As the final day of campaigning in New Hampshire turns into the final night of campaigning, here's a summary of today's events inside and outside of the Granite State.
• Mitt Romney remained in a comfortable lead according to the last batch of opinion polls on the eve of the New Hampshire primary, with double digit leads suggesting he will easily win the contest – with only his margin of victory being in question
• Romney's remark "I like being able to fire people" this morning was seized on by his political rivals in both the Republican and Democratic parties, with Romney under heavy fire for his record as a corporate raider as head of Bain Capital. The Romney campaign dismissed the remark as being taken out of context
• Jon Huntsman, Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry issued hard-hitting attacks on Romney's record at Bain Consulting, with Gingrich-supporting Super Pac preparing to release a documentary highlighting Romney's role in downsizing
• Huntsman's campaign showed a late surge in the last polls, challenging Ron Paul for second place but with both candidates well behind Romney
• Ron Paul attracted outsized crowds during campaign stops, surronded by a scrum of journalists reflecting his campaign's new-found credibility based on its poll ratings
• Todd Palin, husband of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, publically endorsed Gingrich – suggesting that an endorsement by Palin herself was not far behind
• Barack Obama announced that Bill Daley, the White House chief of staff for the past year, was stepping down, to be replaced by budget director Jack Lew
We'll be back tomorrow, live blogging polling day in the New Hampshire primary and the results themselves.
Polling takes place between 6am and 8pm ET, although most polling stations in New Hampshire close at 7pm, when the first vote counts will begin. Although we will know the top-line result – Romney's expected victory – very quickly, the final details of percentages and second places will take a little longer.
After Mitt Romney avoided answering questions from journalists for more than a week, nothing spells "press conference now!" than the need to explain some cack-handed remarks about pink slips and the joy of firing.
And so Romney sought to explain the remarks he's made in the last two days. First up was the "I like being able to fire people" gaffe today (via AP):
Things can always be taken out of context, and I understand that's what the Obama people will do. But as you know I was speaking about insurance companies and we need to be able to make a choice and my comments entirely reflected that discussion.
Nice try. On his cryptic "I was worried I was going to get pink-slipped" remark:
I came out of school, and I got an entry level position like the other people that were freshly minted MBAs, and like anybody that starts at the bottom of an enterprise you wonder, when you don't do so well, whether you're going to be able to hang onto your job.
Ah, that was in 1975, 36 years ago. By 1977 he had been poached by Bain & Company, so his "entry level position" as a management consultant didn't last long, and presumably his fear of the pink slip didn't last any longer.
Did Chris Christie make a joke about blow jobs at the expense of a heckler at a Mitt Romney event on Sunday night?
Responding to a shouted comment – it's unclear what was said – Christie responded:
You know, something may be going down tonight, but it ain't going to be jobs, sweetheart.
Charming. Especially coming from a man who can't even see his own ... but that would be sinking to his level.
Exciting news: Eric Cantona is running for the presidency. Of France. Unfortunately.
That Mitt Romney is a shape-changing chameleon is received wisdom. But over on Cif America, Jason Farago argues convincingly that Romney is in fact an unwavering, steel-spined warrior for the cause of corporate capitalism:
What is the traditional objection to Romney? That he is a "flip-flopper", the original sin of American politics. In Massachusetts in the 1990s, he used to do fundraisers with Planned Parenthood; now he stresses "the sanctity of life". He used to seem all right with gay people; now he's big on "traditional marriage". He made the right noises about climate change; now he makes the wrong ones. He supported the Brady Act, the landmark 1993 gun control bill; now, he tells the NRA that the second amendment is a kind of holy revelation.
But on one issue Mitt Romney has never flip-flopped. From his time at Bain Capital, where he squeezed companies to death to extract billions for investors, to his tenure in office and his eternal campaigning since, Romney is the best friend a corporate raider or titan of finance could ask for.
We haven't much opportunity to say this during the Republican contest so far, but Rick Perry is cleaning Mitt Romney's clock today.
Exhibit A. Warning: gets annoying. Quickly.
