Oh My

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/fbi-probe-of-petraeus-triggered-by-e-mail-threats-from-biographer-officials-say/2012/11/10/d2fc52de-2b68-11e2-bab2-eda299503684_story.html

There is nothing like a sex scandal to start a second term.  The Petraeus affair gets stranger and stranger.  I heard Ronald Kessler, who wrote The Secrets of the FBI, (so he must be a credible source, right?), say that what triggered the investigation, were emails that kept mentioning under the table.  According to Kessler, the FBI was concerned about corruption and under the table deals, not hot steamy monkey sex under the table.  Now according to the Wapo, the trigger was the harassing emails sent by the foxy Paula B.  I have to say I had a weird feeling about her when she appeared on the Daily Show.  I hate to sound like an old fuddy duddy, which in fact I am, but she brought the sleeveless trend to a whole new level, with not just her finely toned arms showing, but most of her upper body.  She not only gave a slightly creepy accounting of her relationship with Petraeus, but was such a shameless boaster that I started wondering why she didn't mention winning the Nobel Prize...Oh right, she didn't.  Of course the media is going to focus on the What did the President Know and When Did He Know It meme.  As though if the American electorate had known that David Petraeus was schtupping his mistress, they would have turned to Romney.  I don't think so.  Petraeus was so revered by everyone and was brought to national attention by W, that I don't the voters would then decide to vote for Mitt.  I have never been a big fan.  I was against the war in Iraq and thought that Petreaus was a Bush toady.  I will never forget his editorial in the Wapo in September of '04, which was basically an endorsement of Bush. 
 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49283-2004Sep25.html
I don't want to gloat about his downfall - I am too busy gloating about the Romney and the gas bags who were sure he would win.  I feel badly for his wife, who stayed home, looked after the kids, while her husband traveled the world and was fawned over by all.

Good Bye Turd Blossom or Perhaps Another Good Thing to Come Out of the Election

http://nymag.com/news/frank-rich/gop-denial-2012-11/

Frank Rich has an excellent column about the blindness of the Republicans leading up to the election.  The whole time that the Romney campaign or their surrogates went on about the internal polls showing a Romney landslide, I would either worry that they knew something I didn't, or think they were trying to create the illusion that he was winning, so that if they manage to steal or suppress enough voters, they could then chant I told you so, and would give them cover if they were able to drag any election dispute into court.   It honestly never occurred to me that they might actually believe what they were saying.  Rove and Co. have built up such a reputation for genius, albeit evil genius, that I assume that everything done or said is a cynical manipulation for amassing more wealth and power.  In other words, it never occurred to me that theyactually believe any of the shit that comes out of their mouths.  Maybe the so called Wise Men of the Republican party really don't believe in evolution or science, or what we in the reality based community, regard as objective truth.  Prior to the election, I was a terrible weak kneed tremble chin, who had to check Nate Silver, oh about every time I possibly could, to be soothed by his well reasoned analysis of all the polls, but I was not running a campaign.  How could the Romney people not know that they were in deep, deep trouble?  They not only convinced themselves that he would win the electoral college and would surely win the popular vote.  Not all the ballots have been counted in some very blue states, so Romney's percentage of the vote is likely to go much further down, and imagine what the totals would have been if the Northeast hadn't been crippled by Hurricane Sandy.  It is hard to think about schleping to the polls if you haven't had heat, hot water or housing.  Romney's percentage is creeping downward to the 47% level.  How fitting is that?  So much for the genius of Karl Rove. 

Let the Carping Begin

I stopped blogging when Scott Brown won his Senate seat, saying I was done with politics. The voters of Massachusetts had effectively spat on the grave of Teddy Kennedy, electing a frat boy because he drove a truck. I turned away, sort of, or at least was marginally less obsessed.  So instead of reading every blog, I read just a few, and watched ESPN, where everybody cares deeply about unimportant things, and where they spend hours having circular arguments about the same subjects over and over and over.  I found it restful.  My daughter told me on election night, when Brown went down to defeat, that I had to start blogging.  I told her I have little to say, which is sadly true.  I am currently entertaining myself watching the GOP full of blame about everything except their horrible and unpopular ideas (hmmm... are they really ideas??? or just code words to elicit fear???  Their basic platform is that the American people are so stupid, that they can be manipulated to vote against their interest by fostering resentment and suspicion.)  It is nice to see that the money people are furious that they coughed up so much money for so little.  What I found mystifying is that Romney supporters were surprised at the results.  Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly the election was called and how decisive the victory was.  I thought the Repugs had caused so many road blocks and disenfranchised so many voters, and made it sooooo hard to vote, that it was going to take a long time to determine the outcome.  Imagine, if voting were easier how much larger the margin would have been.  The one blot on election night was Tweety, aka Chris Matthews, who earlier in the week had given an impassioned endorsement of Obama.  After Obama's victory speech, which I thought was gracious, moving and pitch perfect, Tweety could not stop harping on the fact that he hadn't thanked Bill Clinton or made a bigger deal about other Democratic victories.  Now I consider myself exceptionally partisan, but boy do I think that would have been a BAD idea.  Of course, if Chris has an idea he never gracefully lets the idea go, despite everyone else on the panel disagreeing.  His post first debate swoon but the more liberal pundits was not helpful to the dems.  My son in law loves the Rev.  Al, who was true blue throughout and wouldn't say one critical thing about Obama's debate performance.  Note the word "performance," with all the swooning, no one ever said Obama said stupid things or lied that night.  I know he went on to really disgrace himself later in the evening regarding his comments about what a blessing hurricane Sandy was, and although Matthews can be very annoying, I am not sure I want him off the air.