Tag: Mitt Romney

What Is With Romney’s Habit of Giggling When He Apologizes for Abusive Behavior?

Jon Ponder

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Watching Mitt Romney giggle as he “apologized” on Fox News for an episode in prep school in which he and a gang of boys chased down a kid who had bleached his hair and cut off his bangs, Rachel Maddow noticed that Romney has a habit of reacting with mirth to stories like this. He also giggled when he was confronted about forcing the family dog to ride in a kennel strapped to the car roof on a 12-hour vacation many years ago.

And here’s a link to the Washington Post front page story about Romney’s bullying episode, in case you missed it.

Romney’s Blunders Keep On Coming, And Yet Coverage of His Campaign Has Become More Positive and His Poll Numbers Have Improved

Jon Ponder

“Everything changes,” Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom famously said on CNN in March. “It’s almost like an Etch A Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and restart all over again.”

Fehrnstrom’s gaffe resonated because it fed into the public’s perception that Mitt Romney is a flip-flopper who changes his views to match those of whatever constituency he’s trying to woo. But Ferhnstrom was actually referring to the pivot, a routine campaign dynamic in which candidates who win primaries retool their messaging to appeal to moderate swing voters whose votes usually decide elections.

It got lost in the controversy over Fehrnstrom’s Etch A Sketch gaffe but candidates, especially presidential candidates, cannot execute the pivot on their own. What Ferhnstrom and the reporters covering his gaffe knew was that Romney would have help erasing his primary bungles from the very reporters who were tittering over Ferhnstrom’s unintentional truth-telling.

But why could Romney and Ferhnstrom feel they could rely on supposedly objective reporters to help them rewrite the history of the 2012 Republican primary? […]

Santorum’s Non-Endorsement Endorsement of Romney

Jon Ponder

Email is insufficient for some things — like breaking up a romance, quitting a job and this:

Rick Santroum sent an email to his supporters on Monday night announcing that he would back Mitt Romeny for the presidency and that everyone needs to support “our nominee” to defeat Barack Obama. In a long explanation, which is also posted on his website, Santorum says that he spoke to Romney last week and received assurances that “family and its foundational role in America’s economic success” are also important to the former governor, too. He also says that he’s “comfortable” with Romney’s foreign policy positions and that he’s convinced Romney will repeal Obamacare if elected, so don’t worry about all that stuff I said about him being a terrible candidate…

It’s slightly telling that Santorum chose to make the endorsement in writing, rather than in person, as most failed politicians do. There may be a time in the not-too-distant future where the two rivals publicly make amends, but doing it in this way allows Santorum to stand behind the party while keeping Romney honest.

Mitt Romney – Mormon Polygamy and Hidden Mormon Temple Records

Helen Radkey

(Willard) Mitt Romney—2012 Republican presidential candidate, a lifelong Mormon who boasts of having one wife, defines marriage as between “one man and one woman.”

Miles Romney, a great-great-grandfather of Mitt Romney, is in the process of being “sealed” to a 14th spouse.

Mitt Romney has publicly stated he follows the faith of his fathers—but he distances himself from the polygamous lifestyle that was freely chosen on an eternal note by many of his Mormon forefathers. According to Mormon records, polygamous unions galore can be found on the paternal lines—and one maternal line—of Romney’s direct ancestry.

Mitt Romney has openly condemned polygamy. During a “Sixty Minutes” interview with Mike Wallace in 2007, Romney said he couldn’t imagine anything more “awful” than polygamy, and was quick to insist The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) outlawed the practice over a century ago. As a devout Mormon, Romney must accept Mormon founder, Joseph Smith, as a prophet of God. It should be questioned why Mitt Romney is so critical of a foundational Mormon practice that was introduced by Smith.

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Now That Romney is the Republican Candidate, Penn. Voters are Shifting To Obama

Trish

47 – 39

Percent of Pennsylvania voters who say they favor Obama (47) and Romney (39), according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll. The results were, respectively, 45 – 42 last month, indicating that now that the president’s opponent is no longer “generic Republican” but Romney, voters are shifting toward Obama.

