LIES
Paul Begala: How the GOP Helped Obama Win
Nov 9, 2012 10:00 PM EST
From the assault on ‘Mount Bain’ to Ted Kennedy’s prescient advice on Mitt Romney’s tactics, an insider’s view of how Obama won.
168
inShare
(711)
At his final rally, Barack Obama stood before 20,000 adoring Iowans, just yards from the Des Moines headquarters where his 2008 Children’s Crusade began. Something happened. Something we have rarely seen: Obama wept. A few elegant tears slowly descended from his left eye, perhaps in appreciation of the enormity—and the improbability—of what he was about to accomplish. Within 24 hours those tears had turned into dancing. The reelected president was more exuberant, more idealistic, even, than the sober, somber young president-elect of Grant Park 2008. And for good reason.
Given economic realities, Obama’s victory is an astonishing accomplishment. (Jason Reed / Reuters-Landov)
RELATED STORIES
What a Night!: Obama Election Night Photos by Khue Bui
The economic current against President Obama this year was more like a typhoon than a tide. To put it into perspective, from Truman-era 1948 to Bush-era 2008, America experienced a total of 39 months during which the unemployment rate sat at or over 8 percent. In the 46 months that Barack Obama has been president, we have had 43 months over 8 percent. Median household income for the middle class has dropped by almost $5,000 since 2000. And median net worth—the total wealth of a middle-class family—dropped by a staggering 40 percent between 2007 and 2010.
Given those economic realities, it is amazing that Obama wasn’t impeached. The fact that he has been reelected is the surest sign that his parents gave him the right name: “Barack,” which means “blessed.”
How did he do it? Let me count the ways.
The Republicans Helped Him. The strongest Republicans—Jeb Bush, Mitch Daniels, Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, John Thune, Haley Barbour—all took a pass this time. And so Americans looking to replace the president were treated to a clown-car primary in which a new leader emerged every week—each crazier than the last. Romney was the strongest candidate in a weak field, but that’s a dubious honor—kind of like being voted the sexiest member of the Supreme Court.
Romney dispatched each rival by outspending him or her by many millions, and by outflanking them on the far right. Let me tell you, when you’re attacking Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum from the right, you are out there. Romney could have run as a moderate. He could have accepted the Bowles-Simpson call for the rich to pay slightly more in taxes. Or opposed 30-round ammo clips for assault weapons. Or stuck with any of his multiple-choice positions on abortion or gay rights. Instead he ran to the right of George W. Bush, abandoning his support for Bush’s sensible comprehensive immigration reform and shamefully attacking Gingrich and Rick Perry for daring to treat undocumented immigrants as human beings.
Romney made a brazen effort to move to the middle in the final weeks of the campaign and it almost worked. If he had run consistently as a Massachusetts moderate, willing to challenge the outdated orthodoxy of the far right, he might be president-elect today.
Fibbing Fails. In his first ad, Mitt Romney quoted Barack Obama saying, “If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.” But that was Obama quoting a GOP aide four years ago. The full quote is: “Senator McCain’s campaign actually said, and I quote, ‘If we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.’” From that deceitful ad to his last, disgraceful falsehood that Jeep was transferring production to China, Romney ran a stunningly dishonest campaign. But the leader of the Party of Lincoln should have known you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. Romney’s Jeep ad backfired, and Obama’s support among union members in Ohio—the kind of folks who build those Jeeps in Toledo—far surpassed his 2008 support. Romney may as well have run ads that said, “I think you’re stupid,” because that’s the message voters got.
Conventions Are Still Consequential. Every four years we hear the gripe that conventions don’t matter. Baloney. No, there are no smoke-filled rooms in which grizzled pols horse-trade over who the nominee will be: the nominees are chosen by voters. But just because conventions are no longer deliberative does not mean they are no longer consequential. A convention is like a wedding; the conclusion is foreordained, but how it’s pulled off matters. The Republicans had a mediocre convention, which, like a mediocre wedding, doesn’t mean you’re doomed. But it’s a bad sign when your old Uncle Clint steals the microphone for the toast and winds up arguing with an empty chair.
