Political Ruminations

Morning Quote: David Frum

During a rehash of why Republicans lost the election on Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough asked Conservative author David Frum “What was Mitt Romney’s message?”. Frum’s response was scathing and direct:

“Mitt Romney's message is, 'I am going to take away Medicare from everybody under 55. I'm going to cut Medicaid for everybody by about a third, and I'm going to do that in order to finance a giant tax cut for me and my friends, and the reason I'm doing that is because half of the country contribute nothing to our national endeavors.'”

Watch (the section I quoted begins at approx. 1:36):

Morning Quote: Paul Krugman

Paul Krugman on the history of FEMA’s effectiveness based on which party holds the presidency:

“Consider, in particular, the history of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Under President George H. W. Bush, FEMA became a dumping ground for unqualified political hacks. Faced with a major test in the form of Hurricane Andrew in 1992, the agency failed completely.

Then Bill Clinton came in, put FEMA under professional management, and saw the agency’s reputation restored.

Given this experience, you might have expected George W. Bush to preserve Mr. Clinton’s gains. But no: he appointed his campaign manager, Joe Allbaugh, to head the agency, and Mr. Allbaugh immediately signaled his intention both to devolve disaster relief to the state and local level and to downgrade the whole effort, declaring, “Expectations of when the federal government should be involved and the degree of involvement may have ballooned beyond what is an appropriate level.” After Mr. Allbaugh left for the private sector, he was replaced with Michael “heckuva job” Brown, and the rest is history.

Like Mr. Clinton, President Obama restored FEMA’s professionalism, effectiveness, and reputation. But would Mitt Romney destroy the agency again? Yes, he would. As everyone now knows — despite the Romney campaign’s efforts to Etch A Sketch the issue away — during the primary Mr. Romney used language almost identical to Mr. Allbaugh’s, declaring that disaster relief should be turned back to the states and to the private sector.”

Morning Quote: Michael Bloomberg

As he endorsed President Obama on Friday, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) tossed insults at Mitt Romney:

“In the past he has taken sensible positions on immigration, illegal guns, abortion rights and health care — but he has reversed course on all of them, and is even running against the very health care model he signed into law in Massachusetts.”

While that doesn’t even begin to describe the problems with Romney, I’ll take it.

Morning Quote: Bill Clinton

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, former President Clinton blasted Mitt Romney for Romney’s refusal to acknowledge climate change:

“He [Romney] ridiculed the president — ridiculed the president for his efforts to fight global warming in economically beneficial ways. He [Romney] said “Oh, you’re going to turn back the seas."

In my part of America [NYC], we would like it if someone could’ve done that yesterday.”

There is a 95% + consensus amongst climatologists that anthropogenic climate change is not only real, but stunningly dangerous to survival on planet Earth. And still, Big Oil--Fossil Fuels [thank you, Koch brothers] has sold America the idea that it doesn’t exist. And this industry has been criminally aided and abetted by Republicans.

Morning Quote: Joe Biden

Campaigning in Ohio, an outraged Joe Biden on the Romney Campaign’s ad claiming that Jeep was sending American jobs to China:

“I have seen more Romney ads about he's going to get tough on China. To use President Clinton's phrase, in another context, “that takes a lot of brass”.

Romney get tough on China? The same man the Washington Post said pioneered outsourcing? The same man who criticized the president of the United States for taking action against China and saving thousands of American jobs in steel and the rubber industry?

So when you hear Gov. Romney say he'd protect government jobs by getting tough on China, I got a word for you: malarkey. Absolute malarkey. Look, his saying he'll get tough on China is only out done by his bizarre claim about the auto industry,

Within two weeks he's [Romney] running an ad in this state saying that President Obama made the companies go bankrupt, gave the industry [to] the Italians, who are selling it to the Chinese.

I have never seen anything like that. It's an absolutely patently false assertion. It's such an outrageous assertion that [it’s] one of the few times in my memory Chrysler has felt obliged to go public saying Jeep has no intention of outsourcing production of their models out of America to China. Chrysler Corporation, which is highly unusual, said “a careful and unbiased reading would have saved unnecessary fantasies and extravagant comments”. Have they no shame?

