"Romney to hold retreat for big donors" June 21, 2012
WASHINGTON — Fresh off the best fund-raising stretch of his presidential campaign, Mitt Romney plans to spend this weekend strategizing and fraternizing with his biggest bundlers at a posh resort in Park City, Utah.
The presumptive nominee and his senior advisers and aides are hosting two days of policy sessions and campaign strategy discussions at a Deer Valley resort for more than 100 top fund-raisers and their spouses. Those who raised more than $100,000 are expected to attend.
More than a dozen Republican heavy-hitters are scheduled to join the private retreat as special guests. According to a fund-raiser who is attending, guests include some GOP stars believed to be contenders to be Romney’s vice presidential running mate: Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, and Senator John Thune of South Dakota.
Former George W. Bush strategist Karl Rove, who helps run American Crossroads, the well-funded GOP super PAC, is planning to speak at the retreat, said the fund-raiser, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the event. Rove’s appearance could raise questions because of campaign finance laws barring any coordination between super PACs and actual campaigns.
You Democrats should have jailed him when you had the chance. One reason among many that I'm tired of the s*** fooley game.
Senator John McCain of Arizona, the party’s 2008 presidential nominee, is also scheduled to attend, according to the fund-raiser.
Other guests slated to appear include former secretaries of state Condoleezza Rice and James A. Baker III, and former Florida governor Jeb Bush.
Related: War Criminal Returns to White House
The truth is, they never leave. One takes over for another.
Romney’s finance officials have touted the retreat as a way to reward top-performing bundlers who make their own donations and then raise many times that from within their network of friends and associates.
Also see: Political Odd Couple
Maybe not so odd (more on that later).
The retreat, which will be closed entirely to the press, is set to begin Friday with a series of policy question-and-answer sessions with Romney.
Related: Reporters Pay Price For Freedom of Press
Again?
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"Romney softens stance on immigration rules; Tells Hispanic group, ‘We can find common ground here’" by Matt Viser | Globe Staff, June 21, 2012
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Mitt Romney vowed to complete a 2,000-mile fence along the border to keep illegal immigrants out.
I predict he will break that promise.
The flip-flopper talking out of both sides of his mouth? No!
Romney used his father’s story to try to connect with immigrants, something he hasn’t frequently done. “He was born to American parents living in Mexico,” Romney said of his father, George, who later became governor of Michigan....
Romney didn’t mention the reason that his father was born in Mexico, however.
Then why did he run for an office he could not constitutionally hold? Maybe someone should check Mitt's birth certificate!
More on how he made his money later.
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Related: Meet the Mormons
That's nice, but once you get talking to them:
"9/11. Israel AND the Mormons? Steve Jones BYU professor is early out of the gate trying to coop the 9/11 truth movement. Bush spends significant time after 9/11 at BYU. Deep support in the Mormon community. See Vigilant Citizen and aanirgifan archives on what a very strange cult this is. Sometime has to be spent delving into their deep connections with Israel both historically and via religious belief. And then there is 9/11 1857...the date when the Mormons massacred 120 men, women and children under a truce flag at Mountains Meadows Utah. This is a very messianic masonic cult with a great deal of financial clout and a cult that believes that endless wars must be fought to usher in the messianic age. Romney the Mormon Bishop....another very scary American pyscopath who may well be where he is for very scary reasons."
(Blog editor slowly starts walking away from them)
"Romney staff watching Fla. official’s job talk" June 22, 2012
TALLAHASSEE — Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign asked Florida Governor Rick Scott to tone down his statements heralding improvements in the state’s economy because they clash with the presumptive Republican nominee’s message that the nation is suffering under President Obama, according to two people familiar with the matter.
I don't believe this economy is improving at all (hundreds of job cuts in the papers every day), and I've reached the point where I will never believe the horse s*** shoveled by the corporate media.
Scott, a Republican, was asked to say that the state’s jobless rate could improve faster under a Romney presidency, according to the people, who asked not to be named.
