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LIVE TRANSCRIPT: House IRS Scandal Hearing — 5/22/2013
What: House IRS Scandal Hearing
When: 5/22/13, 12 noon
How to Watch: http://nation.foxnews.com/irs-scandal/2013/05/22/watch-live-house-hearing-irs-scandal
I ended up tuning into this late, but it’s absolutely RIVETING.
I started watching when what looks like “Mr. Skulman” was talking; his name is really “Shulman”, but the glare from the lights on his nameplate make it look like he’s “Skulman”…which suits him.
One thing you should know right up front is that Republicans on this House committee came to ask questions…but Democrats came with prepared statements to make and asked minimal questions. This part of the hearings was the end, where the Congress Critters were allowed five minutes each to speak.
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Around 1215pm CST or so — Congressman Welch (D) gives his speech, talking about equal enforcement of the law and the infringement on First Amendment rights. He says that America deserves answers as to what the IRS was doing. Largely, Welch wanted to give a speech on how terrible he thinks the SCOTUS Citizens United decision was.
Next came Congressman Gowdy…who really let into Skulman. He really got him by saying that there were inappropriate and dangerous things going on, but Skulman didn’t stop them. He asks if Skulman would have stopped someone with a knife in the building or if he would have waited for an Inspector General to write a report on someone with a knife being in the building. Skulman just smirked, squirmed, and said he would wait for the Inspector General to tell him what to do because that is procedure. Skulman will not answer YES or NO questions, and instead equivocates and rambles. Gowdy gets angry and says that Skulman is not allowing information to be given and is being evasive.
1245pm CST — Congressman Cardenas (D) from Nevada questions “Skulman”. He by and large just goes on and on, reading what he brought with him. There’s an IRS man named “Mr. George” who also speaks, alongside Mr. Skulman. Mr. George has an eloquent, Caribbean feel to him…like he could play a villain in one of the late-70s Bond movies.
1248pm CST — Congressman Farenthold (R ), from Texas, asks Mr. George what happened to the lists of donors that were collected by the IRS. Did anyone snap photos of those lists and distribute them to other groups to create “enemies lists”. Mr. George said he didn’t know nothing about nothing and that “it could be”. Farenthold then asked why Barack Obama’s brother or whomever got a 501c(3) approved lickety-split, but conservative groups languished in the approval process for years. Mr. George says that the standard for approval is 101 days for processing (one day for each dalmatian, apparently) but that due to incompetence this usually takes around 500-and some days. Mr. Farenthold asks why there are no procedures that alert higher-up people that things aren’t being completed quickly.
Farenthold then starts talking about a flow chart that he has that illustrates a rigid chain of command…with managers and supervisors and higher-ups who should be managing this. He says it is unfathomable that there would be such delays in processing applications…and that higher-ups wouldn’t know about the delays and ask why. Farenthold says that if people don’t file their tax returns that it won’t just “fall through the cracks” and be ignored for three years. Shouldn’t there be a command structure that would catch an outrageous situation like this?
A man from the IRS named Mr. Wolin talks for a bit, saying that “there’s someone new in charge now and maybe things will be better”.
1254pm CST — Congressman Woodal from Georgia speaks now. He gets Mr. George to establish that 65,000 applications for 501C(3) and C(4) status are received by IRS each year and are all processed through the Cincinnati IRS office. Woodal talks about a law he wants to pass that would take us to a consumption tax, not an income tax, and he says that clearly this is too much work for the IRS to handle. So he gives himself a little plug there. 100% of the applications were processed in this one office in Cincinnati…asks Mr. Skulman who he talked to when the question came up that something bad was happening in this office. Who did he speak to in order to get assurances that people weren’t being targeted for political reasons.
Skulman is very slimy and condescending…and he will not give names of anyone he spoke to. His strategy today is to not give up any names, apparently, and to apparently make himself look really stupid. He won’t admit there was targeting of conservative groups and he won’t even admit that this was all happening in the lead up to the presidential election. Congressman Woodal mocks Skulman…says “you contacted no one before saying to Congress that there was no targeting, but it’s clear there was targeting”. Whatever the truth is, we will bring it out…but we will not stand for people trying to keep the truth from coming out. You asked no one anything…you had no information and decided to keep it that way. You asked no one what was going on. You were derelict in finding out what the truth was when you were aware that people were saying there was political targeting going on in your office. That’s troubling.