GET NEWSWEEK ON YOUR IPAD
NEXT12View As Single Page
inShare
(711)
TAGS:
U.S. Politics
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
Is the Cult of Karl Rove Over?
(The Daily Beast)
Paid Distribution
4 Surgeries to Avoid
(AARP.org)
Six Absurd Republican Excuses for Mitt Romney’s Defeat
(The Daily Beast)
Paid Distribution
10 Things to Never Put on Your Resume
(Salary.com)
COMMENTS (711)
Sign in7 people listening
POST COMMENT AS…
SORT: NEWEST | OLDEST
American Conservatism
7 days ago
Peacefully grant the State of Louisiana to withdraw from the United States of America and create its own NEW government.
“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
“…Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and institute new Government…”
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/peacefully-grant-state-louisiana-withdraw-united-states-america-and-create-its-own-new-government/1wrvtngl
SHAREFLAGLIKEREPLY
Thinkaboutit111
8 days ago
I am VERY disappointed in Rachel’s response here.
Every FACT CHECK has listed teh $700 billion cut in Medicare as a gross distortion by Romney.
Because it represents efficiency savings in RATES paid to hospitals and doctors because of the increased volume of patients coming on from ObamaCare.
It does not represent a decrease in the level of care to senior.
I was a financial director in a large hospital chain years ago. Medicare and Medicaid already got something like a 50-70% discount. The $700B over 10 years was an increase in the discount negotiated.
Hospitals give big discounts to insurance companies that bring on large number of patients. That’s the nature of the negotiations.
Again. SHAME on Rachel for not explaining that.
SHAREFLAGLIKEREPLY
MiyamotoMusashisBoatOar
9 days ago
And, now a message from Bill O’Reilly.
“Let’s be honest: The voter breakdown clearly shows that folks receiving some kind of government largesse supported you big-time, while those avidly competing in the marketplace voted for Mitt Romney.
It was no accident that the day after your victory, the stock market plummeted 313 points.”
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/op_ed/view/20221110memo_to_obama_fix_the_economy/
_______________________________________________________________________
National Review’s Rich Lowry Destroys MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Meet the Press
SHAREFLAG1LIKEREPLY
robwriter
9 days ago
@MiyamotoMusashisBoatOar
Well, for starters, Mr Lowry, Mitt. Romney. Is. Not. The. President. Mitt. Romney. Will. Never. Be. The. President. And. Neither. Will. Paul. Ryan.
So Mitt and Paul’s “plans” for Medicare, like their plans for intergalactic travel, are vapor. The ancient Romans, borrowing from the Greeks, called this DE ASINI UMBRA DISCEPTARE.
SHAREFLAG1LIKEREPLY
MiyamotoMusashisBoatOar
9 days ago
yawn…
peace
SHAREFLAGLIKEREPLY
KayJay90
9 days ago
O’Reilly: “It was no accident that the day after your victory, the stock market plummeted 313 points.”
——————————-
And rebounded somewhat by Friday, only 2 days later.
However, the stock market plummet appeared to have less to do with the election of Barack Obama than it did with, of course, Europe, and the “looming fiscal cliff”, a situation hyped by O’Reilly himself and his ilk at Fox News more than any other cable news network.
http://money.cnn.com/2012/11/09/investing/stocks-markets/index.html
SHAREFLAG1LIKEREPLY
nedmadden
8 days ago
@MiyamotoMusashisBoatOar
What a joke. Lowry keeps pushing the lie that Obama cut $700b in Medicare, when what happened is that middle-men like insurance companies were denied these funds. Keep spouting GOP drivel, MMBO.
SHAREFLAGLIKEREPLY
hiddenvariable
8 days ago
@MiyamotoMusashisBoatOar Who cares, you idiot. The market is up 6,000 from 2009.
SHAREFLAGLIKEREPLY
Thinkaboutit111
8 days ago
@MiyamotoMusashisBoatOar
You’re quoting O’Reilly?
I well understand that the “tax the rich” mantra got you some political currency. But we both know that strategy will do little to stimulate anything other than jealousy.
