I'd say he (Mitt) is in a better place than (Ann) is. Not to say she’s bitter — and she enjoys her life. Look, they live on the beach, north of San Diego and a bunch of their grandkids are around. You know, they’ve got a pretty great life. But she I think feels the pain and the what-ifs and the hurt more than he does. And it comes through in the interview. There’s a lot of emotion that comes through in the interview, and she’s more open about it — the ‘what might have been.
~ Chris Wallace of Fox News on Recent Romney Interview
ANN ROMNEY: It was a crushing disappointment. Not for us. Our lives are going to be fine. It's for the country.
WALLACE: Is it true you began to cry?
ANN ROMNEY: I did, of course. Yes. Very disappointed.
WALLACE: Cry for what?
ANN ROMNEY: Cry -- it's not -- again, is not sorrow for, oh, my gosh, you know, our lives are, you know, this dream -- the dream was to make a difference. The dream was to serve.
~~~~~~
WALLACE: Mrs. Romney, as we sit here right now, have you gotten over the defeat? Or is that going to take more time?
ANN ROMNEY: I think it takes time. I think I'm mostly -- you know, the great "Princess Bride" line, "mostly dead."
I'm mostly over it. But not completely.
And you have moments where you, you know, go back and feel the sorrow of the loss. And so, yes, I think we're not mostly dead yet.
@political_bill Ann Romney, still crying over that crown she ordered and can't wear.#p2
— Lisa Todd Sutton (@LisaToddSutton) March 4, 2013
Watching Fox News Sunday. Can be summed up with basically “Ann Romney whining a bunch about that big bad bully Barack Obama” whaaaaa.
— DuckintheDesert (@Duckinthedesert) March 5, 2013
The unbridled arrogance: #MittRomney feeling sorry for America because we don't have him as president. Unbridled arrogance.
— solvay (@solvayanitra) March 4, 2013
@_leah93 I believe there should be a picture of Mitt and Ann in the dictionary under the word Entitled.
— Nazanin Afshar (@NazaninAfshar) March 5, 2013
Seeing Mitt & Ann Romney Whine On Fox Reminds Me To Gloat Again With My Morning Coffee & Faved Sweetener.... twitter.com/RepublicanSwin…
— Republican Swine (@RepublicanSwine) March 5, 2013
Poor Mitt and Ann Romney ---> Won't someone PLEASE think of the 'poor rich' people?bit.ly/XSUiwo
— The Fighting Liberal (@texyellowdogdem) March 5, 2013
Ann Romney is not at all gracious in defeat, still reeking of sour grapes, proof she never was FLOTUS worthy, and never will be. #LastWord
— SheSheGo (@SheSheGo) March 5, 2013
Why Did Obama Win?
ANN ROMNEY: I think they had a better ground game. And I think we were not aware -- you know, we certainly had the passion coming from our side, and I don't think we were as aware of the passion that was coming from the other side. I think we were a little blindsided by that.
~~~~~~
MITT ROMNEY: And -- and I won't get a third chance. I'm not doing it again. The weakness that our campaign had and that I had is we weren't effective in taking my message primarily to minority voters, to Hispanic-Americans, African-Americans, other minorities. That was a real weakness.
We did very well with the majority population, but not with minority populations. And that was a -- that was a failing. That was a real mistake.
WALLACE: Why do you think that was?
MITT ROMNEY: Well, I think the ObamaCare attractiveness and feature was something we underestimated in a -- particularly among lower incomes. And we just didn't do as -- as good a job at connecting with that audience as we should have.
Mitt Romney: "I still don't understand why so many Latinos self-deported from the Republican Party in 2012"
— The Daily Edge (@TheDailyEdge) March 4, 2013
It's still clear Mitt Romney still thinks that poor black & brown people will be the sole beneficiaries of Obamacare #EdShow
— ✰Ҡℒăąẗμ βℜąḋⒶ Ñîḵẗø (@BlazePhoenix_) March 5, 2013
"Obamacare was very attractive, particularly to those without health insurance."-Mitt Romney, finally acknowledging nearly 50 million people
— James Morrison (@JamesPMorrison) March 4, 2013
Mitt Romney is now attributing his loss to the fact that it turns out people actually like #Obamacare? Bwahahahaha! #GOPfail
— Laura (@CatLadyLC) March 3, 2013
How stupid is Mitt Romney? Obama won because min. love Obamacare? That was his plan in Ma, wasn't it? So he could have won had he owned up?
— Leonco-K (@LeoncoKaizer) March 3, 2013
Shorter: Damn you black and brown people RT @thinkprogress Mitt Romney: I lost because minorities love Obamacare thkpr.gs/XLZm8V
— Pnthrgrlgail (@Mama4Obama1) March 3, 2013
On Their Media Image as Wealthy People
WALLACE: Do you think that the two of you at all contributed to this image, which the other side certainly played up, that you were so wealthy that you were somehow out of touch with the concerns of the average American?
