Year: 2012

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Mitt Romney Politics

Freakshow Mitt Romney and His Uniform Fetish

When Mitt Romney was a college freshman, he told fellow residents of his Stanford University dormitory that he sometimes disguised himself as a police officer – a crime in many states, including Michigan and California, where he then lived. And he had the uniform on display as proof.

So recalls Robin Madden, who had also just arrived as a freshman, the startling incident began when Romney called him and two or three other residents into his room, saying, “Come up, I want to show you something.” When they entered Romney’s room, “and laid out on his bed was a Michigan State Trooper’s uniform.”

Madden, a native Texan who graduated from Stanford in 1970 and went on to become a successful television producer and writer, has never forgotten that strange moment, which he has recounted to friends over the years as he observed his former classmate’s political ascent. The National Memo learned of the incident from a longtime Madden friend to whom he had mentioned it years ago.

Said Madden in a recent interview, “He told us that he had gotten the uniform from his father,” George Romney, then the Governor of Michigan, whose security detail was staffed by uniformed troopers. “He told us that he was using it to pull over drivers on the road. He also had a red flashing light that he would attach to the top of his white Rambler.”

[The National Memo]

And then this…

Categories
Mitt Romney Politics

The Money Game – Romney Raising More Cash Than President Obama

Mitt Romney and the Republican National Committee raised a combined $76.8 million last month, outpacing President Obama and his Democratic allies.

The presumptive GOP presidential nominee and the RNC said they have $107 million cash on hand.

Earlier today, Obama’s campaign announced it raised $60 million jointly with the Democratic National Committee. They did not report how much they have in the bank.

[USA Today]

Categories
Politics Sarah Palin Wisconsin

What Would America Do Without the “Knowledge” of the Palin?

After Scott Walker spent over $45 million dollars to win his governor’s seat in Wisconsin, Sarah Palin rushed to her friends on Fox “News” to offer her two cents (and that’s about all her opinion amounts to) on her favorite topic – President Obama. This is why a recent study regarding Fox News viewers concluded that doing absolutely nothing makes you wiser than a Fox viewer.

Back to Palin. She contributed this bit of knowledge to the political discourse:

“Obama’s goose is cooked.”

“I think that the Democrats there understand that the president’s no-show represents the fact that Obama’s goose is cooked,” Palin told Greta Van Susteren on Fox News soon after networks called Walker the projected winner of the historic recall. She was referring to President Barack Obama’s decision not to campaign for Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.

As she denounced Obama’s “hopey changey stuff”, the former Alaskan governor continued: “More and more Americans realize that what Wisconsin has just manifested via this vote … is the complete opposite of what President Obama and the White House represents today.”

But really though, everyone knew Walker was going to win. To now act surprised about the win, then try to call this win a referendum on President Obama, is a con that only Fox News could muster up.

Scott Walker’s bosses, the Koch Brothers, Karl Rove, and other members of the top 1%, spent over $45 million dollars (the most money spent on a Wisconsin gubernatorial election) to saturate Wisconsin’s airwaves with lies and false ads against Tom Barrett. With such an arsenal aimed at the misinformed voters in the state who largely depend on Fox for news, it should come as no surprise that Walker was going to win. We hoped he would lose, but deep down we all knew what the outcome would be.

Categories
Politics

President Obama Wants to End The Bush Tax Cuts on The Wealthy This Year

President Obama wants to end the George W. Bush tax cuts for the wealthy when they expire this year, aides said today.

“He will not support extension of the upper income Bush tax cuts,” said White House press secretary Jay Carney.

“He could not be more clear,” Carney added.

The comments came as former president Bill Clinton and others suggest that a temporary extension of all the Bush tax cuts may be necessary so that Congress can work out a long-term deal to reduce the federal debt.

The Bush tax cuts expire at the end of the year, but no action is expected before the Nov. 6 election.

[USA Today]

Categories
Politics Wisconsin

Democratic Challenger To Scott Walker Gets Slapped In The Face By a Woman – Video

As if losing for the second tome to Republican Scott Walker in last night’s Recall elections wasn’t enough, Democratic challenger Tom Barrett was slapped in the face by a women while he was greeting supporters.

No word on whether this woman was in fact Scott Walker in drag. Or maybe the slap was intended for Scott Walker for him secretly ending Wisconsin’s version of the Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay for Equal Work Act for women.

UPDATE: The woman seen slapping Tom Barrett was not Scott Walker dressed in drag. She was a supporter of Mr. Barrett who was upset that he conceded the loss to Scott Walker so early while people were still standing on line to vote. When Barrett was asked about the incident, he told reporters  that the woman asked him if she could slap him for giving up so early. Barrett told the lady that he would prefer a hug instead and when he leaned forward to hug her, her hand forcibly introduced itself to his face.

Barrett admitted congratulating Walker on the win after he was determined to be the projected winner… less than an hour after polls in Wisconsin closed.

