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Subscribe to RSSThe presidential race heated up as Mitt Romney continued his assault of President Obama's record in Florida, saying that a 7.8 percent unemployment rate is nothing to celebrate. NBC's Ron Mott reports.
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. – Mitt Romney concluded a three-day Florida campaign swing with one of his largest crowds of the campaign season packing a town square to hear his retooled stump speech, which now highlights the sometimes-rigid candidate's personal side.
"Now I’m optimistic – I want you to know that great days are ahead," Romney said Sunday before more than 10,000 supporters. "I know something about great human beings in this country. It’s that that gives me the confidence that our future will be so bright, because I’ve seen how Americans respond to challenge – and even to tragedy."
Romney then repeated three tales of courage in the face of death and tragedy that he debuted days ago in this critical battleground state.
The stories, told in succession, have quickly become a staple of Romney's stump speech and are designed to highlight the candidate's personal compassion.
One story even makes note of Romney's time as a pastor of a Massachusetts ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – a period once all but off limits for Romney, who rarely spoke of his Mormon religion in the early months of the campaign.
“I was serving as a pastor in my congregation at church and the – young fellow in our ward named David Oparowski, his parents from Medford, Massachusetts – his dad a firefighter, his mom a stay at home mom. They raised their two sons. But at age 14, David contracted leukemia and became very, very ill," Romney said. "It was clear that there was no good conclusion to this leukemia."
Romney ends the story of David's untimely death with a recitation of the phrase: "Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose," borrowed from the NBC’s high school football drama, "Friday Night Lights." That phrase, with the "can't lose" removed, also appeared in a campaign fundraising email from Ann Romney on Sunday.
The former Massachusetts governor also hit all five points of his economic plan. He also noted that his plan would protect Medicare for current seniors and reform it for the future.
Given the heated battle for the senior vote here in Florida, the Obama campaign quickly fired back on Medicare reform.
"Mitt Romney would turn Medicare into a voucher program and increase costs for retirees by more than $6,000,” Obama campaign spokesperson Lis Smith said in a statement. “The truth hurts – especially for the middle class families who would suffer under Romney’s policies.”
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First there was the "New Nixon," then the "Gipper" Reagan, and lastly the "compassionate-conservative" in George W. Now it's the softer Romney. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, .... (you can't be fooled again).
Obama: Made millions last year off book deals... Now that is saying somthing
Romney: Made millions last year by investments he made after earning his millions... Now that is saying something.
One says there all talk, with no accomplishments outside of talking, the other paints a more complete, healthy, President worth title..
Not hard to see who fits the role..
Romney 2012
The mistake that Obama made was thinking that this was going to be an intellectual debate.
Well, he overestimated Romney's intelligence.....and the public's.
The mistake that Obama made was running for President in 2008 without the necessary executive and leadership experience.
He talks a great game, but he can't deliver.
I heard that Romney has to wear led shoes so he doesn't float away from all the hot air hew spews. Queen Anne has to remind him that when he puts on his magic underwear that the yellow goes in front and the brown in the back.
Rich,
What an insightful and substance-oriented retort...NOT!
Lest we forget, it was Mr. Obama who went on Univision and called the GOP "enemies". Then there was his "back of the bus comment". And then we could point out how the GOP members of Congress were not allowed to be part of drafting the ACA (they were kept out of the room).
Not quite the way to build trust and reach compromise. Any good leader knows better than to demonize their opponents in large minority groups and to completely shut them out of critical activities. Is it any wonder that they won't work with him now?
Obama's inexperience led to his poisoning of our governing process. He killed any chance of getting bipartisan progress early on, and we are now left with the wreckage of that poor leadership. A polarized and hopelessly gridlocked Congress that will not be unlocked until someone else is POTUS.
The sad thing is that Obama still hasn't recognized the error. His own arrogance is getting in the way of him seeing his mistake.
hadenuf, apparently you don't know the differene between arrogance and confidence.
