Thursday, November 08, 2012
Schadenfreude part II
Holly Robichaud (Boston Herald Columnist), the very model of restrain and decorum in defeat.
The Fall of Mitt Romney....
Y'know, I took no pleasure in watching Willard Mitt Romney's electoral meltdown and subsequent defeat Tuesday night.
He has campaigned nigh incessantly for an unprecedented six years straight for the US Presidency and has just exactly nothing to show for it.
A wearisome exercise that helped morph a twitchy ass-kissing amateur into an uninteresting hack when the big hammer finally fell at 11:18PM EST, 11-6-2012.
In the end, Willard stopped simply being entertaining, his gaffes dried up at long last and he managed on nothing more than smarm, mendacity and sheer lust for power to make this a competitive race in the final weeks.
For a while there this summer, Mitt had all the makings of another Sarah Palin he literally said nothing sensible for four months straight, but late in the game he found his opportunity and ran with it right off a cliff.
I suppose there is something admirable in Romney's desire to go down with all flags flying or at least he wanted to make it look like all that money he collected from the overclass was going into a real fight to the finish.
In truth, this whole election heralds the Twilight of the MBAs.
Ah yes that strange business school mentality that asserts that the skills necessary to run a tuna cannery, high tech company or a great republic into the ground, are entirely transferable based on one's MBA from an A-List school.
This notion has been the absolute downfall of the US Private Sector during this current recession and it got a rude awakening on Tuesday.
You just can't treat the US Presidency as a natural corporate promotion...Romney tried it free and clear in a National Election and it did not work.
And when you partner all this up with Romney's almighty intellectual disconnect from the great issues of the day and his rhetorical limitations you get a recipe for disaster.
You could tell even as the race tightened that Mitt knew something was wrong, why else did he suddenly defect to the classic Massachusetts GOP Gubernatorial playbook in the final weeks?
Run to the center, play to the independents, deflect the oppositions ground game via commercials and try to rise above it all.
Put it another way Romney tried to address accusations that he changed his mind a lot by...changing his mind.
In the end none of it was enough, the coalition he sought to create was too narrow, too backwards, too bent on punishing others with a tendency to...vote, and for a man who trumpeted his independence, Romney was pretty clearly the complete captive of the GOP's tea partei base even if there might have been mutual contempt going back and forth on both sides.
But its over now, Romney's twelve years at the top of US Politics has come to a tedious and slightly tawdry close.
This blog started with him as Governor in 2003 at the start of his desperate run for ever high office, Humble Elias has been at a remove from Romney nigh these twenty two years but always an interested observer of his many many political personas.
He had none of Nixon's dark charm or Reagan's loopiness or the Bush Family's crime family patina...Nope in the end Romney was just a hapless too ambitious MBA who wanted to outdo his Dad in the worst possible way, and so he did.
He has campaigned nigh incessantly for an unprecedented six years straight for the US Presidency and has just exactly nothing to show for it.
A wearisome exercise that helped morph a twitchy ass-kissing amateur into an uninteresting hack when the big hammer finally fell at 11:18PM EST, 11-6-2012.
In the end, Willard stopped simply being entertaining, his gaffes dried up at long last and he managed on nothing more than smarm, mendacity and sheer lust for power to make this a competitive race in the final weeks.
For a while there this summer, Mitt had all the makings of another Sarah Palin he literally said nothing sensible for four months straight, but late in the game he found his opportunity and ran with it right off a cliff.
I suppose there is something admirable in Romney's desire to go down with all flags flying or at least he wanted to make it look like all that money he collected from the overclass was going into a real fight to the finish.
In truth, this whole election heralds the Twilight of the MBAs.
Ah yes that strange business school mentality that asserts that the skills necessary to run a tuna cannery, high tech company or a great republic into the ground, are entirely transferable based on one's MBA from an A-List school.
This notion has been the absolute downfall of the US Private Sector during this current recession and it got a rude awakening on Tuesday.
You just can't treat the US Presidency as a natural corporate promotion...Romney tried it free and clear in a National Election and it did not work.
And when you partner all this up with Romney's almighty intellectual disconnect from the great issues of the day and his rhetorical limitations you get a recipe for disaster.
You could tell even as the race tightened that Mitt knew something was wrong, why else did he suddenly defect to the classic Massachusetts GOP Gubernatorial playbook in the final weeks?
Run to the center, play to the independents, deflect the oppositions ground game via commercials and try to rise above it all.
Put it another way Romney tried to address accusations that he changed his mind a lot by...changing his mind.
In the end none of it was enough, the coalition he sought to create was too narrow, too backwards, too bent on punishing others with a tendency to...vote, and for a man who trumpeted his independence, Romney was pretty clearly the complete captive of the GOP's tea partei base even if there might have been mutual contempt going back and forth on both sides.
