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Tuesday Reads: Media Reactions to Romney Revelations and Other News

Posted: September 18, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: 2012 presidential campaign, A My Pet Goat Moment, morning reads, The Bonus Class, U.S. Economy, U.S. Politics | Tags: , , , , , , |62 Comments

Good Morning!!

This is going to be mostly a link dump with little commentary, because I have a lot of news to share and I’m still tired from last night.

Yesterday was a day that will very likely go down in presidential campaign history along with the day Mike Dukakis posed for photos wearing a silly-looking helmet and riding in a tank. In a series of surreptitiously recorded videos/audios, we heard the real Mitt Romney–a man who truly believes that he and other wealthy people got where there are on merit alone and that those pathetic Americans who are not so “successful” are worthless, lazy drones who have the nerve to think we are entitled to food, shelter, health care.

Late last night, Romney finally responded to the firestorm over the leaked videos at a hastily called press availability. He looked desperate–his hair mussed and bags under his eyes, his expression sheepish yet defiant, but he stood by his statement at the May 2012 fundraiser that 47% of Americans are dependent on the government and pay no taxes.

For your reading pleasure, I’ve gathered some of the media reactions to yesterday’s stunning events, but before I get to those, there’s even more from David Corn this morning. After yesterday’s big scoop and his appearances on MSNBC last night, Corn released another episode from the Romney fundraiser bootleg videos: SECRET VIDEO: On Israel, Romney Trashes Two-State Solution

During the freewheeling conversation, a donor asked Romney how the “Palestinian problem” can be solved. Romney immediately launched into a detailed reply, asserting that the Palestinians have “no interest whatsoever in establishing peace, and that the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish.”

Romney spoke of “the Palestinians” as a united bloc of one mindset, and he said: “I look at the Palestinians not wanting to see peace anyway, for political purposes, committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel, and these thorny issues, and I say there’s just no way.”

Romney was indicating he did not believe in the peace process and, as president, would aim to postpone significant action: “[S]o what you do is, you say, you move things along the best way you can. You hope for some degree of stability, but you recognize that this is going to remain an unsolved problem…and we kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately, somehow, something will happen and resolve it.”

Romney did note there was another perspective on this knotty matter. He informed his donors that a former secretary of state—he would not say who—had told him there was “a prospect for a settlement between the Palestinians and the Israelis.” Romney recalled that he had replied, “Really?” Then he added that he had not asked this ex-secretary of state for further explanation.

Video at the Mother Jones link.

Also at Mother Jones, a list of likely guests at the Romney fund-raiser.

Joe Coscarelli at New York Magazine: How Jimmy Carter’s Grandson Helped Leak the Secret Romney Fund-raiser Video

The damning video of Mitt Romney telling a room of wealthy donors how he really feels about the freeloading 47 percent of Americans “who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it,” among other candid things, has been floating around online in bits and pieces for three months, but didn’t hit the big time until it was published by David Corn at Mother Jones today. Credited as a “research assistant” on the story is James Carter IV, the grandson of former President Jimmy Carter, who has been toiling online as an opposition researcher and is “currently looking for work,” according to his Twitter bio. “I’ve been searching for clips on Republicans for a long time, almost every day,” said Carter this evening. “I just do it for fun.” But by connecting Corn with the mysterious uploader of the clip, Carter has uncovered his biggest story yet, one that could potentially affect the outcome of the election. (And get him a job.)
Carter told Daily Intel that he first noticed a portion of the video in which Romney discusses using Chinese labor while working at Bain Capital. That clip, uploaded by a YouTube user named “RomneyExposed” in late May, and then again in late August by an account called “Rachel Maddow” that has since been deleted, eventually made it to Buzzfeed and Daily Kos.*

Additional pieces of the tape were then added to a YouTube account called “Anne Onymous” starting three weeks ago. “There was a minor uproar about it on Twitter when I found [the first clip], so I kept doing research on it and that eventually led me to be able to narrow down who it originated from,” said Carter. Via Twitter, he contacted the person who claimed to have secretly taped and uploaded the video, and then sought to help publicize the remarks. “That seemed to be the purpose of [the filming] — to get it to a larger audience,” Carter said.

