I don’t like Mark Halperin-style process stories about campaigns, and don’t agree that much with “if he can’t run a campaign, how can he run the country” type analysis. That said, given establishment punditry’s reluctance to discuss criticism of Bain, our best best for keeping the story might be “oh noes, look how badly the Romney campaign is handling it“:
It would appear that a certain overconfidence has built up in the Romney camp, a smugness that would appear to come from beating an incredibly weak group of underfinanced, poorly organized rivals. In a couple of cases, these included candidates whose campaigns couldn’t even manage to get their names on the ballot in the state in which they were legal residents (Virginia). Maybe it won’t matter, maybe the economy is so lousy and unlikely to improve that voters will opt to fire Obama after all. But this election is starting to look enough like 2004 that Karl Rove should be demanding royalties from the Obama campaign, and others may conclude that no presidential campaign should ever again be based in Boston.
Mike Goetz
There was actually an interesting Halperin post today, containing this quote:
“Maybe Romney’s foreign trip, VP selection, and convention will organically turn the page for him in time. But there are a lot of nervous Republicans outside the campaign who don’t think that’s true. And most of those nervous Republicans would be even more nervous if they knew what Chicago was still, patiently, sitting on.”
Obama has only just begun. It’s geting kind of spooky how gimlet-eyed the Obama campaign has been.
BGinCHI
I hate to jinx it, but this is like a much-anticipated heavyweight championship of the world fight where one guy lands a haymaker in the first 30 seconds and the other guy can’t answer the bell.
Karen
It’s better than the MSM ignoring it. Yes, I have a real low bar.
amk
Now it’s DNC’s turn to hit mitt on his tax returns.
me likey that the proverbial herding of the cats on this issue is quite impressive.
Martin
@BGinCHI:
Yeah, and they don’t stop the fight in politics. You gotta keep getting up through the last round.
Legalize
Team Obama isn’t punching Willard; they are punching through Willard’s face.
Hal
Looks like the Romney camp is once again announcing they are this close to picking a VP. But it has nothing to do with trying to distract the country from Bain. Really.
The funny thing is, Romney picking a VP now would probably just enhance talk of Bain with plenty of people connecting the dots. Romney is flailing, and he is never good at recovering from his flails.
BGinCHI
@Martin: Plus you can keep hitting the guy/gal while they’re down.
Not sporting, actually.
pseudonymous in nc
Cook’s “In one private, unpublished analysis of nonpartisan polling this year” has the stench of BS. If he means those fabled “undecided voters” that get the Villagers moist — well, I’d like to see polling on whether they can tie their fucking shoelaces.
Villago Delenda Est
Of course. It’s the underlings. They’re fucking it up.
It’s not the candidate. “Oh, bad things are happening because der Führer has some bad people around him!”
Halperin can’t blame Rmoney. It’s his wretched campaign team! The problem is NEVER the candidate himself!
Mike Goetz
I would also add, Obama’s new commercial on Romney’s tax returns says this:
“Makes you wonder if some years Romney paid any taxes at all.”
You don’t drop in a meatball like that without having the goods. Obviously Halperin believes they have something in hand (did they tell him, on condition he say nothing about it until they roll it out?)
dedc79
Sullivan posted this question from an emailer, which seems spot on: I’m very much looking forward to a reporter asking Romney this single question: “How many years worth of tax returns did you require VP candidates to submit for your consideration?”
pseudonymous in nc
@amk:
I think it’s fairly clear that Team Obama has a broad goal before Mittens fucks off on his Dancing Horse Adventure: Rmoney’s tax returns from the Bain Capital years. If Mittens tries a release going back only as far as 2003/4 or thereabouts, that’s going to look just as evasive as his current position.
Litlebritdifrnt
Of course it doesn’t help that they have a totally clueless candidate who somehow thinks that waiters and waitresses serving food at a posh Country Club where his fundraiser was being held are somehow “middle class”.
wrb
@Villago Delenda Est:
Fortunately management ability isn’t one of the job requirements, and isn’t anything Romney has ever claimed he possessed.
pseudonymous in nc
@Mike Goetz:
Harry Reid more than hinted at that too, didn’t he? “Mitt Romney can’t do that because he’s basically paid no taxes in the prior 12 years.”
@Mike Goetz:
I doubt it. Halperin is sort of trolling here. If he’s heard anything on the downlow, it’s probably in as vague a way as he’s reporting it.
