This post is a bit long. Further, it synthesizes a lot of things I've said about the actual art of politicking -- not policy, but politicking -- I've mentioned before, because I think the debate was good showcase for those arts. Skip it, of course, if you like, but I think this is a cogent take. more...

Posted by: Ace at 11:00 AM | Comments (531)
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While we wait for Ace's debate opus, some news from two guys who weren't there.

First, via Major Garrett, Texas Governor Rick Perry starts to make the rounds.

PerryÂ’s recent out-of-state trips, including his appearance tonight in the Big Apple, have heightened interest, and scrutiny, about Perry jumping into the GOP presidential primary. Perry bashed Barack Obama in Los Angeles on Sunday and his speech scheduled at the Grand Hyatt near Grand Central Station this evening had originally been a slot reserved for businessman Donald Trump, who is now out of the running.

Perry also will head to North Carolina for a meeting of the Republican GovernorÂ’s Association, and this coming weekend he will hit New Orleans for a GOP event that looks a lot like a cattle call for White House hopefuls.

...

“I have a lot of out-of-state travel that some might analyze that ‘Oh he’s got a game plan and they’re implementing it.’ That’s not correct. There’s not a game plan,” Perry said. “I’m giving it some thought. There are a lot of people calling and saying, 'Hey, we would like you to consider getting into the race.'”

I know a lot of people are excited about Perry but I think a lot of it is based on 2nd and 3rd hand accounts. I'm not saying he won't be great, I just don't too many of us who aren't in Texas have seen him in action. He seems to have a strong story to tell, so I'm looking forward to him getting in the mix.

Jon Huntsman on the other hand, not so much.

I watched last night's debate and had many thoughts on it, none of them however were, "You know what this field really needs? A candidate like Jon Huntsman who wanted a bigger stimulus and who called Barack Obama "a remarkable leader" in a non-ironic way."

But run he will.

On his Facebook page Monday, Mr. Huntsman posted: “I’m getting into this because we’re about to hand over a country with $14.2 trillion in debt, $100 billion in spending per month, 9.1% unemployment, and no relief in sight… for the first time in history we’re facing the prospect that the next generation are going to get a country… that’s less good, less capable, less competitive than the one we got. And I say that’s totally unacceptable.”

Mr. Huntsman joins the field after a two-year stint serving as the U.S. ambassador to China, a post Mr. Obama tapped him for at the outset of his presidency. In order to win the nomination, the former Utah governor will have to convince Republican primary voters that his service in the Obama administration shouldnÂ’t disqualify him as a candidate.

...

Mr. Huntsman has said he will stake his prospects on a strong showing in New HampshireÂ’s first-in-the-nation primary and forego IowaÂ’s first-in-the-nation caucuses where social-issues conservatives hold more sway. He attributed the decision to his opposition ethanol subsidies, a stance Iowa corn farmers may oppose but wouldnÂ’t necessarily disqualify him to the rest of the electorate.

Mr. Huntsman supports same-sex civil unions and has advocated for legislation to curb carbon pollution, two positions that could put him at odds with conservative Republican primary voters.

Want some more Huntsman goodness? He won't attack Obama by name. Yeah, what could wrong with that plan?

Jon Huntsman '12: Because Tim Pawlenty Isn't Nice Enough!

Posted by: DrewM at 10:23 AM | Comments (190)
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I got up sick-late and am working on a thinky sort of post on the debate. Because it's thinky, it's long.

Here's an announced rickroll. I promise, though, it's not Hall & Oates, and it's not "Did It In Minute."

Posted by: Ace at 09:20 AM | Comments (304)
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Gratuitously swiped from Hot Air. Right down to the headline.

“I’m sure there are days where I say that one term is enough,’’ Obama said. “What keeps me going is a belief that the work that we started in 2009 is not yet complete.’

Funny thing, Barry. There are days when I say that too. They're the ones that end in "y".

And, please, pencils down on the work you started. You've fucked up enough.

[Companion sob story update 1:] Poor Barry never even takes a day off. He gets in two hours of "work" before his 10:00 tee time, so ... f'n workday bitchez!!!

[Companion sob story update 2:] If he had it to do all over again, he'd spend more time with his children. Or something.

All these stories seem ... related. I just can't quite put my finger on it.

Posted by: andy at 08:30 AM | Comments (353)
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President Obama says he's 100% focused these days on creating jobs. So why is he taking advice from a bunch of CEOs whose companies have been shedding jobs for years?

...

It's little wonder, then, that the list of immediate must-do, job-creating ideas the council came up with - and outlined in a Monday op-ed signed by GE's Jeff Immelt and AmEx's Ken Chenault - is so uninspiring.