What’s unfolding in Florida highlights a dilemma for the Romney
campaign: how to allow Republican governors to take credit for economic
improvements in their states while faulting Obama’s stewardship of the
national economy. Republican governors in Ohio, Virginia, Michigan, and
Wisconsin also have highlighted improving economies.
Scott should follow the advice of the Romney campaign and it won’t undermine his own message, said Mac Stipanovich, a political strategist and lobbyist in Florida.
Romney’s campaign is eager to sell its economy message in Florida, one of the most competitive electoral battle grounds, where the past three presidential races were decided by 5 percentage points or less.
Related: How Mitt Romney Will Steal Florida
A Romney adviser made the request this week to Scott’s staff after press releases from the governor’s reelection campaign and Internet messages from the Florida Chamber of Commerce trumpeted the state’s drop to 8.6 percent unemployment rate in May from 8.7 percent in April, the people said. The national unemployment rate is 8.2 percent.
Scott’s news release said the jobless rate had dropped 11 consecutive months in Florida and asked supporters to ‘‘spread the news.’’
Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul said Romney often praises governors ‘‘for their ability to overcome the job-stifling policies of the Obama administration.’’
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Wait a minute, I just got a tweet:
"Presidential race takes nasty turn; Romney, Obama campaigns trade some low blows" by Matt Viser | Globe Staff, June 22, 2012
WASHINGTON — When President Obama landed in Cleveland recently to give a speech on the crucial subject of the American economy, a campaign bus plastered with the logo of Mitt Romney showed up, honking. Then circling around. Then honking some more.
When Romney traveled through Pennsylvania on a six-state bus tour,
Democrats dispatched protesters, including former governor Ed Rendell,
to a WaWa convenience store where Romney was slated to appear. Romney
diverted his bus to a different WaWa, spurring calls of cowardice from
the Democrats.
Both campaigns have latched onto Twitter as a weapon of choice in instantaneous snipefests, each side eager to tarnish the opposition’s message and gain a minor edge in a rapid news cycle, complete with a clever hash tag.
Must be a misspelling because the correct word is vapid.
This race for president — one that will decide who will occupy the most powerful office in the world — has in recent weeks degenerated into a heckling war on the campaign trail, fueled by sophomoric stunts and Twitter taunts.
Heckling has been a staple of American politics and political protest for centuries, of course. Not only can hecklers drown out a candidate’s words on the stump, they can also dominate news coverage of the event. But....
Uh-huh.
Related: Romney's Ruffians Cause Mayhem Outside Massachusetts State House
Yeah, they dominate when the agenda-pushing media feels like it.
Now, the campaigns are squabbling over whether heckling is a fair tactic to employ....
Meanwhile, both campaigns and the mouthpiece media are heckling you, Americans.
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Mitt Romney is hosting a weekend retreat for wealthy donors in Park City, Utah, offering backers the chance to mingle with campaign aides, Republican officials, and the candidate himself at a series of events.
More than 500 donors were expected to attend the event, which began Friday and is open only to individuals who have given $50,000 or are raising at least $250,000 to benefit Romney’s White House bid.
Having decided not to take public financing for the general election, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate has devoted much of his time since locking down his party’s nomination to flying across the country to woo top donors.
The schedule for the retreat at the Utah ski area includes closed-door gatherings with the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, Senator John McCain of Arizona, as well as former Florida governor Jeb Bush and three officeholders who have been mentioned in news reports as possible Romney running mates....
Fund-raisers will also receive private strategy briefings from campaign and party officials, including former White House adviser Karl Rove, and lectures on foreign policy, energy, and the financial sector, according to a schedule of events obtained from attendees. Former secretaries of state Condoleezza Rice and James A. Baker III will be among those discussing foreign affairs.
The mingling began on the flight from Salt Lake City with executives, lobbyists, politicians, and campaign staff. Donors attended a cookout Friday with the presumptive Republican presidential nominee at Olympic Park, the site of the 2002 winter games that Romney ran as chief executive officer.
The weekend concludes with a round of golf at Red Ledges, described as an elite private community with an 18-hole course designed by Jack Nicklaus.
Romney and the Republican Party outraised Democrats in this campaign cycle for the first time last month, collecting more than $76.8 million, nearly $17 million more than President Obama and his allies.
