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    25
    Sep
    2012
    11:01am, EDT

    Romney lays out vision for private sector-infused foreign aid

    By NBC's Garrett Haake
    Follow @GarrettNBCNews

     

    NEW YORK -- Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Tuesday laid out his vision for the future of foreign aid, one tied closely to his domestic policy prescriptions which promote the power of free enterprise and of hard work to lift people out of poverty.

    In an address to one of the nation's pre-eminent philanthropic groups, the Clinton Global Initiative (the namesake group of former President Bill Clinton), Romney outlined a foreign aid strategy that would emphasize public and private partnerships to boost the economies of developing nations.

    While speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative, GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney offered his take on why current US foreign aid practices are generally ineffective, saying that building a strong nation through free enterprise is the best assistance America can provide to developing and impoverished nations.

    "For American foreign aid to become more effective, its got to embrace the principles that you see in these global initiatives," Romney said, referring to his host, the Clinton Global Initiative's annual conference. "The power of partnerships, access the transformative nature of free enterprise, and leverage of the abundant resources that can come from the private sector."

    Romney then outlined his views on foreign aid, which he said should be tied to the opening of markets in developing nations. The GOP presidential candidate argued that foreign aid -- coming from either government or private investments -- should be focused on developing long-term economic opportunity so that the money that is spent has a better chance of making a lasting difference.

    "A temporary aid package can give an economy a boost. It can fund projects. It can pay some bills. It can employ some people for a time," Romney said. "But it can’t sustain an economy -- not for the long term. It can’t pull the whole cart, if you will -- because at some point, the money runs out. 

    Slideshow: On the campaign trail

    Reuters, Getty Images

    In the final push in the 2012 presidential election, candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama make their last appeals to voters.

    Launch slideshow

    The former private equity CEO then debuted a new model of public and private development in his speech, which he referred to as "Prosperity Pacts."

    "To foster work and enterprise in the Middle East and in other developing countries, I will initiate something I'll call 'Prosperity Pacts.' Working with the private sector, the program will identify the barriers to investment, trade, and entrepreneurship and entrepreneurialism in developing nations," Romney said. "In exchange for removing those barriers and opening their markets to U.S. investment and trade, developing nations will receive U.S. assistance packages focused on developing the institutions of liberty, the rule of law, and property rights."

    "We will focus our efforts on small and medium-size businesses. Microfinance has been an effective tool at promoting enterprise and prosperity, but we've got to expand support to small and medium-size businesses that are oftentimes too large for microfinance, but too small for traditional banking," he continued.

    The 20-minute speech by the GOP challenger to President Barack Obama marked perhaps his most detailed presentation of how the United States might interact with the developing world in a Romney administration. It came just hours before Obama was set to address the United Nations general assembly across midtown Manhattan, in a stretch of campaigning in which foreign policy has supplanted the economy as the election's driving force.

    Romney was introduced in his remarks by former Clinton, who has assumed an outsized role in the presidential race in recent weeks, as the Romney campaign elevated the former president in an effort to paint Obama as too liberal and far outside the centrist Clinton tradition. Clinton only turned about to offer an outspoken defense of Obama at the Democratic National Convention, a stirring speech which many analysts credit for boosting Obama's poll numbers immediately thereafter.

    Taking the podium, Romney joked about his host's warm introduction.

    "If there's one thing we've learned in this election season by the way, its that a few words from Bill Clinton can do a man a lot of good," Romney deadpanned, continuing as the laughter in the room subsided. "All I've gotta do now is wait a couple of days for that bounce to happen."

    146 comments

    "All I've gotta do now is wait a couple of days for that bounce to happen." Yes, just ignore the fact that the former President criticized every aspect your economic plan...

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    Explore related topics: bill-clinton, mitt-romney, barack-obama, foreign-policy, first-read, decision-2012
  • 12
    Sep
    2012
    8:50pm, EDT

    Clinton: Republican party controlled by most extreme members

    By NBC's Andrew Rafferty

    Follow @AndrewNBCNews

     

    ORLANDO, Fla. – Former President Bill Clinton on Wednesday painted Republicans as a party controlled by its most extreme members, unwilling to compromise and too conservative for former GOP leaders like Richard Nixon and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

    "Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower – Richard Nixon’s too liberal for these people. It’s amazing," Clinton told the 2,000 people packed into a hotel ballroom here. He said the most right-wing members of the GOP control the party's nominations and "political operations."

    Clinton has spent the past two days campaigning for President Barack Obama in Florida. The tour comes a week after he delivered a well-received speech at the Democratic National Convention in which he laid out the case for the president's re-election.


    His stops here and Miami were largely an extension of those arguments.

    "The American people have to believe me on this; I have traveled all over the world, not just when I was president, but since I left,” Clinton said. “I work everywhere. I'm telling you what works; what works is cooperation. What fails is constant conflict. You've got to vote for cooperation."

