Tag: Mitt Romney

Tracking Romney’s Positions on Women’s Reproductive Rights, His Reversals on Those Positions and Lies about His Former Positions

Jon Ponder

In the video above, William Saletan at Slate Magazine walks us through the labyrinthine twists and turns in Mitt Romney’s various positions, walk-backs and lies about his position on abortion during his political career. Warning: Make sure you are seated when you watch this because it will make you dizzy, if not woozy — but not in a good way.

Yesterday, inspired by a dramatic shift in his favor among unmarried women voters in post-debate polls, Romney added another twist to his ever-changing views on abortion when he told the editorial board of the Des Moines Register that “There’s no legislation with regards to abortion that I’m familiar with that would become part of my agenda.”

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Five Months after Saying His Policy on Palestine Was to ‘Kick the Ball Down the Field,’ Now Romney Says He Favors a Two-State Solution

Jon Ponder

pensito-graphic-romney-palestine-flip-flops

Romney in May 2012

I look at the Palestinians not wanting to see peace anyway, for political purposes, committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel, and these thorny issues, and I say there’s just no way. And so what you do is you say you move things along the best way you can. You hope for some degree of stability, but you recognize that it’s going to remain an unsolved problem … All right, we have a potentially volatile situation, but we sort of live with it. And we kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately, somehow, something will happen and resolve.
 Romney in October 2012

I will recommit America to the goal of a democratic, prosperous Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with the Jewish state of Israel. On this vital issue, the President has failed, and what should be a negotiation process has devolved into a series of heated disputes at the United Nations. In this old conflict, as in every challenge we face in the Middle East, only a new President will bring the chance to begin anew.

Alternet Debunks Romney’s 10 Biggest Debate Lies

Jon Ponder

graphic-romney-debate-liesMitt Romney’s blizzard of lies strategy in his first debate with Pres. Obama was highly effective, if the post-debate polls are accurate.

But now that the smoke has cleared, fact checkers are going through the mountain of BS Romney left on the stage trying to sort fact from fiction. Alternet published this list of Romney’s most shameless lies from the debate:

1. An ‘Unelected Board’ Controlling Your Health Care

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Sununu’s Racist Dogwhistle Rhetoric Translated: Mitt Romney Surrogate Says Pres. Obama Is Shiftless and Stupid

Jon Ponder

art-sununu-will-rogers-buttonPat Buchanan, the Republican establishment’s most stalwart neo-Confederate, was fired by MSNBC after years of making veiled racist remarks on the network most liberals watch, so Mitt Romney sent his campaign co-chair John Sununu, the disgraced White House chief of staff in the Bush I administration, onto the network’s air yesterday to to hurl coded racist epithets at Pres. Obama.

In an interview with Andrea Mitchell, Sununu, speaking on Mitt Romney’s behalf, described the president as “lazy,” a pervasive racist stereotype that has its origins in America’s slave-holding past. When Mitchell offered Sununu a chance to walk back the accusation, Sununu doubled down. “Yes,” Sununu said. “He didn’t want to prepare for this debate. He’s lazy and disengaged.”

Later, on Fox News, his party’s official politibureau channel, Sununu insulted the president with another pervasive racist stereotype — that he is unintelligent. On Fox, Sununu predicted that the president will not be able to improve his debate performances because, “When you’re not that bright you can’t get better prepared.” The Fox News host let Sununu’s insult stand, of course.

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No There There With Romney

Trish

Romney’s strength is he has no particular ideology. His core belief is that he should be president and that he would know what to do. The particulars…he has no particular belief one way or the other except a generalized belief in business, and that the business of America is business.

— Hendrik Hertzberg, New Yorker columnist, noting his takeaway from the first 2012 presidential debate.

Hey, Fox and Drudge: Here’s Video of Mitt Romney Attempting a Southern Accent From March – Not Five Years Ago

Jon Ponder

The right-wing-o-sphere is ablaze over a five-year-old non-secret video being promoted by Fox News et al as a devastating “October surprise” bombshell that shows then-Sen. Obama addressing a historically black college in Virginia in what is actually a fairly passable Southern accent.

And yes, affecting an accent that is not one’s own in an attempt to appeal to a particular audience is pandering — but it’s also something almost all politicians do. See for example the video above from March — seven months ago — in which Jon Stewart skewers Mitt Romney for attempting to use Southernisms to appeal to white voters in the Deep South during the Republican primaries.

Romney Down by 28 Points in State Where He Was Governor

Jon Ponder

screenshot-mass-romney-down-28-pts

Sure, Massachusetts is a blue state, and the last time it voted for a Republican candidate for president was in the 1984 Reagan 49-state landslide, but Mitt Romney was Massachusetts’ governor not so very long, and the fact that he is down [PDF] by 28 percentage points — 60 percent for the president and 32 percent for Romney — in the latest statewide poll is yet more evidence that the more voters get to know Mitt Romney, the less they like him.

Romney’s Unfavorable Rating at Record High: 49%

Jon Ponder

Red line = unfavorable; black line = favorable
Red line = unfavorable; black line = favorable
Andrew Sullivan:

On the eve of the debates, Romney hits an all-time high of personal unfavorables since January. The red line is his unfavorable number, the black his favorable … Since the campaign started, Mitt Romney has never been disliked by more Americans – 49.4 percent, to be precise – than now. The personal dislike of him is unprecedented in recent presidential history.

Those debates had better be dynamite, hadn’t they?

The more voters get to know him, the less they like Mitt Romney, and yet polls show that millions of Americans — mostly older white people — despise Pres. Obama so much that they are willing to vote for someone they already know they can’t stand in order to oust the president.

Romney could well win in November, but if he does, he will have the briefest honeymoon with voters ever. It could be over by Inauguration Day. Afterwards, he’ll be chasing George W. Bush’s record as the most unpopular president in the history of presidential polling.

Getting There is More Than Half the Battle

Trish

You can be rich and win Ohio, but you can’t be rich and out of touch and win Ohio.

— An anonymous Republican governor, quoted by the right-leaning Politico, in an article explaining that while Romney might make a good office-holder, he’s a terrible campaigner. The post is called, “In the End, it’s Mitt.” Unfortunately for Mitt and Politico, being a successful politician requires strength at both skills. Only being comfortable in an office, but not in running for it, is what stops almost all aspirants from going farther.