Ten Ways Romney/Ryan Helped Obama Win

The Obama Diary has a great post called "Ten Steps to Victory" showcasing the various speeches and debates that helped the President win reelection.

I've been wanting to do something similar, but from the point of view that Romney/Ryan helped Obama win just by being themselves. So here are my top ten ways, and really I could do so many more:

1. Mitt Romney was the most awkward candidate of all time.







2. Romney has a tendency to brag about his status as a super-rich guy which merely alienated him from most Americans. The Obama campaign was able to use this fact in countless ads about Bain and Cayman Islands offshore accounts, and Comedy Central and SNL took up the slack. Romney played right into it by refusing to release his tax returns for more than one year.







3. Romney's World Tour was known by the hashtag "Romneyshambles" on Twitter. Traveling abroad, he managed to tick-off all our allies plus the press corp, whom he kept locked on the bus most of the time. And when they did ask a question, Romney's aide told them to "kiss my a$$." Very un-Presidential. And definitely not worldly-wise.





4. Trust us, we're rich! Ann Romney had a tendency to use the phrase "You People" when talking about the media and people who watch the media - yeah, voters. Her smug condescending comments reminded many of Marie Antoinette saying "Let them eat cake!" reaffirming her husband's 1% status, which certainly didn't help the campaign.





5. Clint Eastwood's Empty Chair Moment upstaged Romney at the RNC. Later it was the only thing anyone could remember.








6. The 47% Video was a bombshell that showed the "Real Romney" at a fundraiser speaking frankly while dismissing half of America as people who were lazy moochers who wouldn't take "personal responsibility" for their lives. It confirmed every bad stereotype associated with Romney and the 1%.








7. Paul Ryan seemed rather sentimental in Florida, talking about his mother and grandmother needing Medicare and Social Security. But then he promised to cut both programs for "anyone under 55," which scared the crap out of middle-aged people everywhere (including me). And why did he think that other mothers and grandmothers would want him to screw over future generations in the name of Ayn Rand? He should have gotten a clue when he was booed by AARP.





8. Romney had the worst campaign team in history, a veritable clown car of ineptitude. From Eric "Etch-A-Sketch" Fehrnstrom to the hapless Andrea Saul who was called a "moron" in a vicious attack by Ann Coulter, they remained consistantly shamble-tastic till the end of the election.





9. Mitt Romney avoided talking about the War on Women or standing up to Rush Limbaugh, although he did slam Planned Parenthood and threatened to "repeal Obamacare." In one of the Presidential debates, Romney was asked about the Lilly Ledbetter Fair-Pay Act, and instead of answering the question Mitt rambled on about needing "binders of women" in order to get them hired. And women said "What???" And Tumblr went crazy with pictures. And Twitter exploded with jokes. And . . . did I mention the whole "binders" thing was a fib?





10. Horses and Bayonets ~ Romney's weak showing in the final Presidential Debate left him open to several zingers from Obama, including the famous lines about "horses and bayonets" and "sink your battleship." Romney had won the first battle in Debate One, but Obama won the "war" with a flourish on this night.

Tim Pawlenty Admits Giving Romney "A Bunch" of Tax Returns

Mahahahahahahahaha!!!!! This made my day!!!

Found Via Scott Wooledge

Tim Pawlenty, ex-governor of Minnesota, who was also courted by the Romney campaign to be Veep before they chose Paul Ryan, had a deer-in-the-headlights moment on ABC's This Week when George Stephanopoulos asked how many tax returns Pawlenty provided to the Romney camp while being vetted for Vice President. After a long, long pause, he said:

Via ABC News

PAWLENTY: There were several years, I believe. Well, we don’t get into the details of the vetting process, but I gave them a bunch of tax returns. I don’t remember the exact number of years.

Ha! So we can assume that Paul Ryan also had to turn over tax returns, which begs the question why it's fair game for Veep Vetting but not for Presidential selection? When will Romney release his tax returns to the American people? This isn't going away.

Snarkfest: Paul Ryan is Gabe from the Office

So today Mitt Romney announced that Paul Ryan is his running mate, and I've had a strange sense of deja vu. You see, back in 2008 on the day that John McCain announced he was choosing Sarah Palin as VP, I looked at her and thought - "Oh my God, she looks like Tina Fey - this will be great for Saturday Night Live!!!" And the rest is television history.

