Chris Christie - No Ordinary Liar

April 10th, 2012

When New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announced he was killing the The Trans-Hudson Passenger Rail Tunnel, a project 20 years in the making, he framed as some incredibly responsible and brave decision making on his part. It represented the new, post Tea Party GOP brand. The project was wasteful and something New Jersey simply couldn't afford!

As it turns out, nearly every metric he pronounced to defend this move was a flat out lie. Ahead of a new GAO report to be released this week detailing his many falsehoods, the NY Times reports:

"Canceling the tunnel, then the largest public works project in the nation, helped shape Mr. Christie’s profile as a rising Republican star, an enforcer of fiscal discipline in a country drunk on debt. But the report is likely to revive criticism that his decision, which he said was about “hard choices” in tough economic times, was more about avoiding the need to raise the state’s gasoline tax, which would have violated a campaign promise. The governor subsequently steered $4 billion earmarked for the tunnel to the state’s near-bankrupt transportation trust fund, traditionally financed by the gasoline tax."

You see? He did do exactly what needed to be done. For himself. The congestion of physical interstate commerce the project would have alleviated extends far beyond New Jersey or New York.

Steve Benen is appalled:

"Even at the time, Christie's decision on this project in 2010 was hard to understand. Conservatives, who've become increasingly hostile towards American infrastructure improvements, cheered the move, but from a substantive perspective, the governor's decision was fairly characterized as "destructive and incredibly foolish."

But this new report casts that decision in an even more damaging light. The Government Accountability Office is a non-partisan research/audit arm of Congress, and it's reporting this week that Christie's rationale for his strange decision wasn't even true. It was a mistake to scrap a major public works project during a weak economy; it was a bigger mistake to explain the move with dishonest claims."

This is big stuff. Gov. Christie, in an act of supreme political selfishness, quite literally damaged a whole sector of the American economy. On purpose.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons the Governor thought better of entering the 2012 race for POTUS.

Obama's Poll Numbers

April 10th, 2012

The latest WaPo/ABC Presidential polling is out this morning and Team Romney ought to be heading into crisis mode right about now.

Dan Balz and Joe Cohen write:

"Obama has double-digit leads over the likely Republican presidential nominee on who would do a better job of protecting the middle class, addressing women’s issues, handling international affairs and dealing with health care."

That pretty well covers most of the issues. Sure, there are tremendous risks, which the GOP continues to attempt to exploit, that might derail the economy. Nevertheless, in America, the personal is political. On that count, Team Romney has every reason to be preparing for disaster.

Romney's unlikables are at the most dramatic levels of any candidate since Michael Dukakis in 1984.

Obama is definitely vulnerable in certain areas, however, as the report notes:

"If Obama’s views on the role of government are seen more negatively than positively, he has the edge on another aspect of this key debate: Americans by 52-37 percent see "unfairness in the economic system that favors the wealthy" as a bigger problem than "overregulation of the free market that interferes with growth and prosperity."

This is bad news for the GOP brand itself.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know a lot can happen between now and November.

But this is Mitt Romney. I think the over/under is becoming pretty clear.

Romney Watch - The Guy Simply Can't NOT Lie

April 9th, 2012

Regarding a campaign appearance by Mittens last week, Dana Milbank notes just how shocking the candidate's distaste for the truth really is:

"PolitiFact has awarded Romney its “Pants on Fire” or “False” ratings for 32 claims. Among them are these: that Obama “didn’t even mention the deficit or debt” in his State of the Union address, that “our Navy is smaller than it’s been since 1917,” that Obama “never worked in the private sector,” that Obama “gave” the automakers “to the UAW,” and that “we’re only inches away from no longer being a free economy.”

Wednesday’s speech alone had more than a dozen distortions, including allegations that: Obama “has failed to even pass a budget” (Congress passes budget resolutions, which the president doesn’t sign); Obama created a panel empowered to deny treatments under Medicare (the board can only make recommendations, and only if Congress fails to find Medicare cuts), Obama “has added regulations at a staggering rate” (the Business Roundtable just said it “lauded” the administration’s attempt at regulatory reform).

No fewer than three Romney claims in that one speech merited PolitiFact’s “Pants on Fire” rating: that Obama led “a government takeover of health care,” has been “apologizing for America abroad” and is ending “Medicare as we know it.” Romney’s assertions that Obama “is the only president to ever cut $500 billion from Medicare” and that eliminating Obamacare saves “about $100 billion” were rated false.

That Romney resorts to such gratuitous falsehoods discredits his leadership more than his opponent’s."

The Snowe Announcement

Feb 29th, 2012

Mittens took Arizona and Michigan's GOP primaries, The President gave his most remarkable speech in a very long time, the DOW closed above 13,000... there's a lot of news to discuss today. However, what has everyone talking is the sudden and surprising retirement announcement by Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME)

Jezebel may have the headline of the year so far above Cassie Murdoch's reaction.

"Snowe may be a Republican, but she was known for being a rational, thinking-person's Republican, a rarity in these sad times. 

Michigan Primary- A Dead Heat

Feb 28th, 2012

Last night, Nate Silver's projections in Michigan had Romney up ten points over Santorum.

Not anymore...

