2016 speculation: “If Hillary runs, she walks away with the nomination and then beats whichever Republican. It's lights out.”
If President Obama is re-elected, it is very possible that the American people will not have to worry about another Republican president governing for the plutocrats until at least 2024.
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“There’s no legislation with regards to abortion that I’m familiar with that would become part of my agenda.”
“Mitt Romney is proudly pro-life, and he will be a pro-life president.”
During the GOP primary earlier this year, Romney said repeatedly that Roe vs. Wade should be overturned and that all funding for Planned Parenthood should be cut. He has also said he would prefer to appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe vs. Wade.
[….] Romney
could[will] likely still support anti-abortion rights legislation.
It’s troubling that Mitt Romney is so willing to play politics with such important issues. Women simply can’t trust him.
My take. Mitt Romney will, as we already know, say and do anything in order to get elected. Anything. And, if we didn’t already know that, we sure should have figured it out when he chose his running mate. Paul Ryan is rabidly anti-women.
UPDATE: Last month, Romney was so against abortion rights, he said he would appoint Supreme Court justices who would reverse Roe v. Wade:
“But I am pro-life and will intend, if I’m president of the United States, to encourage pro-life policies. [...] And I hope to appoint justices to the Supreme Court that will follow the law and the constitution. And it would be my preference that they reverse Roe v. Wade and therefore they return to the people and their elected representatives the decisions with regards to this important issue.”
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“The contrasts are self-evident. There is a record that speaks for itself, [with] a photographic trail of a president that acts and speaks for all of the people. Women, children, the elderly, minorities, even those gun and Bible-clingers. The president shows more hope and faith in more people, around the world, while Mitt Romney speaks for no one, and nothing.”
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“I was so excited to see that because I was thinking to myself, finally people are seeing the guy we know. Finally — I mean didn’t you kind of think of Ronald Reagan when you were watching that?”
Uh no. I saw a guy with small, beady, rapidly blinking eyes who seemed to be hyped up by amphetamines as he spewed one lie after another, in rapid succession. On the other hand….
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“When he was asked what he would do to actually cut spending and reduce the deficit, he said he'd eliminate public television funding. So….But I just want to make sure I got this straight. He'll get rid of regulations on Wall Street -- but he's going to crack down on Sesame Street.”
Via TPM
ABC on PBS funding:
About 15 percent of PBS’s budget comes from federal funds. But for many rural stations, that percentage is much higher.
“Stations in rural parts of the country, where their parts of the federal funding is 40, 50, 60 percent, those stations will go off the air,” PBS chief executive Paula Kerger told CNN this morning. “The reach of our work is so extensive and so deeply rooted in education … the fact that we are in this debate at all is just incomprehensible.”
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“Seventy percent of Americans want the American dream. They believe in the American idea. Only 30 percent want their welfare state. Before too long, we could become a society where the net majority of Americans are takers, not makers.”
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“Whenever I confront an undecided voter who can’t really distinguish between the candidates (yes, these people exist in droves), I present the following scenario: Who would you rather have in the Situation Room during the Cuban Missile Crisis? A thoughtful, wonky, even-keeled, disciplined pragmatist or an unpredictably awkward empty-suit waffler who’s beholden to the far-right base of his party and, as such, has been forced to reboot his campaign three times in so many weeks?”
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“I refuse to ask middle class families to give up your deduction for owning a home or raising kids just so we pay for another millionaire’s tax cut.”
“If Governor Romney’s plan goes into effect it could mean that every one of you would be paying more taxes on your Social Security. The average senior would have to pay $460 a year more in taxes for their Social Security.”
Romney has steadfastly refused to specify any tax credits or deductions he would target in order to pay for his trillions of dollars in tax cuts. But his contradictory promises — to cut taxes on the middle class without raising them on the rich or increasing the deficit — have earned criticism as to whether his proposal is mathematically feasible. Studies have found that it is not — unless middle class incomes are defined downward from the agreed-upon $250,000.
On the Sunday talk shows, the Romney campaign continued to struggle to answer questions about how the tax math would work. On “Fox News Sunday,” vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan said “it would take [him] too long to go through all of the math.” On NBC’s “Meet The Press,” Romney surrogate and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie retorted that Romney has laid out his broad vision but “[h]e’s not an accountant.”
The Obama campaign’s new approach is an attempt to force him to take a stand on whether popular middle-class tax loopholes are at least on the chopping block if he’s elected. There’s no convenient answer for the Republican candidate: taking them off the table would further chip away at the credibility of his plan, while leaving them on the table could alienate middle class homeowners and seniors from his campaign.
