McCain’s pick
Mitt Romney looking very “tan” on Univision
SRSLY, kids.
How much bronzer does Mitt Romney have to have on to try and relate to the hispanic community?
He knows he’s in trouble with this one segment of the electorate so he tries to look more “tan” so they like him better?
Says a lot of things on a lot of levels.
Pew Poll shows President Obama leading by 8 points
A new Pew Poll shows President Obama leading Mitt Romney by 8 points among Likely Voters: 51%-43%.
Likely Voters is a more accurate measurement of sentiment than Registered Voters.
From Pew Research:
At this stage in the campaign, Barack Obama is in a strong position compared with past victorious presidential candidates. With an eight-point lead over Mitt Romney among likely voters, Obama holds a bigger September lead than the last three candidates who went on to win in November, including Obama four years ago. In elections since 1988, only Bill Clinton, in 1992 and 1996, entered the fall with a larger advantage.
A lot more info from the poll can be found here.
Full Mitt Romney Fundraiser video released
Mother Jones magazine has released the full, unedited video of May 17 fundraiser in which Mitt Romney made some controversial comments about 47 percent of the country, whom he said paid no income taxes and believed themselves “victims.”
At last night’s quickly arranged press conference, Romney asked that whole video be released so Americans could see his comments in full context. So here you go, Mitt.
For now, here is the full video, posted in two parts to YouTube by Mother Jones:
Conservative David Brooks on Mitt Romney’s video gaffe
Even conservative reporter David Brooks has issues with the recent video footage at a GOP fund raising event:
“The people who receive the disproportionate share of government spending are not big-government lovers. They are Republicans. They are senior citizens. They are white men with high school degrees. As Bill Galston of the Brookings Institution has noted, the people who have benefited from the entitlements explosion are middle-class workers, more so than the dependent poor. Romney’s comments also reveal that he has lost any sense of the social compact. In 1987, during Ronald Reagan’s second term, 62 percent of Republicans believed that the government has a responsibility to help those who can’t help themselves. Now, according to the Pew Research Center, only 40 percent of Republicans believe that.
“The Republican Party, and apparently Mitt Romney, too, has shifted over toward a much more hyperindividualistic and atomistic social view — from the Reaganesque language of common citizenship to the libertarian language of makers and takers. There’s no way the country will trust the Republican Party to reform the welfare state if that party doesn’t have a basic commitment to provide a safety net for those who suffer for no fault of their own. The final thing the comment suggests is that Romney knows nothing about ambition and motivation.” – David Brooks, in a New York Times essay titled Thurston Howell Romney.
Mitt Romney on foreign policy: “kick the ball down the field and hope”
Mother Jones released more footage of Mitt Romney’s fund raising event caught on video.
In this clip, Mitt Romney says his approach to the Israel/Palestine issue is to “hope for some degree of stability” and “we kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately something will happen and resolve it.”
Text from the clip:
Romney spoke of “the Palestinians” as a united bloc of one mindset, and he said: “I look at the Palestinians not wanting to see peace anyway, for political purposes, committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel, and these thorny issues, and I say there’s just no way.” Romney was indicating he did not believe in the peace process and, as president, would aim to postpone significant action: “[S]o what you do is, you say, you move things along the best way you can. You hope for some degree of stability, but you recognize that this is going to remain an unsolved problem…and we kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately, somehow, something will happen and resolve it.”
Romney calls emergency press conference to address comments from fund raising video
Last night, as the news and details of Mitt Romney’s true thoughts on President Obama’s base were made public by an undercover video recorded at a Romney fundraiser in May, Mitt Romney called an emergency press conference to “stop the bleeding” and explain/clarify what he meant.
His explanations involved phrases like “campaign process” and “not elegantly stated” but in the end didn’t really address why he called 47% of the American population “victims” who are “dependent on the government.”
Interestingly, when you look at a map of the states with the highest levels of “non-tax paying” citizens, 8 of the top 10 are solidly Republican states.
Mitt Romney says 47% comment was “not elegantly stated”
Republican Mitt Romney says a video clip in which he called nearly half of Americans “victims” was “not elegantly stated” and was “spoken off the cuff.” However, he says President Barack Obama’s approach is “attractive to people who are not paying taxes.”
“Not elegantly stated” means in my translation: “damn, I wish someone hadn’t recorded that.”
According to recent sources, 8 of the top 10 “non-tax paying” states are solid red, Republican states: Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Idaho.
Romney spoke to reporters Monday evening in a hastily called news conference after the emergence of a video in which the GOP presidential nominee told donors that almost half of American voters “believe that they are victims.”
Mitt Romney in undercover video shares disdain for almost half of Americans
David Corn has found a video of Mitt Romney telling donors what he really thinks of voters.
This is the real Mitt, kids. Statements about the use of his wife in the campaign, about how he could do better if he were Latino and this:
There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what.
And, I mean, the president starts off with 48, 49 [percent], he starts with a huge number. These are people who pay no income tax. Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax. So our message of low taxes doesn’t connect. So he’ll be out there talking about tax cuts for the rich. I mean, that’s what they sell every four years.
And so my job is is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives. What I have to do is convince the five to 10 percent in the center that are independents, that are thoughtful, that look at voting one way or the other depending upon, in some cases, emotion, whether they like the guy or not . . .
He continued: “[M]y job is is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
In other parts of the video, Romney shares that his campaign decided not to go too harshly at President Obama because the independents who voted for Obama last election don’t want to be told they made a mistake or they were wrong.
Romney also said about his father, “Had he been born of Mexican parents, I’d have a better shot of winning this.”
Interestingly, take a look at this map of the United States. The red states are the ones with the HIGHEST level of non-tax filers – the ones Romney calls the 47 percent. The ones who don’t pay any federal taxes. Notice where those states are?
Who did Mitt Romney just insult?
Watch more of the video at MotherJones
Are we better off than 4 years ago?
Text of the ad:
He keeps saying it…
“This President cannot tell us that you’re better off today than when he took office.” – Mitt Romney
Here’s where we were in 2008:
“Worst financial collapse since the great depression”
“American workers were laid off in numbers not seen in over three decades”
And here’s where we are today…30 months of private sector job growth. Creating 4.6 million new jobs.
We’re not there yet. But the real question is: Whose plan is better for you?
The President’s plan asks millionaires to pay a little more to help invest in a strong middle class, clean energy, and cut the deficit.
Mitt Romney’s plan?
A new two-hundred-fifty-thousand-dollar tax break for multi-millionaires. Roll back regulations on the banks that cratered the economy, and raise taxes on the middle class.
“They want to go back to the same old policies that got us in trouble in the first place” – Bill Clinton
“We’re not going back, we are moving forward.” – President Obama
Forward.