Romney abandons bid

Updated Below

Mitt Romney has thrown in the towel on his sputtering and feeble second-generation pipe dream.

Here is what he said to donors in a phone conference:

"I disagree with Senator McCain on a number of issues, as you know. But I agree with him on doing whatever it takes to be successful in Iraq, on finding and executing Osama bin Laden, and on eliminating Al Qaeda and terror. If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror.

"This is not an easy decision for me. I hate to lose. My family, my friends and our supporters... many of you right here in this room... have given a great deal to get me where I have a shot at becoming President. If this were only about me, I would go on. But I entered this race because I love America, and because I love America, I feel I must now stand aside, for our party and for our country.

"I will continue to stand for conservative principles; I will fight alongside you for all the things we believe in. And one of those things is that we cannot allow the next President of the United States to retreat in the face evil extremism!!"

Of course, none of his five sons are heading to a recruiting station to take up arms to fight evil extremism. During WWII, he would have been shamed off the stage by that fact alone.

I bet the wife had more than a word or two to say about it all, too. He burned through $35 million of their fortune chasing his delusion.

So he is leaving to make it easier for the Republicans to get their act together and defeat Obama or Clinton. Because what we need is the four more years of Bush that McCain offers.

Any word on if paramedics have swarmed Dobson's offices in Colorado yet? You just know he had a seizure.

UPDATE:

Well! I am shaking off the haze of the meds that go along with having long, large needles poked into my knees, and I just heard the entire withdrawal speech. Hearing the petulant tone, rather than reading words through a Xanax filter really, really pissed me off. But I get that way when my patriotism is maligned and dismissed because I favor a different path for my country than the trainwreck currently unfolding.

What a jackass! Displaying that delusional, grandiose affect to the bitter end - with the emphasis on bitter.

Screw you, Mitt, you coward.

Surrender to terrorists? Is anyone going to demand an apology from this draft-dodging prick?

The thinking this warmongering chickenhawk embraces is exactly the thinking that has screwed us up this bad. It has have exacerbated the problem. Republicans have proven that they make us less safe, not more.

The Winnowing

So much for brokered conventions and draft candidates. Not gonna happen. Not this year, anyway.

With only a handful of states having weighed in, the field is down to four. And before the Borg commence with the swarming and pointing out that Ron Paul hasn’t dropped out, let me say that I am aware of this, but it is also irrelevant. His candidacy is going nowhere, and reasonable people realize this and will realign their support to the current reality.

So what do we have?

On the Republican side, we have Mitt “flip-flopper” Romney who was for all sorts of things before he was against them, calling John McCain a liberal (that word has lost a lot of it’s zip, hasn’t it?) yet he was moderate enough in a previous incarnation to be elected governor of Massachusetts, the most liberal state in the union. Then we have John “occupy Iraq in perpetuity” McCain, jumping up and down like Yosemite Sam and yelling about “waiving the white flag of surrender” – never for a moment stopping to let it register that 70% of the country realizes the folly of the Iraq misadventure and understand that you don’t “win” an occupation, you simply occupy until such time as troops are withdrawn.

On the Democratic side we have two left standing – a white woman and a black man. One has successfully pushed back against the right-wing noise machine for nearly two decades, and the other one seems, at least to this point, almost immune to it.

A while back a friend of mine said something in an email exchange that resonated with me at that moment and is still turning over in my mind. Real soon, the wall of presidential portraits is going to experience a shake-up. There will be 43 portraits of white men, and then there will be number 44 – and instead of another white male face, there is going to be a black man or a white woman smiling back.

Now that is what I call “change.”

Wasn't there something I was supposed to blog about today?

Oh yeah - I remember now.

There's a Republican primary election in South Carolina and both parties held their caucus in Nevada today.


Nevada first...With 88% of precincts reporting, Hillary Clinton was declared the winner with 51% to Obama's 45%. Edwards garnered 4%, and should probably think about withdrawing with his chances for a cabinet position - and his dignity - intact.

On the Republican side, Romney took it standing up, with 53%. Ron Paul and John McCain were tied for second with 13% each.

I guess the Nervous Nellies among Hillary supporters were a bit over-the-top. For the record, they totally took the wrong tack. They should have approached it from the position of "then you have to hold caucuses in hospitals, too." What judge would want to be seen as the guy who upheld a showgirls right to caucus, but nurses can go hang? It was a no-brainer. Apparently. Some no-brain out there fucked that up from Jump Street.