Romney will say anything, absolutely anything, to win this thing.”

You can view the Romney ad here. The rebuke to Romney by Chrysler is here. The shame felt by Romney at being caught in yet another big lie is …….well, non-existent.

Mitt Romney Indictment by Massachusetts Educator

This video is an 11 minute indictment of Mitt Romney, by a Massachusetts educator, based on Romney’s record as the governor of Massachusetts. Watch (it starts out a little slow, but bear with it, it gets better):

Morning Quote: Barack Obama

During an interview with Rolling Stone early in October, President Obama on Mitt Romney’s extremism:

“Four weeks out from an election, you can't hide from positions that ultimately are out of sync with how the majority of Americans think. I guarantee if you talk to not just Democratic women, but a whole bunch of Republican and Independent women, they will tell you they're very capable of making their own health care decisions. If you have a chance to meet these Dream Act kids, some of whom were brought here when they were two or three or five, and are American in every sense, except for their papers – love this country, have pledged allegiance to this flag, want to contribute – then you would reject the idea that somehow they should be deported to some country where they've never been.

But those are Governor Romney's positions, and we gotta make sure that the American people understand those positions.”

Imagine that. Democratic, Republican and Independent women are capable of making their own health care choices. Too bad Republicans are such control freaks when it comes to …well, everything. But especially women. Vote for them at your own peril.

Morning Quote: Gloria Steinem

In Florida to rally for a group seeking to defeat Florida Amendment 6, which would, if enacted, restrict women’s reproductive rights, feminist icon Gloria Steinem, had a few descriptive words for Mitt Romney:

“[Mitt Romney is] the most undemocratic, anti-equality, authoritarian, extremist candidate I have ever seen, and there is the most distance between what he says and what he does.”

Quote of the Day II

During an Obama-Biden Campaign rally on Saturday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nv) smacked Mitt Romney:

“The man that's leading the Republican ticket for president of the United States is giving used car salesmen a bad name.”

Image: Associated Press

The Most Long Lasting Consequence of This Election

Chris Matthews on Mitt Romney:

“He’d love to have nine Scalia’s on the court.”

The most long lasting consequence of this election will be the fact that if Mitt Romney wins, he will appoint at least two, possibly three, Supreme Court justices. And, Romney has said that he will appoint justices who would rule to strike down Roe v. Wade. 

This would mean another entire generation of a very conservative Supreme Court, with all of the relentless backward progress that would bring. Just the thought makes me sick.

Morning Quote: President Obama

At a campaign event in Ohio on Wednesday, President Obama called out Romney on equal pay for women :

“[…] when young women graduate, they should get equal pay for equal work. That should be a simple question to answer. When Governor Romney was asked about it, his campaign said, “We'll get back to you.” That shouldn’t be a complicated question: equal pay for equal work. I want my daughters paid just like somebody else’s sons are paid for the same job. That's straightforward.

Now, I’ve got to say, last night, Governor Romney’s top advisor finally admitted, no, the Governor didn't really support that bill. You don't have to wait for an answer from me. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was the first bill I signed into law as President -- the first bill.”

Watch(the segment with the president’s remark on the Ledbetter Act is at 11:57):

Morning Quote: Barack Obama

During a campaign event in Iowa yesterday, President Obama destroyed Mitt Romney’s claim of a “five-point” plan for the economy:

“Governor Romney has been running around talking about his five-point plan for the economy for quite some time. And as I pointed out last night, and you guys heard yourselves, it’s really a one-point plan. It’s really a one-point plan. It says folks at the very top can play by their own set of rules.

That’s why they can pay lower taxes than you do, or they can use offshore accounts. Or they can invest in a company, bankrupt it, fire the workers, take away their pensions, ship the jobs overseas, and still make money doing it.

It’s the one-point plan that says it’s okay for Wall Street to keep engaging in the reckless behavior that got us into the mess we’ve been fighting back from for the last four years. It’s the same philosophy that’s been squeezing middle-class families for more than a decade. It’s the same philosophy that we saw in the previous administration. And I have seen too much pain and too much struggle to let this country go down that same road again.”

