CNN has called the Presidential Race for Barack Obama. The birthers begin their 5th year of denial and that’s 4 MORE YEARS on the blog for me.
The big question is whether the engine powering the birther movement both then and now was political, essentially a calculated strategy to keep Obama out of office. If that is so, then we may see a marked decrease in the intensity of birther activity. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t see Taitz, Sewell, Kerchner, Barnett, Fair and that crowd fading into the woodwork, but I do predict a sudden lack of birtherism at WorldNetDaily and the end of mainstream news coverage of any kind. Birthers are irrelevant. Birthers lose!
BETWEEN THE LINES
AMERICA PRONOUNCES JUDGMENT ON ITSELF
Exclusive: Joseph Farah on Obama election: ‘It’s time to double-down and fight harder’
*sigh*
WND is in rare form today ….. should save a backup of the whole site in a time capsule.
….. so we can look back in 4 years and see how tame it appears in hindsight.
Farther down the spiral…
Congressman and Senators refused to look into the birther issue saying it was distraction and citing their intent and goal to deny Obama a 2nd term based on their policies. Obviously, they have failed and Obama has won a 2nd term. Perhaps they will now have regret that they should looked in the issue. Now they will pay the price for it.
Of course, there is always one last ray of hope. Congressman and Senators can still deny Obama 2nd term if one congressman and one senator has the intestional fortitude to file a an objection with Joint Session of Congress citing the birther issue.
I seriously doubt any Congressman and Senator at this point will have the guts or bravery to do so.
Orly Taitz’s bid for Senator was our last ray of hope, as I have always believed that Obama would probably be reelected. Unfortunately, Orly was wasted in the primary.
Loved the banner on WND: Fraud, intimidation, dirty tricks, outrage
Cry brither scum, cry–I need those tears grease the gears on my bike.
Shockingly Trump is calling the election a travesty.
I am hoping this election results in a hugerejection of the Trump by Obama’s constituency.
My single thought about the election result – “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
I just took a look over at The Steady Drip. Sam’s not proclaiming Victory this evening.
Right now I’m regretting being permanently banned from WND.
I hope President Obama publicly thanks the Birthers for doing their part in getting him re-elected.
A possible sign of WND’s future disinterest:
In the days leading up to the election, there has been NOTHING Birther-related on WND. It’s been as Birther-dry as any time I can recall in the last two years.
Since the central thesis of Birtherism is that Obama is ineligible to be elected President, then it OUGHT to have been a major subject for them immediately prior to an election. The last eligibility story Corsi wrote was over a month ago; since then, he’s just done stories on Joel Gilbert’s wacky claims (Obama had a nose job, Obama has a Muslim ring) and Kevin DuJan’s ‘Obama is gay’ claims.
Farah had a column the other day where he pretty much just listed dozens and dozens of reasons not to vote for Obama. Completely absent from that long list? Any reference to Obama’s birth or eligibility.
Granted, they could jump back on the Birther bandwagon in a week or two. That’s what Farah did in 2008. But at the least, their decision to back-burner everything Birther-related for a full month before the election illustrates just how seriously they must take the whole matter.
Loren
and yet corsi flew on mitt’s plane
Maybe they just needed the ballast
And in Hawaii, McCain-Palin pet Lingle will not go to the Senate, despite Rove buying her a tv station. Our Japanese-American-Buddhist Mazie will. And her House seat will be filled with our Samoan-German-American-Hindu Tulsi.
Corsi has some photo credits on WND …. Jerome Corsi, staff photographer 😛
Don’t worry Loren, the commenters at WND are carrying the birfer flame forward. As said all along, it’s only inflammatory rhetoric for the birfer profits, but to the brainwashed True Believers, it’s the Truth! WND will be back to stroking its audience soon.
I noticed today that Inhofe has popped up on WND. I take this to mean he is eyeing retirement. Let’s all hope.
Speaking of Corsi, Amazon is down to 19 new copies* of WTBC … get’em while they’re hot!
* I guess they finally sold one! (*ba-da-bing*) 😉
Orly is also throwing a fit … looks like she has confused her blog with twitter again!
Flying monkeys are chiming in to console her.
Even suggesting she run for President …. and in a rare moment, Orly noted her own ineligibility!
The prediction markets and Nate Silver were 100%.
Hey folks. Decided to take a break from this blog until after the election because I was finding politics way too stressful. But thankfully that’s finally over.
I fell asleep around 10 PM EST, when the election was still being decided. Then I had a nightmare that Romney won, and awoke in a cold sweat with my heart pounding. So I check Yahoo News and my fears are gladly assuaged by the headline “Obama clinches second term in tense night”
Now this is a great speech!
