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Demolition Derby on Debate Day

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If President Obama does as well in demolishing Mitt Romney in tonight’s debate as the material I’ve found online so far today does it could be a very good night for DEMs and the president.

In the Plum Line this morning Greg Sargent points to an analysis by his Washington Post colleague Glenn Kessler debunking the notion that Mitt Romney’s jobs plan would create 12M jobs over the next four years, documenting in fact that it’s all built on a bogus foundation. It’s amazing that the Romney campaign would point reporters to material that doesn’t actually support their case. What did they imagine–that no one would be reviewing the sources?

In addition, the Obama campaign offers this incisive video of President Clinton demolishing Mitt Romney’s tax cut fictions.

I will be away from my desk a large part of the day, but will add to this post or do additional ones before the debate tonight as I find more material in the above vein.

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Shades of George W. Bush

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The NY Times reports that while MA Governor from 2003-07, Mitt Romney spent 25% of his time in office away from the state. Danny Hakim writes,

When the ceiling collapsed in [Boston’s] . . . Big Dig tunnel . . . Gov. Mitt Romney was at his vacation home in New Hampshire. When the Bush administration warned that the nation was at high risk of a terror attack in December 2003, he was at his Utah retreat. And for much of the time the legislature was negotiating changes to his landmark health care bill, he was on the road. During Mr. Romney’s four-year term as governor of Massachusetts, he cumulatively spent more than a year—part or all of 417 days—out of the state, according to a review of his schedule and other records. More than 70 percent of that time was spent on personal or political trips unrelated to his job, a New York Times analysis found. Mr. Romney, now the Republican presidential nominee, took lengthy vacations and weekend getaways. But much of his travel was to lay the groundwork for the presidential ambitions he would pursue in the 2008 election, two years after leaving office.

It’s amazing the Times was even able to piece this together, considering the well-known fact that Romney’s gubernatorial staff, encouraged by the outgoing Governor himself, bizarrely were able to buy the hard drives to all their office computers, and then disposed of them. Like so much in Mitt’s life, a fog surrounds the secrets.

The story ends on a ruefully humorous note, with this coda:

Mr. Romney’s visits to New Hampshire became so frequent that The Manchester Union Leader, the state’s largest paper, wrote an editorial complaining about attempts by his security detail to cordon off a section of the lake around his home. “The Massachusetts State Police have no jurisdiction over Lake Winnipesaukee,” it said, adding that troopers from a neighboring state should not be allowed “to harass and intimidate people who are out to enjoy that section of the lake.”

Well, after all, it is his lake…
 

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President Obama to Floridians at 3:35 PM: From “Severely Conservative” to “Severely Kidding”

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Just got this fresh videotape from the Obama campaign of the president mocking Mitt’s sudden and false concern for the middle class, Medicare, teachers, and his disavowal of the $5B tax break for the wealthy that’s still on his website. It’s as if PBO says Mitt’s trying to induce amnesia throughout America, about what he campaigned on for the past 18 months, and about what the previous Repub admin did to the country (leading us into an unnecessary war; neglecting an American jewel city, New Orleans; and the worst financial disaster in 70 years).

Videotape and transcript below.

 

“Now, what does he have to say this new version of Mitt Romney about all the things he’s actually promised to do as president? Tax breaks for outsourcers? Never heard such a thing. Saying we should cut back on teachers? Doesn’t ring a bell. Don’t boo. Vote. Kicking 200,000 young Floridians off their insurance plans. Who me? And when he’s asked about the cost of his tax plan, he just pretends it doesn’t exist. What $5 trillion tax cut? I don’t know anything about a $5 trillion tax cut. Pay no attention to the $5 trillion tax cut on my website. Look, Governor Romney thinks we have not been paying attention for the last year and a half. He is going to say whatever it takes to try to close the deal and he’s counting on the fact that you don’t remember that what he’s selling is exactly what got us into this mess in the first place. So Florida, you got to let him know we remember. We know full well that if he gets a chance, Governor Romney will rubber stamp the top down agenda of this Republican Congress the second he takes office and we cannot afford that future.”