ANN ROMNEY: You know, that's -- that's a reality that, you know, you can't change. I mean, we are who we are. The thing that was frustrating to me is that people didn't really get to know Mitt for who he was.
. . . But it was not just the campaign's fault. I believe it was the media's fault as well, is that he was not giving -- being given a fair shake, that people weren't allowed to really see him for who he was.
WALLACE: All right, what about the media?
(LAUGHTER)
ANN ROMNEY: I'm happy to blame the media.
(LAUGHTER)
Ann Romney on Fox News Sunday: "I blame the media for Mitt's loss... and that's all #YouPeople need to know."
— Rafalca Romney (@RafalcaRomney) March 4, 2013
I agree with #AnnRomney about the Media not fully showing the real #MittRomney . The media was too kind to Mitt, a ruthless businessman
— Eddie P (@OrlandoLiberal) March 4, 2013
I agree with Ann Romney when she blames the media for Mitt's loss -- if by "media" she means recording devices.
— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) March 3, 2013
.@krystalball: If Ann Romney wants to blame media, she should blameconservative media which allowed the GOP to delude themselves in 2012.
— The Last Word (@TheLastWord) March 5, 2013
MITT ROMNEY: Yes, it was a very unfortunate statement that I made. It's not what I meant. I didn't express myself as I wished I would have.
You know, when you speak in private, you don't spend as much time thinking about how something could be twisted and distorted and -- and it could come out wrong and be used.
But, you know, I did. And it was very harmful. What I said is not what I believe. Obviously, my whole campaign -- my whole life has been devoted to helping people, all of the people. I care about all the people of the country.
But that hurt. There's no question that hurt and did real damage to my campaign.
RT @focusonprogress: Mitt #Romney on 47% comment: "What I said is not what I believe." Which only proves he would say just about anything...
— Patty (@Hoptoad4) March 5, 2013
@_leah93 What Mitt & Ann truly resent is that the people they so badly looked down upon (47%), rose up and electorally gave them the finger!
— Nazanin Afshar (@NazaninAfshar) March 5, 2013
This 47 percenter is thrilled that #MittRomney is not our president.He sent many good paying jobs overseas. #Traitor
— MaryMacElveen (@MaryMacElveen) March 3, 2013
.@stevekornacki: We can talk about whether it was healthcare, it was 47%, the wealth gaffes. He didn’t help himself in so many ways.
— The Last Word (@TheLastWord) March 5, 2013
#edshow Heh. We saw the REAL Mitt on that 47% tape. Sorry, Mittens, you lose. Deservedly.
— Kate(@LeftsideAnnie) March 5, 2013
Misunderstanding, misstatements and all the classic contortions of partisan message management surround the sequester, the term for the $85 billion in ugly and largely irrational federal spending cuts set by law to begin Friday.
What is the non-budget wonk to make of this? Who is responsible? What really happened?
. . . Obama personally approved of the plan for Lew and Nabors to propose the sequester to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). They did so at 2:30 p.m. July 27, 2011, according to interviews with two senior White House aides who were directly involved.
Nabors has told others that they checked with the president before going to see Reid. A mandatory sequester was the only action-forcing mechanism they could devise. Nabors has said, “We didn’t actually think it would be that hard to convince them” — Reid and the Republicans — to adopt the sequester. “It really was the only thing we had. There was not a lot of other options left on the table.”
. . . So when the president asks that a substitute for the sequester include not just spending cuts but also new revenue, he is moving the goal posts. His call for a balanced approach is reasonable, and he makes a strong case that those in the top income brackets could and should pay more. But that was not the deal he made.
On p 362 of Woodward's book, he reports Boehner told Dave Camp to offer $600b in revenue to replace the sequester twitter.com/pfeiffer44/sta…
The White House pushback is a classic case of distortion and confusion. We unfortunately have seen this too often in recent presidential history. First, the White House spent months denying paternity for the sequester. To Jay Carney's credit, he acknowledged [Tuesday] it was their ‘idea.’ [Carney: ‘The sequester was something that was discussed, and as has been reported, it was an idea that the White House put forward because it was put forward by Republican Senator Gramm and Rudman back in the ‘80s as part of the Gramm-Rudman deal -- there is a history here to this.’] But they do not want to talk about that now. The rest of the White House statement reflects a confusion of chronology. I do not think it is willful. They are just mixed up, surprisingly so.
~ Bob Woodward in an email to Politico
The argument is silly.
You can't start a discussion about the sequester without starting with the broader context. The sequester was offered during the GOP's unprecedented threat to not raise the debt ceiling, potentially putting the U.S. into default.