Watch the full video:

Morning Quote: Former Reagan Budget Director David Stockman on Romney's Time at Bain Capital

Former Reagan budget director David Stockman on Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital, emphasis mine:

“In short, this is a record about a dangerous form of leveraged gambling that has been enabled by the failed central banking and taxing policies of the state. That it [Romney’s record at Bain] should be offered as evidence that Mitt Romney is a deeply experienced capitalist entrepreneur and job creator is surely a testament to the financial deformations of our times.”

In other words, Mitt Romney is no entrepreneur or job creator. And by the way, as Ashby so eloquently put it yesterday, “If we had a more responsible media establishment that valued the truth more than the bottom line and insider access, Romney would be too publicly shamed to make the claim that it is he who really cares about American workers. An idea that should offend everyone.”

Indeed, it should offend everyone.

Former Reagan Budget Director Destroys Romney on the Basis of His Experience as a Businessman

In a fascinating and telling piece for Newsweek, former Reagan budget director, David Stockman, dissects Romney’s former position at Bain Capital, and makes a strong case against Romney as America’s chief executive (all emphasis mine).

On Bain Capital, Stockman notes:

Bain’s billions of profits were not rewards for capitalist creation; they were mainly windfalls collected from gambling in markets that were rigged to rise.

Mr. Stockman sets Romney up for the fall:

Nevertheless, Mitt Romney claims that his essential qualification to be president is grounded in his 15 years as head of Bain Capital, from 1984 through early 1999. According to the campaign’s narrative, it was then that he became immersed in the toils of business enterprise, learning along the way the true secrets of how to grow the economy and create jobs. The fact that Bain’s returns reputedly averaged more than 50 percent annually during this period is purportedly proof of the case—real-world validation that Romney not only was a striking business success but also has been uniquely trained and seasoned for the task of restarting the nation’s sputtering engines of capitalism.

And then, Mr. Stockman ruthlessly takes Romney down:

Except Mitt Romney was not a businessman; he was a master financial speculator who bought, sold, flipped, and stripped businesses. He did not build enterprises the old-fashioned way—out of inspiration, perspiration, and a long slog in the free market fostering a new product, service, or process of production.

Mr. Stockman describes leveraged buy outs as nothing like the image Romney has sought to portray:

[LBO’s are] monsters of the financial midway that strip-mine cash from healthy businesses and recycle it mostly to the top 1 percent.

Did you get that last part? LBO’s are one of the reasons this country has such incredible and unmatched, wealth inequality.

Mr. Stockman then launches another zinger at Romney’s successful tenure at Bain Capital:

The waxing and waning of the artificially swollen LBO business has been perfectly correlated with the bubbles and busts emanating from the Fed—so timing is the heart of the business. In that respect, Romney’s tenure says it all: it was almost exactly coterminous with the first great Greenspan bubble, which crested at the turn of the century and ended in the thundering stock-market crash of 2000-02. The credentials that Romney proffers as evidence of his business acumen, in fact, mainly show that he hung around the basket during the greatest bull market in recorded history.

And goes on to call the Republicans beloved free market, an "anti-free market":

[…] [Romney’s] record is actually all about the utter unfairness of windfall riches obtained under our anti-free market regime of bubble finance.

Mr. Stockman has much more to say, and it’s worth your time to read the whole piece. I feel that it’s important to give this new look at Romney and his tenure at Bain Capital as much attention as possible between now and November 6, so tweet it, Facebook it, and do what you can to spread this around.

Chart of the Day: Markets Fear Election of Mitt Romney

From Matthew Boesler of Business Insider:

Below is perhaps the most powerful chart we've seen showing that the markets are afraid of Mitt Romney.

It shows inflation expectations – a great proxy for risk – and it looks like the market expects more inflation (supportive of risk assets like stocks) if Barack Obama is re-elected as president than if Mitt Romney were to win the election.

