Veek,
Of course you want to limit the discussion to issues, your candidate just threw half the population under the bus.
Everyone else, not so much!
Jim, who exactly is limiting discussion? How are things going under Mr. Obama's watch? Seems that we get a discussion switch whenever the matter comes up.
But OK, I’ll play. Let’s look at the “offensive Mitt Romney” secret tape. He says: (from the Mother Jones website transcription)
“…Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax. So our message of low taxes doesn't connect. And he'll (Mr. Obama) be out there talking about tax cuts for the rich. I mean that's what they sell every four years. And so my job is not to worry about those people—I'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives. What I have to do is convince the 5 to 10 percent in the center that are independents that are thoughtful, that look at voting one way or the other depending upon in some cases emotion, whether they like the guy or not, what it looks like. I mean, when you ask those people…we do all these polls—I find it amazing—we poll all these people, see where you stand on the polls, but 45 percent of the people will go with a Republican, and 48 or 4… (TAPE STOP)
That’s when the tape stops. But wait! There is a significant gap missing during the most controversial of Mr. Romney’s comments. What a coincidence! Imagine that incredible chance occurrence happening right at the juicy parts. Sort of like a preview for a “R” rated movie just before they would show some lurid pose by some silicone enhanced starlet.
Were the comments clarified, put in the context of votes and not presidential leadership, who knows?
-certainly not anyone on this forum.
Some minutes later the tape restarts. The context is clearly political and reflects Mr. Romney’s campaign strategy to focus on the undecided/independent block of voters versus those living on government subsidies and paying no income tax. The narrative of Mr. Romney not getting these votes also happens to be true.
Many think it was just an error by Romney, discussing the record numbers of individuals drawing primary subsistence from the government while he also noted that 47 percent of the population does not pay income tax. “I think he conflated the two figures,” says Robert Greenstein, executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. (I tend to agree).
So anyone not there that says they “heard the whole thing” simply isn’t telling the truth and is pandering to reactive media spin for the President. All the while, video of Mr. Obama’s statements as to his belief in wealth redistribution are neither aired by mainstream media (because they weren’t authenticated-but later were by the White House). He gets a pass-nothing to see here.
Maybe Mr. Romney immediately clarified his comments but, not fitting the narrative, those comments were edited out. We’ll never know. But it makes for a wonderful distraction on Mr. Obama’s presidential performance. One can make up their own minds. I don’t think anyone in the paddock in the current round of passionately berating Mr. Romney, his spouse or his self-made wealth planned to vote for him anyway.
Mr. Romney’s comments reflect a reality that he is unlikely to convince people that pay no takes that making up the difference by disproportionately taxing others is a job killing idea. The airwaves have been saturated with ads that wrongfully accuse Mr. Romney of ending social security, Medicare (in addition to murdering wives and pushing grannies off cliffs). It is laughable that the comments have been interpreted to mean Mr. Romney “does care about these people”, he simply isn’t pandering for their votes. He knows it is a waste of campaign resources to go for unlikely voters just as Mr. Obama has chosen to ignore the Catholic and pro-life/pro-family vote.
Who wants to limit discussion on issues like the debt, deficit, White House secret security leaks and engagement of prostitutes, disastrous middle east policy, failed energy policy, distribution of guns to drug lords, failing economy, TRILLIONS of dollars of new money being printed, massive government mismanagement and waste, fuel and food prices out of control, the dreadful joblessness and massive new layoffs in aerospace, transportation and high tech-lets not be unpleasant here with reality, let’s move on and amuse ourselves with snarky comments about Ms. Romney’s expensive horses instead? Not me.
Perhaps Mr. Obama's campaign motto should be, “Bin Laden is dead-but so is our ambassador and our economy- GM is alive but forbidden from extracting themselves from government control”.
This election comes down to two fundamental ideas.
The hard choice: if you think we need a change, there is an alternative promising reform that has to try to win a second term and is therefore motivated to actually take some responsibility and fix things.
If you believe in big government with more control of its citizens, wealth redistribution, class warfare, growing massive deficits, $4+ gas, inflation, a culture of government cronyism and dependency, the Neville Chamberlin school of international diplomacy, the SEIU and government influence by public sector unions, you have an easy choice. If you like how things are going, want more of the same, simply vote for Mr. Obama.
