Patterico's Pontifications

4/29/2012

L.A. Times: Obama Using Tactic Formerly Thought by Liberal Newspaper Editors to Be the Exclusive Province of the GOP: The Dreaded “Wedge Issue”

Filed under: 2012 Election,Dog Trainer,General,Obama — Patterico @ 2:36 pm



Everybody at the water cooler at the L.A. Times knows that so-called “wedge issues” are bad things — and that, as such, they have traditionally been used only by Republicans. Today, they are shocked to find Obama using similar tactics, in what hard-hitting editors apparently believe to be the first known instance of Democrats using “wedge issues” in the history of American politics:

Wedge issues may boost Obama’s prospects

Obama and Democrats appear to be using immigration and contraception to try to pry away voters from the other camp, similar to wedge issues that past Republican presidential candidates have employed.

Illegal immigration, affirmative action, gun control and same-sex marriage have all been used by Republicans as wedge issues at the state and national levels, with varied degrees of success. Now it’s Democrats and Obama — sympathizing with women paying more for dry cleaning, playing consoler in chief to a woman impugned by radio’s Rush Limbaugh — who are pushing people’s buttons.

The article explains that the issues in question are “immigration and contraception” and defines wedge issues as issues “grounded more in emotionalism than economics” that are “typically used to pry voters away from a party or a candidate they might otherwise be inclined to support.”

It’s nice that they’re noticing Democrats using wedge issues.

It’s laughable that they never noticed this before.

Does anyone here remember 2006, when Michael J. Fox had a commercial that touted stem cell research in a close Senate race in Missouri? The Democrat, Claire McCaskill, won the race. Although some argued that stem-cell research is not a true wedge issue and that it did not help McCaskill, there was plenty of research suggesting it worked. And in 2004 and 2006 Democrats pursued the issue with fervor, showing their belief it was an effective wedge issue. Fox also stumped in Iowa, Ohio, and Virginia — all states with close races — using the issue to motivate voters. Just as Republicans have been accused of placing gay marriage initiatives on the ballot to drive voter turnout, Democrats put stem-cell research issues on state ballots in California in 2004, and Missouri in 2006.

Stem-cell research is hardly the only Democrat wedge issue. Democrats have used a “personhood amendment” as a wedge issue in Nevada. They have used clean energy as a wedge issue. In fact, in 2010 the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee issued a memo with a host of wedge issues the party planned to exploit, including minimum wage, Social Security, the grand debate over Obama’s birth certificate, and numerous others.

I always get a little annoyed whenever someone suggests that one party or another is uniquely susceptible to using a certain evil tactic. If you really believe that, you might double-check to see if partisanship is clouding your perceptions.

In this case, it most certainly is. Nowhere is this as blatantly obvious as at the end of article, which contains a nice little apologia for Obama’s use of wedge issues. It is a campaign plug for Obama so blatant that it had me scrolling back to the top of the article to see if I was actually reading an editorial or a “news analysis.” No such luck:

Wedge politics may seem a long way from the uplift of Obama’s 2008 hope-and-change campaign or, going back further, the message of healing and reconciliation that launched the young Illinois state senator’s political ascent with a galvanizing speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.

But Obama has often been underestimated, or misconstrued, by supporters and critics alike. Though he has ideals and principles, and the eloquence to give them flight, he understands one thing: To get things done, you have to win.

Sometimes, to get the right policies put in place, even good-guy Democrats might have to resort to tactics so evil they were once the exclusive province of the Republicans. It’s not that they want to do these things; it’s that their ideals and principles require it, for the good of the nation — and, dare I say it? the known universe.

So sayeth the über-objective journalists at the Los Angeles Times.

77 Responses to “L.A. Times: Obama Using Tactic Formerly Thought by Liberal Newspaper Editors to Be the Exclusive Province of the GOP: The Dreaded “Wedge Issue””

  1. leave it to teh Times
    sh*t for brains they deserve a
    nuclear wedgie

    Colonel Haiku (39a46a)

  2. Well, as soon as this attempt to charge users to read online articles inevitably fails, that rag of a paper will probably be shuttered anyway.

