Election 2012: Week Two in Review

by Sunnyjane

Admiral Romney, the USS Pinafore's Ruler of the Navy: "A partnership is the only ship that I ever have seen!"

Military Madness

Readers familiar with Gilbert and Sullivan's delightful Victorian-era operetta HMS Pinafore will easily recognize and understand the correlation between that comedy's Sir Joseph Porter character and Mitt Romney.  Sir Joseph went on to say: 

      I grew so rich that I was sent 
     By a pocket borough into Parliament. 
     I always voted at my party's call 
     And I never thought of thinking for myself at all.  
     I thought so little, they rewarded me, 
    By making me the Ruler of the Queen's Navy.  

The jab here, of course, is that too often people who are extremely unqualified are elevated to positions of power simply because they are wealthy and are willing to kiss the, uh, rings of their puppeteers.

Pinafore also pokes fun at the British class system of the period, to which we can all relate during this election cycle, when Sir Joseph states, A British sailor is any man's equal -- except mine!

Mitt Romney desperately wants the title of Chief in Command.  But during the final presidential debate on October 22, President Obama  proved conclusively that the Republican candidate's foreign -- and domestic -- policy expertise is limited to sending jobs to China, putting his money in the Cayman Islands and Switzerland, and lying to get votes.  These things make him frighteningly incompetent to assume the position of Commander in Chief of the United States of America.

The Professor Puts the Dunce in the Corner
 

Um... Subs?  Aircraft carriers?
 Can I respond retroactively?

After about thirty minutes, the stench of Roasting Romney permeated the air in Boca Raton, FL.  Trotting out his well worn apocalypse-now whine that the United States has fewer naval vessels than it did in 1916, the President took the opportunity to do a little schooling: Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military’s changed. We have these things called aircraft carriers, where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines.  Obviously, Mitt  Romney's definition of naval supremacy means that the finest citrus fruit comes from Florida.  Yes, he's just that daft.

Romney also thought it a dandy idea to bring up the President's oft-debunked 2009 Apology Tour.  That was a mistake, a big mistake.   A little fact checking would have been helpful, but the Romney campaign does not care about facts or, as we know, the truth. But they thought their candidate could get away with this lie.  The President did, indeed, visit other countries -- Europe, the Mid-East, and Latin America -- after he assumed office.  It was not, however, to apologize for America, but rather to clean up the mess George W. Bush had made over the previous eight years, when our reputation went into the toilet.  Romney was especially gleeful to report that President Obama had skipped Israel.  The President did not hesitate to say he had been there as a candidate and I didn’t take donors. I didn’t attend fundraisers. I went to the Holocaust museum there, to remind myself of the nature of evil and why our bond with Israel will be unbreakable.  The donors and fundraisers jab was, of course, in reference to Romney's embarrassing Geopolitical Magic Carpet Trip in July when he dragged along big-bucks Sheldon Adelson and scheduled a $50,000 fund-raising dinner on a sacred day of fasting in Israel. 

The President's Apology Tour -- which was actually a Mending Fences Tour -- seems to have been successful, since of the twenty-one countries listed here, only Pakistan would rather see Mitt Romney in the White House.

Map Maker, Map Maker, Make Me a Map

Iran: Big Green Blob, Two Big Waters.
Syria: Small Brown Blob, One Big Water.
Romney:  Big Gray Blob, No Clue.

Cartographers the world over are said to be popping antacid pills at an alarming rate, due to Mitt Romney's five-time claim that Syria is Iran's only route to the sea. 

Romney can spout all the correct words -- Syria, Assad, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Iran, Israel -- without having a clue what he's talking about. 

Now, admittedly, I am not the sharpest needle in the pin cushion, but I've looked at this map rather closely -- far more than it deserves -- and if Syria is Iran's only route to  the sea, then I'm a two-year old Pop-Tart.  Did the only  candidate for president that the Republican Party could come up with sleep through the 1980s' Iraq-Iran War and the 1990s' Persian Gulf War? 

A Village in Indiana Has Found Its Idiot

I disagree with what the fool said, 
but I fully support what the fool said.