So today, I saw Paul Ryan up on the warship with Romney in Norfolk Harbor and all I could think of was that he looks just like Gabe Lewis from The Office. And since that actor works for NBC, just as Tina Fey did, my heart swelled with happiness for Saturday Night Live.

You would think Romney's handlers would have thought about this but . . . oh never mind.

And since there's plenty of time to analyze all the serious things about Paul Ryan that should scare everyone, such as his draconian view of Medicare and Pell Grants and the message of the Warship in the first place (Bomb Iran? Armageddon?), today I just want to indulge myself in his absolute "Gabe-Ness." He even wore this big black coat that reminded me of Gabe as "Honest Gabe" in the episode "Gettysburg." I couldn't be happier.

Mitt Romney Goes Shopping

In New Hampshire near Romney's lake home, the press pool was allowed to tag along today while Romney went shopping for two ears of corn and various other odd items at the local grocery store, then he went into a hardware store and bought a bucket full of what Romney called "Hardware Stuff." If this was an attempt to show himself as a regular American and part of the 99%, then it was an epic fail. He could not have been more awkward - read on . . .

From ABC News

After spending about 10 minutes inside the local Bradley’s Hardware Store, Romney emerged, bucket in hand, where reporters peppered him with questions about what he had purchased inside.

“Hardware stuff,” Romney responded, laughing, before climbing into his SUV. A closer look at the bucket revealed that it was some sort of insect deterrent.

The next stop was the local grocery store, where Romney sifted through a large container of corn before choosing two (the deal, after all, was two for a dollar) and heading inside.

Directing a shopping cart to the back of his waiting SUV, Romney unloaded cases of Diet Coke and Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi, Poland Spring water bottles and two plastic bags filled with groceries.

Asked what he bought, Romney responded, “Groceries,” and laughed.

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John Stewart Critiques Romney in London

LOL ~ Romney will wake up someday and wonder why he didn't have someone who would tell him the truth on this trip. Maybe then he wouldn't have trashed the London Olympics and offended our closest ally.

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Poor Romney Victim of "Bad Media Prep" ~ Are You Kidding Me?

I'm a little steamed about the way the Romney campaign is explaining all the "London Shambles" gaffes the past few days. Instead of admitting that Romney has problems with diplomacy and tact, they are blaming jet lag and those "odd, eccentric" Brits.

Come on, really? You want us to believe Romney can be a world leader "better" than Obama even while he complains that every little thing throws him for a loop, from baked goods to grits, from jet lag to meeting the press? Candidates are often unprepared, and so are Presidents, but they have to be able to think on their feet, to go with the flow, to play it by ear, and to wing it. Romney likes to talk about "sport" - well, that's the "sport" of politics. If he can't do it, he just can't do it.

Romney has been running for months as an international businessman. Hasn't he ever been to London before this? Doesn't he know what manners are appropriate in such settings? Or were his trips to Europe before this just about fine hotels and dining, with servants who said "Yes, Sir" whenever he snapped his fingers?

He cannot have it both ways - that he is an "innocent abroad" but also a savvy politician who "connects" with both Cameron and Netanyahu.

The Romney camp needs to quit this apologetic crap because they are insulting our collective intelligence. Romney can't expect us to believe he's on the same level as Obama in human relations, then have his anonymous sidekicks excuse-away muliple snafus as "bad briefing." How much briefing does a grown man who attended some of the best schools in the country need in order to not piss-off our closest ally? You've got to be kidding us, right?


The New York Times:

. . . the British press devour(ed) Mr. Romney like a pile of mushy peas. His campaign was slow and flat-footed in recognizing it had a problem, and unable to improvise a quick response.
Afterward, the campaign said that Mr. Romney had misspoken because he was tired and jet-lagged. “Even the Energizer Bunny needs new batteries once in a while,” said an adviser, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a delicate topic.

