One segment of the population really, REALLY loves Romney’s 47% statement, CNBC and Yahoo Finance readers. Check out their poll. Obviously, this doesn’t exactly reflect a cross-section of the American public. The entirely lame blow back from the Right today is to release a 15-year-old clip of Obama taking about redistribution. I suppose it’s disconcerting if one is prone to get into a lather about a state senator speaking in not so oblique code about taking money from some and gifting it to others. Some are. Most are not. Most won’t hear it anyway because it’s essentially being buried under the larger narrative of the Romney clip. . The Khalidi tape would rise above the current din. Since Andrew Breitbart dropped dead on a Brentwood street corner earlier this year I’m betting no one else bothered to ferret a copy out of the LA Times, such is the weird weakness of the once vicious conservatives. It’s hard to believe this bunch impeached a President over lying about oral sex. My hunch is that advent of blogs has given conservatives an echo chamber to perch in each day in relative comfort. But it’s blunted their edge.
Now we know why Obama didn’t cancel his Letterman appearance. It was timed to give him a comfy, widely viewed chair from which to dismiss Romney. (Yes, Mother Jones went to press on an Obama campaign timeline. If you learn anything from reading this blog please let it be this: Timing is everything in politics…and comedy.)
Note: The disaster of 4 dead Americans in the Middle East on 9/11 has vanished. That was the point.
Note: The minions are squawking about how cold Romney is, whereas the adults are hitting on “writing off half the country”, which is the real political meat of matter.
The next stop on this week’s journey? Coverage of “huge” Obama rallies played against tepid Romney stops. Watch.
For Romney supporters there is some good news. The man has money. Combine that with our famously short attention spans and 47%-gate might – I emphasize might – dissipate reasonably soon. Obama peaks in late September, the brewing fisticuffs between…wait for it….China and Japan….spook our markets…and anything is possible in October. I did not say likely, mind you. Possible.
What do you think?
What do you think?
I think you are harshing my mellow.
Come on, dude. The Giants are sitting pretty the last time I looked.
Does the W stand for WATB?
You asked what I think. Here it is: http://peacocksandlilies.com/2012/09/18/5-reasons-why-the-romney-video-will-helps-him/
i was just gonna link this as an interesting counter point…
You still can.
It might see more action as a link in the article. That full video is some serious stuff, ftr.
Wow! That video is some serious stuff. President Obama is going to be more vested in keeping that video out of the media than Romney is.
Fascinating piece, Lola. I especially liked your 1st and 4th reasons. Not sold on the ‘deliberate leak’ hypothesis, but that’s immaterial to whether the vid will ultimately redound to Romney’s benefit.
Can’t wait to view the vid later today.
Thanks, NES. I’m not exactly sure myself on the deliberate leak either; it’s just a working hypothesis. Funny thing, though. The press was screaming about lack of specificity from Romney. Well, they certainly got it. And now so do a lot of other people. And the press is so busy crowing about the leak itself and the gotcha that the details are getting out there to the average Joe & Josephine without a lot of interference. Neat trick, that.
I believe that everyone is indeed entitled to health care, food, and housing. What a sick & twisted society, that thinks some deserve disease, starvation, and homelessness.
So I can just sit on my ass and you’ll pay for my health care, food and housing? Thank you, that’s very nice of you. Can I bring my friends too?
No, I’d put you to work if you wanted assistance. And, sorry, but cutting & pasting other people’s words onto a blog doesn’t count as ‘work.’
So you lied. You don’t think I’m entitled to health care, food, and housing. You expect me to earn them.
You must be a Romney supporter.
I think the right wing of the Republican party wants Romney to tank (as they did McCain). Obama is doing such a nice job of destroying the Democratic Party that four more years would mean (so they think) permanent right wing control of the government.
It would be interesting to know whether a Democrat paid good money to sit through the Romney dinner and leak the tape — or whether it was a Republican. I note they have had it for months. After all, you don’t release a new product in August, do you?
djmm
Occam’s Razor suggests that the answer is: Romney just sucks.
My LEAST politically interested friend brought up the 47% video at dinner tonight.
Interesting:
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/09/french-mag-to-publish-cartoons-of-prophet-mohammed/
Rumor has it, they depict him sunbathing with Kate Middleton.