On the same night Mitt Romney was demonstrating to more than fifty-six million American voters that he is unfit for the Office of the Presidency, the only Republican senate candidate he has endorsed in the 2012 General Election was telling the Hoosier State electorate that if a woman became pregnant as a consequence of rape, it was what God intended.  While Richard Mourdock made a small effort to, um, purify his statement, let's make one thing clear -- he meant exactly what he said: I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize life is that gift from God.  And I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.

Make no mistake, this is Romney's kind of far-right-wing Christianista nut job.  Mourdock is right up there with Rick Santorum who believes that rape babies are gifts from God; Paul Ryan who believes that rape is just another form of conception; and Todd Akin who believes that with a legitimate rape, the woman has magical powers to shut down conception. If there is a Romney/Ryan administration, every rapist will be assured that his violently conceived child will have an advocate in the White House.  Yes, seriously.

Hurricane "Superstorm" Sandy

The mother of all hurricanes hit the East Coast of the United States during Week Two, and  President Obama cancelled his scheduled campaign stops to take control of the situation.  Mitt Romney was taking advantage of that situation by running around Ohio campaigning, but keeping the people in harms way in his prayers.  Uh huh.   Then Romney decided that he had to get in on the action and started urging people to donate disaster relief items for the victims.  Never mind that the Red Cross does not want donated items.  

On behalf of all Politicalgates readers and commenters, special thanks to Sleuth1 for her devoted and far-ranging coverage of the hurricane.  Excellent and extremely beneficial effort, Sleuth1! 

       

Let's imagine a Romney presidency during this crisis:

Aide:  Mr. President, there's a huge hurricane coming that's threatening the United States! 

President Romney:  Really?  OK, get FEMA on the phone and tell them to handle it. 

Aide: Um, Mr. President, you got rid of FEMA.  You sent responsibility for disaster relief to the states so you could shrink government and save money. 

President Romney:  I saved money?  Well, money is more important than people’s lives, right?  I’ll take a nap now; call me when it’s over.  Oh, and if any governors want to whine to me about their state's desperate situation, switch the phones to the Call Center in India.

Remember Michelle Obama's statement at the Democratic National Convention:  Being President doesn't change who you are.  It reveals who you are.
 

A natural or national disaster is one of the best arguments for early voting in every state, no restrictions and no justifications required.

END NOTE

Courtesy of Rolling Stone

 We have a real leader in the White House.  Let's keep him there.

Who supports American workers, and who supports Chinese workers?  Just askin'.

  V  O  T  E     B  L  U  E

Congratulation to Politicalgates' newest citizen, Linda, who voted in her first ever U.S. election -- for the Obama/Biden ticket! 

What is Important to Mitt Romney, and What is Not (Subtitle: Brass)

by Blueberry T

Quite a few fact checkers have written about the many dubious claims in Mitt Romney’s RNC speech.   Suffice it to say that there were a fair number of whoppers, and even more misleading statements that misrepresent his own role and position, and that of the GOP, in creating the economic crisis in America and toward women, workers and immigrants.  Here are some of the fact-checks from the MSM: Washington Post,  ABC News, MSNBC; then there was Bill Clinton's virtuoso performance at the DNC, debunking the GOP mythology, point by point.  

h/t to NJfan 

What I want to focus on is Mitt Romney’s remarkable statement, in an interview with Fox News, that he didn’t mention or thank the troops in his acceptance speech because the speech was not “a laundry list” and he only mentioned what is “important.”  Well, that statement speaks for itself; it is always good to know what a candidate for President thinks is really important, and Romney is rarely so forthcoming about what he really thinks.  Given Romney’s own personal history of supporting the draft during Vietnam,  but then serving his church in France rather than serving his country, I think it is fair to look at what Romney considers more important than thanking U.S. troops who are in harms way as they try to finish two wars that George W. Bush (and the neo-cons that are now Romney’s advisors) started.  After all, he is running for Commander-in-Chief, for Pete’s sake!

What I want to look at is what he considered important enough to include in the speech, so much so that he could not fit in a mention of the troops serving in harm’s way.  (I assume it’s obvious that he could have made the speech a few seconds longer to add a small personal tribute, if he had actually considered this “important.”  His excuse doesn’t pass the straight face test, except on Fox News.) 

