Fox Nation reaction to Clint Eastwood speech:

Rove explained that Crossroads had conducted extensive focus groups and shared polling and focus group data with "all the major groups that are playing" in the election....Extreme rhetoric is a turn-off. Which is presumably why Rove said this at the confab:
What had emerged from that data is an "acute understanding of the nature of those undecided, persuadable" voters. "If you say [Obama]'s a socialist, they'll go to defend him. If you call him a 'far out left-winger,' they’ll say, 'no, no, he’s not.'" The proper strategy, Rove declared, was criticizing Obama without really criticizing him -- by reminding voters of what the president said that he was going to do and comparing it to what he's actually done. "If you keep it focused on the facts and adopt a respectful tone, then they’re gonna agree with you."
"We should sink Todd Akin. If he's found mysteriously murdered, don't look for my whereabouts!"And it's why Mitt Romney's speech last night took the tone it did:
He urged voters not to feel guilty about giving up on Mr. Obama, even if they were proud to support him as the nation’s first black president.It's also why Monica Crowley of Fox News wrote this the day after the speeches by Chris Christie and Ann Romney:
"You know there's something wrong with the kind of job he's done as president," Mr. Romney said, "when the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him."
Nobody last night launched direct attacks on President Obama....Unless this is all a head fake, it appears that this what they want their message to be this fall: Look at us, we're high-minded! They want to sell that to "persuadable" voters -- and they're desperately afraid some wacko is going to screw it up. They're evil aliens who've landed and want to conquer, and that damn Todd Akin left the spaceship without putting his human mask over his lizard face.
The Republicans in Tampa instead focused on elevating the discourse.... Instead of falling for the temptation (and the bait laid by the Democrats) to fight from a negative premise and with negative attacks, the GOP speakers fought from the high ground. They are fighting to lead, yes. But they are fighting to lead with meaning -- the positive meaning of an American restoration.
He's not Barack Obama.But he's a terrible vessel. So why don't the Republicans just send him home and let him hang out with his grandkids and play with his car elevator? We know he's the guy who'll be sworn in as president if Obama loses. He doesn't have to keep reminding us of that. And we also know he's not the (cankered, diseased) heart and soul of the party.
In the end, that's what it comes down to with Mitt Romney. He's running as the non-Barack Obama.
... this election will be about Barack Obama, period.... [Romney]'s just the vessel.
Mr. Henry James writes fiction as if it were a painful duty.Well, Mitt Romney campaigns as if it were a painful duty. So relieve him of that duty. This campaign isn't about him anyway.
A close friend of Mitt and Ann Romney confirmed to Whispers Wednesday night that Clint Eastwood is indeed Thursday's mystery speaker at the Republican National Convention.I guess this means Republicans have forgiven Clint Eastwood for doing a Super Bowl ad seen as pro-Obama and pro-auto bailout:
...it is a sign of what happens when you have Chicago-style politics, and the president of the United States and his political minions are, in essence, using our tax dollars to buy corporate advertising.Righties excitedly retransmitted a Hollywood Reporter story that said "two members of the creative team that produced the two-minute minute spot for ad agency Wieden+Kennedy donated their personal time in 2008 to make pro-Obama art." Rush Limbaugh said Eastwood "got scammed" and "got suckered into this" (as if Clint Eastwood is a poor, naive, inexperienced, gullible innocent who could possibly be duped into doing something he didn't believe in).
... he condemned anti-gay marriage fanatics in a recent, profanity-studded GQ interview ("Don't give me that sanctity crap! Just give everybody the chance to have the life they want")....He told the Times he liked Herman Cain. But:
The only Democrat he can remember voting for is Gray Davis when he was elected governor of California in 1998. Yet Eastwood is also a big admirer of the current governor, Jerry Brown, and what Eastwood likes about Brown is revealing. He sees him as a kindred spirit, a free-thinking libertarian willing to take unpopular or unorthodox positions on key issues. Eastwood says he contributed to Brown’s campaign to establish several charter schools in Oakland when Brown was mayor there, seeing them as an important example of new thinking on education.
"I've always been very liberal when it comes to people thinking for themselves," said Eastwood, who supports gay marriage, abortion rights and environmental protection....