More money to retrain workers? More tax dollars retrofitting commercial buildings to boost energy efficiency? More government loans passed out by the Small Business Administration?

The writer doesn't get it. This council is doing JUST what Obama (and the council) wants. The routine work of Crony Capitalism. The average guy assumes big business is in love with capitalism and free enterprise. NO! That's what they loved while they were BECOMING a big business. Now that they're on top, they're happy to make deals with the govt. to help them out, keep them on top and make it tougher for smaller companies to knock 'em down a peg.

Some people might think that Crony Capitalism is just capitalism with a touch of corruption. Oh, if it were only that. It's just another flavor of socialism! Central Planning? Check. Redistribution? check. Look at those Job Creation examples in the above quote!

(here's a useful definition of Socialism)

A more complete definition of socialism incorporates two criteria: The first is that socialism entails the public provision of non-public goods. The second is the use of central planning to implement that policy.

It's not like Crony Capitalism is some scourge we've never seen before. It's that the more power the Federal Govt. accumulates, the more opportunity CC has to screw up the economy.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 03:04 AM | Comments (299)
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A flag appears 'mid thunderous cheers,
The banner of the Western land.
The emblem of the brave and true.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:55 AM | Comments (143)
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Cornell West is a jackass. He postures as a "prophet" with his haute Hipster Doofus clothes (and he reads deep philosophical import into his sartorial choices; no kidding, I've read him blathering on about his vests) but really has nothing to say except cheap Black Power applause lines so musty it sounds like he's in a Laugh-In skit with Cassius Clay.

We all know this.

Okay, so McWhorter and Loury are black intellectuals. So here's what's going on here: in one way, because they're black, they feel they should sort of support West, or at least not trash-talk him too much.

On the other hand, they are also intellectuals, and are kind of embarrassed by him, and have been waiting for the excuse to say so.

On the third hand, they both realize that some of this is just Ivory Tower jealousy and sniping, and so try to restrain themselves so as not to appear petty, but then they decide, Eh, the hell with it, we're right, he sucks, whether we're jealous or not.

It's just kind of amusing, if you don't like West. It's a funny little dance as they both feel each other out to decide how critical they're going to be.

It starts here, as they discuss West's recent comments about Obama (that Obama isn't comfortable around "free black men," and is a "mascot" for the plutocratic oligarchy, or whatever nonsense he said). Skip this cut if you don't have the time, and don't feel like hearing some (mild) apologetics for Obama.

Then, later, Loury decides he wants to talk about it some more. He revisits the Summers/West showdown, in which then-Harvard-President Larry Summers asked then-Harvard-Professor Cornell West if he had any plans to do any actual academic work or just appear on talk shows and put together bad rap albums.

No, seriously, bad rap albums. Check out "Stolen King." Then check out "3Ms," which sounds like Mike Myers' beat poetry from So I Married An Axe Murderer, except not good.

Anyway, rather than agreeing to update Summers on his coming work, West immediately ran away to Princeton, getting even more money for the new gig, and, we have to assume, based upon his total lack of any real academic output since then, without any demands on his time as a "professor."

So, after a little time, Loury's like, "Oh I want to talk about West some more," and McWhorter pretends he doesn't want to but he so does.

That's the fun cut, where it's just goofing on his "schtick" of dressing up like a rodeo clown's dweebie cousin, and posturing like Shaft's "street" informant Shaky-J, as a substitute for any actual, real contribution to anything.

Posted by: Ace at 11:34 PM | Comments (57)
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If you can bear to pull yourself away from the GOP debate, the usual evening shindig is happening over here.

Do You Recognize This Man?

This photo was taken during Lincoln's second inaugural, just a month before he was killed.

A “Fast Times At Ridgemont High” Reunion?

Well kinda on Spike TV's Guys Choice Awards:

Apparently, the show boasts a “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” reunion. Even Sean Penn agreed to be part of the festivities, joining director Amy Heckerling and castmates Judge Reinhold, Robert Romanus, Brian Backer, and Forest Whitaker as Robert DeNiro inducted the iconic high school tale into the Guy Movie Hall of Fame.

(Sadly, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Phoebe Cates, and writer Cameron Crowe werenÂ’t available for the event.)

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:10 PM | Comments (674)
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The CNN New Hampshire GOP presidential debate is scheduled to begin at 8pm Eastern, so pop some popcorn, grab your favorite beverage or 6 and join in the fun with the Official AoSHQ Liveblog and Drinking Game.

As a reminder of how Unexpectedly™ biased CNN's prior debates were, here's a post from 2007 to chew on while we wait.