I went through Romney’s speech to see what he did take the time to mention.  Here are some of the things that Mitt Romney considered more important, by including them in his speech, than acknowledging U.S. troops and their families and thanking them for their service:

• Romney likes the way Paul Ryan “lights up around his kids. And how he's not embarrassed to show the world how much he loves his mom.”
• Romney: “I still like the playlist on my iPod better than yours” (meaning Ryan’s). 
• He said: “My dad had been born in Mexico [but omits reason why].  And his family had to leave during the Mexican revolution.  I grew up with stories of his family being fed by the U.S. government as war refugees.”  Okay, he is giving his bio, which is fair enough; but why is this not anathema to the Republican anti-government, “we made it on our own” message?  He also mentions that his dad never finished college and apprenticed as a carpenter.  What he omits about his father is the fact that George Romney ran for President despite being born outside the U.S. but Romney recently went “birther”; his dad also released 12 years of tax returns because one might be “a fluke, perhaps done for show” and was a moderate, proponent of civil rights and a man of considerably more integrity than Mitt could ever hope to have. 
• “My friends cared more about what sports teams we followed that what church went to.”
• “All the laws and legislation is in the world will never heal the world like the loving hearts and arms of loving mothers and fathers.”
• “…every day, dad gave mom a Rose, which he put on the bedside table.”  
• “I grew up in Detroit, in love with cars.”  
• “Those weren't the easiest of days.  Many long hours, and weekends working.  Five young sons who seemed to have a need to reenact a different world war every night ... these were tough days on Ann, particularly.  She was heroic through it all…  I knew that her job as a mom was harder than mine.  I knew without question that her job as a mom was a lot more
  important than mine.”  [Note he has now made this same point at least 3 times; obviously he feels that Ann’s “heroism” is far more important than that of the troops.]

• “We had remarkably vibrant endeavors congregations from all walks of life, and many who were new to America.  We prayed together, our kids played together, and we always stood ready to
  help each other out in different ways.”  
• “When our son or daughter calls from college to talk about which job offer they should take, and you try not to choke up when you hear that the one they like best is not too far from home.” [Note to Mitt: many college graduates would be thrilled to have job offers anywhere…]
• “It's that good feeling when you have more time to volunteer to coach for you kids soccer team or help out on school trips.”
• “When I was 37, I helped to start a small company.  My partners and I had been working for a company that was in the business of helping other businesses.  So some of us have the
  idea that, if we really believe our advice was helping companies, we should invest in companies.  We should bet on ourselves and our advice.  So we started a new business called Bain Capital.” 
• “By the way, I thought about asking my church's pension fund to invest, but I didn't. I figured it was bad enough that I might lose my investors' money, but I did not want to go to hell, too.”
• Romney mentioned Staples, the Sports Authority, Bright Horizons and Steel Dynamics; these were apparently “important.”  However, he did not mention Ampad, KB Toys, GS Industries, Dade International or others, nor the fact that Bain got bailouts from the FDIC; these were apparently “unimportant.”   Matt Taibbi has written brilliantly about Bain’s load-up-the-debt-and-suck-out-the-cash business model and the NYTimes wrote about how Bain profited even when the companies it took over did not.  Apparently these parts of the story would have tarnished the "turnaround specialist" image that Romney was trying to project.  
• And, as a laugh line:  “President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans.  And to heal the planet.”  That is really funny, in a Mitt-Romney’s-sick-humor kind of way, especially when delivered on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, while New Orleans and the Gulf Coast were getting hit again by a hurricane. 

***

I also want to highlight a few of the points he included to intentionally mislead and deceive the audience on issues that are certainly “important” by any reasonable measure. 

