Saturday Night Open Thread: Leaked Videos of Romney Fund-Raiser Go (almost) Mainstream
Posted: September 15, 2012 Filed under: U.S. Economy, U.S. Politics | Tags: leaked videos, Mitt Romney, open thread, the top 1% 62 Comments
About a month ago, I saw a supposed “leaked video” of Mitt Romney at a private fund-raiser. There were a series of clips from the speech posted on You tube. I can’t recall now where I first learned about this, but at the time, bloggers were saying that it wasn’t confirmed that the audio was actually Romney, although the voice and content sound exactly like him. The earliest new link I can find is this one from August 27 at Shanghaiist.com. The video was also reportedly shown to employees of Sensata, the company in Illinois that is currently being destroyed by Bain Capital.
Suddenly today, the videos are turning up in posts from “respectable” bloggers. Ezra Klein highlights the first one I saw: Romney discussing working conditions at a Chinese factory he toured when he was at Bain Capital.
Klein uses this to argue that Romney was admitting that if you live in the U.S., you’re born with a leg up. In other words, “you didn’t build that.” Klein got the video from Political Wire. I’m not sure why these blogs are posting the videos now when they have been on You Tube for awhile. Have they been authenticated?
A number of these “leaked videos” are posted at the You Tube site of “Anne Onymous.”
Here is another really offensive one in which “Romney” talks angrily about people who vote for Obama as being “dependent on the government” and feeling “entitled to health care, food, and housing.” Listen to how his voice rises in outrage at the notion of people thinking they should not have to starve, die of untreated disease, or live on the street.
In other clips, “Romney” explains why the campaign is using Ann “sparingly,” makes a crude joke about immigration, says he doesn’t want to leave anything to his grandchildren, claims he didn’t inherit anything, admits he was born “with a silver spoon,” and more. In one, “Romney” says “I wish we weren’t unionized. We could go a lot deeper than you’re allowed to go.” What’s that about–wages, benefits? A few of the clips have video, some only audio.
Personally, I’m convinced the voice is Romney’s. But where was the recording made? Or is it a hoax? Check out the videos/audios and see what you think.
UPDATE: The Boston Globe referenced the “purported” Chinese worker video in a story today on Romney’s investments in China. Evidently their reporters had little doubt the voice was Romney’s. I’ve posted some quotes in the comment thread.
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
mablue2
Mama Lopez
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
There are a few diaries on this at dailykos also. I wish I knew why it is suddenly OK for it to appear in the Washington Post.
They probably needed some one to do voice authentication. It’s him by my ears and I’ve got perfect pitch and a trained musicians’ ears. I can hear some one once and recognize their voice any time after that. It’s kinda of a useless talent, unless you’re in sound and music.
The Boston Globe confirmed it, see my comments below. They don’t suggest any controversy about it.
Yup. See that. I guess enslaving Chinese girls for US capitalism is just okee dokee
Me, too Dak, I play by hear. My pitch was my “gift”.
it’s also a curse when things aren’t in tune 😉
That first video I saw awhile ago but I cannot remember where I saw it. That’s Romney’s voice. He sounds like my conservative brothers telling me how wonderful the Chinese have it when they are making all of those iPads for us.
Yup. I saw it at least a month ago, but I hesitated to post it because people were saying it was fake.
OK, I got this link from a dailykos diary. The Boston Globe published a story today that confirms that Romney’s Bain invested in a Chinese factory with “cheap labor.”
Much more at the link!
The story references the video as legitimate.
God, if Bill Clinton could go into the debate instead of O, he could take Romney apart on this, first as a father of a daughter and then from a wonkish perspective. Sigh.
I have been “busy” most of the day catching up on my reading homework for our book club selection for Wednesday night. The book is a little boring to be honest so I have also immersed myself in the Bob Woodward book in between.
My impressions of the “players: involved in the budget crunch are as follows:
1. John Boehner is a lazy sloppy drunk who prefers short work schedules that allow him to go home to Ohio most weekends. He is totally disrespectful of Obama.
2. Nancy Pelosi can be as nasty as has been claimed but knows how to get the votes counted.
3. Harry Reid is not to be trusted.
4. Mitch McConnell is a snake in the grass and will do anything to win.
5. Eric Cantor is the “villain” of the piece from start to finish. With the Tea Party voters safely in his pocket, he will do anything in his power to undermine both Boehner and Obama.