If offering spending cuts two years down the road is the only way to avoid such a calamity then a U.S. President should offer that 100 times out of 100. But is it really Obama's "fault"? The sequester wouldn't even be a term anyone knows if it weren't for the debt ceiling nonsense.
~ Joe Wiesenthal on Business Insider
Does any other reporter who covered the debt limit battle buy into Woodward’s current argument? So surreal.
To argue that the White House is "moving the goal posts" when it now asks for revenue in a sequestration replacement, you have to toss out the fact that the White House always wanted revenue in the supercommittee's sequestration replacement. This isn't confusing unless reporters make it confusing.
~ David Weigel on Slate
Lest we forget that John Boehner said he got 98% of what he wanted & he & 175 House Republicans signed on for sequestration. #tcot
I don’t agree with my colleague Bob Woodward, who says the Obama administration is “moving the goalposts” when they insist on a sequester replacement that includes revenues. I remember talking to both members of the Obama administration and the Republican leadership in 2011, and everyone was perfectly clear that Democrats were going to pursue tax increases in any sequester replacement, and Republicans were going to oppose tax increases in any sequester replacement. What no one knew was who would win.
. . . Here in DC, we can get a bit buried in Beltway minutia. The ongoing blame game over who concocted the sequester is an excellent example. But it’s worth remembering that the goalposts in American politics aren’t set in backroom deals between politicians. They’re set in elections. And in the 2012 election, the American people were very clear on where they wanted the goalposts moved to.
~ Ezra Klein on Washington Post
. . . in this case Woodward is just dead wrong. Obama and Democrats have always insisted that a balanced mix of spending cuts and higher taxes replace sequestration. It’s true that John Boehner wouldn’t agree to include new taxes in the enforcement mechanism itself, and thus that the enforcement mechanism he and Obama settled upon — sequestration — is composed exclusively of spending cuts. But the entire purpose of an enforcement mechanism is to make sure that the enforcement mechanism is never triggered. The key question is what action it was designed to compel. And on that score, the Budget Control Act is unambiguous.
First: “Unless a joint committee bill achieving an amount greater than $1,200,000,000,000 in deficit reduction as provided in section 401(b)(3)(B)(i)(II) of the Budget Control Act of 2011 is enacted by January 15, 2012, the discretionary spending limits listed in section 251(c) shall be revised, and discretionary appropriations and direct spending shall be reduced.”
Key words: “deficit reduction.” Not “spending cuts.” If Republicans wanted to make sure sequestration would be replaced with spending cuts only, that would have been the place to make a stand. Some of them certainly tried. But that’s not what ultimately won the day.
~ Brian Beutler on Talking Points Memo
Hey Bob Woodward -- I think the President has a lot of leeway to "move the goalposts" if he wins reelection based upon moving them.
First State Bank in Norton, Kan. houses a second-floor gallery full of those, like Romney, who have tried, but failed to become president.
"I've tried to make it a party and a little inauguration," Lee Ann Shearer, the gallery’s director, told the Salina Journal. "After a welcome, I will have a little talk about the rejected candidate."
Romney’s portrait will join those of 59 other presidential losers, including John Kerry, Bob Dole, Al Gore, and John McCain.
The 10 a.m. “Inaugural Event and Reception,” will also include coffee and cookies.
~ NY Daily News
Mitt Romney kept his mind off the Inauguration by spending the day amending his 2011 tax return to get the rest of his writeoffs.#inaug2013
Rachel Maddow: Mitt Romney did not attend today, and that's not unprecedented - Michael Dukakis did not attend when he was defeated by George H.W. Bush. But Mr. Romney didn't attend and put out word through people close to him that he wasn't even planning to watch today, that he was going to be home in La Jolla, and wasn't even planning on participating in that degree. Do you think that's significant or just a personality point?
Lawrence O'Donnell: I think going to the extent of saying 'and I'm not going to watch' - we don't actually have to know that. (laughter) I don't think anyone's asking what you're doing. (more laughter) You know, I think the question is 'Are you here or are you not here?' ... It's an understandable choice to not come here. I get that, especially if you're not a man of Washington government. You know, this is a former governor, and so he didn't really have a presence in Washington. So I get that.
But I don't get why you'd have to take that extra step and say 'I'm not gonna watch.' I, by the way - I have no problem with him not watching. I can understand that from a human level, losing an election like that - I get it. But this is not the moment in which someone who participated in the greatest drama in our national politics ... should have announced that about himself.
So. McCarthy and Cantor are no votes. Boehner and Ryan are yes votes. Hastert rule is broken. Bill passes.
