Mitt just can't seem to go away. Yes, during the last Presidential debate he did sort-of predict that Vladimir Putin might cause trouble in the future. Duh. But when asked what he would do differently from President Obama about the invasion of Ukraine, he had nothing but sanctions and more sanctions, which is what is happening now. Then along comes White House Press Corps member Jonathan Karl riding posse for Mitt, asking the President to 'splain his Fail, and Obama was having none of it. Epic smackdown!
Good morning, Governor, and welcome back to FACE THE NATION. During the campaign, and I want to start with this, you took a lot of heat for saying that Russia was our greatest geopolitical foe. In the third debate, the President came down pretty hard on you about that.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA (2012): A few months ago when you were asked what's the biggest geopolitical threat facing America you said Russia. Not al Qaeda, you said Russia. And the 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because, you know, the Cold War has been over for twenty years.
BOB SCHIEFFER: I'm sure, Governor, you're tempted this morning to say, I told you so, but do you really believe that what happened in Ukraine had anything to do with what President Obama has or hasn't done?
MITT ROMNEY (2012 Republican Presidential Nominee): Well, there's no question, but that the-- the President's naivety with regards to-- to Russia and his faulty judgment about Russia's intentions and objectives has led to a number of foreign policy challenges that we face. And unfortunately not having anticipated Russia's intentions, the President wasn't able to shape the kinds of events that may have been able to prevent the kinds of circumstances that you're seeing in the Ukraine as well as the things that you're seeing in Syria.
. . . BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, we had put on some sanctions now, they don't seem to have done much good. You're saying if we had done it earlier, how-- how actually would we have done that? And-- and are the sanctions they put on now, do we need stronger sanctions?
MITT ROMNEY: Well, let's-- let's step back. I think effective leaders typically are able to see the future to a certain degree and then try and take actions to shape it in some way. And that's, of course, what this President has failed to do and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as well. They thought resetting relations with Russia, handing out gifts to Russia would somehow make Russia change its objectives. Well, that certainly wasn't the case. Had we from the very beginning of the demonstrations in Crimea, excuse me, in-- in Ukraine, had we worked with our allies and said, look, let's talk about the kinds of severe sanctions we would put in place if Russia were to decide to move and had we then communicated that to Russia beforehand, not put in place the sanctions, but communicate, look, Russia, stand down here. Don't you think about grabbing territory or these are the things that will have to happen.These are the actions we will take. And by the way, Russia, we're not going to interfere with your base in Sevastopol and so forth. Had we communicated those things there is always the potential that we could have kept them from invading a country and annexing it into their own?
JONATHAN KARL, ABC NEWS: Mr. President, thank you. In China, in Syria, in Egypt, and now in Russia we've seen you make strong statements, issue warnings that have been ignored. Are you concerned that America's influence in the world -- that your influence in the world -- is on the decline? And in light of recent developments, do you think Mitt Romney had a point when he said that Russia is America's greatest geopolitical foe, if not Russia, who? And Mr. Prime Minister, do you think these sanctions will change Vladimir Putin's calculation? Or cause him to back down. Where do you see a Russian red line where if they go any further, into Eastern Ukraine, into Moldova, when would options beyond sanctions have to be considered?
BARACK OBAMA: I think if the premise of the question is that whenever the United States objects to an action and other countries don't immediately do what we want, that that's been the norm, that would pretty much erase most of twentieth century history. . . . Russia is a regional power that is threatening some of its immediate neighbors, not out of strength but out of weakness... . . . The fact that Russia felt compelled to go in militarily and lay bare these violations of international law indicates less influence, not more.
That is actually the preferred outcome, to have a vote but yet to have the result be business as usual continue in Washington. It is a little bit akin to the World Wrestling Federation, wrestling matches where it is all rigged. The outcome is predetermined. They know in advance who is going to win and lose and it is all for show.
. . . It can't be done. I guarantee that all of the pundits we see going on TV and intoning in deep baritone voices: This cannot be done--if we were back in the 18th century, they would be writing messages in dark ink and sending it by carrier pigeon, saying: This cannot be done. You can't stand up to the British Army. It can't be done. It is impossible. Accept your subjugation. Accept your taxation without representation. Accept that this is impossible.
If we fast forward to the Civil War--a time of enormous pain, anguish, and bloodshed in the United States--there were a lot of voices then who said the Union cannot be saved. It cannot be done. Accept defeat. I suspect those same pundits, had they been around in the mid-19th century, would have written the same columns: This cannot be done.