The Guardian's Adam Gabbatt sees Rick Santorum do some power-walking through his potential supporters:
Santorum breezed into MaryAnn's diner in Derry this afternoon, shaking hands, chatting and generally distracting diners from their food.
People didn't seem to mind Santorum so much, but the manager of MaryAnn's did object to the 20 or so television cameras following the former senator, promptly kicking out the camera crews.
Sitting at the counter was Mary Jo Weber, 42, who said she was coming round to the idea of Santorum: "I like what he stands for, he stands up and says what he thinks and feels."
"I drove an hour and a quarter to be here," Weber said as Santorum whizzed past, missing her efforts to say hello.
Josh Smith, a bearded 25-year-old, had slightly more luck, managing to pose a question to Santorum as he power-walked past the bar. "I asked what he wants to do about human trafficking," Smith said.
So what did Santorum offer to do? "He said he wants to do everything he can."
Human trafficking solved, Smith said he remains undecided for whom to vote.
After all the nonsense about Obama's European socialism coming from the Romney campaign, among others, GQ has the sensible idea of talking to some actual European socialists about it, notably two Danish journalists who are in New Hampshire:
Romney waxed patriotic about the American work ethic: "I certainly don't want to become more like Europe, I want to stay true to the principles that made us the nation that we are." From the rest of the audience, the line drew big applause. The two Danes just laughed, cracking loud jokes to one another in lazy, socialist native tongue.
Jon Huntsman joins the queue of people taking a free shot at Mitt Romney for his spectacularly inept "I enjoy firing people, me" line this morning.
Speaking at a meeting in Concord, Huntsman said:
Governor Romney enjoys firing people, I enjoy creating jobs. It may be that he's slightly out of touch with the economic reality playing out in America, and that's a dangerous place for someone to be.
That's not exactly giving it both barrels. But it did provoke this straw-clutching response from Romney surrogate John Sununu: "Sometimes the socialists are Republicans."
Maybe all those big poll leads in New Hampshire have made the Romney campaign fat and lazy, if that's the best they could do: Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich, all well-known socialists.
Barak Obama is holding a statement to note the resignation of his chief of staff, Bill Daley, and announce his replacement by the current White House budget director Jacob Lew.
Naturally, Obama pays tribute to Daley's brief and unhappy tenure, which lasted barely a year after Rahm Emanuel left to run to be mayor of Chicago (which was Daley's previous job). Obama said Daley had performed "extraordinary work" in an "extraordinary year."
According to Obama, Daley is leaving the White House to "spend more time with his family," which is an extraordinary novel reason in modern politics.
In case you missed it, Mitt Romney said this yesterday on the campaign trail in New Hampshire:
I know what it's like to worry whether you're gonna get fired. There were a couple of times I wondered whether I was going to get a pink slip.
I think Mitt has confused "pink slip" with "golden parachute," which is a more familiar experience for CEOs such as Romney.
Romney campaign litter in Hudson, New Hampshire. Photograph: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images
Even Rick Perry could make hay out of this one – and promptly did so this morning in South Carolina:
I have no doubt that Mitt Romney was worried about pink slips — whether he'd have enough of them to hand out.
Hot non-New Hampshire political news: White House chief of staff Bill Daley is stepping down from being White House chief of staff, as of soon. There's a press conference at 3pm ET – annoying every senior political journalist in America who will be hard at work crafting their "What New Hampshire means" thumbsuckers for tomorrow in a hotel room in Manchester.
Stop what you are doing – unless you are busy – and go over to another part of the Guardian website to follow the live Q&A on the New Hampshire primary with political scientist Dante Scala.
More on Todd Palin's endorsement of Newt Gingrich – this is unlikely to have any impact in New Hampshire, where Mrs Todd Palin wasn't hugely popular. But South Carolina, who knows?
ABC News had the scoop:
Sarah Palin's husband is endorsing Newt Gingrich for president, Todd Palin told ABC News today. But Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and John McCain's 2008 Republican running mate, has yet to decide "who is best able to go up against Barack Obama," Todd Palin said.
Palin said he has not spoken to Gingrich or anyone from the former House speaker's campaign.
