Mitt Romney Gets It. Wife Ann? Not So Much.

In a not so shocking first interview since his presidential election defeat, Mitt Rommney admitted that it's "killing him" not to be in the Oval Office. In a more than surprising admission, he blames his campaign (and I'm assuming himself) for not being able to connect with black and hispanic voters, and points to his "47 percent" debacle as the turning point of the race.

In a complete yawner, however (and who didn't see this coming), his wife Ann "I love you women" Romney is still in the dark and is perfectly willing to blame the media for her husband's rout, apparently unaware of the fact that a journalist's job is to report what her husband and his campaign say and do. Ann, being a one percenter, is so totally insulated from the real world, that it is unfathomable to her that the actions of her husband are what caused his downfall. It wasn't made up. It wasn't a lie. It happened.

Now, perhaps in the days before social media, a 24 hour cable news cycle and practically real time reporting through the Internet, a guy like Mitt Romney could have gotten away with some of his ridiculous gaffes and his real thoughts spoken in "private rooms" away from the media, but that's no longer the case. And someone who runs a 1950's style campaign in 2012 is going to suffer.

But Ann just doesn't get it because in her insular world, she can't see past the fences of her estate or the walls of her gated communities. To Ann, this was an unfair, epic takedown by the "librul" media of the only man who could possibly have the ability to run the country.

“It was not just the campaign’s fault," Ann Romney said. "I believe it was the media's fault as well, in that he was not being given a fair shake--that people weren’t allowed to really see him for who he was. I’m happy to blame the media.”

See - Ann doesn't get that "who he really was" was the man that showed his real side through the gaffes and statemens made in private rooms when he thought the rest of the world wasn't listening. Mitt really does think corporations are people. Mitt really does think that 47 percent of the country were voting for President Obama because they're moochers looking for free stuff. Mitt really isn't concerned about the poor because of the safety net they have - the same safety net he would have dismantled given the chance. Mitt doesn't have a clue as to what the actual income is of more than 90% of the population, and how could he? He's just as isolated and insulated as Ann.  But Ann will never understand what the rest of the world understands when she pretends to shop at Costco and doesn't have to worry about filling up her gas tank. Or paying her mortgage. Or having a job.

Now that Romney has admitted what's eating him up inside, it's only a  matter of time before we find a World Weekly News headline on the ever reclusive Mitt Romney taking a Howard Hughes turn, complete with long beard, hair, gnarled fingernails and toenails, designing his own Air Force One made entirely out of wood.

Oh, Sweet, Sweet Victory

Mitt Romney's Facebook page is losing followers by the thousands. I guess they don't want to be associated with a loser.

Can I Politicize Hurricane Sandy Yet?

Here's the quote of the day:

“The president has been all over this and he deserves great credit. I’ve been on the phone with him, like I said, yesterday, personally, three times. He gave me his number at the White House, told me to call him if I needed anything, and he absolutely means it. It’s been very good working with the president, and he and his administration have been coordinating with us great. It’s been wonderful.“

That quote brought to you Republican NewJersey Governor Chris Christie, whose state (my state) has been crushed by Hurricane Sandy. Major sections of the Jersey shore have been destroyed. I'm shocked at the devastation I see on the news reports on television.

Luckily, I was spared any damage or power outage. The storm made landfall about 90 minutes south of me, near Atlantic City (another destroyed city). I took a short walk around my neighborhood and couldn't go more than a couple of blocks without coming across downed trees, severed power lines and blocked streets.







But back to my point.

Kudos to Christie figuring out what's important and how crucial issues like federal disaster relief can be. I don't know if he was one of the Republican governors Mitt Romney called to offer advice*, you know because I suppose only Republican governors have been affected by the storm, but I wonder if Christie will have a come to Jesus moment at the voting booth next week. ... I doubt it.

Speaking of federal disaster relief, let's not forget, and really how can you at this point, that FEMA is in the crosshairs for Mitt Romney to gut if he's elected president. During a primary debate, Romney not only thought that disaster aid should be in the hands of the states, but went a step further and said that the private sector should be first in line for these types of situations.

Who knows what he's saying now, but last year, Mitt Romney said it was "immoral" for the government to borrow and spend money to pay for disaster relief. 

Importantly, he wasn't just talking about the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which some conservatives say is a horrible waste of money. He was talking about "disaster relief."... 

