Cole writes: "Romney's biggest mistake was using the same technique as in the first debate."
Portrait: Professor Juan Cole. (photo: Informed Comment)
Romney Binder Full of Top Ten Mistakes and Falsehoods
17 October 12
1. Romney attempted to convey the impression that he has worked to increase women's employment as governor, reaching out to women's groups and receiving "binders of women" from them. (Yes, that is what he said). But Romney made no effort to hire women managers at Bain Capital, and even today only 4 of out of 49 of Bain's managing directors are women.
2. Romney maintained that President Obama did not publicly refer to the attack on the consulate in Benghazi as an "act of terror" for two weeks after it happened.
As moderator Candy Crowley pointed out in real time, Romney was completely wrong about that.
In his speech from the Rose Garden on September 12, 2012, Obama said, "No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for."
Romney's charge was disturbing for several reasons. First, he was wrong on the facts, which cannot inspire confidence in him. Second, he reminded people of his outrageous attack on Obama while the Benghazi incident was unfolding, in which he incorrectly said that Obama had made excuses for the attackers. Third, he had to be slapped down by the moderator for telling a whopper, which is not the image a candidate would like in the public mind.
3. Romney pretended to be a big booster of coal and blamed that industry's woes on Obama. Actually, the larger problem coal faces is that fracked natural gas is cheaper and cleaner, and coal plants can't compete, which has little to do with Obama. Romney's posturing gave Obama an opening to correctly quote Romney as Massachusetts government determined to close the coal plant and saying, ""I will not create jobs or hold jobs that kill people, and that plant - that plant kills people."." Romney blew up a big balloon full of hot air that Obama readily punctured.
Here's Romney's original condemnation of the coal plant (whatever happened to that guy?):
4. Contrary to Romney's assertion, oil production on Federal land did not decline during Obama's presidency over all. In fact, it was way up from the last year of Bush. There was a decline in 2011 because of a temporary offshore moratorium caused by the Deep Horizon malfeasance
Oil Production from Federal lands (Percent Change from Previous Year)
2008 -8.6%
2009 +11.7%
2010 +14.9%
2011 - 13.8%
5. Romney represented himself as a supporter of college students but in fact Romney has slammed Obama for doubling the number of Pell grants – which are low-cost Federal loans for . . . college students.
6. Romney said, "We have fewer people working today than we had when the president took office. If the - the unemployment rate was 7.8 percent when he took office, it's 7.8 percent now." But when Obama took office, the country was still losing 800,000 jobs a month because of the Bush meltdown. Obama obviously needed a year or so to get his policies in place and implemented. You can't just start the clock ticking from the inauguration– in something like economic trends, you have to take a longer view. In January of 2010, the unemployment rate was 9.7%, after all the Bush-caused hemorrhaging. Obama has improved that number he inherited to 7.8%.
7. On energy, Romney said "Let's take advantage of the energy resources we have, as well as the energy sources for the future." Romney is posturing as a friend of green energy! But as Obama noted, the former governor wants to cut the Federal tax break aimed at encouraging wind energy, something he has been slammed for by Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa.
8. Romney said, "And if we do that, if we do what I'm planning on doing, which is getting us energy independent, North America energy independence within eight years, you're going to see manufacturing jobs come back." The United States imports roughly 11 million barrels a day of petroleum. Contrary to what is often alleged, that level of imports has not fallen significantly. We use about 19 million barrels a day, and there is a shortfall of about 8 million a day (we export some of our own production in Alaska to Asia since it is cheaper to do that than bring it down to the lower 48, making for net imports of 8 million b/d). There is no scenario under which the United States increases its production by 8 million barrels a day in the next 8 years, or, like, ever. That would be like discovering a whole Saudi Arabia in the US. In fact, most of our current fields are declining and even with new production we are unlikely to produce more than about 6 million b/d of oil in the coming decades. There is only one path to energy independence for the US with regard to transportation, and that is a combination of green energy and hybrid or electric cars. This is also the only path to an America that is not destroying the world by dumping enormous amounts of carbon dioxide into the air, causing climate change (something neither candidate had the gumption to bring up).
