DOWNLOADS: (347)

PLAYS: (34213)

Embed

While quite a few Republicans are waking up to the fact that maybe it's not such a good idea to insult huge swaths of the voting public as Mitt Romney did when he made his remarks about President Obama winning the election because he gave "gifts" to minorities, women and young voters, it seems The Blaze's Will Cain hasn't gotten the message yet either.

This Sunday evening on CNN during Don Lemon's show, Cain appeared with regular LZ Granderson, and after Lemon played recordings of Bobby Jindal, Newt Gingrich and Haley Barbour all condemning Romney's remarks, both men were stunned when Cain decided to come to Romney's defense.

And as Granderson rightfully pointed out during the interview, besides being extremely insulting, Romney's remarks weren't even accurate, regardless of Cain's weak defense of them here. Cutting the middle man out of the student loan program, making sure women have affordable access to contraceptives, allowing people to stay on their parents' insurance plans, and allowing children who were brought to the United States to stay here instead of being deported are not "gifts." They're good policy.

If Cain wants to make sure that the Republican party remains the party of hateful old white men and help his buddy Willard make sure no one else ever wants to vote for them again, just keep talking buddy.

h/t Dave

DOWNLOADS: (187)

PLAYS: (1123)

Embed

I thought one of President Obama's better moments during the debate this week was when he pointed out that access to affordable contraception was not only a health issue for women, but an economic issue as well. During some of that exchange, Mitt Romney once again attempted to obscure his opposition to the Affordable Care Act's contraception coverage mandate and the following day, had one of his surrogates out there claiming that women don't really care about access to affordable contraception and calling it a "peripheral" issue."

As Steve Benen noted, we've seen this act before back in April when Gov. Nikki Haley was out there claiming that women don't care about contraception as well, and this Wednesday, we were treated to round two of this nonsense -- Birth control is not a 'hypothetical situation':

Kerry Healey, Romney's lieutenant governor in Massachusetts, fresh off her borderline-comical turn in the post-debate spin room last night, sat down with MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell today, and the host asked questions Healey presumably expected, noting Romney's support for the Blunt Amendment, for example.

Inexplicably, the Romney surrogate described the consequences of the candidate's own proposals as "some hypothetical situation." Healey added that even having a discussion about women being able to afford contraception is a "peripheral" issue.

This arrogant attitude is extraordinary. Under Romney's preferred agenda, employers can end contraception coverage for their women employees, and millions of Americans would no longer be able to afford birth control.

Asked to defend this right-wing nonsense, the Romney campaign's defense is that the question is irrelevant -- as if the issue is so trivial, it's not even worth their time.

If this is Team Romney's attempt to appear in touch with the needs of working families, it's likely to backfire.

Postscript: On a related note, Ed Gillespie said he was "wrong" last night to explain that Romney opposed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. For those keeping score at home, the Romney campaign, over the course of less than a day, has had no position on the law, been opposed to the law, and then supportive of the law.

As Nicole noted in her post about Nikki Haley:

And if by some chance I ignored all good sense and did the things above, when asked to proffer up proof that there isn't a war on women's rights within the GOP, I sure as hell wouldn't be stupid enough to say, "Well, women don't care about contraception."

The Romney campaign doesn't seem to have learned any lessons from what this did to them in the polls with women earlier this year.

Someone needs to tell Joe Walsh to "get a job" where it doesn't include lying to his constituents on a daily basis. Hate monger and deadbeat dad Rep. Joe Walsh decided to lay into activist Sandra Fluke for her appearance at the Democratic National Convention this week, and apparently he's not aware that she was not asking for the government to pay for anyone's birth control, or her own.

She was advocating that insurance companies pick up that tab, since it actually saves them money in the long run to do so. And he apparently thinks that she's never going to try to find a job once she graduates from college. I'm not sure what corner of the electorate this mean S.O.B. is trying to appeal to, but somehow I don't think screeching that someone who is continuing their education needs to get a job right now if they dare to want insurance companies to pay for birth control pills is going to resonate with a good deal of the sane public out there. Here's to hoping this idiot goes down in flames in the upcoming election, and that Fox doesn't hire him once the voters fire him.

