More needs to be done. As president, I will work to ensure that more attention is focused on this important issue ... We need to ensure that all scientific viewpoints concerning this illness can be heard.
~ Mitt Romney in a campaign letter, quoted by Mother Jones
Romney reaches for moms, exurbs: Will tackle ticks, Lyme epidemic
In a bid for worried moms in the outer suburbs populated with whitetail deer and other wildlife carrying tick-borne Lyme disease, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney is pledging to devote his administration to fighting for a cure.
~ Washington Examiner
The Anti-Bambi Vote
Maybe the Romney campaign believes there is an anti-Bambi vote to be harvested, in conjunction with its efforts to inflame southwest Virginia voters with anger towards environmentalists over coal policies. If I somehow get bored on Election Night, maybe I’ll pay some attention to voting patterns in Prince William, Fauquier and Stafford Counties. But it sure looks like the Romney campaign is taking small-ball tactics to an unusual extreme.
~ Ed Kilgore in Washington Monthly
How many times have you said, “if only we had a president who made Lyme Disease his number one priority?”
Yeah, me neither.
~ America Blog
What a joke! Why not focus on snake or spider bites? What about a campaign against rabies? Does he REALLY think this tactic will really put Virginia (or any state) in his win column?
~ comment by Taiyo on Huff Post
The campaign manager is smacking himself in the head and saying, "Crap, Mitt! The ticks were the only ones we had left who were voting for us!"
~ comment by shirleyoujest on Huff Post
So, how much enriched uranium do you need for a bomb? And how close is Iran to getting it? Let me show you. I brought a diagram for you. Here's the diagram.
************** This is a bomb; this is a fuse.
In the case of Iran's nuclear plans to build a bomb, this bomb has to be filled with enough enriched uranium. And Iran has to go through three stages.
The first stage: they have to enrich enough of low enriched uranium.
The second stage: they have to enrich enough medium enriched uranium.
And the third stage and final stage: they have to enrich enough high enriched uranium for the first bomb.
Where's Iran? Iran's completed the first stage. It took them many years, but they completed it and they're 70% of the way there.
Now they are well into the second stage. By next spring, at most by next summer at current enrichment rates, they will have finished the medium enrichment and move on to the final stage. From there, it's only a few months, possibly a few weeks before they get enough enriched uranium for the first bomb.
***************** Ladies and Gentlemen, What I told you now is not based on secret information. It's not based on military intelligence. It's based on public reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Anybody can read them. They're online.
So if these are the facts, and they are, where should the red line be drawn? The red line should be drawn right here…………..
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For the second time in the recent history of the United Nations, today an unfounded and imaginary graph was used to justify a threat against a founding member of the United Nations. However, it is worth mentioning that in our increasingly interconnected world and in the information age, it is hardly possible for the nations to be fooled by such absurd means.
~ Iran’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Eshaq al-e-Habib, via NYT
Even before the speech was complete, the viral cartoons began to hit the Internet. The immediate association when one looked at the drawing of the bomb was Looney Tunes. And so the very first images to hit the Internet involved the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote.
And then there’s been a lot of general playing around with the image: photos of Bibi using the red line to delineate between the place on a bag of potato chips where the chips end and the rest of the bag is filled with air - or how high to fill a kiddush cup of wine for the Friday night blessing.
~ Haaretz
I've been concerned about Romney's mental health for quite awhile now. He clearly has problems relating to others, and if his children's testimony about his eccentric parsimoniousness is to be believed, he has, at the very least, a bad case of OCD.
~ comment by krusher on AmericaBlog
Mitt's "mental well being"?? Good Gawd Ann, why don't you just come and say you don't want him to win. It's just "too hard".
~ comment by LindaG20 on CBS News
So, she is working hard(ha ha) to help her husbond get a job that she thinks may make him more mentally unstable than he already is. Hmmm
~ comment by John on Yahoo News
Take a good look ladies & gentlemen because this will be the last time you will ever see Ann Romney talk to anyone with a microphone
~ comment by citizenx on Daily Kos
Candid Camera is doing them both in. I swear to the Goddesses, The Romneys are stealing the thunder of The Onion.
~ comment by KayCeSF on Daily Kos
OK, the two of them are just punking us now. This is just an elaborate performance art piece, on a scale Andy Kaufman could never imagine.
~ comment by kenlac on Daily Kos
I think we have a very clear path to victory, and apparently Claire McCaskill thinks we do, too, because she was very aggressive at the debate, which was quite different than it was when she ran against Jim Talent. She had a confidence and was much more ladylike (in 2006), but in the debate on Friday she came out swinging, and I think that's because she feels threatened."
~ Todd Akin in Jefferson City, Missouri
The first two minutes, wow, it's like somebody let a wildcat out of the cage. She was just furious and attacking in every different direction, which was a little bit of a surprise to us.
~ Todd Akin talking with supporters in Rolla, Missouri
If you look at some of the things that Todd Akin has said over the years, I mean, he's said things like in the heart of liberalism is a hatred of God. He has been a handful of votes against things like the sex offender registry, and the Center for Missing and Exploited Children. I mean, this is somebody who kind of makes Michele Bachmann look like a hippie.
. . . I don't know exactly what his accusation that I'm not ladylike means. I think the debate was tough for Todd because I went through the list of his very, very extreme positions and I think he maybe wasn't prepared to answer some of that.
~ Claire McCaskill on Morning Joe
Todd Akin is at it again with another comment that's demeaning to women and offensive to all. What's truly astonishing is that the national party embraced Todd Akin yesterday and now refuses to repudiate his statement. Unless the national party condemns Todd Akin and his latest comments, every Republican candidate in the country will be held accountable for their support of of Akin's beliefs and sentiments.
~ Senator Patty Murray of Washington
AUDIENCE MEMBER: You voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Why do you think it is okay for a woman to be paid less for doing the same work as a man?
AKIN: Well, first of all, the premise of your question is that I'm making that particular distinction. I believe in free enterprise. I don't think the government should be telling people what you pay and what you don't pay. I think it's about freedom. If someone what’s to hire somebody and they agree on a salary, that's fine, however it wants to work. So, the government sticking its nose into all kinds of things has gotten us into huge trouble.
First, Todd Akin said Claire's not 'ladylike' because she's standing up for working families, now he's opposed to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay act because he believes employers should have the freedom to discriminate against their female employees. Once again, it's clear that the problem isn't what Todd Akin says, the problem is what Todd Akin believes.
~ McCaskill spokeswoman Caitlin Legacki, via TPM
His ignorant comments to date reflect that not only does he have no clue about female anatomy, he also has no clue about our brains. I would say that his comments are very unmasculine, but I think the sad truth is they aren't. They are very "masculine." They reflect a stereotype of the typical, misogynistic attitude of men of a certain age and value system.
The fact is, men like Akin had their turn. This is a new time for men, and as angry as I am on behalf of my daughter because obviously his comments hurt all girls, I am also mad on behalf of my son. I don't want my son thinking that the only way to be a man is to keep women in a box.
~ Sasha Brown-Worsham on The Stir
All of this – the belief that some rape victims are more legitimate than others, the hostility toward women who are "aggressive" and "unladylike", the refusal to protect women from violence if those women are immigrants or lesbians – reflects the GOP's fundamental view that women are not equal citizens. The entire Republican social platform is structured around the idea of the "traditional family", where men are in the public sphere as breadwinners and heads of households, and women stay in private, taking care of children and serving as helpmeets to their husbands. The conservative worldview sees men as naturally in charge, and women as naturally nurturing and supportive of male authority.
~ Jill Filipovik on Guardian UK
RUSH: Folks, there are a couple of polls out there today that are just outrageous. One is the CBS/New York Times poll. The other is the Washington Post poll. I'm telling you: They are irresponsible. They are designed to do exactly what I have warned you to be vigilant about, and that is to depress you and suppress your vote. These two polls today are designed to convince everybody this election is over.
. . . there could be a lot of reasons for this. Voter suppression, voter depression, set up the possibility of allegations of voter fraud.
They have all these polls with Obama running away with this, and then say Romney wins. Guess what happens? People blow a gasket on the left. There's also early voting going on, and they know this stuff is not reported to reflect opinion. They're trying to shape opinion with these polls.
Dick Morris: [Romney] at the moment is in a very strong position. I believe if the election were held today, Romney would win with four or five points. I believe he would carry Florida, Ohio, Virginia. I believe he would carry Nevada. I believe he would carry Pennsylvania.
Sean Hannity: Aw, come on!
Dick Morris: And I believe he would be competitive in Michigan. I just saw a poll in Pennsylvania by a group that I've hired in the past and I trust their polling. Two points behind. And Rasmussen has it five points behind. People need to understand that the polling this year is the worst it's ever been.
Because this is the first election where if I tell you who is going to vote, I can tell you how they're going to vote. You tell me that you're black or Latino or a college kid or a single mother, I'll tell you how you're going to vote.
And if you tell me you're over 65, you're a man or a married white woman, I'll tell you how you're going to vote. And I'll be right 2 out of 3 times.
Therefore the issue is who's going to vote. Polling is very good at saying how you're gonna vote, it's very bad at saying who is going to vote. And the models these folks are using are crazy. They assume a Democratic edge of six or seven points. I'm assuming a 3 point Democratic edge, and even that is very likely an overstatement.
O'REILLY: . . . Are these polls dishonest?
