Romney does it again ››
Jason Voorheees @ July 23, 2012 8:38 PM
Quote
hail to the gaffemaster.
Romney in 2002: Olympians 'didn't get here solely on your own power'
By Morgan Little LATimes.com
July 23, 2012, 1:22 p.m.
Mitt Romney has spent days criticizing President Obama for telling business owners that they owed some of their success to others — such as teachers and those who have built government-paid roads.
Romney has trimmed the nuance out of Obama’s remarks, assuring audiences that the president told business owners that “you didn’t build that.” At a campaign event with small-business leaders in Costa Mesa, the unofficial Republican nominee spoke in front of a banner reading “We did build it!”
But Romney’s own remarks to Olympians, offered during the opening ceremonies for the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City that Romney led, hewed closely to Obama’s suggestion that success is communal.
“You Olympians, however, know you didn’t get here solely on your own power. For most of you, loving parents, sisters or brothers encouraged your hopes,” he said after praising the competitors in footage unearthed by NBC News. “Coaches guided, communities built venues in order to organize competitions. All Olympians stand on the shoulders of those who lifted them. We’ve already cheered the Olympians, let’s also cheer the parents, coaches and communities.”
Obama, speaking in Roanoke, Va., on July 13, came to a similar rhetorical conclusion:
“Look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own.… If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help,” Obama said. “There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business – you didn’t build [all] that. Somebody else made that happen.”
Romney has featured the president’s remarks in campaign ads and brought it up again Monday at a fundraiser in Irvine on Monday morning.
“We of course have benefits from fireman and people who build roads, and teachers, and they help contribute to our society. Don't forget by the way, that government does not provide those things. We pay for those things, all right. We're paying for that,” Romney said.
The use of Obama’s remarks has even stretched beyond the presidential campaign. Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) has tied Obama’s remarks to his electoral rival, Elizabeth Warren, in a new ad featuring Warren’s own rendition of the “didn’t do it all on your own” theme.
“There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there – good for you,” she said in 2011. “But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for.”
Dianana @ July 24, 2012 9:49 AM
Originally posted by: crunkmoose
That man is such a dishonest, lying, sanctimonious dick.
You forgot "spineless."
yolohomo @ July 24, 2012 9:51 AM
Originally posted by: crunkmoose
That man is such a dishonest, lying, sanctimonious dick.
politician
crunkmoose @ July 24, 2012 11:45 AM
Originally posted by: DiananaOriginally posted by: crunkmoose
That man is such a dishonest, lying, sanctimonious dick.
You forgot "spineless."
I left out so many terms for him. Thats a decent one.
Originally posted by: babydaddyOriginally posted by: crunkmoose
That man is such a dishonest, lying, sanctimonious dick.
politician
He is so far worse than most politicians... terrible as they all are.
Jason Voorheees @ July 25, 2012 2:01 PM
lolRomney camp denies "Anglo-Saxon heritage" comment
By
Lucy Madison
Topics
Campaign 2012
Updated: 10:49 a.m. ET
(CBS News) As Mitt Romney kicks off his European trip Wednesday with a visit in London, the Romney campaign is dismissing a report from the UK's Daily Telegraph that an adviser to the campaign made comments suggesting the Republican presidential candidate's commitment to rebuilding the so-called "special relationship" between England and the United States has to do with a sense of "Anglo-Saxon heritage."
According to the Telegraph, the adviser suggested that Mr. Obama could not understand the depth of the relationship between the two countries because he cannot fully appreciate the shared "Anglo-Saxon heritage."
"We are part of an Anglo-Saxon heritage, and he feels that the special relationship is special," the adviser said of Romney, according to the Telegraph: "The White House didn't fully appreciate the shared history we have."
Andrea Saul, Romney's press secretary, disputed the comments and emphasized that they did not reflect the beliefs of the former Massachusetts governor.
"It's not true. If anyone said that, they weren't reflecting the views of Governor Romney or anyone inside the campaign," she told CBSNews.com in an email. Saul did not comment on what specifically was not true.
Per the Telegraph, this adviser and others quoted in the story spoke anonymously because they were not authorized by the Romney campaign to criticize Mr. Obama to foreign media.
Liberal commentators seized on the quote for its racial subtext: That Mr. Obama cannot understand the depth of the relationship between the two countries because his father is from Kenya.
David Axelrod, a top campaign adviser to the president, responded to the article on Wednesday via Twitter.
.
