Washington Times: “[Romney] clearly has spent tens of millions of dollars of his own money in Iowa and New Hampshire, but he steadfastly declines to say how much—The Romney campaign suffers from a glaring transparency deficiency, which it should address at once”

January 9, 2008 in 2008, analysis, argument, campaign finance, campaign management, election 2008, GOP, mitt romney, republicans, romney, the dark soul of Mitt Romney, triumph of unreason
Tags: abuse, campaign finance, campaign mismanagement, campaign spending, corruption, Dollars per Delegate, Dollars per Vote, fraud, lies, New Hampshire Edition, obfuscation, washington times, waste

“In recent months Mitt Romney, whose personal fortune is estimated to be as much as a quarter of a billion dollars, blanketed the airwaves of Iowa and New Hampshire with dozens of campaign advertisements,” write the editors of the Washington Times in an article titled Romney and his money

[Romney] clearly has spent tens of millions of dollars of his own money in Iowa and New Hampshire, but he steadfastly declines to say how much. The Romney campaign suffers from a glaring transparency deficiency, which it should address at once.

Mr. Romney has every right to bankroll his presidential campaign with his own money. No argument here. But why has he refused to tell voters how much of his personal fortune he has funneled to his campaign since the end of the third quarter?

On Jan. 4, the day after Mike Huckabee defeated Mr. Romney in Iowa, this newspaper asked the Romney campaign to say how much Mr. Romney had personally contributed since Sept. 30. During the first nine months of last year, Mr. Romney had given his campaign $17.4 million, about 90 percent more than the $9.2 million in the campaign’s cash-on-hand on Sept. 30 […]

Yet the Romneys refuse to release their fourth quarter numbers until the filing deadline of Jan. 31. This date falls after the primary contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan, Nevada, South Carolina, and Florida.

Also from the article, Romney’s fund raising “declined from US$20.8 million in the first quarter to US$13.9 million in the second, to less than US$10 million in the third.”

Romney increased his own contributions to compensate.

Conclusion: The Romney campaign is a Potemkin village.

yours &c.
dr. d.g.

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Primary voters in NH: Romney practiced dirty politics

January 8, 2008 in 2008, argument, campaign management, conservatism, election 2008, GOP, media, mitt romney, republicans, romney, strategy, stupidity, the dark soul of Mitt Romney, triumph of unreason
Tags: abuse, dirty politics anger, dirty tricks, dishonesty, foxnews.com, fraud, negative attacks, negative campaigning, negativity, polling, polls, waste

“Republican primary voters in New Hampshire were asked which Republican candidate practiced dirty politics the most during the campaign, with 39 percent naming Mitt Romney, according to a FOX News Election Day poll,” writes anonymous in a foxnews.com release titled FOX News Poll: New Hampshire Republican Primary Voters Say Romney Played Dirty Politics Most

The poll found that no other Republican candidate was named by 10 percent or more (32 percent did not name anyone).

Of those voters who said that Romney practiced dirty politics the most, over half (56 percent) voted for John McCain.

The poll consisted of 800 telephone interviews with Republican primary voters in New Hampshire, conducted the evening of January 7 and throughout election-day on January 8 […]

You don’t say.

yours &c.
dr. g.d.

More Romney astroturfing: Jews for Mitt?

January 8, 2008 in campaign communications, campaign communiques, election 2008, GOP, media, mitt romney, republicans, rhetoric, romney, stupidity, the dark soul of Mitt Romney, triumph of unreason
Tags: astroturf, astroturfing, evangelicals for mitt, fakery, flak-claque fraud-blog, fraud, idiots, jews for mitt, morons, new media

Astroturf defined here.

Flak-claque fraud-blog Jews for Mitt available here.

Evidence of Romney’s profound respect for the Jews available here.

yours &c.
dr. g.d.

Brody of the BrodyFile: “When he goes negative against Huckabee and McCain, it plays into the perception that is already formed about him. It makes him look desperate”

December 30, 2007 in 2008, analysis, argument, campaign communications, campaign communiques, campaign literature, campaign management, conservatism, election 2008, Evangelicals, GOP, incompetence, Iowa, media, mitt romney, policy, polls, republicans, rhetoric, romney, strategy, stupidity, the dark soul of Mitt Romney
Tags: abuse, cbn.com, David Brody, desperation, fairness, fraud, hatred, Iowa, negative attacks, negative campaigning, negativity, New Hampshire

“CBNNews.com – First Mitt Romney went negative on Mike Huckabee in Iowa after he saw his lead slip away. (oh, wait,, that’s right he was just contrasting positions because he just has a “fundamental disagreement” with Huckabee..right),” writes an incredulous David Brody for CBN’s The Brody File in a post aptly titled Is Romney Desperate?

