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MILWAUKEE, Wis. – Even presidential candidates, it seems, can be taken by an April Fools’ joke.
Today in Milwaukee Mitt Romney fell prey to a good one by his staffers, who captured the moment on camera with help from Sen. Ron John and Rep. Paul Ryan, both Wisconsin Republicans.
The prank, as re-told by Romney at a pancake breakfast here, unfolded as follows:
"Downstairs is a room just like this one, and it was all set up. They had the black material," Romney said, gesturing to the large ballroom in which his event took place Sunday morning, framed with black drapes to hide the candidate until he is introduced.
"We’re standing back there. You wonder what happens before we get started — we’re all three standing there," Romney said.
As Romney recalled, his staff said to him, “We didn’t get much of a turnout this morning. It’s really small, but it will be okay.”
Ryan was the first to emerge from behind the curtain. Romney could hear him say, “Let’s welcome Ron Johnson and Mitt Romney, the next president of the United States.”
“And so the two of us go out there and it’s completely empty,” Romney continued. “There’s nobody there. I thought, Oh, boy, this is gonna look really bad on the evening news, let me tell you.”
The video of the incident – shot by campaign staffers – shows Romney, known to be a prankster himself, turning bright red as "Born Free" blares in the empty room and he realizes he's been had.
"Oh jeez, you guys are bad," Romney can be heard saying on the camera cell phone.
To those who attended the pancake breakfast Sunday, Romney joked, “This is known as forgive but remember. I’ll tell ya. We’re gonna remember this."
At a lunch stop at Culvers in Johnson Creek, Romney Gave the prank high ratings but said he prefers playing the jokes himself.
"I think they’re much funnier when I do them on other people than when they do them on me," Romney said. "But this was very good. Very very good, this was classic."
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yuk yuk! golly gee! yuk yuk! why he MUST be a regular guy just like the rest of us! yuk yuk!
If I've told them once, I've told them a thousand times - its "Mitt Romney" FIRST and "Puppet Show" LAST.
Wait until Romney s campaign staff clues him in that he has been running for the President of the Log Cabin Republicans all a long and that he is leading the Pack...
...or did Mitt and his staff decide to make Mitt look like an regular guy with a sense of humor?
Why aren't more people laughing?
Republican Paul Ryan has got to be the Biggest up and coming young Suck Up to the One Percent in the Republican Party since that Pencil Neck Aristocrat Eric Cantor came on the scene.
They must have Contests in the Republican Party to see who can be the Biggest Suck Up to the One Percent and Paul Ryan wins that Title Hands Down!
He will gladly throw the Elderly under the Bus after he and Romney get Rid of Social Security and Medicare Insurance that we paid into all of our working lives...
GORE WAS A BORE ; but this guy takes the cake ; he needs to take his ill gotten gains , and leave on a tour to the most poverished parts of the usa. come back in about 40 years. then we'll hear what he heard on the mountain top.
Wow even the humor is blasted! Lighten up guys your hatred is all too obvious.
Yuk, Yuk, we were only kidding about all the Mean things we say. We are not going to take your Social Security and Medicare Insurance, Yuk, Yuk. We are not going to make you pay for Vaginal Probes that you must take, Yuk, Yuk!
Can't you people take a Joke?
NO!
That's about as Funny as Joe Scarborough talking over Mika Brzezinski all the time...
Scarborough talks over or monopolizes the conversation every time. Did you see MTP today?
you can use the same fork that you stick into Zimmerman , after the April grand jury indictment , to stick into Mitt Romney , in November , because the GOP and their Republican Crime Watch Captain are both done. Well, get used to it . . . your power is gone, your base is dying off , and your candidate is a joke. Four more years, OOOOO Noooo . . . it will be at least 40 more , or about the same time Zimmerman will be up for parole !!!!!!!!!! LOL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, wow, Romney really is just a regular guy like me!