1pm CST — Congressman Issa…speaking to Mr. George. Reads him quotes about the IRS issuing a press statement on May 10th…talking about Lois Lerner planting a question in a press event….Mr. George says he had no inkling this would occur. Issa says that there may be criminal activity in what Lerner did. Asks George if he will research this and find out what happened with that press conference of Lerner’s. Question to Skulman: the 5 year term you received is statutory, so you are appointed by a President to be a non-partisan term-appointee…someone who should transcend one term and be nonpartisan. You are required to have management skills and not be a political hack, right? You are supposed to possess management skills, correct? You are not supposed to be a political actor…you are supposed to be a manager. You are supposed to be a Commissioner for five years. Were you selected for your management skills? Skulman says he was selected for his management skills.
Congresswoman Lummus asks questions now. Issa was just using her time until she got there (she was in the bathroom and came back to the dais looking disheveled for some reason, wearing a red jacket that makes her look like an usher at an old time movie theater). Lummus asks Wolin about how quickly the IRS acts when there’s talk of something bad happening and there is an Inspector General. The offending activity is ongoing.
Issa interrupts Lummus and asks her to yield her time. Issa says that people are still in limbo and have not been approved. Wolin says that the IRS will get around to adjudicating the remaining applications that are still in limbo. Issa says “what the heck appropriate timeline should we expect”…can you give us a timeline on these people waiting, when they have already waited for years. Mr. George, people have been waiting for 3 years and now you say that it will take 30 days before you even know what you are going to do and have a plan…none of these commissioners knew anything or asked any questions so having a new commissioner shouldn’t make any difference. Mr. George says he can’t come up with a timeline or date for the IRS to begin acting appropriately and effectively.
Congresswoman Lummus is speaking again. She says that trust in the IRS has been destroyed. People believe the federal government is out to get them. Watergate was a battle of titans, with the powerful going after the powerful. This is now the federal government going after regular people who had trusted the IRS not to target and terrorize them. I have no idea how we can restore the trust. The IRS has let down the people and has turned against them. It is on a stack of other concerns where they believe the federal government has turned against them. People hire and empower Goliath, and Goliath has turned against those very people. It is moms and dads at kitchen tables who want to have a Tea Party patriot organization…and their own government says it will not allow them to organize their patriotism in this way. This is far worse than Watergate because it is government turned against the very people who hired them.
Yields back to Issa.
113pm CST – Congressman Hastings from Washington. Speaks to Mr. Wolin, asks him what he knew and when. Asks him if he knew about people writing to Congress to tell them they were being harassed by the IRS. Wolin says he didn’t know nothing about nothing and had no curiosity to know anything. Hastings says that when Wolin gets a letter from members of Congress that those letters would go directly to him, and Wolin says “I don’t know where letters go, they go to lots of people”. Hastings says that Congressman Kemp wrote to the IRS in June of 2011 writing about the Tea Party being targeted. Skulman says he doesn’t remember anything about June of 2011. Hastings asks Skulman how he prepared for this testimony before Congress…asking about his testimony in front of the Ways and Means Committee. Skulman says he doesn’t remember any of that, it was so long ago. Hastings asks if he remembers a conversation with “Mr. Lynch” that happened earlier today. Hastings asks why Skulman said in that testimony that there was no targeting going on. Skulman squirms, and says “My understanding at the time was, uh, was…” and Hastings interrupts to ask who he was having conversations with to determine there was no targeting. Essentially, he’s saying Skulman was lying without flat-out saying it. Mr. Skulman says that his memory is bad. But finally says he talked to Nicole Miller, “Somebody Flax”, other people on my staff. My Chief of Staff, but they don’t have knowledge of anything. Hastings asked if he prepared for these hearings and familiarized himself with things for the hearing. Hastings: when you gave assurance there was no targeting going on, you had discussions with Mr. Destani (sp?) that led you to say that, and it’s clearly wrong and you have given no apologies for being wrong, giving non-answers, or vague answers. You respond to questions here by being vague. There is something missing here and this Committee will find the answers but you are trying to leave us in the dark.
