I want to maintain credibility as an objective commentator on this blog, and it has been a difficult decision that I have had to make. I feel it is time that I took a personal stand on the 2012 race for President.
If anything, the 2012 Republican election process has been characterized by surges, first that of Rick Santorum in Iowa. Here in South Carolina, I believe that I’m seeing the leading edge of an unprecedented surge, something I haven’t seen before in my 38 years in the state. No one here, except perhaps a few establishment figures, can stomach Mitt Romney. I think that only one Republican candidate represents my kind of conservatism, a man who speaks truth to power.
So I am announcing my personal support and this blog’s editorial support for the candidacy of South Carolina’s next Republican nominee, and perhaps the only man in American with a real chance to beat Barack Obama in the general election, a man voted the 2nd most influential man in the world in a Time magazine poll:
Stephen Colbert
Journalist and political commentator Stephen Colbert, born in Washington, DC, and raised in Charleston, South Carolina, announced creation of an exploratory committee on his national television show last night. While the exact number remains undisclosed, it appears that the Super PAC supporting Colbert has the money to saturate South Carolina with ads, perhaps far more than the $3 million that a casino owner gave Gingrich.
Colbert has said that his job as a journalist is to make people afraid. This is the central theme of the Republican strategy in 2012, and who can do it better than Colbert?
Colbert Super PAC press release:
BASIC CABLE, USA – Americans For A Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, an FEC registered Super PAC, today announced the addition of Jon Stewart to its executive board (along with the subtraction of Stephen Colbert).
With this change the group, which had been known colloquially as Colbert Super PAC, can now be referred to as The Definitely Not Coordinating With Stephen Colbert Super PAC. They have already begun updating all of their letterhead with sharpie.
More:
I saw the announcement on his show last night. It was very funny, and at the same time showed clearly (and deliberately) what a sham Super PACs are. Colbert’s Super PAC can spend as much money as it wants supporting Colbert and/or attacking the other candidates, as long as it doesn’t “coordinate” its activities with him.
It doesn’t matter that the new head of the PAC is Jon Stewart, Colbert’s close friend and business partner. It doesn’t matter that Stewart is an executive producer of The Colbert Report, just as Romney’s Super PAC is run by his personal attorney and Huntsman’s Super PAC is run by his father.
It was back in the summer of 2009 that I first fell in love with Orly Taits, DDS, JD, MILF, when she appeared on Mr. Colbert’s television show. He’s got my vote!!!!
I hope that Mr. Colbert will preserve his outsider status, and chose as his running mate, a suitable birther candidate. Walt Fitzpatrick has too much bagage, and Lady Liberty will probably be too busy defending Appealing Denistry; Mario’s got a dog-bite case coming up. Let’s see, Colbert is Catholic, so he needs an evangelical to shore up his base . . . Theresa Cao!
Stephen Colbert and Lewis Black
Then, he can say he stands with the Black man.
Colbert’s running mate can ONLY be Jon Stewart, who would be the second Jew elected Vice President (after Joe Lieberman) and the first to actually serve.
Doc, you just made my day a bit brighter.
here’s a link to the video
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/13/colbert-turns-super-pac-over-to-stewart-may-seek-presidency/
I have learned more about Super Pacs from Stephen Colbert and his attorney, Trevor, than I could have imagined.
– Scientist
Joe Liberman was never “elected Vice President.” As you assert in your comment above. You are my favorite, error-prone scientist.
You claim to be a smart guy. Why don’t you try to figure out what Scientist meant by what he said.
Holy Cow!
I donno. The fact that he pronounces his last name “Col-Bear” instead of “Col-bert” makes me wonder if, in fact, he was born in France.
Can’t wait to see how this all plays out! I too got quite a kick out of watching this play out on his show last night. Can’t wait to see the ads they come up with! 🙂
Or Canada maybe?
That’s ironic my friend as you misspelled Lieberman’s name. Of course, you are far more error-prone and fact-free… Pot kettle…
That’s perhaps too hard for our wanna-be scholar?
