Willard ‘Mittens’ Romney fails the commander-in-chief test

July 16, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Last week, Willard "Mittens" Romney met with Darth Vader Dick Cheney in his secret lair deep inside Devil's Tower in Wyoming. (This is only a slight exaggeration). The media was prohibited from being in earshot of this meeting or from taking any photographs.

The best anyone could report was "Romney was spotted shaking Cheney’s hand and giving Lynne Cheney a kiss on the cheek. But campaign aides quickly escorted reporters who were watching the exchange out of view." Dick Cheney gives Mitt Romney his endorsement – The Washington Post. Darth Vader Dick Cheney had this to say:

Cheney introduced Romney and said he was confident the former Massachusetts governor would lead the nation through an unanticipated crisis such as the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

“I’m convinced that in addition to all of these other qualifications that you all know about, when I think about the kind of individual I want in the Oval Office in that moment of crisis, who has to make those key decisions, some of them life-and-death decisions, decisions as the commander in chief, who has the responsibility for sending our young men and women in harm’s way – that man’s Mitt Romney,” Cheney said.

Leaving aside the fact that Mittens Romney has been endorsed by a war criminal whose Neoconservative "brain trust" is serving as Romney's foreign policy advisors, Darth Vader Dick Cheney says that Mittens Romney passes the commander-in-chief test.

Let's be clear: everyone from a platoon leader, to the captain of a ship, to the CEO of a corporation, to the president of the United States is responsible for what happens on their watch. As President Harry Truman said, "the buck stops here."

But for the past 10 years, Mittens Romney has been running away from responsibility and passing the buck for what the public views negatively as the dark side of vulture capitalism during his watch at the helm of Bain Capital between 1999-2002 (even though he got fabulously wealthy from its success).

The Sunday morning bobbleheads turn on Mittens

July 15, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

It looks like the Friday news dump by Willard "Mittens" Romney to try to push back against his record at Bain Capital after February 1999 has failed. The conservative Sunday morning bobbleheads turned on Mittens today, insisting that he come clean by releasing his tax records.

George Will said on ABC's This Week that Mitt Romney is hiding something bad in his tax returns:

WILL: Look, what Mitt Romney has said is he has released, and I quote, "all that's necessary for people to understand something about my finances." Now, the something is a pregnant word. And people are going to say there's — the cost of not releasing the returns are clear. Therefore, he must have calculated that there are higher costs in releasing them.

* * *

WILL: [Responding to Mary Matalin] But Mary, is it not what you call a "real fact" that Mitt Romney gave to the McCain campaign, when it was considering him as a running mate, 23 years of tax returns?

In this same program, former Bush-Cheney 2004 chief strategist Matthew Dowd agreed:

DOWD: Mary, you know — you know — you know, if — if that was — that if you — I said that's truth serum in that cup, and you were advising a candidate like Mitt Romney in this instance, you would say, "We've got to get this out there." You would say, "We've got to get this out there to deal with this."

They were responding to Democratic strategist Donna Brazile's earlier statement:

In Defense of Mitt’s Retroactive Retirement

July 15, 2012

Posted by Bob Lord The latest on Mitt, from his campaign advisor Ed Gillespie, is that he "retroactively retired" from Bain.  OK, laugh if you want, but I'm going to give credit where credit is due. "Retroactively retiring" is absolutely, positively, 100% consistent with being the Etch-a-Sketch candidate. So stop picking on my buddy Mitt … Read more

Romney caught in a ‘Mittstorm’ of lies

July 15, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Huffington Post has more evidence today contradicting Mitt Romney's continued insistence that he ended his active role with Bain Capital in early 1999. Mitt Romney Bain Capital Document Lists Him As 'Managing Member' In 2002:

A corporate document filed with the state of Massachusetts in December 2002 — a month after Romney was elected governor — lists him as one of two managing members of Bain Capital Investors, LLC "authorized to execute, acknowledge, deliver and record any recordable instrument purporting to affect an interest in real property, whether to be recorded with a Registry of Deeds or with a District Office of the Land Court."

In August 2011, Romney told federal authorities, [in a public financial disclosure form], that he "retired from Bain Capital on February 11, 1999 to head the Salt Lake Organizing Committee [for the 2002 Winter Olympics]. Since February 11, 1999, Mr. Romney has not had any active role with any Bain Capital entity and has not been involved in the operations of any Bain Capital entity in any way."

Bain Capital Investors is a Bain Capital entity.

Previously reported evidence shows that Romney was listed as the CEO, chairman and president of the company after 1999 in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission; took a six-figure salary; signed corporate documents related to major and minor deals and attended board meetings for at least two Bain-affiliated companies. The state document was filed two and a half years after Romney now says he retired from the company, demonstrating his deep and ongoing connection to the firm.

The mountain of evidence that Romney had a connection to the firm after 1999 leaves him with two possible explanations, neither of them politically appealing: Either Romney was officially in charge of the company but took no actual responsibility for it, or he was involved then and is either lying or shading the truth now.

As the documentary evidence makes clear, Mittens Romney was at Bain Capital until 2002. He testified under oath at trial in 2002 that he was still active in business in Massachusetts in order to maintain that he had remained a resident of Massachusetts to meet the seven year residency requirement to run for governor. Old Romney Testimony Undermines Today's Bain Claims.

Obama campaign ad: ‘Firms’

July 15, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

This new Obama campaign ad, "Firms," is running in nine swing states. The ad ties together the offshoring jobs charges to Mitt Romney’s offshore bank accounts. It is set to Mittens singing "America the Beautiful." Well-done, devastating ad. Video below the fold.