    JVW (4d72aa)

  3. The biggest wedge issue of all is race, and the Democrats pull that one out ALL THE TIME. And have been for years.

    Boldface (959620)

  4. Rep. Trey Gowdy from South Carolina had some nice dialogue with Secretary Sebelius last week concerning her knowledge of the Constitution and issues of religious freedom regarding the debate over Obama’s new contraception mandate.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  5. Michael J. Fox was and is used and abused. Parkinson’s patient to Michael J. Fox: “I’m sorry you have Parkinson’s, but I’m glad it was you that got it.” I don’t know why they also did not use Mohammed Ali, maybe he was too advanced and not pretty anymore?

    If the Obamaites think contraception and immigration are wedge issues, well let them.

    nk (875f57)

  6. Actually, the most successful wedge issue of all time has been abortion, and both sides have used it to establish a base. Problem is that it also works against each, with upper-middle-class folks voting Dem and blue-collar working men voting Republican despite the clear economic incentives to do the opposite.

    For the LA Times to claim that Dems don’t use wedge issues is such irony since it is ONLY social issues that keep Californians from voting the looney left out of office. And it is the Times that hammers that message home every election, with a little help from the Republicans themselves.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  7. Contraception is a stupid issue — except for not FORCING it on people, only a lunatic fringe thinks contraceptives should be banned.

    Illegal immigration, OTOH, is such a powerful issue that the new Democrat meme is “well they’re all going home now. Never mind why.” You could get a lot of votes in Southern California by equating illegal immigration to traffic congestion. A few years back, there was an general strike called by illegal immigrants, and biy did the traffic flow.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  8. Dang me Patterico–the Los Angeles Times keeps yanking the football out from under your foot at the last minute.

    How can they get away with that? Because you’ve not yet really internalized the lesson–the Los Angeles Times stopped being a serious newspaper a long time ago.

    Comanche Voter (dc4fc0)

  9. A wedge issue, used exclusively by Republicans, is a nasty tactic to prey upon the fears of voters and intended to divide, rather than unite us as Americans.

    Highlighting differences in policy, used only by Democrats, is an honorable method of contrasting the values of the two parties and illustrating how the Republicans are out of touch with regular folks.

    steve (254463)

  10. “A wedge issue, used exclusively by Republicans, is a nasty tactic to prey upon the fears of voters and intended to divide, rather than unite us as Americans.”

    steve – Is an example of that Democrats scaring people by saying Republicans want to end Medicare as we know it while offering no plan of their own to stem off the pending insolvency of the program?

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  11. I thought pointing out differences in opinion and policy was what elections were about. My only desire is for people to tell the truth.

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  12. I think steve was being sarcastic.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  13. Daley: No, it can’t be a wedge issue if the Democrats are doing it, and if the Democrats are doing it, it can only be good. On the other hand, if the GOP is doing it, it is a wedge issue and beyond the pale of good campaigning. If you don’t believe me, read any of the major papers: NYT, WaPo, LAT. I’m sure they’ll be happy to correct you.

    And by the way, while I agree with the substance of the Ryan plan, it does end Medicare as we know it… that is, if Medicare as we know it as a program that will go bust if we don’t change it. So technically, the Democrats are correct in labeling the GOP plan that way.

    steve (254463)

  14. The LAT:
    If parakeets could read, they would go on strike over the lining of their cages with the Times.

    The Times stopped being a serious paper when they started slanting editorial/news copy to favor large advertisers/donors.

    There is no pravda in Izvestia, and there is no izvestia in Pravda;
    there is neither pravda nor izvestia in the LAT, it has become just one less-than-large, talking-points-memo!

