We Want More Bain, Not More Pain

We The People have spoken, to USA Today at least:

WASHINGTON – Despite concerted Democratic attacks on his business record, Republican challenger Mitt Romney scores a significant advantage over President Obama when it comes to managing the economy, reducing the federal budget deficit and creating jobs, a national USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds.

By more than 2-1, 63%-29%, those surveyed say Romney's background in business, including his tenure at the private equity firm Bain Capital, would cause him to make good decisions, not bad ones, in dealing with the nation's economic problems over the next four years.

It's not all grim for the Hopers and Changers:

To be sure, Obama retains significant advantages of his own. By 2-1, he's rated as more likable than Romney.

And that would be even more important if Obama were running for Jay Leno's job.

Comments

[sailor]

Well, the question is: Do we want a more likeable person to lead the country to ruin or do we want a capable person to lead the country back to greatness?

[sailor]

likable.

[sailor]

And one more thing. I, personally, do not find O likable at all.

[NK]

ALL POLLS agree that the #1 issue to voters is 'jobs' and the 'economy'. More than 2-1 for Romney on jobs/economy? Game over.

[peter]

Having driven to Connecticut yesterday and seeing a disturbing number of Obama sticker on cars, I really have to wonder, do these people like him, or are they just the beneficiary of one the rackets he's protecting. What is there to like about the guy? And what is there to dislike about Romney. When did likeability become important. When did it replace gravitas?

[Clarice]

How often does Miss Congeniality win the Miss America title? My impression is that it's a sop to a loser.

[Voldemort Delenda Est ! Sandy Daze]

I think "Likability" is all he's got (and I don't think he's even got that; but what do I know). Hence, the commies keep pushing the Likability meme, because it is something that will not be argued, for 1) lack of interest, 2) potentially being charged a racist and 3) diverting from the more important economy & jobs.
Everyone (well most everyone) wants to be Liked and more, people want to Like someone who is perceived (or in the case of Voldemort) propagandized, as being Liked and Likable.

I'd say that Voldemort has a giant L on his forehead, and it doesn't stand for Likable.

He knows it, his commie enablers and supporters know it and so does Soros, Ross, Step et al.

They all have the L on their foreheads too.

[bio mom]

I have always questioned the overall benefit to Obama from the Bain attack ads. It seemed to me that they were actually playing to Romney’s strengths, his economic experience and success. While raising some questions in some people’s minds, they underscore that this is a really smart guy when it came to making profitable business deals. Voters surely know that he is a rich man. How much more mileage can Obama get from that? Suggesting he is shady without real proof probably makes a lot of voters just shrug their shoulders since they already believe business does what it must to make a profit. And right now, having a candidate who might be able to apply those same skills to the U.S. economy sounds pretty good.

[Voldemort Delenda Est ! Sandy Daze]

Clarice from the other thread:
Lobotomized
Clarice from this thread:
Loser

Just so.

[sailor]

Well, peter, there are just some liberals ie in Conn. and elsewhere who will support O no matter what. I know some of those people. (And I NEVER discuss politics with them!)

[bio mom]

Apparently now the Obama campaign and its media enablers are scouring documents from the 2002 Olympics trying to find something there damaging to Romney. This is getting almost comical.

[Jim,MtnViewCA,USA]

I find "likable" puzzling too. I have been searching for a more precise word, so far I am coming up with sniveling.

"[Obama's] rated as more sniveling than Romney". Better.

Still, if they want "likable", yeah sure, whatever.
I'm guessing they are saying, in effect "I don't hate people with black skin but this guy is a doofus."
Perhaps a minor corrolary to the Bradley Effect.

[Voldemort Delenda Est ! Sandy Daze]

Lobotomized
Loser
Liberals

The list grows.

[Threadkiller]

Legal problems.

"Aside from the technical evidence now eviscerating the credibility of the digital image of Obama’s forged birth certificate posted to an official government media source, one of the most shocking revelations to emerge from Maricopa County’s Hawaiian records investigation is that the Deputy Attorney General of that state would not provide confirmation that the record held on file by the Hawaiian Health Department actually matched the image placed on the internet by Obama.

During the course of the investigation, Maricopa County Sheriff CCP lead investigator, Mike Zullo, asked Hawaii’s Deputy Attorney General, Jill Nagamine, to validate the information about Obama’s birth on the internet image by corroborating it with the contents of the original paper version of the birth record filed with the State of Hawaii.