He’s not as bullish on Mitt Romney. As a film icon, Eastwood has been fiercely protective of his image, but he’s not especially enamored by that attitude in a politician. When Eastwood was in Massachusetts in 2002, filming "Mystic River," Romney was running for governor there. "I saw a lot of him and you have to admit -- he looks like a president," Eastwood recalled with a tone that you’d have to describe as being slyly sarcastic. "I mean, if you were casting a movie where you needed someone to play president, you'd definitely pick him."I'm really sorry there isn't a video clip of that.
He would see faces in movies, on TV, in magazines, and in books.Charlie Pierce doesn't gives Paul Ryan credit for much, but he thinks Ryan might conceivably have a soul -- which is more than I'm willing to grant. He compares Ryan to Richard Nixon -- a man who let the fact of his deprived childhood eat away at him for life. Pierce theorizes that Ryan can't bear the thought that, as a youth, he got government benefits and thus didn't live up to his own Randian principles:
He thought that some of these faces might be right for him
And through the years, by keeing an ideal facial structure fixed in his mind
Or somewhere in the back of his mind
That he might, by force of will,
Cause his face to approach those of his ideal....
--Talking Heads
... during the whole time Paul Ryan was on his own path, his own journey, the American journey where he could think for himself, decide for himself, and define happiness for himself, every rough road was made smooth by his reliance on Social Security survivor's benefits that came to his family upon the death of his father.... The assistance that young Paul Ryan got from "the central planners" as he rose from Janesville, through Miami of Ohio, and to a career in which he never has had a job that wasn't inside, or very close to, the national government was not even acknowledged [in his speech last night]. He knows, in his Randian soul, that he once was a moocher, that in many ways he remains a moocher, and perhaps it galls him just a bit. It eats at him, the way Richard Nixon's childhood poverty was wormwood in his soul. That's where the connection lies. Paul Ryan is the newest new Nixon....As for me, I see Ryan as a guy who'd deny his own past even to himself. I think that's what makes him such a brazen liar (and ideal Romney soul mate): he genuinely believes whatever he says, however dishonest.
"Paul Ryan's biggest problem was that he was a young single guy who had lived away from the district," said Lydia Spottswood, the Democrat who ran against him....He won that race handily, by the way.
Mr. Ryan cheerfully pressed on, with the help of his brother Tobin and Tobin's wife, who took leaves from their jobs to assist him. "He needed to create the impression he was deeply embedded in the district," said Ms. Spottswood, who added that Mr. Ryan would often take his sister-in-law and her baby to factories during the early-morning shift changes to campaign. "Lots and lots of people were getting the impression that was his wife and his baby, and this was critical for him," Ms. Spottswood said.
He also made advertisements in which he wore a hard hat, which left voters with "the impression of Paul that he was actively working in the construction trade and had a family and was older than he was," she said.
"It was awesome to watch it," she added. "It was like an acting job."
Cesar Conda, who was the Republican staff director for the Senate Small Business Committee, on which [Senator Robert] Kasten served as the ranking Republican, recalled an earnest young intern carrying the mail between Mr. Kasten's personal office and his committee office.Combine that with his lying and his shape-shifting (remember his recent credulity-straining disavowal of Ayn Rand?) and you've got a guy who's not just the "biggest brown-noser" of his high school class -- he's pathologically dishonest. Even, I bet, in his own thoughts about himself.
"Every chance he got, he'd take the opportunity to pop his head into my office to ask: What's Senator Kasten up to? What did I think about this economic policy or that economic policy? What about supply-side economics?" said Mr. Conda....
While at Empower America, Mr. Ryan did not miss an opportunity to network, [William] Bennett said. Although Mr. Ryan was in the economic section, he went to talk to Mr. Bennett frequently, flattering him, until they became close, a relationship that continues to this day. "I remember he complimented me," Mr. Bennett said, "saying I don’t try to demonize the other side. 'How do you do that?'"
It’s full of lies, but NYT reporters call it terrific. This is how nations fall. RT
— Jamison Foser (@jamisonfoser) August 30, 2012@johnjharwood: Ryan's giving terrific speech.
And the biggest, coldest power play of all in Obamacare came at the expense of the elderly.Which suggests, of course, that Ryan is opposed to the comparable cuts in his own original budget. And he talks as if he really believes he's not itching to gut the Medicare guarantee.
You see, even with all the hidden taxes to pay for the health care takeover, even with new taxes on nearly a million small businesses, the planners in Washington still didn't have enough money. They needed more. They needed hundreds of billions more. So, they just took it all away from Medicare. Seven hundred and sixteen billion dollars, funneled out of Medicare by President Obama. An obligation we have to our parents and grandparents is being sacrificed, all to pay for a new entitlement we didn't even ask for. The greatest threat to Medicare is Obamacare, and we're going to stop it.