— Sam Stein (@samsteinhp) January 2, 2013
House easily approves "Fiscal Cliff" deal -- 257-167. Dozens of Rs vote to tax the rich. @thenation @wegoted @edshow
— John Nichols (@NicholsUprising) January 2, 2013
Biden clearly did his job w/ house dems today. Only 16 voted no. And there are some 70 members of progressive caucus
— Dana Bash (@DanaBashCNN) January 2, 2013
Vote Breakdown: Yeas -> 85 GOP, 172 Dems. Nays -> 151 GOP, 16 Dems. Total 257 Yeas/167 Nays. #fiscalcliff
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorpNBC) January 2, 2013
~~~~~~~
Victory? No, Liberals Think Obama Caved
Obama: There ‘wasn’t support or time’ to negotiate better ‘fiscal cliff’ deal is.gd/TW0q2J
— The Raw Story (@RawStory) January 2, 2013
And liberals think he caved. MT @joenbc If bill becomes law, Obama will reverse 20yrs of GOP tax policy w/o any corresponding spending cuts
— Bob Cesca (@bobcesca_go) January 1, 2013
Often the left starts flipping out about an Obama "cave" only to find out the actual bill isn't that bad.
— Joy Reid (@TheReidReport) January 1, 2013
Obama needs some reason to give away the store again, that's why debt ceiling not included in the deal. #fiscalcliff is a lie.
— Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) January 1, 2013
I have upgraded my rating of the tax deal from Terrible to Probably Terrible With Potential For Sort-Of Okay nymag.com/daily/intellig…
— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) December 31, 2012
What I want for New Years: a Democratic Party that acts like it won the last election.
— Markos Moulitsas (@markos) January 1, 2013
So now that the bill is passed, America will be treated to Asshole Media Types commenting about Asshole Lawmakers. A true Assholefest.
— David Sirota (@davidsirota) January 2, 2013
In a single decade, the Dem Party has gone from opposing the Bush tax cuts, to affirmatively voting to make permanent most of those cuts.
— David Sirota (@davidsirota) January 2, 2013
its not a good #fiscalcliff deal if it gives more tax cuts to 2 percent and sets the stage for more hostage taking
— Richard L. Trumka (@RichardTrumka) January 1, 2013
Conceder In Chief?
OK, now for the really bad news. Anyone looking at these negotiations, especially given Obama’s previous behavior, can’t help but reach one main conclusion: whenever the president says that there’s an issue on which he absolutely, positively won’t give ground, you can count on him, you know, giving way — and soon, too. The idea that you should only make promises and threats you intend to make good on doesn’t seem to be one that this particular president can grasp.
And that means that Republicans will go right from this negotiation into the debt ceiling in the firm belief that Obama can be rolled.
~ Paul Krugman on New York Times
Obama Caves on Taxes The White House and Senate leaders reached a bipartisan compromise on the fiscal cliff that would allow tax rates to rise on income over $450,000 and delay steep automatic federal spending cuts for two months.
Two months? He sold out his chief campaign promise for a two month delay? How could someone this bad at negotiating get such great deals in the Chicago real estate market?
The deal plays perfectly into Republican hands. Senator Graham admitted on the Senate floor that he considered this deal “Round 1″ and the Debt Ceiling agreement “Round 2.” In other words, get ready for another shakedown to protect the rich at the expense of everyone else. And if it was not clear before, Obama has every intention of screwing those relying on social programs – in fact, he already did so by moving the needle from 250,000 to 450,000. That is a lot of lost revenue to make up for in cuts.
~ D.S. Wright on FireDogLake
~~~~~~~
The GOP in Disarray and Disgusted
Live from DeMint World (Heritage): "FISCAL CLIFF BILL IS $600 BILLION TAX HIKE." heritage.org
The GOP lost alot tonight.They caved to a dictator in Obama.
— Billy Wickham (@ks_countryboy) January 2, 2013
Those Republicans voting for the legislation are giving up any chance of being POTUS.
— Matt Rexroad (@MattRexroad) January 2, 2013
Wow. Senate potential 2016ers voted no. But paul ryan just voted yes on fiscal cliff package
— Dana Bash (@DanaBashCNN) January 2, 2013
Thus ends the Paul Ryan 2016 Presidential Exploratory Committee.
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) January 2, 2013
House leadership is pathetic. They set up this monstrosity, then are shocked -- shocked! -- to find themselves forced to raise taxes.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) January 1, 2013
Cantor is right to oppose senate tax and spend billHouse gop should amend with spending cuts and send back to senate
— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) January 1, 2013
SOBER New Year: First it was Chief Justice doing the dirty. Now Republicans raising taxes on ON 77% OF HOUSEHOLDS!Surrender guns next...
