THIS, is the answer to Obama?

[themadscientist]

So the forehead from Massachusetts is not even president yet and he is already having epic foreign relations failures.
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/201 ... lican_hell

Romney has been tough on Moscow during the campaign, calling the New START nuclear arms reduction deal Obama's "worst foreign-policy mistake," labeling Russia America's "number one geopolitical foe," and characterizing Russian President Vladimir Putin as a man bent on rebuilding the "Soviet empire." His advisors have echoed these sentiments, as has the Republican platform, which cites "Russian activism" as one of the "gravest threats to our national security" and alludes to a "hot mic" moment between Obama and former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev as evidence that the president wants to "appease Russia" on missile defense. It's remarkably aggressive rhetoric -- albeit from a party whose most revered figure famously referred to Russia as an "evil empire."

Way to recharge Putin's legitimacy Romney, you dumbass.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/eur ... story.html

“That Mr. Romney considers us enemy number one and apparently has bad feelings about Russia is a minus, but, considering that he expresses himself bluntly, openly and clearly, means that he is an open and sincere man, which is a plus,” Putin said after a meeting with Serbia’s president.

“We will be oriented toward pluses, not minuses,” Putin said. “And I am actually very grateful to him for formulating his position in a straightforward manner.”

And who can forget him sticking his foot in his mouth on Libya.
http://www.nationalmemo.com/romneys-hum ... a-episode/

There was something truly vile in his statement accusing American diplomats of “sympathizing” with the extremists assaulting their embassy, when they were simply trying to defuse the Muslim anger that posed a grave threat to them and their colleagues. It was all too easy for the Republican candidate to pontificate from a safe podium while American diplomats risk their lives, as they do every day. (And to anyone aware that Romney avoided Vietnam-era military service through a Mormon missionary posting in France, his nonchalant slurring of courageous public servants was especially unbecoming.)

Seriously. This guy has been the nominee for less than a month and he is screwing up on an epic scale when his only responsibility is to keep from saying stupid s***. Mission NOT accomplished! This guy wants to be the leader of the free world and he is stacking up gaffs that would make Sarah Palin cringe.

[R/T Hemi]

Someone caught Romney at a private event talking about the 47% of Americans are public moochers. Hell, I went to a public school for 12 years. I went to a state university. I've paid into Social Security and Medicare and I damn well intend to benefit by that program. So I guess I'm one of the 47% who mooch off the government. Oh, and I rode a public bus, and I went to a public pool, and I used the public library. I drive on public roads, and I've called the police when I've needed help too. I've never needed the fire department or the paramedics, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't hesitate to call them if need be. Those brave troops overseas protecting my freedoms, I rely on them too. When I think about it, I really can't survive without my government. Exist maybe, but not survive. Yes, I'm one of the 47 percent.



In the video, Romney described nearly half the country, or 47%, as people who won't "take responsibility for themselves," who are "dependent on government, who believe they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it."
quote from here. http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ti ... 20153.html

[stebo0728]

I, for one, wish he'd talk like that when he KNOWS the mic is open.

The exception and the rule have switched. What once was an exception to have a deadbeat in welfare, is now the rule. And what once was the rule that welfare recipients were honest, and working to get back off, now have become the exception.

Still, I think comments like that are more State of the Union material than campaign material.

[telcoman]

Someone caught Romney at a private event talking about the 47% of Americans are public moochers. Hell, I went to a public school for 12 years. I went to a state university. I've paid into Social Security and Medicare and I damn well intend to benefit by that program. So I guess I'm one of the 47% who mooch off the government. Oh, and I rode a public bus, and I went to a public pool, and I used the public library. I drive on public roads, and I've called the police when I've needed help too. I've never needed the fire department or the paramedics, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't hesitate to call them if need be. Those brave troops overseas protecting my freedoms, I rely on them too. When I think about it, I really can't survive without my government. Exist maybe, but not survive. Yes, I'm one of the 47 percent.



In the video, Romney described nearly half the country, or 47%, as people who won't "take responsibility for themselves," who are "dependent on government, who believe they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it."
quote from here. http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ti ... 20153.html

Yes, I'm one of the 47 percent.

I am too

[IBCoupe]

Slate has a really good comparison between Governor Romney's "47%" speech and the Republican counter-example, Candidate Obama's "guns & religion" comment. Honestly, I'd never read the full speech before, and putting Obama's comments into context drastically changes the message.