    AD-RtR/OS! (c48e50)

  15. Current law will certainly end Medicare, as we know it. The Trustees have told Barcky that. Like the budgets, Teh One has failed to comply with the statutory mandates triggered by said notification.

    JD (318f81)

  16. “Current law will certainly end Medicare, as we know it. The Trustees have told Barcky that. ”

    And then when you go to an anti-Obamacare protest you hear whining about how it cut Medicare, and IPAB will death panel you. Good stuff that.

    TJ (6eeaf5)

  17. Democrats use wedge issues to try to win elections, because they know can’t win by merely focusing on the issues.

    Elephant Stone (0ae97d)

  18. And the continued use of the racism charge by Dems for the past 40 years is not a wedge issue???

    *tearing hair out*

    Chevy Volt (e1d89d)

  19. Good stuff that. And true. That you get all butthurt about it just makes it that much more fun.

    When was the last time you ate dog, TJ?

    JD (318f81)

  20. this article is really all about how the cowardly little president man is scared scared scared to run on the economy I think

    the LA Times is just trying to spin it to make it look all strategic and clever and whatever

    happyfeet (3c92a1)

  21. The 0bama campaign’s polling has left them feeling that the future’s uncertain and the end is always near.

    Colonel Morrison (7d129d)

  22. TJ,

    At least you admit that pro-Obamacare rallies don’t object to cuts in Medicare or to the existence of death panels !

    (psssst…David Axelrod, is that you ?!)

    Elephant Stone (0ae97d)

  23. “Democrats use wedge issues to try to win elections, because they know can’t win by merely focusing on the issues.”

    It seems like you’re not understanding what a wedge issue is — you offer something to people who would otherwise vote the other way so they vote for you. That’s winning on issues — your positions got more votes than the other guys! It’s good to be the median voter.

    “At least you admit that pro-Obamacare rallies don’t object to cuts in Medicare or to the existence of death panels !”

    Did you really just write “the existence of death panels” ? So now we come back to

    “unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science;”

    TJ (6eeaf5)

  24. Even Krugman has admitted that Palin was essentially correct. He still doesn’t like the Death Panel term, but he acknowledged that the decisions of the cost control board will logically take medicine and/or medical procedures away from people, and who’s to say if some may die from these cuts?

    The blue hairs were right to protest in the summer of 2009. Obama may have mocked the ‘keep government out of my medicare’ sign but he refused to see the message for what it likely was: you want to take $50 billion a year out of Medicare but can’t even admit it. Recall this was the period of time where Obama’s speeches claimed no medicare cuts at all. Obama claimed they were just going to clean up waste, fraud and abuse and cut tests that YOU DON’T EVEN NEED! Plus he was going to stop the doctors from getting rich off cutting off the feet of diabetics. Pretty awesome – less tests that you don’t need, less bad men stealing from seniors, more seniors that can play the hokey pokey.

    East Bay Jay (a5dac7)

  25. “it does end Medicare as we know it… that is, if Medicare as we know it as a program that will go bust if we don’t change it.”

    steve – I agree. You are correct that Democrats are going to end Medicare as we know it by doing nothing.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  26. “It’s not that they want to do these things; it’s that their ideals and principles require it, for the good of the nation — and, dare I say it? the known universe”

    This known as “the ends justify the means”

    john b (be9549)

  27. David Axelrod TJ,

    Yes, TJ, like I already stated, wedge issues are used when the REAL issues aren’t in your favor.

    Obama wouldn’t be focused on birth control, student loans, and Ann Romney’s resume if HIS resume of the past 3 1/2 years was capable of (and my apologies to Charlie Sheen) “winning.”

    (When you fail to understand, just read it again.)

    Why do you lefties deny the existence of a panel that will be the final arbiter about who gets treated, and to what degree, and at what cost. That’s how they control spending. They do that in Europe, and that’s the model that you lefties fantasize about having.

    Don’t you know that’s the whole point of having centralized government control over anything—so government bureaucrats can be the final arbiter.
    That’s just basic Political Science 101.