Joe Walsh To Sandra Fluke: ‘Get A Job’:

At a campaign stop Saturday in Addison, IL, Walsh, who faces a tough reelection battle, went on a self-described rant about Fluke, attacking her support for contraception coverage and telling the law student to “get a job.”

“So at the Democratic Convention Wednesday night their first prime time speaker was Sandra Fluke, whatever her name is,” Walsh said. “Think about this, a 31-32 year old law student who has been a student for life, who gets up there in front of a national audience and tells the American people, ‘I want America to pay for my contraceptives.’ You’re kidding me. Go get a job. Go get a job Sandra Fluke.”

“This a woman who feels entitled that we all should pay for her contraceptives,” he said. “This is what we are teaching Americans? That was embarrassing. That was embarrassing.”

If Walsh wants to know what embarrassing looks like, just take a look in the mirror buddy.

DOWNLOADS: (136)

PLAYS: (299)

Embed

Mitt Romney's senior campaign adviser, Eric Fehrnstrom, on Sunday said that social issues important to women, like contraception coverage and abortion rights, were "shiny objects" that were being used to distract voters.

David Plouffe, one of President Barack Obama's top aides, last week told New York Magazine that Democrats needed to be clear about what a Romney presidency would mean for women's rights and other social issues.

"Potentially abortion will be criminalized," Plouffe said."Women will be denied contraceptive services. He’s far right on immigration. He supports efforts to amend the Constitution to ban gay marriage."

On Sunday, Fehrnstrom insisted that the Obama campaign strategy was not going to work.

"Mitt Romney is pro-life," the senior adviser admitted to ABC's George Stephanopoulos. "He'll govern as a pro-life president, but you're going to see the Democrats use all sorts of shiny objects to distract people's attention from the Obama performance on the economy. This is not a social issue election."

Obama Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter noted that Romney had promoted his social policies throughout the primary season.

"If it's not a social issue election then why did Mitt Romney just spend the last year campaigning on social issues?" she wondered. "These are his positions that he's taken. Whether it's giving bosses control over whether female employees can get contraception, being for the so-called personhood amendment that would ban all forms of abortion or telling the American people that he'll get back to them on whether he supports Lilly Ledbetter [Fair Pay Act] -- which is an economic issue and it should be a no-brainer, but the governor couldn't even bring himself to be for that."

"I think that getting rid of Planned Parenthood or a number of other social issues that the governor injected into the campaign -- I think that women don't like that intrusion," she added. "What Mitt Romney is really saying that he's going to do is he's going to use government to intrude into their lives. And I think that they resent that."

While Romney still leads Romney 51-40 among female voters, the GOP hopeful has rebounded by 13 points since early May, according to an ABC News/Washinton Post poll released last week.

DOWNLOADS: (162)

PLAYS: (621)

Embed

For anyone trying to keep track of all of the lies Mitt Romney has been telling out on the campaign trail, and the list is a long one, one of the best references you're going to find out there is Steve Benen's weekly series, the latest of which you can find here -- Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity, Vol. XIV:

Campaigning in Ohio yesterday, Mitt Romney told supporters, without smirking or sounding sarcastic, "If I'm president of the United States, with your help, I will tell the truth."

Ordinarily, those seeking national leadership positions don't vow to tell the truth if others help them, but since I am nothing if not helpful, I thought I might give the presumptive Republican presidential nominee a few examples of instances in which he fell short of honesty this week.

Indeed, if Romney intends to "tell the truth," he can start by reading the 14th installment of my weekly series, chronicling Mitt's mendacity.

1. Speaking to the NRA, Romney said, "The Obama administration has decided that it has the power to mandate what Catholic charities, schools, and hospitals must cover in their insurance plans.... Here we are, just getting started with Obamacare, and the federal government is already dictating to religious groups on matters of doctrine and conscience."

In Massachusetts' governor for one term, Romney took the same position Obama has adopted. He somehow forgot to mention this.

2. Romney also told the NRA audience, "We need a president who will enforce current laws, not create new ones that only serve to burden lawful gun owners. President Obama has not, I will."

The grammar in this sentence makes it hard to understand, but the implication seems to be that Obama has created new restrictions on gun laws. That's a lie.

