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Tag: Barack Obama

Inauguration Open Thread

Who’s watching? (I am watching from Paris, drinking tea and eating maracrons — it beats the hell out of four years ago when I was watching in freezing cold weather on the mall). What do you think? My thoughts are here, at the Guardian.

Romney is the President

Of angry white men:

Until now, Republicans and Fox News have excelled at conjuring alternate realities. But this time, they made the mistake of believing their fake world actually existed. As Fox’s Megyn Kelly said to Karl Rove on election night, when he argued against calling Ohio for Obama: “Is this just math that you do as a Republican to make yourself feel better?”

Romney and Tea Party loonies dismissed half the country as chattel and moochers who did not belong in their “traditional” America. But the more they insulted the president with birther cracks, the more they tried to force chastity belts on women, and the more they made Hispanics, blacks and gays feel like the help, the more these groups burned to prove that, knitted together, they could give the dead-enders of white male domination the boot.

The election about the economy also sounded the death knell for the Republican culture wars.

The Morning After

Fighting a major post-election hang-over after a long night out celebrating good news. And there is so much good news! Obama won, earlier in the night than expected. Elizabeth Warren beat Scott Brown in a close race in Massachusetts, and Tim Kaine also beat George Allen in Virginia. And those Republican rape comments really bit them in the ass, with Richard “rape pregnancies are God’s will” Mourdock losing to Democrat Joe Donnelly in Indiana — an outcome that seemed extremely unlikely even a few days ago. Todd “legitimate rape” Akin also legitimately lost to Claire McCaskill in Missouri. And Wisconsin elected Tammy Baldwin, who will be America’s first out lesbian Senator.

Romney’s “Binders Full of Women” line that spawned a thousand memes? Not exactly true.

Remember last night during the presidential debates when the candidates were asked about pay equity, and Obama talked about concrete steps his administration had taken to ensure equality (the Lily Ledbetter Act, which he signed his first day in office), and Romney talked about how he would let a female staffer go home early because women need to cook dinner? And Romney also talked about how he was assembling his cabinet when he was elected governor of Massachusetts, and wouldn’t you know it, every single qualified person who applied was a man. Every single one! And so Big Daddy Romney, caring as much as he does about women in the workplace(?), went to women’s groups and asked them for qualified women. And they sent on “binders full of women” (cue internet memes). And then he hired a bunch of those women, and then according to a survey of all 50 states, “mine had more women in senior leadership positions than any other state in America.” That is a really nice story. It turns out that it’s not at all true.

ElevenSixTwelve: Mobilizing to Re-elect President Obama in 2012

Almost four years ago, President Barack Obama achieved something monumental: he inspired people who had never voted to vote in droves. He motivated college students across the country to organize rallies and voting drives in support of his campaign. And he encouraged millions across the nation – across racial lines – with his message of hope and change.