9. Romney alleged, "When the president took office, the price of gasoline here in Nassau County was about $1.86 a gallon. Now, it's $4.00 a gallon. The price of electricity is up." Obama correctly riposted that the low gas prices of fall 2008 were caused by the Bush-induced economic collapse. And Obama pointed to increased Asian demand as the reason for the current high prices (as more and more Asians drive, they use more gasoline to fuel their vehicles; since world supply is fairly steady at 89 mn b/d, more use equals rising prices.). The fact is that the president has little to do with oil prices– they are set by supply and demand, and contrary to what Romney alleges, there simply is not much supply in the United States yet to be developed. Neither Romney nor Obama mentioned a further consideration, which is that some of the run up in petroleum prices comes from taking Iranian oil off the market through sanctions (less supply equals higher prices if demand does not fall). Romney says his Iran sanctions would be even worse (hard to imagine). You can't reduce supply without increasing prices.
10. Romney's biggest mistake was using the same technique as in the first debate, of denying or papering over all the right wing stances he took last spring. The Obama team didn't stare slack-jawed at the repeat performance, for which they were prepared. Romney could have gone back to appeasing the Tea Party for this debate, which would have really confused Obama.
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Comments
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Play the video in which Rachel Maddow showed no less than Sen McCain excoriating Ronmney's incompetence and gall getting billions of dollars of bail out from the US taxpayer, If you don't believe Democrats, maybe one can believe the former Republican presidential candidate!
I think it's just basic denial. These people have got their minds made up, and don't want to be confused by any facts.
It's called "selective perception." Or as Paul Simon put it, " amn hears what he wants to hear, and disregards the rest." Wiomen too. If they want to hear lies, it's because it keeps them in their comfort zone.
They want to hear homilies, not hard truths. They don want a leader to make them face any hard facts; they want a messiah who says "Trust me, and I'll make it all better."
They want someone to tell them who to blame for all their problems, as long as it the finger isn't pointed at them - the ones who voted for R$eagan, and BushI and Bush II.
The hardest thing most people have to deal with is the concept that they have no one else to blame but themselves for the governments and consequences they get in life.
Someone clever has to come up with a word for this practice. My ideas, so far, are unappealing - "twisto-coopt-o ," or "retro BS-o."
What advantage would it give to the President to cover up that the attack was planned?
Why do you hate the President so much that you are willing to allow millions of Americans go food stamps, homeless, and without jobs. Just so you are sure that you can say Obama failed?
Why do you hate Americans so much that you will use them as pawns to accomplish whatever cockamamie plan you have?
My questions are sincere but phrased under the duress of astonishment at the depth of your hatred for one man. This ain't about policy, is it? Enlighten me.
Here it is:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/in-heated-libya-exchange-obama-challenges-romney
I'm saving you the trouble of actually having to read the article you're commenting on. If you had and followed the link before making comments...
YOU'D SEE THE ACTUAL TRANSCRIPT OF WHAT THE PRESIDENT SAID.
Let's see how much longer you can carry on this argument knowing full well that I've given you a link to the transcript which proves you're lying....
Why can't you follow the link? Are you afraid to?
Here's an idea: Read the transcript I quoted VERBATIM for you and other right-wingers down on this very page.
This is the only way you can sustain your right-wing beliefs in light of information that would prove you wrong.
Can a right-winger EVER admit EVEN TO HIMSELF that he's been wrong? Here's a test. Can you BRING YOURSELF to read the actual transcript that I've displayed on this very page? Can you bring yourself to following the link and watching the actual link of the press conference after the attack?
If you can't think about what that says about yourself... Can you live with it? Do you have any self-respect at all?
The right-wing is currently freaking out about the fact that it's in a tail-spin.