Despite that, Newt Gingrich just now says that "[Todd Palin]'s going to be speaking out on behalf of my candidacy and I really appreciate that." So someone talked to someone somewhere, unless Newt's so awesome he can see the future.
Silly Buzzfeed Politics, who have reposted Mitt Romney's 2002 survey for Planned Parenthood. It shows that Mitt Romney v2002 was in favour of keeping the status quo on abortion, and mentions his support for state funding of abortion for low income women.
But that's ancient history! Mitt's changed: In 2002 he was running in liberal Massachusetts. In 2012 he's running in a conservative Republican primary. These days he wouldn't even answer a survey from Planned Parenthood, let alone say he was essentially pro-abortion.
Can you feel the Huntsmentum? Yes, rocketing up in the polls into figures higher than 9, Jon Huntsman launches an ad attacking Mitt Romney:
About time, you say? Enjoy it Huntsmaniacs, because this may be the high point of the 2012 campaign for you.
Adam Gabbatt has moved on to see Newt Gingrich hold a Q&A at an office in Manchester, although with Gingrich there was a lot more A than Qs.
Gingrich talked for about 20 minutes, managing to mention at least 20 times that he had known and worked with Ronald Reagan before opening up to questions from the 30 or so employees. Sadly, no one went for the obvious: "Mr Gingrich, did you know Ronald Reagan at all?" gag. The former speaker was instead asked about his private sector experience.
After leaving politics, "we ran four small businesses", Gingrich said. He then listed them: "There was the Gingrich Group ... Gingrich Communications ... Gingrich Productions" and finally "Gingrich Holdings, which ran them all".
As always with Newt, it really is all about him. Adam notes: "Gingrich did not specifically state how this experience would translate into running the country."
Todd Palin – husband of Sarah Palin – is backing Newt Gingrich. Photograph: Robyn Beck/AFP
Stop the virtual presses: Todd Palin has endorsed Newt Gingrich. Everthing else is literally a footnote in history today.
Yes, the husband of Sarah Palin. What this is all about I don't know. More soon.
Karen Heller (right) asks Ron Paul to return to the Moe Joe's restaurant to meet her 90-year-old mother. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty
The Guardian's Adam Gabbatt is on Ron Paul's trail in New Hampshire – and finds the good doctor offending some curious voters with a rushed visit:
Ron Paul's first event of the day was supposed to be a tasty breakfast at Moe Joe's diner in east Manchester.
Unfortunately for Paul, the place was absolutely packed by the time of his arrival, and he and his team got spooked, leaving after a very short amount of time due to the crush.
Even more unfortunately for Paul, one angry New Hampshire voters followed him out to his car as he tried to escape, protesting loudly and preventing Paul from closing his car door.
As a swarm of television cameras watched, Karen Heller berated the Texan congressman for not meeting people more thoroughly. Heller had brought her elderly mother to Moe Joe's because "she saw Ron Paul in the debate and liked him", but said Paul did not even enter the room they were sitting in, let alone press the flesh.
Adam caught up with Karen Heller after she confronted Ron Paul. The good news is that Paul's campaign has offered her and her mother a private meeting with the candidate.
Today's poll round-up, and there have been a blizzard of the things in the last two days, all much of a muchness but showing a slight slide in Mitt Romney's sky-high ratings and an uptick for Jon Huntsman and others.
33% Mitt Romney
20% Ron Paul
13% Jon Huntsman
11% Newt Gingrich
10% Rick Santorum
2% Buddy Roemer
1% Rick Perry
In that poll, 6% of respondents said they were "undecided" as to whether or not they might change their mind. Uh?
• WMUR/University of New Hampshire poll:
41% Mitt Romney
17% Ron Paul
11% Jon Huntsman, Rick Santorum
8% Newt Gingrich
1% Rick Perry, Buddy Roemer
• PPP:
35% Mitt Romney
18% Ron Paul
16% Jon Huntsman
12% Newt Gingrich
11% Rick Santorum
3% Buddy Roemer
1% Rick Perry
The Guardian's Janine Gibson sends this Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph from a Rick Santorum event at one of his Faith, Family and Freedom town halls in Salem.
