Visual source: Newseum
Jonathan Capehart:
The passion and conviction with which he spoke were riveting. You could tell that he spoke from the heart. While you might disagree with what he had to say or his vision of America, there was no denying that this true conservative said what he meant and meant what he said. With Rick Santorum, you never had to wonder if he believed what he said. You never had to wonder why he was running for president. And it’s that lack of Santorum’s authenticity that’s making Romney a hard sell for just about anyone.
Dan Balz:
Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom created an uproar recently when he said the start of the general-election campaign would be an Etch a Sketch moment, interpreted as meaning that Romney would try to wipe clean the slate from the primary campaign and present himself as a moderate.
Romney quickly vowed that he would run against Obama as a conservative. On Tuesday, a Romney adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid, put it this way: “Voters will now look at Mitt differently and through a different prism. We can use this new beginning as an opportunity to reintroduce the campaign and the candidate.
MSNBC:
And this morning, Joe Scarborough and Time's Mark Halperin had a quick exchange about Romney's odds at winning the general election later this year.
Scarborough said no one is expecting Romney to pull out a win.
Joe Scarborough: Nobody thinks Romney is going to win. Can we just say this for everybody at home? I have yet to meet a person in the Republican establishment that thinks Mitt Romney is going to win the general election this year. They won’t say it on TV because they’ve got to go on TV, and they don’t want people writing them nasty emails. I obviously don’t care. I have yet to meet anybody in the Republican establishment that worked for George W. Bush, that works in the Republican Congress, that worked for Ronald Reagan that thinks Mitt Romney is going to win the general election.
Mark Halperin: I don’t totally agree with that, but even if you think Mitt Romney is going to lose. Still, in 2016 there are so many strong candidates out there.
Scarborough: Who?
Halperin: Mitch Daniels, Bobby Jindal, Chris Christie, Paul Ryan, Jeb Bush.
To think this (that Romney loses) is not to be cocky, complacent or otherwise assuming it just happens. It will take a tremendous amount of work from all of us and not just Chicago or the WH. But on this one rare occasion, Scarborough's right.
Maureen Dowd:
The meme, which exploded on Tumblr, Facebook and Twitter, was dreamed up last Wednesday by Hillary fans Adam Smith and Stacy Lambe, communications specialists here in Washington, at the gay sports bar Nellie’s.
It features invented tongue-in-cheek texts between the don’t-mess-with-me Hillary in dark shades and other famous people pictured on their gadgets.
When Mitt Romney texts “Any advice?” to Hillary, she replies: “Drink.” She rejects a “friend” request from Mark Zuckerberg, cuts off Joe Biden when he tries to tell a bar joke, instructs a cooing Ryan Gosling to call her “Madam Secretary,” blows off Jon Stewart by saying she’s already booked on Colbert, and wields a put-down from “The Devil Wears Prada” on Anna Wintour.
When the president asks, “Hey Hil, Whatchu doing?” she ripostes: “Running the world.” And when a young woman texts, “It’s 3 am and I think something’s happening,” Hillary snaps: “On it.”
Someone tell Morning Joe our bench is stronger than their bench.
Please don't miss the brilliant series from Atrios on Wanker of the Decade. In order from the bottom starting with runner-up #9, we so far have Megan McArdle, aka Jane Galt, Richard Cohen, Diane Sawyer, Jonah Goldberg (my favorite so far), and Will Saletan at #5. These are based on their actual writing, multiple examples. More to come, and I can't wait.
Ross Douthat engages in conservatives' favorite game: lying. You have to lie (especially to yourself) to ignore what Obama has both done and proposed doing.
It’s the liberalism that cries “Social Darwinism!” when conservatives suggest any alteration to the existing welfare state, that paints even modest reductions in government spending (or, indeed, reductions in the rate of increase in government spending) as the first step toward a Dickensian dystopia of “prisons and workhouses,” and that portrays the Democratic Party as the only thing standing between Americans and a Hobbesian war of all against all.
For this big a lie, you have to simultaneously accept that Obama is a liberal (he isn't) and that both Obama's Grand Bargain and his health reform act (which cuts the rate of health care growth significantly) don't exist. But lying is what conservatives do when they know they are losing the argument. Here's hoping Douthat and his mentor, David Brooks, both make Atrios' list.