ROVE: No. Look, we endow them with a false scientific precision they simply don't have. If you've got nine points more Democrats than Republicans and you're nine points more --
(CROSSTALK)
O'REILLY: You you're going to have a poll that reflects that.
ROVE: -- yes, nine points more Obama. Think about this. Romney and Obama get each roughly the same percentage of Republicans and Democrats as -- as their opponent. That is to say they carry their -- their base overwhelmingly. Romney, among Independents is winning by three points.
So -- so if Romney is winning the Independents and winning the Republicans do you think in a battle ground state like Florida, he's nine points down and the answer is no....
ROVE: . . . So look, we've got to be careful about, you know, we have a proliferation of these polls. There have been 87 national polls in the last 30 days. That's more polls than were run in the last six months of the 1980 presidential race.
O'REILLY: All right.
ROVE: Last week -- last week alone, we had 51 state level polls; and the week before that, 41.
O'REILLY: I understand that but -- but here -- here -- look, from my point of view as a news analyst and I believe that the folks know I'm honest in that regard, when news agencies like the CBS News on the radio report the polling and it shows that Barack Obama has leapt out to a big lead in Florida and Ohio, that gets inside people's minds. They remember that. And that can only help the President. That helps the President.
ROVE: Sure.
O'REILLY: Because the perception is he is going to be the winner.
. . . . . . O'REILLY: All right, real quick, real quick, your board, the Karl Rove board where is the race in Ohio and Florida in your opinion?
ROVE: Well, toss-up in both states.
O'REILLY: Toss-up? It could go either way at this point in history.
ROVE: Sure.
O'REILLY: All right, Mr. Rove. We appreciate that.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fox's laughable case for Romney
. . . Rove's role is nuttily professorial. He has adopted one of those erasable white slates popularized by the late Tim Russert. On it he scribbles integers with plus or minus signs. These, he alleges, are the amounts being added to President Barack Obama and/or subtracted from Romney by such daredevil organizations as The New York Times, The Washington Post, CBS, NBC, CNN, Gallup and the co-opted poll-averagers at the website RealClearPolitics. Bottom line: This vast conspiracy is downgrading Romney three to nine points by using screens that overstate the votes of blacks, Latinos, Asians, women and the young.
Morris, who is beginning to bear a waxen resemblance to Orson Welles, explained, I think, that pollsters cheat by using false baseline figures from previous elections. Morris didn't have time to explicate fully how every news organization except Fox has signed up to help Obama by disseminating these cooked figures. Even so, O'Reilly thanked Morris for explaining polling mysteries he said he had not previously understood.
. . . I think there's a secret behind O'Reilly's trademark smirk. Were it in his interest to say what's on his mind about the candidates' performance to date, he'd almost certainly admit that Obama has come on like a superstar candidate of the Reagan ilk, and so far Romney is one of the biggest duds in post-World War II presidential elections.
~ Howell Raines on CNN
Conservative blogger Dean Chambers ... analyzed these polls favoring President Obama, and then reached the scientific conclusion that they "just didn't look right." So Chambers set up his own polling site, "UnskewedPolls.com," where he unskewed all the national polls by skewing them in favor of Romney - and surprisingly found that Mitt had nearly an 8 point lead! And that doesn't even count the margin of error.
And given how many errors Romney's made, I think he should get all of it.
No surprise, folks, this "feels accurate" polling has caught the attention of some GOP intellectuals, like Texas Governor Rick Perry, who tweeted: "Always nice to get unfiltered, or in this case unskewed, information." Amen! If we had only had more accurate polling during the primaries, Perry could have dropped out way sooner.
~ Stephen Colbert
GOP partisans shouldn’t worry about a conspiracy. They should worry that this is a snapshot of how Americans feel about the two major parties.
It’s not the polls, it’s the policies. Now that’s a reason for Republicans to be depressed.
~ Eugene Robinson on The Moderate Voice
After four years of relentlessly condemning Obama as an historic failure and all around bad person, conservatives are desperately trying to explain the disconnect between their dire Obama denunciations and the on-the-ground political reality about Obama's polling surge. They need a scapegoat, and pollsters have been cast in the role.
. . . An Obama victory will confirm that bloggers and talk shows hosts were right all along because the skewed polls worked (as the conspiracy intended) and drained Republican enthusiasm. And that's why Obama won re-election: Not enough Republicans voted!
~ Eric Boehlert on Media Matters
The funniest prank that Fox News plays on viewers occurs every other night, when freelance strategist Dick Morris -- a former Clintonite who now despises Democrats -- lurches in front of a camera and explains that Republicans will win everything.
. . . According to Morris, literally 100 percent of "undecided" voters will eventually vote against Barack Obama. Leaving aside how the theory ignores spillover to write-ins and third-party candidates, this is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. Nate Silver, bless him, has already explained why the "incumbent rule" doesn't actually exist.
