Tag: Mitt Romney

Can Romney Win the Presidency with Stubbornly High Unfavorable Ratings? Aggregate Polling Shows His Unfavorable Rating Is Now Slightly above 50%

Jon Ponder

graph-romney-favorables-aggregate-july-2012 copy

The news about Mitt’s favorable ratings does not get better. Andrew Sullivan posted the chart above, which shows that Romney’s aggregate unfavorable rating has risen to a notch above 50 percent. (The big chart shows the trends “smoothed out.” The inset shows the actual data points over time.) Here is the source of the data.

Sullivan wonders if these numbers prove the theory that the more voters get to know Romney, the more they dislike him. If that is so, then the results from the CBS News/New York Times/Quinnipiac poll of likely voters in Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio indicate that Romney has next to no chance to improve his standing with voters before November.

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Romney Press Secretary to Traveling Press Corps in Poland: ‘Kiss My Ass,’ ‘Shove It’

Jon Ponder

The gaffes just keep on coming from the Romney campaign team — from campaign honcho Eric Ferhnstrom’s “Etch-A-Sketch” snafu in May to Romney’s advisers anonymous telling a British reporter Romney’s team is “part of an Anglo-Saxon heritage” (read: “white”) unlike Pres. Obama (even though Obama’s father was a British citizen and Romney’s father was born in Mexico) to Romney’s lecturing the London Olympics on security while expressing doubts about the enthusiasm of the British people for the games — to this latest incident involving Romney press secretary Rick Gorka that occurred in Poland yesterday:

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Salt Lake City Winter Olympics: Hey Mitt, You Didn’t Build That

Trish
SLFireworks
Did the government pay for the fireworks over the Mormon Temple during the 2002 opening ceremony?

We’ve been stupefied at the public relations disaster that has been Mitt Romney’s European vacation.

Especially amazing is that the candidate would want to draw attention to his role in the 2002 Winter Olympics, particularly in light of his effort to disavow the impact of infrastructure and public works in American business success (and if you don’t think it makes a difference, just ask a Somalian).

Romney used his role as CEO of the 2002 games, held in Mormon world headquarters, aka Salt Lake City, Utah, to jump-start his successful bid for governor of Massachusetts. But as this article in the Washington Examiner notes, the event wasn’t exactly a one-man show.

Romney: “No matter how well we did cutting costs and raising revenue, we couldn’t have games without the support of the federal government’

In Romney’s book “Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership and the Olympic Games,” Romney describes in a chapter entitled “Funds from the Feds” how he lobbied Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for funding, saying he “would need hundreds of millions of dollars worth of federal support from a long list of departments.”

“No matter how well we did cutting costs and raising revenue, we couldn’t have games without the support of the federal government,” Romney wrote.

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Sully: The Persistent Oddness of Mitt Romney

Jon Ponder

WTF? If your spouse’s horse were in an Olympic contest, would you not even watch? This is either a fib, designed to insulate him from whatever minimal fallout there is from owning a dressage horse; or it’s true and he’s just unlike other human beings. I mean, Obama makes sure he sees his daughters’ high school sports games. But Romney won’t even watch his wife’s horse at the Olympics?

– Andrew Sullivan at The Dish, reacting Mitt Romney telling a reporter that, even though he is in London for the Games, he will not watch his wife’s horse-dancing competition. “I have to tell you,” Romney said, “This is Ann’s sport. I’m not even sure which day the sport goes on. She will get the chance to see it, I will not be watching the event. I hope her horse does well.”

Jon Stewart on GOP Lies about Obama’s ‘Build It’ Comment: ‘You Really Wanna Hang Your Entire Campaign on a Willful, Out of Context Misunderstanding?’

Jon Ponder

AtlanticWire:

Jon Stewart delves into the debate surrounding President Barack Obama’s “you didn’t build that” line last night on The Daily Show. Or rather, he delved into the lack of need for debate around Obama’s poorly worded assertion that businesses received government help to succeed. “You really wanna hang your entire campaign on a willful, out of context misunderstanding?” he asked the Mitt Romney campaign.

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Romney Fails at Diplomacy on Day One of European Tour

Jon Ponder

Mitt Romney is in Europe this week for two reasons. He is there to watch his wife’s horse compete in a dressage event at the Olympics, and, by the way, to show that he has the diplomatic chops and foreign-affairs know-how to be president of the United States.

“You know, it’s hard to know just how well it will turn out. There are a few things that were disconcerting.”
– Mitt Romney in London

On the latter bit, he has already failed.

Romney’s trip got off to a rocky start even before he left the country yesterday. Two of his advisers anonymously told the London Telegraph that Romney, whose father was born in Mexico and was white, is “part of an Anglo-Saxon heritage,” implying that President Obama, whose father was a born a British citizen but was black, was not. Now Romney has insulted his hosts by criticizing the London Olympics even before the opening ceremonies have gotten underway:

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Romney’s Foreign Trip Stumbles at Start – Campaign Adviser Tells UK Paper That, Unlike Obama, Romney Is ‘Part of an Anglo-Saxon Heritage’

Jon Ponder

President Bush accepts a bust of Sir Winston Churchill from ambassador of England, Sir Christopher Meyer, July 16, 2001. "He was a man of great courage. He knew what he believed. And he really kind of went after it in a way that seemed like a Texan to me,  said the President explaining why he would like the likeness of an Englishman placed inside the Oval Offfice.  He charged ahead, and the world is better for it." White House photo by Paul Morse.
President Bush accepts a bust of Sir Winston Churchill from ambassador of England, Sir Christopher Meyer, July 16, 2001. White House photo by Paul Morse.
The Romney campaign is already out with a complete and utter denial, but Jon Swaine, a reporter for the London Daily Telegraph, reports that a pair of anonymous Romney advisers made a series of highly charged political, which is to say undiplomatic, statements in an interview in advance of Mitt Romney’s trip abroad today. The purpose of the trip is to showcase Romney’s skills at diplomacy and and foreign affairs. During his time in London, he will also watch his horse in a dressage competition at the Olympics in London:

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Romney to Olympic Athletes in 2002: ‘You Didn’t Get Here Solely on Your Own Power’

Jon Ponder

You Olympians, however, know you didn’t get here solely on your own power. For most of you, loving parents, sisters or brothers, encouraged your hopes, coaches guided, communities built venues in order to organize competitions. All Olympians stand on the shoulders of those who lifted them. We’ve already cheered the Olympians, let’s also cheer the parents, coaches, and communities. All right! [pumps fist].

— Mitt Romney in 2002, several shakes of the Etch-A-Sketch ago.