2012 was filled with hot topic political moments. From the 2012 election and financial woes, to domestic and international issues, we’ve seen a wide swath of commentary, posturing, and all out batshittery that’s filled up the airwaves, the cable news channels, and made for much Daily Show fodder.
Let’s take a look at some of the most talked about.
The Republican Candidate Clown Car
There are probably too many moments to name individually in a field of candidates that seemingly almost daily produced some of the oddest, most obtuse and out of touch commentary and reactions that we’ve ever experienced in what appeared to be the longest primary season we’ve ever endured. But what we will say is among the cornucopia of stupid that came out of the early election season some takeaways are: Michele Bachmann’s “Tsunamis of Blood” tweets in addition to other crazy ramble and inane thoughts about HPV vaccines; Herman Cain’s “999 into oblivion plan” until he was felled by his wanton penis, Rick Perry’s beauty pageant entrance which gave the GOP hope he’d become the next George W. Bush — which was dashed into flames as his inner Sarah Palin emerged as he bubble-pooped out an “Oops” during a debate; Newt Gingrich’s enlarged mountainous ego filled with condescension and moon colony gobbledygook; Ron Paul’s call for people to die in the streets; and finally Rick Santorum’s odious ideologies as he tried to wrestle the nomination from a walking robot by hating all women, and thumbing his nose at education, even to label the president as an “education snob” even though he’s a Penn State graduate who has a MBA from the University of Pittsburgh and a law degree from the Dickinson School of Law at Penn State. Mitt Romney is in a class all to himself. He’s coming up a bit later.
War On Women
Rush Limbaugh launches the “War on Women” by calling Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke a slut and a prostitute because she advocated for birth control. Bill O’Reilly picked up the mantle and continued the lambasting as Fluke prepared to take the stage at the DNC this year. The commentary from Limbaugh caused several advertisers to boycott his show. The insanity continued by the GOP with commentary from Todd Akin in which he coined the term “legitimate rape” by indicating that a woman’s body has the ability to “shut the whole thing down” in cases of pregnancy that results from rape. From there several other members of the GOP went on to say obnoxious, factually dubious, and outright offensive things about women, their bodies, their response to rape, and what should happen if a miracle pregnancy results from the ecclesiastic conception that can coincide with some rapes legitimate or otherwise. Urgh. The year ended with Republican candidate, Mitt Romney’s comments during a presidential debate wherein he detailed looking for qualified employees from a “Binder Full of Women.” From refuting rapes, to name-calling, to Personhood Amendments – the GOP made 2012 the year they alienated women.
Mitt Romney Selects a P90X Superstar
Because from the outset, Mitt Romney had a relatability problem within his own party when he was finally able to nail down the nomination he decided that he needed a young running mate. You know, someone with verve and vitality. Someone with big ideas and the ability to work his magic as a “numbers guy” to get America moving again. Well, that person ended up being Medicare voucher endorsing, photo-op shill, and all around creepy grown up Eddie Haskell, Paul Ryan. Ryan was part in parcel of Romney’s eventual loss while alienating women, minorities, and the elderly. Ryan was even unable to deliver his home state of Wisconsin to Romney on election night. However, this isn’t nearly as embarrassing as Ryan’s vain attempts at connecting with the “common man” as he barged into a soup kitchen and pretended to wash dishes. It spoke volumes of the Romney/Ryan philosophy as it pertained to the less fortunate in this country.
Mitt Romney’s Gaffes
There was a time during the election season where it appeared Mitt Romney couldn’t keep his foot out of his mouth. He went to London and insulted the Olympic Games and all of Britain, even though his wife Ann’s horse was competing. There was the time when he said, “I like being able to fire people who provide services to me. You know, if someone doesn’t give me a good service that I need, I want to say, ‘I’m going to go get someone else to provide that service to me.” And when he also said, “Corporations are people, my friend… of course they are.” And when he said this, “No one’s ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place that we were born and raised.” And the time he said this, “I’m in this race because I care about Americans. I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I’ll fix it.” If that’s not enough, there was this, “Middle income is $200,000 to $250,000 and less.”
You would think after a litany of gaffes Mitt Romney would have a better explanation than this, “I’m not familiar precisely with exactly what I said, but I stand by what I said. Whatever it was.”
Even his thoughts about his wife are for public consumption, “We use Ann sparingly right now, so that people don’t get tired of her.”
Hey! Need some money? Mitt Romney has some! “I’ll tell you what, ten-thousand bucks? $10,000 bet?“
And the best one of all:
At some point in the latter portions of the campaign, Mitt Romney stopped talking to the press altogether.
Eastwooding
Who would have thought one of the biggest moments from the entire RNC would be when Any Which Way But Loose actor, Clint Eastwood, came out and talked to a chair like an escapee from a mental hospital on a Republican Tea Party bender? Well, it happened. Rachel Maddow who was rendered speechless said,” That was the weirdest thing I’ve seen at a political convention in my entire life. And it will be the weirdest thing even if I live to be 100.”
The 47 Percent
Oh, ho. Some of you were probably looking at the Mitt Romney gaffe list and wondered where this was. Well, it’s not there because we don’t consider this a gaffe. It became apparent that Romney’s thoughts on the 47 Percent are exactly as it sounds. He laid it out pretty well we think.
Obama’s Caffeine Deprivation
The October 3rd debate flop that nearly sent Andrew Sullivan into cardiac arrest. This was the moment when many feared for the fate of the election as Obama turned in a lackluster performance to which Mitt Romney proceeded to steamroll right over the president gaining some traction in the polls and causing many a democratic pundit (Chris Matthews) to wonder what happened to our president. [SPOILER ALERT: President Obama wins re-election]
Mitt Romney is Just Like Us!
After the contentious election season came to a close with president Obama becoming the victor, the weird and disconcerting downward spiral of usually put together, coiffed, and coiled to strike, Mitt Romney. Without the presidency to occupy his time, we were bombarded with photos of Romney pumping gas, shopping at Costco, riding roller coasters at Disney Land, and capturing Ann in an extremely uncomfortable hug during Thanksgiving, all the while looking quite dismal. Other than hearing that he returned to the board of Marriott hotels as well as being aware of a conciliatory turkey chili luncheon with the president, we haven’t heard of one thing Mitt Romney plans to do now. So it’s back to being a rich guy we guess.
General David Petraeus and His Women
In what seemed like mere minutes after president Obama was re-elected came the news that General Petraeus announced his resignation as head of the CIA due to an extramarital affair with biographer, Paula Broadwell. The scandal became a household name as news of email communication between the General and his lover became common knowledge which did indeed suggest that someone of his rank should perhaps resign if he couldn’t even safeguard his Gmail account. The scandal quickly spun out of control as another woman was introduced and another CIA agent was outed for inappropriate behavior. It served as blight on the agency, and raised the debate about high-ranking men and extramarital affairs and if they occur if they are offenses that should result in resigning from the job.
Benghazi Fallout
The fallout of four American deaths in Libya. After the deaths, Mitt Romney ran to politicize the moment as the White House was still gathering information. In the wake Susan Rice made the rounds on the Sunday Morning talk shows in order to share what she knew – what the CIA informed her. She stated that the deaths may have been the result of an anti-Muslim movie but did concede that it could have been the work of terrorism. The overall feeling was that there was much they did not know. Yet, GOP members led by John McCain believed that Rice erroneously mislead the American people and took up the cause to uncover a cover-up. There was nothing there, but that didn’t stop McCain from scapegoating Rice. She eventually resigned from consideration of becoming Secretary of State as Hilary Clinton’s successor.
The Newtown Massacre and the Gun Violence Debate
The massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School was the second worst such shooting in American history. The event took the lives of 28 people in total including 20 children, 6 adults, the killer and his mother. The massacre reopened the debate about guns in this country; assault weapons bans, the mental health crises, and school safety. President Obama vowed to take action while the NRA CEO, Wayne LaPierre during a bizarre press conference, and an appearance on Meet the Press in a showing rife with barely constrained annoyance and frothing at the mouth, told the country that more guns and not less are what’s needed to secure our children.
The Fiscal Cliff
As of this hour Congress is trying to resolve the Fiscal Cliff before tonight’s deadline. There is hope. President Obama thinks an end is in sight, but it’s not done yet. UPDATE: NOPE! No deal. No House vote tonight. MSNBC is reporting that we’re going over the cliff. Crap!They’re calling for “crises” and “mini-explosions” over the next couple of hours. Hoo-boy.
Images: 1, 2, 3, 4 (Obama Getty Images), 5.
