Mindboggling dishonesty from Romney:
Former auto czar Steve Rattner reacts to Mitt Romney taking credit for the auto bailout: “I’ve read, I think, everything Romney’s had to say on this subject, and the level of flip flopping and dissembling is truly mindboggling. He’s been on every side of the auto rescue at different times and said different things, so it’s hard to know what he honestly thinks.”
I love that “I think” from Rattner, because I’m not sure I’ve read every Mitt Romney position on the auto rescue either. I think we are on number four, but it could be five.
Let’s see if he’s finally, finally gone too far with the dishonesty and dissembling. There has to be a tipping point where Romney’s habitual, daily dishonesty goes from cynical self-interest and a huge character flaw to “disqualifying”, right? One would hope so.
Oh, and, has he been vetted? No one has any idea where he is, on anything.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
Because he’ll never go too far.
Come to think of it, neither will happen.
Kay
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage:
I know I am a pollyana (for this site, anyway) but I DO think it matters. I think it reinforces a sense people already have about him, and they are RIGHT. I think this sort of thing is slowly corrosive to credibility. Drip drip drip, then it falls apart.
arguingwithsignposts
I rate this statement … mostly true. /politifucked
redshirt
I’m taking credit too. Prove me wrong!
JPL
Joe Biden said gay marriage so that leads the news.
@arguingwithsignposts: so true
forked tongue
Gee, maybe the media will start portraying him the way they did Al Gore, where by the end they virtually couldn’t mention his name without adding a little dig at his “serial exaggerations.”
Uh, why are you looking at me that way> Did I say something stupid?
Ash Can
I like the fact that the CBS reporter at the link proceeds to cite Romney’s “Let Detroit Fail” op-ed and mentions that the financial crisis of that time would have made Romney’s plan inoperable, and doesn’t simply let the current bullshit slide. Maybe the journalists in general are getting tired of Romney’s shtick. One can hope.
Redshift
This one has legs, I think. The earlier version that Obama did what Romney said was a simple lie, but “taking credit” for a decision where he was just wanking on an op-ed page would be egregious even if he weren’t lying.
Romney taking credit for the auto bailout is exactly like a guy trying to claim that because he yelled “throw the ball!” from the stands, he deserves credit for a touchdown.
Romney seems determined to personify the rooster taking credit for the sun coming up, since he doesn’t have any actual accomplishments that people would be happy to hear about if he described them honestly.
JPL
TPM has this tidbit also, too.
link
Cato
The latest polls have this thing either all tied up or Romney slightly ahead, and the money from the Super PACs will be the difference in the end.
I think it all comes down to Florida and Ohio yet again.
Hill Dweller
@Kay: I really hope you’re right. But so much of Republican politics is tribalism. Facts are irrelevant in their universe.
As an aside, Willard was also asked about off shore bank accounts and foreign taxes yesterday. When he gave a mealy mouthed answer, the crowd actually booed him. I haven’t seen anything about that in the press.
PeakVT
Romney: horrible candidate, or horrible human being? You make the call.
Redshift
Oh, and someone should tell the teabaggers that Romney says his plan would have been better because he would have given the money to the banks, not the auto companies.
Turgidson
@forked tongue:
There’s at least some chance that will happen, because Romney is such an off-putting putz of a person/candidate, and the Villagers hate that sort of thing. At the very least, they shouldn’t have the idiotic crush on Romney that they had on GWB and McCain that led to comments like “McCain having so many houses he can’t remember them all is good news for McCain.”
But I think their sporting interest in lobbing spitballs at Obama will outweigh their disappointment that Romney’s not a cool kid like Bush and McCain.
r€nato
@JPL: ha you beat me to it
Including the RNC’s Hispanic outreach director:
He’ll get back to you once he sticks his finger in the wind and sees how it’s blowing today.
Conservatism: whatever pisses off liberals, updated daily.
Mitt Romney’s convictions: whatever a given audience wants to hear, updated daily.
r€nato
@PeakVT: both
Redshift
@PeakVT: Definitely not an either/or question.
gaz
@Cato:
Last week you said it all came down to PA
rlrr
@r€nato:
Romney needs a compass to tell him which way the wind shines.
