Politico reported this week that Mitt Romney's campaign advisers believe "diving into details during a general-election race would be suicidal." The line continues to ring true.
Mitt Romney started to lay out his energy plan at a Tuesday event, but because there were reporters in the room, he decided against doing so.
During a Houston fundraiser, Romney told a room of about 125 donors that he planned to unveil his comprehensive energy plan this week. He said his proposal will specifically relate to fossil-based fuels. But then, he said no more.
"I know that we have members of the media here right now, so I'm not going to go through that in great detail," Romney said, according to a pool report from the event.
I've never heard rhetoric like this from a national candidate before. Romney wants to talk about energy policy, voters care about energy policy, he has detailed energy policy plans in mind, but he'll bite his tongue because he's afraid journalists will tell the public about what he'd do if elected.
If Romney has an energy plan, and there are reporters around who'll convey the information to the electorate, shouldn't Romney want to go into detail? If he's interested in a substantive campaign -- and he insists that he is -- doesn't he have this backwards?
As we've discussed before, this isn't a new development for Romney. He explained to a conservative magazine in April that when he told voters his specific plans in previous campaigns, voters didn't agree with the specifics and it undermined his ambitions.
Voters should just trust him, vote him into office, and then Romney will let us know what he has in mind. Everyone loves surprises, right?
Of course, what does it say about the merit of Romney's policy agenda if voters are likely to recoil if they heard the whole truth?
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Yes, we have to elect Romney to find out what he has in mind. Worked for Pelosi and Obamacare, no?
As for Romney's energy policy, is there any doubt he'll open Federal lands and offshore areas for drilling? And about time too.
Obama ran on healthcare reform, you idiot. Go back to the home, the nurses will notice you're missing if you're gone for too long at this time of the day.
shooter242
June 11, 2012 at 6:54 am
I’d like to encourage more trollery on left wing sites. Specifically pushback on common memes such as identified by Jonah Goldberg as unchallenged cliches. It can actually work, and it can actually change the course of debate.
For instance, I always challenge “the rich take too much of the pie” meme. There is no pie, no one decides who gets what, and the “pie” is a measure of contributions to a total. Ergo the rich don’t take they contribute. It’s been gratifyingly effective.
Try it you’ll like it. Don’t curse and keep the personal insults to a bare minimum, don’t allow moving goal posts or distractions. Ignore trollish responders, and be four times more civil. They hate that.
http://moelane.com/2012/06/09/troll-hunting-101/
What an utterly ridiculous comment.
What does it say about a candidate that is willing to lay out his plans to rich donors but not to the press and not to the public?
What does it say about who is to gain from such plans?
The answers are pretty clear.
Yes, except for the part where the law that was proposed and eventually passed, bears a remarkable resemblance to the detailed proposal, summarized by Kaiser here in late 2008, yeah that's totally true.
@Shooter, you are one of those know-nothings that continue to vote people into office against your own best economic interests. It really is a sad tale to see how many of US have been so dumbed down to the point that reality, logic and analysis are not values to be utilized and prized! Your aim is to "upset" libruls/progressives, yet you fail to recognize that you are allowing yourself to be used like a garden-tool to further an ideology and an agenda that doesn't include yourself - unless your bank account looks like Mittens.
Very christian of you shooter, a link to your own quote... I'm sure you believe the bibble is right because it says it's right... Right?
Shooter are you really that stupid? Like really?
Are you so bored with life that the only perk in your day is trolling?
I have to ask, what exactly are you finding stupid?
Just for starters.
Well, your first comment on this thread is kinda weirdly vague.
"Yes, we have to elect Romney to find out what he has in mind. Worked for Pelosi and Obamacare, no?"
I'm not sure you're implying that Obama and Pelosi kept their agendas a secret (they didn't), or that knowing their agenda (unlike Romney's) didn't help (in which case, how did they win?)
