What's being done to Romney was done to Gore (amplification of soundbites)
I think we should not complain when our candidates say something that gets cut off to one sentence. Al Gore invented the internet, said pundits and GOP'ers who didn't wanna discuss the wider context. It is now being done to Mitt Romney. who wants to repair whatever holes may be in the system regarding the very poor. But in the media, he does not care about the very poor. I disagree with Romney on 90% of his positions, but my point is: Let's not criticize the media when they do it to us. Not if we're hypocrites.
...bullshit!
<...>
You’ve got to take the whole sentence? Interesting. That rule did not apply when Romney personally approved an ad attacking Obama that lifted his words out of context in a hilariously dishonest way, implying that Obama said something about himself he’d actually attributed to a McCain adviser. The Romney campaign subsequently boasted about all the media attention the ad’s dishonesty earned.
Nor did Romney’s call for context apply when he blasted Obama for not believing in American exceptionalism by cherry-picking a line from an Obama speech in which the President actually did proclaim his belief that America is exceptional. Romney has a whole history of decontextualizing remarks.
By the way, it’s unlikely that Romney’s plea for context will do anything to quiet criticism of the gaffe, which is now being loudly voiced by conservatives, too. Erick Erickson, Jonah Goldberg and others on the right are all arguing that Romney has showcased his political ineptitude by offering Dems a comment that — even if taken out of context — plays perfectly into the Dem strategy of painting Romney as the candidate of the one percent. Not only that, but it’s also worth mentioning that in his comments, Romney confirmed that the Democratic Party does care about the poor.
Romney wasn’t really saying he doesn’t care about the poor, but the context still doesn’t help much. He seemed to be indicating that the plight of the poor isn’t all that worrisome because the safety net is doing such an adequate job in keeping them out of, well, poverty.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/romney-context-for-me-but-not-for-thee/2012/02/01/gIQAFh85hQ_blog.html?tid=pm_opinions_popContext via a RW site:
Mitt Romney: “
I’m not concerned about the very poor; we have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I’ll fix it. I’m not concerned about the very rich, they’re doing just fine. I’m concerned about the very heart of the America, the 90 percent, 95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling, and I’ll continue to take that message across the nation.”
Soledad O’Brien: “I know I said last question.
You said I’m not concerned about the very poor because they have a safety net. And I think there are lots of very poor Americans who are struggling who would say that sounds odd. Can you explain that?”
Mitt Romney: “Well, you had to finish the sentence, Soledad. I said
I’m not concerned about the very poor that have the safety net, but if it has holes in it, I will repair them. The challenge right now —
we will hear from the Democrat Party the plight of the poor. And there’s no question, it’s not good being poor, and we have a safety net to help those that are very poor. But my campaign is focused on middle income Americans. My campaign — you can choose where to focus. You can focus on the rich, that’s not my focus. You can focus on the very poor. That’s not my focus. My focus is on middle income Americans, retirees living on Social Security, people who can’t find work, folks that have kids getting ready to go to college. These are the people who have been most badly hurt during the Obama years. We have a very ample safety net, and we can talk about whether it needs to be strengthened or whether there are holes in it. But we have food stamps, we have Medicaid, we have housing vouchers, we have programs to help the poor.”
http://www.redstate.com/jeff_emanuel/2012/02/01/mitt-romneys-very-poor-choice-of-words/He's "not concerned about the very poor that have the safety net"
Romney is clueless.
Romney recently said making over $374,000 in speaking fees is "not very much" money. It followed Romney suggesting elected office is only for the rich, clumsily talking about his fondness for being able to fire people, demanding that talk of economic justice be limited to "quiet rooms," accusing those who care about income inequality of "envy," daring Rick Perry to accept a $10,000 bet, joking about being "unemployed," arguing that those who slip into poverty are still middle class, and suggesting that Americans should somehow feel sorry for poor banks.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002243282
= new reply since forum marked as read