Now for those reactions…

Charles Pierce: The Worst Thing Romney Has Said About Americans Yet

Joan Walsh: Mitt Romney insults half the country. Walsh repeats her previous prediction that Romney “will never be president.”

Chris Cillizza: Mitt Romney’s Darkest Hour. Chris transmits what is probably the reaction of most Villagers–that the videos are just a distraction and won’t spell the end of Romney presidential campaign.

Jonathan Chait finally faces the reality that Romney is not a moderate Rockefeller Republican: The Real Romney Captured on Tape Turns Out to Be a Sneering Plutocrat

The New Republic staff: Three things we learned from the secret Romney video.

Right wing nut blogger Erick Erickson announced that he has given up on Romney winning the election.

Dave Wiegel: We Are the 47%: The Lousy Math Behind Romney’s Gaffe

Brad Plummer at the Wonkblog: Mitt Romney versus the 47%. Plummer explains why Romney is wrong about half of Americans being shiftless louts who contribute nothing to society.

David Graham at the Atlantic: Where Are the 47% of Americans Who Pay No Income Taxes?

Ezra Klein: Romney’s theory of the “taker class” and why it matters.

Ben Smith at Buzzfeed: The Long Strange Leak Of Mitt Romney’s 47% Video

The Guardian: Mitt Romney ‘victims’ gaffe: key players

In Other News…

The Nation: What’s Behind the U.S. Embassy Protests in Egypt

Reuters: Chicago teachers meet Tuesday to decide whether to end strike.

LA Times: ‘Innocence of Muslims’ doesn’t meet free-speech test

PBS News Hour: David Souter Gets Rock Star Welcome, Offers Constitution Day Warning

WaPo: US Aid to Egypt Stalled

WaPo: National Zoo welcomes baby panda

Now it’s your turn. What are you reading and blogging about today?

62 Comments on “Tuesday Reads: Media Reactions to Romney Revelations and Other News”

  1. bostonboomer says:
    September 18, 2012 at 7:47 am

    Fox’s Varney: Romney Is Correct In Comments On The 47 Percent, “Half The Population Is Living Off The Other Half”

  2. bostonboomer says:
    September 18, 2012 at 7:52 am

    TPM: Romney Camp Silent on Whether Bain Purchased Brutal Chinese Factory

    The Obama campaign is pouncing on a leaked fundraiser video in which Mitt Romney describes touring a factory in China as president of Bain Capital. According to Romney, the company packed workers into crowded dormitories behind barbed wire, while paying them a fraction of American wages.

    Left unclear, however, is whether Romney ended up investing in the facility himself. While the video has circulated for weeks, and drawn renewed attention in recent days, the Romney campaign has yet to deny that the candidate bought the factory. It’s likely to get more attention now that more secretly filmed clips of a Romney fundraiser leaked to Mother Jones. The clips of Romney describing the Chinese factory appear to be from the same event in which Romney suggests all Obama supporters receive government handouts.

    “You know, that video’s old, you can call Bain and ask them what they did in terms of investing on it,” senior Romney adviser Ed Gillespie told reporters on Monday. “I don’t have any information on it.”

  3. bostonboomer says:
    September 18, 2012 at 8:02 am

    American Bridge pac posts new video with previous Romney comments on worthless not-rich Americans!

  4. bostonboomer says:
    September 18, 2012 at 8:07 am

    Krugman: The Real Romney

    • Pat Johnson says:
      September 18, 2012 at 9:02 am

      For the life of me, unless you are one of the 1%ers I can find no reason why anyone in this country would want to vote for Mitt Romney.

      His contempt for the poor and working class, along with his ineptitude when it comes to discussing foreign affairs, is enough in itself to never want to see this man in charge of anything.

