The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

I haven't heard many in the media mention this bit of irony, but upon hearing that the third and final presidential debate will be held in Boca Raton, Florida on Monday, I busted out laughing. Why did I find this bit of news so funny? That's because in the third and final debate, about two weeks prior to the election, will be held in Boca Raton, where Mitt Romney provided his donors and via a leaked audio tape, millions of Americans, his 47% comments. That's right - "47%" took place in Boca Raton, Florida.  How perfect is that? This sounds too good to be true. While the debate will largely focus on foreign policy, it'd be a crime if the "47%" comments weren't mentioned at least once. Obama has been handed a golden opportunity. If and when Romney attacks him for his bowling skills or whatever is on his mind at the moment, the president can simply respond with, "That reminds me. I love Boca Raton. I think you do too, don't you, Go...

It only took 17 days. Not long after the "47%" video made its rounds on the web and television, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney spoke at a conference that the words he used in the video were "not elegantly stated." He seemed to continue with this language for the coming few days, even defending the accuracy of his video comments, before realizing that this strategy was doing him no good and began telling the American people that he was about the "100%." However, he refused to apologize or admit he was wrong about his remarks. Through these 17 days, Mitt Romney saw polls which showed the gap widening between he and President Obama. He saw other polls which illustrated just how much his "47%" comments had hurt him. Then, 17 days after the onset of the video, he finally altered his tune. Last Thursday night on Fox News, Romney said this: "Well, clearly in a campaign, with hundreds if not thousands of speeches and question-and-...

As most every person knows by now, including babies whom have yet to be born as well as chimpanzees, Mitt Romney was quoted in a Boca Raton May fundraiser as saying, "There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right - there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that, that they are victims, who believe that government has the responsibility to care for them. Who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing." Now it's his running mate - Paul Ryan's turn, who said the following at a keynote address at The American Spectator's  2011 Robert L Bartley Gala Dinner: "Seventy percent of Americans want the American dream. They believe in the American idea. Only 30 percent want the welfare state. Before too long, we could become a society where the net majority of Americans are takers, not makers." Perhaps the two of them can join forces, come to a comp...

A few days ago, I got into a discussion with someone about Mitt Romney's "47%" comment(s). This person insisted that Democrats were the only ones who cared about this comment, this number spouted by the Republican presidential candidate. As I had thought at the time, he was wrong. In a new Washington Post /ABC News poll, it showed that 54% of registered voters viewed Romney's "47%" comments unfavorably, while 33% viewed them favorably. With registered independents, 57% viewed the former Massachusetts Governor's comments in a negative light. Similar numbers could be seen in like polls taken in the battleground states of Florida, Colorado and Wisconsin. In Florida, 58% of independents viewed Romney's comments unfavorably, compared to 37% who viewed them favorably. Among Colorado independents, a whopping 37% of them said the comments made them less likely to vote for Romney. That number in Wisconsin was even greater, as 39% of independents said they...

When in a discussion about Romney's "47%" comments and providing evidence that the Republican candidate was inaccurate with his numbers and whom they represented, I was told to "stop thinking like a Democrat" and told that the only people who care about that "47%" are Democrats. I then provided proof this wasn't entirely accurate, as many conservative pundits have criticized Romney for his remarks, including: David Brooks, Joe Scarborough, David Frum, former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan, Mark McKinnon, Bill Kristol, etc. Several Republican politicians have distanced themselves from Romney since those remarks were made public. I guess my question is, how does one define "thinking like a Democrat" or on the opposite side, "thinking like a Republican?" My intent with my research and fact-checking was not to come across as partisan. It was not my intent to "think like a Democrat." It was simply my intent to get to ...

Once again, as I predicted with regard to Mitt Romney's "47%" comments, he's found himself at an even steeper uphill climb than prior to the video's release. Two polls came out today to illustrate that - from Gallup and Reuters. In the Gallup poll, by nearly a two to one ratio, respondents stated they were now less likely to vote for Romney in the November election due to the video - 36% saying they were less likely, while 20% said they were more likely to vote for the Republican candidate. The ratio was even closer to two to one when it came to Independents - 29% saying they were less likely to vote for Romney and 15% saying they were more likely to vote for him.  The numbers were even more striking in the Reuters poll, where it showed that 43% of registered voters have a less favorable view of Mitt Romney following the video's release. Another 59% said the Republican candidate was being unfair to the 47% of Americans he made remarks about in the video...

In light of the "47%" comment, I've heard that Mitt Romney is set to release a new ad, which goes something like this: "It's sad that due to the current administration's policies, 47% of this nation is fully dependent on government. Even  though a Gallup Poll shows Obama only leads me among these people by a 49-43% margin, it's quite obvious they're all Obama supporters and I really have no need for them. Who needs polls or fact-checkers? They're all liberally-biased anyway - especially those Fox News Polls and also the dictionary. This reminds me of a story of a boy - we'll call him Mitt - who built everything himself without any help along the way. His father - we'll call him George - may have paid for his boy's boarding school, college, graduate school, first home and well, I should probably stop right there. Yes, the boy in the story is me - Mittens Willard Romney. I used to be of the 47% in a way, but now am not, so I don't...

Over the past couple days, the Mitt Romney secret video has dominated the news-cycle. In a sad attempt to divert the media's attention elsewhere, the Romney team released a video clip of Barack Obama saying this in a speech he gave in 1998 (yes - 14 years ago): "The trick is figuring out how do we structure government systems that pool resources and hence facilitate some redistribution because I actually believe in redistribution, at least at a certain level to make sure everybody's got a shot." Contrast this with what Mitt Romney said during his May fundraiser in Boca Raton: "There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that's an entitlement...

Seriously... These past 2.5 weeks have been a disaster for the Romney campaign. Running mate Paul Ryan made Pinocchio sound like Jesus with all the lying he did during his speech at the Republican National Convention. Clint Eastwood rambled to an empty chair at the RNC for 12 minutes. Romney flip-flopped on healthcare more than Gene Simmons got blown by a complete stranger. Ryan tried explaining his vote for a cut in military spending as a vote for anything other than a cut in military spending. Mitt Romney then accused President Obama of sympathizing with the attackers in Egypt and Libya based on a statement sent from the U.S. Embassy in Cairo of which Obama had no part prior to the attacks. Now a video has been released of Romney saying the following at a closed-door gathering with several large donors on hand: "There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right -- there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent on governmen...