Pure class, via Rolling Stone (content warning):
We arrived at the Oval Office for our 45-minute interview … on the morning of October 11th. … As we left the Oval Office, executive editor Eric Bates told Obama that he had asked his six-year-old if there was anything she wanted him to say to the president. … [S]he said, ‘Tell him: You can do it.’ Obama grinned. … ‘You know, kids have good instincts,’ Obama offered. ‘They look at the other guy and say, “Well, that’s a bullshitter, I can tell.”’
Gone are the days of Barack Obama self-righteously decrying the smallness of our politics and rejecting name-calling. A few wistful flashbacks to 2008:
Ah, those were the days -- way back when Obama could afford to pretend he wasn't the bare-knuckles, win-at-all-costs Chicago machine brawler that he is. Then again, this president is an expert when it comes to shoveling cow manure, a fact that even his loyal acolytes are grappling with. Obama is still prattling on about "Romnesia," painting Romney as a directionless flip-flopper. Speaking before adoring audiences, Obama's bravado is growing shriller. Just yesterday, Obama defied Americans to check "the videotape" and try to find a single instance of his own flip-floppery. We won't find any such instances, he implied, because of his enduring integrity, or something:
Buzzfeed decided to oblige the president and found numerous instances of stark reversals. They missed a few, including the Obama of "10, 12 years ago" who supported single-payer, government-run healthcare, and who was temporarily feigning opposition to gay marriage. As Mitt Romney gains momentum, Obama is lashing out with petty and personal attacks. The Des Moines Register -- the Iowa newspaper that recently experienced a dust-up with the president -- has picked up on this pattern. Take a look at their front page today:
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I'll leave you with this web video from Team Romney, designed to help keep your juices flowing over these next 12 days. Big 'Mo:
Romney will deliver a major speech on the economy in Iowa tomorrow, presumably intended to keep America focused on what actually matters in this campaign, admist a maelstrom of trivialities. Eyes on the prize.
UPDATE - Who said this? "You know, I actually believe my own bullsh***t."
UPDATE II - A new academic analysis of this year's campaign ads confirms that Barack Obama has been the king of nasty negativity:
The academics with the project – from Wesleyan, Washington State University and Bowdoin College – also analyzed the content of the ads and found that the Obama campaign has aired far more negative attack ads than the Romney campaign. They found that 6.3 percent of the Obama ads were positive, 20.3 percent showed contrasts between the two candidates, and 73.3 percent were negative – or straight-up attacks on Romney and his record. But 11.9 percent of Romney’s messages were positive, versus 52.1 percent that compared him to the president, and 36 percent that were negative attacks on Obama.
A failed president resorts to the slash-and-burn politics he once reviled. Pathetic. I'm sure the media will commence its hand-wringing about "negativity" any minute now...
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