Folks, You cant afford to miss this.....you will see why Mitt was bubbling about Detroit during the 2nd debate.......and why his condition is well defined as Romnesia and for which he surely will benefit from Obamacare for pre-condition situation........ People, you will see why the Mormon abandoned Mitt like a hot potatoe from Salt Lake City in favor of President Obama............ Sit square in order you can consume this hot stuff with ease....all about Romney's "sketchy deals"......... It is Hot, very Hot .......... Judy Miriga Diaspora Spokesperson Executive Director Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc., USA http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com Romney's Bain Selling Out American Workers to China Published on Oct 10, 2012 by Steelworkers Mitt Romney and Bain Capital continue to move good, American jobs overseas for big profits. Watch and share the story of Sensata workers in Freeport, Ill., to see how selling out American workers and moving jobs to China continues to line Romney's pockets. nothing against these people - but romney has done worse search Mitt Romney's Bailout Bonanza. but that is capitalism for you - all the power is with the capital - people without capital - are workers for capital - not his fault -yes, hes a liar and an exploiter - but that is the system. Greg Palast: "Mitt Romney's Bailout Bonanza: How He Made Millions From The Rescue of Detroit" Published on Oct 18, 2012 by democracynow DemocracyNow.org - We turn now to a major new exposé on the cover of The Nation magazine called, "Mitt Romney's Bailout Bonanza: How He Made Millions From The Rescue of Detroit." Investigative reporter Greg Palast reveals how Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney made some $15 million on the auto bailout and that three of Romney's top donors made more than $4 billion for their hedge funds from the bailout. Palast's report is part of a film-in-progress called, "Romney's Bailout Bonanza." Palast is the author of several books, including recently released New York Times best seller, "Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal An Election in 9 Easy Steps." "Mitt Romney's Bailout Bonanza: How He Made Millions from the Rescue of Detroit" (1 of 2) Published on Oct 18, 2012 by alowlyapprentice The Nation magazine called "Mitt Romney's Bailout Bonanza: How He Made Millions from the Rescue of Detroit." Investigative reporter Greg Palast reveals how Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney made some $15 million on the auto bailout and that three of Romney's top donors made more than $4 billion for their hedge funds from the bailout. Palast's report is part of a film-in-progress called "Romney's Bailout Bonanza." Palast is the author of several books, including recently released New York Times bestseller, "Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps." Mitt Romney's Bailout Bonanza  (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) This investigation was supported by the Investigative Fund at the Nation Institute and by the Puffin Foundation. Elements of it appear in Palast's new book, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps (Seven Stories). Research assistance by Zach D. Roberts, Ari Paul, Nader Atassi and Eric Wuestewald. Mitt Romney's opposition to the auto bailout has haunted him on the campaign trail, especially in Rust Belt states like Ohio. There, in September, the Obama campaign launched television ads blasting Romney's November 2008 New York Times op-ed, "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt." But Romney has done a good job of concealing, until now, the fact that he and his wife, Ann, personally gained at least $15.3 million from the bailout—and a few of Romney's most important Wall Street donors made more than $4 billion. Their gains, and the Romneys', were astronomical—more than 3,000 percent on their investment. It all starts with Delphi Automotive, a former General Motors subsidiary whose auto parts remain essential to GM's production lines. No bailout of GM—or Chrysler, for that matter—could have been successful without saving Delphi. So, in addition to making massive loans to automakers in 2009, the federal government sent, directly or indirectly, more than $12.9 billion to Delphi—and to the hedge funds that had gained control over it. One of the hedge funds profiting from that bailout—
$1.28 billion so far—is Elliott Management, directed by
Paul Singer. According to The Wall Street Journal, Singer has given more to support GOP candidates—$2.3 million—than anyone else on Wall Street this election season. His personal giving is matched by that of his colleagues at Elliott; collectively, they have donated $3.4 million to help elect Republicans this season, while giving only $1,650 to Democrats. And Singer is influential with the GOP presidential candidate; he's not only an informal adviser but, according to the Journal, his support was critical in helping push Representative Paul Ryan onto the ticket. Singer, whom Fortune magazine calls a "passionate defender of the 1%," has carved out a specialty investing in distressed firms and distressed nations, which he does by buying up their debt for pennies on the dollar and then demanding payment in full. This so-called "vulture investor" received $58 million on Peruvian debt that he snapped up for $11.4 million, and $90 million on Congolese debt that he bought for a mere $20 million. In the process, he's built one of the largest private equity firms in the nation, and over decades he's racked up an unusually high average return on investments of 14 percent. Other GOP presidential hopefuls chased Singer's endorsement, but Mitt chased Singer with his own checkbook, investing at least $1 million with Elliott through Ann Romney's blind trust (it could be far more, but the Romneys have declined to disclose exactly how much). Along the way, Singer gained a reputation, according to Fortune, "for strong-arming his way to profit." That is certainly what happened at Delphi. Sensata: Mitt Romney profits as Bain sends American jobs to ChinaMon Oct 15, 2012 at 09:27 AM PDT When, in his first debate with President Obama, Mitt Romney claimed to know nothing about tax breaks for shipping jobs overseas, did he spare a thought for workers at Sensata Technologies, a company controlled by Bain Capital with significant investments from Romney himself, who are about to become unemployed as their jobs are moved to China? Romney said to Obama that "you said you get a deduction for taking a plant overseas. Look, I've been in business for 25 years. I have no idea what you're talking about. I maybe need to get a new accountant." Obama was right; Romney was wrong. Romney wasn't just wrong, though. He was heartless, dismissing the possibility of tax breaks for offshoring plants as a matter for his accountant, not a matter of people's lives and livelihoods. And at the very moment he was saying this, Sensata workers in Illinois were fighting to keep their jobs from going to Chinese replacement workers they had been forced to train themselves. Though Sensata is very profitable, Bain saw a chance for more profits in China, and saw 170 American jobs as disposable in pursuit of that profit. The Sensata workers have been fighting for months, fighting to save their jobs or even to get people to pay attention to what's happening to them. They're not just losing jobs they've held for decades, in some cases. Workers close to retirement won't get their retirement. Instead, they'll get severance. But severance packages were cut shortly before the layoffs were announced, so that, for instance, one worker who would have gotten more than a year of severance pay will now only get 26 weeks. This is a fight for what they've earned through years of hard work. It's a fight for their ability to pay the mortgage or send their kids to college, for their lives as they have lived them for decades working in this plant. They've fought to get a moment of Mitt Romney's attention, anything beyond a canned statement that he has nothing to do with the offshoring he'll profit from. When they tried to deliver a letter to Romney at a Romney campaign office, campaign staffers called the police on them. They've delivered 35,000 petition signatures to Bain Capital asking for their jobs to be saved. They've camped out outside the factory, and three of their supporters, including the teenage daughter of a Sensata worker, have been arrested trying to block equipment from being moved out of the plant. And for Mitt Romney, this is a glib line about needing a better accountant. It's about squeezing a little more out of the tens of millions of dollars he gets from Bain every year. Not that voters would know anything about it if he did, since he's so determined to hide his tax returns from us peons. We do know that Romney has already gotten personal tax savings for donating Sensata stock to charitable foundations. Beyond that? He won't let us know what he's been up to. It is true that the amount of the tax break Sensata stands to get for moving operations overseas is small compared to the amount it will save by cutting well-paid jobs in America and replacing them with jobs paying 99 cents an hour, 12 hours a day in China. But I guarantee you Romney's accountant knows all about it—and that Romney does, too. Even in the middle of a tight race for president, Mitt Romney doesn't care to help these workers. Maybe if they were from Ohio, not Illinois, things would be different. But they're just workers making him profit, not valuable swing-state voters, so to Romney, these Americans are disposable.
