Mitt Romney

Memo To The Romney Campaign: At Long Last Have You No Decency?

Posted by on July 17, 2012 at 4:32 pm. 15 Comments :

The campaign of Mitt Romney is so plainly in panic mode that they are resorting to the most despicable brand of insults imaginable. It is an affirmation of just how desperate they are to evade reasonable questions about Romney’s dubious past.

John Sununu, a top Romney surrogate, has been making the media rounds this week and distinguishing himself as, perhaps, the worst spokesman of all time. And bear in mind that Sununu is not some amateur, Tea Party, political neophyte who is unfamiliar with the media. He is the former governor of New Hampshire and was the Chief of Staff to President George H. W. Bush. So it was no mistake of inexperience that last week he charged, with no evidence whatsoever, that “This is a president who wallowed in Chicago in the murky soup of politics/felons.”

Apparently that baseless smear was not sufficient to rescue Romney from the teetering precipice of his own ineptitude. So today Sununu escalated his unhinged assault by calling President Obama a pot smoking, Indonesian, socialist. No, really…

“[Obama] spent his early years in Hawaii smoking something, spent the next set of years in Indonesia, another set of years in Indonesia, and, frankly, when he came to the U.S. he worked as a community organizer, which is a socialized structure.”

And Sununu wasn’t through. Later he added that “I wish this president would learn how to be an American.”

These are the sort of immature invectives that characterize the ultra-rightist operatives of the John Birch Society, the Tea Party, and the Ku Klux Klan. Yet they are emanating from the severely pursed lips of an establishment Republican speaking on behalf of the GOP nominee for president. It is an abhorrent display of racism and unpatriotic vilification.

Mitt Romney has a lot for which to answer. His latest explanation for the discrepancy in his Bain Capital tenure is that he had “retired retroactively.” His response to those seeking his tax returns is that “Those are the two years people are going to have, and that’s all that’s necessary for people to understand something about my finances.” In his arrogance he believes that he can stonewall the American people and still get their votes.

Another Romney surrogate also spoke out today. John McCain made a statement in response to a flurry of Internet insinuations that he had selected Sarah Palin after having seen 23 years of Romney’s tax returns. McCain shot down that talk and insisted that the real reason was because “we thought that Sarah Palin was the better candidate.” Um, that actually makes it worse, John.

Meanwhile, Romney spent yesterday at fundraisers in Mississippi where he sought to portray the GOP (Greedy One Percent) as the party of the people. At the River Hills Country Club, where he raised $1.7 million dollars at $50,000 per head, Romney said…

“We’re accused of being the party of the rich. And it’s an awful moniker, because that’s just not true. We’re the party of people who want to get rich. And we’re also the party of people who want to care to help people from getting poor. We want to help the poor.”

Indeed. What an awful moniker. And I’m sure the folks who shelled out fifty grand to hear this tripe were just the sort to “care to help people from getting poor.” No doubt they were well aware that Romney’s tax plan would benefit the wealthy far in excess of any relief the middle class would ever see.

Sununu’s virulent attack on Obama is not only repulsive, it is utterly devoid of logic or facts. No Republican has yet been able to explain how Obama could be such a committed commie subversive and still have provided over an economy that has seen corporations achieve record-breaking profits and a stock market that has soared 55 percent. And if it weren’t for obstructionists in Congress, Obama’s jobs initiatives would have produced millions of new jobs. All of this from a president who Republicans say is anti-business and hates Wall Street. Just this afternoon Romney delivered a speech wherein he charged that Obama is “crushing economic freedom” and “wants Americans to be ashamed of success.” Two more delusional, and unsupported allegations that are debunked by reality.

The desperation of the Romney camp is boiling over with these latest shots by Romney and Sununu. While Obama’s team has merely been citing media generated stories about factual inconsistencies in Romney’s resume and his obsessive secrecy. You don’t see the Obama campaign bringing up the fact that Romney is a war mongering draft-dodger. You don’t see them harping on the fact that Romney flipped his position on choice after telling a harrowing tale of a tragic back alley abortion that resulted in his taking a position from which he said he would never waver.