(That's the purpose of this propaganda, right? Or am I just REALLY cynical now?)
The endless grade-school level humorless insults of the moonbats toward Mitt Romney have seemingly done the impossible.
They make Feisty seem funny by comparison.
Republicans have turned into Unabashed Suck Ups to the One Percent and right now Paul Ryan leads the Pack behind that Pencil Neck Aristocrat, Eric Cantor!
They don't get a Damn thing done and they still want their Handsome Taxpayer Funded Government Salaries and Gold Plated Benefits and then keep walking around in their Fancy Business suits like they are someone important.
Nice Gig, if you can get it!
Bob,
Your invitation to come watch election night coverage at my place in Charlottesville stands open for November 6th. I'm dying to see your face when they call our great commonwealth for President Obama for the second time! (Oh, did you not hear that Obama is polling ahead of Romney here? The evangelicals would rather stay home than vote for Romney, lol!)
I'll tell you what's Grade School Bob. When some strange Republican guy wants to come in between my Wife's Vagina and I with this Vaginal Probe B.S., there is gonna be a Fight and you can take that to the Bank Buster Brown!
Why the Hell did you guys ever think that it would be acceptable to Dream up something like this? This proves you Republicans have Lost your sense of place in our Democracy and who you work for!
You guys crossed the Line on this issue you Sick Bunch of Self Important Degenerates!
Where the Hell did you guys think you had the Right to propose something like this?
Who the Hell do you guys think you are?
Ted,
The fight is already over. The Republicans lost and withdrew the forced rape bill. The damage, however, is already done. Here in VA, where the forced rape bill was introduced, Republicans have taken quite a hit. Obama was already leading Romney in the polls here, but his lead has now increased. Governor Bob McDonnell, who Bob in Virginia thinks would make a fine VP, has taken a hit in his approval rating and Tim Kaine, one of the most popular Governors in the history of the commonwealth, has now pulled ahead of George "Macacca" Allen (VA's second worst Governor in history behind Jim Gilmore) in the US Senate race. People like Bob and all the other Republican hacks turn Virginia more and more blue every day.
The real April Fools joke was when they introduced Romney as "the next President of the United States."
haha. you clowns are funny. could you imagine..... wow, obama won! yeah! where did everybody go? where is the business? why are all the stores closing? whose gonna pay my benefits? whos gonna work hard to give us our checks? how come noone wants to work anymore? can we force them to pay us?
lib mentality. so shortsighted, silly, and always wrong.
Shortsighted, silly and always wrong. Hmm, what does that remind us of? Oh, yes, all the Republican predictions of doom and gloom. Always saying the world is gonna end if a Democrat wins. All the business are going to leave the US, all the stores are going to close, the rivers will turn to blood and the four horsemen of the apocalypse are going to ride!
Pathetic really. Seriously, who do you think is stupid enough to take that drivel seriously? Oh, wait, you are! You ate it up when Fox, Rush and Glenn fed it to you. I pity you, but only because you're too stupid to realize just how stupid you are.
Oh, wait, it's gonna rain frogs too.
pathetic is voting for some loser that graduates from college at 31. with sealed grades. no friends. no past. no job. THATS pathetic!
russ,
You're either retarded or a liar. My guess is a little of both. President Obama graduated from Columbia University in 1983. As he was born in 1961, that would mean he graduated college at the age of 22.
no virginia. he took 5 years off and restarted college at harvard at 28. so, hes just another free ride loser. funny how he got free college, made friends enough to do that, but NOONE seems to rememer him? if he is so "charismatic", where are his adorers from way back? how could you be sooooooo ignorant as to not wonder these things? OMG!
russ,
Incorrect. The president graduated from Colombia in 1983 with a bachelor of arts in political science with a specialty in international relations. He went to Harvard in 1988 for LAW SCHOOL and graduated in 1991.
Man, I guess it really is true that Fox viewers really are less informed than those who watch no news at all.
