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SARASOTA, FL—Mitt Romney seized on remarks delivered by President Obama today, attempting to seize the role of “change” candidate after the president seemed to suggest in a televised forum that he could not change Washington from the inside.
"We face a Washington that’s broken, that can’t get the job done. The president today threw in the white flag of surrender again. He said he can’t change Washington from inside. He can only change it from outside,” Romney said. “Well, we’re going to give him that chance in November. He’s going outside!”
Romney was referring to an answer President Barack Obama gave to Spanish-language broadcaster Univision at a forum in Miami just a few hours before Romney took the stage. At the forum, which Romney attended last night, the president was asked to name his biggest failure.
The president told the forum’s moderator that he felt his biggest failure was in not passing comprehensive immigration reform, then pivoted to lessons-learned.
“The most important lesson I've learned is that you can't change Washington from the inside. You can only change it from the outside,” bama said. “That's how I got elected, and that's how the big accomplishments, like health care, got done, was because we mobilized the American people to speak out.”
Romney campaign aides, on the defensive for much of the last week over Romney’s surreptitiously-recorded comments in a May fundraiser, began blasting out the comments on social media, while other aides brought them to Romney’s attention on the nine-minute drive from his lunchtime fundraiser to the afternoon rally.
Taking the podium under sweltering conditions, Romney attacked.
“This is time for a new president. He went from the president of change to the president who can’t get change,” Romney said. “I heard it from the reports that came out and they said the president of the United States says he can’t change Washington from the inside. Isn’t that amazing?”
“No wonder he’s had such a hard time over the last four years his first two years he had a Democratic house, Democratic senate, he got to do whatever the heck he wanted to but he says he can’t change it from the inside,” Romney continued. “Well I will. I’ll get the job done, we’ll change Washington we’ll restore the economic strength."
Republicans quickly flagged Obama's line as indicative of Obama's failure to deliver on high expectations he created as a candidate in 2008. The GOP argued that Obama's comment amounted to a concession that business persists as usual in Washington.
Noting that Obama regularly refers to change in Washington as slow-moving and a goal that must be sought for from outside the capital. "Change is hard" has become a refrain for Obama in his campaign stops, his plea to supporters from 2008 whose enthusiasm has waned.
The Obama campaign quickly labeled Romney’s comments as “wildly out of context,” and called the attack built on them an act of desperation.
Nevertheless, the Romney campaign, sensing an opening, made the concept of Romney-as-change-candidate the centerpiece of today’s rally here in a county John McCain won by only a few hundred votes four years ago, but where Republicans see an opportunity to run up large margins this November.
“Now I know that the people of America have a choice. They can choose thecurrent incumbent. He represents the status quo. If we reelect Barack Obama you know exactly what we're going to see,” Romney said, adding that a vote for the GOP ticket this fall would be a vote for “real change.”
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change my ass.this guy will say anything to anybody and knows he's full of sh@@ to get one vote.well,mitty boy,america has caught on to your crap-why don't you do us all a favor and drop out of the race-and by the way-take all your republican buddy ass@@@@ with you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ya Willards the Cadidate of change OK , I don't see how Mr. Camelion could ever change more than he HAS!
Hey Slick Willie were you the Bain CEO hmmm. lets see what's today ??
You Prochoice or Pro Life Willie ??? Hmmm well that depends what do the polls say people like ???
You for or against Obamacare ... I've ALWAYS said Obamacare is good, bad, good, My idea, I mean Bad, I said Good!
Don't like Willies stance on something?? just wait five minutes!
LOLOLOL Un-Huh, Slick Willie the ORIGNAL candidate of Change!! LOLOLOLOL
Romney should do campaign rallies with his dancing,prancing horse,it can't hurt! You betcha! The Stepford wife Lovie Ann is getting rather stale. Maybe bring back Clint Eastwood,he can always talk to a loaded 45 magnum.
The pace of change in the Romney campaign is going to cause whiplash.
MONTY MOORE
change my ass.this guy will say anything to anybody and knows he's full of sh@@ to get one vote.well,mitty boy,america has caught on to your crap-why don't you do us all a favor and drop out of the race-and by the way-take all your republican buddy ass@@@@ with you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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DAMN STRAIGHT MONTY!