However, you do see the Romney campaign descending to ethical depths from which they may never be able to surface. When a candidate resorts to these sort of tactics before he is even officially the nominee, it is a virtual concession of defeat. He doesn’t believe he can win fairly with a campaign based on substance and a dedication to the issues about which voters are concerned. And when these tactics are employed this early you can only expect things to get worse as election day nears.

The problem for Romney is, how much lower can he go? I suppose that he could still select Allen West as a running mate. Or Ted Nugent. Or maybe Ronald Reagan’s ghost (the first Zombie-American candidate). He could accuse Obama of having been brainwashed by Islamic extremists in his youth and is a walking time-bomb set to go off after his reelection (I think Breitbart and Beck have already visited this nightmare). Or he could tap Palin and reprise the “palling around with terrorists” theme. That was never really played to its full potential.

I better stop there. I don’t want to give the Romney campaign any ideas. In their condition, these might actually sound good.

The Swiss Boating Of Mitt Romney: A CNN Fable

Posted by on July 17, 2012 at 10:50 am. 9 Comments :

When you hear the right complain, as they always do, about the so-called liberal media, keep in mind the fact that Fox News is the most watched cable news network, that the Wall Street Journal is the largest national newspaper, that talk radio is dominated by conservatives, and that the Internet’s most referenced site belongs to Matt Drudge. What exactly do they think the media is?

Add to that the fact that many establishment news providers bend over backwards to avoid being targeted by conservative critics for having a liberal bias. Or worse, they strive to emulate the right-wing media in hopes of duplicating their perceived success.

CNN is the worst offender in this contest of running to the right. Their aggressive shift in ideology has been well documented. They have hired numerous far-right extremists with no effort to achieve any sort of balance. And that includes the news chief, Ken Jautz. Consequently, their ratings have collapsed along with their journalistic integrity.

Swiss MittThis past weekend CNN broadcast another example of how their sinking ethics have impacted their news judgment. The segment by Tom Foreman was centered on the absurd premise that the Obama campaign has engaged in “Swiftboating” Mitt Romney by accurately questioning his business experience, his millions of dollars in off-shore tax havens, and his refusal to release more than a year or two of his tax returns. Foreman concludes his report saying…

Tom Foreman: In ad after ad, Democrats are suggesting that Romney is a fatcat job outsourcer, an opportunistic financial predator, and an elitist out of touch with the working class. Never mind that many of those claims appear to be backed with little or no evidence. […] Some Republican analysts fear that Mitt Romney could be the second politician from Massachusetts to be Swiftboated out of the presidency.

The problem with Foreman’s conclusion is that there is abundant evidence of the claims made in the Obama ads. And the questions they raise are those that would require answers from any political candidate. Who could deny that Romney is a fatcat? The job outsourcing by Bain entities is not even denied by Romney. He just argues that he wasn’t there at the time (despite official SEC filings that contradict him). And how could someone be more out of touch than by saying that he likes to fire people, he’s not concerned about the poor, and that corporations are people?

Foreman was not alone in raising the specter of Swiftboating on CNN. Reporter Jim Acosta misused the term when he interviewed Mitt Romney on Friday asking him whether he thought he was being Swiftboated. Talk about your softball questions. And media analyst Howard Kurtz also misused the term while promoting his Sunday program Reliable Sources. He was acutely concerned about Romney’s welfare under the intense pressure he must be suffering.

Howard Kurtz: I’ve been increasingly worried about whether the media that have been pushing a lot of these stories, “Boston Globe”, “Washington Post” on outsourcing, “Vanity Fair” on Cayman Island accounts, seem to some people to be echoing the message of the Obama campaign by raising so many questions about Romney’s business background.