Gee, it only adds a trillion to the economy over 10 years. When Romney’s big spending cut was 30% of Medicaid, that was a trillion and a half to the economy over 10 years.
Just shows how liars figure. conservatives care nothing about the deficit.
SHAREFLAGLIKEREPLY
JasunMark
9 days ago
We almost elected a man who claims to know business but…
– paid thousands of dollars to hang his campaign on the effectiveness of an untested web app.- had a cell phone app that misspelled “America.”- made “you didn’t build that” the theme of his convention, beaming into every living room in the country that his campaign was “we’re going to misrepresent the president because that’s all we’ve got.”- proclaimed he was going to create 12 million jobs, then angrily shook his finger at the president proclaiming “government cannot create jobs.”- actually heard the words “Please continue, governor” and didn’t realize he was walking into a trap.- amassed a billion dollars to spend on TV ads but seemed totally unaware that the most effective tool to reach voters was social networking.- planned to win over women by sending his wife onto The Today Show to call Robin Roberts “you people.”- attempted to seem like a common man in an interview done at his “summer house” in a kitchen larger than most houses.- most memorable photo ops were the staged food drive and staged trip to buy “Hardware Stuff.”And finally… complained loudly about lazy people on welfare and immigrants who take advantage of the system and yet didn’t really think it was important to mention that his own father was an immigrant who came to American and went right on Welfare.”
This was an inept campaign run by someone whose only business experience was destroying things. We really dodged a bullet.
SHAREFLAG5LIKEREPLY
Practical Girl
9 days ago
A Begala classic regarding Mike Huckabee, who you pointed out doesn’t “believe in evolution or gravity or photosynthesis or anything”.
Different election, same challenged party, this time with a candidate who doesn’t believe in most of America. Thank you to the GOP, indeed. Romney was never the solution. He is the disease.
SHAREFLAG2LIKEREPLY
robwriter
9 days ago
And thank you, GOP, from the glowing center of my soul, for that crash course on Mormonism. Why, one might ask, should I give a fiddler’s diddle about the asinine delusions of this mother of all cults? Indeed, why should anyone care about the genital anatomy of a house fly, unless, of course, they were about to get phuked by an enormous fly engendered in some lab by Little Karl and the KooKoo Brothers? Fortunately we awoke late Tuesday evening as if from a horrible dream of insectoid rape. There is no Planet Kolob. There is no President Romney.
SHAREFLAG4LIKEREPLY
ChristelynRussell-Karazin
9 days ago
@robwriter That was priceless. You have a kick-arse way with words, so I shared your quote on Facebook. Now you have 4,000 of my friends howling with laughter. 😉
SHAREFLAGLIKEREPLY
nipoleon
9 days ago
When Mitt Romney called 47% of Americans lazy bums only looking for a hand out, that was his ” let them eat cake ” moment.
Only the GOP could fail to see how insulting that was. Their aristocrat candidate insults the people, then can’t understand why those people don’t vote for him.
SHAREFLAG8LIKEREPLY
Econpie
9 days ago
Get a job northpointdexter and stop complaining about hardworking folk.
SHAREFLAGLIKEREPLY
Econpie
9 days ago
And btw yes you are a racist bigot. And so is the wife. Did I mention you should get a job?
SHAREFLAGLIKEREPLY
MiyamotoMusashisBoatOar
9 days ago
If Mitt was elected, the DOW would have gone up!
SHAREFLAGLIKEREPLY
ottovonb
9 days ago
@MiyamotoMusashisBoatOar Hey genius, the Dow has almost doubled during the Obama administration.
SHAREFLAG3LIKEREPLY
MiyamotoMusashisBoatOar
9 days ago
I blame that on Bush.
😉
SHAREFLAGLIKEREPLY
RobertBreedlove
8 days ago
@MiyamotoMusashisBoatOar Well, as a Republican, you illustrate your party’s problem with reality and math.
SHAREFLAG1LIKEREPLY
AruanaZeelie
9 days ago
@MiyamotoMusashisBoatOar Romney is universally hated overseas. I’m South African and we are ELATED he lost!
