Desperation in Bernie-Land

Previous Related Posts:
Susan Sarandon Likes Trump Over Hillary
 Bernie Camp Blames Hillary for AZ Loss
Bernie Gives Hillary the Hand of Silence
Polls and Predictions for Hillary and Bernie on Super Tuesday
Hillary Landslide in South Carolina
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bernie Sanders has won the last seven consecutive primaries and caucuses, including a big win in Wisconsin last week, and is expected to win the mostly-white Wyoming Caucus today. But the front-runner, Hillary Clinton, will probably beat him in the New York Primary of April 19th in spite of the fact that Bernie being born and raised there.

Of course his rabid followers believe Bernie can win big in New York and pull out wins from now until June, but the reality is he still lags behind in delegates, and even tying or barely beating Hillary will not help. So there is a looming sense of do-or-die for his campaign, especially for his highly-paid team of Tad Devine and Jeff Weaver who need the Bernie fans to keep sending money.

From RealClearPolitics

“With our victory tonight in Wisconsin, we have won seven out of the last eight caucuses and primaries, and we have won almost all of them with overwhelming, landslide numbers,” Sanders said during a victory speech so familiar to his Wyoming supporters that they shouted out lines along with the candidate.
. . . In an email to admirers, Sanders described what remained of April as “the most important three-week stretch of the campaign.”
“We’re going to win this election,” he vowed, “if we can keep our momentum going.”
. . . Clinton’s campaign team predicts that after April 26, when voters in Connecticut, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Washington, D.C., participate and 631 delegates are divvied up, the nominating drama may be mathematically finished for Sanders.

Yet Bernie is his own worst enemy, sounding woefully unprepared for obvious questions in his interviews, such as the methodology of how to "break up the banks" which he mentions in every speech:

From Bernie's Interview with the New York Daily News Board:

Daily News: Well, it does depend on how you do it, I believe. And, I'm a little bit confused because just a few minutes ago you said the U.S. President would have authority to order...

Sanders: No, I did not say we would order. I did not say that we would order. The President is not a dictator.

Daily News: Okay. You would then leave it to JPMorgan Chase or the others to figure out how to break it, themselves up. I'm not quite...

Sanders: You would determine is that, if a bank is too big to fail, it is too big to exist. And then you have the secretary of treasury and some people who know a lot about this, making that determination. If the determination is that Goldman Sachs or JPMorgan Chase is too big to fail, yes, they will be broken up.

Daily News: Okay. You saw, I guess, what happened with Metropolitan Life. There was an attempt to bring them under the financial regulatory scheme, and the court said no. And what does that presage for your program?

Sanders: It's something I have not studied, honestly, the legal implications of that.

Some of Sanders high-profile surrogates are not helping either. Actor Tim Robbins, long-time partner of Bernie supporter Susan Sarandon, introduced the candidate in Wisconsin by weirdly slamming both the island of Guam, which hasn't voted yet, and the state of South Carolina, an early Southern state who went for Hillary. This continues the Sanders pattern of looking at the Southern states who went mostly for Hillary Clinton as some type of "rigged" election that "stacked the deck" against them. Bernie and company don't seem to understand that for Dems in red states, the primary season is the one chance to make their voices heard to the national party. But forget that - Bernie must win! To hell with the Democratic Party base!

Via Washington Post

"After the Southern primaries," he said, "you had called the election" -- apparently referring to the media. "And who's fooling who? Winning South Carolina in the Democratic primary is about as significant as winning Guam. No Democrat is going to win in the general election. Why do these victories have so much significance?"
This is a not-uncommon argument among supporters of Sanders. Yes, Hillary Clinton is winning. But she's winning largely because she ran up big margins in Southern states. That, the argument goes, bodes poorly for the general, since those Southern states usually vote Republican.
This is a bad argument that borders on insulting.

Introducing @BernieSanders, @TimRobbins1 hits Clinton's primary wins: Winning South Carolina is like "winning Guam" https://t.co/igFHlLoIZv

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) April 4, 2016

Tim Robbins calling Clinton supporters "sheep" because they don't agree with him is the ultimate KETTLE BLACK. So stupid it burns.

— Sarah Reese Jones (@srjones66) April 4, 2016

@ABCPolitics @joanwalsh @BernieSanders @TimRobbins1 @ABC So once again POC don't count. Both in SC & in Guam!

