Thursday, October 04, 2012

The Distance of "Or"




"OK, so Obama did a terrible job in the debate, and Romney did well. But in the end, this isn’t or shouldn’t be about theater criticism, it should be about substance. And the fact is that everything Obama said was basically true, while much of what Romney said was either outright false or so misleading as to be the moral equivalent of a lie."

-- Paul Krugman, October 4, 2012
The distance between "isn’t" and "shouldn’t" cannot be calibrated in pounds or inches.

As the last 40 years of American political life clearly shows, the distance between ""isn’t" and "shouldn’t" demands to be calculated in failed wars, lost cities, ruined reputations, bankrupted treasuries, purloined futures, squandered lives and the size and strength of the lobotomized army of imbeciles that is giddily marching us into the abyss.

And, as the last the last 40 years of American political life clearly shows, the well-paid curators  of the velvet "Both SIdes" curtain behind which the media continues to camouflage the difference between "isn’t" and "shouldn’t" will never stop lying to us until they are forced to stop lying to us.

7 comments:

Bisham said...

While the professor obviously (and nearly always) nails it, the 'should' and the 'is' will only come to terms through non-stop repetition by us. Has anyone noticed that the trolls have been a little less prevalent on any of the intelligent liberal comment threads, that when they try they get thoroughly trounced? Or is it just me and my optimism?

The lying psychodid that was Mitt the debator apparently 'won' the first news cycle because he was confident and looked in the right directions and Ollie North'd the cameras or something. But the (relevant? irrelevant?) fact checkers are having a great time of it by this afternoon.

It remains to be seen if Obama channels his inner Ambrysus in coming debates, or if the campaign team will just have the O chill- Mitt will relax and spew his crap. And they can just scoop it up and smear it on his shirt.

Kathy said...

My idea is that the audience Obama was "playing to" wasn't Mr. Or Mrs Average American (47%), but all those Wall St Brokers and Bankers, and the Oil companies and Billionaires whose pockets Romney is already sitting in. There's room for all of 'em in them thar pockets!

marindenver said...

What's that about giving someone lots of rope and inviting them to hang themselves?

Because Obama just allowed Mittster to lie and lie and lie and lie. And now he's out pounding Willard on it. And doubtless won't stop until the election.

Anonymous said...

Vote for the Justice Party! Vote for Rocky Anderson!

http://truth-out.org/news/item/10766-a-road-less-traveled-presidential-candidate-rocky-anderson-speaks-candidly-on-the-crumbling-state-of-the-union

Unknown said...

Again, I have to point to the American electorate and "keepin' it reeeeaaal". The last thing your average American (and especially the "Murr'kin" Americans) wants to hear is the truth. Anything "real". They don't want to talk about real things, painful things, important things. Try engaging a fellow citizen in a talk about the Great Society, or war atrocities, or hunger, and watch their face fall! But bring up the weather, or sports, or fucking Honey-Boo-Boo-Chile, you gotcher-self a conversay-shun! Surface is substance in the USA 2012, and people want that surface shiny clean! Dumbasses. I think fairly often about the party scene early on in King's 'Tommyknockers', where Gard holds forth on the horrors of nuclear proliferation and most of the party-goers get mad at HIM, just for pointing out the horrors, for making people actually LOOK at them. Presidential candidates can't be negative, because that gets the truth-stank on them. And therein lies another unfairly-wielded weapon of the fucking Right.

DAY said...

I have no idea who "Rocky Anderson" is, but the idea of "change" must start at the local level. Like Township Supervisor.

Running as any Third Party Candidate is futile, and a waste of starry eyed optimistic money.

Study the career of Senator Bernie Sanders.

Esteev said...

I keep hearing that Obama "wasn't prepared" for the debate, or that Romney "crushed" him.

Bullshit.

Regardless of the fact that it must be difficult to prepare for a debate with a liar while in charge of an economically-depressed country during a time of turbulent geopolitics, Obama did just fine. Romney repeated bullshit lie after bullshit lie and Obama got fed up having to refute them. As the saying goes, if you're explaining, you're losing and Obama steered clear of that.

Romney looked as if he were about to cry at any moment. As he gave his closing statement, he was blinking more than a stoned kid trying to explain to a cop why he's going down a one way street.

Furthermore, Romney's closing remark was so well rehearsed and so poorly acted, it was painful to watch it reminded me of an outtake in Liar Liar when Swoosie Kurtz calls Jim Carey an overactor.

If anyone needed furtherproof that the media is complicit in the degradation of our republic, all you have to look at is the way have made this a "race" again. Fuck 'em.