The idea that Romney would be bad for markets has been in ascendance in the past few weeks – and at a big investor conference this week, the concept was all the rage.

The thinking goes that Romney would want to put a someone with more hawkish – or conservative – views on monetary policy in the chairman position at the Federal Reserve.

Doing so, the market seems to fear, would be bad for risk assets because of the prospect that the "Bernanke put" would be removed, and the risk that the Fed lets markets fall without providing more stimulus would rise.

With that in mind, the chart below, via Société Générale rates strategist Fidelio Tata, shows the correlation between Obama's re-election odds on Intrade and the market's inflation expectations:

Well hey, we already know that the market prefers Democrats in the White House.

Read more at Business Insider....

Morning Quote: Mitt Romney on Abortion Rights

Mitt Romney on abortion rights as quoted by the Des Moines Register:

“There’s no legislation with regards to abortion that I’m familiar with that would become part of my agenda.”

Reactions to Romney’s latest flip-flop are varied, but the most telling of the reactions was that of Romney surrogate, Andrea Saul:

“Mitt Romney is proudly pro-life, and he will be a pro-life president.”

ABC News, emphasis mine:

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.

The Obama Campaign:

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.”

On Mitt Romney's Foreign Policy Speech

No time today to post, but this topic is important so I urge you to read this post on it because it summarizes the media and the Republican pundit reaction to Mitt Romney’s foreign policy speech. Which sucked. Big.

Morning Quote: MrBrink

My friend, MrBrink, on the most major of the differences between President Obama and Mitt Romney:

“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.”

Morning Quote: Paul Ryan

At a fundraiser in Wisconsin on Saturday, Paul Ryan talked up his running mate, aka the Lying Liar known as Mitt Romney, on Romney’s debate performance last week:

“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….

Morning Quote: Barack Obama

At a rally in Denver yesterday, President Obama talked about Romney’s promise to get rid of PBS and Big Bird:

“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.”

Morning Quote: Bob Cesca

Liberal pundit Bob Cesca to undecided voters:

“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?”

Paul Krugman on the GOP’s Disdain for Workers

In a lengthier than usual New York Times op-ed last week, Paul Krugman defined Mitt Romney’s 47% remarks not as a gaffe, but as a window into what has become a party of, by and for the very wealthy:

“[….] the Boca Moment wasn’t some trivial gaffe. It was a window into the true attitudes of what has become a party of the wealthy, by the wealthy, and for the wealthy, a party that considers the rest of us unworthy of even a pretense of respect.”

This has been apparent for quite some time, but never more so than now when Republicans have completely given up even the ghost of egalitarianism in favor of all out ‘Randian’ avarice and selfishness.

I’ve come to believe that this election is really a referendum on who we are as a country---Ayn Rand type capitalists or people who value a society that cares for all of it’s citizens, regardless of their assets or lack thereof.

Morning Quote: Obama and Biden on Romney Tax Plan

The president’s campaign is focused on boxing Romney in on his tax plan, a plan that studies have shown to be mathematically impossible. On Thursday in Virginia Beach, President Obama promised “not to limit the deductability of home mortgage interest”:

“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.”

And on Friday in Florida, Joe Biden warned senior citizens that Romney’s plan would force them to pay more in taxes on their Social Security:

“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.”

Talking Points Memo, emphasis mine:

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.

Morning Quote: Ann Romney

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

Quote of the Day

Booman on Ohio’s lean to the left:

“If you think white working class guys in Ohio are lining up to vote for the "plutocrat married to a known equestrian," you are quite mistaken. Ask them who is better on the economy and they will tell you 'Obama.' This is evidence that the GOP is no longer a national party. Ohio is supposed to be a right-leaning state that Democrats can occasionally win. But, right now, it is a left-leaning state. And it will probably stay that way, just like Michigan and Pennsylvania.”

Mitt Romney’s Dismal Record on Public Education as the Governor of Massachusetts

In 2002 during his campaign for Governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney told the people of that great state that he wouldn’t make cuts to public education:

“The services delivered to our children in schools….we’re not gonna cut that.”

