Dirtiest Campaign Ever?

The press is starting to notice:

Even the media’s had enough.

The race for the White House has grown so toxic that it’s become a top topic among reporters and analysts covering the contest — and some are even calling on President Barack Obama and presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney to call a truce.

“[Wednesday], specifically … was a terrible day for a discourse in democracy,” Brian Williams said Wednesday on The Daily Show. “We can’t, as a country, keep doing this.”

And what happened Wednesday?

“I don’t want to overstate it but last night was a big, historical moment, I think, in this campaign,” Halperin said.

He suggested that Obama call Romney and negotiate a truce, so the two candidates could then instruct their aides to knock off the brutal attacks and get back on the high road.

“Both campaigns are expressing not faux outrage, which is mostly what we see , but genuine outrage,” Halperin said. “Based on what happened last night, the president’s team is stunned that the president would be accused of engaging in a campaign of hate. Mitt Romney used the word ‘hate’. I think he meant it. I think the president’s team was very stung by it. Either today and the rest of this week we’re going to escalate into nuclear war, or I’d like to see some détente. This is not the campaign I think either of these candidates wants.”

Romney's outrage:

Mitt Romney, capping off a five-state bus tour in Ohio Tuesday night, delivered the most aggressive and fiery speech of his bid for the presidency -- accusing President Obama of running a "campaign of division and anger and hate" while taking on what he called an "outrageous charge" by Vice President Biden.

No kidding. Team Obama has no ideas and no plan whatsover for even pretending to work with a Republican House and possible Republican Senate.

The Politico expounds on Romney's change in tone and includes this Romney attack:

“This president has pushed Republicans and Democrats as far apart as they can go,” Romney said Tuesday night in Chillicothe, Ohio. “And now he and his allies are pushing us all even further apart by dividing us into groups. He demonizes some. He panders to others. His campaign strategy is to smash America apart and then cobble together 51 percent of the pieces. If an American president wins that way, we all lose. But he won’t win that way.”

The fellow who ran as a uniter, not a divider and promised to change the tone in Washington is long gone.

Comments

[Danube of Thought]

And in the eyes of the press it's all morally equivalent.

Show me anything equivalent to that Soptic smear.

[Ignatz]

Absolutely classic narcissistic behavior with the enabling press and everything; make an outrageous scurrilous comment then when the target quite properly objects, call for a truce.
Rinse, repeat.

[Rob Crawford]

And one of the MSNBC "commentators" has injected the "n-word" into it. Some guy named "Tarday" or something like that.

[Rick Ballard]

It appears the President may have made an error equivalent to the one made by his adopted son. Governor Romney (per the Tarrance Group advice to surrogates) was not supposed to invoke SYG due to the potential sympathy it might elicit for the Kendonesian Commie.

Is Truth considered a Concealed Weapon? Does Governor Romney have the requisite permit?

[DebinNC]

HuffPo on newly released ad "Granny Off the Cliff II":
Erica Payne, the producer of the video and president of the Agenda Project Action Fund, announced in an email statement that WMTV-Madison, a local NBC affiliate, declined to air the ad "due to content." The station's general manager Bob Smith told the group that it is at the station's discretion whether or not it will air spots. The ad began airing in Ohio, Florida and Colorado this week. The Wisconsin station is the first to turn the ad down, according to the Agenda Project Action Fund.

Kudos WMTV. We should take the time to thank them and excoriate stations that run trash like this.

[derwill]

Anybody think the media would be calling for a truce if the Dems were winning their smear war? But the slime blew back on Obama, got him all muddy and hurt his likability, so now it's a bad thing.

[DebinNC]

Thank WMTV Madison

[lyle]

Dear gawd. Mitt's a tax-evader, a cancer-causing robber baron, a secretive off-shore bankster, a bully wimp, and LDS, to boot. (Not that one, this one: Latter Day Slaveowner).

And whose side did these slurs originate?

[narciso]

Aggressive cognitive error, he went to the College of William and Mary though;

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/jon-stewart-blasts-divisive-charge-against-obama-by-chronicling-gops-own-divisiveness/

[Soylent Red]

This is not the campaign I think either of these candidates wants.

IOW, Romney fighting back is damaging Obama's ability to define him. Waaaaaaaah!

[Ranger]

“Based on what happened last night, the president’s team is stunned that the president would be accused of engaging in a campaign of hate. Mitt Romney used the word ‘hate’. I think he meant it..."

I'm sure the President and his campaign are stunned. This kind of talk is normal chitchat and banter in the circles they run in. They are stunned that they are being called out on it, and that it is actually sticking to them. Just like I am sure they are stunned to learn that if you call a particular organization you disagree with a "Hate Group" that someone who deeply and ernsetly believes you might actually try to shoot the place up.