As always, comments will be moderated in the liveblogger because the feed would be unreadable otherwise (and because of limitations in the software). A comment like "Why aren't my comments showing up?" ... won't ever show up! So don't even post it.

If you want your comments to get posted, you have to be funny and/or insightful (good luck with that). Or be lucky (getting warmer). Or bribe the cobloggers working behind the scenes like monkeys on crack promoting comments (now we're talkin').

Liveblog thingy below the fold. more...

Posted by: andy at 03:30 PM | Comments (707)
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First, a flashback. Obama's been in shovel-ready trouble with shovel-ready jobs for some time.

This incompetent naif admitted, back in October 2010, right before the elections (thanks, dude!), he wasn't lying when he claimed the stimulus would pay for "shovel-ready" projects.

He was just too ignorant to know they didn't really exist.

But in a startling admission in an interview with The New York Times’ White House correspondent Peter Baker, Obama said “there’s no such thing as shovel-ready projects.”

Krauthammer was not amused.

“Well, that is quite an admission,” Krauthammer said. “A year-and-a-half and half-a-trillion dollars later he says, ‘Well, these things I talk about endlessly don't exist.’ It's not surprising that he doesn't know a shovel-ready project didn't exist because having never worked in the private sector he wouldn't sure what a project is and there isn't shoveling in Harvard Law School, so I can understand.”

...

“This is one of the greatest ‘oops’ in American history,” he continued. “And it’s going to be hard for a Democrat when you show, you know one tape against another, and you’re going to say, ‘You supported $1 trillion offered by a president who didn't know that this is not going to happen?’ And that is probably why – since everybody expected it would affect unemployment and didn't this is probably one of the reasons why – things weren’t shovel-ready.”

Video at the link, yo.

Well, he tried the I'm So Stupid I Believed The Focus-Group Horseshit I Was Selling This Disaster With tactic.

Didn't work. People still have this nagging sense that the President of the United States of America should have some degree of accountability regarding the economy he's created.

So, now: With the jokes.

Ah, the jokes. Remember when Bush made a joke about looking for WMDs in Iraq? Yeah, I didn't spin too hard for him on that. A little, but mostly I kept my mouth shut.

That was in horrible taste. Boys are dying in Iraq and you're joking about a serious intelligence failure that put them there? I get his intent -- to take the piss out of himself -- but the lighthearted nature of it rubbed me the wrong way.

Some errors are trivial and may be laughed off. Some are serious and cannot be laughed off.

An economy on the brink of depression? Due to the incompetent flailings of narcissitic dilettante?

Not seeing the joke here, dude.

Well actually I do see the joke. I just don't think it's the same joke President Muffley Mulligan sees.

Here's a funny joke. If you don't give Obama "credit" of the millions of people so discouraged by the endless recession that they've ceased giving up looking for work at all -- that is, due to desperation and frustration, they've removed themselves from the seeking-employment numbers altogether, thus helping Obama's numbers by concealing from him millions so beaten down they just gave up -- the real unemployment figure would be 11%.

Ba-dum-dum-tsss.

Now, stop me if you've heard this one before.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

Because, by one plausible method of accounting, each of the few jobs Obama's stimulus arguably created cost nearly a cool million per.

Ah, the jokes. Gotta love the jokes.

Awww Nuts: I'd meant to include this one. Obama's reelect numbers may soon be shovel-ready.

IÂ’m not prepared to predict a Carter-like defeat for President Obama, since it depends on several unknown factors, from who the GOP nominee will be to the state of the economy and the country. But I am prepared to say right now the elements for a 2012 upheaval are in place, much as they were prior to the Reagan landslide and as they were prior to the 2010 epic repudiation of Obama and Democrats. And unless the economy swings around soon and in a fairly substantial way, Mr. Obama will be terrifically vulnerable.

Unemployment is now 25 percent higher than when the president took office, the deficit is 35 percent higher, and gas prices have more than doubled (h/t: NBCÂ’s David Gregory). According to Pollster.com, the presidentÂ’s rating on the economy is underwater by more than 19 percentage points (56.9 percent versus 37.7 percent), the widest since he took the oath of office. Only one-in-three independent voters approve of the presidentÂ’s handling of the economy. According to the most recent CNN/Opinion Research poll, by a margin of more than 30 points, voters disapprove of his handling of health care; and by a margin of more than 40 points, they disapprove of his handling of the federal deficit. And roughly half of the nation believes weÂ’re either in a recession or a depression.

Read on there. The White House doesn't even realize they're in trouble.

Bunker Mentality: If you want some golf jokes.

Posted by: Ace at 01:13 PM | Comments (422)
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