In his very first budget after being elected, Gov. Romney cut $248.7 million from K-12 education.

Watch:

As you heard, in 2011 Romney had this to say about class size:

“All the talk about ‘we need smaller classroom size’…….look, that’s promoted by the teachers unions to hire more teachers.”

And in 2012, Romney said that in Massachusetts, they found that there’s no relationship between class size and how kids perform. A pumpkin head could tear that one apart.

So then, do you trust him with your precious kids? I wouldn’t.

Quote of the Day: 60 Minutes on Mitt Romney

Scott Pelley talks about Mitt Romney to Mitt Romney for 60 Minutes on September 23, 2012, emphasis mine:

“Ten years ago, when you were running for governor of Massachusetts, you were solidly pro-choice on abortion. Now you're against abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, or the health of the mother. When you were running for governor, you ridiculed the idea of signing a "no new taxes" pledge, and yet now you've signed one. Some people, Governor, have an uneasy feeling that you're not constant, that you say whatever you have to say in a particular moment.”

Now there’s a true understatement.

The Big Banks Are Big Tax Moochers

Jesse Eisinger on the big banks as the big tax moochers:

Thanks to a leaked video, we know that Mitt Romney divides the country into those who pay taxes and those who don't, the makers and the moochers.

There is one perhaps surprising group you can put in the latter category: the nation's banks. Sure, banks pay taxes, but they pay a lot less thanks to a giant and underappreciated distortion in our nation's tax code. Moreover, this tax code distortion makes the financial system and the economy more fragile, prone to bankruptcies and runs. Banks profit, and the economy teeters. Great bargain, huh?

Shades of Ayn Rand….

Morning Quote: Elizabeth Warren

Democratic Massachusetts senate candidate Elizabeth Warren on 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.”

Morning Quote: President Obama Remarks on the Letterman Show

On the Letterman show last night, Letterman asked President Obama for his take on Romney’s remarks in the recently released, secretly taped video. President Obama didn’t address it directly, but he made a number of comments which clearly outlined the differences between the two men:

“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 )

Morning Quote: Bob Cesca

Bob Cesca on Mitt Romney’s pathetically un-presidential reaction to the events in Libya and Cairo on Wednesday:

“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.”

Morning Quote: Barack Obama

President Obama to CBS News on Romney’s incredibly unknowledgeable and self-serving blunders into the foreign policy arena yesterday:

“There's a broader lesson to be learned here: Governor Romney seems to have a tendency to shoot first and aim later.”

For a reprise of the [political]events of yesterday, read “Mitt Romney Kneejerks Into Another Colossal Blunder”.

Bigotry Swings Around and Bites Romney

This is just too perfect, emphasis mine:

A new poll out Tuesday found that Southern whites—long considered one of the linchpins of the Republicans’ so-called Southern strategy—are bothered by the GOP candidate’s wealth and religion. According to the Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted over several months in 11 states from Virginia to Texas, 38 percent of Bible Belt voters said they are less likely to vote for a candidate who is “very wealthy” than one who isn’t—and many viewed Mormonism as a cult.

Oh noes…………..

Morning Quote: John Kasich

In an interview with the New York Times Magazine, Ohio’s Republican Gov. John Kasich’s response when asked about Mitt Romney’s economic plan:

“He says he's got a 53-point plan or whatever, I don't know.”

The lack of enthusiasm is….contagious.

Gov. Charlie Crist Calls Out Republicans at the DNC

During a speech at the DNC, former Republican governor of Florida, Charlie Crist, voiced his concern that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan would “break the promise of Medicare and Social Security”, emphasis mine:

“ When I look at the Republican ticket today, I see two candidates who would break the fundamental promise of Medicare and Social Security, and cut investments in our middle class which are so important to our economic recovery. And when I look at President Obama, I see a leader with a cool head, a caring heart and an open mind, a president who has demonstrated through his demeanor and through his deeds that he is uniquely qualified to heal our divisions, rebuild our nation and lead us to a brighter future together. ”

Obama on Mitt Romney’s Foreign Policy Experience

Obama on Mitt Romney’s lack of foreign policy experience, and with his seeming ineptitude in relating to other countries:

“My opponent and his running mate are new to foreign policy, but from all that we’ve seen and heard, they want to take us back to an era of blustering and blundering that cost America so dearly.

