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After dismissing the poll numbers which are not moving in their favor and the uphill battle they're facing with the number of swing states the Romney campaign is going to need to win, Romney surrogate Bay Buchanan made this excuse for Mitt Romney not taking all of his charitable contributions as deductions after having said earlier that paying more taxes than he owed would disqualify him to be president.

BUCHANAN: No, that's simple. He's always paid exactly what's been required by law. Whatever his accountants said needed to be paid, he's written a check, no questions asked. And what happened this year is in January, he estimated, there was an estimate accountants gave him of what he would be paying. And when they finally did the tax return they said, Gov. Romney, I'm sorry but, you're not paying that high. And he said, well I told the people I was going to be paying that much, so that's what I'm going to pay.

And so it was just to make certain that it wasn't a misleading statement that he made in January. You know, this is what's interesting, is last night, Barack Obama said on television, he actually said that the last ten days of the turmoil in the Middle East was a bump in the road. Chris, four Americans were killed. Four Americans in a terrorist attack on our consulate. Flags... American flags are being burned... and, and, and what... this is a bump in the road. It's time to start talking about Barack Obama and how he's completely clueless on foreign policy and the economy.

Yeah, that's going to make people feel better. I had them fudge the numbers because I'm running for office for Pete's sake. I can't have them think I was lying. And then of course let's change the subject to the latest faux outrage of the day based on a lie that appears to have started with neocon Romney fan-girl Jennifer Rubin. They just keep looking more and more desperate, latching onto every single little sound byte they can find and blowing things out of proportion and out of context. They're just flailing around aimlessly, throwing mud against every wall praying something sticks.

And the Romney campaign really needs to get themselves some better spokespeople to come on television. Buchanan was so angry here, she's baring her teeth. I think it's a toss up between Buchanan and Sununu as to who the absolute worst surrogate they keep trotting out there. They're both about as equally angry and unhinged on the air.

It's Tuesday, and here's the score.

Infidel: Flustercluck

They Gave Us A Republic: Want Me To Fix It Mitt?

Field Negro: Black Vs. Brown, A Republican's Dream

Eclectablog: Mitt Romney Has Now Adopted George W Bush's Health Care Plan

Round up by Swimgirl.(tweeter @miamiswimmer) Send tips to mbru AT crooksandliars DOT com.

C'mon Mitt. Everybody who's seen Goldfinger knows why you don't open windows on an airplane.

Open Thread below....

Happy Monday night! Dave Matthews has a new album out. What new music are you digging this year?

And don't forget, not only can you support this blog with your donation, but you support C&L everytime you order music through a Late Night Music Club link.

Away From The World (Deluxe Version)
	Price: $11.99 (As of 09/24/12 07:07 pm details)

In possibly his most disturbing interview to date, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney tells Scott Pelley of CBS's "60 Minutes" that emergency room care suffices as a substitute for the uninsured.

While discussing reducing the federal debt, Romney explains that his first step will be to repeal Obamacare, and repeating his often claimed lie that this will knock $100 billion annually off the budget. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office has found that repealing the health care law will increase the federal budget deficit by more than $100 billion in the first decade and more than a trillion dollars in the next decade. The CBO also found that 30 million Americans would remain uninsured without the Affordable Care Act.

Pelley then asks Romney "Does the government have a responsibility to provide health care to the 50 million Americans who don't have it today?"

With absolutely no hint of emotion, or human compassion whatsoever, Romney tells Scott Pelley, "Well we do provide care for people who don't have insurance. If someone has a heart attack, they don't sit in their apartment and die. We pick them up in an ambulance, and take them to the hospital, and give them care.
And different states have different ways of providing for that care."

I don't think Romney even blinks as he finishes this portion of this extended interview:

Pelley: That's the most expensive way to do it.

Romney: Well the--

Pelley: In an emergency room.