[President Obama] created a bipartisan debt commission. They came back with an urgent report. He thanked them, sent them on their way, and then did exactly nothing.Yes, because (for better or worse) you blocked a grand bargain, Paul.
We have responsibilities, one to another -- we do not each face the world alone. And the greatest of all responsibilities, is that of the strong to protect the weak. The truest measure of any society is how it treats those who cannot defend or care for themselves.The man who utters these pretty words is, in fact, a stone-cold Randian. Enough said.
Majority in Poll Say Akin's Remarks Don't Reflect G.O.P.'s ViewsIn fact, only 13% think Akin is representative of his party, while 59% don't (27% aren't sure). The poll results are here.
In the wake of the widespread outrage over a Missouri congressman's remarks about rape and abortion, about 60 percent of Americans do not think his comments reflect the views of most Republicans, according to the latest CBS News poll.
That result includes a majority of women....
Democrats have tried to link Mr. Akin's comments and stance against all abortions to leading Republicans, including Mitt Romney....
I accept the calling of my generation to give our children the America that was given to us, with opportunity for the young and security for the old -- and I know that we are ready.And, well, what do you know: to Politico, Ryan's claim to be a spokesman for his generation isn't an unproven assertion -- it's a fact, as we learn from this story, published to coincide exactly with the release of the speech excerpt:
At 42, Paul Ryan is one of the youngest members of a major party ticket in recent political history.Are Schriver and the other young Republicans quoted in the Politico story genuinely excited about the Ryan pick? Do they really see him as one of their own? Do they honestly think he talks about entitlements in a way their generation understands, and we old codgers just don't get?
That fact isn't lost on the Republican Party's newest generation.
Young politicians and leaders here say Ryan’s nomination as vice president is a boon to the party's hopes of exciting the youth vote won heavily by President Barack Obama in 2008. And far from shying away from discussions about Medicare that Ryan inspires, next generation GOPers say they're ready and excited to debate entitlements.
On its face, the Ryan selection is a boost for Republicans hoping to dig into Democrats' youth vote advantage because he's young and energetic.
"[Ryan] is somebody who's closer in age to me than he is to his opponent, Joe Biden," said College Republicans President Alex Schriver, who said he "could not be happier" about Romney's VP choice....
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
In a lot of ways, Paul Ryan is a bridge, a conduit to the GOP of tomorrow, and at just age 42, he's injected a lot of youthful energy and enthusiasm that's being felt far and wide.Cut (after some footage of Ryan) to an even younger delegate than the ones quoted above.
Overall, though, Christie’s address, which focused largely on his own accomplishments in New Jersey and was light on attacks on President Obama, failed to convey the spirit -- the essential Christie-ness -- that millions have seen in YouTube videos of the New Jersey governor in action. Watching Christie's speech was a reminder that most, if not all, of the great Chris Christie moments we've seen have been spontaneous encounters between Christie and others, usually hostile encounters in which Christie flamboyantly puts down some jerk who was unwise enough to take him on. What Christie is not as famous for is the big set-piece speech, and that was his task Tuesday night in Tampa.Shorter Byron York:
Chris Christie's speech failed last night because he wasn't enough of a dick. It's a shame he squandered this opportunity to show a prime-time national-TV audience the full flower of his dickishness.
"I love Chris Christie," she told Whispers from the convention floor, where she arrived just as the governor took the stage. "But I could have seen a little more of an attack. Which speaker attacks Obama? I thought that was going to happen with him."And National Review's Robert Costa:
He may be a YouTube sensation, best known for arguing with lefty hecklers, but Governor Chris Christie’s keynote speech late Tuesday was a temperate oration, forceful yet muted....But Monica Crowley at FoxNews.com is describing this as a feature not a bug:
Christie's approach was a marked departure from previous Republican keynote addresses, which have often featured a rising politician willing to blast the Democratic nominee.
Nobody last night launched direct attacks on President Obama. Nobody had to: his catastrophic record speaks for itself. Everybody knows how bad he and his policies truly are.This Crowley piece was the lead link at Fox Nation for a while this morning, so this may be a message the right and the GOP are planning to emphasize in the weeks to come: We're the nice guys; Obama and his Chicago thugs are the trash-talking haters. (Good luck with that....)