Categories
Politics

Obama Holds His Ground: Presidential Polling Report

This is getting real. Bad economic numbers last Friday. Bad revised economic numbers last Friday. Bad economic numbers from Europe last week and this. Bad, bad, bad. But bad news is good news for Mitt Romney and his rolling marshmallow review. Mitt has gained in the polls over the past month and he shows no sign of slowing down. Is this the end for Obama and Joe? Will they fall victim to a slow economy and a political opposition that will just do nothing but wait out the year at the expense of working people everywhere?

We have five months to find out. And at some point during those five months, Mitt Romney will slip and stumble and Barack Obama will soar and inspire. On to the numbers.

As of today, the national race looks like this: Obama has 47.2% and Romney 45.2 % in the latest RCP average. Considering how bad (bad) Friday’s jobs numbers were, it’s truly remarkable that Obama’s numbers have stayed the same. Even Rasmussen’s poll showed the president rebounding from -5 over the weekend to -1 on Tuesday.Obama’s job approval has taken a hit, but seems to have settled down to a tie in Gallup and -5 (down from -8) on Rasmussen.

These numbers have shifted from last month as Romney has solidified his position as nominee and he got a nice bounce after the far righties left the race. Democrats who wistfully remember all of the gaffes and outrageous comments from Santorum, Cain and Gingrich are wondering where the momentum went?

I’ll tell you.

It went away because Mitt is, in essence a near-right conservative and closet moderate who is not as scary to voters as his Republican compatriots were. Wondering why he’s doing better with women? It’s because he hasn’t had to answer every anti-female utterance from the other nominees. The economy? Never interrupt your opponent when things are going bad for him. Solyndra? Ahh, Solyndra. Just say Solyndra 127 times a day and the world will beat a path to your door. In short, it’s been easy for Mitt over the past 30 days.

Obama, to be honest, has not looked at the top of his game, and the newly energetic conservative media has let him have it. Unemployment up, Solyndra, Bain attacks attacked by Democrats, Solyndra, manufacturing down, Solyndra. The lefty media isn’t helping and fundraising is down.

Through all of this, though, Obama’s numbers are not bad, and if he can weather this storm, he can come back in fine position by the convention.

The state polls are still showing Obama leading the electoral college voting with leads of 237-170 (RCP), 257-181, (Pollster), 303-235 (Election Projection), and 276-243(Electoral-vote.com). North Carolina has tightened, as have Wisconsin (though exit polls Tuesday showed Obama with a lead over Romney) and Virginia, two states that Obama needs to win, but Missouri and Iowa are still in play which has to make the Romney campaign a bit nervous. A new PPP poll of Florida, taken during and after the jobs numbers were released, shows Obama with a 50-46 lead. Imagine: Obama at 50%! And PPP even overpolled Republicans (FL actual: D=41 R=36 PPP Poll D=41 R=40).

There have been a number of recent articles that discuss which previous year we can compare this election to, such as 1980, 1992 or 2004. The answer? Don’t know. We could have a Romney/Republican blowout if people decide that they just can’t give Obama another four years. We could have a Democratic Senate if polls continue to show their candidates making inroads in Virginia, Massachusetts and Missouri and, if expected, Angus King of Maine wins and caucuses to his left. As of now, the Generic Ballot favors the Republicans, but that will change.

What won’t change?

Attacks, money, Bill Clinton saying silly things.

www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and on Twitter @rigrundfest 

Categories
Politics tweet

Scott Walker Wins in Wisconsin – Best Tweet That Summarizes This Win

I couldn’t have said it better. After NBC News called the Wisconsin Recall election a “win for Scott Walker,” Twitter went wild with tweets both for and against the Union killing Republican governor.

But in all the fast flying tweets, this one resonated with me. It perfectly sums up what happened in Wisconsin a short while ago when it became obvious that Wisconsin voters overwhelmingly gave Walker permission to continue crushing the unions – unions that are set up to protect the very people who voted for Scott Walker today.

No truer words have been spoken.

Categories
Politics Senate vote

Senate Republicans Are Determined To Make Women Second Class Citizens

Republicans are sticking to their guns on this one. Let’s try to understand exactly what is meant when politicians say “equal pay for equal work.”

Let’s say there are two truck drivers, a male and a female. The both start at the same point, let’s call that point… point A. They drive the same road carrying the same merchandise to point B in another state. When the two drivers arrive at point B, the male truck driver gets paid $10.00 for driving his truck, and the female driver gets $7.77. So two people driving the same vehicle along the same route going the same distance, gets paid differently base on their gender. Males get more, females fall back.

How is this right?

It’s not. But today in Congress, Republicans blocked a bill that would have allowed hard-working women the opportunity to get equal pay for the equal work they’re doing every day. These women are in the workforce, doing the same work that men do, but Republicans are united in their effort to keep women’s paychecks in second class status.

After the bill failed in the Senate, President Obama expressed his frustrations with Republicans, saying “...it is incredibly disappointing that in this make or break moment for the middle class, Senate Republicans put partisan politics ahead of American women and their families.”

