Daily Archives: July 20, 2012

Aliens

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This is hysterical — you remember the ad with Mittens badly singing “America the Beautiful”? The Romney campaign retorted with one of the President singing Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together.” Gary Silverman writes in the Financial Times that the Romney ad seemed an odd choice, since the President actually sings fairly well. A supporter of Romney explained:

In an appearance on CNN with her husband, Mrs Welch suggested that Mr Obama’s personal style and choice of musical material define him as a member of a “different America”. I would imagine this is why Mr Romney’s campaign included the snippet of Mr Obama singing “Let’s Stay Together” at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. They hoped it would convey his otherness.

“It’s the difference between the songs that they’re singing,” Mrs Welch said. “Mitt Romney didn’t exactly do a beautiful job on that song, but think about what he’s singing, OK? I mean it’s that patriotic song and he goes all the way through it. Then you’ve got the very cool Barack Obama singing Al Green. That is the two different Americas. Isn’t it?”

Silverman thinks the Romney crew are showing their age. I’m not sure age is the issue here. Let’s see — what’s so alien about Al Green?

Al Green

or President Obama?

Now, what would make somebody think these two are “alien”?

Mittens’s Bane

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An investigative piece in the Boston GLobe by Beth Healy and Michael Kranish pretty much shreds the claim that Mittens had nothing to do with Bain Capital after 1999.

Interviews with a half-dozen of Romney’s former partners and associates, as well as public records, show that he was not merely an absentee owner during this period. He signed dozens of company documents, including filings with regulators on a vast array of Bain’s investment entities. And he drove the complex negotiations over his own large severance package, a deal that was critical to the firm’s future without him, according to his former associates.

Indeed, by remaining CEO and sole shareholder, Romney held on to his leverage in the talks that resulted in his generous 10-year retirement package, according to former associates.

“The elephant in the room was not whether Mitt was involved in investment decisions but Mitt’s retention of control of the firm and therefore his ability to extract a huge economic benefit by delaying his giving up of that control,” said one former associate, who, like some other Romney associates, spoke only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak for the company.

Yes, this article documents that Mittens kept the CEO title not because he thought he might come back after the Olympics, but so he could squeeze the biggest possible severance package out of the company.

Other must-reads — Ryan Grim and Zach Carter, “Mitt Romney Avoided Major Tax Hit By Shifting Stock Of Offshoring Firm”

Paul Krugman, “Pathos of the Plutocrat“

Bad News, Good News

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Until we learn more, I don’t want to say anything about the shooting in Colorado, except that it makes me very sad.

So let’s go on to better news. Campaigning in Florida yeterday, President Obama attacked Mitt Romney for his support of Paul Ryan’s budget and his plan to cut taxes for the rich even more than they’ve been cut already. Greg Sargent writes,

Ed Kilgore and Jonathan Chait note that this is the start of a new and important phase in the campaign, i.e., the battle over the Paul Ryan budget, which has become the blueprint for the GOP economic agenda and the larger set of values and priorities Republicans would bring to tax reform, entitlements, and balancing the budget.

Keep in mind: A focus group convened by the pro-Obama Priorities U.S.A. found that voters simply refused to believe that Romney or Ryan would really transform Medicare into a quasi-voucher program while also cutting taxes for the rich. This is what the assault on Romney’s Bain years is really about. It’s an effort to establish an image of Romney that will make it easier for voters to accept that this is indeed the agenda Romney has embraced and would carry out as president.

President O is a man who can play a long game, which is why I’m calling this good news. He is capable of tying the Mittens crew into so many knots they won’t be recognizable by the time they get to the convention.

But be sure to read “Nobody Takes Conservative Wingnuttery at Face Value” by Kevin Drum. Mittens can pile one lie on top of another and be believed — and news media usually gives him a pass — but the truth is so outrageous many won’t believe it.

The part about cutting marginal tax rates to benefit the wealthy is right on Mitt’s official web site. The socialists at CNNMoney explain that Mitt’s plan would add $3.4 trillion to the deficit. Mittens says vaguely that the cuts would be paid for by “curbs on personal tax deductions, exemptions and credits,” but he refuses to say what those would be and who would be hurt by the “curbs.”

Mitt’s plan for replacing “Obamacare” on his website are the usual little ineffective tweaks righties have been promoting for years — high-risk pools, reinsurance, risk adjustment, tort reform, etc. Basically, this approach could result in lower health insurance premiums for healthy people — for a while, anyway — but make it financially ruinous to get sick.

As for Paul Ryan’s absurd Medicare plan — again, it’s right on Mitt’s website — this is a quote —

Medicare is reformed as a premium support system, meaning that existing spending is repackaged as a fixed-amount benefit to each senior that he or she can use to purchase an insurance plan.

A voucher, in other words.

Eat it, Mittens.