This morning on Face the Nation, Ed Gillespie commented that Romney “retired retroactively” from Bain Capital after questions about exactly what year the candidate retired have come to light. Romney left Bain to rescue the beleagured Salt Lake City Olympics, detailed in his book “Turnaround.” [Full disclosure: I copyedited the book].
Gillespie said Romney may have been listed as “part-time” after 1999, but that he had no role in the firm’s day-to-day affairs, a point the campaign has attempted to make repeatedly in order to separate him from Bain’s activity related to outsourcing during that period. Romney has said he left the company completely in 1999 when he started working to plan the 2002 Winter Olympics.
“There may have been a thought at the time that [Romney’s Bain work] could be part-time. It was not part-time. The Olympics was in a shambles,” Gillespie told Candy Crowley on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“He took a leave of absence and in fact, Candy, ended up not going back at all and retired retroactively to February 1999 as a result,” Gillespie said.
In response, the Left has seized on the comment to breathe new life into their attacks on Romney’s time in the private sector. Daily Kos put up a headline that it was the “best new meme” and on twitter the hashtag “retroactively” is being used to contrast the Gillespie news byte with the Obama #Forward slogan.
This election is a choice between #Forward and #Retroactively.
— Jeremy Jewitt (@jeremyjewitt) July 15, 2012
Obama’s team clearly feels that a “meme” victory is achieved by contrasting somewhat empty slogans rather than talking about the economy. As they seek out their own “attack watch” twitter victory, the “meme” victory has yet to be embraced by the voting public. As they continue to salivate over the one-word memes, we’re left with remembering that Romney was busy in the private sector creating value for our economy as Obama studied under the tutelage of Saul Alinskyites.
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“This election is a choice between #Forward and #Retroactively.”
I guess cheesy campaign slogans work on some of the people all of the time.
Hope and change is yesterday’s fashion, like bell-bottomed jeans.
That “meme” and $4.95 will get you a cup ‘o coffee over-priced copy.
If I was the Romney camp, I’d turn that “retroactive” around on Team Obama. Remember that Blag-O was just, “Some guy I met at a ballgame once.” Bill Ayers was, “Bill who? Oh, I think we were on a board or something a while back.” Oh, and the land where Castle Obama sits in idyllic splendor was bought from Tony Rezko.
Oh, and his publisher’s Obama Bio that said, “Born in Kenya.”
Hit ’em hard and then right back to the toxic economy.
Obama’s team clearly feels that a “meme” victory is achieved by contrasting somewhat empty slogans rather than talking about the economy.
Pounding the table and screaming may be their best shot, barring a (legitimate or fabricated) crisis.
This review of The Little Blue Book: The Essential Guide to Thinking and Talking Democratic indicates what the postmodern Left is up to.
BTW… want a new meme, Team Obama? We changed one of your latest for accuracy sake. You know, as you said earlier this week, you just didn’t “message well”.
Well, Mr. Obama, here’s message with all content verified!
http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/w362/TrooperJohnSmith/AuRMMrrCEAA1P95.jpg
Big Tent Democrat thinks this Bain stuff is peachy-keen:
http://www.talkleft.com/story/2012/7/15/104020/906
Fact is that “retroactively” comment is completely idiotic. No matter what else that stupid statement will make for great political attack ads because nobody with 2 working brain cells uses the term “retroactively” like that.
Romney might be a good President. But he is an utter joke when it comes to actually running for office and I am not impressed. I thought he was a joke during the primaries. I still think he is a joke now. But his advisers and campaign staff are just incredible.
I’m sorry but this all was addressed 2002! Romney can’t get out from under this line of attack on something that got fully addressed in 2002!? He doesn’t have a well practiced, well rehearsed and well thought out response for this?
“Retroactively” is legally and factually correct.
Mitt left Bain in February 1999 to run the 2002 Winter Olympics. He left other people in charge.
In 2001 he decided he was not coming back. He made a deal to sell the company to the people he left in charge, retroactive to the date he left.
Factually correct and $3 will get you a coffee at Starbucks.
Sorry man but I firmly believe in the adage that if you have to explain something in politics, you lose. And Romney is trying to explain and it isn’t necessarily working.
What is your suggestion?
