Frank's Place
Rants and Ramblings of a Stay at Home Dad
Francis Michael Linardo
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Derision 2012! – A gaffe is a gaffe: except when it isn't.
So it appears the Governor doesn't want the Frank's Place vote. We here at Frank's Place are ready to pull the lever for him, but he just called us losers. Odd strategery Governor, very odd strategery.
Here's the low down. Governor Romney was at a private fundraiser last night. Well, private except for an iPhone video that was reportedly made or discovered by the grandson of President Jimmy Carter. More on that in a sec. In the video Romney can be heard saying that roughly 47% of the country will most likely vote for Obama. He expounded to say that those 47% are the people who take no responsibility for their lives, expect government to provide them food, shelter, clothing, etc… Here is the exact quote from the Wall Street Journal:
"There are 47% of the people who will vote for the president, no matter what," Mr. Romney said in the video. "All right, there are 47% who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that 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. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what.…These are people who pay no income tax."
Quick tough guy side note: Bro, I'm not a victim, I'm a retired vet with 22 years of service. I worked for 15 years in the warehouse at Sears & Roebuck in Mays Landing NJ. Smarten up Governor.
Ok, my wounded pride not withstanding, the 47% not paying taxes Romney thinks he's talking about is actually made up of the working poor, seniors, the filthy rich (aka Romney), and wounded veterans returning from the war. And those people, the 47%ers, turns out they live in predominately red states – meaning the governor and the state legislature is made up of republicans.
Intriguing side note: A popular dig at Obama made by Romney, Ryan, and most republicans is that he's the worst president since Jimmy Carter. They have been saying that since the primary started in August 2011. Let that sink in – August of 2011. How awesome would it be if Jimmy Carter's grandson dropped the 50,000 a plate fee to go to the fundraiser just to video Romney. Talk about a dish served cold. Revenge with an iPhone.
Enough of the intrigue. Lets make a quick stop at hypocritical-ville while were here. The party of no government, the party that thinks what Romney said last night, is also the party that wants government to intervene in marriage, pregnancy, rape, religion, what language we should speak, and union strike busting. So I think we can all agree the "less government party" mantra is the biggest load of bullshit ever sold to, and then bought by, a group of people. More accurately, it's less government for the things I don't like and more government for the things I do want. That won't fit on a bumper sticker but it's at least more honest. And you know what, saying that out loud would not deter me from voting for a republican candidate if I thought they were able to fix things.
But let's get to the real issue – the media and the orgasms they were having after watching that tape. This story will go on for three days at least. You'll see headlines about a gaffe, about the race being over, about Romney making a huge mistake. None of those will be true by the way. The liberal media will ring this out like a soaked dish rag for as long as possible. The conservative media will trumpet it for a news cycle, maybe 12hrs, then bring up the bibles and guns "gaffe" the president made when he was running in 08, and then they'll drop it.
The only comparison between the two episodes that's apt is the fact neither statement was a gaffe. It wasn't a mistake by either man. The President said the "clinging to guns and bibles" line at a private fundraiser as well. So there is one other comparable fact. But it wasn't a gaffe. The President actually believed that at the time and probably still does. I guarantee the Governor believes what he said last night. So what separates the two issues.
The first is the coverage. The bibles and guns comment was really the only thing Obama said that ever got any analysis from the press. And that analysis didn't last long. Romney will get his chops busted over this for weeks and as I said it will dominate every minute of every news show not on FOX for at least three days.
The second but more obscure issue is the following comments each man-made. Obama was saying how he would need to go out there and change the minds of the people who cling to their guns and bibles. He was detailing how he would try to turn diehards because he would have to be president to everybody. Romney was explaining why he was giving up on those people because they would never be convinced to vote for him. The funny thing is Romney is right for the most part. The diehard Obama supporters will never be convinced to vote for Romney and won't support him in anything he does as president even if it would help the country. It's the same treatment Obama is getting from the conservative diehards now. Saying it out loud is just seems like bad form because it sounds like, and it will be spun like, Romney doesn't care about half of the country, while Obama was painted as trying to convert the country to his way of thinking. One statement is a positive thought, the other, negative.
The third issue – Obama made his comments with almost 6 months to go until the election, prior to his convention. Time does heal all wounds, as it did in his case. Obama did win the election convincingly. Romney has less than 60 days to put out this fire and refocus on why people aren't back to work even though wall street has clearly rebounded. It's a message that should stop Obama's second term bid in its tracks. But for some reason Romney can't seem to stay on that message.
The issue now facing Romney – can he withstand the amount of media whoring coming his way and get back to talking about things that matter. At the end of the day the fact that he called me a victim and a loser makes no difference in the real hierarchy of what's important. I can take it. He's just a soft handed, rich boy, jerk off anyway. But he may be the next great president. Don't think so? Go read The Election of 1800. Thats' the battle between Jefferson and John Adams. They said the most hurtful and heinous things about each other and their families, wives, kids, pets, the poor, uneducated, people who do manual labor, etc.. and both of those men are considered founding fathers and great presidents. Either one of those guys would have made these two current cream puffs pee their pants during a campaign or debate.
