Day: September 14, 2012

Wrong, Mitt, George W. Bush, Not Pres. Obama, Was America’s ‘Apologizer-in-Chief’

Jon Ponder

With his poll numbers sinking, Mitt Romney took desperation action earlier this week by falsely claiming that the U.S. Embassy in Cairo had issued a statement expressing sympathy for protesters who were agitated by a YouTube video allegedly produced by right-wing anti-Islamic activists in the suburbs of Los Angeles that besmirched the Prophet Mohammed.

The lie that Pres. Obama went on some sort of “apology tour” has been debunked multiple times.

The embassy issued the statement at 6 a.m., East Coast time, before the protests in Cairo had turned violent. After 10 p.m. in the East Coast, fully 16 hours after the Cairo embassy’s initial statement — during which Team Romney had plenty of time to deliberate and discuss what to do — they issued a statement condemning the embassy for expressing sympathy with “those who waged the attacks,” even though they knew the attacks had not begun when the embassy released its statement.

In a subsequent press availability, Romney deliberately used the word “apology” or variations of it five times to describe the embassy’s statement — which did not include the word “apology” or any variation or sentiment thereof. During the news conference, Romney also made it clear that he held Pres. Obama accountable, not only for the embassy’s “apology,” but for anything and everything anyone who worked for administration said:

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Mitt Romney’s Problem: Ambition with No Conviction

Buck Banks

And the lesson is clear: If we want to win the battle of ideas in the long term, we should be willing to face the fact that Mitt Romney is likely to lose — and should, given that he’s neither a true conservative nor a courageous moderate. He’s just an ambitious man. Nothing wrong with that, except when you want to be president. Great leaders combine ambition and ideas and conviction.

— Right wing talking head Joe Scarborough, in an opinion column on Politico.

The ‘Unprecedented’ Just Might Be ‘Precedented’

Buck Banks

There is a good reason why The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage calls ‘unprecedented’ a ‘dangerous word that should be avoided.’ There is really nothing new under the sun, except, perhaps, the Internet. So for much of this year, when even some of our smartest pundits suggested it would be unprecedented (or all but) for Barack Obama to win re-election with the job-approval ratings, unemployment figures, and right-track/wrong-track polling numbers with which he’s been saddled, I couldn’t help thinking: There’s a first time for everything.

— Todd Purdum, writing in Vanity Fair.