[NK]

It won't stop-- the Troika and AxelPlouffe will carry on piling on meaningless shite-- they have got to disgust the Indies enough to stay away from the polls. Will it work? No, but that won't stop the Obamaniacs.

[maryrose]

Blowback is a b----! Obama is divisive and dirty. Today by chance I saw him and the missus sitting together on a bench saying all we are trying to do is to get people working again.Gag me with a spoon! It was a disgusting pandering display, as if he was above it all. Go back to Chicago, loser!

[Some guy]

"the president’s team is stunned"

That must be one of those "shovel ready projects" they were always talking about.

Sure, it's a steaming pile, but it is shovel ready.

[Captain Hate]

Can I have some more Sununu verbally smacking Alcatraz O'Brien around? Dear God, three months ago I'd have never imagined saying anything positive about him.

[narciso]

It's getting to be, like Jane Curtin/Dan Akroyd sketches from SNL, when it was still funny.

[Gospace]

"The fellow who ran as a uniter, not a divider and promised to change the tone in Washington is long gone."

Long gone? Oh, I get it, you're talking about Bush. The second one, who actually did try to get along with Democrats in congress- and look where it got him.

[Captain Hate]

The sniping between the Pinhead Troika should get brutal as everyone tries to deny complicity in this disaster. It's hard to feel sympathy for any of those vermin but I particularly want ValJar to be drenched in humiliation.

[Soylent Red]

I particularly want ValJar to be drenched in humiliation.

I was thinking more along the lines of boiling oil.

Maybe your way is better.

[narciso]

They really do look at '1984' as if it was a 'cook' I mean guide book;

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graham/2012/08/15/only-abc-offers-full-story-shooting-frc-cbs-nbc-blow-it-tiny-reports#ixzz23ii4uAux

[Captain Hate]

I was thinking of some more graphic liquid descriptions but decided that's too close to dumbassshrum's MO

[Threadkiller]

The derision is too damn high!!

[Ranger]

I seriously doubt Obama wants to have this debate:

Oh my: Romney busts out the white board on Medicare

Romney on the attack on all fronts, and Obama on the verge of angering the indies so much they don't stay home in disgust, they march out to vote against him.

[derwill]

Via Neo-neocon, Maureen Dowd says Ryan shouldn't be allowed to be so handsome and smiley-faced if he's going to be so mean. Ezra Klein says that Obama totally manipulated Romney into picking Ryan by building Ryan up so that Repubs grew to like him, then tearing him down so that Repubs were forced to rush to his defense, and now that Romeny's taken Obama's bait, Romney might win, but then, because of Ryan, Romney will have to govern as a conservative, rather than a moderate, which he would have governed as if he hadn't picket Ryan--and all of this is happening because Obama is just too brilliant for his own good, or something like that.

Is it too soon to say that the Dems have lost their ever-lovin' mind?

[Threadkiller]

They cry about the engagements
Between Romney and the dimwits
The last four years
Like the Dumbo ears
The media just declared "off limits"

[narciso]

You're assuming they've been of 'sound mind' any time in the recent past.

[Captain Hate]

Ezra's entering the Special Ed Schultz city limits.

[narciso]

Doesn't he sub for Maddow, on occasion,

[MarkO]

Ah. What would Sun Tzu do?

As soon as there is a truce, Obama will violate it, blame Romney and take the advantage.

This missive from the press is as Don Corleone explained. The first to seek a truce is the traitor.

[Threadkiller]

White board sounds so racist anymore.

[Captain Hate]

Doesn't he sub for Maddow, on occasion,

This is one of those times that I'm grateful to not have cable.

[Rick Ballard]

"Is it too soon to say that the Dems have lost their ever-lovin' mind?"

Derwill,

I picture the Pinhead Troika as Curley, Moe and Larry reading the ACME Political Strategery Manual upside down.

There just ain't much to lose.

[MarkO]

"Standing on the defensive indicates insufficient strength; attacking, a superabundance of strength."

Give 'em Hell, Mitt.

[Porchlight]

Don't take the bait, Mitt.

[Extraneus]

They seem truly hurt about this terrible turn in the national discourse.

[AliceH]

The D campaign toolkit consists entirely of lies, bribes and threats. They've got nothing to deal with an opponent who comes out swinging with facts, integrity and a plan. Yeah, i'll bet they're stunned.