I AM THRILLED – my tea party republican rep is OUT
http://professional.wsj.com/article/AP3887579397da48a392da55aaa74b8cbf.html?mg=reno64-wsj
from taitz’s website:
Lord Monckton: “Win or lose, Obama was not and is not the president”
(“lord” who is NOT a lord)
&
Here is an affidavit from Henry Wayland Blake and attached letter from Attorney Scott J. Tepper to Loretta Fuddy, which according to Henry Wayland Blake contains an additional layer of computer manipulation of the record
& 4 rants that mitt should not concede
It’s election night, and I’m sitting here, very happy about some of the libertarian issues which have passed around the nation. Gay marriage in a couple of states. The decriminalization of marijuana in Colorado. And so on.
I’m not gay and I don’t smoke dope, but I’m pleased as punch that people set aside their differences and did the right thing so that other citizens can make their decisions about their own lives.
I believe in doing the right thing always. Even when it means changing course.
So, partly because I was and am deeply hurt and angry with what my previous party has become, and partly because I want to see the birthers come even more undone, I voted for Mr. Obama here in Colorado last week. President Obama and I don’t agree on all issues, and we disagree on a number of very important ones, but the President is the clear moral superior to those who are willing to lie to win, and sometimes that matters more than everything else combined. The objective truth matters always.
I did not vote for Gary Johnson, which is what I’d planned to do, and almost did. Johnson was and is fine, and my husband voted for him, but this became personal for me in a way I never thought it would when I stepped into the voting booth.
So, I’m glad Obama won. As I type this, he’s giving his acceptance speech.
I hope he has a successful second term, and that everyone in the United States has a bright future. I hope that the birthers learn to accept reality. I hope the Republican party manages to reign in the insanity. I hope there is never another Republican candidate who caters to the birthers and to dog-whistle racists.
I’m really glad I live in the United States and am proud of our system of governance and peaceful elections.
Finally, I’m glad that liars and those who cater to them didn’t prosper.
Trump came unglued. I was reading his Twitter feed, and it was fast and furious for a while with increasingly stranger and stranger stuff. Then it all stopped.
Just… stopped.
My theory is that someone tranquilized the squirrels on his head, and it bled through to Trump’s brain.
Monckton is a lord but he is not a member of the House of Lords, which is the UK’s undemocratic (actually anti-democratic) analog to the Senate. I think he claims to be a non-voting member, much as I could claim to be a non-playing quarterback for the Chicago Bears.
There is a neatness about it: Monckton claims to be what he is not while denying Mr Obama’s claims to be what he is. He is Lord Deluded of Dumbton.
“The Ole Miss campus television station is reporting the alleged “riots” are instead protests.
Photos show huge group of people on the campus, some even lighting Obama-Biden signs on fire in response to the presidential election results.
Ole Miss journalism student Margaret Ann Morgan posted to Twitter, “Onlookers say people- black, white, etc- throwing rocks at cars.”
True Story: Elderly woman goes birther on German TV, loses 10,000 EUR
This morning, the daily call-in winner on the morning show of a large private national TV network won 1,000 EUR just by being the lucky one who was put through.
She was then asked the 10,000 EUR jackpot question of the day:
“Was Obama born in (a) Kenya or (b) Hawaii?”
She answered “Kenya”…
Well, according to Orly Taitz, the woman now has standing and can sue the network and get discovery. OMG this is it birthers will win.
😉
Meth binge?
He was rambling about Obama clearly losing the popular vote when the CA votes hadn’t been counted and Obama was trailing by 1.5 million.
Ah, Orly! Will we miss her when the comedy ends? Answer: No, not at all. We still have Boehner and McConnell.
I watched from 2200 to 0700 local time (just until after Romney’s speech), not tired for a second, then got two hours sleep before going to work.
I think we can say TEA PARTY loses with West kicked out of Florida.
But the birthers got a big win yesterday. WND has four more years to make money off of attacks on Obama.
They need to be inventive. Right now, all Farah has is “let’s pray”. I wonder if he’ll jump back on the birther bandwagon he abandoned months ago (obviously realizing it won’t be a game-changer for the elections and trying the more conventional smear campaigns).
“Maloney becomes New York’s first openly gay member of Congress.”
(CNN) — Tammy Baldwin made history Tuesday night — twice. She became the first openly gay politician, and first Wisconsin woman, elected to the U.S. Senate.
She defeated Tea Party Thompson and his birther son.
I noted Fishkill. I am a product of the Lower East Side, and the Borscht Belt. My grandfather – עליו השלום – lived for awhile in Watervliet.
I was at a photo workshop at Dicks’ Castle: http://www.dupontcastle.com/castles/dicks.htm
And shonde Cantor.
Thank you. I apologize for my rants.
I agree with Colorado’s Amendment 64. Let Johnson become a real national player, and I’ll sign up.
