AdamSmith

Agree with your observations. Pity in many respects, but the way it is. While awaiting Part 2 of that story, found this previous piece on the same book: Dan Balz book: Christie a wanted man in 2012 By LOIS ROMANO | 7/2/13 1:55 PM EDT politico.com New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie thought far more seriously about jumping into the 2012 presidential race — and was under intense pressure to do so — than previously known, according to a new book about the campaign, “Collision 2012.” In colorful detail, Christie recalls for the author, Dan Balz, chief correspondent of The Washington Post, the full court press he received throughout the summer of 2011. It came at a a time when many in the establishment had already committed to Mitt Romney, clearly signaling a level of dissatisfaction with the field. “Craziness,” Christie recalled, “Unsolicited phone calls from all over the country. … I was in this job six, eight nine months and I just was shocked. … I remember thinking, ‘This is a just completely surreal and not what I expected,’ and little did I know … that it would get a lot crazier.” The book, which will be on sale Aug. 6 and is catnip for political junkies, also sheds new light on a complex “pay-to-play” regulatory rule that caused Romney to pass over the New Jersey governor as his running mate. Under the SEC regulation, candidates cannot accept campaign money from financial institutions doing business in their states. In effect, Romney would have had to forgo Wall Street money unless Christie resigned as governor, which Christie says he never considered. This raises questions about future potential fundraising issues for Christie, a top GOP prospect for president in 2016. But long before those VP discussions, Romney had a larger issue he may not have known about: Money men, operatives, and party leaders who should have been for him in 2011 were sufficiently unenthusiastic to court a one-term governor. According to Christie, among those who prevailed upon him or simply called him, were former President George W. Bush, former secretary of state Henry Kissinger, Nancy Reagan and David Koch, the businessman and activist who spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to defeat Barack Obama. Christie’s wife, Mary Pat, was stunned to pick up her phone at work one day to find Barbara Bush on the other end. The plucky former first lady only wanted to reassure Mary Pat that raising children in the White House was doable and a positive. Through it all, Christie held firm publicly that he was not interested, but tells Balz of one pivotal event that forced him to rethink his position. Home Depot founder Ken Langone — a wealthy GOP contributor and player — invited Christie to come meet with “a small group” of friends who would talk to the governor about what he should do for the country. Christie arrived with his wife and a top aide, all of whom were flabbergasted to find 60 heavy hitters in the room, not to mention those who were conferenced in by phone. Christie recalled: “All of a sudden you hear John Mack [ former CEO of Morgan Stanley] on the phone. [Langone] says ‘David Koch is out of the county. David, are you there?’” In the end, Kissinger was asked to speak for the group. He told Christie he had known many presidents. “Being a successful president is about two things, courage and character,” Kissinger is quoted as saying. “You have both and your country needs you.” Christie told the group he was unlikely to run but promised them he would seriously explore the possibility. And that he did. Over the course of many weeks, Christie consulted with Karl Rove, Ken Mehlman, who had run George W. Bush’s 2004 campaign, Rudy Giuliani and others. One day, Bush called him for a 45-minute chat. “He kind of asked me then what I was thinking, what were the impediments in my mind, what were the concerns,” Christie told Balz. “It was an amazing conversation.” Christie said he decided against running after talking with his father, who asked, “Do you love your job?” “I said, ‘Yeah.’ He said to me, ‘You’re 48 years old. Why are you leaving it if you love it?’” A year later, Christie found himself in another whirlwind, this time as he was being vetted as a possible running mate to Romney. Romney personally called Christie to discuss the issues associated with the SEC “pay-to-play” rule should he be selected. In previous cycles, the rule did not have a big impact because candidates accepted federal funds for the campaign, which automatically limited how much they could raise. But with candidates forgoing federal matching funds, they need to raises every penny and can’t afford to write off investment banks that also invested in states. Balz reports that the campaign could never come up with a solution and determined that it would have the same issue with any sitting governor being considered. Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/07/dan-balz-book-chris-christie-2012-93663.html#ixzz2bHousgau

Charming. "An ad hominem (Latin for 'to the man' or 'to the person'[1]), short for argumentum ad hominem, is an argument made personally against an opponent instead of against their argument.[2]Ad hominem reasoning is normally described as an informal fallacy,[3][4][5] more precisely an irrelevance.[6]" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem

What a great reference. I was ignorant of many of these sites. Thank you!

When hito and Mickey Mouse go out together, which one IS the beard?