— Cocoa Puff & Bobbie (@CHOCLABLOVER) April 4, 2016

@ABCPolitics @BernieSanders @TimRobbins1 Way to insult Guam & S.Carolina. Robbins/Sarandon know how to pick winners! pic.twitter.com/7lFmUTcSr1

— Ofunne One-Soul (@ofunneculture) April 4, 2016

Surrogate Nina Turner, a former state senator from Ohio and one-time Hillary supporter, made a bizarre reference to slavery while debating ex-Senator Barney Frank on the tv machine:

MSNBC's Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell Transcript:

NINA TURNER: There may be many people standing that are part of the elected ministry in the establishment, standing on the side of Secretary Clinton. Some of those folks I have worked with, but the bottom line is this. There are millions of Americans in this country who believe that change needs to come, that the status quo cannot continue, that people are suffering in this country.

And, Senator Bernie Sanders has a proven track record of having the good judgment and standing up for the least of these when it is not convenient. So, it is unfair. And, congress people like Keith Ellison. I would take his endorsement any day. And, he has endorsed senator Bernie Sanders and that is a big deal. There was a time in this country where the majority of folks thought slavery was OK too.

O`DONNELL: Barney, go ahead.

FRANK: That last comment just baffles me. It is going to take me about a
week to figure out what that was supposed to mean. But as far as Keith Ellison is concerned, I admire Keith. I just signed an e-mail for him. But, he is one of 45 members of the congressional black caucus and every other one is for Hillary Clinton.

So, you are talking about the establishment. No, I do not think John Lewis, one of the great moral leaders of my generation who is a strong Hillary Clinton supporter, is the establishment, not in a bad way – Or Luis Gutierrez who is led the fight for immigration. I understand, and
maybe this highlights in.

@NooneOfan Yup. Share it around. pic.twitter.com/MpZfIbDp1v

— Andrew Killjoy (@AndrewKilljoy) April 5, 2016

And things have gone downhill from there, with the Bernie camp desperately throwing everything and the kitchen sink at Hillary and hoping it will keep their momentum going, calling her "unqualified" and so "ambitious" that she is going to "destroy the party." Yeah, right. Women aren't allowed to be ambitious!

“I’ve been called a lot of things over the years, but ‘unqualified’ has not been one of them.” —Hillary

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) April 8, 2016

Thinking they're "unqualified" is a big reason more women don't run for office: https://t.co/gixUvjcrEV pic.twitter.com/10hRkqQHXJ

— FiveThirtyEight (@FiveThirtyEight) April 9, 2016

Calling the first woman who's ever gotten this close to the Presidency destructively ambitious and unqualified is misogyny.

— Brienne of Snarth (@femme_esq) April 7, 2016

Dear daughters, you can be a Senator, SoS & President. Unless an angry white guy wants the job then you're unqualified. #HillarySoQualified

— Aღanda (@GrnEyedMandy) April 7, 2016

Bernie Sanders says Hillary Clinton called him "unqualified."

Nope.https://t.co/awjrV9HHYw

— The Briefing (@TheBriefing2016) April 8, 2016

Hillary never said he was unqualified - indeed, she specifically steered clear of it. https://t.co/iCKIdHxQcA

— Tom Watson (@tomwatson) April 7, 2016

Here’s the video. The only person who used the term “unqualified” was @JoeNBC https://t.co/7LyawzZbZV

