Romney closes out the primaries by attacking Obama’s unfairness
The news from last night was not that Mitt Romney easily swept the five states that held primaries; that was assured once Rick Santorum left the race, if not before. Nor was it the prospect, which is being confirmed this morning, that Newt Gingrich would also drop out of the race as a result.
No, the news is that Romney finally gave the speech some of us have been waiting for him to give. (Click here to see a video of the speech, which lasted about 13 minutes, or here to read the prepared remarks; he didn’t stray too far from them.)
The heart of it was the contrast he drew between himself and President Obama. First, what he said about the president:
Government is at the center of his vision. It dispenses the benefits, borrows what it can’t take, consumes a greater and greater share of the economy. You know, with Obamacare fully installed, government would have control of almost half of the economy, and we would have effectively ceased to be a free enterprise society.
This President is putting us on a path where our lives will be ruled by bureaucrats and boards, commissions and czars. He’s asking us to accept that Washington knows best — and can provide all.
We’ve already seen where that path leads. It erodes freedom. It deadens the entrepreneurial spirit. And it hurts the very people it’s supposed to help. Those who promise to spread the wealth around only ever succeed in spreading poverty around. Other nations have chosen that path. It leads to chronic high unemployment, crushing debt, and stagnant wages.
And then there’s his counteroffer:
I have a very different vision for America, and for our future. It’s an America driven by freedom, where free people, pursuing happiness in their own unique ways, create free enterprises that employ more and more Americans. And because there are so many enterprises that are succeeding, the competition for hard-working, educated, skilled employees is intense, so wages and salaries rise.
I see an America with a growing middle class, with rising standards of living. I see children even more successful than their parents — some successful even beyond their wildest dreams — and others congratulating them for their achievement, not attacking them for it.
The repeated mentions of free enterprise, and the good line about congratulating people on their success rather than attacking them for it, are welcome. But here’s where Romney signaled an important theme leading to November:
This America is fundamentally fair. We will stop the unfairness of urban children being denied access to the good schools of their choice; we will stop the unfairness of politicians giving taxpayer money to their friends’ businesses; we will stop the unfairness of requiring union workers to contribute to politicians not of their choosing; we will stop the unfairness of government workers getting better pay and benefits than the very taxpayers they serve; and we will stop the unfairness of one generation passing larger and larger debts on to the next.
When an opponent — as Romney correctly said Obama would do — wants to run not on his record but on distractions and distortions and fuzzy notions of “fairness,” you hit back at what other people might consider unfair. And there is a great deal of unfairness to be found in Obama’s conventional liberal positions, some of which Romney catalogued.
This is a promising start to turning Obama’s raw populism on its ear.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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693 comments Add your comment
Mitt Rob-Me and Ann Wannabe
April 25th, 2012
5:08 pm
Mitt wants people to CONGRATULATE RICH people who make a lot of MONEY.
Mitt and Ann don’t give a rats behind about ANY OF YOU.
Mitt Rob-Me and Ann Wannabe
April 25th, 2012
5:12 pm
@Tiberius – Banned from Bookman’s and proud of it!
April 25th, 2012
4:37 pm
“OBAMA WINS!!!”
Strange, and here I thought we had to actually hold elections to determine winners in the American political system.
*******************************************************************************************
The handwriting is on the wall.
Face it.
Mitt Rob-Me WILL NEVER BE PRESIDENT.
I bet you $10,000 HE WON’T.
Intown
April 25th, 2012
5:27 pm
It’s a crafty message. But, like most political nonsense — full of false choices based upon a false ideology.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
April 25th, 2012
5:39 pm
I bet you $10,000 HE WON’T.
————————-
$10k? Sounds like you don’t have much confidence in Obozo.
Just saying..
April 25th, 2012
5:41 pm
“Third, while his religion shouldn’t really matter, there are those conservatives who simply will not vote for a Mormon. ”
Conservatives might be better written as evangelicals, but this will be an interesting issue to follow. Be significant if the Romney campaign thinks it troublesome enough for the candidate to directly address. And what impact that may have.
Sad to me that it may have some impact on the election.
Lil' Barry Blowhard (Revised Upward, Yet Again)
April 25th, 2012
5:41 pm
Lil’ Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
April 25th, 2012
4:18 pm
Heh heh, blowhard, the only thing that gets revised upward is the new applications for unemployment benefits…something like twelve weeks in a row.
Something like twelve weeks in a row? Care to cite your sources?
