Tag: Campaign 2012

In June Conference Call, Romney Told Small-Business Owners to Tell Their Employees How to Vote

Jon Ponder

Atlantic Wire:

On June 6, Romney led a conference call with support from the über-conservative National Federation of Independent Business and — to cut to the chase — urged the bosses on the call to persuade their employees to vote for him in the upcoming election.

“I hope you make it very clear to your employees what you believe is in the best interest of your enterprise and therefore their job and their future in the upcoming elections,” said Romney in a recording obtained by In These Times. “Nothing illegal about you talking to your employees about what you believe is best for the business, because I think that will figure into their election decision, their voting decision and of course doing that with your family and your kids as well.”

[…]

Romney Campaign Flip-Flops, Ties Itself in Knots over Whether Mitt Supports Equal Pay for Women

Jon Ponder

During the presidential debate Tuesday night, an undecided voter asked Mitt Romney what he would do to ensure that women were paid the same as men when they performed the same task. His answer was a long-winded, evasive word salad. The short answer was “nothing.”

In contrast, Pres. Obama’s position is clear. The first bill he signed into law was the Lilly Ledbetter Act, which made it illegal to pay women less for doing the same jobs as men, among other things. Paul Ryan, Romney’s running mate, like all but seven of his Republican House colleagues, voted against the equal-pay bill.

After the debate, Romney’s clean-up crew took the field, and the sort of clown-car antics we have seen almost daily from Team Romney ensued:

[…]

Tagg Romney: I Wanted to ‘Take a Swing’ at Pres. Obama after He Called Mitt Out for Lying

Pensito Editors

Ahh You know, ah, Jump out of your seat and rush down to the debate stage and take a swing at him. But you know you can’t do that because, well, first because there’s a lot of secret service agents between you and him but also because this is the nature of the process.

– Tagg Romney, speaking on a right-wing radio show, when asked, “What is it like for you to hear the President of the United States call your dad a liar?”

Right-Wing Bubble Implodes on Romney in Debate – He’s Humiliated after Parroting GOP Media Lie That President Was Slow to Call Benghazi Attack an ‘Act of Terror’

Jon Ponder

The Fox-News, right-wing radio propaganda bubble that has dominated American politics since the Clinton era imploded on Mitt Romney during last night’s debate, leaving him exposed as a liar and humiliated in front of as many as 65 million television viewers.

[…]

Another Romney Lie: Obama Has Not ‘Doubled’ the Federal Deficit, He Has Reduced It by Billions of Dollars

Jon Ponder

chart-deficit-reduction-under-obama

In the presidential debate, Mitt Romney said, “The president said he’d cut the deficit in half. Unfortunately, he doubled it.”

Unsurprisingly, the notion that the deficit has doubled over the last three years is a lie:

Late Friday afternoon, the Treasury Department published the official report on the U.S. budget deficit for the most recent fiscal year: $1.089 trillion. While that’s obviously still a very large budget shortfall, the deficit is $200 billion smaller than it was last year, and is nearly $300 billion smaller than when President Obama took office.

Even Politifact agrees, FWIW.

Even Fox News Calls B.S. on Six ‘Studies’ Cited by Romney-Ryan to Bolster Their $5 Trillion Tax Cut Scheme

Jon Ponder

In the first presidential debate, Mitt Romney falsely claimed there were six studies that proved his $5 trillion tax cut that mostly benefits the wealthy would not lead to increased taxes on the middle class and/or blow a bigger hole in the deficit. “I will not, under any circumstances, raise taxes on middle-income families,” Romney said. “I will lower taxes on middle-income families. Now, you cite a study. There are six other studies that looked at the study you describe and say it’s completely wrong.” In the vice presidential debate, Romney’s running mate Paul Ryan mentioned the six studies twice.

Talking Points Memo reports that “of the six studies, two are blog posts by the conservative American Enterprise Institute; one is a report by the Republican-friendly Heritage Foundation; one is a paper by Princeton professor and former George W. Bush adviser Harvey Rosen; the fifth and sixth are a Wall Street Journal op-ed and blog post by Harvard economist Martin Feldstein, an adviser to the Romney campaign.”

These “studies” are so bogus that even Fox News found that it could no longer carry water for its own party’s candidates. On their Sunday show, host Chris Wallace took down Ed Gillespie, Karl Rove’s embed in the Romney campaign, on the issue:

[…]

Ohio Photo Op Flop: Paul Ryan Pretends to Wash Already Clean Pot in Empty Homeless Shelter

Jon Ponder

The Romney-Ryan campaign sent Paul Ryan and his family to a homeless shelter in Ohio yesterday so that the press could take photos of them serving a meal to the needy. When the Ryan entourage arrived at the shelter, the meal service was over, the diners had left the hall and the volunteer staff had cleaned the room and washed the dishes.

[…]