— Karoli (@Karoli) April 7, 2016

~~~~~~~~~~~

SERIOUSLY?? Yet another statement that crossed the line. #VOTE @HillaryClinton #NYPrimary #ImWithHer #ShesWithUs pic.twitter.com/c3S3qPt1zJ

— Florida for Hillary (@FloridaforHRC) April 8, 2016

Weaver to Team Clinton: "Don’t destroy the Democratic Party to satisfy the Secretary’s ambition to become President of the United States."

— David Chalian (@DavidChalian) April 6, 2016

Sanders camp. mgr tells Clinton campaign: Don't destroy Dem. party to satisfy the Sec.'s ambitions to become POTUS https://t.co/BNott2SxRT

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) April 6, 2016

hillary's response to the sexist bullshit coming from jeff weaver today in one emoji: 😂 https://t.co/PlbsdIgOjn pic.twitter.com/QYtvGEjitE

— carmen rios (@carmenriosss) April 6, 2016

God forbid women have ambition: @HillaryClinton laughing at Sanders campaign's warning abt her ambition https://t.co/eKKVYSf3nX #ImWithHer

— Caitlyn Camacho (@caitlyncamacho) April 8, 2016

Jeff Weaver performing like a guy who's never before managed a major campaign, and never will again.

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) April 9, 2016

If Jeff Weaver wanted to fire up real New York Democrats with his sexist "ambition" crack - mission accomplished! #NYPrimary

— Tom Watson (@tomwatson) April 6, 2016

On Sanders' camp's outlandish claim that Hillary's "ambition" will take down the D Party. https://t.co/b4UHQmfQpc pic.twitter.com/sL0umjAysm

— Erica C. Barnett (@ericacbarnett) April 6, 2016

Shuckin' & Jivin' at the Racist Righties Club

Obama's Shuck and Jive Ends With Benghazi Lies
Why the lies? Why the cover up? Why the dissembling about the cause of the murder of our ambassador on the anniversary of the worst terrorist attacks on American soil? We deserve answers to this. President Obama’s shuck and jive shtick with these Benghazi lies must end
~ From a post on Sarah Palin's Facebook

And Palin's Explanation the following day:

For the record, there was nothing remotely racist in my use of the phrase "shuck and jive" – a phrase which many people have used, including Chris Matthews, Andrew Cuomo, and White House Press Secretary Jay Carney to name a few off the top of my head. In fact, Andrew Cuomo also used the phrase in reference to Barack Obama, and the fact that Mr. Cuomo and I used the phrase in relation to President Obama signifies nothing out of the ordinary. I would have used the exact same expression if I had been writing about President Carter, whose foreign policy rivaled Obama’s in its ineptitude, or about the Nixon administration, which was also famously rocked by a cover-up.

I’ve been known to use the phrase most often when chastising my daughter Piper to stop procrastinating and do her homework. As she is part Yup’ik Eskimo, I’m not sure if this term would be deemed offensive when it’s directed at her or if it would be considered benign as in the case of Chris Matthews’ use of it in reference to Rachel Maddow. Just to be careful, from now on I’ll avoid using it with Piper, and I would appreciate it if the media refrained from using words and phrases like igloo, Eskimo Pie, and “when hell freezes over,” as they might be considered offensive by my extended Alaska Native family.

The outrageously outraged reaction to this expression from perennial hypocrites like Chris Matthews has only made me laugh. Mr. Matthews, let me share with you my favorite Irish toast: “May we always be happy, and may our enemies always know it.”

- Sarah Palin

Oh you poor ignorant honky @sarahpalinusa
— Jesse LaGreca (@JesseLaGreca) October 25, 2012

Sarah Palin's use of 'shuck and jive' isn't an example of a racist dog-whistle because it's too obviously racist to be considered code.
— Jeffrey Goldberg (@JeffreyGoldberg) October 24, 2012

Sarah Palin said Obama is "shuckin and jivin".I bet she wants to burn a lower case t on the White House lawn too. #IAmAppalled
— Not Bill Walton (@NotBillWalton) October 24, 2012

Sarah Palin Will No Longer Be Racist As Soon As She Understands What Racism Is
Headline on Wonkette

Sarah Palin, the other white meathead.
~ comment by Monseiur Grumpe on Wonkette

Is Sarah old enough to be set adrift on an ice floe yet? (With votes).
~ comment by nounverb911 on Wonkette

You mean I can never say "Swedish Meat Balls" or "American Pie" or "Hawaiian Fruit Punch" or "Wisconsin Cheese" etc etc, because that's racist?
I'm sure "Baked Alaskan" would really piss the snowbilly off.
~ comment by fawkedifiknow on Wonkette

When hell freezes over
I won't die.
I'll sit in my igloo,
and eat Eskimo Pie.
~ comment by Yellerdawg on Wonkette

Wait - did Chris Matthews call Rachel Maddow an Eskimo Pie? I'm confused.
