Tag: panic

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new york knicks Sports

Mike Woodson – I May Need to “Punch” the Panic Out of J.R Smith

Mike Woodson can say anything about his pet, J.R. Smith, and nobody takes it too seriously. But the Knicks coach certainly is beside himself regarding Smith, who has not been playing at the level befitting the 2012-13 Sixth Man Award winner.

Woodson certainly didn’t enjoy some of Smith’s recent psychobabble after recent Knicks losses to Indiana and Washington.

After the Indiana game, Smith said he felt like “panicking’’ because of the poor start. Woodson knocked him Sunday and went even further Monday after the morning shootaround at Portland’s Moda Center.

When asked if he was irritated by Smith’s panic remark, Woodson said: “To be sitting here after 12 games talking about I’m in a panic stage, I might need to punch him out and get it out of his thought process.”

The Knicks coach then smirked, but it wasn’t meant entirely as a big joke.
“If we panic,’’ said point guard Raymond Felton, “we might as just well shut down the season.’’
After the Pacers heartbreaker Wednesday, Smith said: “Like you say, it’s too early to panic, but me, personally, I’m panicking. I don’t like this.’’

Categories
Barack Obama Politics

Panic! At The Campaign (Part Deux)

Hey kids, remember in June when the Obama campaign was supposedly panicking? I sure do. That’s why I wrote about it.

Well here we are again at a crisis point in the race. The debate went very badly for the president. He seemed uninterested, unengaged, unfocused, blah, blah, blah. In fact, he was all of those things. But to think that this race is over or that the debate performance means that he’s going to lose is hogwash. Bunk. Horse puckey. Wrong.

Obama was losing some steam in state and national polls right before the debate as his convention bounce and Mitt’s 47% comments propelled him to an unsustainable lead. He’s lost even more steam over the weekend as polls that generally have a Republican lean (Gravis, Rasmussen and Claris Research) show him losing anywhere from 3-5 points off his lofty perch. Don’t get me wrong: I’m not dismissing those polls as unreliable or anti-Obama by choice. They could be the vanguard of a larger shift evidenced by more polls we’ll be sure to see this week. It’s just that these are the early polls and a fuller picture is sure to emerge after PPP, NBC/WSJ, CBS/Quinnipiac and ABC/WaPo weigh in. Those polls will also include any effects of the positive unemployment rate from Friday and Obama ads over the weekend that highlighted Romney’s, shall we say, evolution, on the issues.

Far be it from me to get in the way of a full-scale Democratic screaming, sweating freakout, as I enjoy irrationality as much as the next person (and if the next person is Michele Bachmann or Rick Santorum, then it’s a gold star day as far as I’m concerned).

My point is that it’s not necessary to panic. Let’s not give too much credit to the Romney campaign. It wasn’t that he did so much better in the debate; it’s that Obama did so much worse. The polls will move towards Romney. Then they’ll move away from Romney because the movement is based mostly on GOP enthusiasm after the debate. This is the same enthusiasm gap the GOP was supposed to have from the beginning, but didn’t because Mitt was/is such an ineffective candidate. The media will have something to print (print; what a dinosaur I am). But in the end, all the GOP has is Romney, and that should brighten the day of every Democrat and liberal in the country.

And it doesn’t matter when Obama calls him on the 47% comment, as he surely will on October 16. Mitt’s tried to admit that the comment was wrong, but I think he had that line all cued up for the debate. Since Obama didn’t mention it, he never got a chance to deliver it in front of 80 million people (as if that would make up for its offensiveness). So he had to go on FOX to say it, and the comment was then promptly buried by the good jobs numbers. At the next debate the country will be reminded of Mitt’s policies and will find them lacking, just as they did before the debate. You could say that Mitt’s peaking a bit early and is set up for a fall. If you don’t want to say it, I just did.

If you really want to panic, then go ahead. For me, good jobs numbers always beat debates. And truthers. And bad ideas like killing PBS and only covering people with preexisting conditions if they already have insurance but otherwise leaving them to the mercy of insurance companies. And turning Medicare into a voucher system. And being on the wrong side on women’s health and rights. And dismissing 47% of the country as being dependent on government aid and saying it was wrong to say it, but not wrong to think or act on it.

Gee, all of a sudden, I feel much better about this election. Go. Fight. Win.

And really, isn’t it about time you followed me? Go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and on Twitter @rigrundfest

Categories
fail Mitt Romney Newt Gingrich Politics Rick Santorum

It’s Unbelievable The Things Some Republicans Have Said About Mitt Romney – Video

With friends like these who needs enemies? From Rick Santorum to Newt Gingrich, Republicans of all shape and size have shared their opinion of Mitt Romney. The video below features some of their earlier statements, but we have detailed some more recent remarks here and here.

Take a stroll with me, as we watch and listen to these Republicans talk about the man they will now vote for as the next president of the United States.