. . . There's literally no evidence that undecided voters will break the way he says they're breaking. But he's telling an audience of voters -- and more importantly for him, potential consumers -- that the media is covering up how Mitt Romney's winning the election. It's silly, and at the same time it lays the ground for endless paranoia if Romney doesn't win.
~ David Weigel on Slate
It's all about the enemy. Of course it starts with the media, starts with the liberal media. The liberal media wants Mitt Romney to lose, its in Barack Obama's back pocket, so on, and so forth. Now it extends to the pollsters. Pollsters are supposedly riggin' these things.
Nobody's rigging anything. Nobody. In fact what the polls are showing is that fewer and fewer people who are being called by pollsters want to call themselves Republicans.
~ Michael Tomasky of Daily Beast on Hardball
Why would anybody ever ever ever, I don't care who pays them, ever listen to what Dick Morris has to say about anything? Especially when he says 'all the polls' including Fox's own polls are not to be trusted because he doesn't like the numbers. He doesn't like what they're saying this week.
~ ~ Chris Matthews on Hardball
You imagine that back in the Republican Green Room there's this giant crack pipe that they are all hitting on constantly - hittin' it hard! . . . Dick Morris bought the pipe!
. . . The rank and file literally believe some of this nonsense. They believe that evolution didn't happen, global warming's a hoax, Obama's a Kenyan, But people like Dick Morris, and Sean Hannity for that matter, who've spread alot of this propaganda, they know better than this! And there's a method to their madness here. They're not delusional, their dishonest. They're not crazy, they're craven.
What they're trying to do and accomplish is to say in advance that if President Obama wins this election, it's because the pollsters suppress the Republican vote. It's therefore an illegimate election, he's not really President. They're settin' the table for that.
~ Ron Reagan on Hardball
. . . reputable national polls out there, show that Obama is ahead in most of these key battleground states. That's obviously disconcerting to a lot of Republicans. Some of them, like Karl Rove, for example, have repeatedly gone out there and suggested that these polls are biased against the Republicans because they're oversampling Democrats, for example, as opposed to Republicans. And as a result, don't trust these polls, they're not reliable. So it's sort of convenient for a lot of these Republicans, like Karl Rove, to go after the NBC poll or the ABC poll or CNN polls.
But what they don't say is that the FOX News polls are showing almost exactly the same thing. FOX has some good polls. . . . You don't hear them complaining about the FOX News polls. They're complaining about the others, so there is an imbalance there.
~ Wolf Blitzer on CNN
In a video posted on YouTube, Brown's staffers are seen holding campaign signs near the Erie Pub, chanting and making tomahawk chops, presumably in reference to Elizabeth Warren's claims of Cherokee heritage.
Brown's Deputy Chief of Staff Greg Casey and Constituent Service Counsel Jack Richard, State Director Jerry McDermott, special assistant Jennifer Franks and GOP operative Brad Garrett are pictured in the video, NewsCenter 5's Janet Wu confirmed.
"It is certainly something that I don't condone," said Brown when asked about the video. "The real offense is that (Warren) said she was white and then checked the box saying she is Native American, and then she changed her profile in the law directory once she made her tenure."
The Cherokee Nation is disappointed in and denounces the disrespectful actions of staffers and supporters of Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown. The conduct of these individuals goes far beyond what is appropriate and proper in political discourse. The use of stereotypical “war whoop chants” and “tomahawk chops” are offensive and downright racist. It is those types of actions that perpetuate negative stereotypes and continue to minimize and degrade all native peoples.
The individuals involved in this unfortunate incident are high ranking staffers in both the senate office and the Brown campaign. A campaign that would allow and condone such offensive and racist behavior must be called to task for their actions.
The Cherokee Nation is a modern, productive society, and I am blessed to be their chief. I will not be silent when individuals mock and insult our people and our great nation.
We need individuals in the United States Senate who respect Native Americans and have an understanding of tribal issues. For that reason, I call upon Sen. Brown to apologize for the offensive actions of his staff and their uneducated, unenlightened and racist portrayal of native peoples.
The implication is that Warren is "faking" Native American heritage....How dare Elizabeth Warren call herself "Native American." What a scam! Turns out, Elizabeth Warren is Native American. She's from Oklahoma. She's 1/32 Cherokee. She appears to be exactly as Cherokee as the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, Bill John Baker. Elizabeth Warren is exactly as Cherokee as the guy who heads the Cherokee Nation. And actually because she may have ancestry from the Delaware Tribe as well, it is conceivable that she has even more Native ancestry than he does.
