October 22, 2007

"Who will be able to strengthen that house? Because that's the house... gonna build the house... that Clinton, Hillary wants to build."

That's something Mitt Romney said at last night's debate. Bush-like, isn't it? ("The house" is whatever it is Ronald Reagan built.)

38 comments:

MadisonMan said...

Given the shambles that the Republican Party is in -- incumbents declining to run again (Hooray! If only more Democratic Incumbents would bail), National Committee Chairman resigning after less than a year, an unpopular Republican President -- I think the quote is pretty apt. But don't call it Bush-like. His name isn't mentioned in Campaigning Republican Circles.

All the Republicans can give me is I'm Not Hillary.

AllenS said...

Hillary wants to build a house, but there will be no dogs or cats allowed.

AllenS said...

One more--

After Hillary becomes POTUS, she'll build a dog house, and that's where Bill will have to sleep.

rhhardin said...

He's channeling This is the house that Jack built.''

Probably in this debate context it's closer to Coleridge's version.

Trooper York said...

There's a house on my block
That's abandoned and cold
Folks moved out of it a
Long time ago
And they took all their things
And they never came back
Looks like it's haunted
With the windows all cracked
And everyone call it
The house, the house where
Nobody lives

Once it held laughter
Once it held dreams
Did they throw it away
Did they know what it means
Did someone's heart break
Or did someone do somebody wrong?

Well the paint was all cracked
It was peeled off of the wood
Papers were stacked on the porch
Where I stood
And the weeds had grown up
Just as high as the door
There were birds in the chimney
And an old chest of drawers
Looks like no one will ever
Come back to the
House were nobody lives

Once it held laughter
Once it held dreams
Did they throw it away
Did they know what it means
Did someone's heart break
Or did someone do someone wrong?
So if you find someone
Someone to have, someone to hold
Don't trade it for silver
Don't trade it for gold
I have all of life's treasures
And they are fine and they are good
They remind me that houses
Are just made of wood
What makes a house grand
Ain't the roof or the doors
If there's love in a house
It's a palace for sure
Without love...
It ain't nothin but a house
A house where nobody lives
Without love it ain't nothin
But a house, a house where
Nobody lives.
(Tom Waits)

Fred said...

Yeah, I was surprised at how Mitt Romney was very harsh on Hillary. I mean, Fox News created a "bash Hillary" segment, but beyond that I felt he took it to the extreme. I think it is a defense mechanism of some sort. He's been under attack from McCain and other "real conservatives" for making the "I am the conservative of the conservative wing" statement and now he has to prove it.

Bruce Hayden said...

My suggestion on why Mitt in particular, but really most of the Republican candidates, are so harsh on Hillary! is that she is the presumptive Democratic nominee, and she is feared and/or hated by much of the Republican base. So, showing that he/they can take on Hillary! successfully is part of showing that he/they can win the general election.

Besides, he has some good points. One is that though she has more experience than Obama, the reality is that she has far less relevant experience than many of the Republican candidates. She has precisely zero executive experience running anything except for the handful of people in her Senate office. And she is asking that we trust her to run our government with millions of employees. In contrast, her husband had experience running the AK government as well as the AG AG office. While decidedly less complex than the U.S. govt., it at least was very credible executive experience.

The other thing that he brings up is the stench of corruption that continues to waft from Hillary! Latest of course is her fund raising of maximum contributions from indigent Chinese, many of whom apparently don't live or work where they were supposed to, and some who don't even remember making the contributions. And lest anyone forget, her husband had similar Chinese fund raising problems, while allowing the Chinese govt. to loot military and nuclear secrets from us.

I think that Romney's attack on Hillary is strategic, trying to be seen as best at attacking her, and thus the most likely to win. Unfortunately for him, Rudy is also attacking Hillary! right now, and is probably better at it.

Brent said...

I repeat, Good news for Republicans:

October 20, 2007
Zogby Poll: Half Say They Would Never Vote for Hillary Clinton for President

While she is winning wide support in nationwide samples among Democrats in the race for their party’s presidential nomination, half of likely voters nationwide said they would never vote for New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, a new Zogby Interactive poll shows.

The online survey of 9,718 likely voters nationwide showed that 50% said Clinton would never get their presidential vote. This is up from 46% who said they could never vote for Clinton in a Zogby International telephone survey conducted in early March.



You know there's 2 ways to not vote for somebody: cast a vote for someone else, or don't vote at all. I think Hillary's camp is hoping for another third party Perot-like, Dobson-backed candidate to split the vote and usher her in as a minority President just like Bill was.