— MATT DRUDGE (@DRUDGE) January 2, 2013
Obama and the Democrats are laughing at the deal they just made...the Republicans got nothing!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 1, 2013
I am a Republican...but the Republicans may be the worst negotiators in history!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 1, 2013
There are some unforgettable sights of Election 2012, and I'm not even sure this list is complete or can do justice to what is here. But these are images burned into our minds and retinas forever.
Callista sat directly in front of me during our CafeMom Coffee Break with Newt Gingrich a few weeks ago, and I kept sneaking peeks at her hair throughout the event. Under the lights, it practically glowed. She looked like some sort of fussy, retro angel.
I'm just dying to touch that hair!
~ Lindsay Ferrier on The Stir
I Almost Got Callista Gingrich's Hair
. . . The color alone took three hours to achieve. Three hours of bleach and gloss and glaze and goop and my head being knocked about left and right. The gloss (or maybe it was the glaze?) burned my scalp; when I mentioned this, Pejman looked right at me and said, “Beauty tingles.” Holly Allen on Salon
Before beginning the drive, Mitt Romney put Seamus, the family’s hulking Irish setter, in a dog carrier and attached it to the station wagon’s roof rack. He’d built a windshield for the carrier, to make the ride more comfortable for the dog.
As the oldest son, Tagg Romney commandeered the way-back of the wagon, keeping his eyes fixed out the rear window, where he glimpsed the first sign of trouble. ”Dad!” he yelled. ”Gross!” A brown liquid was dripping down the back window, payback from an Irish setter who’d been riding on the roof in the wind for hours.
As the rest of the boys joined in the howls of disgust, Romney coolly pulled off the highway and into a service station. There, he borrowed a hose, washed down Seamus and the car, then hopped back onto the highway. It was a tiny preview of a trait he would grow famous for in business: emotion-free crisis management.
~ Time Swampland, quoting the original Boston Globe story
Among those who professed shock at the story was Fox News host Chris Wallace. "I have a yellow lab named Winston. I would no sooner put him in a kennel on the roof of my car than I would one of my children. Question: What were you thinking?" Wallace asked the former governor.
Replied Romney with a nervous laugh, "This is a completely airtight kennel, mounted on the top of our car. He climbed up there regularly, enjoyed himself, he was in a kennel at home a great deal of the time as well. We loved the dog, it was where he was comfortable and we had five kids inside the car and my guess is he liked it a lot better in his kennel than he would have liked it inside."
~ Reported by NPR
HOST on CNN: Is there a concern that Santorum and Gingrich might force the governor to tack so far to the right it would hurt him with moderate voters in the general election? Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney Advisor: Well, I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes. It’s almost like an Etch-A-Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and restart all of over again.
~ Think Progress
What does it say about the college co-ed Susan Fluke [sic] who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex -- what does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex.
. . . So Miss Fluke, and the rest of you Feminazis, here’s the deal. If we are going to pay for your contraceptives, and thus pay for you to have sex. We want something for it. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch.
~ Rush Limbaugh talking about Sandra Fluke
I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize life is that gift from God, and I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.
~ Senate Candidate Richard Mourdock, R-Indiana (lost)
The firm today has at least 138 funds organized in the Cayman Islands, and Romney himself has personal interests in at least 12, worth as much as $30 million, hidden behind controversial confidentiality disclaimers. Again, the Romney campaign insists he saves no tax by using them, but there is no way to check this.
~ Vanity Fair
Today we’re learning more about Mitt Romney’s bets against America. Vanity Fair’s raising important questions about Romney’s offshore accounts in foreign tax havens, including his mysterious corporation in Bermuda, his funds in the Cayman Islands, and the Swiss bank account he opened. The question is, why? Was he avoiding paying his fair share of U.S. taxes? Was he hedging against the dollar? Until he releases his tax returns from that period, Americans will never know. This raises serious questions. If he has nothing to hide, why doesn’t he just release his tax returns?
~ Obama Spokesman Ben LaBolt
BREAKING: In latest unscripted gaffe, Romney pledges to be a President for all "offshore tax havens" abcnews.go.com/Blotter/romney…
— The Daily Edge (@TheDailyEdge) August 29, 2012
BREAKING: Tagg Romney says I wanted to be First Horse less than any horse he's ever met. #NoFHOTUS
— Rafalca Romney (@RafalcaRomney) December 24, 2012
As a living, breathing, clippety-cloppeting, velvet-nosed and liquid-eyed avatar of Romney’s extreme wealth, she’s given her uncle Mitt the kind of handicap his advisers fear might make his path to the White House heavy going. That may be why the Republican presidential hopeful betrays scant interest in his wife’s four-legged protégé.
During Romney’s accident-prone sojourn in London in late July, he told NBC‘s Brian Williams that he didn’t even know when Rafalca would be appearing at the Games — “I have to tell you,” he said, “this is Ann’s sport.”
