Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

How stupid are these people?

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

No one could have predicted…

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Stand up, dammit!

Optimism opens the door to great things.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / I have a 2008 Romney I’d like to sell you

I have a 2008 Romney I’d like to sell you

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Mitt Romney is in Michigan so I thought I’d read a Michigan newspaper and see how his campaign is coming.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney begins a swing through Michigan tonight with a dinner fund-raiser, followed by events in Birmingham and Grosse Pointe on Wednesday.

Democratic activists were holding a sign-making event tonight in Detroit targeting Romney for a column he wrote two years ago for the New York Times in which he argued against providing financial investment for Chrysler and General Motors. President Obama and the White House have been using the carmakers’ turnaround as a success story.

Here’s the 2008 NYTimes Romney column that’s getting the activists all worked up in Michigan.

Briefly, he loves cars, he loved his dad, he loved his dad’s cars, everyone everywhere should be either fired immediately or paid much less.

I thought this next part of the column was much more interesting than Romney’s boilerplate business blather.

Out of nowhere, there’s this:

I believe the federal government should invest substantially more in basic research — on new energy sources, fuel-economy technology, materials science and the like — that will ultimately benefit the automotive industry, along with many others. I believe Washington should raise energy research spending to $20 billion a year, from the $4 billion that is spent today. The research could be done at universities, at research labs and even through public-private collaboration.

20 billion dollars a year in federally-funded research! Science and the like! This he believes. Deeply. I wonder if he’ll stick to it in 2011. If he does, it will be the first time he’s ever stood by anything he ever said or did, but who knows. This was the 2008 Mitt Romney, and he’s a different person now. People change. Some people change a lot, and frequently. Following him is going to be a lot of work. I suggest we identify which version of Mitt Romney we’re talking about by using model years: 2004 Romney, 2008 Romney, 2010 Romney, and finally, the newest model, the 2012 Romney.

Reader Interactions

56Comments

  2. 2.

    Davis X. Machina

    His dad may have loved cars, but Mitt only drives venture-capital funds.

  6. 6.

    Cliff in NH

    Scum:

    lacrossetribune.com/news/local/article_b71cf9c8-918c-11e0-86ef-001cc4c002e0.html

    Republicans have found a spoiler candidate to challenge Rep. Jennifer Shilling in this summer’s recall election, which would force a Democratic primary and extend the campaign by nearly a month.
    __
    James Smith, until recently a member of the La Crosse County GOP’s executive committee, says he is running as a protest candidate.
    __
    Smith, a regular fixture at local labor protests this spring where he held signs touting his support for Gov. Scott Walker, said he resigned his party leadership position Monday before announcing his candidacy. He said he does not plan on campaigning aggressively but wants to protest the recall process.

  7. 7.

    MikeJ

    He may love cars but his campaign is only for symphorophiliacs. (Thanks JG for the 50 cent word!)

  9. 9.

    Davis X. Machina

    @Kay: Management, but without labor, with their funny last names and accents, and odd colors.

    And engineers and designers with their slide rules and their copies of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.

    The Boys’ Club. The White Boys’ Club. The White Boys With Degrees from the Enormous State University Club…

    How 1958. He probably drives a Studebaker.

  10. 10.

    Mike Kay (Team America)

    Only 5 days until the debate. Can’t wait to see Bachmann, Blingrich, et al. go after Mittens.

  12. 12.

    kay

    @Cliff in NH:

    It’s going to be brutal. The union busting bills mean a lot to them. I’m assuming Walker and Co. made promises they have to keep to various parties.

    The Ohio repeal effort has opposition now, too. It’s the Koch brothers fake grass roots thing. What was nice was that the local paper announced the local launching of the opposition group with two largish photos of the Koch brothers running alongside the column. Hah!

    Hello, wealthy libertarian gentlemen who are writing our state law. Are you from around here? :)

  13. 13.

    Warren Terra

    True connoisseurs recognize that only an arriviste or poseur in the venerable field of Romney Appreciation would attempt to classify the different flavors of Romney merely by reference to biennial increments. New versions of Mitt Romney are presented to the public from the injection-molding facility in which they are manufactured at least as often as a new model every season, if not on a weekly basis. The designers hope that with improvements in their technology a new edition of Mitt Romney can be released every time the tide changes, so that reality can at last match metaphor.