I guess God really didn’t want Romney to win. (Or West, or Akin, or any of the others who describe themselves as chosen by the deity. Thanks to Him/Her/It for demonstrating this so clearly. And thanks in particular for Elizabeth Warren!
I wonder how they will now rationalize their defeat.
It was really never a “tense night.” That’s just one last attempt by the headline writers who have been programmed to present the fiction that this race was ever “close.”
I felt sorry for Ann Romney last night. It is clear that she has sacrificed a lot of what remains of her failing health, in order to support her abusive husband by hiding her illness. I honestly hope this outcome gives her some peace. It is obvious that she has been suffering.
Big shout out to Zixi for a very wise and gracious post.
The birthers not only lost, but they contributed to the very bad night that the GOP had, not just in the presidential race, but in numerous Senate races, including Indiana and Missouri. Not because they matter in and of themselves-they most certainly do not. But, because they symbolize and embody a deep-seated illness in the Republican party and among conservatives in general. The birthers and Tea Partiers and their ilk have infected the Republicans with a virus that says it is enough simply not to be Obama, to pretend that he represents Kenya or Islam or European socialism, rather than the most dynamic and growing segments of American society.
From day one, their entire agenda was simply to oppose and say “NO”. It’s one thing to oppose Obamacare; it’s another to offer no alternative and pretend that the broken system previously in place was flawless and needed no fixing. It’s one thing to oppose particular proposals to reform immigration laws; it’s another to offer not a single proposal to do anything to fix the broken system. It’s one thing to oppose cap-and-trade (I am not sold on it myself); it’s another to deny the undeniable reality of rising sea levels and ever more severe climate change and offer not a single solution. It’s one thing to oppose a particular tax plan; it’s another to pretend that the deficit can be fixed without some additional revenue.
The Republicans are at a fork. The current path leads to a being a regional party in the South and rural Midwest. And as the Hispanic and Asian populations become more influential in Arizona and Texas and even Georgia that leads to extinction. The other is to become a sensible and constructive right-of-center party. Given their failure to meaningfully confront the birthers and other loons in their ranks, I am not optimistic that they will choose the latter path. It is still not too late to do so, but time is growing short.
John, Orly is wasted — period. You’re delusional if you think that an objection by one senator and one House member can result in denial of a second term for the president.What you omit is that there has to be a vote by the entire membership, which would shoot down overwhelmingly such nonsense.
If you haven’t figured it out, John, among a certain set of the birthers this entire issue was always a way of discrediting the president in hopes of defeating him for re-election.
Didn’t work. Time to move on, John. Find another hobby.
I have a cousin with MS. Rmoney cares more about that horse, than his (one?) wife.
Does this mean you’ll be finding a different country to live in? Please say yes.
As usual in such a situation, they have two options:
Double-down (as in “we were not conservative and crazy enough”) or back down (as in “we’ve overdone it, we need to get back towards the sane middle”).
Of course, a sane evaluation would lead them to realize that they already have the fringe in their pocket and can’t win any more votes by going even tougher because there is nothing more to gain on the far right.
I’ve seen this in my country as well back in the ’90s when the Social Democrats realized they had gone too far towards the left and needed to become a party of the people again, not one of radicalized ideologies.
In 1998, they brought the most right-leaning, pro-industry candidate in decades and won by +5.8 points, a gain of +10.8 over the previous elections – the first time a ruling party ever lost power by electoral results alone (all previous incidents involved a coalition party changing sides as well) – after four straight losses to Helmut Kohl’s Christian Democrats.
I’d sure hate to be in a position where that was the best I could say for myself.
AND mia love – the female, mormon, african american, “new face” of the gop?
WENT DOWN
Yes, a lot of people owe Nate Silver an apology. Interesting analysis here:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnmcquaid/2012/11/07/three-lessons-from-the-nate-silver-controversy/
I was reading the other day that on Fox News on Sunday Brit Hume was complaining that there is so much polling data out there that no one can make any sense of it. I am no statistician, but I know that Hume has it exactly backwards. The more data there is, the greater its predictive value. This isn’t 1948, folks.
Try Somalia.
Rickey:
Nate Silver-Led Statistics Men Crush Pundits in Election
Nate Silver was right. The Gallup Poll was wrong.
and rasmussen TOO
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-07/nate-silver-led-statistics-men-crush-pundits-in-election.html
That is why I was saying that Nate’s poll is the ONLY poll I believe!
Don’t worry, they’ll have conveniently forgotten it all when the next elections come. Again they will cling to anything that looks good for them – out of the foolish belief that somehow bad polls are bad for them.
In fact, if I knew my candidate was down 45-55, I would vote if I had to go through Hell to get to the ballot box, whereas I might stay at home if I knew he was up 55-45.
