mitt romney

Steve Benen picked up on something interesting:

Mitt Romney sat down with CNBC's Larry Kudlow, and made a curious observation. He said voters who want a strong economy should vote for him, but Americans "ought to give, whichever president is going to be elected, at least six months or a year to get those policies in place."

At first blush, that may sound fairly reasonable. A president takes office, he or she needs time to put a team in place, craft an agenda, and get to work. What's more, we generally don't see the results of economic policies immediately; the agenda needs to time to take effect. In Romney's mind, six months to a year seems fair.

This does seem very fair, but why wasn't this the case in 2009?

President Obama was not even a month off the swearing in and Republican politicians and talking heads started asking where the jobs were. It was as though they had been asleep up until January 20, 2009 and didn't notice the economic havoc wreaked on our nation by one George Bush. As matter of fact, it got so bad that when people tried to say the economy was bad when Obama took office, the right started a new defense - "there you go blaming Bush".

So if Romney does win, by February of next year should we start asking why he hasn't turned the economy around? Do the Republicans want their standards applied towards their man, or is that something just reserved for Democratic Presidents. It's a very serious question and one I hope the GOP gets asked.

John Boehner would almost be comical if it wasn't for the extreme delusional state that man lives in. Here's what he told reporters a bit ago:

Boehner said the president's focus on Romney's tenure at Bain Capital shows that Obama, in Boehner's words, "doesn't give a damn about middle class Americans who are out there looking for work." He said voters are more concerned about unemployment than what's in Romney's tax returns.

John Boehner has been Speaker of the House for 19 months. During that time they have done 33 votes to try and repeal the healthcare act. During that same time they have done zero votes to help boost the job or economy - ZERO!

So who is it that doesn't "give a damn"?

And even more signs of delusion are evident in his little statement there. Mitt Romney has been facing increased criticism for shipping U.S. jobs overseas. These are the factory jobs that used to fuel our middle class and Romney got rich off of getting rid of those. That's what these tax returns will show, just how rich he got.

I almost chuckle every time I hear a Republican warn about the rise of the Chinese government. Are the really that stupid to question it while pushing for a man to become President that played an instrumental role in the rise of the Chinese economy? Come on. People can not be that moronic!

Why doesn't Boehner show he "gives a damn" about his own district? He needs to climb down off his high horse and look in his own backyard. Travel the 7 miles over here to Hamilton and look at a town that was a booming manufacturing town and now is crumbling. This is a town that was credited with helping to win World War II because of our manufacturing. Now there are none of those businesses left. This is a town that was a major paper producer and now the final factory is packing up.

On Sunday I posted about a huge lie that was being pushed by Drudge:

The article linked to by Drudge even pushed that this was Obama's doing, but as I also pointed out it was George W. Bush in January of 2004 that announced the retirement of the shuttle program. It was the Republican controlled 108th and 109th Congress that started the massive budget cuts. It was even George W. Bush in 2008 that signed the waiver stating American astronauts would fly on Russian spacecrafts to the ISS.

But don't let these facts stop the Romney campaign from pushing a huge lie that "President Obama outsourced the space program". Here's Romney surrogate and former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu on Monday:

When allegations of Herman Cain's sexual harassment came out, the biggest foe he had was himself. He constantly changed his story, twisted things around and even lied. Eventually they all caught up to him and forced him to drop out of the race.

Now we are seeing the same thing happen with Mitt Romney when it comes to Bain Capital. Though this story doesn't involve sex like the one of Cain (and sex does sell!), it is another example of how the truth will continue to haunt you, no matter how far you run from it. For example, Romney keeps insisting that he left Bain in 1999. Ed Gillespie, a senior campaign advisor for Romney, even took it to the next level today, referring to it as a retroactive retirement. Yet today another piece of evidence has emerged, punching holes in the claims made by Romney and company:

Add another document to the pile of evidence contradicting Mitt Romney's continued insistence that he ended his active role with Bain Capital in early 1999, part of his long-running effort to avoid responsibility for the company's activity, related to outsourcing and bankruptcies, during the years that followed.

