A Crack In The Facade

With the Muslim world in flames Nick Kristof uses his space at the Times to assure us that Mitt Romney is a foreign policy fumbler. However, we do note this crack in the facade:

Presidential candidates always have microphones in their faces, and it’s not surprising that periodically they say inane things. President Obama himself blew it a few days ago by mistakenly asserting that we didn’t consider Egypt an ally. But Obama then had the good sense to have the White House clarify that “not an ally” in that context meant “an ally.”

Obvi. Juan Cole and Michael Tomasky are still waving the pom-poms for Obama as a bold diplomatic genius. Uh huh - Obama delivers an utterly implausible threat the US will never carry out without consulting with the National Security Council, State,the Pentagon, or any or our allies. If Bush did that, he'd be a reckless unilateral cowboy; when Obama does it, he's a genius. Got it.

Comments

[Porchlight]

And both the "campaign events" at the public parks in Cincy and Columbus are closed press.

So he uses a public park for a campaing event, presumably shutting it down for the day, and the press aren't even allowed in?

[Captain Hate]

Yes Porch; I thought the entire daily schedule was a nice slap in the face to his MFM beaten spouse enablers.

[Clarice]

Here via Insty:
http://datechguyblog.com/2012/09/17/demoralized-as-hell-the-poll-the-media-isnt-talking-about-edition/

Republican registrations beating Dems by significant margins.

[Ignatz]

--Iggy, are you confusing Moran with Jim Webb; or is Janet stuck being represented by two cretins with Great Pumpkin sized domes.--

CH,
Circumference-wise I have no doubt Webb would take home the biscuit for most commodious cranium, but for pure fat content I suspect Moran would win best of show in a cakewalk.
Now if solid bone from overhanging brow to greasy occiput was the criterion I'd put my money on Ed Markey for the win, Alan Grayson to place and Patty Murray to show.

[Rob Crawford]

The first thing to ask about any story is, "how many on-the-record sources are quoted who: 1) are in a position to know, and 2) do not have interests in pushing the story's thesis".

Politico has, in the past, tried to push major stories attacking Romney that had ZERO supporting on-the-record, knowledgeable, non-opposition sources. They were, in other words, either the rants of those who lost arguments inside the campaign -- but value their "access" and paychecks too much to go on-the-record -- or completely made up by the opposition.

[hrtshpdbox]

Can't you recognize agitprop?
Yeah, and that article ain't it. Read this line from the original convention speech, written by Peter Wehner and squashed by Stuart Stevens:
“The incumbent president is trying to lower the expectations of our nation to the sorry level of his own achievement. He only wins if you settle."
Was there a line that good in the speech Romney delivered? Is there a Politico reporter good enough to write that line?

[Rob Crawford]

Was there a line that good in the speech Romney delivered? Is there a Politico reporter good enough to write that line?

Is there an on-the-record source verifying that the line existed and was removed?

Politico is a wholly-owned subsidiary of JournoLism 4.0 (or whatever they're on now). They lie. I do not believe a word they say, and count any facts they report to be more an accident of probability than a purposeful act.

[Janet]

We better get all the noggin size jokes out of our systems before it is outlawed. Noggin' blasphemy....comin' to a town near you.

[Janet]

Noggin blasphemy...I guess there is no '. It isn't short for nogging. Although Urban Dictionary has this - "Similar to egging, Nogging is the assault or vandalism of any person, place, or thing, using eggnog."

Noggin' Webb or Moran's noggin sounds appealing.

[hrtshpdbox]

Is there an on-the-record source verifying that the line existed and was removed?

My point is that everything about the story can't be false....because there's that line. Inserted anywhere into the speech Romney gave, it would have been the quotable line, period.

[Janet]

Okay...that's enough. I'm off to get a life.

[Porchlight]

The DaTechGuy piece at Clarice's link is a MUST-READ for anyone depressed about polling.