How useful! Article is about Australia but the slogan generator works quite well for U.S. pols too. Three-word slogan generator: create your own political catchphraseSlogans are coming thick and fast from both parties in this election. Now you can create your own with our slogan generator Nick Evershed theguardian.com, Monday 5 August 2013 03.52 EDT A new way. A stronger Australia. Stop the boats. When prime minister Kevin Rudd announced the election on Sunday, he said: "Three-word slogans won't solve complex problems. They never have. And they never will." He claimed Australia faces a "choice between a new way for the future – with positive plans for managing the economic challenges we face – as opposed to the old negative politics and three-word slogans of the past". Nevertheless, the Labor party unveiled a three-word slogan of their own: "A new way". So, like it or not, three-word slogans are coming thick and fast in this election. Some would argue three words is the perfect length: it gets you a verb or adjective plus a noun and an article. It's all you need, really. From Margaret Thatcher's "Labour Isn't Working" to Barack Obama's "Yes We Can", the three-word political slogan has a rich history. And just in case you haven't had enough three-word slogans already, we've built a slogan generator so you can make your own. Share your favourites in the comments. CLICK TO GO TO THE SLOGAN GENERATOR: http://interactive.guim.co.uk/australia/2013/august/slogangen/slogan-generator.html http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/05/australian-election-slogan-generator?INTCMP=SRCH

This looks good. Dan Balz pens searing indictment of 2012By ROGER SIMON | 8/6/13 5:01 AM EDT politico.com Here is Jim Messina, Barack Obama’s campaign manager, explaining to Dan Balz how he intends to run the 2012 campaign: “My favorite political philosopher is Mike Tyson,” Messina says. “Mike Tyson once said everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don’t have a plan anymore. [The Republicans] may have a plan to beat my guy. My job is to punch them in the face.” Here is Tagg Romney, Mitt Romney’s son, telling Balz that his father was not quite fired up and ready to go less than three weeks before he announced his candidacy. “He was hoping for an exit,” Tagg says. “I think he wanted to have an excuse not to run.” During the Christmas holiday of 2010, the Romney family had gathered in Hawaii and voted on whether Romney should run. Ten of the 12 family members voted no. Mitt Romney was among the no votes. Here is Chris Christie, governor of New Jersey, still undecided about his own candidacy. He orders those Republicans who had decided to run not to troll for support or money in his state. It was like something out of “The Sopranos.” Jersey was his territory. “Governor Romney didn’t like that too much,” Christie tells Balz. Nancy Reagan sends a handwritten note inviting Christie to give a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. Christie shows up, he is seated on the stage and Nancy Reagan leans over to him and points out the podium from which he will speak. “That was one of Ronnie’s podiums from the White House,” she says. Christie tells Balz: “I sat there for a second, and I just turned to her and I said, ‘You’re bad, you know that?’ She had this big smile on her face.” Here is Ron Kaufman, one of Romney’s top advisers, on election night after Romney’s defeat, sitting in a nearly empty staff room after Romney has made a gracious concession call to Obama and a concession speech. Romney walks into the staff room. “This is scary,” Romney says. “This is a bad thing for the country.” I could go on and on. Balz’s new book, “Collision 2012: Obama vs. Romney and the Future of Elections in America,” is so full of anecdotes and revelations that it is hard to stop. But I will. Because even though I think this is one of the best political books I have ever read, harkening back to the “Making of the President” books in terms of its richness of detail and analysis, it is not a collection of anecdotes. Instead, it is a searing, unsparing indictment of America’s presidential election system and the way candidates run for office. And though Balz is the chief correspondent of The Washington Post, the press does not escape unscathed either. He gives fair warning on the very first page. “It was not an uplifting campaign by any stretch of the imagination,” he writes. And 352 pages later, he concludes that the campaign was rarely about ideas or issues. Obama and Romney had a different agenda. Balz writes: “Each pursued a strategy designed for one thing: winning.” Balz sat down for two hours at my kitchen table recently. He was no stranger to it, nor I to his. We have been friends for more than 40 years. Today and tomorrow, I will present the highlights of our conversation. Q: You are pretty tough on Obama in your book. DB: Neither side rose to the moment of trying to overcome where we were with our paralysis and negativity. Obama decided the best way to overcome that was to win convincingly. Everything we’ve seen since is that that didn’t work. Q: You write: “No one expected Campaign 2012 to be positive or uplifting … [but] all restraints were gone, the guardrails had disappeared and there was no incentive for anyone to hold back.” One reason the campaign became so negative is because neither side believed the independent vote was large enough to matter. So both sides did everything they could to throw red meat to their base voters. DB: The base wants to feel enthusiastic about the nominee and in this environment that means the candidate often has to be harsh on his opponent. One of the things the Obama people took away from [his poor performance in] the first debate was that much of the importance of a debate is to make your voters feel good and not to persuade undecided voters. In the second debate, which was the vice presidential debate, Joe Biden was as aggressive as he could be to say to his base: “We’re fighting for you.” Q: You have this wonderful anecdote about Biden landing in Kentucky for his debate, and he immediately takes a call from Obama. After it, Biden is smiling and tells an adviser: “I know we’re in trouble.” The adviser asks why and Biden says: “I know we’re in trouble because the president just told me to be myself, and that’s the first time in four years he’s ever told me that.” DB: (laughs) Obama could not have done [the all-out attacking] he did in the second and third debates without the first debate. He had to overcompensate. Q: In trying to explain to you his infamous 47 percent remarks, Romney reaches for his iPad and starts quoting from it but he still gets the 47 percent quote wrong. What’s up with that? DB: He can’t accept the words he uttered were the words he uttered. In his own mind, that’s not what he thinks he said. We talk about candidates having the ability to connect with voters, but with Romney I turn it around: The voters could not connect with Romney. As one person in one focus group said: “He’s been too rich for too long.” Part Two: The press, Christie and 2016 [tomorrow] Roger Simon is POLITICO’s chief political columnist. His new e-book, “RECKONING: Campaign 2012 and the Fight for the Soul of America,” can be found on Amazon, BarnesandNoble.com and iTunes. Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/balz-pens-searing-indictment-of-2012-95191.html#ixzz2bDhsymBH

