PhotOh! The Tea Party in a nutshell

By GottaLaff

This was sent to me in an e-mail... which I accidentally lost, so sadly, I can't credit the sender.

A picture's worth 1000...

PhotOH! Tea Partyless in D.C.

By GottaLaff

Via my Twitter pal Strawberry Blonde, we get a libs-eye-view of the Gigantic Overhwelming Not-Million-Schmuck Tea Party that went on during the House health care debate. She tweets:

"Crowd of abt 150 at e front of capitol. Or 500K using teabagger math."

(click to enlarge)

Video- RNC: New 'Daisy' Ad

Pa. Thet. Ic.

Tea party Photo: Stage or umbrella?

By GottaLaff

To me, it looks like a wet, bedraggled, used canopy bed from the Salvation Army. Via a TwitPic from a Tweet via Ana Marie Cox who asked, "Stage or umbrella?":

CPAC: Not Even Conservatives Want To See Joe the Plumber

By GottaLaff



Then what is he, a seat-filler? Via Wonkette:

Joe-he-Plumber spoke to 1/4 full room. It was pathetic. I got video of how fucking empty the room was. I tried to make an echo off the walls but I got yelled at. Video to come.

If I get a Tweet alert about the video, I'll grab and post it.

Sole Man: Epitaph of the Bush years

By GottaLaff

Bush can attempt to rewrite history, but three-quarters of us know better:

"If Bush ever hopes to have the history of his presidency revived, a la Truman, it's going to start with success in Iraq. That's why it must have been that much harder for him to deal with the fact he had shoes thrown at him in his final visit to the country before he leaves office. It's bad enough in our last NBC/WSJ poll that 79% of Americans said they wouldn't miss him -- but at least no one is throwing shoes at him stateside. In that same poll, we asked respondents to judge Bush on his greatest achievements and failures. Not surprisingly, Iraq was at the top (or near it) in both lists. Removing Saddam Hussein was seen as Bush's second greatest accomplishment, but going into Iraq and starting a war was seen as his greatest failure. Iraq is THAT complicated for Bush and his legacy. This economic downturn in the last year of his presidency probably serves as the exclamation point on a public judgment of a below-average presidency for him. But Iraq has always been viewed as Bush's last chance at historical redemption. The good news for him: He's taking this with humor and, as he points out, journalists could not have done that in Iraq eight years ago. But yesterday's shoe-throwing incident -- the showing of the sole of a shoe is a great insult in Arab culture, NBC's John Yang points out -- might very well be the epitaph of the Bush presidency."

The obvious joke: Bush is a heel. Oh wait. That's wrong. The obvious joke is Bush himself. A really, really bad joke.

Gramm-pa McCain Running on Empty: The Photos

By GottaLaff

Apologies up front for the amount of space this will take up, but it's so worth it...

Volunteerless in New Mexico.. and Iowa.. and Ohio... and Virginia... and:

As the only reporter during this election who has actually visited upwards of 50 of John McCain's field offices around the country (13 battleground states and counting), this piece by Matthew Mosk at the Washington Post comes as no surprise:

The decision to finance a final advertising push is forcing McCain to curtail spending on Election Day ground forces to help usher his supporters to the polls, according to Republican consultants familiar with McCain's strategy. [...]

[O]ne top Republican strategist who has been privy to McCain's plans: "The folks who will oversee the volunteer operation have been told to get out into the field on their own nickel." [...]

John McCain's ground campaign is just not happening. It hasn't been happening, without Sarah Palin there might be four or five volunteers across the entire nation left, and now, per Mosk's piece at WaPo, it looks like it will be happening even less.

One dialer, Santa Fe:

One dialer, Albuquerque:

Staged, Española:

Closed, Durango:

Posed, Cortez:

Closed, Grand Junction:

Des Moines, empty of volunteers:

Troy, Ohio, locked:

Columbus HQ, one dialer:

Toledo, two volunteers and one security guard:

Sterling, VA, closing at 5, one dialer:

Empty, Fredericksburg, VA:

Richmond, VA, one dialer:

Raleigh, NC HQ, two dialers:

Wilmington, NC, closing at 5 and yawny, empty:

Thank you Sean, for the amazing report. There's much, much more here.

H/t: Eve

McCain Adds New Campaign Stop..... Arizona

I'd LOL but they discourage it here. Wonder if Palin's "popularity" had anything to do with it? Via Taegan.

The Daily Courier reports Sen. John McCain will be campaigning in his home state of Arizona on Monday, the day before Election Day.

Recent polls have shown McCain's lead dwindling to single digits in Arizona.

Of course, Sen. Barack Obama will be in his home state tonight.

IWRC* Palin the scapegoat = Gramm-pa the Loser

By GottaLaff

A scathing piece from Politico's Roger Simon, but an apt one:

Why didn’t he get to know her [Palin] better before he made his choice?

It’s not like he was rushed. McCain wrapped up the Republican nomination in early March. He didn’t announce his choice for a running mate until late August. [...]