From an "Unnamed Source" in the Daily Mail UK

The official said that Prime Minister David Cameron’s ‘wisecrack’ about it being harder to stage an Olympic Games in London than ‘in the middle of nowhere’ – an apparent reference to Salt Lake City, where Romney oversaw the 2002 Winter Olympics – was ‘probably appropriate, albeit awkward’ and unfortunate for Romney
‘Johnson on the other hand lived up to his reputation as an eccentric, odd fellow. It was unbecoming to attack Governor Romney in that way. There really was no need. But Johnson made it clear in 2008 that his vote would have gone to Obama.’
. . . The campaign official, who was not directly involved organising the London trip, that that the Romney campaign had not prepared sufficiently for ‘a visit of this magnitude’ and that the candidate had not been briefed properly on how to answer questions about the staging of the Olympics.
‘What he gave was the honest assessment of the situation based on his previous experience. Unfortunately in a diplomatic context that's not the sort of thing that should have been coming out of the candidate's mouth. It was bad messaging and media prep.’
The trip should have been a straightforward one, he said. ‘You show up, you smile, you do photo ops, you talk about the special relationship, the deep bonds that connect us and then you go home, or in this case on to Israel and Poland.
Unfortunately, it shows that the campaign by solely focussing on jobs has really neglected foreign policy and international affairs.

The Romney Shambles in Britain

gif via tumblr
"Romney Shambles" is a descriptive hashtag on Twitter to describe Mitt Romney's trip abroad, which started in Great Britain yesterday. He made so many gaffes in such a short amount of time that without instant news on Twitter no one could keep up with them.

My collection of quotes on Snark Amendment

In just one day, Romney managed the following:

• He insulted the entire country, implying they weren't ready for the Olympic Games
• Seemed to forget the name of Labour Leader Milliband, calling him "Mr. Leader"
• Reversed his criticism of the Olympics after a trip to 10 Downing Street  but . . .
• Made a security faux pas by blabbing about meeting the head of MI6 Intelligence
• Sounding rather rude speaking of "looking out the back side" (instead of back garden) of Downing Street
• He only took questions from British reporters, making the U.S. Press Corps angry
• Was insulted by Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, as the Olympic Torch arrived
• Was labeled "Mr. Bean" by Guardian UK
• Told CNN's Piers Morgan that he "feels like a Brit" and that Ann is "from Wales" due to their family trees while
• Ann mentioned watching Downton Abbey as a frame of reference
• Was criticized by Harry Reid but also Charles Krauthammer on Fox
• Had to slash prices on tickets to a fundraiser where he
• Insulted Obama by vowing to return the bust of Churchill to the Oval Office

More Here: Guardian UK: Oh, Mitt, Those Romney Gaffes In Full

Edited to Add: This video from the DNC taking full advantage of Mitt's misfortune.




By the end of the "longest day" people had dug up this gem, from Romney's book No Apologies:

England [sic] is just a small island. Its roads and houses are small. With few exceptions, it doesn't make things that people in the rest of the world want to buy. And if it hadn't been separated from the continent by water, it almost certainly would have been lost to Hitler's ambitions. Yet only two lifetimes ago, Britain ruled the largest and wealthiest empire in the history of humankind. Britain controlled a quarter of the earth's land and a quarter of the earth's population

So I guess Mitt once thought of himself as an expert on "England," someone who could explain the  British Isles better than the people actually living there. I wonder if he feels that way after yesterday?


   

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Romney's Returns - the Ugly Truth

The Romney camp is holding firm that he has "already released" all the tax returns he is going to release, meaning the single return from 2010. Considering the fact that everyone from George Will to Bill Kristol to Rahm Emanuel are calling Romney out on his taxes, it's almost unbelievable that they continue to stonewall.

Romney appeared on Fox and Friends this morning, sounding as if he is being nibbled to death by geese, LOL.

Via Think Progress

ROMNEY: The Obama people keep on wanting more and more and more. More things to pick through, more things for their opposition research to try make a mountain out of and to distort and to be dishonest about. We’re going to put out two years of tax returns.

Esquire has a great spin on why Romney is holding back:

Contempt for "the Help"

It is helpful always to remind yourself that, in the mind of Willard Romney, there are only two kinds of people — himself and his family, and The Help. Throughout his career, and especially throughout his brief political career, Romney has treated The Help with a kind of lordly disdain. . . .
. . . The Help has no right to go pawing through the family books, giggling at the obvious loopholes and tax dodges, running amok through all the tax shelters, and probably getting their chocolate-y fingerprints all over the pages of the Romney family ledger. And, certainly, those members of The Help in the employ of the president of the United States, who is also part of The Help, have no right to use the nearly comically ostentatious wealth of the Romney as some sort of scrimey political weapon. He does not have to answer to The Help. I mean, jeepers, he's running for office.
This isn't stubbornness. That's often an acquired trait. What this is, fundamentally, is contempt. Contempt for the process, and contempt for the people who make their living in that process, and contempt for the people whose lives depend on that process.