"We’ve got a couple of folks who are heading out to Pennsylvania to go door to door with us. And the question was: What kinds of questions should I expect them to get? … The places where we are going to have to do the most work are the places where people feel most cynical about government. The people are misapprehend—I think they're misunderstanding why the demographics in our—in this contest have broken out as they are. Because everybody just ascribes it to “white working-class don't want to work—don't want to vote for the black guy.” That's—there were intimations of that, there was an article in the Sunday New York Times today that kind of implies that it's sort of a race thing. …

"Here’s what it is: In a lot of these communities in big industrial states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, people have been beaten down so long, they feel so betrayed by government, that when they hear a pitch that is premised on not being cynical about government, there’s a part of them that just doesn't buy it. And when it's delivered by—it is true that when it's delivered by a 46-year-old black man named Barack Obama, then that adds another layer of skepticism. (Audience laughs.)

"But—so the questions you're most likely to get are going to be: 'Well, you know, what’s this guy going to do for me? What’s the concrete thing?' And what they want to hear is—you know, so we'll give you talking points about what we're proposing: to close tax loopholes and roll back, you know, the top—the tax cuts for the top 1 percent. Obama's going to give tax breaks to middle-class folks, and we're going to provide health care for every American. You know, we’ll have a series of talking points.

"But the truth is that our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there's no evidence of that in their daily lives. You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, Ohio—like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years, and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration and the Bush administration. And each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are going to regenerate. And they have not. So it's not surprising then that they get bitter, and they cling to guns or religion, or antipathy toward people who aren't like them, or anti-immigrant sentiment, or, you know, anti-trade sentiment [as] a way to explain their frustrations.

"Now, these are in some communities. You know, I think what you'll find is that people of every background—there are going to be a mix of people. You can go in the toughest neighborhood, you know, working-class lunch-pail folks, and you'll find Obama enthusiasts. And you can go into places where you’d think that I'd be very strong, and people will just be skeptical. The important thing is that you show up and you're doing what you're doing."

As the Slate piece explains, it's the difference between mocking your opponent's supporters and discarding them, and rejecting the face-value message of your opponent's supporters. It's not that great to say, "They don't really mean that - it's really just psychological," but it's miles better than saying, "They're leeches."

Obama was condescending; Romney was just a d!ck.

[carloslebaron]

I witnessed this "conversation" several years ago. I was in plans to do a job for the girlfriend of a policeman. When he knew about the project, he decided to help the girlfriend with monetary assistance. It was a part needed for the job that we went to the store to make a special order. The store was located in the poor area of Washington DC, the SE side of the city.

We saw a carryout store and bought a meal. Inside the store was an old black man who was drunk and drinking coffee, and when he saw us he started to curse us, specially to the policeman -who wasn't wearing any uniform- who was blond, tall as hell, big dude in general. The old man was insulting him saying that white people are guilty of his current condition. The policeman reacted very calm.

"How are you today, are you still receiving your welfare checks?"
"Yes" responded the angry old man
"Your daughter, does she still leaving in public housing with her children for 30 bucks a month?"
"Yes" answered again the old man
"And she still receiving food stamps..."
"Yes" answered the other one more time.
"Then, enjoy your coffee."

The policeman gave me a signal to get out of there so we did.

I said no word about that strange conversation, but to me was very degrading how the policeman took it against the old man.

The job in the girlfriend house was not made anyway, because it happened that her father was a dirty contractor who never pay completely to sub-contractors and he owed me money as well. At the time when this happened the contractor was dead already, but the daughter was afraid of anyone who knew her father because she had the feeling that she won't receive a good service.

Now well, to what I saw working around, in some public housing complexes, one was able to see the mother living in one 5 bedroom apartment with her children...and her older daughter living in a 3 bedroom apartment with her own children as well just in the building across the street...both of them having their boyfriends living "illegally" with them...

There was no control, but I think something has changed since surveyor cameras have been installed in public housing buildings because drugs...

Well, my guess according to everything I have saw around, is that what is included in the 47% might not apply to many who pay no taxes, but surely that the ones who take advantage of government services, credits, exemptions and more... are not only the rich 1%...

[themadscientist]

And the hits just keep on coming!

Speaking about his wife's plane trip that had to land due to a fire onboard, the man that would like to be your next president said

“When you have a fire in an aircraft, there’s no place to go, exactly, there’s no — and you can’t find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don’t open. I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem. So it’s very dangerous. And she was choking and rubbing her eyes. Fortunately, there was enough oxygen for the pilot and copilot to make a safe landing in Denver. But she’s safe and sound.”

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la ... 7962.story

Seriously? I couldn't believe he would say something that monumentally stupid, but I was wrong. PEOPLE! It's the presidency for crying out loud and this droolcup-toting moron is what the GOP is fielding against Obama? Somewhere in Crawford Texas.

[stebo0728]

I'm moving to Honduras