Tag Archives: Clint Eastwood

Point of View Columns

Romney’s Demolition Derby

One year ago the Teapublican Klown Car was full to capacity with the likes of Rick Perry and Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann and Saint Santorum. In Tampa the G.O.Tea Party turned the keys of the Klown Car over to Mitt Romney and he seems to be on a mission to conduct a one man demolition derby between now and November 6th. Every candidate makes a few gaffes. But to call Romney’s miscues gaffes is like calling the Grand Canyon a dip in the road.

Where does one begin? During the Teapublican snorefest in Tampa, the Romney campaign somehow permitted Clint Eastwood to engage in a part-demented, part-funny and part-sad performance art project just before Mr. Romney was supposed to give his long-awaited acceptance speech. The Romney campaign terms anything negative about its candidate a “distraction”. The Eastwoodpalooza certainly qualified as a distraction.

Last week the release of a video containing an intentionally obscene attack on Islam had tragic consequences. The ensuing rioting in the Middle East and Europe resulted in deaths and destruction including the death of the American ambassador to Libya. As the facts of multiple tragedies were being sorted out, Team Romney thought that this would be as good a time as any to attack President Obama.

The body of Ambassador Chris Stevens was (literally) not cold when Mitt Romney stood at the podium to term a statement from the U.S. Embassy in Egypt, intended to calm a riotous situation, as “an apology for American values” as well as a defense of the attackers of U.S. Embassy.

Of course, in typical Team Romney fashion they got it wrong. The statement was issues SIX HOURS BEFORE attacks anywhere. And it is not clear what “American values” Mitt Romney was defending. While free speech in this country does include the right to publish vile and offensive material, there is also a right to call that material vile and offensive.

It was pretty easy for Mitt Romney to play armchair quarterback in a campaign office thousands of miles away from the fray. By playing politics among the corpses of dead Americans and the wreckage of American facilities Mitt Romney managed to make himself even smaller in the eyes of many people who are watching him.

It is said that crises reveal people for who they are. If that is the case, Mr. Romney revealed himself as a calculating and appallingly opportunistic little man who is willing to exploit national crisis and tragedy for his own political gain.

But the Klown car careens on, with Mitt Romney wedged behind the wheel, unable to escape the collision with his own self. Because, this week Mother Jones released a video of Mitt Romney speaking at a private fundraiser in Florida, taped earlier this year.

Lulled into his comfort zone by the absence of the press and the presence of his fellow millionaires Mitt Romney stated the 47% of the American electorate who support President Obama lack personal responsibility, are dependent upon government and believe that they are entitled to things like healthcare, housing and food. Mr. Romney stated that his job was “not to worry about them” and to focus on Americans who support his small government, low tax agenda.

The gaping holes in his facts and his logic are large enough to drive his Klown car through over and over. The reality is that this country has evolved to a point where most people believe that Americans are indeed entitled to health care, housing…………..and food. This is a reality that the Romney-Ryan tag team plan to change.

It is so very clear that Mitt Romney has never personally known anyone who has lost their job and has had to rely on government assistance as a last resort. Mr. Romney has not seen the seemingly endless lines of job applicants when any company, factory or store announces that it is hiring. And Mr. Romney does not realize that the millions of elderly men and women who receive Social Security and Medicare benefits do not see themselves as dependent because they worked their entire lives and paid for the benefits for which they are now entitled.

We keep hearing that Mitt Romney is a “decent man” who has trouble connecting. The only problem – the Mitt Romney who tries to score political points during a national tragedy doesn’t seem very decent. And the Mitt Romney who writes off 47% of the electorate as being dependent and ill-suited for his Brave New World doesn’t seem very decent either.

And he isn’t even very nice to his dog.

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Point of View Columns

Romney-Ryan – You Lie!

The key take away from the smoldering stench of the recently deceased Republican convention is that the Romney-Ryan team believes that there are enough people who hate the Kenyan, Muslim anti-Christ currently occupying the White House that they are willing to believe any and every lie that can be told about President Obama. That can be the only logical explanation for adopted a scorched earth policy when it comes to telling the truth about just about everything.