Kay
@JPL:
RNC’s Hispanic outreach director tells reporters in DC that Mitt Romney is still deciding on what his position on immigration is and therefore she cannot comment on what his position is. Seriously.
Perfect. Jesus Christ. At what point does this cowardice reach “incapable of leading, on anything, ever”?
Cato
@gaz:
Pennsylvania, too. The traditional swing states of ’00 and ’04.
rlrr
@gaz:
When you make shit up, it gets hard to keep track of…
David Hunt
Do you believe in an afterlife where you’re judged by your actions in the this life before they decide whether you get into the good place or get sent to eternal torment? Because if you don’t, I can’t hold out any hope for your desire to come about. I can’t think of any Earthly agency currently in existence that can and will hold a power Republican publicly accountable for his statements and actions.
Turgidson
@Redshift:
Worse. Romney’s “throw the ball” plan was the equivalent of throwing it to a 5’6″ high school wide receiver who is covered by Darrell Reavis, Champ Bailey, and [insert other prominent defensive back] all at the same time. His plan wouldn’t have fucking worked – it was basically impossible for it to work, because NO ONE was lending to ANYONE. But Mittens can’t acknowledge that, because it would be acknowleding that markets can fail. And we can’t have that, no sir. So he does what he does. He lies, and the lies just keep getting bigger and more absurd.
russell
Unfortunately, no.
Redshift
@Turgidson: Probably. I saw there was a front-page news article in the WaPo today that the European elections might spell trouble for Obama because they were “anti-incumbent” and might mean bad things for the European economy. There’s pretty much no way you could come up with something that wrongheaded without starting from the premise “how might this be bad news for Obama?”
Brachiator
It’s good that Rattner clearly noted that it is more than flip flopping.
Not only does the Romneybot 5000 change its views more than the weather in San Francisco, he actively disavows his past accomplishments, and most strange of all, deliberately tries to take credit for shit that he had absolutely nothing to do with. And so we have some of the odd lies that Obama followed his advice in handling the managed bankruptcies used to help the auto industry.
Any day now, I expect Mitt to talk about that 3am phone call he made to the White House that helped get bin Laden.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@forked tongue:
If he were a Democrat, you can be damned sure the Villagers would start doing exactly that. And there wouldn’t be any attempt to provide the “faux balance” with some politifuck rating that says “both sides do it”.
Kay, don’t get me wrong, we here in Left Blogistania need to continue highlighting this stuff. My hope is that the Obama Campaign, the DNC and any superPAC that comes along will use this stuff to craft commercials along the lines of
“I was against the bailout before took credit for it” Then queue the serious-toned dude saying “Mitt Romney can’t give a straight answer on anything. Do *you* trust him?”
The more he says this crap, the more opposition ads simply write themselves.
Ed Drone
@r€nato:
Fixed
Ed
Hunter Gathers
@JPL: Now she claims that she ‘misspoke’.
Rock
Mitt Romney saved the American auto industry.
I think it’s genius. He’s a performance artist of staggering ability….
Kay
@Hill Dweller:
I don’t care about them, the 40% or whatever. Partisan Republicans voted for the ancient John McCain when Sarah Palin was his VP. They didn’t give a shit.
Romney is both inauthentic personally and habitually dishonest on factual matters. I think it gets through eventually, despite the political media standing in the way. 6 months is a long time in politics.
r€nato
@Kay: oh it’s still early, just wait for October when the ‘weak, pusillanimous, spineless flip-flopper’ meme really takes hold.
Let’s be clear: people aren’t going to vote against Romney/for Obama because the GOP attacked Kerry as a flip-flopper in 2004 and are now running the biggest flip-flopper of them all in 2012. People rarely base their votes upon punishing hypocrisy.
But the underlying narrative is powerful. How can you trust the economy and security of this country to a guy who seemingly has no true convictions that he’s willing to stand up for?