  15. 15.

    MikeJ

    Saw an article last week I think that Repubs were trying to recruit manic progressives to run and split the vote in the republican recall races.

  16. 16.

    kay

    @Davis X. Machina:

    The Boys’ Club. The White Boys’ Club. The White Boys With Degrees from the Enormous State University Club…

    Is that what it is? I generally get along with engineers, socially, although I have never worked with one in any capacity, so maybe the stories are TRUE, and I just don’t know it :)

  20. 20.

    Cliff in NH

    A Reminder that Romney Lied in his announcement speech:

    blog.4president.org/2012/2011/06/mitt-romney-2012-presidential-campaign-announcement-speech-june-2-2…

    Three years later, unemployment is still above 8%, a figure he said his stimulus would keep from happening.

    That’s a Fucking Lie, I saw Obama Live on Bloomberg tv saying that unemployment would most likely peak at 10%

    bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=auTTvgeN294Y

    June 16, 2009 22:30 EDT
    June 17 (Bloomberg)—President Barack Obama offered stern words for Wall Street and a prediction of 10 percent U.S. unemployment even as he said the “engines” of an economic recovery have begun to turn.
    __
    “Wall Street seems to maybe have a shorter memory about how close we were to the abyss than I would have expected,” Obama said, referring to criticism of the government’s growing role in the economy and markets.
    __
    Obama, in an interview with Bloomberg News on the eve of the release of his plan to revamp financial-market regulation, voiced confidence the economy would recover soon, while warning that robust growth was needed if the U.S. is to rein in its budget deficit without raising taxes on most Americans.
    __
    “You’re starting to see the engines of the economy turn,” Obama said. Still, he said, “It’s going to take a long time” for a full-fledged recovery as households work off the debt accumulated during the real estate boom.
    __
    The jobless rate will continue to climb from its current 25-year high of 9.4 percent as employers are slow to take on new workers, the president said. “Jobs are a lagging indicator,” he said, while adding that he didn’t have “a crystal ball” to predict when unemployment will start to decline.

  22. 22.

    kay

    @shortstop:

    Thank you. It’s 110 degrees in here, so I’m going outside, where it’s a cool 90 degrees. I have to water the giant garden that I overplanted, because it kills me to pitch excess healthy seedlings. I have back ups to my back ups, and they’re all growing. It’s madness out there.

  27. 27.

    Anne Laurie

    @Davis X. Machina:

    He probably drives a Studebaker.

    Willard doesn’t drive, he is driven. Traffic from Belmont to Boston is brutal, so it’s only time-efficient for Masters of the Universe to spend their commute in the back of the limo, networking with fellow MotUs on how to eliminate American jobs, steal value from the newly unemployed workers’ pensions, and otherwise transform our abused nation into the fiefdom of every Banana Republican’s dreams!

  28. 28.

    Triassic Sands

    Don’t forget the 2013 Mitt sitting in the Oval Office. Any person with as little personal conviction as the 2011 Mitt will be dangerous beyond reckoning if given real power.

  29. 29.

    jl

    I’ve been thinking about buying a Romney, but not sure I want a convertible. Ba da boom!

    Ha ha. Get it? Convertible?

    I went to the doctor and held my hand up,
    and said it hurts when I do this.
    And the doc said… then don’t do that.

    Take my wife, please.

    Twenty-five Republican presidential candidates walk into a bar (two of them for soda pop) and one of them says…

    (I am still working on that joke).

    But, I think that if Romney wins the nomination, the campaign will be about as serious as that. Except Romney has the best chance of winning, and that is serious.

  30. 30.

    Malron aka eclecticbrotha

    20 billion dollars a year in federally-funded research! Science and the like! This he believes.

    Oh yeah, sure he does. Or did. But even if he still believes it, how long would he stick to it if some scientist discovered a possibility that adding ground lemon rinds to gasoline could increase fuel efficient by 10% but needed further research and some very serious Republican cherry-picked the study as an example of wasteful government?

  31. 31.

    stuckinred

    @Chuck Butcher: I saw the other picture of Gus getting a bath but this one is great! I should have mentioned that was why I posted Mr Big’s mug shot.

  33. 33.

    Malron aka eclecticbrotha

    @jl: How about this:

    Twenty-five Republican presidential candidates walk into a bar. Although two suffered concussions, the rest escaped with minor bumps on their heads.