That is very interesting, John. I wonder what the motivation is — strike out in favor of free speech when it’s being attacked by savages abroad and appeasers at home?
Shorter French Press: “Mohamed, oh, Mohamed, oh, we are all Theo van Gogh.”
I’m just tired of both Obama and Romney.
I knew someone would have a ” macaca” tape bomb dropped on them…just didn’t know who until now . The upper crust has decied,,,or rather made the choice known
opps that somehow nested , dang …however I have a reply for Jen the Michigander’s statement
I’m just tired of both Obama and Romney.
Indeed . We are so f-ed
It all just adds more pieces into an image of Romney that has been created by the Obama campaign (but most of the pieces have been provided by Romney himself). However, it should not have a large impact on the polls, because this election is not about Romney: very few people are actually voting for Romney, compared to much larger voter block which is voting against Obama.
… very few people are actually voting for Romney, compared to much larger voter block which is voting against Obama.
This.
I agree. In the end, the vote will be a referendum on Obama’s presidency.
It feels like March, 2008 when Team Obama was screaming that the game was over and Hillary should just quit.
Only this time Obama isn’t sitting on padded caucus numbers and there aren’t any superdelegates to buy.
Anonymous is right. Obama doesn’t have the cash this time. And the readers of this blog still consume MSM which an increasing number avoid. The debates are critical and a record number will watch them and then turn it off to avoid the talking heads acting outraged about Romney wearing brown shoes with a navy suit.
No they don’t. Avoid it, that is.
They may think they do, but the MSM message is no longer spread by only the MSM. One need never buy a newspaper, click into a MSM site or turn on TV or radio to be drawn into MSM messages. Social media, Facebook et al, is filled with MSM messages copied and linked, cut and pasted, reworded into status updates and twitter, and craftily advertised all over blogs and websites. Most Americans are either consumers in an old fashioned traditional way or a more modern way, but either way the MSM message is as far reaching as ever. If it weren’t, neither Obama nor Romney would win in November. Objectively speaking from the viewpoint of average Americans, both candidates are laughably horrendous, and there will be alternative candidates on most ballots.
Zal’s right. And it raises doubt about how we get information/form opinions on an whole host of subjects. Just So stories for the 21st century.
Tamerlane,
Love your “Just So stories for the 21st century.” Great observation!
The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution will not reveal any intrinsic right to health care, food or shelter. That’s because there isn’t any. This ‘right’ has never existed in America.
Founders believed in equal opportunity for all but no one guaranteed the results would be the same.
The idea of an increasing number of Americans, crippled by their reliance on Government in order to exist day to day is a repugnant thought.. Economic inequities are a natural but not altogether attractive feature of a free society. I don’t have the answers but I most certainly would like our poor and elderly provided for and beyond that I hope for a strengthening economy with more jobs and more Americans able to stand on their own as free people….not dependents on the teat of federal government.
Well I do. And before Bush stole 2000 liberals used to.
You don’t start with a President who says 47% of American don’t pay taxes and they aren’t entitled to food, housing and health care. That is, unless you’re Ebenezer Scrooge or Mitt Romney.
If you want to divide people who’re a drain on our society from those who contribute, you start by dividing people by honor, integrity, work ethic from those who are devious deceptive cheaters, no matter how much money they have or how much they pay in taxes or how pleasing their presentation. When we stop giving safe harbor to people who are devious and deceptive we’ll be on a road to recovery, and not before.
Then you create industry and jobs. Start with energy and environment since that’s another problem that needs solving anyway. Bring together Wall Street investors with private industry and government and start up the biggest effort for invention and production in history. Invent better solar and wind collectors, better battery storage, better heating and cooling systems, modernize the electrical grid and transportation. There would be jobs for our top brains, for administration and management and clerical and labor. Then attack the rest of our infrastructure, sewage and water treatment, water lines and bridges in disrepair and the rest. That’s a start.
Then reform our tax code. Get everybody paying a progressively reasonable percentage of taxes. It is outrageous that Mitt Romney stands up complaining about people who don’t pay taxes when he has hundreds of millions stockpiled, tens of millions more a year, and pays a fraction of the tax percentage that an average working person pays. And he’s not cheating, our tax code allows it; and thousands and thousands of very wealthy people do the same thing. Lower income workers should pay some tax, not use April 15 as the day they get a cash bonus, but people who make 20 million a year in unearned income should pay the top rate. Everybody should have skin in the game.