Buttons supporting Rick Santorum on sale in Salem. Photograph: Henri Cartier-Bresson
Among the buttons, if you squint hard you'll see ones reading "Fear the vest" and "Why women love Santorum". (That last one is a gift for Dan Savage, the man who gave Rick such a boost on Google.)
Janine reports: "I would send you some highlights from Santorum's speech. But there are none.... He's teaching us about oil pipelines now. He's just talking. There aren't sentences. I'm desperate for Diane Sawyer to pop up and interrupt him with a 20 minute question."
Update: "Rick is grateful to God that America borders Mexico and not Libya or Tunisia because that would be awful for immigration. Borders are also why Europe's in all that trouble."
Bill Keller – the New York Times's best columnist if you only count Frank Bruni and Tom Friedman – pushes the "Hillary for vice president" button.
Bill lays out various scenarios under which Hillary Clinton could replace Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket but then only minutely spoils the effect with his last line, in which he admits: "it's just a fantasy."
Oh dear, Mitt Romney. Here's the taylor-made soundbite for the next round of attack ads: Romney saying "I like being able to fire people".
Here's the quote from Romney – talking about health insurance, bizarrely enough, given his well-publicised Romneycare problem:
I want individuals to have their own insurance. That means the insurance company will have an incentive to keep you healthy. It also means if you don't like what they do, you can fire them. I like being able to fire people who provide services to me.
Actually the more hilarious statement here is "the insurance company will have an incentive to keep you healthy," which isn't true. The insurance company has an incentive to fire you if you are unhealthy. It's an economic principle called adverse selection, and you'd think the brilliant "I know how the economy works" businessman candidate would know that.
And that's why a big chunk of Obamacare is devoted to stopping insurance companies from dumping patients with the dreaded "pre-existing conditions" – but of course Romney wants to abolish it.
Here we go: a clip from the Newt Gingrich Super Pac-funded attack docudrama aimed directly at Mitt Romney's career as chief executive of vulture capitalist fund Bain Capital.
Distribute a copy of this DVD to every Republican voter in South Carolina and Florida, and Mitt Romney's poll ratings might not look so good.
Where in New Hampshire are the candidates today?
Hats off to Newt Gingrich for his 9pm event today – going to a BCS College Football National Championship watch party in Concord. It was Gingrich, you may recall, who had a massice fail in the debate on Saturday when he claimed he'd rather be at home watching the college basketball final. Wrong on two counts: sport and date.
Mitt Romney
11.35am: Tours Gilchrist Metal Fabricating, Hudson, New Hampshire
5.55pm: Holds a rally. McKelvie Intermediate School, Bedford
Rick Santorum
10.45am: Hosts a Faith, Family and Freedom town hall. Derry-Salem Elks Lodge, Salem
12:30pm: Meets with patrons at Mary Ann's Diner, Derry
3.30pm: Hosts a town hall, Somersworth
7.15pm: Hosts a campaign rally, Manchester
Ron Paul
10.30am: Holds a meet and greet in Hollis
2pm: Holds an employee town hall meeting at Timberland
Newt Gingrich
11am: Holds town hall, Manchester
1pm: Holds a Nashua Rotary meet and greet, Nashua
2pm: Holds BAE Systems town hall, Nashua
4pm: Holds Hudson town hall, Hudson
6pm: Visits Newt 2012 NH headquarters, Manchester
9pm: Attends BCS College Football National Championship watch party, Concord
Jon Huntsman
10.15am: Visits Mary's Bakery and Cafe, Henniker
11.15am: Visits Eagle Square, Concord
1pm: Visits Harvey's Bakery, Dover
3.45pm: Visits Crosby's Bakery, Nashua
7pm: Holds a rally, Exeter Town Hall, Exeter
And then there's Rick Perry in South Carolina:
10.15am: Participates in Main Street Walk, Pickens
12.05pm: Attends First Monday Club luncheon, Greenville
5.30pm: Holds meet and greet. Stax's Original Restaurant, Greenville
What the papers say, New Hampshire primary edition, your should-reads for Monday:
• Romney at Bain: Big Gains, Some Busts – Wall Street Journal
The WSJ looks at Romney's record at Bain Capital, examining 77 businesses Bain invested in while Romney led the firm from 1984 start until 1999, to see how they fared. It finds the overall record is largely in Romney's favour, but that many also went under.
