I’ve got a former work colleague of the wingnut variety, who despite our differences, we became friends and enjoyed each other’s company, in an "I'm the smartest guy in the room", "no I am" sort of way. By all outwards appearances and the professional results he’s achieved, he’s a pretty competent operations manager. Interpersonally at work, he says enough of the right things to get along with most. His world view is solidly on the right of the Republican party, and of course he’s got all the Focks news talking points down.
A few months back, I started to taunt him about the obviously near-inevitable reelection of BHO, just to see what I’d tease out of him. Infused with the DKOS Collective intelligence (since I visit many times a day, have been happily assimilated and now possess much of the Collective’s knowledge), I peppered him with reality-based emails about the election. Below are some strings that I kept for fun… He’s italicized, (and now marginalized!!!)
I figure that my fellow kossacks have better emails in your email “deleted” files, so, ala "Hate Mail-a-palooza", please reply and add yours! Some of mine are below the orange-infinity-sign-gone-wild (and Rococo) !!!
8/9/12 Subject line: The other side
ME: Hi - I hope your recent job change is going well for you now. Hope and change! That’s you! I watched an hour of Fox News yesterday, so you can spend five minutes looking at things from my side (link below). This is cogent factual analysis of the election landscape. Titled: “We’re Winning” authored by the evil “Kos”. http://www.dailykos.com/...
HIM: This reads like a blatant attempt to try to get Dems enthusiastic since the enthusiasm is way lower than Reps. Look we're winning, it's great, but give us money. If it was in the bag why is he asking for cash? "Running up the score?" Not likely. The bigger issue is that O isn't getting over 47. Everyone knows him and he can't get over 50. Undecideds always break for the challenger and Romney is pretty unknown to the non-political junkies out there. All of the polls I have seen are asking registered voters and not likely voters also. With the Rep enthusiasm gap (anti-O more than pro-Romney albeit) the actual vote is more likely to break R than D. I don't really have time to check all of the polls that Kos is using but the NYT just published Romney +5 in CO so it seems a little suspect to me.
I'm sure if the election was today O would win but there's a long way to go. O's little "you didn't build that" comment hurts him pretty badly and Romney hasn't even really been able to spend his money yet. The debates will matter like they generally do and if Romney does well (could happen) he has a shot.
9/14 Subject line: Quotable
ME: Heard recently: if this were truly a center-right nation, you'd have voter registration at Wal-Mart checkout lanes.
HIM: As long as you need a photo ID like when you buy your cigs I'm cool with it.
9/28/2012 Subject line: Post mortem five weeks early
ME:
I was wrong on my call of an uprising at the RNC, but I was right about Mitt being a disaster. I’ve mentioned a few times that I read National Review and watch Fox, you never reciprocate and mention you watch Maddow or Mathews. So let me help…. If you want to see why things went wrong for the Rs in what should have been a winnable election, these two short articles by the evil servant of Lord Soros, Markos Moulitsas. And I don’t believe they’ve ever met. Read them both…
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Money quote: It's quite obvious why Republicans can't get any traction against a president who should've been, by all measures, vulnerable this year. If you're an undecided voter, you've got two messages hitting you. The first is all about Romney's immense wealth and inability to connect or even understand people like you. The other is a "throw shit against the wall to see what'll stick" mishmash of crazy. Is it any wonder that our side is winning? But here's the thing—our narrative against Romney has the benefit of being true, and Romney has a proclivity of reinforcing it on a daily basis, literally.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Money quote: He was unable to talk about his religion, or his tenure as Massachusetts governor, or his business record, and with no compelling life story to generate sympathy or respect. He was boxed in from the start, between Democrats who are finally learning how to fight Republicans, and Republicans who refuse to embrace who Romney really is (a Mormon who passed universal health care as governor of Massachusetts).
My prediction: Electoral College, 345-193
HIM:
You can't compare NR to Maddow and Matthews. That's ridiculous. If you started listening to Rush or Savage I would be impressed. When an intelligent liberal pundit starts a column I'll read it.
Romney is extremely weak, I've been complaining about it for over a year. No idea why the Republican heavy hitters didn't show. He's just better than O. If he wins O would win the distinction of being the president with the lowest approval rating at this point in his presidency to win reelection. Wow, what an achievement!! And we'll get four more years of too much regulation, Corp. America keeping money in the bank instead of investing it because they are scared of the direction of the country, and creeping ever closer to becoming Europe. I don't understand why you're excited. Easy win for Republicans in 2016 though.
ME: Rhodes scholar vs. Pundits. No contest.
Mitt nominated by repubs, mitt=dick, repubs=dicks by transitive theory.
HIM: Typical. When you don't have facts just resort to name calling. I really could care less how nice of a guy the president is, competence is what I'm looking for. In all of these conversations you have never said anything positive about O, because there is nothing positive there. I thought we could have intelligent conversations but apparently you, like a lot of you brethren, can't. Too bad.
Nothing since the election…. I’ll ping him in a few weeks.