"Mitt's trip off to flying start, even before he lands, with stunningly offensive quotes from his team in British press," he wrote.
On unnamed adviser in the Telegraph story, allegedly a member of Romney's foreign policy advisory team, also accused Mr. Obama of being "a Left-winger" who is "very comfortable with American decline."
When asked specifically how policy toward the U.K. would differ under Romney "the advisers could not give detailed examples," according to the Telegraph. "One conceded that on the European crisis: 'I'm not sure what our policy response is.'"
Jason Voorheees @ July 30, 2012 7:19 PM
the whirlwind tour continues. lol
Mitt Romney's 'Jewish culture' remarks offends Jews and Palestinians
JERUSALEM — Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney angered Palestinian leaders on Monday when he suggested here that the Israeli economy had outpaced the economy of the Palestinian territories in part because of natural advantages of their “culture.”
As he prepared to stoke yet more controversy on Tuesday in Poland with a speech hostile to Russia, Mr Romney demonstrated what critics see as a penchant for accidentally offending people abroad at the fundraising breakfast in Jerusalem.
Attempting to bestow praise on his Jewish audience, he told them that Israel was more prosperous than the Palestinian territories because of thei culture and the "hand of providence", seen by some Palestinians as a reference to God.
"As you I come here and I look out over this city and consider the accomplishments of the people of this nation, I recognise the power of at least culture and a few other things," he said.
"As you come here and you see the GDP per capita, for instance, in Israel which is about $21,000 (£13,300), and compare that with the GDP per capital just across the areas managed by the Palestinian Authority, which is more like $10,000 per capita, you notice such a dramatically stark difference in economic vitality."
Senior Palestinian figures reacted angrily.
"It is a racist statement and this man doesn't realise that the Palestinian economy cannot reach its potential because there is an Israeli occupation," said Saeb Erekat, the veteran Palestinian negotiator with close ties with the US.
"It seems to me this man lacks information, knowledge, vision and understanding of this region and its people. What this man is doing here is just promoting extremism, violence and hatred, and this is absolutely unacceptable."
It would not have been Mr Romney's intention to offend the Palestinian leadership so gratuitously, with whom he will have to work were he to become president.
Despite following the tradition of visiting American presidential candidates by referring to Jerusalem as Israel's capital he has been evasive about whether he would move the American embassy there from its current base in Tel Aviv, reflecting the international consensus that Jerusalem remains a city contested by both Israel and the Palestinians.
Mr Romney arrived yesterday for the final leg of his tour in Poland, meeting the prime minister, Donald Tusk, in Gdansk before delivering what is expected to be a strident speech on the "values of liberty" at Warsaw University.
Despite being accused of trying to rekindle the Cold War spirit by saying earlier this year that Russia was America's "number-one geopolitical foe", Mr Romney is expected to pledge to defend Nato's eastern border even at the risk of antagonising President Vladimir Putin. He has accused President Obama of "abandoning Poland" by cancelling plans to build a controversial missile shield there.
A member of Mr Romney's foreign policy advisory team said the Republican candidate would not be backing down and had been vindicated by ongoing coolness from Moscow despite Mr Obama's claim to have "reset" relations between the powers.
Mr Romney's aides yesterday desperately tried to dispel the impression that he had intended to offend the Palestinians, saying his comments in Jerusalem had been "mischaracterised".
It did not help that Mr Romney's figures were also way off the mark. Israel's per capita GDP stands at $31,000, while the figure for the Palestinians is just over $1,500.
and
Mitt Romney Hails Israel's Socialized Health Care System
Sahil Kapur July 30, 2012 TPM
During a trip to Israel, Mitt Romney hailed the nation’s health care system for holding down costs and broadening coverage more effectively than the U.S.
The irony: Israel contains costs by adopting a very centralized, government-run health care system — anathema to Romney’s Republican Party.
“Do you realize what health care spending is as a percentage of the GDP in Israel? Eight percent. You spend eight percent of GDP on health care. You’re a pretty healthy nation,” he said Monday at a breakfast fundraiser, according to the New York Times. “We spend 18 percent of our GDP on health care, 10 percentage points more. That gap, that 10 percent cost, compare that with the size of our military — our military which is 4 percent, 4 percent. Our gap with Israel is 10 points of GDP. We have to find ways — not just to provide health care to more people, but to find ways to fund and manage our health care costs.”