I never quite understood the right wing’s fixation on the wrong idea that “bad polls are bad for us” (when talking about mobilizing supporters).
That can be done in Germany or Canada or other countries where the party insiders control the leadership and candidate selection. The problem in the US lies in the primary process. The primaries are generally low-turnout affairs, dominated by the most extreme elements, particularly for the Republicans. Romney had to take so many extreme positions to win the nomination (whether he ever believed them or not is unclear) that he couldn’t put a broad coalition together in the general election. And the nomination of blatantly unqualified candidates in primaries unquestionably has cost the Republicans the Senate.
There is no way to force primary voters to consider who has a credible chance among the broader electorate. So, I honestly see them continuing to fail in winning the presidency and Senate but, at least for the time being, surviving in the House where gerrymandering creates districts where no position is too extreme.
Interestingly, we saw, 1 week before the election, the unquestionable triumph of science-based modelling. Hurricane Sandy took a course that no storm in the memory of anyone alive had ever taken (maybe no storm in 200 years or more). Yet, the models were dead on regarding the track, timing and intensity. You could have had 100 of the best, most experienced meteorologists stand on the beach at Atlantic City and give you their “best guesses” based on gut feelings and likely none would have even come close.
Mia Love is Haitian. I’m surprised about her. Every Haitian I know is bi- or tri-lingual, and an intellect.
Lauryn Hill and The Fugees are Haitian. I don’t know how Love became so dogmatic.
Poor, poor John, there there, it will all be ok 😀
We won, and I am so happy for our country. BULLET DODGED.
Several weeks ago, a cab driver refused to pick me up with Angel. Another cab stopped, driven by a Haitian.
He told me about his family and the earthquake. I got to practice my French.
He may not be a member of the House of Lords, but that doesn’t of itself mean he isn’t a lord, a peer of the realm….
Most Lords aren’t in the House any more (since Bliar took time out before fighting wars with Bush to bring about changes to our constitution). I don’t know about Monckton – he is plainly a nut.
I live in Fishkill. Dicks’ Castle is now a condo – there are people actually living there now. I walked around it a few times while it was vacant.
misha-I wonder if you saw this. All of Rmoney’s butt kissing of Netanyahu got him only 30% of the Jewish vote, barely better than McCain got last time. I guess Sheldon Adelson does NOT speak for the majority of Jewish Americans.
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/poll-gop-criticism-of-obama-on-iran-israel
The most ever was Reagan, who got 40%. Josh Mandel was thoroughly defeated, after defending that momser Mourdock.
Ahem, The Hamster Wheel: Lord Monckton –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w833cAs9EN0
“Craig Reucassel interviews comedy genius Sacha Baron Cohen in character as his latest creation: climate skeptic Lord Christopher Monckton.”
Interesting tidbit. This was the first election since 1972 in which neither member of a major party’s ticket was able to carry his or her home state. The last time it happened was when George McGovern carried only Massachusetts and D.C. Sargent Shriver worked in D.C. but he lived in Maryland.
Thank you, but I was never really mad at you. I know that (in this case) you are on the right side. I simply joined you there. I’m glad I did.
BTW, I knew that Romney had lost Colorado the day before the election, when a male commissioned officer told me on how Obama had been fine, militarily, but that he was most concerned about women’s issues for his daughter and granddaughters, and to be sure to vote for Obama.
It was a surreal moment.
Did you see what our governor said last night? It was funny.
“The voters have spoken and we have to respect their will. This will be a complicated process, but we intend to follow through. That said, federal law still says marijuana is an illegal drug, so don’t break out the Cheetos or Goldfish too quickly.”
As for me, I simply cannot see punishing people for smoking pot. It makes no sense on so many levels and hurts people who have done nothing to me. It’s nice to see Colorado voting for things which make sense.
Not one word from States Rights people…
Monckton is the poster boy for why America rejected an hereditary aristocracy.
I cannot for the life of me figure out why they RWNJ ‘we gotta save the Constitution’ crowd thinks he is relevant on any topic what-so-ever.
“Lord” Monckton said: “Win or lose, Obama was not and is not the president”
America said: “We beg to differ.”
Yeah, it’s been a while since we gave a hoot about what any Lord So-and-so had to say.
It’s like in the Hollywood movies where the self-righteous zealots make a pact with the real evil guy because he claims to be on their side.
Or you can compare it to a preacher who sides with the devil “because God has turned away from me”. (Yes, I admit, I watched a lot of “Deep Space 9” lately… Gul Dukat… Pagh wraiths…)
Some German parties hold primaries (though you have to be a paying party member to vote since we do not have your system of “registered voters affiliated with party X”), e.g. the Green party.
The Social Democrats have been discussing for years whether to do the same.
It’s still a little different since we don’t vote for our chancellor directly.