• Immigrants (he suggests they, along with the rest of the country, were duped by believing in Obama’s message of hope and change):  “… none doubted that here in America they could build a better life.  That in America, their children would be blessed more than they.”  I will simply note how deceptive and hypocritical this is, in light of the GOP’s and Romney’s own opposition to the DREAM Act and because the GOP is not at all welcoming to immigrants.  I wonder if Sherriff Arpaio, who was invited to speak at the RNC, was paying attention. 
• He implies empathy for workers who “lost that job that paid $22.50 an hour, benefits, you took two jobs at $9 an hour.”  Picking up Bill Clinton’s vernacular, I gotta say it takes brass for Romney to say this, after he made his fortune putting thousands of people out of good paying jobs and forcing some of them to re-apply for the same job at lower wages with no benefits.  Real brass. 
• And while I’m on n the subject of real brass, here is a paragraph where Romney pretends to care about American workers, while the truth is that he was an outsourcing pioneer and a willing destroyer of these very same American jobs:  “You did it because your family depended on you.  And you did it because you are an American, and you don't quit.  You did it because that was because it was because you had to do...In those moments, you knew that this just was not right.  But what could you do except work harder, do with less, try to stay optimistic, hug your kids a little longer, maybe spend more time praying tomorrow would be a better day.”  Fake sympathy. Real brass.  
• He says that “…this president cannot tell us that you're better off today than when he took office.”  Wow, that’s a pretty broad “you” there in that sentence.  Certainly many people are not doing better, most especially the long-term unemployed and those who lost their homes, due largely to the GOP-driven deregulation of the financial sector and malfeasance by lenders and investment businesses.  But as a whole, it is undeniable except to the certifiably insane that the country is doing much better, economically and in many other ways.  Here were the headlines of four years ago.  As just one set of indicators, here’s the stock market change since President Obama took office: 

	Value at Close on:		Difference	% change
Index	1/20/2009	9/7/2012
DJIA	7949.09	13306.64	5357.55	67%
Nasdaq	1441.86	3136.42	1694.56	118%
S&P 500	805.23	1437.92	632.69	79%

The very poor (about whom Romney is not concerned anyway) and many in the middle class are still struggling, largely because of the GOP’s obstruction of the President’s job-creation proposals.  Even so, and despite the GOP’s treasonous attempts to sabotage President Obama’s efforts,  jobs are rebounding after huge losses in the latter part of the Bush presidency, carrying over into the early part of Obama’s before his efforts could take effect. 

• His claim is all the more disingenuous, in light of this interview.  
• Romney pledges to create 12 million jobs, which not coincidentally is exactly what Moody Analytics projects under current policies.  
• And what about himself and Ann – are they doing better than four years ago?  Given that their income is primarily from investments, and that he carried over capital losses from 2009 (and very likely 2008), it is highly likely that he is doing WAY better than he was four years ago.  If he would #releasethereturns, we could say for sure – which is probably one of the reasons he hasn’t done so.
• Romney claimed that President Obama “…took office without the basic qualification that most Americans have, and one that was essential to the task at hand.  He had almost no experience working in a business.  Jobs to him are about government.”  Leaving aside for the moment the fact that this is a lie in the first place, the record of several presidents who were businessmen is not all too impressive; see, Hoover, Herbert C. and Bush, George W., for example. 
• “And yet the centerpiece of the president's entire reelection campaign is attacking success.  Is it any wonder that someone who attacks success has led the worst economic recovery since the Great Depression?”  I have to just simply state what utter BS this is, and leave it at that, before my blood pressure gets out of control.  
• “That's why every president since the Great Depression who came before the American people asking for a second term could look back at the last four years and say with satisfaction, ‘You're better off than you were four years ago.  Except Jimmy Carter.  And except this president.’”  Oops, it seems he forgot George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, aside from lying about “this President.”
• “I will begin my presidency with the jobs tour.  President Obama began his with an apology tour.”  This lie has been debunked repeatedly, but Romney doesn’t let that get in the way of an inflammatory claim, because otherwise the title of his book might seem like a cheap shot, right?  

****

Those are the things (some real and some fictional) that Mitt Romney considers important.  The people who served and still serve our country in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, and their families, did not make the cut.   

New revealing clip about Paul Ryan: Dodging questions from protesters during the 2011 Labor Day parade in his hometown Janesville, being booed by his fellow citizens - Watch the disinterested and contemptuous congressman in action: "Do you want candy?"

By Patrick

We already know what the presumptive GOP-nominee for Vice-President Paul Ryan did on September 6, 2011, because we reported about it in our previous post. On September 6, 2011, Paul Ryan gave a "pay-per-view" speech at the Whitnell Park Rotary Club in Greenfield, Wisconsin.