Nagamine refused to do so.

“At one point during the conversation, I held up a copy of that document, (a paper copy of the internet image of Obama alleged 1961 “Certificate of Live Birth”), and I asked her, point blank, ‘is this a copy of the document you provided Mr. Obama’s attorneys?’” he stated in a July 17 th MCSO press conference.

Cowering behind legal nonsense, Nagamine refused to validate Obama’s birth certificate.

“During the course of our conversation, going back and forth, it became very apparent to us that the Deputy Attorney General was doing nothing more than hiding behind state statutes with every question we asked,” said Zullo.

Zullo continued, “I explained to her that we have a problem. The problem is that we already know by the admission of the Department of Health that they released two photo copies of the purported original long form birth certificate, placed in an envelope and given to Mr. Obama’s attorney’s. I don’t know what was contained in the documents…I don’t know what was contained in that envelope.”

Zullo’s line of questioning with Nagamine was exploring the possibility that the content of the original paper documents, which were given to Obama’s attorney’s directly by the State of Hawaii, did not match the content of the document image posted to the internet in April of 2011.

Investigators suspect an intentionally corrupted chain of custody occurred sometime between the release of the original paper documents by the State of Hawaii to the time they were posted to the Whitehouse.gov website two days later. There is now strong evidence showing that the information contained in the original documents issued by the State of Hawaii was most likely transcribed and altered by forgers working on behalf of Obama in the course of fabricating the “new and improved version” .pdf file prior to posting it online. This evidence includes inconsistencies between content and vital statistics coding, the absence of viewable information in the lower margin, the use of layers to obscure and add information and, most significantly, the lack of cooperation by the State of Hawaii to validate what has been claimed is the identical information in both the image and original documents."

http://thedailypen.blogspot.com/2012/07/hawaii-now-refuses-to-validate-obamas.html?m=1

Read the whole thing.

[Janet]

Barack Hussein Obama is likable?!?? He is such a phony. Phony urban black, phony smart guy, phony cool guy,...
He's got an "icky" quality about him. I wouldn't cross the street to shake his hand - even if he is the POTUS.

[Theo]

Also note that in the NYT/CBS poll (!) Obama was losing "favorability" -- which amounts to "likeability" -- points rapidly in light of his negative ads. Someone said months ago that a relentlessly negative attack on Romney would cause Obama to be seen as less likeable than when he started. I think they were right.

However, in point of fact, Romney does not appear particularly "likeable." People will respect him and I hope they will vote for him, but he is not someone you would love to sit and chat with for hours.

[Sue]

Ditto what Janet said.

[jimmyk]

Romney does not appear particularly "likeable." People will respect him and I hope they will vote for him, but he is not someone you would love to sit and chat with for hours.

And Obama does? I'm not sure "love to sit and chat with for hours" is the right definition of "likable" anyway, but between the two of them, it's hardly obvious to me why people would prefer to hang out with Barry. And I'm trying to leave aside their political viewpoints in that assessment. Who wants to hang out with an empty suit?

I think people say he's likable just as a consolation prize, as in "Worst President in history, utter failure, but, yeah, I guess he's otherwise likable enough."

[sailor]

Well, I don't particularly want a likable president--moral and honest, yes, likable not needed. BUT, I don't think Romney is unlikable--he just comes across as a little stiff and maybe shy. Not really a geek, but someone not "versed" in the ways of politics. AND, I don't necessarily think that is a bad thing.

[sailor]

When did the voters in this country decide that they needed a likable president?

[Theo]

JimmyK --

Of course this is all very subjective, but I think that Obama comes across as a more likeable person than Romney does. The polls show the same thing.

This is not exactly trivial. I think one reason that Kerry lost was that people just did not want to have to hear from him every day over the next four years; just too obnoxious.

But I do not think that it is a big deal either. This is not Student Body President and competence matters a lot more than who you would rather have a beer with. If the public thinks that Romney would do better at fixing the economy and Obama would be more fun to hang out with, I suggest that they vote for Romney and follow Obama on twitter.

[windansea]

America to Obama after first date

Barry, you're a nice guy but....

Kiss of death

Romney is likeable, and more important, competent. I don't think the wall street guys will find him so easy to con.

