Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin says he's unsure whether he'll vote for his party's leader, President Barack Obama, or the likely Republican nominee Mitt Romney.
In a statement Friday, the West Virginia lawmaker said he had "some real differences" with both leaders, finding fault with Obama's energy and economic policies while questioning whether Romney could understand the challenges facing ordinary people.
"I strongly believe that every American should always be rooting for our president to do well, no matter which political party that he or she might belong to," Manchin said. "With that being said, many West Virginians believe the last 3 1/2 years haven't been good for us, but we're hopeful that they can get better."
With all due respect, Sen. Manchin, bite me. You think things will be better with a Republican president for West Virginians? Who in the hell made the economy bad? Just because your state is still economically dependent upon a environmentally catastrophic industry, you have second thoughts about supporting the head of your party? Do you think that cutting benefits for the economically disadvantaged (rising dramatically in your state) as Romney and his Ayn Rand pin up boy have promised to do will be better than Obama's admittedly slow (and stymied) economic growth? And let's not even consider the horror that would be Romney's Supreme Court appointees. John Cole:
No one could have predicted.
Either Manchin has some very interesting polling internals that none of us are privy to, or his staff is just in over their heads and giving him bad advice. This is bush league stuff, and it has been since day one, when he told us that he needed to tour the state to find out what his constituents think about DADT. Apparently there was not ample time in the two terms he served as Governor to learn that. Once he had his listening tour and learned what his constituents thought, he promptly skipped the vote on DADT and the Dream Act and went partying in the country with his grandchildren. WHO IS ADVISING THIS GUY? Then later on, he advances the Blunt amendment, allegedly to promote religious freedom, while blissfully unaware that the Amendment wouldn’t advance religious freedom, it was a backdoor attempt at gutting ACA by allowing employers to deny coverage of anything they didn’t like for any reason whatsoever. Fortunately, the rest of the Democratic caucus is not brain-dead, so that amendment failed.
Then we get to this latest idiocy, which is yet another self-inflicted wound. It was obvious to anyone with an IQ over room temperature that the remarks about Obama would be used as a cudgel against both Manchin and Obama. This is a GOP strategists wet dream.
Enough is enough. Harry Reid needs to show us some of that alleged toughness and get control of his caucus. If Manchin is going to undermine the upcoming election with all that is at stake, then damnit, kick him the hell out.
