Romney

[All-American]

Reuters poll shows Romney ahead in South Carolina. By a LOT.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...80D0U420120114

Newt, meanwhile, has dropped to fourth in this poll.

This is a MUCH bigger lead than the polls released just days ago, so I'm a little suspicious of what this poll is saying, but it's another sign that Newt's battle against Bain isn't going so well for him.

Asked who they would choose if the nomination contest were solely between Romney and Gingrich, 62 percent of Republicans picked Romney and 30 percent went for Gingrich.

Senior Republican figures and business executives have berated Gingrich for painting multi-millionaire Romney as a ruthless corporate raider. Many Republican voters are also turned off by the attacks, highlighted in a video documentary produced by a funding group that backs Gingrich.

"I think those attacks are misguided. The process of any economy has long been one of creative destruction. Some things grow and some things disappear," said Steve Matthews, a lawyer from Columbia, South Carolina, who plans to vote for Romney.

[LA Ute]

Reuters poll shows Romney ahead in South Carolina. By a LOT.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...80D0U420120114

Newt, meanwhile, has dropped to fourth in this poll.

This is a MUCH bigger lead than the polls released just days ago, so I'm a little suspicious of what this poll is saying, but it's another sign that Newt's battle against Bain isn't going so well for him.

Someone forgot to tell Newt that if you're on a kamikaze mission you're not supposed to self-immolate too.

[Pheidippides]

Someone forgot to tell Newt that if you're on a kamikaze mission you're not supposed to self-immolate too.

Not before you hit the boat, anyway.

[Uncle Ted]

How do you explain Paul's Nazi past?

Oh good hell. Where do y'all get this crap?

[Viking]

Paul is a nut job. I sympathize with libertarianism but not with Le Pen, I mean, Le Paul, I mean, Ron Paul.

[SeattleUte]

Oh good hell. Where do y'all get this crap?

Nazi newsletters with his signature on them.

[Uncle Ted]

He's struck some postures that have made me uncomfortable, but on the key issues I'm not sure I buy that he ever "sold out" in terms of compromising personal principles.

On gay rights - the popular meme that he's switched on this just isn't accurate. Gay marriage wasn't a part of the national conversation when he made those comments about defending gay rights in 1994. And there isn't any necessary conflict between opposing gay marriage while advocating for gay rights. (I know many disagree, but the position is defensible).

On abortion - to say "I am personally opposed and want to see abortions reduced but will uphold the law of the land" isn't quite the contortion that many think that it is. And the transition to being fully publicly pro-life actually mirrors a shift in public opinion as infants have become viable at earlier points.

Anyway - I think his "flip flops" have been magnified and exaggerated.

I'm definitely not saying that he's not guilty of some disgusting pandering - on that front I'm more bothered by him joining the NRA in 2006 than I am by anything else, just because it was so transparently calculated.

I am really confused how Romney views government bailouts. Some days he is for it:

GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is under fire after news reports surfaced showing that his company, Bain Capital, benefited from multiple federal bailouts amounting to well over $50 million. The top-tier Republican candidate has flip-flopped on the issue of whether or not taxpayers should be forced to bail out private firms, but critics have seized on his controversial work at Bain to attack his candidacy from all angles.

The scandal over Romney’s federal bailouts first surged to prominence after a former strategist for the late Sen. Ted Kennedy publicly released an unaired campaign ad — made nearly a decade ago when Romney was running for the Massachusetts Senate seat — exposing a $10-million federal bailout of Bain & Co. while Romney was at the helm. The attack ad, citing a 1994 report in the Boston Globe, noted that Romney worked with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) to bamboozle the American people out of money under the guise of “debt forgiveness.”

[...]

But other days he is against it...

IF General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.

Help understand why sometimes he is for bailouts of private companies but other times he is against it.

[LA Ute]

I am really confused how Romney views government bailouts. Some days he is for it:

Ted, that New American magazine is kinda...scary.

[Uncle Ted]

Ted, that New American magazine is kinda...scary.

Here, this one is not so scary...