@@
April 25th, 2012
5:53 pm
I see children even more successful than their parents — some successful even beyond their wildest dreams…
THAT’S what I want for my daughter and her children. Liberals would prefer to get theirs now leaving their children with less.
Disgusting!!!
I LUV that last paragraph about unfairness. That’s called puttin’ the t*rd on Obama’s plate.
Didn’t know he had it in ‘em.
I
getalife
April 25th, 2012
5:57 pm
The gop killed their jobs, wanted Detriot to fail, spent 5 trillion on occupations and you blame the dems @@?
I hope she is informed and does not believe you.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
April 25th, 2012
5:58 pm
‘Scuse me, Fake Lil’ Barry…it’s fourteen weeks in a row:
—————–
The Department of Labor has revised higher the number of people who filed for unemployment benefits in 58 out of the last 59 weeks.
The same has held true since the beginning of the year. There have been 14 weeks of jobless data this year, and there have been 14 revisions. And all 14 were revisions that made the claims picture higher than what the government originally reported.
Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/2012/04/20/higher-jobless-claims-revisions-skew-jobs-picture/#ixzz1t5l90W9H
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
April 25th, 2012
5:58 pm
Obozo: Fudging the numbers. A.K.A. “lying”.
getalife
April 25th, 2012
6:00 pm
Look cons.
Everything we typed about w was true.
His numbers don’t lie.
He was a disaster like we said and you know it..
Where is your humility?
Have you no shame?
md
April 25th, 2012
6:02 pm
“wanted Detriot to fail”
Ooooooh, can I play that game???
The other side of that argument would be that the dems/Obama wanted the housing/construction industry to fail since they only bailed out unionized Detroit………
Kind of happens that way when folks start picking winners and losers……..unfortunately, we ended up with way more losers in the housing industry than we would have in the auto industry.
So get…..why does Obama hate the the middle class folks in the housing industry??
(Is that how the game is played?)
getalife
April 25th, 2012
6:06 pm
md,
You are a fake like willard.
md, Yeah right.
Our President saved our economy and our auto industry.
Your party does know about collapses.
getalife
April 25th, 2012
6:12 pm
And w saved your precious bankers and the bankers spit on him.
md
April 25th, 2012
6:12 pm
Your President was bought…….end of story.
getalife
April 25th, 2012
6:14 pm
“Your President was bought…….end of story.”
Yes, this election is tainted with citizen united corruption.
Join OWS and change it .
md
April 25th, 2012
6:22 pm
“And w saved your precious bankers and the bankers spit on him.”
My precious bankers??
I’m a let them sink or swim kind of guy………all our misfits did was create a bigger monster.
md
April 25th, 2012
6:25 pm
“Yes, this election is tainted with citizen united corruption.”
I see no way around that one since the 1st says “and freedom of the press”…….the press in this country just happen to be mainly corporations……so restricting that freedom only to media corps seems illogical. The media monster is another creation with agendas that are the vision of one….
Mitt Rob-Me and Ann Wannabe
April 25th, 2012
6:25 pm
After Mitt tried to steal James Carville’s line, you know he had to call him out.
In Romney’s speech bashing President Obama last night, he said, “It’s still about the economy, and we’re not stupid.”
Yeah, it still is about the economy, stupid. It’s about how hucksters like Mitt crashed it, the middle class paid the price, and the top 1% got more tax cuts.
Let’s call out these Republicans on their downright hypocrisy
md
April 25th, 2012
6:47 pm
“It’s about how hucksters like Mitt crashed it”
More like built it…..go do some reading, plenty of companies still in business thanks to the man.
One seems to forget that we need capitalists like him to generate the capital to pay for all the “free” stuff we keep voting for…….gov’t sure doesn’t generate the funds.
Tiberius - Banned by Bookman and proud of it!
April 25th, 2012
6:49 pm
I’m loving how complacent these libs are regarding this upcoming election. Our ground and air game will shock and awe them.
@@
April 25th, 2012
6:59 pm
Getalife:
I hope she is informed and does not believe you.
She was a Giuliani fan without any prodding from me. She hated the left’s incessant attacks on GW. She goes for the positive messager…thinks Obama spends too much time trying to act kool.
Tiberius - Banned by Bookman and proud of it!
April 25th, 2012
7:04 pm
Theress a part of me that hopes that moochers like mitt rob-me chase away all the producers like mitt Romney.
How will they survive when the 25% who pay 80% of the taxes are no longer around to prop up their social programs?
md
April 25th, 2012
7:07 pm
“Theress a part of me that hopes that moochers like mitt rob-me chase away all the producers like mitt Romney.”