~ Rachel Maddow on her show for May 10, 2012
Scott Brown to be clear has never disproven that Elizabeth Warren has Native American ancestry. Right? I mean it's not like anybody has produced any evidence to say that she is not Native American. The whole basis for the Brown campaign making fun of Indian people, the whole basis for this making fun of Native American people by Scott Brown and by his campaign is that he says he can tell by looking at her that she is way too 'white looking' to really be Cherokee or any other Native American ancestry.
. . . But look on your screen at Bill John Baker, Chief of the Cherokee Nation.
~ Rachel Maddow on her show for Thursday, September 26, 2012
Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren (D) did not rely upon affirmative action to get teaching work at universities around the country, documents obtained by several media outlets revealed on Thursday.
In separate reports, The Associated Press and The Boston Globe both noted that Warren did not claim minority status at the University of Texas, where she taught law before moving to Harvard, writing on a personnel form that she identified as “White.” She also declined to apply to Rutgers Law School under a minority student program.
~ Raw Story
Senator Brown has spoken to his entire staff -- including the individuals involved in this unacceptable behavior -- and issued them their one and only warning that this type of conduct will not be tolerated.
As we enter the final stretch of this campaign, emotions are running high, and while Senator Brown can't control everyone, he is encouraging both sides to act with respect. He regrets that members of his staff did not live up to the high standards that the people of Massachusetts expect and deserve.
~ Suddenly strong-worded statement from Brown spokeswoman Alleigh Marre
The GOP seems to like promoting the idea that minorities get special advantage in the United States. They don't want to believe Obama could be qualified to get into Harvard. Brown wants us to believe that Warren pretended to be a minority to get into college and get a job.
~ comment by MissRoseNylund on Huff Post
Instant Native American ancestry expert Scott Brown seems to have forgotten about, chooses to ignore or perhaps is totally ignorant and unaware of the Dawes Roll, blood quantum and the fact that there are three Federally recognized Cherokee nations; Cherokee Nation, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and the United Keetoowah Band. The blood quantum for all three nations is different, and Brown's phenotypical dismissal of Warren's claim shows his ignorance.
~ comment by Kahuna on Huff Post
Scott Brown is Basing His Entire Campaign on a Racial Attack. For a Self-Described 'Moderate' He's Sure Using the Teaparty Playbook. #MAsen
Oh sweet Jesus … what do the Catholics say? ‘Holy Mary, mother of God? Pray for our sinners in thy hour of peace.’ I was a Southern Baptist that went to a Catholic high school. It seems to me — except what would happen, it’s the end of ‘Godfather II.’ I’m Fredo on the back of the boat about to get it in the back of my head.
~ MSNBC's Joe Scarborough of Morning Joe, quoted by Daily Caller
It doesn't matter. It's too late anyway.
~ Mika Brzezinski on Morning Joe, saying Scarborough's prayer wouldn't help Romney
I'm smart! Not like everybody says. Not dumb.
I'm smart and I want respect! ~ Fredo Corleone in Godfather Part 2
The Unskewed Electoral Map
Romney Wins Via Examiner
The public polls are what the public polls are. I kind of hope the Obama campaign is basing their campaign on what the public polls say. We don’t. We have confidence in our data and our metrics.
. . . I will put our operation up against anybody’s. But at the end of the day, Ohio is going to come down to the wire and we’ll be in it down to the wire and I’m confident that we will win.
~ Romney Political Director Rick Beeson to reporters, via NBC News
Despite all the noise created by all those media-commissioned skewed polls that appear to have President Obama leading, Mitt Romney is actually winning the presidential race as of today.
~ Dean Chambers on Examiner.com
Dean Chambers, a blogger on Examiner.com who writes from his home in Duffield, Virginia, took that complaint a step further — producing wide Romney leads far beyond what the Republican's campaign or Republican pollsters have suggested is the case.
He created the site unskewedpolls.com, retooling national polling data this July after reading an ABC News/Washington Post poll that "just didn't look right." Looking at the internal data, Chambers saw that the polling unit had sampled more Democrats than Republicans.
"There's no way they can justify that sample," Chambers, 44, told BuzzFeed.
Since July, Chambers has re-weighted national polling data from organizations like Gallup, ARG, and the three networks, to fit the Rasmussen Reports partisan trends. Chambers has published 30 "unskewed" polls on his website and on examiner.com, a national network that pays independent bloggers on a wide range of subject by traffic. In the last month, Chambers's tooled polls have Romney up by seven or more points.
You can think of UnSkewed Polls as the web site equivalent of Advil. You take the site two times a day for relief from all the aches and pains caused by ingesting data from the usual polls, skewed by the oversampling of Democrats, resulting in depressing supporters of Team Romney.
Warning label: Taking UnSkewed Polls twice daily may cause delusions and euphoria.