..."Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that's the right direction," Romney told debate moderator John King. "And if you can go even further, and send it back to the private sector, that’s even better. Instead of thinking, in the federal budget, what we should cut, we should ask the opposite question, what should we keep?” 

When John King interrupted to clarify, "Including disaster relief?" Romney continued, "We cannot afford to do those things without jeopardizing the future for our kids. It is simply immoral, in my view, for us to continue to rack up larger and larger debts and pass them on to our kids, knowing full well that we’ll all be dead and gone before it’s paid off. It makes no sense at all."

Sure! No federal relief for devastated states due to natural disasters. Let them fend for themselves since their coffers are always overflowing. And hell, while we're at it, it's the private, for-profit sector that should take care of the clean up and restoration of towns and cities that got washed away in the hurricane. Nothing like giving preference to the highest bidder when it comes to restoring essentials to survive. 

I really don't know what else to say about this except that we are witnessing, in live time, the differences between the two candidates in their response to the disaster we've seen here these last 36 hours. While President Obama admittedly has a bit of an advantage in actually being the president, he's suspended his campaign, continues to make sure help gets to ALL that need it, and is keeping in contact with state leaders regardless of political affiliation. Mitt Romney has "suspended his campaign" and decided to have "storm relief events" that look exactly the same as his campaign events.

Yesterday, the Republican team said it had canceled today's campaign event in Ohio. Mitt Romney was set to headline a "victory rally" at a specific venue in Dayton, alongside specific celebrity guests, but out of sensitivity, the event was scrapped. 

Instead, Romney will appear at the exact same venue at the exact same time with the exact same celebrity guests, but it will be billed as a "storm relief event." What about yesterday's promise about cancellations? A Republican official said Romney/Ryan hadn't broken its word because, technically, this is "not a campaign event per se." 

Hmm. The badge for today's "storm relief event" says "victory rally"; the sign on the door described the event as a "campaign rally"; they're playing the campaign warm-up songs for the audience; and before the "storm relief event" could begin, campaign officials showed the official campaign video on Romney's awesomeness.

But hey, it's not a campaign event if it we don't call it a campaign event, huh?

_________________________________
*Chris Christie was one of the governors that was called by Mitt Romney.

Disaster Relief -- from Mitt

POSTED BY JHW22

“Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that’s the right direction. And if you can go even further and send it back to the private sector, that’s even better. Instead of thinking in the federal budget, what we should cut — we should ask ourselves the opposite question. What should we keep? We should take all of what we’re doing at the federal level and say, what are the things we’re doing that we don’t have to do? And those things we’ve got to stop doing, because we’re borrowing $1.6 trillion more this year than we’re taking in. We cannot --

KING: Including disaster relief, though?

ROMNEY: We cannot — we cannot afford to do those things without jeopardizing the future for our kids. It is simply immoral, in my view, for us to continue to rack up larger and larger debts and pass them on to our kids, knowing full well that we’ll all be dead and gone before it’s paid off. It makes no sense at all.

Romney thinks disaster relief should fall solely on states and the "private sector". Considering many states are broke and have already cut crucial services such as wildfire resources in a record-drought, first responders, health care, and infrastructure and considering the "private sector" folks will have been hit by the same natural disaster or because private sector means insurance companies who HATE paying out after disasters, I'd say he doesn't get it. In fact, just the other day insurance companies acknowledged global warming and want something done about it because they're so sick of paying out after disasters like Sandy.

It's "simply immoral" to vote for the man who doesn't get it and will make sure disaster victims don't get anything either.

Must Reads

Posted by JHW22 (Filling in for Broadway Carl)





The Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Staff: Tribune Endorsement: Too Many Mitts

Josh Rogin: Issa's Benghazi Document Dump Exposes Several Libyans Working with the U.S.

Ta-Nehisi Coats: It's Funny Because We're White

Garance Franke-Ruta: Binders Full of Women: A Meme That Means Something

Ken Dilanian and Shashank Bengali: No evidence found of Al Qaeda role in Libya attack

Jillian Rayfield: Longtime George Romney aide attacks Mitt

Binders of Women - Corporations Get In On The Act

The strange turn of phrase uttered by Mitt Romney at last night's 2nd presidential debate was so odd, it instantly became a Twitter meme and spread throughout the intertubes like wildfire.

