off!

/isn't 45 minutes after the polls close a little early to call an election? Just askin.

ABC called it before any of the results came in, which is absurd, but apparently this time it won't come back to haunt them.

They do that if the exit polls are significantly favoriting one candidate. Looks like they are. Exit polls almost always match the actual vote count. If they don't, then that's usually a good indicator that votes have been tampered with.

Didn't exit polling show John Kerry the winner in 2004?

mc_madness: Politics are a waste of time and energy.

I haven't voted/given a shiat about any election since birth.

Newsflash: you can't make a difference with your one vote so why give a fark?

mc_madness: Newsflash: you can't make a difference with your one vote so why give a fark?

This is the Politics Tab. If you'd like to talk politics, go ahead. Otherwise...

A bit of history so to clear up why the segregationist, bible beating, planter worshiping Southern Dem's of the `60's arrived, at Nixon's insistence, in the early `70's, as stanch Repubs. Slightly reformed, I suppose, but evenings like this I have to wonder:

In February, 1968, Wallace announced his intention of standing as an independent candidate for president. His hostility to civil rights legislation won him support from white voters in the Deep South and won Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. Although he won over 9 million votes he came third to Richard Nixon ( 31,770,237) and Hubert Humphrey (31,270,533).

Nixon was concerned that Wallace would stand as a third party candidate in the next election. Nixon's initial strategy was to destroy Wallace's power base in Alabama. This included providing $400,000 to try and help Albert Brewer defeat Wallace as governor. This strategy failed and in 1970 Wallace won a landslide victory for a second term as governor of Alabama.

This failed and Richard Nixon had to change his strategy to one of blackmail. With the help of Murray Chotiner, Nixon discovered details of Wallace's corrupt activities in Alabama. In July 1969, Nixon pressurized the IRS into forming the Special Services Staff (SSS). The role of the SSS was to target Nixon's political enemies. By 1970 the SSS had compiled a list of 4,000 individuals. Most of this list were on the left. However, Nixon now added Wallace and several of his aides to this list. This included George's brother, Gerald Wallace, who had indeed made a fortune from his business activities. This included a $2.9 million contract for asphalt that went to Gerald's company even though he charged a $2.50 per ton over the going price. By August 1970, the SSS had 75 people working on what was known as the "Alabama Project".

To show that Nixon meant business, one of Wallace's closest aides, Seymore Trammell, was sent to prison for 4 years for corruption. Nixon then used Winston Blount, his Postmaster General, to begin negotiations with Wallace. A deal was eventually struck with Wallace. In return for calling off the SSS Wallace made a statement that he would not become a third party candidate. On 12th January, 1972, Attorney General John N. Mitchell announced he was not going to prosecute Gerald Wallace. The following day Wallace gave a press conference where he announced he would not be a third party candidate.

RminusQ: In "sick burn" news:

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David Axelrod is a terro---

RminusQ: In "sick burn" news:

[30.media.tumblr.com image 480x134]

LOL

kimwim: rynthetyn: I wouldn't be all that surprised if the GOP establishment starts leaking dirt on Newt if he looks like he might get actually have a chance at the nomination.

What dirt could they possibly still be holding back? We know he's a lying scumbag filled with Santorum, kicked out of the house, ethics fine of over 300,000$, cheating on all his wives, slimy dirtball.

What could they possibly have on him?

It doesn't even have to be anything new. A constant drumbeat from multiple sources providing refocused reminders of how bad he was for Republicans as speaker, quitting Congress the day after winning an election to it, his role as not -a-lobbyist for Fannie Mae; it's a target rich environment. Essentially the same strategy that brought him down in Iowa.

bobbette: Good point, I'm going to be really interested to see the next polls out of Florida. They all have Mitt in the lead right now, but they're 3-4 days old.

The other thing, I heard this morning, is that 30% of the expected turnout has already voted absentee in FL. That probably benefits Romney, and limits any bounce Newt can get out of SC.

I would still have said that Romney would be the nominee if he had just lost South Carolina, but he got stomped. Absolutely destroyed. There's a difference. Newt could pull this off.

Of course, neither has can beat Obama, so this is all just academic.

