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After the Friday morning massacre in Aurora, the presidential campaign paused. For three days, we didn't hear Mitt Romney exploit an out-of-context quote from President Obama. Yesterday, the break ended, and the Republican nominee went back to arguing that Obama believes businesses require strong public institutions to thrive, which makes the president radical and "foreign."
One of the remarkable realizations is that Romney is now shaping his entire presidential campaign around a quote Obama didn't say and doesn't believe. Think about that for a second: after nearly four years of the Obama presidency, Romney isn't attacking something Obama has done or intends to do; he's attacking manufactured nonsense and making it the centerpiece of his candidacy. That, for lack of a better word, is pathetic.
The other remarkable realization, though, is that Romney is reinforcing his misguided message with self-defeating examples.
First, Romney hoped to prove that government doesn't help make small businesses possible, so he appeared at a small business that wouldn't exist were it not for government assistance. Then, still hoping to show that businesses thrive without government, Romney hosted a meeting with business owners who depend on government contracts to make a living.
And finally, remember the New Hampshire business owner who appears in Romney's latest attack ad? His name is Jack Gilchrist and he's offended that the president is "demonizing" him for his hard-earned success. (That Obama never did this is apparently irrelevant.)
Yesterday we learned that Gilchrist's business thrived after receiving $800,000 in tax-exempt revenue bonds -- subsidized by tax dollars paid by you and me -- and benefits from government contracts. In fact, the Romney campaign's hand-picked example also conceded yesterday that public spending is good for the economy.
If Romney is going to stick to a lie, can he at least avoid self-defeating examples that make his lie look ridiculous?
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The most pressing problem facing this country and thr well being of average Americans is the crippling inequality that the policies of our lawmakers and this government have fomented over the last decade. The rich are not only getting richer and the poor not only getting poorer, but they are doing so at stratospheric rates and with no end in sight to reverse a trend that will literally kill our economy in a few years. CEO's can only buy so many luxury yachts and private jets. Consumer spending goes away when the top 0.01 percent are making more than the rest of the country combined. This is what Mitt Romney and his privileged friends just do not understand. They don't make their billions unless the 99 percent has a decent income and can make a decent living. http://www.sunstateactivist.org
Oh brother. The middle class is suffering because of competition from low wage countries. Has it occurred to the left that being the new Saudi Arabia might solve that problem? It's done wonders for Norway, and for that matter, Saudi Arabia.
Or is the middle class less important than being green?
Oh brother, Shooter, do share with the readers your understanding of energy markets.
A unit of nat gas here costs $3.00. In Japan it's $21.00. Do I need to draw you a picture?
@Shooter242
So a select number of industries will benefit from a cheaper cost of LGN, however the biggest benefits in our current energy economy is electricity production.
Electricity uses virtually no petroleum (oil) in the modern US economy. That means that that some other energy generation markets will be pushed down by low-cost LGN. That is the principle reason that coal is suffering in the current economy. The introduction of low-cost LGN is hurting domestic coal production which is a substitute for LGN.
More LGN will not displace oil in our economy, and that oil which is used for transportation will not be effected in the short run unless you are equally looking to change the transportation infrastructure of the US with either LG powered automobiles or electric cars.
There are no shortcuts here. No magic bullet that will solve the energy economy.
So yes, I'll need a picture to better understand how you think this will change the energy mix of the US economy that will not put coal miners out of work.
The little Walter Mitty is just as impotent as always. I think shooter needs to get a job and quit freeloading off the rest of the country. Don't you shooter?
When will someone call out Romney for these lies? When will a prominent national reporter ask Romney the tough questions? When will someone stand up at a Romney even and call him a liar to his face? Never x 3. No reporters seem to have the guts anymore to do their jobs. Its all well and good that Rachel et. al. bring up these facts but they are preaching to the choir here. I doubt that anyone who watches Fox News on a regular basis would even consider watching Rachel and even if they did it wouldnt be with an open mind.
Though not harsh enough:
- http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/an-unoriginal-obama-quote-taken-out-of-context/2012/07/20/gJQAdG7hyW_blog.html
Not really media:
- http://factcheck.org/2012/07/you-didnt-build-that-uncut-and-unedited/
There are others, but it's often weasly, false-equivalence, he said-he said cowardly journalism.
