Blame the weather.

I have a long post I’ve been throwing links into a pile for, but I keep getting beaten to the punch by people who are smarter and actually do this for a living. Both Dick Morris and Haley Barbour came out in the last two days with their own personal theories of how the president won re-election, and boy, is he a lucky guy:

Haley Barbour, who served as Mississippi governor when Hurricane Katrina hit his state, asserted Thursday that “Hurricane Sandy saved Barack Obama’s presidency.”

“It broke the momentum that Romney had coming in to the end of October,” the former chairman of the Republican National Committee told TODAY’s Matt Lauer.

He at least gives a nod to the country’s changing demography, before course-correcting:

But the more proximate cause of my error was that I did not take full account of the impact of hurricane Sandy and of Governor Chris Christie’s bipartisan march through New Jersey arm in arm with President Obama. Not to mention Christe’s fawning promotion of Obama’s presidential leadership.

It made all the difference.

Neither has a shred of data to support these contentions. This is just one of those Things They Know By Virtue of Being Lavishly Paid Sages.

The biggest lesson of this week has been: Don’t trust guys like this. I have a feeling there will be a lot of contracts quietly expiring once the spotlights dim. The new negotiation will be, “Dick, can you do math? No? Good luck with the rest of your career.”

There’s a sub-theme here, too — that demography is the new decider. And while it has a lot of truth to it, it’s subtler than a few glib talking points. I think, of all people, John Cook at Gawker sort of nails it here:

One of the reasons the right-wing “brown people won” argument is so irksome is the implication that nonwhite votes don’t really count in the way white ones do. That white people vote based on logic and argumentation, and are persuadable, but nonwhites just press the “D” button and wait for their Obamaphones. That appealing to white votes and nonwhite votes are fundamentally different things. We would have won—we had more votes, but they had the blacks. What are you gonna do?

This is vile. All votes are the same. Persuading an African-American to vote for increasing taxes on the wealthy is precisely the same as persuading a white voter. Every Latino who cares about the treatment of illegal immigrants in this country and so voted for Obama did so for the same reason I did. There’s no difference between us. But the giddiness among the left over the racial coalition Obama built sometimes strikes me as uncomfortably close to eliding that fundamental equality, and regarding nonwhite votes as gimmes that don’t require persuasion. And it subtly ghettoizes those nonwhite voters, splintering issues of national importance into slivers of self-interest. Obama didn’t win because Latino voters want immigration reform. He won because more Americans want immigration reform than don’t.

Matt Yglesias plays variations on the theme:

Pundits are quickly turning to immigration to explain the Republicans’ Latino problem and to offer a possible cure, but the reality is that the rot cuts much deeper. The GOP doesn’t have a problem with Latino voters per se. Rather, it has a problem with a broad spectrum of voters who simply don’t feel that it’s speaking to their economic concerns. The GOP has an economic agenda tilted strongly to the benefit of elites, and it has preserved support for that agenda—even though it disserves the majority of GOP voters—with implicit racial politics.

He goes on to discuss Sonia Sotomayor, who some National Review wag suggested should pronounce her name “Soda-meyer” like an American, dammit.

Well. It’s the end of the week. Let us all let the weekend cleanse away its grime, bank its passionate fires, and ease us into Middle Fall and the inevitable run-up to the holidays. Let me leave you with a link you house-freaks should like — the rescue of a great Detroit house, lavishly illustrated with photos.

See you all Monday.

Posted at 12:14 am in Current events |
 

133 responses to “Blame the weather.”

  1. alex said on November 9, 2012 at 6:54 am

    Stopped by to wish my dad happy birthday last night—his 85th—and he told me about some of the ridiculous right-wing theories about Obama’s win that he saw being floated on TV yesterday. On one channel was Charles Krauthammer insisting that the problem was that Mitt Romney isn’t a real conservative and in 2016 the GOP needs someone like Rick Santorum or Michelle Bachmann to make it to the general election. That was a real knee-slapper. William Kristol was also on the show and told Krauthammer that he was full of crap.

    My dad also told me something I didn’t know—that he was personally acquainted with Irving Kristol, whom he described as a scholar and not particularly political. Kristol served on the board of the corporation where my dad spent his entire career. My dad laments that a lot of his former colleagues remain loyal to the Republican party and demonize Democrats just as if they were Buckeyes talking about Wolverines, instead of thinking for themselves and doing what is really best for their country. I’m really proud of my dad. Count him as one of the people who’s tired of having his intelligence insulted by Republican politicians. That’s another demographic the GOP is overlooking to its own detriment.

    The office has been remarkably calm this week, the usual suspects not looking particularly sullen. The only political talk I’ve overheard of late was one lady, a secretary trying to appease her stridently Republican boss by saying that though she voted for Obama the last time she couldn’t bring herself to do it this time. I’m sure she’s one person who’s not really disappointed with the result of this election.

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  2. Deborah said on November 9, 2012 at 6:57 am

    Getting life back to normal http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/11/we-should-probably-all-calm-down-bit

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  3. beb said on November 9, 2012 at 8:12 am

    I think it was Rachel Maddow last night who put up a graphic showing that before Sandy Obama had a 5 point lead over Romney, on the day Sandy made landfall that had shrunk to a one point lead and five days after Sandy it was still a one point lead, so no Hurricane bump for the Prez. Still I think there was, if not a bump then a forming up of support for the president because there was so much coverage of him running around doing the things we expect of presidents, telling FEMA ‘screw the red tape, do the right thing’ and being, you know, presidential. As opposed to President W. who did a fly-over of New Orleans after having cake with John McCain.

    The apparently shock Republicans have over Obama’s victory, to me indicates not so much that they can’t do math but that they simply stopped reading polls and started believing in magical thinking, like that prayer site Nancy linked to the other day. Otherwise they would have seen this coming. You can’t write off Blacks, Latinos, Gays, and woman without running out of voters. But I think the party leadership knew this going into the election, hence all their efforts to restrict voting. The people without a clue were the professional cheerleaders for Movement Conservatism who were so focused on convincing the nation of the inevitable Republican success that they started believing their own bull.

    Meanwhile a day after the election we see that Speaker of the House Boner is offering to compromise with the president, by adopting, in so many words, the Ryan plan. And if Boehner is overthrown by Eric Cantor, which I think is very possible, things will only get worse. But you know, I get easily depressed.

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  4. coozledad said on November 9, 2012 at 8:15 am

    Some of us need to calm down a bit more than others:
    http://www.salon.com/2012/11/04/six_most_paranoid_fears_for_obamas_second_term/

    My only worry for Obama and his family is that as a transformational figure, he may be another blood offering to the cult of impugned white masculinity.

    There’s another good Roman analogy the right has unfortunately failed to grasp: When you fail miserably against an opponent, and it’s due in part to your incompetence, duty and grace require you to kill yourself (brutally, if you fancy yourself a soldier, or gently if you’re a politician or person of letters, by opening a vein in the bath).

    They haven’t the remotest approximation of that level of dignity or commitment. Bunch of fucking phonies.

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  5. Deggjr said on November 9, 2012 at 8:23 am

    Obama won by promising ‘free stuff’ as opposed to Medicare Part D program created by Bush before the 2004 election. There was no tax increase from the borrow and spend Republicans to pay for the program. But prescription drugs weren’t ‘free stuff’ because the recipients deserved it because they earned it. (That 2004 reference yesterday really hit a nerve.)

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  6. Linda said on November 9, 2012 at 8:51 am

    “You can’t write off Blacks, Latinos, Gays, and woman without running out of voters.”