Tagg Romney's Company Misled Reporters About Its Relationship With Ponzi Scheme–Linked Firm The private equity firm run by Tagg Romney—Mitt's eldest son, who is now taking a leadership role in guiding his father's presidential campaign—misled reporters last year about its involvement with a company run by men accused of taking part in a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme. Last year, I reported that Tagg had formed a business partnership with several North Carolina investors who are still facing a lawsuit for receiving bonus pay for selling CDs as part of the $8 billion Stanford Financial Group Ponzi scheme. In a nutshell, Tagg helped these investors form a company—called Solamere Advisors, a nod to Tagg's firm Solamere Capital—shortly after their boss, Allen Stanford, was caught by law enforcement for his elaborate Ponzi fraud. When I interviewed him in Las Vegas, Tagg told me that his associates were "cleared" of any wrongdoing associated with the Stanford Ponzi scheme. Court documents directly contradict Tagg and show that the lawsuit has not been dismissed. The New York Times followed up on my story with its own report and confirmed that Tagg's business partners received incentive pay for selling bunk Stanford CDs. They wrote about one Stanford victim, a local Charlotte businessman and philanthropist named Herman Stone. Stone was pressured by Brandon Phillips, an executive working now for Tagg's firm, into putting $2 million into a fraudulent Stanford CD and lost everything. Solamere Capital attempted to distance itself from the story by claiming that their business was not actually connected to the Ponzi-tainted firm, Solamere Advisors. In a statement to ABC News, they claimed that their managers, not Solamere Capital itself, were involved (emphasis added):
However, Solamere Capital's statement, provided to ABC News, is false. Disclosures from the Securities and Exchange Commission show that Tagg's company indeed maintains ties with the Ponzi-linked firm, Solamere Advisors. The claim that Solamere Group didn't invest directly in Solamere Advisors, the firm employing former Stanford employees, appears to have been an attempt to shield Mitt Romney. Mitt invested about $10 million into Tagg's Solamere Capital venture, which would suggest Mitt has a direct financial relationship with folks involved in a Ponzi scheme. That's because Solamere Capital pools together investment money to co-invest in other companies. According to this form and this form filed with the SEC, Solamere Group owns a large stake in Solamere Advisors (referred to in the documents as "CAMG Solamere.") So it is impossible to argue that Solamere Capital—the Romney family's investment company—does not have direct financial ties with Solamere Advisors, the firm filled with executives who sold CDs as part of the Stanford fraud. The Stanford scandal is second only to the case of Bernie Madoff. The disclosures are made on part of the SEC website enhanced by the new Dodd-Frank law, the Wall Street reform Romney says he wants to repeal. For more on the complex web of relationships spun by Tagg Romney's private equity firm, see my new story for The Nation and the Nation Institute. Republican Party voter registration worker: 'I don't get credit for Democrats' A man registering voters in Nevada may have implicated the Republican Party in a felony when was caught on video recently telling potential voters to register "non-partisan" because "I don't get credit for Democrats." Nevada television station KOLO obtained cell phone video of a man, who claimed he worked for the Republican Party, revealing that he was paid by the number of voters he registers, but only if they were not Democrats. "Could you do me a favor?" the man asked a potential voter. "Mark non-partisan on there. I'll get credit for it. I don't get credit for Democrats." "I am a Democrat," he added. "So I still do Democrats if I have to, but I'm working for the Republican Party. I have to get two an hour and I don't get credit for Democrats." According to the Nevada Revised Statutes, "It is unlawful for a person to provide compensation for registering voters that is based upon: (a) The total number of voters a person registers; or (b) The total number of voters a person registers in a particular political party." Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller, a Democrat, told KOLO that he prosecuted ACORN in 2008 for paying bonuses based on the number of registrations, but enforcing the law might not be possible in this case because there was no clear violation. "It is alarming that he was making some suggestion that he wouldn't be credited for a registration if it came under a particular party affiliation, but there's no explanation what that meant," Miller said. A spokesperson for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said that he was not aware of any paid workers registering voters on behalf of the campaign when that video was recorded last Friday, the station reported. Watch this video from KOLO, broadcast Oct. 10, 2012. Voter Register Caught On Video: "I Don't Get Credit For Democrats"Posted: Fri 12:25 PM, Oct 12, 2012 As the final deadline for voter registration draws near, political parties are scrambling to get their people signed up. Along the way some of their tactics are raising eyebrows. A KOLO 8 viewer caught one example on his cell phone Friday. Noticing a man registering voters outside the main post office on Vassar he says he couldn't believing what he was hearing as he passed. So he returned to engage the man in conversation and took video of it all on his cell phone.. It all seemed normal at first. "It's your last hour to register to vote," the man said. "Are you registering both parties?" our viewer asked. The man said yes, but then the conversation took the same strange turn our viewer thought he'd heard in passing. "Could you do me a favor?" the man asked. "Mark non-partisan on there. I'll get credit for it. I don't get credit for Democrats. I am a Democrat," he continued. "So I still do Democrats if I have to, but I'm working for the Republican Party. I have to get two an hour and I don't get credit for Democrats." There are legal boundaries which can be crossed when you pay someone to register voters. According to Secretary of State Ross Miller it's a felony to compensate someone for registering if you compensate them based on the total number of voters they are registering. In fact, in 2008 Miller did prosecute the now defunct ACORN organization. "In ACORN we obtained a criminal conviction because they were paying bonuses based on the total number they were able to register. The Supreme Court upheld that," says Miller. But the law does allow for an employer to set performance standards. in this case. It's not clear what the payment arrangement was, "It is alarming that he was making some suggestion that he wouldn't be credited for a registration if it came under a particular party affiliation, but there's no explanation what that meant." Bottom line: The man's request was inappropriate, perhaps even disturbing, but the video didn't show a clear violation of the law. Once someone has filled out a voter registration form, that form must be turned in within 10 days. There have been allegations that may not always happen. "We have had complaints this cycle that forms have been destroyed by political parties if people don't register with that political party and so we urge people to log onto our website and make sure that they are, in fact, registered." That website is http://nvsos.gov/index.aspx?page=3 Miller says if they see a problem they should report it to his office for investigation. A spokesman for the Romney campaign says to his knowledge, they had only volunteer, no paid voter register people in the field last Friday. He acknowledged that independent groups have had voter registration drives. Republican worker hired to collect voter registration forms caught 'dumping them in the trash' |  Fraud: Colin Small, 31, of Pennsylvania, has been arrested for alleged voter fraud after he was caught trying to destroy voter registration forms in Virginia A man hired by the Republican Party of Virginia to register voters in the state has been arrested for alleged voter fraud after he was caught trying to destroy registration forms, according to police. The suspect, 31-year-old Colin Small of Pheonixville, Pennsylvania, was described by police as a 'supervisor' in a Republican-financed operation to register voters. Small was arrested after a store owner in Harrisonburg, Virginia spotted him throwing a trash bag into a dumpster belonging to the store -- which is located in the same shopping center as the town's local GOP headquarters. The store owner, Rob Johnson, says he was agitated by Small's use of his 'private' dumpster so he marched out to the trash container to fish out the bag. 'When I reached in and picked up the bag, I thought it was an empty bag and that's when I opened it up and saw just the single manilla folder with the eight or nine applications inside,' Johnson toldWHSV in Rockingham County. 'If I really wanted to take advantage of the situation, I could have had eight or nine nice credit cards,' Johnson added. 