Tag: Mitt Romney

Romney Admits He Has a ‘Limited Understanding of the Economy’

Jon Ponder

Steve Benen:

This exchange, from Mitt Romney’s chat with the editorial board of the Washington Examiner, seems like the sort of thing that might come back to haunt the former governor.

TIM CARNEY: The European Union might be on the verge of an economic meltdown and the U.S. is already getting involved at least indirectly. They opened the Fed window. The IMF, which we heavily fund, is sending money their way. Do you support this Fed and these IMF measures and, if this were still going on when you were inaugurated, what steps — what US aid — would you be willing to provide to Europe?

ROMNEY: Not much, because Europe is capable of solving Europe’s problems. I actually think that — I mean, I’m not an economist by training, but what limited understanding of the economy I have suggests it’s very difficult to cobble together Greece, Ireland, Italy and Germany with the same monetary policy and highly disparate fiscal policies. I don’t know how they hold it together. (Emphasis added.)

Romney Self-Destructs During Softball Interview on Fox

Jon Ponder

The spin in the corporate media is that putative GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney wilted under tough questioning during a one-on-one interview with Fox News’ fake journalist, Brett Baier, earlier this week. But that is not what really happened. Baier lobbed a series of tough-sounding softball questions at Romney, but there were no “gotcha” questions. The topics he covered were predictable to anyone who has been following the GOP presidential campaign.

Romney should have been prepared with answers that deflected the implied criticism and steered the interview back onto his campaign talking points. That’s politics 101. Instead, Romney was defensive, over-used his fake laugh and even had the audacity to complain about being taken out of context less than a week after he approved an ad that deliberately took Pres. Obama out of context. His performance has been panned by pundits of all persuasions, and rightly so.

But it wasn’t because of Brett Baier’s hardball interview tactics. Not hardly.

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As Gingrich Rises in Polls, Obama, Romney Fade

Jon Ponder
Three man race? Obama, Romney and Gingrich
Three man race? Obama, Romney and Gingrich

It is not hyperbolic to suggest that the future of America’s prosperity hangs in the balance in the next election. But less than a year out from the vote on Nov. 6, 2012, current polling finds 1) bad news, 2) theoretically better news but then 3) the worst development yet.

1. The bad news:

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Perry Preacher at Christian Conclave: ‘Mormonism Is a Cult’

Jon Ponder

The first real inkling that the Republican presidential primary race could devolve into a religious infighting between extreme right Christianists and Mormons — a repeat of the lowest moments of the 2008 GOP primaries — surfaced at the Values Voters Summit in Washington on Friday.

The Christian nationalist champion this time, at least for the moment, is Texas Gov. Rick Perry. The Mormons include this year’s perennial frontrunner former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as well as former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman,

In his introduction to Perry at the values conclave, Dr. Robert Jeffress, who preaches at the First Baptist Church in Dallas, wasted no time smearing Romney’s religion:

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W. Mitt Romney – the ‘W’ Stands for ‘Weasel’

Jon Ponder

I happened to catch a few minutes of this interview with Mitt Romney by the editorial board of the Union Leader, a Republican newspaper in New Hampshire, on C-SPAN the other day. It had been a while since I’d heard Romney speak extemporaneously outside the debate setting, and I had forgotten how badly he presents himself. (The stammer is a particularly galling affectation meant to convey earnestness.)

Had I been able to stomach the entire thing, I would have caught a moment of supreme weaselry, when Romney was asked about the active-duty soldier in Iraq who was booed by tea baggers at the Republican presidential debate in Orlando earlier this month:

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The Line: GOP Debate in Orlando

Jon Ponder

  • The room full of tea baggers at last night’s debate in Florida did not cheer at references to executing people or letting the uninsured die, but they could not pass up an opportunity to hate on the gays. The crowd booed during a video question from an active-duty U.S. serviceman who said he was gay. “I guess we only respect the troops Republicans approve of,” wrote Digby. “Good to know.”
  • The soldier’s question was put first to Rick Santorum, the infamous homophobe. His response was typically bizarre: “I would say, any type of sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military.” (Tell it to the Marines, Rick.) David Weigel wrote, “The truly odious moment on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell — possibly the first ever booing of an active duty soldier at a Republican debate — will be remembered beyond [Santorum’s] predictable attacks on the patriotism of anyone who doesn’t favor constant aggressive warfare.”
  • “As with all the Republican debates,” wrote Jonathan Chait, at his new digs at New York magazine, “this one devolved into a contest to see whether Rick Perry or Mitt Romney could most persuasively paint the other one as reasonable.”

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