In early May, Mitt Romney met off the record with several members of the wing-o-sphere:
The attendees came from numerous conservative sites and right-of-center publications, including National Review, Daily Caller, American Spectator, Washington Examiner, Human Events, RedState, Right Wing News, Powerline, Townhall, Ace of Spades, RiehlWorldView, White House Dossier and PJ Media. RNC chairman Reince Preibus also attended.
Steve M noted a few days ago, apropos of the new round of birtherism:
it sure is interesting to me that Romney met with these folks and now we’re seeing a huge overall crazification uptick on the right, at precisely the moment when we were told by the mainstream press that Romney would pivot to the center.
Today, McKay Coppins of Buzzfeed notes (via):
If you’ve spent much time consuming conservative media lately, you’ve probably learned about a slow-burning ‘race war’ going on in America today. Sewing together disparate data points and compelling anecdotes like the attack in Norfolk, conservative bloggers and opinion-makers are driving the narrative with increasing frequency. Their message: Black-on-white violence is spiking — and the mainstream media is trying to cover it up.
It’s a good thing the high-minded Romney people are putting the kibosh on race-baiting!
schrodinger's cat
NYT’s Michael Shear is concern trolling about Obama’s Bain ads. They must be working.
rlrr
National Review, Daily Caller, American Spectator, Washington Examiner, Human Events, RedState, Right Wing News, Powerline, Townhall, Ace of Spades, RiehlWorldView, White House Dossier and PJ Media. RNC chairman Reince Preibus
AKA the cavalcade of stupid…
MikeJ
Edroso has been covering the ooga booga for a while now.
piratedan
well it was bound to happen with those Tbone eating bucks and their hoodies just lurking about in their own neighborhoods daring disaffected gun toting Caucasians into stalking them
PIGL
@rlrr: On rode the Light Brigade. Was there a man dismayed? Nay! though the soldiers knew someone had blundered.
(I could look this up on the gazoogle to get it right, but sheesh, what is the point of memory anymore?)
4tehlulz
So when are we going to see lynching calls?
I take Independence Day, when Mitt declares RAHOWA against Obama.
MattF
I almost miss Turdblossom. At least GWB hinted that he knew he was doing something despicable.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@rlrr:
FTFY
Mark S.
@schrodinger’s cat:
It is really unfair to look at the 22 years Romney worked for Bain.
Hill Dweller
The Republican party has become the John Birch Society. That was always the trajectory, but it was delayed by various party leaders who had at least some integrity. Now you’ve got crazy, racist, wingnut billionaires running the show, so racism became a requirement.
SenyorDave
He meant with Dan Riehl? Hopefully he put back the rock that Riehl was under after speaking with him.
rlrr
@Mark S.:
Just like it was unfair to look at the first 40 odd years of George W. Bush;s life…
MikeJ
@4tehlulz: Did you know there are at least three different articles on Mormons and black people on wikip?
So I don’t hit the link limit, here are the parts that come after http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Black_people_and_The_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-day_Saints
Black_people_and_early_Mormonism
Black_people_and_the_Latter_Day_Saint_movement
What I went there looking for was:
Black_people_in_Mormon_doctrine
arguingwithsignposts
But was George Tierney, Jr. of Greenville, South Carolina there?
NonyNony
@schrodinger’s cat:
‘course they’re working. They’re hitting Romney’s one and only “strength” – the image of him as a successful businessman. Beyond that he quite literally has nothing – he’s disassociated himself from his accomplishments as governor of MA, so what else does he have.
It’s actually quite brilliant on the Obama team’s part. The more the media talks about how it’s unfair to talk about Romney’s tenure at Bain, the less Romney is able to talk about the only success he’s had in life that he’s able to talk about. Romney set himeslf up in a box canyon during the primary race and Obama’s team is covering the only exit. And the more concern trolls in the media try to “help” Romney by saying that Obama picking on him is “unfair” the more it boxes Romney in and cuts him off from being able to present a positive case about himself.