    Either a patient gets unlimited treatment at unlimited cost—or they don’t.
    And if they don’t, it’s because there’s an arbiter who says “no,” to this or that procedure or ceiling of expenditure.

    We just enjoy saying “death panel !” because we know it makes your blood boil.

    Elephant Stone (0ae97d)

  28. “Yes, TJ, like I already stated, wedge issues are used when the REAL issues aren’t in your favor.”

    Then there’s the view, perhaps anti-elitist, that if the voters are voting on it, it’s a real issue. Because who would know better but the voters?

    “Pretty awesome – less tests that you don’t need, less bad men stealing from seniors, more seniors that can play the hokey pokey.”

    And for this we get gems like: “The Trustees have told Barcky that. Like the budgets, Teh One has failed to comply with the statutory mandates triggered by said notification.”

    Truly he’s in a hurry to do more.

    “That’s how they control spending. They do that in Europe, and that’s the model that you lefties fantasize about having.”

    It’s basically how every other industrial country has figured out how to control costs. So that gets us back to “unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science;”

    “We just enjoy saying “death panel !” because we know it makes your blood boil.”

    And this: “and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.”

    TJ (6eeaf5)

  29. TJ,

    This article was just published in England about British doctors believing that the government should use its discretion to withhold certain treatments from smokers and obese patients, because the doctors believe it’s a waste of scarce resources and time to devote it to patients who don’t take care of themselves.

    That’s a huge admission that there is such a thing as “rationing.”

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/apr/28/doctors-treatment-denial-smokers-obese

    Elephant Stone (0ae97d)

  30. And for this we get gems like: “The Trustees have told Barcky that. Like the budgets, Teh One has failed to comply with the statutory mandates triggered by said notification.”

    I suppose it would be asking too much to show what was wrong about that.

    Then, let everyone know all the other names you have been banned under.

    JD (318f81)

  31. This known as “the ends justify the means”

    Why should not Republicans take that to heart?

    Either a patient gets unlimited treatment at unlimited cost—or they don’t.

    This article was just published in England about British doctors believing that the government should use its discretion to withhold certain treatments from smokers and obese patients, because the doctors believe it’s a waste of scarce resources and time to devote it to patients who don’t take care of themselves.

    Rationing is pretty fucking obvious considering there are still quadriplegics in wheelchairs there. It is clearly absurd to even suggest that modern-day neurologists are no more able to treat spinal cord injuries than witch doctors were in 2012 B.C., so it is clearly the expense of RoboCoptechnology installation that makes the procedure so rare.

    And it is the Times that hammers that message home every election, with a little help from the Republicans themselves.

    I am perfectly willing to sacrifice the unborn at the altar of the ballot box.

    But are there any pro-abortion Republicans willing to abolish regulations and cut spending?

    Michael Ejercito (64388b)

  32. But are there any pro-abortion Republicans willing to abolish regulations and cut spending?

    do I count?

    happyfeet (3c92a1)

  33. TJ,

    Well, it’s good that you finally admitted that Obama can’t win by campaigning on the stimulus, unemployment, the national debt, or Obamacare. You know he would lose the election to Romney by focusing on those issues.

    You lefties claim there are starving people eating cat food (or dogs, if your stepfather’s name was Lolo Soetoro) throughout the country, and that Grandma is being pushed off the cliff in her wheelchair, yet you’re perfectly satisfied if your President spends his time campaigning on birth control, student loans, and Ann Romney’s resume.

    All the poor people, the unemployed, the people whose homes are being foreclosed…well, they can’t survive by paying their mortgage with birth control, and they can’t feed their children with Ann Romney’s resume.

    Elephant Stone (0ae97d)

  34. “Either a patient gets unlimited treatment at unlimited cost—or they don’t.”

    Yup, what it boils down to.

    “Well, it’s good that you finally admitted that Obama can’t win by campaigning on the stimulus, unemployment, the national debt, or Obamacare. You know he would lose the election to Romney by focusing on those issues.”