If we go to the 1940s, Nazi Germany--look, we saw it in Britain. Neville Chamberlain told the British people: Accept the Nazis. Yes, they will dominate the continent of Europe, but that is not our problem. Let's appease them. Why? Because it can't be done. We cannot possibly stand against them.
In America there were voices who listened to that; I suspect the same pundits who said it couldn't be done. If this had happened in the 1940s, we would have been listening to them. Even then they would have made television. They would have gotten beyond the carrier pigeons and letters and they would have been on TV saying: You cannot defeat the Germans.
If we go to the late 1960s when a President, John F. Kennedy, told this country: We are going to send a man to the Moon--when John F. Kennedy told this country we are going to send a man to the Moon, there were a lot of people who said: It cannot be done. It is impossible.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I will tell you the single biggest surprise in arriving to the Senate is the defeatist attitude here. I mean, we don't even talk about how to win a fight. There's no discussion. We talk about, "Hey, let's get a show vote so we can go tell our constituents we're doing something." But I promise you, Rush, if you had to sit through one Senate lunch, you'd be in therapy for a month.
~ Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, just after finishing his Filibuster, on Rush Limbaugh, Sept. 25, 2-13
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I’d remind my colleagues that, in the 2012 election, Obamacare, as it’s called — and I’ll be more polite, the ACA — was a subject that was a major issue in the campaign. I campaigned all over America for two months, everywhere I could. And in every single campaign rally I said “we had to repeal and replace Obamacare.” Well, the people spoke. They spoke, much to my dismay, but they spoke and they re-elected the President of the United States. No that doesn’t mean that we give up our efforts to try to replace and repair Obamacare. But it does mean elections have consequences and those elections were clear, in a significant majority, that the majority of the American people supported the President of the US and renewed his stewardship of this country. I don’t like it, it’s not something that I wanted the outcome to be. But I think all of us should respect the outcome of elections, which reflects the will of the people. (About the Nazi-analogy in Cruz's speech)
. . . I resoundingly reject that allegation. That allegation, in my view, does a great disservice. I do not agree with that comparison; I think it's wrong.
~ Senator John McCain, R-AZ, chastising Ted Cruz from the Senate Floor
Ted Cruz, whatever we decide he is or whatever he decides to be, he is no Winston Churchill battling Hitler any more than Snoopy was battling the Red Baron. Just today after declaring himself the man to stand alone, he gave up the colors and voted the same way as all other 99 Senators.
~ Chris Matthews on MSNBC
You’re protecting America from this terrible Obamacare plan that, once we get a taste of [it], we’ll never want to be without. You only win if the program fails. Obamacare is your Springtime For Hitler.
~ Jon Stewart on The Daily Show
He's holding the American people hostage because he's so sure he's right and everybody else is wrong. Senator Cruz has actually advanced our cause. He has alienated some of his colleagues. He has united Democrats, and he's shown the American people that he is willing to hold them and their well being hostage unless he gets his way.
~ Senator Chuck Schumer, R-New York
You have to add to that brew that there’s a political opportunism here. He’s going to die on this hill, and then he’ll turn around and tell all of the conservatives that he was alone. That benefits him politically, even though it’s terribly narcissistic in some respects—
~ Sam Stein of Huffington Post on Morning Joe
All politicians are narcissistic, but this is just phony, this isn’t even inspiring narcissism. Churchill was a narcissist. But this is just pretend. He can be doing this in his closet and it would have the same exact effect on America.
~ Joe Scarborough of MSNBC
It was kind of nice to see John McCain come out and try to put down this analogy and this excessive rhetoric that Ted Cruz is throwing around, but I think in a lot of ways by putting Sarah Palin on the ticket, the Republican establishment, that is John McCain and John Boehner - they rode into power on the backs of his Tea Party tiger.
They've really handed over the keys to the car to these folks and now they're upset that, with gasoline provided by Rush Limbaugh and other talk radio, that they're out there connecting directly to the base of the Party.
It's quite clear that Ted Cruz is not in town to legislate. He's there to do what Sarah Palin and others want him to do - to talk about death panels, to be excessive, to bring things down. They take hostages not to get leverage, but they want to blow up the bank! They want to shoot the hostage! That's where we are with the Republican Party and we got there because people like John McCain and John Boehner made common cause with these folks.
