Tag Archives: Obama

Mitt Romney, A Sad Retrospective

[Our lack of posts recently was a result of completely underestimating how absolutely filthy we’d feel submerging ourselves in politics for the last few weeks of the election cycle.]

As you may have heard Barack Obama is still president of the United States.  In what comes as no surprise this didn’t please his opponent, Mitt Romney.  Here is a brief retrospective of how several news (and some entertainment) outlets handled his feelings.

We’ll leave with the very sad (and bitter) words of Romney himself, who blames his loss primarily on the “gifts” that the Democrats bestowed upon young and minority voters:

“With regards to the young people, for instance, a forgiveness of college loan interest was a big gift.  Free contraceptives were very big with young, college-aged women. And then, finally, Obamacare also made a difference for them, because as you know, anybody now 26 years of age and younger was now going to be part of their parents’ plan, and that was a big gift to young people. They turned out in large numbers, a larger share in this election even than in 2008.”

“You can imagine for somebody making $25,000 or $30,000 or $35,000 a year, being told you’re now going to get free health care, particularly if you don’t have it, getting free health care worth, what, $10,000 per family, in perpetuity – I mean, this is huge.  Likewise with Hispanic voters, free health care was a big plus. But in addition with regards to Hispanic voters, the amnesty for children of illegals, the so-called Dream Act kids, was a huge plus for that voting group.”

With that we say a fond farewell to Mister Romney.

Stump Speech Roundup

The fine folks at FactCheck.org have put together an excellent series on the standard stump speeches from each 2012 candidate.  Some highlights:

Obama’s Stump Speech

  • He tells us that number of manufacturing jobs have gone up by more than half a million from the lowest point.  He doesn’t mention that the number is still less than half the total lost in his first term.
  • He says that Romney will raise taxes by $2,000 on  middle-income taxpayers.  Romney has responded clearly that he has no plans do that.
  • He also attacks Romney and the Republicans for running a negative complain when independent reviews show that 69% of the president’s own ads are also negative.

Romney’s Stump Speech

  • Romney references an uncontrolled, online, opt-in survey to defend his position that small business owners will refrain from hiring because of the Affordable Care Act.
  • Romney continues to play heavily on Obama’s out-of-context “you didn’t build that” quote despite repeated, public attempts to correct him.
  • Romney exaggerates several claims regarding annual income, health care costs and gasoline prices.

What become clear is that neither candidate is sticking solely to the facts.  Instead, as we’ve come expect, a good soundbite continues to trump the truth every time and from all the players.

Happy Politics: Obama Speaks Against Boy Scouts’ Policy on Gays

The Washington Blade reports that, in a statement released by the Whitehouse upon request, White House spokesperson Shin Inouye relayed:

“The President believes the Boy Scouts is a valuable organization that has helped educate and build character in American boys for more than a century.  He also opposes discrimination in all forms, and as such opposes this policy that discriminates on basis of sexual orientation.”

We applaud this clear-and-direct statement from the White House on such a divisive issue, especially coming as it does in a very touch election cycle.  (We also assume that the President’s feelings also include atheists, another group that the Boy Scouts discriminate against.)  Unfortunately the President didn’t take the obvious next step and reject his traditional, honorary position as President of the Boy Scouts of America so we can only call this baby-steps; but at least they’re steps in the right direction.

Sad Politicians: Obama in the Rain

You’ve got to hand it to the president; at his campaign stop in Glen Allen, Virginia he and his team kept their spirits up despite a massive deluge.  Buzzfeed has 30 Pictures Of President Obama’s Rain-Soaked Campaign Speech that show how well he did but our favorite, of course, is this one where it’s clear that he’s had just about enough rain for one campaign:

Image by MANDEL NGAN / Getty Images

Good on the president for going through with the appearance despite the weather!

Obama Campaign Claims about Romney’s Outsourcing are Sad

Several televisions spots produced by the Obama campaign focus on his record as an outsourcer of jobs while he managed Bain Capital.  As both the Washington Post Fact Checker and FactCheck.org review in-depth there is no reasonable evidence to support this claim.

Here’s one of the ads in question:

As an aside: while the focus of this has been on his time at Bain the ad also claims that he outsourced jobs as governor of Massachusetts.  This is also more complex that presented and is covered well in the FactCheck.org piece.

Verdict

The Obama campaign is leaning heavily on official (but unconvincing) SEC filings to support their claims.  Even if correct they provide only the most tenuous of connections leading us to consider an initial finding of Felony Douchebaggery.

However, in response to criticism, they are scrambling to provide any compelling proof for the claims but are still running the ads without that proof making this a clear case of Dickory in the First Degree.