Apparently Kurtz is of the opinion that if a story is getting a lot of attention the reporters should immediately stop covering it for fear of overtaxing the beleaguered subject of the story and to avoid charges of bias by “some people” on the receiving end of the bad news. How very considerate of him.

For the record, Swiftboating is a term that describes a campaign to disparage a candidate’s strengths that is based on falsehoods and lacks evidence. It is wholly improper to use the term simply to denounce ads that are critical of a candidate. Criticism that is rooted in the truth, with evidence to back it up, is not Swiftboating in any way shape or form. In fact, refraining from such relevant criticism would be campaign malpractice.

Asking Romney to account for his activities in business, which is the core of his campaign, is fair game. So is asking him to release tax returns as almost every candidate in modern times does – since his own father set the standard back in 1968. But suggesting that news coverage of such issues is Swiftboating, as CNN has done three times in as many days, is proof that the network has lost all interest in being a professional news enterprise.

Running Cover For Mitt Romney: Fox News Comes To The Rescue

Posted by on July 16, 2012 at 5:59 pm. 3 Comments :

So what’s a Republican presidential candidate to do when he’s asked too many questions for which he has no answers (or for which the answers are too damaging)? Run to Fox News, of course.

Mitt Romney has absolutely no coherent response to the criticisms he is fielding on his tenure at Bain Capital. Nor can he answer credibly why he won’t release his tax returns. So he is relying on Fox News to fill the void by diverting attention to anything else in the hopes of changing the subject.

The diversion that Fox appears to have selected on is a snippet of a speech wherein President Obama addressed the collective value of a nation united to advance prosperity for all. The soundbite was edited to include only a small and misleading segment of the speech so as to make Obama look as if he were dismissive of the hard work done by entrepreneurs. The part that Fox has been running in an endless loop says:

“If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”

What the President actually said in the full context was:

“If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.

“The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together. There are some things, just like fighting fires, we don’t do on our own. I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service. That would be a hard way to organize fighting fires.

“So we say to ourselves, ever since the founding of this country, you know what, there are some things we do better together. That’s how we funded the GI Bill. That’s how we created the middle class. That’s how we built the Golden Gate Bridge or the Hoover Dam. That’s how we invented the Internet. That’s how we sent a man to the moon. We rise or fall together as one nation and as one people, and that’s the reason I’m running for President — because I still believe in that idea. You’re not on your own, we’re in this together.”

That was a pretty explicit endorsement of both personal initiative and community strength. But the memo obviously went out at Fox headquarters advising everyone to get on board this story and distort it beyond all recognition. The theme that was regurgitated throughout the Fox universe was that the President had insulted small business owners. It was broadcast by Fox & Friends, Megyn Kelly, Neil Cavuto, and The Five. It was published on Fox Nation and Fox News online. It was also picked up by Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the Right-Wing Noise Machine. Shortly thereafter the Romney campaign itself picked up the baton and ran with it in an email statement:

“They are also insulting to the hardworking entrepreneurs, small-business owners, and job creators who are the backbone of our economy.”

The only way that anyone could arrive at that conclusion is if they were determined to be dishonest in their representation of the President’s remarks. So it isn’t surprising that Romney’s camp released this statement. They are notorious for their aversion to the truth.

In addition to the “insult” meme, Romney also launched a diversionary attack that accused Obama of funneling public money to his political allies and campaign contributors. Part of this attack was in the form of a web video that mocked Obama’s singing of “Let’s Stay Together.” However, that video has already been removed by YouTube due to copyright violations. This is what Romney told the kiddie crew at Fox & Friends:

“When billions upon billions are given by the Obama administration to the businesses of campaign contributors, that’s a real problem. […] If you’re a campaign contractor to Barack Obama, your business may stand to get billions or hundreds of million in cash from the government. I think it’s wrong – stinks to high heaven and I think the administration has to explain how it is they would consider giving money to campaign contributors’ businesses.”

