“Con-text” is Everything

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Via politicalwire.com, a satirical take on the Romney campaign’s continuing penchant, from the beginning of the year, for quoting snippets of remarks by President Obama, and then trying to make a big deal out of the distorted meaning. It was seen again today, once it was proven that the big deal Romney’s been trying to make over remarks that  Illinois State Senator Barack Obama made in 1998 about “redistribution” were really innocuous, and balanced with mentioned of “competition” and “the marketplace.” This bit of campaign skullduggery, quickly exposed by NBC, earned 4 Pinocchios from Glenn Kessler, fact-checker at the Washington Post.

Here, the Obama camp turns the tables and with a wink, knowingly–admittedly–takes Mitt out of context to show how nakedly dishonest his campaign really is. I found it quite funny. If the video has a name, it must be titled, “Con-text.” I like the way the DEMs are ridiculing and mocking Mitt. He is a joke, after all.

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Mitt Still Using Coal Miners as Campaign Props

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You may recall that a few weeks ago, I posted a blog entry, “Mitt & His Minions Sticking it to Coal Miners,” on the fact that on August 14 coal miners in Beallsville, Ohio had been compelled by their employer, Murray Energy–a company whose executives it was also revealed have contributed more than $900,000 to Republicans in the past two years–to attend a pro-Romney rally, and were docked their pay. Murray’s spox tried to deny that miners had been forced to attend the event, and offered this bizarre Orwellian statement: “Attendance was mandatory, but no one was forced to attend.” The Romney campaign used the rally for photo ops like the picture accompanying this post.

Now, TPM is reporting, as is the Columbus Dispatch, that the Romney campaign has released two new TV ads, again using the rally with the miners as the backdrop for their bogus claims that the Obama administration is “waging a war on coal.” I can’t imagine the ads are going to do their campaign much good, with them inevitably trailed by reports of the tainted rally at the coal mine.

Please note a few more things about Bob Murray, CEO of Murray Energy.

1) He is a vociferous denier of global warming who claims that scientists are trying to make money off climate change.  That’s rich–a guy who’s made his own fortune digging and shipping coal is accusing other folks of trying to cash in on cleaning up his mess. Think Progress’s Stephen Lacey has reported Murray said:

“The fraudulent individuals around the world who have attempted to capitalize on the promotion of their theory that the Earth is warming are now finding out that it’s just not true. . . . They did it for what I call crony capitalism – to make money off global warming. . . . Albert Gore has made hundreds of millions of dollars over his hoax, and now they’re finding it’s simply not true.”

2) In the same item, Stephen Lacey reports,

“Murray Energy is perhaps best known for operating the Crandall Canyon mine in Utah that collapsed in 2007, killing six miners and two rescue personnel. After that tragedy, reporters uncovered thousands of violations resulting in millions of dollars in fines at various mines owned by the company.”

3) According to an item by media reporter Jim Romenesko, last month Bob Murray sued Charleston Gazette (WV) reporter journalist  Ken Ward, Jr. for supposedly defaming him. Ward had written:

“’Renegade coal operator Bob Murray played a major role recently in a campaign fundraiser in Wheeling, W.Va., for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’” and that ‘the question for Governor Romney, of course, is whether he thinks criminal behavior by coal companies, especially when it kills workers and damages the environment, is acceptable. If not, why is he buddies with Bob Murray?’”

I hope Ken Ward, Jr., and his newspaper don’t have to spend a fortune in defense of his First Amendment rights.
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Mainstream Anchors & Pundits Dump on Mitt

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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.”

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Talking w/Voters about What Mitt Romney Thinks of Them

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The Obama campaign went out on the streets of a major city today and asked voters how they feel about Mitt Romney’s candid and disparaging remarks indicating what he really thinks of Obama voters. The video the Obama campaign has made is titled “47 per cent”.

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Mother Jones Obliges Mitt/Part II

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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.

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Mother Jones Obliges Mitt

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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.

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Mitt Romney, Wishing he Were Hispanic

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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.

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What Mitt Romney Thinks of Obama Voters

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Late Monday Update: This link is to the entire Mother Jones piece by David Corn that unearthed the video of Mitt Romney disparaging Obama voters. Corn’s piece is excellent reporting, and goes well beyond the video that has so quickly become notorious, and emblematic of Romney’s disdain for close to half the country.
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This afternoon Taegan Goddard’s PoliticalWire.com has posted shocking audio and video of Mitt Romney, at a fundraiser, characterizing Obama voters in a most denigrating way. The whole clip runs about 2 minutes. Here’s an excerpt quote from PoliticalWire.com:

Said Romney: “There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax.”

He adds: “My job is is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
Here’s the clip:

This feels like a kind of bombshell.

Sometime after it appeared on politicalwire.com, the Obama Campaign sent out these remarks:

STATEMENT ON ROMNEY’S BEHIND CLOSED DOORS REMARKS

CHICAGO – “It’s shocking that a candidate for President of the United States would go behind closed doors and declare to a group of wealthy donors that half the American people view themselves as ‘victims,’ entitled to handouts, and are unwilling to take ‘personal responsibility’ for their lives. It’s hard to serve as president for all Americans when you’ve disdainfully written off half the nation.” – Jim Messina, Obama for America Campaign Manager

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