Because no one with 40%+ negatives has ever won the Presidency.

Brent said...

Hillary wants $1,000,000 for a Woodstock Concert Museum.

Now that's the kind of leadership America wants!

Brent said...

John McCain on Hillary's Presidential Woodstock Leadership:

In case you missed it, a few days ago, Senator Clinton tried to spend one million dollards on the Woodstock Concert Museum. now, my friends, I wasn’t there, I’m sure it was a cultural and pharmaceutical event. I was tied up at the time, but the fact is –

Standing ovation from a crowd who - unlike Wannabe-Commander-in-Chief Hillary - respects military service.

Brent said...

Video Link to McCain's comment above.

Too many jims said...

I think Hillary's camp is hoping for another third party Perot-like, Dobson-backed candidate to split the vote and usher her in as a minority President just like Bill was.

Or G.W. Bush in 2000.

Because no one with 40%+ negatives has ever won the Presidency.

Might well be true but I would be surprised if Bush's negatives were not higher than 40% in 2004 (and wouldn't be surprised at all if Bill Clinton's were higher than that in 1996).

MadisonMan said...

B. -- You say that no-one with 40+% negatives ever won. That rules out McCain, Giuliani, Thompson and Romney, according to the Zogby Poll. Apparently the only workable candidates are Obama, Richardson and Huckabee.

Another possible conclusion is that the online zogby poll is a POS and you can't conclude anything from it.

Trooper York said...

Well Hillary just wants to build an hdhouse.

Brent said...

Madison Man-

My bad - I should have been clearer.

The 40% negatives are from a different poll on how a candidate is "perceived":"Do you have an overall positive or negative opinion of this person"? I did not mean to equate the 40% as to the "will never vote for".

In polls asking how do you view this candidate, Hillary consistently polls over 43% in the viewed negatively range. No other candidate is that close, including Giuliani - no matter how bad the New York Times wants him dead.

Those are the polls from which no one has ever won with negatives over 40%. It was Lee Atwater who told Republicans if an opponent's negatives are close to 40%, do what you can to push 'em over 40 and it's a guarantee they can't win. So, either Hillary's negatives change drastically or she is a footnote in textbooks on the Presidency.

MadisonMan said...

I did not mean to equate the 40% as to the "will never vote for".

Well, will never vote for seems to be a pretty big negative to me. Could someone say will never vote for and not have a negative opinion? Perhaps. Could someone have a negative opinion and not say will never vote for? I think that's more likely, meaning the negatives might be even larger than the will never vote fors.

There are many reasons to distrust online poll results.

Cyrus Pinkerton said...

No matter how hard he tries, Romney ain't gonna out-stupid Bush. Just not gonna happen...

Unknown said...

Mitt's nothing but a thoroughly spoiled, filthy rich moron.

b,
Why no post the numbers for her competitors?

Clinton (D) 50%

Brownback (R) 47%

McCain (R) 45%

Giuliani (R) 43%

Romney (R) 42%

Duh.

Unknown said...

I love how the wingnuts here constantly blather on about how unpopular Hillary is, yet Bush lugs around an approval rating between 30-33%...and they ALL support the little weasel as if he was Jesus Christ incarnate.

The Bush Suckfest continues...

Unknown said...

B said..."In case you missed it, a few days ago, Senator Clinton tried to spend one million dollards on the Woodstock Concert Museum."

First of all, I have no idea what a dollard is...but, hey...maybe we can use the "bridge to nowhere"...to get to the museum.

JackDRipper said...

Mitt's nothing but a thoroughly spoiled, filthy rich moron.

Not bad for a moron:

Wiki - He transferred to Brigham Young University, where he was valedictorian, earning his B.A. summa cum laude in 1971. In 1975, Romney graduated from a joint JD/MBA program coordinated between Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School. He graduated cum laude from the law school and was named a Baker Scholar for graduating in the top five percent of his business school class.[13]

Richard Dolan said...

MM says: "There are many reasons to distrust online poll results."

Clearly right. The difficult thing would be to advance even one reason why anyone would conclude that an on-line poll result provides any information about the larger population it purports to mirror. Surveys only provide a snapshot of that larger population if (among other conditions) they are constructed so that each member of the larger population has the same chance of being among the smaller group of surveyed respondents. Online polls are particularly bad at that for two reasons: first, the online population is very different from the larger populations that these polls purport to survey (e.g., likely voters, registered voters, all voting age people, etc.). Second, on-line polls have a major problem with self-selection. Almost by definition, it's impossible to know who is filling out the polls. These methodological problems make the survey results meaningless except as a shapshot of the attitudes of the few thousand, non-randomly selected folks who bothered to fill them out. You'd do just as well consulting a Ouija board.