• Mitt Romney Holds Lead But Jon Huntsman Gaining – Huffington Post
The HuffPost's resident pollster Mark Blumenthal says the New Hampshire polls released over the weekend show Mitt Romney heading for a comfortable win, as well as Jon Huntsman closing in on Ron Paul for second place.
• Romney Re-Enrolls In The Mittness Protection – Buzzfeed Politics
Its' been more than a week since Mitt Romney held a press conference, points out Buzzfeed. "Why? Romney thinks that unscripted questions are more likely to hurt him than help, and he might be right. He's the presumptive nominee, and he has a ton of money — why not speak through media that you can control, like advertisements and one-on-one interviews?"
• With One Day to Go in New Hampshire, Who Can Catch Romney? – PBS Newshour
The answer to that question is "no one". But this is a complete round-up of all the campaigning action, including the Romney campaign's closing argument to supporters.
• For Gingrich, attacks on Romney come with a risk – Associated Press
Plowing through New Hampshire before Tuesday's primary, Gingrich is indulging an innate sharp edge that has won him attention - and enemies - from his days as a back-bencher in the House in the 1980s. Now as always, he risks nicking himself in the process.
• Newt's Friend Antes Up – TPM
The Gingrich/Adelson friendship just became a much more critical part of the 2012 calculus. And it has the potential to seriously complicate Mitt Romney's road to the White House.
With only one day remaining before the polls open in the GOP New Hampshire primary, it's increasingly looking as if the only question is Mitt Romney's margin of victory.
Romney survived two back-to-back GOP candidates' debates in New Hampshire, although by the second debate on Sunday morning Romney's rivals had toughened their rhetoric against the former Massachusetts governor.
A slew of opinion polls were published over the weekend showing Romney unchallenged in the lead in New Hampshire, although as the primary day comes closer Romney has seen some inevitable slippage in his ratings.
With some candidates and the media regarding the New Hampshire primary as merely an appetizer for the main course in South Carolina later this month, Romney's rivals Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich are laying the groundwork for that campaign.
Gingrich's supporters in particular are preparing a big hit on Romney's record as a venture capitalist at Bain Capital, by finding the distribution of a half-hour-long documentary on the subject – taking a page out of the Swift Boat campaign against John Kerry in 2004.
Ron Paul – in second place in most New Hampshire polls – meanwhile is ignoring Romney and training his fire on the threats from the likes of Santorum.
We'll be following the local and national campaigns today, with correspondents on the ground in New Hampshire.
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9 January 2012 3:54PM
One problem that Mittens will have a very hard time overcoming is his loose grip on the truth. In real time, Mittens has difficulty hewing to any brand of reality-based specificity, so he is tremendously vulnerable with any debate partner (Obama) who has a firm command of the facts. Indeed, the DNC’s ads will be brimming with examples of Romney’s “flexibility.”
This flaw in Romney's character is also rather telling in terms of his personal integrity. He's clearly the sort of man who vacillates, equivocates, and fudges to suit his own purposes--and it's not even clear that he knows when he's doing it. I’m not sure which is worse: oblivion or calculation. What I am sure of is that this propensity speaks to an almost pathological need to be right, in command, and authoritative, irrespective of his qualifications to be any of those things. Not a cool quality in a president. We've been there and done that already, and it wasn't pretty.
9 January 2012 4:37PM
I can only imagine the licking of lips going on in the Obama camp at the choice of legitimate attack material Romney has gifted them over the years. It will be a very interesting race, once this pantomime of the GOP primaries are over.
9 January 2012 5:12PM
Watch the video of the new Huntsman TV ad for NH (on his campaign site). Everyone who watched the debates is talking about this already, and soon everyone else will be. He'll get the independent vote on Tuesday. Well done.