[Extraneus]

Carney On Black Fmr. Dem Gov: "He Doesn't Have A Point" On Biden

Reporter: Former Virginia Governor Douglas Wilder, a Democrat, he basically called them inappropriate, the comments. He said you can't defend it. Do you think that the first African American Governor since reconstruction, as you put it, trying to make something out of nothing and distract from policy debates or does he have a point?

Jay Carney: He doesn't have a point, the vice president was talking about Wall Street reform.

[narciso]

'There's been a great disturbance in the force' Ext, Williams can repeat the lie that Romney is a tax evader, contributed to someone's death, I think the death squad thing is next, but have them respond forcefully, that's 'crossing the streams'

Of course, one would rather talk about how every clean energy investment has been a scam, how Sutton/Dillinger lived up to my sobriquet, enabling Don Corzione's stickup,
etc, etc.

[Rick Ballard]

Porchlight,

Governor Romney will probably shift to policy but it won't be backing down. He'll just be mixing punches and setting up the next combination. I wonder when he's going to Oregon? I'd like to see a Michigan, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Oregon swing with a Ryan follow up visit to New Mexico and Oregon prior to the convention.

OFA still has too much money and needs encouragement to blow ever greater amounts.

[Extraneus]

I think dublindave would be the first to tell you that this Seamus thing has legs.

Jake Tapper asks if Obama’s three references to Seamus are part of the “important policy debate” the White House is trying to have, which is allegedly being foiled by Romney and Ryan. Carney demurs, saying the Seamus line was just a joke in three speeches and shouldn’t overtake the conversation. Tapper calls the comment “cable catnip” the White House should be savvy enough to avoid. Carney exhibits wide-eyed innocence as most of the press corps chuckles.

Btw, has anyone noted that Obama should have been familiar with the pronunciation of "press corps" even if he had no knowledge of the military?

[narciso]

There's something 'rotten' in the state of DenMark;

http://freebeacon.com/gone-with-the-wind/

btw it turns out Plouffe, 'has 'splaining to do, as he was invested in Standard Charter bank, which hade dealing with Iran, but I recall was a conduit for several of the hijackers.

[Porchlight]

I'd like to see a Michigan, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Oregon swing with a Ryan follow up visit to New Mexico and Oregon prior to the convention.

Heck yes. I want aggressive action in the Western states no one thinks Romney can take. I have a feeling they're planning this for after the convention but you never know.

[Jane - talk is cheap!]

Ed Klein says up til a couple of weeks ago the WH was putting out feelers to get Hillary on the ticket. Bill wanted her to do it. Hillary met with Valjar and said "no".

She doesn't want to be tarred as a loser if Obama loses and she doesn't want to defend his left wing policies if he wins.

[pops]

The media talking heads are upset because Romeny is fighting back and winning. They like it much better when you have a McCain that basically spent his time trying to cort and agree with the liberal media.

Romney should take the next step and point out this entire media, political structure is a big lie. MSNBC, NBC, ABC, WashPost NYT are all no more then shills for liberals and couldn't care less about good government or protecting the citizens or not raiding the treasury ONLY when a Republican is in the white house.

[narciso]

So, even more details, about the coup in all but name;

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/what-egypts-president_650036.html?nopager=1

[pops]

It was very funny to see Juan Williams actually arguing that Obama didn't CUT Medicare 716 Billion, he simply slowed the rate of growth.

Which is exactly what every Republican plan ever proposed did was slow the rate of growth of these programs.

But Brett Baer pointed out that in this town slowing growth is allways considered a cut.

[derwill]

Unlike "my friends", Romney isn't so stupid as to think that the media are his friends.

And Sarah, Rudy and McCain all "advising" Bam to dump the crazy uncle looked too coordinated to've been an accident. Somehow the Romney campaign got wind of it and decided to do a preemptive strike. Brilliant strategy on their part, even if it turned out not to have been necessary, if it's true about Hillary turning the offer down.

[narciso]

Actually, it isn't anymore pops,

[NK]

Sun Tzu and don Corleone are always right. Agree to nothing, just say we weren't picking any fights, we were only responding. So when YOU STOP FIRST, our responses will stop.

[Clarice]

Rick, someone ripped out the pages of the manual after the chapter on getting your opponents' sealed divorce records made public and pack the convention with superdelegates.

[NJ Jan]

I think the Romney camp and Palin knew Hillary had already turned it down and used it to highlight Bidens total incompetence and force Obama to come out and personally defend him rather than keeping a distance between him and Biden. Smart political move.

[Thomas Collins]

Re the Klein story of Hillary turning down His Oneness: looks as if my friends here who have been maintaining that The Hill would never do this are absolutely right, and I am wrong. Just permit me some red wine to make my crow go down easier (of course, if I imbibe too much, I may forget to eat the crow).