    He did not mention the attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Libya, which took four lives and were condemned by top U.S. officials. He stayed away from foreign policy, continuing to focus on the economy, and making the case that America is better off now than when Obama took office nearly four years ago.

    "I want to say again something I said in Charlotte, because the whole election could come down to this. I honestly believe – it doesn't matter who caused it or whether the contributing factors all happened under President Bush or something I did or something Ronald Reagan did 30 years ago." he said.  "Regardless, President Obama didn't cause it ... but if he just kept telling us that and not done anything, we'd still have to replace him, because we hired him to take the job and you don’t get to pick only the good and not the bad. So he took it on."

    Clinton said calls for austerity measures and tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans are irresponsible given the country's slow economic growth.

    "I was always taught, when you're in a hole, the first rule is to quit digging," he said.

    Clinton's biggest applause lines during his Florida tour have been criticizing Republicans for their inaccurate arithmetic and saying that hypocritical attacks against the president take “real brass."

    Tying up his speech, Clinton urged the crowd to choose "arithmetic over illusion."

    572 comments

    No kidding. The Republican Party has driven their circus car off the road. It appears that Romney is taking advice from the neocons, you know, those people that love them some war, as long as their hides are safe. It is a shame what a once great party has become.

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  • 11
    Sep
    2012
    10:14pm, EDT

    Clinton, the campaign's chief explainer, rallies for Obama in Florida

    By NBC's Andrew Rafferty

    Follow @AndrewNBCNews

     

    MIAMI, Fla. – Former President Bill Clinton on Tuesday continued to relish his unofficial role as the chief explainer of what is at stake in the November election, this time tailoring his message to the young crowd gathered at Florida International University.

    Speaking to 2,300 supporters, including many students, Clinton used the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks as a chance to talk about the importance of service -- specifically voting.

    "I keep reading that young people are not quite sure if they're going to vote. I tried to argue down in Charlotte last week that that's a mistake, that we have a lot of reasons to vote and we have a good candidate to vote for," said Clinton.


    Young Americans were a key group that helped propel President Obama to victory in 2008, but polling shows that enthusiasm has not matched the level of four years ago.

    In Florida, Clinton also reached out to older Americans, saying Republicans have spread "misinformation" about Democrats plans for Medicare.  It is the same misinformation that led the GOP to an electoral landslide in the 2010 midterms, Clinton said.

    "They got away with running this old dog through the chute in 2010 and countless thousands of seniors voted because they were given misinformation against people who supported a plan to strengthen Medicare," said Clinton. "So I'm talking about it everywhere because the first time they did it, it was their fault. If we let it happen again, it is out fault."

    Clinton also fought back against the claims vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan and other Republicans have made, arguing that Obama has cut $716 billion from Medicare.

    "Embarrassingly for the Republicans, the nominee for vice president who's chair of the house budget committee, produced a budget that had exactly the same callings for savings that the Obama budget did, and that was true in 2010 when they were advertising against it. Now, as I said in Charlotte, you got to hand it to them; it takes real brass to attack people for doing what you did," Clinton said.

    According to a Pew Research poll, Clinton's keynote address last week was for many the highlight of the Democratic convention, drawing an even more favorable rating than Obama's speech.  It was a straight-forward assessment of why the president deserves re-election, and it is the same message he took down to the swing-state of Florida on Tuesday. The man who has been dubbed the "Explainer-in-chief" heads to Orlando Wednesday for another rally.

    Along with Medicare and the economic recovery, Clinton also defended the president's record on solar energy and the often shied away topic of the stimulus, saying it helped prevent even high levels of unemployment.  All of it, Clinton said, has laid the foundation for an economic recovery that will be at risk if Mitt Romney is elected.

    "The test is not whether you think everything is hunky-dory. If that were the test, the president would vote against himself.  He said that everything is not hunky-dory," he said. "The test is whether he's taken us in the right direction, and the answer is yes."

    276 comments

    Bubba is a hell of a secret weapon. He's the Mick Jagger of politics. Underwear may be thrown on to the stage. But despite a few flaws, he's got an incredible intellect and incredible political instincts.

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  • 8
    Sep
    2012
    5:12pm, EDT

    Romney: Clinton helped 'elevate' Democratic convention

    Michael O'Brien, NBC News

    Follow @mpoindc

    Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney embraced Bill Clinton's speech this week at the Democratic National Convention, saying the former president's speech — which was full of criticism of Romney — helped "elevate" Democrats' convention.

    In his interview airing Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," Romney praised the Wednesday night speech by the Democratic ex-president, which ridiculed Romney and Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan on issues ranging from fiscal policy to Medicare.