Reform entitlement programs. A lot of people think food stamps and welfare and Medicaid and disability, etc, are just big cheating factories. I’m one of those who thinks that. So reform them. The President shouldn’t say people who legally don’t pay taxes aren’t entitled to health care and food and housing, he should say we’re going to find the cheaters and toss them out on their asses. There’ll be jobs and if they don’t want to work then they’ll be homeless and hungry and sick.
I have answers. A lot of people have good answers. Tam and others here have written out smart reasonable answers lots of times. I’ll tell you two people whose answers will make everything worse for us: Obama and Romney. Absolutely no question about it. And at this point it’s so obvious that anybody voting for either of them is either mentally impaired in some way or knowingly contributing to the problem. It’s time for rebellion and the best –and easiest and safest– way to start is at the voting booth; but Americans won’t even do that.
The renewable energy technology is good-to-go right now. The biggest promise lies in solar steam generators. But the obama crime family frakked that up by tossing cash at the corrupt Beacon Energy, run by an obama bundler.
If the fedl govt issued an RFP to install solar & wind at every fedl building & site in the country, the private sector would scramble to meet it, and the resulting economies of scale would make renewables cost-competitive. But Romney wants to subsidize the big oil & coal men; obama promises more Solyndras.
And don’t nobody mention ‘rare earth metals’ unless they can tell me: 1) just what a ‘rare earth metal’ is; 2) how many types there are; 3) just how ‘rare’ they are; 4) where they are found.
A WPA program solves most of our problems all by itself. A WPA program could be funded by what is spent on Afghanistan.
Tamerlane, you bring up a great point and what ultimately should be a link between a new WPA type of program with the urgent need of developing new infrastructure for alternative energy. For the millions of people without jobs, I think this type of WPA initiative would not only obviously provide impetus for employment, but also would to some degree reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
Fossil fuel provides the best bang for your buck in terms of energy vs. combustible material, but the idea that by deregulating we’re just going to drill for more “God given resources in North America” or figure out a way to use shale to achieve the same result is at best wishful thinking and at worst just another BS story for the oligarchs to buy more time until the locusts finish squeezing out whatever profits that they can wherever they can until we are effectively out of oil.
A good WPA plan could generate tons of jobs manufacturing/installing either solar/wind/tidal turbines as carbon/fossil offset, manufacturing/installing a new high speed energy efficient rail system throughout the country as well as fund research into future energy sources, either safer nuclear or even something like electrogravitics or wireless electricity (Tesla).
If you don’t believe in a “right to health care, food or shelter,” move to Somalia so the rest of us can try to fix this country.
Tamerlane,
I hadn’t heard of solar steam generators, but that sounds like it would be a good idea. In the community in which I live the university has come up with another novel approach. I’m linking to the story because I think you’d find it interesting. It’s about energy cold storage and using waste energy to melt it and utilize it. Here’s link:
http://www.gazettetimes.com/news/local/cold-storage-electricity-when-you-need-it/article_a596d26c-fee3-11e1-8329-0019bb2963f4.html
Also, our state is looking into tidal energy, since we’re on the west coast. I’m actually excited that Oregon is looking at different options.
I agree with Zal, unfortunately the presidential election has become basically a mass media entertainment event similar to the Superbowl and American Idol. Candidates are selected and packaged and presented to push our buttons and manipulate our fantasies and ears. It’s a mass media distraction to give the populace the illusion of choice whminations of power subtly out of our han
And if its going to continue…when the writing is most amingly on the wall… Then its our fault.
It’s our fault because were becoming a culture that seems to place value on feelings rather than thought, where we equate being opinionated with being knowledgeable, where we equate being raucous and loud with being strong, where we equate a sense of tribalism with actual identity and community. I’m just as guilty of that as Obama and Romney are.
Change will only occur when we collectively realize the abject reality of the situation we currently are in. As long as there are bright shiny things provided to give us the feeling of hope and dark scary things to provide us with the feeling of fear, our perceptions are malleable and that collective realization is out of our grasp.
For me, that’s the saddest part about where were headed.