Good job by MSNBC's Luke Russert pushing Romney's surrogate, Gail Gitchco, to clear up the tax mess this morning. Epic fail on her part as "communications director." They just don't get it. Someone is eventually going to leak these tax returns, so it would be better if they just got it over with now. But when has the Romney camp ever been that bright? Never.

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Romney Brought A Black Entourage to the NAACP

You can't make this stuff up. I saw this on the Ed Show last night and was staring at the TV in disbelief, and because it is such a strange story held it until today to see if more information was available.

According to NAACP members on the ED Show, Romney brought his own entourage of African Americans to the convention, either bussed or flown in. You can see the original article and video below, but here is the new information from this afternoon:

MSNBC ~ Romney Brought in Black Supporters

The Romney campaign Wednesday night denied to Lean Forward that it brought in supporters to cheer during the candidate's speech to the NAACP, as several attendees have claimed. But one prominent black Republican told us she was invited to the event by the Romney campaign, and another African-American conservative said he was urged to go by people connected to the campaign.

"I was invited by Governor Romney," Lt. Governor Jennifer Carroll of Florida, a Republican, told Lean Forward in a phone interview Thursday afternoon.

Asked who paid Carroll's way, her office referred Lean Forward to the Romney campaign's press office, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

. . . Niger Innis, a conservative activist, told Lean Forward Thursday that he was encouraged to attend the Houston speech by friends in the NAACP, as well as "some folks that were aligned with the Romney campaign," declining to elaborate. Innis said he paid his own way.

. . . The TV host Roland Martin, Hilary Shelton of the NAACP, and the radio host Mark Thompson all have claimed that the Romney campaign brought in supporters to the speech. Shelton said on MSNBC Wednesday that the goal was "to provide the cheering for [Romney]." Thompson said the supporters served as "applauders for his applause lines."

Andrea Saul, a Romney campaign spokeswoman, told Lean Forward Wednesday night that Shelton's claims were "not true." Asked Thursday about Carroll's statement that she attended the speech as a guest of the Romney campaign, and Innis's that he was urged to go by people connected to the campaign, Saul did not immediately respond.

No joke, folks. Romney is one weird candidate. If he brought in people to clap and support him, maybe they were also the ones booing him on cue as well. Honestly - it begs the question. The whole thing stinks to high heaven, if you ask me.

From The Ed Show Blog

Romney said today that after the speech, at which he was booed for saying he'd repeal the Affordable Health Care Act, he met with black leaders who told him they support his policies but are afraid to do so publicly.

But on The Ed Show, (Hilary) Shelton said those were likely people brought in by the Romney camp "to actually provide the cheering for him."

"Quite frankly, the campaign actually gave me a list of African-American VIPs that they brought into the NAACP meeting," Shelton told Ed Schulz. "So we were aware that they had people brought in specifically for the campaign. So I'm sure those were the ones they sat down with, because quite frankly none of the rank-and-file NAACPers met with him."

Indeed, despite the boos, cheering can be heard at various points during the speech, including when Romney criticized President Obama over the economy and education.

Shelton said that none of the people Romney met with were active NAACP leaders, and that Romney's referring to African-American conservative politicians like Niger Innis who "was brought in from New York."

Pressed by Ed Schultz about whether Innis and the others were actually members of the NAACP, Shelton said: "They're bringing people in that they know will support his agenda from other places, that aren't active with the NAACP. These are people who are brought in to actually provide the cheering for him, so there will be some support along those lines."

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Mitt Dog-Whistles to his Base at the NAACP

Why would Mitt Romney to make a fool of himself at the NAACP convention in Houston? Why would he tell an audience of mainly Democratic Obama Supporters that he wants to repeal "Obamacare," causing them to boo him off the stage?





But wait ~ isn't he trying to gain African American support in the November election? Isn't he trying to appeal to black independent voters?

Actually, no, he isn't trying to do that at all.

What he's trying to do is show the Tea Party Republicans that he's a "real man" who will stand up to Democrats, and especially people of color.

So he got up in front of the NAACP and blew his "dog whistle," or a message that most of us will take one way, but the "in crowd" of Republicans will hear another way, just as a dog can hear a dog whistle that is inaudible to most humans. Most Democrats or Independent voters will think "poor Romney, he screwed up again," while the Tea Party will cheer it as a victory.