There are two glaring problems with that critique. First, Romney provided no proof whatsoever – not even an example that had any evidence attached to it. It was a blunt force assault with nothing behind it of substance. And we can expect more of this garbage. Romney has been sending out surrogates like John Sununu to smear Obama for associations with Chicago corruption – also without proof. Secondly, For Romney to complain about Obama padding the pockets of his donors is an odd line of attack because at least Obama reveals who his donors are. Romney has steadfastly refused to identify the bundlers working for his campaign who are responsible for raising the bulk of his funds.

Furthermore, much of the Romney election effort is managed by outside Super PACS, who also withhold donor information. Mitt Romney is running perhaps the most secretive campaign in history. We don’t know who’s bankrolling it. We don’t know what is in his tax returns. We don’t know what role he played at Bain Capital. We don’t know how much cash he had stashed in off-shore bank accounts. Worst, of all, we don’t have any idea what his plans are for resolving the nation’s problems.

Romney operates his campaign like an organized crime syndicate, insisting that everything is above board, but never letting anyone close enough to see where the bodies are buried. Just today a news report revealed that one of Romney’s biggest contributors is under investigation for ties to Chinese mobsters. And Romney has the gall to challenge Obama’s donors?

Romney should immediately disclose who his donors are. Then we can have a discussion. But he is unlikely to do so because it would probably be more damaging to his candidacy than keeping them secret. He’s clearly got something he is intent on hiding. But he is fortunate that he has Fox News to run interference for him and create diversions when necessary.

Mitt Romney: Stop Asking Me So Many Darn Questions For Pete’s Sake

Posted by on July 16, 2012 at 1:22 pm. 1 Comments :

Is Mitt Romney cracking under the pressure? As the election season heats up Romney is finding himself in the crosshairs of both his friends and enemies alike. President Obama thinks the American people are entitled to know what Romney was doing at Bain Capital, and when he was doing it. Conservatives like George Will and Bill Kristol think he needs to release several years of his tax returns, and do it quickly. But Romney doesn’t believe that someone of his status should be called to account for his record.

Ask Mitt Anything

With regard to questions about Bain Capital Romney says that “It’s ridiculous and of course beneath the dignity of the presidency and of his campaign. He really needs to rein in his team and to finally take responsibility for what they’re saying.”

With regard to questions about his tax returns Romney says that “We’re putting out what is required, plus more that’s not required. Those are the two years people are going to have, and that’s all that’s necessary for people to understand something about my finances.”

Damn. He’s only running for president. Why should he be forced to suffer the indignity of defending his qualifications and experience for the job? It’s not as if the President ever had to face embarrassing inquiries into his past. Unless you count Rev. Wright, birth certificates, drug use, palling around with terrorists, and accusations of being both a godless socialist and a secret Muslim.

Republicans once mocked Obama for avoiding encounters with Fox News. They said that he could not face up to Osama Bin Laden if he couldn’t face up to Bill O’Reilly. They might want to check with Bin Laden on how that worked out (or O’Reilly, for that matter). However, the same Republicans never criticize Romney for limiting his media appearances to only Fox News. It wasn’t until the Bain controversy that he scheduled a few very brief interviews with an array of media. And even then his message was that they ought to stop asking him so many questions about things he wants to sweep under the rug.

For a cdandidate who once held town halls where he specifically invited people to “Ask Mitt Anything,” he is sure dead set against giving any answers.

Mitt Romney Goes Back To The Future: Retired #Retroactively

Posted by on July 15, 2012 at 4:24 pm. 4 Comments :

While grasping for justifications to explain his mysterious absence from Bain Capital, Mitt Romney has proven once again that reality surpasses satire.

Mitt Romney - Retired Retroactively

Romney spent Friday afternoon in a peculiar sort of speed-dating ritual with the media, giving five short interviews to five networks all asking the same question: Were you, or were you not, running the company that you said you were running? It apparently was insufficient to quell the controversy because today Romney sent his surrogates around to the Sunday news programs to tell the same story. And what a story it was.