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During a campaign stop in Reno, Nevada on Thursday, Ann Romney sat down for an interview with KTVN, and expressed concern about her husband’s mental health should he be elected, emphasis mine: “I think my biggest concern, obviously, would just be for his mental well-being. I have all the confidence in the world in his ability, in his decisiveness and his leadership skills, in his understanding of the economy, in his understanding of what’s missing right now in the economy – you know, pieces that are missing to get this jump-started. So for me I think it would just be the emotional part of it.”
h/t Raw Story
Image is a screenshot by Political Ruminations
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“I mean, this is somebody who kind of makes Michele Bachmann look like a hippie.”
If you’re unfamiliar with Todd Akin, he’s the guy who differentiates between “rape” and “legitimate rape”. Akin is a certified member of the He-Man Woman Haters Club, so ladies, if you have a few bucks to spare, help Sen. McCaskill beat this guy by donating to her re-election fund!
Adding…yesterday, Akin accused Sen. McCaskill of not being as “ladylike” as she was in 2006. Republicans, after insisting that Akin drop out of the race at the time he made his controversial comments about women and their ladyparts, they are back on board with supporting this woman hating Neanderthal. Yet another reason why we can not allow McCaskill to lose.
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“We cannot lose the debate about Medicare because if we do--forget Democrats, forget Republicans--Medicare is gone. We'll be back to a time before Lyndon Johnson. We will be putting seniors at the mercy of insurance companies by giving them a voucher but not a guarantee.
And the severing of that guarantee, the architect of that, is Paul Ryan.”
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“I think it's a mistake. I think we have to get the money out of the teachers' unions going into campaigns. It's the wrong way for us to go. We've got to separate that.”
I realize Romney's developed an allergy to pre-election details, but it'd be great if he could flesh this out a little. It seems that Romney -- who's expressed support for unlimited contributions -- is fully comfortable with lobbyists, corporations (which are people, my friend), and hedge fund managers donating to their hearts' content, no matter what their dealings with government might be.
But school teachers? For Romney, their involvement in elections must be curtailed.
Just how stupid does Mr. Romney think we are?
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“I appreciate the fact that she is on the ground, safe and sound. And I don’t think she knows just how worried some of us were. When you have a fire in an aircraft, there’s no place to go, exactly, there’s no — and you can’t find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don’t open. I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem. So it’s very dangerous. And she was choking and rubbing her eyes. Fortunately, there was enough oxygen for the pilot and copilot to make a safe landing in Denver. But she’s safe and sound.”
So, um, Romney doesn’t understand why aircraft windows don’t open… Smart.
H/T Bob Cesca
UPDATE: The Sorry Conclusion to Mitt Romney’s Plane-Windows-Gate
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“I wish we weren’t unionized so we could go a lot deeper than you’re actually allowed to go.”
I have a high degree of doubt that union contracts would stop him.
Romney teases his high-value, campaign cash-cow audience with this: “But we can find a way.” Maybe he would dust off his old Bain Capital playbook.
Here’s a question for Romney. If it weren’t for those darned union contracts, how many job safety or food inspectors, border patrol agents, air traffic controllers, Veterans Affairs doctors and nurses and other hardworking federal employees would you fire?
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Romney’s remarks about 47 percent of Americans in the now infamous, secretly taped video : “Romney just wrote off half the people in Massachusetts and half the people in America as deadbeats. This is a separate category of contempt for half of our fellow citizens.”
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“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.”
“There are not a lot of people out there who think they’re victims. There are not a lot of people who think they’re entitled to something.”
“The other thing you discover as you travel around the country is, the American people, they work so hard.”
“One of the things I've learned as president, is you represent the entire country. And, when I meet Republicans, as I'm traveling around the country, they are hard working family people who care deeply about this country, and, my expectation is that if you want to be president, you gotta work for everybody. Not just for some.”
“All of us make mistakes. What people want to know though is you’re not writing off a big chunk of the country.”
Image credit (Carolyn Kaster/ Associated Press )
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“There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax.”
A majority of that 47 percent Romney is hating on, lives in red states, and, that number is not really even half the story.
Full series of video clips from the May fundraiser.
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“We will never have the media on our side, ever, in this country. We will never have the elite, smart people on our side.”
“When it comes to conservatism libertarian types can say, “oh, well you know, we don't want to talk about social issues”. Without the church and the family, there is no conservative movement, there is no basic values of America.”