Categories
Politics

Panic! At The Obama Campaign? Really?

Did you know that the Democrats are panicking? It’s true. I know it because I read it in the media. Obama’s campaign is panicking. FOX News says that Obama’s panicking. Even Jim Messina, Obama’s campaign manager (and I’m pretty sure the other half of Loggins and Messina) worries about Democrats panicking.

Why the panic? Jobs numbers, dumb comments about the private economy being fine and a general sense that Obama just isn’t on his game obviously have the progressive left in a panic about the president’s chances in November. A closer look at what’s actually happening with the campaign shows that there is no need for panic, and, indeed, there is reason for optimism.

The conventional wisdom, until last week that is, was that Obama’s ads attacking Romney’s record at Bain Capital were doing more damage to Obama than to Mitt. Surprise! That’s not the case. In fact, the attacks have had their intended effect. More people have a negative view of private equity firms according to the latest polls. Imagine that; negative ads that produce negative responses towards your opponent. Perhaps the Republicans should try that.

The real wonder is that Democrats would entertain the idea that a negative ad aimed at Romney highlighting his past actions would somehow be off limits (do you hear me Bill?). This is the point in the campaign where you’d better define your opponent or they will define themselves. It’s exactly what the Romney campaign is trying to do on the economy and it’s what Obama needs to continue to do until the conventions.

The blabbering media narrative from last week also focused on the effects the dismal job numbers and Scott Walker’s win in Wisconsin would have on the president. What’s the reality? The latest polls show Obama holding on to his lead, though it is reduced from a month ago. Obama’s approval ratings? Gallup has him +4 and Rasmussen at -4, which are pretty much where Obama was a couple of days after the economic reports were released. Conclusion? The president is in decent shape. Even the folks at Intrade have Obama with a more than 52% chance of reelection. That is hardly a reason to panic.

The latest state polls also provide good news for Obama. He’s +6 in Pennsylvania, and a poll on Wednesday showing Romney ahead in North Carolina by 2 was really good news for the president because it also showed him inexplicably with only 78% of the African-American vote. Really? Anybody who believes that Mitt Romney is going to rack up 20+% of the African-American vote in November is either dreaming or on bath salts.

Ultimately, this race will be about the economy and jobs, and right now Obama has a jobs plan and Mitt doesn’t. Obama has a pragmatic foreign policy record and Mitt just wants to throw bombs at the world. Energy prices are down, marriage equality is up, and even Obama’s gaffe might help him in the long run.

I’m not panicking. This was always going to be a close race for a variety of reasons, and for all of the problems the president is currently having this month (with the health care ruling still to come), Obama is in good shape entering the summer. Romney has yet to tell us what he’d do as president and most polls say the public sides with Obama when it comes to balancing cuts with revenue and long-term investment in America.

Still, we all have those nervous moments. If you feel a panic attack coming on, let me soothe you at: www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and on Twitter @rigrundfest 

Categories
Barack Obama James Carville Politics White House

James Carville – It Is Time For The President To Panic

By James Carville.

People often ask me what advice I would give the White House about various things. Today I was mulling over election results from New York and Nevada while thinking about that very question. What should the White House do now? One word came to mind: Panic.

We are far past sending out talking points. Do not attempt to dumb it down. We cannot stand any more explanations. Have you talked to any Democratic senators lately? I have. It’s pretty damn clear they are not happy campers.

This is what I would say to President Barack Obama: The time has come to demand a plan of action that requires a complete change from the direction you are headed.

I don’t know how else to break this down. Simply put:

1. Fire somebody. No — fire a lot of people. This may be news to you but this is not going well. For precedent, see Russian Army 64th division at Stalingrad. There were enough deaths at Stalingrad to make the entire tea party collectively orgasm.

Mr. President, your hinge of fate must turn. Bill Clinton fired many people in 1994 and took a lot of heat for it. Reagan fired most of his campaign staff in 1980. Republicans historically fired their own speaker, Newt Gingrich. Bush fired Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. For God’s sake, why are we still looking at the same political and economic advisers that got us into this mess? It’s not working.

Furthermore, it’s not going to work with the same team, the same strategy and the same excuses. I know economic analysts are smart — some work 17-hour days. It’s time to show them the exit. Wake up — show us you are doing something.

2. Indict people. There are certain people in American finance who haven’t been held responsible for utterly ruining the economic fabric of our country. Demand from the attorney general a clear status of the state of investigation concerning these extraordinary injustices imposed upon the American people. I know Attorney General Eric Holder is a close friend of yours, but if his explanations aren’t good, fire him too. Demand answers to why no one has been indicted.

Mr. President, people are livid. Tell people that you, too, are angry and sickened by the irresponsible actions on Wall Street that caused so much suffering. Do not accept excuses. Demand action now.

3. Make a case like a Democrat. While we are going along with the Republican austerity garbage, who is making the case against it? It’s not the Democrats!

Read the rest of the article here

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