According to the 1994 article, Romney basically negotiated about a $10 million reduction in the $38 million the firm owed the failed Bank of New England, which had been taken over by the FDIC, a federal agency funded by insurance premiums paid by banks. The $4 million represented interest the firm did not have to pay as a result of the loan forgiveness, the Globe reported. Other Bain & Co. creditors also agreed to debt reductions.

[...]

Release of the ad prompted Ron Paul’s campaign chairman, Jesse Benton, to say, “This is more evidence that the so-called ‘front-runners’ from the establishment represent more of the status quo that American voters are tired of - people who benefit from government bailouts on the taxpayers’ dime and seek office to help their buddies do the same.’’

Speaking of helping their buddies do the same...

Money may not be buying Mitt Romney much Republican love, but it’s going a long way toward helping him buy the next best thing: endorsements in the GOP primaries.

Romney’s Free and Strong America PAC and its affiliates states have lavished close to $1.3 million in campaign donations to federal, state and local GOP politicians, almost all since 2010. His recipients include officials in the major upcoming primary states of New Hampshire and South Carolina, and in three southern Super Tuesday states where he was trounced four years ago.

In New Hampshire, a U.S. senator, a congressman, 10 state senators and three executive councilors shared $26,000 in donations from Romney’s Free and Strong America PAC in 2010 and 2011 combined. All 15 have showered Romney with endorsements leading up to Tuesday’s primary

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley came out for Romney last month – a year after his Free and Strong America PACs funneled $36,000 to the Tea Party darling’s 2010 election bid. And 19 state and Washington, D.C., lawmakers in three Super Tuesday states – Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia — are backing Romney after his PAC poured a total of $125,500 into their coffers for elections held in 2009 and 2010.

[Moliere]

Here, this one is not so scary...



Speaking of helping their buddies do the same...

The $10 million bailout doesn't really sound like a bailout. It sounds like a loan restructuring of a struggling company which was agreed to by other private lenders at the time. The FDIC just happened to have the loan due to the takeover of the failing bank.

Buying vote however is an issue, but it's an issue with every political candidate since the beginning of time.

[Surfah]

The $10 million bailout doesn't really sound like a bailout. It sounds like a loan restructuring of a struggling company which was agreed to by other private lenders at the time. The FDIC just happened to have the loan due to the takeover of the failing bank.

Buying vote however is an issue, but it's an issue with every political candidate since the beginning of time.

Yeah, to call the first one a bailout is a stretch IMO.

The second one doesn't bother me either. That's just politicking.

[Uncle Ted]

The $10 million bailout doesn't really sound like a bailout. It sounds like a loan restructuring of a struggling company which was agreed to by other private lenders at the time. The FDIC just happened to have the loan due to the takeover of the failing bank.

Romney is going to need your help explaining this to the American voters. It will smell like a government bailout to them.

You have to hand it to Romney. He and his buddies sure know how to work the system.

In a move aimed at tamping down a mounting controversy over secret money in presidential politics, a political committee backing Mitt Romney Saturday publicly identified a former Bain Capital managing director as the source of a mysterious $1 million contribution to its coffers.

[...]

The disclosure of Conard’s identity, first reported by Politico, would appear to solve a Washington mystery that has swirled for days after NBC News reported this week on the murky origins of W Spann LLC : The company was formed in Delaware in March, made its contribution in April, and then dissolved in July, leaving no paper trail as to who its owners were — or even where it was located.

But campaign watchdog groups said Saturday that they will continue to press for a Justice Department investigation into the contribution, saying that unless such a probe is conducted, it will open the door for other donors to conceal their campaign contributions through shadowy "pop up" corporate fronts.

Buying vote however is an issue, but it's an issue with every political candidate of the establishment since the beginning of time.

FIFY.

It is no wonder the lobbyists love Romney...

[LA Ute]

Next thing we know, Ted will be telling us about the Romney-Bilderberger connection.

[Surfah]

It is no wonder the lobbyists love Romney...

That graph just shows me that lobbyists are smart with their money. Why waste it on someone who has no shot at being POTUS?

[Uncle Ted]

That graph just shows me that lobbyists are smart with their money. Why waste it on someone who has no shot at being POTUS?

touché