People don’t really want a politician who says exactly what he thinks and stands by it 100%, or else Ron Paul would be the GOP nominee and the odds-on favorite to win it all.
What they want is a politician who *projects* that image, while skillfully speaking to all sorts of different audiences so that more often than not, people can see that candidate as being on their side, as standing by them and standing up for what they believe on the issues they care most about.
Obama has that in spades. Romney is the antithesis of that; he *tries* to be all things to all people but instead just reeks of flop-sweat in the attempt.
I know – or used to know – a guy who, while he and I agreed on politics, was clearly a left-wing Mitt Romney. I only ever heard from the guy when he wanted something of/from me. He was clearly someone with no convictions or beliefs or even anything interesting to say, other than saying and doing what it took to get what he wanted in that moment. I stopped speaking to him because I found I just had no respect for the guy.
Mark S.
@Kay:
Oh, come on, Mitt only started running for president eight years ago. You can’t expect him to have any positions on any issues yet.
SatanicPanic
Backseat driving is exactly like driving the car
Comrade Dread
@JPL: The ROM-ney bot must perform a careful detailed analysis on the amount his base will be demoralized vs. the amount of independents and Latinos who he will gain by acknowledging that just perhaps that illegal immigrants are actual, real human beings and we should take that into account in our policy.
It has decided, obviously, that the best solution is to say nothing.
Which is elegantly cynical in a way, and quite out of character for the ROM-ney bot.
daveNYC
@Redshift:
More accurate.
Turgidson
@Brachiator:
This is gonna happen, isn’t it. I certainly wouldn’t put it past Mitt to give it a shot.
Forum Transmitted Disease
He’s quite obviously a member of the white race. That’s all his party gives a shit about.
Redshift
@Turgidson: Oh, I agree completely. I just think that this statement is more likely to stick with him because it would be obnoxious even if it were true, so it gives the shallow Village media a new angle to work.
forked tongue
I thought it would be a good idea to kill Bin Laden, and said so! So I don’t mind taking a little victory lap at this time of remembrance.
Quaker in a Basement
@Redshift: Beat me to the punch in overall sentiment and specific details. What Red said.
JPL
@Kay: TPM just updated and said the RNC outreach director said she misspoke and then linked to Mitt’s site. Mitt is gonna secure the border, yadda, yadda, yadda and the really bright folks get to stay. Oh and e-verify.
Villago Delenda Est
Every fucking word out of his mouth, to include “and” and “the”, is a lie. To steal a line from Mary McCarthy.
He is unmitigated scum. Makes Richard Nixon look like a righteous dude, he does.
Ed Drone
Since so many of his lies have to do with cars, it’s a wonder we haven’t heard the line that I heard about Dick Nixon:
Would you buy a used car from this man?
Accompanied by a photo of a ’67 Cadillac, is how I see the new ad in my mind.
Ed
Redshift
@Turgidson: Hey, wingnuts on Fox and radio are still trying to argue that Obama doesn’t really deserve any credit for bin Laden, but Bush does. I don’t think Romney will make the claim himself, but wouldn’t be surprised if someone tries it.
JPL
Kay, your posts today have been spot on but of course, they usually are.
Dee Loralei
Obama is going to kill him in the debates. Romney will curl up into a fetal position, sucking his thumb, clutching his blankie as the tears roll down his cheeks. There will be the distinct waft of fecal matter about his person and everyone watching on tv will smell it.
Villago Delenda Est
@gaz:
That was then. This is now.
Next week, when Texas is in play, it will come down to Texas.
Mark my words. RC/Ver1tas/Cato is as slippery and slimy as his hero, the Rmoneytron.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@Kay:
I will admit that I think because of exactly this effect, Mittens will get creamed in November. It’s simply a question as to how close down to the 40% “he can’t get any lower than Bob Dole” level.
jnfr
@redshirt:
Seriously!
I was in favor of the bailout for the auto industry too, but that doesn’t mean I can stand up and claim it for my resume. Obama was the one who had to make the call and the only one who can claim it. Romney owns “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt!”