Next time I visit my old hood in La Jolla, and can't find a parking place at Windansea beach, I'm gonna ask Mitt if I can park in his elevator.

[centralcal]

More ABC reportage via Jake Tapper:

Jake Tapper ‏@jaketapper
Star of Romney 'My Hands Didn't Build This' Ad Received Millions in Government Loans and Contracts> http://abcn.ws/O0CsH8

When you follow the link, the very first sentence written by good old Jake is this:

The Romney campaign has been making much out of an out-of-context President Obama quote.

The liberal media all read, write, and speak from the same playbook.

[Sue]

Someone (yeah, right, I know, not going to happen) should ask Obama how his comment, which he cribbed from Fauxhontus, do not mean the same thing her comments meant. Which she has doubled down on, btw.

[Sue]

That was some really bad English. I don't think it even qualifies as "Bar English".

[Thomas Collins]

TK, in the course of your research, have you come across any analysis of which part of the Obama birth certificate was altered? My pure speculation is that if it was altered, the alteration had nothing to do with born in Kenya. My speculation would be that there is something else in the original Obama wants kept quiet. But what?

Of course, if the "what" is that Malcolm X is Obama's bio father, doesn't that, under even your strict standards, establish that Obama is a natural born citizen?

[Jane - talk is cheap!]

I have heard that comment is "out of context" a zillion times. Exactly what was out of context?

[jimmyk]

I think one reason that Kerry lost was that people just did not want to have to hear from him every day over the next four years; just too obnoxious.

Yes, but people actively disliked Kerry. All we know from these polls is that Barry is *more* likable, for whatever that's worth. That doesn't mean they find Romney Kerryesque.

windansea:
America to Obama after first date

Barry, you're a nice guy but....

Kiss of death

Comment of the day! Perfect.

[Jim,MtnViewCA,USA]

"[Romney] is not someone you would love to sit and chat with for hours."

I always thought that having some ordinary Christian guy as a neighbor would mean that he kept his property in shape, would treat me and mine with respect, would make his kids pay to fix a window broken by their baseball, would help out if I needed a hand.
I bet Bill Clinton would be a sparkling conversationalist, but he'd paw my wife, deny his kids broke the window, throw wild and destructive parties and his dog would poop on my lawn.
I know which one I'd like to have living next door.

Those considerations affect who I choose for president, too.

[Threadkiller]

And not a single ABC reporter to talk to Arpaio, ccal.

[Thomas Collins]

"Exactly what was out of context?"

Jane, what is out of context is that Obama simply wanted a statement geared to his true believer base to be ignored by everyone else, and Romney and the blogosphere have not cooperated. Romney not acting like a respectable Republican who will lose by a respectable margin in the popular vote and Electoral College is infuriating to our betters in the Ruling Class.

[narciso]

I told you folks, to consider Tapper, as you would a snapping turtle, in the pinch, he will
follow Minitrue's dictates.

[Carol Herman]

It's an unchanged race.

You won't know until you tune in on election night ... to see if there's a wave? Because New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Florida, all have to fall to Romney.

If the East Coast holds though, you'll get to argue among yourselves "how exactly did Romney win the nomination?"

Isn't it possibel the media constructed Iowa "to fail" when it gave such great coverage to Michele Bachmann?

Given how poorly McCain did in 2008 ... Isn't it possible the media selected Palin? She gave great copy! But McCain LOST the nomination. And, Obama won it by a healthy margin. (McCain got 44%.)

Too much manipulation. And, not enough excitement. (But who else could'a run? If Romney were held back, you'd have had to pick Jeb Bush. Seem to Karl Rove, that's exactly the plan ahead, no?

How come there are no stories about how the senate can go republican?

[jimmyk]

Romney as Ned Flanders?

[centralcal]

And not a single ABC reporter to talk to Arpaio, ccal.

No surprise there, TK. No benefit to their man, The Once.

[Sue]

Tapper says Obama didn't mean what Romney says he meant then goes to great lengths to prove Romney's guy in the ad didn't build it on his own. They will turn themselves inside out trying to correct Obama's stupid remarks.

[Carol Herman]

After Ted Kennedy died, John Kerry moved himself into the "seat of power." It's not so much Harry Reid.

Kerry was also trying to unseat Hillary Clinton at State. Alas, he went down with his "treaty of the seas."