    Oh he’ll draw the distinctions quite clearly on economic and health issues, including on the response to the economic crisis. But yes he’ll stop that deficit talk in the middle of the great recession. Thankfully.

    TJ (6eeaf5)

  35. Oh he’ll draw the distinctions quite clearly on economic and health issues,

    Drawing distinctions is not quite the same as running on his record. He will draw distinctions, or demagogue, because his record is an objective failure.

    JD (318f81)

  36. “It’s basically how every other industrial country has figured out how to control costs.”

    TJ – What, doing nothing and having no budgets? Are you kidding?

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  37. The difference between wedge issues and real issues is their emotional content and the degree to which they get a voter to opt for a candidate who doesn’t share their real interests.

    Getting someone who makes $400K/year to vote Democrat on the basis of thinking regulation is a good thing, is a “real” issue-based (if bad) argument. Getting him to do it because Mitt Romney hates dogs is an example of a wedge.

    Did anyone note President Obama’s faux Mitt/dog commercial at the WHCD? He seems comfortable pushing that meme.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  38. “including on the response to the economic crisis.”

    TJ – Paying off the people whose votes you bought was not the response the country needed.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  39. “The difference between wedge issues and real issues is their emotional content and the degree to which they get a voter to opt for a candidate who doesn’t share their real interests.”

    So this is basically “What’s the Matter with Kansas.”

    “Did anyone note President Obama’s faux Mitt/dog commercial at the WHCD? He seems comfortable pushing that meme”

    Yeah, you almost got the idea that he was making fun of morons:

    “When was the last time you ate dog, TJ?”
    “(or dogs, if your stepfather’s name was Lolo Soetoro)”

    TJ (6eeaf5)

  40. 37 Drudge has links of Urkel asking what is the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? A pit bull tastes delicious. I’m sure liberals are fine with him eating dog/joking about it and yet decry Romney putting Seamus on car roof.

    Calypso Louis Farrakhan (d32e4c)

  41. “He will draw distinctions, or demagogue, because his record is an objective failure.”

    You’re right I doubt he’ll run on how the stock market performs under SOCIALISM.

    TJ (6eeaf5)

  42. At least Obama and his people are sooooper doooooper civil.

    Gus (694db4)

  43. lefties like tj don’t embarrass easy, daley.

    Colonel Haiku (856960)

  44. Drudge has links of Urkel asking what is the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? A pit bull tastes delicious. I’m sure liberals are fine with him eating dog/joking about it and yet decry Romney putting Seamus on car roof.
    I think the real answer is that Barry would NEVER eat a soccer mom…

    Gazzer (b27672)

  45. TJ (and your other aliases),

    If you advocate for more centralized government control over the economy, then why deny that government bureaucrats are the ones who will be the final arbiters about expenditures and process ?
    After all, that’s the whole objective of having government bureaucracy—so the government bureaucrats can pull the strings.

    It’s like you would claim that the city parks & recreation department bureaucrats are not going to be the ones in charge of arbitrating over the summer tennis lessons, or the city public swimming pool.
    But yes they are—that’s the whole point.

    So when you lefties advocate for more government control over health care decisions and costs, then you are by definition….uh, advocating for more government arbitration over health care decisions and costs.

    You lefties know that public admission of your quest for bigger government is not a winning hand.
    And so you prefer public debates about birth control, student loans, the cuteness of puppy dogs playing with bunny rabbits on YouTube, and Ann Romney’s resume.

    Elephant Stone (0ae97d)

  46. TJ and LIBTARDS cannot cut it without govt.

    Gus (694db4)

  47. “You lefties know that public admission of your quest for bigger government is not a winning hand.
    And so you prefer public debates about birth control, student loans, the cuteness of puppy dogs playing with bunny rabbits on YouTube, and Ann Romney’s resume.”

    I don’t know how you imagine that debates on birth control, student loans or policy affecting working moms aren’t also about the role of government.

