Romney offers donors chance to “Dine with the Donald”
Barack Obama’s re-election campaign has raised millions of dollars by auctioning off dinners with the president, first lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, former President Bill Clinton and Hollywood stars – and Democratic supporters – George Clooney and Sarah Jessica Parker.
Now his rival Mitt Romney is getting into the act with some Republican celebrity love – offering the chance to “Dine with the Donald,” that is, Donald Trump — and Mitt — to anyone who donates $3 or more.
“Jets owner Woody Johnson recently previewed a rival event to the George Clooney one that President Obama’s campaign did, and this appears to be it – a raffle for a dinner with Mitt Romney and Donald Trump,” Politico reported on Thursday.
The fund-raising website features a poster modeled on the old “Uncle Sam wants you” military recruiting image, with a picture of the blond real estate mogul and reality television star, in a blue suit and red tie, pointing at the reader. “I want YOU,” it says in large letters, above smaller letters saying “Dine with the Donald… & Mitt.”
Suggestion donation amounts on the site range up to $2500, with a box that can be ticked saying “Make this a recurring donation.”
Participants are eligible to win airport transportation in the Trump vehicle, a stay at the Trump International Hotel & Tower in New York, a Tour of the boardroom from Trump’s reality television show, “Celebrity Apprentice,” and dinner with Trump and Romney.
Obama campaign launches voter drive around gay marriage
President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign, looking to tap support for the president’s embrace of same-sex marriage, launched a voter drive in key electoral states on Wednesday, saying a Mitt Romney presidency would be the “ultimate deal breaker” for proponents of “marriage equality.”
The campaign’s effort to mobilize lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender voters and those who back their rights to wed is called “Obama Pride: LGBT Americans For Obama” and will combine on-the-ground operations in Pennsylvania, Colorado, Nevada, and Florida with an enhanced digital footprint.
“The President fights for our equality because he believes we are equal. Mitt Romney would fight against our equality because he believes we do not deserve it,” said Joe Solmonese, an Obama campaign co-chair and president of the Human Rights Campaign, an advocacy group. “We can not afford to go back.”
The campaign is highlighting Romney’s opposition to same-sex-marriage and his support of a federal amendment to the constitution that would define marriage as between one man and one woman. It’ll make its push during parades, phone banks, house parties, and other get-out-the-vote maneuvers.
Romney “has pledged to write discrimination into the Constitution of the United States,” Solmonese said, calling a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman the “ultimate deal breaker” for the LGBT community.
The campaign juxtaposed Romney’s public statements with the president’s legislative record, which includes ending the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that prevented gays from serving openly in the military and signing into law the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, making it a federal hate crime to assault people based on sexual orientation, gender, and gender identity.
The Democratic incumbent in early May became the first sitting president to embrace same-sex marriage, which analysts say is particularly important to voters under age 35, a voting bloc that helped lead Obama to the White House in 2008. The campaign immediately rallied around the shift, which sparked passionate debates and a money rush on both sides.
Between Republicans and Democrats, it’s always the choice of the lesser of two evils.
Republicans are completely greedy, selfish, self-absorbed, money hungry party who would sell their own mother while Democrats are so fixated on “rights and freedoms” with no boundaries they are just completely immoral who would sleep with their own mother.
Dems use conservatives’ words against Romney in attacks
A political action committee supporting President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign has rounded up soundbites from presidential also-rans for a video it released on Tuesday hitting likely nominee Mitt Romney’s record as a private equity executive, the latest in a stream of attacks on Romney’s time in high finance.
The video comes a day after the Obama campaign stepped up criticism of Romney’s business background and fended off attacks from Republicans and from within its own ranks that its anti-Bain barbs are unnecessarily needling an entire industry.
“If Romney makes business experience the central reason for his campaign, voters have every right to question the many deals where Romney made millions while workers lost their jobs and promised benefits,” said former White House aide Bill Burton, who heads up the pro-Obama super PAC Priorities USA Action.