9 January 2012 5:16PM
I'd say that's the business dealmaker on display. Similar with Donald Trump. We don't need either.
9 January 2012 5:22PM
And of course, this wholly exploitable moment, "I like being able to fire people who provide services to me (pause) if if if someone doesn't give me the good service I need...." is pure gold for ads to come. Ya gotta love this guy. (Actually, no, especially if you experienced his gubernatorial stint as I did.)
Romney's herpetic tendency to gaffe has been impervious to any treatment for years. Here's an account from The Boston Globe's Neil Swidey about an encounter Romney had with a woman during his 1994 campaign. Read it and cringe:
Makeup, eh? Seamus never had a chance. RIP Seamus, you poor ol' mutt. You may get some justice yet.
9 January 2012 5:53PM
Yawn. Is there anything more pointles than the coming primaries? And the empty analysis in the Euro press about Santorum, Gingrich and Paul. All can go no further, really. Santorum is an extremist with a marginal following even in Iowa and South Carolina. Gingrich dumped 2 wives for other women (wife #2 was hospitalized when he broke the news). Paul is more dotty and eccentric than Hyancinth was is "Keeping Up Appearances". And far too many of our Brit and continental friends love to go overboard, carping about how Santorum is "very popular" here and that far-right religiosity has taken over every city, hamlet and barn between LA and New York. Pathetic, but hilarious to read.
9 January 2012 6:44PM
Yes as one US economist has said Romney lies all the time. Especially about his past, etc. In addition he refuses to make his tax returns public, something de rigueur for US Presidential candidates.
9 January 2012 6:46PM
Romney with Ron Paul a strong second.
The others are fading fast, and the moneys running out.
9 January 2012 6:57PM
Yes again. He implied or more that only rich people should run for the Presidency. He clearly is the candidate of the 1% with little interest in the rest of the population. He may have been adequate as a state governor but not fit to be President. Just like his father.
9 January 2012 6:57PM
Governor Rod Blagojevich is stubborn. He refused to increase the unfair Illinois income tax (it taxes people who make money, not those who have it) even when he was shown that the state desperately needed the money. He did that several times before they impeached him. That is why they set him up, and also why they want him in jail.
Fair Tax?
That would be a 1 percent tax on total wealth?
Since the rich have 80 percent of the wealth in this country;
They would pay 80 percent of the tax?
That would mean the rest of us would usually pay less than 50 percent of what we are now paying?
This would be similar to the wealth tax in France, Switzerland, Netherland, and India.
Also, our ethical structure would be improved. There would be more money for the poor, and they could become more honest; also the rich would have more security.
9 January 2012 6:58PM
Sigh. Back in 2008 I sullied my soul by spending six consecutive days as a registered Republican so I could vote in my state's GOP primary (and, despite the hundreds of hot soapy showers I've taken these past four years, I doubt I'll ever really feel clean again), but at least I won't have to do that this time around. What choices are the GOP offering this year? Santorum the Catholic Taliban, Gingrich the megalomaniac sociopath, or Romney the blank slate who changes his politics and principles more frequently than I change my socks.
Given how utterly and consistently awful Obama has been on civil liberties issues, the Republicans would have a very good chance at winning in 2012 if they would nominate a moderate campaigning to undo the constitutional damage of the Bush and Obama years. Why is the GOP instead going out of its way to throw the election to the Democrats by fielding the most consistently awful candidates they can find? At this point, Obama could release a videotaped confession showing him raping and murdering photogenic orphan toddlers as part of a Satanic occult plot to raise Hitler from the dead after giving Kim Jong Eun the entire American nuclear arsenal as a "welcome to power" gift, and somehow, some way, the Republicans would STILL manage to find a candidate who makes Obama look like the lesser of two evils.
9 January 2012 7:05PM
Ew, icky!
By the way, did you ever get that pea out from under the mattress?
9 January 2012 7:10PM
That just needed repeating.