Mark S.
@rlrr:
We need to focus on the economy!
redshirt
@NonyNony: He’s a super high rankin’ Mormon – surely, that’s something Mitt can run on proudly!
piratedan
@Mark S.: and all of the shit us Republicans are continuing to do in order to wreck it!
The Other Chuck
You forgot two of Romney’s other “strengths”. 1) He’s white. 2) He’s not a democrat. Basically he’s a lock for racists and spiteful teabaggers, and that adds up to a lot.
lacp
@4tehlulz: Fourteen words, dude….
rikyrah
Willard Romney says that the reason he is qualified to be President of the United States is because he knows how to take care of the economy and President Obama doesn’t.
He’s not saying that he had executive experience because he was the Governor of Massachusetts – something that he has completely run away from. Look at Willard’s campaign – it’s like his time as the Governor of Massachusetts just doesn’t exist.
He’s not running on foreign policy experience – remember the articles from last week about him ‘forming a foreign policy after the election’.
No. He’s staked his claim on why he should be President because he’s a rich White man, and the crux of that is Bain Capital.
I’m fine if he wants folks to judge him on his time at Bain Capital.
LET US DISCUSS HIS TIME AT BAIN.
Let us discuss the American workers that were given the shaft by Willard and Bain.
Let us discuss the fundamentals of how Bain made money. They weren’t about making jobs. They were about making money.
But, they don’t want to discuss that. They don’t want to talk about:
1. the jobs he shipped overseas
2. the companies he bankrupted
3. the people whose economic lives he ruined.
They wanna bullshyt and call that the President’s attempt at ‘character assassination’.
Just once I wish someone from the Obama campaign to retort – you’d actually have to HAVE CHARACTER in order for it to be assassinated, but I know they can’t.
It’s not character assassination to break it down to the American people that Willard and Bain didn’t give a rat’s ass about ‘creating jobs’. They were all about ‘ making money’. And, they rigged the game, so, whether the company succeeded OR FAILED – Bain made money.
The whole 99% vs. 1% isn’t about the 99% being ‘envious’. They just know unfair bullshyt when they see it.
People understand – if a company is doing successful, then yes, people should make money.
But, it’s hard to explain, in anything other than 1% ridiculousness, how, if you run a company INTO BANKRUPTCY, how your ass should walk away with MILLIONS OF DOLLARS.
And, that is EXACTLY what Willard and Bain did – time after time.
Time after time, bankrupting companies, walking away from the pension and medical benefit obligations of employees and retirees, while making MILLIONS for themselves.
On top of that, not only walking away from those worker and retiree obligations, but putting the AMERICAN TAXPAYER on the hook for them.
All while Willard – AND BAIN – walked away with MILLIONS.
THIS is why Bain is fair game.
Willard has said he should be President because of his ‘ business experience’.
Therefore, every inch of what was done at Bain is part of what the American People have a RIGHT TO KNOW.
catclub
This may also be a case where the completely on talking points, all together right wing echo chamber — isn’t.
Lots of those people don’t particularly like Romney, even if they like him better than they like Obama. But to like him so much they take his orders on what they should do? That might be a bridge too far.
Rush Limbaugh and Roger Ailes both know deep down that they will do better if the president is Obama than if it is Romney.
And which is more important, self interest or public interest? Extremely hard question for those guys.
schrodinger's cat
@rikyrah: For corporations it is not about creating jobs, increasing shareholder value is the be and end all of all publicly traded companies.
Villago Delenda Est
@schrodinger’s cat:
If they’re working, they’re fucking up the horse race.
Which is bad for Villager vermin like Shear.
PIGL
@schrodinger’s cat: not at all. Enriching the upper management clique is the be-all and end-all. The shareholders count for nuffink.
Villago Delenda Est
@rikyrah:
In the 17th century, there were a lot of little Willard Rmoneys sailing about the Caribbean on ships.