What is it about you birthers and Stephen Colbert?! Yes, his father was French, and sure, Monsieur Colbert studied Marxism under Sartre, but his mother was American as a McDonald’s pomme frite! “Oh sure,” you say, “but I heard from that public smarty-pants and prize-winning graduate student John C. Drew, that Stephen studied under Obama’s ghost writer when he took Alinsky classes at Second City.” So what if he did? Stephen Colbert flew 37 combat missions over fly-over country and invented the spit-take. He deserves to be on the ballot!
Well, he got close, and he did spell it phonetically … *snigger*
Now all we need is for Colbert to file a Perry-style challenge … and win >:)
I think Danny Thomas invented the spit take. Thomas’ parents were from Lebanon.
The idea that Joe Lieberman was ever “elected” Vice President is absurd. It is silly beyond belief. I don’t see how anyone who calls themselves a scientist could make such a foolish error or such a misreading of 2000 election results. Scientist has also made other bizarre mistakes which demonstrate a loose grip on historic reality or a carelessness with the facts. I’ve found it helps to read things twice…and to know what you are talking about.
Good for you, Doc! He’s certainly the only candidate with exercise equipment in space named after him (and there should be a Hungarian bridge named after him as well). And not only is he a doctor and the winner of several major awards, but he has a knighthood as well–he’s even better than drjohndrewphd!
As everyone knows (except resident ignoramus Elmer C. Drew) Colbert’s namesake, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, was Louis XIV’s (Sun-King) very successful Finance Minister.
A former banker, Colbert is remembered for his successful, radical “dirigiste” policies having established State-owned manufacturing (glassware and fabric), raised tariffs, launched major public works projects, created the first, modern French merchant marine and issuing over 100 edicts to regulate the guilds.
As it happens, I live on a street named after him.
I’ll just let him do the talking:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-august-19-2004/the-colbert-report
“My” Cours Colbert in 1900 (old postcard):
http://a6.idata.over-blog.com/700×454/2/00/54/05/Chalabre-en-Quercorb/cartes-anciennes/chalabre-le-cours-colbert-1900.jpg
“My” Cours Colbert today:
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:ChalabreCoursColbert.JPG
Our house isn’t on either photo; it would be a little down to the left.
No, Joe Liberman was never elected Vice President. However, Joe Lieberman was. He was prevented from taking office by a 5-4 extra-electoral vote. Furthermoore, I contend that giving Cheney Texas’ electoral votes violated the Constitution, since the Texas electors should have been barred from voting for Texas residents for both President and Vice. And really, how can the CEO of a company based in Houston not be a Texas resident? Without those illegal votes it was VP Lieberman, even with Bush as President.
And I will say again, political science is NOT a science. A valid academic discipline, but not by any rigoroous definition a science. You would never have been able to complete a PhD, let alone win an award, in a real science.
And can you tell us how the reverse racism of Williams stopped you from publishing? Since political science doesn’t require laboratory facilities, you can’t claim they denied you access to what you needed in order to publish. So why no publications?
Colbert is not a French-Canadian name. Quebecois are descended from about 8500 original colonists, who mostly came from Normandy and Brittany. There were no further immigrants from France after the British conquest in 1759. Along with Icelanders, they are a well-defined population, with excellent ancestral records kept by the Catholic Church and have been studied in detail by human geneticists.
The Montreal phone book has many pages of Tremblay, Larose, Savard, Vachon, Lapointe and several other names, but only a few Colbert.
You seem to lack a certain flexibility in conceptual thought.
According to NBC news reports, the (no longer coordinated with Stephen Colbert) Better America Tomorrow, Tomorrow Super PAC will begin airing ads in South Carolina next week.
This week I’m seeing wall-to-wall attack ads from the current Republican contenders, hammering on Gingrich’s ethics violations, Francophone Romney’s stint as a corporate raider, and Santorum’s 5 votes to raise the debt ceiling.