And the Republican leader Mitt Romney? What did he have to say about women getting equal pay for equal work? Well, we’re still waiting. Mr. Romney was given many opportunity to respond to reporters’ questions about where he stood on women getting equal pay for the work they’re doing, but still, Romney stay quiet. “We’ll get back to you on that,” was the response from Romney’s Campaign manager.

We can only hope the women of America are listening. Republicans have been on a constant war against women’s rights, women’s health and women’s economic needs. Regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum – from far-left Democrat to far-right Republican – denying hardworking women a fair pay for them doing the very same work a man is doing is wrong. And voting for a Republican who is determined to keep women as second class citizens, is also wrong!

Categories
Mitt Romney Politics

That Would Be A Dumb Business Decision By So-Called “Business Man” Mitt Romney

No one goes into business to lose money. So when Mitt Romney promised to quickly sell the remaining shares of GM if he becomes president, it makes the average business person wonder just how keen Romney’s business skills are, and why would he want to sell the shares now even if it means the American Taxpayer suffers a $16 billion loss.

In an interview with The Detroit News, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee vowed to quickly sever ties between the U.S. government and GM, which was bailed out with about $50 billion in taxpayer funding.

“The president is delaying the sale of the shares to try and avoid the story that the taxpayer took another loss. I would get the company independent from the government and run for the interests of the consumer and the enterprise and its workers — not for the political considerations of government officials,” Romney said.

The U.S. government still holds a 26% stake in GM. The automaker is currently trading at around $21 a share. If the government sold its remaining 500 million shares now, it would lose about $16 billion of its investment, The News says.

GM reported first quarter profit of $1 billion in May, aided by strong numbers in North America.

Mitt Romney has obviously made a lot of money in the business sector, but selling shares at a $16 billion loss when GM is reporting record profits is just dumb. As long as the profits keep coming in from GM, the shares the government American Tax payer has in the company increases in value.

Or maybe Mitt Romney know he’s not gambling his own money. Maybe he knows that it is the Tax Payer’s investment at stake, and selling 500 million shares of GM now at a $16 billion loss would be another opportunity for him to point to President Obama and say, see, he made a bad investment in GM. This $16 billion loss is all because President Obama chose to bail out the auto industry instead of  letting Detroit go bankrupt… like I suggested in the first place!

 

Categories
Mitt Romney Politics

Romney’s Governorship Called “Worst Economic Record In The Country” by The Boston Globe

Apparently, there is a good reason why Mitt Romney isn’t talking about his time as Governor of Massachusetts. And the reason, as far as I can see, is because his record stunk!

Another video released by the Obama reelection team highlights some of the low points of Romney’s tenure, a tenure that was called one of the worst in the nation by a Massachusetts paper.

Categories
failed Politics

The Same Failed Promises Romney Made In Massachusetts, He’s Making Now – Video

Mitt Romney is so predictable. Anyone who knows this ex-Massachusetts governor, will tell you that what Mitt Romney says depends on the audience he’s addressing. His uncanny ability to transform himself based on the group he’s talking to is why he is called a flip flopper, Mr. Etch-A-Sketch, a political chameleon.

And then this…

The Obama reelection team has come up with this video. The video looks the things Mitt Romney promised the people of Massachusetts when he ran for Governor back in 2002, then compares his words to what he is saying now. Amazingly, it seems that Romney is reading from the very same notes. The same failed policies he proposed then are the ones he’s proposing now.

Romney promised  jobs, decreased debt, and smaller government in 2002. But when he finished his term as governor, Massachusetts was a dismal 47th out of the 50 states in job creation. The state’s debt had ballooned and government spending grew bigger than when he took office.

If his policies didn’t work in Massachusetts then, why is he pushing these same failed policies for the Country now?

Categories
Politics veterans weekly address

President’s Weekly Address: Getting Unemployed Veterans Back To Work

The President:

Today I’m at one of Honeywell’s manufacturing facilities in Golden Valley, Minnesota, where I just announced a step that will make it easier for companies to hire returning service members who have the skills our country needs right now.  It’s another part of our effort to make sure that no American who fights for this country abroad has to fight for a job when they come home.  That’s why businesses like Honeywell are answering our challenge to hire 100,000 post-9/11 veterans and their spouses by the end of next year.  That’s why I’ve directed the government to hire over 200,000 veterans so far – because our economy needs their tremendous talent, and because millions of Americans are still looking for a job.

Right now, this country is still fighting our way back from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.  The economy is growing again, but it’s not growing fast enough.  Our businesses have created almost 4.3 million new jobs over the last twenty-seven months, but as we learned in this week’s jobs report, we’re not creating them fast enough.  And just like last year at this time, our economy faces some serious headwinds.  Gas prices are starting to come down again, but when they spiked over the last few months, it hit people’s wallets pretty hard.  The crisis in Europe’s economy has cast a shadow on our own.  And all of this makes it even more challenging to fully recover and lay the foundation for an economy that’s built to last.

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