After the American media grabbed and held the pro-Obama headlines against Romney’s comments and took Obama’s “Romney shoots first and aims second” quote to iconic proportions, the rest of the world is reporting that the Obama administration knew about the planned-attack on the Benghazi, Libya Embassy where four Americans, including United States Ambassador Christopher Steven was murdered.
The above is from, of all places, CBS, and proves your point Dan.
My phone garbled the first part of my post but I hope the thought came through.
John, you have stated a great truth in politics, timing IS everything, not just in politics but in life in general. Miss your train ? Meet the love of your life.. and so it goes.{I watch too many old movies}
Instead of emulating Solomon and deciding who deserves ‘help’ and who doesn’t, shouldn’t the focus be on how and who can start dragging the country away from the abyss?
Tam, kudos for using Occam’s razor in the proper context, and also for stating the obvious. Romney Does suck, but imo O sucks worse, mainly because he seems to be more corrupt.
Zal, I agree with your post in unfortunately, an deeply emotional manner. That Is who we used to be, thanks for the reminder, even though I’m not sure there enough of those innovators and thinkers left. Imo, dead though he may be, Bin Laden won. Our country and it’s leaders has crashed, just much more slowly than the Twin Towers.
Any free society is only as good as its’ citizens, if iconic leaders from the past Seem better, it’s only because they were forced by better people to Be better…
Frauds like O and jerks like Romney can only exist because we Let them. When our millionaire athletes have to be Told how to behave during the playing of the national anthem, and some of our schoolchildren don’t even know the Pledge of Allegiance, nor do their parents, maybe we deserve today’s politicians.
My comment about Romney sucking referred to the specific case of campaigning. I agree that obama is worse. Romney would just be a bad president; obama would be a bad emperor.
“The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution will not reveal any intrinsic right to health care, food or shelter. That’s because there isn’t any. This ‘right’ has never existed in America.”
“The pursuit of Happiness” meant the ability to make an honest living. The economy is now so rigged, many people (the ‘permanently unemployable’ for example) can’t do so — they are denied the pursuit of happiness.
The Constitution also affords us equal protection under the law. Yet the tax laws are unequal and favor the elite. BofA gets a bailout, then pays no taxes:
http://publicintelligence.net/bank-of-america-ge-pay-zero-federal-taxes/
Mitt Romney has tax havens and loopholes for his riches; obama can commit real estate fraud with Rezko with impunity; while I get bit with unavoidable sales tax at Target when buying essentials.
The Declaration says “all men are created equal”; the Constitution codified equal rights. Yet the Civil Rights Act was required to remedy the social & institutional denial of those rights. We need to pass an Economic Rights Act. Or FDR’s Second Bill of Rights.
The pursuit of happiness is not found in a food stamp line waiting for the Gov to dole out your crumbs. Go visit an Indian reservation or inner city if you want to see what life under redistributed wealth looks like.
And don’t forget the ladies. We also still need to pass the ERA.
Anon, 47% of the population are not on food stamps.
Zal———- No surprise it boils down to Romney is a mean heartless scrooge in your mind.
“You don’t start with a President who says 47% of American don’t pay taxes and they aren’t entitled to food, housing and health care. That is, unless you’re Ebenezer Scrooge or Mitt Romney.”
The fact is 47% do not pay income taxes and are living off Government. Not once did Romney state they weren’t entitled to what Gov is giving them. He was speaking of the culture of dependency and those who fall under that category, were unlikely to be part of his voting wheel.
I particularly noticed your energy ideas are absent of natural gas and heavy on wind/solar. Under Obama, over 15 solar/energy companies that received stink-u- lus money, tanked. Would I prefer wind and solar over oil and coal? You bet but we are far from relying on these sources for our energy demands and solutions.
“Not once did Romney state they weren’t entitled to what Gov is giving them. He was speaking of the culture of dependency and those who fall under that category, were unlikely to be part of his voting wheel.”
Thank you for pointing this out. I was going to but zal’s mind is made up and he’s going to read into every thing Romney says or does what he wants to and, like Romney, I figure why waste the breath.
It would be amusing if it weren’t so sad that the media is “fact checking” Romney’s words from behind a closed door meeting. ObamaNation: Romney wasn’t discussing policy or appearing on Jeopardy. Fact checking his private remarks is silly at best, and makes you look ridiculous. And also a not-so-little-bit desperate.