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“President Obama has been absolutely clear and on this there's absolutely no daylight between the United States and Israel, that we will do what it takes to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. We are not at that stage yet. They do not have a nuclear weapon. Our shared intelligence assessments is that there is still considerable time and space before they will have a nuclear weapon should they make the decision to go for that.”
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“They [Republicans] confuse obnoxious loudness with foreign policy expertise.
The opposite of a foreign policy neophyte isn’t a scolding jerkass who pops off with saber-rattling platitudes and political attacks. Romney could have been a statesman about the events in Libya and Cairo and appeared dignified — perhaps qualified in the process, but instead he decided to be a braying dick. Anyone with a lapel pin and a pulse can do that. Braying dickishness doesn’t amount to anything resembling international leadership gravitas.”
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“There's a broader lesson to be learned here: Governor Romney seems to have a tendency to shoot first and aim later.”
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“I think it is a bad thing is they let those cuts expire, we’re in the middle of a deep, deep recession … Now is not the time to increase taxes to the dwindling producers in our country when we have a president who is trying to give more money away to the moochers and welfare. We need people working, not sitting back receiving food stamps and unemployment. It’s laughable.”
Read John Amato’s post…
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“[….] the size of growth of government is enormous under President Obama.”
Adding…….as you probably know, the spike in 2010 was due to the census.
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“He says he's got a 53-point plan or whatever, I don't know.”
The lack of enthusiasm is….contagious.
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“Somebody emailed me after his speech -- they said, “you need to appoint him secretary of explaining stuff”... That was pretty good. I like that... the secretary of explaining stuff.”
Image credit: Associated Press
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“When you give a speech you don't go through a laundry list, you talk about the things you think are important.”
So here's the choice in 2012. Mitt Romney: out of touch at home, out of his depth abroad and out of the mainstream. Or Barack Obama: a president who is giving new life and truth to America's indispensable role in the world; a commander - in - chief who gives our troops the tools and training they need in war, the honor and help they've earned when they come home; a man who will never ask other men and women to fight a war without a plan to win the peace.
And let me say something else. No nominee for president should ever fail in the midst of a war to pay tribute to our troops overseas in his acceptance speech. Mitt Romney was talking about America. They are on the front lines every day defending America, and they deserve our thanks.
Some of us from a prior war remember coming home was not always easy. President Obama has made it his mission that we welcome our troops home with care, and concern, and the respect they deserve. That is how an exceptional nation says ''thank you'' to its most exceptional men and women. Mitt Romney says he ''believes in America'' and he'll restore ''American exceptionalism.'' I have news for him: We already have an exceptional American as president - and we believe in Barack Obama!
Does this country really want a president who doesn’t care about so many groups of people such as gays, women, soldiers and sailors, and immigrants? I have to believe that the answer is a resounding “NO.”.
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“Climate change is not a hoax. More droughts and floods and wildfires are not a joke. They’re a threat to our children’s future. And in this election, you can do something about it.”
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“We Democrats — we think the country works better with a strong middle class, with real opportunities for poor folks to work their way into it — with a relentless focus on the future, with business and government actually working together to promote growth and broadly share prosperity. You see, we believe that “we’re all in this together” is a far better philosophy than “you’re on your own.” It is.”
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Lyin’ Paul Ryan has the utter audacity to be be in Iowa bashing President Obama re the U.S. debt:
Congressman Paul Ryan said the national debt surpassing $16 trillion Tuesday is a “downer” and argued it’s President Obama’s “worst” broken promise to the country only further underlining why voters should choose a new path this November.
“This is a serious threat to our economy,” Ryan told the crowd roughly an hour after the Treasury Department announced that the national debt surpassed $16 trillion for the first time in American history. “Of all the broken promises from President Obama, this is probably the worst one because this debt is threatening jobs today, it is threating prosperity today and it is guaranteeing that our children and grandchildren get a diminished future.”
“ Congressman Ryan’s the last person to lecture on the debt and here’s why: he was a rubber stamp in Congress for the policies that turned surpluses into deficits, putting two wars on the credit card, voting for a prescription drug benefit without paying for it, and fighting for tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans when they weren’t asking for them. ”
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On MSNBC’s “Hardball” last night, North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue (D) warned about the outcome of a GOP election win given the Republican position on abortion: “ But for poor women, you'll be back to the days of coat hangers in the bathtub and you'll see women die. ”
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“ I was asked in an interview this morning how much we would be referring to President Bush. My answer was that'd be referring to him about as much as the Republicans did -- which is to say not at all -- but we are going to take issue with the policies from the last decade because these are policies they want to go back to, these are the policy they want to embrace. ”
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Attacking Obama’s health care reform law, Ryan said its “biggest, coldest power play of all” targeted seniors for $716 billion in cuts. But Ryan’s own budget counted on those same savings, which in fact would be squeezed from reimbursement payments to hospitals and insurers. Asked about the inconsistency of Ryan attacking cuts his own plan embraced, Cantor begged off.