"“I went to a number of women’s groups and said, ‘Can you help us find folks,’ and they brought us whole binders full of women.”"

But even I was mildly shocked at the email solicitation I received today:



"We've got tons of binders full of sales. Women will love them!"

[Insert spit take here.]

So... A Panel

POSTED BY JHW22

In the debate Paul Ryan said he didn't want unelected judges deciding what women can do with their bodies.

We don't think that unelected judges should make this decision; that people, through their elected representatives, in reaching a consensus in society through the democratic process should make this determination.

Instead, he wants our neighbors to elect people to do make our decisions. That's a panel. Um, there's some pretty big hypocrisy there, folks.

And if you think about it, there's a further hypocrisy. If you really are anti-choice, why would you leave the choice up to states? Would you really be OK with abortions taking place anywhere? Because if you leave it to the people and the representatives they elect, then you're gonna have abortions somewhere.

They just need to admit they will prevent it everywhere and stop playing games -- with women's lives.

Mitt Romney the Liar - Tax Cut Edition

 You're welcome.

Debate No. 1 - Romney Wins. But Did He Really?

Watching the debates last night, I pretty much think I had the same initial reaction as everyone else. Romney played the schoolyard bully, President Obama let him, and Jim Lehrer was wondering where his waiter was so he could order soup. I avoided CNN because of silly snap polls and those distracting live graphs showing immediate reaction of undecided voters, as if I care what people who are still undecided at this point actually think.

The MSNBC pundits were ranging from disappointing anger (Ed Schultz and Chris Matthews) to devil's advocates (Rachel Maddow and Chris Hayes) to Romney pom-pom shaking (Steve "I gave you Sarah Palin" Schmidt) to rational thought (believe it or not, Al Shaprton). So I slept on it and tried to think logically before writing about it to avoid sounding like Chris Matthews blowing a gasket.

The perception was that Mitt Romney won the night because he dominated the discussion. I wouldn't so much call it dominating as much as hijacking, bullying his way through the evening and running roughshod over moderator Lehrer, who obviously should have been in bed by the time the debate began and most likely forgot to take his vitamin supplements. But perceptions are key and anyone watching last night who was still "undecided" (if your definition of undecided is low information moron) probably leaned Romney. I doubt that anyone voting for Obama had their mind changed last night.

Here's my take:

While most of us were waiting for Obama's knockout punch with the 47% line, or Bain Capital, or Romneycare, or Massachusetts job creation numbers while Romney was governor, the realization is that President Obama is NEVER that guy. While his stump speeches are fiery, he has always been reserved and muted in his debates which Bob Cesca rightly pointed out in one of his tweets last night, complete with a video link to the first debate of 2008 with John McCain. 

That being said, Obama's had better debate performances in the past, maybe in part due to the "no rules" format last night - or at least rules that didn't seem to apply to Romney, because the rules seemly never apply to rich people. I do agree that the President didn't seem prepared with counter arguments to Romney's Gatling gun barrage of bullshit. But don't expect to see stump Barack "Fired Up! Ready To Go !" Obama behind the debate podium, though I hope they recalibrate for the next debate. Romney's aggressiveness and playing fast and loose with his policy positions, along with the low expectations of his performance (zingers, anyone?) won him the night.

I believe there is a very concerted effort on the part of the Obama campaign to avoid at all costs, the appearance of President Obama being angry or worked up for fear of the "Angry Black Man" moniker. He's the Jackie Robinson of the Presidency and it seems they feel he has to go out of his way to look measured and calm, and never get riled up when challenged in these types of situations.

As far as the substance of the debate went, how do you debate a man who completely abandoned everything that got him the nomination in the first place? When Romney stumps for the last year on his 20% across the board tax cut then flat our states that he has no intention of lowering taxes for the rich, how do you counter? 

When faced with the fact that his tax policy of making the Bush tax cuts permanent, plus cutting taxes 20% across the board, plus eliminating the estate tax, plus eliminating the alternative minimum tax (something I personally get hit with and would like restructuring) without raising revenue, thereby causing a $5 trillion hole, Romney completely did a 180 and denied that he'd approve of any tax cut that would add to the debt; something he touted for 18 months shrugged off at the drop of a hat. How do you debate that?