    It reminded me of Richard III, where Richard is visted the night before the Battle of Bosworth Field by the ghosts of everybody he screwed over, wishing him defeat and death. The Republicans accumulated too many enemies–especially in Ohio, where Kasich ran roughshod over too many people too recently for anyone to forget.

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  7. Mark P said on November 9, 2012 at 9:02 am

    The idea that white voters are the same as black or brown voters ignores one vital thing: the truth. Life and experience are not the same for black people as for white. There are plenty of blacks alive today who were systematically, legally discriminated against by whites. Refused seating in diners. Relegated to the back of the bus. Sprayed by fire hoses, attacked by dogs and beaten by police. When the Republicans talk about taking the country back to where it used to be, that means something different to a whole hell of a lot of black people than it means to white people. (Or maybe not.) If you want their votes, you damned well better assure them that they’re not going back to Jim Crow or worse. Of course it’s too late now. The Republicans have already done their best in some states to bring Jim Crow back to the voting process.

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  8. Another Connie said on November 9, 2012 at 9:20 am

    If the conservatives can pronounce sca-LEE-a they can certainly manage to learn so-to-may-OR. I mean, I look at Scalia’s name and I think of little green onions.

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  9. Pam said on November 9, 2012 at 9:28 am

    When President Obama was re-elected, folks in the R party were stating that they were willing to work with the President, the people have spoken. Not 24 hours have passed and they are already back to their SOS. What a bunch of sanctimonious old farts they are! Well, you just keep on, we’ll be sure not to elect you again in 4 years. Hurricane Sandy, what a joke! Although Bill had the opportunity to tell someone at the bank who made that claim, that God sent the hurricane because he wanted the President re-elected. Snicker. Before the election, a dyed red headed cashier at Target (really didn’t match the shirt) told us that if Obama won, her doctor would be forced to go out of business. We will be sure to follow up on that one next time we need large quantities of paper towels and toilet paper.

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  10. Julie Robinson said on November 9, 2012 at 9:31 am

    beb and Linda, I’ve been thinking the same thing, and it was played out at my polling place. Usually there are a few white hairs with white skin waiting to vote. This year it was packed with all colors and all ages, a veritable rainbow coalition. The Republicans are not going to win the war of demographics.

    The house photos were lovely, but I’ve renovated and lived in enough old homes that I admire from a distance.

    And, look! lo, the sun is shining again and we’re in for a warm and sunny weekend. Soak it up, it may be the last.

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  11. coozledad said on November 9, 2012 at 9:42 am

    Once you know you can’t win it, steal it:
    http://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/11/09/splitting-the-buckeye-baby/
    Ohioans, you’ve got to get rid of that piece of trash Husted.

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  12. Joe K said on November 9, 2012 at 10:04 am

    Beb,
    You might want to check with the folks out on Staten Island before you go bragging up FEMA . Stock market down 400 plus and gas went up 17 cents since Tuesday, and suddenly the ny times decides to start talking about the financial cliff we are about to go over, no mention of it before?
    Pilot Joe

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  13. Danny said on November 9, 2012 at 10:10 am

    Don’t worry, Joe. The Times is just greasing the rails for their next story regarding the Republican brinksmanship with the debt ceiling.

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  14. Mark P said on November 9, 2012 at 10:15 am

    Joe, I heard some of the Sandy victims complaining about not getting enough help from officials almost immediately after the storm blew through. I understand some of that, but I think they were looking for a miracle, not electrical power.

    I can’t quite figure out what you’re getting at with the stock market, fuel prices and the financial cliff. Are you saying that Obama’s election has something to do with all of those things? Everyone blames the stock market decline, which was actually a not that big a deal, on Obama’s election, but that’s just an ad hoc analysis, not the result of anything substantive, just like most stock market analysis. And once the crybabies realize that Obama is not sending in UN troops to take away their Mercedes and vacation homes, they’ll go back to what they do best: making money while ruining the economy. Gas prices? They’re down here. The financial cliff? You mean the thing the Republicans foisted off on the rest of us in order to get them to agree not to run the economy off a financial cliff last year? Do you think the House Republicans will be more reasonable now than they have been lately?

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  15. Prospero said on November 9, 2012 at 10:16 am

    How Budweiser came to taste like piss and urinal cakes.

    The GOP is the harbinger for the Israeli government. Pretty soon, Israeli Arabs will outnumber Jews:

    http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2012/11/once-upon-time.html

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  16. Sue said on November 9, 2012 at 10:46 am

    “…the impact of hurricane Sandy and of Governor Chris Christie’s bipartisan march through New Jersey arm in arm with President Obama. Not to mention Christe’s fawning promotion of Obama’s presidential leadership.”
    But that’s true, and I said it myself, a few days ago, right here. People looked at Obama and Christie and said ‘Oh, yeah, I forgot – that’s how it’s supposed to work’.
    But if I had to choose one thing, just one thing, that got the president elected, it would be this:
    The sluts refused to be shamed.
    And Mark P @7, excellent comment.

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  17. Sue said on November 9, 2012 at 10:53 am

    Cooz, re your blood cult comment, I’ve been thinking the same thing since before the election and even wanted to mention it here, but I didn’t think there was a way to discuss it openly without inviting a visit from some guy in a dark suit and sunglasses. If Republican leaders and big supporters are having these kinds of public freakouts who knows what the scaries are thinking?

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  18. Judybusy said on November 9, 2012 at 11:00 am

    I appreciated the Mother Jones link, Deborah. Has anyone else seen this graphic from the NYT? It gave me pause, especially as it shows MN becoming more Republican, when in fact, we voted in a Democratically-controlled legislature for the first time in years. Also, in looking at Washington, which passed marriage equality legislation, there is significant shift to the Republicans. So, I wonder how the graphic matches up with reality, or am I reading it incorrectly?

    Also, in MN, the Republican strategy to get out the base with the marriage and voter ID amendments backfired. It completely energized an incredible grass-roots effort, and a significant chunk of Romney voters voted *against* the amendments. I volunteered for Minnesotans United for All Families, and in the last week alone, we made 900,000 calls, knocked on 400,000 doors, and 27,000 volunteers made that happen. I am hoping this is a game-changer for how we can do politics. We had many, many heartfelt, courageous conversations that can be a model going forward on many issues.

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  19. Peter said on November 9, 2012 at 11:02 am

    Mark, I do think the stock market drop has to do with Obama’s reelection. A lot of people use the market like it was Las Vegas, and they were betting on their buddies pulling Romney through. Well, if you can’t convince people to elect your buddy, how good can you be at convincing people to buy your company’s stock?

    I just wish the Republicans would have nominated Santorum or Bachmann. It would have been worse than ’72, and finally, finally, the GOP would come to their senses.

    Or maybe not.

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  20. Julie Robinson said on November 9, 2012 at 11:11 am

    “The sluts refused to be shamed.”

    Thank you, Sue, I’ll be laughing all afternoon.

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  21. Charlotte said on November 9, 2012 at 11:16 am

    I had a very sweet conversation in an airport with a very young German au pair during the Dem Convention. We were waiting for our plane, and Jon Lewis was on the TV — I pointed him out, and told her who he was, that he was a hero, that he’d been personally beset upon. She was shocked and kept asking “him?” but why?”, and then confessed how frightened she was of being away from home — she looked happier in Milwaukee when her host family met her with balloons.

    Six inches of new snow here. Good thing we did Yellowstone last weekend …

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  22. Mark P said on November 9, 2012 at 11:17 am

    Well, Peter, that’s certainly the accepted wisdom (Obama election = stock market crash). I imagine it had something to do with it, just like it had something to do with an increase in gun sales associated with Obama’s 2008 election. But I also would be willing to bet (but not $10,000), that it’s a temporary blip. I think when it comes down to it, the money makers are going to decide not to inform their stock market behavior based on Chuck Norris style paranoid fantasies.