Okay - South Carolina - that's a Republicans-only primary election, and polls won't close for a couple of hours, but Politico.com has a pretty good summation:

Saturday's most crucial showdown was on the other side of the country, in South Carolina, where the Republican contenders try to wrest advantage from each other — after three different candidates won the first three major contests.

Most polls have shown McCain leading Huckabee, trailed by Romney and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson.

The stakes for the entire GOP field are high if history is a guide — every Republican nominee since Ronald Reagan has won South Carolina.

And the weather is absolutely miserable. Can you believe it's snowing in parts of South Carolina?

Well it is.

In the part of the state where Mike Huckabee's support is strongest.

Wonder what God's own Candidate is thinking right now?

UPDATE - PALE RIDER

God's own candidate, Mitt Romney, did well out in Las Vegas. I've seen some coverage writing it off, basically saying that an overwhelming Mormon vote is the reason for his win in Nevada.

Ron Paul polling at 13% and possibly beating McCain is huge--as is the fact that Ron Paul has a larger constituency within the Republican Party than that of Rudy Guiliani. I'm reminded of Ron Paul explaining why we were attacked on 9/11 and Rudy "not getting it" and trying to belittle Ron Paul for his ideas. As nuts as he is, Ron Paul gets it right on the war and that's gotta be troubling for the overtly pro-war candidates on either side of the aisle.

UPDATE II - PALE RIDER 7:45 PM- Eastern

Tucker Carlson is trying to fan the flames of a Hispanic vs Black split in the Democratic Party. As if. We don't even have a nominee yet. We don't have anywhere near enough information to make that assessment. We have yet to see a large, populous and diverse state vote yet. And the Republican shill machine is desperate.

Tucker--talk about Ron Paul beating main stream Republicans with 50 times the name recognition and then ask us about a split among Democrats. The split is on the Republican side, clearly, because they are seeing candidates who have spent millions go down in flames.

The MSNBC coverage is dominated by Olbermann and Russert. Matthews is the third wheel along for the Prom date, and no one wants to give him liquor because he'll get caught and everyone will get busted by the Gym teacher. This makes for stilted coverage. CNN is unwatchable. They have Bill Bennett in there and all I want to do is ask "did that lardass play the one-armed bandit all day?"

UPDATE III - Blue Girl

Lets look at the Nevada numbers:

Women were a strong majority for the Democrats in Nevada. 59% of Democrats attending the caucus were female, to 41% male.

On the Republican side, the numbers are closer, but males are a solid majority - 52% to 48%.

But more telling than the gender demographics are the age demographics.

Republicans

60-up_________45%
45-59_________27%
30-44_________17%
18-29_________11%

Democrats

60-up_________36%
45-59_________32%
30-44_________19%
18-29_________13%

The numbers tell this well-versed-in-stats political consumer that the Republican party is entering the twilight years, along with it's stalwarts. It is sooooo yesterday. People who want to move forward are throwing their lot in with the Democrats, and the demographics on the Democratic side are much more stable and desirable. If you read these numbers as if they were in the respective prospectus of companies competing for your investment dollars, where would you invest your money?

UPDATE IV - PALE RIDER

Yes--the voters are turned off by the Republicans, they are identifying themselves as Democrats, and the Republicans can't raise money. It's shocking to see how broke some of them are--Guiliani and McCain are literally broke and running on fumes on a day to day basis. Romney is using his own money and Huckabee isn't spending any money. The only who has a legitimate fundraising machine is Ron Paul and he's not going to piss that money away. In 1999, George W Bush was raising millions and was building a massive war chest with which to run. There is no comparison this year. They are all running on fumes.

How about a shout out to Howard Dean? The Fifty State strategy means we are going to compete with Republicans everywhere, and we will make them play a full-court game. As their "brand" continues to sink, we will make gains in places the Washington DC establishment would have written off four years ago.

UPDATE V - PALE RIDER - 09:07PM East

Chris Matthews "John McCain-his enemy is al Qaeda.""Mitt Romney-his enemy is Washington."

[so we're going to send a snarling old man after al Qaeda? Will he have bandoliers of ammo and a grenade pinned to his lapel? I hardly doubt al Qaeda is concerned about John McCain. In fact, they must be salivating at the idea that a deranged old coot keeps trying to threaten them. It's gotta help with recruiting.]

something, something, Huckabee, something Sodom and Gomorrah.
"The Road to St. Paul" and all of it's [catholic] Biblical overtones.
John McCain is a "live and let live guy"

Why doesn't Matthews just admit that he would carry McCain to the gates of Hell just to be seen holding a man he loves, in that platonic sort of way.