    I know. Needs work.

  35. 35.

    RossInDetroit

    @Malron aka eclecticbrotha:

    20 billion dollars a year in federally-funded research!

    My brother’s a materials scientist. He used to work at Argonne. Did research on lubricants and wear for advanced internal combustion engines. The funding dried up under Bush.

  40. 40.

    Mark S.

    @MikeJ:

    More important than how many houses he has is does he know how many houses he has?

    The stupidest statement not made by Mark Halperin during the 2008 election was Hindrocket from Powerline saying that it wasn’t surprising that McCain couldn’t remember how many houses he had because Hindrocket couldn’t remember how many ties he owned.

    I see he came back and added an update:

    An emailer tells me that some unusually stupid people on the Left–yes, Andrew, I mean you–couldn’t figure out that my equation of neckties and houses was a JOKE. As someone who wears a suit to work every day, I have maybe 50 or 60 ties. But I only have one house. So I was kidding, see–facetiously acknowledging how weird it seems, to us non-rich people, for someone not to know off the top of his head how many houses he owns. Liberals, you need to get a grip. Being consumed by hate is damaging to your sense of humor.

    Um, okay. Folks, it’s only going to get exponentially dumber next year.

  42. 42.

    RossInDetroit

    @Jeffro:

    No advances in lubrication but there was plenty of friction under Bush.

    Aaaannnd I’m gonna stop there.

  43. 43.

    Jager

    @stuckinred: Slipped one in a ’54 Sedan Delivery,some work on the head, cam, carbs and headers, sounded like a Jag six at 5,000 rpm. There was a very radical 292 in a G gas drag car called 6 Pack to Go, used 2 aluminum Chevy V8 heads made into 3 cylinder models, really nicely engineered and very fast and exotic. Merkin in-gin-new-ity, yah know!

  44. 44.

    Chuck Butcher

    @stuckinred:

    instead of the 350.

    Nah, thing’s great at low speed but it sucks gas like it’s going out of style and doesn’t have the power to get out of its own way above mid-rpm range. That means 45mph is it for anything happening by putting the pedal to the metal.

  45. 45.

    HL_guy

    Normally, when a Republican claims to support something I support, like Mittens did (in this case, quintupling basic research budgets), my respond is to assume they are lying, because these promises never seem to present themselves in actual policies.

    With Romney, I don’t believe he’s lying. Instead, I’m pretty sure he has completely lost the thread and doesn’t know what he believes any more, or it simply changes so quickly that it can’t actually be tracked by normal human brains, even his own.

  47. 47.

    stuckinred

    @Jager: You, chuck and oldhughmanatee! I grew up loving Stone Woods and Cook, Big John Mazmanian and the rest of the gassers. Can’t really get into funny cars.

  50. 50.

    ChrisNYC

    O/T — Wow. The (fantastic) Solicitor General said today during the oral arguments on the Affordable Care Act: “Maybe it violates the constitution of Ayn Rand but it doesn’t violate the United States Constitution.” (This was after very heartfelt speechifying on liberty and the 10th and 14th As.)

  51. 51.

    Cliff in NH

    This is going out to the parental units:
    from boomantribune.com/story/2011/6/6/123621/8441