During the speech, Paul Ryan was heckled by about 20 protesters who bought tickets for this event, and Ryan in return made tasteless jokes for example about a 71-year-old pensioner who was quickly removed from the room after shouting at Paul Ryan - and then brutally wrestled to the ground by policemen and arrested. A video of this incident went viral yesterday, and this clip is a real eye opener for anyone who wants to know more about Paul Ryan. "I hope he is taking his blood pressure medication", Ryan joked after 71-year old Tom Nielsen shouted that he had paid for 50 years into the so called "entitlement programs." Nielsen was removed from the room and then brutally arrested by the police outside.

At the end of the post, I have included a new clip from the protest at Whitnell Park Rotary Club, which I today found on youtube.

However, let's first deal with the following question: What did Paul Ryan do one day earlier, on September 5, 2011? Well, it was Labor Day, so he surely enjoyed the parade at his home town Janesville, a town which is so deeply connected with the Ryan-family that is has been dubbed "Ryanville" by journalists. Correct?

Well, this is almost what happened. Yes, Paul Ryan did walk with the Labor Day parade, and he even brought supporters with him, who were wearing their very own green "Ryan" t-shirts. But the reaction of his fellow-citizens in Janesville was very different than one might expect. They confronted him, booed him, protested against him - during the parade. Ryan's reaction was very similar to the way he reacted one day later at the Rotary Club: Disinterested, bored, even contemptuous. "Do you want a candy?", he asks a young man who is clearly distraught and confronts him in a serious manner. No answers from Paul Ryan. He was not interested and dodged all the questions.

The expression on his face showed it all: These people really do get on his nerves. I guess that it is much more fun to speak at some protected Koch-sucking "America for Prosperity" and lecture the believers than to mingle with the ordinary citizens, who have real questions, and want real answers.

Paul Ryan is supposed to be the next Vice-President of the USA? He is a joke, even at home.

Watch this eye-opening clip from September 5, 2011:

(h/t to Kathleen's friend who posted it on facebook)

Finally, as promised, here is the new clip about the protests at Whitnell Park Rotary Club, one day later, on September 6, 2011. For more clips, see our previous post.

I guess it sucks to be Paul Ryan sometimes. But the US-voters should make sure that Paul Ryan has no chance to console himself with being the Vice-President of the most powerful nation on earth.

It's official: Paul Ryan will be Mitt Romney's running mate in the 2012 presidential election - It's the "billionaires' pick" for the GOP: Two "flip-floppers" fighting for the 1 percent! - Paul Ryan, the "Koch-Sucker" and Ayn Rand fan - UPDATE: Romney gaffe - "Join me in welcoming the next President of the United States, Paul Ryan!"

By Patrick

CNN just reported a few minutes ago that Paul Ryan will be Mitt Romney's running mate:

Richmond, Virginia (CNN) - Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney will announce his running mate at the beginning of a four-day, four-state bus tour in Norfolk, Virginia, on Saturday at 9 a.m. ET, his campaign announced in a statement late Friday night.

Three Republican sources told CNN that Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin would be Romney’s running mate pick. GOP sources also told CNN that Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, and Ohio Sen. Rob Portman have all been told that they won’t be getting the nod.

Kathleen found this entertaining Democratic campaign clip which was first published in May this year - "Mitt Romney & Paul Ryan: That's Amore":

It is a boring, and very predictable pick by Mitt Romney. I is obviously designed to excite the Tea Party base, but it will also give the Obama campaign excellent possibilities for new attacks for example against the cuts in Medicare which Paul Ryan proposed.

But what I find particularly devastating is the fact that Paul Ryan is one of the "disciples" of GOP-hero Ayn Rand, a woman who famously declared that "altruism is evil", a notion which now seems to be preferred way of thinking by many people within the GOP. It is a terrible message.

See what Paul Ryan had to say about Ayn Rand in 2009:

She "built a moral base for capitalism?" 

Here is an even longer speech that Paul Ryan gave about Ayn Rand (it's not "secret", though, as the title says):

Paul Ryan: "I grew up on Ayn Rand."