Which is, how I guess, senate "power seats" just float away?

That Kerry was a king maker? No doubt! back in 2006, when Obama showed up in the senate ... Kerry made a mad dash to him ... and propped him up with insider friendships.

Make fun all you want. But Obama was better at doing politics than McCain.

And, ahead? We may yet learn better than Rubio?

Romney's trying to find his "magic ticket."

Oh, ALL the GOP insiders HATED REAGAN! When will you learn?

Face time with the TV has nothing to do with power! The power inside the GOP tent resides with 3 families: Romney, Rockefeller, and Bush.

[Voldemort Delenda Est ! Sandy Daze]

Lobotomized
Loser
Liberals
Legal problems
Liars

[Threadkiller]

TC, under the Founders strict standards, Obama would be natural born if Malcolm X was his dad.

As far as the altered portions of the cert, there are quite a few anomalies. The photo of the cert taken by Savannah Guthrie showed Obama was born in Huwaii. The term "African" was not used on these documents in the 60s. The pencil marks do not match the typed data.

The multiple layered pdf has been proven to be a complete forgery, making it difficult to declare what has been altered from the original. We would need an original before we could make any claims.

More on the numbers:
http://www.wnd.com/2012/07/secret-of-obamas-phantom-numbers-uncovered/?cat_orig=politics

[Enlightened]

I'm not a Romney fan, but I sure don't run for the Prep H whenever I hear or see him - his likable rival has cornered the market on hemorhoidal unguents, he should get an award or something for that.

[sailor]

Just who is Carol Herman? Can he/she be eliminated from the posts??? Just wondering.

[centralcal]

ABC News continues to be exposed (via Politico):

"This statement is to clarify a statement made by ABC media. I was awakened by a call from a reporter by ABC on July 20 about 5:45 in the morning. I did not know anything about a shooting in Aurora at that time," Holmes said in a statement this afternoon, read to the national press by attorney Lisa Damiani. "He asked if I was Arlene Holmes and if my son was James Holmes who lives in Aurora, Colorado. I answered yes, you have the right person. I was referring to myself."

[Sue]

sailor,

Scroll on by. No one is ever eliminated. Just detained momentarily. And she is not abusive.

[Threadkiller]

The "layers" explained here:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/07/new_obama_birth_certificate_forgery_proof_in_the_layers.html

"My newly released report examines the metadata and object code of Obama's long-form birth certificate PDF file and explains how this information corroborates the claim that Obama's PDF file never originated as a paper document, but rather was born in cyberspace or was -- to put it another way --digitally manufactured. The only time Obama's long-form birth certificate image exists as a paper document is when a computer user selects Print from the File menu. Obama's PDF file, like everything else from this administration, is a composite, a lie, an illusion -- even down to the deceptive colors presented in the file..."

And her report:

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/assets/Obama_LFBC_Report_MaraZebest_2012-07-04.pdf

I recommend they are read in there entirety.

[centralcal]

sailor: Carol Herman is a commenter on many conservative (or leaning) blogs. Everyone knows to just s.o.b. and pay him/her/it no mind.

[Theo]

Jane --

The serious answer to your question is that according to some people, when Obama said "you did not build that" he was referring to "roads and bridges" and not "your business."

In fairness, it is a close call when properly analyzed. he uttered the words "you did not build that" right after a reference to roads and bridges, but "roads and bridges" are not a "that" but a "those." Maybe he was just using bad grammar.

The whole argument is a bit of a quibble. Even if he meant to say that entrepeneurs did not build the roads and bridges that helped their business success, they certainly paid for them.

Moreover, what point exactly was he making to point out that roads and bridges help businesses? Who did not know that? What larger lesson do we draw from that fact, other than businesses should be taxed to pay for roads and bridges, a proposition that no one appears to disagree with?

He let the mask slip and now the apologists are trying to turn what he said into gibberish to avoid dealing with the implications. But there is at least a real chance that he was just talking gibberish, which does not seem like a good reason to vote for him.

[Voldemort Delenda Est ! Sandy Daze]

(sailor - your concerns are easily addressed by using Firefox along with the Greasemonkey Add-on and the killfile and the narcisolator scripts. The other day someone mentioned that there is a Greasemonkey add-on for Safari as well. For me, Firefox works sufficiently well. YMMV.)

