This bit of toxic subway advertising takes me back uncomfortably, unwillingly, to the Giuliani years in New York City. Via @mondoweiss, at this link of theirs. The ad campaign, which the MTA was forced to accept after a court’s free speech ruling, is being arranged by the obnoxious Pam Geller.
The DNC didn’t have to work very hard to find scathing criticism of Mitt Romney’s 47 per cent remarks, but what’s remarkable in this 2-minute mash-up of the best, er, worst commentary about the incident is who’s speaking and who’s cited. This is not an MSNBC roll call: Anderson Cooper, Brian Williams, David Brooks, John King, Anne Kornblut, are all included in the video below, and David Gergen, who on a CNN panel with Ari Fleischer and Fareed Zakaria, says, “It’s almost oafish for someone who has a bank account in the Cayman Islands to reduce taxes to criticize someone who’s in need. . . . It’s not just this comment. It’s a pattern, a series of statements over time. Americans tend to create a circle in their mind of people inside that circle, of people who would make a credible, comfortable president, someone they could see in that office. I think this pattern of statements is increasingly placing Mitt Romney outside that circle.”
This is the final 31 minutes or so of the Boca Raton, FL, fundraiser, surreptitiously recorded on May 17, 2012, released September 17 an 18. Thanks to Mother Jones and David Corn for their steadfast work on this story. Part I is here.
Last night, in Mitt’s hastily arranged press conference–where for the first time ever, I noticed his hair looking quite mussed–he tried to leave people w/the impression that his already-notorious words disparaging Obama voters may have been taken out context. He weirdly, to me, sounded as if he were begging David Corn for mercy. It put him very much in the position of the supplicant. And that’s where he started today, with Corn and Mother Jones going with revelation of his two-faced attitude about Israelis and Palestinians.
Now, however, Corn has just posted this:
He claimed his comments where merely a “snippet” and not the “full response.” That was not true; his comments were shown in full. He added, “I hope the person who has the video would put out the full material.” Romney is not the only one who has called for the release of the full 49-minute video. And we’re more than happy to oblige. The complete video demonstrates that Romney was not snippetized and that he was captured raw and uncut. Here it is, in two parts:
I’ll also get their video up soon on this site. For now, please use the link above Here’s Part I:
For Part II of the video, please visit this separate post of mine.
As if Mitt’s 47% remarks weren’t already totally revealing of his disdain for people less well-off than himself, another part of the same leaked tape includes this doozy, where he claims he wishes he’d been born a Latino.
What does Mitt mean–that had he been born Latino, he could somehow have taken advantage of affirmative action? There are some other lines that slay me , referring to his father, whose own father had chosen to leave the United States so he could continue practicing polygamous Mormonism,
“Had he been born of Mexican parents, I’d have a better shot at winning this. But he was unfortunately born to Americans living in Mexico. But he was unfortunately born to Americans living in Mexico.. . . .it would be helpful to be Latino.”
I scarcely know how to write about such idiotic words.