Anita-2036926
The pace of change in the Romney campaign is going to cause whiplash.
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LOL UN-HUH ANITA!! :)
Thank goodness we have "Obamacare" for all those that will suffer from the whiplash caused by this fool cause the republislobs are gonna need it!
Change? According to Jonathan Capehart in the Washington Post, Romney "tanned up" for his Univision appearance. Democratic Underground has it, and so does gawker....If you look at photos of the event, he looks like he's doing a John Boehner impression.....it's sickening....I keep thinking it has to be a sad, pathetic, photo-shopped joke! That's change for you!
I've heard that Romney and Boner use the same tanning salon! Boner gets a frequent tanner discount so he let Romney use it.
Obama solidifies lead over Romney, ahead by five points: Reuters/Ipsos poll
Andy SullivanReuters
4:35 p.m. CDT, September 20, 2012
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama maintains a lead of 5 percentage points over Republican Mitt Romney as he solidifies his advantage in the U.S. presidential race, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Thursday.
Obama leads Romney among likely voters by a margin of 48 percent to 43 percent, the daily online tracking poll showed. Obama has led the poll since September 7, shortly after the Democratic convention.
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"First it was a bump and then it was a post-convention bump and then it was the remainder of the bump, and now it's just a lead," Ipsos pollster Julia Clark said.
Mitt changes like the weather.
Of course he is the "candidate of change". He wants to change things back to how they were under Bush.
I find it curious that everyone has latched onto the 47% quote but is over looking his equaly as offensive comment regarding the detriment of the nation if the Latino vote ever joined as a bloc.
Dems even though President Obama is spanking slick Willie and his boy wonder don't let Romney or the deaf dumb and blind righties distract with their talking points Baloney and Redderick. It's TIME WE get RID of Romney/Ryan AND the radical Teapublican DO NOTHING Congressional House .. Vote Democrat like your Middle Class Life DEPENDS on it! Because it does!!
OBAMA/BIDEN 2012
Robber Baron Romney is a flip flopper! He hates 47% percent of us today, but it could be 53% percent tommorow!
Clint Eastwood at a Romney rally: make my day! What day is it? Who am I? Where am I!
He was lucid for a minute yesterday, he said in an interview, when asked about the chair bit..."anyone dumb enough to ask me to speak at a political convention, deserves what they got."
I just heard from a "romney campaign insider" that he's "focus grouping" on whether to do the first debate in "black face".
That COPY CAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OMG! OMG! That is friggin funny!
Romney throws so much crap out there, I'm amazed that people still listen to him. I watch some of his speeches on the tube, and the folks who are behind him on camera must be the same people who believe wrestling is real. This is a sad country when it's people follow folks like Romney and Sarah Palin as if they have anything real to offer. I wish everyone could see that Romney will say and do anything to win, which means you can't trust his words. He's already known for Flip Flopping, why do they listen to him????
He is who we thought he was. The sad thing is that both parties stink! Neither party is really looking out for the best interest of the US citizens who elect them and who they're supposed to represent.
Our economic problems didn't happen overnight. It's been happening over the past 15-20 years, but the economy was kept going by middle class Americans tapping into the equity on their homes until they were completely tapped out.
It shouldn't be all about Democrats or Republicans! It should be about doing the right thing for our country and the majority of its citizens. I consider myself an independent voter, but going back to the Reagan days and with the only exception having been Perot, I’ve always voted Republican. But all this single-minded, left versus right, ideological one dimensional bull has got to go! This is the problem with our country. It shouldn't be about Democrats or Republicans! It should be about Americans, especially our elected officials, doing the right thing for our country and its citizens.
Both parties have sold out the bulk of the American citizens, who they're supposed to represent, by allowing the "out-sourcing" floodgates to open wider and wider without taking any sensible measures to stem the tide. (Under Clinton jobs to China, Under Bush I & II influx of illegals or cheap easily abused labor into the US and jobs to Mexico/NAFTA) Our leaders are elected by the Citizens of the United States of America to represent the interests of those citizens and the country itself. They are NOT elected by the Global Market Place or foreign citizens!
