Archive
Mudline Archive
STICKS, STONES, BROKEN BONES
During the 2000 Bush-Gore presidential race, we began collecting negative soundbites and posting them weekly on a MUDLINE ticker, as a temporary election feature. But in the aftermath of that tumultuous contest we realized that the tone of public discourse was unlikely to improve, and elected to continue the feature. Unfortunately, we were right; two decades later, incivility is hotter than ever. If you just can’t get enough snark on social media, this mud’s for you.
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October 18, 2012
Romney on Obama: "Has failed America's women."....Obama on Romney-Ryan: "Their ideas are old, and their ideas are bad."....Former NH Gov. John Sununu on Obama: "Not that bright."....Martin Bashir on Romney: "Lying on the facts and exploiting the dead."....Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson on Romney: "Wacky nuts...Without one molecule of brain."....Washington Times on WI Senate candidate Tammy Baldwin: "Consistently assaults our Judeo-Christian heritage...Barney Frank in a dress."....Keith Ablow of Fox News on Biden in debate: "Speaking as a psychiatrist...you have to put dementia on the differential diagnosis."....Jonathan Alter tweeting second debate: "Is it just me, or does Romney seem like an asshole tonight?"....Saudi Arabia government-printed eighth-grade textbook: "The Apes are the people of the Sabbath, the Jews; and the Swine are the infidels of the communion of Jesus, the Christians.".... -
October 12, 2012
Brit Hume on Biden: "Looked like a cranky old man."....Tom Giovanetti on Biden: "Came across as almost bipolar."....Dick Morris on Biden: "Windbag...Demagogue...Brawler...Far more likely to be a longshoreman than a president."....Joan Walsh: "[Biden] made Ryan look like he was trying out for the college debate team."....Richard Cohen on Ryan: "[Seemed like] one of those plastic guys with red ties and an updated version of Brylcreem...in his hair."....Kos on Ryan: "Roadkill."....Charles Pierce: "You know what's the difference between Sarah Palin and Paul Ryan? Lipstick."....Noam Scheiber on GOP: "Has completely lost its marbles, having turned into a collection of anti-tax jihadis bent on the upward redistribution of wealth."....Ralph Reed: "Our political system has been corrupted by Leftist politicians using your tax money to buy voters."....Spanish government official Jose Manuel Castelao Bragnano: "Laws are like women, they're there to be raped.".... -
October 4, 2012
Debbie Wasserman Schultz on Romney: "Repeatedly and blatantly lied to the American people."....Chris Matthews: "Where was Obama tonight?"....Obama on debate Romney: "Doesn't want to be held accountable for the real Mitt Romney."....Howard Fineman on debate moderator Jim Lehrer: "Practically useless...Criminal negligence."....Al Roker: "I hope Jim Lehrer gets the license plate of the truck that drove over him."....John Podhoretz on Lehrer: "May be the worst moderator in the history of moderation."....Rudy Giuliani on Obama: “Looked like he was looking for his teleprompter.”….Rush Limbaugh on Obama: "He's not prepared to be president. He was never qualified to be president...He's not that smart. He is a total creature of media manufacture. He's not real."....Mark Hemingway: "Mitt Romney just took Obama for a cross country drive strapped to the roof of his car.".... -
October 3, 2012
Tucker Carlson on Obama: "This guy is whipping up race hatred and fear."....Conor Friedersdorf on Carlson: "When it comes to racial demagoguery, the right has become everything it says it hates about the left."....Andrew Sullivan on Carlson: "He is a story in one person of how degenerate and disgusting much of American 'conservatism' has become."....Ryan on Obama: "Trying to confuse the issue..trying to distort our positions...trying to distract people."....Ralph Reed on Obama: "Wants every American dependent on government for their health care [and] their food, housing, and even transportation."....Madeleine Albright on Romney: "He is so two-dimensional. I mean, up close and personal, there's just nothing going on."....Clinton on Romney: "The guy with a tax account in the Cayman Islands is attacking other people for not wanting to pay income tax?".... -
September 28, 2012
Ralph Nader on 2012 campaign: "We're dealing with a real sick, decaying Democratic Party that can't defend the country against the cruelest, most ignorant, most anti-worker, most war-mongering, most Wall Street-indentured Republican Party in its history, since the 1850s."....Sen. Claire McCaskill on Rep. Todd Akin: "Makes Michele Bachmann look like a hippie."....Cherokee Nation principal chief Bill John Baker on Scott Brown staffers' war whoops and tomahawk chops: "Offensive and downright racist."....Karl Rove on Obama: "Doesn't shoot straight because he can't defend his record."....Dick Morris on Libya attack: "This is what happens when you have a weak presidency."....Michael Tomasky on Dick Morris: "Sits there on the Fox set like a betumored walrus on an ice floe assuring his viewers not to worry."....Samuel L. Jackson in ad aimed at inactive Obama supporters: "Wake the f**k up!"....Ann Coulter: "I don't think that liberals ever cared about black people."....Former NH Gov. John Sununu on Obama: "Absolutely lazy and detached from his job."....Michelle Goldberg on Dinesh D'Souza's new book: "Shows that a writer once considered a legitimate conservative intellectual has been reduced to sputtering 'yo mama' at our president."....