Citizen_X
Why on earth is it Boston’s fault that Rmoney runs a clusterfuck of a campaign?
4tehlulz
Well, that didn’t take long.
bago
The hell is up with Youtube/google? They’ve gone full on huffpo sideboob maxim axe body spray with their suggestions.
Seriously, I’m trying to watch movies about robots, can you shackle the tits until after work hours?
wrb
@Citizen_X:
The water, most likely.
Gotta be something.
Talking through the nose?
schrodinger's cat
DougJ@top
The bard of Applebee’s has spoken and he has a sad that Obama is attacking “Capitalism”.
jwb
@Mike Goetz: If you were Obama’s team, would you trust Halperin?
schrodinger's cat
@wrb: Dropping the r’s where they exist and adding them where they don’t.
feebog
Note that Ole’ Charley is trotting out the “Right Track” “Wrong Track” stats again. Except we don’t know which poll or when it was taken. And even though a lot of voters still think we are on the “Wrong Track” they also still blame Bush rather than Obama.
Look, with all the Republican Obstructionism this economy is going to limp along for the rest of the year right into the November election. Things are not going to get much better in terms of job numbers and people are going to continue to feel that things are on the “Wrong Track”. The trick will be for Obama to paint the other guy as even worse (well on the way to mission accomplished there) and to pin the tail on the Republican congress for the lack of job creation (yet to be tackled in any meaningful way).
Karen
@BGinCHI:
That’s always been the Dems problem. No offense but fuck sporting. Mitten’s SuperPacs aren’t sporting. Why should Obama be?
After all the shit Obama has been forced to swallow from the GOP and their cheerleaders and sycophants and their media, he’s fucking earned the right to be “not sporting.”
Rafer Janders
@Mike Goetz:
Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.
Villago Delenda Est
@schrodinger’s cat:
“My, the cah is dihty. It’s time to warsh the cah.”
Karen
@4tehlulz:
Um, your link is broken.
JPL
@4tehlulz: The link doesn’t work but typing it into google brings up a lot of hits.
I’m sure MSM will be appalled and spend hours calling Romney mean.
WereBear
@Mike Goetz: I agree, they are planting “bombs to be detonated later” by preparing the ground; ie, the minds of the voters.
Let them wonder… and then find out. MUCH more devastating.
I love this squirming by the Usual Village Suspects. Fact is, you don’t have to be a genius when you are wading through cash, the media is in the tank, and you are willing to be much more loathsome than the voters think possible.
I think it led to many overestimating the native skill they had to work with. And now it has reached its full flower… as in the Century Plant, pollinated by flies, and smells like rotting meat.
schrodinger's cat
@Villago Delenda Est: Don’t foget to warsh the bumpah stickah also.
Mino
And by using up all the air blaming Romney and the campaign they don’t have to discuss the revulsion that voters are feeling at what is being revealed. That voters might be getting a clue.
Captain Haddock
@Mike Goetz: I don’t think they need to have anything at all, just need to plant doubt in the mind of the viewer. I find it amazing how the dems are running GOP style commercials for a change – that’s not a bad thing, just not used to seeing ’em fighting.
Mino
@WereBear: Quite the metaphor.
rea
@wrb: “The water, most likely”
[Singing]:
Yeah, down by the river
Down by the banks of the river Charles
Aw, that’s what’s happenin’ baby
That’s where you’ll find me
Along with lovers, buggers and thieves
Aw, but they’re cool people
Well I love that dirty water
Oh, Boston you’re my home
Oh, you’re the number one place
Frustrated women (I mean they’re frustrated)
Have to be in by twelve o’clock (oh, that’s a shame)
But I’m wishin’ and a hopin’, oh
That just once those doors weren’t locked
I like to save time for my baby to walk around
Well I love that dirty water
Oh, Boston you’re my home (oh yeah)
Roger Moore
I’m not sure about that. I think you can learn something useful about a candidates managerial style by looking at how they manage their campaign. Bush was just along for the ride and let other people run things for him. Obama appoints people he trusts and gives them a lot of room, but he’s still the man when it comes to something important. That’s how they campaigned, and that’s how they governed. Romney is campaigning like a man who wants to make all the decisions himself, and it’s a good be that’s how he’d try to run things as President.
Haydnseek
@BGinCHI: No, not sporting at all, but deeply satisfying to watch.
JPL
@4tehlulz: heh heh ..
Reply from the Obama campaign
edit must thank tpm
amk
@pseudonymous in nc: Yup, reid said on that on the senate floor, no less.