This came up in 2002 by the Boston Globe. They investigated it and found nothing. Reporters from the Boston Globe wrote a book and they found nothing. If you want to talk about something then let’s talk about religious freedom being violated by Obama or 42 continuous months of 8%+ unemployment and an economy that appears to be sliding back into recession if not outright depression from the job killing policies of Obama. Because I’m not going to waste my time talking about a so called scandal from 10 years ago because all you’re doing is boring me.
That’s what I want to see.
Democrats are just pounding the table with their meme shoe … like Krushchev at the UN. For them the election is about making a lot of noise over small things, hoping the reality of Obama’s record never gets center stage.
Romney’s reward for leaving a lucrative position at Bain to save the Olympics is to have the President of the United States smear him as an implied criminal.
I’m not clear on why Obama campaign would claim that Romney is a ‘felon’ – isn’t that factually inaccurate – I’m not aware of any convictions. Nor have I seen anyone present evidence (at least to me) of anything that would be grounds for a criminal investigation, let alone conviction, on something that happened well over a decade ago.
This whole thing reminds me of what I read trial lawyers are taught: “If the law’s on your side, pound the law. If the facts are on your side, pound the facts. If neither are on your side, pound the table”.
If the best victory that the Left can claim is a ‘meme victory’ it really means that neither facts nor law are on their side, and they know it. I.e. they’re the ones that are knowingly lying.
‘Pubs have always been so easily knocked off message by petty entrapments by the left.
If ‘pubs could ever keep their eye on the ball through an election, stop with the knee-jerk reactions, and forcefully return the discussion to what is important, in this case the economy, and stay on point, they would marvel at their success.
The rats beat them like a rented mule all day long.
How come everyone else can explain what transpired in a way even a moron can understand, but Romney can’t/won’t?
Who the hell is running his campaign?
Didn’t he just do 5 interviews?
Time to put this bologna to bed AND shove it (felonies, anyone?) back in their face.
Maybe Romney needs to pretend that it was Newt or Rick that called him a possible felon-
Romney has explained it just fine.
The media doesn’t care.
Yea, well apparently “It’s not true, now apologize” isn’t gaining any traction is it?
On the other hand, “Romney is a corrupt Wall Street guy” is-
What is your suggestion? What magic words can he use?
Seems to me and I’m not alone in this, is what the Jeremy Jewitt’s, Al Sharpton’s, Jesse Jackson’s, Jeremiah Wright’s, the Clyburn’s et al, mean by “retroactively”, plantation slavery days.
That will NOT leave this kind of individual’s thinking..EVER!
The Thomas Sowell’s, Herman Cain’s, Allen West’s, Condi Rice’s are not BLACK people, they are American persons. Just plain American persons. There is no color involved..
We ignore these social media fronts at our peril. Social media gets messages spread. They are powerful.
We need to confront these efforts. We don’t necessarily need to counter them with our own, nor do we need to subsume them in our own efforts. We need merely muddy them and paint them into corners.
Rub the real social woes of the *reality* of this administration together, and use their media to accomplish it.
About how long will it take for independent conservatives to take over this hash-tag, like we took over this one: #WhatObamaTaughtMe is that Israel is spelled “Isreal” and that country is totally screwed!
[…] Note: Next hashtag take-over target – #retroactive! Like this:LikeBe the first to like […]
myiq2xu | July 15, 2012 at 4:45 pm
What is your suggestion? What magic words can he use?
___________________________________
I’ll tell you what I’d do-
I’d fire off an op-ed to the NYT and Washington Post. To every major newspaper in swing States.
I’d lay our the nuts and bolts
I would surmise something to the affect-
“I’m flattered my political opponents recognize my managerial abilities to be able to successfully run Bain and the U.S. Olympics simultaneously. However, the need to showcase American exceptionalism to the World was paramount.
“American pride” is not a slogan, but an endeavor that must be re-affirmed with every task before us. There is no better showcase for the World than the Olympic games on American soil. From our venues to our hospitality to the very uniforms our athletes wear, “Made in America” must be second to none.”
Then, I’d mention something to the effect of how the White House doesn’t seem to understand how business, and legal requirements regarding documents work, nor do they seem interested in learning. Because if they did, this issue would not have made it past an initial internal conference call, let alone public and slanderous utterings of criminal activity.
Want me to write the whole thing?
That was some pretty good messaging, right thar.
I understood every bit, too.
Well, well, what have we here?
The responses just write themselves. You can:
1. Apologize.
2. Bow.
3. Promise them you’ll
meet their demandshave more flexibility after you are reelected.4. Give them a DVD of your speeches.