~ comment by Estproph on Wonkette

From the Right-Wing site Newsbusters

On July 7, 2010, Chris Matthews, while talking to Rachel Maddow about her visit to Afghanistan, wondered, "What has it been like, as you shuck and jive, hang out with the men over there, the women over there, in uniform risking their lives every day?" The late Tim Russert also used the term on July 18, 2003.
In 2008, then-New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said of Barack Obama: "You can't shuck and jive at a press conference." Steve McMahon, a Hardball regular, talked to then-MSNBC host Tucker Carlson and demurred, "Well, that's not the way I would have put it."
On September 7, 2011, Jay Carney, a spokesman for Matthews' beloved Obama, told the press corps, "Sorry. I'm going to shuck and jive! Time to shuck and jive."

A dog whistle is a dog whistle . . . A trumpet call is another.
Shuck and jive has a particular ethnic connection, not necessarily bad in all cases. It`s sort of -- it`s slang. It doesn`t mean evil.. . . But to throw it at the president as an ethnic shot is pretty blatant.
. . . Trump says the president is -- quote -- "monkeying with the unemployment numbers."
It just keeps going on over and over again, just enough to keep it in the atmosphere, to the point where today only two in five Republicans in the state of Ohio, only two in five agree that the president was born in this country.
It does work. It bleeds into people. They hear it enough from enough people and they go, well, there must be something there, and they do it and it works, it`s terrible stuff.
~ Chris Matthews on Hardball

Well, for knowledge people, it has roots back in plantation days, actually, when slaves during the shucking of the corn would jive each other around just to pass the time.
~ Clarence Page on Hardball

I think this is rank racism. Sometimes, people on the right get very upset when people on the left charge racism, but shuck and jive, that`s like talking about watermelon or, for Jews, talking about Jews are greedy, or the Irish or drunk, or whatever. This -- these are racist tropes. And we need to call them what they are. And I actually think, at least implicitly, Trump was playing on racism today with his ridiculous stunt demanding Obama`s college transcripts. What`s the subtext of it?
. . . He`s basically saying Barack Obama was too stupid to be at Columbia because he was an affirmative action student, and therefore because he was affirmative action, he must not have had good enough grades to stay in college, or whatever he`s talking about. It`s racist. Let`s get serious about this.
~ Jonathan Alter on Hardball


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

Story from CNN

Piers Morgan: "Colin Powell has decided to opt for President Obama again, despite apparently still being a Republican. Is it time he left the party?"

John Sununu: "I'm not sure how important that is. Frankly, when you take a look at Colin Powell, you have to wonder if that's an endorsement based on issues, or whether he's got a slightly different reason for preferring President Obama?"

Piers Morgan: What reason would that be?

John Sununu: "Well, I think when you have somebody of your own race that you're proud of being President of the United States, I applaud Colin for standing with him."

Via Huffington Post

UPDATE: Hours after the CNN interview, John Sununu issued a statement about his earlier comments, Politico reported.

"Colin Powell is a friend and I respect the endorsement decision he made and I do not doubt that it was based on anything but his support of the president’s policies. Piers Morgan’s question was whether Colin Powell should leave the party, and I don’t think he should," Sununu said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sununu has apparently been pallin' around with Palin at the shuckin' and jivin' dog whistle club.
~ comment by Dorian H. on ThinkProgress

If a military man like Colin Powell, who was absolutely worshiped by Republicans during the Iraq war, can't snap them out of their Romney fantasy, then maybe a cold Electoral College shower on November 6th will.
~ comment by Inga Binga on Huff Post

Funny how nobody claims Clint Eastwood endorsed Romney 'because he's white'. This sort of smear only goes one way - and is a subtle form of racism.
~ comment by myth1958 on Huff Post

Funny that a candidate that can't mention the military at his convention expects an endorsement from an army General.
~ comment by ECB on Huff Post

Intelligence is a liberal word to Sununu.
~ comment by bullwinkle88 on Huff Post

John Sununu is a festering boil on the American political process.
~ comment by Bruce L. on ThinkProgress