JGabriel
__
__
CBSNews:
The guy who lost not only the 2008 Presidential contest, but the 2008 GOP nomination, who had no governmental role or position in 2009, and opposed the auto bailout, is now taking credit for it?
Well, based on that logic, I’d just like to announce that even though I lost the Powerball lottery on Saturday, didn’t even buy a ticket actually, that I should be given the $70 Mil Powerball prize, because I’m taking credit for buying the winning ticket (even though there isn’t one).
.
gaz
poll tracker @ TPM has romney behind obama by over 5 points in Ohio.
Comrade Dread
There are similarities. Dick with his creating the EPA and appeasing the ChiComs, and “losing” Vietnam would probably be run out of the GOP today on a rail, or he’d be getting the same sort of tepid response that Romney is.
But there is, at least, one major difference. Nixon had cajones and wouldn’t let himself fall into the lapdog role. The man had pride. Too much of it, for sure, but I’ve yet to see anything that would tell me that Mitt would ever take a stand on anything other than what the polls tell him is the popular position of the day.
r€nato
@Redshift: He’ll certainly try, and some other candidate might even have been able to sell that to the voters.
But not Romney. Even if he told the truth 100% of the time, he couldn’t do so in a convincing way.
danimal
I know the Dems don’t get a fair shake with the press and it’s an uphill fight to highlight RMoney’s inconsistencies and lies, but the American people do (eventually) get the truth. We need to make sure the people understand the truth BEFORE the election, but I’m quite certain the next six months will be uncomfortable for Mitt.
RMoney’s lies have been way too public. Even worse for him is the clear and public demonstration that the man has absolutely no guiding principles whatsoever. He has no courage, and that will crush him in the end. Millions of SuperPac dollars can not hide a lack of character. People want a president they can respect, even when they disagree. Right now, RMoney’s getting the benefit of the doubt (a normal occurence after a party selects a nominee), but that won’t last for six months. The Obama campaign has an excellent sense of timing; they are keeping their powder dry for now. This election won’t be close.
Roger Moore
@Redshift:
Yeah, a rushing touchdown.
Chyron HR
@gaz:
Yeah, but those are the King James Version polls. Noted Biblical scholar ReaIity Check says that they’re dead even in the original Hebrew.
Kay
@Cato:
What ad do you run to fix that? They’re using the polite term “personal appeal” but they’re talking about perceptions of his essential nature and affect.
The habitual lying won’t help with that.
Randy P
@Dee Loralei:
And then the news outlets will declare it a tie.
I’m old enough to remember Reagan v. Carter. I’d walk away from the TV thinking, “Man, Carter wiped the floor with him. That Reagan guy didn’t know anything about anything.” Then I woke up the next morning to read about the “tie.” My TV was apparently tuned to a parallel universe.
kindness
At some point, a level of angst, anger and hostility will engulf some poor SOB who will go out and do violence to Mittens. Sure, I can see it. This is just one such example. But when will that happen? Where is the tipping point that sends some unbalance soul out into Sirhan Sirhan world? I don’t know. I really don’t.
In my view, the current Romney statement de jour is enough to get me to throw rotted vegetables. Others views may and will vary. I hope never to reach my tipping point as I don’t want to live in jail.
jonas
This observation has been made before, but it’s worth making again: for the MSM, covering the GOP and their candidates means wading every single day into a blizzard of lies and bullshit so merciless in its intensity and shamelessness that filing any story simply comes down to deciding “which of the least blatant lies here can I reasonably attribute to candidate X without having to actually say that all he does is lie?” Thus Republicans are regularly given a pass on stuff — like Romney claiming credit for the auto recovery — that would get Obama flayed alive if he tried to pull it. They flood the zone so thoroughly with nonsense, knowing that a few whoppers are bound to get through and stick due to sheer media inertia and fecklessness.
But they know that’s all they need.
redshirt
Also too, this seems like a good time to confess: I was the one who got the Original Star Trek cancelled.
Mike in NC
@Brachiator:
No, Mitt was flying the helicopter.