How really toxic are the fucking mittbot’s returns ?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@pseudonymous in nc: Yes, I noticed that “I haz serket study that says Obama is TOAST!” Then why pray tell has it not shown in the countless polls that have been done?
Karen
@4tehlulz:
Here’s the link
Nina
Halperin doesn’t have the self-control to sit on any secret campaign information. I suspect his “contacts” on the Obama team are acting unbearably smug, whether they have anything or not, and Halperin is picking up on their confidence.
And Romney gave us an awful lot to work with in the primaries. I’m waiting on the commercial with the “I like to fire people” soundbite. The 10k bet. The severe conservatism.
I’m still nervous about the money avalanche. But if we can weather that, even turn that around, well, time to chill the fuck out.
Obama’s got this.
amk
@Roger Moore: Bingo. The ‘management’ styles couldn’t be any more starker than this.
Chicago beats the shite out of Boston. Hands down.
flukebucket
It would be glorious to find out that Mitt is one of those awful 49% that pays no taxes. What would Rushbo say?
I am not going to be happy until the Obama team makes Mitt cry on national television.
Who is in over their head now you entitled self righteous asshole?
EconWatcher
It’s interesting to watch David Frum right now. For a while, he was shamelessly shilling for Romney. But now you can see a whole lot of bobbing and weaving, while he tries to decide whether this is a lost cause that he should abandon.
He’s a pretty good canary in the coal mine. If he starts pounding Romney consistently, you can infer that he doesn’t see any possible career prospects in a Romney Administration, so he might as well go back to burnishing those “reasonable and independent” credentials.
redshirt
@amk: I’m in Boston right now but in this fight – Go Chicago! Down with Beantowne!
BGinCHI
@Karen: Your snark meter has been recalled. Please proceed immediately to your dealer.
Rafer Janders
What’s almost been best about this is that Obama has essentially forced Romney into an own goal. Faced with some criticism of his time at Bain, Romney has insisted, at full volume, that despite being President, Chairman, CEO and sole shareholder of Bain from 199-2002, he had “no association” with it whatsoever.
So this makes people wonder: if it’s that important to Romney to distance himself from Bain, then what the hell was Bain up to at that time? If the president, chairman, CEO and sole shareholder of a firm considers any assocation with his firm in those years to be toxic, then it must be pretty bad. And so the association in the public mind is made: Bain equals shady, unsavory, potentially criminal. And that’s all because Romney was so insistently defensive about claiming that he had no ties.
Since Bain is now all that Romney has on his resume (because he can’t run on his time as governor of Massachusetts), Romney himself has knocked out a key part of the reason why anyone should vote for him.
BGinCHI
@Haydnseek: It’s more Ultimate Fighting than Marquess of Queensberry, that’s for sure.
Mitt’s trying to find the ropes at this point but it’s a cage.
hueyplong
“Sporting” is what Al Gore’s concession speech was.
After 3.5 years of birtherism, racism and conspiracy theories that your cat would laugh at, these people are completely estopped to utter so much as a whisper about unfairness.
The Republicans have more money than can be imagined. They’ll eventually find something that works and then saturate the airwaves/internet 24/7. The Obama campaign’s plan seems to be to harden sentiment before that can happen. Can’t say I disagree with that.
As for Romney thinking the waitstaff at his event was the middle class, that’s exactly where he wants us to be. The lower middle class will be begging in the streets, and the lowest classes will be living a short, Hobbesian life of the vilest sort.
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
@EconWatcher:
You very well might be onto something.
Watching Frum’s twitter feed this morning has been like watching a game at Wimbledon. (To. Fro. To. Fro.)
elisabeth
@Captain Haddock:
Makes me wonder if the campaign has a series of ads with different suggestions as to why Romney won’t release the returns.
Todd
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/17/12791391-romney-surrogate-sununu-i-wish-this-president-would-learn-how-to-be-an-american
Sununu always was a classless prick, and I’ve long thought that the world will be a much better place when the fucker sheds this mortal coil.
amk
@Rafer Janders: The greedy fucker is boxed in. As someone said here, Obama has locked all the doors from outside with mittbot inside and the shit is rising.
mitt must be ruing the day that he ditched the idea of running on his record of govnor.
wrb
@Rafer Janders:
He’s still got that management ability he demonstrates every and his extraordinary hepness.
JPL
Well when the campaign spokesperson say that the President needs to learn how to be an American, you wonder if this campaign isn’t imploding internally.