~ Myra Adams on the Conservative website Red State
The only reason anyone thinks Obama is leading today are the polls. If this were 1920 and no polls existed I suspect the presumption would be that the race was close but the challenger has the upper hand. Instead we have a daily inundation of polls that tell us (in aggregate and on their face) that Barack Obama is ahead.
~ barleycorn on Red State
What is interesting is that no Republican has ever won the Presidency without Ohio.
Yet President Obama can lose Ohio and Florida and still win.
If Romney loses Florida he cannot win {period}
~ comment by Dennis,Columbus,Ohio on NBC's First Read
The polls are screwed. They're plucking out liberal [responders].
~ Kathilyn Bigler of Oakwood, Ohio, quoted by Huffington Post
Reminds me of lyrics in an old Paul Simon song. Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.
~ comment by poobah on Huffington Post
Romney: We will not be dictated to by facts, reality, or decency, all of which are tools of the 47% entitled class.
~ comment by LTmemOree on Huffington Post
Romney internal poll: 80% of the people working on the Romney campaign are going to vote for Romney. 20% are undecided.
~ comment by PJWhite530 on Huffington Post
Following an emergency landing his wife's plane had to make last week, the governor took a moment on the campaign trail on Monday to comment on her safety.
"I appreciate the fact that [my wife] is on the ground safe and sound," he said. "I don't think she's aware of just how worried some of us were."
Romney continued, "When you have a fire in an aircraft, there's no place to go exactly. And you can't find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft because the windows don't open. I don't know why they don't do that, but it's a real problem," Romney said.
It's a real problem that the windows don't roll down on airplanes? Is it also a problem that guns don't shoot backwards through the barrel this way? Or that diving boards are only really ever mounted over very deep water? Why don't the windows roll down?
I don't think he was joking because he couldn't possibly be joking about his wife almost being in a plane crash. You can't joke about that, especially with her standing right there. So has he never seen Goldfinger?
~ Rachel Maddow on MSNBC
Science Genius Mitt Romney Thinks Airplane Windows Should Open
~ Headline on Wonkette
While on the subject, Romney also wants to know why the windows on the space station don't open.
Romney continued, "When you have a fire in the space station, there's no place to go exactly. And you can't find any oxygen from outside the station to get in the station because the windows don't open. I don't know why they don't do that, but it's a real problem," Romney said.
~ comment by SingularityPoint on Huffington Post
Undecideds have come in for a lot of guff in recent weeks, and perhaps understandably: this year’s presidential election might ultimately come down to the mercurial whims of a few thousand people who don’t really pay attention to or care all that much about this stuff.
~ G.D. on Postbourgie
. . . there are few undecided voters this year. On average among national polls, about 7 percent of voters either say they are undecided, or that they will vote for a third-party candidate — the same percentage as in 2004, when voters committed early to Mr. Bush or Mr. Kerry. The figures are slightly lower than at a comparable point in 2008, and considerably lower than in 2000.
. . . Some voters who are not thrilled with the major-party choices may name a third-party candidate when a pollster gives them the option, but then grudgingly vote Democrat or Republican for fear of wasting their votes otherwise. For this reason, polls generally overstate the standing of third-party candidates, and for forecasting purposes it may be proper to treat ostensible third-party voters as de facto undecideds.
~ Nate Silver on 538 Blog via New York Times
Behold the Snookization of American politics.
The Middle East is in turmoil. The economy is struggling. Mitt Romney is on “Live! with Kelly and Michael,” talking Snooki and his bedtime wear (“as little as possible”).
The number of undecided voters is vanishingly small. The remaining ones tend to be the lowest of low-information voters, only intermittently tuned in to politics, if at all. These folks are not watching “Meet the Press” or calibrating candidates’ positions on optimal tax rates. They are, predominantly, women.
So both presidential campaigns find themselves trolling in unlikely and, to be blunt, demeaning places, answering demeaning questions.
~ Ruth Marcus on The Northwestern
From Saturday Night Live:
Undecided Voters Have Some Questions
This election will determine the future of our country. And this election will be determined by the Undecided Voter.
It seems that more than 96% of voters have all ready made up their minds about this election. Well, I guess some of us are just a little harder to please. We're not impressed by political spin or thirty-second sound bytes.
Before you get our vote, you're gonna have to answer some questions. Questions like:
When is the Election? How soon do you have to decide?
What are the names of the two people running? And be specific...
Who is the president right now? Is he or she running? Because if so, experience may be something we should consider.
How long is a president's term of office? One year? Two years? Three years? Or life?
If it's for life, frankly, we're not comfortable with that. We don't need to be electing a dictator.
What happens if the president dies? Has anyone thought about who would replace him? What's your plan, gentlemen?
Can women vote? Because if not, as a woman, I've got a big problem with that. And by the way, if men can't vote, in my opinion, that's just as wrong.
We hear a lot about our dependence on foreign oil but just what is oil? What is it used for?