It is a well-known truism in American politics: “Republicans eat their young.”
i’m glad south carolina doesn’t like that dirtbag romney. the dog on the roof thing is horrifying.
Any reference to the fact that his cousins in Italy (all of them full-blooded communists) put him up to that?
After all, there must be some reason for Rick to do a sane thing once in a while…
Doesn’t Stephen Colbert have his brother Ed on because he’s a copyright attorney?
Stephen Colbert: Ed, two, two quick questions. First of all, Kohl-burt or Cole-bear?
Ed Colbert: Kohl-burt.
Stephen Colbert: See you in Hell.
I though that S. Colbert’s usual explanation of his pronunciation is this:
It’s French bitch!
This clip has the Kohl-burt or Cole-bear question starting at about 2:55:
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/218732/february-12-2009/obama-poster-debate—david-ross-and-ed-colbert
Too bad he didn’t make the ballot in FL. But then, he is only running for the President of the United States of South Carolina.
Doc, are you going to register republican for the primary to vote for him? ;o)
He’s a funny guy, but it is actually not good for democracy to have vanity candidates. You’ll notice there is no one challenging Obama in a primary. He would have quickly destroyed anyone. Fortunately, Colbert is only there for one state.
I do think that in spite of the fact that he only has a cartoonish understanding of history, and governing, and the current Republican legislation such as Cut, Cap and Balance or Paul Ryan’s plans, he would still be a better president than Obama.
I say that not even knowing much about him. But I just think that he would in general appoint much more conservative people. You can have a ham sandwich in the oval office, and the other people would implement better policies than Obama. Here is a nice example of the people Obama fills his administration with — people from the DSA:
Our goal as socialists is to abolish private ownership of the means of production.
These are some of the members of the DSA who worked for Obama:
Ron Bloom , former Manufacturing Czar.
David Bonior, member of the Obama Economic Transition Team
Rosa Brooks, senior advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Michele Flournoy.
Carol Browner, former Energy Czar/Director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy
Eliseo Medina, served on Obama’s Latino Advisory Council
Hilda Solis, Secretary of Labor.
Cornel West, served on Obama’s National Black Advisory Council.
Whether it is coincidence or friends hiring friends, I do not know, but I know that if Stephen Colbert asked for random Republicans to work on various problems, none of them would have the DSA attitude and might not even be aware of the DSA.
So that is one way Colbert would be better — no DSA. It almost doesn’t matter if Obama is a Marxist, if the people who work for him are.
Better for democracy by far to have a dozen vanity candidates\, than one conspiracy nutbar candidates.
Unlike birthers, vanity candidates aren;t bent on pissing on the constitution
Kevin just self identified as a socialist? Pretty serious slip for a troll. And it no longer matters is Obama is Marxist? Not defeated, just retreating?
Vanity candidates are a boon to democracy, and a sign of a healthy society, imo. But what about Colbert strikes you as vanity?
Colbert isn’t a vanity candidate–he’s using satire to make a very important point about the unlimited funds that are further corrupting our political process due to the Citizens United decision. I hope he runs extremely effective attack ads (I’m thinking the writers of the Daily Show and the Colbert Report can come up with some doozies) against the Republican candidates–it would serve them right to be hoist by their own petard.
While most of your comment is your usual inanity, I feel compelled to note that Colbert is extremely liberal (the person, not the character)–especially as compared to President Obama. Just further evidence that you don’t have a clue what you are talking about…
Kevin is not a socialist, he is a hard-core Staliniist, sent by his masters in Pyongyang (I liked it better when you could say Moscow) to make anti-Communists look bad, through his inane statements. Only a hardcore Staliinist would propose to ban IDEAS as Commie Keviin did a couple of days ago.
Oh, Kevin, you are wrong yet again. There were 13 other Democrats running in New Hampshire, including the totally awesome Vermin Love Supreme, who has actually visited this blog
http://www.sos.nh.gov/presprim2012/DemSummaryPres.htm
Mr Supreme placed 3rd, behind the President and environmentalist Ed Cowen placed 2nd.