The Republicans in Tampa instead focused on elevating the discourse: pointing out the current president's failures while talking about how to get us out of the deep ditch he's dug for the nation. Instead of falling for the temptation (and the bait laid by the Democrats) to fight from a negative premise and with negative attacks, the GOP speakers fought from the high ground. They are fighting to lead, yes. But they are fighting to lead with meaning -- the positive meaning of an American restoration.
Two people were removed from the Republican National Convention Tuesday after they threw nuts at an African-American CNN camera operator and said, "This is how we feed animals."But I predict that if they ever are identified, they're going to insist that they threw nuts at her and referred to her as an "animal" not because she was black, but because she works for CNN.
CNN downplays racist acts by RNC attendees: andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/08/why-cn…. But they'll be all over any Dem who boos Dolan at DNC.
— Dan Savage (@fakedansavage) August 29, 2012#dontboodolan
In his keynote address on Tuesday, he is set to assail President Obama's economic record to help drive home the Republican theme of the day, "We Built It." It is a dig at Mr. Obama's recent assertion that businesses do not succeed alone....And, to this end, what is Mr. Christie likely to talk about?
So when he takes the stage on Tuesday night, his history suggests that he will start, as he did with his questioner last week, with the story of his father, who grew up poor in Newark and, after getting out of the Army, took a job at a Breyers plant, where the man next to him urged him to do something better for himself. He went to Rutgers University at night on the G.I. Bill and became the first person in his family to get a college degree.(Emphasis added.)
Buried deep in the convention schedule released Monday is a vague reference to a mystery speaker scheduled for the event’s final evening. “To Be Announced” has a prime speaking slot late in the Thursday program.A survey follows asking for a vote on several possibilities: Zell Miller, Ted Nugent, David Petraeus, Nancy Reagan, Chesley Sullenberger, Sarah Palin.
...The only other speakers to follow “To Be Announced” will be Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Mr. Romney himself, suggesting that the unnamed guest may appear during the 10 p.m. hour when the networks all will be broadcasting the convention.
... The line-up features a long list of governors and senators, including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio. Former presidential candidates Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich are on the agenda, as are former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Former Vice President Dick Cheney and former President George W. Bush have said they won't be attending, but a video from Mr. Bush is on Wednesday's program.
So who’s left? Stay tuned....
The more you think about the idea, the more it makes sense -- whatever controversy and intense reactions Sarah Palin may bring to whatever she does, if there is one thing we know she does exceptionally well, it is give convention speeches! This wouldn't mean turning her into an official Romney surrogate or putting her in a Romney cabinet or anything like that -- just giving one of the Republican figures most beloved by the grassroots -- or at least a large and vocal segment of the grassroots -- a chance to fire up the base and discuss why it is so important that everyone pull out all the stops for Romney.If God existed, She wouldn't love me enough to do this. Seriously -- on the last night of prime time, you're going to utterly destroy any good feeling you've engendered with swing voters by putting up a Sarah Palin speech?
... Nick Schultz came up with the only idea that could excite the crowd even more: "Hologram Reagan a la Tupac?"Now, that sounds utterly plausible, coming from these folks.
(If you don't understand the reference, the deceased rapper appeared to "perform" at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts festival through the use of a hologram. Details here.)
... Mitt Romney was born on March 12, 1947, in Ohio, Florida, Michigan, Virginia and several other swing states. He emerged, hair first, believing in America, and especially its national parks. He was given the name Mitt, after the Roman god of mutual funds, and launched into the world with the lofty expectation that he would someday become the Arrow shirt man.The column goes on and on in this vein. It's gentle. None of Brooks's jokes will really leave a mark -- what stings is the fact that the column exists at all. What Brooks seems to be saying to Romney is For crissakes, lighten up! Have a sense of humor about yourself! Tell some jokes at your own expense! Otherwise, you're going to lose -- we're going to lose! That's what motivates Brooks to use liberal and Democratic punch lines against Romney.
Romney was a precocious and gifted child. He uttered his first words ("I like to fire people") at age 14 months, made his first gaffe at 15 months and purchased his first nursery school at 24 months. The school, highly leveraged, went under, but Romney made 24 million Jujubes on the deal....
Romney people upset at me!Of course I want him to win, save us from socialism, etc but should listen to good advice and get stuck in!