    "He did stand out in contrast with the other speakers; I think he really did elevate the Democrat convention in a lot of ways," Romney said. "And, frankly, the contrast may not have been as attractive as Barack Obama might have preferred if he were choosing who'd go before him and who'd go after."

    Clinton's speech was regarded as one of the highlights of the Democratic convention; he formally nominated President Obama for a second term, and his folksy speech built up the current president while simultaneously taking Romney to task. But as Romney suggested, Clinton's speech drew as much interest as Obama's among political observers, and Romney seemed to suggest the former president even overshadowed the current one.

    But Clinton's criticism hasn't previously deterred Romney from embracing the former Democratic president. He's praised Clinton on the campaign trail as a centrist, as if to portray Obama as governing well to the left of Clinton.

    Romney's tack is an implicit acknowledgement of Clinton's broad popularity, a sentiment the GOP presidential nominee joked would probably propel Clinton to a third term in the White House, if it were legal.

    Asked whether Clinton could be elected president today, Romney responded: "If the constitution weren't in his way, yeah.  Perhaps.  But I don't know the answer to that."

    421 comments

    Wow did Romney just concede the election, sounds like it to me.

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  • 6
    Sep
    2012
    1:52pm, EDT

    Ryan takes aim at Obama on final day of Democratic convention

    By NBC's Alex Moe
    Follow @AlexNBCNews

     

    COLORADO SPRINGS, CO –- Paul Ryan wasted no time on Thursday in attacking President Barack Obama and the Democrats on the final day of the Democratic National Convention.

    “The president is going to be in Charlotte tonight with the Democratic convention. Their convention actually began with a tribute to big government. They actually said government is the only thing we all belong to,” Ryan told the crowd. “Then, they cut references to God out of their platform. They reversed course on that one yesterday – it wasn’t really a popular reversal if you watched it on TV.”

    In a new TV ad criticizing President Obama, Mitt Romney's campaign appears to be targeting single women voters who may like the president a great deal but are skeptical if he can deliver the type of change that he was talking about. NBC's David Gregory reports.

    Continuing inside an airplane hangar: “But to quote a popular journalist from Wisconsin, ‘they were against God before they were for him.’” [The journalist, POLITICO’s Jim VandeHei, made the comments on MSNBC’s Morning Joe Thursday morning.] 

    Related: Romney back on air

    Speaking in the Centennial State – where four years ago, Obama officially accepted the Democratic Party's presidential nomination – the Republican vice presidential candidate said the president hasn’t lived up to his promises and has made the economy worse.

    “You know, right here in Colorado, four years ago with the Styrofoam Greek columns, the big stadium, the president gave this long speech with lots of big promises,” Ryan said speaking inside WestPac Restorations. “And he said, let me quote ‘if you don’t have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.’ You know what, that is what he said four years ago and that is exactly what he is doing today. He has no record to run on.”

    Sen. Bob Menendez and Sen. Chris Coons discuss how Vice President Joe Biden will help President Barack Obama, and touch on the Democratic platform.

    The attacks are coming from both sides.

    Recommended: Bill Clinton steps up to lay out the case for Obama, Democrats 

    Wednesday night, former President Bill Clinton spoke at the convention in Charlotte, NC and did not hold back on attacking the Romney-Ryan ticket.

    “When Congressman Ryan looked into that TV camera and attacked President Obama's Medicare savings 'the biggest, coldest power play,' I didn't know whether to laugh or cry,” Clinton said. “Because that $716 billion is exactly to the dollar the same amount of Medicare savings that he had in his own budget! You got to admit one thing, it takes some brass to attack a guy for doing what you did.”

    Congressman Ryan, who in Iowa on Wednesday morning praised Clinton for working with Republicans while in office, made no reference to the remarks made at the convention last night by the 42nd president.

    Video: Wednesday night's DNC speeches

    The House Budget Committee Chairman, however, did acknowledge he may have finally found one thing to agree on with current Vice President Joe Biden.

    “You know it was just reported that in the middle of President Obama’s debt ceiling negotiations last summer Vice President Biden said quote, ‘You know if I were doing this I’d do it totally different,’” Ryan told the nearly 3,000 people here in Colorado about the upcoming Bob Woodward book, "The Price of Politics."

    "Sounds like Joe and I finally agree on something," the congressman deadpanned.

    428 comments

    Ryan takes aim at Obama on final day of Democratic convention Lyin Ryan couldn't hit the side of a barn with a cannon! Other than Obama haters... NO ONE is going to vote for a ticket with not one but two pathological serial liars on it!

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  • 5
    Sep
    2012
    11:31pm, EDT

    Bill Clinton steps up to lay out the case for Obama, Democrats

    By Michael O'Brien, NBC News
    Follow @mpoindc

     

    CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Democrats formally nominated President Barack Obama for a second term following a rousing speech from former President Bill Clinton casting Obama as a centrist dealmaker and a candidate who did his best to avert a recession.