The naval authorities dealt with them in a very harsh manner.
kay
@schrodinger’s cat:
I don’t know what it does politically, but I think it:s hysterical.
“To the barricades! Private equity is under attack!”
God Almighty. I haven’t seen them this upset since they found out someone, somewhere was still in a pension plan.
Do we really need volunteer lobbyists for this cause? Really?
The Dangerman
Is it a dog whistle if it sounds like a fog horn?
S. cerevisiae
But where is corn-fed yank-me?
Villago Delenda Est
@rlrr:
Do you mean the part where he basically told the Air Force to fuck off, I’m not going to take a flight physical, and then he told the to fuck off, I’m not going to report to duty as my contract specifies I must? The part where he’s a fucking deserter? That part?
Hunter Gathers
@kay:
That’s really funny, considering nobody knows what the fuck private equity is anyway.
Kane
TeamRomney appears to have adopted a familiar theme similar to the one that was offered by the Bush administration in the defense of their Iraq policies.
Instead of wrapping himself in the American flag and accusing critics of the Iraq war of being unpatriotic dividers, Romney is wrapping himself in the flag of “Free Enterprise” and arguing that any criticism of his actions at Bain is an attack on free enterprise itself and dividing of America.
schrodinger's cat
@PIGL: Increasing shareholder value, helps the upper management because they are increasingly compensated in the form of stock options.
Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor
First, they came for the Bankers, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Banker.
Then they came for the hedge funds, and I didn’t speak out because I didn’t have the $20 million entry fee anyway.
Then they came for Private Equity, and I didn’t speak out because they wouldn’t sell me any stock.
Then they came for me. Which was somewhat surprising, because there wasn’t much left in my 401(K) once the Bankers, Hedge fund managers and PE Capital Investors had finished with it.
Villago Delenda Est
@schrodinger’s cat:
Which, it seems, has the exact opposite effect from what it is intended to do. Instead of making it so that upper management thinks of their tenure as a long term investment, what they do is cash out early and effectively pillage their own corporation.
It’s utterly brain dead as an incentive for long term prosperity.
schrodinger's cat
BJ’s favorite blogger has awarded Yglesias award to Booker. Also too.
Mino
Right on cue, Harold Ford supports Cory Booker.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/05/21/harold_ford_jr_on_booker_i_would_not_have_backed_off_the_comments.html
And if a little history of Booker explains his rat-fucking, here’s a rundown of associates he doesn’t want advertised.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/21/1093259/-Why-Booker-Attacked-Obama-The-REAL-Cory
schrodinger's cat
Halp I is being moderated, and I don’t even know why.
Mino
@rikyrah: To add to the devastation, creditors are not paid, often sinking related businesses.
schrodinger's cat
@Villago Delenda Est: In economics, when real life doesn’t match up with their pet theories, the thing to do is to reject reality and cling to the theories.
schrodinger's cat
Obama should beat Romney over the head with Bain and his tenure there. Let him defend it.
Nemesis
If you feel like getting dirty, hold yer nose and head over to godfatherploitics.com. The race war shit is a favorite topic. They barely hold back from using the n word. Barely.
Redshift
@NonyNony: Bain is practically tailor-made for opposition research. Running against private equity wouldn’t do a lot other than paint Romney as an out-of-touch one-percenter, which only goes so far. But Bain provides an endless succession of local economic disasters in almost every swing state in the country, and an endless supply of Real Murkins who are eager to talk and have a real story to tell.
It’s almost a perfect storm of bad choices forced in part by the Obama Administration’s policy successes and turning the GOP’s nihilistic obstruction against them.
1. Obama enacts health care reform based heavily on Romneycare, so Romneycare becomes pure evil to wingnuts.
2. Romney has to pretend that his term as governor, which would ordinarily be a big part of his qualifications for office, never existed.