— Rupert Murdoch(@rupertmurdoch) July 2, 2012
Mr. Murdoch has never been particularly impressed with Mr. Romney, friends and associates of both men say. The two times Mr. Romney visited the editorial board of The Journal, Mr. Murdoch did not work very hard to conceal his lack of excitement. "There was zero enthusiasm, no engagement," said one Journal staff member who was at the most recent meeting in December....Both Murdoch and Brooks see Romney as a guy who, when you mock or humiliate him, just takes it -- or modifies his behavior in a desperate attempt to please you. That's the guy they want to be our next president? Well, yeah, it is -- they think he can be pushed around (gosh, I wonder what gave them that idea) and they're the guys to do it.
Along with Roger Ailes, chairman of Fox News, Mr. Murdoch urged Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey to run. Both men admire Mr. Christie's gusto and toughness -- a sharp edge they have themselves. "He really wanted Christie," said one of Mr. Murdoch's friends. Mr. Ailes, a former campaign strategist for Richard M. Nixon and Ronald Reagan, shares Mr. Murdoch's disdain of how the Romney campaign is being run, telling people privately that it is too soft.
And you know what, have we really gotten to the point where we can't have any levity at all in politics? I mean, we have gotten to a place in politics that is ridiculous, and no one can say anything that is remotely humorous.Matthews should have asked: So if Barack Obama makes a joke about Mormon underwear, you're just going to shrug it off? You're going to say it's just a joke and it's OK, and you're going to go after anyone in your party who's outraged?
PRIEBUS: But I think Obama's policies have created a sense that, for whatever reason, he's looking to guidance -- as far as health care is concerned, as far as our spending is concerned, as far as the stimulus packages are concerned, he's looking to Europe for guidance.Matthews lost it there. I don't blame him. He asked whether every president who ever followed Keynesianism was European, or every president (both Roosevelts, Truman) who ever wanted universal health coverage was European.
Mitt Romney conceded President Barack Obama has succeeded in making him a less likable person, but he offered a defiant retort to those hoping he will open up this week: "I am who I am."(Yup -- it's all Barack Obama's fault!)
Romney quoted that Popeye line three times in a 30-minute interview with POLITICO about his leadership style and philosophy, swatting away advice from Republicans to focus on connecting with voters in a more emotional, human way at this convention....Yeah -- the popular kids get away with everything!
"I know there are some people who do a very good job acting and pretend they're something they're not," Romney said. "You get what you see. I am who I am."
"I don't think everybody likes me," Romney said. "I don't believe that, by any means. But I do believe that people of this country are looking for someone who can get the country growing again with more jobs and more take-home pay, and I think they realize this president had four years to do that. ... He got every piece of legislation he wanted passed, and it didn't work. I think they want someone who has a different record, and I do."That's right -- Obama faced absolutely no resistance from Congress! Gitmo is closed, the Bush tax cuts are history, the DREAM Act is law, cap-and-trade is in place -- and he gets away with asking for more because he's a BMOC, unlike Romney!
... during the interview, Romney made plain he is tired of the criticism that he is stiff, distant or not broadly liked by voters.This guy is more Nixonian than Nixon. Nixon didn't tell interviewers he was a quivering mass of resentments and grudges -- we had to learn that from journalists and historians. Romney just flat-out admits it. No wonder he's losing!
Again and again, he argued that he was likable enough to bring together people of divergent views to rescue the Olympics, pioneer profit-making ideas at Bain, govern a Democratic state and even to win over peers in school.
"I was voted the president of my fraternity," he said. "They don't call them fraternities at Brigham Young University. They're called Service Clubs. It was the Cougar Club. But you don't get voted to be head of your group if you don't get along with people, if you don't connect with people."
The issue seems close to the surface for Romney....
A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows Romney at 47 percent among registered voters and Obama at 46 percent....And that's before any convention bounce.
Mr. Romney's chances hinge to a large degree on running up his advantage among white voters in swing states who show deep strains of opposition to Mr. Obama [because he's black] but do not yet trust Mr. Romney to look out for their interests, Republican strategists say.Dennis writes:
Many of those voters are economically disaffected, and the Romney campaign has been trying to reach them with appeals built around an assertion that Mr. Obama is making it easier for welfare recipients to avoid work. The Romney campaign is airing an advertisement falsely charging that Mr. Obama has "quietly announced" plans to eliminate work and job training requirements for welfare beneficiaries, a message Mr. Romney's aides said resonates with working-class voters who see government as doing nothing for them.