SHAREFLAG3LIKEREPLY
RobertBreedlove
8 days ago
@MiyamotoMusashisBoatOar Not for long, then math would kick in and we all would be doing supersonic dives to the bottom.
SHAREFLAGLIKEREPLY
Mhussein
9 days ago
The browning of america.is here…get used to it…maybe if hadn’t stole the Mexico’s land….
SHAREFLAGLIKEREPLY
RobertBreedlove
8 days ago
@Mhussein If your talking about Texas, they can have that back and good riddance.
SHAREFLAGLIKEREPLY
northpointe
9 days ago
I live here in Washington. One of only two states to provide regular driver’s licenses to illegl aliens. Last time I went into the DMV office to renew my license I did a head count and counted 90 Mexicans out of a total of 110 total people there. Later there were DMV people exposed for giving illegals test answers @ $500.00 a pop. Our state is now so loaded with illegls you cannot go to any store without seeing tons of ’em. Sometimes they make up 25-30% of the shoppers. At the checkout counters they’ll have two loaded shopping carts. My wife and I watch ’em get out one or two EBT cards. We’ve been around here for thirty years and we have lots of friends with rental houses. They used to rent to illegls but found out the illegals would move up to four families into them. Also, the schools, especially the elementary schools are loaded, and I do mean loaded with children of illegls. Especially the special ed classes. So property owners are paying through the nose in taxes to educate (or warehouse) the children of the illegl aliens. But best not ever mention this around here because it is politically incorrect! Don’t want to be called a bigot ya’ know. That’s about the worst thing there is! Bigt, racst, homphobe, nativist…terrible. But it’s okay to be a, play rap music proclaiming ya’ wanna kill cops, or okay to trash Christians or Evangelicals because they are “bunch of bigoted white people”.Thanks for the young and stupids getting this Obama back in. He is so cool you gotta love the guy! Man, he caters to the Latinos and he’ll kiss their as well as their illegal alien “cozins” as. The young voters are so stupid they don’t even realize they are inviting illegals to compete for jobs, housing, cars, groceries and everything else. Not to mention all the Mexican criminals that can’t wait to get here so they can start a new life of crime. Uh oh! Am I a bigot or a racst? Gee, what a terrible thought!
SHAREFLAG1LIKEREPLY
WonandDone
9 days ago
@northpointe
“Obama sent home over 1 million illegal immigrants in 2-1/2 years — on pace to deport more in one term than George W. Bush did in two.”
Immigration Deportations Under Obama On Pace To Far Exceed Those Under Bush Administration
Delusional? Yeah, I can tell.
SHAREFLAG4LIKEREPLY
tndrmn
9 days ago
@northpointe Wow, you certainly devote a lot of your precious time to hatred and bigotry. I feel sorry for you.
SHAREFLAG6LIKEREPLY
ApoliticalBS
9 days ago
@northpointe
I’m sure you know they are illegals, how again?
SHAREFLAG6LIKEREPLY
Un Lys
9 days ago
Hi MK.
SHAREFLAGLIKEREPLY
ApoliticalBS
9 days ago
@Un Lys
Hello MQ!
Glad you recognized the ‘ol name.
SHAREFLAG1LIKEREPLY
sittingduck
9 days ago
25-30% of shoppers in any store are “illegals”? We need to get them to stop spending money right away. Yeah, that will help the economy!
SHAREFLAG8LIKEREPLY
gr8xpectations
9 days ago
@northpointe The ways that illegal immigrants look, act, spend money, talk, raise their kids, pray, laugh, and sneeze is pretty much the exact same way that LEGAL immigrants look, act, spend money, talk, raise their kids, laugh, and sneeze.
Just because you don’t like their accent, the language they speak, or the color of their skin doesn’t mean they’re not just as American as you or me, north.
SHAREFLAG7LIKEREPLY
Reno Noone
9 days ago
You’re living in the wrong state, pal. Try Alabama – I highly recommend it: you can demand to see their ID to see if they’re really illegal, or you can demand to see their ID just to show ’em you’re the superior race, period. That’ll teach ’em!