Damn right.
Romney will be as bad as Obama.
I know what I see and I stand up for it.
What do you stand for?
I realize it will be more of the same, but I think there’s a chance Romney could do a better job than Obama. I’m really not sure but he seems competent and I think he’ll treat the presidency like a job. That’s where I diverge from your viewpoint, he seems to me to have a desire to serve the public. I am not yet convinced he’s as soulless or evil as his detractors claim.
Personally, I’m hoping that more and more people stop voting for the Uni-Party and start opening up their minds (and votes) for 3P candidates. IMO, that’s our only hope. As I said over at TCH, I’m beginning to think that American Democracy has failed. We have to use what little power we have left to vote the corporate tools out.
Gina, I actually agree that there’s a (pretty substantial, actually) chance that Romney could do a better job than Obama. God knows it would be difficult to do a worse one. Particularly on the economy, I expect him to basically pull a Reagan: embark on a program of “military Keynesianism” while ignoring all the nonsense about the deficit. This is not the best way to inject money into the economy, but it’s a way – and it will probably accomplish more than four more years of Obama working on his golf game while proclaiming that he “won’t rest” until the economy’s fixed. In general, this sort of expenditure is really close to Keynes’s own example of “paying half the populace to bury bottles and the other half to dig them up”. It won’t produce anything of long-lasting value to the economy, but it might provide enough of a stimulus to get things moving.
As a side benefit, building up the Navy might help deter China’s obviously expanding territorial ambitions (am I a bad liberal for pointing those out?).
Nevertheless, I’m not enamored of the Republican view of the social contract and I don’t plan on voting for it (and will therefore not be voting for either of the Republicans running for President).
Romney would be more pro-active but if it’s pro-active against the best interests of America, that’s worse than Obama.
Learn from what people show you about themselves.
Romney will be helpful to Wall Street and other well connected privileged people, but he has told us he has no interest in attending to, at least, the lower half of our society. Figure it out.
“The fact is 47% do not pay income taxes and are living off Government.”
WRONG. 1) Proprietus has detailed how c. 84% of the population DO pay fedl income taxes; 2) I don’t pay taxes, but nor am I living off the govt. I get squat.
“we are far from relying on these sources for our energy demands and solutions.”
WRONG. 1) the companies obama gave grants to were sham businesses set up by obama bundlers. It was pure graft; 2) America’s entire electrical demand could be met by100 square miles of solar. The technology is proven and ready. How is that tiny Spain produces more energy from solar than the USA? Tinier Denmark more from wind? Does “American Exceptionalism” really mean ‘everyone but Americans can figure it out’?
I call it a wash with maybe a slight gain for Romney who somehow managed to trick MoJo into blowing his dog whistle for him.
What I don’t understand is why Romney’s remarks are supposedly such a surprise. They’re pretty much standard Republican doctrine. I’m far less incensed by a Republican who talks like a Republican than I am by supposed Democrats who act like Republicans.
Seriously…saying that Republicans don’t give a shit about the 47% or whatever percentage of the voters that bloc vote for Democrates is like saying water is wet.
I have to disagree with you. Some Republicans, and it may be a fairly small percentage, do care about the poor. It is part of their religious belief system and they are generous to most charities that support services for the poor and disadvantaged. I know some and it is why I can personally stand to be around them because they are not hypocrites and do their charity work quietly and anonymously.
I’m not disputing the personal generosity of many Republicans (including both Romney and a lot of my relatives). I am saying that the Republican view of the social contract has always been both limited and somewhat harsh – and that anyone who expresses shock that a Republican Presidential candidate has actually voiced Republican political doctrine is just being silly and/or disingenuous.
I’m sorry Boutis, I know you’re right, there are some people who are conservative/Republican who are charitable and compassionate and kudos to those human beings, but what I was reacting to…and in all fairness what I was generalizing… was that all Romney really said in his “47%” quote was basically what the Republican party line generally is…so I don’t know why everyone was shocked. Romney’s quote was the equivalent of a Yankee fan saying “Red Sox suck” in Yankee Stadium, when the Red Sox were playing.
There are statistics somewhere, supporting the theory that Conservatives contribute more to charity than Libs..even rich Libs..
Then again, there are probably stats supporting the opposite.