120pm CST — Issa puts some sort of document into the record, which shows that Mr. Skulman is stupid and doesn’t know much of anything. Issa just embarrassed Skulman because whatever document that was proves that Skulman was lying when he said that budget cuts are the reason his office is so incompetent…since budget cuts did not happen in the years that Skulman was complaining about.
121pm CST — Congressman Clay asks about Lois Lerner and her attempt to get out of an audit by having that question planted during the conference she was giving. Clay, by the way, speaks like a cartoon frog. It’s hard to take him seriously. He’s asking Mr. George if it was a surprise that Lerner did what she did. Remember that Lerner refused to speak today because she took the Fifth. George says that there are criminal penalties for releasing taxpayer information without taxpayer permission. Clay has the White House was “responsible” since they got a draft Inspector General report on April 24th. Clay, if you have not guessed, is a black Democrat so he seems to be here to defend the White House. He says “those IGs they have up in there on these rare occasions they are there for a reason, I am asking the witness this, do you agree with the chairman?”. Mr. George has no idea what Clay is talking about and asks him to re-ask his question. Clay instead gives a bad impression of Bill Cosby doing a Jell-O pudding commercial from the mid-1980s. He has trouble saying “IRS”…and stumbles when he gets to the “R” part. He then thanks Mr. George for working so hard.
ISSA: trying to establish a timeline of when people at the IRS knew that the IRS was targeting Tea Party and conservative groups for harassment. George decided on May 30th, 2012 that this was happening. On June 4th, 2012 the General Counsel at Treasury was aware that these groups were being targeted. Asks Wolin if he was aware this conclusion was there by June 4th. Wolin says he didn’t know nothing about nothing. Issa shoots back and says that NO, the IG just testified that by June 4th these people were informed of this back in 2012 (before the election). Mr. George now says he wants to clarify. He says he had a meeting on June 4th and he made people aware of an audit and he now can’t remember if he had any notes from that meeting. He says he did not have any findings back then. Issa says that they indeed reached a conclusion that the IRS was targeting Tea Party, patriots, and conservatives in 2012. Mr. George says that he was “looking at issues” but did not have final determination at that time. ”I had no idea this issue would later come up in this matter so I don’t much remember what was happening back then”.
The IRS really comes off as a bunch of incompetents who don’t know anything, don’t remember things, and have no idea what is going on. That is a marked difference from the way they act when they are auditing Americans.
130pm CST — Congressman Massie, questioning Skulman. Skulman still won’t answer yes or no. He says he will not accept responsibility for the behavior of the IRS. Massie asks Mr. George if there was gross mismanagement in the Cincinnati office. He says YES. ”Do you accept responsibility for the mismanagement at the IRS?”. Skulman says he will not accept any responsibility. ”Mr. George, there were lists called Be On the Look Out lists (BOLO)…my constituents are being asked if they were audited because of lists”. Asks Skulman if he can guarantee that there were no audits triggered by BOLO lists. Skulman squirms and says he can’t guarantee that people were not audited for being on an BOLO list. Mr. George says that he can’t confirm that the IRS hasn’t been leaking confidential matters. Says he doesn’t know if people’s private information is being released by the IRS for political reason. Massie: we need more hearings, we need to fire people at the IRS, we have a diseased and bloated government that has become self serving. Skulman says he can’t be responsible for 90,000 employees. Congress created this monster. We have 70,000 page of tax code and 90,000 bureaucrats. This is ripe for corruption and abuse. We need to restore public trust and Congress needs to shrink the IRS, simplify the tax code, and restore public trust.
137pm CST — Congresswoman Grissam — people want steps to make sure this never happens again. She is deeply troubled, but she wants to talk about 501c(4) status. She says that one key reason this exists is between the original statute and the regulation by Treasury. She’s here to give a speech. Going back to 1959 talking about changes to the “social welfare activities” related to being a 501c(4).