'All the information was there!' Small was charged Thursday with 13 felony misdemeanor counts relating to voter fraud, including one count of obstruction of justice, four counts of destruction of voter registration applications and eight counts of disclosure of voter registration applications.  Spotted: Harrisonburg store owner Rob Johnson caught Small tossing voter registration forms in a dumpster that is in the same shopping center as the town's GOP headquarters Police say that while Small was working for the Republican Party, his crime was not politically motivated because in Virginia, voters do not indicate a political party on voter registration forms. There was no way for Small to know whether the forms he was tossing belonged to Democrats or Republicans. The forms were thrown out on Oct. 15, the deadline to register to vote in the upcoming Nov. 6 election. Small was employed by a payroll company called Pinpoint, which was contracted by the Virginia Republican Party to register voters in the battleground state. Small's employment was terminated upon his arrest and Virginia Republicans have since tried to distance themselves from the incident.  Working for Republicans: Small was employed by a payroll company called Pinpoint, which was contracted by the Virginia Republican Party to register voters in the battleground state Party chairman Pat Mullins said he alarmed by the allegations, which he noted are a 'direct contradiction' to Small's training and instructions. Pinpoint, the company Small worked for, has been hired in the past by Republican consulting firm Strategic Allied Consulting, which was recently fired by the Republican National Committee following reports that its workers had submitted hundreds of suspicious voter registrations in Florida, according to NBC News. The Virginia Democratic Party is requesting an investigation into whether the alleged voter fraud is widespread, although Harrisonburg police said it appears to be an isolated incident. Read more: Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2220265/Republican-worker-charged-voter-fraud-throwing-voter-registration-forms-dumpster.html#ixzz29x0vBbIh Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook Unsuspecting voters caught in GOP registration scandalBy Pat Beall and Stacey Singer Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 7:44 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012
South Carolina residents George and Carolyn Schiessl won't be voting in Palm Beach County this November. But somebody tried to make sure they could. Carolyn Schiessl said the only recent political conversation she had was to allow her name to be used as a supporter of Mitt Romney. But no one has contacted her about voter registration in Palm Beach County — and why would they, she added: "I live in South Carolina." Paperwork using the Schiessls' name is among 106 suspect voter registration documents at the heart of a criminal investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. All were submitted by Strategic Allied Consulting, a firm linked to controversial Arizona political consultant Nathan Sproul. Sproul, who has done millions of dollars in business for Republicans over the years — including work for the Mitt Romney campaign — was fired by both the Republican National Committee and the Republican Party of Florida when irregularities here and in 10 other Florida counties surfaced last month. A Palm Beach Post review of the 106 Palm Beach County voter registration forms shows that the overwhelming majority are for Republican voters. Few were for new voters; instead, more than half involved obtaining a replacement voter registration card or placing a new signature on file with the supervisor of elections. Among the red flags: • Out-of-state residents from Michigan, New Jersey, Virginia, New York and South Carolina all filed registration paperwork for Palm Beach County voter credentials. Dozens more listed addresses in Florida cities outside the county, including Orlando, Clearwater and Jacksonville. • Several people filed paperwork requesting replacement voter cards from Palm Beach County, yet there was no record of them ever having been a registered voter. • Of the 106 voter forms, roughly 45 did not provide mandatory identification such as the last four digits of a Social Security number or a driver's license. • More than a half-dozen forms listed business addresses, rather than residences, as required. For instance, a couple identifying themselves as Anna and Abraham Abramovich tried to register using the address of a Shell gas station on Alton Road in Miami Beach. Signatures for both were very similar in style to other signatures in the batch of 106 registration forms, Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher said. Two registrants offered the same address — 915 S. Dixie Hwy, the address of Palm Beach Motorcars, the Jaguar, Aston Martin, Land Rover and Fisker luxury auto dealership in downtown West Palm Beach. They were signed with the names Sam Samuel and Robert Simpson. Robert W. Simpson Jr. is the president of Palm Beach Motorcars. Contacted at his office on Wednesday and asked if he had legitimately submitted the flagged voter registration paperwork, Simpson said he was aware of the situation but couldn't discuss it because "it's being investigated by the Florida law enforcement agency." Other items concerned Bucher. A voter who wrote down a Boca Raton address reportedly moved to North Carolina in 2009. An Orlando man had a signature substantially different from the signature already on file. In fact, a number of signatures looked alike, Bucher said. Strategic Allied fired William T. Hazard of Boynton Beach on Sept. 18, about two weeks after Bucher's Palm Beach Gardens office detected irregularities with forms he collected. Hazard, 50, told the Los Angeles Times that he was paid $12 an hour and not paid by number of forms, so he said he would have had no incentive to falsify applications. Brian Burgess, communications director for the Republican Party of Florida, said he's convinced the irregularities were the result of a few bad employees. "The media would love to think this was an organized effort. Obviously what you have here is a bad apple, maybe two or three," Burgess said. Strategic Allied was paid $1.3 million this summer by the party at the behest of the Republican National Committee, which sent it and other swing states "victory dollars" to pay for voter turnout initiatives, he said. "They had a program already designed, they had a vendor in mind and so we followed their lead," Burgess said of the RNC. Sproul's company was assigned with "registering as many people as possible before the deadline," Burgess said. FDLE investigators need to move quickly, said Scott Arceneaux, executive director of the Florida Democratic Party, so that that election supervisors can weed out problem registrations before Election Day. He called on the Republican Party of Florida to be more forthcoming about what they knew and when they knew it. "It takes a lot of brass to argue and scream about voter fraud for a year and a half when you are the ones committing the voter fraud. And that's what we have seen here." It's not the first time a Sproul firm has encountered controversy. Sproul and his companies never have been formally charged with wrongdoing. But starting in 2004, two U.S. senators and a congressman asked for federal investigations of Sproul's voter registration activities. Allegations of possible criminal activity in registration campaigns triggered inquiries by attorneys general or elections officials in three states. In Washington, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., this month asked Sproul to appear before staff of the Congressional Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Sproul refused. Writing on behalf of his client, attorney Frederick Petti said, "Although Mr. Sproul appreciates your offer … he believes that the most appropriate avenue is to remain clear of the realm of politics, especially given the closeness of Election Day." 'Irregular' registrationsThe state is investigating whether 106 registration forms filed in Palm Beach County by one company working for the GOP constitute criminal fraud. The Palm Beach Post inspected the records Wednesday through a public records request after pursuing them for two weeks. Obama camp knocks Romney's 'chest-pounding' foreign policy White House CorrespondenThe Ticket – 3 hrs ago