Here is what gets me about this whole faux controversy. The Righties speak about the entire incident as if Obama, Clinton, Carney and Rice had come out and said five minutes after the consulate was breached and announced it was an act of premeditated terror, then nobody would have died.
These people are dead, what matters most is help their family's with their grief, first. Nextis to find out what happened, third to figure how to prevent it.
If this was a spontaneous riot over a rude video designed to incite riots and President Obama spoke unequivocally that it was a premeditated terrorist attack his credibility in Libya would plummet.
Romney is just not qualified to be President of anything. I would never hire him to run my business and I certainly would not hire him for POTUS.
It's a real symptom of the repuglican disease, that anything resembling "thinking" is perceived to be show of "homosexual, book-readin', latte-drinkin', weakness".
And they are NOT WEAK...
They are NOT WEAK!!!
They are NOT WEAK!!!!!!
They're not weak, right? Sshhh! Don't tell anyone if you think they're secretly weak. You don't think they're weak?
do you???...
right and Elvis is still alive (the misspelling on his tombstone proves it) and the moonwalk never happened (faked by Stanley Kubrick with the help of the US gov't). Get over it. Administration' s rely on the reports they get from abroad (or from CNN for that matter) and report what they are being told. It is no surprise that in the "fog of war" or any such "terrorist" attack that there is going to be alot of initial information that later turns out not to be true. doesn't prove a thing.
A live feed is just a performance video. It was not filled with background stories and vignettes on the individual terrorists telling us why he or she decided to hate America, and was planning this very act since the sixth grade.
To get that data you have to reel in the intelligence, fill in the gaps; and check your sources.
You'd better not bring up the subject of "lies" unless you want the whole Rethuglican lie-apparatus to be thrown back in your face, with it's professional fact-to-fantasy -bending mouthpiece FOX so-called news to the fore, and it's defacto coward of a cheerleader Mush Limp-balls still in full flow and getting well paid for it, not to mention the Rove vote-stealing apparatus working behind the scenes trying it's best to leave us with a one party, corporate-run totalitarian state.
Their very existence is a pack of lies from start (the pre-2000 'Project for a new American Century' by the "Gang of Five') to the current air-headed phony wannabe candidate which even such creative a truth-bender as Newt the Grinch called a liar, so please think a bit before you even begin to mention the word "Lies" in print.
Last night Ob' actually didn't need to respond to that point -the moderator called Twit on his statement and Ob' just suggested (wisely) she record it for posterity.
"Alea Jacta est" for the reactionaries, never to be broken.
Pure GOP BS.
yes it was "administration thinking":
readersupportednews.org/news-section2/330-131/14003-what-everyone-should-know-about-the-benghazi-attackeptember 16
"United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice goes on all five major Sunday news shows to explain current administration thinking on the Benghazi attack. During her statements, Rice says that the attacks were in part a response to the anti-Islam video that had spurred protests across the region. ... folks in Benghazi, a small number of people came to the embassy to - or to the consulate, rather, to replicate the sort of challenge that was posed in Cairo. And then as that unfolded, it seems to have been hijacked, let us say, by some individual clusters of extremists who came with heavier weapons, weapons that as you know in - in the wake of the revolution in Libya are - are quite common and accessible. And it then evolved from there .."
Look, if the administration wanted to "hide" something from the public it could do it (the gwbush admin did it all the time (energy crisis). But they didn't. Be thankful for that.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/in-heated-libya-exchange-obama-challenges-romney
READ THE TRANSCRIPT!!!
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Every day, all across the world, American diplomats and civilians work tirelessly to advance the interests and values of our nation. Often, they are away from their families. Sometimes, they brave great danger.
Yesterday, four of these extraordinary Americans were killed in an attack on our diplomatic post in Benghazi. Among those killed was our Ambassador, Chris Stevens, as well as Foreign Service OfficerSean Smith. We are still notifying the families of the others who were killed. And today, the American people stand united in holding the families of the four Americans in our thoughts and in our prayers.