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  23. coozledad said on November 9, 2012 at 11:21 am

    A good chunk of the population voted to put the government in the hands of these maladaptive losers and frauds. Imagine these stupid marks with the power to allocate federal dollars.
    http://wonkette.com/489423/romneys-expensive-computer-get-out-the-vote-effort-explodes-miserably-like-rest-of-romney-campaign#more-489423

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  24. Catherine said on November 9, 2012 at 11:53 am

    Stock market’s up 40 points. So there.

    Lincoln, the movie, opens today in some cities, and it is FANTASTIC (no IMHO here!). It will restore your faith in what politicians and governments can accomplish, and is a beautiful post-election palate-cleanser. It tells the story of how the 13th Amendment was passed in a lame-duck House of Representatives that nobody expected much of. It gives me hope, especially with so many other Lincoln-Obama parallels, that something can be accomplished in the rest of the current Congressional session, too. Not as significant as the 13th Amendment, probably, but *something*.

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  25. Judybusy said on November 9, 2012 at 12:05 pm

    I’m excited about the Lincoln movie, too. I made plans to see it with my partner and a friend, but not till after they are both done with the current school semester, in December.

    For another take on Lincoln, FDR and Reagan, check out George Friedman’s book, The Next Decade. He argues that these three presidents combined power, a sense of moral duty and pretty nefarious methods to get the job done. I did not agree with all he wrote in the book, but it was a really interesting, thought-provoking read on geopolitical matters, and how the president needs to be Machiavellian in the next 10 years to set the stage to ensure that the US uses its influence in a way to preserve the republic.

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  26. Deborah said on November 9, 2012 at 12:14 pm

    Coozledad, I enjoyed reading that link about Orca, but I always have problems viewing the Wonkette site. Does anyone else have this problem? I attribute it to too many ads or bells and whistles.

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  27. MichaelG said on November 9, 2012 at 12:16 pm

    That is a lovely old house even if it’s not quite to my taste. The owner may have paid ‘only’ $125,000 for it but he certainly spent a fortune restoring and furnishing it. I shiver when I look at those huge antlers mounted above the bed and think of the bed’s poor occupant as the earthquake arrives.

    I stopped by the post office yesterday to pick up a package. There was a fair line but Paula, the black woman behind the counter, was handling things just fine. An ancient and wizened Filipino man had a package to send. His face was brown and seamed under his pork pie hat. He was stooped and frail (if a guy five feet tall can be said to be stooped) and had trouble with English.

    Paula put his package on the scale and gave him her rote question about whether the package contained firearms, dangerous materials or explosives. The old guy made an inarticulate sound indicating that he didn’t understand.

    Paula: “Anything go boom?”

    Old man: “Ah! No.”

    The whole line absolutely fell out. You could have recorded your laff track there. It was one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time.

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  28. Jakash said on November 9, 2012 at 12:28 pm

    I’m one of those pathetic souls who actually records Saturday Night Live relatively often, in hopes of finding the occasional serving of wheat among the chaff. So I saw this on Sunday, and meant to post it here, for Brian, if nobody else, but forgot. Now I’m reminded about it by Eric Zorn having posted it on his blog. It’s a pretty funny Lincoln skit by Louis C.K., with a bit of a different take than the movie, I imagine.

    http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2012/11/louis-ck-reimagines-abraham-lincoln.html

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  29. Sherri said on November 9, 2012 at 12:36 pm

    Judybusy, that graphic in the NYTimes only takes geography into account, not size of population. So it’s a bit misleading. Yes, large geographic areas of Washington are Republican, but some of those big counties have fewer than 50000 votes. Here’s a county by county breakdown of the same sex marriage vote in Washington with vote totals so far (about 75% of the votes are counted.)

    http://vote.wa.gov/results/current/Referendum-Measure-No-74-Concerns-marriage-for-same-sex-couples_ByCounty.html

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  30. Jakash said on November 9, 2012 at 12:45 pm

    What I don’t understand about the stock market drop is that the market has been the part of the recovery that’s gone the best, isn’t it? Why would they be so bummed about Obama being reelected when they’ve done pretty well with him thus far?

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  31. John (not McCain) said on November 9, 2012 at 12:52 pm

    This is the jerk who could have been president:

    http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/08/15024793-the-last-days-of-romneyland?lite

    “BOSTON — From the moment Mitt Romney stepped off stage Tuesday night, having just delivered a brief concession speech he wrote only that evening, the massive infrastructure surrounding his campaign quickly began to disassemble itself.
    Aides taking cabs home late that night got rude awakenings when they found the credit cards linked to the campaign no longer worked.”

    If this is how he treats people who not only supported him with their vote, but actually worked to try to get him elected, how would he have treated the rest of us? I think we dodged a bigger bullet than I thought.

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  32. beb said on November 9, 2012 at 12:57 pm

    Judybusy, much of what you’re seeing is the sin of gerrymandering, which is visited upon the sons until the seventh generation or until the next census. Pennsylvania is a good example of that. It went for Obama but two-thirds of its congressmen will be republicans because all the liberal, democrat votes where stuffed into only a handful of districts. It’s easy to look at all the red west of the Mississippi and think there are a lot of Republicans out there. But there aren’t It’s all pretty unpopulated compared to Massachusetts.

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  33. MichaelG said on November 9, 2012 at 1:06 pm

    Google Maps has a cool new 45 degree view. So far there are only a relatively few places included but Ft. Wayne is one of them. For a list of cities with the view go to help on GM. It’s worth a look.

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  34. Maggie Jochild said on November 9, 2012 at 1:10 pm

    Deborah, me too. It’s maddening when websites freeze up on loading and won’t let go when I try to move on.

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  35. coozledad said on November 9, 2012 at 1:14 pm

    John (Not McCain): Republicans just eat that “tough titty” shit up. That’s why they’re always finding them strung to the rafters with latex novelties stuffed up their ass.

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  36. Jakash said on November 9, 2012 at 1:14 pm

    Prospero,
    I read that Business Week article about AB InBev, makers of Budweiser and zillions of other beers, last week. My main takeaway was that this is one more area where the pursuit of profit, at the expense of virtually everything else, has gone a long way toward ruining a good thing. The idea of profit not being the ONLY motivating factor seems to be a relic of another time. I’m not saying that profits aren’t important, but, when they’re the only motivation, you get things like Beck’s beer being brewed in the United States and not being nearly as good. I found the fact that this viewpoint is pretty much being espoused by an article in Business Week, not Socialist Monthly, intriguing.

    I’ve noticed lately that the Harp beer (an Irish lager) we get around here still says “imported” proudly on the label, but ours is now brewed in Canada. Same with Foster’s, I believe, which used to come from Australia, of course. With Beck’s, AB InBev has gone a step further. It mentions the German Purity Law of 1516, or whatever, and says “German” something or other on the label, but it doesn’t say “imported” because it’s made in the U.S. I never even liked Beck’s, but many who did say it’s not nearly the same now that it’s brewed here. Rolling Rock, a classic brand from Latrobe, Pa., mentions something about the spirit of Latrobe and the heritage of their glass-lined tanks, or whatever (can’t remember the actual wording), but the last I looked, it’s now brewed in St. Louis.