Israel’s health care system is an instructive exercise in all that rankles American conservatives — replete with government mandates, price controls and centralized payments funded mostly by high taxes.
Reformed in 1995 on the basis of a European model, Israelis are forced to buy insurance from one of several competing not-for-profit plans, which are heavily regulated by the government, according to the journal Health Affairs. The state requires them to cover everyone regardless of health status, and establishes a broad benefits package insurance policies must provide, updated annually by a committee of appointed experts. The government pays the full cost of these policies, mostly through higher taxes. The state also caps the level of annual revenue hospitals can earn from an insurance plan. Care is largely delivered through government-owned facilities; there are private providers, but they tend to charge more.
So how’s the socialized approach working out?
Quite well. Israel covers all residents and spends 8 percent of its national product on health care; the U.S. currently spends 17.5 percent and has many uninsured. Nor are Israelis resigned to low quality care or long waits that some associate with government-run systems: according to the Jewish Daily Forward, “going by many indexes of health outcomes, the result in terms of quality of care [in Israel] is often better — and definitely cheaper than in the U.S.”
A 2010 study in Health Affairs describes “strong government influence” over its system has been the catalyst for Israel’s low health spending growth since the 1995 reforms.
The Affordable Care Act moves the U.S. a bit closer to an Israel-type system with the use of regulations and mandates to extend coverage, but permits far less government power over health care delivery than Israel. Romney has vowed to repeal the law if elected president.
crunkmoose @ July 30, 2012 9:35 PM
Hmm.. or maybe Israel has such a great economy because they get so much aid from the US.
Jason Voorheees @ July 31, 2012 10:21 AM
one of his aides was nice enough to put the cherry on the clusterfuck sunday for him today:Romney aide loses cool, curses at press in Poland
Warsaw, Poland (CNN) - The traveling press secretary for Mitt Romney lost his cool and cursed at reporters who attempted to ask questions of the Republican presidential candidate in a public plaza near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw Tuesday.
After Romney paid his respects to Poland's war dead and shook hands with a small gathering of the nation's military veterans, the GOP contender walked approximately 100 yards away from the memorial as he chatted with Warsaw's mayor.
As Romney made his way to his vehicle, reporters attempted to shout questions to the candidate. The former Massachusetts governor, who has answered only three questions from his traveling press corps during a week-long overseas trip, ignored the queries. Romney did sit down for multiple interviews during his foreign swing, including with CNN's Piers Morgan and Wolf Blitzer. Romney also spoke with NBC News, CBS News, ABC News and Fox News during his trip.
When members of the press tried to ask Romney about some of the mishaps on his trip, his traveling press secretary Rick Gorka verbally dressed down reporters.
Here's a transcript of the questions and Gorka's response:
Gorka: "Show some respect"
NYT: "We haven't had another chance to ask a question..."
Gorka: "Kiss my ass. This is a Holy site for the Polish people. Show some respect."
Moments later, Gorka told Jonathan Martin, a reporter for Politico, to "shove it." About a half-hour later, the aide called reporters to apologize.
can't wait until this guy is president.
crunkmoose @ July 31, 2012 7:39 PM
Originally posted by: Kadesh
I see the criticism of people who earn their own money and getting wealthy off it as us like saying, "mommy!! Billy has a bigger piece of cake then I got! whaaa, whaaa. Give me a piece!" That's literally the image I get...
Thats because you don't actually know jack shit about how things have actually worked economically for the last few decades. Oh, the poor persecuted rich... the only people who actually work hard. Nevermind how low wages for the non-wealthy have been kept for the last 4 decades while the income of the wealthiest has skyrocketed... and their tax rates have fallen. You listen to the talking points that demonize people who actually want living wages and then form your view based on that. After all, we all know how often you prove yourself to be grossly ignorant about just about everything.
Frankly, I don't care how much money anyone has... as long as they are paying a fair rate of taxation.. not being further rewarded for "succeeding", as if their fortune wasn't reward enough and as if success is ONLY achieved by having lots of money... and as long as they pay their workers a living wage.. which is not done for a huge number of workers these days.. which is why over half this nation doesn't pay anything in taxes... they don't make enough money to pay taxes in the first place.
Also, look at how much the pay of those at the top has increased, all while productivity and profits have grown. Think an increase in wages for those at the bottom will hurt the company or the economy? Only if those at the top insist on their insanely high wages, rather than just incredibly high wages. In the 70s executives made what around 70 average workers made. Today its more like what 400 workers make.