The moves reflect a campaign infused with a sharper edge and overtones of class and race. On Friday, Mr. Romney said at a rally that no one had ever had to ask him about his birth certificate, and Mr. Ryan invoked his Catholicism and love of hunting. Democrats angrily said Mr. Romney's remark associated him with the fringe "birther" camp seeking falsely to portray Mr. Obama as not American.
The GOP convention is going to be three days of code-talking and race baiting dog-whistles. Any lie will be fine if it promotes white fear. And the lies that test best to cause white voters to vote based on race will be repeated over and over and over again by team wingnut.Similarly, BooMan writes:
So, the New York Times is basically reporting that Team Romney has concluded that the only way to get white working class folks to overlook their candidates' policies, religion, and elitism is to make racist attacks against the president.I see the point. But I think there's more going on than an appeal to racism.
"Why, I can't even pronounce his name."I got that from a Washington Post story, which also quotes Bush himself during that campaign:
George H.W. Bush, running that year, described his rival as "guided more by abstract theories and grids and graphs and computer printouts and the history of Swedish social planning."The story was written in 2004, and also described how a very different Massachusetts Democrat was portrayed as not a real American:
There has been an echo of this kind of down-home invective in the controversy over [John] Kerry's statement that foreign leaders secretly back his candidacy. Pressed last Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" on where and when the leaders told him this, Kerry declined to say, but he noted: "You can go to New York City and you can be in a restaurant and you can meet a foreign leader."If you've got a guy like Bill Clinton, you go the other way: you call him white trash (even if you're in the habit of denouncing Democrats for holding rural whites in contempt) and you denounce him for sexual libertinism (even if your party embraces the likes of Ted Nugent and Kid Rock).
This prompted House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) on Monday to sneer: "I don't know where John Kerry eats, or what restaurants he attends in New York City. But I tell you, at the Taste of Texas restaurant -- it's this great steakhouse in Houston, Texas -- the only foreign leader you meet there is called filet mignon."
People routinely buy into outlandish claims that calm particular anxieties, fill given needs or affirm preferred worldviews.... someone like Todd Akin, the antihero of last week's news, illustrates it to a T. The notion that a raped woman can miraculously foil and neutralize sperm is a good 10 times crazier than anything in "Compliance," but it dovetails beautifully with his obvious wish -- and the wishes of like-minded extremists -- for an abortion prohibition with no exceptions. So he embraces it.Excuse me -- who among liberals believes without a shadow of a doubt that Harry Reid is telling the truth regarding Mitt Romney's taxes? Who sees him as an authority one dare not question?
People also routinely elect trust over skepticism because it's easier, more convenient. Saddam Hussein is stockpiling weapons of mass destruction; the climate isn't changing; Barack Obama's birth certificate is forged; Mitt Romney didn't pay taxes for 10 years. To varying degrees, all of these were or are articles of faith, unverifiable or eventually knocked down. People nonetheless accepted them because the alternative meant confronting outright mendacity from otherwise respected authorities, trading the calm of certainty for the disquiet of doubt, or potentially hunkering down to the hard work of muddling through the elusive truth of things. Better simply to be told what's what.
Nine passers-by were also wounded, and it seems almost certain that some or all were accidentally hit by the police. This isn't surprising; it's only in movies that people are good shots during a violent encounter. In 2008, Al Baker reported in The Times that the accuracy rate for New York City officers firing in the line of duty was 34 percent.But, of course, when I was looking at right-wing comments sections and message boards yesterday after the shooting, quite a few folks were having that precise fantasy. And they were having it not in spite of the fact that trained police officers have trouble with accuracy in situations like this, but because the cops' shots missed the mark.
And these are people trained for this kind of crisis. The moral is that if a lunatic starts shooting, you will not be made safer if your fellow average citizens are carrying concealed weapons.
This is not the accepted wisdom in many parts of the country. (Certainly not in Congress, where safety was cited as a rationale for letting vacationers take loaded pistols into federal parks.) Shortly after the mass murder at the movie theater in Colorado, I was waiting for a plane at a tiny airport in North Dakota, listening to a group of oil rig workers discuss how many lives would have been saved if only the other theater patrons had been armed. "They could have nipped it in the bud," one man told another confidently.
People, try to imagine what would have happened if, instead of diving for the floor, a bunch of those moviegoers had stood up and started shooting into the dark. Or ask a cop.