Romney: Different, again, different states have different ways of doing that. Some provide that care through clinics. Some provide the care through emergency rooms. In my state, we found a solution that worked for my state. But I wouldn't take what we did in Massachusetts and say to Texas, "You've got to take the Massachusetts model."

Some states might have clinics? So if you're having a heart attack after business hours you do sit in your apartment and die? Why such a drastic change in Romney's position on health care?

When asked in a March 2010 interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" whether he believes in universal health care coverage, Romney said, "Oh, sure!"

"Look, it doesn't make a lot of sense for us to have millions and millions of people who have no health insurance and yet who can go to the emergency room and get entirely free care for which they have no responsibility, particularly if they are people who have sufficient means to pay their own way," he said. See the video below:

During an interview with Glenn Beck in 2007 (See the video below), Romney said that the individual mandate, the centerpiece of ObamaCare upheld by the Supreme Court today as a tax, was the “ultimative conservatism.” Romney said people going to the hospital and “getting free care” was a “form of socialism.”

See what a gigantic flip-flop this is? Now Romney is endorsing socialism? But Romney's version of socialism is unacceptable, as it leaves millions with no health care at all unless it's an emergency, and even then most hospitals have varying degrees of how much care you'll receive. But the 47% of the U.S. who are just moochers should just shut up and be glad with whatever get, isn't that right Mr. Romney?

Suicides rise everywhere as the economic crisis continues.

This doesn't surprise me in the least. But we don't talk about things like this, now that everyone's been promoted to the middle class:

An extremely disturbing new study published in the American Journal of Public Health finds that suicides have replaced car accidents as the leading cause of injury-related death in the U.S. This is partly because deaths from automobile accidents are down — that’s the good news.

But the truly catastrophic news is that the suicide rate has increased dramatically: between 2000 and 2009, according to data from the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics, deaths by suicide went up by 15%, and deaths from poisoning increased by a whopping 128%. Moreover, researchers say that many of the poisoning deaths, which are labeled as “accidental,” may actually be intentional. According to the study’s author, Professor Ian Rockett, an epidemiologist at West Virginia University, “Suicides are terribly undercounted; I think the problem is much worse than official data would lead us to believe.” He added “there may be 20 percent or more unrecognized suicides.”

Experts note that much of the increase in poisoning deaths is due to prescription drug overdoses, but none of the reports I found about the study speculate about what psychological, social, or economic causes are behind the spike in suicides. (I was unable to find an online copy of the study itself). But there is strong evidence elsewhere that our disastrous economy may be playing a significant role. Last year, a report by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention found that “[s]uicide rates in the U.S. tend to rise during recessions and fall amid economic booms.”

In Europe, a recent wave of “suicides by economic crisis” has been well-documented, as these shocking statistics attest:

In Greece, the suicide rate among men increased more than 24 percent from 2007 to 2009, government statistics show. In Ireland during the same period, suicides among men rose more than 16 percent. In Italy, suicides motivated by economic difficulties have increased 52 percent, to 187 in 2010 — the most recent year for which statistics were available — from 123 in 2005.

[Blue Gal here - If suicide has crossed your mind or you are concerned about a loved one who might be considering suicide, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is there for you. You are NOT alone and YOUR life matters. The phone number,
1-800-273-TALK (8255) will put you in touch with a Lifeline center near you. (Veterans press 1). ]

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From this Sunday's Face the Nation, Peggy Noonan once again proves herself to be one of the more petty and partisan pundits out there, even though she normally does her best to dress that up with lofty rhetoric which generally amounts to nothing more than empty platitudes.

I wish it were as easy as she pretends here to just ignore or blow off just how damaging to our country the Republicans obstructing just about everything President Obama has tried to get passed since he got elected has been to some meaningful economic recovery in America. I for one am sick and tired of any of them pretending, as the panel did here, that St. Ronnie or any other president could have dealt with this obstructionist, do-nothing, record setting with their refusal to work with the other side Republican House and filibustering minority in the Senate.