Romney's only issue now – can he get the all important Frank's Place endorsement bump.
The fact that Romney couldn't be more wrong is really beside the point.
12 Comments Posted in Diaries Tagged barak obama, democrats, fox news, Frank's Place, gaffe, gop, mitt romney, paper ballots, politics, republican nomination, votes count
Derision 2012! Summer of Stupid
You ever have that feeling when you make a prediction about something but in the back of your mind you hope it doesn't really come true? Yeah, that's where I'm at after this little beauty of a prediction. From the post Are you smarter than a campaign manager? back on May 20 I wrote this, "Anyone looking for the level of campaign discourse to be raised is in for a big disappointment."
The campaign of President Obama is making me look like Nostradamus. The post that quote is from details how the President's campaign people kept opening what they believe to be cans of whupp-ass on the Governor, but turn out to be big cans of worms instead. Every ridiculous charge they made against Gov. Romney over the summer was contradicted by the fact their guy, aka the President, had done something of equal or greater numb-nuttiness. I won't rehash it all, you can re-read it of you like. Just click the link above.
Well the gang isn't done. I guess they feel like we have not properly appreciated the level of stupidity they can rise too. However in this case to add to the degree of difficulty they have coupled stupidity with outright shamefulness.
At issue: a democratic super pac ad run by Priorities USA in which an older man, Joe Soptic, tells the tale of how Bain Capital, Romney's Bain Capital, bought the failing steel mill where Joe worked and shut it down, causing the loss of Joe's health care. Some unspecified time later his wife became ill, Joe took her to the doctor and found out she had stage 4 cancer. She died 22 days later. Joe implies in the ad that the illness occurred almost seconds after Romney personally called to cancel Joe's health insurance.
In the ad Joe implies that his wife was probably sick a lot longer then she let on, but he figures she kept quite because they could not afford the insurance. He claims he had no idea how long she was sick. The ad concludes with Joe saying he believes Romney has no idea what he has done to him and the lives of thousands of Americans. I didn't need it explained to me. Joe is implying that Romney killed his wife. Bill Burton, former Obama deputy press secretary and head of Priorities USA and author of the ad is implying Romney killed Joe's wife. The President, by not only staying silent on this hatchet job, but then co-opting part of that ad for his own campaign to use, is saying Romney killed Joe's wife. This was roughly but more eloquently the same conclusion that most political pundits on the airwaves and social media came to.
The only thing that killed Joe's wife is cancer. The steel mill in question went under in 2001. A lot of steel mills went under in 2001. Bain offered Joe a buyout but he refused it. Romney was off organizing the olympics when all this went down so I'm not sure how he even figures into this. Oh that's right the President's new strategy is to lie his pants off before they catch fire.
Joe's wife was diagnosed and died in 2006, the plant closed in 2001. By most accounts it would have closed then or before 2001 had Bain not propped it up long enough to realize some profit from it. In other words, Joe was losing his job one way or another, but he could have made some money had he taken the buyout, he refused. Had Bain not bought the plant and it closed in 2000 or earlier, Joe would not have even had an offer of a buyout. Once more, Joe's wife had a job and insurance through 2003. So she must have become ill after that time, some 2 years down range from when the plant closed.
The lies, falsehoods, faulty implications and outright made up BS in this ad would take pages and pages to unravel. Suffice to say, the President and his campaign people have decided there is no bar low enough they can't slink under, if it means falsely accusing Governor Romney of murder in an attempt to stay in office.
That was the Shameful. Now for the stupid.
This attack opens the President up to countless charges of murder. It's the same nonsense as with the dog, and the bullying. The President is guilty of far worse then what his team accuses Gov. Romney of. In this case however, the President can actually be linked to murder. It took all of 5 minutes for right wing bloggers to bring up the story of the border patrol agent Bryan Terry killed by a gun used in the failed Fast and Furious operation run by the current White House administration. See this: Red State
Why on earth would you do that if you were the Presidents election team? How could they not see what the counter attack would be and avoid it? It stagers the mind of even the most meager intellectuals among us.
The summer of stupid is just getting warmed up I'm afraid. Don't even get me started on the fake christian solidarity over some chicken samiches. I don't have time, I have to protest the presence of synchronized swimming at the olympics. What fast food chain would one go to protest something like that?
Five Guys I hope.
Leave a comment Posted in Diaries Tagged bain capital, barak obama, democrats, Frank's Place, gop, joe coptic, mitt romney, politics, venture capitalist
Derision 2012! OK, now it counts.
The pick has been made, the game is afoot.
Congressman Paul Ryan from Wisconsin is the Vice Presidential candidate for the republican ticket.
Cute Little bugger ain't he.
Photo courtesy of Congressman Ryan's official home page
Congressman Ryan serves Wisconsin's 1st District and has since 1999. The 1st district is home to Janesville, where Ryan is from, and the town of Racine.
You may have heard of Racine, it featured prominently in the Tom Hanks movie A League of their Own, about the Women's Professional Baseball League that sprung up, largely in the mid-west, during WWII when Major League Baseball was going on hiatus for the war.