      He presents an agenda that would reach out and decimate most of us in way form or another, has shown he has absolutely no compassion toward anyone outside of his privileged state of life, and the failure to reveal his tax returns speaks to who he really is.

      Yet there seems to be enough braindead people out there eagerly awaitng the opportunity to vote this man into office knowing full well is he both unqualified, unethical, and dismissive of them.

      HIs comments about the Palestinian situation reminds me of George W. Bush who did not understand the difference between Sunni and Shias when he made plans to bomb their country, or Sarah Palin to had no idea that Korea was divided in half.

      And these are the types of people we encourage tor un this nation? Astounding.

  5. Beata says:
    September 18, 2012 at 9:27 am

    There was nothing wrong with RMoney’s fundraiser remarks except he failed to serve them on damask with homemade scones, clotted cream, and jam. I’m sure he’s learned from his faux pas.

    Now move along, folks. Nothing happening here.

  6. Beata says:
    September 18, 2012 at 9:31 am

    BB, thanks for all the links. I don’t know how you manage to do this every day but I am grateful to you and the other front pagers.

  7. RalphB says:
    September 18, 2012 at 10:02 am

    Glad I didn’t watch NBC news yesterday. Nothing to see here, move along. Brian Williams is no damn better.

    SteveM: CHUCK TODD: GOP DADDY DIDN’T REALLY SAY WHAT HE ACTUALLY SAID

    • janicen says:
      September 18, 2012 at 10:26 am

      LOL! I saw Rick Davis on CBS This Morning saying that this latest crisis was an “opportunity” for Romney. Reminded me of working in corporate America where executives’ fuck-ups were “opportunities for success!” 😀

  8. RalphB says:
    September 18, 2012 at 10:41 am

    Atrios: Being Poor Sucks
    Bring me to this fantasy world where the welfare gravy train just gives all the poor people free car elevators.

  9. ANonOMouse says:
    September 18, 2012 at 10:52 am

    Reuters/Ipsos * Likely Voters (through 9/17)

    Obama 48.0 %

    Romney 43.0 %

    The only poll where RMoney still leads is the (R)Assmussen where he leads by 2.

  10. Pat Johnson says:
    September 18, 2012 at 10:55 am

    Since his remarks are up for interpretation, this may be what he meant:

    He doesn’t give a rat’s ass about minorities, the disabled, the Vets, the seniors, the college students, the working poor, the unemployed, the health and welfare of those who depend upon government aid to survive.

    HIs focus is and always has been on money and the monied class who he believes are the only ones who can “steer the ship of state” since the rest of us are incapable of “earning” ourselves much beyond the serf class from the moment of birth.

    Pornography kings, munition sellers, Wall Street thieves, corporate owners, sleazy grafters, all capable of owning multi residences, fancy vehicles, paid servants, and hefty campaign donations are welcomed into the Romney life of privilege while those who actually work for a living are directed to the backdoor of the McMansion, cap in hand.

    Romney speaks the language of the plutocracy with shades of Ayn Rand peeping through to remind the majority that their lot in life will be determined by them and them only as democracy itself has no place in this rarified land.

    Their vision of “achievement” will be met the day a college education costs a million dollars a year and admittance is dependent upon “legacy”.

    For those born without that “silver spoon” you are officially on your own.

    A look backward to the days when Dickens wrote of the same social issues that plagued an empire that was brought to its knees following WW1.

    The GOP: ridding the world of democracy one election at a time.

  11. janey says:
    September 18, 2012 at 11:05 am

    For the life of me, I cannot understand a group of people who think that you should take responsibility for every aspect of your life, pay for your own health care, and yet are not allowed to make the decision to have an abortion or use birth control without their approval. HUH?

    • RalphB says:
      September 18, 2012 at 11:11 am

      I never expect common sense from these people. It’s not there.

