. . . He needs a Persian cat . . .
Keep a safe distance and wait for Newt to publicly self-destruct.
Suddenly, the former Speaker’s whole campaign has snapped into focus for me. “Let’s do this! Poor people can’t work! Citizenship for illegal immigrants! I made $1.8 million from Freddie Mac! Leeeeeroy Giiiiiiingrich! At least I ain’t chicken.”
I’m a Dem, but there’s still a problem for Obama here.
Like in 2008, the party which gets out the vote wins. The so-called moderates are not really up for grabs. And in darn few districts do they control the outcome.
The side which most enthuses their base to actually vote, not just fulminate online, will win. Obama won largely due to a groundswell of voting by groups, such as 20-somethings, who did not traditionally bother to actually, you know, vote.
IF Obama can get those same people out to vote again, he’ll win. If not, he won’t.
One thing you gotta say about the Tea Partiers is that they will in fact vote in Nov. They may have to hold their nose to vote for what they see as a Mormon flipflopping lefty. But they will vote en masse, and they will vote R.
So O’s challenge is to get the left-wing base fired up to vote without awakening 2 right-wing lazies for each left-wing lazy he motivates.
I’m not sure I agree with this. I think the Tea Party is going through exactly the same thing that Obama supporters went through in 2010: “It’s been two years, where are the results? We voted for change! Why haven’t we gotten rid of Obamacare yet? Where are my tax cuts? Why isn’t the economy fixed and the budget balanced yet?!”
I think the odds are that Tea Partiers will be less energized in 2012 than they were in 2010, plus the Tea Party label on a candidate is going to be increasingly seen as a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval for Gridlock and Not Getting Things Done, and will be repellant to independent voters.
The moderates are totally up for grabs. They’re the ones who will decide the election.
Well, maybe. The 2010 election was an anomaly of historic proportions. In every other midterm election, the proportion of voters is cut about in half across the board. In 2010, right-wing conservatives increased participation over 2008, while all other groups dropped 50%.
There’s no possibility of a differential like this happening in 2012. Both bases will turn out. As of today there doesn’t seem to be much indication of highly motivated bases, but the campaign hasn’t started yet. Motivated bases and holding one’s nose are antithetical. You can have one or the other, not both. A party holding its nose doesn’t go the extra mile to get the vote out. If you see Republicans holding their noses and voting for Romney, you are making the statement that the election will not be like either 2008 or 2012.
I still predict a billion dollars worth of promotion and advertising by each side. That will have a huge effect. Remember that a good-sized slice of the electorate doesn’t make up their minds about who to vote for until the last few weeks of the campaign, and many wait until Election Day itself. Those are exactly the people that the advertising is aimed at. And they will decide the election. Not to mention that it doesn’t matter if the bases vote blue in the blue states and red in the red states. Only the few swing states count. And you can’t apply any blanket statements to them.
I agree with this completely, and such voters make me nuts. What do they want that they can’t make up their minds until the very last minute? SNL had a skit about undecided voters at a town hall type debate, and they just had no thoughts, no opinions about anything and believed everything they heard. :eek:
Let Gingrich blow himself up. It’s pretty inevitable.
The right wing in America is not made up of deep thinkers. From their point of view Gingrich has one major advantage…the memory of Saint Ronald. He served in congress throughout the Reagan era, he played an influential role in the Reagan Revolution®, he wrote a reverential book about Reagan. Never having been known for excessive modesty, he is now comparing himselfto both Ronald Reagan and Maggie Thatcher. And of course, he led the charge against Clinton the antichrist. What better man to lead the country out of the darkness of antichrist v.II? Certainly better than some wishy-washy non-christian Morman!
The right wing will not be much bothered by Newt’s moral & ethical lapses…those can be easily explained away. And anyway they only count when when said lapses are by a democrat or a RINO®. Remember, these are the people who are still cursing “those women” for bringing down that good man, Herman Cain. Who still say the godly Sarah was shafted by the liberal media.
Newt Gingrich is a far more credible threat to Obama than Romney, not because he’s smarter or morally superior (he isn’t) but because he has the potential to energize the political right.
SS
Well, to do that, he might have to . . . somehow associate himself with OWS.
Hasn’t Obama already lauded the Occupy movement?
I feel like this attitude is sometimes overstated.
Fair enough I am not a 'Mercan, but most people are at least reasonably reasonable right? Are people really that wedded to what letter is behind the pres? In general I am pretty much a tory but I would get behind Obama against what I have seen of the republican candidates in a heartbeat.
Well some people who voted against Obama for fear that he would be something new and scary might now vote for him realizing he’s just like the rest, and maybe a little less scary than the possibility of a new personality. It’s not so simple as treating it like he’s running for the first time with more negatives. Incumbents have a lot of advantages and while the economy is still awful and Obama has done more harm than good (as any R or D tends to do) I see his odds as being at least 2/3rds for reelection with the most ideal of R nominees (the only one that has a personality and appearance anything like any of the presidents since TV was invented?). Gingrich would have to luck out big somehow to have more than zero chance. (Maybe Obama is seen running back into the white house in women’s undergarments?)
Show up.
With garlic and holy water.
Show up with garlic holy water.
Do not rise to any of the bait Newt will be chumming the debate with. Just give lots of quizzical looks, maybe even say, “There’s so much wrong with what you just said it doesn’t even merit a thoughtful response.”
And most of all, work in his successes, even if it means claiming to have slain the jabberwock before it actually got to the village for all to see, because his 2008 supporters need to be reminded what happens if they don’t vote.
Personally I think Newt is the GOP’s formal admission of defeat in 2012. It’s hard to beat an incumbent, and they don’t have any talent to put forth that can do it easily. May as well throw Newt on the fire.
What a great idea - show up for a debate and then don’t debate. That won’t look like having no substantive response - oh no, not at all.
Also a fine idea - mention how he got the lobbyists out of government, cut the deficit in half, reduced the unemployment rate to under 7%, ended no-bid contracts over $25,000, ended the income tax for seniors making less than $50,000, closed Gitmo, increased the minimum wage, reduced earmarks, etc.
Actually, maybe that is not such a great idea after all. Better to stick to jabberwockies.
Regards,
Shodan
Or he might run on his Obameter Scorecard, it ain’t a bad record for promises-kept, all things considered.
C’mon, substituting outrageous BS accusations for substance has been the hallmark of the reactionaries for at least 20 years now. Going into a public forum with one of that strategy’s paladins is foolhardy to begin with, legitemizing the BS is not a winnable fight.
Hm, I thought I’d said “work in his successes.” You know, repealing don’t ask/don’t tell and letting gays play war; ending torture by US personnel and foreign parties on behalf of the US; expanding housing vouchers program for homeless veterans; expanding loan programs for small businesses; giving tax credits to those who need help to pay health premiums; increasing the Veterans Administration budget to recruit and retain more mental health professionals; End the war in Iraq; “Get” Bin Laden…Hell, he might even be able to get a jab in there about successfully not fucking women who aren’t his wife.
ETA, damn you BrainGlutton, I was gonna pull the entire crib! 
Awesome resource, ain’t it?
Rope a dope.