This is quite a sentence (at the 1:43 mark): "You cannot find another thinker or writer who did a better job of describing and laying out the moral case for capitalism than Ayn Rand."

I am sure that many of you are familiar with Ayn Rand. This video gives a short introduction:

Here is a longer clip with interviews by Ayn Rand:

Ayn Rand was a radical, extremely narrow-minded person who was obsessed with the idea that people should not help each other. What a wonderful role model! Just what the USA needs right now. The billionaires will love it!

Paul Ryan only "disavowed" Ayn Rand this year when he suddenly found out the Ayn Rand was an atheist. I am not sure how he could have missed that. As he said, Ryan "grew up on Ayn Rand", and Ayn Rand herself was not shy about her views and gave many interviews about her atheism. This has to be the least convincing statement by Paul Ryan imaginable - but maybe he is a good running mate for Mitt Romney, because Paul Ryan also seems to be a die-hard "flip-flopper!" He tells people whatever they want to hear in the current given situation - the GOP's only change to success these days.

So it's "the billionaires' pick" this year. Good luck, Republicans!

(h/t to JCos for the logo!)

+++

UPDATE:

Alternet reports that Paul Ryan is a huge "Koch-Sucker" - he has been very closely associated with the Koch Brothers for several years already:

In case anyone should miss the point that Ryan is a very Kochy guy, Romney is doing his big reveal of Ryan this morning aboard the U.S.S. Wisconsin, a decommisioned ship docked in the all-important swing state of Virginia. However important Virginia is to the electoral math, Wisconsin is a symbolic icon for the Tea Party. It's not only Ryan's home state; it's the poster state of right-wing triumph, the place where Gov. Scott Walker successfully fended off a recall attempt by progressives in response to a bill he rammed through the state legislature that all but ended collective bargaining for the state's public employees. Much of the credit for Wisconsin's right turn goes to Americans For Prosperity, which boasts a particularly aggressive Wisconsin chapter, which began building a network of activists there in 2005.

Ryan's association with the group goes back almost that far. In 2008, he was granted the Wisconsin AFP chapter's "Defending the American Dream" award, handed to him by a young county executive who served as emcee for those festivities -- a guy named Scott Walker. Since then, he has made countless appearances on the group's behalf, at anti-health-care reform rallies on Capitol Hill, on conference town halls across the country and at Americans For Prosperity and Americans For Prosperity Foundation events. (Just enter Ryan's name into the search engine on the Amerians For Prosperity Web site, and you'll come up with eight pages of citations.) In fact, Ryan was due to speak at last week's conference sponsored by the AFP Foundation in Washington, D.C., forcing increased speculation about his running-mate prospects when he failed to show .

So Romney/Ryan surely will make the activist billionaires happy, who last year promised the "mother of all wars" during the 2012 campaign in their fight against "Saddam Hussein" while speaking to their ultra-rich supporters at the secret meeting in June 2011:

+++

Please re-tweet:

https://twitter.com/politicalgates/status/234273914300272640

https://twitter.com/politicalgates/status/234273968826241025

https://twitter.com/politicalgates/status/234274920090193920

+++

UPDATE 2:

The first huge gaffe of Romney/Ryan!

Romney: "Join me in welcoming the next President of the United States, Paul Ryan!

The clip is already up on youtube:

+++

 UPDATE 3:

That's Romney's man - Paul Ryan booed by citizens in Town Hall meeting in April 2011 during a discussion about the growing income inequality:

+++

UPDATE 4:

Paul Ryan speaks at a rally of Koch-funded "Americans for Prosperity" in March 2012 - he is a terribly boring and uninspiring speaker:

+++

UPDATE 5:

 Oh, sweet: 290 pages of opposition research on Paul Ryan! Published by progressive PAC "American Bridge."

Big h/t to Cheeriogirl!   American Bridge Paul Ryan Research Book

+++

 UPDATE 6:

Our reader AzureGhost found a new logo:

In addition, AzureGhost has her very own interpretation of the new GOP ticket:

Barack Obama vs. Mitt Romney - The "battle of the adverts" seems already decided, as Obama-campaign launches devastating campaign-ad against Mitt Romney - PLUS: Are Romney's tax-returns "full of ugly stuff?"