But its over now, Romney's twelve years at the top of US Politics has come to a tedious and slightly tawdry close.
This blog started with him as Governor in 2003 at the start of his desperate run for ever high office, Humble Elias has been at a remove from Romney nigh these twenty two years but always an interested observer of his many many political personas.
He had none of Nixon's dark charm or Reagan's loopiness or the Bush Family's crime family patina...Nope in the end Romney was just a hapless too ambitious MBA who wanted to outdo his Dad in the worst possible way, and so he did.
Wednesday, November 07, 2012
Schadenfreude (Part I)
Howie Carr is just a delight, insolent, insufferable and arrogant when the GOP wins, he turns into a craven sniveling whiny beeyotch when they lose.
So of course, today's column is a delicious primal scream of infantile despair over Scott Brown's defeat....which included this gem:
"Despite his upbeat concession, Brown hated losing to the fake indian".
Wow read minds much Howie?
Anyway it can't be any more painful than having a fake soldier as our uniform loving Junior Senator for two long years....
***
Meanwhile over in today's Globe Jeff Jacoby is bitching and moaning about the divisive smear campaign that Obama unleashed on poor unsuspecting Mitt Romney.
Well...Gee Jeff having your patriotism and very American Birthright incessantly questioned and derided is bound to make a reelection bound US President mighty quick on the draw.
Besides where was all this bleeding heart concern over nasty campaign tactics when the "Swift Boat Liars"were burning up the news cycle in 2004?
Oh and those cute little band aids embossed with the Purple Heart that got passed around at the GOP convention...a very crude dig at John Kerry's war injuries and all passed over by Jeff Jacoby with a prim sacerdotal silence.
Ah but this is Jeff we are talking about, he wants to blast his opponents, righteously, all he ever seems to do is set fire to himself....
So of course, today's column is a delicious primal scream of infantile despair over Scott Brown's defeat....which included this gem:
"Despite his upbeat concession, Brown hated losing to the fake indian".
Wow read minds much Howie?
Anyway it can't be any more painful than having a fake soldier as our uniform loving Junior Senator for two long years....
***
Meanwhile over in today's Globe Jeff Jacoby is bitching and moaning about the divisive smear campaign that Obama unleashed on poor unsuspecting Mitt Romney.
Well...Gee Jeff having your patriotism and very American Birthright incessantly questioned and derided is bound to make a reelection bound US President mighty quick on the draw.
Besides where was all this bleeding heart concern over nasty campaign tactics when the "Swift Boat Liars"were burning up the news cycle in 2004?
Oh and those cute little band aids embossed with the Purple Heart that got passed around at the GOP convention...a very crude dig at John Kerry's war injuries and all passed over by Jeff Jacoby with a prim sacerdotal silence.
Ah but this is Jeff we are talking about, he wants to blast his opponents, righteously, all he ever seems to do is set fire to himself....
Scott Brown, Premature Elation...
Well, Former State Senator Scott Brown's two year long victory lap ended abruptly last night as democrat Elizabeth Warren (hereafter known as the Little Professor from Oklahoma) wound up & decked his bony ass.
Scott will have hopefully have made some lucrative contacts and dug up some good lobbying gigs to supplement his muscular National Guard pension, cuz the gravy train grinds to a halt in two short months.
Scottie we hardly knew ye....
Ghod Howie Carr must be having a fugue right now....
***
Well what can I say, Brown "went negative" over the whole indian ancestry issue and kept it up even as the whole argument got embarrassing and lame.
Worse all the good will he built up with independent women last summer got vaporized by the end of September, the man looked and sounded like the worst sort of entitled bully.
His base though must have loved it, certainly the hapless lout who screamed at my Warren for Senate" sign, "Liar Liar Pants on Fire" was heavily invested in that narrative.
And there is a lesson there, one thing Brown was good at was getting borderline Falangists to vote, contribute and work for him even as he posed as a sort of Indian-loathing Northeastern Moderate Republican. But yez gotta dance with them what brung yuh and so their issues in some way became his issues and off a cliff he drove in campaign SUV.
It didn't help much that he amassed no record of note his two year Senatorial Career nor did it do him much good to virtually put himself up for public auction every time some issue of transcendent significance came before the US Senate.
Still, his political career is hardly over, his wife is still comely, with Tisei's defeat down on the South Shore last night he becomes the highest ranking GOP officeholder with worthwhile name recognition & a definite constituency as well. And he has good fundraising ability as well...will it be Governor or Senator? That depends on these rumors of John Kerry's move to Foggy Bottom (something I devoutly hope does NOT happen)...but then again a serious Charlie Baker v. Scott Brown gubernatorial primary could be a fun damage fest to be sure.
Like Dr. Fu Manchu, likely we will hear from Scott Again.