But here's the thing, and something that I agreed with when it came to Al Sharpton's analysis: Romney being able to say whatever he wanted to, whenever he wanted to, is going to come back to haunt him with his base. You can't run as a right wing ideologue for a year and a half and then change stride without raising the hackles of the people who voted you as their nominee based on the red meat. Romney can't say he's not going to cut education funding when education cuts are part of Paul Ryan's plan that Romney said he'd sign into law without a double take from your voters. Romney can't say he will save Medicare while admitting his Medicare program is a voucher program, and then add that he'd repeal Obamacare which extends the life of Medicare until 2024.

Ultimately, the night belonged to Romney and President Obama has to come out stronger in the next debate. The polls will probably tighten which will make us all wring our hands and sit on the edges of our seats, but if Romney continues to deny his policy positions and make shit up on the fly, I think it'll become a real problem for him. 

(Cross-posted at ABLC)

Even a Broken Clock...

... is right once every Friedman Unit.

Tom Friedman... yes, Tom "Friedman Unit" Friedman has written a scathing opinion of Mitt Romney's "1989" foreign policy thinking, including this little gem:

"...President Obama is leading on national security, and it was apparent in his U.N. speech last week, which showed a president who understands that we really do live in a more complex world today... Mitt Romney, given his international business background, should understand this, but he acts instead as if he learned his foreign policy at the International House of Pancakes..."

Ouch. IHOP. Take this assessment for what you will, but this critique in combination with the asinine comments made by Romney surrogate John Sununu whining about President Obama not killing Osama Bin Laden fast enough only emphasizes how completely inept and clueless the Romney campaign really is. And wait until the first debate in a couple of days.

(Cross-posted on ABLC)

Oh! It Was a Joke!

Silly me, thinking that only a sociopath would joke about his wife's emergency landing experience.

The Los Angeles Times story that relayed Romney's airplane remark to the world was based off a pool report written by the New York Times's Ashley Parker. When we asked Parker this morning whether it seemed as if Romney made the mark in jest, she left no doubt. "Romney was joking," she e-mailed. Parker told us that while the pool report didn't explicitly indicate that Romney was joking, it was self-evident that he was. "The pool report provided the full transcript of his comments on Ann's plane scare," she said, "and it was clear from the context that he was not being serious." 

The Blaze hears the same thing from William Everitt, who attended the Saturday night Beverly Hills fund-raiser where the remark happened:

"Basically he was retelling the story and when he said ‘I don’t know why they don’t have roll down windows on airplanes,’ he looked at the audience and everyone laughed,” Everitt told TheBlaze. “It was a clearly delivered joke … There were 1,000 people there that will tell you the same thing.”

Yeah. He was joking. Everyone was laughing. Except I don't think it was. There was no stiff line reading by the Romneybot. There was no laugher. And if it was an obvious joke, it would have been reported as such in the first place. Judge for yourself.


(Cross-posted on ABLC)

Dumber Than Palin?

...I didn't think that was possible.

I knew Mitt Romney wasn't very quick on his feet, and hopefully most of America will see that once the debates with President Obama roll around. But while I vehemently disagree with his policies and ideology, I would have expected that Mitt Romney was at least a smart man out of his element in politics who will say anything because he has no moral compass. I didn't realize that he is a nitwit.

While the problems that arose with Ann Romney's airplane are nothing to make fun of, the following Mitt quote is one for the ages:

“I appreciate the fact that she is on the ground, safe and sound. And I don’t think she knows just how worried some of us were,” Romney said. “When you have a fire in an aircraft, there’s no place to go, exactly, there’s no — and you can’t find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don’t open. I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem."

Mitt Romney doesn't know why we can't open windows on high flying aircraft. ...This guy is running for president. Maybe he really does watch Jersey Shore.

(Cross-posted on ABLC)

This Sorry Excuse for a Man Does Not Even Deserve To Be CLOSE to the Nomination for President

Really?

Does anyone honestly believe this man is qualified to be President of the United States? 

As early as 10 pm last night Secretary of State Clinton released a statement condemning the attack, but after the stroke of midnight last night, exactly one minute after the day of 9/11 concluded, Team Romney and RNC Chairman Reince Priebus unleashed a torrent of criticism and accused President Obama of apologizing for America and sympathizing with the attackers. 

