http://anomaly.realgravity.com/flash/player.swf
This is it.
Because here’s Obama’s speech from the Rose Garden:
And here’s why this, and not the end of the debate in which Obama picked up a keggerator and slammed it down on every single bit of Romney’s bullshit, is the reason Obama is the president, and Romney is a fucking assclown who is unfit to serve in any national office.
You don’t DO THIS. Look. I don’t care if your general policy is to nuke anything that bugs you. When something like this happens you take five seconds to think before you shoot off your fucking mouth. Obama stood there on stage and said I take responsibility, it’s my job to do so, and I did that here, by bringing the coffins home, and protecting those left behind and honoring their memory. And Romney made a cheap-ass argument about what Obamasaid.
And he was wrong.
And the fact that he opened his mouth about it at all, that he would go there at all (you could have made so many other arguments, about military deployments and diplomatic procedures), shows such a staggering lack of grown-up goddamn judgment that you could actually hear the room draw back a little, like, really? Did you really just do that? Are you really that callous, that oblivious, that small?
He was. It’s what he is. And those of us who hadn’t seen it before can see it now.
The post-debate spin has mostly been about Obama’s final answer in the debate, about 47 versus 100 percent of Americans, but I think the debate was about a much smaller number. I think it was about a few people overseas who suffered and died for their country, and about somebody who gets that, and somebody who doesn’t.
A.
Actually, I think the earlier comment when Mitt lost it was when he was happily talking about all the “wind jobs” he got in Iowa.
So, that’s what the kids are calling it these days?
Excellent post (found via LGM). And at the very least, the interchange about Libya may be the moment when Romney lost Virginia… (hoping that there will be coattails for Kaine over Allen)
So many chickenhawks are quick to level charges at Dems, progressives, etc of “emboldening the enemy”, yet Romney and Ryan are mighty quick to show their careless and yes, callous indifference to the safety of our folks overseas. Why do you think the Obama admin waited a bit to finger exact sources of this act of terror? Maybe bc they realize that the risk to our embassy personnel isn’t done just because one attack is over?
Argh. But yes I think that ridiculous Romney response probably cost him the support of a lot of family, friends, & neighbors of diplomats and soldiers…
And let’s not forget that Jan Stevens, Chris Stevens’ father, asked that his son’s death not be politicized, and Mitt disregarded a grieving father’s request. Callous and despicable!
And to bring home just how much of an unforced error this was, he brought this up when the moderator was attempting to move on to the next question. Had he left well enough alone, it would have been a political win for him: he would have extracted an admission from Obama that he bore responsibility for the deaths of 4 Americans.
Oh, what a colossal blunder. Mitt, you stupid, stupid man.
I just had the pleasure of confirming that the President did indeed label the attack an “act of terror”… by reading the transcript of his RG speech at Fox News! I couldn’t help noticing however, how they are spinning Romney’s blunder, using this link headline:
Romney Reminds Obama: ‘You Said Libya Attack Was an Act of Terror in the Rose Garden’
Reminds! Haw haw!
“And the fact that he opened his mouth about it at all, that he would go there at all (you could have made so many other arguments, about military deployments and diplomatic procedures), shows such a staggering lack of grown-up goddamn judgment that you could actually hear the room draw back a little, like, really? Did you really just do that? Are you really that callous, that oblivious, that small? ”
Yes, he did, and yes, he is. And the people that put on “purple heart” bandaids in 2004 will gladly vote for him.
You know, assholes.
Unfortunately, at least 60% of Americans are assholes.
This is what happens when you use secondary sources for your facts (Fox News, Newsmax) instead of going back to primary sources (the tape, the transcript). This is what happens when you believe your own spin instead of the facts.
Obama showed more signs of life, which was good but he missed so many opportunities that it was disheartening. His fetish for bipartisanship is getting in the way of hanging the economy and the foolishness of fast & furious right on the necks of the GOP, where it belongs; instead he let Romney stick him with all of that baggage that ISN’T HIS. How can a preznit who won’t stand up for himself stand up for us.
Great article – I picked up on most of that whilst watching; I was madly tweeting to friends about Romney’s #bindersfullofwomen before briefly wondering what Bill Clinton’s binder would look like..
I think that really it was a make-or-break moment for Obama; he had to prove that he had the fight left in him to go toe-to-toe with Romney on the issues. In style and substance, Obama put Romney firmly in his place and has probably succeeded in re-energising both his base and independent voters to turn out in November to return him to the White House.
Check out my thoughts on the debate athttp://goo.gl/ypqNe
I totally agree with your point as being a central point, A (along with previous first draft on how the father of the slain resents his family being used – yet the Romney machine still went there).
There are so many other angles.
Romney plays so loose with the facts on so many occaisions – even in cases where it is so easy to check the facts (just had to find a transcript and/or video of the Rose Garden Speech. How ong does that take?) Romney sat on his assertion again and again. For that matter, it got so even the moderator called him on his BS (and had apparently gotten a transcript of that speech).
To chime in with Aaaargh’s first sentence, there is a poster on facebook with the caption along the lines of: If you’ve been spending the last 4 years talking about half-rican, marxist, socialist, not born in Americaa… don’t lecture me on respect. However, I have to wonder, as so many people get their info from secondary sources, I wonder if they will ever get that what Romney said was flat wrong; after all, it is exactly what I already know from Faux. remember the study on Faux viewers claiming that Hussein had WMDs.
Frankly, as a personal opinion, using 20/20 hindsight, Obama’s invoking “terror” in the Rose Garden speech seems premature, albeit consistent with modern advertising. All he could really say with certainty was that there was an attack, fatalaties have been reported, and for obvious reasons, the US cannot tolerate attacks on its diplomats. Beyond being inconsistent with international law, this undermines the attempts of rational people attempting to resolve their differences both in Libya and beyond. The incident will be investigated with intent to bring to responsible parties to full account for their actions.
Of course, my hindsight would have put Obama on the defensive in the debate – bad thing.