[Jane - talk is cheap!]

I think a part of the country has woken up. More than the tea party, or the intense political people - and not everyone - but the guy who wore the T-shirt while catering the Obama event, the woman who refuses to allow EBT cards, the mechanic today who said: "I didn't build that? Yeah right".

These are the troops we need. They are energized and ready to go.

Oh and I don't see a nasty campaign on our side. I'm not buying into the Dick "they all do it" meme just yet.

[narciso]

So, from the Haaretz story, in that last link, they are going fulling 'ERgonokon'
or Kronstadt as the case may be, in Egypt.

[Porchlight]

And the beer tent guy, Jane, and the baker today. Basta - enough. (Isn't that in The Godfather, too?)

[Ranger]

Mitt should do a riff off of Truman... I'm not running a dirty campaign, I just tell the truth, and they think it's dirty.

[NJ Jan]

After this election is over and Romney wins, I think the turning point will be seen as the day Obama said, "You didn't build it". It has opened a lot of people's eyes as nothing else has.

[Jane - talk is cheap!]

This is going to get really fun:

Romney-Ryan prepare assault on spending

[Porchlight]

CNN moves Wisconsin from lean Dem to tossup:

http://hotair.com/archives/2012/08/16/cnn-moves-wisconsin-from-leans-obama-to-toss-up/

Anyone surprised?

[Jane - talk is cheap!]

Jan,

"You didn't build that" followed by Paul Ryan.

[bgates]

"a terrible day for a discourse in democracy,” Brian Williams said Wednesday on The Daily Show.

Fake Person on Fake Show Fakes Sentiment.

[Clarice]

Ditto,Jane.

[coolpapa]

This campaign is a waltz through the tulips compared to some of the past (i.e., 1800 or 1828). The whole "this campaign is too dirty" meme is just the latest media attempt to shame Romney into lightening up on Obama.

The President is looking an awful lot like a wanna-be schoolyard bully who likes to dish it out, but runs squealing to the teacher when someone steps up and bloodies his nose.

[bgates]

And now he and his allies are pushing us all even further apart by dividing us into groups. He demonizes some. He panders to others. His campaign strategy is to smash America apart and then cobble together 51 percent of the pieces.

Romney's charge was immediately disputed by spokespersons from Latino/as for Obama, Pacific Islanders for Obama, Women for Obama, LGBQTs for Obama, and Muslims for Obama (spokespersons for the latter two groups speaking from different locations), who said Obama is the only man who can save them from the Koch Brothers, Sheldon Adelson, and Gibson Guitars by increasing welfare outreach and funding union pensions.

[Thomas Collins]

Re the title of this thread: As dirty as Axelmessplouffe will make the Election of 2012, I suspect it won't supplant the Election of 1828 for pure down home fun mudslinging. See LUN.

[narciso]

I think JQ Adams accused Jackson, of adultery,
and Jackson made some references to some activities when Adams was Ambassador to Russia, in the 1824 election,from the HW Brand biography, but no one was willing to accuse another of causing a death.

[NJ Jan]

Jane,

I agree. "you didn't build it" got their attention and Paul Ryan is keeping it and I think it will continue to grow as more people start to tune in to the election. It also helps that we have a ticket that is willing and able to punch back instead of laying down and meekly taking it.

[Sue]

Doug Wilder attended a Romney fundraiser.

[Thomas Collins]

Whoops! Sorry, coolpapa. I didn't see you already noted 1828 (and added 1800 to the mix).

[narciso]

I stand corrected, on that point, and since Jackson was a street fighter, it's not surprising that they'd accuse him of killing
people in duels.

[Sue]

That's a big effin deal.

[NK]

Is there a link to Wilder attending?

[Jane - talk is cheap!]

I want them to start talking about cronyism - from Solyndra to Corzine, to TSA and everything in between. I want some penalties for that stuff and I want them to be very very harsh.

Everyone is so willing to just glide over it. And I'm not.

[MarkO]

Was there an Internet in 1800 or 1828? This slime may not be the absolute worst, but it is spread the farthest.

[MarkO]

The Romney campaign appears to be well organized to capitalize on the entire record.

[narciso]

I think this is it;

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/08/16/former-va-gov-doug-wilder-appears-at-romney-fundraiser/

[Sue]

NK

Sorry. I'm on my kindle and can barely type. DrewM at AOS tweeted it.

[Thomas Collins]

No internet, MarkO, but the newspapers were written in a boisterous but precise style that puts today's MSM to shame. See LUN.