Schuster is at Huckabee headquarters and he looks like he just drank a quart of vinegar.

Brian Williams is commenting on the Big Dog's temper. Hello, dumbass--how about McCain's temper and McCain's snarling personality? Compared to Bill, McCain is easily the bigger hothead.

Russert--this is between Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Whatever, dude. You don't have a clue, either.

The Implosion of the Republican Party

Dammit, man! Can't you see that dog is hurt and can't run?

That's not why I called you all here today. I saw this on the Daily Kos this morning--it's from conservative money man Richard Viguerie:

Mike Huckabee's victory in the Iowa caucuses is bad news for the Republican Party.

"Mike Huckabee is a Christian socialist. He is a good man, but with a Big Government heart. He is the most liberal of all the Republican presidential candidates on economic issues.

"Huckabee's approach to every problem or perceived problem is to pass a law and launch another government program. If you like President George W. Bush, you'll love Mike Huckabee.

[snip]

"Now Huckabee wants to go back to a two-legged stool—social issues and defense. He would saw off the economic leg. That's a recipe for disaster for the Republican Party. Economic and traditional conservatives would stay home in droves, turning the country over to the Democrats.

Wow!

That's what they're saying about the winner of the Republican Iowa Caucus? That's what they're going to do to Huckabee? Unbelievable. "Traditional" conservatives are who, exactly? I thought they were the God squad crowd, and that crowd put Huckabee over the top last night. That crowd stood up and said no to a multi-million dollar effort by Mitt Romney--and they did so entirely because of the issue of religion. There is no other explanation for it. Romney outspent Huckabee at astronomical levels and poured his heart, his soul and his family into Iowa. And they took one look at his faith and turned the cold, cold cheek of rejection towards him. Somewhere, Jesus is weeping at the thought that his Republican brothers could have such hard hearts. Boo hoo, my friends. Boo hoo.

I am an enthusiastic Huckabee supporter. I really, really, really want him to win the Republican nomination. He is the best hope for electing a Democrat this year. In fact, Republicans will stay away in droves if he is their candidate--a redux of 1996 and the disaster that was Dole-Kemp.

Now, don't get me wrong--Vice President Chuck Norris would be a kickass improvement. Chuck would personally go to Iran and kill everyone, probably within the confines of a 1 hour show. Chuck still has some touch up work to do in the Nam, you know. Plus, no matter what anyone says, that's a beard that could be Presidential, if need be.

Did you know there are literally thousands of bad pictures of Mike Huckabee out there? I simply did not know that...

Ooops! Version 2.0-Mitt Romney edition

Mitt Romney, a man with no shame and an overwhelming compulsion to say anything to get the Republican Nomination for President said, in 1978:

"My father and I marched with Martin Luther King Jr. through the streets of Detroit." [from a 1978 interview with the Boston Herald.]

Now, we know this is laughably untrue, and a whopper of gigantic proportions.

Is it a bigger whopper than John Kerry mistakenly claiming to have spent Christmas in Cambodia?

One wonders if Romney will be tarred and feathered with the same enthusiasm by the lackluster and incompetent reporting corps that is failing to cover any of the substantive issues in this race for the Presidency.

...and yes, a candidate who lies about what he and his father did or did not do on the issue of civil rights, especially when they were members of the Mormon church, is a big issue. Up until 1978, you couldn't be a member of the Mormon church if you were black, after all.

Bullshit. I Call Bullshit...

The pandering jackass who happily posed with this sign did not "misspeak" - and certainly not twice in ten seconds - when he said this:

“Actually, just look at what Osam — Barack Obama — said just yesterday. Barack Obama, calling on radicals, jihadists of all different types, to come together in Iraq.”

His loyal minion and amoral mouthpiece, Kevin Madden, said he "misspoke" while referring to Osama bin Laden's just-released single that shot to the top of the Wingnut Top 40 overnight.

Umm, Kev - you are a fuckin' liar - he started to say it right and corrected himself.

Care to try again, Wormtail?

How's about this? Try a little honesty.

"Hey, have you seen the polling? This kind of petty, junior-high crap is all we got if we want Mitt to be the guy who loses to Hillary next November!"