Unlike Ted Nugent or Rush Limbaugh, a man running for the highest office in the land has to use a subtler form of dog whistle. He has to pretend that he wants to be everyone's president, which is what he said today, but at the same time he gave his party red meat with the contradiction that no matter what the members of the NAACP want from a President, they won't get it from him. And that's how we know it was a dog whistle, not some slip-up by an incompetent campaign.

Oh, and also too . . . he admitted that he expected to get booed. He knew he was going to get a reaction that would be a sound-byte on the news.

ABC News Story

Mitt Romney said after being booed at the NAACP today that he "expected" the strong objection in response to his pledge to repeal President Obama's health care law.
. . .
Avis Jones-DeWeever, the executive director of the National Council of Negro Women, said Romney had accomplished a "calculated political ploy" by signaling to conservatives that he's willing to tell backers of the health law that he wants to cut it.

"That was like a victory lap on Fox News," she said. "That was exactly what he went there intending to do."

Martin Bashir Discussion on MSNBC

Bashir: Was Mitt Romney really addressing the audience that he was in front of or was he speaking to some other people in that speech? Because -- the speech itself was a stump speech that I have heard when he's been in New Hampshire, when he has been in Wisconsin. It didn't seem any different. Who was he really speaking to?

Jonathan Capehart: He was speaking to both audiences and in his stump speech is void of any specifics which has, you know, Democrats and Republicans alike scratching their heads and begging for more. But -- in all speeches there are multiple audiences. On the one hand he's saying to African Americans you are just like everyone else I talk to. You are a part of the united states . Here's my overall message.

Bashir: Thank you for reminding us of that. Excellent.

Capehart: But the other audience is still his core constituency. His base. His being booed by saying he will repeal Obamacare, I think that will inure to his benefit. It shows his constituency that, one, he is not afraid to say "Obamacare" to the audience that's the most loyal constituency to -- to president Obama. And that he then took in the boos and went off script and ad-libbed this study that you called bogus shows he . . . he's not afraid of -- not afraid of a fight. So he's doing -- he is doing multiple things. I think tactically speaking, politically speaking, not so bad.

Bashir: Clarence , what do you think that Mitt Romney actually welcomed the booing in some ways? Maybe it kind of was helpful to him because of course he's going off to Montana and then he's going to see Dick Cheney in Wyoming, he can go there and wave this one and say "look, boys, I got booed at the NAACP."

Clarence Page: Martin, how can you have such a cynical Machiavellian notion as to think that Mitt Romney might find some value in triangulating a situation like this?
(laughter)
Seriously. I was wondering the same thing. I don't know the -- I don't mean Mitt Romney wants to be portrayed as a man black people don't like. When you look at the speech, indeed it was the same talking points he normally gives when campaigning to his base. But also, the same words, I mean, when you talk about Obamacare, to say Obamacare to the NAACP, it's like praising cheeseburgers to a convention of vegans.
(laughter)
This organization has been very much -- in favor of Obamacare for a variety of Republican Code. He never says "Romneycare." He's very happy to say "Obamacare." It was very much loaded like he was talking to a group of Tea Party folks. I don't think he was really surprised by the booing. and certainly he scores points either way with middle of the road folks important just the fact he showed up. But he's making the outreach. George W. Bush did it as a candidate but then went several years without showing up at the NAACP as President.

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The Right's Circular Firing Squad over Romney Campaign

I read news all day and half the night, and I can't keep up with all the negative comments directed at Mitt Romney from his own party. It's like when they aren't praising him and saying he can beat Obama, they are taking pot shots at him. Of course they hardly need to, since Romney's campaign shoots itself in the collective foot almost daily with the accuracy of Barney Fife.

But the loathing for their own candidate is incredible. Just the past few days we've had:

Rush Limbaugh calling Romney a "Placeholder"

A wealthy Republican donor calling Mitt a "Plastic Ken Doll"

Speaker John Boehner Saying People Can't Fall in Love with Romney

And let's not forget:

Rupert Murdoch of Fox Criticizing Mitt on Twitter

Today Media Matters for American published their own list of Romney criticisms coming from the Right:

What Romney's Right-Wing Revolt Tells Us About the GOP

This time it's the right-wing media that's taken upon itself to launch a running critique of Romney's campaign:
*Fox's Eric Bolling says Romney should fire his whole staff
*Fox's Brian Kilmeade suggests Romney has to "toughen up"
*Fox's Bill Kristol compares Rommey to Michael Dukakis and John Kerry and says he needs to "get off autopilot."
*Fox owner Rupert Murdoch tweets that Romney needs to shake up his staff
*Murdoch's Wall Street Journal editorial page eviscerates Romney's campaign team as being incompetent
*Fox's Laura Ingraham mocks Romney's jet-skiing ways
Did you spot the trend?
It's amazing how the conservative press feels completely empowered at this point to brazenly dictate how the Republican Party candidate ought to run for the White House. (No matter how kooky the suggestions.)