And so he chose Palin. Is she really a diva and a whack job? Could be. There are quite a few in politics. (And a few in journalism, too, though in journalism they are called “columnists.”) [...]

In truth, Palin’s real problem is not her personality or whether she takes orders well. Her real problem is that neither she nor McCain can make a credible case that Palin is ready to assume the presidency should she need to.

And that undercuts McCain’s entire campaign.

This was the deal McCain made with the devil. In exchange for energizing his base by picking Palin, he surrendered his chief selling point: that he was better prepared to run the nation in time of crisis, whether it be economic, an attack by terrorists or, as he has been talking about in recent days, fending off a nuclear war. [...]

But his campaign’s bad decisions have not stopped with Sarah Palin. It has made a series of questionable calls, including making Joe the Plumber the embodiment of the campaign.

Are voters really expected to warmly embrace an (unlicensed) plumber who owes back taxes and complains about the possibility of making a quarter million dollars a year?

And did McCain’s aides really believe so little in John McCain’s own likability that they thought Joe the Plumber would be more likable?

Apparently so. Which is sad.

The obituaries are pouring in before the time of death has even been called.

*"In What Respect, Charlie?"

Gramm-pa McCain loses Joe the M.I.A.: The Video

By GottaLaff

I posted the story here. Now we've got the video, courtesy of Think Progress:

Joe Sudbay writes: "Maybe Joe was meeting with his PR team trying to get his country music deal. No matter, even Joe the Plumber has gotten what he can out of John McCain."

Gramm-pa McCain Buses in 4,000 Kids for Ohio Rally

By GottaLaff

Class if you don't go to that rally, you will be counted as truant! Now get! On! That! Bus!

Consider it a field trip:

[A]lmost the entire crowd of 6,000 was forced to be there.

From NBC’s Adam Aigner:

A local school district official confirmed after the event that of the 6,000 people estimated by the fire marshal to be in attendance this morning, more than 4,000 were bused in from schools in the area. The entire 2,500-student Defiance School District was in attendance, the official said, in addition to at least three other schools from neighboring districts, one of which sent 14 buses.

There’s really no better way to create the illusion of enthusiasm for a candidate than by enlisting the support of children who presumably face punishment for skipping school if they don’t attend.

I wonder if there will be a pop quiz about what Gramm-pa said? I'm betting half of those kids dozed off.

Poor John Sidney McCain: No Palin, no audience

By GottaLaff

I've always maintained, this is the Palin/McCain ticket:

If there were any doubts that the sidekick was stealing the show, they were put to rest when Sarah Palin took off for Alaska with a wave from the tarmac by John McCain.

His crowds suddenly dwindled. The exuberant cheering heard day after day during two weeks of joint appearances went away. And the Republican presidential candidate's schedule began to resemble the lightness of May instead of the full throttle of September. [...]

Without Palin later in the day, McCain went to a diner in Philadelphia.

He held a discussion on economic woes there with half a dozen businesswomen. A large crowd backing Democratic rival Barack Obama gathered in the indoor marketplace where the Down Home Diner is located, and yelled "Obama, Obama" so loudly that McCain and his guests at times had to lean far over the table to hear each other speak.

Pathetic. His voters are actually voting for his running mate. And his running mate is a bumbling neophyte. Some ticket.

Coming tonight, at a TV near you: The Rezko Attack!

By GottaLaff

::Jaws Theme:: Hide the children!!

Narrator:

"Beyond the speeches, how much do you know about Barack Obama? What does he really believe?

Consider this:

United 93 never hit the Capitol on 9/11.

But the Capitol was bombed thirty years before -

By an American terrorist group called Weather Underground that declared 'war' on the U.S.

Targeting the Capitol, the Pentagon, police stations and more.

One of the group's leaders, William Ayers, admits to the bombings, proudly saying later:

'We didn't do enough.'

Some members of the group Ayers founded even went on to kill police.

But Barack Obama is friends with Ayers, defending him as, quote, 'Respectable' and 'Mainstream.'

Obama's political career was launched in Ayers' home.

And the two served together on a left-wing board.

Why would Barack Obama be friends with someone who bombed the Capitol...and is proud of it?

Do you know enough to elect Barack Obama?

American Issues Project is responsible for the content of this ad."

In the meantime, here's his newest ad, "The One". Pathetic. Both of them.

RNC Calls Obama a Former "Street Organizer"

By Paddy


The website sucks, and the commercial sucks. They're not even really trying, just going for the dog whistle.

The Republican National Committee's new video about Sen. Barack Obama describes the former community organizer, who worked in the 1980s with churches and depressed areas of Chicago to provide job training and other projects, as a "street organizer."

"Street organizer"?

(snip)

Over at The Nation, Chris Hayes writes, "Nice. Frankly, in order to elicit the maximum degree of racial stereotyping I would have gone with 'ghetto operative' or 'slum captain' but I suppose that would have been too obvious."

Says Matthew Yglesias, "Stay classy, RNC!"

I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure "street organizer" was the job description of Superfly.