 

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Romney-Ryan Ticket Spends the Day** Before the VP Debate Discussing their Abortion Stance

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From the Obama Campaign comes a round-up of all the unflattering coverage of Mitt’s jitterbug over abortion policy, first raised in a conversation yesterday with the editorial board of the Des Moines Register (covered earlier by me in Mitt’s Serial Dishonesty, this Time on Abortion & Women’s Health). While the Repub campaign spent the day assuring religious conservatives that he remains firmly anti-choice, DEMs pointed out for the benefit of all voters just how destructive a Romney presidency would be for women’s health and women’s freedom. I bet this is going to come up in the Biden-Ryan debate tomorrow night, because of the really extreme legislation that Paul Ryan has co-sponsored in the House, including bills with the odious Todd Akin, Mr. “Legitimate Rape,” who made himself notorious by expressing his belief that women supposedly lie about being raped, to give them access to abortion. Here’s that extensive round-up from the Obama team, with many examples of Mitt being called out for his false moderation, with links and headlines.


The Reviews Are In: Mitt Romney’s Abortion Dishonesty Gambit Backfired

 Just four weeks before the election, Mitt Romney thought he could pull the wool over women’s eyes by not telling the truth about his extreme anti-choice agenda. But his gambit backfired and, in the process, Romney reminded women across America about his extreme positions:

 Associated Press: “A day after Mitt Romney downplayed his plans to fight abortion, social conservatives on Wednesday offered the Republican presidential nominee a not-so-subtle reminder of his pledge to do ‘everything in my power to cultivate, promote, and support a culture of life in America.’”

 New York Times: “Perhaps Mr. Romney just meant he did not know of any specific bills that would restrict abortion. But he might want to check in with his running mate, Paul Ryan, who co-sponsored the ‘No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,’ and helped introduced the term ‘forcible rape’ into the national conversation.”

 Politico: “For the third time in a week, Mitt Romney has taken a prominent U-turn on something that’s supposed to be a matter of fundamental principles.”

 Talking Points Memo: “Perkins said the Romney campaign called him soon after Romney’s remarks were published by the Des Moines Register and assured him it didn’t represent a shift by Romney from his support for pro-life issues.”

Huffington Post: “‘I have looked him in the eye and talked about this issue, [and] I absolutely believe in my heart and know that he is personally committed to a pro-life agenda as president,’ [Governor Chris] Christie said. ‘If you trust me on this issue … I know what his agenda is. I know what he believes. I know that he stands for a strong pro-life agenda.’”

The Fix ‏@TheFix  So Romney and Ryan have spent the entire day before the VP debate talking about the ticket’s abortion position? http://ow.ly/enzfc **

 Robin Abcarian ‏@robinabcarian At stop in FLA, Ryan says no daylight between his position on abortion and Mitt Romney’s. Ryan supports personhood and rape redefinition.

Josh Marshall ‏@joshtpm  Just last year Mitt pledged to ‘advocate & support’ law banning many abortions. http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/269984/my-pro-life-pledge-mitt-romney …

Joy Reid ‏@TheReidReport Unreal. Un… Real …. Romney Reiterates: ‘I’m A Pro-Life Candidate’ http://huff.to/T65wuv  via @HuffPostPol

Click through to see more of today’s headlines on this latest example of Mitt Romney’s false moderation.

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Mitt’s Serial Dishonesty, this Time on Abortion & Women’s Health

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I just got off an Obama campaign conference call for journos and bloggers with Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, and Stephanie Cutter of Obama for America. The two women pointed out that Mitt’s unabashed dishonesty was on full display yesterday when he told the editorial board of the Des Moines Register that “no legislation with regards to abortion that I’m familiar with that would become part of my agenda.” Soon after, his spox Andrea Saul reversed course, telling National Review that Romney would “of course” support “pro-life” legislation as president. Then, she sent the AP a statement saying Romney would be a “pro-life president,” though she gave no details about what that would actually mean in terms of the law. Whew, what a dizzying whirl of spin!