I still think Romney lasts through the Olympics.
Linda Featheringill
Romantic Obots might like this picture:
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/obamas-on-kiss-cam-at-basketball-game-video
pseudonymous in nc
@Roger Moore:
I get the feeling more that the Rmoney campaign is being run by a lot of wannabe-Rmoneys, behaving in their master’s image. Management consultants all the way down.
Anya
Did the Short Fingered Vulgarian take over Mittenz’s campaign? What’s next? Demand for the release of the college applications?
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
@JPL:
It looks like he’s only going to the Olympics for 2 days (Jul 27-28).
Rafer Janders
@amk:
It’s wonderful to behold the way that in one short week the Obama campaign (with, it must be admitted, a ton of help from Mitt “Go away there ain’t no Bain Capital and there never was!” Romney) has made the name “Bain” synonomous with scandal and suspicion.
For the rest of the campaign, whenever anyone tries to tout Romney’s managerial experience at Bain, millions of voters will have a tiny little bell go off in their heads and think “Bain? Huh, wasn’t that the place where something weird and shady went on…?”
Brooklyn Michael
…yeah, yeah, I know, point of the post is despite the stupidity, process stories like this help keep the story alive, but….
Jeebus, just shoot me in the #$&*@^! head, that is so dumb.
Brachiator
@dedc79:
Oh, yes. The VP vetting process keeps the tax return issue alive.
And if the VP candidate says he or she only showed 2 years to Romney, the Democrats should hit for a more full disclosure. Then, either Romney and his VP would have to disclose more, or both will be saddled with this lack of transparency throughout the presidential campaign.
@DougJ:
These stories seem more than fair to me; it goes to questions of character and competence. But it shouldn’t be the main focus.
The issue here, which Obama has rightfully seized on, is that the Bain issue goes straight to undermining Romney’s claim of being the Businessman in Chief that everyone is waiting for. The gravy is that how Romney and his team responds to these criticisms, and his stubborn refusal to release more tax returns, raises questions about how imperious a president Romney might be, and the degree to which a Romney presidency would be the ultimate crony capitalism administration.
lacp
The convention in Tampa was always going to be a circus, and the clueless flailing by Willard & Co. can only make it more entertaining.
wrb
@pseudonymous in nc:
Exactly.
Not only to they not do empathy for the commoners, they’ve always sneered at the idea of it.
IowaOldLady
Romney is running out of time. Early voting here starts September 23.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Todd: So they respond with trolling? Good lord, these clown’s are short of a clue.
grandpa john
@schrodinger’s cat: So even BOBO is now just mailing it in.
JPL
Well with Ron Paul jumping on release the tax returns band wagon, this isn’t going to end well.
quannlace
Apparently, Sununu doesn’t believe Hawaii is part of the United States.
pseudonymous in nc
Team Obama’s response to Sununu was a little pat: it should have been “is Romney paying for his corporate jets these days?”
valency
This sort of meta-analysis where you criticise how the campaign is “handling” an issue, not the issue itself, is characteristic of a situation where the villagers smell blood but aren’t quite ready to tip their hand yet. They feel a little conflicted, because this whole Bain Capital thing sounds a little like attacking capitalism and upper class privilege, the sort of thing that only communists talk about, but at the same time, they can’t deny the “resonance with voters” and that there’s “serious questions to be answered.”
Should the issue progress further, steps will be made to isolate the issue to Romney and Bain capital alone without launching into a general critique of venture capital firms or highly leveraged casino capitalism.
cmorenc
@dedc79:
For that exact reason, Romney’s most likely response will be that the vetting process is through, but he won’t discuss the details with the press.
scav
Sununu’s platonic ideal of Real ‘Mercans ™. Doormats to Dollars.
JPL
@quannlace: Well he was smoking weed in Hawaii, so that doesn’t count. The president is also friends with felons..
Litlebritdifrnt
Someone asked upthread how they were going to be able to frame the tax return thing should they release the returns. They were already floating that response yesterday on MJ. All of Mitt’s income is capital gains you see, which has already been taxed, so it is only fair that you add in the taxes that were paid on that before it got to Mitt and THEN add in what Mittens paid on top of that.