I think you’re probably referring to the book Who Really Cares: America’s Charity Divide; Who Gives, Who Doesn’t, and Why It Matters, by Arthur Brooks.
As some (even on the Right) pointed out when the book was published, its conclusions probably ought to be taken with a grain of salt due to selection bias in its sampling and confirmation bias in its statistical analysis. See:
http://www.volokh.com/posts/1164012942.shtml
So what, conner?
What’s your point?
Conservatives are more generous? More charitable? More concerned about those in need? They don’t pay their equal share in taxes but they give it to private charity? Even if they give billions more, privately, than liberals so what? What business is it of mine or yours what other people do with their money, privately? My concern is about government coffers and what we as citizens determine our responsibility is as a society. What’s your concern?
Conservatives tend to be more affluent, hence have more disposable income to donate.
Atheists, btw, contribute to charitable causes at a significantly higher rate than believers. but, then again, they tend to be more affluent, too.
http://www.theonion.com/articles/now-that-my-campaign-is-over-id-like-to-talk-to-yo,29611/
Lola – you captured – much more eloquently and cogently than I ever could exactly what I thought after I got past the media and David Corn’s characterizing of Romney’s comments in that video and watched the whole thing. I thought it was pretty standard campaign analysis for the audience he was in front of. I also thought – you know, WAY more than 53% of voters (not Americans maybe, but likely voters) are going to definitely think they are in the 53%, NOT the 47% and say to themselves – you know, I am tired of paying for other people’s entitlements when they pay nothing. So not sure it hurts him much with voters.
I also thought, this is absolutely what the conservative base wants – a full-throated debate about how we function as a sustainable economy when increasing #s of people are taking more from the system than putting in. So, this will excite people in that base who might have been having doubts recently.
Finally, maybe blogs, new social media, etc really are a new paradigm (I guess we’ll see) but we’ve elected very conservative Presidents many times in this country who have said inane to disturbing things about segments of the population. Reagan with his “welfare queens riding in limos.” Bush II with his “not all poor people are killers.” And on and on. Didn’t hurt them, mainly because the majority of voters don’t see themselves in those categories even if they are.
Extremists showing up on front lines in Syria
TEL RIFAAT, Syria (AP) — The bearded gunmen who surrounded the car full of foreign journalists in a northern Syrian village were clearly not Syrians.
No shit. They are the folks we sent in to bring down the Syrian government . So for a year now the people we sent in , were plucky , ” Syrians freedom fighters we had to help! ” That worked in Libya. But it hasn’t worked out so good in Syria and since the blow-back in Libya, it doesn’t look so good . Okay , redirect . So now the same people are” foreign extremists we have to stop! ” …same goal : take down Syria .
back to topic!
I only see mainstream TV went I travel to visit my Mom, like I did today( it’s simply unavoidable in many public places ) and the Romney gaffe machine narrative is in full court press…are people saying there was no connection in the timing of Barry going on Letterman and the release of this tape? Cause don’t believe it. Any time the media seems to know what it’s doing, it’s because they are doing it . The storied GOP slime machine of Atwater and Krove, for years I wondered were it went? But it was hiding in plain sight.It’s now working for Barry Inc. But once Obama is reinstalled, I’m guessing they will stop fluffing his pillow and switch back to make way for Jeb….or whoever
Zal, I don’t give a damn what anyone does with their money, but I do care about what public people do when no one is looking. Character and honor still count.
Hey Zal knock it off I know you’re voting for Obama .
I have a problem voting for failure so I’ll be giving the other guy a chance….you know the one with a history of success.
I’m voting for Jill Stein. If she wasn’t on my ballot I’d vote for Gary Johnson, who’s on the ballot in 47 states. I won’t vote for the Democratic or GOP.
Romney’s success has been at dismantling, not building, at making rich people richer and cutting working class jobs and pensions. That’s not what we need from our President or Congress, but it’s what we’ll get if Romney is elected. He’s told us who he is.
I’m truly intrigued as to why so many here think Zal is going to vote for Obama. Curious.
I have a problem with voting for failure, too. Which is why I’ll never vote again for either Dem or Gop, seeing as they’ve conspired to bring us to ruin.