Can a woman have a baby just from French kissing?
If you burp, fart, and sneeze at the same time, will you die?
Where's my power cord?
We are America's Undecided Voters. There's still a lot we don't know. And . . . (in unison) We Want Answers.
Low information Voters of America is responsible for the content of this advertising.
They are negative on both candidates to an unusual degree. I mean, you go back to '04, people are undecided if the fall express positive favorable views of both John Kerry and George W. Bush, this year - excuse me -- it's the opposite. Obama's approval rating is miserable, Romney's favorable/unfavorable is miserable among these undecided voters. So I mean, it is possible that a lot of these people we are calling undecided today we'll look at both of these and not vote.
~ Ron Brownstein, CNN Political Director on State of the Union
Probably half of the undecideds are not voters. We know that people say they're going to vote, and they aren't actually voters, and so some of them just truly -- they really are the most disengaged. So really maybe -- it may be two or three percentage really. So, it's that small.
You know, it's actually - while it seems hard for us to imagine not paying hard to the election. It's actually not all that hard. Media are diffuse. A lot of people are watching a lot of different things. They're taking care of their kids, their working. And so it really is for a lot of people just starting, and I think the conventions and the debates starts focusing the choice for some people.
~ Anna Greenberg, Democratic Pollster on CNN's State of the Union
"I was in a coma for HOW LONG?!" -someone who's still an undecided voter
"Well, we do provide care for people who don't have insurance. If someone has a heart attack, they don't sit in their apartment and die. We pick them up in an ambulance, and take them to the hospital, and give them care. And different states have different ways of providing for that care." Mitt Romney in an interview with Scott Pelley of CBS's "60 Minutes" that aired Sunday night
Contradiction ~ Etch-A-Sketch 2010
Look, it doesn't make a lot of sense for us to have millions and millions of people who have no health insurance and yet who can go to the emergency room and get entirely free care for which they have no responsibility, particularly if they are people who have sufficient means to pay their own way.
~ Mitt Romney in March 2010 on Morning Joe
And . . . Flip-Flop 2007
When they show up at the hospital, they get care. They get free care paid for by you and me. If that's not a form of socialism, I don't know what is. So my plan did something quite different. It said, you know what? If people can afford to buy insurance ... or if they can pay their own way, then they either buy that insurance or pay their own way, but they no longer look to government to hand out free care. And that, in my opinion, is ultimate conservativism.
~ Mitt on the Glenn Beck Show, 2007
The immediate goal is to make sure there are more people on private insurance plans. I mean, people have access to health care in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room.
~ George W. Bush, 2007, via Eclectablog
Did Bain form a new company that specializes in patient dumping?
/under the cover of darkness of course.
~ comment by Neets101 on Huff Post
Go to the emergency room.
Receive treatment you cannot afford.
Lose your job because you are too sick to work, lose your home because you lost your job, lose everything because you had no insurance to pay for your healthcare costs,.....
We've seen this horror film before, but Mitt paid no attention.
~ comment by demisfine on Huff Post
Let Them Eat Emergency Rooms
~ Headline on Gawker
No Health Insurance? No problem. Romney Says That Freeloading In The ER Is Now All Good
~ Headline on Forbes
I'll simply state the obvious... ER visits are reactive, not preventive. When I can walk into an ER and pick up blood pressure or cholesterol meds which could PREVENT that hypothetical heart attack, that's when I'll consider the ER a form a socialized health care.
~ comment by Buford on AmericaBlog
"Don't worry, peasants! There will be hospitals there to treat you while you're dying of something that could have been prevented."
~ comment by leftistmenace_1 on Daily Beast
Let me tell you what happens when the uninsured to to the emergency room. You get a bill for somewhere between $10,000 and $20,000....then when you can't pay the ridiculous amount they have charged you....you get harassed for years by a collection agency. Sometimes...you get two bills...one from the local hospital and another from their parent company. I know someone this has happened to. It's a sad and dangerous situation.
Romney doesn't get it......just doesn't.
~ comment by Marmee on Daily Beast
Now we have heard it from the horse mouth himself. Romney Ryan and Republican House Party want to treat the 47% like "LIVESTOCK". Take away our healthcare "OBAMACARE" for "romneyDIEcare". Wake-up PEOPLES Romney only vision $$$$$$$$$$$$$ look he came straight for our money our health we worth alot to him and his 1% BROKE = DEATH
~ comment by LawannaSauls on Daily Beast
Does this mean that on day one of his presidency, when he repeals the Obama Affordable Care Act (as he promises to do) that ER's all over the country will happily fling open their doors to everyone with a vaginal infection, the hives, an earache, the flu, mild dizziness and other every-day type medical concerns?
He comes out with a reasonable, workable health care plan in Massachusetts, but 'ER's-IN-A-BOX' is the best he can do for a whole country?
