In the in-between time between sleep and being awake I thought I was hallucinating. Dreaming. Making shit up.
I had left the TV on in the next room so that I could hear just a little bit of a great MSNBC news show called The Last Word, hosted by Lawrence O’Donnell.
Now Laurence is an amazing guy, actually. He worked for Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (one of my all-time favorite Senators) and later for the Senate Finance Committee including during 1986 when they revamped the whole tax code. He was a writer/creator/producer for that wonderful TV show, The West Wing. He understands politics from the inside and from the outside. Lawrence is brilliant and funny and quite often finds interesting quirks in the day’s news.
But what I thought I heard as I drifted between states of consciousness must have been a dream. It couldn’t be true. It just couldn’t be. Then I promptly forgot it, which made me positive that it was just a dream.
Until just now when I bought my lunch and pulled up one of my favorite websites, CrooksandLiars.com to read while I ate. And I realized that my dream had come true.
Shit.
Mitt Romney really did compare cleaning up after Hurricane Sandy to cleaning the field up after a high school football game.
[Lawrence:] And to buff his own image as a disaster-relief specialist, Romney compared the Sandy relief effort to … his experience cleaning up the field after a high-school football game. Seriously.
[Mitt:] I remember once we had a football field at my high school. The field was covered with rubbish and paper goods from people who’d had a big celebration there at the game. And there was a group of us there assigned to clean it up. And I thought, ‘how are we going to clean up all the mess on this football field?’ There were just a few of us. And the person responsible for organizing the effort said, ‘Just line up along the yard lines. You go between the goal line and the 10-yard line, and the next person between the 10 and 20, and just walk down and do your lane. And if everybody cleans their lanes, we’ll get it done.’ And so today, we’re cleaning one lane if you will.
You’ll have to click on the CrooksandLiars post above for the video. I can’t embed.
Somewhere, deep down inside of me, I thought that perhaps I was wrong about Mitt being an oblivious heartless bastard who believes, along with Annie-poo, that he has suffered. You remember how bad it was for him and Ann while in college and law/business school because he had to sell some of his stock portfolio and eat tuna while living in a basement apartment. Perhaps I was missing something in his personality. Perhaps he isn’t really such a dick.
But no. I was wrong in being charitable to Mitt. And (sadly if there is any chance at all of his being elected) I was right – he really is a dick.
Excuse me now. I have to go find a brick wall to slam my head against.
Elections Matter — Please don’t let this guy get into the White House without a tour guide.
FiftyFourandAHalf 
I agree with you about Lawrence O’Donnell. I’ve watched his video about Malawi seven or eight times, and am always moved by the situation there, as well as O’Donnell’s obviously heartfelt compassion. Romney is probably a decent person and someone who’s good to his family and friends, but I have to agree with your last line. Memories of George W. Bush are still too fresh.
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I have been heaving sigh after sigh of relief since election day. Especially after Romney’s “Gifts” call. We dodged a bullet that day.
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Wow. Such compassion. You can tell he’s willing to do what it takes to recover from this disaster, even if it takes all afternoon.
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Thanks Laura. I was looking for some reason to snort my morning coffee today and you gave it to me!
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as the election draws near, i implore everyone to stop worrying about the chief sock-puppet – that’s not where the real damage is done (and your vote is an illusion anyway). Please focus on the House/Senate races. This is where your vote makes a direct impact and these are the people responsible for 90% of the chaos – get rid of the people who live by earmarks and whose voting record doesn’t reflect your own interests. Yes, it will take some work on your part – please don’t rely on the media in any shape or form. it’s all spin.
Elyse is going to pay me to leave her blog alone…i feel it coming…:>)
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I agree that the down-ticket elections are vitally important. We specifically need to get rid of the Tea Party. But folks start in elective office at the state legislature and then move up. The entire VA legislature for example is certifiable. Vote them OUT!
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This is a frustration – what to do when they are all nimrods…
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Nah, only the GOP (and of them, particularly the Tea Partiers)
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Trying to send you a link to a spot on the Cobert Report. I’ll try it this way:
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/420666/october-31-2012/hurricane-sandy—election-day
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That was great — thanks, I hadn’t seen it.
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If I don’t laugh, I’m gonna cry…
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take a look at this…
The Colbert Report Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive
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Romney is shameless. He’s a man totally lacking in empathy – a sociopath – so, when he tries to empathize, he comes up with these absolutely ridiculous comments. A few more days, just a few more days, and we’ll be rid of this clown.
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Please, oh, please, oh please …
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He sure must like shoe leather….cuz he puts his foot in his mouth quite often.
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Apparently, for some folks it is delicious!
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Pingback: And Now We Hear From the Other Side (AKA: The Stupid, Insensitive Side) « The Meandering Matriarch
Thanks, M&M!
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Well tonight Ed played a video of Norquist that explains a great deal about why Myth Robme is their guy. I am going to try to go find it.