6. Larry Summers was right all along in fighting for a bigger stimulus though he apparently is rather unlikable as a person.
7. Rahm Emanuael is exactly how he is perceived. Arrogant, foul mouthed, and effective.
8. Biden tends to speak out of both sides of his mouth. A true example of an old fashioned, Irish politician who know his way around “shmoozing”. Comes across “dumb” but isn’t.
9. Obama is seen really fighting for the middle and lower classes but unable to “connect” with those he needs to get him a victory.
Probably because he came to the office convinced that government works for and by the people until he met up with this crew who either had agenda’s, vendetta’s, hurt feelings, job titles, and power clutches at work and believed that could “roll him” until they couldn’t.
BostonBoomer seems to be correct in her assessment that he may very well have awakened and finally “got it” after all because from the narrative of this book he is very much a hard worker and approaches the issues from a cerebral based examination and in DC this is not how it works.
The final assessment if that the “big deal” they sought was lost due to both Boehner having lost control of his role as speaker and Obama’s aloofness from having to “kiss butt” every step of the way.
Pat. Thanks for read Woodward’s book so I don’t have to do it!!!!! 🙂
Thanks for the book report, Pat. I just can’t stand reading anything by Woodward these days. He has turned into the court jester.
And that video is definitely Mitt Romney speaking. No question in my mind.
There seems to be more excitement waitng for the new iPhone to come out next week than his candidacy for POTUS even among members of his own party.
roflmao
Well, the new iPhone will probably be a winner 😉
I’m sure it’s Romney too.
The Onion: No One Murdered Because of this Image.
http://www.theonion.com/articles/no-one-murdered-because-of-this-image,29553/
The funniest thing is that that’s not Buddha. That’s Hotei, the happy monk who is equivalent to Santa Claus in Japan and China. I have no idea why Americans don’t get that Buddha was a skinny dude that fasted for a really really long time but, hey, I’ve personally decided that a hell of a lot of Americans enjoy not knowing a damn thing outside what they can see from the back or front porch!
It’s the statues. All most Americans know about Buddhism comes from those tourist statues 🙂
When xtians use to come to a buddhist chat room where I used to hang years ago and try to convert us, they’d ask us why we worshiped a fat dude and didn’t we know anything about JAYzeus. I’d say, well I was never understood worshiping Popsicle sticks or twigs glued together and reindeer make me sneeze. They’d actually think I was serious and try to explain that I was confused. The room used to love to watch me f with them that way. They thought we weren’t xtians because we didn’t know about Jayzeus. Then, I’d tell them I’d read the bible through 3 times and that I just couldn’t reconcile all the contradictions and magic and that they came in and did the equivalent of confusing Santa Claus with their christ so they failed the test and wouldn’t be getting their convert a pagan badge today.
Let’s hope no right wing evangelicals or devout Hindus see that.
It’s a t shirt. That could be worth buying and wearing in some select parking lots on Sunday. Bet we’d see the Tahrir square antics over here real fast.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/15/benjamin-netanyahu-iran-nuclear-weapons-containment_n_1887155.html
Bibi’s war mongering on Disco Dave’s
We should really tell BiBI, “no thanks we’re good, handle it yourself”.
Mitt Romney’s Last-Ditch Strategy: Inflame the Base
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/09/16/they-have-to-go-all-in-on-every-front-class-warfare-culture-and-foreign-policy.html
After the last post, I have to wonder whether the Teavangelicals will stage violent protests in response to the Youtube clips insulting their prophet Mitt Romney. If not, it’s probably only because they don’t care about Romney.
No, they don’t even care about Paul Ryan anymore. Their prophet is James Dobson.
They change their prophets so fast, that I probably shouldn’t even bother googling who this is – in e few months he just won’t be crazy enough for them..
He’s the head guy behind Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Dobson
Sort’ve like how the whole thing got started. One big meeting in 325 to decide which things to burn and which things served them well.
SteveM has an amazingly good post on the apocalyptic weirdos out there now. If you’re too normal, you may not even know these nutters are out there.
APOCALYPSE PR0N
Seriously, who are these people? Where do they come from? My hypothesis is child abuse.
