So, on the way home last night, I was listening to NPR, and they were doing a story about how Romney came out and said half the country is a bunch of lazy moochers who suck. And, in typical NPR fashion, they said that the reaction in Florida (where said comments were secretly recorded) was “mixed.” As evidence of this, they went to a senior community and interviewed two people – one on each side (so as to remain “fair” I suppose). The pro-Romney guy sounded nice enough. Some kind of retired minister who was over 65, and got Social Security and Medicare, and of course pays no federal income tax. His comments? “Oh, he’s not talking about us.” Yeah, he is, dude. Wake the fuck up. How can people be so goddamned stupid? When people accidentally get caught telling the truth for once, you really need to pay attention to them.
Evidence of the stupidity of Americans was displayed by a Gallup poll released yesterday.
Thirty-four percent of voters in households making less than $24,000 a year prefer Romney over President Barack Obama….
Seriously, what is wrong with “you people?”
My only question is, since I’m part of the 53% of people who paid federal income tax last year (and more than 13%, Mitt), does that mean I have to vote for Romney? Or does the fact that no-way, no-how will I ever vote for that asshole mean I feel like a victim who needs handouts from the government?
Of course, Romney didn’t just bash half of Americans. He also said Palestinians don’t want peace (probably a “cultural” thing), there would never be peace in the Middle East, and all he’d do would be to kick the issue down the road so he wouldn’t have to deal with it. Some unnamed former Secretary of State told him there in fact was a way to bring peace to the region, but he didn’t really care to hear any details.
While bashing working people who are too poor to pay federal income tax (but of course pay state tax, sales tax, social security and medicare taxes, property tax, etc.), Romney continues to refuse to release his own taxes (beyond the one year where he apparently cleaned up his act and paid about half the rate that most of us pay), and he and his little buddy Paul Ryan refuse to tell us just how they’re going to cut taxes and balance the budget (and what “loopholes” they intend to close). Hey, you people don’t need to know the details.
Romney and Ryan aren’t the only boobs in the news lately, of course. There’s this whole Princess Kate (or whatever the hell her official title is) kerfuffle that seems to have so many people freaked out. Now, I think it’s despicable that she had her privacy invaded like that, don’t get me wrong. But, holy christ, it’s not that big a deal (or maybe I should say, they’re not that big a deal) in the scheme of things, is it?
Oh well, time to get on with the day, I guess.
But of course he is walking away from that statement and is starting to explain to all of those people who don’t know any better he is relying on to vote for him that he didn’t mean them. I hope they keep up the pressure on Mitt and the repug-cons to explain exactly who comprises this 47% entitlement-loving class. I find it delicious that Rmoney-Ryan are keeping ‘tax fairness’ on the front burner while evading any sunlight on their own returns.
Mitt’s Snake-Bit Season
By GAIL COLLINS
Our topic for today is: When Bad Things Happen to Mitt Romney.
Really, it’s been the worst run of disasters this side of the Mayan calendar. The Republicans’ woes started last Friday, when Ann and Mitt filmed a TV interview in which they entertained the kind of personal questions that most candidates learned to avoid after Bill Clinton did that boxers-versus-briefs thing. Asked what he wears to bed, Mitt said: “I think the best answer is: as little as possible.â€
Euww.
Then, over the weekend, Romney aides began spilling their guts about how other staffers had screwed up the Republicans’ bounce-free convention. In an attempt to change the conversation, the campaign announced that it had just realized the nation wants Romney to say what he’d actually do as president. Voters “are eager to hear more details about policies to turn our economy around,†said an adviser, Ed Gillespie.
In search of just such specificity, the scoop-hungry Christian Broadcasting Network asked Paul Ryan if he would continue refusing to identify exactly what tax loopholes the Romney administration would close in order to turn our economy around.
“Yes,†said Ryan, who then veered into a disquisition about something that once happened to Tip O’Neill.
You may be wondering whatever became of Ryan, who was such a big sensation when Romney first picked him as a running mate. Since Tampa, he seems to have fallen off the face of the earth, resurfacing every now and then to put up another ad for re-election to his House seat in Wisconsin.
It’s not all that unusual for a vice-presidential candidate to go low-profile. And it is totally not true that Mitt Romney strapped Paul Ryan to the top of a car and drove him to Canada. Stop spreading rumors!
Next, Mother Jones published that video of the fund-raiser in Boca Raton in which Romney said that 47 percent of the country is composed of moochers who want to confiscate the earnings of hard-working stockbrokers and spend it on caviar and dialysis treatments.
“So my job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives,†Romney decreed, undoubtedly more in sorrow than in anger.
Then, Republican Senate candidates in tight races began distancing themselves from the top of the ticket.
Ann Romney suggested Mitt was “taken out of context,†in what was undoubtedly meant as a helpful comment.
“All of us make mistakes,†said President Obama, in what probably wasn’t.
“Obviously inarticulate,†decreed Paul Ryan, popping up from a gopher hole somewhere in Nevada.
The fund-raiser, a $50,000-a-pop sit-down dinner, was hosted by Marc Leder, a financier who The New York Post reported as having a “wild party†last summer in the Hamptons “where guests cavorted nude in the pool†while “scantily dressed Russians danced on platforms.†You cannot blame Romney for that. If presidential candidates had to avoid all multimillionaires who held parties with naked guests and Russians on platforms, there would be no money for misleading TV commercials.
The video was a reminder of how ghastly this business of running for president can be. The guests seemed more interested in the breadbasket than the candidate. Romney was blathering away in the manner of somebody trying to stay awake during the 12th hour of a cross-country drive.
On Tuesday, moving to tamp down criticism that he was a conversational disaster area, Romney told Fox’s Neil Cavuto: “Well, we were, of course, talking about a campaign and how he’s going to get close to half the votes. I’m going to get half the vote, approximately. I hope — I want to get 50.1 percent or more.â€
With that out of the way, Romney explained that his real point had not been to criticize people who don’t pay income taxes, but merely to point out that he wanted them to make more money. “I think people would like to be paying taxes,†added the quarter-billionaire whose own eagerness to be part of the solution is a matter of public record.
How did he let things slip out of control? Maybe the answer lies back with that Ann-and-Mitt interview, which was on “Live With Kelly and Michael.†Asked about his preferences when it came to heroines of low-end reality TV shows, the future presidential candidate enthusiastically announced: “I’m kind of a Snooki fan. Look how tiny she’s gotten. She’s lost weight and she’s energetic. I mean, just her sparkplug personality is kind of fun.â€
It could be worse. He could have announced that he enjoys spending his free hours watching “Hoarders†marathons. But, still, it’s weird that Mitt Romney appears to think a lot about Snooki. Is it possible that while he’s being dragged around from one fund-raiser to the next, he spends his spare time watching “Jersey Shore†reruns in the limo?
That would explain so much.
Actually, with the levels of intelligence and incompetence these bunch of scab refs are showing, he very well might. Of course, I think they are affecting every team. Let’s just hope no one gets hurt and not too many games are decided by their bad calls.
The NFL is becoming just way to arrogant and drunk with power. Who do they think they are, the NCAA?
Giants manager Bruce Bochy wears 49ers cap in dugout in support of quarterback Alex Smith