    On the youtube point i’m going to have to admit I have no idea what you’re talking about.

    TJ (6eeaf5)

  48. TJ – be a dear and let everyone know all the various aliases you have used in order to comment here.

    JD (318f81)

  49. Gazzer,

    I almost fell out of my chair when Urkel gave that one liner about pit bulls tasting better than hockey moms, especially considering that the “hockey mom” implied is the hottest looking hockey mom on the planet.

    Of course, if Jimmy Kimmel had any desire to be provocative, he would have made a comment about Reggie Love.
    Maybe even something about blowing out the candles, since it had been revealed that Saturday was actually the birthday of the President’s former, uh, “body man,” as Barack has publicly referred to him.

    It’s just so ironic that Kimmel was compelled to make cracks about Michelle Bachmann’s husband (“pink slips”) but we have a President standing there who has no paper trail of any ex-girlfriends from his past, and he has a former college athlete for a “body man” whose last name is “Love,” yet there’s no inkling of any jokes about that ?

    …and merely a couple days after Slow Joe Biden gave a speech heralding Obama’s “big stick” ?

    If Obama had been a Republican in that situation, Reggie Love would be the number one Google search name this weekend, following that dinner.

    Elephant Stone (0ae97d)

  50. It is so cute that TJ either does not understand, or continually chooses to dishonestly portray positions take by it’s ideological opponents. It nicely dovetails with that study that scientifically showed that conservatives and independents were far more likely to understand their opponent than leftists were able to.

    JD (318f81)

  51. Sarah Palin would not taste good. Can yu imagine the self-lefteous OUTRAGE had that been a joke about Feinstein. Or Michelle?

    JD (318f81)

  52. “I don’t know how you imagine that debates on birth control, student loans or policy affecting working moms aren’t also about the role of government.”

    TJ – Birth control decision are about the role of government? Seriously?

    What kind of voyeuristic freak are you?

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  53. Daleyrocks – student loans should only be available from the government too.

    JD (318f81)

  54. I think making Sandra Fluke’s student loan interest rate an election year football is a great example of the role of good government.

    JD (318f81)

  55. They know they are dying but they just can’t help themselves at the LA Times.

    AZ Bob (1c9631)

  56. “President Obama, my name is Sue Smith, and my husband lost his job, gas prices are inflating the costs of every day items—particularly groceries, and we’re afraid we won’t be able to pay our mortgage from our savings accounts for too many more months. What policies of yours will help the economy improve ?”

    “Well, Mrs. Smith, how about if the government forces your health insurer to pay for your birth control—I bet that will help you pay your mortgage ! And by the way, tell your husband not to feel too badly about being unemployed, because Ann Romney was perpetually unemployed—even when she was diagnosed with MS and had breast cancer ! What a slacker that woman is ! Re-elect me in November ! Don’t vote for Ann Romney !”

    Elephant Stone (0ae97d)

  57. ____________________________________________

    You could get a lot of votes in Southern California by equating illegal immigration to traffic congestion.

    If traffic were the only downside, that wouldn’t be anything to worry about. What should scare the hell out of everyone is too much of the type of dysfunction (ie, third-world type corruption and dark-ages violence) described below from the native land of the “undocumented” eventually getting transferred along with them to this country.

    guardian.co.uk: A correspondent for the Mexican news magazine Proceso has been found dead inside her home in Veracruz state. Authorities believe the journalist, who often wrote about drug trafficking, was murdered.

    Regina Martínez’s body was found by police inside the bathroom of her home in the state capital, Xalapa, and there were signs of heavy blows to her face and body, the state’s attorney general’s office said in a statement. Authorities said initial evidence suggested she died of asphyxiation.

    Martínez was the Xalapa correspondent for Proceso, one of Mexico’s oldest and most respected investigative news magazines, and she often wrote about drug cartels in the area.

