From the monthly archives: November 2011

It Must Really Suck To Work For A Failing Campaign

by Metavirus on 30 November 2011
Officially approved new Herman Cain talking point: “it’s the campaign staffers’ fault“:
“It’s actually sad — watching a candidate as talented and capable as Herman Cain get so beat up because of incompetence and indecision within his campaign,” said Republican consultant Chris LaCivita.
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Whitmentum

by Lev on 30 November 2011

This isn’t new or anything, but I thought I’d check in on my old nemesis (well, one of them), and her new job running Hewlett Packard:

Computer firm Hewlett-Packard has unveiled a 91% fall in fourth-quarter profits after swallowing a $3.3bn (£2.1bn) charge to close down its WebOS business. [...]

Ms Whitman took over the firm after her predecessor Leo Apotheker was fired in September.

He had embarked on a series of widely criticised moves to increase HP’s focus on commercial computing hardware and software.

These included cancelling HP’s plans to compete in the tablet and smartphone market with gadgets based on WebOS software that HP acquired when it bought Palm last year – resulting in the $3.3bn loss which was the biggest contributor to its steep profits fall.

He was also criticised for plans to spin off the firm’s PC division – a decision Ms Whitman reversed on her arrival.

Mr Apotheker also bid £7.8bn for Autonomy, a software firm based in Cambridge, which analysts felt overvalued the firm by as much as £6bn.

However, Ms Whitman confirmed the deal would go ahead.

To be fair, it’s not like she’s had much time to un-screw the company over. Considering the recent drift of technology, her predecessor’s mistakes seem just awfully baffling. No wonder he was fired. But Whitman is no innovator (as her campaign’s white papers could easily attest), and I don’t buy her as a turnaround artist either. HP seems addicted to bringing in “names” to run the shop when things get tough, and it really hasn’t done much good. Too soon to tell if “What Carly started, Whitman Finished” will prove to be an appropriate moniker, but I guess we’ll know soon enough.

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The Real Reason For Tim Pawlenty’s Wimpout

by Lev on 30 November 2011

Fascinating:

Mr. Romney’s real friend in the field was Tim Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota who is no longer in the race and has already endorsed Mr. Romney. But just because the two men are close does not mean they were above a healthy dose of mind games and one-upmanship.

At one early debate, at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire, aides to Mr. Pawlenty had planned to level a particularly pungent attack at Mr. Romney — tagging him with the label “Obamneycare,” to suggest that Mr. Romney’s Massachusetts health plan had inspired a similar overhaul by President Obama.

But intentionally or otherwise, Mr. Romney may have pulled off a pre-emptive green room strike of his own.

Waiting to take the stage, he greeted Mr. Pawlenty like the good friend he is, warmly wishing him luck in the debate. Mr. Pawlenty never used his acid one-liner, and he later told aides that in the future, he would prefer to spend less time mingling with his opponents before debates.

This kind of makes me like Mitt a bit more, actually.

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A Perfect Exemplar of the Frothing Hatred and Paranoia on the Right

by Metavirus on 30 November 2011

Every so often, the Republican id speaks forth via an online commenter (sans bullshit) about what really drives them:

The thing is that, given the most dire juncture where the traitorous hardcore Left (i.e., now fully incarnated and embodied in the Democrat Party) along with the complicit RINOs and the accommodationist establishment-Republicans have sunk America in, condition exacerbated by the presence of Obama in the White House, America cannot afford half-curers in the Presidency, such as Gingrich.

I’m not sure why so many “moderates” don’t get it: Republicans see themselves as waging a holy war against people who they really do view as more dangerous than the Nazis (hint: libruls).

Wake up already.

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The GOP in one sentence

by Gherald on 30 November 2011
“[The Republican Party] consists half of people who think like Michele Bachmann and half of people who are afraid of losing a primary to people who think like Michele Bachmann and that leaves very little room to work things out,” -Barney Frank
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Save The Web

by Lev on 29 November 2011
Erik Kain’s call to arms about the egregious PROTECT IP Bill that would undermine a lot of the freedom of the internet, and the unlikely suspects trying to stop it, is well worth your time. I’m going to be sending my congressman a fax soon, that’s for sure.
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The Flip-flop Romney Should Have Made

by Lev on 29 November 2011

There’s still over a month to go, but as of this moment, pretty much everything seems to be going well for Newt in Iowa:

A new Insider Advantage poll in Iowa shows Newt Gingrich leading the Republican presidential race with 28%, followed by Ron Paul at 13%,  Mitt Romney at 12%, Herman Cain at 10%, Michele Bachmann at 10% and Rick Perry at 7%.