    We have a wonderful craft brewery in Chicago — Goose Island — which was founded in 1988 and has many fine products, two brewpubs on the North Side and a separate brewing facility. They were bought by Anheuser Busch and now their Harvest Ale that I was looking at in the store the other day (in Chicago) was brewed in Baldwinsville, N.Y. Swell. I WAS told at the brewpub that the beers they serve on draft there (which are many and varied) are still all brewed locally. Some of their higher-end brews will also continue to be bottled here.

    Of course, the old mainline beers are mainly losing market share to the explosion of craft brewers showing up in seemingly every town, so maybe it doesn’t matter all that much.

    Not that anybody here (or anywhere) will care about this, but it’s a pretty interesting article that Prospero linked to at #15, if one enjoys beer at all. Plus, he did everybody the favor of linking to the “print” version, so you can bypass the 6 page clicks that were required on the regular version of the piece on the website. ; )

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  37. Bitter Scribe said on November 9, 2012 at 1:19 pm

    Deborah and Maggie: You might want to try upgrading your browsers. I was using IE7 for some reason and had that problem chronically, but when I switched to Chrome, it seemed to go away. (If you’re a big fan of IE—and if you are, you’ll be first I’ve ever met—you can also avoid those problems with IE8, which I have to use sometimes. I make no claims for IE9, which just came out.)

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  38. Jakash said on November 9, 2012 at 1:28 pm

    One more thing. Eric Zorn of the Tribune also has a fine column highlighting the significant leftward turn for the nation that the election represents:
    http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2012/11/left-turn-dems-gop-battle-to-a-draw-but-liberals-romp-.html#more

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  39. brian stouder said on November 9, 2012 at 1:29 pm

    Jackash, I will surely watch that Lincoln link when I get home this evening! I am very much looking forward to Spielberg’s portrait of Lincoln (and I hope they have at least a few smutty jokes in there, too!)

    Also, I agreed – passionately – with Catherine when she said:

    It gives me hope, especially with so many other Lincoln-Obama parallels, that something can be accomplished in the rest of the current Congressional session, too.

    But also, believing (as I do) that one of the greatest comforts that United States history has to offer – that we’re not especially smarter or dumber or better or worse than we’ve ever been – also strikes fear into my heart.

    Think how much better everything might have been, had the 16th president lived, at least to the end of his second term.

    Hell, he might have gone all FDR on us, and run for a third term, too, which would have taken him well through Reconstruction – where we surely could have used a towering genius (and supreme political operator) like him, playing off the smaller minds of the other players of the day.

    By way of saying, it would be nice if 2012 passions cooled a bit, now.

    Uncle Rush (et al) will rant and rave, regardless; but it would be nice if at least a few more Rachel Maddows get onto the airwaves, if only to say “But, have you thought of this…?”

    PS – Beb – and indeed, regarding gerrymandering, this is the reason, I suspect, that some of our tea-party friends advocate for the repeal of the 17th Amendment – which enables the voters of each state to elect their senators, rather than the state legislatures.

    You can gerrymander the legislators’ districts, and get a “super majority” (so-called) in Indiana; but you cannot gerrymander a statewide election.

    This would the difference, in 2012, between a handily-elected Senator Mourdock (thanks to our legislature), on the one hand, or a handily popularly elected Senator Donnelly, on the other.

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  40. jcburns said on November 9, 2012 at 1:39 pm

    Jeff TMMO, I thought of you when I read this, which really gives me a certain kind of hope for us all. Now I’d like to see similar sentiments and perspective expressed from deep within Catholicism, Mormonism, Judaism, Islam…

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  41. brian stouder said on November 9, 2012 at 1:59 pm

    Superb link, JC; I’m saving it for Pam (our resident facebooker) to deploy, at the proper time, and for the proper people

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  42. jcburns said on November 9, 2012 at 2:04 pm

    On a totally different note, Nancy, what do you think about the prospect of your Detroit neighbors clocking in to crank out LCD TVs (and dare I say it, someday, iDevices?) instead of Thunderbirds…for China’s Foxconn?

    With pretty much complete ignorance on this issue, I still have faith that Americans could learn to build tiny iDoohickies. Well, Americans with tiny hands.

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  43. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on November 9, 2012 at 2:08 pm

    I’ve never thought let alone said that Obama is an evil man, but I will confess to repeated unChristian reflections and statements about Mitch McConnell. Who if re-elected as Senate minority leader will be the living proof that the GOP is a dead party walking. Given my inability to find a home in the Democratic party, where that leaves me, I have no idea, but it would probably lead a wiser person than I to ignore politics altogether and keep your eye on the furrow you’re trying to plow in front of you.

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  44. Sue said on November 9, 2012 at 2:34 pm

    “You can gerrymander the legislators’ districts, and get a “super majority” (so-called) in Indiana; but you cannot gerrymander a statewide election.”
    How about a national one?:
    http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/11/09/1169761/ohios-gop-secretary-of-state-already-has-a-plan-to-rig-the-2016-election-for-republicans/

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  45. Danny said on November 9, 2012 at 2:38 pm

    Given my inability to find a home in the Democratic party, where that leaves me, I have no idea, but it would probably lead a wiser person than I to ignore politics altogether and keep your eye on the furrow you’re trying to plow in front of you.

    Jeff, that has been my philosophy for years now. We can idly speak here of kings and cabbages, but I tend to concentrate my energies on things most directly within my sphere of influence… which is why I sometimes take long leaves of absence from NN.C.

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  46. Little Bird said on November 9, 2012 at 3:10 pm

    Jackash, I hate to tell you this, but I think AB bought Goose Island. I seem to remember one of the former brewmasters telling me that.
    Sorry. And I hope I’m wrong.

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  47. Little Bird said on November 9, 2012 at 3:17 pm

    It would probably help if I read a bit more carefully, wouldn’t it?

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  48. Deborah said on November 9, 2012 at 3:23 pm

    Some good stuff here today. But Bitter Scribe I have no idea how to upgrade my browser on my iPad. I just use Safari which was resident on it when I got it. I can download other browsers on my laptop which I didn’t bring with me to Santa Fe, I used Firefox on that. When you dowload or upgrade on an iPad where does it go? Is there an applications folder. I’m such a dumbshit when it comes to stuff like this.

    JC loved the link about Christians, am passing it on for sure.

    And MichaelG your story about standing in line at the PO had me chuckling.

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  49. MaryRC said on November 9, 2012 at 3:28 pm

    MchaelG, that was my first thought too when I saw those antlers. Personally I would not hang big sharp pointy things over my bed! Beautiful house, though. I used to love that America’s Castles series on A&E about the mansions that were built during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the incredible craftmanship and care that went into details like materials and decoration. Now it seems that the mansions of the wealthy are just … big. Of course, they have car elevators so there’s that.

    I am truly stunned that the Romney campaign was stunned at their loss. I know that not just the dingbattier bloggers but even respected conservative pundits were in denial about the polls, but to think that a sophisticated campaign machine could be so wrong is amazing.

    They’re all Peggy Noonan now (who claimed that Romney was “sneaking up” on the win because she saw more Romney yard signs).

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  50. Deborah said on November 9, 2012 at 3:34 pm

    General Petreaous (spelling?) resigns because of an extramarital affair after 37 years of marriage???? Youza what is this world coming to?

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  51. Deborah said on November 9, 2012 at 3:46 pm

    Petraeus

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  52. coozledad said on November 9, 2012 at 3:48 pm

    Petray’er.

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  53. Danny said on November 9, 2012 at 3:53 pm

    Hilarious. Just saw this and had to bring it forward from yesterday.

