Month: March 2012
And Then There’s the One About the Factory Closing
On the Mitt Romney Comedy Tour, er, presidential campaign, the candidate has earned a reputation for having a tin ear when it comes to what a rich white billionaire thinks is funny (firing people, acting like women he’s taking a photo with grab his ass, wearing mom jeans, etc.) and what average people who actually need a job think is funny.
Romney’s latest standup gig, er, campaign appearance, was in Wisconsin, where he told what he considered to be a real ripper:
Talking by conference call with thousands of Wisconsin voters Wednesday, Mitt Romney told them he had a humorous connection to their state.
But it didn’t take long for “funny anecdote” to become “campaign fodder.”
Romney’s story involved the time more than 50 years ago that his father, George, an American Motors executive, shut down a factory in Michigan and moved the work to Wisconsin.
“Now later he decided to run for governor of Michigan, and so you can imagine that having closed the factory and moved all the production to Wisconsin was a very sensitive issue to him, for his campaign,” explained Romney, who described a subsequent campaign parade in which the school band marching with his father knew how to play Wisconsin’s fight song, but not Michigan’s.
“Every time they would start playing ‘On Wisconsin, On Wisconsin,’ my dad’s political people would jump up and down and try to get them to stop, because they didn’t want people in Michigan to be reminded that my dad had moved production to Wisconsin,” said Romney, laughing.
Romney will probably be telling jokes at a venue near you sometime between now and November. If you are a Republican, please laugh politely.
Why Jim DeMint – or a White Evangelical Southern Male Like Him – Will Be Romney’s VP Nominee
It is all but a dead cinch now that Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee for president this year, not because he accrued the delegates he needs — he hasn’t — but because the campaigns of his two closest rivals have imploded.
Newt Gingrich’s sugar daddy Sheldon Adelson, owner of the Venetian and Sands casinos in Las Vegas, recently announced he was pulling the plug on the Gingrich campaign. Gingrich is “at the end of his line,” Adelson said in informal remarks at a Jewish Federation of North America event in one of his casinos.
Rick Santorum inadvertently revealed that he knows his campaign is over — a revelation he has not shared with his donors or supporters — in an interview on Pat Robertson’s televangelical “news” network. Asked if he would be willing to be Romney’s running mate, Santorum said, “Of course. I mean, look. I would do in this race as I always say, this is the most important race in our country’s history. I’m going to do everything I can.”
Wrong answer. The correct answer would have been, “Fortunately, I’ll never have to make that decision, because I am going to be the nominee.” Thanks for playing.
The likelihood Romney would choose Santorum as his running mate is zilch — and not just because Santorum lost his last Senate race in Pennsylvania by double digits or because the Obama campaign would have a field day producing ads showing Romney’s running mate shaking an Etch-a-Sketch, describing Romney as “uniquely disqualified,” a “well-oiled weather vane,” “bland and boring” and a “bully.”
But that’s just one reason the Romney campaign won’t choose Santorum. The other reason is that Rick Santorum is a Catholic.
NRA Introduces Hoodie with Built-In Gun Holster
From the blatant exploitation of a tragic event department comes news that the National Rifle Association has created a hoodie with a built-in holster for a pistol. It appears the organization for gun nuts is seeking to cash in on the hoodie furor surrounding the murder of Trayvon Martin. Here’s the catalog description:
We want concealed carry to fit around your lifestyle — not the other way around. That’s why we developed the NRAstore™ exclusive Concealed Carry Hooded Sweatshirt. It’s the only garment of its kind we know of! Made from a pre-shrunk, heavyweight 50% cotton/50% polyester blend, we’ve taken a standard 9 oz. fleece sweatshirt design and added a full-body polyester lining for added warmth, durability, wind resistance and weight distribution. Inside the sweatshirt you’ll find left and right concealment pockets. The included Velcro®-backed holster and double mag pouch can be repositioned inside the pockets for optimum draw. Ideal for carrying your favorite compact to mid-size pistol, the NRA Concealed Carry Hooded Sweatshirt gives you an extra tactical edge, because its unstructured, casual design appears incapable of concealing a heavy firearm – but it does so with ease! Includes drawstring hood, cotton/spandex ribbed cuffs and waistband, two front pouch pockets and a discreet black zipper. Includes one Velcro® holster and one Velcro® mag pouch. Colors: Black, Navy. Made in USA.
Election Year Love
She fell for a guy who had a way with the ladies,
But who’s farther right than Matt Hannity with rabies.
As a lifelong lefty liberal,
A right-wing romance made her fearful:
“Will I birth a bunch of Republican babies?”
“Remove Your Hoods”? Bad Choice of Words to Defend Congressional Decorum
Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) transforms from a congressperson to a hoodlum before your very eyes — and is treated like the latter.
Romney: I Don’t Care About Millions of Uninsured Americans with Preexisting Conditions
Everybody knows that when Mitt Romney said, “I don’t care about poor people,” the quote was taken out of context. What he actually said was that he wasn’t concerned about the poor because he believed the government’s social safety net would take care of them. (It’s tempting to quibble with that — after all, his party is doing its best to shred that safety net. See the Paul Ryan budgets for this year and last, for example. But that’s another matter.)
On the “Jay Leno Show” on NBC last night, Romney made a similar statement. about uninsured Americans who have preexisting conditions this time — and this time his apathy about their fates is clear, even when read in context:
