So, to inaugurate his new Gekko/Galt 2012 roadshow, NYMag reports, Romney decided on a consolation trip to Florida to cheer on Marco “Maybe Next Time” Rubio and America’s struggling immigrant entrepreneurs:
… Romney held a campaign event with Senator Marco Rubio at the juice shop El Palacio de los Jugos. Unfortunately, Romney definitely won’t be getting owner Reinaldo Bermudez’s vote, as he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute cocaine in 1999 and isn’t allowed to cast a ballot.
Bermudez served three years in prison for his part in a Colombian drug smuggling operation that ended in the seizure of 2,850 pounds of cocaine at several Florida ports…
Bermudez says the Secret Service vetted him before the event and was well aware of his crimes. “Here in Miami there are a lot people with money who have had problems with the law,” Bermudez told the Miami New Times. “Thankfully, we all have the opportunity in this country to re-enter society when we’ve done something wrong.” Though, he shouldn’t expect to fully re-enter society under a Romney administration. Romney said during a debate earlier this year that he doesn’t support reinstating voting rights for convicted criminals.
Can you imagine the Fox-orchestrated uproar if President Obama did something like this? Darrell Issa would call Congress back into session just to have the impeachment vote ready before Labor Day.
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Meanwhile — I’ll put this below the fold, for those of you with delicate stomachs — how the FSM has Paul Ryan managed to win electoral office multiple times when he can’t handle the stage any better than this?
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If it weren’t for the Secret Service, I’d expect Joe Biden to start the vice-presidential debate by strolling across the stage, grabbing this pisher around the neck, and giving him a noogie. Whereupon Little Paulie would burst into tears (also, possibly, soil himself) and spend the rest of the allocated period whining that it wasn’t faaaaaair and he was gonna teeeeeelll!…
TS
Talking in the house with all those right wing bigots hanging on every word – is very different to talking in the real world.
He is a right turd – what else can one say?
redshirt
There are few pithy truths in this world. IOKIYAAR is one of them.
Linda Featheringill
Oh, my. What an amateur performance. Does he need a speaking coach? Or should he limit himself to interviews with Fox News?
Fort Geek
I bet Granny Strangler’s a BLAST!!! when he does karaoke night, singing Nugent’s *cough* greatest hits.
He’ll probably avoid wailing Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” for awhile after the November elections (“too soon, too goddamn sooooon, bwaaaaaaahhh”)
Didn’t see any crib notes scrawled on his hoof. He might wanna look into that.
arguingwithsignposts
It still amazes me that they are thrusting this guy, who hasn’t even run for statewide office, onto the national stage.
ETA: “Iowans and Wisconsonites like to be respectful and listen to one another.” Yes. They all do, Rep. Ryan. Like that guy Steve King, or Chuck GrASSley, or Scott Walker.
Villago Delenda Est
Well, gosh, it’s not like someone might have had some problems with the law, or with mere ethics and human decency, while running a vulture capital firm and finding tax dodges that he can’t publically acknowledge because gosh, he’s running for office.
Or anything like that.
amk
gekko/galt 2012 – perfect and as good as vulture/voucher 2012.
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
Ok, courtesy of my wife making the connection, here, is an approximation of Paul Ryan trying to sell his ideology in Florida (NSFW):Insert your Chuck Norris jokes here
bob h
Romney also cancelled a promised appearance on the Newshour. Not a good day for him.
geg6
What I find hilarious is that Rmoney went to FL and left his new BFF behind to get heckled in IA. Guess Mittens doesn’t think granny starving will go over well in the Sunshine State. Based on the headlines from FL newspapers that GOS had up today, he’s probably right.
But seriously, campaigning and raising $ among convicted felons? Really?
Mino
Whe is Romney going to institute the designated zone of protest that’s 3 miles away?
bemused
Morning Joe is off on a most ridiculous rant even for him. Didn’t catch who exactly “they” is.
They love big government more than
the American people
Social Security
Medicare…..
Methinks Joe is a wee bit panicky.
c u n d gulag
Chris Matthews is on Cup O’ Schmoe right now, sharing the thrill up his leg with the host and his Stolkholm-Stepford wife.
They better put Hazmat suits on the night cleaning crew after this.
Suffern ACE
@bemused: Sorry. They is “me.” I’d sell my right arm if I thought it would lead to big government.
bemused
@Suffern ACE:
That would be me also.
Now I could be mistaken and the “they” Joe was talking about could have been Romney/Ryan but because it was Joe, I just assumed he was talking about big gubment Dems.
Valdivia
when will we finally move on from the drooling and the stenography? I see Howard Kurtz (via Daily Beast) says it can’t last long because his voting record in the House is long and very controversial.
Also. Too. That effing smile, so fake, I want to throttle Ryan.
Note too that in this video Ryan just lets them boo Obama. They never stop the booing which by October will be kill him . kill him. I can’t take it. ugh.
Frankensteinbeck
And with this phrase, the existence of the English language has finally been justified.