Media Matters points out that things have changed in a short amount of time, since the Party has yet to recover from the one-two punch of the Immigration and Health Care rulings of the Supreme Court.

. . . What must be so upsetting for conservatives is that up until recently Romney was basking in their praise and the right-wing media was crushing on the candidate. Last month, partisan players cheered when the Romney campaign sent staffers to yell and boo Obama strategist David Axelrod at a press conference, and when a Romney campaign bus drove round and round honking at Obama supporters. For far-right fans, those juvenile antics signaled determination and willingness by the Romney campaign to do away with etiquette and the type of simple decorum that conservatives were so angry McCain abided by in 2008.

"I'm telling you," Limbaugh announced on the day after the heckling spectacle,  "This is not the McCain campaign." The talker meant it as a compliment, as BuzzFeed noted how Romney was "uniting the right by playing the role of the bomb-thrower."

The admiration was flowing just a few weeks ago when Breitbart editor Larry O'Connor typed up quotes from Romney strategists about how wonderful and influential the right-wing media has become (especially Breitbart.com!) and how it was working seamlessly with the Republican candidate on messaging to defeat Obama.
But that has since changed. The Obama haters feel betrayed on key policy issues and by Romney's tepid response to the recent immigration and health care rulings by the Supreme Court.
The right-wing media complained loudly.  Message: They want their campaign back.

Rupert Murdoch Criticizing Romney on Twitter

My daughter pointed out some kind of shenanigan going on with Rupert Murdoch on Twitter criticizing the Romney campaign - not once, not twice, but several times over the past week, and not mincing words either. I didn't even believe it at first considering the week Romney has had with the immigration law mostly being struck down in Arizona and then the huge loss in the Supreme Court. Is he blaming Romney for that?

Shouldn't he be more, uh, supportive of the anointed candidate? Or is he trying to jump-start a candidate that he finds uninteresting. Sounds as if Rupert just met Romney for the first time at the big Chateau event in Utah. Frankly he doesn't sound too impressed. I wonder if Romney is refusing to take advice from Murdoch?

And to me that spells trouble for Romney if the Fox propaganda machine isn't behind him. Not that it bothers me, LOL - sounds great! Keep the criticism rolling, Mr. Murdoch!

Just read this:

When is Romney going to look like a challenger?Seems to play everything safe, make no news except burn off Hispanics.

— Rupert Murdoch(@rupertmurdoch) June 24, 2012

Easy for Romney to spell out restoration of the American dream and bash incompetent administration. But not a word!

— Rupert Murdoch(@rupertmurdoch) June 24, 2012

Met Romney last week.Tough O Chicago pros will be hard to beat unless he drops old friends from team and hires some real pros. Doubtful.

— Rupert Murdoch(@rupertmurdoch) July 1, 2012

US election is referendum on Obama, all else pretty minor.

— Rupert Murdoch(@rupertmurdoch) July 1, 2012

Someone calls him out on the critical nature of his remarks, saying he shouldn't anger the Fox fans:

@rupertmurdoch - Do not fool yourself. @MittRomney has a 'GOOD CHANCE' of 'DEFEATING OBAMA IN 2012'. Don't anger your supporters.

— ROCKWITHBECK (@ROCKWITHBECK) July 1, 2012

@ROCKWITHBECKAgreed, but it's his to lose if he doesn't get on the front foot soon

— Rupert Murdoch(@rupertmurdoch) July 1, 2012

In the middle of all that, Murdoch talks about Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, since they are divorcing over Tom's obsession with Scientology. Then someone asks him about Mormonism. Weird stuff! I don't really know what to make of it, which is why I'm posting it here instead of on Snark Amendment. It's all quite cryptic.

Watch Katie Holmes and Scientology story develop. Something creepy, maybe even evil, about these people.

