Seen on the street in Kyiv.

Words of Advice:

"If Something Seems To Be Too Good To Be True, It's Best To Shoot It, Just In Case." -- Fiona Glenanne

“The Mob takes the Fifth. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?” -- The TOFF *

"Foreign Relations Boil Down to Two Things: Talking With People or Killing Them." -- Unknown

“Speed is a poor substitute for accuracy.” -- Real, no-shit, fortune from a fortune cookie

"If you believe that you are talking to G-d, you can justify anything.” — my Dad

"Colt .45s; putting bad guys in the ground since 1873." -- Unknown

"Stay Strapped or Get Clapped." -- probably not Mr. Rogers

"The Dildo of Karma rarely comes lubed." -- Unknown

"Eck!" -- George the Cat

* "TOFF" = Treasonous Orange Fat Fuck, A/K/A Dolt-45,
A/K/A Commandante (or Cadet) Bone Spurs,
A/K/A El Caudillo de Mar-a-Lago, A/K/A the Asset., A/K/A P01135809

Saturday, November 10, 2012

A Riddle for Karl Rove

Q: What do you call the candidate who gets 270 electoral votes?

A: The winner.

Rove, you may recall, formed a superPAC and collected well north of $300 million to help the Republicans retake the White House.*

President Obama won 332 electoral votes to Romney's 206. A 126 vote margin is not exactly chump-change results. Obama won the popular vote both times as well, something that Rove's candidate didn't do in 2000. Obama won more electoral votes than George W. Bush did in either of his elections. Going into the election, the only state that Romney won that was not seen as being firmly in his camp was North Carolina. But nobody was really regarding North Carolina as one of the swing states this time. Obama won all of the swing states that were in play, to the point that he could have lost Ohio and Florida and still won.

I won't get into how everyone on the GOP side drank the Kool-aid and ignored what the polling data was telling them. It is what one would expect from a party that prizes gut feelings and belief over hard numbers.

Rove's excuse for blowing close to $400 million boils down to this: It could have been worse.

How much worse? Obama shelled Romney. The Democrats, in spite of Rove's superPAC, lost one Senate seat they held and picked up two that they didn't. GOP superPAC spending so irritated the independent who won in Maine that he'll probably caucus with the majority.

In what reality does one take almost $400 million from people, deliver absolutely nothing in return, and not end up dead in the trunk of an old Crown Victoria on its way to the crusher?

____________________________________
* Presumably he paid himself a really good salary for his efforts.

7 comments:

LRod said...

"In what reality does one take almost $400 million from people, deliver absolutely nothing in return, and not end up dead in the trunk of an old Crown Victoria on its way to the crusher?"

I was thinking more like under the foundation of a sports stadium, but crusher works. And I was actually thinking that…

LRod
ZJX, ORD, ZAU retired

Cujo359 said...

This seems to be an area where people don't look for short-term profit. I'm guessing that a lot of them will find a new political genius to shower with money in hopes of getting the result they want, but they'll spend it again.

They have far more of it than they need already.

A related question is how Citizens United is actually affecting politics. So far, it mostly seems to be turning people like me off. I can't recall a statewide race like we had here in race for governor where there was no discussion in TV ads of what the candidates wanted to do in office. It was all about how badly the other guy sucked. Anyone with a modest ability to think for himself would learn to tune that stuff out pretty quickly, I'd think.

montag said...

Regarding your final question, everybody knows where Karl is, he can't hide. Some professional somewhere is just waiting a decent interval until the spotlight moves on.

Vannevar said...

I think you're looking at this through them dayum secular paspectives agin. Karl ain't a consultant, he's a minister of sorts. Hasn't been to divinity school, but he's preaching the truth, the true believers are holding fast, he's going to bring our Nation back to the True Path.

He's just smarter than some of those other glad-handers. He ain't going to prison. No tax evasion. He's selling a slightly up-brand gospel. Oh, oh ye of little faith indeed, to let a supposed election of infidels and non-believers sway your faith.

(j/k)

John Milton said...

"In what reality does one take almost $400 million from people, deliver absolutely nothing in return, and not end up dead in the trunk of an old Crown Victoria on its way to the crusher?"

Solyndra?

Sorry, couldn't help it!

Chuck Pergiel said...

Advertising is just like blogging, except with a bigger megaphone. It doesn't matter if anyone listen's, it's enough to simple speak your mind.
Vannevar's take is pretty good too.

BadTux said...

John, Solyndra actually delivered close to a billion dollars of solar panels. Of course, they also lost half a billion dollars while doing so, because the Chinese were selling them for half the price that it cost Solyndra to make them so Solyndra sold a billion dollars of solar panels for half a billion dollars (losing their pants and going bankrupt in the process), but Solyndra actually had product.

As far as I can tell, the only product that Karl Rove delivered for his $400M was hot air. Well, I can generate hot air for a lot less than $400M. Indeed, I have a hair dryer in my bathroom that cost me $9 that will generate hot air just as easily as Karl Rove did. Yeesh!