    Danny, in addition to being the spawn of a family et up with ministers, I spent three years of my life that I will never get back again covering Jim Bakker and PTL, so any tone of sanctimony sent my way with respect to religious institutions (as opposed to religion per se) is a really, REALLY bad idea.

    Lex, a really, REALLY bad idea? Why? Do you plan to hurt my feelings with something you may post? Oh, my…

    And do you realize the irony in your use of the word “sanctimony.”

    Nancy, promise me you will never stop encouraging those who post occasional trinkets that you like. It leads to a lot of wry smiles on my end. 🙂

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  54. LAMary said on November 9, 2012 at 3:56 pm

    Mitch McConnell is really a terrible person. I agree with you JTMMO.

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  55. Sue said on November 9, 2012 at 4:07 pm

    Deborah, the CIA resignation more scandalous than anyone thought. I heard the mistress’s name was Natasha Fatale.

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  56. Sherri said on November 9, 2012 at 4:11 pm

    How long before the right wing noise machine starts claiming that Obama set up Petraeus to cover up Benghazi?

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  57. MichaelG said on November 9, 2012 at 4:14 pm

    The 37 year itch.

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  58. coozledad said on November 9, 2012 at 4:14 pm

    Sherri: Don’t give them any ideas. God knows they’re bereft of their own.

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  59. coozledad said on November 9, 2012 at 4:18 pm

    MichaelG. Ha!

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  60. LAMary said on November 9, 2012 at 4:24 pm

    Too late Cooz. I read an article about Petraeus and every comment was about this being a coverup to distract people from the truth about Benghazi, or to quote one, “the rats are abandoning the sinking ship…”
    It couldn’t just be about screwing around, could it.

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  61. Prospero said on November 9, 2012 at 4:28 pm

    Why Willard really lost.

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  62. Jakash said on November 9, 2012 at 4:48 pm

    Little Bird,
    It’s not surprising that one might get sidetracked plowing through that long, boring comment of mine. And careful reading of commentary from the last row of the cheap seats here is optional, for sure… : )

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  63. LAMary said on November 9, 2012 at 4:52 pm

    This was a link on the side of the page about the Kresge house. I think it’s gorgeous.

    http://gardenista.com/posts/the-once-and-future-boathouse

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  64. jcburns said on November 9, 2012 at 4:53 pm

    I see you Romney’s cheapness, and I raise you GOTV technology that crashed repeatedly.

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  65. Danny said on November 9, 2012 at 4:54 pm

    Deborah, the CIA resignation more scandalous than anyone thought. I heard the mistress’s name was Natasha Fatale.

    Sue, wait until Boris finds out. And Fearless Leader is going to be pissed too. Drats, Moose and Squirrel win again!

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  66. brian stouder said on November 9, 2012 at 4:54 pm

    Jakash – and indeed, the cheap seats here at Derringer Stadium are vastly preferable to the skyboxes at any other place I know of! (Cannot tell you how pleasing it is to dip in and out of here, as the day progresses, and we deal with literal ‘vulture capitalists’ in this world – but we won’t digress just yet)

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  67. beb said on November 9, 2012 at 5:05 pm

    I read that article, too, about the international company buying all manner of beer companies and cheapen the product. I don’t drink so I don’t know how bad it’s become but surely there’s a self-defeating point when so many beers becomes so much piss-water than people will only drink craft beers? Assuming that any craft beers remain that are still locally owned and controlled.

    I would love to see any kind of manufacturing come back to Detroit but if Foxconn thinks they can just set up a plant here they are in for a world of hurt. There is just too much of a cultural difference between any US worker and a Chinese Foxconn worker. US workers are going to live in mass barracks, or be on call as it were 24/7, get roused out of bed for an emergency 12 hour shift. They may work for low wages but won’t for long.

    I have heard that the labor cost between US assembly and Chinese assembly is only $50-$80, which when compared to the price asked for those machines is trivial. But I think Apple liked China’s lack of environmental pollution laws, worker safety laws, worker rights laws and the large amount of government subsidies to build there. Apple, like Wal-mart is profoundly unAmerican,

    Jeff, you can’t find a place in the Democratic party? Even today the Dems resemble the party Will Rogers once twitted: “I belong to no organized party; I am a Democrat.”

    General Petraeus had an affair?!!! Another Republican who can”t tell the difference between “god and country” and their dick.

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  68. Linda said on November 9, 2012 at 5:33 pm

    Danny @65:

    I was thinking more Dickens in that name than a Jay Ward cartoon, but I overlooked the obvious. You win.

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  69. Deborah said on November 9, 2012 at 5:54 pm

    Natasha Fatale, ha! The 37 year itch, ha! Good ones but poor Holly Patraeus, will she stand next to the cheat with a tight, grim face like the others have done? My husband would say business as usual with the military types.

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  70. alex said on November 9, 2012 at 6:10 pm

    Jeff, you can’t find a place in the Democratic party? Even today the Dems resemble the party Will Rogers once twitted: “I belong to no organized party; I am a Democrat.”

    beb, you have to understand that here in the Maumee Valley, coming out as a Democrat is almost as hard as coming out as gay. It can cost you valued relationships and make you fear for your safety. It’s a decision most don’t take lightly.

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  71. del said on November 9, 2012 at 6:31 pm

    Gives new meaning to Moveon.org’s ad slogan: General Betray-us.

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  72. LAMary said on November 9, 2012 at 6:33 pm

    I read the wikipedia page about the general. His father’s name was Sixtus Petraeus and he was from the Netherlands. Strange name. Sounds like some Roman senator or something.

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  73. Danny said on November 9, 2012 at 6:37 pm

    beb, you have to understand that here in the Maumee Valley, coming out as a Democrat is almost as hard as coming out as gay. It can cost you valued relationships and make you fear for your safety. It’s a decision most don’t take lightly.

    Alex, your assuming that Jeff has friends to lose. Remember to tip your servers!

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  74. Danny said on November 9, 2012 at 6:48 pm

    Love the Patraeus hedline on Drudge. Above the headline is a picture of the cover of his autobiography, “All In.”

    Perfect. Brian can appreciate that.

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  75. Danny said on November 9, 2012 at 6:48 pm

    Sorry, typos, trying to get outta here and have a beer.

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  76. Kirk said on November 9, 2012 at 6:59 pm

    Rolling Rock was one lager I used to like, but there’s no denying that Anheuser-Busch screwed it up and made it taste like all the rest of the crap it puts out.

    Meanwhile, in these parts, people are way too obsessed with Great Lakes Christmas Ale, which is very good but . . .

    Poeple follow the truck around, buy case upon case and then put it on Craigslist at incredible markups. Apparently, there are doofus yuppies who will pay out the ass. Reminds me of when Coors had a mystique because you couldn’t buy it east of Kansas. Turned out, it was and remains pretty bad beer.

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  77. LAMary said on November 9, 2012 at 7:17 pm

    Long ago I was fond of Rolling Rock ponies. They got really cold really fast and on a hot day after doing something like mowing the lawn or washing the car it was just enough cold beer to make you feel all better.

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  78. Sherri said on November 9, 2012 at 7:55 pm

    King and Pierce county prosecutors have dismissed all pending misdemeanor marijuana cases involving people 21 and over possessing one oz or less in the light of the passage of marijuana legalization in Washington. They cited the clear message sent by the voters.

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  79. Kirk said on November 9, 2012 at 8:19 pm

    In Pennsylvania, they called them Little Nips (6 ounces). A couple of swallows and gone.

    Meanwhile, speaking of blaming the weather, they decided to schedule a basketball game on an aircraft carrier next to the ocean at dusk and guess what? Dew happened, and they couldn’t get the court dry, so the Ohio State-Marquette men’s game was canceled.