I’ve thought the same thing, but the innocent don’t deserve to share the misery…..one would think watching Greece burn would be a wake up call……not a plan of action.
DannyX
April 25th, 2012
7:26 pm
“Our ground and air game will shock and awe them.”
FUMBLE!
Romney can’t even put up decent numbers in Texas, nobody seems to like Romney. Go watch an old Ronald Reagan as Knute Rockne movie, no shock and awe here.
4/19 – 4/22 400 RV PPP
Romney 45%
Gingrich 35%
Paul 14%
md
April 25th, 2012
7:40 pm
“Romney 45%
Gingrich 35%
Paul 14%”
And does one think that 49% that didn’t vote for Romney is going to vote for the other party??
@@
April 25th, 2012
7:41 pm
??:
How pathetic are you…stealing my “schnirt”?
You wanna take all that’s mine.
waayasowmyjcr
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
April 25th, 2012
7:45 pm
“People are coming out of the woodwork,” said the fundraiser, who requested not to be named. “A number of my friends who didn’t want to get involved in the primary are now coming off the sidelines for the general election.”
Here comes the steamroller, dummycrats.
Thomas Heyward Jr.
April 25th, 2012
7:53 pm
FELLOW, Warmongering draft-dodging chickenhawk, neocon crony capitalist, and corrupt DC lobbyist Noot will drop out Tuesday, leaving it a two-man race: Ron vs. Rom, libertarian vs. fascist.
.
The GOP golden-BOY Rotten Rubio will not help either.
Tiberius - Banned by Bookman and proud of it!
April 25th, 2012
8:02 pm
Heyward, please make some logical case, based on factual information, that Mitt Romney is a fascist.
ragnar danneskjold
April 25th, 2012
8:05 pm
More democrats moving onto the Romney bandwagon:
hotair.com/archives/2012/04/25/carter-im-comfortable-with-a-romney-win/
Thomas Heyward Jr.
April 25th, 2012
8:06 pm
Hey Tiberius——How about this====From the Good Doctor———-
.
For your “Anyone but Obama” friends and family.
While it is true that the other three Republican candidates would, to some degree, roll back this country’s incessant march under Obama toward European SOCIALISM, they would NOT be able to thwart the more sinister march towards FASCISM, which is occurring at the same time.
The term “fascism,” of which there are many different kinds, comes from the Latin word “fasces” which means a “bundle”, and thus has been connoted to symbolically mean, a bundling or a concentration of power, as what happened in Italy, Germany, and many other sordid examples in recent world history.
An early stage of fascism being seen here in America is “corporatism”. Corporatism is the “bundling” or the collusion of big government and big corporation interests into one sleazy, diabolical, authoritarian rule.
American corporatism has been building in this country for over 100 years.
I list the complex, or the “bundle”, first, then a government agency, and then a private corporation, in that bundle:
Military Industrial Complex / Department of Defense / Blackwater
Prison Industrial Complex / Department of Justice / Correctional Corporation of America
Food, Agricultural & Chemical Complex / FDA / Monsanto
Medical Industrial Complex / FDA / Pfizer
Financial Industrial Complex / Department of the Treasury / Federal Reserve
(Yes, the Federal Reserve is the privately-owned portion of that bundle.)
And of course, the dark list goes on and on.
As mentioned earlier, all of these concentrations of power have been slowly building and networking amongst themselves, for over 100 years, making it easier for a dictator to rise in their midst and wield the power of them all. (cont.)========
Thomas Heyward Jr.
April 25th, 2012
8:06 pm
Accordingly, over those same 100 years, the office of the president and the executive branch in general, through legion shadowy and unchecked ‘executive orders’, has slowly aggregated absolute power, and thus there is the potential for a malevolent dictatorship to suddenly arise, and without warning.
All it would take is one psychopath who manages to slip through and win the election.
In short, Corporatist America in 2012, is just ONE parallel universe from devolving into a full-blown fascist dictatorship.
A shift towards European socialism, although bad enough, in my view, and a form of passive slavery…is a CAKEWALK when compared to the potentially violent and extremely dangerous ‘fascist shift’ (Naomi Wolf’s term) that COULD conceivably occur in the future if we don’t stop it in its tracks.
Because Obama is oblivious to the marionette strings that are controlling him, and he understands NOT these forces, if re-elected, he would be unable to stop either march toward SOCIALISM or FASCISM, and both would continue, unabated, spiraling dangerously and apocalyptically out of control.
