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Robert Shrum: Mitt Romney Lost the Summer: Tax Returns, Overseas Gaffes, & More
After the worst foreign excursion of any presidential hopeful since his father visited Vietnam and announced afterward that he was “brainwashed,” trippy Mitt found no surcease of sorrow in an unwelcome return home.
The first blow came from a brace of polls. The Pew Research Center showed Romney suddenly behind Barack Obama by 10 points, with the president above the crucial 50 percent mark. Quinnipiac/CBS/New York Times surveys in Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania had Obama hitting or exceeding that mark, with leads between 6 and 11 percent. The underlying numbers were more ominous for Romney. His favorable/unfavorable, already underwater in Pew’s June numbers, collapsed from -6 to -15. No nominee in either party has entered the final phase of the race so tarnished in the American mind.
Republicans assailed the Pew and Quinnipiac polls with the fervor they usually reserve for inconvenient truths about climate change or the Affordable Care Act. But while they can quibble with figures, the overall lay of the swing-state land is clear. On Aug. 1, The New York Times’ Nate Silver had the president ahead in every one of his 10 “tipping-point states.”
The problem with Romney isn’t just what the Obama campaign has done to him, but what he has done to himself. Months ago, as he struggled through the GOP primaries, we learned in the debates and in his days on the trail, and he should have learned it too, that he can’t trust his mouth. From “I’m also unemployed” to the $10,000 bet—the list is legion—Romney blurted out a discordant symphony of tone-deaf proof that he was out of touch and perhaps out of his depth. He instinctively says the wrong thing.
The first blow came from a brace of polls. The Pew Research Center showed Romney suddenly behind Barack Obama by 10 points, with the president above the crucial 50 percent mark. Quinnipiac/CBS/New York Times surveys in Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania had Obama hitting or exceeding that mark, with leads between 6 and 11 percent. The underlying numbers were more ominous for Romney. His favorable/unfavorable, already underwater in Pew’s June numbers, collapsed from -6 to -15. No nominee in either party has entered the final phase of the race so tarnished in the American mind.
Republicans assailed the Pew and Quinnipiac polls with the fervor they usually reserve for inconvenient truths about climate change or the Affordable Care Act. But while they can quibble with figures, the overall lay of the swing-state land is clear. On Aug. 1, The New York Times’ Nate Silver had the president ahead in every one of his 10 “tipping-point states.”
The problem with Romney isn’t just what the Obama campaign has done to him, but what he has done to himself. Months ago, as he struggled through the GOP primaries, we learned in the debates and in his days on the trail, and he should have learned it too, that he can’t trust his mouth. From “I’m also unemployed” to the $10,000 bet—the list is legion—Romney blurted out a discordant symphony of tone-deaf proof that he was out of touch and perhaps out of his depth. He instinctively says the wrong thing.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/08/mitt-romney-lost-the-summer-tax-returns-overseas-gaffes-more.html
I love this from the article:
"Neither a VP pick nor a convention bump, by no means a sure or lasting thing, can permanently or completely reverse the damage he has already inflicted on himself."
Romney is an UnMITTigated Disaster, not qualified to be President
Keep the King of Bain out!
Where the Money Lives
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2012/08/investigating-mitt-romney-offshore-accounts#
Why won't Romney release more tax returns?
Since George Romney inaugurated the practice more than 40 years ago by releasing 12 years of tax returns in his bid for the Republican Party nomination, presidential nominees have been transparent with voters about their personal finances. For this reason, we have not suffered a significant tax scandal involving a nominee or sitting president since President Richard Nixon's abuse of the tax code.
Either Romney has an unresolved father figure issue, or he has some special reason not to follow a tradition established by his father.
....
The first is Romney's Swiss bank account. Most presidential candidates don't think it appropriate to bet that the U.S. dollar will lose value by speculating in Swiss Francs, which is basically the rationale offered by the trustee of Romney's "blind" trust for opening this account. What's more, if you really want just to speculate on foreign currencies, you don't need a Swiss bank account to do so.
...
Second, Romney's $100 million IRA is remarkable in its size. Even under the most generous assumptions, Romney would have been restricted to annual contributions of $30,000 while he worked at Bain. How does this grow to $100 million?
Either Romney has an unresolved father figure issue, or he has some special reason not to follow a tradition established by his father.
....
The first is Romney's Swiss bank account. Most presidential candidates don't think it appropriate to bet that the U.S. dollar will lose value by speculating in Swiss Francs, which is basically the rationale offered by the trustee of Romney's "blind" trust for opening this account. What's more, if you really want just to speculate on foreign currencies, you don't need a Swiss bank account to do so.
...
Second, Romney's $100 million IRA is remarkable in its size. Even under the most generous assumptions, Romney would have been restricted to annual contributions of $30,000 while he worked at Bain. How does this grow to $100 million?
http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/18/opinion/kleinbard-canellos-romney-tax/index.html
Study: Romney Plan Would Raise Taxes On 95% Of Americans
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/08/study-romney-plan-would-raise-taxes-on-95-of-americans.php?ref=fpa
5 Facts About The Massachusetts Economy Under Mitt Romney
1. Ranked 47th in job growth
2. Suffered the second-largest labor force decline in the nation
3. Lost 14 percent of its manufacturing jobs
4. Experienced “below average” economic growth and was “often near the bottom”
5. Piled on more debt than any other state
2. Suffered the second-largest labor force decline in the nation
3. Lost 14 percent of its manufacturing jobs
4. Experienced “below average” economic growth and was “often near the bottom”
5. Piled on more debt than any other state
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/06/04/494282/5-facts-about-the-massachusetts-economy-under-mitt-romney/
Keep this Mr Shady, American Job Destroyer, American Job Out-Sourcing, Tax-Cheat, Flip Flopping, Untrustworthy Character out of the White House. We've already had a Tricky-Dick, we don't need a Tricky-Mitt. Nixon resigned in disgrace.
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