You just knew somebody would go there. As evil as this comment is (and make no mistake, it is evil), I think we all need to also reflect on how fundamentally stupid it is, as well.
~ xcomment by Mark M. on ThinkProgress

Before saying Powell endorsed Obama cause he's black. Sununu was on Hannity accusing Obama of racially dividing USA: mediaite.com/tv/john-sununu…
— Teresa(@TeresaKopec) October 26, 2012

John Sununu looks like a pile of vacuum cleaner debris.
— Damien Fahey (@DamienFahey) October 26, 2012

John Sununu is of Palestinian descent. This proves that a Palestinian can make it in American politics if he somehow becomes a white racist.
— JP the Janitor (@JPHaddadio) October 26, 2012

I noticed today that #Obama picked up the #endorsement of Colin Powell, while #Romney was endorsed by Meat Loaf.
— Andrew McHenry (@pastorandrew_ks) October 26, 2012

With race this close & only 11 days to go, it's all about not making unforced errors. For Romney side, this meansbanning Sununu from TV

— Ana Navarro (@ananavarro) October 26, 2012

A racist, an anti-Semite, and a good friend of Mitt Romney, walk into a bar. The bartender looks up and says, aren't you John Sununu?

— Picasso Kat (@Picassokat) October 26, 2012

Romney surrogate John Sununu: "If you support Mitt just because he's white, you're a racist"

— The Daily Edge (@TheDailyEdge) October 26, 2012

Sununu just bailed on a scheduled @nprweekend interview. The Romney campaign offered the CEO of Hardee's in his place.

— Ari Shapiro (@Ari_Shapiro) October 26, 2012

Ann Romney "Obviously" Worried About Mitt's Mental Health

You know, I think my biggest concern, obviously, would just be for his mental well-being.

~ Ann Romney to CBS News in Reno, Nevada

7:08 into the video:
KTVN Channel 2 - Reno Tahoe News Weather, Video -

I've been concerned about Romney's mental health for quite awhile now. He clearly has problems relating to others, and if his children's testimony about his eccentric parsimoniousness is to be believed, he has, at the very least, a bad case of OCD.
~ comment by krusher on AmericaBlog

Is she really saying he is on the verge of a nervous breakdown - or worse?
~ comment by AttyFam on CBS News

I think Ann does not want Mitt to be elected. How else to explain her various comments?
~ comment by sandiegopete on CBS News

Mitt's "mental well being"?? Good Gawd Ann, why don't you just come and say you don't want him to win. It's just "too hard".
~ comment by LindaG20 on CBS News

She just cost him another half point in the polls with that comment.
~ comment by Mr. Reasonable on Yahoo News

So, she is working hard(ha ha) to help her husbond get a job that she thinks may make him more mentally unstable than he already is. Hmmm
~ comment by John on Yahoo News

Exactly. And that is why I am not voting for him---he's nuts!
~ comment by AYahooUser on Yahoo News

Ann nailed it. That's my biggest concern also.
~ comment by WarrenERock on Yahoo News

Is she saying he's crazy?
~ comment by Piriopolis on Yahoo News

His mental well being, He debates himself constantly. He changes his mind like the wind.
~ comment by MasterBlaster on Yahoo News

Place sound-effect of "Pac-man's" losing "end-of-game"..........THERE.↑
~ comment by UseReasoning on Yahoo News

Queen Ann's not doing too well herself. "Stop it! You p-p-p-people!"
~ comment by Bob on Yahoo News

LOL!
I think most of the country, and much of the world share her fears.
ROFLMAO!
~ comment by Anatolian on Yahoo News

Take a good look ladies & gentlemen because this will be the last time you will ever see Ann Romney talk to anyone with a microphone
~ comment by citizenx on Daily Kos

WOW Stepford Ann
The stoopid it burns!
~ comment by BlueFranco on Daily Kos

She's trying too hard to be candid and folksy.
~ comment by weatherdude on Daily Kos

Candid Camera is doing them both in. I swear to the Goddesses, The Romneys are stealing the thunder of The Onion.
~ comment by KayCeSF on Daily Kos

OK, the two of them are just punking us now. This is just an elaborate performance art piece, on a scale Andy Kaufman could never imagine.
~ comment by kenlac on Daily Kos

Ann of Unstables
~ comment by YuccaPete on Daily Kos

If Ann Romney is worried about Mitt's "mental well-being" as president, what the hell are we all doing here? #p2

— Steve Weinstein (@steveweinstein) September 29, 2012

If Ann Romney is concerned about her husband's mental well-being if elected I suggest she vote for @barackobama, who has cool head.

— Karoli (@Karoli) September 28, 2012

Ann Romney, Mitt's "secret weapon": "You people"... "Stop it! This is hard!"... "mental well-being"... hmm, a weapon of Mitt destruction?

— The Obama Diary (@TheObamaDiary) September 29, 2012