    Know Nothing, Do Nothing Congress
    Elizabeth, New Jersey, October 7, 1948
    Harry S Truman
    __
    You are here because you are interested in the issues of this campaign. You know, as all the citizens of this great country know, that the election is not all over nothing but shouting. That is what they would like to have you believe, but it isn’t so–it isn’t so at all.
    __
    The Republicans are trying to hide the truth from you in a great many ways. They don’t want you to know the truth about the issues in this campaign. The big fundamental issue in this campaign is the people against the special interests.
    __
    The Democratic party stands for the people.
    __
    The Republican party stands, and always has stood, for special interests. They have proved that conclusively in the record that they made in this “do-nothing” Congress.
    __
    The Republican party candidates are going around talking to you in high-sounding platitudes, trying to make you believe that they themselves are the best people to run the government. Well now, you have had experience with them running the government. In 1920 to 1932, they had complete control of the government. Look what they did to it!
    __
    This country is enjoying the greatest prosperity it has ever known because we have been following, for sixteen years, the policies inaugurated by Franklin D. Roosevelt. Everybody benefited from these policies–labor, the farmer, businessmen, and white-collar workers.
    __
    We want to keep that prosperity. We cannot keep that if we don’t lick the biggest problem facing us today, and that is high prices.
    __
    I have been trying to get the Republicans to do something about high prices and housing ever since they came to Washington. They are responsible for that situation, because they killed price control, and they killed the housing bill. That Republican, 80th “do-nothing” Congress absolutely refused to give any relief whatever in either one of those categories.
    __
    What do you suppose the Republicans think you ought to do about high prices?
    __
    Senator Taft, one of the leaders in the Republican Congress, said, “If consumers think the price is too high today, they will wait until the price is lower. I feel that in time, the law of supply and demand will bring prices into line. ”
    __
    There is the Republican answer to the high cost of living.
    __
    If it costs too much, just wait.
    __
    If you think fifteen cents is too much for a loaf of bread, just do without it and wait until you can afford to pay fifteen cents for it.
    __
    If you don’t want to pay sixty cents a-pound for hamburger, just wait. That is what the Republican Congress thought you ought to do, and that is the same Congress that the Republican candidate for president said did a good job.
    __
    Some people say I ought not to talk so much about the Republican 80th “do-nothing” Congress in this campaign. I will tell you why I will talk about it. If two-thirds of the people stay at home again on election day as they did in 1946, and if we get another Republican Congress like the 80th Congress, it will be controlled by the same men who controlled that 80th Congress–the Tabers and the Tafts, the Martins and the Hallecks–would be the bosses. The same men would be the bosses, the same as those who passed the Taft-Hartley Act, and passed the rich man’s tax bill, and took Social Security away from a million workers.
    __
    Do you want that kind of administration? I don’t believe you do–I don’t believe you do.
    __
    I don’t believe you would be out here, interested in listening to my outline of what the Republicans are trying to do to you, if you intended to put them back in there.
    __
    When a bunch of Republican reactionaries are in control of the Congress, then the people get reactionary laws. The only way you can get the kind of government you need is by going to the polls and voting the straight Democratic ticket on November 2. Then you will get a Democratic Congress, and I will get a Congress that will work with me. Then we will get good housing at prices we can afford to pay; and repeal of that vicious Taft-Hartley Act; and more Social Security coverage; and prices that will be fair to everybody; and we can go on and keep sixty-one million people at work; we can have an income of more than $217 billion, and that income will be distributed so that the farmer, the workingman, the white collar worker, and the businessman get their fair share of that income.
    __
    That is what I stand for.
    __
    That is what the Democratic party stands for.
    __
    Vote for that, and you will be safe.

    And this:
    The Who: Won’t Get Fooled Again

    Meet the new boss
    Same as the old boss

    youtube.com/watch?v=oUbGLVvfB7Y

  52. 52.

    Jager

    @Chuck Butcher: When I was a kid fooling around with cars, a guy a few years older went from V8 to 6’s. He was studying engineering and liked the challenge and he had the skills. He sold me a small block V8, 301 cid cam, heads, etc. I put into a one owner 48 Ford Tudor, slammed it and went through rear ends so many times I could replace the gears and or axles in about 20 minutes. Finally wised up a put a Ford 1/2 ton rear end in and switched to an open drive shaft and leaf springs. I was such a dumb kid, it took awhile to realize the 48 was heavier than any tri-5 and I wasted my time, money and butchered a perfect 48……

  53. 53.

    Chuck Butcher

    Since the ’11 Romney somehow turned this into gearhead thread I give you my wife’s one time daily driver. It is a lot lighter than a tri-5 and on 92 octane this 350 is turning out 425HP and pushing this car with 3.42 gears down the track to 12.75 sec @ sealevel @3150# w/driver. The thing is more of a sports car than drag car.

  55. 55.

    Cliff in NH

    First edit, How accurate do you guys think it is? Corrections/Improvements welcome.