What is frightening, he is still so close. Why?
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I missed much of Ed’s show tonight — I had to work late. So I’ll look for it.
But we’re going to win. I am really confident.
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I watched the video twice. Once because I do enjoy a good train wreck. PAUSE: ran to bathroom, checked ears & eyes. Play: Twice for confirmation. He has absolutely NO CLUE…NOT A SINGLE CLUE!
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Twice! Well that shows (1) why you’re Tops; and (2) that you have an iron stomach! You are right, of course. He hasn’t got a clue.
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LMAO. Omg, what a tool. Although it won’t be funny if he actually does by some miracle of I-dont-know-who gets elected. Keep up the good fight, Elyse!!
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Thanks Janice. No, he can’t be elected. He just can’t be.
You know, I don’t think this pair of CEOs from Harvard Business School will be a good recruiting tool for the school!
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Just another example of let’s get this election over with! Then again, with his definition of the middle class, our income should double next year! Meanwhile, relax Elyse.
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I WAS relaxing. I was trying to sleep. But idiocy invades even my most restful times.
Even I can’t wait for the end. Assuming it goes my way, that is.
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Of course it is just like cleaning up after a football game! Just add hazardous waste, exposure to disease, electrical current, structures about to collapse,and sharp and heavy objects. Then….Exactly the same!
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Ever since I realized that he really did say this, that I didn’t imagine it, I have wanted to push him face first down in the water in Hoboken, NJ. Last night the mayor was describing just exactly how contaminated it was — seriously disgusting.
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Hitting. Ow. Head. Ow. Against. Ow. Wall. Ow. With. Ow. You. Owwwwww!
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Careful now. I’m starting to think I should take legal action against Mitt for all these concussions he’s causing me.
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Cleaning up a football field, huh? Yep, that sounds just like our Mitt… It’s probably best that you and I don’t live under the same roof these days, Elyse. Not because we’d disagree, but that we’d agree too much about the oncoming and looming threat to our National Security that is Mitt Romney. The two of us together would form a very depressingly powerful negative synergy.
Have you noticed how just in the last few days that Romney’s lies in his ads have become even bolder and more outrageous than ever? Like his latest outrage against the truth about how it was Obama who “took GM into bankruptcy” and sold Chrysler to an Italian company who is now moving to China to sell Jeeps…
Lying for Romney has become like a bottle of whiskey given to an alcoholic as an award to praise his accomplishments. Because large numbers of Americans who are too lazy to be well informed, are rewarding Romney for lying by believing his lies and giving him their support. So Romney is now going on the worst lying bender I’ve ever seen, because many Americans are encouraging him to keep on lying. Which is like handing that raging drunken alcoholic another bottle of the hard stuff and yelling “Chug it man! Chug it!!!”
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Actually, you and I under one roof wouldn’t be a whole lot different than my husband and I under our roof on that front. It gets pretty tense (I won’t, for example, watch debates with him because he gets too riled up). But we’re on the same side too.
I really do think that Romney just has no idea of how to tell the truth, or he thinks that telling one thing to one group and another to another is what he is supposed to do. Perhaps he is a sociopath as someone said in a comment.
Earlier today I read a piece about how we Americans have been swallowing lies hook line and sinker since Reagan because we don’t want to hear that things aren’t hunky dory. I think that is very true. Damn Reagan — he did such lasting damage to this country.
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That’s interesting about how you won’t watch debates with John because he gets too riled up, and it sounds very familiar. My wife will often start a conversation with me about the latest GOP or Tea Party outrage, and I’ll expound on what she brought up, not overly long in conversation but effectively, to the point that she gets too depressed to want to talk about it anymore, and she begs me to change the subject.
And ever since that aftermath of that first Romney/Obama debate, I’ve been a regular profit of doom who not only depresses myself (notice how serious my posts have been for the last month?) but who can also suck all the air right out of a room of people who badly want Obama to win, because they know how high the stakes are in this election.
I don’t enjoy causing people to feel discouraged, but when it comes to politics I’m a realist and I talk about what I think is going to happen, even when it’s what I really don’t want to happen, without trying to put a positive spin on it that I have no faith in. Not saying I’m convinced that Romney will win without a doubt, but it won’t surprise me at all if he does, because I see the dynamics in place that are very likely to get him elected.
People who know me well, know that I have a long history of doing well with predicting the outcome of state and national elections, and I’m often right more than I’m wrong. The one that I really got wrong was when I was fairly confident that Kerry would win in 2004. I underestimated the damage of the swift boat allegations, and I didn’t know until after the election was over, about Rove’s diabolically brilliant plan to get “for or against gay marriage?” questions on the ballots of all the battleground states, to drive the religious right in large numbers to the polls to vote against gay marriage, and “Oh by the way, while you’re there, don’t forget to vote for GWB!”