I'am almost willing to bet Romneys $10,000.00 that he doesn't even realize that President Obama will call him on all of his (Romneys) lies in he next debate. It actually should be haliarious how many more lies he will come up with, to defend his lies in the last debate. President Obama played Liar Romney like a fool, by letting him feel good about all of those lies in the last debate, only to burst his bubble in the next one, and all you repugs and stupid A$$ Rush LimpDICK thought our President was stupid:-) We are gonna love it...
O&Joe 2012 ****Liar Romney 1040****
Obama WILL probably call Romney a liar over and over again for the rest of the campaign, because that's all he has left! He can't run on his record. After nearly 4 years his "plan" is to do more of the same that is getting us nowhere fast.
And now that Romeny has exposed the character assasination job that has been the Obama campaign for months, people are no longer falling for it! Calling him a liar isn't going to work.
If Obama had any brains, he'd engage in enlightening us with what his proposals will actually do THIS TIME that they didn't do last time, and what will be different that will allow them to succeed this time. Because anything other than that kind of approach will expose Obama as a petty fraudster who made big promises based on minimal experience in 2008.
THOSE UNDER AGE 55 BETTER WAKE UP because if Romney/Ryan are elected they will probably not be able to pay for healthcare when they are over age 65 and so will have very limited access to healthcare. Romney/Ryan have promised to raise the eligibility age for Medicare to age 67 by the early 2030s, and worst of all they have promised to essentially end Medicare and replace it with voucher-subsidized private health insurance for future seniors. The failure of this system was what inspired the inception of Medicare in the first place. By the early 1960s most seniors could not get health insurance because private insurance companies had priced them out of the market, and healthcare costs were many times less inflated back then than today relative to incomes. Private health insurance does NOT want to become liable for the costs of treating the many age-related diseases and conditions of seniors, and will again price them out of the health insurance market leaving them financially broke sooner or later and unable to pay for healthcare. Ryan's first plan in his first budget bill essentially ended Medicare by privatizing it with the aid of an ever-decreasing-in-value and utterly inadequate voucher and as vice-president he would undoubtedly encourage his first plan and discard his latest plan that allowed seniors the choice to stay in traditional Medicare because, after all, that was his election-year gimmick and at the urging of a Democrat.
If Robmey really wants to get personal, he can release 12 years of tax returns, just like his father did. Then he can tell all the folks in his GOP audience that live off Social Security and Medicare & pay ZERO income tax what leaches they are.
if he released 12 years....you libtards would be asking for 24 years! How about Obama releasing his college transcripts??? What is he afraid of??
The rumor is that Obama claimed to be Kenyan in order to secure financial aid.
While he isn't a Kenyan, if this is true he may be a fraud.
He already released his tax returns fool: http://www.mittromney.com/disclosure/letter-from-pwc
"Main Street has already proved an important battleground in the presidential election. So which candidate is winning the favor of small business owners?
Mitt Romney, and it’s not even close, according to a new poll.
Sixty-one percent of small business owners plan to vote for the Republican challenger, more than double the 26 percent who say they will vote for President Obama, shows a survey released Tuesday by Manta. The president’s numbers have fallen six points since May, while Mitt Romney has picked up four points with business owners. In the latest national polls, the candidates are virtually deadlocked."
It seems like you conservatives would be insulted at the fact that Mitt sees you all as kool aid drinking -a s s-kissing som-b i t c h e s-. Where's your shame?
He's thinking. I don't have to release my taxes like previous Presidential candidates. I don't have to be transparent about anything. I can say and do anything I want without repercussions. All my constituents care about is getting that black guy out of office.
H e l l! They are better -a s s-kissers than my Bain subordinates. It's sooo wonderful to be a white rich b a s t a r d like me in America. It's great that some white people are bigots as well.
God Bless Joseph Smith....I mean America.
What has always been very baffling for me is the position most Republicans take, what they say, and then how they actually live their lives. Most Republicans claim to be conservative, God fearing Christians, yet they worship the biggest liberal of all ages, Jesus Christ. Jesus healed the sick, fed the hungry, and offer shelter to the homeless, and never once asked to be paid. No conservative/capitalist there. Jesus even acknowledged the need for separation of church and state. Remember "Give unto Cesar what is Cesar's, and to God what is God"s"? When Republicans enter the voting booth this November, I suggest they ask themselves, 'What Would Jesus Do'?