Also, if it’s getting national mainstream coverage, the cocaine thing is just bad, bad optics. How incompetent can one campaign be? ‘Here in Miami there are a lot people with money who have had problems with the law’ just makes it worse. This makes it sound like Romney has ties to organized crime.
Randy P
@geg6:
If they paid him, he’d change that voting rights line and start singing the line about how convicts deserve a second chance. Probably laced with lots of references to Jeebus and redemption.
There’s a wonderfully cynical Hollywood insider movie called “State and Main” (writer: David Mamet) about a movie production running roughshod over a small town. This makes me think of the scene where the local politician, has just sort of accidentally received a huge bribe through a complicated set of circumstances. As he starts his press conference where he was going to talk about the lawsuit he was bringing against them, instead he starts talking about “this fine, American institution” and clutching his money off-camera.
That’s Romney. For sale to the highest bidder. Just not as funny.
Valdivia
@Frankensteinbeck:
When Roger Simon of Politico is telling you to forget about a VP, that you need an advance team, you know you have a really bad campaign. (saw it on the twitter last night).
I think Kay said it best–these guys truly think having all that money and bombing a state with lying ads will get them the win. They truly do not get the value of hiring the little people who make things happen.
The Red Pen
I have mixed feelings about Ryan being picked over Rubio. Yes, Ryan’s economic plan is a political disaster. Yes, Rubio would likely have boosted the ticket more and in a more important state, but…
…Freepers don’t believe Rubio qualifies as a “natural born citizen.” Having the birthers eat the Republican presidential ticket would just be too much fun.
amk
@Valdivia: roger simon is somewhat saner when compared to rest of the gopolitico klowns.
Valdivia
@amk:
I had no idea, to me all the Politico crowd seem equally crazy.
And yet, here they are serving us just 3 days removed the first signs of discord about the Ryan pick. Ha ha ha.
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2012/08/14/republicans_fret_in_private_over_ryan_pick.html
Omnes Omnibus
@Randy P: For that “State and Main” reference, you get an associate producer credit.
aimai
Wow. You keep expecting him to follow up a drum roll with “I’ll be here all week, enjoy the veal” before fleeing the stage sobbing. I can’t believe how nervous he looked. He really looks like its dawning on him that this entire campaign could be very uncomfortable. How’s he going to handle any non midwestern states? Is he going to wear a sign “I’m from Wisconsin? Now Be Nice?”
aimai
Commenting at Balloon Juice Since 1937
They’ll institute the ‘need a ticket’, ‘better have the right bumper stickers’,’worshipful zombies only’ type of events pretty quickly.
Snarki, child of Loki
‘Here in Miami there are a lot people with money who have had problems with the law’…Romney calls them ‘his base’.
TR
@Snarki, child of Loki:
Romney calls them “40% of the initial investment of Bain capital”
On the road so can’t link, but seriously, a lot of Romney’s money — for Bain and his pres run — came from Central American despots and thugs
Brian R.
@TR:
Here’s an article on that.
When Romney struggled to raise funds from other traditional sources, he and his partners started thinking outside the box. Bain executive Harry Strachan suggested that Romney meet with a group of Central American oligarchs who were looking for new investment vehicles as turmoil engulfed their region.
Romney was worried that the oligarchs might be tied to “illegal drug money, right-wing death squads, or left-wing terrorism,” Strachan later told a Boston Globe reporter, as quoted in the 2012 book “The Real Romney.” But, pressed for capital, Romney pushed his concerns aside and flew to Miami in mid-1984 to meet with the Salvadorans at a local bank.
It was a lucrative trip. The Central Americans provided roughly $9 million — 40 percent — of Bain Capital’s initial outside funding, the Los Angeles Times reported recently. And they became valued clients.
“Over the years, these Latin American friends have loyally rolled over investments in succeeding funds, actively participated in Bain Capital’s May investor meetings, and are still today one of the largest investor groups in Bain Capital,” Strachan wrote in his memoir in 2008. Strachan declined to be interviewed for this story.
When Romney launched another venture that needed funding — his first presidential campaign — he returned to Miami.
Anton Sirius
There was a very ‘open mic night’ vibe about that clip, wasn’t there? Complete with the lame Leno-esque “Didja hear about this?” opening, only instead of telling a bad joke he just outright lied.
Anya
@Brian R.: I am guessing this will not sit well with a lot of people who migrated from South America who were personally affected by the death squads. Maybe an ad in Spanish highlighting this fact would be every effective. Priorities USA needs to branch out a little bit.
Linda Featheringill
From TPM.
Obama decided to go to the Iowa state fair.
That’s how it’s done.
NonyNony
@arguingwithsignposts:
Hey the last VP they put up there HAD won statewide office and wasn’t better than this guy.
What astounds me a bit is that the guy is almost the definition of a career politician and yet he’s really uncomfortable campaigning.
M31
“Here in Miami there are a lot people with money who have had problems with the law,”
I’ll add one more comment on this juicy quote. So Romney wants to do a campaign event and his requirement for a local is ‘with money’. Sure, hispanic for this photo-op, but it was clearly part of the vetting process: ‘with money’. Old drug arrests? No problem.
