Election Aftermath

[RecycleMichael]

I really dislike these stories. Leave Ann Romney alone.

It is none of our business how she is dealing with the election.

[Townsend]

I really dislike these stories. Leave Ann Romney alone.

It is none of our business how she is dealing with the election.

Of course it is.  I'm interested to learn about the folks who came 2nd closest to being the president and the 1st lady.  

We can learn from these things and perhaps make wiser choices in the future.

[Conan71]

Too bad they don't drink.

[RecycleMichael]

 I'm interested...

I am interested in many things that are really none of my business.

[Townsend]

I am interested in many things that are really none of my business.

Can you learn from them?  In this case, we can see what the parties are throwing up on the wall to see what will stick.

[Red Arrow]

Can you learn from them?  In this case, we can see what the parties are throwing up on the wall to see what will stick.

The only thing specific I have seen from the President is to raise taxes.

[RecycleMichael]

Can you learn from them?  In this case, we can see what the parties are throwing up on the wall to see what will stick.

The posted story wasn't about what the parties are doing. It was a story about a candidate's wife crying. I think coverage of that is tacky and unnecessary.

Yes, Ann Romney is a public person and thus loses the right to privacy in today's world. If she does something shocking I would expect coverage. This is a personal issue and I wish her to be able to heal in private if possible.

[Townsend]

The posted story wasn't about what the parties are doing. It was a story about a candidate's wife crying. I think coverage of that is tacky and unnecessary.

Yes, Ann Romney is a public person and thus loses the right to privacy in today's world. If she does something shocking I would expect coverage. This is a personal issue and I wish her to be able to heal in private if possible.

She would've been the 1st lady.  Remember what power that holds.  She would've represented the US as the 1st lady.  She is part of the package.

Don't worry.  She's not concerned that you and I are reading about her crying.

[heironymouspasparagus]

The only thing specific I have seen from the President is to raise taxes.

Ok, Rumplestiltskin, you should have wakened 4 years ago and you could have seen first hand how far we have come....a shame you missed all the improvement.  It can always be better, but it wasn't bad at all.

[Teatownclown]

FOX and Roger Ailes Outed by Petraeus Tape
MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT   
http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/17674-fox-and-roger-ailes-outed-by-petraeus-tape

As revealed by Bob Woodward in The Washington Post and discussed by Rachel Maddow on December 4, FOX is now on record as having become directly involved in trying to recruit a Republican candidate for president.

As Woodward reported:

So in spring 2011, Ailes asked a Fox News analyst headed to Afghanistan to pass on his thoughts to Petraeus, who was then the commander of U.S. and coalition forces there. Petraeus, Ailes advised, should turn down an expected offer from President Obama to become CIA director and accept nothing less than the chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the top military post. If Obama did not offer the Joint Chiefs post, Petraeus should resign from the military and run for president, Ailes suggested.

The Fox News chairman's message was delivered to Petraeus by Kathleen T. McFarland, a Fox News national security analyst and former national security and Pentagon aide in three Republican administrations. She did so at the end of a 90-minute, unfiltered conversation with Petraeus that touched on the general's future, his relationship with the media and his political aspirations — or lack thereof. The Washington Post has obtained a digital recording from the meeting, which took place in Petraeus's office in Kabul.

McFarland also said that Ailes — who had a decades-long career as a Republican political consultant, advising Richard M. Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush — might resign as head of Fox to run a Petraeus presidential campaign. At one point, McFarland and Petraeus spoke about the possibility that Rupert Murdoch, the head of News Corp., which owns Fox News, would "bankroll" the campaign.

"Rupert's after me as well," Petraeus told McFarland.

Not long after the conversation between the FOX news emissary/analyst, Petraeus accepted the position of director of the CIA because he apparently thought that the role had become as important as being named head of the Joints Chiefs of Staff.

If you listen to the audio of the conversation between FOX's McFarland and Petraeus (or read the transcript here), it becomes clear that not only does Petraeus (now the ex-CIA director due to a sex scandal) express his admiration for Roger Ailes ("I love Roger," he says), but that he is very chummy with the Darth Vader of right wing news -- and owner of FOX -- Rupert Murdoch. The now disgraced general jokes that Ailes or Murdoch could bankroll a run for the presidency – if he were interested, but he was not inclined at the time that the conversation took place to run for higher office.  Petraeus also implies that he understood FOX attacking Obama politically, but complained that they were now being critical of Petraeus's war in Afghanistan – and the general didn't like that much.

