Romney Campaign Accidentally Launches Transition Web Site 185
stevegee58 writes "The Mitt Romney presidential campaign accidentally launched a transition website the day after the election. Sporting a 'President Elect' seal and a catchy new tagline ('Smaller, Simpler, Smarter') , the site was up briefly before the gaffe was discovered and the site taken down. Fortunately an alert blogger, Taegan Goddard, found the errant site and published some screen shots."
Someone didn't get the memo (Score:5, Funny)
That site wasn't supposed to launch until Utah secedes.
Re:Someone didn't get the memo (Score:5, Funny)
That site wasn't supposed to launch until Utah secedes.
Somehow, I don't think we'll be going to war over that one.
Re: (Score:3)
That site wasn't supposed to launch until Utah secedes.
Somehow, I don't think we'll be going to war over that one.
Well, we did before, back when it was Deseret...
Re: (Score:2)
That site wasn't supposed to launch until Utah secedes.
Somehow, I don't think we'll be going to war over that one.
Well, we did before, back when it was Deseret...
Its less desirable now though
Re: (Score:3)
Its less desirable now though
...since nowadays, we *can* actually fly to Mars instead, you mean?
Re: (Score:2)
Do you think in today's very public world, we would still go to war if a state seceded?
I am not advocating either way - although I do have my days where I wish we could.
Re: (Score:2)
The last time it happened was so messy because the states that seceded, while certainly at a military disadvantage, had enough parity with the rest of the union that they couldn't be overrun easily. This is far from the case now.
Re: (Score:2)
FTFY
Oh it's just Americans murdering other Americans. Nothing important.
Re: (Score:2)
But without Utah, where will we get our....our....huh....National Parks?
Re:Someone didn't get the memo (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
That site wasn't supposed to launch until Utah secedes.
So long as they take the rest of the red states with them I'd vote for it!
Re:Someone didn't get the memo (Score:5, Funny)
Syria is Utah's path to the sea!
Re: (Score:2)
Truly one of the best posts ever. Brilliant. Absolutely fucking brilliant.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
This should help:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-election/9628114/US-presidential-debate-Mitt-Romney-mocked-after-calling-Syria-Irans-route-to-the-sea.html [telegraph.co.uk]
Re: (Score:2)
Utah can't secede unless it takes Idaho or Arizona with it, because it would be landlocked.
Just because a state is on the US border doesn't mean it's on the ocean. There are other countries in the world, and it turns out we're next to some of them.
Re: (Score:2)
Yep, we'll kick your asses like we did the last time. Please, please try to secede. It will give us a good excuse to take out the trash.
Re:Someone didn't get the memo (Score:4, Informative)
If all of those red counties unite and choose to secede, they'll control a good chunk of the oil, coal and farmland.
Yeah, that was a large part of the Confederate States of America's reasoning too. "We've got the cotton and farmlands! The yankees will surely fall before us!"
Guess how that turned out.
Re: (Score:2)
" good chunk of the oil, coal and farmland" -- which the red county inhabitants will gladly trade away cheaply to get the precursors for their meth labs.
Re:Someone didn't get the memo (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
history lessons (Score:2)
???? Uh, small as they might be, the last land battles of the "War of Northern Aggression" were fought in Texas.
Previously, Galveston had been recaptured from Union forces in Jan 1, 1863 and remained confederate until June 18-19, 1865, "Juneteenth".
Then the final Union attempt to take Texas in September 1863, a Union invasion fleet with 5000 Federal troops was repulsed at the Battle of Sabine Pass.
Re: (Score:2)
and you will run out of food
Re: (Score:2)
Was that a joke?
I grew up in the Great Plains, a land that votes crushingly Republican on a bi-yearly basis. And yeah, the rich people there voted for Republicans. But the poor people voted for them, too. The major demographics that voted Democrat were the young (18-24... before they finished college and moved to other states) and those with Masters degrees.
Now, remember that pretty much all of those states exist due to constant government-based welfare in the form of subsidies and infrastructure funds th
Re: (Score:3)
I'm just going to leave this here . . . . [fuckthesouth.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Transport ships come up the Columbia river to the port in Lewiston Idaho all of the time
oops (Score:3)
Icing on the fail cake (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Wasn't that what they tried this time, but then asked him to lie about how conservative he was?
Re: (Score:2)
Hopefully the Republicans can find a better candidate than a used car salesman next time. And hire a better IT staff.
They're having trouble figuring out those newfangled punch cards. They hope to get some younger blood in the IT department for the next election, some one under 70 that can mange one of those tape driven jobs!
Re:Icing on the fail cake (Score:4, Insightful)
Hopefully the Republicans can find a better candidate than a used car salesman next time. And hire a better IT staff.
And don't have an agenda that only benefits a shrinking percentage of the population; or at least don't piss off the growing part of the electorate so much.
Haha (Score:5, Funny)
that's because we liberals can do whatever we want and you conservatives can't!
ha ha! sucks to be you!
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
All I'm hearing is "waaaaaah"...
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Obozo? Really? You're some fucking libtard commie hippy trying to hide the truth of your liberal agenda.
It turns out that his REAL name was recently discovered on a North Korean birth certificate that was written in Arabic with ink made from the ashes of holocaust victims and the constitution. It turns out to be Osama Mohammed Chinese-Invasion Terrorist Muslim Nigger bin Laden Mexican Hitler Rapes-Kids Atheist Death-To-America.
If you didn't hate America so much, God would have told you that already.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
What a great idea! I think I'll use my handy time-machine and go back to 2000 and create it. Hang on....
(da da da dat dadadada...)
...
Done. Here it is: Seen on Slash [seenonslash.com]. Enjoy!
I wonder what else I can do with this time machine? Oh well, back to Slashdot...
Smaller, Simpler, Smarter (Score:5, Funny)
Choose any two.
Re:Smaller, Simpler, Smarter (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Government is smaller since 2008.
Re: (Score:2)
Government is smaller since 2008.
except guvmint people (including military personnel) replaced by contractors.
Re: (Score:3)
Well, technically, that's Reaganomics - it's how he "shrank" government but increased spending. Obama was handed a 1.3T deficit by the outgoing previous president (GWB signed that budget into law), and ended with a 1.1T deficit. 2013 Projected deficit by OMB is ~700B. That's a lot of scratch, but it's still less red ink than the red party.
Re: (Score:2)
Especially since the red party took a surplus and turned it into a massive deficit.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Smaller, Simpler, Smarter (Score:5, Funny)
Not a mistake, this was expected. (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Or it was all part of his plan. Maybe, just maybe, if he can convince enough people that he did in fact get elected then it might just maybe come true. And if that doesn't work he can just disappear by putting his hands over his eyes and saying 'Ha! now you can't see me.'
"Fortunately" (Score:5, Insightful)
"Fortunately" a blogger captured this? Why exactly is this a fortunate thing? It's not like the site shows Romney doing something wrong, or trying to cover up something. Is there something particularly great about the site design that can benefit us in some way? Perhaps it contains some great scripts that we are now fortunate to have access to?
Someone made a mistake, and you say it is a "fortunate" that they can now be made fun of because of it. Politics aside, let's simply not act like assholes please. Also, be thankful that your mistakes don't turn into Slashdot stories.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
"Fortunately" a blogger captured this? Why exactly is this a fortunate thing?
Because it's funny, and we'd like to see it? Not everything related to politics needs to be serious.
Someone made a mistake, and you say it is a "fortunate" that they can now be made fun of because of it. Politics aside, let's simply not act like assholes please. Also, be thankful that your mistakes don't turn into Slashdot stories.
Everything that is funny is at somebody's expense. That's not being an asshole. Not having a sense of humor and getting offended by it is being an asshole.
Dewey Defeats Truman (Score:2)
.
Hell, even Truman made fun of the newspapers for incorrectly predicting his loss to Dewey: "Dewey Defeats Truman" [wikipedia.org] said the headline, and there's a picture of a grinning Truman laughing at the headline! If the president-elect can laugh at a newspaper's premature prognosti
Re: (Score:2)
Politics aside, let's simply not act like assholes please.
But isn't that what politics is all about?
Re:"Fortunately" (Score:5, Insightful)
It's fortunate because it's humorous. It's like that time that Biden asked the guy in the wheelchair to stand up and greet the crowd. Momentarily funny, ultimately meaningless.
It's not like anyone's feelings are getting hurt here. The IT guy who posted it goofed, but no one knows or cares who he is. The posting doesn't reflect on Romney at all, and even if it did, so what? His political career is over regardless, and all he's got left is his piles of money, good health, and loving family. Do you really think he cares if people poke fun at one of staffer's slip-ups?
Re: (Score:3)
FWIW it would have been pretty incompetent if they DIDN'T have such a site prepared. (shrug)
Re:"Fortunately" (Score:4, Interesting)
Well, it is, for one thing, providing a very interesting glimpse into the mindset of the people who ran Romney's campaign. I also recall them talking about their transition team in early July. Add to that the famous unprepared Romney speech, and you get quite a diagnosis.
I personally have a hard time believing they were so detached from reality all the way through the campaign that they'd focus on inessential tasks like selecting a transition team early and preparing this mockup rather than focussing on the platform and their campaign.
It is really telling how close to lunacy the Republican party leadership is.
Which is sad, really, as weak competition in politics only further lowers the quality of politicians. Adverse selection in action, so to speak.
Re: (Score:2)
I would have guessed the "Romentum" stories were just for the rubes and that the actual GOP leaders and Romney's people knew better that the odds were against them.
But the reactions to their loss put all that in doubt... seems the Party really was eating their own dogfood.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Quite the contrary, planning ahead is one of the qualities you want in an elected official.
Nor necessarily were they 'focused' on selecting a team or preparing this website, that's what staff and advisers are for - so that multiple th
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
it was quite obvious that he won't be elected for at least the last 10 days
Well according to Gallup [gallup.com], Romney was leading among registered voters in the third week of October and was tied with Obama as recently as the last week. Romney was leading among likely voters for the entirety of October through November 5. "Obvious", it was not.
I also recall them talking about their transition team in early July
So you said his team was planning in July, but then you turn around and claimed it only became obvious in the past few days. What makes this "delusional"?
Re: (Score:2)
"Fortunately" a blogger captured this? Why exactly is this a fortunate thing? It's not like the site shows Romney doing something wrong, or trying to cover up something. Is there something particularly great about the site design that can benefit us in some way? Perhaps it contains some great scripts that we are now fortunate to have access to?
Someone made a mistake, and you say it is a "fortunate" that they can now be made fun of because of it. Politics aside, let's simply not act like assholes please. Also, be thankful that your mistakes don't turn into Slashdot stories.
I'd call it a simple mistake except the guy didn't even bother with speech if he lost. All together it comes off arrogant as hell for such a close race!
Re: (Score:2)
I'm of two minds. On one hand I think it's "ok" to laugh about this because it is such a trivial thing. I'm guessing the person(s) responsible for doesn't mind terribly much — I mean it's not like s/he has to be worried about being fired.
But on the the other hand, I think reveling in schadenfreude and antagonizing 49% of voters is a good way for Dems to get screwed in the midterms (again)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
"Fortunately" because it's interesting to see what they planned. And because it says a lot about their mindset that the only contingency they had planned for was victory.
I've always been fascinated by a document that turned up in Dwight Eisenhower's papers. It was a letter to his superiors taking sole responsibility for the failure of the D-Day invasion! Of course, he never sent it, because the damn thing succeeded, and he got credit for it, which is as it should be. But it says a lot about him that he was
Re: Eisenhower's D-day docs (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I don't have source for the Eisenhower doc. If you want to google it, feel free.
Harry Truman was the one with the "The Buck Stops Here" sign on his desk.
Re: (Score:2)
Why is it that all the ACs seem to be batshit crazy Republicans? Is this a trend?
Re: (Score:2)
"Burn Karma"? I'm one of your left-wing groupthinkers, and I get downmodded all the time. Suggesting that the 2nd amendment isn't sacred is particularly likely to do this.
What I want to know is: when did rightwingers become such crybabies?
Re: (Score:2)
"Fortunately" a blogger captured this? Why exactly is this a fortunate thing? It's not like the site shows Romney doing something wrong, or trying to cover up something. Is there something particularly great about the site design that can benefit us in some way? Perhaps it contains some great scripts that we are now fortunate to have access to?
Someone made a mistake, and you say it is a "fortunate" that they can now be made fun of because of it. Politics aside, let's simply not act like assholes please. Also, be thankful that your mistakes don't turn into Slashdot stories.
It's funny because it fits in with the Republicans view of the universe - if we say something is true it is true. So, in Repuniverse; ohio is still in play, Obama suppressed the vote, and Mitt is getting inaugurated in Jan.
Re:"Fortunately" (Score:4, Funny)
"Fortunately" a blogger captured this? Why exactly is this a fortunate thing?
Because it's just this kind of gaffe that could cost Romney the election!
Re: (Score:2)
Dewey defeats Truman! (Score:2)
Woo!
Rove did it (Score:2)
After Romney carried Ohio.
Leave Romney Alone (Score:2)
Romney and Bain Capital do not have time to worry about a simple presidential loss. Obama won they have to swing into full outsourcing sales mode which will not be very, very easy. You see Romney and Bain did not loose, they won and won big.
Not sure I see the problem. (Score:2)
I mean, heck, the Romney campaign is transitioning, right? The only problem is in the details, and Romney doesn't like to get into that sort of stuff until later.
subject (Score:2)
Schadenfreudelicious.
They didn't lose! (Score:2)
How to fix the problem: (Score:2)
Onion Becomes Real (Score:2)
This sounds like an Onion-perpetrated prank to continue their "Romney not giving up just because he lost the election" schtick.
Re:LOL (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah. Florida might find another eighty electoral votes somewhere.
Re:LOL (Score:5, Funny)
Oh Hi Boss!
Since I don't give a crap about your campaign, or politics, and this is the only REAL website I've ever done,
and this site is all I did during your campaign, I thought I'd publish it live for a few hours assuming some news outlets
would pick it up, so that I could then reference it for future work, and have important media clippings to reference
as well. Hope you don't mind - and if I do, oh well, what are you going to do, fire me?
Is probably what I'd say.
LOL: I thought you said conceited... (Score:2)
Both are appropriate.
Re:LOL (Score:4, Informative)
There is a bit more leeway than one would think, although the results, as they now stand are extremely unlikely to change.
Most states electors are bound by law if they don't vote the way they have been tasked, however, electors in the following ttates are not bound by Law to cast their vote for a specific candidate:
ARIZONA ARKANSAS DELAWARE GEORGIA IDAHO ILLINOIS INDIANA IOWA KANSAS KENTUCKY LOUISIANA MINNESOTA MISSOURI NEW HAMPSHIRE NEW JERSEY NEW YORK NORTH DAKOTA PENNSYLVANIA RHODE ISLAND SOUTH DAKOTA TENNESSEE TEXAS UTAH WEST VIRGINIA
Re:LOL (Score:4, Insightful)
The electors are picked by the state parties. They're die-hard partisans who've drunk more of the campaign kool-aid than anyone. It's not like people who have been working to elect Obama for years are suddenly going to change their minds and vote for Romney or vice versa.
In the rare instances when electors have switched their votes, it's usually been for someone else in the same party and wouldn't affect the outcome of the election. For instance, there's been speculation that some of the Romney electors might cast votes for Ron Paul, but obviously that wouldn't change Obama's numbers either way.
Re: (Score:2)
But what if parasitic aliens (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Body_Snatchers) infect the minds of the electors, or less sci-fi-sh: blackmail them into voting for the other candidate? It's highly unlikely in an election where there's a large gap between the winner and the loser, but what if the difference is down to a vote or two that can easily be offset by doing something funny to a handful of electors?
Re: (Score:3)
Takes one to know one... his concession is not binding in any way (just ask Al Gore)... it's simply a respectful thing to do.
In the unlikely event that a large batch of Obama votes turn up in Virginia, Ohio & Florida as fraudulent and the electoral college swings to him... the presidency is his, concession or not.
Will any of the above happen? Probably not... but you show your ignorance of the system.
Re: (Score:2)
In the unlikely event that a large batch of Obama votes turn up in Virginia, Ohio & Florida as fraudulent and the electoral college swings to him... the presidency is his, concession or not.
Check Cartman's house.
Re:LOL (Score:5, Interesting)
In the unlikely event that a large batch of Obama votes turn up in Virginia, Ohio & Florida as fraudulent and the electoral college swings to him... the presidency is his, concession or not.
That would be the largest legal battle the country has ever seen. Given that Romney's campaign shut down so quickly that staffers found their credit cards had been canceled when they tried to pay for cabs on the way home from campaign headquarters [forbes.com], I kind of doubt he has the machinery in place for that kind of fight.
Re: (Score:2)
In the unlikely event that a large batch of Obama votes turn up in Virginia, Ohio & Florida as fraudulent and the electoral college swings to him... the presidency is his, concession or not.
That would be the largest legal battle the country has ever seen. Given that Romney's campaign shut down so quickly that staffers found their credit cards had been canceled when they tried to pay for cabs on the way home from campaign headquarters [forbes.com], I kind of doubt he has the machinery in place for that kind of fight.
Perhaps he's saving that money for the legal fees. ;-)
Re: (Score:2)
Perhaps he's saving that money for the legal fees. ;-)
Hah! Yeah, that must be it.
Re: (Score:2)
Apparently he did not get rich by writing a lot of checks.
Re: (Score:3)
Ohio is worth 18, Virginia 13, and Florida 29. That totals to 60. Obama is (estimated) to have 332 electoral votes, and Romney has 206.
Swapping out 60 votes still leaves them at 272 to 266.
Re: (Score:2)
You should check your math- Ohio is worth 18, Virginia 13, and Florida 29. That totals to 60. Obama is (estimated) to have 332 electoral votes, and Romney has 206. Swapping out 60 votes still leaves them at 272 to 266.
Correct! Any path to the presidency for Romney would have assumed Fla. (which he may still get, but unlikely and moot now), Va., Ohio, and one small battleground - Iowa and NH were generally considered the most likely (or, least unlikely) candidates.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Well, most of the campaign staff is now unemployed, so I'm not sure they care that much. Romney's lucky that's the only thing that went up after the loss...
http://crooksandliars.com/files/vfs/2012/11/biotch.jpg [crooksandliars.com]
Re:Can we forget about him? (Score:5, Funny)
Shouldn't Ted Nugent be dead or in prison by now?
Re: (Score:2)
Shouldn't Ted Nugent be dead or in prison by now?
I grew up in Michigan, trust me he is, take your pick!
Re: (Score:2, Redundant)
Late night comics, I mean. The rest of us, not so much.
http://crooksandliars.com/files/vfs/2012/11/Election_night.jpg [crooksandliars.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Here's how it works- government comes up with a "policy" or something that has no effect, but looks like it might do something on the surface. Independently, the job market improves. Result - the government takes credit.