Political Ruminations

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

Chris Matthews Calls Out Republicans for Race Baiting

On Morning Joe today, along with RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, Chris Matthews responded to Republican criticism on the negative campaigning by Obama by tearing into Priebus. Matthews focused on the lies emanating from the Romney Campaign that focus on race baiting (the welfare ads, and Pres. Obama’s birth certificate):

“ I have to call you on this, Mr. Chairman. But they've both been negative. That cheap shot about 'I don't have a problem with my birth certificate' was awful. It is an embarrassment to your party to play that card.

You can play your games and giggle about it but the fact is it’s your side playing that card. When you start talking about work requirements, you know what game you're playing and everybody knows what game you're playing. It's a race card and yeah, if your name's Romney, yeah you were well born, you went to prep school, yeah, brag about it. This guy has an African name and he's got to live with it. Look who's gone further in their life. Who was born on third base? Making fun of the guy's birth certificate issue when it was never a real issue except for the right wing. ”

Watch the video:

Just a couple of weeks ago, the editorial board of the Des Moines Register also called attention to Romney’s race baiting:

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee wants voters to conjure images in their minds of freeloading moms sitting on couches watching big screen televisions. And he wants voters to think the president is helping them do just that ... but the idea of anyone 'sponging off the system' is apparently something Romney believes voters will rally behind him to oppose. He may be right.

Republicans have a long history of using race in their politics, the past detailed in this 2010 piece by Bob Cesca on the “Southern Strategy” [a must read for anyone serious about politics in this time].

In all honesty, Romney’s campaign strategy most concerns me because it’s based entirely on telling lies. That some of the lies employ the tactic of race baiting just makes it that much worse.

That said, we need to beat the crap out of Mitt Romney in November, both to win the brilliant, decent man who is our president another term, but also to prevent the Republicans and their candidate-without-honor from completing the final destruction of the democracy we love.

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan Are Big Fat Lying Liars

In spite of the fact that the Romney-Ryan welfare lies have been proven false by independent fact checkers, Romney-Ryan continues to lie about Obama welfare policy in another new ad. Watch:

According to The Hill, “Independent fact-checkers and some Republicans have agreed, with the Annenberg Public Policy Center's FactCheck.org calling the Romney attack ads "simply untrue."”:

"You have Gov. Romney creating as a centerpiece of his campaign this notion that we are taking the work requirement out of welfare," said Obama during a press conference at the White House. "What he is arguing is that we have somehow changed the work requirement in our welfare laws. And, in fact, what has happened was that my administration, responding to the requests of five governors, including two Republican governors, agreed to approve giving them, those states, some flexibility in how they manage the welfare rolls as long as it produced 20 percent increases in the number of people who are getting work."

Additionally, while the Romney-Ryan Campaign is accusing President Obama of trying to gut the welfare reform enacted under Bill Clinton, Bill Clinton himself has proclaimed in a public statement that the Romney-Ryan Campaign is lying, emphasis mine:

“Governor Romney released an ad today alleging that the Obama administration had weakened the work requirements of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act. That is not true.

The act emerged after years of experiments at the state level, including my work as Governor of Arkansas beginning in 1980. When I became President, I granted waivers from the old law to 44 states to implement welfare to work strategies before welfare reform passed.

After the law was enacted, every state was required to design a plan to move people into the workforce, along with more funds to help pay for training, childcare and transportation. As a result, millions of people moved from welfare to work.

The recently announced waiver policy was originally requested by the Republican governors of Utah and Nevada to achieve more flexibility in designing programs more likely to work in this challenging environment. The Administration has taken important steps to ensure that the work requirement is retained and that waivers will be granted only if a state can demonstrate that more people will be moved into work under its new approach. The welfare time limits, another important feature of the 1996 act, will not be waived.

The Romney ad is especially disappointing because, as governor of Massachusetts, he requested changes in the welfare reform laws that could have eliminated time limits altogether. We need a bipartisan consensus to continue to help people move from welfare to work even during these hard times, not more misleading campaign ads. ”

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan consistently lie about President Obama’s policies as well as the state of the economy, the nation, and anything else that comes to mind. Calling them on it seems to have zero effect, but they can not be allowed to run a campaign based only on lies about their opponent. There really has never before been a campaign such as this one. It’s despicable.

Morning Quote: Chuck Todd on Republican Lies About Obama Welfare Policy

Another corporate media person questions Republican lies as Chuck Todd called out Gov. Terry Branstad (R-Iowa) during an interview after Branstad repeated the Obama welfare reform lie, emphasis mine:

“Wait a minute... I can’t let that go... You leveled a charge about the welfare work requirement. It turns out that’s not true. Where did you get your information? ... Nothing about this issue, every charge that has been leveled about this welfare reform order that the president signed, every accusation that has been leveled by some Republicans have been proven to be not true.”

Finally we’re seeing a little pushback against the lies of the Republicans from corporate media, beginning with CNN’s Soledad O’Brien, and now NBC’s Chuck Todd. It is certainly unusual enough that it warrants commendation.

Morning Quote: Bill Clinton Response to Romney Welfare to Work Ad

You may have seen the ad already. It consists of a false premise which relies on a racist dogwhistle to create an effective, anti-Obama ad; in other words, it was another Big Fat Lie by the Big Fat Liar Mitt Romney.

A Big Fat Lie that former President Bill Clinton swiftly struck down when he released a statement completely repudiating the allegations in the Romney ad, emphasis mine:

“Governor Romney released an ad today alleging that the Obama administration had weakened the work requirements of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act. That is not true.

The act emerged after years of experiments at the state level, including my work as Governor of Arkansas beginning in 1980. When I became President, I granted waivers from the old law to 44 states to implement welfare to work strategies before welfare reform passed.

After the law was enacted, every state was required to design a plan to move people into the workforce, along with more funds to help pay for training, childcare and transportation. As a result, millions of people moved from welfare to work.

The recently announced waiver policy was originally requested by the Republican governors of Utah and Nevada to achieve more flexibility in designing programs more likely to work in this challenging environment. The Administration has taken important steps to ensure that the work requirement is retained and that waivers will be granted only if a state can demonstrate that more people will be moved into work under its new approach. The welfare time limits, another important feature of the 1996 act, will not be waived.

The Romney ad is especially disappointing because, as governor of Massachusetts, he requested changes in the welfare reform laws that could have eliminated time limits altogether. We need a bipartisan consensus to continue to help people move from welfare to work even during these hard times, not more misleading campaign ads. ”

Is President Obama Trying to Gut Welfare Reform?

No, President Obama is not trying to gut welfare reform.

This is  yet another Big Fat Lie by Mitt Romney, spread by Romney and other Republicans who know better, but prefer to use made-up racist dogwhistles in their efforts to beat POTUS because they can’t win on the issues!

Rachel Maddow explains (segment begins at 10:25):

For the sake of reference, you can watch the Big Fat Lying Romney Ad itself:

Idiot Morning Quote: Mitt Romney

On Wednesday, Mitt Romney was booed when he told the NAACP that he would repeal “Obamacare”. During a Wednesday night fundraiser, he bragged to the crowd about the boos he received from the NAACP, and then invoked an image of welfare queens like the ordinary bully he is:

“ If they want more stuff from the government, tell them to go vote for the other guy — more free stuff. But don’t forget nothing is really free. ”

As if the members of the NAACP who support the Obamacare expect to receive free health care.

On the other hand, isn’t it a form of welfare when Mitt Romney stashes his money in offshore accounts in order to avoid paying taxes on it? I think it is, and he surely does it for that reason, admitted or not.