Mercifully Hurricane Isaac shortened the Teapublican Klown Karnival otherwise fact checkers would have been beaten into exhausted submission. When compiling a list of outright, baseless lies, one can start anywhere, so why not with the Pious Paul Ryan who seems to be giving Saint Santorum a run for his money when it comes to retiring the title for sanctimonious self-righteousness.

Paul Ryan, in doleful and lugubrious tones, criticized the Obama Administration auto industry bailout by pointing out that it did not save all the automobile manufacturing plants in the United States. And then he told this sad tale of how the GM plant in Jaynesville, in his home state of Wisconsin had to close because of the ineffectiveness of this feckless bailout program.

There is just one problem with this tearjerker of a story. The referenced GM plant closed in 2008, BEFORE BARACK OBAMA BECAME PRESIDENT. And just in case you thought that Mr. Ryan was an impaired graduate of one of the top party schools in America (Miami of Ohio), it was Congressman Ryan who sent a letter to the Jaynesville workers advising them of the plant closing.

Not to be outdone, Mitt Romney has repeatedly criticized Barack Obama for not having signed a single trade agreement during his administration as president. There is just one problem with this insightful critique. BARACK OBAMA HAS SIGNED THREE TRADE AGREEMENTS DURING HIS TENURE AS PRESIDENT.

The Romney-Ryan team has tried to fan the flames of social discord in this country by opposing same sex marriage and further contending that President Obama seeks to impose same sex marriage laws on all Americans. There is just one problem with this piece of despicable rabble rousing. BARACK OBAMA, WHILE ENDORSING SAME SEX MARRIAGE, HAS SUPPORTED LETTING STATES PLAY THE HISTORICAL ROLE OF SETTING MARRIAGE RULES – THE REPUBLICANS SUPPORT A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT THAT WILL TAKE THAT ROLE AWAY FROM THE STATES.

In one of the more embarrassing public spectacles seen on national television since the last time Donald Trump said anything, Clint Eastwood shambled and rambled through his dialogue with an empty chair named Obama, claiming that he did not keep his promise to close the terrorist prison camp at Guantanamo Bay. This bit of zany analysis was endorsed by Mitt Romney who thought that Eastwood was “great”. Just one thing – GUANTANAMO BAY HAS NOT BEEN CLOSED BECAUSE OF THE OPPOSITION OF DEMOCRATIC AND REPUBLICAN MEMBERS OF CONGRESS WHEN IT’S CLOSING WAS PROPOSED BY PRESIDENT OBAMA.

The list of lies is endless and shameless. There is the purported “theft” of $786 billion from Medicare that actually represents savings that will ensue from the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare that used to be known as Romneycare. We have been told that the credit rating of the United States was lowered because of the Obama Administration policies when the rating agencies clearly stated that the rating was lowered because of the irresponsible actions of the Republican-led Congress in nearly causing a default by the federal government.

Perhaps the biggest lie of all was Mitt Romney claiming in Tampa that he wanted Barack Obama to succeed. This is most interesting, since no one has recorded a single utterance from Mr. Romney when Rush Limbaugh infamously stated that he wanted newly-inaugurated Barack Obama to fail or when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell darkly muttered that the number one goal of Republicans in Congress was to insure that Barack Obama was a one term president. AND MITT ROMNEY HAS CONVENIENTLY “DISREMEMBERED” THAT PAUL RYAN WAS PART OF A GROUP OF REPUBLICANS WHO MET ON THE NIGHT OF BARACK OBAMA’S ADMINISTRATION TO PLOT AND PLAN HIS DEFEAT IN 2012.

Respect for the truth has not been a part of the Teapublican way of doing things. Respect for President Obama is absolutely non-existent. And, in a very real way, it is sad that in perpetrating bald-face lie after transparent lie, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and their Teapublican cohorts have no respect for the American people…….and, by the way, what about those tax returns Mr. Romney?

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