[Enlightened]

Tapper is such a weenie. For him to push the "out-of-context" crap is so digital brownshirt it's pathetic.

[centralcal]

Even worse enlightened, as Politico printed the story of Arlene Holmes denying ABC's portrayal of her remarks, Jake Tapper set about listing all of the victims and a brief story about each of them in separate tweets. Such a noble guy, that Jake Tapper.

[Theo]

Enlightened --

I disagree. I think it is possible that he was in fact referring to "roads and bridges" when he said "you did not build that." The transcript is ambiguous with arguments that could be made either way.

The problem that I have with Tapper is that he is ASSUMING that the way Romney and friends have read the remark is incorrect. There is room for debate on this point -- although it may not matter a lot -- but Tapper should not declare that the Obama position is correct.

[Barbara]

I'm guessing they are saying, in effect "I don't hate people with black skin..."

Perhaps a minor corrolary to the Bradley Effect.

It looks like the Bradley Effect to me, too.

[Enlightened]

Egad. I would dearly love to hear ABC argue with Holmes mother about what she said/they reported.

ABC said they would address it in a BLOG POST? ATFK?

[Jane - talk is cheap!]

Thanks Theo.

ABC is scum!

[Jane - talk is cheap!]

Holmes mother should sue ABC

[Sue]

Really? Obama is echoing Elizabeth Warren's comments which she clearly was saying you didn't build your business. Obama screwed up and Tapper and his cohorts are trying to fix it for him.

[Enlightened]

"I disagree. I think it is possible that he was in fact referring to "roads and bridges" when he said "you did not build that." The transcript is ambiguous with arguments that could be made either way."

No - it is not possible. Unless he is just an abject moron. I don't buy into "gray areas" and with Bambi I do not give him the benefit of the doubt WRT supporting and uplifting the American people. He is condescending, he meant exactly what he said - if it wasn't for OTHER PEOPLE's efforts (including road and bridge building) successful people would NOT BE SUCESSFUL, ie - you did NOT DO IT ON YOUR OWN.

He meant it - he disdains successful people every time he opens his pie hole.

[Voldemort Delenda Est ! Sandy Daze]

Excellent, from American Digest:

Hi Friend,

I just wanted to let you know that some knucklehead vandalized your car by slapping an Obama sticker on it. The last thing you want is to be driving around all day looking like an idiot.

Take care, a good Samaritan

I've already copied and printed a bunch so I can add them to parked vehicles, a few of which I have seen at our local YMCA. Hah !

[Theo]

Sue and Enlightened --

It is quite clear that what he was saying was that no one builds a successful business all by themselves. This is of course true; not only roads and bridges are necessary, but the rule of law, enforceable private property rights and a national defense are all necessary pre conditions of building a successful business. No one disagrees with any of that; certainly not Mitt.

But what is Obama's point? Since basic government services are necessary to establish a successful business, no business person should feel like they ever accomplished anything? That appears to be the gist of his comment.

Yes, roads and bridges and courts and secure borders are all necessary for businesses to thrive. So are the efforts and energies and innovations and risk taking of entrepeneurs. He seems to be downplaying the latter point.

It is true that no one truly builds a business all by themselves. But government alone cannot build them either.

[centralcal]

Porchlight: NRO has a supportive piece re: Mark Regnerus I think you might appreciate.

Science Lies Bleeding

[jimmyk]

In fairness, it is a close call when properly analyzed.

It's not remotely a close call, when the only way it could be interpreted as his defenders claim is if he completely mangled the English language. While that is possible, it doesn't make it a "close call," only not 100 percent certain. It is, however, beyond a reasonable doubt that the "that" refers to "business," as that is the plain meaning of the text, and it is consistent with his pal Warren's statements.

[Ranger]

Obama's point was exactly that people don't build successful business, the 'system' (managed by government) creates the proper environment, and then people just 'luck into' success. Remember that before he said the "If you have a successful business, you didn't build that. Someone else did that." He set it up by saying "I'm always surprised by people who think 'I must be so much smarter or I work so much harder. Let me tell you, there's a lot of smart people. There's a lot of people who work hard." (or words to that effect)

Obama's point was, you, successful small business owner, are not so smart, not do you work harder. You just won life's lottery thanks to the system government built.