Your perfect record for being wrong continues.
My comment about South Carolina not liking Romney was facetious, although I’m sure the Massachusetts Moderate label will have some resonance here. As of today, Romney still leads in SC.
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2012/01/romney-leads-in-sc-paul-gaining.html
For our younger readers, to save time, I will tell you that MILF stands for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
I remember suffering through the 2003 disaster of a Governor’s recall and simultaneous replacement election here in California. Now there were a slew of vanity candidates. Schwarzenegger of course won, and it was partially as a vanity candidate. I’ve heard of quite a few reports of people voting for him for some odd reasons. The most interesting was that some students in the University of California and California State University systems wanted the image of his signature on their diplomas.
There were some fringe vanity candidates too. A local free weekly newspaper paid for Gary Coleman’s filing fee. The official ballot was only for one office, but had over 100 names, including someone whose occupation was listed as “adult film actress”, Larry Flynt, and Ariana Huffington. There were some people who might have been capitalizing on familiar sounding names, including a couple of candidates named Michael Jackson and Edward Kennedy.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c6/Sample_ballot_for_CA_recall.png
LMAO!!
(Lazy Monkeys Adore Orly)
Doc:
I thought MILF stood for Moldavians Involved in Legal Fracuses.
Slarti’s got it exactly right.
Tell that to Donald Trump, and to that badger on his head.
Oh, yes, Marey Carey …. I’d forgotten about her! I’d also forgotten about Gary Coleman. Was Arnold the first candidate to announce candidacy on a talk show?
Sort of like the Judean People’s Front, vs the People’s Front of Judea.
Excellent point.
What about the Judean Popular People’s Front? And the Popular Front?
I enjoyed the postcard & the pic, thanks! 🙂
That is a very weird and disturbing story. There just seems to be something “off” or missing from that man’s sense of good judgement or empathy.
It sounds like something you’d see done as dark humour in a National Lampoon vacation movie, in order to convey that there is something “wrong” with these people and how they think / behave…
Colbert has no option to get votes in SC either – they don’t allow write-ins and the ballot registration deadline has long passed.
So he can’t accumulate any votes in SC at all.
I forgot to include the link for the list of DSA members:
http://biggovernment.com/tloudon/2012/01/13/white-house-official-heather-higginbottom-needs-to-explain-marxist-connection/
That is good supporting evidence for Dr. Drew, isn’t it?
– Scientist
It would make sense to say Lieberman was the first Jew to win the nomination of a major political party, but – as a fully trained, award-winning political scientist – I can assert you are dead wrong that Lieberman was ever elected Vice President. You don’t understand the meaning of the word “elected” as it is normally used in the U.S. Really, there is something funny in your thinking if you imagine, for one second, that Lieberman was elected Vice President. You are playing fast and loose with both the facts and the English language.
– KevinSB
I spoke to the Rush Limbaugh Club of Orange County this a.m. I was startled to find a standing room only crowd when my wife and I walked into the room. It is clear that a lot of people are becoming award or Obama’s ideological extremism and the frightening prospect of him winning a second term in offce. Thanks for reminding me of the large number of ideological extremists he has appointed as president.
Obviously, you haven’t been paying attention to the details of the primaries or the conversation on them in even this blog at all. Again, you demonstrate your habit of simply shooting off your mouth without knowing what you are talking about.
There are quite a few people who’ve made attempts to challenge Obama on the Democratic Primary side, but there is simply very little Democratic interest in replacing Obama.
14 Candidates ran on the Democratic Primary ballot in NH last week:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Hampshire_Democratic_primary,_2012
We’ve also been discussing Vermin Supreme’s vanity candidacy for the Democratic nomination on here for several months. Heck, Vermin himself even came over here and posted. He is a “vanity candidate”, as you’ve put it and broadly put, performing in a similar role as Colbert.