The roughly two-minute video, “Republicans vs. Romney’s Record,” features some of the most strident conservative voices to have waged failed presidential runs.
Texas Governor Rick Perry is shown calling the brand of capitalism Romney practiced at Bain Capital “vulture capitalism,” in which investors see a struggling company, “swoop in,” and “pick the carcass clean.”
“There is something inherently wrong when getting rich off failure and sticking it to someone else is how you do your business,” said Perry, whose bid for the White House fizzled months ago after a series of missteps and verbal gaffes.
Got to love the right, ATTACK, ATTACK and ATTACK some more, then when the other side starts using the same tactics, it is ‘unfair’ and ‘negative’. What a bunch of cry babies, if you cant take it do not dish it out.
Republicans accuse Obama campaign of “dishonest cover-up”
The RNC is out with a new video accusing President Obama’s re-election team of covering up an attempt to pressure Newark Mayor Cory Booker into walking back his critique of their campaign tactics.
On Sunday, Booker told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he was “very uncomfortable with” some of the attacks on Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital, a strategy he said he found “nauseating.” Within hours, Booker released a video on his YouTube page revising his remarks. “Mitt Romney has made his business record a centerpiece of his campaign,” he says in the video. “And therefore it is reasonable — and in fact I encourage it — for the Obama campaign to examine that record and discuss it.”
Today’s RNC video, titled “Dishonest Attacks, Dishonest Cover-up,” shows a clip of Obama campaign Press Secretary Ben LaBolt claiming that Booker was not asked to backtrack on his remarks, followed by a clip of Booker affirming that he had communicated with members of Obama’s campaign team after his “Meet the Press” interview.
Asked on CNN yesterday whether anyone in the Obama campaign “reached out to fix this,” LaBolt said Booker “released that video of his own volition…the campaign did not ask him to do so.”
A few hours later, Booker went on TV and explained that he had indeed spoken to Team Obama — although he didn’t say they explicitly asked him to “expand” on his comments:
“They had good conversations with me, and after having conversations with them — especially after hearing the president’s remarks on this issue — all of those things made me say, ‘I need to go on and clarify.’”
Watch the video, via the RNC:
So – the Republicans are outraged that Obama “covered up” something that wasn’t even a crime?
That doesn’t make any sense – until you consider the fact that the GOP represents a LOT of racist groups. Once the racist factor is considered, the unfounded criticism is explained.
Chris Christie, Cory Booker do sketch comedy for Jersey press corps
New Jersey’s Republican governor, Chris Christie, and Newark’s Democratic mayor, Cory Booker, joined forces for a comic video they debuted last night at the New Jersey Press Association’s annual Legislative Correspondents Club Show.
The skit plays on Booker’s reputation for valiance (thanks to his famed rescue of a neighbor from fire and for shoveling snow for Newark residents), with Booker edging out Christie on one heroic good deed after another. “Booker!” grumbles Christie each time, echoing Jerry Seinfeld’s aggrieved “Newman!” But there’s one act of heroism only Christie, in the video, can do: join Romney as running mate.
Watch, via Christie’s YouTube page:
RNC posts 2004 video of Obama calling the deficit under Bush “an enormous problem”
As Republicans this week extend their attacks on President Obama for the increasing federal debt, the RNC’s “rapid response” team has dredged up old video of then-Senate candidate Obama elaborating his views about the federal deficit during a 2004 debate.
In the course of his response to a moderator’s question about the “monstrous federal deficit,” Obama says it’s “an enormous problem” brought about by the Bush White House, which he calls “the most fiscally irresponsible administration in certainly my memory.”
“We have gone from trillion-dollar surpluses to trillion-dollar deficits in the blink of an eye,” Obama said. “Not all of those costs are the fault of the administration — obviously, 9/11 occurred and the decline in the economy. But what is also true is that it was aided and abetted by a set of fiscal policies that I think were on the wrong course.”