WWMD: What Would Mitt Romney Do… If He Were Someone Else?

Trish
manning
Romney: 'I would have done that'

Mitt Romney has famously said that “of course” he would have made the same decisions that led to the death of Osama bin Laden as Pres. Obama did. Obama, we will recall, elected to launch a Navy Seals attack without tipping off the Pakistani government because he had good intelligence on bin Laden’s whereabouts and no reason to trust the Pakistanis. Had the plan gone wrong, “of course,” we imagine Romney would have found much to fault.

We also know that in 2007, when he was running for president last, Romney echoed the sentiments of Pres. George W. Bush, who said he didn’t give a rat’s ass if we ever found bin Laden. Romney put it this way: “It’s not worth moving heaven and earth, spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person.”

Since Romney now says if he were president, he would have done exactly what Pres. Obama did, I think it’s a good time to list some of the other things that Romney would have done if he were the person who did them, which he is not.

New Republican Ad Just as Bad as the 2008 Version

Trish

The folks who tried to bring you John McCain apparently have learned nada in four years. They dusted off the “celebrity president” jibe that helped lose in 2008 to help lose again in 2012. See if this rings a bell:

What really bothers Republicans: Pres. Obama, a black man, is president. And he’s acting all black cool, like he’s not even ashamed of being black.

Did you catch that? Gas prices were soaring when George W. Bush was president. I thought that was all Obama’s fault. But more on that later.

Now take a look at the updated ad, which replaces the booming sound effects, foreboding music, and the frightened female narrator with a catchier tune and the guy from the super monster truck event going, “Oh yeah.”

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Romneybot Malfunctions, Goes into Powerpoint Mode at College Rally, Puts Student to Sleep

Jon Ponder

photo-romneybot-puts-student-to-sleep

The GOP’s Romneybot 2000 made headlines on Friday when, at a rally at Otterbein University in Ohio, it encouraged students to hit their parents up for loans. “We’ve always encouraged young people: Take a shot, go for it, take a risk, get the education, borrow money if you have to from your parents, start a business,” said the robot.

What has not been as widely reported, however, is that the robot appears to have malfunctioned during the speech. Instead of giving a rousing speech laced with references to current pop culture that the students could relate to, the bot apparently experienced an AI synapse misfire and delivered what appeared to be a Powerpoint presentation about office supplies instead.

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Science Proves It’s Not Your Imagination. The Rich Really are A**holes

Trish

MittMoneyLG

The relative assholeyness of rich folks has been proven in not one, not two, but SEVEN recent experiments. Why there is such interest in proving this topic as the world struggles with economic lassitude and the rise of the 1% might be worth a scientific experiment of its own, but the fact is, we do want to know and social scientists have confirmed our suspicions.

The National Academy of Sciences grouped the studies under the collective heading, “Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior.” Among the key findings:

  • “Upper-class drivers were the most likely to cut off other vehicles at the intersection, even when controlling for time of day, driver’s perceived sex and age, and amount of traffic.” Drivers of “high status” cars cut off other vehicles nearly 30% of the time; “low-status” cars cut off other vehicles 7.7% of the time.
  • Drivers of “low status” vehicles failed to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk up to 30% of the time, while 46% of “high status” vehicle drivers failed to yield, an increase of more than 50%.

    • […]

Osteen Says Mormonism is “a Little Different”

Trish

Mormonism is a little different, but I still see them as brothers in Christ.

Pastor Joel Osteen, declaring Mormonism a Christian sect. Mormonism began in the 1820s as an end-times cult when Joseph Smith claimed to have visions in which an angel led him to gold plates, which were never produced to anyone else, that told a strange history of the Americas, including how Indians were descended from Jews. This is the Book of Mormon. Smith, a polygamist with 34 wives of whom two were age 14, also claimed Jesus would return to earth within 56 years.