~ Time Magazine
Obama is going to need all the help he can get because Romney is surging, thanks in part to his new secret weapon. Long time viewers know that every year I declare a sport of the summer. Last year it was the elegant art of canoe dancing....Last week I declared that this year's sport of the summer will be Dressage, or "Horse Ballet."
. . . The Romneys are the proud owners of a German Oldenburg mare named Rafalca. There is no better way to dispel the myth that Romney is a detached patrician elite than competitive horse prancing. I mean, it's basically Nascar in a velvet top hat.
~ Stephen Colbert on Comedy Central
~~~~~~~~~~~~
8. The Romney Shambles
Americans: This Mitt person is some sort of American Borat, right? #romneyshambles
Romney could not have played more into the image of the callow American if he’d showed up at Buckingham Palace in Dockers. In his honor, the nation even resurrected a little-used epithet, “wazzock,” which refers to, as John Cassidy wrote, “a hapless idiot who blunders around saying or doing things he or she shouldn’t” (or, literally, a bull’s penis). This weekend, the BBC reported that, according to Harvey Weinstein, David Cameron, the Tory Prime Minister, has told people that Romney’s graceless performance has won him “the unique distinction of uniting all of England against him with his various remarks.”
~ Lauren Collins on The New Yorker
Who is this klutz, this clodhopper, this lawn sprinkler of national insult? Well, he`s Mitt Romney. Remember him, the guy who promised to restore and upgrade the special relationship with Great Britain and has instead barfed on the Buckingham Palace lawn?
~ Chris Matthews on MSNBC's Hardball
— Path2Enlightenment (@Path2Enlighten) July 27, 2012
Is there anything about Romney's Rolling Ruckus that would inspire confidence in his ability to lead US foreign policy?apne.ws/Qrc0J0
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) July 30, 2012
We've given all you people need to know and understand about our financial situation and about how we live our life. . .
~ Ann Romney to Robin Roberts on ABC News
. . . The other thing they have to understand is that Mitt is honest, his integrity is just golden. We pay our taxes, we are absolutely . . . beyond paying our taxes we also give 10% of our income to charity, so we have no issues that way.
The only reason we don't disclose anymore is, you know, we just become a bigger target.
~ NBC Interview with Natalie Morales
This is hard and, you know, it's an important thing that we're doing right now and it's an important election and it is time for all Americans to realize how significant this election is and how lucky we are to have someone with Mitt's qualifications and experience and know-how to be able to have the opportunity to run this country.
~ Ann on Radio Iowa
Ann Romney has a hard life-she manages 4 homes, multiple maids, nannies + sometimes a broken car elevator. #Youpeople should leave her alone
— DC Debbie (@DCdebbie) July 19, 2012
My investigators believe that the long-form birth certificate was manufactured electronically and that it did not originate in a paper format as claimed by the White House.
~ Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona via LA Times
He said he was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia… Now they’re saying it was a mistake. Just like his Kenyan grandmother said he was born in Kenya, and she pointed down the road to the hospital, and after people started screaming at her she said, ‘Oh, I mean Hawaii.’ Give me a break.”
~ Donald Trump on Daily Beast
Speaking about his Michigan roots, he said, "No one's ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place that we were born and raised." The joke was received with hearty applause by the audience. . . .
~ Mitt Romney Speaking in Michigan, via Huff Post
FACT: By FULLY embracing Donald Trump, Romney is legitimizing his insane birther conspiracy theories thkpr.gs/JqrubZ
— ThinkProgress (@thinkprogress) May 24, 2012
HH: Are you still running?
PR: Yeah, I hurt a disc in my back, so I don’t run marathons anymore. I just run ten miles or yes.
HH: But you did run marathons at some point?
PR: Yeah, but I can’t do it anymore, because my back is just not that great.
HH: I’ve just gotta ask, what’s your personal best?
PR: Under three, high twos. I had a two hour and fifty-something.
HH: Holy smokes. All right, now you go down to Miami University…
PR: I was fast when I was younger, yeah.
~ Paul Ryan Radio Interview with Hugh Hewitt as he lies about his Marathon Time
Runner's World checked 11 years of results for Grandma's Marathon, from 1988 through 1998, and found a finisher in the 1990 race by the name of Paul D. Ryan, 20, of Minneapolis.
Ryan's middle name is Davis, and he was 20 in 1990. The finishing time listed was 4 hours, 1 minute and 25 seconds.
~ Research by Runner's World Magazine proving that Ryan was Lying
On Paul Ryan's Republican National Convention Speech: "Three Words: Dazzling, Deceiving, Distracting"
. . . to anyone paying the slightest bit of attention to facts, Ryan’s speech was an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech. On this measure, while it was Romney who ran the Olympics, Ryan earned the gold.