~ David Corn on Hardball
Using the word ‘self-deportation’ — I mean, it’s a horrific comment to make. It’s not something that has anything to do with our party. But when a candidate makes those comments, obviously it hurts us. ~ Reince Priebus Via Business Insider
Correction, 12:26 p.m. ET: An original version of this story said that Reince Priebus referred to Mitt Romney's comments as "racist." He said it "hurts us." Business Insider regrets the error.
~ Correction from Business Insider
It turns out a spokesman for the Republican National Committee mistakenly confirmed on Friday that chairman Reince Priebus had described the term "self-deportation" as "racist."
The committee's communications director Sean Spicer told TPM on Friday afternoon that a regional spokesperson earlier in the day had mistakenly made the confirmation when he was contacted by a Cornell University law professor and blogger.
~ From Talking Points Memo
Mitt Romney in 2012 ~ Self-Deport Grandma
Well, the answer is self-deportation, which is people decide that they can do better by going home because they can’t find work here because they don’t have legal documentation to allow them to work here. (Audience laughs) And so we’re not going to round people up. [...] Well, yes, we’d have a card that indicates who’s here legally. And if people are not able to have a card, and have that through an e-verify system to determine that they are here legally, then they’re going to find they can’t find work here. And if people don’t get work here, they’re going to self-deport to a place they can get work.
~ Then-Candidate Mitt Romney via PoliticusUSA
Steve King, R-IA ~ Drug Mules with Cantalope Calves
Some of (the Dreamers) are valedictorians — and their parents brought them in. It wasn't their fault. It's true in some cases, but they aren't all valedictorians. They weren't all brought in by their parents.
"For everyone who's a valedictorian, there's another 100 out there who weigh 130 pounds — and they've got calves the size of cantaloupes because they're hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert. Those people would be legalized with the same act.
~ Rep. Steve King of Iowa on Newsmax
That description comes from many days down on the border, riding and sitting with the border patrol and without them at night, no night vision, watching the shadows come across the border, picking people up personally with my hands, unloading illegal drugs out of a vehicle with a false bottom under the truck. I mean this is a personal experience and I sit there at night and border patrol agents would come to me one at a time in their civil clothes and talk to me clandestinely…This description is the description from that kind of experience.
~ Rep. Steve King of Iowa
Steve King: The GOP is Under a Spell on Immigration
Last year, almost everybody in my conference would’ve agreed with me on this immigration issue. And this year, it seems as though after the presidential election a spell’s been cast over a good number of Republicans and they seem to think the presidential election was about immigration. I’d ask them, find me that debate between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama that addressed immigration. I don’t remember it. I can’t find it. The election was about jobs and the economy, not immigration. And yet some Republican strategists and leadership have decided let’s just go ahead and debate immigration for twelve months and then we’ll see if we can solve the problem…
~ Congressman Steve King
GOP Leaders to King ~ Just Shut Up!
I think Congressman King should go get some therapy for his melon fixation. I think there might be medication for that. I think he's a mediocre congressman with no legislative record and the only time he makes national press is when he comes out and says something offensive about the undocumented or Hispanics.
. . . This is a man who couldn't even get elected senator in Iowa. That's why he's not running there. This is a man whose district has been polled and supports immigration reform in the majority. So, you know, he is -- this is his call to fame.
~ Republican Strategist Ann Navarro on Meet the Press
Since 2006 Republicans have grimaced and hidden in the corners and asked, 'Oh, what are we going to do about these people on talk radio, these people on cable news that are saying these things that are driving off the very swing voters we need to get elected to the White House again?' They don't have guts to speak out against the extremists. Mitt Romney never had the guts to speak out against the most extreme elements in his party. And he lost, in part because he followed extremists down a rabbit hole in Iowa in a caucus process on immigration and he got slaughtered among Hispanic Americans...
~ Joe Scarborough of Morning Joe on MSNBC, via Blue Virginia
Rightwingers to Leaders ~ We Don't Need Your Stinking Rebranding!
. . . you have to form a very very strong barrier from people just flowing in like candy. It's no good, you can't have it. We either have a country, or we don't have a country.
~ Donald Trump
The Republican consultants are the ones that are sourcing for this, because they're the ones that believe this. But we've never had a majority of Hispanics or even close. We've never had a majority of blacks. We've never had a majority of transgenders and gays, and we've won. This is hocus-pocus. What a trick! The first big trick that the Democrats succeeded in pulling off was telling the Republicans that they gotta get the independents.
