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Next entry: Unhinged pro-Prop 8 amicus brief filed by bible beating group Previous entry: Kansas ‘Christian’ Center: Obama’s election is ‘a sin against the Lord’

Out-wingnutting the wingnut

I just finished a book about body issues I want to review, but I’m putting it on ice because this interview at FiveThirty Eight with John Ziegler, a dude who put together a poll and a documentary about how stupid Obama voters are (with the implication being that universal suffrage needs to be repealed if people are going to elect black Democrats) is one of the more fucked up things I’ve seen online, and that’s saying a lot.  Summary from Five Thirty Eight:

Ziegler was responsible for commissioning a Zogby International survey of Barack Obama supporters, which took the form of a multiple choice political knowledge test, stating a “fact” to the respondent and asking them which of the four major candidates (Obama, McCain, Biden, Palin) the statement applied to. Because I believe that many of the statements on the survey are questionable or false but are misleadingly presented as factual to the respondent, I characterized the survey as a “push poll” in an article posted early this morning.

Ziegler had contacted me by e-mail, asking if I’d like to interview him; the interview itself was conducted by telephone. Ziegler asked, among other conditions, that I post a full transcript of the interview, which I have.

John Ziegler is definitely a grade A paranoid angry white man.  In fact, so much that it made me competitive.  Sure, he is skilled at being a crazed wingnut, because he has sincerity and genuine paranoia in his toolkit.  But could I, without being a bona fide crazy wingnut, beat him at his own game?  Here are my answers to his questions.  You can vote on who won the contest at the bottom of the post.  Be honest.


Nate Silver [NS]: Were only Obama supporters interviewed for the [Zogby] survey, or was everyone interviewed?

Typical liberal elitist.  You know that I know that you know that interviewing McCain supporters is impossible when the brilliant light of intelligence that shines off them would do very little but confuse the pollsters, and perhaps cause nerve damage.  I don’t know about you, but I’m unwilling to pay for the insurance on a bunch of do-nothing low wage workers whose brains fry when they listen to the genius-level responses of your average McCain voter.  And remember, some of those McCain voters were Palin fans.  You can’t expose that level of genius to your average poll worker, not without paying for restorative surgery due to brain damage.

Also, we were worried that polling McCain voters would create a database for the Obama administration to steal and use to confiscate everyone’s guns. 

NS: Do you stand by all the statements in the survey as being unambiguously true?

Ambiguity is a concept invented by college professors and homosexualists to bewilder the masses, and trick them into voting for Democrats. There was one question where we accidentally asked interviewees about Tina Fey when we meant Sarah Palin, but if you think that means I’m willing to experiment sexually with you or your “husband”, you’ve got another thing coming.

NS: What was the right answer to that [Palin] question?

That you would do her with Russians watching, but if they take their pants off, then no, because it’s gay.  We got a lot of answers to that question, and it was much harder to classify them into “perverse”, “disgusting”, “liberal elite”, and “full-blooded heterosexual patriot” than we thought it would be.

NS: Why would you commission a survey question with no correct response?

That you don’t realize that there is only one correct answer to that question shows why we had to commission this poll. Clearly you Obama people have cheese for brains.

NS: Were the interviews conducted by telephone or online?

How dare you ask me questions like that!  Are you trying to suck my cock?  What’s wrong with you?  I’m not letting you know if I have a telephone or a fucking computer, pervert.

NS: We’ve heard reports from our readers that very similar questions had been asked in an online format. There was no online component at all?

This is why I was so angry that you called our poll a “push poll”.  If you said what you just said to one of our pollsters, they would mark you down as “doesn’t even know what a telephone is”.  I fail to see how you can think that’s anything other than scrupulously fair and objective.

NS: Is the complete interview available anywhere—complete results for the interview?

What next?  You want my Social Security number?  My mom’s phone number?  An HIV test, pervert?

NS: Were the respondents informed of the ‘correct’ response during the telephone interviews?

I suppose if we’d done that, it would have immediately converted them to Republicans.  You would have liked that, wouldn’t you?  No, of course not.  Because it would interfere with your nefarious plans to install a black man in every high office in the land.  A grand scale of affirmative action that would have put Hitler’s affirmative action programs to shame.

NS: Did Zogby have a chance to preview the questions before agreeing to accept your business?

John Zogby himself or the company?

NS: Either/Or.

I’m sure that if we had allowed that, John Zogby himself would have called me up, had me over for dinner, and thrown my money in my face.  Because their first priority is making sure polls are smart and fair, not making money.  But you socialists wouldn’t understand something like that.

NS: What questions were removed from the survey?

Whether or not Obama was the Anti-Christ.  We figured 100% of respondents would refuse to admit the truth, so why bother?

NS: What questions were edited?

In retrospect, I wish we had remembered that her name was “Sarah Palin”, not “Tina Fey”.  I think then we would have had a lower “yeah, I’d do her in front of Russians” rate, because you liberal sickos would have a thing for skeezy, disease-ridden Hollywood actress types.

NS: What did Zogby charge you—what did you pay for this survey?

What do you want, my bank account number?  Is that the new taxation under your messiah?  Taxing people who want to commission polls?

NS: Did he charge you at his usual rates or did he ask you for extra?

(Explodes in fury and walks out of the room. After ten minutes, comes back, slightly calmer.)  Sorry about that.  First my friends make fun of my lady friend’s special rate for me, and now some smarmy mouthed liberal thinks he can make fun of me.  Why don’t you consider my problem a disability and be a little more PC about it?

NS: In the Youtube video, how were the Obama supporters identified for the Youtube video?

You can tell by looking at them.  Don’t pretend you can’t.  I had a person working with me who happens to be a black female, which means that I have lifetime immunity from your insinuations that racism has anything to do with this.  You’re not going to pull a George Allen on me.  Didn’t it even occur to you fuckers just once that maybe Allen likes the shape of a noose, and that’s why he hung one in his office?  Because it’s aesthetically pleasing?  No.  You can’t give anyone the benefit of the doubt.  Racism racism everywhere.

NS: What was the location of the polling place where the interviews were conducted?

Los Angeles.

NS: Okay, that’s what I kind of guessed. How many Obama supporters did you speak with in total?

Twelve, and then we gave up because we were afraid that it might be catching if we went any further.

NS: Was there any significance to the fact that in the YouTube video, seven of the twelve Obama supporters were black?

(Bursts out laughing) God, the way you people carry on, you’d think black people were a minority.  I mean, you even use that misleading word: “minority”.  When I looked that up in the dictionary—-do you know what a dictionary even is?—-it described a minority as “the smaller part or number; a number, part, or amount forming less than half of the whole.”  Do you think that Obama could have won if black people are really a minority?  I don’t think so.  We picked the racial mix-up by complete accident.  I didn’t even notice their race at first.  But we also picked it because we wanted the racial mix to reflect accurately the number of black and white people in the country.  And that’s where it stands, last Census.  60% black people to 40% white people.

NS: How did you represent yourself to John Zogby?

Obama Lovers Inc.  It was self protection.  You don’t want the liberal fascists to find out what you’re doing before you start and throw it all off balance.  It was the only way we could get anything resembling fair treatment.

NS: Did Zogby give you sign-off on the press release that he released on his website?

I don’t understand the question, though I understand your snotty, superior tone of voice.  I wouldn’t take that tone of voice with me, Obama Boy.  That’s going to be the new word for “stupid” you know. 

NS: Did you have financing for the project or was it paid for out of pocket?

There may be a few very rich Republicans out there giving money to projects like this, but I’m not at liberty to confirm or deny this.

NS: Was it paid for by the RNC?

Did some college professor put you up to that question?  What if I said that the answer is ambiguous?  Would you think I’m one of yours and jerk me off then?

NS: Well, that Obama ‘launched his career’ at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground—

That happens to be one of the questions that Obama supporters did the best on! They did better on that question than on any other Obama-related answers! And here you’re telling me that it’s not true?

NS: What do you mean by “launched his career”?

Well, I’m putting you on my resume as my mentor after this conversation.  After all, you did talk to me.  Are you willing to deny that you’re my mentor?  I have a call log to prove it if Fox News wanted to get involved in this.  You don’t want to be on Rush Limbaugh’s bad side if you choose to pick this fight.  Look, the guy’s not a peach like Sarah Palin.

NS: Well, her husband was a member of a secessionist party.

That’s why we’d mark you on the survey as not understanding the definition of the word “patriot”.  Keep at it, latte boy.  You’re about to score an A+ on the stupidity test.

NS: Do you think that certain types of voters are less well informed?

Look, my completely unbiased, objective survey demonstrates that Obama voters are too stupid to breathe.  Who needs these elaborate poll tests or poll taxes or other elaborate ways to make sure that only the right voters can vote?  In the future they’ll be able to use my entirely scientific, foolproof survey to demonstrate that voting for a Democrat makes you mentally unfit to vote.

NS: What types of media would you consider credible?

Anything that published a story about how Five Thirty Eight is a reputable source is immediately off the list.  Just because your election predictions were startlingly accurate is no evidence that you’re reputable.  I’d say the opposite: You’re clearly in the conspiracy to steal this country through disreputable tactics like clean elections and universal suffrage.

NS: What is Barack Obama’s religion?

Questions like that demonstrate you are part of Obama’s jihadist conspiracy.  You’re not going to pin me on what percentage Muslim he is.  He won’t release his registration papers, so how could we know?  The jihadist network that keeps track of who is and isn’t a registered Muslim is a tightly run organization.  How else do you think they’ve been hiding Osama bin Laden from Bush this long?  How else do you think they convinced so many Iraqis to oppose us?  Because they have the giant registered Muslim file, meaning that they’ve got all sorts of dirt on your average Iraqi citizen.  It’s either resist the U.S. forces of have that lesbian affair in college revealed.

NS: When do you think Obama was a Muslim?

Again, trying to trick me.  It’s not when he was a Muslim so much as what percentage of him is Muslim, and what percentage is atheist masquerading as Christian.  We know that between ages 6 and 10, he was working for Al Qaeda as a secret agent, and while his mother knew, she knew that revealing as much would make it harder for her child to grow up and take over the government through treachery. 

NS: But would you personally consider Obama a Muslim?

This is like asking if a mule is a horse or a donkey.  I’m on to your game.  You’re very clever for an Obama voter.

NS: Would you consider Obama a Christian?

My wife tells me we’re supposed to consider black churches like the one headed by Jeremiah Wright to be Christian now.  She’s better at the mushy PC mincing around than I am, so I’m going to defer to her judgment and say sort of.  He has been inside a Christian church under this new PC definition of “Christian”.  Lightening didn’t strike him dead, which could mean that he’s a Christian, or that the church isn’t protected by god like other Christian churches are.  Hard to say.

NS: Would you not believe Barack Obama if he told you he was a Christian?

When faced by the temptation to suck cock, is he able to resist 75% of the time or more?

NS: Do you think he’s a believer in Jesus Christ?

I don’t know.  I don’t hang out at the gay bars in the Chicago area.  I have no idea how often he hangs out there, and how often he goes home to put on a happy front with the wife.

NS: Do you have doubts about Barack Obama’s birth certificate?

Ha. Ha. You think I’m crazy.  I know he was born in Hawaii.  Now whether or not Hawaiians born that year count as real citizens is still being investigated.

NS: Would you consider yourself well-informed?

Liberal fucks like you would believe I know everything if you saw the contents of my mighty brain.  I don’t know everything, of course.  Almost everything is a different story.

NS: Who are the two senators from South Dakota?

Senators Eatadick and Gofuckyourself.

NS: Very good. South Carolina?

What next?  Going to ask me questions from my own survey?  I’m not going to do that.  And you better make sure you post this entire transcript, because I want people to realize how sharp I am.

NS: Well, since you’re running a website calling people misinformed, I’d like to see if—there are certain things you’ve said that I would consider misinformed.

Misinformed! I’m the only one of the two of us that knows about Obama’s secret jihadist past.  Who do you think you are?  You probably don’t even know who really killed Vince Foster.  I bet you never post this transcript on your website.

NS: Thank you, have a good day.

Go fuck yourself.

 

Okay, ladies and gents, that’s it.  Now here’s the poll to determine if I was able to out-wingnut John Ziegler.  Be brutally honest.  It won’t hurt my feelings.  I want this poll to be as scientific as Ziegler’s, if not more so.

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Posted by Amanda Marcotte on 08:46 PM • (48) Comments

You used to save that shit for April Fool’s.

Comment #1: Roxanne  on  11/19  at  08:50 PM

Did you secretly mate with JC Christian and produce a zygote-American love child?

I was just wonderin.

Comment #2: nick  on  11/19  at  09:00 PM

Wow. After reading both, I’d have to say, you won based on pure craziness. Ziegler is definitely a supreme wack job, though.

Comment #3: Mark  on  11/19  at  09:01 PM

It does make me think we should work on an April Fool’s prank, though.

Comment #4: Amanda Marcotte  on  11/19  at  09:04 PM

Sorry, yours doesn’t ring true. The deep gay self-loathing is usually buried deeper, and you used words that are polysyllabic, which would never happen. Keep trying, though!

Comment #5: Jeff Fecke  on  11/19  at  09:08 PM

It was hard.  The guy seems at times to be Stephen Colbert playing a wingnut:

The reason why we had more black supporters – that might surprise some of the people that we spoke to—if we go by your apparent ability to determine race

I mean, is that a direct echo of Colbert pretending he can’t tell what race people are because he’s “colorblind” or what?  Except this guy is dead serious.

Comment #6: Amanda Marcotte  on  11/19  at  09:13 PM

That was fantastic!

I have to admit that when I read the original last night, I was rolling on the floor laughing, though.  Ziegler really is a crazy man.  And the funny thing is, he probably got off the phone thinking that he completely owned that little girlie liberal pussy Nate Silver, when in truth, Nate completely punked him.  I have to give Nate a lot of props for staying completely composed and not exploding on the guy, but in truth, it wound up making Nate look about a million times better than that fucktard troglodyte Ziegler.

I can’t believe the delusional thinking going on among the wingnuterati since the election…

“We’ve got them exactly where we want them!”

Keep telling yourself that, chumps.  Whatever they can do to marginalize themselves even more than they already have, I wholeheartedly encourage.

Sarah Palin 2012?  I beg you, please, please, please nominate her to represent your party in 4 years.  Do it… you know you want to.  I welcome the opportunity for Obama to win an election that makes the Mondale ‘84 campaign look like a huge success in comparison to the GOP 2012 ticket.

Comment #7: DTG in STL  on  11/19  at  09:28 PM

The part where he tells Nate to fuck himself…did he really think Nate *wouldn’t* post that?  What a moron.

Comment #8: Ellid  on  11/19  at  09:35 PM

Well, when I first read your version I had skimmed the intro and so thought I was reading the real transcript. That it didn’t strike me as surprising makes me very very sad.

Comment #9: Andrew  on  11/19  at  09:37 PM

Well done, Amanda! The only thing that pushed my vote towards Ziegler is that he had that authentic angry white douchebag tone that made me think he was lovingly polishing his favorite assault weapon in preparation for taking out some uppity liberals while he gave the interview.

Comment #10: Slackajawea  on  11/19  at  09:44 PM

Wowface.  That guy is a lunatic.

Comment #11: LauraB  on  11/19  at  09:51 PM

I’m thinking Huffpo, BTW.

Comment #12: Roxanne  on  11/19  at  09:52 PM

Wow.  I read yours first, then went to 538.  Reading yours, I thought you were kinda overdoing it.  Then I went and read the original.  Actually, you were pretty restrained.

Comment #13: The Opoponax  on  11/19  at  09:53 PM

I think my favorite part of the Ziegler interview was the completely unearned tone of superiority.  He’s like the guy saying, “Well, duh, everyone knows that Procter & Gamble gives money to the Church of Satan!  What idiot doesn’t know that?”

Comment #14: Mnemosyne  on  11/19  at  09:53 PM

I like how Obama, in one day, has been accused as being a puppet of The International Jewry AND accused of being a secret “registered” Muslim. Within 24 hours.

Comment #15: Ben D.  on  11/19  at  09:55 PM

I dunno, Mnemo, it’s hard to top the fact that he called Silver a “pinhead” right to his face in the first 5 words of his answer to, like, the third question.  I thought he’d have to work his way up to that sort of thing.

Comment #16: The Opoponax  on  11/19  at  10:10 PM

Nate did yell at him, he just cut those bits out. He said so himself.

Comment #17: Erl  on  11/19  at  10:20 PM

Amanda, nice try, but you couldn’t possibly improve on the real thing. I bet this guy shit roofing nails when he saw the transcript on 538.

Comment #18: Bitter Scribe  on  11/19  at  10:39 PM

Welp, it was a tough call.  Naturally, I voted for Amanda even though her answers were more consistent and thoughtful.  I just liked all the dick references.

After reading here I went over to 538 and was surprised to discover that the parody was pretty damned close.

I mean, if you ask somebody to interview you knowing full well they will write up the results and then carry on that way…what did he hope to accomplish?  Did he think Nate wouldn’t have the guts to let him humiliate himself publicly?  WTF?

I can’t help but wonder how many more cretins like that are out there.

Comment #19: Caveat  on  11/19  at  10:49 PM

I think that douchebag was wasted when Silver interviewed him. I can’t imagine he’d talk like that any other way except if he was completely blitzed.

Comment #20: Ben D.  on  11/19  at  10:56 PM

OMG that man is off his ever-lovin’ rocker.

Comment #21: ol cranky  on  11/19  at  10:59 PM

I really, really, really don’t get the whole angry straight white dude self-pity thing.

I mean, really.  I just don’t get it.

And I say that as a straight white dude who generally only gets that angry when I see other straight white dudes like this Ziegler fool behaving like a petulant whiny shitsack crying “poor me!”

What’s more sad is the number of straight white dudes who buy into the completely unhinged and alternate universe myth that us straight white dudes suffer from (or have ever suffered from) any significant form of institutionalized oppression.

Comment #22: DTG in STL  on  11/19  at  11:27 PM

Did you secretly mate with JC Christian and produce a zygote-American love child?

Right up to the point where she ripped it with her bare hands from her body, cackling about Roe vs Wade, while it screamed and asked “mommy, why?” in a tiny breathy fetal-American voice.

It does make me think we should work on an April Fool’s prank, though.

It occurs to me that starting the rumor that Obama swore in using a copy of the Quran hidden in covers to make it look like the Bible could be amusing.  I bet we could get wingnuts to pick it up and run with it as a proven fact, too.

Comment #23: Phoenician in a time of Romans  on  11/19  at  11:33 PM

And I say that as a straight white dude who generally only gets that angry when I see other straight white dudes like this Ziegler fool behaving like a petulant whiny shitsack crying “poor me!”

Well, you haven’t been brainwashed by listening to hours and hours of talk radio/Fox News every day.

Comment #24: Ben D.  on  11/19  at  11:36 PM

Senator Eatadick is wrong, Amanda.  Just wrong.  If you weren’t such a pinhead peabrain pottymouth, you’d know for sure that it is Senator Heywood Jablome who holds that seat!

heh heh ... I said “holds that seat” heh heh

Comment #25: Ms Kate  on  11/19  at  11:38 PM

He did a nationwide survey of Obama supporters by interviewing twelve people from the same neighborhood?  I’m SO impressed!

He definitely wins the “bigger wingnut” contest but you did a really good job!

Comment #26: older  on  11/20  at  12:18 AM

What struck me the most was how many of Ziegler’s responses were almost content-free.  I think Amanda’s responses have too many ideas and pseudo-facts to be taken as authentic.
I also think that Ziegler is right to be pleased with his performance in that wingnuts will look at that interview and think Silver looks like the idiot and that Ziegler gave him a good thrashing.  They have totally different criteria from us.  Still, I can’t figure out what it is.  Anyone who agrees with what my sky-fairy says and my gut reactions to what is icky wins?  Is it that simple?

Comment #27: Katherine Eaton  on  11/20  at  12:19 AM

Amanda has, once again, won everything for all time. 

I saw Sean Hannity just now on Faux News (have to occasionally keep up on what the insane folks are swallowing) talking about this amazing new poll that was done, sanctioned by Zogby.  I was totally confused.  Then I skip over here, go to 538.com and find out this “poll” happened.  Really.  Hannity was having an on-air orgasm talking about how ill-informed Obama voters were.  Based on this Ziegler poll.  I am just…stunned.  I didn’t think it was possible for the stupid in this country to get any stupider.  But it did.

Superb job, Amanda.  You didn’t capture the entire crazy of the original, but damn.  You’d have to suck your brain in like a black hole for that to happen.

Comment #28: kac90b  on  11/20  at  12:20 AM

It occurs to me that starting the rumor that Obama swore in using a copy of the Quran hidden in covers to make it look like the Bible could be amusing.  I bet we could get wingnuts to pick it up and run with it as a proven fact, too.

That’s too easy. Half of them already believe that. You gotta push it harder.

“Sure, he had a Quran hidden in covers to make it look like a Bible. But you know what was hidden inside the cover of the Quran? The Satanic Bible. And inside that? A dead fetus.”

Drudge: “BREAKING! Obama swears into office on Muslim Satan Baby!”

Comment #29: Scott  on  11/20  at  12:32 AM

MAke fun of the poll all you want but its sadly true. Many, many Obama voters were totally uninformed as to what the hell they were voting for. If you know the facts about Obama and simply dismiss it than thats fine but the complete lack of knowledge of this mans history is astounding. I did my own informal survey of 3 family members who voted for Obama. They all knew nothing about where he stood on issues, his political history and troubled past. They just shrugged their shoulders and sort of followed the herd to “change”. As far as im concerned his election was a coup by the MSM. I think that in any election they should broadcast in prime time on all networks a 1 hr documantary on each candidate describing the good and the bad issues. And let the people make informed decisions. To say that McCain (who I dislike greatly for his near liberal views) had the same treatment from the mainstream press is beyond crazy. Its simply no contest. But hey, as Al Gores lawyers said when they got several Military ballots thrown out in Florida in 2000…. “A win is a win”

Comment #30: Casp  on  11/20  at  12:43 AM

Shorter Casp: I asked my family members if they realized Obama was black, and when they rolled their eyes at me, I knew they were stupid and ignorant.

Comment #31: Amanda Marcotte  on  11/20  at  12:50 AM

NS: Why would you commission a survey question with no correct response?
JZ: The purpose of the question, you pinhead, was we wanted to determine the Tina Fey Effect.

I can’t put my finger on it, but that response got the biggest chuckle.  I’m picturing him saying it in an excited voice whilst donning a lab coat.

Comment #32: Dan (Fitness)  on  11/20  at  12:56 AM

‘Liberal fucks like you would believe I know everything if you saw the contents of my mighty brain.’

Shit. I literally spat my drink all over my keyboard and screen at that answer. It was the ‘mighty brain’ bit that got me.

Comment #33: stealthy cat  on  11/20  at  12:57 AM

It is true that Sarah Palin never said she could “see Russia from her house”. She said she could see Russia from Alaska.

But guess what, wingnuts? Al Gore never said he “invented the internet” either, so suck it.

Comment #34: Ben D.  on  11/20  at  01:00 AM

When I read part of the Nate Silver transcript to my husband, I went all “Valley Girl” with Ziegler’s responses.  It was great.

MAke fun of the poll all you want but its sadly true. Many, many Obama voters were totally uninformed as to what the hell they were voting for.

Mebbe, but I doubt anyone “voting for Palin” (as opposed to for McCain, who actually headlined the ticket) could claim to have more knowledge than the average Obama voter. And what’s more, Ziegler isn’t the sort of mouth-piece I’d want speaking for me if I had a gripe about how ‘disinformation put Obama in the Whitehouse.’

Comment #35: The Devil's Advocate  on  11/20  at  01:51 AM

You came close, Amanda, a lot closer than I could have.  Maybe if you teamed up with Cobra Commander again you would get over the hump.

Comment #36: Notorious P.A.T.  on  11/20  at  02:40 AM

Casp, while your family loves you, they likely think you’re kind of a douche and roll their eyes whenever you go off on some tear about politics, spewing whatever you read on the Drudge Report this morning. I’m not telling you what to think or believe, but you should know that your family doesn’t take you seriously, and your disdain for them likely is unwarranted, because they’re willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.

Comment #37: Tyro  on  11/20  at  05:17 AM

Amanda, I’m sorry, but as hilarious as your answers are, it is objectively impossible to be funnier than the original interview.  My favorite part is Ziegler’s repeated insistence that Nate Silver will never have the balls to post the transcript.  He really seems to think that his repeated “fuck you"s and Palin-esque refusals to answer basic fact-checking questions represent a searing denunciation of liberal values that will rock the political world to its foundations if released.

About midway through I started to feel a little bad for him because he’s clearly not very bright and paranoid to the point of mental illness, but I got over it.

Comment #38: Shaenon  on  11/20  at  06:56 AM

Good god.

Comment #39: Lisa KS  on  11/20  at  08:09 AM

I love your writing Amanda, but I’m sorry I had to vote for Ziegler. This was funny as hell but reading that interview made me so angry I wanted to puke. Thanks for taking the edge off.

Comment #40: Elizabeth  on  11/20  at  09:11 AM

Ziegler is proof that all of the Right knew Palin was unqualified. The desperateness of Ziegler in his justifications makes reading between his lying self serving spin an art. It’s like the lying Bush adminsitration, or Palin lying or in general any GOP voter speaking.
As their house of deceitful cards comes tumbling down, all they can spew is hate and lies.
The era of fear and false patriotism, the era of small “c” christianity, the era of propaganda and spin is over. America has evolved beyond the tactics so belabored by the GOP as to now appear pathetic and outdated.
Ziegler isn’t nuts, crazy, or out of his mind. He knows exactly what he is trying to do; though he has become what he ridicules. He is a desperate idiot, an outdated pundit full of sound and fury.
What’s refreshing is, Americans recognize him for what he is.

Comment #41: Anthony Look  on  11/20  at  10:52 AM

Casp, very interesting how wingnuts think voters suddenly became stupid when they voted for a self-made black man with a solid educational background and passion for constitutional law?

All you need to see is a Palin rally where people with no grasp of what communism and “socielest” really mean chanting away. 

Not to say that there are NO dunderheaded Obama groupies ... just that if there are, they generally reflect the overall state of political discourse and understanding and education in the US.  If anything, the know-nothings on the right are to blame for this, and harbor the largest subset of all.  Just read some Joe Bageant sometime.

Comment #42: Ms Kate  on  11/20  at  11:31 AM

The sad part is that some of these answers are nearly verbatim.

And Zeigler by a mile.

Comment #43: Atheist Feminazi  on  11/20  at  12:54 PM

If you know the facts about Obama and simply dismiss it than thats fine but the complete lack of knowledge of this mans history is astounding.

So which history is that?  Is it the one where he was secretly born in Kenya and then smuggled into the US with a forged birth certificate?  And then he went to Columbia because that’s where his Marxist controller, Bill Ayers, was teaching?

There’s a reason your family isn’t listening to you—you’re ranting like a crazy man about bizarre conspiracy theories where Bill Ayers and Rev. Wright are puppetmasters and Barack Obama has no history and no legislative record.  Demanding that Obama “prove” things that are not only untrue but unprovable is one of the primary signs of paranoid delusion, you know. 

Those of us who actually looked into it instead of taking everything Sean Hannity said as gospel truth are laughing at you behind your back.

Enjoy Thanksgiving knowing that your family thinks you’re a joke.

Comment #44: Mnemosyne  on  11/20  at  12:56 PM

I mean, if you ask somebody to interview you knowing full well they will write up the results and then carry on that way…what did he hope to accomplish?  Did he think Nate wouldn’t have the guts to let him humiliate himself publicly?  WTF?

It might be that Ziegler had absolutely no strategy or plan in mind whatsoever, and just felt so full of rage that he could not help but yell insults while being inverviewed by a man who he saw as his enemy. I’ve been that angry before, but was never recorded. It’s not smart, but it’s reality.

Comment #45: atheist  on  11/20  at  02:06 PM

“Which of the four [candidates] said his policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry and make energy rates skyrocket?”

“Which of the four [candidates] started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground?”

“Which of the four [candidates] quit a previous campaign because of plagiarism?”

“Which of the four [candidates] won his first election by getting opponents kicked off the ballot?”

Hmm, these questions aren’t biased at all, but I have a few to contribute:

Which of the four candidates is a gigolo who married for money?

Which of the four candidates crashed five planes, recklessly caused a power outage in a foreign country, and used his familial connections to keep from getting drummed out of the navy for these incidents?

Which of the four candidates put unqualified friends from high school in top positions in government bureaucracy where said friends are pulling six-figure salaries?

Which of the four candidates took six years to complete a bachelor’s degree?

This is fun!

Comment #46: keshmeshi  on  11/20  at  02:28 PM

Ha. Ha. You think I’m crazy.  I know he was born in Hawaii.  Now whether or not Hawaiians born that year count as real citizens is still being investigated.

I love Amanda’s, just for this line alone.

@ keshmeshi, reminds me of the Bill Maher bit where he insisted stridently that a candidate’s color and background were off-limits and that just because one of the candidates had a pregnant high-school drop-out, shotgun-wedding daughter didn’t mean that ALL whites were that way.

I don’t like Maher, but I liked that.

Comment #47: Ellen  on  11/20  at  04:44 PM

Worth reading for those who haven’t seen it, David Foster Wallace’s profile of John Ziegler from the Atlantic: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200504/wallace

Comment #48: tps12  on  11/20  at  07:46 PM
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