Top campaign adviser Ed Gillespie took the lead. But during his segment with David Gregory of Meet the Press, Gillespie may have helped to erase the memory of the Etch-a-Sketch debacle launched by another Romney adviser a few weeks ago:

GREGORY: He was still financially linked to Bain. And of course, a lot his fortune is due to his time with Bain. Even when he was on leave, does he stand by the business decisions that were made by the firm he created?

That’s actually a good question. While much of the press has been focused on whether or not Romney maintained an active role at Bain from 1999 to 2002, the years when many controversial activities resulted in shuttered factories and jobs exported overseas, no one has yet asked whether Romney approved of the decisions that were made by the people he says he left behind to run his business. But Gillespie dodged the question and instead dropped this nugget that will very likely make him famous:

GILLESPIE: He actually retired retroactively at that point. He ended up not going back to the firm after his time in Salt Lake City. So he was actually retired from Bain.

Retired retroactively? You can do that? Needless to say, that tortured phraseology quickly became a trending topic on Twitter. A couple of my own contributions:

And lest anyone think that Gillespie misspoke, he repeated almost verbatim the same excuse when he appeared on CNN’s State of the Nation with Candy Crowley:

GILLESPIE: He took a leave of absence and in fact, Candy, ended up not going back at all and retired retroactively to February 1999 as a result.

So there you have it. Despite all of the evidence that Romney was still in charge of Bain while he was supposedly working at the Olympics, he was actually retired. It’s just that neither he, nor anyone else, knew it at the time.

We still haven’t got an answer as to whether he approved of the direction Bain had taken in his “absence,” but he is sure running away from it as though there were something about it for which he would be sorely ashamed. We also don’t know whether he retroactively reimbursed Bain for the hundreds of thousands of dollars he collected in salary during the time he was retroactively retired.

I sure wish I could not show up for work for three years, collect a hefty paycheck the whole time, then tell them I decided not to come back. But I guess that’s the difference between people like Romney and the rest of us. The privileged classes get to make up their own rules, and when those don’t suffice, they just make up new ones. Sweet!

Fox News Spinner Michelle Malkin: Bosses Rule, Workers Drool

Posted by on July 14, 2012 at 4:33 pm. 1 Comments :

Mitt Romney’s Tour of Whine Country continues today as the furor over his dishonest characterization of his Bain Capital tenure shows no signs of letting up.

Michelle MalkinFox & Friends, as usual, embarked on a full-throated defense of Romney. They brought in right-wing fabulist Michelle Malkin to buttress their case against President Obama. But Malkin actually blew up her own camp with what she obviously thought was a cutesy distinction between the supporters of Romney and those of Obama:

“The Romney types, of course, are the ones who sign the front of the paycheck, and the Obama types are the ones who have spent their entire lives signing the back of them.”

Malkin is quite right. Romney’s supporters are the bosses – the industrialists, financiers, and elitist upper-crusters. Obama is supported by the vast majority of people who work for a living, who Malkin has just grievously insulted. Everyone in America who gets a paycheck – even those who lean Republican – should be outraged at this comment implying that they are unfit to serve their country.

Malkin’s remarks are not a gaffe. They are an inadvertent eruption of truth-telling. They reveal the aversion that the right has for those they regard as commoners. The little people disgust them. They get in the way of their tax cuts and subsidies, while burdening them with selfish appeals for health care, education, safe workplaces, and a clean, sustainable environment. That’s why people like Romney resort to spewing their pseudo-patriotism, even while they exhibit an overt preference for third world nations whose laws permit them to horde more wealth and whose people are easier to exploit.

However, if you’re running for president you would be a fool to choose the few bosses over the tens of millions of workers who make up the electorate. True, the bosses have abundant wealth with which they can try to deceive the people, but the aggregate wealth of the masses, plus their indomitable will, makes betting against them a risky proposition. But that’s the bet Romney has made, and it’s why he is going to lose. Especially if his surrogates keep exposing their true feelings as Malkin did today.