The Other Chuck
Mitt Romney also claims to have written The Book of Love and alleges to have put the bop in the bop shebop shebop.
Villago Delenda Est
@The Other Chuck:
He’s also The Batman.
Ben Cisco
Jake Tapper got testy on the Twitter machine yesterday when he got asked about the (lack of) coverage of Romney’s
prevarimendacmisdireLYING, pointing out that he “covers the White House.”At which point he was asked about his recent appearance on Meet The Talivangelicals – crickets.
So yeah, they KNOW he’s lying. But some of them aren’t going to cop to it unless they get their noses rubbed in it, repeatedly.
The bad thing here is that Tapper is one of the ones that actually engages with the proles.
dj spellchecka
heard this on my local ne ohio npr station earlier, and credit where it’s due, the reporter committed actual journalism by pointing out why what romney said wasn’t true.
wksu:
Mitt Romney is saying he deserves “a lot of credit” for the resurgence of the American auto industry. That claim comes in spite of Romney having argued that Detroit should have been allowed to go bankrupt.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee tells a Cleveland television station that President Barack Obama followed his lead when he ushered auto companies through a managed bankruptcy. Romney has repeatedly made that argument.
But he went further on Monday by saying he deserves credit for the recent successes of the auto industry. Romney opposed the use of federal funds that helped auto companies survive the bankruptcy process. Obama and others say using taxpayer money was the only option.
The Obama campaign says Romney should have “the courage and integrity” to admit he was wrong.
Ben Cisco
@PeakVT: May I have one of each please?
Tonal Crow
Republican Propaganda Group (RPG) Officially Releases BullMitt ™: The Candidate of the Future
(Washington, D.C.) BullMitt ™, the GOP’s 2012 Presidential nominee, is the product of four decades of relentless propaganda research. That research has found that 27% of Americans always prefer bullshit to fact, and an additional 27% often prefer bullshit.
Thus, the release of BullMitt ™, who will say anything if he thinks it’ll get him elected, even if he said the opposite three sentences ago.
BullMitt ™ lies, yes. But he doesn’t stop there. No! The true innovation in BullMitt ™ is that he doesn’t care whether what he says is true, false, some mix of the two, is unknown, or is unknowable. BullMitt ™ just says anything that he thinks appeals to the public.
Buy BullMitt ™ today, and let him Shake _your_ Etch-a-Sketch (c)!
Villago Delenda Est
@dj spellchecka:
That’s as likely to happen as my coronation next week as Czar of all the Russias.
Turgidson
@Dee Loralei:
Considering how flustered Romney got in that Fox News (!!!) interview, I am half-expecting him to have some form of a temper tantrum at at least one debate. The guy clearly has a pretty thin skin for a presidential nominee and surrounds himself with yes-men to the extent he can. The GOP clown car wasn’t competent enough to land lasting blows on him, but Obama is. And Mitt might not be able to handle it when it happens to his face. Then the spin will begin. Was Obama being “kind of a dick”, or is Romney just a spineless fucking weasal. Both sides do it and stuff.
Ben Cisco
@Dee Loralei:
SMELLOVISION!!
Also, obligatory:
IF YA SMEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLAH
WHAT BARACK
IS
COOKING!
Kay
@Ben Cisco:
I think the auto bailout is touchy for pundits, because most of them were wrong too. It was fashionable to be opposed to it, and they’re lemmings.
I used to sit in my kitchen listening to cable and just get fucking furious. It was like they were salivating at the thought of all those union thugs getting fired. Their eyes were all sparkly with the sheer disaster, rubber-necking aspect.
I felt as if they had no inkling of how bad it was going to get, because they don’t understand the ripple effect. They were just nattering on and on about “gold plated benefits”. I thought “why are these assholes so excited?”
It had an upside. I stopped watching their shows.
redshirt
I will say this about Rmoney’s newest gag – that’s some top-notch CEOing. Can you imagine your boss doing the same? Sure you can, but as good as Rmoney here? No way!
trollhattan
@PeakVT:
Much like my dog can watch for squirrels and lick her butt at the same time, I believe in Willard’s ability to be both.
