“Mr. President, take your campaign of division and anger and hate back to Chicago,” Romney said while campaigning in Ohio. [The Hill]
“Well I think, if you look at the ads that have been described and the divisiveness based upon income, age, ethnicity and so forth, it’s designed to bring a sense of enmity and jealously and anger. And this is not, in my view, what the American people want to see. I know what I’m running for. I’m running to get America working again, to get good jobs for people with more take-home pay. And the President seems to be running just to hang on to power. I think he’ll do anything in his power to try and get reelected. I want to get this country going again. That’s what brought me into the race. And hopefully we can have a debate about issues and of our differences on issues and contrast in that area. But these personal attacks, I think, are demeaning to the office of the White House and the comments yesterday by the Vice President, I think, just diminish the White House that much more.” – Mitt Romney
AFTER A PRIMARY season that included Republicans accusing Pres. Obama of not being an American, Mitt Romney’s outrage late Tuesday seemed surreal. But Mitt Romney has utilized the 2008 playbook of Obama from the start, playing the long game in the primaries, now shifting to the honor and integrity hill, because Romney himself has stayed out of the muck. That’s what surrogates were made for, especially those unconnected in any way with the campaign.
It was a perfect moment for the diminished hockey mom to start squealing.
“There weren’t enough groans and boos when he said such a disgusting comment, really, especially to a demographic there that was includes 48 percent of the community being black Americans,” Palin said Tuesday night. “Greta, if that’s not the nail of the coffin. Really the strategists there in the Obama campaign have got to look at a diplomatic way of replacing Joe Biden on the ticket with Hillary.” – Sarah Palin [Politico]
Yet the lipsticked pitbull saw nothing wrong when she joined Donald Trump in birtherism, saying “more power to him,” because it’s always okay to question Barack Obama’s Americanism.
Equally outraged were the refs on “Morning Joe,” who couldn’t believe what Joe Biden said when he warned an audience that included African Americans that Romney-Ryan policies would “put y’all back in chains.” All that was missing between Joe Scarborough and Mark Halperin this morning was a vile of smelling salts to be passed between them. I won’t quote Willie Geist, because his only contribution to any conversation on this show is to fluff the stars.
It took Jonathan Capehart to remind the Republican apologists that Obama’s entire first term has been riddled with anti-American, un-American and down right treasonist accusations from Republicans, all aimed at Barack Obama because he wasn’t sufficiently red, white and blue.
Mitt Romney never personally engaged in this stuff, but he had no trouble standing next to Donald Trump at a time when he was railing at Obama about his birth certificate. This despicable charge went all the way down the Republican ranks with a wink and a nod, with very few leaders on the right saying it was wrong.
What Team Romney is doing is about character, which is a very crafty attack. Digging in on Pres. Obama on character issues, including Joe Biden, in order to bring them down to size is smart politics, though the current path is low. To strip away the mantle of presidential incumbency and the respect inherent in the office itself, so the contest is on a level playing field, is a good tactic in an overall strategy that’s all about raising Romney to presidential.
Character is the one angle that can hurt Obama the most and Team Romney and his band of surrogates have it in their sights and the barrage won’t end until it’s over.
From Ben Smith at Buzzfeed:
Romney’s strategy had been different: To simply stay out of Obama’s way as he fell. The race, his aides promised, would be a referendum on Obama; Romney was an obviously acceptable alternative, a success in the private and public sector who had avoided being pinned down on policy and, whatever his flaws, could hardly be labeled extreme. Obama, the focus-group tested story went, was a nice guy out of his depth. Romney was the solution.
The ferocity of Obama’s assault on Romney’s character had already rattled this plan. On June 18, after a top Obama aide suggested that he could be a “felon,” Romney dropped the “nice guy” line.
“[Romney] has said Obama’s a nice fellow, he’s just in over his head,” an adviser told BuzzFeed’s McKay Coppins. “But I think the governor himself believes this latest round of attacks that have impugned his integrity and accused him of being a felon go so far beyond that pale that he’s really disappointed. He believes it’s time to vet the president. He really hasn’t been vetted; McCain didn’t do it.”