Read it for yourself, russ
Check out his bio on wikipedia, or anywhere that doesn't have a right wing bias.
Obama is a free-spending drunken sailor, enjoying to the max the limelight and his inflated celebrity ego! Always taking maximum credit for things that he personally had little effort in actually accomplishing! He has added $6 trillion+ in national debt in 3 years, making goofy decisions time after time that make little or no common sense. Come on America! We need to say goodbye to Obama! We must make him live out the rest of his life giving so called 'fancy speeches' to liberal college campuses for $65,000 per hour, to help subsidize him and his family for lifetime CIA security costs as a vision of his personal future. He must be crushed in November by true freedom loving American voters who can see through this hopeless impostor! that we ended up with for president! And that is no April fools joke!
Hey smart guy, Congress writes budgets (you know, the Republican congress.) So it looks like you're giving him credit for something he didn't do. Talk to your free-spending drunken republicans in Congress.
I'll take a "tax" and "spend" democrat anytime over a "tax break" and "spend" republican.
Two years into President Obama Presidency, Republicans won the House Back Genius.
The House has the Power of the Purse Sunshine. Which means that they control the Purse Strings Eisenstein!
It is people like GentlemansHonor that make me realize just how far into the abyss of miseducation this once great nation has fallen. These are people, educated in post '60s America where the bar was lowered far enough to give the illusion that everyone was being educated. The fallacy of that idiotic strategy is that it has generated generation after generation of miseducated Americans gullible to the likes of Rupert Murdoch, Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and all the others that spew lies onto the national airwaves. Quite frankly, I think that Americas in for decades of malaise until new generations arise and perhaps remember the great country that the USA once was.
You can add Sean Hannity to that list of un(under)educated Americans too.
it's probably what really happened and they turned it into a joke before bill maher, rachel maddow and all other late night hosts would turn it into a joke.
its good to see they can pull a prank and romney can take a joke
I wonder how he'll take it when he's denied the presidency once again this November? I guess he'll just have to count on all that money to buy him a little happiness. Poor little vulture capitalist.
Another staged event to try to fool people into thinking that Romney is a human being.
LOL, but his reaction is as stiff and fake as ever.
GORE WAS A BORE ; but this guy takes the cake ; he needs to take his ill gotten gains , and leave on a tour to the most poverished parts of the usa. come back in about 40 years. then we'll hear what he heard on the mountain top.
Maybe God will help him to find some gold plates hidden in the mountains, but that nobody else is allowed to see, and give him magic stones that help him to translate a new holy scripture about Jesus galavanting across North America and turning the skin of the natives (a lost Jewish tribe) red as punishment for being heathens. Oh, wait, that already happened to some dude named Joseph Smith. It's amazing what some people will believe. The evangelical pseudo-Christians are pretty nuts, and just plain bad people, but it's really scary to think people could vote for someone that believes the previously mentioned story. Hell, it's only slightly more insane than what Scientologists believe.
Yes, I am making fun of Mormonism, I make fun of most religions. You have to be pretty gullible to believe in a giant magical bearded dude in the sky that "loves you" and has the will and ability to affect your life in any way at all. It's more plausible that all of the "gods" of history were actually extra-terrestrials (not saying that's what I believe, just saying it's more plausible than the stories of the bible and all the other "holy" books.) But hey, some people are just so desperate for their lives to have some kind of meaning and an assurance that life does not end with death, that they'll believe anything. Churches count on that gullibility to make their tax-free money.
As a democrat would say, you are free to make a choice of your own, whether the repricautions are good or bad. People choose their religions, people choose to be atheist and so on. I think the only people that are wrong are the idiots that judge other people without knowing them. (clearing throat..... VADem). I have a Masters in Real Estate Development, I am not "gullible" as you put it. I am actually a pretty smart person. I have lived in poverty and I make less than 6 digits a year, but I still believe in something.
What do you believe in VADem? Besides yourself?