Mitt Romney Takes A Trip Through Whine Country

Posted by on July 14, 2012 at 11:17 am. 2 Comments :

So what does it take for Mitt Romney to finally agree to spend a couple of minutes answering questions from the media (other than Fox News)? Apparently all it takes is an avalanche of bad press about his self-contradictory explanations about his tenure at Bain Capital.

Romney has had only a handful of interviews with non-Fox reporters in this election cycle. He evaded appearances on the Sunday news programs for an unprecedented 20 months. But yesterday, in order to respond to allegations concerning his management of Bain Capital while it was engaging in business that sent American jobs overseas, Romney held a sort of speed-dating event with five news networks. And the whole blitz amounted to nothing more than an “apology tour,” except that it was Romney insisting that he be the recipient of the regrets. The whining spanned the media spectrum:

FOX: “He really needs to reign in his team and finally take responsibility for what they’re saying.”

CNN: “It’s something which I think the president should take responsibility for and stop.”

ABC: “He sure as heck ought to say that he’s sorry for the kinds of attacks that are coming from his team.”

CBS: “He ought to apologize for what he’s doing.”

NBC: “The president’s campaign has been I think outrageous I think in making the charges they have.”

Poor fella. Sort of makes you want to pat him on the head and tell him everything will be alright. Except that, unless he shows some integrity and comes clean about his past, this isn’t going away. And for his part, President Obama is not wavering from his insistence that Romney level with the American people.

Obama - No Apology

Romney’s transparent evasions do nothing to instill confidence in him as a leader. And his continued refusal to release more than a year or two of tax returns doesn’t help either. His arrogance, and an attitude that implies that he’s not subject to the scrutiny that commoners must bear, make thngs even worse. Yesterday he said…

“We’re putting out what is required, plus more that’s not required. Those are the two years people are going to have, and that’s all that’s necessary for people to understand something about my finances.”

Translation: So take or leave it, you squawking peasants. I’m not telling you any more than I feel like. There’s nothing you can do about it. And you’ll see nothing at all from the years that I am making the centerpiece of my candidacy. So shut up and let me get back to my dancing horses and car elevators.

Full Panic Mode: Mitt Romney Is Showing Desperation Re: Bain, Taxes

Posted by on July 13, 2012 at 3:55 pm. 1 Comments :

This past week has seen a flurry of reporting about Mitt Romney’s lack of candor with regard to his tenure at Bain Capitol. First he says that he retired in 1999. Then, when SEC documents prove that he claimed to be in charge through 2001, he says he was merely on a leave of absence. Then more evidence reveals that he gave sworn testimony that, while he was running the Olympics, he was still making trips and decisions at Bain. Finally, his campaign released a statement that insists that he had “absolutely no involvement” with Bain after 1999, and dismisses the documents that contradict that saying…

“Due to the sudden nature of Mr. Romney’s departure, he remained the sole stockholder for a time while formal ownership was being documented and transferred to the group of partners who took over management of the firm in 1999.”

For a time? There is no justification for such a transfer to result in failing to properly report the firm’s management for three years. It would only take a simple amendment to a previous filing to alert the SEC of a management change. The only plausible explanations for not doing so for three years are either neglect or deceit (neither of which are particularly attractive traits in a presidential candidate). During that prolonged period of time, companies considering doing business with Bain would have been materially misled had they relied on the representations in the SEC filings. In many cases businesses consummate transactions based on the perceived reputation of the managers. An associate who concluded any business with Bain during this time might be dismayed to learn now that the assurances given him as to who was in charge were false. That could make Bain and Romney liable for damages in any deals that went south.

No wonder Romney refuses to disclose his taxes the way almost every other presidential candidate has since his father set the standard some 40 years ago. So what has Romney decided to in response to this hail of bad publicity?

