The 47% stuff was bad enough, damning enough, but Romney just went on and on, rolling out a level of ignorance that ought to be disqualifying. Will it? Let’s hope so.
Update: According to the source, the recording device was inadvertently turned off between these two segments. The source noticed quickly and began to re-record, resulting in an estimated a one-to-two minute loss of tape.
This fundraiser video is the gift that keeps on giving. Josh Marshall picked this little nugget up first:
…Romney starts to talk about what he refers to as “the Jimmy Carter election”, i.e., 1980. He then goes on to talk about how the hostage crisis and the failed rescue mission Desert One were pervasive issues through the 1980 election. Then at the end he says that “if something of that nature presents itself I will work to find a way to take advantage of the opportunity.”
Let me just reiterate this very important point for you: Mitt Romney is saying that if another international crisis occurs that results in the deaths of Americans, he plans to use that for his advantage. While Josh notes that he hems and haws a bit so it’s possible this is another one of those “inelegant” statements, I think there’s little doubt when you listen to it within the context. Puts his statements on Libya in a whole new light, doesn’t it?
[crooksandliars]
• Romney video shows staggering ignorance of Middle East, not surprisingly
At the risk of piling on Romney, now that I’ve seen the whole video and had time to digest it, it’s hard to focus on one particular part. As a whole, it speaks to a man who at his core is much like Sarah Palin. This is someone who seems to feel put upon by Americans, resentful that anyone would think that he benefited from being born wealthy with all of the perks that entails, and angry that others get to exist and think things about him that he doesn’t get to approve.
Mitt Romney is a thin-skinned, petty, mean-spirited child kicking his feet about the losers who think they’re entitled to eat.
It’s not him, he assures himself. It’s everyone else. Behind the contempt is the porous ego that needs to see itself as the Only Point of View. To have anyone else’s view foisted upon him is an umbrage-worthy insult.
…Mitt Romney is a child, looking to a nation to reinforce his fragile ego, and reflect back to him what he needs to see instead of what they really see. If he doesn’t like what you see, he calls you a loser who isn’t entitled to food (regardless of whether or not you ever asked for food) and stomps out.
The wildness of his insults smacks of a bully, an abuser – someone who throws out a projection of their own inadequacy in order to create doubt and shame in their victim. Once again, his insults shoot first and aim later. He doesn’t care if they’re true, he only wants to demean and shame you into shutting up.
You People have been put on notice. You don’t like Mitt Romney and you’re going to pay for it.
[politicususa]
• Ryan said Romney’s remarks were “obviously inarticulate.” Asked if he thought Mitt Romney regreted his comments, Ryan responded “I think he would have said it differently, that’s for sure.” In a separate interview with a New Hampshire station Ryan was asked if he agree with Romney’s remarks at the fundraiser. He responded, “no.”
• Ann Romney: Mitt Doesn’t Disdain The Poor: The saddest rapid response… The Romney campaign just uploaded a video with the title “Ann Romney to FOX31: Mitt Doesn’t Disdain the Poor.” UPDATE: Apparently the campaign has removed the video from its official account. UPDATE 2: Original video from Fox affiliate added.
• Romney campaign releases video titled: “Mitt Doesn’t Disdain the Poor” (seriously): Wow, it sounds like an Onion piece. Titling it “Mitt doesn’t disdain the poor.” What’s next? “Mitt doesn’t rip the heads off bunnies?” If you have to say it, you’ve already lost. And using Mrs. Romney again! She’s like the red-shirted characters on Star Trek. When they show up in a scene you know something bad is about to happen, though in her case it means it’s already happened. To bring her out every single time the campaign makes a disastrous mistake. At this point she’s not fixing the problem anymore, she’s telegraphing it.
• Carter’s revenge: Grandson James Carter IV, opposition researcher, was instrumental in having the Romney secret video released to David Corn of MotherJones. Fmr president Carter sent an email congratulating the find.
“When I won in 2008, 47 percent voted for John McCain; they didn’t vote for me. And what I said on election night was even though you didn’t vote for me, I hear your voices and I’m going to work as hard as I can to be your president.
“One of the things I learned as president is you represent the entire country. 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’ve got to work for everybody. Not just for some.
“The other thing you discover is, as you travel around the country, the American people, they work so hard. The progress we’ve made since the Great Recession, the progress we’ve made since the great recession is because you’ve got single moms out there who are working two, three jobs to help make sure their kids can go to college. And you’ve got small business owners who are keeping their doors open and keeping their employees on even though it means they may not be taking down a salary. And you go up to Detroit or Toledo and you see auto workers who take huge pride in the fact that they’re bouncing back. But they work hard. And you don’t meet anybody who doesn’t believe in the American dream and the fact that nobody’s entitled to success, that you’ve got to work hard, and so I promise you, there are not a lot of people out there who think they’re victims, there are not a lot of people who think that they’re entitled to something.
“What I think the majority of people, Democrats and Republicans, believe is that we’ve got some obligations to each other, and there’s nothing wrong with us giving each other a helping hand, so that if there’s that single mom’s kid, even after all the work she’s done, still can’t afford to go to college, for us to be able to give them, you know, some help on a student loan so they can end up being, curing the next disease or making sure that they’re starting the next Google, I think that’s a good investment for America, and that’s, if you want to be president and you want to bring people together, I think that’s the attitude that you’ve got to have.”
In other news
• Republican chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Rep. C.W. Bill Young (FL) told the Tampa Bay Times editorial board on Monday that he can no longer support the American war in Afghanistan: “I think we should remove ourselves from Afghanistan as quickly as we can,” Young, R-Indian Shores, said during a meeting with the Times editorial board Monday. “I just think we’re killing kids that don’t need to die.” … “It’s a real mess,” he said.