He looks awkward and phony even when he's not on guard in front of a crowd!!!
No it's not an April's fool day prank.... yet another Obama supporter is a known criminal.
Top Obama campaign donor accused of fraud
"A major donor to President Barack Obama has been accused of defrauding a businessman and impersonating a bank official, creating new headaches for Obama's re-election campaign as it deals with the questionable history of another top supporter."
http://news.yahoo.com/top-obama-campaign-donor-accused-fraud-204442621.html
pjam,
You got a list of campaign donors to the GOP who are guilty of the same thing???
Of course you do! The Supreme Court opened up this whole thing under a GOP decision last year.
haha, postin my new pic of lyin king, baracalypse! lol!
russ don't want none of them pesky FACTS, y'all!! Jest what FOX feeds him!
Loser.
Oh, yeah, because Obama is the Anti-Christ, right? Just a reminder, you are stupid and pathetic. I know I already told you that earlier, but clearly the message didn't sink in. Of course, you're also the guy that can't do simple math, saying that a man that was born in 1961 would have been 31 years old in 1983, lol.
Just remember, we on the left are smarter than you and just plain better people than you. That's why we will always be here to call you out on your stupidity and lies.
HAHA. the left is smarter huh? then why do you need the votes of illegals, naive college students, and welfare recipients? because conservatism and freedom dont need to be sold. the lib party is slavery, and its an easy sell when you need to be led, like a fool.
see my other post, and stop the name calling. he graduated from harvard at 31! 2 years of columbia in his early 20s. you would know that if the media didnt omit these things, cause obamas a second rate loser with hidden grades and hidden friends. but you are too ignorant to even look for yourself. you even posted twice without looking for yourself. and you call yourself SMART!? lol!!!!
russ,
Yes, we are indeed much more intelligent than you are. First of all, illegals don't vote. Second, see my response to your previous post, Obama GRADUATED from Colombia in 1983 with a bachelor's of arts in political science with a specialty in international relations. He went to Harvard for LAW SCHOOL and graduated LAW SCHOOL at 31. Tell you what, I'll stop calling you a retarded liar when you stop telling retarded lies. It's funny how you say I haven't done any research when you post your drivel. You clearly haven't done a damn bit of research, or you would know that Obama did his first 2 years of college at Occidental College, then transferred to Colombia in 1981. russ, give it up, intellectually speaking, you're bringing a rubber knife to a nuclear missile fight.
yeah, thanks for confirming what i said, HE GRADUATED AT 31!!! you ARE an idiot! again, you deflected what i said, which is, what did he do during that time loafing hmmmm? smart. pulease! i guess you havent been following the state supreme court rulings regarding picture id to vote huh? i guess without picture id, theyll only let white people vote right? you are so ignorant. you claim to be so smart, yet investigate nothing on your own. and you argue with me about baracalypse graduating at 31, THEN CONFIRM IT!
A CONSERVATIVE WANTS TO CREATE JOBS. LIBS JUST WANT TO KEEP THE SLUMS, AND MAKE MORE OF THEM. thats what libs do. go move to illinois or cali. . things are going great with those lib policies.
baracalypse is a loser that the media protects. its obvious you know nothing. start educating yourself.
I thought today was going to be the day that we were told Romney himself was in fact an April fools joke.
The real joke will be on America if, by some dark magic, Mutt manages to be elected president in November. Unfortunately, no one will be laughing then.
Frankly, I'd vote for Elmer Fudd before I'd vote for Obama. Please stop thinking the government can creat jobs. The only jobs government can create are more government jobs (on our nickel). I also dn't need his stupd wife telling me what to eat while chowing down on burgers and banana splits.
Of course a liberal bias site like MSNBC will try and avoid posting anything negative about Obama. So, I like to post the news they always seem to leave out. In the Top Stories:
WASHINGTON (AP) — A major donor to President Barack Obama has been accused of defrauding a businessman and impersonating a bank official, creating new headaches for Obama's re-election campaign as it deals with the questionable history of another top supporter.