Charting The Political Climate

Feb 20th, 2012

Brian Beutler highlights two sets of indicators that bode very well for Obama over at TPM:

Mitt Wins Big

Feb 1st, 2012

Boy, was I wrong about Florida. Although I was certain Mitt would take the win and, with it, all of the delegates, I was convinced that older GOP voters and early voting would produce a much narrower margin than the most recent polls were showing. In fact, the opposite proved to be true.

Having lost by nearly fifteen points, Newt has pivoted, again, to what was only recently the kind of argument we hear from Democrats; That is, that money basically bought the Romney team's victory. The thing is, he has a point. Just as he was correct in arguing that Bain Capital's methods were somewhat dubious (the latest example is HERE), the degree to which vastly larger amounts of money and negative advertising by Romney and his backers made this victory can't be understated.

The Guardian's Ewan MacAskill noted the disproportion last Friday:

"On television stations from Jacksonville in the north to Key West in the south, as well as radio stations, negative ads about Gingrich are near unavoidable, paid for either directly by the Romney campaign or by the super-PACs supporting him. The television spots, popping up regularly between ads for carpets, weather-resistant paint and holidays, focus on Gingrich's tempestuous years as House Speaker and ends with a picture of him with Obama, saying "If Newt wins, this guy (Obama) will be very happy."

The radio ad claim Gingrich has "more baggage than airlines".

Gingrich ads by comparison seem sparse, with a ratio that feels closer to six in one. Gingrich describes himself in the ads as the "true conservative". In another ad, yet to be broadcast, he accuses Romney of lying five times in the CNN debate on Thursday in Jacksonville, Florida"

In the end, Romney took 46.4% of the GOP primary votes. Gingrich had 31.9%, Santorum had 13.4% and Ron Paul eked out a mere 7.0% with all the ballots counted.

Here's where things are getting interesting and somewhat reminiscent of the bruising battle the Democrats fought among themselves in 1980... No one is pulling out of this race. At least, not yet.

Rachel Rose Hartman reports:

"Gingrich claimed Tuesday's results solidified the 2012 primary as a "two-man race" between a "conservative leader" and a "Massachusetts moderate." He vowed to remain in the race for the duration.

"We are going to contest every place, and we are going to win, and we will be in Tampa as the nominee in August," Gingrich said, speaking from his Florida headquarters in Orlando. Gingrich claimed he will show how "people power" can defeat "money" in this race.

Gingrich also announced that he will soon release a new version of the Republicans' 1994 "Contract with America," which Gingrich helped author.

In Las Vegas, despite his third place finish, Santorum vowed Tuesday night to remain in the race. He called on his competitors to focus on issues instead of "mud wrestling."

While I predict Santorum will cave no later than Super Tuesday, there is every reason to believe that Paul and Gingrich will, as they say, "take this all the way to the convention."

Paul's motives are still clearly a desire to force certain concepts into the debate. Newt, however, has a renewed lust for vengeance. It's in the core of his nature.

David Corn agrees:

"Thirty-four years ago, Newt Gingrich summed it up. In a speech to College Republicans—shortly before he would win his first election to Congress—the future speaker had a piece of fundamental advice for the young and impressionable GOPers: "I think one of the great problems we have in the Republican party is that we don't encourage you to be nasty. We encourage you to be neat, obedient, and loyal, and faithful and all those Boy Scout words."

Nasty—that was a critical component of Gingrich's formula for political success. And through the 1980s and 1990s, as Gingrich wielded his nastiness to overturn the Democratic order in Congress and seize the people's House for the GOP, he was hailed by Republicans."

While Corn seems less convinced than I that Newt will refuse to bow out before the convention, he's correct in seeing the next few weeks as likely to be even more vicious and unrelenting than anything we've seen so far.

Grab the popcorn and get ready to duck.

Quote Of The Day - Here and Now Edition

Jan 2nd, 2011

"The GOP played with fire, and they are getting their hands burned. They unleashed a monster they hoped to turn against Democrats, but it has turned on them first."


-- James Zogby on the Tea Party's influence in shaping the 2012 Presidential field.

Over It

Dec 18th, 2011

Via Gallup 12/16/2011

"With the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses serving as the kickoff of voting in the 2012 presidential election campaign, Americans would likely prefer to fast-forward to the end of the campaign than watch it unfold. Given a choice, 70% of Americans say they can't wait for the campaign to be over, while 26% can't wait for it to begin."

The results strike me as odd on one level; How anyone could be under the impression that campaign season had not already begun is a mystery to me. However, that nearly 3/4 of those polled are ready for it to be over comes as no surprise.

Dog Catches Car

Dec 5th, 2011

Paul Krugman points out one of the risks should the GOP defeat Obama next year:

Image via

"The Washington Post quotes an unnamed Republican adviser who compared what happened to Mr. Cain, when he suddenly found himself leading in the polls, to the proverbial tale of the dog who had better not catch that car he’s chasing. “Something great and awful happened, the dog caught the car. And of course, dogs don’t know how to drive cars. So he had no idea what to do with it.”

The same metaphor, it seems to me, might apply to the G.O.P. pursuit of the White House next year. If the dog actually catches the car — the actual job of running the U.S. government — it will have no idea what to do, because the realities of government in the 21st century bear no resemblance to the mythology all ambitious Republican politicians must pretend to believe. And what will happen then?"

Cain Watch - Why? Why Is He Doing This? cont...

Nov 14th, 2011

Wow. Jeff Spross adds this withering look at Cain's bumbling in light of today's "Libya moment."