The United States condemns in the strongest terms this outrageous and shocking attack. We're working with the government of Libya to secure our diplomats. I've also directed my administration to increase our security at diplomatic posts around the world. And make no mistake, we will work with the Libyan government to bring to justice the killers who attacked our people.
Since our founding, the United States has been a nation that respects all faiths. We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. But there is absolutely no justification to this type of senseless violence. None. The world must stand together to unequivocally reject these brutal acts.
CONT.
Since our founding, the United States has been a nation that respects all faiths. We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. But there is absolutely no justification to this type of senseless violence. None. The world must stand together to unequivocally reject these brutal acts.
Already, many Libyans have joined us in doing so, and this attack will not break the bonds between the United States and Libya. Libyan security personnel fought back against the attackers alongside Americans. Libyans helped some of our diplomats find safety, and they carried Ambassador Stevens’s body to the hospital, where we tragically learned that he had died.
It's especially tragic that Chris Stevens died in Benghazi because it is a city that he helped to save. At the height of the Libyan revolution, Chris led our diplomatic post in Benghazi. With characteristic skill, courage, and resolve, he built partnerships with Libyan revolutionaries , and helped them as they planned to build a new Libya. When the Qaddafi regime came to an end, Chris was there to serve as our ambassador to the new Libya, and he worked tirelessly to support this young democracy, and I think both Secretary Clinton and I relied deeply on his knowledge of the situation on the ground there. He was a role model to all who worked with him and to the young diplomats who aspire to walk in his footsteps.
cont.
Along with his colleagues, Chris died in a country that is still striving to emerge from the recent experience of war. Today, the loss of these four Americans is fresh, but our memories of them linger on. I have no doubt that their legacy will live on through the work that they did far from our shores and in the hearts of those who love them back home.
Of course, yesterday was already a painful day for our nation as we marked the solemn memory of the 9/11 attacks. We mourned with the families who were lost on that day. I visited the graves of troops who made the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq and Afghanistan at the hallowed grounds of Arlington Cemetery, and had the opportunity to say thank you and visit some of our wounded warriors at Walter Reed. And then last night, we learned the news of this attack in Benghazi.
As Americans, let us never, ever forget that our freedom is only sustained because there are people who are willing to fight for it, to stand up for it, and in some cases, lay down their lives for it. Our country is only as strong as the character of our people and the service of those both civilian and military who represent us around the globe.
CONT.
No ACTS OF TERROR will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for. Today we mourn four more Americans who represent the very best of the United States of America. We will not waver in our commitment to see that justice is done for this terrible act. And make no mistake, justice will be done.
But we also know that the lives these Americans led stand in stark contrast to those of their attackers. These four Americans stood up for freedom and human dignity. They should give every American great pride in the country that they served, and the hope that our flag represents to people around the globe who also yearn to live in freedom and with dignity.
We grieve with their families, but let us carry on their memory, and let us continue their work of seeking a stronger America and a better world for all of our children.
Thank you. May God bless the memory of those we lost and may God bless the United States of America.
----------------------------------
DID YOU READ IT? Care to continue repeating the right-wing lie?
I've coined a term for when repugs are proven to be wrong and just pretend the conversation never happened - like the lost puppy look Mittens got when he was called out on a lie by the moderator. It's called:
"SILENT ADMISSION by OMISSION?"
Was Twit Romney wrong? Was fox "news" wrong? Were they lying to you?
Romney is a dangerous man that can spin on a dime and we just can't trust him in the oval office.
Bush jr. gave the repug base exactly what it wanted. That's why he's as popular now as a bad case of rickets. His unpopularity is why the repugs are all suddenly pretending he wasn't one of their kind.
Now they're stuck.
Both McCain and Romney were/are stuck between the need to not appear like a psychopath to the general population while appealing to their own psychopathic base at the same time. They've chosen to do the only thing they can about it.