Very stupid critique. Running a deficit when the economy was in good shape was not smart. But when the economy sank into the Great Recession at the end of the Bush presidency, it was necessary to run a deficit to rescue the economy. If Bush had not run up the deficit, when it was imperative to have one, the pain would have been much less. But this is too complex for GOP rank and file to understand.
Super PAC hits Romney on steel mill record
The super PAC supporting Democratic incumbent Barack Obama announced on Tuesday a multimillion dollar battleground television advertisement and accompanying website attacking Mitt Romney for what it sees as a slash and burn style of capitalism practiced by the former private equity executive while at the helm of Bain Capital.
The roughly one-minute ad, launched the day after the Obama campaign hit Mitt Romney’s record at Bain, is the first in a series of the campaign ads that will run on television and online in the battleground states of Colorado, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, according to a release from the organization, Priorities USA Action, run by former White House aide Bill Burton.
It features Pat Wells, a former steelworker at GS Steel, the target of a Bain leveraged buyout that Reuters highlighted in a special report in January. The super PAC’s video, and the Obama campaign video from yesterday, argue that Romney practiced a brand of corporate raiding that helped wealthy investors at the expense of workers.
“Whether the companies they came in and worked with made money or not was irrelevant. Bain Capital always made money,” Wells said. “He promised us the same things he’s promising the United States. And he’ll give you the same thing he gave us. Nothing.”
Despite the attack, President Barack Obama attended a fundraiser hosted by Tony James, the chief operating officer at Blackstone Group LP, the world’s largest private equity firm, on Monday evening. James’ boss, Stephen Schwarzman, is a fierce critic of Obama’s economic policies, particularly on taxes, and is a strong supporter of Romney.
Photo credit: Screenshot/Priorities USA Action
After gay marriage shift, high profile Romney backer switches to Obama
An openly gay, big-dollar donor to Mitt Romney’s campaign is asking for his money back after Vice President Joe Biden – followed by President Barack Obama – embraced gay marriage, the New York consultant told Reuters on Monday.
“When I heard Biden say he was comfortable with men marrying men I almost fell off my chair,” said Bill White, 42, a registered independent who has supported politicians across the political spectrum, including both President Bushes and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and who maxed out during the Republican primary for Romney, the former Massachusetts Governor.
“These guys are on the right side of history,” said White, who was married to Joseph Bryan Eure in October 2011, a wedding that was officiated by David Boies, a lawyer who defended gay marriage equality in California, and attended by — disclaimer — Thomson Reuters senior executives. Soul singer Aretha Franklin performed at the wedding, the first legal gay marriage ceremony at the Four Seasons hotel, the New York Daily News reported.
White initially backed Romney because the wealthy former private equity executive’s worry over America’s fiscal woes and his plans to rein in spending matched his own, White said.
“I was going to vote for Romney because I think he will be a guy who will have more fiscal control,” said White, who planned to donate more to Romney and had pushed his friends to cut checks to Romney, who has not yet refunded his money. White said he has not yet given to Obama this cycle, either.
The change came after the White House’s shift and Romney took to the stage of evangelical bastion Liberty University and said during a commencement speech that “marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman.” White said seeing Romney make that speech made him worry over a possible constitutional amendment defining marriage.
Public support for same-sex marriage is evolving: half of Americans believe same-sex couples should have the same right to wed as heterosexuals do, slightly down from a year ago but marking the second year that a majority of Americans have supported same-sex marriage. Six states, plus the District of Columbia, have extended marriage rights to gay couples. Twenty-eight states ban such marriages.
Don’t let the door hit ya in the butt on the way out…oh wait, you might like that.
Obama compromised by Wall Street contributions, conservative group alleges
President Obama is too closely tied to Wall Street, claims a new web video that takes the tone of Occupy Wall Street, though it was produced by a conservative group.
The video, released by the American Future Fund, an Iowa-based organization designed to be “a voice for conservative principles” and “free market ideals,” alleges that raising tens of millions of dollars from Wall Street gave Obama reason to let (presumably culpable) Wall Street executives off easy:
“Nearly four years after America’s financial collapse, not a single senior Wall Street executive has been charged with a crime. Not one. Why? Could it be because Obama raised $49 million from Wall Street – more than any candidate in history? He rewarded top Wall Street donors and supporters with senior jobs. His chief of staff made millions from Wall Street — after Wall Street received billions in bailout money.”