A new We Ask America poll finds Gingrich leading with 29%, followed by Romney at 13%, Bachmann at 13%, Paul at 11%, Cain at 7% and Perry at 5%.

…and in South Carolina:

A new Insider Advantage poll in South Carolina shows Newt Gingrich running away from the GOP presidential field with 38%, followed by Mitt Romney at 15%, Herman Cain at 13%, Ron Paul at 7%, Rick Perry at 4%, Michele Bachmann at 3% and Rick Santorum at 2%.

A new American Research Group poll finds Gingrich leading with 33%, followed by Romney at 22% and Cain at 10%.

..and increasingly in New Hampshire, too:

A new Insider Advantage poll in New Hampshire shows Mitt Romney just ahead of Newt Gingrich in the first presidential primary state, 31% to 27%.

A new Rasmussen survey has Romney 10 points ahead of Gingrich, 34% to 24%, with Paul at 14% and Huntsman at 11%.

And I noticed this head-to-head national result a while ago over on TPM’s polltracker, seemingly confirming the idea that Gingrich would prevail in a narrowed field:

There is, of course, still a month to go until the Iowa Caucuses. But all the trends seem to be favoring Gingrich at the moment. He’s leading big in two early states and gaining in Romney’s firewall. The possibility of Herman Cain leaving the race could help Newt even more, especially if it comes with an endorsement. Romney, on the other hand, seems to be wearing poorly on the early state electorates exactly the same way he did four years ago, in which his early leads in those states dissipated and he lost both. Considering the disgraceful conduct of Romney’s campaign recently in pretending that quoting someone else is the same as saying it yourself, and his grotesque, overriding ambition, it’s hard for me not to smile just a bit at the notion of Romney turfing out yet again (and spending more than anyone else for the privilege), even though as an American I’d much rather he than Newt Gingrich have the nomination.

But I was just thinking today about something. Romney tried to start a political career for himself in the 1990s and went nowhere. After the resolving the Olympics fiasco in 2000, he decided to try again and ran for Governor of Massachusetts. What if, at that time, Romney had switched parties and become a Democrat? After all, in terms of temperament, in terms of empiricism and rational decisionmaking, as well as the substance of most of his policies and stances as Governor, Romney fits in better with reality-based Democrats than with Republicans’ eternal “first principle” obsession. And as the implementer of health care reform in Massachusetts, it’s easy to imagine Romney becoming a major force in the 2008 elections, possibly getting the support of Ted Kennedy, and running on having done health care reform, instead of failing at it. It’s entirely possible that a Clinton-Romney matchup would have been even tougher for Clinton than Obama turned out to be–it might have persuaded Barack Obama to hold back from running in an already tough field. And it’s hard to dispute that many of Mitt’s flip-flops have been due to keep up with the party he wants to lead (but who clearly do not want to be led by him). As a Democrat, they would not have been necessary and would likely never have happened. Mitt circa 2005 would have been a pretty appealing choice for a lot of Democrats, a capable, moderate administrator with a great record and real executive experience. He’s the perfect candidate the Democrats never had.

In fact, this makes so much sense that one wonders why he even stuck with the GOP in the first place. At this point, Romney is the clear establishment choice at this point, but he’s a poor fit for the Tea Party-dominated mood at this point in time. Gingrich is a perfect match, though, as a phony outsider well accustomed to manipulating free-floating anger to advance his own agenda. Back in 2004, John McCain stuck with the GOP instead of joining John Kerry’s ticket, and my strong belief is that it was because he figured that he’d have a better shot at getting the Republican nomination in 2008 than getting the Democrats’ in 2012. One wonders why Romney figured pursuing a career in a religiously-intolerant party that hates science made any sense at all. Perhaps Romney just feels Republicanism in his blood and would never think to change sides. If so, it would be ironic if the one flip-flop he never made was the one that kept him from getting what he most wanted.

Here’s to fighting a war you can’t win:

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