So the Republican candidate, every four years, has a campaign aimed at only 20% of the electorate! You know the sold saw that 40% of the voters are gonna vote Democrat, 40% Republican, and the 20% independent, that's where the election's won. And all these consultants tell these Republican candidates, "I'm the guy that can get you a majority of those Hispanic votes and that's how you win.
~ Rush Limbaugh
Tennessee Republican State Rep Scott DesJarlais was presiding over a Tea Party town hall meeting in Murfreesboro, Tennessee this past week, and was approached by a Hispanic girl, eleven-year-old Josie Molina.
Josie took the mic and, with a trembling voice, said to DesJarlais, “Mr. DesJarlais, I have papers but my daddy doesn’t, what can you do to make sure he can stay?”
Josie’s father is currently in deportation proceedings and she is undergoing therapy to deal with the anxiety.
DesJarlais thanked her for the question but said, “the answer remains the same. We have laws and we should follow those laws.” The pro-Tea Party, mostly anti-immigration crowd cheered loudly in approval to his response.
~ Story via Progressive Populist
So the GOP thinks that we must do something to legalize 11 million Mexican criminals. What doe the GOP think about legalizing 11 million American criminals. I am sure they deserve it more than the Mexican do. After all this is their country and it is not the Mexicans country. I would be happier if you would vote to give amnesty to every US citizen charged with a crime that has not been arrested and convicted.
~ Cactus Jack on Newsmax
I am still looking for the part the deports the 11 million illegal aliens. We need to enforce our immigration laws. What are they going to do with the parents of kids who are illegal aliens? This is crazy. Just deport all of them. That is the law.
~ Charles B. on Time
These establishment RNC bozo's are the last gasp of the Romney campaign. They will be sacked in short order. They do not represent the actual base of republican voters and their position papers are meaningless drivel. Certainly they are irrelevant to those who actually vote in republican primaries. This Rinse Prepube (or whoever) is nobody. He is simply a shill for a few corporate billionaires. He and his politburo prance and strut and deluded themselves that they have power. The establishments greed for cheap labor has got to be crushed. They have no support and they are destroying the republican party..
~ HacimObmed on Time
So acknowledging the law of the land is "horrific?"
WALLACE: Are you saying that as part of your budget you would repeal — you assume the repeal of Obamacare?
RYAN: Yes.
WALLACE: Well that’s not going to happen.
RYAN: Well, we believe it should. [...]
WALLACE: This was a big issue in the campaign between Romney-Ryan vs. Obama-Biden. They think they won and they think that’s one of the reasons they won, and there are, Congressman, a lot of independent studies that say if you put this into effect, the net effect will be that seniors will end up having to pay more of the share of their healthcare cost. [...]
RYAN: I would argue against your premise that we lost this issue in the campaign. We won the senior vote.
Paul Ryan, the Health Bomber
. . . My question is why the newspapers keep acting as if this guy, Paul Ryan, is some kind of big Republican brain. Is this the person with whom the President needs to strike some type of Grand Bargain? If so, we've got problems.
~ Chris Matthews on Hardball
Paul Ryan comes out as if 2012 didn't happen, it's like Back to the Future. He got in a time machine!
~ David Corn on Hardball
Ryan Peaked Well Before Romney Selected Him VP Would-Be And Now He's Flailing With Same Old Useless Budget wapo.st/Wj1LHE
— John Dean (@JohnWDean) March 12, 2013
Paul Ryan: "The poor and the middle class have it waaaaaaaaaay too good right now. My budget fixes that." #tcot
— Rafalca Romney (@RafalcaRomney) March 12, 2013
WTF(WhatTheFact): Paul Ryan's new Budget assumes Repeal of Obamcare, while keeping the savings created by Obamacare, *FacePalm* #Uniteblue
— Truth In Politics™ (@TruthToPolitics) March 12, 2013
Ryan: “the most important question isn’t how we balance the budget. It’s why.” If how doesn’t matter, why not raise taxes?
— Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias) March 12, 2013
Paul Ryan should change the name of his budget from "Path to Prosperity" to "Path to Preposterous". #SeriousMyAss @lawrence
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
— ✰Ò â„’ÄƒÄ…áº—Î¼ 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
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.
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
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.