Here it is again:

http://datechguyblog.com/2012/09/17/demoralized-as-hell-the-poll-the-media-isnt-talking-about-edition/

[Captain Hate]

Iggy, I'm still having a hard time coming to grips with the fact that I'm living in a country where Alan Grayson continues to get enough signatures to run for office. Were all of those people truly aware of what they were doing or did they believe they were signing a petition for him to be deported?

Janet, fortunately next year Jim Webb will be at home with no need to apply beach blanket sized compresses to his fevered brow.

[Janet]

Hahahaahaa, Captain! Too funny!

[Clarice]

"Explosive blasts destroyed power lines to Iran's underground nuclear facility at Fordo last month, the head of Iran's atomic agency said at a meeting of UN atomic agency member states Monday.

"On ... 17th August 2012, the electric power lines from the city of Qom to the Fordo complex ... were cut using explosives," Fereydoon Abbasi Davani told the 155-nation International Atomic Energy Agency gathering in a speech.

Davani did not accuse anyone of sabotage, but in the past Iran has claimed both Israel and the United States were behind the assassinations of nuclear scientists and computer viruses targetting its facilities."

Read more: http://www.myfoxdc.com/story/19561388/iran-atomic-chief-says-explosives-cut-power-at-facility#.UFdI3w8tTwU.twitter#ixzz26kAQvOim

[pagar]

"They lie. I do not believe a word they say, and count any facts they report to be more an accident of probability than a purposeful act."

They are leftist propaganda spreaders. They have no other purpose in life.

[hrtshpdbox]

They are leftist propaganda spreaders. They have no other purpose in life.

Again, that's one helluva line from a speech for them to have fabricated.

[Rob Crawford]

Again, that's one helluva line from a speech for them to have fabricated.

Really? That's the basis for you believing it?

As the devil can quote Scripture, a leftist can make up Republican red meat.

And, again, are there any sources on the record, who are in a place to know?

[Ignatz]

Good line and I can believe Wehner wrote it.
But I doubt it or any number more of them would be the difference.
I'm with Rick on Mitt's strategy and the wisdom of it.
It's similar to boxing; when faced with a wild windmiller throwing haymakers the way to knock him out is to stay covered and methodically tag his jaw and stun his liver when the numerous openings appear.

[bgates]

Another great line from Andrew Ferguson's demolition of Michael Lewis' thumbsucker (yes, "thumb"; it's a family blog) article - this is Barack Obama speaking, as he must, about himself:

My best speeches are when I know that what I’m saying is true in a fundamental way.

Several questions suggest themselves.

[Jim Ryan]

Like "Are you ever going to give one of your best speeches?"

[derwill]

I'm sure the speech went through several drafts, and I'm sure there was a lot of back and forth and disagreement on nearly every line in it. That happens with every major speech made by presidents and presidential candidates alike, and is nothing unusual. I recall a program on the History Channel, I believe, on the anniversary of Reagan's tear down this wall speech, and how that one line was taken in and out of the speech several times before Reagan himself made the decision to leave it in, much to the dismay of some within his administration.

That one line in Romney's speech would have played well to the base, but not necessarily to the self-identified "independent" or "moderate" voter that the campaign decided to focus on, which is probably why they took it out. In hindsight focusing on the muddle didn't move the needle, but I can understand why they chose to go that route. And playing to the base might not have moved the needle either. No way to know either way.

That Politico's reporting on disagreement within the R/R campaign as being some world shattering event that never ever happens is just silly. It's par for the course, both in campaigns and within even the most disciplined of administrations.

[maryrose]

Don't believe anything in Politico. Never fear that line can still be used in the ddebates or in any future campaign speeches before the election. Obama's world is imploding right now. Mitt has to continue his strong campaign, get his program for the future out there and understood by the public and GOTV, in that order.