I guess that is why Obama has stooped so low as to ask for wedding gifts. How pathetic.
Obama also has spent much time at fund-raising events, including high-profile dinners at the homes of celebrities.
See: Obama's Election-Year Tightrope
$60 million seems like a lot to me for one month's "work."
Also see: Why Is Big Business Unhappy With Obama?
You got me on that one.
Obama’s campaign has disclosed the names of its so-called bundlers — those who pledge to raise large amounts of funds for him — while Romney’s campaign has refused to release a list of its top fund-raisers.
In coming weeks, Romney has fund-raising events scheduled in New York; Aspen, Colo.; and Jackson Hole, Wyo.
Top donors to Romney already get access to weekly strategy calls and updates from campaign officials and other Republicans, efforts organized by aide Spencer Zwick.
Related: Nominating Romney Means Return of Bush
California's Miracle Worker
Mitt's going to win there, too?
Potential donors have been invited to Romney’s vacation home on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire for lunch and boat rides.
See: Romney's Rooms
Oh, he also has a mansion in California?
The retreat is being held on familiar turf for Romney. He owned a seven-bedroom, 9,500 square-foot log cabin in Park City before selling it as he geared up for his 2012 presidential run.
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Long weekends always leek into Monday:
"Romney spends weekend with top fund-raisers in Utah
Mitt Romney spent time this weekend with his top fund-raisers, rewarding some 500 donors and bundlers who are doing the most to help him close the gap between his campaign and President Obama’s.
The retreat, which was open to those who have given $50,000 or are raising at least $250,000, was held in Park City, Utah, in the shadows of the mountains that were home to the 2002 Winter Olympics. Romney frequently alludes to his work running the Olympics as an example of his management prowess.
Romney’s political team flew in for the event and spent personal time with the business executives, lobbyists, and politicians who are close to Romney.
The event, which The New York Times reported was dubbed by some as Republicanpalooza, featured some of the top names in politics, including operative Karl Rove, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, and the 2008 Republican nominee, Senator John McCain.
Also on hand were a number of potential vice presidential nominees, including Representative Paul Ryan, of Wisconsin; Senator Rob Portman, of Ohio; and the former Minnesota governor, Tim Pawlenty.
The fund-raisers were treated to strategy briefings from campaign officials and lectures on policy proposals from top Republicans.
The weekend concluded with a round of golf Sunday at an 18-hole course designed by Jack Nicklaus.
The former Massachusetts governor has always had a well-oiled fund-raising machine, but in the weeks since clinching the Republican nomination, he has been closing the gap with Obama’s vaunted fund-raising operation.
Unlike Obama, Romney has not disclosed his bundlers, other than the registered lobbyists that he is forced to disclose under federal law.
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Here is how Mitt used to spend his weekends:
"Mitt Romney’s prankster ways continued in college; Friends say he impersonated an officer at Stanford" by Michael Kranish | Globe Staff, June 24, 2012
Lewis Black vividly recalls the day when his Stanford University classmate, Mitt Romney, put on a police uniform, walked behind a mutual friend, and announced gravely, “You’re under arrest.”
It was, Black said in an interview, just one aspect of Romney’s continuation of a prank he had begun during his high school years: impersonating a police officer. Black said Romney was known to put a police-like whirring cherry top on his white Rambler, put on a uniform, and ride around in a “fake police car.”
Ummm, it is NOT just a PRANK, it is a CRIME!!!!!!!!!!!!
“I remembered him telling us that he liked to pull people over,” Black said.
Romney’s love of pranks is by now well known, including some that were perceived as crossing the line. Romney has talked about dressing up as a police officer to pull pranks at his Cranbrook prep school in Michigan.
Related: Boston Globe Bullies Mitt Romney
Seems to me like they are treating him awfully nice.
Btw, the well-known remark is a nod to the blogs that reported this weeks ago.
But his continuation of this practice at Stanford, confirmed by a number of his classmates in recent interviews, appears to have gone on more frequently and longer than has been generally realized.
Oh, THAT IS TROUBLING and shows signs of MENTAL DERANGEMENT!