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  80. brian stouder said on November 9, 2012 at 8:38 pm

    Jakash – gotta say, the Lincoln link was kinda bizarre. Made me laugh – but bizarre. Lincoln on stage tellin’ stories; good stuff!

    But my bet is, Lincoln would have had more of a Sam Kinneson or Richard Pryor style of delivery, rather than the Steve Landesburg or Steven Wright delivery in the video….but we quibble!

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  81. Sherri said on November 9, 2012 at 9:15 pm

    Lucky for the world’s largest defense contractor that they get to bury the news of their CEO-in-waiting getting fired for an affair on the same day that Petraeus resigns for an affair…

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  82. Rana said on November 9, 2012 at 9:34 pm

    Regarding the “demography” explanation, what I find interesting is that it’s rarely trotted out as a way of acknowledging that the country’s population is shifting, becoming younger, more urban, more diverse, and that any person who works with the public needs to be aware of that. Instead, it’s more this baffled exasperation that people who aren’t “real” Americans – by that meaning a stereotype of middle-aged, white, salt-of-the-earth small town types who salute the flag and go to church on Sundays – have the audacity to claim any sort of political power or attention on their own behalf.

    As someone who only lived a few years of my life among such stereotyped folks and felt alienated the whole time, I’ve always been irritated by the idea that I’m not a “real” American just because I’m educated, urban-focused, and non-Christian. It’s pleasing to me to have seen that smug condescending certainty of the pundits that they know what a “real” American looks like punctured, and so decisively, even as they struggle to patch it back up.

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  83. alex said on November 9, 2012 at 9:51 pm

    Tonight parked my ass at my fave watering hole and had dinner and had some coarse hag to my right trying to engage me in political discourse. She fears for the future of America and all these coloreds are wanting shit for free on her dime and blah blah blah and says we’re a Republic and not a Democracy yet we are acting like a Democracy. My response? You’re right. The trouble with Democracy is that everyone’s vote carries the same weight, including the votes of people who are stupid. She didn’t say a word to me the rest of the night.

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  84. Sherri said on November 9, 2012 at 11:43 pm

    You people are all lucky that Washington is not a swing state – we’re the slowest ballot counters in the country. The gubernatorial race was finally settled this evening when the Republican candidate conceded. We still don’t know about the charter school initiative; the yes votes are slightly ahead, but King County still has 130K ballots to count, and the initiative is losing in King County.

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  85. Jakash said on November 10, 2012 at 12:01 am

    brian s.,
    Quibbling is fine with me. It WAS bizarre, but I suppose that was the point. I don’t doubt that you have a better appreciation of how Lincoln might have performed stand-up than Mr. C. K. I just thought that, as a dedicated Lincoln aficionado, you’d be interested in seeing this pop-culture send-up.

    FYI, I don’t believe that the part with him trying to find his way into the back of Mary’s dress made it onto the airwaves. I think that was an added feature of the “director’s cut” posted by Mr. Zorn.

    Kirk, LAMary,
    I’m sure that the Rolling Rock “ponies” or “Little Nips” had to be better than the similarly sized Little Kings, from Cincinnati, that we used to qauff back in the day. I believe that they’re still around, though their diminutive size was their most appealing feature…

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  86. Kirk said on November 10, 2012 at 12:17 am

    I had my share of Little Kings, too, Jakash. Also Duke Ales, the 6-ouncers produced by Duquesne Brewing. I think they were good; at least, I know I liked them at the time.

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  87. del said on November 10, 2012 at 6:10 am

    There was a billboard of a cartoon man on a beach lying on his back in his bathing suit wearing a king’s crown. Holding a Little King beer at a suggestive angle at his pant line, he says, “King me.”

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  88. ROGirl said on November 10, 2012 at 7:18 am

    A lot of powerful men have affairs that don’t become public or cause them to resign. What’s really going on with the Petraeus story?

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  89. coozledad said on November 10, 2012 at 7:37 am

    I read somewhere that early in the Obama administration, the president developed a strategy of neutralizing Petraeus as a potential political opponent by satisfying his appetite for promotion. He did the same thing with John Huntsman, and he (and Sandy) brought Christie into the fold and has likely destroyed his chances as a Republican candidate.
    For all their military worship, the Republicans don’t know dick about strategy.
    I suspect there was plenty of evidence early on that Petraeus was a pussy hound. They already knew he was a climber, an ass kisser, a petty autocrat, and a deeply ambitious office boy.
    This is probably Obama cleaning house to get rid of some of the more expensive liabilities he was handed by the previous administration.

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  90. coozledad said on November 10, 2012 at 8:11 am

    My wife thinks it’s more a case of Obama being fortunate in his enemies. I have to admit that’s more likely than the eleven dimensional chess thing, even though it often looks a lot like it.

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  91. David C. said on November 10, 2012 at 8:21 am

    ROGirl. As I understand it, Paula Broadwell, the women he had the affair with and co-author of his hagiography had access to his CIA e-mail account and was under investigation by the FBI for that. I expect this will get a lot worse for Patraeus very soon.

    I feel very bad for Mrs. Patraeus though. I’ve seen her speaking against military personnel being fleeced and she seemed like a very kind, caring, soft-spoken woman.

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  92. Prospero said on November 10, 2012 at 9:15 am

    Awwww. Poor Mittens.

    And Haley Barbout finally comes out with a plausible reason for the GOPer debacle: “We ran shitty candidates.” As Randy Newman would say, “You can’t fool the fatman”.:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DclH0VhX278

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  93. DellaDash said on November 10, 2012 at 10:17 am

    Sue, Sue, Sue @16…OMG…this unashamed slut would kiss your painted toenails if I weren’t laughing so hard

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  94. beb said on November 10, 2012 at 11:36 am

    Without a doubt Pres. Obama has been fortunate in his enemies. I doubt that Obama had an indication that Patraeus would have an affair before naming him head of the CIA. That’s too important a job to give to someone you’re expecting to become enmeshed in a scandal.

    Washington experiment with mail-in ballots seems to be hung on the issue of counting, which could be reduced if the state had simply planned for the need to count so many ballots at once. That means lots of counting squads. There seems to be a moral here, namely that you shouldn’t try to run an election on the cheap.

    Detroit’s a one-party town so there’s no advantage to trying to disenfranchise voters but my wife and I still spent an hour in line to vote. The whole thing was an exercise in amateurism. The voting place was in the back of the local high school (one known for the occasional gunshots) but there was only one “Vote Here” sign and it was placed half way back of the building, not out in front for people to see. They needed more signs then to lead people around to the voting area. Secondly, there were two precincts voting in the same place. That requires signage telling people where to line up, velvet rope to organzine the lines, and someone with a copy of the voter registration files to tell people into which precinct they live. Finally, the lines moved slowly not because there weren’t enough voting booths (there weren”t but people were using tables so there was no waiting to fill in the ballot. It was getting the ballot. There were three separate books to be filled in my hand. First a look up of your voter registration, followed by hand stamping a book that showed you voted. The third book listed your name and the number voter you were. Since we had to show ID it seems possible to (optically) scan in the driver’s license locate the driver’s license number and automatically look up the proper precinct to vote in, mark a database that we’re here to vote and assign us a voter number. But the problem with this is that it’s so easy to make a computer to say whatever you want it to say. So the realanswer is to spend more money and have more voting places so there won’t be such long lines.

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  95. jcburns said on November 10, 2012 at 12:12 pm

    Update: Foxconn says, nah, we’re not opening factories in Detroit, that was just a rumor.