Romney, Santorum, and Gingrich, if elected, would roll back SOCIALISM to some degree, but because they are bought and paid for by the Corporatists, they are oblivious to the march towards FASCISM that is occurring at the same time, so they would be powerless to stop it even if they could, as it grew, unabated, and spiraling dangerously—and apocalyptically—out of control.
Ron Paul…and ONLY Ron Paul, if elected, can—and would—STOP THEM BOTH (socialism and fascism) COLD…in their disgusting, slimy tracks!
Thomas Heyward Jr.
April 25th, 2012
8:07 pm
Read it ..know it………live it——————————-
Romney, Santorum, and Gingrich, if elected, would roll back SOCIALISM to some degree, but because they are bought and paid for by the Corporatists, they are oblivious to the march towards FASCISM that is occurring at the same time, so they would be powerless to stop it even if they could, as it grew, unabated, and spiraling dangerously—and apocalyptically—out of control.
Ron Paul…and ONLY Ron Paul, if elected, can—and would—STOP THEM BOTH (socialism and fascism) COLD…in their disgusting, slimy tracks!
Tiberius - Banned by Bookman and proud of it!
April 25th, 2012
8:15 pm
So in other words, you have no facts. Thanks for proving you’re a raving lunatic.
Tiberius - Banned by Bookman and proud of it!
April 25th, 2012
8:16 pm
Or a Paulista, which is the same thing.
td
April 25th, 2012
8:21 pm
getalife
April 25th, 2012
6:14 pm
“Your President was bought…….end of story.”
Yes, this election is tainted with citizen united corruption.
Join OWS and change it .
Yes, please let us know when you will be back occupying something because I will come down and heckle you.
Thomas Heyward Jr.
April 25th, 2012
8:27 pm
Tiberius——-
.
Your little Obama-lite Mittens Puppet will not win without the support of us “paulistas”.
.
Ha Ha…..Ha Ha……………
.
Know it….live it………..in November…………Regret it.
.
Ha Ha Ha……….
Sarah P.
April 25th, 2012
8:29 pm
Tiberius – Banned by Bookman and proud of it!
April 25th, 2012
6:49 pm
I’m loving how complacent these libs are regarding this upcoming election. Our ground and air game will shock and awe them.
Does this mean we get to see Mitt Romney on an aircraft carrier in October declaring victory?
Tiberius - Banned by Bookman and proud of it!
April 25th, 2012
8:40 pm
Keep ranting, lunatics. While the rest of us keep our eye on the prize. And Heyward, if you think sitting on your hands in November is going to accomplish anything constructive, then it will be the Paulistas who will be responsible for killing this nation.
Own that.
Tiberius - Banned by Bookman and proud of it!
April 25th, 2012
8:58 pm
Heyward, let’s look at this thing logically. Ron Paul has been in Congress for more than 20 years,, right?
How many bills has he sponsored have actually PASSED?
Why do you think as President he could get any of his policies to pass with an unchanged Congress?
getalife
April 25th, 2012
9:01 pm
Even you cons don’t trust willard.
You finally got something right.
Good job.
Tiberius - Banned by Bookman and proud of it!
April 25th, 2012
9:13 pm
Get banned over at Bookman’s again, getaclue?
getalife
April 25th, 2012
10:38 pm
No.
ld
April 26th, 2012
3:48 am
Negative campaigning sounds like whining.
AmVet
April 26th, 2012
6:37 am
What a laughfest.
You Republirubes actually want to trust the new would-be Hope & Change’s politically romantic claptrap, don’t you?! How many more decades of lying politicians will it take before you realize that ALL of them will say anything and lie through their teeth to convince you willfully uninformed that they are worth your vote?
He reminds me of the line in the old song Ball of Confusion, “Vote for me and I’ll set you free!”
You sheep will believe anything. Even that George W. Bush and all of the Republican leadership over the past decade or more were all true conservatives!
Gullible with a capital G.
Wake up, you’re being played like cheap fiddles.
Mitt Romney is not the solution to our problems, Mitt Romney is the problem. ~Ronald Reagan
(Prepare for your second McCaining…)
Joel Edge
April 26th, 2012
6:37 am
I think Romney only has to keep to the high road and the election is his.
Thomas Heyward Jr.
April 26th, 2012
7:09 am
First debate if it was Romney and Obama.
Romney- Your campaign is funded by a pack of leeches that are bleeding this country dry!
Obama- Yours is funded by the same people!
(Goldman Sachs, CitiGroup, JP Morgan, ect).