By Patrick

Despite the fact that Ron Paul's supporter today try to make a "last stand" at the Nebraska GOP convention, it seems certain that Mitt Romney will face Barack Obama in the presidential election. But although the candidates still have several months to go, Mitt Romney already is in big, big trouble. The Obama-campaign has little difficulty to exploit the weaknesses of Romney's record, and most of the weaknesses are connected to Romney's activities at Bain Capital (apart from that, he is a shameless, flip-flopping opportunist).

So the Obama campaign today released this magnificent anti-Romney advert, which is different in style from most campaign adverts we see these days - very subtle in style, nicely done (big h/t to Older_Wiser):

The anti-Romney campaign commercials virtually write themselves these days! Henry Blodget from "Business Insider", who is known to our readers for having a very good smell for BS, on Thursday had this wonderful headline:

Henry Blodget explains that Mitt Romney was at the very least ultimately responsible for the decisions of Bain Capital from 1999 - 2002, even if one accepted the statement by the Romney campaign that Mitt Romney had "no input on investments or management of companies" after 1999:

Note that the Romney campaign does not deny that Romney was "chairman, CEO, and president" of Bain from 1999-2002.

What the Romney campaign says instead is that Romney "left" Bain in 1999 and had "no input on investments or management of companies after that point."

So, read to the legal letter, both of those statements may technically be true (or at least defensible).
Romney did leave Bain in 1999, at least for a leave of absence (he went to run the Olympics).

And it is possible that, once he left, he no longer had direct input into investment or management decisions.
However ...

As "Chairman, CEO, and President" of Bain, he damn well would have remained responsible for these decisions. In which case, saying he had "left" and implying that he had no involvement or responsibility whatsoever is highly misleading.

The CEO of a car company may not have input into the decision of what specific cars the company makes or where it makes them (though he or she obviously could if s/he wanted), but this CEO is unequivocally responsible for these decisions.

Similarly, if Romney was CEO of Bain at the time it made the Stericycle decision, as well as the company layoffs and other unpleasant facts that Candidate Romney would like to disown, he certainly was responsible for these decisions.

That would really be the last thing Americans need right now - a President who is unable to take responsibility for his actions.

I am sure that the next anti-Romney commercials are already in the making, as Mitt Romney, in a risky and potentially extremely damaging move now refuses to release his tax returns for the years before 2010. This move even surprises some Republicans, as TPM reports, and could be the greatest threat for Mitt Romney yet:

On Thursday, Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), who heads all House GOP campaign efforts, told reporters that questions about Romney’s holdings were on target, according to CNN.

“His personal finances, the way he does things, his record, are fair game,” Sessions said. While he declined to name a specific amount of information or number of years’ worth of tax returns Romney should release, he called the issue a “legitimate question.” Romney has only released his 2010 tax return and had said he will release his 2011 return before the election.

Obama has personally called on Romney to release past tax returns, saying a candidate should be an “open book” to voters. The issue has gained traction in recent weeks following a series of reports on Romney’s holdings in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and his past use of a Swiss bank account. Obama campaign officials frequently note that Romney’s father, George Romney, set the current standard for disclosure in his own 1968 presidential bid when he released a dozen years’ worth of returns.

In another article, TPM points out that John McCain's former campaign manager Steve Schmidt already saw Mitt Romney's tax returns back in 2008, and judging from Steve Schmidt's very cautious remarks in an interview on MSNBC from January 2012, TPM believes that it is very well possible that Romney's tax returns "are full of ugly stuff."

In this interview from January 2012, Steve Schmidt said, according to TPM:

"I think that he`s the front-runner in the race. I think he`s the most likely person to be the nominee of the party. And I would never advise him to disadvantage himself with issues like his taxes, against what is precedent for campaigns.

I think that he will probably do what presidents and vice presidents typically have done with regard to the release of their taxes. But if it was good enough for John Kerry, it ought to be good enough for Mitt Romney. He shouldn`t release information that disadvantages himself and opens up a lot of attacks."

So it really seems that the details of Romney's tax returns would be very damaging to Mitt Romney.

