Tag: Campaign 2012
Romney Adds to Growing List of Bigger and Better Gaffes at Daytona
For those of you who are doing shots every time Mitt Romney speaks a gaffe, we have a seat reserved for you at the next A.A. meeting. The man can’t make a public appearance without saying something to vividly illustrate how rich and out of touch he is.
Consider his photo op at the Daytona 500 for example. After taking a valuable day off from campaigning in Michigan to jet down to the scheduled race* to prove he’s a motorhead like the rest of us average Joes, Romney blew it as he toured the stands.
Asked by an Associated Press reporter as he was greeting NASCAR fans whether he follows the sport, Romney said: “Not as closely as some of the most ardent fans. But I have some great friends that are NASCAR team owners.”
That’s like saying you enjoy football because you hang out with Roger Goodell. At the Super Bowl. In the sky box.
But Romney wasn’t done. Oh no, not while he still has a mouth to speak with and a foot to fill it.
Santorum Opposes Higher Education, Says He Was Victimized for Right-Wing Views in College
A study released earlier this month found that conservatives are generally less intelligent than most people — a factor that may help explain why Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum went on the attack against higher education last week.
I went through a process where I was docked for my conservative views.
– Rick Santorum on being victimized by liberal students at Penn
– Rick Santorum on being victimized by liberal students at Penn
Santorum — who received an undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania Penn State, an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh and a law degree from Dickinson School of Law — suggested both in interviews and on the stump that American colleges and universities are indoctrination mills that convert young people into liberals.
He said he knows this to be true because he was victimized at Penn State by students who ridiculed his retrograde political views.
On two occasions recently, Santorum has said that 62 percent of students who go to college lose their faith, a statistic that has proved to be false.
Santorum elaborated on his opposition to higher learning yesterday in an interview with George Stephanopolous on ABC’s “This Week:
After Making a Disastrous Choice in 2000, God Can’t Seem to Make Up His Mind about Which Republican to Anoint in 2012
The Republican presidential primary has produced an unprecedented number of frontrunners — candidates who surged in the polls for a while and then faded after they were vetted by voters. Pundits say that this phenomenon — a first in the history of American presidential campaigns — is due to the fact that Republican voters do not like Mitt Romney, the robotic, putative frontrunner, but that they can’t make up their mind about which alt-Mitt they would prefer.
That may be true, but, from the point of view of the religious right, it appears just as likely that it is God Himself who can’t make up His mind.
Last week, Karen Santorum, who, like her husband Rick, is an extreme right-wing Catholic, asserted that God had ordained her husband’s campaign for the Republican nomination:
Eating Their Own: Coulter Hates Jeb
I think, on closer examination, Jeb Bush would be the worst of all candidates to run. For one thing, we don’t need another Bush. That would be embarrassing to the Republican Party. He’s more pro amnesty for illegals than his brother was, more than Rick Perry was.
— Republican color commentator Ann Coulter, announcing she hates Jeb Bush and apparently wasn’t too fond of his big brother either. Could have fooled us.
Santorum Caught Lying – Claims the Netherlands Involuntarily Euthanizes the Sick and Elderly
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Remember death panels — the “lie of the year” in 2009? Well, now GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum has come out with a false statement along similar lines that is a contender for 2012’s lie of the year — in the Netherlands:
Mitt Romney, 65,000 Seats, 1,200 Chairs, Four Cars and Two Teleprompters
Mitt Romney gave a speech at Ford Field in Michigan today. Apparently, the only venue his advance team could find was an indoor football stadium that reportedly seats 65,000, so they set up a stage on the 20 yard line and brought in seats for the crowd, reported to be 1,200. At the end of the event, Romney extemporized with this riff:
Rating Candidates’ Economic Plans: Obama and Ron Paul Plans Produce Lowest Debt to GDP Rate
Based on data [PDF] from US Budget Watch from CRFB, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget — analysis from libertarian Reason Magazine:
How is it that Romney, Santorum, and Gingrich would end up increasing the federal debt? It’s pretty simple, really: They would cut taxes, but wouldn’t cut spending to match. Santorum’s policies would reduce spending by a little more than $2 trillion, but would cut taxes by $6 trillion. Gingrich would cut slightly more in spending—about $2.7 trillion—but would cut taxes by $7 trillion and actually add $1.6 trillion in spending to overhaul Social Security, among other policy changes. Romney’s vague plans score better, but wouldn’t reduce the debt, and would probably push it slightly higher than it otherwise would have been. Ron Paul, on the other hand, would cut taxes, but he’d cut spending even more. His tax cuts would reduce the tax burden by $5.2 trillion; meanwhile, he would reduce spending by $7.2 trillion.
H/t: Daily Dish.
Ultrasound Mandate: Transvaginal Procedures Are Already Required in Texas
Early last year, Texas Republican Gov. Rick Perry declared the passage of a law requiring women seeking abortions to undergo sonograms an “emergency item” on the Legislature’s calendar. Despite the fact that the procedures are medically unnecessary, the Big Government Republicans who control the Texas Legislature passed the bill, and Gov. Perry signed it into law in May 2011, three months before he launched his bid for the GOP presidential nomination.
Earlier this month, after challenges to the law failed in court, the government’s ultrasound mandate — which includes the transvaginal ultrasounds that are so controversial now in Virginia — went into effect in Texas:
‘Signs’ of Trouble? Newt’s Campaign Refuses to Pay for Yard Signs
Not only is Newt Gingrich’s campaign failing to win continued support among deep pocket Republicans, it looks like it’s trying to save money the old fashioned way: by not paying bills.
To be fair, the campaign says it never authorized St. Augustine, Florida screen printer Rob DePiazza to make yard signs and bumper stickers ahead of the Florida primary.
DePiazza does not dispute that, but says he was commissioned by a local political operative for whom he has worked in the past without issues. Now DePiazza is caught in the middle, and out $3,200.
The closer it got to the vote, he said, the slimmer Newt’s chances looked.
“I started worrying, because the need for the signs was diminishing rapidly,” said DePiazza.
DePiazza says he was contacted by Robert Smith, a St. Augustine resident who had put him in touch with campaigns in the past.
“We had to reproduce the official artwork, and the artwork has the disclaimer on it. Newt.Org, Paid For By Newt 2012,” he said.
But when it came time for payment, DePiazza says he got a check from Smith, not the Gingrich campaign.
That check bounced, and Gingrich lost Florida badly.
The small businessman was left with more than a rubber check. He also had a bad taste in his mouth from the Gingrich folks.
“All they care about is money and if people get hurt along the way, they really don’t care,” he said.