Mitt's Song
You're soo "Bain".....I bet you think it's about your taxes - you're soo "Bain"....I bet you think it's about your taxes. Don't you? DON'T YOU?
You hired me several years ago
When I was still quite naive
Well, you said that I did a great d a m n job
And that you would never let me leave
But you gave away the things I loved
And one of them was my job
I had some dreams they were drugs in your coffee -
I spiked your coffee, and
You're soo "Bain"...............
SING EVERYBODY!
Anyone who believes that someone who has hidden money in the Caymans and Switzerland in order to pay less - if ANY - taxes than the middle class will now "look out for the middle class..." DESERVES what they get if they vote for Romney!!!!
Typical right wing GOPer/TeaBagger @!$%# tactics!
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57527563/cafe-owner-threatened-for-not-hosting-romney/?tag=flyOutNavigation;flyoutstack
bill bob philly - "These people are reminding me too much of the (Nazi) Brown Shirts"
Very much so. It's the Right wingnut's tactics at work ... Insinuation, Intimidation and Defamation.
Obama's opening comments at the next date should be "My comments are built upon the shaky assumption that Romney has the same opinions he expressed last week. I realize this might be a stretch..."
It's hard to tell exactly where Romney stands because (1) he keeps switching positions and is hard to pin down, and (2) much of his rhetoric consists of attacks on Obama rather than defense of his own plans.
But, if you take a bird's eye view of him, he seems like a decent enough guy who managed to skip the draft during Vietnam (like a lot of others his age, who had the resources to do it, both left and right) and ran a middle-of-the-road administration in Massachusetts, with some failures (job creation) and one big success (mandated insurance) which he now has to disown.
He seems to have no hard-core values that are driving him towards the presidency. It's as if someone told him that, since he is enormously rich and powerful, he's in a position to be elected, and he has nothing else to do, so why not run?
Left to his own devices, he'd probably run a mediocre business-friendly administration like Calvin Coolidge or Warren Harding. But there's a fly in the ointment. He won't be left to his own devices because he's had the support of the extreme right wing of the party (which is almost the entire party by now). He will owe his presidency to the Big Donors and the Tea Party. Adelson alone has contributed around $90M to GOP candidates, including Romney, which is like my contributing $26. (I figured it out.)
They're never going to leave him alone. He's already hired 24 foreign policy advisers -- a subject about which he knows practically nothing -- and 17 of them are left overs from the Bush administration, including John "The Human Wrecking Ball" Bolton, whose chief aim in life is to level the United Nations.
Romney will have to sign whatever the legislature puts in front of him. The alternative is to face a primary challenge from someone farther to the right in 2016.
Paul Ryan, his running mate, is a devotee of Ayn Rand. Anyone unfamiliar with her should look her up. She was a refugee from Russian communism. In her philosophy, government is the enemy. The citizenry is divided clearly into "creators" and "slaves." The creators deserve all the credit and power, while the slaves deserve what they get. Ryan keeps claiming he's only going to be the Vice President. True enough, but then Dick Cheney was "only" a Vice President too.
Many of us seem to hate Obama with a passion whose roots are obscure. Okay. But a Romney/Ryan presidency is a truly frightening prospect.
I'm very tired of those of you who insist that the only reason someone would not vote for Obama is because he is black. The reason to not vote for him is because he has failed miserably. As it is being said in some commercials, WAKE THE $#@#$$% UP! the only voting being committed on racial lines is the 90 plus percent of black folks voting FOR Obama. So please all you white folks who feel guilty about your own selves, shut the hell up about those of us who have the brains to change course when the man is so obviously over his head. You have to be brain dead to reelect this pathetic excuse for a leader.
Big John, hardly anybody is suggesting that the only reason someone would NOT vote for Obama is that he's black. Although, true, it's a common feeling on the right that they're always being accused of racism. The face is that they're not.