Turgidson
@Turgidson:
Also, with respect to the debates, can Obama pull off a sequel to Reagan’s “there you go again” moment? I mean, I know we all hate that moment because Reagan was being confronted with how much he sucked and just laughed it off, and got away with it, despite the criticisms being true.
But can Obama do something like that when Romney starts to gush forth with his shitstorm of lies and fantasies about Obama’s record at a debate? Just be like, “oh Mitt…you and your drugs”… except better that that?
I ask because we all know that the second Obama shows any emotion when he’s pushing back on the lies and defending his record, the GOP pundit twits will hit the fainting couches “ZOMG ANGRY BLACK MAN!”. Which I don’t think will work on anyone who doesn’t already hate Obama, but still…
Ben Cisco
@Kay: Yeah, I bailed on cable “news” altogether. I can barely get through a TDS or Colbert segment that quotes any of the assholes in the GOP OR the media, even though I know that Stewart (mostly) and Colbert (always) are only quoting them to mock them. They’ve aggravated me that badly.
Jebediah
@Verisad:
That money has already been flowing and Romney still sucks as a candidate.
In November, he will be beaten like a rented mule.
JCT
I was hoping someone would post this today — not that my opinion of Romney could, in any way, be worse. His cowardice literally disgusts me.
But when I heard about this “I will take lots of credit for the auto bailout success” — it was truly one of those “please make him STFU and go away” moments. Coupled to “uh, get back to me on that immigration thing” and I am finally speechless.
At this point, one of the very best byproducts of an Obama re-election would be that Romney would just GO AWAY. He adds nothing to public discourse, he is hopelessly craven and if either of my kids had his ephemeral relationship to the truth they would have spent their entire childhood grounded.
This is just insulting at this point.
gaz
@Jebediah: The superPAC money during the GOP primaries basically provided a wealth of material for Obama to beat Rmoney over the head with. Obama doesn’t even need to make his own attack ads. He can just run theirs, and slap Obama/Biden on the end (similar to what they did recently with the Newt).
UNLIMITED AMOUNTS OF ANONYMOUS CORPORATE CASH!
How’s that working out for you guys so far?
VICTORY? heh
scuffletuffle
@redshirt: Darn you…darn you to heck!
Rick Massimo
“Has he been vetted?”
Are you kidding? Someone mentioned he’s a Mormon! He’s been PERSECUTED!
catclub
@Ash Can: I agree. When the Yahoo news page includes mention of the ‘let detroit go bankrupt’ editorial AND the ‘if you do this Detroit will be worse off/destroyed’ line, it is getting close to journalism
in unexpected places.
Jebediah
@gaz:
So when VICTORY!1! turns into a concession speech in which Rmoney says “I’ll take lots of credit for the President being re-elected” (and this time, it will be true!) will Verisad have the decency to disappear from these fair comment threads?
Or will he just pop up from time to time like a hydrocephalic prairie dog, yell “libtards haw haw” and then duck back into his tunnel?
catclub
@gaz: “UNLIMITED AMOUNTS OF ANONYMOUS CORPORATE CASH!”
Of course, the real feature of the superpacs is that it seemed more like rich guys’ money and NOT corporate cash.
Never know for sure, since they do not release funding info, but the corporations are risk averse, and they saw what happened to with Komen and ALEC reporting that oblivious customers became far too alert for their liking.
Rich guys do not care who hates them, they have already made their money.
grandpa john
@Redshift: Of course he failed to mention that the reason they were anti-incumbent was because they were also anti-austerity that the incumbents were promoting
gaz
@catclub: I was quoting Taco
redshirt
@Jebediah: He’ll disappear, either for good, or to assume some new handle. Like “Verisimilitude”.
russell
It’s like he read Frankfurt’s “On Bullshit” and thought it was a self-help book.
grandpa john
@gaz: RCP EV map shows Obama up 253 to 170. Ohio is+5, and has been consistantly blue for at least a year. VA is almost +4 Iowa is +4, FL is slightly blue(0.4). Hmmm 253 +44 = 297.
grandpa john
@Randy P: That was before the net became a participating force, they still try to do this but the tubes quickly let the real people voice their opinions
Calouste
@Randy P:
Remember how during the 2008 debates they had voter panels that rated the debates and instant polls that were always significantly more positive towards Obama so that the pundits started out being positive towards McCain and then had to eat their words when the panel and poll results came in?