Why do so many people, including Romney, assume that all of the 47% are Obama-voting liberals sucking off the system? I think a reasonable portion of those who didn’t pay any taxes could be small business owners who either didn’t turn a profit or who are so adept at the tax code, they look like they didn’t turn a profit. Therefore, some of them could be (or could have been, as the case may be) Romney voters.
Well, yes. There’re also all the people on gov’t assistance that live in Red states but always vote GOP. WV is the extreme example of that.
Exactly. Everyone else is the wasteful fat that will be trimmed! lol
Perhaps some definition is needed. People receiving VA benefits, SS, or Medicare, are getting money from funds into which they paid, or for service to our country. They may represent the bulk of Romney voters in some states.
After that, many fall into various categories, people who purposely find dr.’s who will put their child on, as they call it, “the crazy pill”, ie: receive a diagnosis of ADD or Autism, or a few other mental disabilities, so they can get SS for their perfectly healthy children.. Adults who claim disabilities find a cooperative dr. and get on SS disability, sometimes for life.. Of late, many of them have been reported to social services by neighbors who see them performing tasks impossible for someone with a debilitating ‘back injury’…These are just a few examples from a very long list.
The life of the single welfare mommy pretty much stinks, it is one of want, deprivation, living in lousy neighborhoods etc. Yet for some of them, it is Paradise compared to life in Mexico or Guatemala. It’s all relative. Legal Americans in such circumstances can get job training, job coaching, and free child care, in some states. A friend of mine used these programs to become a psychologist in NYC.
A great deal of time and money is spent on our most vulnerable citizens, the children of illegals.They are quiet, often to the point of dullness, from, I suspect, spending most of their young lives in various agency waiting rooms. They are usually adorable and often enter school with only the English learned from Dora cartoons. Of course we must care for them, there is no putting the genie back in that bottle anyway.
However, I will vote for any candidate who pledges to close our swiss cheese borders and enforce immigration laws already on the books. We are not a mean spirited or bigoted people, but we live in a badly faltering economy, and can no longer afford to keep to the status quo.
Additionally, if a near illiterate laborer can walk across the border so easily, imagine how simple it would be for well funded terrorists to do the same.
John – where I disagree with you is on the mileage the Romney campaign will be able to get from the “redistributionist” videos from Obama. There are a # of those videos, not just the ’98 video; there’s also the Joe the Plumber video for one. But, the reason it could have (I’m not willing to say definitely but could) traction is because there is now an actual redistributionist record for people to look at. Obama in 2008 could say – oh, that was a while ago or I was taken out of context – but how he has governed is absolutely in line with redistributing wealth. That’s why these past comments hurt.
Unfortunately, his actual redistributing has been taking $ from taxpayers – particularly the non-wealthy – and distributing it to bankers, his donors, other cronies, unions and unionized states and cities, GM and Chrysler, Brazil and China, health insurance companies just to mention a few. The main thing I don’t like about Romney (although still voting for him) is that he won’t point this out because he’s in the bag for the banks and health insurance companies. At least he’s not in the bag for as many sectors as Obama.
Good points Run. My snark above was in reference to the age of that audio clip. It was a weak response but it did get some traction. There must be better stuff out there re: Obama. MR and the superpacs are – so far – not using the brass knuckles. I’m on record saying I think this is unwise if he wants to win. This tape isn’t “it” – there will be more cat nip for the media as needed. Unless Obama’s team is put on warning that they will be gutted – they’ll gut Romney. (I guess in terms of politics I’m a neo-con. Ha!) I have a mutually assured destruction viewpoint in the Obama years. the only thing that will tame them is knowing they might be obliterated if they go too far. And, it is doable, lord knows.
BUT I still see little evidence that the Romney clip did a lot of harm. Polls in the next few days may tell the tale. We shall see. Gallup is even again as of today. I think it’s smart of Romney to double down – not back off. Though it strikes me that it bothers him to go for the jugular – a lovely trait in a minister or a neighbor. Not so much in a politician in the age of Obama.
The harm of the Romney remarks will be a solidifying of support for Obama.
John: I definitely agree that it seems to bother Romney to play hardball (Ryan – not so much, I think). Maybe it’s the Mormon thing because every Mormon I’ve met or worked with (not a stastically significant sample, but still quite a few) have been simply the nicest, most hard-working, earnest people I’ve known.