"This is somebody who leads with chest-pounding rhetoric," campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters aboard Air Force One. "He's surrounded himself with a number of people who were advisers to past President Bush, people who have used saber-rattling rhetoric when it comes to Syria and Iran," she said. "And that's something that we think the American people should take a look at." But she also claimed that Romney's speech at the Virginia Military Institute aimed to "reboot" his foreign policy after a series of troubled attempts—notably a summertime overseas trip marred by verbal missteps. "When you're commander in chief you don't get to bring an Etch A Sketch into the Oval Office. You don't get second chances, never mind seventh chances," she said. (But presidential foreign policy has to adapt: Obama's approach to Iran, for example, went from offering unconditional negotiations during the 2008 campaign to overseeing the toughest economic sanctions regime against Tehran by 2012.) Psaki noted Romney's criticisms of the troop withdrawal from Iraq, saying "that's one of the president's proudest accomplishments." And she scolded the Republican for saying Obama had not signed any trade agreements, calling that charge "absurd" and "inaccurate" since the president "renegotiated" commercial pacts with South Korea, Colombia and Panama and then signed them. White House press secretary Jay Carney accused Romney of making "an attempt to draw a distinction and to suggest that this president's commitment to Israel's security is not strong." "And yet Israel's leaders themselves have said that military cooperation and support, and intelligence cooperation and support from this president and this administration is unprecedented in the U.S.-Israeli relationship," Carney said. Obama's personal relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is famously frosty, and Romney is closer to Netanyahu on the Iran nuclear issue. Obama has said he won't rule out the use of military force to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. Romney (and Netanyahu) has said the key is preventing Tehran from attaining the ability to build a nuclear weapon. On Iran, "there has been a lot of heated rhetoric and chest-thumping," Carney told reporters. "But every concrete prescription that the president's critics, including Gov. Romney, have put forward—concrete prescriptions that make sense—have been acted on," he said. Psaki and Carney also defended Obama's handling of the broader Middle East. Romney "said that the president and his team are not doing enough when it comes to Syria, when it comes to Libya, and several events in the Middle East," Psaki said. "What exactly are they suggesting we do? What exactly is their plan and their proposal? So if they're going farther, they should say that." FACT CHECK: A one-sided story on trade, defense Associated Press/Mary Altaffer - Vietnam veteran David Snyder of Metamora, Ohio, watches a live video broadcast of Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, at a campaign event By BRADLEY KLAPPER and CALVIN WOODWARD | Associated Press – 4 hrs ago WASHINGTON (AP) — Mitt Romney solely blamed President Barack Obama on Monday for potential defense cuts that Republicans in Congress worked out with the White House and Democrats and left the misimpression that Obama has ignored free trade initiatives.
A closer look at some of the Republican presidential nominee's statements in his foreign policy speech: ROMNEY: "I will roll back President Obama's deep and arbitrary cuts to our national defense that would devastate our military." THE FACTS: "Arbitrary" defense cuts do not belong to Obama alone but also to congressional Republicans, including his vice presidential running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan. The first round of cuts in projected defense spending is the result of a bipartisan deal in August 2011 between Congress and the White House to wrestle down the deficit. Unless a new budget deal is reached in time, additional spending cuts will begin in January across government, and the cost to the Pentagon would be $500 billion over a decade. Lawmakers are working to avoid that. Separately, Obama wants to slow the growth of military spending, now that the war in Iraq is ended and the war in Afghanistan is drawing to a close. The Pentagon's budget, including war costs, is $670 billion this year, or about 18 percent of total federal spending. Even setting aside the costs of the wars, military spending has more than doubled since 2001. At its heart, Romney's statement marks a disagreement with Obama over the proper level of military spending but also skips past a deficit-reduction deal that he recently criticized Republicans in Congress for negotiating. ___ ROMNEY: "The president has not signed one new free trade agreement in the past four years. " THE FACTS: Obama hasn't opened new trade negotiations, but he's completed some big ones, overcoming opposition from fellow Democrats to do so. After taking office, he revived a free-trade deal with Colombia that had been negotiated by his Republican predecessor but left to languish without congressional approval and sought similar progress with South Korean and Panamanian free-trade pacts. The president delayed submitting the three deals to Congress while he tried to placate Democrats who opposed some of the terms, but finally submitted them in 2011, and Congress approved them. ___ ROMNEY: "I will recommit America to the goal of a democratic, prosperous Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with the Jewish state of Israel. On this vital issue, the president has failed, and what should be a negotiation process has devolved into a series of heated disputes at the United Nations. In this old conflict, as in every challenge we face in the Middle East, only a new president will bring the chance to begin anew." THE FACTS: With this statement, Romney has moved toward the balance enshrined in U.S. policy from one administration to another on the question of Israelis and Palestinians and away from his provocative remarks to a May fundraiser that recently came to light. In those remarks, he said "the Palestinians have no interest whatsoever in establishing peace," ''the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish," Palestinians are "committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel" and it would be "the worst idea in the world" to put pressure on the Israelis to give up something in hopes Palestinians would respond accordingly. Now he is appearing to put faith in a negotiation process he all but dismissed before. ___ ROMNEY: "As the dust settles, as the murdered (in the Libya consulate attack) are buried, Americans are asking how this happened, how the threats we face have grown so much worse, and what this calls on America to do." THE FACTS: It's unclear whether terrorism has gotten worse. There has been no incident even remotely comparable in scope or symbolic meaning to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. After a score of counterterrorist successes, the Obama administration has been knocked back on its heels since the attacks' 11th anniversary, when assailants stormed the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans. There has also been an uptick in attacks on American troops by supposedly friendly Afghan forces. But many counterterrorist experts say al-Qaida has been significantly weakened and the threats of global terrorism significantly better countered over the last decade. ___ ROMNEY: "When we look at the Middle East today — with Iran closer than ever to nuclear weapons capability, with the conflict in Syria threating to destabilize the region, with violent extremists on the march and with an American ambassador and three others dead likely at the hands of al-Qaida affiliates — it is clear that the risk of conflict in the region is higher now than when the president took office." THE FACTS: Risk is always a matter of perception, so it doesn't fall easily into the realm of truth vs. fiction. But for the United States and the region, it's not clear that conflict has increased in the last four years. Obama entered office in 2009 with the United States still engaged in a conflict in Iraq. U.S. troops are no longer there. And he came as Israel and Hamas just finished a three-week war. That was two years after another war between Israel and an Iranian-backed force, in that case, Hezbollah in Lebanon. There has been no significant Israeli military conflict since Obama has come into office. That said, Syria's conflict has become the region's deadliest since the Iraq war. The U.S. has stayed out of that conflict under Obama. Romney to Speak With Israeli PM NetanyahuABC OTUS News – Fri, Sep 28, 2012Mitt Romney is set to speak by telephone Friday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (neh-ten-YAH'-hoo). The Republican presidential nominee's campaign confirms the scheduled conversation. It would come the same day that President Barack Obama also is expected to confer with Netanyahu by telephone. Romney has been critical of Obama's relationship with Israel's leadership. Netanyahu told the United Nations on Thursday that tougher action is needed to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. The prime minister argues that an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities may be the only answer. Obama and Romney support the use of military force if necessary to prevent Iran from possessing a nuclear weapon. Tax Cuts for the Wealthiest Don't Stimulate the Economy: ReportBy Bernice Napach | Daily Ticker – Thu, Sep 27, 2012 12:07 PM EDTIn less than a week Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama will face off in the first of three debates. The focus is domestic policy, and taxes will undoubtedly be a key topic. President Obama wants to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for all but those earning more than $250,000. Romney wants to extend those tax cuts for all including top earners, cut individual rates another 20%, and eliminate the capital gains tax, making up for all revenue losses by closing loopholes. Both plans assume that tax cuts help boost economic growth but a new report released by the Congressional Research Service questions the impact of tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. The