Guys, I've been talking about the coming GOP party civil war. What you saw tonight was the crystallization that it has begun.

The DC establishment will not let Gingrich take the nomination. But they don't have the normal "fall" candidates to siphon off votes from the base as they usually do. There is going to be no way for them to say "well, it was a long fair fight, time to coalesce around our nominee." They're going to have to torpedo Gingrich in the open, without the normal curtain to hide behind.

You really think the Teaparty and the religious base is going to allow that to happen and go along with it? Let DC kill their candidate?

get the popcorn, it's looking like a brokered convention and full out civil war!

RminusQ: bobbette: Mmm, I'm going to have to start up a spreadsheet for delegates soon.

I had a really sweet one for 2008. I've sort of adapted it for 2012, but not fully because:
(1) Democrats aren't holding a race
(2) I have an actual job and thus not nearly as much dick-around-in-Excel time as this time in 2008
(3) Republicans have very loose/shady/unannounced rules for delegation allocation.

I mean, Florida is 4th and it's WTA, and then after that is Nevada on Feb 4. They're awarding 28 delegates statewide proportionally. How do they round? What's the cutoff? Who farking knows! Then there are dog-and-pony shows in Colorado and Minnesota, which hold as much actual weight in delegate allocation as Iowa did, namely ZERO. Dems were nice: exact same cutoff and rounding rules in every state/area, so I could set up my spreadsheet nice and neat. Even when results weren't final, in caucus states like Iowa, I could get a preliminary total, then a total after county conventions, and so on.

BTW, interesting news: since there are pending court challenges over the new South Carolina congressional district map, apparently the delegate count from tonight is even more unofficial. So sayeth my primary (hahaha) source for delegate rules, The Green Papers (new window)

/Note: The guy who writes The Green Papers loves only one more thing than arcane rules about government, and that is the look of his own words on a computer screen. He literally got a letter-to-the-editor asking "Why can't you ever get to the point?" one time, and his response went on for farking pages.

That really is frustrating. I mean certainly it will mess with any predictive potential. However... a crappy spreadsheet is still better than none...

Thanks for the link to The Green Papers, that's wonderful. God I love nerds.

Summer Glau's Love Slave: Newt really didn't spend a lot of time preparing his vicory speech.

/Lamest. Pep-talk. Ever.

Lincoln-Douglas!

culebra: A bigot won in South Carolina?

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Romney is still going to be the candidate. Unfortunately for Newt, not every state is South Carolina. I think Romney goes Nuclear Option on Gingrich in Florida and all but buries him. Sure, Newt will stick around but Romney realizes that he needs to win decisively and will pull out the stops and make a stand in Florida. He's got the money to do it.


Romney may be rich but he ain't as rich as Sheldon Adelson or folks like him. With his win in SC I don't think Newt will have anymore financial difficulties going forward in the primaries.

Karma Curmudgeon:

The other thing, I heard this morning, is that 30% of the expected turnout has already voted absentee in FL. That probably benefits Romney, and limits any bounce Newt can get out of SC.

On the other hand though, Newt won SC because he overwhelmingly picked up the people who were still undecided until the last few days. Assuming that the early voters are people who wouldn't have been swayed one way or the other, and that a good percentage of the people who haven't voted yet haven't done so because they're still undecided, if they break as heavily for Newt as they did in SC, Newt could still win it.

What kind of person would take time out of their day to go out and cast a vote for this guy??? or Santorum??
I just don't get it.
:(
People are messed up.

The electile dysfunction in the republican primary signs a lack of arousal in the electorate stemming from the ongoing identity crisis brought on by a refusal to accept responsibility for the failings of the Bush maladministration and the resultant economic crisis which, for all indicators the sitting president is doing a fine job of repairing.

The GOP can't figure out if its a small tent party, a big tent party, or a three ring circus.

Expect the bootstrappy Ging-GRINCH (its the poors fault that they're poor) to win Florida for his loosened immigration views.

The millionaire cultist has already tough talked his way to defeat in Florida and some Mitt-flopping will be the menu as he tries to salvage his campaign before the second coming of the KNOCKOUT punch in the evangelical stronghold of the deep south.

Florida isn't looking so good for Newt (new window).