[Clarice]

Brian doesn't want a "discourse". He couldn't handle a "discourse".

[narciso]

Not even the dessert course;

After high school Wiliams attended Brookdale Community College, after which he transferred to The Catholic University of America, and then The George Washington University.[11] He did not graduate, and instead interned with the administration of President Jimmy Carter. He now calls leaving college one of his "great regrets".[12] Brian Williams completed a total of 18 college credits."[13

[narciso]

I think the Internet, has somewhat brought us back to that free wheeling era, the good and the bad, the MSM is almost entirely in the
mindset of one faction,

[GMax]

OK show of hands. Who thinks Republicans are losing the argument right now? Who thinks its even close? Raise your hand and we will get you the help you desperately need...

[AliceH]

--Brian Williams completed a total of 18 college credits.--

How in the world does one go to 3 different colleges and get only 18 credits?

[narciso]

as the esteemed political strategist, Bill Engvahl, might have put it 'there's your sign'

Of course there aren't enough trees to fit Williams, Halperin, Klein (all but Ed) et al, to make them all,

[Clarice]

"How in the world does one go to 3 different colleges and get only 18 credits?"

Those journalism courses in modulating your tone of voice, looking serious, dressing snazzily and keeping your hair and makeup perfect require an absolute TON of lab time, Alice.

[Ranger]

Who thinks Republicans are losing the argument right now?

Exhibit a that the Rs are winning this argument:

Campaign’s fierce rhetoric on Medicare dims hope for a solution, experts say

Because, of course, the way to solve a problem in a democracy is not to have an open debate, but to let the technocrats figure out the righ answer, and shove it throught the legislature, just like Obamacare.

[GMax]

What not even Dana will raise his hand? Its going so poorly for Zero that he wants to talk about 1963? LOL say your prayers you are not stuck teaching anarchy to naive freshman in a third rate institution

[pagar]

"(spokespersons for the latter two groups speaking from different locations)"

I had no idea these groups were separately located.

Seems like with Obama being them together, etc,etc.
--------------------------------------
"How in the world does one go to 3 different colleges and get only 18 credits? "

Wasn't one of the early arguments against Palin that she went to several different colleges so she wasn't serious?

[narciso]

And apparently lie about it, since Goldwater was a good friend of JFK, which is about Brinkley's m.o. anyways.

[henry]

I just spent a fabulous afternoon with several players from the WI Revolution. Gov Walker is even better in person than on TV! It was like having your picture taken with your neighbor -- he is the real deal! Had a Spotted Cow with Robin Vos (co-chair joint finance committee) and Jeff Stone (assemblyman, author of Voter ID law copied by Indiana and Penna). Chatted with Van Wanggaard about his campaign to regain his senate seat (could start as early as next July w/ a recall - heh). About 40 attendees on Brown Lake in Burlington. Romney / Ryan will win WI.

[pagar]

Put your hand over your billfold.

"Mr. Corzine, in a bid to rebuild his image and engage his passion for trading, is weighing whether to start a hedge fund, according to people with knowledge of his plans."

Do not be alarmed, your funds are protected by NO ONE.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/jon-corzine-will-not-only-not-face-prosectuion-may-be-launching-hedge-fund-imminently

[GMax]

Think about how mushy headed you would have to be to put even a farthing with a guy who managed to lose billions of folks money. Not a farthing.

[Clarice]

henry, when i was a kid we used to spend a week or two every summer at that lake.

[Ranger]

I have to say that the Medicare debate has the real chance of "nationalizing" a lot of Senate races. If it really becomes clear that the only way to undo the Obama cuts to Medicare is to repeal Obamacare, then I think there are a few Dem Senators that should be nervous.

[rse]

Yeah henry!!

[49erDweet]

@ Rob Crawford | August 16, 2012 at 06:13 PM.
Think the correct pronunciation is "Toad-eee"

[narciso]

Cool Henry, 'winning the future' pagar, apparently from the footnotes, Brinkley doesn't believe Oswald acted alone, as he labels Posner's account 'conjecture' then again one of his sources, is one of the last die hard conspiracy theorists, Gary Mack.

[henry]

Clarice, I met a gentleman who used to take his girlfriend to a bar on the lake (stopped when they married) at the same place the host's house is now. It is a beautiful setting about 10 min from my house.

[Ranger]

He was friends with Eisenhower

One does not preclude the other, disinformationist

[Clarice]

My mom was a great swimmer and every summer she'd swim across the lake with my dad following in a rowboat in case of trouble. As I look at the map it really wasn't far from our home (Cudahy) but it seemed quite far away to us at the time.