Tell those people who are still out of work "boo-hoo" Peggy and see what kind of response you get.

SCHIEFFER: Well, you know, that brings up a point. I mean, you know, this week you saw President Obama say, look, what I have learned is you can't run Washington from the inside, that you have to run it from the outside.

I guess what he meant was you have to bring pressure from the outside. But, you know, one of the main criticisms of President Obama is he's not very good at the inside game. And one reason that we're in the gridlock we're in right now is he is just not good at brokering deals.

NOONAN: Totally true.

CORN: But I disagree with that. I think, if you look at the tax cut deal after the November 2010 elections, that he actually got a lot more than the Republicans, if you look how he got START passed and "Don't ask, Don't tell." There are a lot of stories in which he has gone and done stuff, kind of, more on the inside than on the outside, and it's ticked off his base because they haven't seen this because it has been too much inside Washington. So it, sort of, cuts both ways.

STENGEL: He's nostalgic for the Obama of 2008 when he could run as an outsider. It's always easier to run, even when you're an incumbent, to run as an outsider. And he doesn't have that message anymore. So he lapsed back into that. The problem is he hasn't shown us why he as president needs to be rehired.

NOONAN: When a president of four years says, excuse me, "You can't change Washington from the inside," he is saying "I failed to change Washington from the inside."

He could not negotiate. He was no Reagan sitting down with Tip O'Neill.

GERGEN: Exactly.

NOONAN: If you if you are big, you can make a deal with the other side; you can move it forward. If you can't do that, then I guess you have to talk about how you can't change things.

GERGEN: I want to come back to this. I don't think you can read the Bob Woodward book and conclude that President Obama is good at the inside game. You just can't read it and figure that.

(CROSSTALK)

GERGEN: But anyway, he's a (INAUDIBLE), he has spent a lot of time doing it. But beyond that, you know, the classic book on the presidency was written by Dick Neustadt years ago, it's called "Presidential Power."

His whole argument was it is a combination. You have to be good at the outside game and the inside game. So two together. And President Obama's notion that you can do this from the outside simply doesn't work in contemporary politics.

(CROSSTALK)

SCHIEFFER: Well, have we ever had a president that was really good at both?

GERGEN: We have had occasional presidents who were really good at both.

(CROSSTALK)

GERGEN: Reagan was the best.

NOONAN: Ronald Reagan.

GERGEN: And Clinton was very good at it.

NOONAN: Ronald Reagan, LBJ, up to a certain extent.

(CROSSTALK)

CORN: ... the party Republicans, though. And, you know, you listen so someone like -- you know, look at the book that Norm Ornstein and Tom Mann wrote, and they're not flaming radicals.

And they blame the obstructionism mainly, almost essentially, on the Republicans coming in and saying, we don't care if you are Clinton or Ronald Reagan, we are just going to throw monkey wrenches into the works again and again and again, and see what happens at the next election.

NOONAN: Oh, my goodness. Boo-hoo.

(CROSSTALK)

NOONAN: Boo-hoo.

Continue reading »

Saturday night, during a fundraiser at the Beverly Hilton Hotel about 1,500 people paid up to $50,000 to see the Republican nominee for president speak. Guests were also entertained by comedian Dennis Miller, but it seems that the Romney campaign could've easily skipped that expense.

Via:

Romney’s wife, Ann, was in attendance, and the candidate spoke of the concern he had for her when her plane had to make an emergency landing Friday en route to Santa Monica because of an electrical malfunction.

“I appreciate the fact that she is on the ground, safe and sound. And I don’t think she knows just how worried some of us were,” Romney said. “When you have a fire in an aircraft, there’s no place to go, exactly, there’s no — and you can’t find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don’t open. I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem. So it’s very dangerous. And she was choking and rubbing her eyes. Fortunately, there was enough oxygen for the pilot and copilot to make a safe landing in Denver. But she’s safe and sound.”

Didn't they have science class in that fancy private school?