If as suggested he really did pay zero in some years you can bet that will be their line “it was already taxed at the corporate level”.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
as news of Sununu’s Limbaugh-esque tantrum leaks through the media like the sewage that it is, it brings up another point: What is it about someone who is at best an obscure relic from the Bush administration, and is more like Chris Christie’s crazy uncle– fat, nasty and lacking self-control, why would anyone pick him as a media surrogate?
jl
The post makes a good point. If Romney stinks up the VSP joint too much, and makes it too difficult to maintain kayfabe, the media gasbags will jump ship by emitting drivel about ‘what his poor campaign technique says about him’.
As long as the drivel reminds people that Romney is the kind of creep who can be CEO, chairman, president and sole stockholder of a sleazy company, and then technically absolve himself of responsibility by resigning retroactively, then I approve, though I won’t bother to listen to it.
quannlace
Yikes. Can you just imagine the little tribute film and photo montage they always show before the candidate makes his acceptance speech? Will Bain make the cut?
amk
@JPL: ron paul has already jumped in on this ?
dead existentialist
@Rafer Janders: Needs to spelled the correct way: b-a-n-e.
Mitt’s getting the idea lately.
pseudonymous in nc
Rmoney to NRO on his tax returns: “I’m simply not enthusiastic about giving them hundreds or thousands of more pages to pick through, distort, and lie about.”
Thousands of pages?
My thought on this all along is like the Rude Pundit’s — when most people think of tax returns, they’re assuming the annual annoyance of the 1040. If you run a company or work for yourself, then it’s a bit more than that, but it’s still a relatively small amount of official paperwork. When Mittens prints out his tax returns, he needs to change the printer cartridge half-way through.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Litlebritdifrnt: You mean the company he was CEO and sole shareholder of?
Martin
@Citizen_X:
It’s hard to relocate campaign staffers to new cities. As a result, a lot of the top staffers won’t sign on with you – they want to stay in DC. And there’s less infrastructure to work off of – fewer political ad shops, that kinds of stuff that campaigns outsource. There was a lot of concern over this when Obama decided to run his campaign out of Chicago.
The other side of it though, is that it’s not has hard as the Villagers would have you believe, but they want the campaigns in DC because it’s easier for them to dish dirt and rub elbows.
pseudonymous in nc
@Litlebritdifrnt:
“Prove it.” Somehow I don’t think he wants the various Bain Capital entities’ corporate returns out in the open.
Litlebritdifrnt
@scav:
The irony of a guy who was born in Cuba to a Palistinian father and a San Salvadorian mother saying that a guy born in Hawaii to a US citizen should “learn to be an American” just tipped the earth off its axis.
lacp
@quannlace: They better have an assload of stock footage of the Olympics.
catclub
@pseudonymous in nc: “well, I’d like to see polling on whether they can tie their fucking shoelaces”
Ind: “What are shoelaces?”
Once independents do not know what side they are on, they don’t know _anything_.
I looked at poll details once and the independents had no clue, about anything.
J.D. Rhoades
This is exactly what most of the wingnuts I know insist: that none of it matters because they assume everyone hates Obama as much as they do. I think the Romney campaign was assuming the same thing.
Randy P
My opthalmologist is otherwise a wonderful person but unfortunately a Fox News dittohead. So this morning in her office I heard a quote from Obama about “If you own a small business, you didn’t build it, somebody gave it to you”. Apparently it’s making the rounds.
Knowing how Faux has a way of pulling quotes out so the person comes out saying the exact opposite of what they actually said… does anyone know what Obama actually said?
Rafer Janders
@quannlace:
Can’t mention Harvard. Can’t mention Mormonism. Can’t mention Massachusetts or Romneycare. Can’t mention Bain after 1999, when Bain was taken over by Beelzebub and apparently started in the white slavery traffic, to judge from Romney’s frantic efforts to distance himself.
Vote for Rommey because…just because, peasant!
Martin
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Only if it was paid as dividends – and even then only if you don’t work for the company. If you work for the company, the dividend payments are tax free. If it was realized due to sale of stock, the company never owned that – you did. It was never taxed.
catclub
@Litlebritdifrnt: “The irony of a guy who was born in Cuba to a Palistinian father and a San Salvadorian mother saying”
The amazing thing is only the lack of self awareness, because that first guy IS the epitome of the American story. We are a nation of immigrants, each generation of which mostly forgets and wants to pull up the ladder. The things that actually DO make the US exceptional are the ones that the guys who proclaim about US exceptionalism, want to eliminate.
the Conster
I’m completely loving how we’re getting a two fer with the O Team’s Romney nut squeezing. With every tightening of the vise Romney squeals then hides, and his bootlickers in the press howl in pain. It’s a thing of beauty to see the media and their puppet masters caught in O’s trap for everyone to see how the game is rigged. Well played, O Team, well played.
amk
@pseudonymous in nc: There you go.
catclub
@Randy P: Think Progress is already on it. Go there, young poster.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Randy P: Have you googled it to see where it came from?