    Clinton, one of the most popular figures in American politics today, delivered a speech portraying his fellow Democrat as a well-intentioned moderate who was spurned by Republicans throughout the past four years – following the trail first blazed by Clinton in the 1990s.

    Slideshow: Democratic National Convention

    Almost seemingly responding to Republicans’ use of a well-worn argument in recent days, asking whether Americans are better off today than they were four years ago, when Obama was elected, Clinton said the answer was a definitive “yes.”

    Joe Raedle / Getty Images

    Former President Bill Clinton speaks on stage during day two of the Democratic National Convention at Time Warner Cable Arena on September 5, 2012 in Charlotte, N.C.

    “Are we where we want to be today? No. Is the president satisfied? Of course not,” Clinton said. “But are we better off than we were when he took office?” The crowd replied with shouts of yes. 

    Of the precarious economic situation Obama faced upon assuming office, Clinton added that “no one could have repaired all the damage he found in just four years.”

    The speech by Clinton, a former adversary of Obama’s when his wife, Hillary Clinton was competing against Obama for the 2008 Democratic nomination, drew one of the most energetic responses of the second day of the Democratic National Convention.

    At the outset of his speech, Clinton also formally entered Obama’s name up for the Democratic presidential nomination, something that the convention officially ratified in a state-by-state roll call vote early Thursday morning.

    NBC News political director Chuck Todd talks with former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Terry McAuliffe, about former President Bill Clinton's preparation for his speech to the DNC, how he's developed a connection with independent voters, and the evolution of his relationship with President Obama.

    Obama himself joined Clinton onstage shortly after the conclusion of his speech, which had to battle a marquee, prime-time opening-night NFL matchup between the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants across the television dial.

    Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has repeatedly referenced the former Democratic president on the campaign trail, in order to argue that Obama has governed well to the left of Clinton, whose centrism was a core element of his political identity.

    Clinton indirectly rebuffed that by painting the president as an actor who genuinely sought compromise.

    “One of the main reasons America should re-elect President Obama is that he is still committed to constructive cooperation,” said Clinton.

    And Clinton on Wednesday evening rejected Romney’s proposals as inconsistent and fiscally unsound.

    Of Romney’s balanced budget proposals, Clinton said: “The Romney plan fails the first test of fiscal responsibility; the numbers don’t add up.”

    Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

    Former President Bill Clinton hugs President Barack Obama on stage during day two of the Democratic National Convention at Time Warner Cable Arena on September 5, 2012 in Charlotte, N.C.

    The former president’s speech was the highlight of second day of the Democratic National Convention that seemed to largely chug along at a lower energy level than Tuesday’s opening festivities, when speakers led the audience in call-and-response cheers, and speeches by San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro and first lady Michelle Obama won multiple ovations.

    For the second night in a row, Democrats featured final speakers who took a less personal tone toward the Republican Party, a contrast to earlier speeches featuring unrelenting and aggressive attacks on the GOP. Democrats have broadcast their intention to showcase a sharp "contrast" betwen Obama and Romney during the convention, a consistent theme in Tuesday's speeches that continued into most of Wednesday.

    Democrats’ Wednesday night schedule featured some re-shuffling, most notably pushing contraceptive rights activist Sandra Fluke’s speech – unabashed in its criticism of Romney and the GOP – into the prime-time slot nationally broadcast by most networks.

    She said that in a Romney administration, “Your new president could be a man who stands by when a public figure tries to silence a private citizen with hateful slurs ... It would be an America in which you have a new vice president who co-sponsored a bill that would allow pregnant women to die preventable deaths in our emergency rooms.”

    Fluke spoke shortly before another Democratic favorite, Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic Senate candidate in Massachusetts, took the stage to deliver a strong defense of Obama.

    Related:Warren attacks 'rigged' political, economic system

    Warren, the Democratic Senate candidate in Massachusetts and a favorite of liberal activists, played on a broad sense of middle class anxiety in her speech, portraying Obama as the only antidote to voters’ hardships.

    She delivered a plainly populist speech, suggesting to Americans that the deck is stacked against them – a stark contrast to the Republican message that opportunity expands as business is freed from regulation.

    Women's rights activist Sandra Fluke speaks at the DNC on Wednesday.

    “People feel like the system is rigged against them. And here's the painful part: they're right. The system is rigged,” she said, adding: “We're Americans. We celebrate success. We just don't want the game to be rigged.”

    She also seized on Romney’s line more than a year ago at the Iowa State Fair, in which the then-candidate said, “Corporations are people, my friend,” in response to a heckler.

    “No, Gov. Romney, corporations are not people,” Warren said to rising applause from the audience. “People have hearts, they have kids, they get jobs, they get sick, they cry, they dance. They live, they love, and they die. And that matters – that matters because we don't run this country for corporations, we run it for people. And that's why we need Barack Obama.”