SHAREFLAG3LIKEREPLY
LineyHamilton
5 days ago
@northpointe LoL Man haters gotta hate!
GET OFF MY LAWN!!
SHAREFLAGLIKEREPLY
chalmers
9 days ago
Have you noticed how Newsweek dressed Obama. A truer portrait then any other.
SHAREFLAGLIKEREPLY
Bona Eventui
9 days ago
@chalmers 332 to 206.
SHAREFLAG1LIKEREPLY
WonandDone
9 days ago
@chalmers
But the headline says it all:
GOP: You’re Old, You’re White, You’re History
Try to relax in your sunset years. Move to Florida..nope, on second thought, Arizona.
SHAREFLAG3LIKEREPLY
RobertBreedlove
8 days ago
@WonandDone @chalmers Er…maybe North Dakota, if you want to be safe in being a bigot for more than two years. Even ALASKA won’t be a red state much longer. It’s the only thing Sarah Palin did for education, showing how crazy doesn’t work so well for governance.
SHAREFLAG1LIKEREPLY
confused
9 days ago
There is so much this article addresses. As a democrat, I took for granted that Obama would handle Sandy better than Bush handled Katrina, which is not to say that Sandy couldn’t have been handled better. IMO, Christie came away with a much better reputation, and should he decide to run in 16, it will be hard to beat his , you don’t play politics when people are in trouble slogan.
What I haven’t seen mentioned is the idea that a lot of people were very uncomfortable with the idea of putting a businessman in charge of our government. A CEO gets paid a lot of money to be successful and gets a huge payoff if he’s a failure. If he bankrupts his company, he depends on others to bail him out. Who’s going to bail out the country if he fails? Why would you elect as president a person whose professional life has consisted of not taking responsibility for their failures? Further, in Romney’s case, has built a fortune by causing failure and bankruptcies.
Northpointe- I can’t decide whether you just need a dictionary or whether its watching too much Fox has cause your delusions. Social Security and medicare are not entitlements. I’ll admit they are very poor bankers, having allowed the government to “borrow” 5 trillion $ but they still don’t quality as entitlements.
SHAREFLAG3LIKEREPLY
chalmers
9 days ago
@confused You might want to read some stories from NYC and NJ before you decide that Obama did such a great job.
SHAREFLAG1LIKEREPLY
confused
9 days ago
@chalmers @confused – This evidently will come a shock to you, but Obama wouldn’t have to do a great job to do better than Bush did. I’ve yet to read about hundreds of stranded people on their roofs begging for rescue. I’ve yet to read about people stranded in a coliseum, with inadequate food,medical supplies,and security. I could go on, but why bother.
SHAREFLAG3LIKEREPLY
chalmers
9 days ago
@confused @chalmers Read a few stories.
SHAREFLAGLIKEREPLY
I_M_UR_RealityCheck
9 days ago
@confused @chalmers
You do know the difference between a class 1 hurricane and a class 5 hurricane, right?
New Orleans is surrounded by levees and is actually below water level, so that any water that surges in needs to be pumped out. No parts of NYC are below the surface of the water, so once the surge ended, the water receded
Staten Island is like the wild west right now. No food, gasoline, or power. FEMA locations closed due to the weather. Some serious leadership right there. Can you imagine if the military closed because of an impending attack?
SHAREFLAGLIKEREPLY
steveknows
9 days ago
@chalmers @confused
Bloomberg told Obama that he had NYC covered.
You might want to face the fact that you lost. Because you did. Because Romney was rejected. Because they weren’t buying his lame-ass crap.
Even though you did.
SHAREFLAG1LIKEREPLY
I_M_UR_RealityCheck
9 days ago
@steveknows @chalmers @confused
Bloomberg is a moron, too. But, he doesn’t run FEMA, that is Barry and they continue to do a shitty job in the aftermath of Sandy.