I doubt we will see those again this year.
gene108
@Comrade Dread:
At some level Nixon was probably always the poor kid from Yorba Linda, who did good in life. He probably had whatever insecurities that caused him because the “old money” would always treat him as an outsider.
He had some personal tragedies growing up, like the death of his brothers (maybe his father?). He managed to succeed in politics because he worked hard to stand out and make a name for himself.
Romney, like Bush, Jr., was born on Third Base and thinks he hit a triple.
Nixon is a really bad comparison to Romney. Nixon, at some level, actually understood the poor have problems and those problems aren’t trivial.
Romney just doesn’t understand how the other 99.99% in America live.
The closest comparison to Romney is Bush, Jr., who ran as a “compassionate conservative” in 2000, because no one wanted the austerity program the hardcore Republicans/conservatives favored, so Bush, Jr. tailored some big-government programs, like increasing the Dept. of Education and expanding Medicare, in order to placate the masses/Democrats and push other parts of his agenda favored by the hardcore Republicans/conservatives, such as massive tax cuts* and privatizing Social Security.
*Hardly remembered today is the fact the 2003 tax cuts passed the Senate via V.P. Cheney casting a tie breaking vote. They were pretty controversial at the time and not something many people wanted to make permanent.
grandpa john
@Kay: Yeah that ripple effect reached all the way to SC where I live. My daughter working at a Bosch plant was down to 3-4 days a week every other week. after the bail out took effect she has been working 6-7 days a week for almost a year, no thanks to the idiot asshole prattling bobble heads and with bankruptcy the averted disaster would have played out nation wide. i never cease to be amazed at how such ignorant, stupid people can rise to these positions, hell even listening to them talk illuminates their lack of basic intelligence and common sense.
Bruce S
Romney’s giving campaign bullshit a bad name.
Bruce S
Today’s Washington Post: “Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (R) is ‘still deciding what his position on immigration is,’ as RNC Hispanic Outreach Director Bettina Inclán termed it.”
Not a “pattern” so much as a pathology with this guy.
gene108
@Bruce S:
What choice does he have?
Toe the Party line and invite almost guaranteed disaster in the general election or support programs most Americans think would help them?
This is a Party that views Lindsey Graham as too liberal and Jim DeMint as just right.
Just sayin’ there isn’t a lot of room for a Republican candidate, on a national level, to maneuver with regards to staking out a position that will appeal to the base and most Americans. You can do one or the other, but not both.
Bruce S
@gene108:
Romney has shown us what a politician with even a modicum of integrity does when put in that “untenable position.” Calls out the yahoos and nuts who are engaged in taking over his party and goes with his principles.
Of course that “Romney” was Mitt’s dad, George. The old man is better off not seeing this train wreck involving the Romney name as his beloved son stands for nothing, spins wildly and dissociates anything resembling the truth from his venture into unbridled opportunism.
Joseph Nobles
I think this is about muddying the waters over Romneycare. “Oh, so I didn’t have anything to do with saving the auto industry but Obamacare was my idea? Make up your mind, Obama! Am I feeding you all your ideas or am I not?”
Cain
@Kay:
Kay – they are excited because 24 hour news can go on and on about the state of the nation and how the auto industry left a hole blah blah blah. They can report on the ripple effect, and more eyes will be glued to the endless parade of pundits, sob stories, and fancy graphics and advertisers will be happy.
Disaster is what makes people watch the tv or radio and what not. That’s all it is.
Deb T
How come Gore got his hide tanned by the media for things he didn’t ever say, and Romney seems to just slide along, lying day in and day out? Oh, I know. Because IOIYAR.