[Enlightened]

No. Barack Obama has repeatedly made it clear that Successful, or Rich, or Wealthy or whatever the Name-du-jour might be - must give it all back and more. His meaning was they got that way off the backs of other's so now its payback time.

Obama and his Journo-list and Spielberg scriptwriters had every intention of demonizing Successful businessmen/women so he could take a back handed jab at Romney's wealth and tax bracket.

Trust me, the speech was not meant to do anything other than ridicule, albeit ever so semantically. And he got busted.

Even the backpedaling has failed.

[centralcal]

RIP Sally Ride.

[daddy]

I am pleased to see Obama's "likable" Hollywood supporters continue to stand up for their "likable" guy, by telling previously likable Obama voters like John Lovtiz to STFU.

Ellen Barkin
✔
@EllenBarkin
John Lovitz maybe I met you a few times back in the day,but now you're just an ignorant asshole.Shut the fuck up.Long live our president.

Jon Lovitz
✔
@realjonlovitz
Thank you for all the birthday wishes! And for the rest of you, I will NEVER STFU!!! So eat me!

Makes one wonder why such a "likable" guy has so many dislikable supporters.

Megaphoneboss@megaphoneboss 20 Jul 12
@realjonlovitz so you feel you are qualified to question @BarackObama as our President? You are just another opportunistic &!$@? prick!!!

Jon Lovitz
✔
@realjonlovitz
@megaphoneboss If we're qualified to vote for him, we're qualified to criticize him. He works for the people. Or didn't you know that?

I am really enjoying observing Lovitz as he experiences his road to Damascus.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Exactly what was out of context?

The part where he put his foot in his mouth.

[Rick Ballard]

I wish I could have attended the breakout session of the Pinhead Troika where the idea of attacking Romney for his success was first broached. That spark of brilliance, to attack success after a string of failures on the part of the President and his entire administration, unmatched in American history, should serve as the most fitting epitaph for Obama.

Wrt Tapper - his apologia would be much more acceptable if it began with "Look, this ninny doesn't know the difference between a paralegal and a Navy Corpseman..."

Barring that, he needs to go with a simple mistranslation from the original Cherokendonesian.

[Danube of Thought]

"the Deputy Attorney General of that state would not provide confirmation that the record held on file by the Hawaiian Health Department actually matched the image placed on the internet by Obama."

I need to be refreshed here. It seems to be agreed that the original, "long" certificate does exist, and is in a binder in the archives somewhere. Haven't one or more Hawaii officials certified that the information contained in the "short" form conforms to that in the long form (to the extent the two forms contain the same information)? If so, that would seem to settle the place of birth, although not some other things if this document is a fabrication.

This thing will not get judicial scrutiny until it is presented to a court, and it is hard for me to see who can get it there, or how. Meantime, if I were Darrell Issa I would quietly have the best team of techs available to me examine this with an eye to shooting holes in the Arpaio theory if they can.

And if they can't, I believe he can issue a subpoena requiring the Hawaii custodian of the original document appear before his committee and produce it. Better get his ducks very carefully in a row before he does so.

[TexasMom2012]

Heh, government uses those roads and bridges as well... The roads and bridges the taxpayers paid for! Government truly cannot do anything by itself; it must collect tax dollars to pay for everything it does, except print money.

[rse]

Theo-we are quite aware here of Obama's communitarian ethos and how he is using our tax dollars to force feed American schoolchildren that we-ness precedes any sense of I. That everything they are and can do is derivative of their environment and their interactions with others. That a person is nothing apart from the community they are a part of.

That view is abhorrent to the essence of America and freedom and liberty. We do not agree with that rejection of the concept of the individual. We heard it loud and clear in those remarks. Some of us have been unlucky enough to have read the philosophy delineated in full in Cass Sunstein's books, most notably Free Markets and Social Justice.

Obama on the other hand finds Sunstein's political and economic philosophies so endearing that he made him the Regulatory Czar so he would be in a position to stealthily put as much of it in place as was possible in 4 years.

Not. Out. Of. Context.

[TexasMom2012]

And taxes are collected by force whereas business gets their revenues from voluntary transactions!

[Captain Hate]

I saw a picture of Ellen Barkin the other day; she used to be very cute but it looks like she's had some work done that went really really badly. Or maybe it's just her ugliness inside coming through her skin.

[pagar]

Centralcal, thanks for letting us know.