[Porchlight]

My best speeches are when I know that what I’m saying is true in a fundamental way.

as opposed to the speeches where he knows what he is saying is untrue in a fundamental way

or

true in a non-fundamental way

or speeches when he doesn't know whether what he is saying is true or not

[Ignatz]

--My best speeches are when I know that what I’m saying is true in a fundamental way.--

The thing that strikes me about that statement is not the obvious implication that he gives speeches which he knows to be false but rather the sophomoric nature of the comment itself and the cheap mind it reveals.
The phrase 'true in a fundamental way' is a meaningless term used by a mind which hasn't advanced a whit since its "Apes and figs" phase.
Lewis has all the hallmarks of a dunce snowed by the typical manipulations of a shallow narcissist.
Dumbass.

[Extraneus]

"Can you give us an example of one during which you didn't know that?"

[Melinda Romanoff]

Ext-

No questions other than the ones you have been provided. You know the rules.

[bgates]

He's just not that smart. What he was trying to say is, "My merely world-class speeches are the ones in which I educate the public using facts out of my big brain, like how profit is a part of overhead and doctors are tempted to cut off limbs to make boat payments. To get to my A game - I mean Sermon on the Mount/2009 State of the Union level - I have to impart wisdom that is both timeless and unprecedented. Like how we've all been waiting around, you know? For, like, change? But then when it comes, we're the ones doing it. So we were the ones we were waiting for the whole time, man. Change."

"I don't remember who on the staff put the final version on paper, but it was just like being around me made them more receptive to the truths that were out there. And then I decided what I'd actually say, and everybody told me afterwards that it was life-changing. Which, I was like, duh. Greatest Speaker Ever."

[Extraneus]

That wasn't all for naught, bg.

[glasater]

Masterful, bgates.

[Barbara]

“The incumbent president is trying to lower the expectations of our nation to the sorry level of his own achievement."

FWIW, I wouldn't have put that line in the speech. It would have been memorable, yes, but not helpful.

[Rick Ballard]

Barbara,

I agree. Governor Romney can say nothing which might be construed as having "disrespected" our jive assed Kendonesian commie of a President. Such a comment falls outside of the Romney Campaign strategy.

[Barbara]

Romney can say nothing which might be construed as having "disrespected" our jive assed Kendonesian commie of a President.

Rick,

Apart from my view that the line is only worthy of water cooler conversation, I also believe that it could be "construed as [disrespecting]" the very kind of voters Romney is trying to lure to his camp.

[Sara]

“The incumbent president is trying to lower the expectations of our nation to the sorry level of his own achievement."

I would have found a sentence like that jarring because it doesn't sound like anything a man with as much class as Romney would ever say, let alone say in public. "Sorry level?"

BTW, Ryan has been of fire on the trail. Romney has had a couple of good rallies since the convention, but has been spending much of his time in debate prep. He took a few hours off to attend his grandchild's soccer game and, of course, go to church.

[pops]

Charlie (Colorado): "There were an awful lot of missionaries who thought they were acting in accordance with Christianity's principles"

Yeah, and alot of them died defending natives, etc. They lived among the natives and received their protection.

"As someone whose relatives were "savages" "Christianized" through massacres, murders, and the Removal in not so distant times, I'd suggest you be careful what you ask for.""

Seriously, get over it and give us some facts. The so-called 'removal was a law, enacted by Congress, signed by the President and upheld by the courts. Seriously you equate governance with slashing womens throats for wearing makeup?

[pops]

"""Yeah, pops, google the English Reformation and "draw and quarter" if you are interested in a tiny sample of what Christians are capable of doing to each other""

And you point about what one King did because he didn't like the Pope has what to do with Islamists blowing up buses full of children? England fought a war not over religion but over power. The King, nor the Pope sent killers to attack innocent for the chance to get a free pass to heaven for 75 virgins.

And if your point is that islan is still in the 13th century...I agree.

But why do we insits on calling it a religion of Peace? I don't recall anyone saying Christianity is a religion of Peace??