5. Blame Republican Tea Party racists.
…and so on.
Or, if it’s an indispensable ally of long standing, you can semi-surreptitiously give them the finger during a joint public appearance.
No need to thank me, Rahm. I’m glad to help out.
My script for Romney would be:
“Mr. Obama has a history of apologizing to the nation’s enemies and apologizing for the nation’s allies. I’m his opponent, he should be comfortable with apologizing to me.”
Time for Romney to get his sh^t together and FIRE his bumbling idiot advisers “retroactive” Gillespie and “etch-a-sketch”, “it’s a PENALTY” Fehrnstrom.
Romney must take the gloves off and call out the lying, despicable, anti-American, anti-Semitic, incompetent, destructive, hate-filled, irresponsible, chicago-thug-like actions and words of OBOZO. When OBOZO brings a knife to the fight, Romney must bring a gun; when he brings a gun, bring an AK-47 – do whatever it takes to win and always be prepared for the nuclear option*, if needed, against the socialist extremists. America, it’s values, its freedoms and its exceptionalism are all at stake in this election. Take no prisoners – fight to bitter end and to the last man standing.
*Nuclear Option = OBOZO’s 20+year mentoring by vile, racist, anti-American, anti-Semitic piece of excrement jeremiah “God Damn America” wright, OBOZO’s training by American terrorist bill ayers, OBOZO’s advanced training in racist extremism by beneath excrement Derrick Bell, OBOZO’s training in communism by lunatic-leftist Frank Marshall Davis, OBOZO’s teaching of Alinsky’s radical extremism as a community organizer, OBOZO’s membership in the radical socialist New Party, OBOZO’s dirty dealings with convicted felon Tony Rezko, The Choom Gang and OBOZO’s drug addiction, details of OBOZO’s hate-fill Black Liberation Theology, the mysterious Social Security number used by OBOZO, and on, and on, and on…
While he’s at it, Romney needs to hire Pawlenty’s ad guy, the one who went to Perry before he dropped out.
Given the circumstances in his favor, Romney’s campaign is absolutely pathetic. His campaign manager is about as qualified to run a national political campaign as Obama is to be president, and Hillary Clinton is qualified to be Secretary of State.
*sigh*
For sad laugh about it:
http://thefinereport.com/2012/07/obama-doesnt-apologize-to-romney-romney-puzzled/
1. In 2008 McCain worked his way up, bit by bit, to a small lead in the polls. Then the financial crisis hit and he lost his composure. Game over.
I wonder if the Obama campaign is trying to provoke Romney. If Romney loses his cool, the 24/7 issue will immediately become Romney’s temperament.
If Romney responds with anger, the anger should clearly be controlled. Reagan showed how in 1980: I paid for this microphone, Mr. Green!
2. The Romney campaign should not forget that mockery is the ideal weapon against Obama. Lee Atwater would have taken Barry apart.
I would like a simple straight forward political ad in which Romney says: He was not involved in decision making at Bain after he left for the Olympics. Bringing the Olympics up to the mark took all his energy, determination and focus. To split himself between Bain and the Olympics would have been a disservice to both endeavors and something he would never do.
The number of jobs outsourced during those short few years are ___, the number of jobs Bain created or saved since its inception are ___.
The number of jobs Obama outsourced with tax payer money is ____. Further, Obama gave more taxpayer money to green energy companies that he knew were risky and failing. Our hard earned money! Then he vetoed the keystone oil pipeline, killing 20,000 American jobs and our hope for energy independence. Now his people are telling us about the strategic importance of the Strait of Hormuz and Obama may go to war over oil.
If you’re going to hire worthless hacks like Ed Gillespie this is what happens. The GOP establishment does not exist to win elections. It exists to block the ascendance of the people we need to save this country. They don’t care that the media is in charge of the entire election. It doesn’t embarrass them. All they care about is themselves.
You are right.
Romney is a tool (on so many levels!) of the Establishment. First he destroyed Gingrich with scorched earth. Then he took out Santorum.
Conservatives eliminated — mission accomplished. Winning the general election is secondary. After all, that would mean saying bad things about the Establishment’s brothers-in-corruption.
Romney is going to lose. Huge. It’ll be 2008 all over again.
[…] Obama campaign has been in all out assault mode on Mitt Romney since it was discovered that Romney may not have completely severed his relationship […]