• USAID [United States Agency for International Development] being ordered to end its activities in Russia. Deadline? October 1st, this year. Rather than honour the spirit of that, the US has tried to maneuver around the Kremlin, devolving to private groups. Given the interference of USAID – a thinly veiled intelligence agency – into Russian affairs, it’s not a surprise they’re getting the boot. Right wingers try to use the ouster to score a political point, but State Department spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, suggested that if Russia did not want American assistance, the money could be better spent elsewhere. “It’s their sovereign decision to make,” she said. “There are many countries around the world who would like to have more AID funding and help.”
• The state Supreme Court has vacated a lower court’s decison upholding Pennsylvania’s voter ID law and ordered the court to review the decision. The high court ruled that the lower court should evaluate whether the state is actually capable of getting identification to state voters as the law prescribes.
• Three Other Cyber Warfare Viruses: Reuters reports researchers at anti-virus makers Symantec Corp and Kaspersky Labs have uncovered evidence of three previously undocumented computer viruses on systems in Lebanon and Iran, possibly developed by the United States for espionage or cyber warfare. Previous reporting from the New York Times tied the development of another virus, Stuxnet, to a joint U.S.-Israeli campaign against the Iranian nuclear program code named Olympic Games. The new viruses are linked to another previously identified virus also allegedly connected to Olympic Games, Flame, via a program called Newsforyou that masquerades as a web content management system.
F.D.Brightly
Looking Forward to Taking Advantage
Shorter Question Everything
The 47% stuff was bad enough, damning enough, but Romney just went on and on, rolling out a level of ignorance that ought to be disqualifying. Will it? Let’s hope so.
• Full Mitt Romney Secret Video
Update: According to the source, the recording device was inadvertently turned off between these two segments. The source noticed quickly and began to re-record, resulting in an estimated a one-to-two minute loss of tape.
• Full Transcript of the Mitt Romney Secret Video [PDF]
• Looking Forward to Taking Advantage of a Mid East Crisis:
• Romney video shows staggering ignorance of Middle East, not surprisingly
• Mitt Romney is Money Boo Boo: An Angry Child Full of Self Pity and Contempt:
• Ryan said Romney’s remarks were “obviously inarticulate.” Asked if he thought Mitt Romney regreted his comments, Ryan responded “I think he would have said it differently, that’s for sure.” In a separate interview with a New Hampshire station Ryan was asked if he agree with Romney’s remarks at the fundraiser. He responded, “no.”
• Ann Romney: Mitt Doesn’t Disdain The Poor: The saddest rapid response… The Romney campaign just uploaded a video with the title “Ann Romney to FOX31: Mitt Doesn’t Disdain the Poor.” UPDATE: Apparently the campaign has removed the video from its official account. UPDATE 2: Original video from Fox affiliate added.
• Romney campaign releases video titled: “Mitt Doesn’t Disdain the Poor” (seriously): Wow, it sounds like an Onion piece. Titling it “Mitt doesn’t disdain the poor.” What’s next? “Mitt doesn’t rip the heads off bunnies?” If you have to say it, you’ve already lost. And using Mrs. Romney again! She’s like the red-shirted characters on Star Trek. When they show up in a scene you know something bad is about to happen, though in her case it means it’s already happened. To bring her out every single time the campaign makes a disastrous mistake. At this point she’s not fixing the problem anymore, she’s telegraphing it.
• Carter’s revenge: Grandson James Carter IV, opposition researcher, was instrumental in having the Romney secret video released to David Corn of MotherJones. Fmr president Carter sent an email congratulating the find.
Presidential
• Obama, on David Letterman:
In other news
• Republican chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Rep. C.W. Bill Young (FL) told the Tampa Bay Times editorial board on Monday that he can no longer support the American war in Afghanistan: “I think we should remove ourselves from Afghanistan as quickly as we can,” Young, R-Indian Shores, said during a meeting with the Times editorial board Monday. “I just think we’re killing kids that don’t need to die.” … “It’s a real mess,” he said.
• USAID [United States Agency for International Development] being ordered to end its activities in Russia. Deadline? October 1st, this year. Rather than honour the spirit of that, the US has tried to maneuver around the Kremlin, devolving to private groups. Given the interference of USAID – a thinly veiled intelligence agency – into Russian affairs, it’s not a surprise they’re getting the boot. Right wingers try to use the ouster to score a political point, but State Department spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, suggested that if Russia did not want American assistance, the money could be better spent elsewhere. “It’s their sovereign decision to make,” she said. “There are many countries around the world who would like to have more AID funding and help.”
• The state Supreme Court has vacated a lower court’s decison upholding Pennsylvania’s voter ID law and ordered the court to review the decision. The high court ruled that the lower court should evaluate whether the state is actually capable of getting identification to state voters as the law prescribes.
• Three Other Cyber Warfare Viruses: Reuters reports researchers at anti-virus makers Symantec Corp and Kaspersky Labs have uncovered evidence of three previously undocumented computer viruses on systems in Lebanon and Iran, possibly developed by the United States for espionage or cyber warfare. Previous reporting from the New York Times tied the development of another virus, Stuxnet, to a joint U.S.-Israeli campaign against the Iranian nuclear program code named Olympic Games. The new viruses are linked to another previously identified virus also allegedly connected to Olympic Games, Flame, via a program called Newsforyou that masquerades as a web content management system.