Now – you know, when Fox News is pressing Mitt Romney’s campaign for specifics, you know it’s gotten bad.
Watch as Romney’s guy tries to spout the same old talking points and Fox News presses for specifics.
Mitt Romney on same sex couples: “I didn’t know you had families”
Boston Spirit magazine has dug a bit deeper into Mitt Romney’s past interactions with LGBT people, particularly during his time as governor.
This new profile illustrates a more profound level of insensitivity to the experience of LGBT people than his past position statements suggest.
David Wilson and Julie Goodridge, two of the plaintiffs whose case led to the legalization of marriage equality in Massachusetts, described meeting with Romney to discuss their experiences. According to Wilson, “it was like talking to a robot. No expression, no feeling.” At one point, Romney remarked, “I didn’t know you had families.” Goodridge recalls her final exchange with the governor, which proved to her that he had “no capacity for empathy”:
GOODRIDGE: Governor Romney, tell me — what would you suggest I say to my 8 year-old daughter about why her mommy and her ma can’t get married because you, the governor of her state, are going to block our marriage?
ROMNEY: I don’t really care what you tell your adopted daughter. Why don’t you just tell her the same thing you’ve been telling her the last eight years.
I’m not sure I can comprehend such a statement to a mother. I can’t wrap my head around that.
This is the man who would be “president.”
More at ThinkProgress
Ohio: Romney more responsible for death of Osama bin Laden?
According to a PPP poll of likely Ohio voters, 15 percent of Republicans in Ohio think Romney is “more responsible” for bin Laden’s death than Obama, while 47 percent of Republicans are “not sure” whether Obama or Romney deserves more of the credit.
Six percent of the overall respondents gave Romney credit where credit is not at all due regarding the killing of bin Laden.
Thirty-one percent of them weren’t sure whether the president or the candidate deserves more credit.
And these people get to vote.
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan – where are the specifics?
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan say they can balance the budget and fix the economy in part by removing some “tax loopholes.”
Many of these “tax loopholes” are the biggest tax deductions middle class America gets: mortgage interest deductions, state and local tax deductions… But Mitt Romney and company won’t say what “loopholes” they’ll “close.”
If you buy a home this year for $100,000 with a mortgage – under current law, middle class America would get something like a $6,000 tsx deduction.
How do you feel about losing that?
Paul Ryan – against legalizing pot, then fine with it, then against it
GOP VP pick Paul Ryan traveled to Colorado on Friday, an important swing state where medical cannabis is already legal and a ballot initiative legalizing marijuana outright appears likely to pass. In the past, Congressman Ryan has opposed even medical marijuana in states that legalized it.
When asked his position on legalizing pot, he suddenly embraced a new position saying it’s a “states’ rights” issue in an interview with Colorado Springs television station KRDO:
I asked Congressman Ryan: “In Colorado we have medical marijuana. Under a Romney Ryan ticket, what happens?”
Ryan: “It’s up to Coloradans to decide.”
I said: “So even if federal law says marijuana is illegal, you’re saying?”
Ryan: “My personal positions on this issue have been let the states decide what to do with these things. This is something that is not a high priority of ours as to whether or not we go down the road on this issue. What I’ve always believed is the states should decide. I personally don’t agree with it, but this is something Coloradans have to decide for themselves.”
Nearly three quarters of Americans agree with this position, however none of them are named Mitt Romney.
Mitt Romney promised to fight marijuana legalization “tooth and nail,” and he lost his cool with a Colorado reporter who asked him about the medical cannabis issue last May. So Ryan was forced to backtrack on Saturday, when a Ryan spokesperson claimed that Ryan “agrees with Mitt Romney that marijuana should never be legalized.”
Courage, clarity and commitment you can trust.
Via ThinkProgress
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan plan to cut tax “loopholes” – but won’t say which ones
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan made the rounds of news talk shows to say they plan to cut “tax loopholes.”
BUT they won’t say which ones.
Will it be the mortgage interest deduction? That is one of the biggest tax deductions available to the middle class.
Charitable deductions? Same thing.
State and local taxes? Same thing.
Losing those deductions amounts to a big tax hike on the middle class.
If you buy a home this year, the next few years provide large tax cuts in mortgage interest deductions. Thousands of dollars. How do you feel about losing a $6,000 tax deduction? $10,000 tax deduction?
The Romney/Ryan “plan” is to not tell you what you’re voting for. I think most middle class tax payers would like to know WHAT Romney/Ryan plans to cut before they vote for them.
Poll: Gallup Poll shows big bounce for President Obama coming out of 2012 DNC
Gallup has posted its latest poll findings today and found a big bounce for Obama from this year’s convention.
They show a very strong one-day 3% hike in his approval rating to 52%–his highest mark in many months. This means that he gained 7% in the past three days.
In addition, the new numbers show a 48%-45% lead over Mitt Romney. That’s a change of 3% from last week.
And that’s a 7-day poll average with only the first couple days of the DNC factored in, so it should go up a bit more over the next few days.
Are you better off today than four years ago – 9/6/12
Lilly Ledbetter on Mitt Romney & women
Lilly Ledbetter commenting on the fact that women are still paid .23 less per dollar than men.
Mitt Romney’s tax returns allegedly obtained and held ransom
According to Mashable, Mitt Romney’s tax returns are in the hands of hackers who plan to release them to the public unless $1 million ransom is paid.
The group allegedly obtained the files from PricewaterhouseCooper’s Tennessee office on Aug. 25, in what was described on PasteBin as a Mission Impossible-like caper:
Romney’s 1040 tax returns were taken from the PWC office 8/25/2012 by gaining access to the third floor via a gentleman working on the 3rd floor of the building. Once on the 3rd floor, the team moved down the stairs to the 2nd floor and setup shop in an empty office room. During the night, suite 260 was entered, and all available 1040 tax forms for Romney were copied. A package was sent to the PWC on suite 260 with a flash drive containing a copy of the 1040 files, plus copies were sent to the Democratic office in the county and copies were sent to the GOP office in the county at the beginning of the week also containing flash drives with copies of Romney’s tax returns before 2010. A scanned signature image for Mitt Romney from the 1040 forms were scanned and included with the packages, taken from earlier 1040 tax forms gathered and stored on the flash drives.
The files are to be released to the public on Sept. 28, according to the PasteBin document.
The hackers apparently are asking for the $1 million ransom be paid through Bitcoins, which makes tracing the funds extremely difficult.
Read more at Mashable.