I also simply disagree with your opinion that such “vanity” campaigns are bad for democracy. As I’ve stated on here before, performance art has a long storied tradition in political commentary. Such forms of satire or “theater of the absurd” can serve to use comedy to shed light on the real flaws and absurdity in our system and proceses.
Vermin Supreme came in 3rd in the NH Democratic Primary this year and achieved an impressive 781 votes. Good for him and I hope he continues along the campaign trail and shows up in one of these other states somewhere along the line. Here are some of Vermin Supreme’s web sites on his Presidential runs:
http://www.verminsupreme.com/
http://www.zerohits.com/vermin/
There were even 2 debates in NH for these lesser known candidates – they took place back-to-back – first with the GOP candidates followed immediately by the debate between the lesser known Democratic candidates. It was quite fascinating to watch:
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/LesserK
Colbert is the best candidate since this common, ordinary, simple Saviour of America’s Destiny. What I really liked about him was his ability to talk out of both sides of his mouth at the same time with a straight face. It really is true that the more things don’t change; the more they stay the same
So what I wanna know is, if Colbert doesn’t win in SC will he continue in the race?
If he doesn’t get the nomination, will he run as an independent or start a third party?
Would he consider reviving the old Party Party and run as its candidate?
Well said! I concur.
Splitters! 😉
*yawn*
No. Again, simply much ado about nothing and nothing that is “evidence” in any meaningful way either.
You folks really get your panties in a bunch overinflating every innoculous thing into some commie bogeyman that simply doesn’t really exist.
No surprise that you’d be citing histronic bedwetter Andrew Breitbart. Again, you just demonstrate why you are viewed as nothing but a clown… as all you do is prove that you simply are gullibly receptive to whatever bile is spoon-fed to you by other clowns out there… So you are not just a clown, but merely a follower of clowns… or a clown puppet if you will.
Sorry there Chicken Little, but the sky is simply not falling…
When I said no one was challenging, I should have said no one serious. It is nonsense to compare Vermin to Reagan in 76 and Ted Kennedy in 80.
The Democrat party lost 600 seats in the state legislatures in 2010. The Democrat control of the House was 4 years, a very short amount of time. The Democrat party is being wiped out by the tea party. Whether the Republicans take the WH in 2012, many expect them to take the Senate. Obama is a very good (unintentional) community organizer for the Republican party.
Many in the Democrat party are unsatisfied with Obama:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/12/AR2010111202846.html
No one is “happy” with Obama. His popularity is down in every demographic. Nothing happens because the Democrat party is a machine and Obama is now in control of that machine. The machine demands loyalty, that is why no one like Gore is running. If his popularity was down to 30%, you’d see more grumblings as the machine tries to cut losses to ensure its survival. Last I heard it was at 42% so he’ll hang on.
Yes, that is what you should have said. Lesson learned here – be more careful with your words and you might be able to gain some desperately needed credibility.
Careless wording is a symptom of being a lazy blowhard. It rightly earns the blowback it causes.
*yawn*
Now that is just classic Concern Trolling on display. You are merely hoping to push a meme that you desperately wish were true.
Simply put, there are a lot of those folks on the left that are not happy for various reasons, but they still support Obama over any of the other options before them. You seem to overlook that most reasons for being “unhappy” on the left are due to feeling that Obama’s been too easy on his opposition and that he hasn’t made enough progress on changes that the “left” want.
In other words, most of those complaints are that he’s been governing “too far to the right” for their tastes. So sorry, but if they are faced with options that are only even much further to the right… that is not going to appeal to their votes and they will still back Obama over those alternatives.
But overall general satisfaction amongst Democrats and other Obama voters remains extremely high in all polling on the topic. That is evidenced by why no serious or credible threat emerged to him in the Democratic Primaries. No President is able to govern and satisfy the idealistic and unrealistic dreams and hopes of their supporters. The reality of governing is always full of disappointment and a list of campaign promises and goals that can’t be achieved. Welcome to reality.