Sally Ride, RIP
Another great American gone so young.

[Enlightened]

Ellen Barkin? Well, her mouth might be fouler than mine. Other than that - who is she?

[Ranger]

So, here is the full context:

There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me — because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t — look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. (Applause.)

If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.

I don't think you can detach that first bolded part from the second. They are all part of the same train of thought.

[Clarice]

Heh, Chaco. Hard to accept that the man Historian Beschloss characterizes as the smartest president who ever lived, the president of the HLS and a lecturer at the Univ of Chic Law school can't speak 6th grade grammatical English. I mean those who say he didn't mean what he said are asking me to accept that away from the teleprompter he's a tongue tied moron.

[Clarice]

"" who is she?" A third rate actress who married well and divorced even better.

[What are we gonna do, Lobster Lady Tuidsmere?]

Lobstered.
======

[Captain Hate]

Ellen was very good in "The Big Easy" and "Switch" (in the latter she did a very effective job of playing a man who was placed in a woman's body who could never get used to walking in heels, dealing with wimmenz hair styles and having hooters). She's been in a lot of other movies (those were in the late 80s and early 90s) that interest me not at all.

[Some guy]

likable?

Maybe people were thinking "like" in the simile context -- such as 'like a virgin' or 'like the kind of guy who would smile while stealing your wallet'.

I can't imagine a super-majority would find the most callous, insular, partisan, nasty a-hole to have a Pennsylvania Avenue address in a generation to be 'likable'.

If I had to bet, it's a hedge in answering the pollsters. People probably aren't comfortable saying, 'I hate the guy and everything he stands for' because that could be interpreted as racist by some stranger asking questions. Instead, they answer in the 'love the guy, good man, he's just been dealt a bad hand, maybe over his head' manner.

[daddy]

JOM Legal guys,

Any input on whether or not Mark Steyn and NRO would welcome a Defamation Lawsuit being threatened by Penn State Climatologist Michael Mann?

The first I heard of it was via Kim's Watts Up link here:

Dr. Michael Mann invokes the Streisand effect

Today Insty posts this update:

UnManned

Seems one side is salivating at the opportunity to get Mann under oath and to start picking away during discovery at his ClimateGate studies and e-mails.

As a non-Lawyer, it sure seems to me to be a Pandora's Box, but I just don't know on who's side it would cause the most problems.

[Clarice]

I forgot Barkin was in Diner and Tender Mercies and she was good in those, too.

[pagar]

" I mean those who say he didn't mean what he said are asking me to accept that away from the teleprompter he's a tongue tied moron."

Clarice, from a link I think you put up earlier.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/07/david-gelernter-what-keeps-this-failed-president-above-water.php

"You might think that Obama makes a poor intellectual: he doesn’t seem to read; ideas evidently mean nothing to him. But notice that he governs on the basis of theories and not facts. And he graduated from Columbia and Harvard. Case closed."

I'd sure like to know what those college records show about who thought he qualified to graduate.

[Captain Hate]

Those were even longer ago, Clarice; before I even knew who she was. She was good in "Sea of Love" too.

[narciso]

Still the pickings have been kind of slim,

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000289/

I mean Modern Family, a cougar in the sputtering Ocean's franchise,

[daddy]

As for likable, the first 4 minutes of this Dennis Miller/O'Reilly clip from a few months back deal with O's "likability." (Miller wasn't yet repulsed by Obama's behavior yet)

"I think he's a likable guy, but if you press anybody and say "Why do you like him, they don't really know."

It is interesting to see how eager "FanBoy" O'Reilly is to hang out with Barrack, and he has a hard time believing that Miller is not a celebrity worshipper like he is.

What an odd pair those 2 guys are.

BTW, I think Miller is doing a show in Boston in a month and I hope Jane, TC, Rocco, Dave might have a chance to catch him.

Bonus: Nice shot in the clip of Liz Hasselback in a very short skirt!

[Captain Hate]

Some of those scream "direct to DVD", narc.

[Enlightened]

Ah - I get it - she married some mega-rich guy, her acting career is kinda down the shitter - so she is now a champion of the down-trodden and/or those "less well off than she".

Got it. She has a typical Hollywood resume, so therefore can spew vile at will. Booyah.

[Extraneus]

I think this likeability thing is going to be their proverbial Waterloo.