ISSA eventually interrupts and starts talking about the difference between 501C(4)s and 501C(3)s. Grissam is not asking any questions of anyone, but says she wants to know the donors and the activities of groups. I think her goal is to try to run cover for Democrats on this…because she seems to be trying to say that nothing is wrong in what the IRS did because she says that the government needs to know who the donors to things are. I’ve never heard of this woman before, but she comes across like a Barbara Boxer or Nancy Pelosi type of person…shrill, with an agenda, and no interest at all in finding the truth (only what helps her agenda).
143pm CST — Congressman Meadows — May 29th 2012, says Mr. George was briefed there was a criteria being used to target Tea Party groups. On May 30th, the day after, you briefed Mr. Shulman and others about the criteria being used against Tea Parties. Mr. George huffs and puffs…and he says he only knew that the allegations had merit but he didn’t have all the information the time. George does not want to give YES or NO answers. Meadows says they have notes that say that there was a separate criteria being used for Tea Party groups. On June the 4th you briefed the General Counsel in the Treasury Department…this was well over a year ago. This didn’t all just happen. Mr. George says that he has experts in the room usually and he doesn’t know these things himself. He looks like a bumbling idiot. He says this was just a courtesy call to the General Counsel. Meadows asks why Lois Lerner knew about all the interviews and things going on. George says he is not privy to anything and doesn’t know things. Meadows asks about Holly Paz (sp?) being in all these meetings, someone from the IRS in those meetings. George fumbles and bumbles. He says it was because of collective bargaining units. Someone is talking to George in his ear, his lawyer, and says that Holly was asked to leave but she wouldn’t and they were afraid to tell her to go. Meadows is incredulous. ”This is in the documents you gave us!”. George says he doesn’t know nothing about no documents, no way. Geroge fumbles and bumbles, saying ‘Many people are in Washington, but some are not”. Meadows says that this was not isolated to people in Cincinnati but there were many people in DC involved in this.
152pm CST — Congressman Cardenas. But it’s a different man than from before, as the first man who seemed to be Cardenas was black. THIS Cardenas is clearly Hispanic, so that other guy was just sitting in the wrong chair I think. He’s every soft spoken and just asks George and Shulman and Wolin if they are going to help find answers. Softball questions. For some reason, Cardenas speaks like an Indian chief in an old movie. He has that soft, singsongy kind of voice.
158pm CST — Congressman Bentivoulo (sp?) asks Shulman if he ever felt uncomfortable today…the way that the IRS made his constituents feel uncomfortable. Says that it’s unacceptable that the IRS is harassing people for teaching the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Do IRS take a class on the Constitution and Bill of Rights? Do they teach ethics training? Shulman says he does not know. ”Given their power to destroy businesses and audit people, shouldn’t they understand the concept of government restraint created at our founding?”. Asks Shulman if he understands the Constitution…says that he went to law school and had Constitutional law but is not an expert. Asks him about the amendments, the 19th amendment. Shulman says he does not have the Constitution memorized. He rolls his eyes and says he can’t recite the Constitution. Do you now what TEA in Tea Party stands for? Taxed Enough Already. The IRS wants to tax as much as possible.
ISSA — we had a transcribed interview yesterday I want to put into the record. When we asked Holly Paz (sp?) if she accompanied anyone to interviews, she said yes. But the arrangement we had with the union I would leave at the end of the interview so they could ask people questions later. This appears to be a big sticking point. TIKTA (sp?) seems to be the union. Issa reads from this transcript…and directs questions at George, asking about the target of an investigation being allowed to sit in and know the questions being asked even though she is being investigated? The IRS called this an “audit” instead of an investigation and seems to have allowed this woman Holly Paz to sit in on things when people below her talked about what she was up to…which seems to have been a way to intimidate these people into being quiet.
205pm — Congressman Cummings (D). He asks about why someone was allowed to sit there and listen to testimony when she is the target of the “audit”, and she shouldn’t have been sitting there. Apparently, the lie and excuse given for this is that the union required she be allowed to sit there. Mr. George fumbles and bumbles and says he doesn’t know why anything happened. He says having that woman Holly in the room was good because she was there to “click the memory” of the other people. He says in hindsight this looks unusual. Cummings says that Ms. Paz felt she had to be in the room to defend herself or the agency based on what may have been said or gathered in the interview. That seems to go against what George said. George said hindsight is 20/20.