nonpartisan CRS says cuts in the top marginal tax rate and top capital gains tax rate "do not appear correlated with economic growth." The report says cutting top tax rates don't appear to boost saving, investment or productivity, or the size of the economic pie, but do seem to increase disparities in income. The idea that you cut taxes to stimulate the economy has been the center of the Republican plank for 30 years starting with Reagan, says The Daily Ticker's Henry Blodget. "This Congressional Research Service report, which is nonpartisan, says there's no evidence that that is true." Current top marginal tax rates are 35% on income and 15% on capital gains and dividends. All are set to expire by year-end if Congress doesn't act to stop implementation of the Budget Control Act. That law mandates that the top marginal rates will jump to 39.6% on income and dividends (as they were when Bill Clinton was president) and 20% on capital gains after the new year. But even those rates are much lower than historic rates. In the 1950s the top marginal income tax rate topped 90% and the top capital gains rate was 25%. The Congressional Research Service says tax rates for those with the highest incomes "are currently at their lowest levels since the end of the second World War." And the share of the income earned by the top 0.1% of families is more than double their share in 1945---9.2% during the 2007-2009 recession, though lower than 12.3% just before the recession hit, according to the latest data from the Congressional Research Service. Don't be surprised if President Obama refers to the Congressional Research Service report in the debate next Wednesday night debate. Stay tuned. Wealth Gap Between Congress and Average Americans WidensBy Bernice Napach | Daily Ticker – 6 hours ago According to a new report in The Washington Post, the median net worth of the current Congress rose 5% during the recession while it fell 39% for the average American. The wealthiest one-third of lawmakers saw their net worth rise 14%. The Washington Post disclosed these statistics in a recent story on the wealth gap between Congressional members and the American public. "These are supposed to be our representatives," says The Daily Ticker's Aaron Task. "If they're not living the same lives or understanding the lives that the average American is living, how can they really represent our interests?" The Post analyzed the financial disclosure forms and public records for all Congressional members from 2004 to 2010. Some key findings of the report are:
Lawmakers acquired their wealth in a variety of ways but real estate, institutional funds and the wealth of their spouses were the top three sources. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi increased her wealth by an estimated $60 million between 2004 and 2010. The gains primarily came from the commercial real estate holdings of her husband, according to The Post. Representative Darrell Issa made his reported $448 million in commercial real estate as well as other financial investments. "We have this huge disparity that's only getting worse in terms of inequality in this country," says The Daily Ticker's Henry Blodget. "If it continues, the country will begin to break apart and get more and more antagonistic class warfare. It's something we have got to solve not only in Congress but in the American public at large." Is Congress pursuing policies that benefit middle and lower income Americans? The Washington Post found that 73 lawmakers sponsored or co-sponsored legislation that could benefit businesses or industries that involved those Congressional members or their families. "It's just outrageous that our legislators could be profiting directly from the legislation that they're making," says Aaron Task. Top 10 Wealthiest Members of Congress (by household assets, 2010) according to The Washington Post:
Tell us what you think! More from The Daily Ticker: By Mary Bruce | ABC OTUS News – 3 hrs ago On the heels of Friday's positive jobs report, President Obama said the economy is "moving forward again" but that Republicans in Congress are standing in the way of further growth and need to "finally start doing something to actually help the middle class get ahead." "After losing about 800,000 jobs a month when I took office, our businesses have now added 5.2 million new jobs over the past two and a half years," the president said in his weekly address. "And on Friday, we learned that the unemployment rate is now at its lowest level since I took office. More Americans are entering the work force. More Americans are getting jobs. "Too many of our friends and neighbors are still looking for work or struggling to pay the bills - many of them since long before this crisis hit," he said. "We owe it to them to keep moving forward. We've come too far to turn back now. And we've made too much progress to return to the policies that got us into this mess in the first place." The president touted his administration's efforts to "make sure that the kind of crisis we've been fighting back from never happens again," including Wall Street reform and new consumer protections. "But for some reason, some Republicans in Congress are still waging an all-out battle to delay, defund and dismantle these common-sense new rules," he said. "Why? Do they think undoing rules that protect families from the worst practices of credit card companies and mortgage lenders will make the middle class stronger? Do they think getting rid of rules to prevent another crisis on Wall Street will make Main Street any safer? "Republicans in Congress need to stop trying to refight the battles of the past few years, and finally start doing something to actually help the middle class get ahead," he added. To keep the economy growing, the president urged lawmakers to extend tax cuts for the middle class, pass his housing refinance plan and act to create a veterans jobs corps. "If we're going to keep this economy moving forward, there's no time for political games," he said. "Even in a political season. Everyone needs to do their part." Obama: Jobs report shows economy is on right trackBy | Associated Press – 5 mins ago Enlarge Photo Associated Press/Pablo Martinez Monsivais - President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign event at George Mason University, Friday, Oct. 5, 2012, in Fairfax, Va (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) Related ContentPresident Barack Obama gestures …
FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — President Barack Obama says an encouraging jobs report shows that the country has made too much progress to turn back to the policies that he says led the nation into an economic crisis. Obama got much-needed good news Friday following his disappointing debate performance as the unemployment rate dropped to 7.8 percent. That's the lowest it's been since he took office in 2009. At a campaign event in suburban Washington, Obama said the report was "a reminder that this country has come too far to turn back now." Cheers erupted from the crowd at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., when Obama noted that the jobless rate is now at its lowest level since he became president. Republican rival Mitt Romney says Obama still hasn't done enough to create jobs. Analysis: The trend line Obama was looking forBy | Associated Press – 4 hrs ago WASHINGTON (AP) — September's lower unemployment rate breaks the 8 percent psychological and political barrier that has stubbornly dogged Barack Obama through his presidency, halting the kind of stagnant high joblessness that has weighed down past presidents seeking re-election in economically troubled times. For Obama, the trend line now looks more like Ronald Reagan's in his successful re-election in 1984 than Jimmy Carter's in his losing effort in 1980. The 0.3 percentage point drop to 7.8 percent unemployment last month comes at a welcome time for Obama, one month before Election Day and less than 36 hours after he delivered a lackluster debate performance that reinvigorated the campaign of Republican challenger Mitt Romney. "The main effect of this particular number is going to be primarily political," said Bruce Bartlett, an economist in President George H.W. Bush's administration. "It gives Obama a talking point, something to get people's attention off his debate performance." "As long as people are seeing improvement," Bartlett added, "at least some voters are going to say to themselves, 'Well, best not to switch horses in the middle of the stream.'" A recent Associated Press-GfK poll found that the vast majority of voters already have settled on a candidate, but 17 percent of likely voters are considered persuadable — either because they're undecided or showing soft support for Obama or Romney. Roughly 56 percent of persuadables approve of the way Obama is handling his job as president, but fewer, 47 percent, approve of his handling of the economy. Moreover, a Pew Research Center survey in September found only two issues rated as "very important" for more than 80 percent of voters: 87 percent rated the economy that way and 83 percent placed jobs in that category. John Sides, a political scientist at George Washington University who has examined the intersection of economic data and politics, said Obama could benefit