3. Romney therefore runs entirely on his business record and gambling that the economy will tank, which even with assistance from congressional Republicans, is a pretty big gamble.
jibeaux
If what they’re running on is race war and the defense of private equity firms, then I can only wonder how are we tied with these people?
cmorenc
Why is Romney’s record at Bain could only become unacceptably improper and irrelevant to explore when the GOP has never exhibited any scruples about trying to use Obama’s past as a community organizer as a negative, dismissive characteristic of his qualifications? Since Romney himself at numerous times has prominently featured his experience at Bain as one of his chief economic background qualifications for becoming President, how exactly is it irrelevant to challenge whether and what he actually accomplished economically while at Bain?
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
I would like to remind you that extremism in defense of taking liberties with the economy is no vice.
YellowJournalism
OT: Norte Dame is suing the Obama administration over birth control. Yet another reason to hate Notre Dame.
Villago Delenda Est
@cmorenc:
Forget it, Jake. It’s the Village.
redshirt
@Redshift: Yes. I was joking about the high up Mormon thing, but it’s part of this list too. As it were, Romney has achieved a great many things within the Mormon church that could be useful to tout as evidence of his leadership skills. But he can’t, of cource, cuz of “OOOGY-BOOGEY”.
So, what can he run on? Being White and not a Democrat, as mentioned. Edifying stuff!
Villago Delenda Est
That explains the entire Zimmerman/Martin case. That Martin kid beating the living snot out of Zimmerman, who had no choice but to pull out a gun and shoot the Martin kid in self defense.
Self defense against a teenager armed with deadly skittles, the ultimate weapon.
Kane
It speaks volumes about Romney’s four year record as governor of Massachusetts that he would rather campaign on his record at Bain and carry all of the baggage that comes along with Bain than to defend his record as governor.
Redshift
@cmorenc: Because Democrats are expected to follow Marquess of Queensberry rules while Republicans are using the dirtiest of street fighting tactics, and it’s terribly unfair if they don’t. Democrats don’t deserve to win if they have to sink to Republicans’ level to do it. Oddly, the reverse is never true.
schrodinger's cat
@Redshift: Democrats just need to ignore the media. The only way to deal with bullies is to stand up to them.
rlrr
@rikyrah:
– remember the articles from last week about him ‘forming a foreign policy after the election’.
Romney’s foreign policy will be war with Iran.
Southern Beale
I dunno, this stuff seems to spike as the economy gets better, it’s a phenomenon known as the S&P Birther Index.
Borowitz was being satirical but I happen to think he was 100% correct as well.
Mino
Since I’ve been in moderation for 20 minutes, I’m reposting with corrections. Please delete the first.
Republicans have a Stand With Cory petition launched. Bet he really appreciates the support.
Right on cue, Harold Ford supports Cory B00ker.
http://www.realclearpolitics.c…..ments.html
And if a little history of B00ker explains his rat-fucking, here’s a rundown of associates he doesn’t want advertised.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/…..-REAL-Cory
Cuomo may be as big a Blue Dog, but at least he hasn’t forgotten what party he needs to get elected
...now I try to be amused
@rikyrah: Good post. Bain didn’t just make money while destroying jobs, Bain made money by destroying jobs. Romney is a poster boy for the upward redistribution of income. If it wasn’t for the prevailing meme that “Capitalism and its ways must never be questioned!”, Romney’s signature issue would totally sink him.
Waynski
@Villago Delenda Est: Nice Chinatown reference there.
rlrr
@Villago Delenda Est:
Do you mean the part where he basically told the Air Force to fuck off, I’m not going to take a flight physical, and then he told the to fuck off, I’m not going to report to duty as my contract specifies I must? The part where he’s a fucking deserter? That part?
among many others…
Linda Featheringill
I think I figured out why the Righties call the MSM “liberal.” That’s because the MSM does not feed into their delusions and so must be a bunch of damn liars and so must be liberal.
eemom
@YellowJournalism:
Relatedly, there was a piece floating around memeorandum the other night that said William Peter Blatty was leading the charge against Georgetown University for abominating Catholic orthodoxy wrt birth control, et al.