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A married Republican state representative in Florida announced on Monday that he will resign from office and not seek re-election after Orange County prosecutors revealed that he had been named in a case involving racketeering and prostitution.

State Rep. Mike Horner has not been charged with any crime, but law enforcement sources told the Orlando Sentinel that his name was included on a client list in a case against Mark Risner, an Orange County man who is accused of running a brothel out of his home.

Riser is facing 13 charges, including felony charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).

"I deeply regret decisions I made that are causing my family unjustifiable pain and embarrassment," Horner explained in a statement on Monday. "While current press accounts from this morning are erroneous, my family still deserves better from me, as do all my friends, supporters and constituents. So today I am announcing I will no longer seek reelection to the Florida House."

A statement from House Speaker Designate Will Weatherford said Horner had made "the right decision."

"It is in the best interest of our state and his family," Weatherford said. "As elected officials, we are held to a high standard and no member of the Florida House is above that standard. I accept Mike’s decision and offer my prayers during this difficult time for him and his family."

Florida law gives the Republican Party five days to name a replacement candidate. Horner's name would remain on the ballot, but the replacement candidate would receive credit for all votes cast for him.

He was favored over Democrat Eileen Game for the District 42 House seat.

Horner, who was a rising star in the Republican Party, is also currently serving as the president of the Kissimmee/Osceola Chamber of Commerce. It was not immediately clear how the current scandal would affect his job with the Chamber.

Mitt Romney clearly going for that all-important Boehner bronzer vote

You can process this information through whatever filter you deem relevant. For me, this seems ominous for the Romney campaign, but I'm wary of getting overly confident. It is the sign of an insecure candidate to demand that they be able to stack the deck of a town hall audience with supporters, yet that is just what Mittens did for his last Univision appearance:

Univision anchor Maria Elena Salinas told Buzzfeed that while both candidates had agreed to distribute their share of tickets mainly to students, Romney’s campaign reneged at the last minute, demanding to bus in activists to fill the seats.

But even with that demand, wouldn't you know? Mittens had a hard time finding enough Latino-looking supporters to fill out the auditorium:

But after exhausting the few conservative groups on campus, the Romney camp realized there weren't enough sympathetic students to fill the stands on their night — so they told the network and university that if they weren't given an exemption to the students-only rule, they might have to "reschedule."

The organizers relented. One Democrat with ties to the Obama campaign noted that Rudy Fernandez, the university official charged with coordinating the forums, is a member of Romney's Hispanic steering committee. Fernandez did not respond to BuzzFeed's questions about whether he gave preferential treatment to Romney's campaign.

In any case, Romney's team was allowed to bus in rowdy activists from around southern Florida in order to fill the extra seats at their town hall.

Whew! That was a close one for the Romney campaign. I won't rub it in that the Obama campaign had no problems with the first Univision arrangement. Maybe it was the few Latino conservatives they could find that precipitated Romney's need to go orange for the event. The more faces of color, the better, amirite?

Still, Romney worried that he didn't make the best impression, and demanded that he be able to re-shoot his intro:

When co-anchor Jorge Ramos noted, in Romney’s introduction, that he would only be available for 35 minutes, versus the full hour that President Obama had promised, Romney refused to come onstage until Univision agreed to re-shoot the introduction. ”Our president of news was talking to the Romney campaign and negotiating it,” Salinas told Buzzfeed. “But at that point, you can’t really argue with that. The candidate is there, everyone is in their seats, the show must go on. There’s a limit to how much we can object to it.”

They re-shot the intro, noting the time discrepancy at the end of the broadcast.

President Obama, by contrast, adhered to the original agreement, and threw no hissy fits.

This is hardly the first time a candidate (at any level) has tried to paint him or herself in the best light, trying to finagle the most favorable coverage. What is unusual is that the media isn't playing along and letting us know about all these behind-the-scenes drama. And when the media isn't helping you, that's a very bad sign.