FTFA: Many Florida residents have already cast their vote in a state where a large percentage of primarygoers either vote early or by absentee ballot. According to the state GOP, about 200,000 votes are already counted and more than 470,000 absentee ballots have been requested overall. Total turnout is expected to crack 2 million. That means it's possible a significant chunk of the electorate cast their vote before Gingrich's out-of-nowhere surge, when Romney was leading the state by a huge margin in polls.

That's going to drive him batshiat insane.

So how will Florida go?

Is anyone watching Newt's speech?

SuperNinjaToad: culebra: A bigot won in South Carolina?

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Romney is still going to be the candidate. Unfortunately for Newt, not every state is South Carolina. I think Romney goes Nuclear Option on Gingrich in Florida and all but buries him. Sure, Newt will stick around but Romney realizes that he needs to win decisively and will pull out the stops and make a stand in Florida. He's got the money to do it.


Romney may be rich but he ain't as rich as Sheldon Adelson or folks like him. With his win in SC I don't think Newt will have anymore financial difficulties going forward in the primaries.

Quite likely, but that doesn't do anything to improve Newt's likability outside of the south. Newt will stick around and fight it out for a time, but my guess is that it's Romney in the end.

Strolpol: Altitude5280: Times like this, I really miss Freep Impact. Fark is a lesser place for making her stop.

Aw thanks. I'm still around, just under my regular name. And I have a blog for that now!

are you not entertained?

TyrantII: Guys, I've been talking about the coming GOP party civil war. What you saw tonight was the crystallization that it has begun.

The DC establishment will not let Gingrich take the nomination. But they don't have the normal "fall" candidates to siphon off votes from the base as they usually do. There is going to be no way for them to say "well, it was a long fair fight, time to coalesce around our nominee." They're going to have to torpedo Gingrich in the open, without the normal curtain to hide behind.

You really think the Teaparty and the religious base is going to allow that to happen and go along with it? Let DC kill their candidate?

get the popcorn, it's looking like a brokered convention and full out civil war!

Democrats better react for maximum advantage. 2012 is sounding good

verbaltoxin: So how will Florida go?

Vodka Zombie: That's going to drive him batshiat insane.

Well, considering his poll surge after going psychologically Fukushima after Iowa and New Hampshire, that may not be a necessarily bad thing. I fully expect him in the Florida debates to start screaming the N-word on stage while throwing his own feces at the moderator with one hand and Santorum's with the other. And he'll pick up twenty points for it.

odinsposse: verbaltoxin: So how will Florida go?

Nate Silver is still projecting Romney to take the state by a fairly large margin. However most polls were taken before Thursday's debate and that was a big turning point for Newt. So Newt's going to shoot up in the polls but nobody knows how far. I'm hoping for another Santorum surge to really get the bloodbath started but I know that won't happen.

Yeah and someone else mentioned that Florida has early voting.

Fista-Phobia:
that bosnian sniper:

I really wish I could Funny! and Smart! both of these.

/I also really wish I knew what he thought the gloves were going to do for him

illannoyin: Every time I hear his name all I can think of is a witch stirring a couldron cackling about eye of newt!

What manner of name is 'Newt' anyway?

Scottish?

Cornish?

It's amphibian.

billwill: AcneVulgaris: Proof that the republicans prefer backseat biatching to leading. Why else would they choose somebody that will obviously lose?

Obama will wipe the floor with that POS.

Yea but what if he doesn't?

I would rather have Romney with a fair chance of winning than newt with a very small chance. At least Romney wouldn't drive America into another recession. Newt is only interested in bettering himself.

He got a huge boost after the last debate for refusing to answer a question about asking his 2nd wife for an open marriage. Just after she was diagnosed with MS and leaving her for the 3rd when she said no. He was like I'm not even going to justify that question with an answer and acted offended.

Newt refuses to answer (new window)

Well, it doesn't appear to be up to us, so we'll just have to see what happens. Yay democracy!

Can someone please explain to me how the last debate benefited Gingrich? Because I gotta say, it was a farking train wreck for all of them, to my mind. Except RON PAUL - he actually came across as being the best informed of the lot. Which was frightening.