    Other speakers on Wednesday took more direct strides toward leveling specific attacks and courting specific groups of voters.

    Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., gives an impassioned speech at the DNC, Wednesday, backing the reelection campaign of President Obama.

    The Congressional Black Caucus chairman, Missouri Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, was one of the most memorable early speakers on Wednesday. An ordained United Methodist minister, Cleaver brought the crowd to its feet with a refrain of "Move on!" at one point marching in place to exhort fellow Democrats to work this fall for Obama.

    Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the ranking member of the House Budget Committee, was meanwhile charged with taking on Paul Ryan, the GOP vice presidential nominee, budget panel chairman and personal friend of Van Hollen’s.

    Related: Ryan tries to draw wedge between Clinton, Obama 

    “If Paul Ryan was being honest, he would have pointed to that debt clock and said: 'We built that,'" said Van Hollen, referring to the clock at last week’s Republican National Convention tabulating mounting U.S. debt during the gathering in Tampa. The Maryland Democrat blamed GOP-led tax cuts and the wars overseas for exploding the size of the national debt which Obama inherited.

    Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., endorses President Obama's plan to reduce the national deficit, while criticizing Mitt Romney's economic policies.

    Van Hollen, who is playing Ryan in debate preparations with Vice President Joe Biden, added: “Congressman Ryan, America is literally in your debt.”

    And AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka – one of several leaders in organized labor featured this evening – tried to portray Romney as out-of-touch, saying, “Mitt Romney doesn’t know a thing about hard work or responsibility.”

    Slideshow: Democratic National Convention

    Stan Honda / AFP - Getty Images

    Democrats gather in Charlotte, N.C., to officially nominate President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden as the party's candidates for the 2012 presidential election.

    Launch slideshow

    4649 comments

    Way to go President Clinton!!!

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  • 5
    Sep
    2012
    6:19pm, EDT

    Clinton to slam GOP for creating 'total mess,' trying to blame Obama

    Former President Bill Clinton, who will address the Democratic National Convention tonight, told NBC's Brian Williams why he feels President Obama needs to be reelected.

    By NBC's Domenico Montanaro

    Former President Bill Clinton is set to eviscerate Republicans for being responsible for policies that led to the 2008 economic meltdown - and yet wanting voters to put them back in power.

    “In Tampa the Republican argument against the president's re-election was pretty simple: We left him a total mess, he hasn't finished cleaning it up yet, so fire him and put us back in," Clinton will say. “I like the argument for President Obama's re-election a lot better. He inherited a deeply damaged economy, put a floor under the crash, began the long hard road to recovery, and laid the foundation for a more modern, more well-balanced economy that will produce millions of good new jobs, vibrant new businesses, and lots of new wealth for the innovators."

    Recommended: Clinton: No one could have restored economy to full health in 4 years

    He will also tout the president's vision for the country.

    “The most important question is," Clinton will say, "what kind of country do you want to live in? If you want a you're-on-your-own, winner-take-all society, you should support the Republican ticket. If you want a country of shared prosperity and shared responsibility -- a we're-all-in-this-together society -- you should vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.”

    2136 comments

    Former President Bill Clinton is set to eviscerate Republicans for being responsible for policies that led to the 2008 economic meltdown - and yet wanting voters to put them back in power.

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  • 5
    Sep
    2012
    5:06pm, EDT

    Clinton: No one could have restored economy to full health in 4 years

    By NBC's Mark Murray

    Previewing his primetime speech tonight at the Democratic convention, former President Bill Clinton tells NBC's Brian Williams that he will explain why President Obama's economic approach "is right" and will "pay off" if he's re-elected. 

    Clinton also says in the interview that no president, in four years, could have restored the current economy "to full health" after the financial collapse of 2008.

    Former President Bill Clinton, who will address the Democratic National Convention tonight, told NBC's Brian Williams why he feels President Obama needs to be reelected.

    BRIAN WILLIAMS: Cover of Newsweek, "Why Barack needs Bill." Why do you think Barack needs Bill? What do you have to offer?

    BILL CLINTON: I really don't know. I've always been mystified by that. I was honored when he asked me to nominate him. I hope what I can do, because we did have a good economy, because we did have the longest expansion in history, is explain why I think his approach is right and it'll pay off if we renew his contract. Explain why the economy he faced was much weaker and different than the one I faced, so that there's no way any president, no president could have restored it to full health in just four years.

    The rest of Brian Williams' interview with Clinton will appear on NBC "Nightly News" beginning at 6:30 pm ET.

    1025 comments

    Reagan economy!? Just look at the interest rates back then... was that healthy???