We need whoever wins the next election to Start Protecting American Jobs and do whatever it takes to bring back the jobs they let go. They've got to give us somebody who will stand up for the American people.
We need to bring manufacturing back to the United States of America and both parties are ignoring tariffs as a way to level the playing field, raise money and bring jobs back home. Let's guess why. Oh that's right, tariff is a dirty word. Hum, maybe it’s that our so called leaders (political leaders) are beholden to the same people who are exporting our jobs.
I guess we should keep letting Corp Boards, Wall Street, CEOs and Foreign Lobbyists promote sending US jobs to countries where they work for slave wages, no benefits, no OSHA safety standards or no real environment regulations. How's that been working for us?
The so called “Global Market Place” is not a level playing field. Companies may have made higher profits by "out sourcing", but they've been putting middle class Americans who are a good part of the world’s customer base out of work. I’m not a lefty or member of any union. I run a business that employs over 20 people and produces products that are purchased by customers that do manufacturing and packaging. I’m just an average Joe, but I've been saying this for more than 10 years now. If I can see it, so can our so called leaders (political leaders) who are beholden to the same people who are exporting our jobs.
We need to add tariffs that are proportionate to the inequities in wages and regulations in the country where the goods were produced and or where we’re importing them from. We could then use the money raised by these tariffs to help companies build state of the art manufacturing plants here in the USA, which would create more jobs here at home for US citizens, which would then in turn increase our income tax revenue.
The people with all of the excuses as to why we can’t or aren’t willing to manufacture products here in the US are the same people who have provided us with the thinking that’s gotten us into this mess in the first place.
Over the past 15-20 years, I've seen too many of our customer's close manufacturing plants here in the USA and move those plants to different countries, decimating entire areas here in OUR COUNTRY. And I'm not alone. Returning jobs to American Citizens will provide income tax revenue to OUR Government versus our government having to pay unemployment benefits to those who would be jobless instead.
Bringing manufacturing back to the US not only gives jobs to the US citizens who would be working in those manufacturing facilities, but to the people that would be working in the businesses that would spring up all around them. This should also include the safe harvesting, production and distribution of our own natural energy here in the USA, rather than paying for fuel from countries where they hate us. Let’s keep that money and those jobs here in the US.
These so-called “free trade agreements” have to go. It was obvious when they were passing these agreements as to what was going to happen and sure enough it did. Our leaders had to have known this as well when they were passing these bills. It’s just common sense. We also need to bring customer support services back to the United States of America and staff them with employees who are US Citizens.
The “Global Market Place” is not a level playing field! The whole idea of the tariffs is so we can pay our factory workers a decent wage and not be blown out by these other countries where they don’t play by the same rules.
We may have to pay a bit more for products made here in the USA by US citizens, but at least we'll still have jobs and a future for our children.
The bottom line is that “Our Government” has to protect American industry and the jobs that those industries provide. If they do that, the rest will take care of itself.
Romney runs away from Nixon's full disclosure; Romney runs away from Reagan's alternative minimum tax. How many more Republican Presidents is he going to insult.
I wonder how long it will take for his handlers to walk back today's comments . . . usually, it only takes about an hour . . . . Google "Romney flip flop" for some laughs :)
It's Mitt's new game: Who am I today?? Not even he knows, let alone the electorate.
Following the discussion
I find it curious that everyone has latched onto the 47% quote but is over looking his equaly as offensive comment regarding the detriment of the nation if the Latino vote ever joined as a bloc.
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No one is mising anything about Slick Willie Following ... We don't bother addresing EVERYTHING he says because We Find Him Offensive period not just some of what he says or does!!!
As in he changes positions from minute to minute...
Romney is a mormon. They don't change positions. Missionary position every time! That might be why Ann's face always looks so pinched. Variety people!
I hope every single American who's one of the 47% remembers that Romney hates all you lazy,worthless leeches and has written you off . Nothing for you! Your not worthy!
HMS, KJNC, And Bebop Bob Got Slick Willie Down to a T!
Governor Romney on December 30, 2007
"I don't think you change
Washington from the inside. I think you change it from the outside."