207pm CST — Congresman Desantis says it is startling that Lois Lerner invoked her Fifth Amendment rights and would not testify in an investigation into whether people’s constitutional rights were violated by the IRS. Desantis asks Shulman about conversations he’s had with Obama….and Shulman says he remembers being in the White House taking pictures and being at a party with Obama and maybe talking to him about taxes in general…and Desantis says he should remember all the times he speaks to a President, since he’s been at the White House hundreds of times according to the visitor logs. It’s listed that healthcare was the topic of him going there. Shulman says that IRS is tasked with implementing Obamacare and that’s why they were going there. Desantis says he worries about the IRS being involved with Obamacare and that the IRS should focus on tax collection not healthcare. A new intrusive burden on Americans to give the IRS power over healthcare. Shulman says that the IRS does more than taxes, and that Congress loads the tax code with many different functions for the IRS…in that the IRS does what Congress asks it to do.
Last five minutes for each side.
Cummings (gives Democrats’ take): There is a law and there are standards. Some organizations in general might not meet the tax exempt status in theory. Lemme tell ya what I am concerned about. I am concerned that all of this might have a chilling effect on employees who say, hey wait, we look at criteria fairly but UH OH I better be letting this go because UH OH the audits and I might be called in and tell people to do things properly, you know what i am saying, are you following me? (Honestly, he’s making no sense).
George: Oh, I am following you. The IRS is afraid to be too aggressive.
Cummings: How we strike that balance? We need to make sure the law is clear and there are guidelines consistent with fairness. We have to have that balance so that employees are not shaking like a leaf on a windy day believing that they are failing to do what they are supposed to do, but they also have to know what their guidelines are. You said you are going to conversate with Mr. Awful, the new commissioner, and I am trying to figure out what I just said and take it into consideration. How we create an atmosphere where employees do what they want to do and not feel threatened. Does that make sense?
George: It makes sense.
Cummings: Mr. Wolin, what you think?
Wolin: The employees need the confidence to do their job and I guess there should be a culture and policies that things don’t happen again. This is a process and we will move to focus on.
Cummings: This is about trust and truth. This is an ongoing process. I want us never to forget that it’s not enough to investigate but we need reform and there are moments in life when incidents happen because the moment tells us we need to change things in a different way and if we let the moment pass then things will get worse and you all need to know that I hope that we keep things in mind and the ‘Murica people are very concerned about these things up in here.
Meadows (or someone sitting in his chair, gives the Republican side of closing): Shulman, do you have no idea what is going on below you? Do you know about things happening with Sarah Hall who is now over healthcare? Do you know who Ms. Marx is?
Shulman: I don’t know. I know nothing.
Meadows: Either this is a coverup or its an extreme lack of curiosity on your part.
Congressman Jordan from Ohio: Wants to talk about the timeline. March 8th, meeting with Oversight. Then they do an audit…March 8th 2012. May 29th they brief the IRS. May 30th preliminary findings about we are doing an audit and by the way that Tea Party groups were targeted for audits. June 4th they give the heads up to Treasury General Counsel. Why didn’t they give Congress the heads up.
George: March 1st my office was contacted but this committee to look into the matter.
Jordan: But a few months later you saw that Tea Party groups were targeted and you didn’t tell Congress that. All we knew was that you were doing an audit. You told the IRS and the Treasury about initial findings but the first time we’ve heard about this was a few weeks ago and they were told back in 2012.
George: You need to look at the timeline and see we did say some thing.
Jordan: You gave a heads up to the Democrat administration but not the oversight committee. You don’t give us the same heads up. Isn’t that unusual in an election year?
George: I was not at these briefings and I don’t now.
Jordan: You tell them but not us?
George: I am exhausted and can’t communicate well.
Jordan: Did you ever communicate with anyone on the oversight committee?
George: People on my staff said things, I guess.
ISSA: We will work on an analysis of the timeline of the initial audit period and come up with guidelines on when an audit should turn into an investigation. It is a consideration of this Chair that there was a time when the knowledge of the primary activities should have converted the audit into an investigation that would have changed procedures we have discussed today. We need to put this together into a package and not limit into a preliminary timelines. There are criminal matters involved as well.