    In the past year, at least three journalists have been found dead in Veracruz, including Martínez. In July 2011, a reporter on police matters with the newspaper Notiver, Yolanda Ordaz de la Cruz, was found with her throat cut. A month earlier, gunmen killed Miguel Angel Lopez Velasco, a columnist and deputy editor with Notiver. He was shot together with his wife and one of his children.

    Media watchdogs consider Mexico one of the most dangerous countries in which to be a journalist.

    Mark (411533)

  58. TJ,

    Can you please fill in Step 2 of Obama’s recovery plan?

    1. Impose massive new regulations on business and make them hire hordes of lawyers and bureaucrats to comply.

    2. ????

    3. Recovery!!!

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  59. TJ:
    It seems like you’re not understanding what a wedge issue is — you offer something to people who would otherwise vote the other way so they vote for you.
    — No, you offer something (an issue where their position is inviolable) to people that MIGHT otherwise vote the other way.

    That’s winning on issues — your positions got more votes than the other guys! It’s good to be the median voter.
    — So why does the LAT characterize it as a previously GOP-only tactic?

    Then there’s the view, perhaps anti-elitist, that if the voters are voting on it, it’s a real issue. Because who would know better but the voters?
    — It’s ‘real’ but not as important as the major issues (economy, foreign policy); this, despite a particular wedge issue being a ‘deal breaker’.

    It’s basically how every other industrial country has figured out how to control costs.
    — Yes, they’re all doing swimmingly, aren’t they.

    You’re right I doubt he’ll run on how the stock market performs under SOCIALISM.
    — If he’s smart (place your bets) he won’t run on how ANYTHING ‘runs’ under Socialism.

    I don’t know how you imagine that debates on birth control, student loans or policy affecting working moms aren’t also about the role of government.
    — Well, of course YOU don’t .

    Icy (0c68d7)

  60. “Sarah Palin would not taste good. Can yu imagine the self-lefteous OUTRAGE had that been a joke about Feinstein. Or Michelle?”

    Michelle looked a little outraged herself, but you didn’t get this was a joke at the expense of the “Obama eats dog” morons?

    “TJ – Birth control decision are about the role of government? Seriously? ”

    Didn’t you follow the whole controversy with Issa having congressional hearings on it? This was a policy debate. Am I on the part of the Internet where Sandra Fluke is a “slut”?

    “Can you please fill in Step 2 of Obama’s recovery plan?”

    You’re ignoring all that time he spent worrying about the deficit!

    TJ (6eeaf5)

  61. They never quit with their lies

    FreeBeacon: Dan Rather on GMA: Calls Bush a ‘Deserter’, Won’t Admit Documents Were Fake http://t.co/bczYvsCu

    narciso (8d0f34)

  62. TJ – it is cute how you try to hide from your own history.

    JD (2585aa)

  63. “President TJ, I’m an unemployed single mom of three elementary school aged children who is having difficulty paying bills. I need to drive my Suburban to haul the growing kids around town to school, sports, and ballet, but the price of gas is thru the roof. Why should I vote for your re-election ?”

    “Well, let me be clear. I think if I force your employer’s health insurer to pay for your birth control, that will bring unemployment down, and pump more money into the economy. Also, we’re going to freeze the interest rates on student loans for those who attend Ivy League colleges. That will surely improve our nation’s credit rating, and thereby cause the price of gasoline to come down. And by the way, did you know that Ann Romney never had a job her entire life ? She never even organized the community ! Why would you want to vote for her for President ?”

    “President TJ, I don’t think you understand, I have neither an employer nor an employee health plan, and what I need is a job—not a student loan to attend Princeton, and not birth control paid for by an employee health plan that I don’t even have.”

    “Well, let me be clear. The word I’m getting is that you shouldn’t be having difficulty finding a job because by increasing taxes on wealthy employers who earn $70,000 a year, it forces them to expand their businesses—and that means more jobs. This situation you’re describing for yourself is unprecedented. But just pass the word on to your children that after my re-election, I can be more flexible !”