Why not eh? A vote for Mitt is a vote to send YOUR kids, not his, to war. A vote for Mitt is a vote for capitalism at its' finest. Lower taxes for the rich, save Wall Street even further, spend money not on our people, but spend money saving (bombing) the likes of Syria, Iran, etc.
Please help me understand. I have been reading comments & all I read from the right is hate. Most of the left are giving facts. I have been watching many communications for awhile. What I see is that the Tea Party, religious right, right wing talk radio & tv, and the elite republican rich, all think the same. The hatred and disrespect for our president that the nation voted for is horrible. It seems they hate anyone who is different from them. It's like they stepped out of a time warp from the 50's or the 19th century and discovered a new world and hate it so much that they are willing to do anything to take it back. Why? Those were times of division and bigotry. America was truly divided by rich and poor, with no health care, no civility, and no education(unless you are rich). Is that what they want? Because that is what they will get if Romney/Ryan win. The problem with that is they will drag us with them and I don't want to go.
Barry - let's time-warp back to 1960 when JFK bought the election in WV
The Republican Party are fools of extreme temper fits when things are not going their way. They are fools in the refusal to move with modern times. They are fools in wanting to take social aspects of life backwards instead of forward. They are fools in that everything is a conspiracy when it goes against their ideology. They are fools to bet against America making progress economically for the stability of the people in order to gain political control. Please American people we must not vote for any Republicans because it is not good for our country. I say to you all please vote for Obama. We must put a stop to the Tea Republican Party because they are too extremely radical for mainstream America. We must stand with President Obama and continue to move our country forward and not backwards. I say to you, I am FIRED UP AND READY TO GO!!!!
OBAMA/BIDEN 2012
Hellodock and other Obama supporters: This elecdtion is coming in one month. It's good that you are fired up. I hope you lose and lose by a large margin. But if you don't and Obama does win reelection, I am personally prepared to accept the will of the majority. I wonder... if Romney were to win, how would you all respond? I'm not so sure you would be gracious in defeat. We shall see very soon.
Old people aren't foolish. Most of them aren't all that healthy, either.
Everyone should realize that if Republicans repeal "Obamacare" and Romney/Ryan went ahead with the voucher system than about 90% of Medicare eligible folks would be totally BEREFT!
Try going out at age 70 to buy yourself some health insurance with your stinking voucher. So you've got high blood pressure, prostate cancer, osteoporosis or heart disease. Sorry, that's a pre-existing condition which WOULD have been covered under Obamacare, but no longer. We're sorry, but your medications won't be covered, either. And be happy because you didn't have to go before any death panel to arrive at this sorry state.
I think we have to live with a fact about the GOP. The party cannot ever tell people, even their supporters, at least the ones that aren't millionaires, what they will actually do if they have the chance. If they did, they would never elect another Republican to national office. They get away with it in some congressional districts - the ones gerrymandered to the point of idiocy. But, not with most Senate races and definitely not for President.
Consequently the GOP must lie, obfuscate and demonize the opponent to elect a President. We get lies about them wanting to preserve Medicare. They can't tell the truth - they want to eliminate it, they always have. They can't tell the truth about lowering taxes for the wealthy - it's not about creating jobs, it's about taking care of their big donors. They can't tell the truth about global warming - they know it's happening, they don't care because any action to save the planet would hurt profits. They can't tell the truth about spending - they are not against spending, they just want to spend on the military and their corporate sponsors. The can't tell the truth about the size of government - they don't want a small government, they want a government so big it can police every womb.
To elect a President, Republicans have to lie because no one in their right mind would buy what they are actually selling.
And to the comment that their plan would only affect those under 55 (changed,as a "concession"), well, I'm under 55 (just) and after paying into the plan for the past 35 years, I object, and my parents are not that selfish to not object its effect on their children and grandchildren.
Perceptive and nicely stated.
Old people aren't foolish. Most of them aren't all that healthy, either.
Everyone should realize that if Republicans repeal "Obamacare" and Romney/Ryan went ahead with the voucher system than about 90% of Medicare eligible folks would be totally BEREFT!