SHAREFLAGLIKEREPLY
RobertBreedlove
8 days ago
@I_M_UR_RealityCheck @steveknows @chalmers @confused Not in comparison to Bush. The storm was huge, the area effected involves many states. FEMA has been underfunded by Republicans and having to be put back together by Democrats when they are in office(like the economy, by the way)since it was formed. Today’s FEMA has done a much better job than “Good Job, Brownie” did, and your criticism no more valid than his that Obama acted too soon to hurricane Sandy.
SHAREFLAGLIKEREPLY
ottovbvs
9 days ago
I’m going to enjoy the outrage when these rubes realise they’re being thrown under the bus by the Republican party as it rushes to give illegals amnesty…….LOL
SHAREFLAGLIKEREPLY
chalmers
9 days ago
@ottovbvs Amnesty won’t change a thing.
SHAREFLAGLIKEREPLY
steveknows
9 days ago
@chalmers @ottovbvs
He just wants to savor the outrage of your fellow creeps.
SHAREFLAGLIKEREPLY
northpointe
9 days ago
Just especially want to thank all the young voters for assuring my SS and Medicaid. Really appreciate you’ll be paying for it. Thank you! Also have decided to start hiring illegals (plenty of them standing around at Home Depot) to do all my labor projects. White, black, and asians charge too much! I always think it’s smartest to “go with the flow” so to speak. I get the equivalent of fourteen thousand in tax-free benefits now and don’t pay a dime! Truly appreciate Uncle Sugar and the hard-working tax payers paying for it all. Really! Thank you! And really hate all rich people. They are all evil aren’t they?
SHAREFLAG1LIKEREPLY
TheSimulacra
9 days ago
@northpointe Why hello there, Straw Man.
SHAREFLAG2LIKEREPLY
ottovbvs
9 days ago
@northpointe
You’re a liar and a bit of an idiot……but we’ll make allowances for your grief.
SHAREFLAG2LIKEREPLY
bhill
9 days ago
@ottovbvs
he really is a grief, but we make allowance for his idiocy
SHAREFLAGLIKEREPLY
manhandler
9 days ago
I also want to thank young voters for assuring my Social Security. But I have to tell you, I worked hard from the time I was 15 until I turned 63, every day…year after year,…. and I don’t have to thank anyone but myself. Only idiots like “northpointe” think it all comes from Uncle Sugar.
SHAREFLAG2LIKEREPLY
chalmers
9 days ago
@manhandler have you added up what you paid and what you will get. You and your dependents will get much more than you ever paid in.
SHAREFLAGLIKEREPLY
steveknows
9 days ago
@manhandler
Hey, you clowns lost. Don’t try to put lipstick on that pig.
SHAREFLAGLIKEREPLY
Powered by Livefyre
CHANGE TEXT SIZESmaller TextLarger Test
AUTHOR
Paul Begala
THIS WEEK’S ISSUE
12 Ways to Stop the Next Sandy
The Fall of a General
Israel’s Fatal Game
Read more from Newsweek
RELATED VIDEO
Play
Are The GOP And Grover Splitting Up?
In today’s installment of Tomasky & Frum, political columnists Michael…
STORIES WE LIKE
HUFFINGTON POST POLITICS
After Doing Major Damage, Drug Warrior Falls
US WEEKLY
Anne Hathaway: “I Really Want a Baby!”
BUZZFEED
10 Animals That Will Give You Nightmares
ASK MEN
How to Handle a Fight With Your Girlfriend
YOUR TANGO
5 Romantic Winter Road Trips You’ll Love
HUFFINGTON POST POLITICS
Historic Obama Trip Riddled With Awkward, Unscripted Moments
BUZZFEED
The 25 Saddest Faces of Black Friday Shoppers
US WEEKLY
Mitt and Ann Romney See ‘Breaking Dawn – Part 2’ on Casual Date Night
ASK MEN
The Right Winter Boots
MOST POPULAR
The Story Behind the Photo
Denialists, Whiners, and Wackjobs
The Skinny on ‘Modern Family’
Jennifer Lawrence on Katniss and Vaginas
Broadwell and the Mentoring Scam