I was privileged to be a guest on colleague Rick Moran and Jazz Shaw’s RINO Hour of Power radio show last night, and Rick asked me a very good question: Which GOP candidate has done the best job of manipulating the media? The obvious answer is Mitt Romney.
Though Romney has been running for the presidency for the past five years, the oppo research book on him is just now hitting the streets. For conservatives, it’s not a pretty read. Rick Perry and Chris Christie, the latter a Romney ally, are both out today demanding that Romney release his tax returns. They’re right to demand this. The voters of South Carolina are on the verge of handing Romney a major and possibly decisive victory on Saturday, but they will be voting with incomplete information, information which will come out eventually. Why wasn’t this demand for his tax returns made by Tim Pawlenty or some other candidate a long time ago? Why has there been, up to now, so little pressure on Romney to prove why he should be the Republican nominee?
I think it comes down to the kind of campaign he has run, and the dynamics of the Not-Romney candidates running against him. Romney entered the race as the odds-on favorite, forcing the other candidates to organize around his candidacy. But rather than focus on his record, the Not-Romneys focused on stopping each other, giving Romney the space to attack them at times of his choosing. And he has. As various Not-Romneys have emerged, they have been slammed and smeared with negative MSM stories about everything from a rock in west Texas to sexual misconduct. Rick Santorum is the latest, with this bizarre story about his wife having lived with the abortion providing doctor who delivered her, before meeting and marrying Santorum. Challenger rises, gets whacked in the MSM.
This pattern is too obvious to ignore. Add in the fact that only Romney had five years and the money and the staff to build up books on every conceivable opponent, and you have enough evidence to make a Clue accusation: It was the former Massachusetts governor, in the mainstream media, with an oppo research dump.
Where is the vaunted “Tea Party” of 2010? Remember those guys and their “small government” bullship mantra?
Obviously we were all fooled by the crap the Republican establishment was spewing. The Tea Party has disappeared like a fart in the wind.
The question is ”Why is Mitt Romney still the least vetted GOP candidate.”
When I look over the news about Mitt Romney I see lies instead of vettings.
Like, when Romney said he supposed he paid around 15% in federal income taxes, how did the slobbering Obama-lovers in the media respond?
They ”reported” that this 15% is less than what most Americans pay.
But that is not true.
It is just another lie.
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/09in11si.xls
That’s a link to the 2009 (most recent) Internal Revenue Service report.
In it are proofs that 97% of Americans paid LESS than Romney, if he indeed did pay 15%.
These charts make the media liars for Obama rather than vetters of Romney.
That’s the sort of problem we’re seeing.
Hi Nan, It’s marginal tax rates. Let’s say that Romney made $10M. For most people, once they get above $34,500, they are taxed at a 25% rate. If Romney made $300K giving speeches, this would be taxed like most people. 10% up to $8,500. 15% until 34,500. 25% up to 84,000. 28% to 174,000. And 33% up to 379,000, then 35% on everything after that.
If Romney “only” made $300K giving speeches, then virtually everything he made above $300K (in this example, $9,700,000) would be taxed at only 15%.
This is all adjusted gross income, after deductions and credits.
The point is, however, that people with adjusted gross incomes above $34,500 are much more greatly “disincentivized” to work than was Romney. They had to pay 40% more in taxes on every extra dollar they earned than did Romney.
It’s a bit complicated to explain in a sound bite. But, if understood, it’s a ringing endorsement of the “Buffett Rule.”
The GOP field is truly dismal. If I were you guys, I’d want everyone to stay in the race and keep Romney’s delegate total below 50% and then have the GOP convention draft someone like Jeb Bush.
– Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach CA
Larry, a brokered convention would just result in the establishment, anointing Romney.
@openid.aol.com/runnswim:
Larry, you are talking about RATES, not the % people actually pay.
The charts I linked to from the IRS show what people paid.
97% of them paid less than 15%.
MATA
HI
I was reading that SANTORUM WON IN IOWA, AND NOW IS CLAIMING RIGHTFULY HIS VICTORY, AND IOWA DID NOT GIVE HIM THE WIN ALTHOUGH HE IS AT LEAST 39 ABOVE AND MITT PHONE HIM TO CONGRATULATE BUT DENIED HAD MENTIONNED THE PHONE CALL WAS FOR BEING THE WINNER,
AND SANTORUM SAID WHY DID HE PHONE ME FOR IF IT’S NOT TO CONGRAT FOR MY WINN.
CAN YOU BELIEVE HIM BEING DENIED THE WIN FROM IOWA AND ROMNEY BOTH,
DOES HE HAVE TO FIGHT FOR WHAT IS HIS OWN LEGIT WINN?