Does anyone else have the image of Romney as Gollum (Smeagol) in the White House during his lunch on Thursday with POTUS, darting around, hair askew as it has been in photos of him since the election, bleary and wide-eyed and in a voice similar to Gollum’s repeating the phrase, “my precious…” while the mainstream media as the eye of Mordor watches?
No? Just me. Alrighty then.
Nowhere has Mitt Romney’s pursuit of the presidency been more warmly welcomed or closely followed than here in Utah. The Republican nominee’s political and religious pedigrees, his adeptly bipartisan governorship of a Democratic state, and his head for business and the bottom line all inspire admiration and hope in our largely Mormon, Republican, business-friendly state.
But it was Romney’s singular role in rescuing Utah’s organization of the 2002 Olympics from a cesspool of scandal, and his oversight of the most successful Winter Games on record, that make him the Beehive State’s favorite adopted son. After all, Romney managed to save the state from ignominy, turning the extravaganza into a showcase for the matchless landscapes, volunteerism and efficiency that told the world what is best and most beautiful about Utah and its people.
In short, this is the Mitt Romney we knew, or thought we knew, as one of us.
Sadly, it is not the only Romney, as his campaign for the White House has made abundantly clear, first in his servile courtship of the tea party in order to win the nomination, and now as the party’s shape-shifting nominee.
”the opening paragraphs of The Salt Lake Tribune’s endorsement of Barack Obama. (via washingtonpoststyle)
This is a BFD.
Full Episode: Barack Obama shows up for the second presidential debate, John Oliver recruits a focus group, and Nate Silver. http://on.cc.com/T2XUww
I’ve watched the first segment twice already and laughed my ass off TWICE. Brilliant.
Not a Good Night for Mitt Romney
No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for. Today we mourn four more Americans who represent the very best of the United States of America. We will not waver in our commitment to see that justice is done for this terrible act. And make no mistake, justice will be done.
-President Barack Obama, remarks on the deaths of US embassy staff in Benghazi, delivered in the Rose Garden on September 12, 2012.
It’s the moment that will probably be best remembered from last night’s debate. Mitt Romney took the opportunity to once again exploit the deaths of Americans for political gain — and got it all balled up and wrong. Kevin Drum has the exchange (full transcript here):ROMNEY: I think it’s interesting the president just said something, which — which is that on the day after the attack he went into the Rose Garden and said that this was an act of terror.
OBAMA: That’s what I said.
ROMNEY: You said in the Rose Garden the day after the attack, it was an act of terror? It was not a spontaneous demonstration, is that what you’re saying?
OBAMA: Please proceed governor.
When the president told Romney to “please proceed,” he clearly saw where this was heading. He might as well have said, “You go ahead and take all the rope you think you need.” Then came all the beauty:ROMNEY: I want to make sure we get that for the record because it took the president 14 days before he called the attack in Benghazi an act of terror.
OBAMA: Get the transcript.
CROWLEY: He did in fact, sir. So let me — let me call it an act of terror….
OBAMA: Can you say that a little louder, Candy?
Mitt was handed a “I have no earthly idea what the hell I’m talking about sign” and made to hold it up for everyone to see. Through bad debate prep, he’d humiliated himself.
But personally, I think the most damaging exchange for Romney came in the discussion of women’s issues. Romney would not say whether he would’ve signed the Lilly Ledbetter Act into law and bizarrely suggested that his interactions with female hires was limited to looking at their names in binders. He suggested that women need more flexible schedules so they can go home and cook dinner. Nearly his entire answer was a misstep. Romney was way off inleftright field throughout this whole segment, never once addressing the question, which was, “In what new ways to you intend to rectify the inequalities in the workplace, specifically regarding females making only 72 percent of what their male counterparts earn?” But that still wasn’t the worst. In my opinion, this was:ROMNEY: We’re going to have to have employers in the new economy, in the economy I’m going to bring to play, that are going to be so anxious to get good workers they’re going to be anxious to hire women. In the — in the last women have lost 580,000 jobs. That’s the net of what’s happened in the last four years. We’re still down 580,000 jobs. I mentioned 3 1/2 million women, more now in poverty than four years ago.