After all, you don’t call Russia our number one enemy – and not al Qaeda – unless you’re still stuck in a Cold War time warp. You might not be ready for diplomacy with Beijing if you can’t visit the Olympics without insulting our closest ally. My opponent said it was “tragic” to end the war in Iraq, and he won’t tell us how he’ll end the war in Afghanistan. I have, and I will.”

DNC Convention Quotes–Gov. Ted Strickland

Former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland on how little American workers mean to Mitt Romney during a rousing speech at the DNC’s convention last night:

“Now, Mitt Romney, he lives by a different code. To him, American workers are just numbers on a spreadsheet.

To him, all profits are created equal, whether made on our shores or off. That's why companies Romney invested in were dubbed "outsourcing pioneers." Our nation was built by pioneers—pioneers who accepted untold risks in pursuit of freedom, not by pioneers seeking offshore profits at the expense of American workers here at home.”

“Mitt Romney proudly wrote an op-ed entitled, "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt." If he had had his way, devastation would have cascaded from Michigan to Ohio and across the nation. Mitt Romney never saw the point of building something when he could profit from tearing it down. If Mitt was Santa Claus, he'd fire the reindeer and outsource the elves.”

“On what he's saying about the president's policy for welfare to work, he's lying. Simple as that. On his tax returns, he's hiding. You have to wonder, just what is so embarrassing that he's gone to such great lengths to bury the truth? Whatever he's doing to avoid taxes, can it possibly be worse than the Romney-Ryan tax plan that would have sliced Mitt's total tax rate to less than one percent?”

RELATED POSTS:

. VIDEOS: The Best Speeches From the DNC Convention - Tuesday Night, September 4
. Mitt Romney's Bain Capital Still Outsourcing Our Jobs to China

. Mitt Romney’s Offshore Accounts

. Mitt Romney Was an Outsourcing Pioneer

Quote of the Day: Joe Biden Rips Mitt Romney on Foreign Policy

At a campaign stop in York, Pennsylvania today, Vice President Joe Biden tore into Mitt Romney’s foreign policy positions:

“ Listen to what he says about foreign policy, you caught some of it in his [convention] speech. He said it was a mistake to end the war in Iraq and bring all of our warriors home. He said it was a mistake to set an end date for our warriors in Afghanistan and bring them home. He implies by the speech that he’s ready to go to war in Syria and Iran. He wants to move from cooperation to confrontation with Putin’s Russia. And these guys say the president’s out of touch? Out of touch? Swiss bank account, untold millions in the Cayman Islands. Who’s out of touch, man? ”

Adding….of note is the fact that during his nomination  acceptance speech, Romney never mentioned Iraq, the U.S. troops or Afghanistan. I find his lack of a call-out to U.S. troops fairly despicable, but I guess that’s what we should expect from a guy who was a draft dodger and never served at all. Romney avoided Viet Nam by spending two years as a missionary in France. Image Credit: Carolyn Kaster/AP

Morning Quote: Paul Ryan Earns the Gold in Lying

Unbelievably, this quote that scathingly notes the lies of [the] Serial Liar, Paul Ryan, in his convention speech last night, comes from FoxNews.com’s Sally Kohn, emphasis mine:

“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 misrepresentations slipped 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.”

Bob Cesca on Paul Ryan’s speech (which was full, in fact, consisting only of, debunked lies): “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a major political speech so packed with repeatedly debunked lies, and I spent eight years following closely the mendacity of the Bush White House.”

Image credit: Charlie Neibergall/AP

Morning Quote: Romney Pollster

Romney-Ryan pollster Neil Newhouse’s response to criticism about the lies in Romney’s anti-Obama welfare ads:

“ We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers. ”

Hey, Neil....we already knew that.

Via Bob Cesca