After the nonsense with the recall vote in Wisconsin, the stupidity with the dog on the roof (Romney), the eating of dog (Obama), the bullying of classmates (Romney), the using and selling of drugs in high-school (Obama), we may actually get to some serious issues in this campaign.
So you can forget all that crap, it counted for nothing. We have the other player now. Now it all counts.
Born in 1970 – so yeah he's only 42, 23 years younger then Governor Romney, but more importantly only 3 short years younger than me. Maybe my guidance counselor was right.
The congressman is a graduate of Miami University of Ohio with degrees in business and political science.
Married to Janna Little and has 3 children. So we have four of the most boring faith based family men in the history of American politics going head to head for the White House. As my friend John said the other day, they are all so alike personally, they'll have to make stuff up about each other in order to attack.
Mr Ryan is Roman Catholic, coupled with the Governor's Mormon faith, this is the first presidential ticket in some time without a traditional protestant. Not sure this is an issue, no actually I'm sure this is not an issue, but with the dopiness that seems to define the President's current campaign strategy, my gut tells me we'll hear a little more about this than we should.
An odd but possibly serious fact – Ryan's father, grand father, and great grand-father all died of heart attacks before the age of 60. I'm almost positive this will come up. Medical history is common fodder for campaigns, and that's some serious history bro.
My $.02
In the interest of full disclosure, I voted for the President in 08, but I was probably voting for the Governor this time around. The president's campaigning has led me even further in that direction. This pick all but seals my vote. I mean excluding the fact the guy is a heart attack waiting to happen, from appearances and speeches he is a no non-sense business guy with the only official budget proposal on the table. That's not just between the candidates, that's all of the body politic in Washington. His economic plan, like all plans, has rough edges but some republicans even ran from it. Newt Gingrich, as you may recall, was one of the first to jump ship.
You remember Newt don't ya: big ass blow hard, ego bigger than his belly, 3x loser on the marriage/adultery circuit. Has plans for a moon base by his THIRD term as President and thinks little black kids should be taken from grade school and sent to be janitors of Moon Base Gingrich. Yeah that's him. Anyway he called Ryan a right wing radical on the morning talk shows when Team Gingrich thought they still had a shot, way back in February.
The right wing radical charge may well be true, and I don't think it is, but as of this moment no one, not even the republicans, have come up with an official budget proposal even though they don't seem to be fully behind the Ryan budget. At least Mr Ryan is working, trying to fix things, a trait that seems foreign to most politicians in DC at the moment.
For the Governor this was a good pick. Congressman Ryan gives the Governor a solid conservative to lean on. It would appear to me the two of them can get the conservative base and have a good chance at all those independents and undecideds that will sway the election.
Passed Over
Senator Rubio of Florida is a little young and Mr Rubio muddled his own history by claiming to have fled Castro's Cuba when in fact his parents left before the crackdown started. They didn't escape or flee on a raft. They bought airline tickets and basically immigrated to the US.
My pick, Senator John Thune of South Dakota, would have been a good pick, but he probably would not have brought the charge to the ticket the way Mr Ryan will.
Senator Rob Portman of Ohio was in contention but like Thune, a solid pick with no pizzaz.
Mr Ryan it is. I like it. I'll probably buy the t-shirt.
I believe the R&R campaign will be civil and focused on the issues at hand. They better be. Unlike McCain and Plain, who sidetracked themselves with the nonsense of faith, country of origin, and other derogatory tacts towards then Senator Obama, Romney and Ryan can run on actual truths. Truth 1: The President is a decent man, but his policies for the last four years have not fixed things. Truth 2: They should stand up and declare that the President is indeed an American, just not the right American for the job.
All you weak minded folk can wallow in the stupidity of wether he is christian/muslim, American/Keynyan, socialist/communist. Most of you wouldn't know a communist or a socialist if they kicked you in the ass. The irony is President Obama is losing votes from the progressives because he failed to deliver the socialism so many right wing nut jobs said was coming. It would be laugh out loud funny if it wasn't such a sad expose of the way the media, left, right, and center, seems to be able to lead the general public around by the nose.
In my opinion, much like President Bush, the current President is a good guy tying to do his best. President Obama's best is just not good enough. Dissecting his polices without slinging mud at his character should be easy enough for the likes of R&R. (credit Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina for the R&R tag)
However the President's campaign has shown a bizarre willingness to crawl in the mud, and for no apparent reason. The Governor never went there, but all the Presidents men seem in a rush to dive into the lowest level of the cesspool. (A forthcoming post titled "The summer of stupid." will go into much detail.) The Governor has yet to make a personal attack against the President.
R&R need to stay on that path. The high road should lead them to the White House.
You can read Vice Presidential candidate Ryan's speech here: Romney/Ryan 2012
9 Comments Posted in Diaries Tagged barak obama, democrats, fox news, Frank's Place, gop, mitt romney, newt gingrich, paul ryan, politics, presidential debates, republican nomination, republican presidential hopefuls, Romney Ryan 12, votes count
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