Whenever you hear anyone saying “it’s time to vet the president,” you should know by now what that really means. That it’s a line straight from Sean Hannity tells you the rest.
This post has been updated.
This whole episode makes me laugh. The GOP offers nothing for anybody but the wealthy. And every time they venerate Ronald Reagan they turn off African American voters. And Hillary on the ticket? That old chestnut? Can’t they even come up with something original???
When I woke up to hear Mark Halperin hyperventilating over Biden’s comment yesterday, making sure it was a story for another day, I was truly amazed.
It takes real stones to accuse Obama-Biden of “hate” after what Republicans have done the last 3 years.
I think both sides have their share of racism when it comes to Black Americans.
The Dems, Obama included just tend to be more subtle with it.
I am yet to hear either side address a minority crowd using a corresponding dialect outside of speaking to an African American group. It’s rather insulting.
As far as the Morning Joe team, I have raise an eyebrow more than a time or two at everyone from Mika to Joe, so they can all have a seat.
I think Joe Biden is passionate and comes across much better when he is just Joe. Gaffes and all.
Boy do I agree with you about Biden. There’s really nothing mean spirited in the man.
I remember covering the 2008 primaries. At the first debate, which Obama ducked for a fundraiser, Biden was in the press room after his speech. After his Q&A he walked over to me to ask “I’m getting better, aren’t I?” He was serious about the question. His team also offered a guest post on Pakistan here, which was prescient.
Chris Christie is the closest thing to a Joe Biden the GOP has and both come off as the real thing, warts and all.
you see highlighting, ‘the war on the middle-class’. is devisive. not the policies themselves!. . . to the repubs.
btw i really enjoyed your olympic tributes, taylor.
Thanks, thoreau.
Joe is like evreyone’s Uncle who has earned the right to just be himself and everone loves him for it.
Why do I feel like Ms. Sarah was trying to dig at Romney for silencing her at the convention with her Hillary comments.
Deep own inside… well probably not all that deep down, she would love for Hillary to join the ticket.
It would accomplish 2 things for her:
Beat Romney. she really doesn’t like him.
Show Obama that everyone realized that Hillary was the better choice and she had to come in and save his ass ala the 3AM wake up call. she doesn’t like him either.
Tell me Sasha? Do you know Hillary Clinton personally because you are just making these declarative statements about the woman like the two of you are close friends!
she really doesn’t like him.
she doesn’t like him either.
Solo, if you are referencing the above statements, I was speaking of Ms. Sarah’s dislike for these two men… keep up baby!
As far as who I know, let’s just say, I’ve been around the world… *wink*
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Halperin is a bandwagon jumping idiot. I am not amazed. Also, I think Biden is passionate too, but I’ve never seen him bully reporters the way Christie does. Maybe I missed something.
hear, hear!
The Democrats are bad at messaging and lousy at using surrogates.
They have allowed Romney to skate on his taxes. He will get away w/o showing any. And that, IMO reflects the ineffectiveness and weakness of the Democrats. They should be ashamed of themselves.
Had the tables been turned I guarantee you the Republicans would have forced the Democrat to disclose.
I can’t second this strongly enough.
And, Anne Romney, the closest surrogate of Mitt’s was interviewed today and stubbornly enunciated the same mantra. She and her husband will not release any more of their tax returns because what they released was the minimum required by law and that should be sufficien. And, anyway, if they released any more returns, the Dems would only find something wrong with those returns.
As an accountant, I am hard pressed to find a way into Anne Romney’s contention. If there is nothing untoward about those returns why not release them? I am trying to be fair to this woman and have bent over backwards given her illness not to push the issue. But, this goes well beyond consideration of a person because of their illness and it would be irresponsible for me as a CPA if because of an outside factor such as her ill health not to hold her (and I’m assuming here that she and her husband file a federal and state joint return) to the same transparency standard as I would hold my own parents if one were running for public office.
I’ve heard many pundits and commentators on blogs say that now that Ryan is the chosen running mate of Romney, we all can now get down to the real meat and potatoes of the election, the economy and debating the dueling banjo remedies of Obama and Romney for putting people back to work (or not).