When asked about making his tax returns public, Mitt Romney said in a debate in January 2012 that he will "probably" release his tax returns public "for other years as well", but then immediately lashes out against the Democrats with the nonsensical argument that they just want to attack him "for being successful" - but even from this clip it is obvious that Romney is very afraid to release his tax returns (from the 1:40 mark):

I thought that in the USA it is the biggest advantage for a potential presidential candidate to portray himself as "successful!" So how could this possibly be used by Democrats for an "attack?"

So, if successful or unsuccessful, Mitt Romney is definitely in trouble.

The voters are also not convinced of flip-flopping, secretive Mitt - the polls consistently favour Barack Obama for many months now:

The "Daily Beast" mercilessly slams Romney for not releasing his returns - and also for lying through his teeth:

Meanwhile, Romney is lying as usual, having told Larry Kudlow that John Kerry only released two years so what's the big. Not true. Kerry released two years while running for president. But before that, as a sitting senator, he'd released batches of returns as he approached each reelection, meaning that he put 20 years' worth out there en toto.

My guess is that Romney will do that thing that really rich people often do, which is allow select reporters (that is to say, not anyone who knows details about taxes, like David Cay Johnston) to come to a sealed room, relinquish their cell phones, and spend three hours looking at a huge stack of returns but not take copies away. No one will learn anything and he'll then go out and say hey, we released them, and I'm clean.

The Democrats have to keep pounding this. Releasing your returns is just one of those things you have to do, like eating corn dogs in Iowa. That he is even fighting this point shows us, or at least gives us much reason to suspect, that the kind of capitalism he practiced for 25 years is utterly incompatible with civic responsibility.

There is another point I would like to make. I find it surprising that Mitt Romney is so weak when it comes to defending himself, as the more "modern way" of Republican politics these days often follows the "classic" Scientology motto - "Always attack, never defend." Maybe Romney is just too "old school" (following screenshot taken from this excellent anti-Scientology video):

Sarah Palin for example has become a master in this tactic, never admitting any of her uncountable lies or scandals, and instead always launching vicious attacks against the media, Democrats and other people who could disturb her. It is very well possible that she took advice in this respect from top-Scientologist John Coale, Greta Van Susteren's husband, who "set up SarahPAC" and "lends Sarah Palin advice when needed", as TIME reported (John Coale is reportedly on the OT8 level, the highest known level in Scientology).

But then, it is probably not in Mitt Romney's nature to attack. He just wants to pleases people and tell them what they would like to hear. He once was a staunchly pro-choice and pro-healthcare Governor, a liberal Republican, so to speak, as beautifully displayed in this attack-ad which John McCain produced already  in 2007:

Now he has magically transformed into a conservative Republican, which only adds to his overall weakness.

Finally, watch this remarkable clip where thin-skinned Mitt Romney loses his temper after challenged by a reporter, who rightly criticized Romney distorting remarks about not letting lobbyists run his campaign:

Mitt Romney, the next President of the USA? I think the Koch brothers and the other billionaires gunning for Mitt would need to paint him red, white and blue and sell him for a bargain price in order to make him marketable. The election may be a close call, but with such a weak candidate like Mitt Romney, Barack Obama should not have to worry - especially if his campaign team continues to deliver.

Smile, everyone - Barack Obama is in charge!

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UPDATE:

Great pictures today from Barack Obama in the rain, speaking in Virginia. When Republicans would have already retired into the dry rooms of their country clubs, Obama weathers the storm - just like in 2008. More pictures HERE! (h/t BellPeppery)

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UPDATE 2:

This is just too good  - Mitt Romney was yesterday on five networks, voicing his outrage about the claims by the Obama-campaign, demanding an apology - and rarely looked a candidate weaker. You were the CEO and the owner! And the chairman! You received a salary of at least $ 100,000 p.a.! Plus all the other gazillions which came with being the owner, I guess. Mitt, have you forgotten?

Daddy Obama, please apologize! Otherwise poor little Mitt won't be able to sleep at night.

The best thing is: All five interviews have been condensed in the following clip to only 60 seconds. More than enough! (h/t Older_Wiser)

I believe even Republicans don't know why they should for Mitt!