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  • 8
    Aug
    2012
    9:06am, EDT

    Romney: Bill Clinton strikes back

    Bill Clinton in a statement on Romney’s welfare attack: “Governor Romney released an ad today alleging that the Obama administration had weakened the work requirements of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act. That is not true. The act emerged after years of experiments at the state level, including my work as Governor of Arkansas beginning in 1980.  When I became President, I granted waivers from the old law to 44 states to implement welfare to work strategies before welfare reform passed.

    “After the law was enacted, every state was required to design a plan to move people into the workforce, along with more funds to help pay for training, childcare and transportation. As a result, millions of people moved from welfare to work. The recently announced waiver policy was originally requested by the Republican governors of Utah and Nevada to achieve more flexibility in designing programs more likely to work in this challenging environment.  The Administration has taken important steps to ensure that the work requirement is retained and that waivers will be granted only if a state can demonstrate that more people will be moved into work under its new approach.  The welfare time limits, another important feature of the 1996 act, will not be waived. The Romney ad is especially disappointing because, as governor of Massachusetts, he requested changes in the welfare reform laws that could have eliminated time limits altogether.  We need a bipartisan consensus to continue to help people move from welfare to work even during these hard times, not more misleading campaign ads.”

    USA Today: “Former President Bill Clinton is backing up successor Barack Obama, blasting a Mitt Romney ad attacking the incumbent over welfare reform as untrue.”

    The Romney campaign’s response from Ryan Williams: “President Obama was a vocal opponent of the innovative, bipartisan welfare reforms that President Clinton and a Republican Congress passed in 1996. His administration has now undermined the central premise of those reforms by gutting the welfare-to-work requirement. Unlike President Obama, Mitt Romney has a record of fighting to strengthen work requirements. As president, he will ensure that nearly sixteen years of progress aren’t erased with one stroke of a pen.”

    The Boston Globe: “Romney says Obama favors 'culture of dependency'.”

    The Iowa wind story isn’t blowing away: “Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign has been savaging what it calls President Barack Obama’s ‘unhealthy’ obsession with ‘green jobs,’”  the AP writes. “The Republican challenger criticizes the government program that propped up solar manufacturer Solyndra, and he mocks Obama’s vision of a boom in employment, citing a European study to argue that new solar or wind-energy positions would destroy jobs elsewhere. But when a campaign spokesman said last week that Congress should let a tax break for wind energy producers expire at the end of the year, some Republicans were concerned the candidate had gone too far.

    “Republican Rep. Tom Latham, R-Iowa, noting that nearly 7,000 Iowans work in the wind industry, assailed the Romney campaign for ‘a lack of full understanding of how important the wind energy tax credit is for Iowa and our nation.’ Iowa’s senior senator, Chuck Grassley, told reporters he didn’t believe Romney really opposed the extension, and he joined five other GOP lawmakers in voting for it in the Senate Finance Committee.”

    “A group that opposes the Boy Scouts of America’s ban on gay members is using presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney to help make its case,” the Boston Globe notes. “Romney’s campaign restated his position that gay people should be allowed to join the Boy Scouts of America in an Associated Press story published on Saturday. Romney first declared his support for gay scouts and leaders in 1994 -- when he was a member of the organization’s executive board -- during an unsuccessful run for US Senate. In a debate that year, Romney said, ‘I support the right of the Boy Scouts of America to decide what it wants to do on that issue. I feel that all people should be able to participate in the Boy Scouts regardless of their sexual orientation.’ Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul told the AP that the former Massachusetts governor nominee feels the same way today.”

    The RNC announced more speakers at their convention, including Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, whom RNC Chair Reince Priebus called a headliner. Also speaking: Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is African American; Texas Republican U.S. Senate Nominee Ted Cruz; Puerto Rico Governor Luis Fortuño; and Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens.

    146 comments

    Willard Romney, The Lying POS, "DAMN GOOD AT LYING."

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  • 30
    Jul
    2012
    9:11am, EDT

    Obama: Bubba to take center stage

    As first reported by the New York Times, former president Bill Clinton will have a prominent role for the 2012 Democratic National Convention, speaking in primetime on Wednesday, Sept. 5, NBC’s Carrie Dann reports. The decision means that Vice President Biden will instead speak before the president on the final Thursday evening of the convention. The popular former president is expected to argue for Obama's economic policies in his speech.  "There's no one better to cut through on economic issues and lay out the choice in the election because he understands the consequences of the policy differences" from his own presidency, an aide said.

    Sources say the decision to bump Biden to the final night of the convention was made jointly by the VP and the president. "He’ll build toward the President’s speech by giving unique insights and perspective of the President’s governing character and the challenges/decisions over the last four years in a way that only he can," says the aide of Biden's role.

    The AP: “The move gives the Obama campaign an opportunity to take advantage of the former president's immense popularity and remind voters that a Democrat was in the White House the last time the American economy was thriving.”