Of course, each nominee’s perscriptions for dealing with unemployment needs to be debated by Obama and Romney, but, Romney’s tax returns are right up there in terms of what this election is all about because taxes and the type of income tax system we have in this country goes to the heart of who we are as a nation and will effect our economic growth and well being. And, the GOP has made taxes the third rail of conservative politics. So, it matters if Romney paid no taxes for years or paid very low taxes for years because it goes to the heart of conservative vs liberal principles and the well-being of our country.
Here are a few of the outcomes with a progressive income tax system (which we currently have but which is under constant assult from many in the GOP):
1. Even a steeply progressive income tax—right up to 99% on the highest incomes—would impose no loss of purchasing power on wealthy income earners.
2. Reducing the income tax rates of rich citizens will weaken the economy if Congress cuts spending to pay for the tax cuts which is just what happened with the Bush tax cuts
3. Increasing the amount of taxes collected from wealthy citizens will actually provide stimulus to the economy as was proven during several POTUS administartions
4. The rich cannot get richer—in real terms—by getting their taxes cut, but they can become richer if they pay more in taxes. This is counterintuitive but it’s nonetheless true.
5. Wealthy citizens who are wise should be lobbying for an increase in government spending and an increase in their tax rates especially in times when demand is low which is exactly the problem we are experiencing now. It’s not the deficit, it lack of demand which is causing many corporations to be sitting on billions of dollars uninvested in the economy.
Isn’t it your job as an accountant to minimize your clients’ tax liabilities? If you are truly good at your job, shouldn’t some of your clients be able to pay zero taxes in a given year with your planning assistance?
2. Federal outlays, spending, never decreased during any of the years George W. Bush was President.
3. Which administrations?
4. Please explain how people get richer, wealthier might be a better term, by paying more taxes.
5. So, all these people who bacame wealthy – I know, they didn’t do it on their own, all these successful corporations, are lobbying against their own interests by lobbying for lower taxes?
Isn’t it your job as an accountant to minimize your clients’ tax liabilities? If you are truly good at your job, shouldn’t some of your clients be able to pay zero taxes in a given year with your planning assistance?
I’m a CPA who specializes in auditing the financial and operational work of other accountants. I don’t specialize in tax accountancy. But I know about taxes and economics. I have an undergard degree in public accountancy and an MBA in finance and ecomonics.
So, just as an MD nows how to perform an autopsy but is a heart surgeon and not a cororner, I know how to do taxes but don’t specialize in it.
I believe in paying my fair share of taxes given the benefits I’ve derived from living in this country from my education (part of which was financed by a government loan which I paid back well within the 10 year time frame from when I was frist employed after grad school) and then purchasing my first home 20 years ago with a loan from Fanne Mae which was soon transferred to a Commercial Bank which is almost paid in full)
And, frankly, that’s why I am not a tax accountant because I could never advise someone who I knew could afford to pay his/her fair share but wanted to pay as low a rate as the law allows (and the law allows such deductions and exemptions and off-shore tax allowances because people who can take advantage of these tax schemes have mouth pieces advocating for them in D.C. as the middle and working classes never have had).
So, I consciously became an auditor which is the type of work more suited to my personality and politics.
2. Federal outlays, spending, never decreased during any of the years George W. Bush was President.
You are right. I stand corrected by using George W. Bush as an example. I should have used the current proposals of the GOP ticket Romney/Ryan because that is what their perscription is: Reducing the income tax rates of rich citizens by cutting spending: which will weaken the economy.
3. Which administrations?
Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Reagan, Bush, Sr. and Clinton. It can be argued that the latter three administartions accumulatively aided and abetted in the surplus that resulted at the end of the Clinton Administration.
4. Please explain how people get richer, wealthier might be a better term, by paying more taxes.
I don’t need to reinvent the wheel, so I’ll let this venture capitalist explain it to you:
http://tinyurl.com/7zmexpw
5. So, all these people who bacame wealthy – I know, they didn’t do it on their own, all these successful corporations, are lobbying against their own interests by lobbying for lower taxes?
If you only see capitalism as an individual achievement, accumulating wealth in the short term and having nothing to doing with total American productivity and GDP and our overall economic well being as as a country for the long haul then yes, lobby for lower taxes. That is the short sited way to proceed as a nation.