The ad names Jon Corzine, the former Democratic senator and New Jersey governor who headed MF Global until it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last fall, as a particular example. Corzine “lost $1.6 billion in customers’ money but hasn’t been charged” the narrator says.
“Under Obama, Wall Street keeps winning, and Obama keeps taking their cash. Tell Obama to stop protecting his Wall Street donors.”
Watch, via the American Future Fund:
pot meet kettle. Seriously, do they think the voters are stupid? Oh, wait.
http://www.iwatchnews.org/2011/01/05/223 2/hedge-funds-bet-heavily-republicans-en d-election
“A small network of hedge fund executives pumped at least $10 million into Republican campaign committees and allied groups in last year’s elections, helping bankroll GOP victories that changed the balance of power in Washington, according to a review of campaign records and interviews with industry insiders.
The review by the Center for Public Integrity and NBC found that some of the heaviest contributions from industry leaders came late in the campaign or were funneled through obscure “joint fundraising committees” and other independent GOP allies — some of which were set up to maximize campaign fundraising or to avoid disclosing the names of big donors. The Center and NBC analyzed campaign data compiled by CQ Moneyline and the Internal Revenue Service.
Bitterly opposed to economic and regulatory policies backed by President Barack Obama and Democrats — including proposals to increase taxes on some of their profits — top Wall Street hedge fund moguls were unusually energized during last year’s election. They held multiple fundraisers and coordinated strategy to direct what appear to be unprecedented sums into the coffers of GOP and allied political committees.
The net effect has given hedge funds important new allies at a time when they are fending off some regulations mandated by the Dodd-Frank financial reform law and an aggressive Justice Department investigation into insider trading.”
Obama, Romney celebrate tough, compassionate mothers
In two Mother’s Day videos posted to their respective websites, the campaigns working to re-elect President Barack Obama and his likely Republican adversary Mitt Romney packaged the top women in their ranks as strong-willed but compassionate moms who played outsized roles in raising the children of the men vying for the job as leader of the free world come November.
The Romney campaign reprised family videos to highlight the household challenges faced by Ann Romney, who as a tough, doting mother grappled with five rambunctious boys — as well as multiple sclerosis and breast cancer. Ann compassionately disciplined the perceptually quarreling Tagg and Matt, the video notes, and served pancakes to Ben, who needed to be fattened up.
“She is an authentic person,” Tagg says in the video. “You know who she is when you meet her. She doesn’t put on airs. She doesn’t try to be something she’s not. She doesn’t try to measure what she is going to say to gauge how you are going to react. She just says what she thinks.”
Ann Romney, who has taken a more active role helping her husband court women voters on the campaign trail, made her debut on the social networking site Twitter in mid-April by reproaching a Democratic strategist who said Ann had “never worked a day in her life.”
“I made a choice to stay home and raise five boys,” Ann Romney, 62, said in her tweet. “Believe me, it was hard work.”
Mitt is shown only in inter-video montage photos and the nearly four-minute video does not mention the former Massachusetts Governor’s record involving women or mothers, nor does it clarify his position on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the equal pay law Obama signed in 2009 as his first official bill. Romney won’t repeal the law, his campaign said, but it stopped short of saying whether Romney would have signed it if he were in Obama’s shoes.
The Romney campaign’s tribute focuses on the private moments of a large family interacting close to home and regales viewers with private, if innocuous, childhood memories.
@LarryLinn: BRILLIANT.
My question is, is this celebrity dining lottery compulsory for all Romney campaign donors? If so, I’ll be interested to learn what kind of effect this has on campaign donations.
@kafantaris: True, but even self-promoting persons like Trump can be helpful from time to time (when it suits them). There are plenty of people who want to follow in their footsteps…