9 January 2012 7:15PM
Of course not! I'm an American citizen in the year 2012. Whenever any lumps mar the happy smoothness that is supposed to be my life, I don't deal with the problem on my own; I insist that my government Do Something that will cost several billions of dollars and erode the constitution even more. Look for new legislation this year requiring anyone dried-pea purchasers to have their photo ID and thumbprint entered into a government database. Freedom must always take a backseat to convenience.
9 January 2012 7:24PM
I've been trying to get Todd Palin to endorse my Cif poetry in the hope that I might monetize my creative work and quit the coding. But Todd's been ignoring me. Newt's a lucky man.
9 January 2012 8:15PM
NO. Ricahrd Daley, Bill's brother, was the mayor.
9 January 2012 8:21PM
"Newt's a lucky man"... with rich friends. Not so rich that they'll pop for Bristol and nowhere near rich (or friends) enough to meet Sarah's price, but even Todd can't be all that cheap.
Face it. Monetized poetry went out with Burma Shave.
9 January 2012 8:22PM
And look for the free market providing fake thumbprints...for a price! Stickers, overlays - I'm sure there's some way to do something that will fool computer matchups. They'll likely outsource the actual thumbprint-taking part to private for-profit businesses, so who knows what might be possible?
9 January 2012 8:32PM
Richard's work here is great, as usual, and one wonders if he gets any sleep at all, but also a quick tip of the hat to Adam Gabbatt, whose little on-the-ground snippets are interesting, and whose wry style I find reliably entertaining.
Nice work there, Adam.
9 January 2012 8:40PM
That's rhetorical, right?
The plan was never to throw it all away, it was to return us all to our proper biblical roots. Perhaps, being demonically possessed, your vision is obscured, and you are condemned to flail around in a storm of blindness.
Yes, that must be it.
;)
9 January 2012 8:47PM
Perhaps us CIF commenters should scrape together a few $ and form our own PAC for a campaign advert. I can spare $10? Anyone else?
ICouldntPossiblySay / NatashaFatale - any ideas for a script/storyboard? I mean, our money should buy us all of 5 seconds on an obscure cable channel somewhere.
And don't forget the background music. I did think of the Laurel & Hardy theme but would welcome alternatives.
Who can we afford for the voiceover?
9 January 2012 8:49PM
No, he wasn't even adequate as a state governor. He sucked. And we were glad to get shut of him; indeed, his lt. governor got her ass kicked by the current governor Deval Patrick in that election. During the primary process, people even rejected the acknowledge heir to the throne on the Dem side, Attorney General Tom Reilly, because they thought even HE would be too much like business as usual.
So, in short, the people of Massachusetts not only rejected Romney's incumbent lieutenant governor in favor of the other party, but they didn't even chose the heir apparent of the other party. They chose a guy one step beyond that--and a black guy at that. :) THAT'S how unpopular Mitt Romney was in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
9 January 2012 8:50PM
The world's maddest country also has the maddest political system, even madder than Australia's. Hence the maddest presidents (should I name a few?) Hence the maddest interior of any country, and STILL they think they own and rule the world.God help us.....please...
9 January 2012 8:52PM
Cheaper to go viral on YouTube.
9 January 2012 9:09PM
I read that only 57% of the NH primary voters are expected to be registered Republicans. The rest, independents and such. That's not typical of the rest of the states, surely, but the polls being reported don't necessarily allow for that.
The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Kind of like the housing bubble, but in this case it's the Romney bubble.
imo a lot of conservative, traditional Republicans (the older crowd) who were supporting Romney were surprised when he first made a crack about Huntsman serving under Obama. After Romney doubled down on that attack, I bet a lot of them started discussing alternatives (i.e., Huntsman) with their friends and neighbors. That view isn't what they thought they were getting with Romney. DEFINITELY not something his father would have ever said.
Romney has the 1% supporting him, but I bet most of his voting support is lukewarm, and from middle-aged people who don't want what they see as fringe candidates (Paul, Santorum, Bachmann) representing the party. That's why they've been supporting candidates who at first presented themselves as rational, practical candidates who could fix the economy and/or government - and then dropped them when their true colors became more apparent. It's just taken awhile longer for Romney, mostly because he had better coaches, and older people remembered and respected his father. Now he's telling them who he really is, and they're starting to believe him. And that worries them. A lot. It's like that dog-on-the-top-of-the-car story. Taken by itself, it's not a big deal. Combine it with all these other instances of self-absorption, and his image snowballs into something voters don't like. I remember when Bush Sr didn't know the price of milk, and that was a tipping point of sorts.