And then of course, there's this...
shooter242
June 11, 2012 at 6:54 am
I’d like to encourage more trollery on left wing sites. Specifically pushback on common memes such as identified by Jonah Goldberg as unchallenged cliches. It can actually work, and it can actually change the course of debate.
For instance, I always challenge “the rich take too much of the pie” meme. There is no pie, no one decides who gets what, and the “pie” is a measure of contributions to a total. Ergo the rich don’t take they contribute. It’s been gratifyingly effective.
Try it you’ll like it. Don’t curse and keep the personal insults to a bare minimum, don’t allow moving goal posts or distractions. Ignore trollish responders, and be four times more civil. They hate that.
http://moelane.com/2012/06/09/troll-hunting-101/
An exhaustive answer would take too long. If there are any interested "lurkers," -- Mr. Mitty's, aka Airball's, aka shooter242's, supposed audience -- you can find the stupidity by clicking on his screen name at the top of any of his posts. There you'll find a list of his comments. Go to the bottom and you'll find the list continues into the past. Just choose a few comments and go to the Benen post where he made the comment. In particular enjoy watching him get his a$$ handed to him over and over. My personal favorites, if you can find them are his stupidities on the auto bailout, global warming, not understanding that a public sector job is a job just as a private sector job, etc. There are so many.
The first (weirdly vague) comment was the hook: toss it out there and see who bites. Shooter is a classic troll.
Come now, nobody is willing to acknowledge the now famous Pelosi Obamacare quote...“We have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it”?
Ohhhhh, noooooo.....
Airrrrrr balllll, Airrrrrr balllll, Airrrrrr balllll,...
Zero points. Mr. Airball misses again. Another quote the wingnuts simply must take out of context. If it wasn't for lies, Wingnuttia would have no strategy whatsoever.
What Pelosi was saying:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/post/pelosi-defends-her-infamous-health-care-remark/2012/06/20/gJQAqch6qV_blog.html
And notice Mr. Mitty didn't acknowledge (or like) that his question -- "I have to ask, what exactly are you finding stupid?" -- was answered.
Actually, what she said was "But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy."
The implication is "everyone is being told all sorts of bullcrap about the bill, once it's passed, and people find out how it exactly benefits them, and that the scary things they've been told are in the bill really aren't, they'll like it." Which makes total sense unless you don't want it to. Or you don't care to let it make sense.
Or you're a troll who literally ejaculates with glee when he makes a stranger on the internet angry.
shooter242
June 11, 2012 at 6:54 am
I’d like to encourage more trollery on left wing sites. Specifically pushback on common memes such as identified by Jonah Goldberg as unchallenged cliches. It can actually work, and it can actually change the course of debate.
For instance, I always challenge “the rich take too much of the pie” meme. There is no pie, no one decides who gets what, and the “pie” is a measure of contributions to a total. Ergo the rich don’t take they contribute. It’s been gratifyingly effective.
Try it you’ll like it. Don’t curse and keep the personal insults to a bare minimum, don’t allow moving goal posts or distractions. Ignore trollish responders, and be four times more civil. They hate that.
http://moelane.com/2012/06/09/troll-hunting-101/
Hey slappy. I nearly made Day or SadOldVeteran -- I can't remember which -- sick when I alluded to Mr. Mitty's celebratory masturbation over his trolling! You gotta admit that the thought is a bit nauseating. (Hehehehe...)
It's sad how you actually don't need to go back and look at what was actually said any time a Republican quotes a Democrat. It's always, with 100% certainty, a mined quote, taken out of context. It's really sad that they have such a weak platform to run on that all they have is racial resentment, lies, and a broken ideology.
Really, really pathetic.
Pooper: go illegitimately fornicate yourself.
Here you can see Fox in action de-contexting Pelosi:
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2010/04/07/beck-adds-to-fog-of-controversy-by-deceptively/162864
What a sad, sad bunch of people we have in this country that the details and consequences of their own ideas and policies are so putrid that they simply have to resort to lies.
Slappy, you've become what you protest against. Fortunately on this blog I don't have to let you pollute my life. Adios.