JoyfulA
@Frankensteinbeck: Romney does have connections with the Miami underbelly. The original investors in Bain Capital included a lot of Central American thugs, some of whom must live in south Florida by now.
Hmm. I see others have beaten me to this point and done it better.
arguingwithsignposts
@NonyNony:
True. It’s not a very deep bench.
kerFuFFler
Ah yes, the party of Limbaugh whimpers about civility….
So all the Democrats are bad when left-leaning protesters protest and disrupt, but Republicans are all civil when someone PAID by the Romney campaign goes around on his bus, tooting the horn to drown out an Obama event?
jheartney
My recollection is that Quayle was worse, at least at first, and he’d been a U.S. Senator.
This is one of the hazards of using VP candidates who didn’t come up through their own presidential campaigns. On the one hand they’re less likely to have video clips savaging the POTUS candidate, but on the other they look like deer in the headlights first time you put them on an unscripted stage.
At least with Ryan they probably won’t have the Sarah problem where they had to keep her under wraps for weeks trying desperately to make her sound like less of a ditz. He’ll be bad but not catastrophic, so they can immediately send him out to the class C markets.
Palli
Yeah, but why worry about your right to vote when you can just buy the candidate?
Waynski
@kerFuFFler: This. And the summer of 2010? Teatards at Townhall meetings? The more the media complains about civility, the more I think we’re winning.
Bulworth
Whose turn is it to read the whiny Charles Lane op-ed today, in the Washington Post? I hope it isn’t mine.
Roger Moore
@Randy P:
That or give them a pardon which would reinstate their voting rights. Not that any President would ever hand out pardons to rich campaign donors.
different-church-lady
Hell, imagine their uproar if someone does as little as show up in the presence of a poor person with a cell phone camera. Oh wait, we don’t have to imagine that…
pseudonymous in nc
@Linda Featheringill:
Which explains why Chuck Assley spewed out one of his trademark twittertwats about the Secret Service shutting down small businesses at the fair.
hal
Being a representative versus say, Governor or Senator, is that your constituency is so much smaller. Senators travel half the state, and let’s face it, the position seems to have a higher profile, while Governors obviously go everywhere, and have the perception of being mini-Presidents, minus foreign policy.
I would be very concerned picking a Representative, who has basically existed in this insular public forum of voters who like you enough to send you back to Congress every two years, and whether they can really handle the national spotlight.
Ryan isn’t going to be able to insult his way out of everything.
f space that
As is always the case, they believe their own fluffing reviews in the Village press. Ryan has been called a good politician, therefore they all believe it. He obviously is not ready for primetime and has lead a very sheltered political life. He’s run races in one Congressional district. He has not had to go into any areas outside that district to campaign before, say districts that might have different demographic makeups or political leanings. At least RfireYou had to campaign all over Massachusetts.
This is hardball and he is about to find out how its played. He’s a complete fraud and deserves the beating he is about to get.
wenchacha
@Palli: Srsly. I’m not keen on the idea that a poor con is forever banned from voting while the Richie Rich con can buy the damn election. I guess it works well for the state of Florida, though.
catclub
Barry Ritholtz has a posting that reminded me of Ryan’s (or Cantor’s, cannot keep them separated in my mind)
justification of his vote FOR the $800B TARP bill.
It was that a collapsing economy would be bad for the GOP.
No interest in the economy for he sake of, say, people, or the economic health of the nation.
That is just one vote that will come up in his record.
kideni
Because he’s never had a serious opponent — in 2010, the Democrat spent $0, and his previous opponents weren’t much better. He’s never had to really campaign. Until 2011, he was known around his district mostly as just a nice local boy done good, and pretty much all he had to do was show up at a few parades and go hunting to preserve the illusion that he hasn’t spent his entire life supported by government (his family fortune comes from a road construction company — government contracts have been very, very good to him) and his entire adult life in DC.
After his kill Medicare budget was revealed and he started to get national attention, a lot of people in his district started waking up and wondering who the hell this guy was. You should see some of the videos from his town halls last spring when he was getting booed by his constituents — he was gobsmacked and his only response is to try to condescend to his audience with a word salad (you don’t understand what I’m trying to do here, because I’m so much smarter than you). After that, he only did town halls in places where he could have more control over who showed up (like charging people $15 since it was being held at a Rotary Club function), and he still got heckled, but then he could have people hauled off by security. He still did the Labor Day parade in Janesville, but even surrounded by friends and family, he still had to deal with the riff-raff (and he did not like it at all). There are some fantastic videos out there about this stuff (the blogs Cognitive Dissidence and Blogging Blue both ran great round-ups this past weekend).
It’s widely speculated that the reason he didn’t run for the open senate seat was because he was getting so much push-back after his budget came out — he knew he wouldn’t be able to win a statewide race here.
Of course, he’s quite good in interviews, and he’ll probably do well in debates. But get him out among the regular folk, and like Romney, he just doesn’t connect.
JR
What happens if you click on the Limbaugh ads showing up on the BJ site?
Does JC get a nickel or $0.29 or so? Can you sign petitions for Minnesota issues?
ETA: Inquiring minds want to know!