Romney, unlike someone such as Bill Clinton, has a tin ear for politics. He doesn't even realize he has a problem, let alone what it might be.
People may not have heard of Huntsman, and may not have paid much attention to him when they were being bombarded in the news with the antics of Bachmann et al, but he IS what they say they want when it comes to issue positions. He's suddenly gotten a lot of hits on his Wikipedia article, so that says something right there.
9 January 2012 9:09PM
Yes, we're going to have to do something about that YouTube.
9 January 2012 9:14PM
The Right are staring to get worried again. I over-heard 3 of them talking yesterday- about their ASK-47s and how nobody ahd better start taking away their Second Amendment Rights.
LOL- those idiots can see the handwriting on the wall. The GOP is going down-hard.
9 January 2012 9:14PM
Romney Zingers:
"Corporations are people, too."
"Wanna bet $10,000?"
"I'm proud my opponent had to take out a mortgage on his home to defeat me."
And now:
"I like firing people."
9 January 2012 9:15PM
Yes, I do believe there is some work to be done. Are you going to be at the Sundance Film Festival?
9 January 2012 9:29PM
You couldn't make this stuff up.
My name is Mitt Romney
I don't dye my hair
And don't mention Religion
That wouldn't be fair
I've got lots of money
I know how to play
I'll bet you $10,000
I win on Tues-day
I am the front-runner
I have nothing to prove
So how can it be that
my numbers don't move?
If I don''t win new Hampshire
I am prob-ab-ly done
'cause I a going to lose
in the hot Southern sun.
9 January 2012 9:30PM
dammit-
"...ain't gonna win..."
9 January 2012 10:32PM
Yeah, perhaps. But I will not give up easily (even if lefty shames me by being something of a purist):
A little something for everybody?
9 January 2012 10:43PM
Feet?
9 January 2012 10:51PM
Well, ten bucks says that if Christie has that sort of notion bubbling so close to the surface of his public speech, it's only a matter of time before our morbidly short-of-breath junior sumo wrestler is involved in some sex scandal or another. Kick back, put up your feet, and wait.
9 January 2012 11:00PM
Sex scandal? I'm having a little trouble picturing that, though not because of any lack of effort.
9 January 2012 11:11PM
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9 January 2012 11:26PM
You said, "LOL- those idiots can see the handwriting on the wall. The GOP is going down-hard." I assumed Chris Christie used "going down" in the same sense (down for the count, as in boxing), not something sexual.
I expect other people in New Jersey would be better as translating what he was referring to, same as I am in translating "Chicago speak". I remember some assumptions were made about some phrases Sarah Palin used during the 2008 campaign, based on local (not Alaskan) slang.
"
9 January 2012 11:54PM
Kids today grow up completely ignorant of the classics.
10 January 2012 1:13AM
I read the WSJ report on Bain's performance. I feel there is something missing in the analysis. It talks only about wealth created for its investors, and the performance (or bankruptcy sometimes years later) of the corporations they invested in. That's fine, but all that shows is that he was a relatively successful capitalist.
Far more interesting would be to see how many people were laid off as a result of Bain decisions. How did they "turn these companies around"?
If it turns out that basically their approach was to lay off a certain percentage of the workforce to bring down labor cost and making the remaining workforce work harder for less, and the question is how to grow jobs, rather than just wealth, the analysis could be substantially more damaging.
10 January 2012 2:01AM
I missed the Christie story.
10 January 2012 4:28AM
The media scrum over Mitt Romney’s statement that he likes “being able to fire people” misses the larger – and more important – points about his healthcare policy.
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But "The Bottom 99%" takes a closer look at how this speech reveals Romney's inconsistencies and misleading claims about his policies and ObamaCare. Is it really, "repeal and replace" – or just "Rename and Claim"?
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