      • dakinikat says:
        September 18, 2012 at 11:37 am

        I wish this satire didn’t ring so true

        • dakinikat says:
          September 18, 2012 at 11:48 am

          Slavery wasn’t so bad, says book published by OR Republican for Congress

          http://www.talk2action.org/story/2012/9/18/115343/926

          Improbably, the smackingly racist writing of 19th Century British author George Alfred Henty — whose boys adventure novels had kind words for slavery, described Africans as having the intelligence of ten-year old children, and featured a comedic description of a slave being tortured with red hot irons (see quotes, below) — may become an issue this year in an Oregon congressional race. …

          Backed by the Koch brothers-funded group Americans For Prosperity in his insurgent bid to defeat longtime incumbent Democratic Representative Peter DeFazio and represent Oregon’s Fourth District in Congress, Republican Art Robinson doesn’t just recommend G.A. Henty’s boys novels, and he goes beyond merely including them in his homeschooling curriculum – Robinson prints and sells hardcover paper editions of all the 99 novels of G.A. Henty, whose zesty, militaristic tales of plucky boyish adventure celebrate British colonialism, depict darker-skinned peoples as stupid, savage and childlike, and romanticize slavery.

          This report examines Arthur B. Robinson’s homeschooling curriculum, especially its racist content, and Robinson’s extensive and intimate ties to the theocratic Christian Reconstructionism movement, which helped develop the Robinson Curriculum.

          Yes, and in Louisiana this stupid shit curriculum is being funded with my tax dollars.

      • RalphB says:
        September 18, 2012 at 12:04 pm

        I love Randy Newman! Great songwriter.

    • ANonOMouse says:
      September 18, 2012 at 11:14 am

      I agree Janey. Their messaging is so conflicted I don’t know what keeps their eyes from crossing.

  12. RalphB says:
    September 18, 2012 at 11:10 am

    Today’s Mitt tape release is on Israel and is almost as bad as yesterday as middle east policy goes.

    Jon Chait: Mitt: Palestinians Are the 47 Percent

  13. dakinikat says:
    September 18, 2012 at 11:17 am

    I love the Pierce link above … this debacle is so up his alley.

    To this moment, I guarantee you, Romney is probably astonished at what all the fuss is about. This is simply the way the world is. There is himself, Willard Romney, and his perfect family, and his perfect life, and there is The Help, and The Help gets drunk on the job, and prunes the shrubbery badly, and pockets the silverware, and makes off with the odd can of salmon out of the pantry. He is who he is today because his breeding and his genes and his god have arranged him to be through a serious of immutable laws against which only a fool or The Help would presume to argue. He is what his golden life has made him to be, and his golden life was only the bare minimum of that to which god and nature entitled him. To ask him to doubt any of this is to ask him to doubt gravity or the movement of the tides.

    (And, holy blog in heaven, imagine what a genuinely balls-out progressive president could do with this tape. The man has declared a class war on himself. Please, whoever’s doing the president’s ads for him, ignore that message that Geithner left on your voice mail this afternoon.)

    God, he’s a foof and, god, are they selling his ass out wholesale. Somebody shipped this tape to Corn for the express purpose of confirming every single stereotype of Romney in which people already had come to despise. This is a perfect demonstration of what every other Republican candidate came to hate about him in 2008 — I’m willing to bet that old John McCain is pouring himself a nice Merlot tonight, and chuckling evilly to himself — and what drove Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich around the bend four years later.

    Doesn’t mittens make you feel like your a Goonie and keep watching the folks from the country club steal your home?

  14. RalphB says:
    September 18, 2012 at 11:59 am

    David Frum has the right idea for why that 47% number is held in such esteem by the wingers.

    Here’s Why Mitt’s 100% Wrong on the 47%

    When you ask white Americans to estimate the black population of the United States, the answer averages out at nearly 30%. Ask them to estimate the Hispanic population, and the answer averages out at 22%.

    So when a politician or a broadcaster talks about 47% in “dependency,” the image that swims into many white voters’ minds is not their mother in Florida, her Social Security untaxed, receiving Medicare benefits vastly greater than her lifetime tax contributions; it is not their uncle, laid off after 30 years and now too old to start over. No, the image that comes into mind is minorities on welfare.