But attention is what you want, Shooter. Without it, how will your feeble emasculated wiener feel anything akin to joy? No one pays attention to you in real life except the people who take the time to say "No" to you, regardless of the question (unless the question is something like "would you mind if I exist near you" in which case the answer is "yes").
Or is it that you only get a little erect if people pay attention to you and get mad? As opposed to say, just pointing out that your death would cause no sadness amongst anyone, ever? OK, I'll bite. Why you vicious little troll you, why I oughta...oooo...if I ever get my hands....I...uh...
Nope. Just can't bother to muster any emotion for you beyond scorn and ridicule. Sorry, dude. Sucks to be you. But then again, you knew that. Hell, you ARE that.
What Mr. Mitty wants is to troll without being taken hard to the mat. He wants free layups to upset people. When he is taken to the mat and pinned without getting the reaction he wants, he cowardly disengages from those that take him down. It's kind of cool. You can continue to punch him in the mouth and he'll never swing back because he knows you'll punch him even harder.
Mr. Mitty's a loser. And he knows he's a loser.
The proper approach to this sort of vapid, substance-less troll is simply ridicule, mockery, and laughter.
No because that is not how the quote went. You missed the entire first half of her sentence and took her statement out of context in order to spin a narrative that is not true. Her statement was that the media would not allow the bill to be covered fairly and that public opinion (which was the question she was responding to) would raise as time went on and more people got to know the bill. At the most you'd be ribbing her for choosing her words incorrectly; you would not be ribbing her on the substance of her statement since as time has gone on PPACA has became more popular.
PPACA was discussed for more than 2 years before it's passage- over a year in it's format as a bill and then around a year in the campaign leading up to the 2008 election. Beyond this PPACA is based on both Mitt Romney's healthcare plan passed in Massachusetts and on a bill presented before the 93/94 US Congress by the Republican Party. So not only did we have those 2ish years to discuss healthcare reform but we had the entire decade before hand to discuss the issue with a privatization only platform as our basis. Not only that but as a nation we've been trying to pass healthcare through multiple administrations and US Congress' (including those of Republican control). Pretending like somehow the country hasn't had enough time to discuss the issue of healthcare reform is quite honestly ludicrous. This would be like saying the nation hasn't discussed abortion enough or gun control enough. All we have done on most of these subjects is discussion- hardly any action has ever been taken. To that extent PPACA is a historical accomplishment for the Obama Administration.
A good con artist never tells the mark he is going to screw them out of their money.
Mike- Good con artists never tell their mark they are going to be screwed out of their money. However, great ones do.
And a really GREAT con artist makes jokes about screwing them over because then if they start to suspect they chalk it up to the joke.
Mitt R-Money and the rest of his ilk are the true parasites in this country.
Republicans and their rich masters have been sucking the blood of the middle class as long as they have been a political party.
A successful parasite is never known to the host, and the Republican party is perhaps the most successful parasite in history.
Suicidal? Suicidal?!!
So Willard's afraid that if Americans knew what he really has in mind, they'd actually want to kill him? The Rom-bot just gets creeeepier every day...
Vulture/Voucher 2012
Proving Two Rights DO Make a Wrong!
;-)
Mittens is running the most secretive campaign since the days of Nixon. We really need to start calling him Tricky Mitt or get a #TrickyMitt going.
Love it!
Romney's "secrecy" method of politicking comes directly out of his religion. Ever hear a term called "Milk before Meat"? Basically Mormons won't tell new converts anything about the real church until they have them hooked - kind of what Romney is doing with the public. It's also called "Lying for the Lord". Thank you DisgustedWithItAll for reminding me of this!
Here's a good article on what Romney and his religion believe:
http://www.mormonwiki.org/Lying_for_the_Lord
The richest companies in the world get the most government subsidies,,, how can Twitt improve on that?
Less accountability? Less polution standards? Less recourse?
Yes, yes and yes.
But you forgot less Wall Street regulation, less health care, less Social Security, less Medicare...