For you young’uns who might not know, William Peter Blatty, now age 85, once wrote a book called The Exorcist, which was then made into a movie, whereby he made shit-tons of money abominating Catholic orthodoxy with made-up devil shit.
Dunno, it just struck me as kind of hilarious, but maybe you had to be there. In 1974, that is.
Mino
How convenient for Obama that Bain provides a cautionary tale in just about every state that’s in play. Though that may be an underestimation–there could be more than one.
...now I try to be amused
@Mino:
It would be delicious if Bain proves to have as many insidious tentacles as the wingers believed ACORN had.
Calouste
@Redshift:
Indeed. The Villager focus is on private equity, because that’s the only thing on their sphere. Obama’s ads are going to focus on all those businesses that Romney closed and all those people that lost their jobs. By November, half of Ohio will realize that they know someone who has lost their job because of Romney.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@eemom:
__
hilarious that is, if the hypocrisy involved doesn’t make your head spin around and make you want to projectile vomit.
Comrade Dread
Wait, I thought it was the Jews who were supposed to control the media, not black people.
No doubt, we’ll soon be hearing from them about the secret book: The Protocols of the Elders of the NAACP.
Mino
@Calouste: Because even a moral newt realizes vulture capitalism is socially destructive. They just don’t give a damn.
Amir Khalid
Interesting. The Teabaggers won’t let Mitt maneuver to the center, as everyone else agrees he needs to do; so instead the right-wing punditocracy is to make more noise, so that Mitt will seem more centrist even though he hasn’t actually dared budge an inch in that direction. It sounds like a plausible way to fake the move, and thus entirely apt for Mitt.
Completely off-topic (sorry) but this story (note the picture) is too delightful not to mention.
Todd
@Hill Dweller:
http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/first-term/documents/1147.cfm
Ike was also talking about the Koch pere here.
It appears that the guys Ike hated ended up winning one generation later by the meritorious delivery of dollars through their estates.
Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor
WaPo has an article on Blatty’s misadventure here.
His son (and occasional Ward 3 Candidate) hangs out on some of the local Salem blogs. I stopped reading Salemweb a few months ago when some argument between the Knights of Columbus versus the Masons became the main thread, but this will give them something new to betch about.
And, today’s Completely Pointless Fun Fact: I always thought The Ninth Configuration was a much, much better movie than The Exorcist.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Linda Featheringill:
__
I was recently re-reading Perlstein’s Before the Storm and Nixonland and it occurred to me that back during the late 1950s and early 60s this charge had more than a small grain of truth to it when evaluated at the time and in the context within which it was orignally being made, namely that the establishment news media was heavily biased and took the side of liberal to moderate Republicans in reporting on intra-party disputes within the GOP. The Taft faction got screwed at the 1952 GOP convention and the media coverage was very biased against them at the time. MSM pundits were even worse during the 1964 and 1966 elections in talking up GOP libs like PA Gov. Scranton and NYC Mayor John Lindsey, despite a lot of evidence that these folks had zero chance of winning the GOP nomination and little influence over the party grassroots. The Punditry were just as clueless back then as they are today, but in support of liberal Republicans.
__
What gets striped out when this critique is taken out of context and echoed as propaganda today is that this is evidence of the centrist bias of the MSM, not any liberal bias. Our news media loves themselves some empty suits in the center and will drive the conversation in favor of them regardless of which direction it is coming from or who they have to slander in order to do so.
Mark S.
DougJ bait:
Harold Ford: Cory Booker was right
LEAVE PRIVATE EQUITY ALOOOOOONE!
Chad
@Comrade Dread: the Jews control the media us black folks are just the foot soldiers
Mark S.
booker
Mark S.