A corporate document filed with the state of Massachusetts in December 2002 -- a month after Romney was elected governor -- lists him as one of two managing members of Bain Capital Investors, LLC "authorized to execute, acknowledge, deliver and record any recordable instrument purporting to affect an interest in real property, whether to be recorded with a Registry of Deeds or with a District Office of the Land Court."

Team Obama is out with a new ad, blasting Mitt Romney for sending U.S. jobs overseas and not wanting to contribute back to our nation by putting his money in tax-free havens. This should play as much as possible in every battleground state, like here in Ohio where outsourcing has cost the state dearly.

It's really comforting to see Obama come out swinging like this. Mitt Romney has been highly elusive about his time at Bain and exactly what he did and has now gone to the side of flat out lying. Is this the kind of guy America wants with the keys? It's time for Mitt Romney to stop the lying and come out with the truth!

In case you just awoke from a coma, yesterday Mitt Romney addressed the NAACP. During that address he vowed to "repeal Obamacare". Needless to say this was met with boos from the crowd.

After a day of explaining it away and trying to twist around what happened, last night Romney offered this:

ROMNEY: Remind them of this, if they want more free stuff from the government tell them to go vote for the other guy -- more free stuff. But don't forget nothing is really free.

Now Romney has stated this before in his campaign speeches, but last night he was directly referring to the booing he got from the NAACP when vowing to "repeal Obamacare". Sure there are government subsidies for people making less than 400% of the Federal Poverty Level, but there are tons of other benefits in the bill that have nothing to do with government handouts.

So now we are left with the impression that Romney views the members of the NAACP as a bunch of freeloaders just waiting for government handouts. That's a very serious problem and one that will resonate with voters. This won't hurt Romney with many of the base GOP voters, but it will help energize the African-American community to go out and vote against him.

And if what Romney did wasn't enough, you have the mouth-piece of the right making this comment yesterday:

Rush Limbaugh said Mitt Romney’s speech Wednesday to the NAACP fell flat because it was “over these people’s heads” and that the group booed the Republican candidate, who “sounded like Snow White with testicles,” simply because he’s white.

Mitt Romney has insisted that he left Bain Capital in 1999. Well if that's the case then the DOJ should open up an investigation into who was filing falsified reports with the SEC:

Government documents filed by Mitt Romney and Bain Capital say Romney remained chief executive and chairman of the firm three years beyond the date he said he ceded control, even creating five new investment partnerships during that time.

Romney has said he left Bain in 1999 to lead the winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, ending his role in the company. But public Securities and Exchange Commission documents filed later by Bain Capital state he remained the firm’s “sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president.”

And Mitt himself should be investigated for falsifying documents:

Also, a Massachusetts financial disclosure form Romney filed in 2003 states that he still owned 100 percent of Bain Capital in 2002. And Romney’s state financial disclosure forms indicate he earned at least $100,000 as a Bain “executive” in 2001 and 2002, separate from investment earnings.

So what is it Mitt, did you lie to the government or are you lying to voters? There's now a paper trail, including government forms filed by you that contradict what you say.

But Romney's problems don't stop there. He still needs to answer to his greed that has cost countless Americans their livelihood. Things like this:

Today President Obama will push for letting the Bush tax cuts for those making over $250,000/year expire. Before he even addressed his plan. Mitt Romney has already fired back with this:

President Obama’s response to even more bad economic news is a massive tax increase. It just proves again that the President doesn’t have a clue how to get America working again and help the middle class. The President’s latest bad idea is to raise taxes on families, job creators, and small businesses. Almost half a million fewer Americans are working today than the day Barack Obama took office, and we’ve just come through the worst job creation quarter in two years. Unlike President Obama, Governor Romney understands that the last thing we need to do in this economy is raise taxes on anyone. He has a plan to permanently lower marginal rates, help middle-class Americans save and invest, and jumpstart economic growth and job creation.”

Those families, job creators and businesses Romney is so concerned about accounts for less than 2% of the total tax base. Over 95% of small businesses make less than $250,000/year, but Romney isn't worried about those. Instead Romney would rather see taxes go up for 98% of us, while cutting taxes for the other 2%.

It's all part of the "tax and spend" Republican platform we have become so accustomed too. We saw it under Bush and we'll see it again under Romney.