    Know Nothing, Do Nothing Congress
    Elizabeth, New Jersey, October 7, 1948
    Harry S Truman
    __
    You are here because you are interested in the issues of this campaign. You know, as all the citizens of this great country know, that the election is not all over nothing but shouting. That is what they would like to have you believe, but it isn’t so—it isn’t so at all.
    __
    The Republicans are trying to hide the truth from you in a great many ways. They don’t want you to know the truth about the issues in this campaign. The big fundamental issue in this campaign is the people against the special interests.
    __
    The Democratic party stands for the people.
    __
    The Republican party stands, and always has stood, for special interests. They have proved that conclusively in the record that they made in this “do-nothing” Congress.
    __
    The Republican party candidates are going around talking to you in high-sounding platitudes, trying to make you believe that they themselves are the best people to run the government. Well now, you have had experience with them running the government. In 1920 to 1932 2000-2008, they had complete control of the government. Look what they did to with it!
    __
    This country is was enjoying the greatest prosperity it has had ever known because we have had been following, for sixteen eight years, the policies inaugurated by Franklin D. Roosevelt Bill Clinton. Everybody benefited from these policies—labor, the farmer, businessmen, and white-collar workers.
    __
    We want to keep that prosperity. We cannot keep that if we don’t lick the biggest problem facing us today, and that is high prices healthcare.
    __
    I have been trying to get the Republicans to do something about high prices healthcare and housing ever since they came to Washington. They are responsible for that situation, because they are trying to kill price control the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and they killed the housing bill. That Republican, 80th 112th “do-nothing” Congress absolutely refused to give any relief whatever in either one of those categories.
    __
    What do you suppose the Republicans think you ought to do about high prices?
    __
    Senator Taft John Boehner, one of the leaders in The Republican Congress, said implied, “If consumers think the price of healthcare is too high today, they will wait until the price is lower negotiate with Health Insurance Monopolies, or die quickly. I feel that in time, the law of supply and demand will bring prices into line. ”
    __
    There is the Republican answer to the high cost of living healthcare.
    __
    If it costs too much, just wait die.
    __
    If you think fifteen cents thousand dollars is too much for a loaf of bread healthcare, just do without it and wait until you can afford to pay fifteen cents thousand dollars for it.
    __
    If you don’t want to pay sixty cents a-pound for hamburger 1% of every purchase to swipe your credit/debit card, just wait. That is what the Republican Congress thought you ought to do, and that is the same Congress that the Republican candidate for president said did a good job.
    __
    Some people say I ought not to talk so much about the Republican 80th 112th “do-nothing” Congress in this campaign. I will tell you why I will talk about it. If two-thirds of the people stay at home again on election day as they did in 1946 2010, and if we get another Republican Congress like the 80th 112th Congress, it will be controlled by the same men who controlled that 80th 112th Congress—the Tabers and the Tafts Boehners and the Bachmanns, the Martins and the Hallecks McConnells and the Hatchs—would be the bosses. The same men would be the bosses, the same as those who passed the Taft-Hartley Act Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act, and passed the rich man’s tax bill, and took are trying to take Social Security and Medicare, Medicaid away from a millions of workers.
    __
    Do you want that kind of administration? I don’t believe you do—I don’t believe you do.
    __
    I don’t believe you would be out here, interested in listening to my outline of what the Republicans are trying to do to you, if you intended to put them back in there.
    __
    When a bunch of Republican reactionaries are in control of the Congress, then the people get reactionary laws. The only way you can get the kind of government you need is by going to the polls and voting the straight Democratic ticket on November 2. Then you will get a Democratic Congress, and I will get a Congress that will work with me. Then we will get good housing credit at prices we can afford to pay; and repeal of that vicious Taft-Hartley Act Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act; and more Social Security coverage; and prices contracts that will be fair to everybody; and we can go on and keep get sixty-one 21.924 million people at back to work; we can have an income of more than $217 billion $13.3 trillion, and that income will be distributed so that the farmer, the workingman, the white collar worker, and the businessman get their fair share of that income.
    __
    That is what I stand for.
    __
    That is what the Democratic party stands for.
    __
    Vote for that, and you will be safe.

  56. 56.

    cursorial

    Maybe we can sort the evolution of Mitt Romney into groups of semi-consistent positions and give them version numbers to make it easier. In the event President Mitt doesn’t work out, we can always revert to an earlier stable version.

    Mitt 1.0 (Businessman, centrist, healthcare reform good, abortion ok),
    Mitt 2.0 (Healthcare reform evil, abortion evil),
    Mitt 2.1 (2.0 + Auto bailouts also evil),
    Mitt 3.0 (State Health Reform good but learning from it evil)
    Mitt 3.1a (release candidate, Auto Bailouts Evil But Having Them Work Was My Idea)

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