During his press conference today Mitt Romney claimed the president was apologizing for American values. And in this case “American Values” would seem to include the views of Florida Pastor Terry Jones who stoked violent protests outside of the U.S. Embassies in Libya and other countries by creating a rabidly anti-Muslim propaganda film. 

What was considered to be a “shiny object” by the Romney campaign as recently as three days ago took center stage today as Mitt used the deaths of three Americans and a long-serving Ambassador to project the idea that President Obama is a secret-Muslim, terrorist sympathizer.

This was the best that the Republican Party could do this election season. When does this incarnation of the GOP finally become extinct? What will it take?

Smirk away, you sorry excuse for a human being.



By the way, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus makes Michael Steele look like Stephen Fucking Hawking.

(Via Bob Cesca)

Sometimes I Just Shake My Head and Sigh...

...when I think about elected officials as moronic as Sen. Chuck Grassley having a say in how our government works... or doesn't work as the case may be.

One thing in particular that I didn't miss this time around in the GOP Bullshit Memes Edition of 2012 was the blood boiling ridiculousness that is the teleprompter jab. Obama's soooo dumb.... HOW DUMB IS HE?! He's sooo dumb he can't give a speech without a teleprompter. If he can't read it, he doesn't know what to say. HAR! HAR! HAR!! (This insult brought to you by some GOP idiot reading a teleprompter.)

I know it shouldn't bother me because it's obvious crap, but maybe what bugs me the most is that it's been repeated so often, most of the GOP lemmings take it as fact. They believe this while watching their political leaders READ OFF A TELEPROMPTER! So this time around, I was glad they retired this silly notion. Or so I thought.



Seriously?! What. The. FUCK?! This waste of carbon is a sitting fucking senator in Congress who has watched every President since Lyndon Fucking Johnson use a teleprompter, but obviously the reason President Obama uses it is because he's dumb, right?

And the topper is his comparison to the Romneybot-3000 who apparently is so much smarter, he doesn't need a teleprompter. That Mitt's so quick on his feet that he came up with this little gem while defending his omission of our military troops during this speech at the RNC in what was the biggest night of his political life:

Responding to an inquiry from Fox News reporter Brett Baier, Romney claimed, “When you give a speech, you don’t go through a laundry list, you talk about the things that you think are important.”

Yeah, Mitt wants to talk about the important things. Why waste time giving a little shout out to the troops the GOP always loves to use as a backdrop when you can spend that valuable time letting Clint Eastwood upstage the Republican presidential nominee with an empty fucking chair?

Man, I don't know how President Obama is going to deal with such a razor sharp wit as Mitt Romney during the upcoming debates without a teleprompter.

(Cross-posted on ABLC)

DNC Ted Kennedy Tribute...

... and eating Mitt Romney's lunch in the process.

But It's Not About Racism (The GOP Convention Edition)

Isn't it great to live in the land of post-racial sentiment after we've elected a black man into the Oval Office? Anyone screaming 'racism' is obviously not in touch with the pulse of the American electorate and is simply using the race card as an instrument of division and hate... wait, what?

"...Zoraida Fonalledas, the chairwoman of the Committee on Permanent Organization—took her turn at the main-stage lectern [at the GOP Convention in Tampa Bay]. As she began speaking in her accented English, some in the crowd started shouting “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” 

The chanting carried on for nearly a minute while most of the other delegates and the media stood by in stunned silence. The Puerto Rican correspondent turned to me and asked, “Is this happening?”... None of us could quite believe what we were seeing: A sea of twentysomething bowties and cowboy hats morphing into frat bros apparently shrieking over (or at) a Latina."

But surely they were chanting because they were proud of their "big tent" and cheering, not jeering the Republican latina woman at their own convention, right? ...Right?

But the Republicans keep telling me that it was Obama who has done absolutely nothing for immigrants (even though the woman was Puerto Rican and therefore an American citizen) in this country, except to throw them a bone with his obvious politicization of young immigrants who are here through no fault of their own, at least according to Romney surrogate John Sununu.

“If Obama really was serious about that, he wouldn’t have been such a phony in doing that, and he would have done it four years ago. This presidency, by doing something late and politically, defined both his incompetence and his insincerity,” Sununu said after answering questions in Spanish with the Hispanic press. 

During the GOP primary, Romney vowed to veto the DREAM Act, which would implement a stronger version of what Obama did through executive order, but since winning the nomination, he’s tacked to the middle and avoided striking the hard-line tone on immigration that made him one of the most conservative candidates on the issue in the GOP field. 

Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state and an immigration adviser to Romney, is the author of Arizona’s of infamous immigration law and took up a suit brought by 10 immigration enforcement agents against the new Obama policy last week.

Hold on. Do you mean to tell me that, try as they might, the Republican Party really isn't that into people of color? I find that hard to believe.

Two attendees at the Republican National Convention were thrown out of the convention center in Tampa on Tuesday after throwing nuts at a black CNN camerawoman and saying, "this is how we feed the animals."

CNN reported that multiple witnesses saw it happen, and police immediately removed the two people from the premises.

Oh, come on! What's next?! Is some frothy guy going to step behind the convention podium and blatantly lie about the Presdient in a clear attempt to rile up the fringiest of the fringe with some dumbass welfare claim even though a large number of white people are help by that program as well?

"This summer he showed us once again he believes in government handouts and dependency by waiving the work requirement for welfare," Santorum said Tuesday in a speech at the Republican National Convention in Tampa. "I helped write the welfare reform bill; we made the law crystal clear -- no president can waive the work requirement. But as with his refusal to enforce our immigration laws, President Obama rules like he is above the law." 

PolitiFact checked a Romney campaign ad's claim that Obama ended welfare work requirements earlier this month, rating it Pants On Fire. In reality, the Obama administration has said it will consider proposals from states that are aimed at finding better ways of getting welfare recipients into jobs. FactCheck.org and the Washington Post Fact Checker have also said the claim is false.

Fuck. Me.

If you haven't noticed, it's been all dog whistles, all the time. Accusations of "gutting welfare requirements" taking a play out of the welfare queen Reagan playbook. Romney making a little "joke" about not having to show his birth certificate - yet the reaction wasn't laughter, but cheers. Delegates at the GOP convention booing and chanting "USA" when an Hispanic woman speaks. Other conventioneers thrown out after assaulting a black CNN cameraperson and calling her an "animal." And yet when it's brought up, it's the DEMOCRATS who are accused of using the RACE CARD?! If it acts like a racist and it smells like a racist...

ADDING... And let's not forget that scumbag South Carolina state representative Alan Clemmons responding positively to a racially tinged email regarding their bullshit voter ID law.  But hey, it's those Democrats playing that damned race card because you know, black man in the White House, new era of enlightenment, post racial land of the free, home of blah, blah, blah...

(Cross-posted at ABLC)

I'm Back From Vacation!

So... uh... what did I miss?

Man! What a week to be away. Let's just bullet point it:

 Todd Akin's crazy week

 GOP leaders going apeshit over Akin's comments and urging him to quit his Missouri Senate race.

 Mitt Romney deciding to courageously voice his opinion that Akin should drop out of his Senate race a convenient 15 minutes after Rush Limbaugh suggested the same.

 Mitt Romney's ridiculous suggestion that he doesn't want to release his taxes because he wants how much he tithes to the LDS to remain private. HA!

 Mitt Romney going Birther at an event in Michigan.

 Another shooting, this time by the Empire State Building

 Phyllis Diller died.

 Neil Armstrong died.



I'll be back to comment on a more regular basis starting tomorrow, but in the meantime, enjoy this picture of the Grand Canyon... yes, I vacationed in Arizona and actually brought my passport... just in case.

Fact Check: Enough of the GOP Medicare BS

The new lie from the Romney camp and its hatchet men is that the Affordable Care Act cuts $716 billion from Medicare. Mitt Romney himself says that President Obama "stole $716 billion from Medicare to fund Obamacare" and that current seniors are seeing a reduction in their benefits and their service. All of it is absolute horse shit.

And thank you, Soledad O'Brien for giving us a concise look at the facts.

 


This has to be shouted from the mountaintops. I don't give a shit that Paul Ryan's plan which Mitt Romney embraces, cuts the same amount of money out of the Medicare program. This is a bad argument for the mere fact that it'll get convoluted in a "both sides are the same" meme.

The argument is that ACA reduces Medicare increases by $716 billion over 10 years by reducing payments and streamlining the system and pumps that savings back into the healthcare system. Romney and Ryan would have that $716 billion come from the pockets of those who can least afford it, namely seniors on a fixed income, by restructuring Medicare into a voucher system that will never keep up with the rising cost of healthcare, especially if they plan on "repealing ALL of Obamacare" as Romney continues to threat.

