Posts Tagged ‘Elections’

Joe Biden’s Creepy Smile Take Two

Saturday, October 13th, 2012

The Night of 53 Smiles

Mark Steyn Lays Waste to the Obama Adminstration’s Libyan Lies

Saturday, October 13th, 2012

Mark Steyn’s comprehensive takedown of all the Obama Administration lies and incompetence in the Benghazi terrorist assault and the murder of Ambassador Chris Stevens is so righteous it deserves a link of its own.

“The entire reason that this has become the political topic it is is because of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.”

Thus, Stephanie Cutter, President Obama’s deputy campaign manager, speaking on CNN about an armed attack on the 9/11 anniversary that left a U.S. consulate a smoking ruin and killed four diplomatic staff, including the first American ambassador to be murdered in a third of a century. To discuss this event is apparently to “politicize” it and to distract from the real issues the American people are concerned about. For example, Obama spokesperson Jen Psaki, speaking on board Air Force One on Thursday: “There’s only one candidate in this race who is going to continue to fight for Big Bird and Elmo, and he is riding on this plane.”

She’s right! The United States is the first nation in history whose democracy has evolved to the point where its leader is provided with a wide-body transatlantic jet in order to campaign on the vital issue of public funding for sock puppets.

Snip.

Obviously, Miss Cutter is right: A healthy mature democracy should spend its quadrennial election on critical issues like the Republican party’s war on puppets rather than attempting to “politicize” the debate by dragging in stuff like foreign policy, national security, the economy, and other obscure peripheral subjects.

Snip.

For most of those four weeks, the president of the United States, the secretary of state, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and others have persistently attributed the Benghazi debacle to an obscure YouTube video — even though they knew that the two events had nothing to do with each other by no later than the crack of dawn Eastern time on September 12.

Snip.

Secretary Clinton linked the YouTube video to the murder of her colleagues even as the four caskets lay alongside her at Andrews Air Force Base — even though she had known for days that it had nothing to do with it. It’s weird enough that politicians now give campaign speeches to returning coffins. But to conscript your “friend”’s corpse as a straight man for some third-rate electoral opportunism is surely as shriveled and worthless as “politicization” gets.

Snip.

Liberals are always going on about the evils of “outsourcing” and “offshoring” — selfish vulture capitalists like Mitt shipping jobs to cheap labor overseas just to save a few bucks. How unpatriotic can you get! So now the United States government is outsourcing embassy security to cheap Welshmen who in turn outsource it to cheaper Libyans. Diplomatic facilities are U.S. sovereign territory — no different de jure from Fifth Avenue or Mount Rushmore. So defending them is one of the core responsibilities of the state. But that’s the funny thing about Big Government: The bigger it gets, the more of life it swallows up, the worse it gets at those very few things it’s supposed to be doing. So, on the first anniversary of 9/11 in a post-revolutionary city in which Western diplomats had been steadily targeted over the previous six months, the government of the supposedly most powerful nation on earth entrusted its security to Abdulaziz Majbari, 29, and his pal, who report to some bloke back in Carmarthen, Wales.

Read the whole thing.

Vice Presidential Debate Reaction Roundup

Friday, October 12th, 2012

Lots of commentators said that Joe Biden did better debating against Paul Ryan than Obama did against Mitt Romney. I found Biden the far more irritating of the two, his his constant grinning and interrupting. He was like some weird, glad-handing political coelecanth that had somehow survived into the 21st century, and didn’t realize how fake his antics look on high def television. (And that’s to say nothing of Biden’s outright lies. No evidence of green pork cronyism? Right. Pull the other one.)

Other reactions:

  • 48% of CNN viewers thought Ryan won the debate, as opposed to 44% who thought Biden won.
  • This unsigned Houston Chronicle liveblog tries to be evenhanded, but dings Biden for his jackassery. “Biden’s contempt for his rival is palpable. Biden’s constant interruptions and grinning and head shaking could turn off some viewers.”
  • The Weekly Standard notes that “You don’t win a nationally televised debate by being rude and obnoxious. You don’t win by interrupting your opponent time after time after time or by being a blowhard. You don’t win with facial expressions, especially smirks or fake laughs, or by pretending to be utterly exasperated with what your opponent is saying.”
  • NRO’s Yuval Levin thinks that “Biden’s hyper-aggressive and at times buffoonish performance (and perhaps especially his Joker grin, which seemed to me as much a product of nervousness as of intent) hurt the ticket some with independent voters and especially with women,” but also thinks he did what he needed to do (stop the liberal bleeding).
  • By contrast, NRO compatriot John O’Sullivan thinks Biden won on points, but as engendered a “hostile reaction from women to his amazingly blatant mugging and grinning at the camera during Ryan’s arguments.”
  • “Coprophagic Smirks” would be a good name for a rock band.
  • Forbes also wasn’t impressed with Biden: “Television provided split screens, so while viewers saw Ryan calmly responding to the questions that came his way, on the other half of the screen they saw a batty older man laughing obnoxiously at someone who, even if voters disagree with him, comes off as very reasonable. The contrast can’t have worked in Biden’s favor.”
  • The Daily Gator says that Biden was “rude, condescending, and acted like a bully. Biden did not make any glaring gaffes, but, how he conducted himself might have been more damaging. His over the top smiles, really creepy smiles to be honest, his constant interruptions, which the moderator did nothing to stop, and his other facial gymnastics made him look like a man with nothing to say.”
  • “Paul Ryan Beats Blustering Buffoon Joe Biden in Vice Presidential Debate.”
  • “Ryan won by staying cool and composed.”
  • Best tweet of the night (from Dave Itzkoff): “I’m told Joe Biden was just a small-time hood before Batman dropped him in the vat of chemicals that left him with a permanent grin.”
  • This RNC ad spliced together from last night’s debate already has over a quarter-million hits:

  • And finally, complete video of the debate in case you missed it:

  • Joe Biden’s Carter Smile

    Thursday, October 11th, 2012

    Separated at birth: Jimmy Carter:

    and Joe Biden?

    Romney-Obama Debate Roundup Part 3

    Thursday, October 4th, 2012

    More Romney-Obama Denver debate fallout:

  • Liberals want Obama to step up personal attacks and spew liberal talking points. Let’s hope Obama takes their advice. “Shorn of the demonization of the GOP, Obama is left with nothing.”
  • The Onion is merciless: “President Barack Obama’s 11-year-old daughter Sasha reportedly asked her father why he was ‘acting like such a goddamned pussy up there.’ ‘Daddy, how come you were being such a little bitch?'”
  • Uh:

  • Jon Stewart piles on:

  • How do you know Romney slaughtered Obama? Even Taiwanese animators celebrate the pummeling:

  • And the first debate-based attack ad is out:

  • (Hat tips: Ace of Spades, Moe Lane, Instapundit, others.)

    Romney-Obama Debate Roundup Part 2

    Thursday, October 4th, 2012

    More Romney-Obama debate reactions:

  • Larry Kudlow: “Mitt Romney politely cleaned Barack Obama’s clock tonight. A lethargic and at times tired looking President Obama was out-hustled, out-facted, out-energized, and out-informed by Former Governor Mitt Romney.”
  • The Daily Caller has more liberal Schadenfreude.
  • And Jim Treacher has still more. “I’m glad the Greatest President Ever spent so much time stressing the importance of education, because he just got schooled.”
  • The Washington Post called Romney “well prepared and aggressive.”
  • Romney didn’t just embarrass Obama last night, he embarrassed the media as well.
  • NRO writer Michael Knox Beran compares Romney’s debate performance to Napoleon at Austerlitz.
  • The ObamaCare death panels are now back in the discussion.
  • Final proof Romney absolutely stomped Obama? The New York Times called the Denver debate “unhelpful.”
  • Obama: the human smirk.

  • Cruz-Sadler Debate Goes About the Way You Would Expect

    Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012

    Ted Cruz pretty much wiped the floor with him, if the reports of our Demophilic media are to believed.

    Visibly angry, [Sadler] repeatedly accused Cruz of lying. The Republican largely kept his cool and cast his little-known Democratic rival as “unapologetically liberal” and a big supporter of gay marriage and President Barack Obama’s health care law.

    Even Paul Burka wasn’t impressed with Sadler. “Sadler was unrestrained. He called Cruz a liar, repeatedly.”

    Here’s the full debate if you want to judge for yourself:

    Help Me, Elspeth Reeve, You’re My Only Hope!

    Monday, October 1st, 2012

    Let’s talk about the ObamaPhone video, shall we?

    The video is both funny (the woman is an idiot with a comical voice) and politically useful (displaying, as it does, a sense of entitlement to government handouts).

    So, naturally, some liberals are crying racism. Here the general case of “some liberals” is best exemplified by Elspeth Reeve. If that name rings a vague bell at the back of your mind, its probably because she’s most famous for violating journalistic standards by improperly fact-checking the articles by her husband, Scott Thomas Beauchamp, when he was smearing American troops in Iraq in a series in The New Republic.