  15. ANonOMouse says:
    September 18, 2012 at 12:35 pm

    Andrea Mitchell just interviewed John Sununu and I thought he was going to stroke. He blamed everyone except Romney for Romney’s words and went into a gravity defying pretzel twist to try to explain those words as misunderstood. He took out David Brooks and wasn’t very happy with Bill Kristol, but in the end he blamed Jimmy Carter’s grandson who was instrumental in finding the owner of the tapes and getting the tapes released. Isn’t that sort of like blaming the entry door for the home burglary? Mitt said what he said, he can’t reel it back in, he can’t pretzel twist his way out of the meaning of those words, he can’t do anything but own it and his handlers and butt-men need to accept that and move on. No amount of Sununu whining and finger pointing will change that. If Mitt is to be saved it will happen during the debates and no sooner. Mitt’s entire campaign has been episode after episode of the bird shitting in it’s own nest then complaining that it’s nest is nasty and blaming the other birds.Turn off the lights when you leave Mitt.

    • RalphB says:
      September 18, 2012 at 12:39 pm

      blaming the entry door for the home burglary

      Bwahahahahaha That sums up the Mittens campaign in a sentence!

  16. RalphB says:
    September 18, 2012 at 12:44 pm

    Sarah, Proud and Tall takes a tour of the wingnuttery so we don’t have to. It’s full of juicy bits and very funny while their takes on Mitt’s taped comments are quite insane.

    balloon-juice: Sitting on the Corner, clutching a joint and a glass of booze

    Why do I do it to myself? The other night, foolish but fortified by several shots of whisky, I set out to read the Corner.

    For those of you who may not have heard of it, o lucky souls ye, the Corner is the blog attached to National Review Online, which means that it is the piss-filled kiddie pool of the internet. It’s where Kathryn Jean Lopez takes her ovaries out for a dip and some sun; where you can hear multiple Pulitzer Prize nominated author Jonah Goldberg pontificating upon the jobs figures while he floats around in an inflatable ring, like some unspeakable and undercooked donut hole

    Essentially, it’s where you go if you want to know what stupid people think about politics. It’s kind of like Balloon Juice, but without the jokes and the animal pictures.

    I read the Corner because it’s important to know what the stupid people are thinking. And so I can point and laugh, but that’s in the way of a bonus. I suffer this for the same reason I receive fifty seven emails every day with titles like “Morning Briefing: Enemy Collaborators” or “American Soil Has Been Attacked”, not to mention at least one email every day from either Marcus or Michele (and often both).

    I read them, so you don’t have to. And then promptly ignore most of them – these people are incontinent loons, after all.

  17. pdgrey says:
    September 18, 2012 at 12:51 pm

    BB, once again you’ve done such a good job with all the links it’s taken a long time for me to check them out. Great round-up!

    Soledad strike again.
    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/09/18/soledad-obrien-grills-romney-aide-your-campaign-is-just-a-hot-mess/

  18. pdgrey says:
    September 18, 2012 at 12:59 pm

    William Black says Romney did a “Full Murray”
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-k-black/romney-47-percent_b_1892995.html

  19. RalphB says:
    September 18, 2012 at 1:00 pm

    Charles Pierce has written another great speech for Rmoney. 🙂

    The Comeback Speech Romney Should Be Giving

    Okay, so it hasn’t been the best week Willard Romney ever has had. Anonymous people who would like to have careers in Republican politics after the multi-megaton dungbomb hits in November are peddling their opinions all over the Beltway about what a heedless foof he is. Somebody tapes him being nothing but himself at a fundraiser — Oh, what has this world come to when you can’t rely on the discretion of your bagmen? — and then he’s up there behind a podium on Monday night, pestered by the lesser orders, and saying that the worst thing about what may become known as the Get-Me-Some Address is that its phrasing was “inelegant.” What, does he think if he said all that stuff in French, it would have come off better? Also, too: When was the last time this guy said anything elegantly? The man makes George W. Bush sound like Pericles.