~ Sally Kohn on Fox News
~~~~~~~~~~~~
12. Clint Eastwood Talks to an Empty Chair
If Clint Eastwood insisted on talking to an inanimate object he could've just chatted with Mitt Romney. #RNC2012
— daddyfiles (@DaddyFiles) August 31, 2012
I don't . . . I don't . . . I don't know . . . Clint Eastwood is 82 years old. And I don't know if that's what was going on there . . . That was the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen at a political convention in my entire life, and it will be the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen if I live to be one hundred.”
~ Rachel Maddow on MSNBC
I could never wrap my head around why the world and the President that Republicans describe bears so little resemblance to the world and the President that I experience. And now I know why.
There is a President Obama that only Republicans can see.
~ Jon Stewart on The Daily Show
Here was Romney raw and unplugged—sort of unscripted. With this crowd of fellow millionaires, he apparently felt free to utter what he really believes and would never dare say out in the open. He displayed a high degree of disgust for nearly half of his fellow citizens, lumping all Obama voters into a mass of shiftless moochers who don't contribute much, if anything, to society, and he indicated that he viewed the election as a battle between strivers (such as himself and the donors before him) and parasitic free-riders who lack character, fortitude, and initiative.
~ Journalist David Corn, who leaked the 47% video with the help of the Anonymous filmmaker and James Carter IV, grandson of President Jimmy Carter
All of us make mistakes. . . . What people want to know, though, is you're not writing off a big chunk of the country because the way our democracy works.
This is a big country. And people disagree a lot, but one thing I’ve never tried to do – and I think none of us can do in public office – is suggest that because someone doesn’t agree with me that they’re victims or they’re unpatriotic.
~ President Obama on CBS, The David Letterman Show
Today Mitt Romney Lost the Election
You can mark my prediction now: A secret recording from a closed-door Mitt Romney fundraiser, released today by David Corn at Mother Jones, has killed Mitt Romney's campaign for president.
~ Josh Barro on Bloomberg
What things would I cut from spending? Well, first of all, I will eliminate all programs by this test, if they don't pass it: Is the program so critical it's worth borrowing money from China to pay for it? And if not, I'll get rid of it. Obamacare's on my list. ... I'm sorry, Jim, I'm going to stop the subsidy to PBS. I'm going to stop other things. I like PBS, I love Big Bird. Actually like you, too. But I'm not going to -- I'm not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for. That's number one.
~ Mitt Romney to PBS Moderator Jim Leher during First Presidential Debate
Mitt Romney definitely looked poised and confident. Especially when he looked America in the eyes & threatened to kill Big Bird.
— Benari (@BenariLee) October 4, 2012
And I -- and I went to my staff, and I said, "How come all the people for these jobs are -- are all men." They said, "Well, these are the people that have the qualifications." And I said, "Well, gosh, can't we -- can't we find some -- some women that are also qualified?"
And -- and so we -- we took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had backgrounds that could be qualified to become members of our cabinet.
I went to a number of women's groups and said, "Can you help us find folks," and they brought us whole binders full of women.
~ Mitt Romney During Presidential Debate, via ABC News
The President talked about women as breadwinners for Americans families; Mitt Romney talked about them as resumes in a binder. #TeamBarack
And as the word "binder" left his lips, all comedians burst into tears of tender gratitude. #binder#debate
— Mike Doughty (@Mike_Doughty_) October 17, 2012
Mr. Biden, clearly delighted to come to President Obama’s rescue, relished his role, addressing his opponent as “my friend” but dismissing his arguments as “malarkey.” He laughed at Mr. Ryan’s remarks so often and so heartily that at times he seemed like a guest at a comedy club roast, not a vice president debating the fate of the nation with his opponent.
~ New York Times
It reminded me ... of watching a musk ox run across the tundra with somebody underfoot. And in this case, when it came to style, it was Paul Ryan underfoot....
~ Previoiusly Debated VP Candidate Sarah Palin
You mentioned the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military's changed. We have these things called aircraft carriers, where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines.
~ Barack Obama During 3rd Debate
When your sense of winning a debate depends on proving that horses and bayonets are still relevant, you've probably lost.
— Ana Marie Cox (@anamariecox) October 23, 2012
If President Obama wins re-election on Tuesday, the historical memory of the race might turn on the role played by Hurricane Sandy.
Already, some analysts are describing the storm as an “October surprise” that allowed Mr. Obama to regain his footing after stumbling badly in the first presidential debate and struggling to get back on course. Some Republicans seem prepared to blame a potential defeat for Mitt Romney on the storm, and the embrace of Mr. Obama by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and other public officials.