This Republican campaign of lies and distortions is well beyond normal election campaign language. The media, outside of Fox, need to take Romney on with all these lies and call them for what they are--blatant lies. If the mainstream media were to call Romney out, his campaign would pull back these falsehoods because it would hurt his ability to reach independent voters. The media should stop coddling these liars.
They steadfastly refuse, Mike.
I'm having an ongoing fight with a fairly well-known reporter at the NYT. I'm coming out of it impressed by not only his (sub)mediocrity but his stubborn refusal to understand subtle thought and even common sense. The press is not made of exceptional intellects or people of exceptional ability.
But I'm committed to this. They have to understand how unworthy their false equivalence and other habits are and how damaging it is. I seriously think if we had a better press the country would NOT be in the shape it's in. Too bad the press is not comprised of remarkable, exceptional people.
I encourage everybody here to give reporters a piece of their mind every time when they run across false equivalence. Don't do it in comment section. Do it by e-mail.
Check out the responses to the ABC piece on Gilchrist from yesterday .....
Wonder which ones are the Faux Nooze Viewers ??? Truly frightening in their denial
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/07/star-of-romney-my-hands-didnt-build-this-ad-received-millions-in-government-loans-and-contracts/
So, a MSM reporter actually did a story on the actual words spoken by the President and the dishonesty of Romney's distortion? WOW! Hats off to Jake Tapper, not usually a supporter of anything this President does.
The saving grace is that "nobody" is paying the least bit of attention to all this. And won't, until after Labor Day. If then. . .
They only make him look ridiculous to people who know how bogus they are. Neither of whom were going to vote for him anyway.
As Adlai Stevenson is reputed to have replied, "That's not enough, madam, we need a majority!"
Why should he. A week after Romney started using this fib we still have reporters writing, "Obama's campaign says the quote was taken out of context ..."
As long as the mainstream media outlets refuse to call a lie a lie Romney can lie with impunity ... and win that way.
Wait a mo... are you asserting that Obama didn't say "If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen."?
Shooter, "that" is the infrastructure.
Here's the quote:
Now insert "roads and bridges" - the proper antecedent for that in the sentence.
You can believe that if you like but I can guarantee you, the rest of the country won't. I actually know better, Elizabeth Warren didn't create this meme, it's been around as long as the internet has been in existence. It's a well worn idea that came out in a Freudian slip.
The only way you can make it work is changing the quote. Heh.
Shooter, you seriously don;t know the English language? that is pretty scary. Not a single person who heard that in person misunderstood it because it was spoken correctly. that poster simply spelled it out more clearly so even you could get it and you still didn't.
@Shooter242
Thomas Paine
You are correct this idea is not new.
You're right, which is exactly why Romney had to change it to make it a bogus talking point.
Fox and then Romney wouldn't have had to alter the quote, in classic and hilarious Limbaugh fashion, if they had a legitimate point. They could have used the exact quote and in context. But they couldn't. They had to edit and alter and finally hide and twist the true meaning of what Obama (and Warren) mean. And the reason they have to twist and hide that meaning is because they know Republicans will be destroyed by that message. And they ARE going to be killed with that message if Democrats don't tuck tail and give up on it.
Only the Fox-educated are stupid enough to not know what happened with this. I wonder if shooter is this stupid, or just pretending to be this stupid.
Really? This is inane and you're going to assign that idiocy to Obama? You should have quit while you were behind.
i have never seen anyone so totally clueless in my life. even when the correct quote is pointed out numerous times, he still doesn't f**king get it! he's been in the bubble way too long!
Well, our little Walter Mitty just might be as stupid as his words would suggest because he doesn't seem to be backing off the stupid. What a surprise coming from a dolt who can't see public and private jobs clearly. No amount of explanation can make him understand. Maybe it's too many years of faulty Rand-ian programming that destroyed something or maybe it's just congenital. Oh well.
It's this simple. What is going on is that Republicans actually know the Warren/Obama message that nobody is a success island all by themselves is a message that will destroy the Republican agenda and message. THAT is what is going on. They know this message DEFEATS their entire raison d'etre. And THAT is why they have resorted to the intentional distortion of the Warren/Obama message. The public needs to understand why Fox/Romney/Republicans have done this.