“The assumption was that, um, the, the, ah, again — I probably can’t speak to that in an exact way so I better just not.”
The Medicare cuts that have been the topic of so many lies by both Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, did not and do not affect Medicare beneficiaries at all, rather they are cost savings based on tweaking reimbursement payments to insurance and medical care providers. Additionally, Ryan retained those savings in his own budget, even as he railed against Obamacare and Obama for mythical cuts to Medicare beneficiary benefits.
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“On the other hand, 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 misrepresentationsslipped into a single political speech. On this measure, while it was Romney who ran the Olympics, Ryan earned the gold.
The good news is that the Romney-Ryan campaign has likely created dozens of new jobs among the legions of additional fact checkers that media outlets are rushing to hire to sift through the mountain of cow dung that flowed from Ryan’s mouth. Said fact checkers have already condemned certain arguments that Ryan still irresponsibly repeated.”
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“ We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers. ”
Hey, Neil....we already knew that.
Via Bob Cesca
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“As Republicans gather in Tampa to nominate Mitt Romney, Americans can expect to hear tales of how President Obama has failed to work with their party or turn the economy around. But an element of their party has pitched so far to the extreme right on issues important to women, immigrants, seniors and students that they've proven incapable of governing for the people.”
Image Credit: Associated Press
(via National Journal)
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“When you have a party that says coded things, that makes totally false ads up, falsely saying the president is trying to undo welfare reform, I think you're going to see a lot of heavily and not-so-subtly coded messages from the Romney-Ryan campaign.”
Let’s be honest. The Romney Campaign is all about race baiting, and they seem to be thoroughly enjoying themselves, maybe in the same way that Romney enjoyed getting his gay classmate on the ground and cutting his hair off .
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“I’m very proud of my pro-life record, and I’ve always adopted the idea that, the position that the method of conception doesn’t change the definition of life. But let’s remember, I’m joining the Romney-Ryan ticket. And the president makes policy.”
See that part I bolded? The translation is a lot chilling, because Paul Ryan, who would be “a heartbeat away from the presidency” (and likely next in the GOP line to run for presidency if they win in 2012) is saying that if you’re a 13-year-old girl (or any other age female) and you’re raped by anyone (including your dad or brother or dirty old uncle), and that results in a pregnancy, well, you have no right to terminate your pregnancy via an abortion or the morning after pill. Seriously.
We are being taken over by the American Taliban.
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“Ahead of the convention, a draft of the 2012 Republican platform, which will by all accounts be officially adopted in full, is being circulated throughout the media — and to call it draconian, mean-spirited and almost shockingly intolerant would be an understatement on par with saying that Mitt Romney has some money. The document makes it inarguably clear that the GOP plans to firmly establish its intention to continue being the party of white, straight, fundamentalist Christian men and no one else. The platform seeks to ban abortion across the board, even in the case of rape or incest; it supports states that have attempted to order women to undergo mandatory ultrasounds before receiving abortions; it denounces same-sex marriage and doesn’t recognize gay couples; it pushes Arizona-style anti-immigration laws; it looks to reverse the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and forbid women from assuming combat roles in the military; it is, without question, the most conservative platform the GOP has ever adopted, staggering in its in-your-face extremism. It’s what the Republican Party stands for in the year 2012 — but it reads like it came right out of 1812. To its immense credit, the GOP is leaving no doubt what it’s all about and what it wants for the country, making the choice in November crystal clear.”
+ GOP Codifies the Republican War Against Women
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“Jesus, I mean, really, get the net.”
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“First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”
“Legitimate rape”…..wah????
Oh, and by the way, on the non-rarity of pregnancies occurring as a result of rape, TPM notes that “a 1996 study by the American Journal of Obstetricians and Gynecologists found “rape-related pregnancy occurs with significant frequency” and is “a cause of many unwanted pregnancies” — an estimated “32,101 pregnancies result from rape each year.””.
UPDATE: Outraged as I was by Akin’s reference to “legitimate” rape, I obviously didn’t touch on the other part of Akin’s statement, you know, the one where he claims that women have magical powers or something that can prevent them from becoming pregnant if it’s a “legitimate rape”.
There are times lately when I have to wonder if I’m living in an alternate universe. Really.
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