~ Nate Silver on the importance of Hurricane Sandy
The election isn't gonna be moved. It's gonna happen Tuesday. Of course, the opposite theory is, “What the hell is Christie doing? He's giving Obama a chance to look presidential, clean up a state, look competent, look like he cares and so forth. What's a Republican doing propping up Obama?"
~ Rush Limbaugh
Other states getting federal storm relief without kissing Obama's rear.Does Christie not know RINO's are an endangered species?
Nate Silver is a man of very small stature, a thin and effeminate man with a soft-sounding voice that sounds almost exactly like the “Mr. New Castrati” voice used by Rush Limbaugh on his program. In fact, Silver could easily be the poster child for the New Castrati in both image and sound. Nate Silver, like most liberal and leftist celebrities and favorites, might be of average intelligence but is surely not the genius he's made out to be. His political analyses are average at best and his projections, at least this year, are extremely biased in favor of the Democrats.
~ Dean Chambers, founder of Unskewed Polls, on Examiner ~ this paragraph has now been edited out of the article
Nate Silver: Patron Saint of Confirmation Bias
. . . When the left wakes up on Wednesday, surveying the electoral wreckage around them, they may regret allowing themselves to be lulled into such a false sense of security.
~ Michael Flynn on Breitbart
This is a bad day for Republican pollsters, and it’s something that they should be held accountable for. You have to tell your clients the truth, and you have to be accurate. And to miss so many states and to be this far off, your Fox News viewers ought to be outraged, because day in and day out they were told that Mitt Romney was going to win, and the fact is Ohio was never up, Wisconsin was never up, Pennsylvania was never up…the published polls were correct. Nate Silver was correct. But the Republican establishment polls were wrong.
~ Republican Pollster Frank Luntz
That happened (the re-election of Barack Obama). That really happened.
We are not going to have a Supreme Court that will overturn Roe versus Wade.
There will be no more Antonin Scalias and Samuel Alitos added to this court.
We're not going to repeal health reform.
Nobody is going to kill Medicare and make old people in this generation or any other generation fight it out on the open market to try to get health insurance.
We are not going to do that.
We are not going to give a 20% tax cut to millionaires and billionaires and expect programs like food stamps and kid's insurance to cover the cost of that tax cut.
We'll not make you clear it with your boss if you want to get birth control under the insurance plan that you're on.
We are not going to redefine rape.
We are not going to amend the United States Constitution to stop gay people from getting married.
We are not going to double Guantanamo.
We are not eliminating the department of energy or the department of education or housing at the federal level.
We are not going to spend $2 trillion on the military that the military does not want.
We are not scaling back on student loans, because the country's new plan is that you should borrow money from their parents.
We are not vetoing the Dream Act.
We are not self-deporting.
We are not letting Detroit go bankrupt.
We are not starting a trade war with China on Inauguration Day in January.
We are not going to have, as a President, a man who once led a mob of friends to run down a scared gay kid, to hold him down and forcibly cut his hair off with a pair of scissors while that kid cried and screamed for help, and there was no apology not ever.
We are not going to have a Secretary of State John Bolton.
We are not bringing Dick Cheney back.
We are not going to have a foreign policy shop stocked with architects of the Iraq War.
We are not going to do it.
We had the choice to do that if we wanted to do that as a country, and we said no last night, loudly.
Ohio really did go to President Obama last night.
And he really did win.
And he really was born in Hawaii.
And he really is legitimately President of the United States, again.
And the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not make up a fake unemployment rate last month.
And the Congressional Research Service really can find no evidence that cutting taxes on rich people grows the economy.
And the polls were not screwed to oversample Democrats.
And Nate Silver was not making up fake projections about the election to make conservatives feel bad. Nate Silver was doing math.
And climate change is real.
And rape really does cause pregnancy sometimes.
And evolution is a thing.
And Benghazi was an attack on us, it was not a scandal by us.
And nobody is taking away anyone's guns.
And taxes have not gone up.
And the deficit is dropping, actually.
And Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction.
And the moon landing was real.
And FEMA is not building concentration camps.
And U.N. election observers are not taking over Texas.
And moderate reforms of the regulations on the insurance industry and the financial services industry in this country are not the same thing as communism.
. . . And the if the Republican party and the conservative movement and the conservative media is stuck in a vacuum-sealed door-locked spin cycle of telling each other what makes them feel good and denying the factual, lived truth of the world, then we are all deprived as a nation of the constructive debate about competing feasible ideas about real problems.
Last night the Republicans got shellacked, and they had no idea it was coming. And we saw them in realtime, in real humiliating time, not believe it, even as it was happening to them. And unless they are going to secede, they are going to have to pop the factual bubble they have been so happy living inside if they do not want to get shellacked again, and that will be a painful process for them, but it will be good for the whole country, left, right, and center.