Take an honest look at any set of comparative timeframe stats for polling support on past Presidents facing re-election from those that voted for them. You’ll see that Obama is still polling very high in those comparisons. Sorry, but your desperate hopes that Obama’s base will abandon him have very little evidence of support are not likely to materialize.
Of course, that is what you really fear – there is just nothing you can do to stop others from casting their votes for Obama and the likelihood of that eventuality is difficult for you to face or accept.
You say “becoming awar[e]” as if people were discovering something that they didn’t already believe. I think it fair to say that the “Rush Limbaugh” club has had over 3 years of anti-Obama propaganda poured into them. What do you base your assertion that there is some kind of a “new realization” as compared to the same old people saying the same old thing that they did 4 years ago. Obama running for a second term has been presumed by most folks since January 20, 2009.
The political propagandist tries to paint favorable events as trends and perhaps that’s all you’re doing.
Stephen’s family name is COLbert (he’s of Irish Catholic stock) but he selected colBEAR for the preferred pronunciation. Like Romney, Stephen Colbert has French affectations. He was born in Washington, DC and grew up in Charleston, South Carolina where his father was Vice President for Academic Affairs at the Medical University of South Carolina.
Oh HORRORS! CNN has published an editorial: Stephen Colbert must be stopped!
Romney-Colbert 2012!
Just the VP double-down I was looking for! 😀
I hope everyone’s satire meter goes off, it was a funny piece.
The article has been updated, correcting Colbert’s birthplace, and adding additional links.
Unfortunately, the South Carolina Republican Primary doesn’t allow write-in votes. Here, you really don’t have to register with a party to vote in the primary. If memory serves me right, you just have to say that you didn’t vote in the “other” primary.
I believe that I have voted in Republican primaries before, for Senate candidates (since a Democrat can’t win, I wanted to support the least evil Republican).
If I were going to vote strategy, I would want to pick a candidate who needs to “keep going” to have a chance at future primaries — so that the Republican candidates would continue to trash themselves in ads and spend their money. Newt Gingrich is probably the best strategy candidate. A Newt-Mitt fight to the bitter end would be the best Republican scenario for me.
I must admit that the “corporate raider” attack ads against Romney are having some influence on me. I also wonder what those tax returns will show, assuming we get to see them.
You are NOT a political scientist. You are a grant writer taking money from the federal government while pretending to be a free marketer.
Gore/Lieberman won in 2000. They of course won the popular vote. But, more importantly, a count conducted by a consortium of newspapers that looked at all the ballots showed that they won Florida had the count been allowed to continue to its accurate conclusion.
The idea of a club named after a liviing individual borders on sacrilege. As someone affiliated wiith a Christian college, you should be ashamed to attend such a thing. You would be appalled if there were an Obama Club and so would I. You are a fool and a hypocrite.
Sorry, nothing there impresses any of us here. A Rush Limbaugh Club in O.C. Land of Orly. Color me surprised that spittle-faced angry bigots flock together in cult fan clubs…
First of all it is the Democratic Party. Since you cut off letters I will call them the T Party. The T party”s polling is 33% approve, 49% disapprove. The Republlc-controlled Congress has an approval rating lower than Jerry Sandusky (true). Generic polls show the Democratic party with a 2 -3% lead over the Republic party. That would resultt in signiificant Republic losses, possibly enough to flip control (close call). The Senate is tougher, because the Democratic party has many more seats to defend than the Republic party. I expect the Senate to be around 50-50 so control could go either way. As the Republics have shown, nothing can get done with a Senate that is closely divided.
Oh no! The Gore problem all over again.
John C. Drew, Ph.D.: I spoke to the Rush Limbaugh Club of Orange County this a.m.
Passing out Oxycontin to other gray haired bigots is a strange and desperate way to beg for attention.
“You put your kids on a school bus you expect safety but in Obama’s America the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering ‘yeah, right on, right on, right on.’ Of course everybody said the white kid deserved it he was born a racist, he’s white.”
[To an African American female caller]: “Take that bone out of your nose and call me back.”
“Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?”
– Rush Limbaugh
The local chapter of a personality cult. I am sure he’ll be proud to include this appearance on his resumé!
newsflash! just in from the uk telegraph:
so how does freeperville — not shy about running with any fact-free scurrilous smear on the interwebs, especially if it blackens the eye of anyone to the left of atilla the hun — react to the story … ?
heh, indeedy.
Limbaugh is alive?
“Thread pulled” I guess I can assume why?
They’ve already pulled out the thread. They’re such chickens.
I don’t know why but reading this I was reminded of the 70s horror flick DEVIL’S RAIN with Ernest Borgnine and William Shatner, esp. the scene where devil-worshiping Borgnine addresses his red-garbed coven of satanist hicks — before the eponymous rain comes and dissolves them into yellow goo.
Good times!
Let’s be clear here: you are a fraud, and repeating your alleged qualification does not fool or impress anyone here.
Frankly, based on your writing here (and discounting your extreme racist opinions, to which you are entitled) you exhibit such ignorance of basic political and economical theories that I wouldn’t hire you as a TA.
As a foreigner, your opposition to Obama doesn’t bother me at all; it is your own business. But your appalling and willful ignorance of subjects that we would teach in the first year of university is simply pathetic, especially when it’s wrapped in your constant self-aggrandizement.
I see the word “communist” or “commie” bandied here a lot, and it gives me chance to make a few points about the dangers of reducing everything to political labels. I’ll keep it short.
As some of you may know, the label “liberal” is associated with the left wing of the political spectrum in the US, while in France or Denmark, for example, it is applied to right-wing political parties.
Conversely, the word “soc ialist” has been used for wildly divergent parties, from Hitler’s “national soc ialist” to, say, Sweden’s “soc ial democrats”. Etc, etc.
Communist parties in western Europe played a very important role in the fight against the Nazis — as indeed did the Soviet Union when it was allied with the USA. In the absence of any significant left-wing parties after WWII — many had been discredited by their pro-peace policies before the war — and benefiting from a huge capital of goodwill because of their heroic war conduct, western European communists became the de facto legitimate and democratic opposition after WWII in countries like France and Italy.
Their loyalty to their Soviet masters was tested during the Hungarian invasion of 1956, then when Krutchev made the crimes of Stalin public in the early 60s, and finally by the Czech invasion of 1968, which was pretty much their death-knoll. By then, more palatable options were available to the voters: new soc ialist parties on the right as well as smaller maoist parties on the left.
Despite the moral ambiguity of having to support the evil Soviet regime, the French and Italian communist parties were composed of good, decent people, working classes striving to improve their lot. To somehow tar them with the same brush as GPU or KGB goons just because of a political label taken out of context is both inaccurate and offensive.
Let us remember that, on the other side, they were also good, decent Spaniards who weren’t phalangists, and that America supported the evil Franco regime, and we don’t caricature them in an offensive way.
The caricature of the “Commie” (as seen in American comic books of the 50s and early 60s), just as the WWII caricature of the buck-toothed Japanese “Nips”, is really outmoded and I would hope that enlightened, informed people can move beyond it.
Hey Doc….what are you hearing about Romney and being a Mormon?
Is that much of an issue in upstate SC? I would ask my inlaws but I like them and therefore try to avoid talking politics
Might I mention that Barack Obama has been awarded a somewhat more prestigious award than Dr. Drew’s.
And he doesn’t mention it every time he speaks.
And I would say Obama’s appears to be about as deserving as Dr. Drews.
Won’t hurt him at all. In fact it’s a great open to exploit on his base ….. develop a bio about how he “was delivered by the grace of Christ from a clan of godless commies and delivered to the Land of the Free, the Greatest Country Show on Earth … Jingostan!”
Somewhat translated from the original conservese for the benefit of sentient entities everywhere.
no need to assume — it’s right there on the pink slip: “asinine attack, no thanks”
after all, even freepers have standards. in fact they have double the standards the rest of us follow.
no need … “lalalalalaicanthearyouheylookoverthereitsthekenyankommie” seems to be working just fine.