simply from the good media coverage the jobs numbers might get after a debate where his performance was panned. "It changes the story line, but that may be what affects voter behavior in the end," Sides said. "A small number of undecided voters may be sensitive to good news and bad news about the two candidates. In that way the good economic news is helpful for Obama." The new threshold, which drops unemployment to a level unseen since Obama took office in January 2009, carries more political than economic weight. The Labor Department reported that employers added 114,000 jobs in September, slightly better than expected but still below levels needed to sustain a reduction in unemployment. The long-term unemployment rate was little changed at 4.8 million. Jobs have been a central theme in this election. The words "job" and "jobs" were among the most frequently mentioned in Wednesday's debate in Denver, uttered at a rate of more than once every two minutes in a 90-minute showdown. Carter lost his re-election bid to Reagan in 1980 as unemployment climbed from 6 percent in October 1979 to 7.5 percent in October 1980. George H.W. Bush lost to Bill Clinton in 1992 in the midst of rising unemployment, which went from 6.9 percent September 1991 to 7.6 percent in September 1992. Obama can now hope he is more like Reagan in 1984, who won re-election with a jobless rate of 7.3 percent in September of that year, after dropping from 8 percent nine months earlier. The jobs news also had the effect of overshadowing a new estimate that put the deficit for the just-completed 2012 budget year at $1.1 trillion, the fourth straight year of trillion-dollar deficits under Obama's tenure. If Obama had a silver lining, Romney saw darker signs in the data. "This is not what a real recovery looks like," Romney declared, focusing on a lesser noticed detail in the report that showed that rate of people employed or actively seeking employment has dropped from when Obama took office. It will take new polling, and ultimately the election results, to determine whether this new unemployment report will affect the election. Obama and Romney entered Wednesday's debate running about evenly among those most likely to vote, with most polls in the last couple of weeks putting Romney a few points behind nationally. Several battleground states were neck and neck, but Obama appeared to hold comfortable leads in New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Past, bleaker monthly reminders of joblessness had not markedly altered the trajectory of the presidential campaign. Romney says he was 'completely wrong' on '47 percent' By Kasie Hunt
Associated Press
Photo by: Steve Helber Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney gestures during a rally in Fishersville, Va., on Thursday, Oct. 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
FISHERSVILLE, Va. — Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has described his disparaging remarks about the 47 percent of Americans who don't pay federal income taxes as "not elegantly stated." Now he's calling them "just completely wrong." The original remarks, secretly recorded during a fundraiser in May and posted online in September by the magazine Mother Jones, sparked intense criticism of Romney and provided fodder to those who portray him as an out-of-touch millionaire oblivious to the lives of average Americans. The remarks became a staple of Obama campaign criticism. Initially, Romney defended his view, telling reporters at a news conference shortly after the video was posted that his remarks were "not elegantly stated" and that they were spoken "off the cuff." He didn't disavow them, however, and later adopted as a response when the remarks were raised that his campaign supports "the 100 percent in America." In an interview Thursday night with Fox News, Romney was asked what he would have said had the "47 percent" comments come up during his debate in Denver on Wednesday night with President Barack Obama. "Well, clearly in a campaign, with hundreds if not thousands of speeches and question-and-answer sessions, now and then you're going to say something that doesn't come out right," Romney said. "In this case, I said something that's just completely wrong." He added: "And I absolutely believe, however, that my life has shown that I care about 100 percent and that's been demonstrated throughout my life. And this whole campaign is about the 100 percent." Critics of Romney's "47 percent" remarks noted that many of those who don't pay federal incomes taxes pay other forms of taxes. More than 16 million elderly Americans avoid federal income taxes solely because of tax breaks that apply only to seniors, the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center reports. Millions of others don't pay federal income taxes because they don't earn enough after deductions and exemptions. Acknowledging error is rare for Romney. Asked recently whether his TV ads had strayed from the facts, he said they had been "absolutely spot-on." Fact-checking operations have argued otherwise. Some conservatives rallied around Romney after the video surfaced, urging him to stand behind the remarks as accurate despite the criticism. "There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what," Romney said in the video. "There are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that 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." "Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax," Romney said, and that his role "is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives." Romney later told reporters at a news conference called to address the remarks: "It's not elegantly stated, let me put it that way. I was speaking off the cuff in response to a question. And I'm sure I could state it more clearly in a more effective way than I did in a setting like that." Read more: Romney says he was 'completely wrong' on '47 percent' - Washington Times http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/oct/4/romney-says-he-was-completely-wrong-47-percent/print/#ixzz28XCQve9p Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter Romney: Jobs growth not enough to re-elect Obama - The Washington Times Updated: 10:49 a.m. on Friday, October 5, 2012 WEYERS CAVE, Va. — The jobs picture improved in September, but Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said the fall in the nation's jobless rate still is not enough to justify giving President Obama another term in office. "This is not what a real recovery looks like," Mr. Romney said in a statement, pointing to what he said was a downward trend of job-creation. "We created fewer jobs in September than in August, and fewer jobs in August than in July, and we've lost over 600,000 manufacturing jobs since President Obama took office." The Bureau of Labor Statistics' key jobs survey said the economy added 114,000 new jobs in September, and BLS said the unemployment rate dipped to 7.8 percent — a drop of three-tenths of a percent. That means the rate is now back down to what it was in January 2009, when Mr. Obama took office, inheriting a recession from President George W. Bush. BLS also revised July and August job numbers upward by a combined 86,000, suggesting a slightly better jobs picture over the summer than was reported at the time. The jobs news comes just two days after Mr. Romney seemed to be gaining momentum from a strong debate performance. The Republican presidential nominee loses a major talking point from the campaign trail, where he regularly talked about the streak of consecutive months the unemployment rate had remained above 8 percent. Mr. Romney on Friday said the jobs picture is still bleak — particularly because of the millions who have dropped out of the market altogether. "If not for all the people who have simply dropped out of the labor force, the real unemployment rate would be closer to 11 percent," Mr. Romney said in his statement. "The results of President Obama's failed policies are staggering — 23 million Americans struggling for work, nearly one in six living in poverty, and 47 million people dependent on food stamps to feed themselves and their families. The choice in this election is clear. Under President Obama, we'll get another four years like the last four years. If I'm elected, we will have a real recovery with pro-growth policies that will create 12 million new jobs and rising incomes for everyone." WASHINGTON (AP) — September's lower unemployment rate breaks the 8 percent psychological and political barrier that has stubbornly dogged Barack Obama through his presidency, halting the kind of stagnant high joblessness that has weighed down past presidents seeking re-election in economically troubled times. For Obama, the trend line now looks more like Ronald Reagan's in his successful re-election in 1984 than Jimmy Carter's in his losing effort in 1980. The 0.3 percentage point drop to 7.8 percent unemployment last month comes at a welcome time for Obama, one month before Election Day and less than 36 hours after he delivered a lackluster debate performance that reinvigorated the campaign of Republican challenger Mitt Romney. "The main effect of this particular number is going to be primarily political," said Bruce Bartlett, an economist in President George H.W. Bush's administration. "It gives Obama a talking