    And there’s this implicit comparison to the GOP: “Obama personally asked Clinton to speak at the convention and place Obama's name in nomination, and Clinton enthusiastically accepted, officials said. Clinton speaks regularly to Obama and to campaign officials about strategy. Clinton's prominent role at the convention will also allow Democrats to embrace party unity in a way that is impossible for Republican rival Mitt Romney. George W. Bush, the last Republican to hold the White House, remains politically toxic in some circles. While Bush has endorsed Romney, he is not involved in his campaign and has said he does not plan to attend the GOP convention.”

    USA Today: “The prominent role for Clinton reflects the latest truce between the two presidents, who first clashed during the 2008 Democratic primaries when Obama defeated Hillary Rodham Clinton. More recently, the Obama team has been frustrated by Clinton comments complimenting Romney's business career and endorsing a different strategy on tax cuts.”

    “In an appearance before the American Federation of Teachers conference in Detroit on Sunday, Vice President Joe Biden told attendees to look at Republicans' spending plans to see how much Republicans value education,” the Detroit Free Press writes. 

    27 comments

    I like how the headline of the article states that President Obama said, "Bubba is gonna take Center stage..." Truly great journalistic craftsmanship of a president speaking of another president. Bubba... really? Give respect where respect is due to a president. Don't sound like a group of TEA Drink …

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  • 16
    Jun
    2012
    10:21am, EDT

    Obama and Romney defy party elders who urge more positive campaign

    By Michael O'Brien
    Follow @mpoindc

     

    The dueling speeches delivered Thursday by President Barack Obama and presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney in Ohio offered a clear preview of the type of campaigns they intend to run against each other. And they made them in defiance of a week of protests from influential voices in their own parties who urged them both to offer voters forward-thinking solutions.

    Obama and Romney essentially doubled-down on the strategies they have pursued so far, each waging a campaign meant to define – and disqualify – the other in the eyes of voters. The president’s speech was intended to transform 2012 into a “stark choice,” in the words of his campaign; Romney’s near simultaneous speech was meant to transform the election into a referendum on whether Obama has succeeded in turning the economy around.

    Steve Nesius / Reuters

    Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney addresses supporters during a campaign rally at Con-Air Industries Inc., in Orlando, Fla.

    The president’s speech in Cleveland painted Romney in broad strokes, portraying the presumptive GOP nominee as a rehash of the Bush era, “except on steroids.”

    "[I]f you want to give the policies of the last decade another try, then you should vote for Mr. Romney," Obama said.

    Following President Obama and Mitt Romney's Ohio speeches and fundraising events, the Morning Joe panel -- including MSNBC's Chris Hayes -- discusses Romney and Obama's rhetorical strategies and how they can be used best by the candidates.

    As for Romney, speaking in Cincinnati, he said the president’s talk is “cheap.”

    “He’s going to be saying today that he wants four more years. He may have forgotten he talked about a one term proposition if he couldn’t get the economy turned around in three years. But we’re going to hold him to his word,” the former Massachusetts governor said.

    But both candidates drew criticism from the media and their opponents for their remarks, accusing both Obama and Romney of offering little in terms of substance, opting instead for broad attacks.

    It’s a criticism weathered by both Obama and Romney this week from members of their own party, who worry about the turf over which the campaign will be fought.

    In a memo that received wide media coverage, longtime Democratic operatives Stan Greenberg and James Carville urged the president’s campaign to shift toward a message that “focuses on what we will do to make a better future for the middle class.”

    “They want to know the plans for making things better in a serious way – not just focused on finishing up the work of the recovery,” the pair wrote for the group Democracy Corps.

    Or, as their onetime boss, former President Bill Clinton said on CNN: “I don't think I should have to say bad things about Gov. Romney personally to disagree with him politically.”

    It’s a line of criticism not dissimilar to the frustration Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker voiced this week about the way Romney’s run his campaign.

    “The way he wins is that, if voters see that 'R,' instead of thinking 'Republican,' they think of 'reformer.' Because here's a candidate that has a clear, bold plan to take on both the economic and fiscal crisis our country faces,” he said at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast this week.

    Both the Obama and Romney campaigns have long protested that their positions are not just clear, but detailed as well. The president has pushed for Congress to authorize stalled elements of his American Jobs Act, though no serious political observer expects that to advance through a gridlocked Congress.

    "You might have thought that it would be a moment when he would acknowledge his policy mistakes and suggest a new course," Romney said of Obama's speech on Friday in New Hampshire. "But no. He promised four more years, of more of the same. Four. More. Very. Long. Years."

    "That's really the divide in this race. The president thinks we're on the right track and his policies are working," Romney added. "I believe with all my heart that we can — that we must — do better!"