Classmate David Lee recalled driving around the Stanford campus with Romney in search of students from the University of California, Berkeley, who were known to pull pranks on the Stanford campus. As Romney drove his white Rambler in the dark, he pulled out a “cherry top” whirring light that he brought with him from Michigan. Romney was not wearing a uniform on this occasion.
Yeah, it's ALL COLLEGE HIJINKS -- like what Rush Limbaugh said torture was, right?
“He pulled out a portable light that plugged in,” Lee said. “We were just running around campus, I wouldn’t say wildly, but aimlessly, looking for Cal guys. We never found any. I don’t know what we would have done if we had.”
Look at him back off the whole thing.
A third classmate, Richard Wall, said Romney wore what appeared to be a security guard uniform when roaming campus in his Rambler with the police cherry top.
“He would occasionally drive around after dark, and he had a flashing light he could hook into a cigarette lighter,” Wall said. “He would find kids making out in a car and give them tickets. It was probably bogus. I don’t think there was any venal intent on Romney’s part. I just think he thought it was funny.”
Which shows a SELF-CENTERED SICKNESS that is REALLY SCARY!!
Romney has acknowledged similar stunts. He was paraphrased in a Boston Globe story in 2005 as saying that he remembered “dressing up as a police officer himself and startling his friends and their girlfriends by rapping on the steamed-up windows of their parked cars.”
Ooooh, so THIS HAS BEEN OUT THERE for YEARS, huh?
And the Globe WAITED until the NATIONAL MEMO broke the story? And they wonder why their cratering readership now consists only of Jews and elites (and me)?
So, MITT GOT HIS JOLLIES out of sneaking up on kids making out in cars, huh? That shows DISTURBING SIGNS of SEXUAL REPRESSION!
These accounts follow a recollection from another Romney classmate at Stanford, Robin Madden, who told a publication called The National Memo earlier this month that Romney had boasted of using a police officer’s uniform and had displayed it in his dorm room.
“We thought it was all pretty weird,” Madden was quoted as saying. “We all thought, ‘Wow, that’s pretty creepy.’ And after that, we didn’t have much interaction with him.”
Neither would I -- and I would have reported him to the police.
Related: Mississippi Highway Patrol
And off into the memory hole distance it goes....
Romney first pulled the police act when he was a student at Cranbrook, an elite prep school in his hometown of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
Yeah, where he BULLIED a KID!!
It was late one night when Romney put on the uniform of a state trooper, put a whirring “cherry top” on his car, and pulled up to a vehicle occupied by two couples.
That is a CRIME!
Romney had let the two male friends in the car in on the prank. They had put beer bottles in the trunk ahead of time. When Romney-as-officer pulled up, the two girls in the car thought an arrest was underway.
What FUN DATES, huh?
Romney pretended surprise at discovering the beer bottles, pulled out the two boys, and placed them under fake arrest. Romney and the two boys then drove away, leaving the two girls stranded.
WHAT?!!!!???!!!!
“He came up to the car and pretended to be a cop. . . . He asked me to get out of the car and open the trunk, at which point we found the beer,” Graham McDonald, one of the friends involved in the prank, said last year in an interview for the biography, “The Real Romney” by two Globe staff reporters. “It was a terrible thing to do. We came back shortly. We didn’t leave the damsels in distress.”
Yeah, and YOU GUYS can TAKE US HOME NOW, please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After graduating from Cranbrook, Romney spent a year at Stanford, where the campus was being roiled by antiwar protests. Romney was appalled at the antiestablishment mood on campus and famously protested the antiwar protesters.
But he DIDN'T SIGN UP to GO FIGHT!!!!
Sorry, but WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH CHICKENHAWK PRESIDENTS and DON'T NEED ANOTHER SICKIE!!!!
Accounts differ about whether Romney used the same Michigan state trooper’s uniform at Stanford that he had worn at Cranbrook. Some classmates have said it was a Michigan uniform or a security guard suit. Black described it as a “rent-a-cop” outfit without Michigan markings.
Does it make a difference?