Try going out at age 70 to buy yourself some health insurance with your stinking voucher. So you've got high blood pressure, prostate cancer, osteoporosis or heart disease. Sorry, that's a pre-existing condition which WOULD have been covered under Obamacare, but no longer. We're sorry, but your medications won't be covered, either. And be happy because you didn't have to go before any death panel to arrive at this sorry state.
I think we have to live with a fact about the GOP. The party cannot ever tell people, even their supporters, at least the ones that aren't millionaires, what they will actually do if they have the chance. If they did, they would never elect another Republican to national office. They get away with it in some congressional districts - the ones gerrymandered to the point of idiocy. But, not with most Senate races and definitely not for President.
Consequently the GOP must lie, obfuscate and demonize the opponent to elect a President. We get lies about them wanting to preserve Medicare. They can't tell the truth - they want to eliminate it, they always have. They can't tell the truth about lowering taxes for the wealthy - it's not about creating jobs, it's about taking care of their big donors. They can't tell the truth about global warming - they know it's happening, they don't care because any action to save the planet would hurt profits. They can't tell the truth about spending - they are not against spending, they just want to spend on the military and their corporate sponsors. The can't tell the truth about the size of government - they don't want a small government, they want a government so big it can police every womb.
To elect a President, Republicans have to lie because no one in their right mind would buy what they are actually selling.
And to the comment that their plan would only affect those under 55 (changed,as a "concession"), well, I'm under 55 (just) and after paying into the plan for the past 35 years, I object, and my parents are not that selfish to not object its effect on their children and grandchildren.
Even millionaires use medicare to its fullest. Rich people hate like hell to spend money on healthcare and would take full advantage of Obamacare if they were under 65 and did not qualify for Medicare as of yet.
Mitt wants my children to go to war in Syria while I want him to go to HELL wherever he comes from.
"Mitt Romney would turn Medicare into a voucher program and increase costs for retirees by more than $6,000,” Obama campaign spokesperson Lis Smith said in a statement. “The truth hurts – especially for the middle class families who would suffer under Romney’s policies.”
If the retirees could even get insurance.
Amen.
And I'll bet you believed that Obama would cut the deficit in half during his first term!
Hey Sig-1249839, the reason why you have a voucher option is because private practice doctors have stopped accepting medicare.
A voucher option lets the patient see their family doctor that they have been seeing for years whom they know and trust.
Get educated on the subject.
Romney continues to lie when he says his Medicare plan has no effect on 55 and older
He reopens the doughnut hole
He eliminates no-out-of-pocket costs of preventive exams
He allows insurance companies to deny pre existing conditions
He allows no limit to insurance company profit
He allows lifetime caps on insurance coverage
Hopefully Obama will be bright enough to confront Romney on Game day, and not the next day.
Ahhh, Publius--a little more "hope and change", eh? LOL!
Sailcat-2064101
Here on the left we have a Community Organizer Barack Obama.
In the middle we have the American people.
Here on the right we have a Successful Businessman, Mitt Romney.
Which do you prefer?
Federally managed & Centrally organized lifestyle...
Or ?
Back to the Business of living life on your terms...
Your choice is simple America. YOU Decide---whats rt--->
..................................................................................................NOVEMBER 6th 2012
........................................................................................................................................Choose Wisely
VOTE
Romney/Ryan in a landslide!
Sanity meets real world consequences...
bet you 10,000 dollars '' you're wrong '' !!!! LOL
Convenient, you are obviously challenged when trying to think for yourself. The Robme/Retardican spin is just not based on facts or reality. Step back and ask yourself if putting a rich, spoiled, out of touch, representative of the obscenely rich prick in office is really going to be better for you. If you think Robme is a good guy, just look at his life and record, he is a professional liar and greedy business man trying to come off in sheep's clothing.
Hey Tex you hater. Because a guy has been successful he is automatically a prick in your book? Is that correct?
What a hater and loser you are and others like you guarantee a Romney victory Nov. 6.