    Elephant Stone (0ae97d)

  64. Comment by Elephant Stone — 4/29/2012 @ 8:16 pm

    President standing there who has no paper trail of any ex-girlfriends from his past

    Why> Because nobody would go to great pains to keep any such liasons or even friendships a secret?

    Barack Obama would, if the girlfriends were not black.

    Sammy Finkelman (8650a4)

  65. I have no paper trail, either, except notes passed in class. Wonder if Jill, Valerie, or Noreen saved them. 😉

    nk (875f57)

  66. They weren’t black, I liked Polish girls with hair like the sun and skin like milk. Married a brunette.

    nk (875f57)

  67. Laundry discrimination?

    President Zippy Chow (721840)

  68. Sammy,

    Unless you believe that Barack Obama keeps all of his former girlfriends locked up in a cave somewhere, there’s no reason they wouldn’t step forward to cooperate with reporters who merely want to ask them what it was like to attend the prom with him, or how often they went to the movies during college, or during his Chicago years prior to law school, etc.

    Interviewing former girlfriends of Presidents is usually a human interest story…”Hey, Susie, did you ever think that this guy who took you to see ‘Star Wars’ would someday be President ?!”

    And you know that Katie Couric or Jodi Kaplan would never ask them tough questions…it would be an easy interview, and everyone would end up smelling like roses.

    It’s just bizarre that nobody has ever stated, “Yeah, I dated him way back in the day, and here’s a photo of when we visited the beach,” (…or the amusement park, or the botanical garden, et al.)

    It happens with movie stars and pro athletes all the time.

    Elephant Stone (0ae97d)

  69. Comment by Mark — 4/29/2012 @ 10:05 pm

    What should scare the hell out of everyone is too much of the type of dysfunction (ie, third-world type corruption and dark-ages violence)

    Keeping people outside the law is not the way to avoid that – it’s a way to promote that.

    Sammy Finkelman (f2d620)

  70. Comment by MD in Philly — 4/29/2012 @ 4:47 pm

    My only desire is for people to tell the truth.

    It can only happen if at least one side is interested.

    Sammy Finkelman (0b9d16)

  71. Didn’t you follow the whole controversy with Issa having congressional hearings on it?
    — Yes. Did you actually follow it?

    This was a policy debate.
    — This was a “policy that violates the First Amendment” debate. But thanks for playing.

    Am I on the part of the Internet where Sandra Fluke is a “slut”?
    — You are on the part of the Internet where Sandra Fluke is a willing activist tool for the White House agenda of promoting so-called “women’s rights” at the cost of the rights of others.

    Icy (0c68d7)

  72. “Yes. Did you actually follow it? ”

    Yup. My favorite part was when Issa had ordered staffers to hold up pictures of JFK, Gandhi and MLK. Every young republican’s dream.

    “– This was a “policy that violates the First Amendment” debate. But thanks for playing.”

    So even while wrong, it’s still a debate about the role of government…

    TJ (6eeaf5)

  73. TJ – your aggressive ignorance is sooooooo cute. Did you ever get around to telling everyone all the names you have tried to comment under?

    JD (2585aa)

  74. I don’t know if people have been following the Elizabeth Warren indian ancestry thing, but it looks like maybe she may be a bit more Indian than been Nighthorse Campbell.

    http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1061128417

    http://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2012/05/01/elizabeth-warrens-campaign-shes-132nd-cherokee/comment-page-1/#comments

    She says she has located her Indian ancestor – it’s her great-great-great-grandmother. Five generations back, making her 1/32 American Indian. O.C. Sarah Smith, who is listed on her son’s Oklahoma marriage certificate as Cherokee in 1894. But that doesn’t make her full-blooded. I’m reading the Cherokee Nation didn’t have quantum restrictions.

    In Bledsoe County, Tennessee, in 1860, all members of her family was listed as white. But they would have been.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)


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