    Reeve has certified the ObamaPhone video as 100% racist:

    The racism comes in when Drudge, Rush, the people who giddily retweeted the link, do a mental calculation that if enough people would just see this video they would support Romney, because it plays on the same racist stereotypes that are usually trotted out this time of the election cycle. The video posted on Drudge and played on Limbaugh was a black lady who has all the standard visual cues of being poor — messed-up teeth and skin, her waistline, her yelling. Oh, and if cues aren’t enough, she talks in racial terms: “Everybody in Cleveland, all the minorities got a phone. Keep Obama president, you know, he gave us a phone, he’ll give us more.”

    Let’s dissect that a little. When Reeve says “do a mental calculation…because it plays on the same racist stereotypes ” what she’s saying is that she can read people’s minds, and she knows their intent is racist. And then she admits that the subject of the video talks in racial terms. So instead of putting the onus for bringing race into the discussion on the subject of the video herself who brings it up, she puts it on conservatives she can tell are committing thoughtcrimes because of her amazing telepathic powers.

    Unfortunately, those of us without Elspeth Reeve’s extra-sensory perception are left at a loss to figure which amusing videos, at least those whose subjects happen to be black, are in fact racist. Given that I happen to be a white conservative living in Texas (and therefore someone already with a -5 on saving throws against liberal accusations of racism), obviously I need help in determining such things.

    So where else can I go except the source itself? Help me, Elspeth Reeve, your psychic powers are the only hope I have for determining whether an amusing video that involves black people is racist or not!

    Help me out here, Elspeth: Is Afro-Ninja racist?

    How about this black woman saying Obama is going to pay her mortgage? Is that racist?

    How about Obama stumbling around while answering a question? Is that racist?

    How about Obama talking about visiting all 57 states? Is that racist?

    How about black comedians dealing with racial issues. Is that racist? (NSFW warning applies to the language in the next few videos.) Is Dave Chappelle playing black white supremacist Clayton Bigsby racist?

    How about Richard Pryor and Chevy Chase’s word association test?

    How about Clevon Little in the famous sheriff-welcoming scene from Blazing Saddles?

    Help me out here, Elspeth. Put your psychic powers to work. Which of these are racist, and which are merely funny?

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  • Dear California: You Know That Money Will Be Wasted, and You Know Those Tax Hikes Will Be Permanent

    Friday, September 28th, 2012

    I’ve got another Texas vs. California piece coming around on the guitar, but I thought there was enough here to warrant a separate post.

    Hold on to your hats, but it seems that California voters might, just might, be catching on that the Democrats who run California’s state government are wasting their money.

    I will now wait for the indignant shouts of incredulous outrage to die down.

    Support for Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan for billions of dollars in tax hikes on the November ballot is slipping amid public anxiety about how politicians spend money, but voters still favor the proposal, according to a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll.

    Well, I did say “might.”

    The findings suggest that voters are leery of sending more cash to Sacramento in the wake of a financial scandal at the parks department, spiraling costs for a multibillion-dollar high-speed rail project to connect Northern and Southern California and ill-timed legislative pay raises.

    If voters aren’t willing to stop spending for a $100 billion train to nowhere that everyone know will never be completed, and which would lose even more money every year if it was, when will they?

    Brown’s measure would temporarily raise income tax rates on high earners for seven years and boost the state sales tax by a quarter-cent for four years in a bid to avoid steep cuts in funds for schools and other programs.

    Note that word: “temporary.”

    Anyone with even a passing knowledge of the way politics actually works knows that there’s no such thing as a “temporary” tax hike. The only thing that prevents Democrats (and establishment Republicans) from spending every cent of every tax collected and more is booting them out of office. Raising taxes simply ensures that they’ll spend all the new revenue and additional money they don’t have on top of that. And with the fiscal tsunami California is facing from bloated government, spiraling debt, and gold-plated public employee union pensions that will bankrupt the state, those “temporary” taxes will never be repealed. Ever.

    And two or four years down the line, the next Democratic governor will be asking the voters to approve another “temporary” tax hike…

    Team Gallego Lies About Rep. Canseco

    Friday, September 28th, 2012

    As previously reported, the Texas 23rd Congressional District is one of the most closely watched races in the country. As such, it’s no surprise that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is rolling out attack ads against incumbent Republican Rep. Francisco “Quico” Canseco on behalf of Democratic challenger Pete Gallego.

    And, much like the national Democratic attack ads, it’s filled with lies.

    But don’t take my word for it. WOAI in San Antonio has done the heavy lifting in debunking team Gallego’s claims: