election-2012

Giving the Elephant a Pink Manicure: A Night Out With Mindy Meyer, the Internet's Candidate for Senate

Camille Dodero · 10/17/12 05:23PM

On Monday night, Mindy Meyer, the 22-year-old New York state senate candidate with a very pink website, hosted her first political fundraiser at Long Island's expansive Inwood Country Club. "It's a pink tie affair!" cried the conservative campaign's invitation to the $500-a-plate dinner a few weeks back. "Come rub elbowes [sic] with politicians and members of the press." By last Thursday, though, Mindy's Twitter account offered a kind of clearance special: $150 for dinner and a "mind blowing surprise!"

The Real Issue Is That Binders Are Fucking Terrible

Drew Magary · 10/17/12 01:40PM

I'd like to thank presidential candidate Mitt Romney for taking a moment last night to raise binder awareness. But while most of the Internet is occupied today with the women Mitt is putting in those binders and how those women got into his binders to begin with, I think we need to step back for a moment and talk about a larger issue surrounding binders. And that is that they are fucking terrible.

'It Felt Like [Mitt Romney] Was Staring Into My Soul': The Post-Debate Musings of Jeremy Epstein

Robert Kessler · 10/17/12 11:50AM

America's newest sweetheart and undeniable debate-winner Jeremy Epstein joined Chuck Todd on MSNBC this morning to share his experience at last night's town hall debate. Epstein described the question selection process, explaining that each audience member submit four questions, and was given one back, but no one knew for certain they would be called upon.

Last Night's Debate in Under Two Minutes: An Interrupting Competition with 'Binders Full of Women'

Kate Bennert · 10/17/12 10:50AM

As can be gleamed from the various pop-up parody twitter accounts and tumblrs, the second presidential debate was predictably a perfect target for internet meme makers, which in this day and age is what one might call "a success." When the candidates weren't too busy talking over each other, Mitt Romney was making weird, unsupported claims about women and binders and both President Obama and Candy Crowley were providing live fact checking services for the entire evening. It goes to show that the purpose of any given presidential debate is really just to remove the context from stupid things the candidates say and preserve them on the internet forever.

Robot-Human Charisma Wars: The Second Gawker 2012 Presidential Debate Liveblog

Hamilton Nolan · 10/16/12 07:50PM

For what seems like the second time in the last thirteen days, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney will stride on stage tonight and pretend, for a few moments, to not be sickened by one another's presence. Can Obama "recover" from his "poor performance" in the last debate? Can Romney convince "swing voters" that he is "more than a Mormon robot?" The estimable Mobutu Sese Seko and I will be live blogging this debate in order to, uh, help answer these questions, and to perform other vital unspecified pundit services.

Jon Stewart Reacts to Fox's Many Attempts to Spin VP Debate In Ryan's Favor

Kate Bennert · 10/16/12 12:30PM

After mocking MSNBC's now infamous freakout over Obama's first debate performance, Jon Stewart turned the spotlight on Fox's latest attempts to spin the debate in Ryan's favor. Across the board, Fox News made some expected accusations: Biden's laughing was "hostile, aggressive, scornful"; some not so expected accusations: "Dementia"; and, of course, some all together laughable accusations courtesy of "Eskimo Annie Oakley" Sarah Palin: Biden "reminded me of a muskox running across the tundra with Ryan and [Raddatz] underfoot."

Who's Predicting This Year's Post-Election Riots?

Mallory Ortberg · 10/14/12 04:52PM

A lot of people, it turns out. America's 236-year streak of successful, peaceful transitions of power from one administration to the next is about to be broken, because come Election Day 2012, no matter who wins, this country is going to break out into Riot City.

Paul Ryan Doesn't Have Time to Explain a 20 Percent Tax Cut, But if He Did It Would Take 18 Seconds

Robert Kessler · 10/12/12 11:15AM

At last night's debate, Martha Raddatz asked Paul Ryan to specifically lay out how he and Mitt Romney intend to lower all Americans' tax rates by 20 percent. This tax cut has been a major part of the Romney/Ryan campaign, but both have been incredibly vague about how they can cut the nation's tax revenue without increasing its deficit. Paul Ryan famously told Fox News' Chris Wallace he "[didn't] have the [time]" because it "would take [him] too long to go through all of the math."