Meanwhile congrats to the Little Professor from Oklahoma, she done blew a hole thru the glass ceiling in state politics, what Healey, Coakley, Swift & O'Brien could not do, Warren pulled off with aplomb.
This is a good thing for both democrats and republicans an important needless and sexist barrier has at last been breeched.
Scott will have hopefully have made some lucrative contacts and dug up some good lobbying gigs to supplement his muscular National Guard pension, cuz the gravy train grinds to a halt in two short months.
Scottie we hardly knew ye....
Ghod Howie Carr must be having a fugue right now....
***
Well what can I say, Brown "went negative" over the whole indian ancestry issue and kept it up even as the whole argument got embarrassing and lame.
Worse all the good will he built up with independent women last summer got vaporized by the end of September, the man looked and sounded like the worst sort of entitled bully.
His base though must have loved it, certainly the hapless lout who screamed at my Warren for Senate" sign, "Liar Liar Pants on Fire" was heavily invested in that narrative.
And there is a lesson there, one thing Brown was good at was getting borderline Falangists to vote, contribute and work for him even as he posed as a sort of Indian-loathing Northeastern Moderate Republican. But yez gotta dance with them what brung yuh and so their issues in some way became his issues and off a cliff he drove in campaign SUV.
It didn't help much that he amassed no record of note his two year Senatorial Career nor did it do him much good to virtually put himself up for public auction every time some issue of transcendent significance came before the US Senate.
Still, his political career is hardly over, his wife is still comely, with Tisei's defeat down on the South Shore last night he becomes the highest ranking GOP officeholder with worthwhile name recognition & a definite constituency as well. And he has good fundraising ability as well...will it be Governor or Senator? That depends on these rumors of John Kerry's move to Foggy Bottom (something I devoutly hope does NOT happen)...but then again a serious Charlie Baker v. Scott Brown gubernatorial primary could be a fun damage fest to be sure.
Like Dr. Fu Manchu, likely we will hear from Scott Again.
Meanwhile congrats to the Little Professor from Oklahoma, she done blew a hole thru the glass ceiling in state politics, what Healey, Coakley, Swift & O'Brien could not do, Warren pulled off with aplomb.
This is a good thing for both democrats and republicans an important needless and sexist barrier has at last been breeched.
Barack Obama doubles down on the USA...
The test of a great political organization and the coalition it seeks to assemble, is not made in flush times when landslide victories are on offer, it is rather coming thru come hell or high water in a tight race.
And that is what the President did last night, he forged a coalition, built a machine to them all to the polls and ran Mitt Romney right off the board.
Its a classic case, much akin to the democratic victories in 1948, 1960 & even 1976.
So kudos to the President, he never ever flinched, hell his "those not skinning may hold a leg" philosophy even developed good stout coat-tails down ticket, that coalition of his likely elected four democratic senators last night...Including our new Junior Senator from Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren.
But it was Obama's night, he proclaimed, he attacked, he had boundless faith in his organization & coalition, he never backed down on his own record and what the hell, he won.
Object lesson for the democrats of 2016....
And that is what the President did last night, he forged a coalition, built a machine to them all to the polls and ran Mitt Romney right off the board.
Its a classic case, much akin to the democratic victories in 1948, 1960 & even 1976.
So kudos to the President, he never ever flinched, hell his "those not skinning may hold a leg" philosophy even developed good stout coat-tails down ticket, that coalition of his likely elected four democratic senators last night...Including our new Junior Senator from Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren.
But it was Obama's night, he proclaimed, he attacked, he had boundless faith in his organization & coalition, he never backed down on his own record and what the hell, he won.
Object lesson for the democrats of 2016....
Monday, November 05, 2012
A Final Thought:
Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'
Winston Churchill - June 18, 1940
To which Humble Elias adds that the men who got us into this fix, who profited from the subsequent tumult, who were themselves bailed out of their follies at public expense, must not be rewarded for their ineptitude and greed with the highest office in the land.
And so for the Glory of the Commonwealth, for the deliverance of the very Republic itself, get out there and Vote For Obama!
Oh and Bill Weld caught the Amtrak Redeye from NYC
and endorsed Scott Brown down in Quincy Market yesterday.
No doubt afterwards he snuck off to the "Bell in Hand" sat at the end of the bar moodily drank Chivas Regal, played "Under My Thumb" over and over on the Jukebox and stared off into space muttering to himself.
KIDDING
KIDDING
KIDDING!
I KID BECAUSE I LOVE
I LOVE...TO KID!
:D
No doubt afterwards he snuck off to the "Bell in Hand" sat at the end of the bar moodily drank Chivas Regal, played "Under My Thumb" over and over on the Jukebox and stared off into space muttering to himself.
KIDDING
KIDDING
KIDDING!
I KID BECAUSE I LOVE
I LOVE...TO KID!
:D
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