At the beginning of this hearing, Ms. Lois Lerner arrived via a subpoena She stated that she will invoke her Fifth Amendment right. Lerner chose to make an opening statement and made assertions under oath in terms of testimony. It was brought up by Mr. Gowdy that in his opinion Ms. Lerner waived her Fifth Amendment rights by addressing issues. Though I excused Ms. Lerner I will look into recalling her in light of this waiver. This hearing stands in recess, not adjourned.
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NOTE: That last part is the most important one, because it looks like that Lois Lerner character is going to be dragged back to the hearing room and forced to testify about the bad things she did. I think they tricked her into saying enough in that room already to require her to come back and answer questions. If that happens, that will be Must See Tee-Vee because she will try to claim she doesn’t know anything or can’t answer…and I think that Issa will rip her to shreds.
SCARY THOUGHT: Did “Project Orca” Cost Romney the Election by Diverting Resources to Failing Computer Program?
One of the big differences between Democrats and Republicans is that when Republicans lose an election, the knives come out and they eat their own. We’ll be seeing this for the next few years — much like we did after the McCain campaign — with Cocktail Party GOP operatives lashing out at various members of the Romney staff, blaming them for the loss in order to elevate themselves and get exposure for their own careers on tee-vee. Steve Schmidt, McCain’s campaign manager, is a classic example of this. He jumps at every opportunity to badmouth Republicans and would appear on MSNBC every day to do so, if they had him.
Today, Breitbart.com’s running a shocking article about “Project Orca”, which was billed as the most technologically advanced Republican GOTV effort ever. Democrats were genuinely terrified of this project, and it was part of the reason that it seemed Mitt Romney would win this election in a big way. If you believed that Americans were eager to defeat Obama to prevent Obamacare from taking effect and that the Romney guys had an advanced tool to turn out the vote, then it was hard to see how Romney would lose.
We don’t know the name (or the motives) of the “Romney insider” who’s telling Breitbart that Project Orca was technologically flawed and crashed on election day, but anecdotal reports throughout the day do show that people had trouble using the system, activating their pin numbers, etc. The “Romney insider” could be telling the truth when he says that Orca diverted 40,000 Romney volunteers to a failing computer program instead of having them do traditional GOTV efforts…or this guy could be positioning himself to be the next Steve Schmidt by pushing a story like this just to sink knives into the Romney campaign. We won’t know the reality for a while.
I’m always suspicious of campaign operatives in Republican ranks because I’d think they wouldn’t reveal something like this and give Democrats the satisfaction of knowing Project Orca flopped (if that’s what happened). It’s like during the Cold War…the US and the Soviets never told each other what really happened when some new vehicle or weapons system failed.
So why come out and reveal what happened with Project Orca so that Democrats can benefit from it? That seems strange. Unless, of course, the guy doing this wants to become the next Steve Schmidt and land a seat on the talk show circuit revealing more and more about the Romney campaign’s failures.
I’m shocked to read this, though, because the big selling point about having Romney be the nominee was that he’d been working on his campaign for over 6 years and he had the best and the brightest that money could buy in terms of loyal advisors and brash young turks who would do things with GOTV that no Republican had ever succeeded in doing before.
Romney and his senior staff were legitimately shellshocked on Election Day as the first set of polls started to close, because they really thought they were winning until vote totals started coming in. Obama and his supporters seemed resigned to losing in the weeks before election day…and all throughout November 6th the talking heads on MSNBC kept talking about “voter suppression” being the only explanation for Obama’s loss, really setting the stage to push that narrative when Romney won. Everything pointed to a Romney win that never came.
If people really were counting on Project Orca to deliver the turnouts needed — and everyone assumed it would work — then maybe it’s failure is part of why Democrats ended up with the (D+7) electorate they needed to win Obama a second term.
It’s still hard to believe we really do need to suffer through four more years of Leftist control of this country…but in those four years I hope we can finally break the ugly cycle where Democrats constantly have a vaunted “turnout advantage”. Surely there is something that can be done in Republican ranks between now and 2016 to avoid another “Project Orca” failure or to allow Democrats to keep having a better “GOTV ground game”.