We are never going to have a sane national policy on guns until the gun advocates give up on the fantasy that the best protection against armed psychopaths bent on random violence is regular people with loaded pistols on their belts.
ARTICLE OF THE DAY -- JON WARD in Huffington magazine (available today on iPad; article posts Monday), "The One-Termer? Thinking Bold Thoughts With Team Romney": "Matt Rhoades is guarded and intense ... [W]hen I met him in mid-July, in a bohemian coffee shop in Boston's North End, the 37-year-old manager of Mitt Romney's campaign was hesitant to speculate about what the Republican candidate would do as president, and how. ... But when I asked Rhoades ... what Romney might do with the budget and entitlement reform plans Ryan had already outlined, Rhoades' eyes lit up. He gave me a name: James Polk. ... Rhoades and the rest of the members of Romney's inner circle think a Romney presidency could look much like the White House tenure of the 11th U.S. president.Oh, please, Mitt -- get some original material, won't you?
"Polk, who served from 1845 to 1849, presided over the expansion of the U.S. into a coast-to-coast nation, annexing Texas and winning the Mexican-American war for territories that also included New Mexico and California. He reduced trade barriers and strengthened the Treasury system. And he was a one-term president. Polk is an allegory for Rhoades: He did great things, and then exited the scene, and few remember him. That, Rhoades suggested, could be Romney's legacy as well. ... Multiple senior Romney advisers assured me that they had had conversations with the candidate in which he conveyed a depth of conviction about the need to try to enact something like Ryan's controversial budget and entitlement reforms. Romney, they said, was willing to count the cost politically in order to achieve it."
Romald Reagan has toyed with a dramatic response to the political hazard of his age: a pledge to serve only one term if elected president....Houston Chronicle, February 3, 1995:
Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole says that in formally declaring his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination, he may announce he will seek only one term.John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, Game Change:
"I haven't ruled that out," Dole told interviewer David Frost in a report to be broadcast on public television Friday night.The move would give the 1996 race an unconventional and possibly controversial twist. Not since the 19th century has a candidate forsworn interest in a second term before being elected to his first, a presidential scholar said. James K. Polk (1845-49) and Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-81) promised to serve only one term and did....
The idea was as simple as it was radical: a one-term pledge. McCain would promise that if he won the White House, he would spend four years in residence and then step down. The pledge would embody the theme that Reagan cared only about solving the country's problems and not about indulging his ambition. It would say that he was going to tackle the hardest issues -- Iraq, immigration, ethics, entitlements, runaway spending -- with no regard for reelection.Mitt? We've been there. We've done that. Try again.
...The announcement speech wasd written. The press release was drafted. All systems were go....
At a campaign stop in his home state of Michigan Friday, Mitt Romney made a joke referencing the continued doubts about President Obama's birth certificate raised by Romney supporters like Donald Trump.
"I love being home, in this place where Ann and I were raised, where but the both of us were born," Romney said after introducing his wife, fellow Michigan native Ann. "No one's ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place where we were born and raised."
... here is Romney, I'm convinced, test-driving something. I think this line is a test drive.I think Romney and Ryan are going to go for everything Sarah Palin wanted the McCain campaign to focus on in '08 -- Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, the whole nine yards, and not just at the convention, but through the fall. Racial stuff? Sure, but not just -- also allegations of anti-Americanism, Tony Rezko, you name it. It's pathetic, but that's what seems like the right strategy in the wingnut bubble. (And Romney still thinks he's undergoing initiation into the wingnut Crips, so he seems to think he has to do this.)
... So Ryan's out there talking about Obama and his bitter clinger quote. And Romney gets up to the microphone. It's his turn to speak, and he test-drives that line about nobody's ever had to ask to see his birth certificate.
I'm going to tell you what. You know, I'm gonna make a prediction for you. It's going to be fascinating to watch. The Obama-bashing at the Republican convention is going to be delicious. It's going to be five-star-restaurant type stuff. I mean, you're going to love it. You are going to eat it up, all the Obama-bashing.
A recently fired store worker shot a former colleague to death and then randomly started shooting others near the Empire State Building before he was shot by police officers, law enforcement officials said.The first reaction of a couple of Gateway Pundit's commenters is snark:
Eight other people were struck by bullets when the shooting started at about 9 a.m. on the Fifth Avenue side of the building but those injuries are not believed to be life threatening, police said....