More Mitt

What a prick. He isn't responsible for all the signs he poses with?

Bullshit.

Yesterday, it was a "funny play on words" - remember? That is what Kevin Madden, his spokesman said. Is he now going to absolve himself of responsibility for what his spokesman said? He wants to be president and can't accept responsibility for his own image?

We should "lighten up"???

I think not. That grinning visage was offensive as all hell to just about everyone with three digits in their I.Q. score.

We should lighten up???

Mitt should make with an apology. And someone needs to track that embarrassment to my gender down and ask her what she meant by that, and why she thinks that it is acceptable to equate sitting US Senators and presidential candidates with the most wanted criminal on the planet. I really want to know why she would think that is acceptable in a civilized society.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

By now you have likely seen the pathetic display of pernicious pandering that Mitt Romney showed the world in South Carolina. Yes, he probably sealed the white-trash vote, but he most certainly pissed off patrons of the Museum of Modern Art - which isn't in Chelsea anyway, it's in Midtown.

Philistines.

A spokesman for Romney tried to play it off as a clever, alliterative play on words. (Just a wee hint to Kevin Madden, Mr. Romney's spokesman: The Mountain Meadow Massacre by Maurading Militant Murderous Mormans would be an example of alliteration too; but I would have the decency not to put it on a rally sign. But then, I can go out in public without embarrassing my mother.)

The appropriate thing for Mr. Romney to have done would have been to take an opportunity to stand apart from the hate-mongering and the divisiveness. I realize it is far too much to ask of a politician in a tight ten-way race to chide a supporter at a rally for being a shining example of what is wrong with the level and tone of political discourse in this country; but for fucks sake, did he have to pose for the camera with that hateful harridan?

It is not okay to equate two United States Senators with the mastermind behind the worst terrorist attack of all time. It certainly isn't clever (especially when the poor besotted fool who made the crude sign can not even spell "Mama/Momma") and it isn't even in the same area code as "funny."

It is crass. It is craven. It is pathetic. It is sad. It is sick. It is disgusting, despicable and depraved. It is lowbrow, common, pedestrian and parochial.

But it is not "clever."

Not by half.

A picture truly is worth a thousand words. (And a couple of thousand blog entries.)

This one shows Romney to be at least as addlepated as his father before him.


(photo courtesy of TMZ)

Oh, Sweet Irony! Can You Even Stand It?

Sometimes I read something and I just collapse in a fit of giggles like I'm a giddy little schoolgirl. Seriously - every day the stable of Republican wannabes - and I do mean wannabes - does something that I derive absolute mirthsome glee from.

McCain takes a stroll, Rudy punks out when it's time to put up, and now, Romney rewrites reality. I mean seriously - can you even stand these fools? WTF, Mate?

“…for conservatives like me, facing reality is not a source of fear. It is a source of confidence. I am convinced that America--and our friends--can overwhelm any threat, but only if we acknowledge it, confront it, and respond thoughtfully and strategically.” Mitt Romney, earlier today in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute.

And not one word in the entire speech about Iraq.

I think that speaks volumes all by itself, don’t you?

Seriously – how could I ever hope to top that?

Write your own jokes here.

I'm too busy right now, what with the being nonplussed and all.

The Memory of Sanity

Oh good lord. The pandering is palpable.

And Romney is a sad, pathetic joke; a parody of an empty-suit, say-anything politician.

Over the weekend he schlepped off to pander to the Christian wrong address the graduating class of the now-infamous Regents University. During his speech to the faithful he said the following:

"In France, for instance, I'm told that marriage is now frequently contracted in seven-year terms where either party may move on when their term is up. How shallow and how different from the Europe of the past."

Give me a minute to compose myself - I laughed so hard that a little pee came out...

Okay - I'm better now...I can get through this...

Oh good lord...

This is too funny...

The anecdote Romney offered...

...comes from a really bad sci-fi novel based on...

...drumroll please...

The Book of Mormon!

Here is the intro to the Wiki about the book:

The Memory of Earth (1992) is the first novel of the science fiction Homecoming saga by Orson Scott Card. The Homecoming saga is a fictionalization of the first few hundred years recorded in the Book of Mormon.

Pass me a hanky - I busted up again and the tears of laughter are streamin'!!!.

This guy is a serious contender for the Republican nomination?

SERIOUSLY?

Damn, I'm glad I'm a Democrat!