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  96. nancy said on November 10, 2012 at 12:30 pm

    Good. Now I don’t have to have an opinion about it.

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  97. Jolene said on November 10, 2012 at 3:10 pm

    Here’s more of the tick-tick on the Petraeus case. Seems Paula Broadwell was the source of their undoing. She seems like quite a piece of work.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/fbi-probe-of-petraeus-triggered-by-e-mail-threats-from-biographer-officials-say/2012/11/10/d2fc52de-2b68-11e2-bab2-eda299503684_story.html

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  98. MichaelG said on November 10, 2012 at 4:23 pm

    I kinda like Ms. Paula. She’s smart, attractive, articulate and laughs easily. Check out her bio. Ms. Broadwell is quite an accomplished woman and one could easily see how a mutual attraction developed between she and General Petraeus. She was also married, it seems, while boffing Petraeus. Oh well. She wasn’t married to me.

    It gets weird as it appears hubby Scott may have written a letter back in July to the NYT advice columnist asking what he should do. This is gonna make a good TV movie. I’d imagine things are a tad strained around the Broadwell household at the moment.

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  99. Prospero said on November 10, 2012 at 4:44 pm

    MichaelG. She ws sen in as a spy to cover up the lies about Obama covering up his pro-muslim sacrifice of Americans at Ben Ghazi. These are not sane people. . This is what these nutcases are saying on Fox. Whackos. but people believe this shit. This country is screwed, because people believe in nutcase shit like this. I saw some weirdo on Fox claiming Petraeus is a sacrificial lamb. This is these whackos starting up the Vince Foster shit again. People listen to looneys.

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  100. Prospero said on November 10, 2012 at 4:48 pm

    The woman fell in love with the hardcore guy? Knock me over with a feather. Petraeous as some sort of war hero? No general is a war hero. That is horseshit.

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  101. Prospero said on November 10, 2012 at 4:50 pm

    Generals are full of shit and feed cannon fodder to cannons. They aren’t heros. If Petraaeus let this woman have access to his email, he’s an idiot that was thinking with his gun, not his rifle. Dumbass.

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  102. Deborah said on November 10, 2012 at 5:04 pm

    Yeah Broadwell is quite the accomplished woman unlike many of the bimbos that men in power have gotten entangled with. But it has shades of the diaper wearing astronaut scenario. It also sounds like Petreaus might be quite the “pussy hound” as Coozledad said. The plot thickens.

    A gorgeous day in Santa Fe, cold, overcast and snow predicted for this evening. It has been so sunny and warm since I’ve been here this is a much welcome change. Everywhere you walk there’s the smell of burning piñon in fireplaces. Heaven. I love this place.We did some errands in the plaza area and stopped at one of our favorite bars where I slowly sipped some bourbon. Did I say I love this place? Having roast pork loin and artichokes with baked Brie and mustard sauce tonight. Double heaven.

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  103. DellaDash said on November 10, 2012 at 5:04 pm

    Prospero, give “this country is screwed” a break already…the pregnant chads in Florida just gave birth to Obama.

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  104. MichaelG said on November 10, 2012 at 6:30 pm

    You’ve got it, Deborah. Especially now with the stories about Ms. Broadwell sending harassing emails to some woman at the CIA. The competition.

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  105. deb said on November 10, 2012 at 6:35 pm

    Late to the party as usual, but I find it hilarious that Karl Rove says Obama stole the election by practicing “voter suppression.” Even the Fox anchor responded to that remark with (I’m paraphrasing here), “Come on, Karl. Seriously?”

    Re Petraeus, the chapter names of Broadwell’s book are a lot more interesting now that we know:

    http://gawker.com/5959469/chapter-titles-of-david-petraeuss-biography-ranked-by-how-funny-they-are-now-that-we-know-the-author-was-humping-the-subject?tag=Petraeus-Affair

    Reminds of me all the unintentional double entendres in ad copy and headlines in SI’s special golfing edition after the Tiger scandal broke.

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  106. Prospero said on November 10, 2012 at 7:26 pm

    That offside call against Bama was unadulterated bullshit. The entire right side of the A&Am line charged offside. Rules say, it doesn;t matter where the D lines up. Bullcrap. And Johnny football is as asinine a nickname as Donny Baseball. And I’m a Dodgers fan. Donny baseball knows about as much about pitching as that George Will ahole, Donny Baseball. Bama got screwed and Lord knows, I despise Alabama football. The idea that the Oline can simply stand up to draw a defensive penalty is bullshit, no matter what moron announcers say.

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  107. Prospero said on November 10, 2012 at 7:28 pm

    Kommissar Karl klaiming voter suppression should get the asshole struck down by a bolt of lightning. Seriously, Turd Blossom? What a monstrous asshole.

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  108. Bob (not Greene) said on November 10, 2012 at 10:15 pm

    I live for prospero’s hilariously irrational sports analysis. Thank you, master.

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  109. MichaelG said on November 11, 2012 at 12:03 am

    Nicely said, Bob (nG). I watched the end of that game and it looked like a good call to me. More recently, the Ducks just lost their quarterback to what looks to be a fairly serious shoulder injury. Still second quarter against Cal who really needs to replace Jeff Tedford.

    In that vein, there is a web site that shows the pay of every employee of the State of CA. Tedford is ranked number one with a base salary of 2.8 Million. My salary is somewhat lower.

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  110. Sherri said on November 11, 2012 at 12:20 am

    I watched the whole game, and the story of the game is that A&M’s defense never let Alabama’s running game get going. In other words, A&M stopped SEC smashmouth football. The offsides penalty on Bama was no worse than the offensive pass interference penalty on the Aggies earlier that cost them a first down and gave Bama good field position.

    Johnny Football will get all the headlines, but the Aggie defense won the game.

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  111. Dexter said on November 11, 2012 at 1:01 am

    Kirk, back in the 1970s some young men drove an empty van to Colorado and came back to Fort Wayne with the van full of canned Coors beer. It was packed to the roof. They had no problems until they turned onto their little residential street, just one hundred yards or less from the ringleader’s house. Yep. Busted, no turn signal . All I remember is they had to forfeit all but a couple cases of the suds and they were fined some huge amount.

    I used to really enjoy Coors during my year in California. Almost all my friend drank either Olympia “Oly”, from Tumwater, Washington, or Coors beer.

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  112. Dexter said on November 11, 2012 at 1:04 am

    Michigan went crazy and beat Northwestern , ND won, and maybe we can have an Oregon / ND game late in January?

    Our high school team came back from the dead and only needed an after-point kick to tie the game, but the coach got greedy, went for two…one foot short of the goal. Just too greedy.

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  113. Bob (not Greene) said on November 11, 2012 at 1:48 am

    Dex, I have to say that ND had a fantastic opportunity to make their case for a championship bid tonight and blew it. Boston College is BAD. They won but not like a national champ. My prediction is they stay No. 4 and Bama slips to No. 3. Alabama would destroy ND.

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  114. Sherri said on November 11, 2012 at 2:26 am

    Kansas State is the big winner today; with two very winnable games left, they’ve all but locked up one of the berths in the BCS championship. If Oregon wins out, they’ve got the other spot, but winning out won’t be easy. The Ducks have to play Stanford, Oregon State, and then either UCLA or USC in the Pac-12 championship game, and all those teams are ranked. Notre Dame has an easy game against Wake Forest and then has to play USC.

    A one-loss Alabama team could still make it to the BCS championship, if Oregon and ND lose a game, and Alabama beats Georgia in the SEC championship.

    My bet is Oregon-KState, Oregon wins the national championship, and Chip Kelly has his pick of NFL jobs for next season.