— Rupert Murdoch(@rupertmurdoch) July 1, 2012

@shakircMormonism a mystery to me, but Mormons certainly not evil.

— Rupert Murdoch(@rupertmurdoch) July 1, 2012

Facebook Sued - Morgan Gives Refunds - Refunds?!

Wow - things are getting more "Zucked Up" all the time!

From CNN

Facebook shareholders have filed a lawsuit against the social network, CEO Mark Zuckerberg and a number of banks, alleging that crucial information was concealed ahead of Facebook's IPO. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Wednesday morning, charges the defendants with failing to disclose in the critical days leading up to Friday's initial public offering "a severe and pronounced reduction."

Facebook defended themselves on Wednesday saying they "believe the lawsuit is without merit and will defend ourselves vigorously."

The report, and now the lawsuit, raises questions about whether Morgan Stanley, one of the underwriter companies that handled Facebook's IPO, or other banks knowingly offered certain investors privileged information that should have been made public. Other underwriters targeted by the lawsuit include Barclays Capital, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Merrill Lynch, a unit of Bank of America.

And Morgan Stanley Bank is adjusting prices for some investors in case they paid too much for Facebook stock! As the used-car-salesman father exclaimed in the movie Breaking Away: Refunds?!!! OMG.

WSJ Marketwatch has the story:

In a memo sent Wednesday to the nearly 17,200 financial advisers of its Morgan Stanley Smith Barney retail brokerage joint venture, the firm says "in order to ensure best execution, we expect there will be a number of price adjustments." The securities firm said, "the largest adjustments will be processed over the next several days and the remaining adjustments will be completed as quickly and as thoroughly as possible."

In the memo Wednesday, Morgan Stanley said "many of the remaining executions have been processed and are now appearing in clients' accounts," though the firm said a "very limited number of orders are pending" and it's still reviewing the appropriate action with its trading partners. Morgan Stanley didn't specify how many orders haven't been executed or how many are still pending.

Dorkus Romneyus - The Disconnected Candidate

Via Wonkette

CNN has an article today about Romney and the Dork Factor. Remember that school where Romney spoke a few weeks ago and put everyone to sleep. Ah yes, THAT school. Otterbein University.
CNN has interviewed several people who were in the audience that day, asking their opinions of Romney.

“He was really awkward,” Otterbein University student Carissa Reed said of her experience sitting on stage with the former Massachusetts governor two weeks ago. “You could tell he was out of his element. … I was just, like, 'Should I clap?’ None of us knew what to do.”

. . . “I got the impression that he’s someone smart, but who’s genuinely uncomfortable in front of a crowd,” said Otterbein political science professor Allan Cooper. “You actually see him standing up there … trying so hard to connect with these young people and failing so miserably at it.”
Cooper, who advises both the college Democrats and the college Republicans on campus, insists he is not partisan. He believes that Romney’s inability to connect is a significant issue and that it lost the support of all the swing voters in his class who saw him speak.

It reminds me of the day Mitt came to Tennessee and embarrassed the audience by speaking the words of Disney's David Crockett Theme, then asking the crowd if they had heard it before. Um, yeah - we have. Notice the biggest laugh comes when he says "Killed himself a bear when he was only three." Hey, Mitt - it's "Killed him a Bar." It's supposed to be a dialect. Anyway - those were his people, the Republicans and Tea Partiers, and even they laughed at him.

The main thing is, Romney didn't seem to realize that no one there is wearing a raccoon cap and buckskins, and this isn't 1960. Tennessee is not just some Disney stereotyped state where everyone eats opossum gravy for breakfast and talks like Fess Parker. Being Disney-fied in Tennessee is almost worse than having our grits defiled as "cheesy grits" as Mitt called them in Alabama.


Mitt can't even seem to connect with babies, something President Obama does with ease. Look at these bizarre way the candidate is waving these infants in the air, which is enough to make most parents have a heart attack. Just strange body language. Via Reality Chex

So even though we may miss Newt's moon unit babble we have nothing to fear. Mitt Romney has enough dork in him to take us all the way to November.  Mitt is just a different type of Dork. "Awkward" doesn't quite describe it. "Clueless"? Perhaps, but to describe him we seem to require more adverbs, which makes the description just as awkward as the topic: "Romney is clumsily dorkish, in a helplessly and nervously awkward manner."


From Bors Blog