Martin
@Randy P: Obama:
The classic out of context quote. Actually, not as bad as when they took Obama quoting his opposition, but pretty close.
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
@catclub:
This.
Chat Noir
@Randy P: Steve Benen has a post about it. Natch, President Obama’s comments were taken completely out of context.
Tim F.
@Randy P: The context of the quote.
elaine benes
@Brachiator:
I’m thinking that it’s highly likely that the tax returns of the VP contenders were requested and turned over long before the brouhaha of the last week erupted. And I’ll bet $10k that the Romney camp asked for many years’ worth. It would be malpractice/suicidal not to.
catclub
@Brachiator: “Romney presidency would be the ultimate crony capitalism administration.”
I think the Obama team can handle the Romney crony capitalism charges.
Three word response: Dick Cheney Halliburton
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@J.D. Rhoades:
Crossroads has started running an ad here that says pretty much this. Obama has had his chance to fix things. It’s OK to change.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@catclub: I think the Obama team can handle the Romney crony capitalism charges.
Three word response: Dick Cheney Halliburton
an even better one is the links between Romney’s “rescue” of the Olympics and Bain et al, Staples, Huntsmans’ chemical company, and more
Turgidson
I’m sure others have beaten me to the punch on this, but it annoys me that the Bain offensive is getting compared to the Rove slime barrage of 2004.
Rove’s operation defamed, mocked, ridiculed and flagrantly lied about a war hero, despite contemporaneous accounts of his bravery. Tragically for our nation, it worked.
Obama’s operation is pointing out aspects of Romney’s record that are verifiable by documents signed under penalty of perjury by Romney himself. Granted, they’re doing this pointing out with brass-knuckled fists. It also seems to be working.
How is lying about and smearing a war hero comparable to telling the truth about a lying vulture capitalist asshole, exactly?
FlipYrWhig
@Randy P: My Republican/Wall Street relatives were livid about that yesterday. I think Obama should have said, in the offending phrase, “on your own” or “all by yourself,” as he was saying both before and afterwards. But the meaning is clear. I think it’s going to be one of these things like “spread the wealth around” that the nutters repeat like a catechism and nobody else understands what the big fuss is.
wrb
@quannlace:
What does he have left?
When the SUV sets off into America’s golden dawn, will the dog on top look enthusiastic?
Haydnseek
@BGinCHI: I would love to see Rmoney tap out, but I realize that’s way too much to ask for. I’m not that confident in Obama’s submission skills. I’ll gladly settle for a decision.
SatanicPanic
@FlipYrWhig: He should troll them by spiking his speeches with things like- Now there are some people who say (pause) I am a sockulist (pause) but I believe in the power of markets…
Haydnseek
@Todd: He can share a plot with Dick Cheney.
Chris
@Roger Moore:
Which is odd, because that’s not at all how Republican presidents traditionally govern: from Eisenhower to Reagan to Bush, the standard was “let your advisors run things and just remain the figurehead.”
Haydnseek
@Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God: @Jim, Foolish Literalist: They picked Sununu because he so perfectly compliments Ted Nugent and Donald Trump.
Mnemosyne
@Litlebritdifrnt:
The company I work for was taxed on their earnings before I got my salary, so that means I should be exempt from income tax, right? Otherwise, it’s double taxation!
Oh, and sales tax should be eliminated, too, because I’m buying something that the government already taxed, so making me pay tax on it is double taxation!
I can play this game all day.
Nutella
@pseudonymous in nc:
That would explain why it’s such a clusterf*ck.
satby
@FlipYrWhig: A friend posted the Fox version on FB and snarked that he at least had to thank his parents for having him but that he built his business by himself. He was roundly smacked down by a number of his friends (including me).
The weird thing is that this guy is an IT recruiter/ contractor manager and has been hammered by the Repug policies like off shoring and union busting that drive wages down. How he doesn’t see the direct downward trajectory of his business and the policies that sent it into the crapper amazes me.
mclaren
Very clearly, Romney needs to outsource his campaign. He can offshore it to Saudi Arabia, do a leveraged buy-out of the White House, then refinance that property to buy the congress. Then he can sell it all in a leaseback deal to Canada and retire to Greenland.