It’s mind-numbing and soul-killing that the Romney guys would have failed in this, because the Romney guys were supposed to be better at this stuff than anyone (better than Democrats at it, even).
Did the “Ron Paul Revolution” Stay Home Last Night?
I haven’t seen anyone ask this yet, so I will: did the Ron Paul Revolution stay home last night?
Mitt Romney won 3 million votes less than McCain while Obama lost 10 million votes of his own from 2008.
Where did those 3 million McCain voters go?
The main part of why I believed Romney would win this time because I knew the 10 million Obama supporters would sit home…but never in my worst nightmares did I imagine McCain voters would sit home. I counted on them to show up and bring friends this time to boot Obama out.
The only thing I can think of is this:
* Ron Paul supporters sat the election out because Dr. Paul because the conflict regarding the convention and the other delegate issues
* Evangelicals went through with their threat to sit home because Romney is a member of the LDS Church
And these two groups thought allowing Obama to have a second term was worth sitting home.
Is that what happened?
I never thought that was a realistic possibility because I can’t imagine ever allowing the Left to not just maintain power but actually expand their reach…but that’s what happened last night.
Have you seen anyone crunching numbers to explain this today?
The Ministry of Truth will say “oh, it was all about Hispanics!” but that is a red herring. That doesn’t explain dropping three million votes below McCain and a total of five million votes from Bush in 2004.
Ron Paul supporters seem to explain that first drop from Bush’s 2004 numbers, sitting out to the tune of 2 million when McCain ran in 2008…and then sitting out even more this time; perhaps it’s a combination of Ron Paul people and Evangelicals who sat home “to teach everyone a lesson”.
That’s an expensive lesson if this is right.
The Media Won’t Admit the Magical Black Man Failed — but voters have no trouble at all firing Barack Obama
I’m often asked why the Ministry of Truth that is our national media is populated with Obama cultists who have put their careers and reputations at risk doing everything they can to lie about this election “being close!”, when in reality Mitt Romney is going to wipe the floor with Barack Obama today. Even formerly reputable people like Scott Rasmussen have been in on this fraud…largely because they know there will be no professional consequences for lying about Bathhouse Barry’s chances today. In fact, since Gallup was threatened with a Justice Department investigation if they didn’t start producing numbers the White House liked, all the polling outfits have jumped at every chance to work as propagandists for the Obama campaign.
Some people in conservative ranks don’t understand any of this…and that’s because Republicans have such a hard time understanding just how paramount race is to everything on the Left. Do you know how some straight guys go on and on about bacon, which appears to be their absolute favorite thing in the world? There’s even bacon-flavored milkshakes at some restaurants and bacon-themed boxer shorts and bedsheets because straight guys love bacon…while the Ministry of Truth (Minitru for short) just loves RACISM and RACE-RELATED news coverage. Everything is about race to these people, because their lefty professors in college taught them all to obsess over race and use RACISM as the soul of every story they write about Republicans (whom these professors also taught there students were perpetual enemies that need to be destroyed, Alinsky-style).
In 2008, the members of Minitru colluded via networks like the infamous “JournoList” group to maneuver a magical black man of their choosing into the White House because most of these guys wanted to live in a real life Will Smith movie. You know the guy: always smiling, prone to dancing around and shaking his butt, has a love of catchphrases and saying “Aw Hell Naw!” a lot as he mugs for the camera and turns even the most serious of conversations into a joke. Smith is a 21st Century one-man-minstrel-show, but he’s beloved by the Left as “the number one black action star”…who just happens to star in movie after movie where he plays a magical black man who mysteriously appears out of nowhere when white people need him to solve all their problems. Those white people on the screen then feel really good about themselves for allowing themselves to put their trust in a black man…and the lefties who write these scripts or whose butts fill those theater seats feel marvelous because they’re “supporting the number one black action star” by buying tickets to see these flicks.
One day — just watch — Will Smith will play Barack Obama in a movie (and he’ll be given an Oscar for the role)…so the circle will be complete; the man who got to be president because he reminded people of the magical black men that Will Smith plays on the screen will then be portrayed on film by Will Smith in the ultimate magical black man role. It’s all very meta.