If there's one thing a convention can do, it's raise a candidate's likeability. In 2008, after years of detesting him, even I was able to temporarily* "like" McCain based on his personal story.

I'm sure that Romney has plenty of heartwarming stories that most people have never heard. Delivering Christmas turkeys to Tiny Tim's parents, for example. And probably many others, such as finding a coworker's drug-addled runaway daughter.

*I'm back to detesting the fool.

[Sue]

Obamacare off teleprompter tried to paraphrase Elizabeth Warren. And Tapper is doing clean up on aisle 9.

[Captain Hate]

BOR associates with Dennis Miller, Tammy Bruce, Laura Ingraham and Cavuto and still acts like he's stumped when it comes to connecting the dots. Someone should ask him if it's necessary to act like a dumbass to move his Factor gear.

[Sue]

Me and Kindle need to talk. Obama.

[centralcal]

Apparently, ABC News will not take the high road and still insist that when Mrs. Holmes said "You have the right person" to a reporter calling her at the crack of dawn, she was NOT referring to herself.

Utter assholes. For her words to mean what they want them to mean, she would have said "They have the right person..."

[centralcal]

Captain Hate - BOR also frequently has Brian Ross on as a guest to promote whatever his latest investigative report is. Wonder if he will have his pal Brian on to discuss his latest investigative reportage?

[daddy]

"You might think that Obama makes a poor intellectual: he doesn’t seem to read; ideas evidently mean nothing to him. But notice that he governs on the basis of theories and not facts. And he graduated from Columbia and Harvard. Case closed."

Today, researching a bit in order to comment on a David Brook's story in our local paper I came upon Brook's "pant crease" comment again. What stuck out this time tho', was the bit just before that about Barry's obvious "intellectualism":

"In the spring of 2005, New York Times columnist David Brooks arrived at then-Senator Barack Obama’s office for a chat. Brooks, a conservative writer who joined the Times in 2003 from The Weekly Standard, had never met Obama before. But, as they chewed over the finer points of Edmund Burke, it didn’t take long for the two men to click. “I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging,” Brooks recently told me, “but usually when I talk to senators, while they may know a policy area better than me, they generally don’t know political philosophy better than me. I got the sense he knew both better than me.”

The finer points of Edmund Burke. Right.

That's what led to Brooks next comment:

“I remember distinctly an image of--we were sitting on his couches, and I was looking at his pant leg and his perfectly creased pant,” Brooks says, “and I’m thinking, a) he’s going to be president and b) he’ll be a very good president.”

[rse]

Ranger's quote is that classic Marxist view that who you are and what you become is entirely derivative of the community you were lucky enough to be embedded in at the time of your birth. It's the same rational they use for gutting academics because your abilities are derivative of your better environment. It would thus be inequitable and inconsistent with equality of opportunity to foster them further.

In fact that's why all environments must be made as close to the same as possible. The state needs to step in prenatal in fact and provide the missing nurturing. Be there from the cradle on helping to fill the gaps.

Only the welfare state can provide the needed environment. Only an education that is based in feelings can be truly nondiscriminatory since that is the only aspect that all students have and differences do not matter.

The latter is in fact the UN's view on the subject which is why the Senate does not want to ratify that UN treaty on disabilities that DeMint at the moment is holding up. But that apparently has plenty of Republican support to show how caring they are and committed to aiding the disabled.

The UN solution is to hobble the able and I really wish some Republican staffer understood UNESCO ed policy. They have been quite open with their solution on this point. You can bet the Dems are not sharing what they know via the NEA initiatives.

[MarkO]

"No - it is not possible. Unless he is just an abject moron."

He's just not that smart.
And, he's a liar.
And, he's a nasty little man.

All of the above.

[Extraneus]

O'Reilly can't even have a conversation with Dennis Miller due to their intelligence difference. That was painful to watch.

[daddy]

Holy Smokes!!!

The Yanker's just traded for Ichiro!

[Sue]

From Seattle?

[daddy]

Apparently Ichiro will be playing tonight in Seattle in Yankee Pinstripes.

OK TM, where's the Ichiro thread?

He's not near as quick as he used to be, nor with quite the bat speed or the cannon of an arm, but he's still a great player.

Will be interesting for me to see how my Japanese buddies deal with Ichiro being a Yank.