LIE and LIE OFTEN.
If you don't like where they stand on an issue, just wait five seconds. They'll stand on the opposite side of it and act like you’re crazy for remembering their evil twin.
Unfortunately for them, someone invented the video camera.
OK.
Mitty, I wanna sleep in the White House.
OK.
If he were honest even about his mistakes, that would inspire a lot more confidence in him than pathological lies do.
With women, perhaps he can't help it. From birth, his religion has brainwashed him into believing that women are intrinsically inferior. He feels they are to be treasured and coddled, much as you would a child with learning disabilities.
BTW, if you want to purchase3 snake oil, Mitt Romney is probably one of the greatest salesman in America!
Isn't it really sticky to be pointing fingers when the R's own hands are covered in blood?
Sorry, gotta run: Staples just announced a big sale on binders full of women!
Appetizer (print story) -
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/26/mitt-romney-olympics_n_1704261.html
Video of McCain on Romney's economic performance regarding the Olympics - you can see both the context and video here: In fact, McCain used a favorite Romney word to describe Romney's 'cronyism' and performance: "disgraceful". (Aren't facts and quotes things of beauty, if not permanence?)
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/23/1112958/-Mitt-Romney-s-olympics-a-national-disgrace-full-of-sweetheart-deals-Video
Funny how the Tea Party has gone quiet and the GOP seems to have forgotten about how much they've long disliked and distrusted Mitt the Flip, whose wonky stats and positions go down in the all-time historical annals of whoppers in motion.
Scary how so much of the "mainstream" media seems to be intent on downplaying anything positive about Obama's performance and the day & night difference in factuality and relevance to everyday people's lives - now. Truth amid all the stench of lies, spin, and more lies. Refreshing when it's aired.
Obama did a good job this time. Whether it is enough to stop the slide according to the numbers in battleground states, we shall see. This election is very much about seeing if billions in donations from the Koch brothers, Karl Rove, and others, as well as the GOP cheating voters who would not vote for the GOP anyway of the right to vote wherever they can, will be enough to buy the election and fool enough people into thinking they should vote for Romney/Ryan.
Obama has a huge advantage, if he realizes and uses it; he IS the President, and has had 4 years of experience with the office, as well as all the information sources that go with the job. Romney only has sources outside the government. So Romney doesn't know, really, what is going on in the same way that Obama does. All Romney's got is a bankrupt ideology, lies and disinformation, and cheating to take the election.
I wish I felt as confident about that as I should. Big lies do work, after all, given time.
Do any of the loud mouths that make comments make contributions to keep this site alive? I would love to contribute, but the assinine comments and demogoguery on the site can be found on many free sites. If one is going to contribute to a news feed site, I would expect a higher level of interaction.
What kind of "interaction" are you looking for? Would you like to discuss the facts as though it was just a matter of opinion? You seem to be very sensitive to facts that disagree with your world view. As it stands, you're giving a lecture about the lack of interaction, while refusing to comment on the ACTUAL transcript of the President's press conference where he speaks in no uncertain terms about the fact that this was a terrorist act.
Romney said it never happened, and yet the video says it DID.
Who ya gonna believe? Twit Romney or your lying eyes and ears? Reality is going to continue being reality no matter how much you cover your ears, blow a gasket, have a temper tantrum, and lecture us about the lack of "high level interaction".
It's as if the whole right-wing is suffering from PTSD from being exposed to reality. Sorry to be the first one to disillusion you.
1 - 50% of college graduates do NOT work in their expertise/quali fications or do not have jobb
2 - analysts estimate, the real jobless rate today could be anywhere between 9.5% and 11% .. actually U6 rate was 14.2% when Obama took office and now it's 14.7%
(this is how EU - Spain, Greece etc. counts unemployment)
Romney would be fuhrer like disaster - totalitarian boss. But we need to be realistic about state of union - not good and trend is to get worse.
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