The last week or so he’s been going negaive on McCain in New Hampshire where he sees his lead slipping away there as well.

Listen, negative attacks are part of campaigning. Most candidates engage in them. But here’s the problem when it comes to Romney.

Fair or not, perceived or otherwise, Romney has developed the reputation as someone who will change positions or just say anything to get elected President. When he goes negative against Huckabee and McCain, it plays into the perception that is already formed about him. It makes him look desperate. The mental picture is that Romney’s arms are flailing in every direction looking to hit something. McCain on taxes may work but Romney has some of his own issues with increasing fees in Massachusetts. Hitting Huckabee on immigration may also work but Romney needs to duck for cover on that issue too because of some of his past statements.

We concur. See:

• Romney’s bitter and personal attacks on other candidates tearing the GOP apart
• Romney’s negative campaigning: is Romney willing to take the party down with him?
• Romney circles drain, goes desperately negative in Iowa AND New Hampshire

Back to Brody:

The problem here for Romney is that he’s not pure on these issues either so everytime he attacks, he gives his opponents a chance to strike back. John McCcain has been skewering Romney lately by mouth and press release.

In other words, when Romney attacks e.g. Sen. McCain, he provides the Senator sudden and immediate earned media opportunities the Senator would not otherwise enjoy—in still other words, Romney’s high-risk, high-cost strategy drives, perversely, the costs of other campaigns down.

Back to Brody:

Romney makes himself out to be a Reagan conservative (remember, he represents the “Republican wing of the Repulican party”) and has been calling out everybody else’s shortcomings. The issue though is that Romney hasn’t been a Reagan conservative long enough to build up the “street cred” to do his attacking.

The emphases are ours, all ours.

Here is where we discuss what it means for a candidate with high negatives—e.g., Romney—to go negative against competitors with lower negatives:

Rasmussen Reports: Romney has the least core support, and the most core opposition of all the leading candidates, Republican or Democrat—these findings predict the sudden and fierce backlash against Romney’s negative attacks on other candidates

To address Brody’s question, is Romney’s desperate?—whether desperate or not he is certainly hostile, abusive, and mean-spirited.

yours &c.
dr. g.d.

Romney’s bitter and personal attacks on other candidates tearing the GOP apart

December 29, 2007 in 2008, argument, campaign communications, campaign literature, campaign management, conservatism, election 2008, Evangelicals, GOP, incompetence, Iowa, media, mitt romney, policy, polls, republicans, rhetoric, romney, strategy, stupidity, the dark soul of Mitt Romney, triumph of unreason
Tags: abuse, Boston Globe, fraud, gov. mike huckabee, lies, negative attacks, negative campaigning, negativity, pig, Susan Milligan, swine, www.boston.com

“INDIANOLA, Iowa — Mike Huckabee called chief rival Mitt Romney ‘dishonest” today for what Huckabee said were gross distortions of his record, and said voters should question whether Romney would tell the truth if he were elected president,” writes Susan Milligan for the Boston Globe in an an article titled Huckabee says Romney is ‘dishonest’

“If a person will become president by being dishonest, just remember, if he becomes president, he likely will not be honest on the job,” Huckabee told voters at a restaurant campaign stop.

So apparently distressed at Romney’s criticism, Huckabee refused even to commit to voting for Romney for president if the former Massachusetts governor wins the Republican nomination. “I would never vote for a Democrat in the presidential election next year,” Huckabee said. But asked if he would prefer an honest Democrat to a “dishonest” Republican, Huckabee refused to answer … etc.

Thank you, Gov. Huckabee. We concur. Here is the problem for the party: Romney alienates and estranges all with whom he comes in contact—he had divided the other candidates against him—he is tearing the Republican coalition, the sad remnants that may be left of it, apart.

Question: Are we who value the person, character, and message of Gov. Mike Huckabee—or that of Sen. McCain, or that of Mayor Giuliani, or that of Sen. Fred Thompson—supposed to forgive and forget Romney’s lies, calumnies, and unprovoked abuse in the name of party unity?

Also, did Sen. McCain call Romney a pig? We sure hope so.

yours &c.
dr. g.d.