Romney- You support taxpayer funded bailouts (TARP).
Obama- So do you!
Romney- You support the ‘patriot’ act!
Obama- So do you!
Romney- You support never-ending war!
Obama- So do you!
Romney- You support the indefinite detention of American citizens without due process!
Obama- So do you!
Romney- You support assassinating American citizens without due process!
Obama- So do you!
Romney- You support government takeover of healthcare!
Obama- So do you! In fact, we modeled our plan after yours!
Romney- I never said my plan would be good for the nation!
Obama- Ummm… that’s not what you said on Meet The Press (and several other places).
Romney- You support increased gun control laws!
Obama- Didn’t you sign a ban on semi-automatic weapons? Hello pot, my name is kettle!
.
The real contest—-
Ron Paul versus MittBama
HDB
April 26th, 2012
8:02 am
What people are not learning from history is that such levels of economic inequality as is present now leads to more economic problems. When 1% of the population controls more than 60% of its wealth, the middle class goes into decline….and so does the nation!! This has occurred primarily under Republican Administrations…starting with Hoover…and progressing thru the Bush years!! Now, the GOP has placed as its standard bearer the Poster child for income inequality!! Romney has lied so much, how do we know what the truth really is??
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-l-borosage/romneys-big-lie_b_1451541.html
Romney’s Big Lie
Mitt Romney opened the general election campaign last night in Manchester, New Hampshire, using his acceptance speech to unleash a fierce attack on Barack Obama’s “false promises and failed leadership.”
He said little about his own policies, preferring to contrast his free enterprise vision with what he called Obama’s government-centered vision.
And buoyed by his victory, Romney felt free to issue a clear defense of privilege.
At the heart of the contrast Romney drew with Obama was the big lie. After the absurd charge that under Obama, we will have “effectively ceased to be a free enterprise economy,” Romney made his defense of privilege:
We’ve already seen where this path leads. It erodes freedom. It deadens the entrepreneurial spirit. And it hurts the very people it’s supposed to help. Those who promise to spread the wealth around only ever succeed in spreading poverty.
What world is he living in? In America, extreme levels of inequality have led to economic calamity. The Gilded Age extremes of the 1920s — when the richest 1% owned about 44% of all private wealth — were followed by the Great Depression. The excesses of the Bush years — when the richest 1% owned nearly 40% of all private wealth — were followed by the Great Recession.
And of course, the greatest period of growth and widely shared prosperity in the US came in the decades after World War II. And in those decades, public policy purposefully “spread wealth around.” The top end tax rate was at 90%. With labor unions representing over 30% of the workforce, workers shared in the benefits of rising productivity. The GI Bill gave an entire generation of veterans access to college and affordable housing. Dwight Eisenhower, a Republican president, built the interstate highway system vital to national competitiveness. Wall Street, shackled by New Deal reforms, went decades without a major bank crisis.
And from 1945 to about 1975, America grew together. The rich got richer, but the incomes of middle and low income Americans grew faster than those at the top. The broad middle class — the heart of what made America exceptional — was built step by step.
That period ended when America made a conservative turn in the mid-1970s, consolidated under Ronald Reagan. Top end tax rates were slashed; finance deregulated; domestic investments starved; trade policy turned over to multinationals; a fierce war waged against labor unions. Exactly the policies that Mitt Romney champions today.
The results are very clear. Growth slowed. The rich captured ever more of its rewards. Workers didn’t share in rising productivity. Incomes for most Americans stagnated. The middle class sank. The economy was racked by Wall Street excesses. And the 1% now control as much wealth as 90% of Americans. In 2010, the 1% captured a staggering 93% of all of the income growth in the society.
You got it wrong, Mitt. We can understand why you’d be confused. As Upton Sinclair famously said, “it is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
Mitt has amassed a personal fortune of over 200 million dollars and pays 14% tax rates on $20 million in annual income, so it isn’t surprising that he confuses this history. Spreading the wealth around is in the national interest, but it surely isn’t in his.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
April 26th, 2012
8:12 am
We Democrats fought hard to rally our Nation behind a comprehensive energy policy and a good program, a new foundation for challenging and exciting progress. Now, after 3 years of struggle, we have that program. The battle to secure America’s energy future has been fully and finally joined. Americans have cooperated with dramatic results. We’ve reversed decades of dangerous and growing dependence on foreign oil. We are now importing 20 percent less oil — that is 1 1/2 million barrels of oil every day less than the day I took office.
That^^ was from……..dhimmi “Gas Lines” karter.
Sound familiar?