Not sure that I think that Romney is a sociopath, however much I loath the man. A sociopath is a person I associate more with having an inclination to engage in criminal behavior like embezzlement, theft, armed robbery, and a history of violence.
But I do think that Romney’s corporate background has given him an amoral corporate marketing mentality in which he believes just as the Mad Ad men do, that there’s nothing wrong with saying anything at all to get people to buy your brand, because the truth is irrelevant, facts are irrelevant, but image is everything because most people buy many products almost entirely based upon the image created around the product.
So Romney has no problem with using different marketing approaches aimed at different “target markets” in the same way that the marketing companies do, and if an advertising campaign isn’t selling enough, then you just change it to one that does – the fact that the new advertising campaign is in direct conflict with the former one doesn’t matter – all that matters is that it creates the image that induces people to want to buy the brand, or to vote for Romney.
I totally agree with you about Reagan – he was a master of telling people what they wanted to hear, and what they wanted to believe, even if it took a willing suspension of disbelief, because they were very willing to do that, if it made them feel better.
And lasting damage? You bet! The Reagan Revolution led to and made possible almost every destructive economic policy that has followed to weaken the US economy and then almost destroy it in 2008 during the financial meltdown.
I think that the biggest GOP lie of all is that they hate big Federal government. Because Republicans love a big Federal government as long as it is dominated by Republican control enough to advance the GOP agenda while using the Federal government to empower their base of the wealthiest Americans and the biggest corporations.
This is how the GOP gets an ever larger and now almost totally unrestricted flood of money flowing from their wealthiest donors to keep Federal GOP office holders in power and to also help themselves get rich. Republican politicians hate big government? What a pathetic joke! They couldn’t exist without big government, which is why they will do anything to control it.
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Take a breath, Chris. We are going to win.
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Are you banking on Obama winning via an Electoral College victory, in spite of losing the national popular vote? It does look encouraging in theory, in some of the presentations I’ve seen. Reality? I sure hope so.
In any case, I’ll be up in New Hampshire on election day until the polls close, doing my best to get out the vote for Obama. At this point, it’s the very best that I can personally do to help him win.
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I am counting on him winning, period. I will be protecting voters in milky white McLean VA. That’s my posting. But I’ve already had to help some students so I am less annoyed than I might be otherwise!
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Then keep the faith Elyse, because I do try to encourage people who are willing to get out there and work for a campaign and do what they can to defend the future of a country that can be great, as well as beautiful.
I also remember that you told me some time ago that you are a veteran of working for campaigns and you were working the phone banks for Obama, when I mentioned that I had signed up to do the same.
I’m sorry for being a Donnie Downer with some of my replies here lately, and that will stop, because it’s counterproductive.
Good luck with whitey, Sista! Lol 🙂
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I’ll make you a deal, I’ll vote for Obama, but ONLY if we keep Mitt out of the White House even WITH a tour guide! 😉
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Deal.
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I fear the worst if he is somehow elected. However, on the bright side, a president that can promise a ridiculous gaffe at least once a day is something new,,, oh, wait! I forgot Bush. My favorite article on him recently was the Trojan Horse article in the National Memo. You can just see Cheney/Rove/Koch snickering in the background rubbing their hands together… scary, scary thought.
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We are NOT going there. Please God. Let us not go there again. I don’t think the country could recover. Seriously.
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One can only hope that if the analogy is carried to election day, he’s just some of the trash on the field.
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Glad to hear from you, Guap. In addition to your always insightful comment, natch.
I just didn’t know where in NYC you were so I was worried!
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I’m in Queens, in a safe area.
My office is way downtown, so we’ve been scrambling all week to stay up.
Fortunately, most network issues have been sorted, and we were able to keep up with the financial markets.
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So glad Guap. It’ll still be a challenge for you though. Just think of it like cleaning up a football field …
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This was pretty damn stupid. Although I was certainly impressed with the strategy, applying that techinque to the hurricane damage is like telling a cancer patient how much it sucked once when he had the flu.
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Exactly. What an insensitive ass.
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or the story that queen ann tells about how they used to cash in their stocks to fend off hunger with pasta and tuna fish. yeah, she feels our pain, doesn’t she?
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Yes, I am always humbled by these heart-wrenching stories they tell. Really. I can’t believe they didn’t have someone else to open the can.
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As someone living in a state ravaged by that storm and has seen the destruction first-hand, i can assure you that the mess here is significantly more complicated than picking up garbage from a football field. He’s lucky that a lot of people living on that metaphorical football field don’t have any power or internet access to hear his ridiculous comments.
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I don’t know that this has gotten any play. Lawrence and his team often finds things first or early at least. The real news has many more stories to tell, but I really think that this shows Mitt for what he really is.
But I’m so glad you’re OK, well, OK-ish, Paprika. Hope your power is back on.
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No power yet. Still hopeful it will be sooner rather than later.
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