point, something to get people's attention off his debate performance." "As long as people are seeing improvement," Bartlett added, "at least some voters are going to say to themselves, 'Well, best not to switch horses in the middle of the stream.'" A recent Associated Press-GfK poll found that the vast majority of voters already have settled on a candidate, but 17 percent of likely voters are considered persuadable — either because they're undecided or showing soft support for Obama or Romney. Roughly 56 percent of persuadables approve of the way Obama is handling his job as president, but fewer, 47 percent, approve of his handling of the economy. Moreover, a Pew Research Center survey in September found only two issues rated as "very important" for more than 80 percent of voters: 87 percent rated the economy that way and 83 percent placed jobs in that category. John Sides, a political scientist at George Washington University who has examined the intersection of economic data and politics, said Obama could benefit simply from the good media coverage the jobs numbers might get after a debate where his performance was panned. "It changes the story line, but that may be what affects voter behavior in the end," Sides said. "A small number of undecided voters may be sensitive to good news and bad news about the two candidates. In that way the good economic news is helpful for Obama." The new threshold, which drops unemployment to a level unseen since Obama took office in January 2009, carries more political than economic weight. The Labor Department reported that employers added 114,000 jobs in September, slightly better than expected but still below levels needed to sustain a reduction in unemployment. The long-term unemployment rate was little changed at 4.8 million. Jobs have been a central theme in this election. The words "job" and "jobs" were among the most frequently mentioned in Wednesday's debate in Denver, uttered at a rate of more than once every two minutes in a 90-minute showdown. Carter lost his re-election bid to Reagan in 1980 as unemployment climbed from 6 percent in October 1979 to 7.5 percent in October 1980. George H.W. Bush lost to Bill Clinton in 1992 in the midst of rising unemployment, which went from 6.9 percent September 1991 to 7.6 percent in September 1992. Obama can now hope he is more like Reagan in 1984, who won re-election with a jobless rate of 7.3 percent in September of that year, after dropping from 8 percent nine months earlier. The jobs news also had the effect of overshadowing a new estimate that put the deficit for the just-completed 2012 budget year at $1.1 trillion, the fourth straight year of trillion-dollar deficits under Obama's tenure. If Obama had a silver lining, Romney saw darker signs in the data. "This is not what a real recovery looks like," Romney declared, focusing on a lesser noticed detail in the report that showed that rate of people employed or actively seeking employment has dropped from when Obama took office. It will take new polling, and ultimately the election results, to determine whether this new unemployment report will affect the election. Obama and Romney entered Wednesday's debate running about evenly among those most likely to vote, with most polls in the last couple of weeks putting Romney a few points behind nationally. Several battleground states were neck and neck, but Obama appeared to hold comfortable leads in New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Past, bleaker monthly reminders of joblessness had not markedly altered the trajectory of the presidential campaign. Feds charge 91 people in $429M Medicare fraudBy PETE YOST | Associated Press – 4 hrs agoWASHINGTON (AP) — A federal strike force has charged 91 people, including a hospital president, doctors and nurses, with Medicare fraud schemes in seven cities involving $429 million in false billings. At a news conference Thursday, Attorney General Eric Holder said the case reveals an alarming trend in criminal efforts to steal billions of taxpayer dollars for personal gain. Holder called the action one of the largest such law enforcement efforts of its kind. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that that in addition to the newly announced criminal charges, her agency used new authority under the Obama administration's health care law to stop future payments to many of the health care providers suspected of fraud. The law enforcement effort focused on fraudulent Medicare schemes in Baton Rouge, La.; Brooklyn, N.Y.; Chicago; Dallas; Houston; Los Angeles and Miami. In Houston, a federal indictment charged the president of an unnamed hospital with participating along with six other people in $158 million in fraudulent billings for community mental health services. In Dallas, two doctors and two registered nurses were charged with participating in over $103 million in false billings. In Brooklyn, a doctor and four chiropractors allegedly participated in $23 million in false billings. 107 Charged in Medicare Fraud Busts in 7 Cities Published on May 2, 2012 by AssociatedPress Federal authorities charged 107 doctors, nurses and social workers in seven cities with Medicare fraud on unrelated scams that allegedly bilked the program of $452 million, the highest dollar amount in a single Medicare bust in history. (May 2) Obama accuses Romney of dishonesty in debateupdated 6:09 PM EDT, Thu October 4, 2012  Reporters STORY HIGHLIGHTS
watch the final minutes of the debate between President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in Denver on Wednesday, October 3. The first of four debates for the 2012 election -- three presidential and one vice-presidential -- was moderated by PBS's Jim Lehrer. A member of the U.S. Secret Service keeps watch from the top of a building as Obama takes part in a debate walk-through at the University of Denver on Wednesday. Did you miss the first presidential debate? You can watch the full event online on CNN.com. (CNN) -- A day after losing the first presidential debate to Mitt Romney, President Barack Obama and his campaign accused the Republican challenger of dishonesty over tax policy and other issues. "If you want to be president, you owe the American people the truth," Obama told a campaign rally Thursday in Denver in reference to the former Massachusetts governor, who is challenging him in next month's election. "So here's the truth: Governor Romney cannot pay for his $5 trillion tax plan without blowing up the deficit or sticking it to the middle class. That's the math." Romney's pledge: No tax cut for the rich The president's top aides were even more blunt. "Romney's performance was one that's probably unprecedented in its dishonesty," senior adviser David Plouffe told reporters. However, senior campaign adviser David Axelrod acknowledged that Obama would examine his debate strategy for the next two contests -- on October 16 in New York and October 22 in Florida. The president opted against "serial fact-checking with Governor Romney, which can be a never-ending, exhausting pursuit," Axelrod said. "Obviously, going forward, we're going to have to look at this and we're going to have make some adjustments." Meanwhile, Romney continued to push his debate theme of too much federal spending under Obama, complaining of "trickle-down government" that has failed to solve the nation's economic woes. "We have two very different courses for America -- trickle-down government or prosperity through freedom," Romney said in an unannounced visit Thursday to a conservative conference in Colorado. "And trickle-down government that the president proposes is one where he will raise taxes on small business, which will kill jobs. I instead want to keep taxes down on small business so we can create jobs." Romney will campaign later Thursday in Virginia, hoping to build momentum from the debate that analysts and a snap poll agreed was won by the Republican challenger. His supporters crowed about his performance, saying it reshaped a race that Romney had appeared in danger of losing. Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, who played the role of Obama in debate rehearsals for Romney, said the GOP candidate had a "terrific night." "He did exactly what he had to do for the undecided voter in Ohio or around the country," Portman said. "They were looking for two things: One, a discussion of the last four years and why we can't afford it for the next four, I thought he explained that well. Most importantly, he talked about his own policies and he was able to set the record straight on some of the misleading ads the Obama campaign has put out there about his tax plan about his budget plan, about his health care ideas and so on." To Ed Gillespie, a senor adviser to Romney, the GOP challenger brought focus to the sharp contrast between the candidates by showing voters that "we can't afford four more years like the last four years." In exchanges full of policy proposals, facts and figures, Romney was more aggressive in the 90-minute encounter on Wednesday night at the University of Denver. A forceful Romney criticized Obama's record and depicted the president's vision as one of big government, while the Democratic incumbent defended his achievements and challenged his rival's prescriptions as unworkable. The post-debate verdict swung clearly to Romney.