Ann Romney knows why the caged bird sings. She wants out.

— emokidsloveme (@emokidsloveme) September 28, 2012

Romney Camp Chaos as Insiders Diss Stuart Stevens

I'm willing to bet that Boston is right now a cesspool of finger pointing, ass covering, backstabbing, and infighting. The responsibility for which, inevitably, must land in the hands of the nominee himself. If he can't effectively run his own campaign for president, he certainly isn't qualified to be the president.
~ Brooklynbadboy on Daily Kos

Like all campaigns, we have good days and bad days. I’m happy to take responsibility for the bad days. This is a tremendously talented team.
~ Stuart Stevens, Mitt Romney’s top strategist and focus of Politico article about campaign confusion

As mishaps have piled up, Stevens has taken the brunt of the blame for an unwieldy campaign structure that, as the joke goes among frustrated Republicans, badly needs a consultant from Bain & Co. to straighten it out.
. . . A mad-professor aura, combined with post-midnight calls to sleeping senior staffers, have led some colleagues to express increasing concern about what the campaign is doing to Stevens — and what Stevens is doing to the campaign.
~ Politico.com in their expose called "Inside the Campaign: How Mitt Romney Stumbled"

POLITICO:

Stevens, bypassing the speechwriting staff at the campaign’s Boston headquarters, assigned the sensitive task of drafting it to Peter Wehner, a veteran of the last three Republican White Houses and one of the party’s smarter wordsmiths.

Not a word Wehner wrote was ever spoken.

Stevens junked the entire thing, setting off a chaotic, eight-day scramble that would produce an hour of prime-time problems for Romney, including Clint Eastwood’s meandering monologue to an empty chair.

Mitt is a sticker — he stays with you. He had a reputation at Bain for sticking with people. They made a bad investment, he hung with them. … None of this is going to be fixed. This is the organization, and this is who Mitt is betting on to win. There aren’t going to be further changes.
~ An unnamed "Romney Official" who spoke to Politico

Several . . . Republican operatives, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid angering Romney, said that Stevens is a brilliant ad man but he is light on policy and may not have the background to be a campaign’s chief decision-maker, the role he plays for Romney.
~ From National Journal: "A Wild Manager for a Disciplined Campaign"

Please. Stuart Stevens can't make or break the Romney campaign any more than he can control the weather or shoot lightning from his fingertips.
The GOP can't figure out how to bridge their angry, white, and totally-nutso base with America's undecided voters. McCain's strategy was Palin, obviously a failure, and Romney's is Ryan. Ryan isn't a babbling idiot, but his ideology scares people, and it's shifted FL OH and CO to the President.
Lindsey Graham got it right: the GOP doesn't have enough angry white guys to win.
~ comment by GraduatedAmbition on New York Magazine

In the la-la land where adviser Stuart Stevens presides, Mr. Romney wins by never saying a single thing, ever, that might rock a single boat, ever. Just keep the focus on Mr. Obama. After all, no president has ever won with an economy like this.
One problem: Mr. Obama is winning. . . .
~ Kimberley Strassel on Wall Street Journal

If the Romney campaign was a diaper, it would need to be changed right about now.
~ comment by Bill T. on Raw Story

A damning look inside a faltering campaign, full of insider quotes (never a good sign). Rough start to Romney's week. dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm…

— Sam Seaborn (@SamSeaborn) September 17, 2012

The number of quotes in this story is bad, bad news for the Romney campaign: dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm…

— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) September 17, 2012

Do #Romney staffers think anonymous snarks at Stuart Stevens will right their foundering campaign? Not likely. bit.ly/PIh61z

— Joe Conason (@JConason) September 17, 2012

A Romney adviser tells me Stuart Stevens is safe. buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/r…

— McKay Coppins (@mckaycoppins) September 17, 2012

If Romney's self-described greatest skill is management, Politico's picture of his chaotic, back-stabbing, disorganized campaign is fatal.

— roadkillrefugee (@rkref) September 17, 2012

Stuart Stevens, you might want to invest in a food taster. politico.com/news/stories/0… #palaceintrigue #RomneyShambles

— roadkillrefugee (@rkref) September 17, 2012

Its probably the first time in history a campaign has been pronounced dead before the first debate. RIP Romney/Ryan ticket