Cedarford said...

Lucky's dumb remark gets even funnier when you realize a lot of people STOP on how smart and accomplished a person is with their last degree and ignore the other 40 or so years of their life & career.

AFTER graduating, Romney went to Boston Capital Group, considered the elite of consultant theory. After two years, in 1977, Romney was invited to join H. Bain, a former senior partner of BCG who founded Bain Management. By 1984, Romney had risen to #2 at Bain and then went to head Bain Capital, which was no not only turn businesses around, but invest in them. By 1994, Romneys turnarounds had made him worth several hundred million dollars. By 2000, his 3-5 most noted turnaround case studies were standard reading in most of the USA, UK, Japanese, and Chinese MBA programs. He later added his Salt Lake City Olympics effort to those cases studied at MBA schools and various Schools of Government, and UN agencies. His turnaround of Massachusetts government finances and the challenges of interacting with a strong political opposition is also added as a notable example for others to formally study. (Rudy's tenure as mayor of NYC is also the topic of much study).

Now - if Romney is a moron - what does that make Lucky?

DaLawGiver said...

LOS says,

I love how the wingnuts here constantly blather on...

But nobody blathers like you do LOS!

Nobody blathers better
Makes me feel sad for the west
Nobody bores me quite the way you do,
Dam it, you're a pest


Apologies to Carly Simon and The Spy Who Loved Me

Cyrus Pinkerton said...

Apologies to Carly Simon and The Spy Who Loved Me.

You owe me an apology too.

Cyrus Pinkerton said...

By 2000, his 3-5 most noted turnaround case studies were standard reading in most of the USA, UK, Japanese, and Chinese MBA programs.

Cedarford, are you making this shit up or did you crib the paragraph from a place you're ashamed to mention?

Unknown said...

Mr. Grumpy,
You can't believe 10% of what you get from the wingnuts here.

Most of them don't read books, newspapers or even news periodicals.

99% comes from Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Michael Savage, Bill O'Reilly or right wing blog sites (who don't even support the guy).

Why Cedarford would think Mitt is some kind of intellectual fountainhead is a mystery.

Unknown said...

lawgiver,
When will you be providing all of the good things Bush has done for America?

Chickenshit.

Unknown said...

JackDRipper said..."Not bad for a moron..."

Are you voting for him?

If so...GFL.

DaLawGiver said...

Grumpy,

I apologize. I wrote that before I medicated for the evening.t

DaLawGiver said...

LOS,

Blow me.

You never answered my question asshole.

Answer my question and then I'll answer yours. That's how it works.

Research a little before you post and you won't look so foolish but that doesn't really matter to you does it because;

You're not too bright are you?

What a hoot.

Unknown said...

lawgiver,
Sorry, dickehead, but you're the one who touts Bush's many successes.

Why not be a man and provide evidence of such?

You keep whining and posting silly responses, asking me to answer some kind of fucking question you asked a few days ago.

C'mon, chickenshit...stand up and defend George W. Bush...otherwise, suck my dick.

Unknown said...

lawgiver,
Why not profile?

Gutless?

DaLawGiver said...

Are you for real?

Find ONE post where I tout Bush's success. You can't because I haven't so fuck off numbnuts.

You didn't answer my question from a few days ago so it doesn't count?

God you are stupid.

Ann Althouse said...

Lawgiver: tone it down.

DaLawGiver said...

Not a problem Ann. I figured if Lucky could talk like that I could too.

Ann Althouse said...

Thanks. I don't know who started it, but in using exaggeration to make your point... it can be sort of funny, but I'm afraid it drives some people away, and that's what I don't want.

Trooper York said...

Wild Bill Hickok: Sure you wanna quit playing, Jack? The game's always between you and getting called a cunt.
Tom Nuttall: Meeting adjourned, fellas, take it outside.
Wild Bill Hickok: That dropped eye of yours looks like the hood on a cunt to me, Jack. When you talk, your mouth looks like a cunt moving.
Jack McCall: I ain't gonna get in no gun fight with you, Hickok.
Wild Bill Hickok: But you will run your cunt mouth at me. And I will take it, to play poker
(Deadwood 2004)