Another trigger phrase for the drinking game! "I must need new glasses." -- hitoall

gay (adj.) late 14c., "full of joy, merry; light-hearted, carefree;" also "wanton, lewd, lascivious" (late 12c. as a surname, Philippus de Gay), from Old French gai "joyful, happy; pleasant, agreeably charming; forward, pert" (12c.; cf. Old Spanish gayo, Portuguese gaio, Italian gajo, probably French loan-words). Ultimate origin disputed; perhaps from Frankish *gahi (cf. Old High German wahi "pretty"), though not all etymologists accept this. Meaning "stately and beautiful; splendid and showily dressed" is from early 14c. The word gay by the 1890s had an overall tinge of promiscuity -- a gay house was a brothel. The suggestion of immorality in the word can be traced back at least to the 1630s, if not to Chaucer: But in oure bed he was so fressh and gay Whan that he wolde han my bele chose. Slang meaning "homosexual" (adj.) begins to appear in psychological writing late 1940s, evidently picked up from gay slang and not always easily distinguished from the older sense: After discharge A.Z. lived for some time at home. He was not happy at the farm and went to a Western city where he associated with a homosexual crowd, being "gay," and wearing female clothes and makeup. He always wished others would make advances to him. ["Rorschach Research Exchange and Journal of Projective Techniques," 1947, p.240] The association with (male) homosexuality likely got a boost from the term gay cat, used as far back as 1893 in American English for "young hobo," one who is new on the road, also one who sometimes does jobs. "A Gay Cat," said he, "is a loafing laborer, who works maybe a week, gets his wages and vagabonds about hunting for another 'pick and shovel' job. Do you want to know where they got their monica (nickname) 'Gay Cat'? See, Kid, cats sneak about and scratch immediately after chumming with you and then get gay (fresh). That's why we call them 'Gay Cats'." [Leon Ray Livingston ("America's Most Celebrated Tramp"), "Life and Adventures of A-no. 1," 1910] Quoting a tramp named Frenchy, who might not have known the origin. Gay cats were severely and cruelly abused by "real" tramps and bums, who considered them "an inferior order of beings who begs of and otherwise preys upon the bum -- as it were a jackal following up the king of beasts" [Prof. John J. McCook, "Tramps," in "The Public Treatment of Pauperism," 1893], but some accounts report certain older tramps would dominate a gay cat and employ him as a sort of slave. In "Sociology and Social Research" (1932-33) a paragraph on the "gay cat" phenomenon notes, "Homosexual practices are more common than rare in this group," and gey cat "homosexual boy" is attested in N. Erskine's 1933 dictionary of "Underworld & Prison Slang" (gey is a Scottish variant of gay). The "Dictionary of American Slang" reports that gay (adj.) was used by homosexuals, among themselves, in this sense since at least 1920. Rawson ["Wicked Words"] notes a male prostitute using gay in reference to male homosexuals (but also to female prostitutes) in London's notorious Cleveland Street Scandal of 1889. Ayto ["20th Century Words"] calls attention to the ambiguous use of the word in the 1868 song "The Gay Young Clerk in the Dry Goods Store," by U.S. female impersonator Will S. Hays, but the word evidently was not popularly felt in this sense by wider society until the 1950s at the earliest. "Gay" (or "gai") is now widely used in French, Dutch, Danish, Japanese, Swedish, and Catalan with the same sense as the English. It is coming into use in Germany and among the English-speaking upper classes of many cosmopolitan areas in other countries. [John Boswell, "Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality," 1980] Gay as a noun meaning "a (usually male) homosexual" is attested from 1971; in Middle English it meant "excellent person, noble lady, gallant knight," also "something gay or bright; an ornament or badge" (c.1400). As a slang word meaning "bad, inferior, undesirable," from 2000. http://etymonline.com/?term=gay