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  115. Prospero said on November 11, 2012 at 4:33 am

    Sherri, Dogs will throw for about 400 vs. Bama. ND is a joke after CT beat Pitt, and Oregon can’t play D, no way, no how. UGA is better than all three of those teams. Hell. Awbuhn is better than two of them. ND included. That team sucks, big time. And the offside penalty was fracking outrageous.

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  116. coozledad said on November 11, 2012 at 7:59 am

    Looks like petraeus might be the first victim in a.)The spluttering Benghazi fishing expedition, or b.)The great Republican cage match of ho’s of 2012.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/us/fbi-said-to-have-stumbled-into-news-of-david-petraeus-affair.html

    Is Eric Cantor positioning himself to get his ass stomped by whoever the Dems run in ’16? He’d better hope the supreme court reverses the voting rights act of 1964 en bloc.

    Beb: Your point about the CIA director being too sensitive to hand off to a known loose cannon is well taken, but on reflection I remembered that Bush appointed moldy GOP banana plantation slut Porter Goss to the same position. I wonder if the CIA isn’t like some of the places I worked where SOPs and employee self- policing mitigated the need for a competent director.

    A good director is a plus, if you can find one among the fifty shitsacks waiting in line for the job.

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  117. Prospero said on November 11, 2012 at 9:55 am

    Shameless asshole, thy name is Kommissar Karl Rove.

    Looks as if the Petraeus other woman is a psycho like that astronaut lady with the depends, rather than the Benghazi smoking gun. But remember. D. Lawrence Walsh, a Raygun judicial appointee, ran an expensive Whitewater investigation before anybody ever heard of the grotesque voyeur Ken Starr, and Walsh found no there there. GOPers don’t give up on idiotic shit like this.They perpetrate vile shit with abandon, so they presume everybody does.

    ND is a dog and will get their asses killed in any NatChamp game. And KState, damn that QB looks slow as can be on TV. Oregon? That league doesn’t play with the big boys. Big East West. And refs handed that one to A&M. The offside penalty was hilarious, actually. And comparing a penalty at a crucial time in a ballgame to one when it doesn’t have immediate impact is ridiculous. That’s what people think that never actually played football.

    I’m voting for Ziva David or Michael Westen to fun the CIA, mainly Ziva. But if Obama is smart, he’ll talk Colin Powell into taking the job and let the GOPer fools try to attack that appointment.

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  118. Deborah said on November 11, 2012 at 10:29 am

    I’m sure it will just be a matter of time before we know the name of the woman who was receiving threatening e-mails from Petreaus’s mistress. I’m sure curious.

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  119. alex said on November 11, 2012 at 11:15 am

    The lamestream media political shows were full of more hand-wringing about why the GOP lost. Nobody is willing to concede the obvious. The Republicans’ problem is a Bunker Mentality. As in Archie.

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  120. beb said on November 11, 2012 at 11:42 am

    alex, this is to be expected from the Sunday talk shows. (Was John McCain on? It seems time for his regular tri-weekly appearance) Talk shows invite Republicans when Republicans are in the WH because they’re the party in charge. But when Dems are in the WH the shows invite Republicans because they’re the opposition party. They’re more interested in why Republicans lost then in why Dems won (and this year was a stunning win for a lot of Congressional offices), especially since the conventional wisdom was that after 4 years of high unemployment Pres. Obama would be toast. As someone has said, the talk shows are wired for Republicans.

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  121. Joe K said on November 11, 2012 at 11:51 am

    Dexter and anyone else on this board who served. Thank you very much.
    Pilot Joe

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  122. del said on November 11, 2012 at 12:25 pm

    I rarely watch the Sunday political shows but today I flipped back and forth between a few of them. Sure there were some interesting insights, but on balance it was too much to bear for very long. All these people have been pundits for years, Bob Woodward, David Gergen, Doris Kearns Goodwin. They’re too enthralled with their own insights, they’re hawking their own brand names — and books, and they’re operating in an environment where there’s a premium to be reaped for allowing their views to veer off course, to provoke, to sensationalize.

    Guess what? Peggy Noonan believes, and tells us with a twinkle in her eye, that something fishy’s going on with the Petraeus story. I see. I guess we’ll just have to stay tuned … to Peggy Noonan.

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  123. Charlotte said on November 11, 2012 at 12:26 pm

    I don’t watch Fox but I have to say I’ve been mightily entertained by the way they’ve turned on Karl. “Is that math you do to make yourself feel better as a Republican?” followed by that skinny blonde woman in the very high heels teetering downstairs to talk to the math guys.

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  124. Sherri said on November 11, 2012 at 1:30 pm

    Prospero, there are more critical points than just the end of the game. That penalty pinned the Aggies deep and allowed Bama a short field which they turned into a field goal.

    And I’m sorry, but your Dawgs? the ones who got stomped on by South Carolina? I don’t think they’re going to beat Bama, especially not when Nick Saban has two weeks to prepare. Georgia is going to the SEC Championship game because they drew the easy teams from the SEC West this year.

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  125. Brandon said on November 11, 2012 at 5:41 pm

    Expect more of this:

    http://theothermccain.com/2012/11/10/the-slut-paula-broadwell/

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  126. Little Bird said on November 11, 2012 at 6:23 pm

    Why is it that women are sluts if they aren’t completely chaste (not counting marriage) but men aren’t? Why can’t we own our own sexual expression?

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  127. coozledad said on November 11, 2012 at 6:33 pm

    Little Bird: Men are mostly total sluts. The fucking benchmark for slutdom is debated among men by a campfire, and then they try and excel it, frequently by fucking each other by the light of said campfire.
    Does this answer your question?

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  128. Jolene said on November 11, 2012 at 7:29 pm

    “Comes down to a 39 year old, immature, narcissistic individual who acts with no regard for anyone but herself. Perhaps so insecure that no matter how many awards, trophys, degrees or personal conquests she has to brag about, she can never fill the bottomless pit of her own inadequacy. That kind of person goes through life like a tsunami sucking the wind out of everyone they come in contact with. Kind of like the female over-acheiver version of Obama. But I’ll bet her golf score is better.”

    Here’s the first comment on the article Brandon linked to. Two things” 1. It’s all Broadwell’s fault. 2. No incident is too remote from anything he has actually said or done to preclude a fault-finding link to Obama.

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  129. Prospero said on November 11, 2012 at 7:52 pm

    the easy teams from the SEC West this year

    UGA did not play the Arkansas Petrinos. SC did. And UGA offense is considerably better than A&MM, as is the D.

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  130. Sherri said on November 11, 2012 at 8:36 pm

    If you avoid all of LSU, Alabama, A&M, and Mississippi State, you’ve played the easy teams. Florida had to play LSU and A&M.

    The rest of the SEC East is lucky that Tennessee-Alabama has been considered a sacred rivalry so far.

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  131. Connie said on November 11, 2012 at 8:36 pm

    One of you called it: The woman who received the allegedly harassing emails that were traced to Broadwell, has been identified as Jill Kelley, 37, of Tampa, Fla., multiple sources confirmed to NBC News on Sunday.

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  132. Sherri said on November 11, 2012 at 9:25 pm

    Okay, Pros, maybe you can explain this sports question to me. If the Jets aren’t willing to replace Sanchez at QB with Tebow at this point, why did they bother to trade for him? Not that I didn’t enjoy the Jets ineptitude today, but what are they thinking?

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  133. Sherri said on November 11, 2012 at 9:34 pm

    David Gergen says great men need those affairs: http://www.salon.com/2012/11/11/david_gergen_great_men_have_affairs/

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