Can someone fish me out of moderation? It’s not my fault the mayor of Newark’s name is similar to a guy you can place bets with.
Mark S.
Thanks!
Oh, and George Tierney of Greenville, South Carolina.
Kane
“There are winners and losers, but isn’t it fair to single out companies that might have survived if they had not been bleeded by the investors and the money taken out? Isn’t there a way that they could have lasted longer if Bain had not pulled the plug on them?”
-Andrea Mitchell, today, questioning Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstom.
“Mitt Romney was governor of Massachusetts for four years, Congressman Ryan. And during that time, Massachusetts ranked 47th of the 50 states in job creation. The only reason the unemployment rate went down [was] because so many people left the work force — more than any other state in the country except Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. Is that a record to be proud of?”
-Chris Wallace, questioning Paul Ryan on FOX news Sunday.
Not even the Beltway media is buying the Romney narrative.
Villago Delenda Est
@Amir Khalid:
This has always been a problem for Republicans, at least for the last 20 years. The distrust of the base is much worse for Rmoney than it was for McCain, and McCain wsa just about everyone’s second choice in 2008, which is probably why he eventually prevailed. Plus it was “his turn” and he assured it would be by sucking up to the war criminals then currently in power.
Villago Delenda Est
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
I think one major reason the MSM is called “liberal” is because it very obviously does not hew to “conservative” sexual mores. That is, it’s not a scandal for women to be their own persons, to control their own bodies, and so forth.
The MSM accepts this as natural and normal. This drives the sexual reactionaries utterly nuts.
Chris
@Linda Featheringill:
… well, yes.
The thing is, the GOP ideology has moved so far away from reality – think official Soviet reports on the state of the economy vs. the real state of the economy – that anything that even comes close to working with the facts is a threat to their ideology. It’s either full-blown, Pravda-style propaganda 24/7, or it’s “objectively pro-liberal.”
My favorite anecdote is when PJMedia sent Joe the Plumber to Sderot to cover the Gaza War back in 2009/2010. All they could come up with was a video of Joe talking about how the media didn’t belong in a war zone because they made Brave Heroic Israeli Soldiers look bad and that was outrageous and they should just limit themselves to supporting the troops by making WW2-style propaganda films. Not even kidding. It’s one of the starkest admissions I’ve ever seen of how full of shit their worldview is – “yeah, we’re sorry, but even we can’t spin this story to make it look good for our side, please, pleeeease won’t you all just write propaganda for us instead of making us look bad by taking pictures of the facts?” This is what their party’s come to.
Chris
@Villago Delenda Est:
Well, that’s the other thing. The MSM, like Hollywood, isn’t liberal or conservative, it’s just capitalist – money first, ideology second and only if there’s room for it. They give people what they want to see, and lo and behold, “what they want to see” doesn’t always click with Conservative Social Mores. As long as pornography gets more viewers than Christian sermons, the MSM will continue to disappoint them.
(Well. Maybe “disappoint” isn’t the right word. I’ll bet that a majority of those Good, Socially Conservative Bible Christians enjoys the porn just as much as the Godless East Coast Latte-Sipping Elitists, if not more so).
The Other Chuck
@Chris:
But the media is “objectively pro-liberal”. In the sense that having any objectivity at all appears to be a position now held only by liberals.
WereBear
It is a well-documented fact that porn is very popular in red states. Utah is number one.
Patricia Kayden
@rikyrah: Thank you.
I still can’t get over Booker’s comments. Bain Capital is fair game because Romneybot made it so by bringing it up as a reason he should be elected.
Hate to say it, but the Dems in the media spotlight are spineless. Have you heard any Repub publicly attack anything Romneybot is doing? Ever? The only thing I can think of is when Fischer attacked Romneybot for hiring that gay dude, who was kicked out by Romneybot within days.
Mnemosyne
Steve Benen at the Maddow Blog has a video of Obama answering a few questions about Bain.
That’s gonna leave a mark.