And here's a great catch from Bob Cesca on the latest Romney ad flat out lying about the CBO report that I didn't catch the first time I saw it:

...the CBO’s director Doug Elmendorf wrote that if the House Republicans repeal the Affordable Care Act, the repeal would increase federal spending on Medicare by $716 billion. There’s nothing about cutting Medicare in there. NOTHING. Romney and his campaign are lying. Again. And they’ll keep on doing it.

(Cross-posted on ABLC)

Paul Ryan's First "Homina Homina" Interview

Say what you will about Brit Hume (I certainly have), but this is one solid interview. Hume for the most part, doesn't let Ryan get away with vague, softball answers and tries to get concrete answers from Ryan on the GOP ticket's philosophy and how they plan to implement their vision.

You really should watch the whole interview and try to stomach some of the bullshit talking points.



There were a few things that struck me during this interview.

The $716 billion "raided" from Medicare to pay for Obamacare bullshit talking point not withstanding, Ryan insisted that under a Romney presidency, they would repeal ALL of Obamacare. Not keep the things that work or expressing concern for those who are enjoying some of the benefits of Obamacare already, but ENTIRELY repeal it.

That means those who have been able to obtain insurance now despite being previously refused due to preexisting conditions are out of luck. Seniors who've been able to save money by the Medicare Part D donut hole being closed? Sorry, you'll have to start paying for those meds again. Children who can stay on their parents insurance plan until 26 years of age, especially during this time of high unemployment and college graduates having trouble finding a job? That's a shame. It's the Henry Hill "Fuck you, pay me" Goodfellas style of health care policy.

If you noticed, it seems that the Romney campaign has basically forced Paul Ryan to abandon his own budget, causing Ryan to repeatedly refer to Romney's vision and that he signed on to the Romney campaign. Nevermind Ryan's philosophy and the budget he worked tirelessly on. That was apparently just an exercise to "start the conversation."

Hume also asked about Ryan's affinity for Ayn Rand, to which Ryan responded that he loved her books but not her philosophy. That same philosophy she espouses in her books that causes Ryan to insist his staffers read Rand?

All of this is can only get much more interesting if this is just Day Three of the Dynamic Duo's rollout. What does Ryan now stand for? All of Romney's ideas... or lack of.

Mitt Romney: Just Trust Me

Are you fucking kidding me?!

ROMNEY: “[O]ur campaign would be-- helped immensely if we had an agreement between both campaigns that we were only going to talk about issues and that attacks based upon-- business or family or taxes or things of that nature." 

[...] 

“[W]e only talk about issues. And we can talk about the differences between our positions and our opponent's position.” Romney said of his own campaign: “[O]ur ads haven't gone after the president personally. … [W]e haven't dredged up the old stuff that people talked about last time around. We haven't gone after the personal things.”

Personal things? PERSONAL THINGS?!

For a fucking year now, Mitt Romney has been touting his time as a the rootinest, tootinest bobtailed wildcat north, south, east or west of the Great Salt Lake. He's the kick ass and take names private sector job creator at his private equity firm, Bain Capital. He's a master CEO who created a bajillion jobs, and it's through this amazing experience in the private sector which President Obama lacks, that he is better suited to run the U.S. of A. That's all we've heard from this sleazy, used car salesman.

And now with less than 90 days to go, now that we are in the thick of it campaign-wise, now that the dirty little dealings of Bain's vulture capitalism are coming to light, now that we find out that Mitt Romney was still the de facto head of Bain for three years after the time he claims he left, now he's claiming that what he's been putting front and center as the cornerstone of his leadership bona fides is "personal' and shouldn't be subject to criticism?

I say again: ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!

Now all of this is stemming from the Priorities USA SuperPAC ad centering on Joe Soptic, a victim of Bain's vulture capitalism. Everyone on the right is having an apoplectic fit over the ad, saying it goes too far and points to Romney as Soptic's wife's murderer after she was stricken with cancer but waited too long for treatment because they had lost their health insurance. They're all laying it at the feet of the Obama campaign when the fact of the matter is that it's a SuperPAC ad, not an Obama campaign ad.

How do you like Citizens' United now, bitches?

Mitt Romney 2012: Just Trust Me.