In fact, as Richards and Cutter explained, Mitt has promised to sign laws overturning legal abortion and to appoint judges who would rule Roe V. Wade unconstitutional. It’s just one more sign of how dishonest Romney is that he’s trying to hide what he really believes, but as they said, “there’s no hiding when you’re president.” The two emphasized that they don’t believe he’s changed his mind on these issues, instead he’s just trying to soften and blur the hard edges of them. What’s more, if he were to be elected, the radical right-wing of the Repubs would have their way in the House of Representatives, a caucus that has sponsored and voted on a great many anti-choice bills.

They added that despite Ms. Saul’s attempt to downplay the significance of Mitt’s lie to the newspaper, it’s not going to work, because these are issues of fundamental concern to hundreds of thousands of women, and men. Richards concluded her remarks with a reminder that every dollar spent on family planning saves $4 down the road, in avoiding unintended pregnancies. Last, in an email associated with this call, the Obama campaign shared the hardline pledge that Mitt took last June in an exchange of correspondence with anti-abortion groups. You may click through to read Romney’s pledge.

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Bill Clinton Scoffs at Mitt’s Moderation & An Obama 2012 Conference Call

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Via TPM, here’s a funny (but serious) video of Bill Clinton, lampooning the false moderation on display by Mitt Romney in last week’s debate.
 

Programming note: Speaking of false moderation, I’ll be joining an Obama campaign conference call later this morning with Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, who will be criticizing Romney’s absurd claim that he does not have an anti-choice agenda. But even before the call, it must be pointed out that Mitt’s running mate Paul Ryan has sponsored several dozen anti-choice bills in the House. I will blog about the call later today.

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How I’m Seeing the Campaign Right Now & Over the Next Few Weeks

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Like many DEMs at the moment, I’ve been trying to carefully digest and assess the election news since the 1st debate, not over-reacting or under-worrying about the urgent question: will President Obama still win? In the post below, I promised to share the first major poll with post-debate info from Ohio, and here it is. TPM has a report on CNN’s 1st post-debate poll, with the president leading Romney, 51-47. That’s a bit narrower than the last time the same poll reported, but still it has PBO above 50%.

The recent events have triggered an observation that’s popped up in my mind over the years. So much of public life seems to come down to the performance of people in the spotlight. Think about it in sports terms. Just as playoff series often have a narrative arc, so may political campaigns. As cliche-ridden sportscasters are wont to say, accurately, in the late innings the game is often decided by who executes best. Now, in the series of the debates, Romney’s done the equivalent of winning an opening game, sort of on the road. But there’s 3 more contests coming.

For the Biden-Ryan tilt this Thursday I expect the VP to indict the Romney ticket for its draconian prescriptions on social safety net issues–Medicare, Social Security, Pell grants, women’s healthcare and social issues, will get a lot of coverage by Joe Biden. I expect him to do very well in reminding and informing the country about the full implications of the Repub tickets’ plans.

After that we’ll see again how the race stands. And then, with PBO having 2 more head-to-head re-matches against Mitt, we’ll see how Barack deals with his athletically and ambidextrously dishonest opponent. Despite the challenges involved, I still believe we can win.

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Taking a 2nd Look at that Pew Poll, and Others

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Released late Monday afternoon, the new Pew Poll does show a swing to Mitt, who among ‘likely voters’ had a 4 pt. edge, 49-45. That was opposite Gallup this morning which had PBO in front 50-45. The late day Pew headlines mostly failed to inform that among registered voters the two tickets are even, at 46 apiece. This last nugget of info makes clear how important turnout will be to the results in November.

Clearly, there are more undecided voters than before, too. Meanwhile, all journos and bloggers and politicos are waiting for new state polls from Ohio. Will post here if I can.

All of the above does show the president’s lost some ground, but maybe not as much as first glance could suggest. The Biden-Ryan debate Thursday is going to be v. important.

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