    Romney has his own 59-point economic plan – a strategy that includes a series of tax cuts and regulatory repeals that, he says, would spur job creation. But his central message on the campaign trail doesn’t revolve around any digestible plan of his own.

    Walker even suggested to reporters that Romney might develop his own version of Herman Cain’s “9-9-9” plan — not in terms of substance, but in terms of crafting an easily recognizable jobs plan that voters would immediately associate with the candidate.

    NBC News' Chuck Todd, the Financial Times' Gillian Tett and "Meet the Press" moderator David Gregory join a conversation on how Obama may be able to frame a winning argument the numbers.

    "The American people I think will rightly demand to know something more than he's not President Obama," Republican Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said on "Fox News Sunday" last weekend. "So, he'd better have an affirmative and constructive message and one of hope."

    There’s still plenty of time for Obama and Romney to craft and debut new plans before voters begin tuning into the election more intently this fall.

    But the general election, so far, has been defined by complaints about its banality — from its Twitter wars to press releases demanding each candidate disavow what a tenuously-related associate has said. And while some elders in each party seem to believe that a bold policy move would give their candidate a leg up, others seem resigned to the emerging dogfight between Romney and Obama.

    "It’s not going to be big on policy," former Republican Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour told reporters on Friday, as reported by TPM. "It’s going to be personal. ‘He doesn’t care about people like you, he’s not like us, he’s mean to his dog, he’s married to a well-certified equestrian.'"

    267 comments

    So Friday we had big news for all tax paying Americans.  Barack Hussein Obama has decided to grant amnesty and legalize "800,000 " (translation = 3+ Million) illegals by executive fiat (actually an affront and straight out lawless act but we can discuss that at another time). Hmmm,  How do you sup …

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  • 5
    Jun
    2012
    2:07am, EDT

    Bill Clinton says Romney would be 'calamitous for our country'

    Former President Bill Clinton is joining forces again with President Barak Obama and holding a series of New York fundraisers. Politico's Roger Simon discusses.

    By Andrew Rafferty, NBC News

    NEW YORK - After earning headlines for becoming the latest Democrat to speak positively of Mitt Romney's history in the private sector, Bill Clinton made clear exactly whose side he's on when he hit the Big Apple on Monday for three joint fundraising appearances with President Barack Obama.

    Electing the Republican nominee would be "calamitous for our country and the world" Clinton said at a reception in private home where tickets went for $40,000.  And at the New Amsterdam Theatre near Times Square, he said: "I don't think it's important to re-elect the president, I think it's essential to re-elect the president."


     

    Follow @AndrewNBCNews

     The trip came less than a week after Clinton drew headlines for becoming the most prominent Democrat to undercut the president's attacks against Romney for his time at Bain Capital.  In an interview on CNN last Thursday, the former president said Romney "had a sterling business career" and described his time as an executive at a private equity firm as "good work."

    And while Clinton did not walk back any of his earlier remarks, he found plenty of other ways to build a case against the former Massachusetts governor.

    "They tell you how terrible this health care bill is," Clinton said of Republicans.  "It's hard for them, since Gov. Romney's finest act as governor was to sign a bill with an individual mandate in it, which he has now renounced."

    Clinton introduced the president at all three appearances here.  Obama asked for his donors support in what he acknowledged will be a tight race, all the while maintaining that he stands for the same issues he did during his 2008 run. 

    "The only reason that this is going to be a close election is because people are still hurting," the president said at the theatre.

    But it is a slip of the tongue at the last event that may garner the most attention from the day trip.  "We are not going back to a set of politics that say you're on you're own.  And that's essentially the theory of the other side.  You know, George Romney," Obama said, referring to the Republican nominee's father before quickly correcting himself.

    Both Romney and Obama have been working furiously to raise cash in an election that will have plenty of money influencing it aside from what the candidates rake in.  Speaking before the crowd that paid at least $250 to hear a concert and two presidents, Obama addressed the role outside groups will play in this year's election.  

    "Sometimes when thing are tough, you just say, well you know what, I'll just keep trying something until something works.  And that's compounded by $500 million in Super PAC negative ads that are going to be run over the course of the next five months," he said.  "And they'll try to feed on those fears and those anxieties and that frustrations.  That's basically the argument the other side is making.  They're not offering anything new, they're just saying 'Things are tough right now and it's Obama's fault.' That pretty much sums it up.  There's no vision for the future there."

    Still, any drop in enthusiasm from his base was hard to decipher.

    "I still believe in you," Obama said to the theatre crowd that interrupted him multiple times with standing ovations. "I hope you still believe in me...when people ask you what this campaign is about, tell them it's still about hope, it's still about change." 

    592 comments

    President Obama inherited the oval office during the Great Recession at it's worst. He did exactly as Bush had begun, throwing money to the largest US employers, not only saving their companies, but the pensions for the workers who had poured their lives into their jobs. The health care bill will be …

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