  20. RalphB says:
    September 18, 2012 at 1:21 pm

    Seems the guy who hosted Rmoney’s fundraiser doesn’t want any part of his debacle.

    TPM: Golden Parachute

    Rough sign when the private equity guy who hosted the party reaches for the parachute.

  21. RalphB says:
    September 18, 2012 at 1:24 pm

    Poll: Obama Leads By 8 Points In Virginia

    President Obama leads Mitt Romney by 8 points in a Washington Post poll of Virginia.

    Obama’s 2008 Virginia win marked the first time in decades the state had voted for a Democrat for president. Obama leads 52 percent to 44 percent among a sample of likely voters, essentially unchanged from the Post’s last survey of the state, taken in late April and early May.

  22. ANonOMouse says:
    September 18, 2012 at 2:28 pm

    Here is Part 2 of the Romney Video. It’s clear in this video that the camera was on a serving table or under the shelf of a serving table in an adjoining room. Waiter-Staff is moving all around the table and around the room where Romney is speaking. I’m hoping that it is these WORKERS who laid the knock out blow to Mitt. If so the headline for this video should be

    Karma teams up with Irony to knock out Romney

  23. Fredster says:
    September 18, 2012 at 2:39 pm

    I looked at the MJ link about the possible donors at Mitt’s little Florida soiree and picked out one because the company of the guy sounded like some type of medical thing.

    Dr. Roger Medel, Mednax Inc. which has a website,

    http://www.mednax.com/homepage.cfm

    Can’t put two links in here but go give them a looksee. Under investors and news, it seems like what they do is to go out and buy individual medical practices in pediatrics and anesthesiology and combine them into one large national organization. I’m willing to bet they practice at any number of hospitals and are more than willing to take payment from, and will know how to extract the maximum from the insurance companies. So Dr. Medel makes his living off of the insurance of the folks in the 99% who have insurance which then allows him to be in the 1% which looks down upon the rest of us. For his pedes business I wonder if they take medicaid in the form of CHIP (medicaid for kids) payments?

    • Beata says:
      September 18, 2012 at 3:15 pm

      Good catch, Fredster.

      A large part of Mednax, Inc., the Pediatrix Medical Group, does take Medicaid according to their website. Pediatrix provides care to more than 300 neonatal ICU’s, among many other medical services.

      • Fredster says:
        September 18, 2012 at 3:23 pm

        Aha!! He’s one of those people who are sucking off the govt teat! The hypocrisy astounds. Just like Paul Ryan using soc. sec. bennies from his dead father. Have they no shame? Well, of course not.

  24. dakinikat says:
    September 18, 2012 at 3:11 pm

    Let’s find out how some of the winger’s play with others for this little interesting thing:

    Longreads ‏@longreads

    “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife.'” @arielsabar, @SmithsonianMag on historian Karen King’s findings http://lgrd.co/U9Iec9 #longreads

    • Fredster says:
      September 18, 2012 at 3:34 pm

      You knew this was coming:

      Writing on Beliefnet.com in 2003, Kenneth L. Woodward, Newsweek’s longtime religion editor, argued that “Mary Magdalene has become a project for a certain kind of ideologically committed feminist scholarship.”

    • Seriously says:
      September 18, 2012 at 6:58 pm

      They’ll say she’s an affirmative action hire who doesn’t even know who Jesus is, Scott Brown is clearly more qualified for her position and the real red flag is she came to Harvard from Occidental. 😉

    • NW Luna says:
      September 18, 2012 at 11:08 pm

      Cool! There is the point that the norm for Jewish males in that era was to be married. The article notes that the emphasis on celibacy started at least 100 yrs after the founding of Christianity.

  25. Linda C says:
    September 18, 2012 at 7:57 pm

    I really did think when Mitt mention those who don’t pay taxes and live off of the government with feelings of entitlement he was talking about himself and the one percenters.

  26. george bush says:
    September 19, 2012 at 12:15 am

    I’m glad to know there’s someone out there dumber than I am.He he he.

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