I was gonna mention that in pretty much the same way a couple of days ago, but forgot.
Kudos to you for pointing it out.
You are shocked that there are many far right conservatives in Orange County who hate Obama? You don’t get out much, do you.
the question begs to be asked, where exactly did they put the cleaning products that they emptied out of the cleaners cupboard before that particular meeting to make room for the people?
I guess it goes over pretty will with the Mormon voters here 😉
Anecdotally, I know that it is a concern to some Republican voters. My feeling is that it is one of the factors that has made the race with Gingrich as close as it is, the other being his more moderate history. The most important factor in SC GOP thinking, however, is winning in November. My barber put it this way: a Mormon is better than a Muslim.
What’s remarkable about Orange County these days is how the political demographics have changed over the years. Obama got almost 48% of the vote in Orange County back in 2008, and that would have been almost impossible to believe (that a Dem would get that much in OC) even 20 years ago.
I had a civics teacher in high school from SC, he had an incredible accent. I had to take “Okuhhomer Hiss’ry” from him. I never heard him say “Mormon”, but I believe if I were in his class now, I would be wondering how a “merman” was running for President.
If indeed a merman, Romney is suddenly much more interesting. Constitutional questions regarding the status of “naturally hatched citizens” and whether he is possibly a child of ambassadors from an undersea empire–and therefore not a citizen at all–aside, just think of what he could do for the US in regards to the deep sea. We could finally put that Cousteau guy to shame. Wait, wait, wait …. a French marine biologist …. a merman that speaks French …. hmmm.
Oh, trust me – “enlightened, informed people” moved beyond it a long time ago.
…however, that still leaves a vast segment of the population that is certainly not the former and often not the latter either…
Well, here’s the first Colbert SuperPAC ad for SC.. and it is a home run on several satirical levels! Must see:
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2012/01/15/mitt_romney_is_a_serial_killer.html
ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Further, sure enough, George Stephanopolous had Stephen Colbert on ABC’s “This Week” this morning:
http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/video/interview-stephen-colbert-15365205
The whole clip can be found there and is also a must see… 🙂
And these will actually air in SC? Man, we never get the good stuff here.
It’s about time someone took the king of parody crown from Perot!
Colbert’s ad works on so many levels – all which tie-together in shedding light on the out-of-control corrupting influence of unlimited money power in our politics. Romney just happes to be the perfect symbol for all the ills in that cautionary tale rolled into one.
For any who naively think that Romney would somehow change his stripes if elected to President and somehow become moderated or responsible in his behavior, instead of just continuing to shamelessly pander and be easily manipulated as a fully owned, bought and sold puppet to the highest bidder, need only look at the red flags present in this current cautionary tale from the campaign trail:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/us/politics/mitt-romney-offers-praise-for-a-donors-business.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
Therefore, as entertaining as Colbert’s ad satire is, one of the reason’s it works so well and resonates so well, is because Romney is so perfectly fitting of a symbol for the out-of-control corruption and influence by those who use unrestrained money to buy bower.
Ross Perot’s campaign was quite serious in its intent and its attempt.
It only appeared like parody to some, because of some of the kookiness that emerged along the way.
I know, G., I know! I only kid.
Perot’s campaign was also an interesting comment on campaign finance. Thrifty said recently you can’t just buy an election. Some debate there, but you do have to do the work even if you buy the votes. What you can buy, is a couple blocs of primetime in order to create an instant base of support! Hardly within reach of the common citizen.
Yeah, I suspected your original intent was meant as just snark, but I still wanted to make sure the actual record was posted in comparison.
On your second point – very sad because it is so, so true. It bears repeating what you just said: “Hardly within reach of the common citizen.” Money is not just power, but also access and it has an overwhelming control on the process in the modern U.S. Anyone who claims there are no “classes” in the U.S. is not being honest or realistic with that argument.