It is THAT simple. Dems need to continue with this and NOT give it up. Giving it up is what Republicans want because they know it will KILL them.
7-19-12
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24230825@N02/7607288708/
Romney with his lies and the lack of the ability to tell the truth would be like putting your life in the hands of the village idiot. Romney covers up anything he has done and that definitely shows a corruptive behavior and the lack of concern for others and the only concern is for his self-interests. Romney’s deception is just as bad and actually worse than the Bush and Chenney group. It has never been proven that someone from the business community has ever made a good President, since they lack the ability to show caring and concern of others. These people pretend they do, but that is just a deception and smoke screen to what they really are and that is to think they are so privileged and know it all that in reality further destroy our economy. Their lack of empathy, morals, ethics and truth in the end gains more wealth for the rich and misery, despair, and death for everybody else. Plus now with the growing problems of Global Warming in which Romney will not do anything about will cause a further and greater destructive path in this world. If you think you have had hard times, you haven’t seen anything yet, especially if nothing positive is done about Global Warming. It is high time Romney start being transparent and release all the necessary documents for review, if he has any humanity left in him.
Romney clearly shows a vast deception and a big drive to keep his things secret, but also this is very factual to showing how crooks don't like to show their criminal activity. Romney should thoroughly be investigated, since he already shows fraud and income tax evasion. These activities Romney do clearly show he is most likely a criminal and that is not acceptable for a Presidential position. That would be like locking the fox in the hen house to watch over the chickens and eggs, if Romney was in the White House.
This is so ridiculous with this Romney situation of fraud and criminal activities. If the average person had done even a little of the crap Romney has pulled, it would be the IRS and law enforcement pounding down our doors looking for us. And quite frankly, enough is enough of this crap start investigating and prosecuting these criminals. These Romney types are no different than anybody else and should be made to take account and pay for their criminal activities.
He is a LIAR. It is amazing to me that the Right Wing will embrace these obvious lies and never think that if he is elected President that he will then lie to THEM. See William Saletan's article in Slate. http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/frame_game/2012/07/romney_and_bain_1999_2002_his_retirement_is_just_another_flip_flop_.html or http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_conversion/2012/02/mitt_romney_s_abortion_record_flip_flop_or_conversion_.html
The President was the victim of a vague pronoun reference. Grammar nerds, unite in your support of Barak Obama.
Anyone else notice the use of the word "We" in their banner? So in response to the idea that people didn't build their businesses on their own, they use a collective pronoun. Kinda affirms the idea that no one does it alone...
One of Romney's first commercials had President Obama supposedly saying something when the President was actually quoting John McCain.
Trustworthy? I don't think so.
I'm waiting for a Romney campaign response as to why, with Romney running around misrepresenting the president's policies on small business, he doesn't say a word about the GOP last week voting down a small business bill that would have allowed businessowners to continue to take 100% depreciation on new machinery and expansion, and which analysis concluded could have created 1 million jobs. Not a peep from Romney. Nothing. Nor from conservative voters who are so busy dancing in the aisles over distortions, they seemingly have no time to understand what's happening in the real world.
Republicans wanted to piggyback not cutting defense (or something like that) and Harry Reid said no.
They can't send a clean and to the point bill through, the Republicans have to get their "something for nothing" joneses satified, so they try to attach legislation to the bill, then the Democrats look like dolts for not passing it, or voting against it.
Same thing happened with the budget votes.
*tin foilhat*
This has been the Republican strategy since 2009, deny anything that could get us out of this mess, then, point fingers at the President and the Democrats, and hopefully win in 2012 on a platform based on "nothing got done."
Trouble is, if those fools (Republicans) would have realised it sooner, the country would have a much better opinion of them if they had played along, got things going, creatred the damn jobs, and then could have claimed credit.
Their standing would be much better, in my mind. Right now, they're on the short end of the straw, and they are struggling to be viewed seriously about getting us out of this mess.
Exactly, Knobson -- "They can't send a clean and to the point bill through...."
The GOP pretends to be the only friend of small business and yet votes time and again against them. And McConnell's excuse/hostage demand this time? Republicans wanted to attach an amendment to the bill that would have guaranteed a full extension of the Bush tax cuts - with no debate and without paying for the measure. If they couldn't have that, the fall back position was to vote to keep people out of a job. Disgraceful.