He’s in trouble now..NY is a gun free zone..right Bloomberg?Meanwhile, the Freepers are linking this:
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This has to be a mistake. Guns are not allowed in NYC. Obviously the criminal element doesn't know this or else they would leave their guns at home.
Empire State Building Shooting Is Proof that Gun Control Doesn't WorkYeah, because that huge Berlin Wall around the five boroughs should have kept illegal guns out, but somehow it didn't. Silly liberals!
The shootings around the Empire State Building today are further proof that gun control simply doesn't work -- except to keep guns out of the hands of those who might want to legally defend themselves.
New York City is a de facto "Gun Free Zone." Thus, by liberal logic, there should be zero gun crime. How, then, is it possible that firearms account for about 60% of all murders in New York? By liberal logic, murderers in New York aren't able to own guns. See how absurd the logic of the gun grabbers is? ...
You didn't build it -- I built it! Or at least the damn government didn't build it!Verbatim Mitt Romney, in a dull rehash of his economic philosophy in The Wall Street Journal titled "What I Learned at Bain Capital":
A broad message emerges from my Bain Capital days: A good idea is not enough for a business to succeed. It requires a talented team, a good business plan and capital to execute it. That was true of companies we helped start, like Staples and the Bright Horizons child-care provider, and several of the struggling companies we helped turn around, like the Brookstone retailer and the contact-lens maker Wesley Jessen....See? You didn't build it -- Mitt Romney did! So when Barack Obama says successful people don't become successful on your own, he's wrong -- er, he's right! No, wait...
My business experience confirmed my belief in empowering people. For example, at Bain Capital we bought Accuride, a company that made truck rims and wheels, because we saw untapped potential there. We instituted performance bonuses for the management team, which had a dramatic impact. The managers made the plants more productive, and the company started growing, adding 300 jobs while Bain was involved.
My presidency would make it easier for entrepreneurs and small businesses to get the investment dollars they need to grow, by reducing and simplifying taxes; replacing Obamacare with real health-care reform that contains costs and improves care; and by stemming the flood of new regulations that are tying small businesses in knots.Government sucks! And so...
We are the most innovative, entrepreneurial nation in the world. To maintain that lead, we must give people the skills to succeed. My plan for a stronger middle class includes policies to give every family access to great schools and quality teachers, to improve access to higher education, and to attract and retain the best talent from around the world.Which has nothing whatsoever to do with the evil government! Entrepreneurs still build their businesses completely on their own -- except when Mitt Romney does it for them! Or good schools do! Um...
The second lesson is that we must have a level playing field in international trade. As president, I will challenge unfair trade practices that are harming American workers.Which also has nothing whatsoever to do with government!
Running a business also brings lessons in tackling challenges. I was on the board of a medical diagnostic-laboratory company, Damon, when a competitor announced that it had settled with the government over a charge of fraudulent Medicare billing. I and fellow Damon outside board members joined together and immediately hired an independent law firm to examine Damon's own practices.Oh, and government is evil! Even the part of government that unearthed the original fraud and put a stop to it!
The investigation revealed a need to make some changes, which we did. The company, along with several other clinical-laboratory companies, ended up being fined for billing practices. And a Damon manager who was responsible for the fraud went to jail. The experience taught me that when you see a problem, run toward it or it will only get worse.
I am committed to capping federal spending below 20% of GDP and reducing nondefense discretionary spending by 5%.Because fraud at Damon's competitor was really, really bad! Fraud at Damon was really, really bad! So we wouldn't want the government to have the resources it needs to investigate and prosecute fraud, would we?
Mitt Romney says in a new interview that one of the reasons he’s distressed about disclosing his tax returns is that everyone sees how much money he and his wife, Ann, have donated to the LDS Church, and that’s a number he wants to keep private.I said a couple of days ago that I thought perhaps the Republicans were pivoting to a campaign that places a new emphasis on claims of religious persecution -- see Paul Ryan, a couple of days ago, boasting of being a Catholic who proudly clings to guns and religion; see the plans for a closing prayer by the highest-profile religious leader to pray at a political convention in years, cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York (a master at claiming persecution); and see the recent "war on religion" ad:
"Our church doesn’t publish how much people have given," Romney tells Parade magazine in an edition due out Sunday. "This is done entirely privately. One of the downsides of releasing one’s financial information is that this is now all public, but we had never intended our contributions to be known. It’s a very personal thing between ourselves and our commitment to our God and to our church." ...