A number of Romney’s classmates said in separate interviews that he sometimes drove people around in a Rambler, the car that his father had built his reputation on while running American Motors Corp. The campus police force also used Ramblers, which may have helped Romney blend in as a supposed officer.
Romney may have risked arrest as a result of his actions. According to Michigan law around the time that Romney attended Cranbrook, it was a misdemeanor for individuals to “falsely assume or pretend to be” a police officer.
It would not be looked on favorably if you or I did it!
Under California law at the time, it was a misdemeanor for someone to wear a police-like badge or use a device if such measures were intended to “induce” the average person to believe he is a “peace officer.”
Like I said, a CRIME!!!
Peter Keane, professor of law and dean emeritus of the Golden Gate University School of Law in San Francisco, said that if Romney wore a police uniform or put a siren on his car, then “he was violating the law as it was understood and interpreted at the time. . . . If you did wear a police officer uniform and badge in California, you were arrested and could be prosecuted and convicted.”
And NOW, too!!!!
Of course, bully Mitt wasn't any of those things, and even had he Daddy would have gotten him off.
Keane, while not having direct knowledge of Romney’s actions, said people who impersonate police officers often long to be “an authority figure. There is an underlying psychology of those people that they are power hungry.” Their aim is “being able to direct people as to what they should do and not do,” Keane said.
NOT the kind of man we want as a PRESIDENT!!!!
A Romney campaign spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
Wall said that Romney’s actions paled compared to some pranks pulled by rowdier Stanford students. “There were far worse things done by people than what Romney did,” Wall said.
Yeah, well, THEY are NOT RUNNING for PRESIDENT!!!
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And down the Globe memory hole it goes.
Okay, back to work:
"The story behind Romney and the junk bond king; Deal with Michael Milken in the late ’80s transformed Bain Capital and the future candidate’s business career" by Michael Kranish and Beth Healy | Globe Staff, June 24, 2012
It was at the height of the 1980s buyout boom when Mitt Romney went in search of $300 million to finance one of the most lucrative deals he would ever manage. The man who would help provide the money was none other than the famed junk-bond king Michael Milken.
What transpired would become not just one of the most profitable leveraged buyouts of the era, but also one of the most revealing stories of Romney’s Bain Capital career. It showed how he pivoted from being a relatively cautious investor to risking his reputation for a big payoff. It is one that Romney has rarely, if ever, mentioned in his two bids for the presidency, perhaps because the Houston-based department store chain that Bain assembled later went into bankruptcy.
But what distinguishes this deal from the nearly 100 others that
Romney did over a 15-year period was his close work with Milken’s firm,
Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. At the time of the deal, it was widely known
that Milken and his company were under federal investigation, yet
Romney decided to go ahead with the deal because Drexel had a unique
ability to sell high-risk, high-yield debt instruments, known as “junk
bonds.”
So ROMNEY built his FORTUNE on JUNK?!!
Related: Throwing the Booker at Obama Over Bain
Are you TIRED of the S*** POLITICAL FOOLEYS yet?
Romney, meanwhile, once referred to the deal as emanating from “the glorious days of Drexel Burnham,” saying, “it was fun while it lasted,” in a little-noticed interview with American Banker magazine.
Yup, ripping off people and destroying their lives is FUN!
The “glorious” part, for Romney at least, was that he used junk-bond financing to turn a $10 million investment into a $175 million profit for himself, his partners, and his investors.
And the COMPANY went BANKRUPT, huh?
It marked a turning point for Romney, according to Marc Wolpow, a former Drexel employee who was involved in the deal and later was hired by Romney to work at Bain Capital....
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Also see:
Romney leaves vital questions unanswered on immigration
Decision on Arizona law underscores need for congressional action
Boston set to relaunch Tea Party museum
So what lies are we being told now?
Does it mention the colonists dressing as Indians in what is a false flag operation?
Boston Tea Party museum reopening will put misconceptions to rest
Oh, another PRANK!!!
And maybe it was just me, but the tone of those last two pieces seemed to be channeling empathy for the empire even from over 200 years ago.
Another look at the American Revolution: PEOPLE POWER IN THE USA