— techweenie (@techweenie) September 17, 2012

Romney's campaign is flush with cash, mismanaged and doomed. Perfect takeover target for Bain Capital.

— Jason Stanford (@JasStanford) September 17, 2012

If the Romney campaign were the Salt Lake Olympics, they'd be calling Romney in to run it about now.

— pourmecoffee (@pourmecoffee) September 17, 2012

Romney Memo About Poll Panic

From Business Insider:

In a new campaign memo circulated this morning, Romney's pollster Neil Newhouse warns people not to get "too worked up about the latest polling."

"While some voters will feel a bit of a sugar-high from the conventions, the basic structure of the race has not changed significantly," Newhouse writes. "The reality of the Obama economy will reassert itself as the ultimate downfall of the Obama Presidency, and Mitt Romney will win this race."

You can read the whole memo below, but the gist of Newhouse's argument is that, regardless of what the polls say right now, the President will never be able to escape the terrible economy.

. . . The bottom line is that people don't send "don't freak out" memos unless people are in fact freaking out.

Full Memo Here on Buzzfeed

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Blah blah blah blah blah. Bottom line? Winning candidates don't write memos like this one.
~ Kos on Daily Kos

I love the smell of desperation in the morning.
~ comment by christomento on Daily Kos

Cornered Rats can be dangerous. Overkill is necessary.
~ comment by polecat on Daily Kos

They are panicking. They're now realizing that picking lyin' Ryan was a bad choice with his plans to voucherize Medicare for people under 55, privatize SS, and his archaic ideas about SSM and abortion in the case of rape or incest. Voters are also seeing how the two would only lower taxes on the very wealthy, and how that doesn't create jobs, and now they're desperately implying about Obama wanting to take "God" off of our coins. I'm stocking up on popcorn, because the debates are going to be fun!
~ comment by Jim T. on BuzzFeed

There's nothing I love more than a slow-motion train wreck.
Who brought the popcorn?
~ comment by Dr. Zoidberg on Wonkette

Shorter version: "We've got Obama right where we want him: up by 5 in Ohio."
~ comment by Wadisay on Wonkette

At least Obamas voters have a high! Romney is a downer!
~ comment by t_player on Politico

Somehow, Romney supporters think he'll pull magic out of his butt during the debates.
Good Luck with that!
~ comment by V on Yahoo News

You seen the polls? Even the FOX poll has this "community organizer" up by 6 points.....NOV is a LOCK. Bi-a-tches!!
~ comment by Tea Bagger N Charge on Yahoo News

The five phases of mourning:
1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance
The Romney campaign is going through the first phase. Hoping they would be able to get through phase 5 after November 6, 2012.
~ comment by lookolook on Politcal Wire

What do they call Romney's post-convention nothing, a plain rice cake low?
~ comment by HeraSentMe on Politcal Wire

Mitt, the President got a bounce from YOUR convention. That's not a sugar high. That's just people realizing they hate your guts.
~ comment by Pain on Political Wire

A sugar high - that's something that's full of empty calories without any substance behind it, right? Kind of an insult to say people persuaded by the DNC convention -- people you want to convince to change their minds -- are basing their votes on empty platitudes. You can see the contempt and arrogance in all the Republican leaders' statements. They think they can insult the voter and yet get the vote. Since we're so stupid and easily amused, of course.
~ comment by ccrrff on Political Wire


~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Romney camp: 'Don't get too worked up about the latest polling' nbcnews.to/Qxwj7b

— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) September 10, 2012

Romney campaign releases memo from its pollster telling supporters not to panic. Translated: Romney campaign is panicking.
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) September 10, 2012

Alternate Romney pollster memo title: ANYONE HIRING?
— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) September 10, 2012

A quick look at the very preliminary numbers that may have the Romney camp seriously freaked talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2012/… via @tpm

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) September 8, 2012

"We're not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers," - Romney pollster Neil Newhouse.

— Gregarious Ki (@BigO_LDW) September 11, 2012