As Maddow notes -- among other insights that this recorded conversation provides us -- FOX has now lost its thin fig leaf of legitimacy as anything other than a bullhorn for the Republican Party.  However, its fig leaf of not being mainlined into the GOP has always been a transparent one in any case. Ailes, who launched his career as a Republican propaganda maven after he met Richard Nixon when Nixon was a guest on the "Mike Douglas Show" in the '60s (which Ailes produced), has never really stopped being a political media and image strategist despite his disclaimers.  He is selling a product, and the product is not soap suds; it is the Republican brand and programming that aids it in achieving its corporate governance policies by propaganda manipulation of the electorate.

Ailes admitted to Woodward that the conversation occurred – given that it was curiously on tape Ailes had no choice -- but tried to belittle it:

In a telephone interview Monday, the wily and sharp-tongued Ailes said he did indeed ask McFarland to make the pitch to Petraeus. "It was more of a joke, a wiseass way I have," he said. "I thought the Republican field [in the primaries] needed to be shaken up and Petraeus might be a good candidate."

A FOX national security analyst has a cozy conversation with Petraeus in which she also emphasizes how much Ailes and Murdoch want to personally talk to him about his running for president, but it was just a "wiseass" joke?

Ailes loves to play the self-deprecating naive political bumbler, while he oversees the Republican flagship media outlet – and intervenes in GOP politics.

Now we know that the tentacles of FOX reach further than putting potential GOP presidential candidates on the network's payroll, they reach right to the top in terms of kingmaking for the Republican Party.

While Ailes and Murdoch have made FOX into the farm team for the GOP, unfortunately Petraeus was playing another sort of game under his desk with Paula Broadwell.

Why hold a Republican Convention?  You can just have Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly crown a GOP president nominee on FOX.

Well, looks like the CIA did covertly oust Betrayus knowing what a liability he was to Obama. Classic.

[nathanm]

Well, looks like the CIA did covertly oust Betrayus knowing what a liability he was to Obama. Classic.

That's really what you have taken from all this? I'm impressed.......... ..... ... . !

[guido911]

Gimme Gimme Gimme....

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/detroit-councilwomans-actual-rant-we-voted-for-you-obama-now-give-us-some-of-that-govt-bacon/

And heiron, this is where we have come in four years...Just so YOU know. Remember this from four years ago?

Sounds the damned same to me. Some improvement.

[TulsaRufnex]

Gimme Gimme Gimme....

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/detroit-councilwomans-actual-rant-we-voted-for-you-obama-now-give-us-some-of-that-govt-bacon/

And heiron, this is where we have come in four years...Just so YOU know. Remember this from four years ago?

Sounds the damned same to me. Some improvement.

I remember quite a few things from four years ago.... your despicable stereotypes about people you know diddly-squat about... and...

Ohio idiots.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utXFkXwaG7A

Republican Right Wing Retards Repeating Ridiculous Rhetoric
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PNP_X2zp7c

[heironymouspasparagus]

Gimme Gimme Gimme....


And heiron, this is where we have come in four years...Just so YOU know. Remember this from four years ago?

Sounds the damned same to me. Some improvement.

No.  I DO know.  And I do remember.

I was actually taking a much broader view of our situation and the improvements that have occurred since Bush and Buddies sent us over a real cliff - not this contrived Fox Fiscal Cliff we are hearing about 24/7 these days.  1/2% hit on GDP...compared to what...15% from Baby Bush efforts??  

As always in FoxFantasyWorld, it's the "bad" 1 to the "not too bad, in fact it might even be good" 1000.

Just like the 4 killed in Benghazi we keep getting blasted with...compared to over 4,000 from a contrived Iraq war...  

[TulsaRufnex]

Republicans not handling election results well
December 04, 2012

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2012/12/republicans-not-handling-election-results-well.html

PPP's first post election national poll finds that Republicans are taking the results pretty hard...and also declining in numbers.

49% of GOP voters nationally say they think that ACORN stole the election for President Obama. We found that 52% of Republicans thought that ACORN stole the 2008 election for Obama, so this is a modest decline, but perhaps smaller than might have been expected given that ACORN doesn't exist anymore.


Some GOP voters are so unhappy with the outcome that they no longer care to be a part of the United States. 25% of Republicans say they would like their state to secede from the union compared to 56% who want to stay and 19% who aren't sure.

One reason that such a high percentage of Republicans are holding what could be seen as extreme views is that their numbers are declining. Our final poll before the election, which hit the final outcome almost on the head, found 39% of voters identifying themselves as Democrats and 37% as Republicans. Since the election we've seen a 5 point increase in Democratic identification to 44%, and a 5 point decrease in Republican identification to 32%.

So wait.  If PPP has a "liberal bias," does that mean more than 49% of GOP voters believe ACORN stole the election?