• When ‘anger and hate’ replaces ‘jobs and the economy’:
There’s been a concerted Republican effort over the last week or so to suggest President Obama is pushing the 2012 race in an ugly direction. That’s ridiculous.
As we discussed last week, Mitt Romney has spent the last several months arguing that President Obama is a corrupt liar, who hates free enterprise and religion, and who’s driven by an ideology that’s “foreign to the American experience.” One of Romney’s chief surrogates has said the president should “learn how to be an American,” and “has no idea how the American system functions,” in part because “he spent his early years in Hawaii smoking something.”
And then Romney complains about Obama making “personal attacks.”
Look, this is just crazy. Romney has disgraced himself with nearly-uncontrollable lying, so he’s accusing Obama of being a disgrace. Romney is lashing out angrily, so he’s accusing Obama of being angry. Romney will do anything to win, so he’s accusing Obama of being willing to do anything to win. Romney is running a sleazy, substance-less, integrity-free campaign, so he’s accusing Obama of taking the campaign into the gutter.
[maddowblog]
• Cue the Faux-outrage!
Biden: “Well let’s take a look. Because now we got a real clear picture of what they value. They’ve said it. Every Republican’s voted for it. Look at what they value, and look at their budget. And look what they’re proposing. Romney want to, he said in the first hundred days, he’s going to let the big banks write their own rules — unchain Wall Street. They’re going to put y’all back in chains.”
…Here is how this works. The Romney campaign pulls something out of context, gets outraged, and then demands an apology. The Obama campaign then laughs at the Romney campaign, and uses the issue that they brought up with their outrage to hammer Romney.
In this case, the Romney campaign tried to attack the character of President Obama, but instead started a controversy that allowed Biden’s comments to played everywhere and the Obama campaign to hammer home the message that Mitt Romney wants to deregulate Wall Street.
I am not sure what this endless whining and apology demanding is designed to accomplish besides making Romney look weak. Their “outrage” over Biden’s remark makes no sense because it is the white Mormon who is upset by the running mate of the first African-American president making a remark about putting people in chains.
[politicususa]
• Revealed: Romney Campaign’s Attempts to Deny Paul Ryan’s Insider Trading Don’t Add Up. Team Romney wants you to believe Ryan didn’t really profit from privileged information. Don’t buy it.
• Mitt Romney’s campaign is blocking reporters from covering GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s first meeting with donors in Las Vegas. Tuesday night’s event at The Venetian hotel is expected to draw casino owner and Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson. The decision to block access marks a break from rules previously established by Romney’s campaign.
• Despite the repeated mantra from the Romney-Ryan campaign that “hard-working Americans are what create jobs, not government,” Paul Ryan’s family business — for whom he briefly worked as a “marketing consultant” — was built in large part on government contracts.
• Mitt Romney described the Medicare cuts included in Paul Ryan’s budget as “extraordinary,” during his visit to a mining operation in Beallsville, Ohio on Tuesday — just days after his campaign claimed that he would have signed the reductions into law as part of the Ryan blueprint.
• Way to go, Rachel Maddow!: Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, under growing pressure to resolve a contentious dispute over whether counties should have extra evening and weekend voting hours this fall, on Tuesday told The Enquirer he is moving toward a statewide order on the politically charged issue.
• In a blow to voting rights advocates, Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson upheld the state’s restrictive voter ID law, which could disenfranchise as many as 750,000 citizens in the state. Voting rights advocates plan to appeal the case to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which will likely issue its own ruling before the November election.
• Hot Damn! Democrats Get To Vote In Texas: A federal judge in Galveston today denied the state’s request for a stay that would have allowed Texas to enforce several of its voter registration laws. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office asked for the stay on Aug. 4 — the same day it appealed an order by U.S. District Judge Gregg Costa that granted a temporary injunction sought by two Galveston residents and two national, nonpartisan groups that organize efforts to register people in areas with low registration levels.
• “Ecuador’s president Rafael Correa has agreed to give Julian Assange asylum, officials within Ecuador’s government have said Or not. The WikiLeaks founder has been holed up at Ecuador’s London embassy since 19 June, when he officially requested political asylum. ‘Ecuador will grant asylum to Julian Assange,’ said an official in the Ecuadorean capital Quito, who is familiar with the government discussions.”
F.D.Brightly
Failing badly [Shorter Question Everything]
• When ‘anger and hate’ replaces ‘jobs and the economy’:
• Cue the Faux-outrage!
• Revealed: Romney Campaign’s Attempts to Deny Paul Ryan’s Insider Trading Don’t Add Up. Team Romney wants you to believe Ryan didn’t really profit from privileged information. Don’t buy it.
• Mitt Romney’s campaign is blocking reporters from covering GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s first meeting with donors in Las Vegas. Tuesday night’s event at The Venetian hotel is expected to draw casino owner and Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson. The decision to block access marks a break from rules previously established by Romney’s campaign.
• Despite the repeated mantra from the Romney-Ryan campaign that “hard-working Americans are what create jobs, not government,” Paul Ryan’s family business — for whom he briefly worked as a “marketing consultant” — was built in large part on government contracts.
• Mitt Romney described the Medicare cuts included in Paul Ryan’s budget as “extraordinary,” during his visit to a mining operation in Beallsville, Ohio on Tuesday — just days after his campaign claimed that he would have signed the reductions into law as part of the Ryan blueprint.
• Way to go, Rachel Maddow!: Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, under growing pressure to resolve a contentious dispute over whether counties should have extra evening and weekend voting hours this fall, on Tuesday told The Enquirer he is moving toward a statewide order on the politically charged issue.
• In a blow to voting rights advocates, Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson upheld the state’s restrictive voter ID law, which could disenfranchise as many as 750,000 citizens in the state. Voting rights advocates plan to appeal the case to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which will likely issue its own ruling before the November election.
• Hot Damn! Democrats Get To Vote In Texas: A federal judge in Galveston today denied the state’s request for a stay that would have allowed Texas to enforce several of its voter registration laws. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office asked for the stay on Aug. 4 — the same day it appealed an order by U.S. District Judge Gregg Costa that granted a temporary injunction sought by two Galveston residents and two national, nonpartisan groups that organize efforts to register people in areas with low registration levels.
• “Ecuador’s president Rafael Correa has agreed to give Julian Assange asylum, officials within Ecuador’s government have said Or not. The WikiLeaks founder has been holed up at Ecuador’s London embassy since 19 June, when he officially requested political asylum. ‘Ecuador will grant asylum to Julian Assange,’ said an official in the Ecuadorean capital Quito, who is familiar with the government discussions.”