"A week ago, people were saying this was over. We've got a horse race," said CNN Senior Political Analyst David Gergen, who called the debate Romney's best so far after the 22 the former Massachusetts governor took part in during the GOP primary campaign. Alex Castellanos, a Republican strategist and CNN contributor, expressed surprise at Romney's strong performance, saying he "rose to the moment" and seemed to benefit from the multiple primary debates. "It looked like Romney wanted to be there and President Obama didn't want to be there," noted Democratic strategist and CNN contributor James Carville. "The president didn't bring his 'A' game." The CNN/ORC International poll of 430 people who watched the debate showed 67% thought Romney won, compared with 25% for Obama. Obama joked Thursday that a different Romney appeared at the debate from the conservative candidate who won a grueling Republican primary campaign to challenge him on November 6. "When I got on to the stage I met this very spirited fellow who claimed to be Mitt Romney," Obama said to laughter from the crowd of more than 12,000 at a Denver park. "But it couldn't have been Mitt Romney because the real Mitt Romney has been running around the country for the last year promising $5 trillion in tax cuts that favor the wealthy. The fellow on stage last night said he didn't know anything about that." At the Denver rally and a later event in Wisconsin, Obama also went after Romney's pledge during the debate to cut funding for public broadcasting, referring specifically to the popular Sesame Street character Big Bird. "He'll get rid of regulations on Wall Street, but he's going to crack down on Sesame Street," Obama joked about Romney's pledge to repeal the Dodd-Frank Act that reforms the financial sector. "Thank goodness somebody is finally getting tough on Big Bird," Obama added. "It's about time. We didn't know that Big Bird was driving the federal deficit." 5 things we learned from the presidential debate On Wednesday, neither presidential candidate scored dramatic blows that will make future highlight reels, and neither veered from campaign themes and policies to date. But Romney came off as the more energized candidate overall by repeatedly attacking Obama on red-meat issues for Republicans such as health care reform and higher taxes, while the president began with lengthy explanations and only later focused more on what his opponent was saying. Moderator Jim Lehrer of PBS had trouble keeping the duo within time limits for responses, especially Obama, who ended up speaking four minutes longer than Romney. Romney's strongest moments came in emphasizing his frequent criticism of Obama's record, saying the nation's high unemployment and sluggish economic recovery showed the president's policies haven't worked. Complete coverage of CNN fact-checking the candidates "There's no question in my mind if the president is re-elected, you'll continue to see a middle-class squeeze," Romney said, adding that another term for Obama also will mean the 2010 Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, "will be fully installed." Obama: Occasionally you have to say no At another point, he noted how $90 billion spent on programs and policies to develop alternative energy sources could have been devoted to hiring teachers or other needs that would bring down unemployment. Obama argued that his policies were working to bring America back from the financial and economic crisis he inherited, and that Romney refused to divulge specifics about his proposed tax plans and replacements for the health care law and Wall Street reform that the Republican has pledged to repeal. "At some point, the American people have to ask themselves if the reason that Governor Romney is keeping all these plans secret is because they're too good," Obama said, adding the answer was "no" and that the lack of details reflected the difficulty in making touch decisions. At crossroads of economic crisis, debate disappoints In his strongest line of the night, Obama said Romney lacked the important leadership quality of being able to say "no" when necessary. "I've got to tell you, Governor Romney, when it comes to his own party during the course of this campaign, has not displayed that willingness to say no to some of the more extreme parts of his party," Obama said in reference to his challenger's swing to the right during the primaries to appeal to the GOP's conservative base. Romney rejected Obama's characterization of his tax plan, insisting it won't add to the deficit, and criticized the president's call to allow tax rates on income over $250,000 for families and $200,000 for individuals to return to higher 1990s rates as a job-snuffing tax hike on small business. Romney repeatedly went after Obama on the health care reform bill, criticizing the president for focusing so strongly on a measure that passed with no Republican support instead of devoting more attention to creating jobs. "I just don't know how the president could have come into office, facing 23 million people out of work, rising unemployment, an economic crisis at the -- at the kitchen table, and spend his energy and passion for two years fighting for Obamacare instead of fighting for jobs for the American people," Romney said. "The right answer is not to have the federal government take over health care," Romney added, quickly noting his plan would include popular provisions of Obamacare such as allowing children up to age 26 stay on family plans and preventing insurers from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions. In response, Obama said Romney's stance to have states craft their own health care plans would allow insurance companies to return to past practices that hurt consumers. On Thursday, Axelrod described Romney in the debate as a "serial evader" and "artful dodger" for avoiding specifics on tax loopholes and deductions he would eliminate or proposals to replace health care reforms and Wall Street reforms he promises to repeal. Read a transcript of the debate Romney came under similar criticism from opponents in the Republican primary campaign, with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich calling him a liar in January. Before the debate, Romney warned that Obama would be untruthful, and he accused the president of dishonesty and distortion during Wednesday night's event. With polls narrowing less than five weeks before Election Day, Obama and Romney launched a new phase in a bitter race dominated so far by negative advertising as both camps try to frame the election to their advantage. Whether it matters is itself a topic of debate. According to an analysis by Gallup, televised debates have affected the outcome of only two elections in the past half century -- Nixon-Kennedy in 1960 and Bush-Gore in 2000. 25 funniest tweets about the debate |
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