3. Romney also claims to be a "lifetime" member of the NRA.

In reality, Romney used to oppose the NRA, but became a "lifetime" member fairly recently by buying the honor from the group.

[...]

The Obama campaign, by the way, seems well aware of the fact that Romney lies with unnerving frequency, but seems reluctant to say so in harsh terms, fearing media and voter pushback. Instead, as of yesterday, Team Obama is resorting to an interesting euphemism: "Why does [Romney] have such an aversion to the truth?"

Whether the political mainstream is comfortable using the word "lie" or not, that question seems increasingly unavoidable.

You can read the rest of last Friday's edition at the link above (there is a total of 21 lies he chronicled just last week) and as he noted at the end of the post:

Previous editions of Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity: Vol. I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII.

Steve started the project while he was still writing for The Washington Monthly, before Rachel Maddow hired him. I've included the first couple of examples in a portion of his speech at the NRA earlier this month.

DOWNLOADS: (223)

PLAYS: (761)

Embed

Following a recent poll that showed President Barack Obama with a 2-1 lead among female voters in swing states, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Sunday said that his campaign would "take our message to the women of America."

A USA Today/Gallup survey of 12 of the top battleground states found that Romney had lost 14 points among women in recent months after he and many other Republicans objected to mandating that contraception be covered by the health insurance offered by religious institutions. Six in 10 voters favored Obama, while only 30 percent supported Romney.

At an event in Middleton, Wisconsin on Sunday, a man asked the candidate what he would do to counter "false issues" the Democrats are campaigning on like "making contraception an issue."

"They suggest Republicans are having a war on women," the man said. "And are also suggesting a war on immigrants. How will you persuade these important constituencies of women, Hispanics, etc. that issues like more jobs and less debt and smaller government are women's issues, Hispanics' issues, all Americans' issues?"

"This president can't run on his record," Romney explained. "So, he's going to try to divert to some other kind of attack and try and have people disqualify our nominee -- which will probably be me -- instead of talking about where we've been and where we're going as a nation."

"And I wish Ann were here, my wife were here, for a lot of reasons, I wish she were here. But I wish she were here to answer that question in particular. She says that she’s going across the country and talking with women, and what they’re talking about is the debt that we’re leaving the next generation and the failure of this economy to put people back to work," he continued. "And the, my goodness, what the president has done, with regards to this issue on health care, he came in and said, look, under Obamacare, we’re going to tell the Catholic church that it has to violate its religious conscience and provide insurance that gives free contraceptives, free sterilization and free morning-after pill to their employees. ... And if I am the president of the United States, I will protect our first right, the right of religious freedom."

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (242)

PLAYS: (2346)

Embed

Fox News host Bill O'Reilly on Thursday said that Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke was wrong to want contraception to be covered by her health insurance, referring to the medication as "lifestyle help."

In a statement on his website over the weekend, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh said he “sincerely” apologized to Fluke, who he had called a “slut” and a “prostitute” after she testified before Congress about the need for contraception coverage at colleges and universities, even if they are owned by religious institutions.

Appearing on ABC's The View on Thursday, O'Reilly agreed that Limbaugh's choice of words had been "inappropriate."

"The bigger issue is the entitlement state versus Ms. Fluck's [sic] opinion that she is owed a certain amount of lifestyle help," O'Reilly remarked.

Hosts Barbara Walters and Joy Behar pointed out that drugs to treat erectile dysfunction, like Viagra and Levitra, were covered by most insurance companies.

"The Centers for Disease Control basically categories things, and they say this is a malady, this is a medical condition and this isn't," O'Reilly explained. "And so Viagra comes under the government's guidelines for medical condition. Contraception doesn't. So look, I don't care. Doesn't matter to me."

"It's in motion now that if you need birth control and you go to a federal clinic, you get it," he continued. "So there really isn't any problem, you can get it. And then if you don't want to drive down to the clinic, you can go to Walmart or you can go to Target and get it for $9 a month. So, to insert this into a giant Obamacare bill seems to be unnecessary to me."

"So do you consider a vasectomy a health issue then?" Behar asked. "Because that's covered."

"I don't consider anything anything," O'Reilly grumbled. "I'm not a doctor. I don't know."

(H/T: The Huffington Post)