It’s the difference between short term gains and long term gains. It’s the difference between day traders out for the quick buck vs. long term investors like Warren Buffet who believes in the on-going viability of the stability of a company after twenty years of doing business which adds to our country’s productivity and GDP gains. And, Buffet is one capitalist who believes in paying his fair share and not paying zero % rate in taxes and it’s not only because of his alturism that that is the case.
Also, I think that, at this point, Mr. Romney’s refusal to release additional tax returns is a play to the conservative base intended to show that he will stand up to the demands of Democrats.
Actually it might be but it sure hurts him with the rest of the voting public. There aren’t enough conservatives to win an election anyway. He would not release them to his primary opponents either. He probably did not pay taxes or paid a very low rate, much lower than the middle class in this country and he knows and his wife knows that releasing those tax returns will make them political road kill. So he would rather have people think he’s shady that know what he actually did.
PWT, I agree with your comment here.
Projection anyone?
Projection:
“I am a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.”
–Barack Obama
I got a call from an outfit called The conservative majority…incredible full of hate and lies, birtherism, secret Muslum etc. They had been calling about five times a day and I picked up to tell them to stop calling and got the full hate message.
The Obama’s and their Obots love playing the race-card. Why is anybody surprised by this?
Years of President Obama being called a Manchurian communist socialist Hitler candidate from Kenya but it’s the dreaded Obots that are playing the race card!
Another President Obama playing the race-card whatever comment. We black folks play the “race card” when we just say the word “black” in sizable circles. Or shake another black person’s hand. Or pick a black person. Or eat with a black person. These past 4 years have been full of the most insane, crazy, unhinged, and downright sickening accusations about President Obama and the FLOTUS. Remember the so-called “terrorist fist bump”. I almost vomited my very essence out when I heard that. In all honesty, President Obama owes a sizable amount of conservatives so freakin’ payback. Team Obama pays me a cool $1 million, I’ll do it for them.
T-Steel
“Straight racial bomb throwin’ surrogate for HIRE!”
That’s RACIST!!!
I’ll rag on Team Romney’s so bad with my disgusting yet quite amusing mercenary racial bombs with a Caucasian “colour”. I would generate so much animosity that Team Obama would pay me another $20 million to shut up. And what shall I do with the $20 million. Start a Super PAC making sexist jokes about Obama-Biden and Romney-Paul.. ALL FROM A GUY!!
Muwahahahahaahha!!
JoeCHI – Hey, appreciate you weighing in. I hope you do it more often once the race heats up.
Three years after “Obama wants to set up death panels to decide whether your grandma gets to live,” we are getting “you have to draw the line when someone accuses their opponent of murder.”
Of course, the Death Panel Liars are the ones squealing because of an ad in which the actual consequences of Romney’s brilliant business acumen are laid out in plain English.
Not to mention three years of “Show us the Birth Certificate,” “he’s foreign,” “he doesn’t understand America,” “there are a hundred card-carrying Communists in Congress…” etc. etc. etc. The hypocrisy knows no bounds.
Kudo’s for this comment, jjamele!
Yes, Kudos indeed!!
The GOP really does have balls. The hate the spewed at Obama cannot be matched by anything the Dems did. Not to mention the swift boating of some of the most heroic people this country has ever produced. They can’t possibly think that people are going to fall for this. Or will they?
Exactly! I think many in the base of the GOP who watch Fox and hang on every word said and preached against the Dems and Obama, have fallen for the lies. That, imo, is a lost cause. Once bitten by the propaganda spewed by FOX on a daily basis to support the worst
But, the base of the GOP is not representative of the country in it’s entirety which I continue to believe is fair and not gullible or ignorant of the facts (or because of their hate of Obama or anyone who is not a white consevative man or to a lessor extent woman, they will believe the lies sprewed because they want to believe the worst of Obama (as these reactionaries screamed that the Clinton’s were murderers and drug runners before him).
Sorry, I hit the submit comment button too soon.
The last sentence in the first paragraph was meant to read:
Once bitten by the propaganda spewed by FOX on a daily basis to support the most incindiary and truthtiness comments made by hosts such as O’Rielly and Hannity, forever bitten by the propaganda and rarely reversed.