Unbelievable.
~ Jane Massey in The Virginian-Pilot
UPDATE: If you don't have health insurance, Mitt Romney suggests you go to the ER. And then: bankruptcy court.
— Disalmanac (@Disalmanac) September 24, 2012
I bet y'all $10K Mitt Romney has never seen the inside of a large hospital's ER.
— Lisa P. Smith (@lpsrocks) September 24, 2012
Some intrepid reporter needs to ask Mitt Romney if he really believes an ER would treat cancer, Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, etc.
— Jason Febery (@JasonFebery) September 24, 2012
So Mitt Romney says people without insurance can get medical care in ER and Clinics. Who pays for that, moron? @mittromney
— Crutnacker (@Crutnacker) September 24, 2012
Thanks to Mitt, kids w/special needs can now get treatment by walking over to the ER. They just need to get hit by a bus on the way #p2#aca
— Sadistic Statist (@TheXclass) September 24, 2012
By election day there won't be anything left of him~Romney Cites Emergency Room As Health Care Option For Uninsured huff.to/SfegNA
— James Morrison (@JamesPMorrison) September 24, 2012
I'm dying of cancer and I don't have health insurance. But thank goodness Mitt Romney gave me "freedom."
— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) September 24, 2012
Romney now advocating position he formerly referred to as socialist. huff.to/PeaqFC
— Dan Froomkin (@froomkin) September 24, 2012
I'll tell you about specifics. First of all, Mitt Romney talks about, all the time, about reducing the GDP spending from 25 cents on the dollar down to 20, reducing small business taxes from 35 to 25, reducing income taxes across the board by 20 percent.
I mean, for crying out loud, we’ve got Paul Ryan on the ticketAs far as specifics go, we're the only ones talking about how to save Medicare. The president's the one that raided Medicare by $700 billion.
I mean, we've got specifics coming out of our eyeballs.
We need to keep pounding away on those specifics and keep talking about those specifics so that the American people know.
Talking About Romney's "Hell Week" beginning with the Secret 47% Video and ending with releasing one tax return that was still controversial, plus having a tantrum on Univision, Reince told George Stephanopoulos of ABC News:
I think that we had a good week last week, I think in retrospect, in that we were able to frame up the debate last week in the sense of, what future do we want,” Priebus said this morning on “This Week.”
“I think we can look back at last week as a campaign in a couple months and say, this was the defining week in both campaigns,” Priebus said earlier, “where I think both campaigns are crystallizing around a central theme, which is going to be, what kind of future do we want for our kids and grandkids? What type of America do we want for this country?”
. . . he conceded that last week was not the “best” of the campaign for Romney.
“I think Governor Romney’s been pretty clear, it probably wasn’t the best-said moment in the campaign and probably not the best week in the campaign,” Priebus said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I don’t know what prism he’s looking through. I don’t think anybody else would define it as a good week. But it was an enlightening week. The week began with Governor Romney basically slandering 47 percent of America, saying that they were, you know, hooked on dependency, didn’t pay their taxes, and so on.
~ Obama Adviser David Axelrod on ABC's This Week
Not only did Priebus sound like he was hung over from a bad night on Ambien, but he also carried on Team Romney’s tradition of spouting blatant hypocrisy and provable lies.
~ GottaLaff on Political Carnival
Of course you have specifics. "Forty-seven percent of Americans are parasites, and they'll all vote for their free meal ticket." How much more specific can you get?
~ comment by RobertX on RawStory
Did anyone catch Priebus comment lamenting the "good old days" growing up as the son of a UNION electrical worker? They've go something coming out of their eyeballs, but it's certainly not specifics. It's the hypocrisy, stupid.
~ comment by shoes4industry on RawStory
Tune in to #ThisWeek this am – I will be talking about the state of the Presidential race and more !
— Reince Priebus (@Reince) September 23, 2012
Reince Priebus is so bad at his job, Romney should give him a $25,000 bonus.
— Kaili Joy Gray (@KailiJoy) September 23, 2012
Stephanopoulos Asks Reince Priebus If The Romney Campaign Is 'In Denial' About Impact Of 47% Comments (VIDEO) mediaite.com/a/qrlcx
— Mediaite (@mediaite) September 23, 2012
Reince Priebus is a real disease.
— Bearded Stoner (@beardedstoner) September 23, 2012
On ABC, RNC Chairman Priebus said Mitt Romney has provided voters with policy “specifics coming out of our eyeballs.” Fact check: Not true.
— TruthTeam2012 (@truthteam2012) September 23, 2012
Baghdad Bob, in action. RT @mpoindc: If the election were held today, would Romney win? "I think we would win," says @reince Priebus
— Markos Moulitsas (@markos) September 19, 2012