John Cronin claims Romney not responsible for “Big Dig” debacle despite Romney’s televised promises as governor to get to the bottom of the dangerous, deadly project

November 9, 2007 in 2008, campaign communications, campaign communiques, campaign literature, campaign management, election 2008, gaffs and pratfalls, GOP, incompetence, mitt romney, policy, republicans, rhetoric, romney, stupidity, the dark soul of Mitt Romney, triumph of unreason
Tags: abuse, alibis, big dig, corruption, electromneyin2008.com, fraud, john cronin, lies, waste

“Now, here is where those pesky things we call ‘facts’ come into play,” writes John Cronin for electromneyin2008.com in a post titled I’ll Thank You Not To Cloud This Debate With Facts

John is true to his word. He never tries to “cloud [the] debate with facts.” Here is what he is responding to:

forget the winter olympics that no one remembers anyway: “[Romney] presided over the opening of the most corrupt and most expensive public works project in U.S. history”

Here is John’s limp rejoinder:

… The project was first conceived in the early ’70’s. Fact: Mitt Romney was in France in the early seventies, working as a Mormon missionary. Fact: Mitt Romney had nothing to do with the planning of the project. Fact: The project was considered too expensive by President Reagan and he vetoed the bill, which Congress promptly over rode. The initial work on the project began in 1983, a time when Mitt Romney was in the private sector and would not begin his public service for more than a decade. Fact: By the time MR became the Governor of Massachusetts, the “Big Dig” and been a work in progress for 20 years …

Correction: These are not facts, John. These are alibis—e.g. : Officer, my client was proselytizing among the French when this project was conceived. And my client was in the private sector when Reagan tried to kill the project and when the project began etc., etc.

Here is the problem, John. Your alibis contradict the Romney-as-leader, Romney-as-problem-solver topos that the Romney campaign retails, because it is also a “fact”—as you yourself concede—that Romney was governor of MA when the Big Dig began to return its grim dividends of death and disaster. Yet Romney did nothing. Where, John, was your (in)famous “turn-around manager” Romney then?! That’s the question, John, not who conceived of, or initiated, the Big Dig.

So Gregg Jackson answers in advance your counter-argument in his initial argument when he writes:

… Mitt went on TV and said he would get to the bottom of this dangerous, deadly project. But he didn’t. Here was a public safety issue a conservative could have made a presidential-run-reputation on, exposing the Democrat corruption and fixing the problems. But he ignored it, preserving the public health menace for future victims. Instead, he took campaign contributions from international Big Dig contractors … etc., etc.

yours &c.
dr. g.d.

is Romney the GOP’s last, best hope?

October 22, 2007 in 2008, campaign communications, campaign management, conservatism, election 2008, GOP, media, mitt romney, policy, republicans, rhetoric, romney, strategy, stupidity, the dark soul of Mitt Romney, triumph of unreason
Tags: faker, fraud, huckster, ideological cross-dresser, matt taibbi, rolling stone

Here’s Mitt Romney in a nutshell, writes Matt Taibbi in a Rolling Stone release titled Mitt Romney: The Huckster

During a town-hall event at a chapel in Merrimack, New Hampshire, some stammering yahoo in the back row gets up and asks the slick Mormon venture capitalist just exactly what he means when he says he plans to “change the face of the Middle East.” “I want to know where you stand on that,” the yutz pleads. “Your answer will determine whether I want to vote for you.” Romney smiles, humbly accepting the challenge. When it comes to the satanic art of presidential campaigning, this lean, heavily moussed political athlete is a stone prodigy, a natural who glides through campaign events with the aid of some dark supernatural power – a tie-clad, sweat-resistant cross of Roy Hobbs and Rosemary’s Baby. As he ponders the question about the Middle East, you can almost see the Terminator display screen behind his eyes, calibrating to the hundredth of a centimeter the exact distance to his questioner and quickly selecting from a prefab list of responses.

“Well,” Romney says sunnily. “What I’d like to see is, I’d like to see a Palestinian state at peace, where Israel and Palestine are at peace” … etc., etc.

Just damn. Why didn’t anyone else think of that!?

yours &c.
dr. g.d

laserhaas provides more material on the Romney-eToys scandal

October 12, 2007 in 2008, analysis, election 2008, GOP, mitt romney, republicans, romney
Tags: abuse, etoy scandal, etoys, fraud, inscrutable legalese, laserhaas, scandal, waste

You can find it here and here, attached as responsa to our August 30, 2007 post titled evidence of Romney corruption and incompetence continues to build; GOP needs to start thinking post-Romney.

Thank you, Laserhaas.

yours &c.
dr. g.d.