First he floats the name of Condoleeza Rice as a potential pick for his running mate. I’m going on record here as saying that the chances of that happening are less than zero. Rice has been adamant about her aversion to politics and has declared unambiguously that she would not take a spot on the ticket. What’s more, her selection would infuriate Romney’s pro-life base. But this discussion fueled by a ridiculous post on the Drudge Report is Romney’s way of diverting attention from his many financial woes, and also his embarrassing performance at the NAACP conference. Fox News came to the rescue on this by promoting the Rice speculation, including a particularly absurd segment on Your World with Neil Cavuto:

Cavuto: Word is that former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice is not only on Gov. Mitt Romney’s veepstakes list, she’s on top of it for now. And considering that she’s not the only Bush cabinet official on it, maybe the Bush stigma is over. To Gov. Mike Huckabee on a list that he’s actually rumored to be on himself. What do you think of this?
Huckabee: Personally, I really don’t think there’s that much of a Bush stigma going into this election because people want to defeat Barack Obama. I think that George W. Bush, were he on the ticket, would win the election this year. And he certainly would have the enthusiastic support of Republicans. […]
Cavuto: But Condoleeza Rice is attached to one of the more controversial, to put it mildly, the whole Iraq war.

Wow! They really have some chutzpah to assert that there is no Bush stigma. But to go even further and declare that Bush could actually win an election is bordering on derangement. Especially when Cavuto himself notes that Rice is stigmatized by her connection to the Iraq debacle, but he doesn’t seem to place any responsibility for that on Bush. I repeat…Wow!

Following the Rice diversion, Romney has scheduled a series of news interviews with five news networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, AND Fox) for tonight. With the exception of Fox, this is an almost newsworthy announcement on its own. Romney has permitted only a handful of interviews outside of his Fox News comfort zone. So to suddenly make appointments to run the mainstream media table reveals just how serious Romney regards his current predicament. He is in a full panic and hopes that by spinning furiously on a Friday night (when the fewest people are paying attention to news) he might be able to pacify the peasants with torches and pitchforks, and make it to the safety of next week.

Judging by the snowballing reports that continue to discover new cracks in Romney’s stories, it seems unlikely that his diversionary tactics will succeed. If he wants this to subside, he needs to come clean about Bain and release the tax returns he is so obsessed with concealing. Otherwise he will just be prolonging the pain and creating more opportunities for enterprising journalists to uncover more of the dirt that is undoubtedly there.

Lashing out wildly at Obama, calling him a liar without providing any substance to back it up, and attempting to manhandle the press, might gain him some points amongst those already on his side, but it isn’t going to stop the bleeding and, in the end, it will only make him seem weak and pathetic, lost and desperate, which is what he is.

Now Bill O’Reilly Needs To Apologize For Being An Idiot To The NAACP

Posted by on July 13, 2012 at 3:54 am. 4 Comments :

Bill O'ReillyLast March, Bill O’Reilly engaged in an on-air brawl with a constitutional expert who told him that ObamaCare would be upheld by the Supreme Court. Bullheaded Bill vehemently disagreed and and promised to replay the segment and apologize for being an idiot if he were wrong. Well, he was wrong, but still declined to make a genuine apology.

Tonight O’Reilly reprised his idiocy. During an argument with NAACP Washington bureau director Hilary Shelton. O’Reilly once again browbeat his guest with assertions of his warped version of reality. Shelton attempted to point out that the booing Romney endured was unique and a result of Romney’s disrespect of his audience.

Shelton: We’ve had Republican candidates for president at the NAACP before. As you know, four years ago, John McCain. As you know, when George Bush ran for president the first time…
O’Reilly: And McCain got jazzed too, by your crew.
Shelton: No he didn’t. Neither one of them did. That’s absolutely not true.
O’Reilly: He got jazzed by your crew and you know it.
Shelton: I hope you’ll go go back and actually play that on your show.
O’Reilly: We covered it. I remember covering it.
Shelton: What you’re saying is simply untrue.