But, he’d better look at McCain if he wants to know how nice and earnest worked out because Obama, on the other hand, is one of the nastiest pieces of work I’ve seen in politics and that’s saying a tremendous amount. (Remember his primary campaign not only playing the race card, but spreading the meme that HRC was suggesting Obama be killed towards the end of the primaries; that one skanky foreign policy witch he hired calling HRC a “monster,” them lying about her trade comments to the Canadians when it was his campaign that did that, and on and on – not to mention the filth they trotted out about Palin’s kids). Ugh, just having him as president makes me feel dirty.
Like many challengers before him, Romney has to talk about the hard subjects. The economy, unemployment, the Debt, Obama just changes the subject and Letterman laughs.
Imagine what any of us could do, if there was no accountability, and all one had to do was promise a free lunch for everyone..
Add to that a promise made by someone who has a record of never keeping their promises. Its amazing what desperate people will force themselves to believe.
Interesting too how the Romney remarks have only solidified support among Obama’s base and a few other “sour grapes” types. Polls showing that a large majority of Independents are in agreement with what Romney said. Don’t underestimate those remarks. If they really were as much of a gaffe as the MSM wants us to believe, ObamaKamp wouldn’t be forcing their journOlists to hammer them home every f*king minute of every f*cking news cycle. I think its hilarious.
What are you talking about, conner? Romney didn’t make those remarks on a TV talk show or a speech he believed was being broadcast or even taped. You make it sound like this is an indication of Romney’s courage or straight talk that it simply is not. He got caught saying something he didn’t intend to be for the wider public, as Obama did the “bitter clingers” remarks in ’08.
I wasn’t referring to Romney’s fundraiser remarks, they don’t interest me unless we can hear O’s remarks at fundraisers also. Particularly the ones he made recently while standing next to a multi thousand dollar pile of champagne bottles at Jay and Bey’s nightclub.
Here, here Conner. (Or is it hear, hear – I never know!)
Conner, that’s ridiculous. It’d be like saying, in ’08, after hearing Obama’s “bitter clinger” comments, that doesn’t interest me until I hear secretly recorded comments by Hillary.
These recorded comments reveal something about the candidate, and if they don’t interest you then you’re not interested in knowing the truth about them. This kind of nonsense is why I say Romney supporters are the same as Obama supporters. The truth about who people are and what they’ll actually do doesn’t interest True Believers.
zal, I’m not a Romney supporter and all his comment tells me is that Romney is focused, pragmatic, with a reality-based (as opposed to narcissistic self-absorbed) grasp of the situation. He was right. He shouldn’t waste time on voters like me (social democrats). I have to say, I like that in a person. He’s direct, no BS. IMO, just because someone doesn’t hold my political ideals doesn’t make them a “bad” person. Sorry but my evil meter isn’t going off with Romney. (And I don’t think that’s just because Obama already broke it.)
Romney’s full of BS. Not that all politicians aren’t, but your believing he’s not reveals your willingness to be fooled.
He was talking, as Obama was with his bitter clinger remarks, to a particular audience and giving them the red meat politicians try to give to all their money people. I’m not saying he doesn’t believe what he said, but he didn’t say it as a non bullshitter, he said it to rich people who don’t want to share any of their disposable riches with peasants; Romney didn’t say it wide and clear, he said it believing nobody was recording it.
I don’t know if Romney’s evil. But I do know what he’ll do from our White House if he gets the chance.
zal, all politicians tailor their public remarks to the crowd, but this was a private meeting. You keep saying that we need to believe what a candidate reveals (in a private conversation that was secretly recorded), and that’s what I see in that clip: a direct man. Romney’s face may be entirely different to the public, but behind-closed-doors he seems like a no-nonsense guy. You are the one misinterpreting his comments, not me. He was saying that he shouldn’t waste his time on the social democrat vote. I get that. And I agree with him: He shouldn’t waste his time on me. And I appreciated his honesty.
The funny part is that the way ObamaNation tried to spin it, and the way you’re trying to spin it, that Romney doesn’t “care” about the 47% is actually “red meat” for the significant share of that 47% who think they’re a part of the 53%. If I thought Romney had done it on purpose (getting MoJo to blow his own dog whistle for him), then I’d have to begrudgingly admire his tactical skill.