Something has them insane. Steve seems to be onto something with them wanting to be victims so they can fell heroic or something for getting up in the morning. That’s one constant in the whole wingnut blogosphere, they’re always the victim.
They all sit around together and hype themselves into a frenzy telling ghost stories. Ben Stein goes around calling himself an economist when he has a law degree from Yale. He lives in his own private Idaho with a bunch of other nut jobs.
BB: This one is for you.
Jack Kerouac’s ex-girlfriend lifts lid on beat novelist’s rise and fall: Joyce Johnson’s new book reveals detail… http://bit.ly/OsQahJ
That would be her third book! She’s really milking a couple of months’ relationship for all she can get.
The article says they were together for two years, but I don’t think he was living with Johnson all that time. I loved her first book when I read it years ago.
Wow, BB thanks for pulling me up here although I’m sorry no one will see my Gary Bauer, the Peter Lorrie of bigots video I left below. hehe I’m so glad this is now being seen. When I saw the video Ralph put up I has pulling my jaw off the floor.
I saw the Gary Bauer video. Post it again up here. It was hilarious.
I love the Bisquick sign in the background too.
Bwahahaha, I actually remember that ridiculous moment.
Man, I just read the headlines on Drudge …how frightening, something about an armada to help Israel attack Iran and other end of world drama. I just got back, it was a busy day, so I need to catch up.
And one of the links went to the NYT: U.S. Is Preparing for a Long Siege of Arab Unrest – NYTimes.com
Saudi Arabia’s highest religious authority on Saturday condemned the attacks on U.S. embassies as un-Islamic, according to a report by Reuters.
wow…I am way to tired to read up on the post from today…they look real good too.
Instadipshit gets taken apart nicely.
Lawyers Guns and Money: I presume Glenn Reynold’s already uploaded most of his mind and what he loses here are the sad scraps that remain.
@JomanaCNN : One senior official just told me they have no evidence yet to support President’s statements that attack was pre-planned. #Libya http://huff.to/QcMz9e
SNL;; Eastwood and the Chair
On tour now!
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/09/16/snls-eastwood-and-chair/
I just saw this, it is hilarious!
Finally got an african-american to play Obama instead of Fred Arnison.
If they were paid to protest, who paid them?
Amid uneasy calm in Cairo, prime minister says some were paid to protest
This all smells of a false flag operation. Let’s see, who could afford to go around and pay people to protest at US embassies … who has that kind of money all over the world ….
who smirked like “I know something you don’t know …” after a premature press conference a few days ago …
who is trying to stir up a war on Disco Dave’s tomorrow …
Gee … let’s connect some dots, shall we?
It does stink to high heaven. I really want to know who financed that stupid little film. If the Egyptian prime minister isn’t full of it, it would be nice to know who was paying protestors. But you know, this just comes off as too stupid to be a professional operation. If I had to guess, any pro op really started when whoever got that thing on Egyptian TV.
I think they brought in the bag man on a parole violation to figure out where the money came from. I’m pretty sure the entire thing was orchestrated as a September/October Surprise. An Egyptian on twitter said some one was selling Al Quada t-shirts in Tahrir square and was laughing about it. When have you ever heard of that happening? It sounds like a bunch of people out there with money are trying to confuse any stupid american than can, frankly. I think Cannonfire and Smoking Gun have all that information that show that even our Government smells a rat. I wouldn’t put it past some of these richies to wag the dog, would you? Or the neo cons here or in Israel. They have been trying to goad us into war with Iran for years now. Frankly, I wouldn’t put it pass that lying POS Richie Rich Romney either.
Nah, they’ve done really stupid obvious things before. Look at all the stupid stuff during the Reagan years with Ollie North and then the negotiations with Iran prior to the election? The government just didn’t air all the dirty laundry but we had enough to know they were seriously stupid. Look at the Watergate break in. How stupid was that?
That’s a strong probability and it you’re sure your stooge can never identity the actual source of the money, it make a lot of sense. I’m pretty sure they are capable of it. Then it got away from them and real militants used it to kill Americans in Libya. I hope someone pays for this big time, whoever is involved.
That is very creepy.
BB…..Thanks for the videos. Glad to see that Klein used the factory recording at his blog. The second video/recording where Romney complains about the 47% who will vote for Obama, needs to go viral, because it clearly demonstrates what a pompous, arrogant and ignorant ass this guy is.