Basically, what he’s saying here is that he plans to create so many jobs that employers won’t be able to afford to be picky and they’ll have to resort to hiring women; they’re going to have to hire you lady people, even if it means you have to slack off and run home early to fix dinner for your breadwinner husband. Seriously, what the hell? It’s like he’s completely unaware that the second half of the twentieth century ever happened. Mitt’s “solution” to workplace inequality would make women the canaries in the job market coal mine. When things start to turn south, they’ll be the first to be cut loose, because women were the ones employers settled for — not the ones they wanted. Seems to me that’s not so much a solution to inequality as it is a continuation of it.
And President Obama made Romney look terribly out-of-touch by pointing out the obvious fact (obvious to everyone but conservatives, anyway) that women’s health is an economic issue.OBAMA:…When Governor Romney says that we should eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood, there are millions of women all across the country, who rely on Planned Parenthood for, not just contraceptive care, they rely on it for mammograms, for cervical cancer screenings. That’s a pocketbook issue for women and families all across the country. And it makes a difference in terms of how well and effectively women are able to work. When we talk about child care, and the credits that we’re providing. That makes a difference in whether they can go out there and — and earn a living for their family.
These are not just women’s issues. These are family issues. These are economic issues.
As I said, the Libya exchange is the one everyone will remember. But I think the exchange on women’s issues is where Mitt Romney was most heavily wounded. The right seems convinced that everyone’s going to start freaking out over Benghazi any minute now — and it’s just not happening. Meanwhile, women are fighting for their rights and their equality right now.
And, by dropping the “Moderate Mitt” act and firing off a few shots in the GOP’s War on Women, Romney made it clear last night that they’re fighting against people like him.
-Wisco
I have been saying all of this for months now… Women will decide this election, like they always do - but this time, they will do it much more vocally…
Biden did his job (via apsies)
I’d almost argue that no, Biden did not have a simple job. I believe he was a litmus: find out how far the country wants POTUS to go in the next debate.
Romney wiped the floor with Obama in the first debate: and, I wonder now, if POTUS was, in addition to having his mind elsewhere, was keeping the “kid gloves on”, because he thinks the American people don’t want to see too much fighting between the parties. What the American people say and what they actually mean are two very different things. Frankly, I miss the days of talking about the “lipstick on a pig…”
The thing is, I don’t think the Obama campaign gets it on this level: I think the American people are not stupid. I think the American people know exactly what’s been going on the past two years. I think the lackluster response to the campaign, to some degree, has been this fear that Obama hasn’t been strong enough against the Republicans and the Tea Party. I think the American people know what’s holding back progress in this country, and we’re tired of being held hostage.
Even more than that, I believe Biden was a test - to see how far POTUS can go in the town hall… In this case, the Obama campaign won, because they now know what will work for the next two debates.
The Romney-Ryan campaign is licking its wounds. I hope they don’t discover that their whole “bipartisanship” argument - the biggest malarkey comment of the night, IMHO, is the biggest lie that Independent voters will see and see through.
Independents are the key here and they know who has obstructed Congress and they know what bills have been moved with lightning precision through the House and Senate and in State Legislatures and what bills haven’t. These are not dumb voters… they just need to know that POTUS and his administration will kick some ass, if they have to, because we’re pretty sure they’re going to have to, and this country needs them to.
(via apsies)
Someday, somehow, some way, some politician is going to actually listen when I tell them the same exact thing… hasn’t happened yet… but, I’m still hoping…
(Source: quickhits)
I have the weirdest election right now.
If all that aggressive, serious electioneering is making you feel overwhelmed, take a break with some SILLY ELECTION COVERAGE.
Reminds me of a story I heard the other day… a close friend of the family said they had to prevent her very elderly mother from making GOTV calls in 2010, because she kept saying, “It’s erection day…”
REUTERS PHOTOS: Rain on the campaign
Photo: Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney speaks during a campaign rally in a downpour in Newport News, Virginia October 8, 2012. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
- Abigail Adams in a letter to her husband, John.
The biggest disappointment of last night’s debate was the lack of discussion on the current Republican majority in the House’s War on Women - and at the state level, as well. There were plenty of times to introduce it - when talking about jobs and the economy, for example, or about health care. That women were left completely out of the debate topics is completely unconscionable after the past few years.
President Obama and Democratic Leaders would do well to remember the above, because it still holds very much true.