Since O’Reilly already demonstrated his cowardice when he refused to apologize in the prior incident, it is unlikely he will will bother to show any more integrity this time. So for anyone who is interested, here is the speech that McCain gave at the 2008 NAACP conference. There was not a single negative reaction from the audience. No booing, no heckling, no “M-Fer, I want more iced tea.” No one got “jazzed.” But don’t hold your breath waiting for O’Reilly to apologize for, once again, being so desperately wrong.

The few hisses Romney suffered were entirely deserved. He seemed intent on baiting the audience. But this was not a pattern of behavior on the part of the conferees, as McCain’s video proves. Then again, McCain was a far more gracious guest. His demeanor was respectful as he solicited their support.

McCain: I’m here today as an admirer and a fellow American. An association that means more to me than any other. I’m a candidate for president who seeks your vote and hopes to earn it. But whether or not I win your support, I need your good will and your council.

Compare that to the condescending attitude Romney exhibited wherein he belittles his audience by declaring that the only reason they would not vote for him is because they are incapable of understanding how righteously awesome he really is.

Romney: I believe that if you understood who I truly am in my heart, and if it were possible to fully communicate what I believe is in the real, enduring best interest of African American families, you would vote for me for president.

Yeah, sure. It’s too bad that they’re just too stupid to see the real you. Or are they? Romney affirmed his scornful tone at a fundraiser he rushed off to following the NAACP event. When asked about the mixed reception he received he said of the NAACP crowd…

“I hope people understand this, your friends who like Obamacare, you remind them of this, if they want more stuff from government tell them to go vote for the other guy – more free stuff. But don’t forget nothing is really free.”

See? People who simply want to be able get affordable health care without being gouged by greedy insurers; who want to take care of their family’s needs without losing their homes or going bankrupt; who want an end to cancellations when they file claims; who don’t think that preexisting conditions should be an obstacle to getting coverage; to Romney these people are freeloaders looking for a handout.

So Romney should not be surprised if he encounters more booing or other public condemnations. He’s earned it. And O’Reilly should stop pretending that he knows anything. He doesn’t.

Mitt Romney: Original Bankster

Posted by on July 12, 2012 at 2:58 pm. 1 Comments :

Purchase “RMoney: Original Bankster” Stickers here.
Mitt Romney - Original BanksterMitt Romney (or RMoney, as his Highlife Homies call him) is relying on a resume of alleged financial acumen to propel him into the White House. Unfortunately, his expertise lies more in the area of sucking the wealth out of companies, terminating employees, and sending those jobs overseas – along with his own lavish proceeds so as to avoid contributing his fair share to America’s prosperity.

Romney is the quintessential candidate of the GOP (Greedy One Percent) who callously admits that he likes to fire people, that his wife drives two Cadillacs, that corporations are people, and that he’s not concerned about the poor.

He advocates an agenda that reeks of plutocracy, favors the wealthy, and if I can quote Ice-T, he’s “Dazed by the game in a quest for extreme wealth.” He’s OB – The Original Bankster.

Now you can get your very own “Original Bankster” stickers.

Help spread the word about a presidential candidate…

  • Who maintains an unprecedented camaraderie with the Wall Street Hoodlums and Vulture Capitalists that thrust this nation into an enduring recession.
  • Who refuses to level with the American people by releasing his tax returns even though his father set the standard for such transparency by releasing twelve years worth.
  • Who has been untruthful regarding his expatriated finances, his stewardship of Bain Capital, and pretty much everything else he says.
  • Who embraces endorsements from far-right, extremists like Allen West and Ted Nugent, who recently lamented that the south lost the Civil War.
  • Who is incapable of empathizing with average Americans, but who is right at home with Donald Trump, the Koch brothers and other greedy elites.
  • Who resists disclosing his plans for the nation he seeks to lead, but when he does he reveals an overt favoritism for others in his class and a determination to punish the less fortunate.

Mitt Romney is singularly unfit to represent the American people or to set the nation on a course of recovery. He is the embodiment of the policies that drove the country into an economic ditch. And he doesn’t have the experience or the vision to advance the sort of progress that is the best part of America and its legacy in the world.