The New York donor, Abake Assongba, and her husband contributed more than $50,000 to Obama's re-election effort this year, federal records show. But Assongba is also fending off a civil court case in Florida, where she's accused of thieving more than $650,000 to help build a multimillion-dollar home in the state — a charge her husband denies.
Obama is the only presidential contender this year who released his list of "bundlers," the financiers who raise campaign money by soliciting high-dollar contributions from friends and associates. But that disclosure has not come without snags; his campaign returned $200,000 last month to Carlos and Alberto Cardona, the brothers of a Mexican fugitive wanted on federal drug charges.
Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt declined comment to The Associated Press. He instead referred the AP to previous statements he made to The Washington Post, which first reported the allegations against Assongba in its Sunday editions. LaBolt told the paper 1.3 million Americans have donated to the campaign, and that it addresses issues with contributions promptly.
Assongba was listed on Obama's campaign website as one of its volunteer fundraisers — a much smaller group of about 440 people.
Assongba and her husband, Anthony J.W. DeRosa, run a charity called Abake's Foundation that distributes school supplies and food in Benin, Africa. A photo posted on Assongba's Facebook page shows the couple standing next to Obama at a May 2010 fundraiser.
In one Florida case, which is still ongoing, Swiss businessman Klaus-Werner Pusch accused Assongba in 2009 of engaging him in an email scam — then using the money to buy a multimillion-dollar home, the Post reported. The suit alleges Assongba impersonated a bank official to do it. Pusch referred the AP's questions to his attorney, who did not immediately return requests seeking comment Sunday.
Meanwhile, Assongba has left a trail of debts, with a former landlord demanding in court more than $10,000 in back rent and damages for a previous apartment. She was also evicted in 2004 after owing $5,000 in rent, records show.
In an interview with the AP on Sunday, DeRosa said the allegations against his wife were untrue, although he couldn't discuss specifics because of pending litigation. He said he and Assongba were "very perturbed" by the charges, and said the couple's charity does important work in Africa.
Assongba has given more than $70,000 to Democratic candidates in recent years, an AP review of Federal Election Commission data shows. Her larger contributions include $35,000 to the Obama Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee between Obama and the Democratic Party, and $15,000 to Democrats running for Congress. DeRosa also gave $15,000 to Obama's victory fund in April 2011, records show.
Abake's Foundation is listed by the IRS as a registered nonprofit organization; its financial reports were unavailable. A representative who picked up the phone at the foundation's Benin office declined to answer questions, and instead referred the AP to Assongba.
Obama's campaign declined to comment on whether its vetting procedures were thorough enough, or whether Assongba's contribution would be refunded. All told, Obama has raised more than $120 million this election, not counting millions more from the Democratic Party — giving him a financial advantage thus far over any of his Republican challengers.
Show me a Republican that doesn't take money from crooks. Impossible task.
At least President Obama is releasing the lists of donation bundlers, so far no Republican has done so.
Does the name Abramoff ring a bell?
Romney - The liberals' favorite GOP Candidate. These are a few reasons why Romney is considered liberal:
1) Romney created RomneyCare which ObamaCare is based on. Kennedy helped develop RomneyCare. Romney said he would repeal ObamaCare. Why would he if he supports RomneyCare, he is not telling the truth.
2) Most decisions Romney made as Govenor was liberal, not conservative. So, what make you think he will be conservative all of a sudden?
3) Romney lost to McCain by a landslide last GOP Primary, and McCain lost to Obama by a landslide. So, how is Romney going to win this time?
4) When Obama wishes Romney well in the election and name calls and villianizes the other candidates, beware!
5) Have you noticed the mass press and critics have shredded apart every GOP candidate except Romney? That is because they know Romney fits their agenda.
Please, if you love the USA, vote for any GOP but Romney.