Well, it's a long list.
I'm just talking about his "energy policy",,, and yeah he's got lots of ideas for the middle class that you have started to enumerate..
Perhaps Mittens can enlist the help of Dick Cheney and his petroleum pals and the Koch Brothers to insure florida will be underwater and not a problem with voting fraud. this is the guy that had his olympic records destroyed and bought all the hard drives from the state of Mass to cover his tracks?
It's obvious we are what Anne Romney considers "you (little) people" as if we don't count.
Great outlook for a Romney presidency......
And this is when he's trying to win us over! Can you imagine once he has "national security" and executive privilege to hide behind?
Mitt was very specific the other day, when he said, "I will create jobs, and put America back to work!"
But, like another nameless fellow with a plan to end the war in Vietnam, it is secret!
Romney used the media as an excuse. He has NO energy plan. He's waiting for the oil barons and the "Drill Baby Drill" crowd to tell him what it is.
if, as is eminently possible, there are a sufficient number of morons to elect him, how the hell is romney supposed to govern?
The lobbyists and Robber Barons will give him a script every day.
no shock here...you expecting honest details from Willard?
In politics, as most of you may know, you needn't show your hand until the opponent shows theirs.
He is running against an incumbent. There isn't a policy position that the Obama Campaign isn't on record about.
Face it, Tricky Mitt is afraid to tell the American public what his plans are because he knows they won't like what they hear.
Mitts just holding his breath, he will let go of it and endorse wind turbines, although his breath might be fossilized by that time.
PS: Mitt seems to know that Earth's weather is already powered by a wind turbine.
I wonder if S242 has enough self-awareness to recognize when he is being insulted and declared stupid, ignorant and pathetic, all in one post. That he and his ilk come to progressive/liberal sites to spew their negative and dangerous opinions is a revelation of their lack of self-esteem and self-awareness. I usually skip over these particular trolls because there is nothing to read of relevance or interest, and most of what they have to say lacks veracity. In other words, most of what they have to say are lies. So, keep posting if you must, but know that your ignorance is revealed in your every post.
That is all!
I am sick of being surprised by my national leaders. I would like to know how he intends to create those jobs and if they are going to pay a living wage.
I lived through Nixon. Secret plans suck.
Who cares? The key thing is getting elected, whatever it takes. It's not about policy, it's about power.
He knows that the people voting for him don't care about the details or any serious discussion. He's banking on the fact that they will vote for him purely on ideology. Yes, it's that bad.
46% of Americans voted for John McCain in 2008 after he said emphatically that he knew "how to find Osama bin Laden", but evidently refused to tell anyone unless he was elected.
Soo... the bar is pretty low for Republican voters.
If Romney is not going to clearly express what he plans to do if elected, does that mean the GOP plank speaks for him?
Something has to fill that vacuum.
It is one thing to be secretive and quite another to tell everyone you have to be secretive enough to win. Something just ain't right about this slick Mitty.
All anyone needs to do is click on shooter242's link or on his photo (avatar).
The link will take you to Newsvine where you
click on: "Ignore This Author" and be rid of the troll forever.
Thanks so much - he's gone! He's really gone! Now if everybody does it, he'll be trolling himself, the kind of solitary gratification I'm sure he's long used to.
You don't even have to go that far - if you click on the little "exclamation point" at the lower right of any given offending comment (i.e. any of Shooter's, for example), you can select "Ignore this Author" right from the pop-up menu. I did it some time back, and have enjoyed the recovered screen "real estate" ever since.
Vulture/Voucher 2012
Proving Two Rights DO Make a Wrong!
;-)
.
"taken out of context", disingenuous, falsehood, spurious, libelous, dishonest, deceitful, duplicitous,,, I don't think the media or the democrats understand that the public doesn't understand these words.
Where's Al Franken when we need him?...
I actually submitted a protest chant to MoveOn.org about this. Let's see if it catches on:
No more hiding,
No more lies.
Give use details,
It affects our lives.