The Left believes in the fantasy of magical black men so much that they’ll never admit Obama was a failure. They love having a black man as president, but unfortunately they picked a grossly incompetent and drug-addled one…instead of waiting for someone awesome and extraordinary like Allen West to emerge on the scene. For four years, the Left has worked overtime attempting to make Obama great when he’s really, at heart, mediocre. This is the man who scored Cs and Ds all through college (with many incompletes) and accomplished nothing of worth as either an Illinois state senator or in the United States Senate. Now of that mattered to Columbia or Harvard back when he was in school because of his skin color…and this mendacity was irrelevant to the Left as they pushed him for president too.
Barack Obama sure looked and sounded like a Will Smith character: he was slim and smiled a lot. He said goofy things and talked with a booming voice that would seem great up on a big screen. He even has big ears and a closeted attraction to other men…just like Will Smith! He was pitch-perfect for the part the Left always wanted a magical black man to play in American politics…and they’ve worked the last four years to “make him a success”.
This is very important for you to understand because at the very beginning of the Obama presidency, in fact on Election Night in 2008, Chris Matthews on MSNBC said it was now his job to ensure that Barack Obama succeeds in all he does after he was elected president. This was an open declaration that MSNBC would not serve as news media during the Obama Regime, but would play the role of a Ministry of Truth.
I think history will show that MSNBC really led the charge with this, and that other networks, newspapers, radio hosts, and ultimately the pollsters all followed suit. Everyone affiliated with news or entertainment (“infotainment” in newspeak) pledged their undying loyalty to Barack Obama and decided to echo Chris Matthews’ promise to guarantee his success. They decided to fall on their swords (or pens and microphones) for him no matter what happened, because it was their near-religious duty to ensure the magical black man in the White House never failed. They felt so good about themselves for supporting someone with a lot of melanin in his skin during his presidency that they all decided long ago that they’d lie, cheat, and actively deceive the public wherever necessary to make sure he got two terms in office…since they knew that even Minitru could not spin a one-term presidency as a success.
THAT is really why these people are so convinced Obama will be reelected; it’s unthinkable to him that anyone could see him as a failure, since Minitru has loved everything Obama did in office. Everyone who has opposed Obama was branded a virulent, despicable racist…so the only way the members of Minitru could conceive of Obama winning was if the nation was comprised entirely of racists who would boot the magical black man from power. Since Will Smith never gets removed from the scree in any of his movies and always gets as many sequels as he wants…Minitru just assumes that Barack Obama will be president for as long as he wants, too.
The catch to all of this is that none of these people will suffer any professional consequences for shilling for Obama so shamelessly all these years…or for freaking you out of your mind today telling you that “Obama’s winning!”. Tomorrow, after Obama’s lost, Minitru will begin damage control by saying that “racists turned up at the polls to vote with RACIST-ISM!” or that “Republicans stole the election somehow!” or some other such nonsense. This is their way of claiming that “if only the election had been fair, Obama would have won!”…and then in the weeks and months ahead someone at MSNBC, the New York Times, HuffPo, and Daily Beast will be assigned to start rewriting history and removing a lot of content that Minitru put out there as Obama propaganda over the years. A decade from now, these people will pretend that they never sacrificed their reputations by becoming propagandists for Obama.
They’re also counting on all of YOU being so euphoric that Obama is booted from power that you’re going to forget all of this. Minitru believes that its viewers and readers have no other options so they will just keep staring at their tee-vees and reading their ink-smudged newspapers, believing all the lies forever. Since Republicans tend to be amnesiacs and don’t remember what happened in the last election (when Minitru freaked you out right before the Midterms and told you Democrats would GAIN more power then…and look what really happened instead!), these people believe that there will be no professional consequences for them.
I have another plan in mind, and I hope you join me in this, because we are friends like this. I want to take down Minitru and help bring down MSNBC so that it no longer even exists as a network in five years. I’d like to see the New York Times go out of business for its propaganda efforts on behalf of Obama…and I’d love to see most other newspapers retired as well. I WANT these people to have professional and personal consequences for being the equivalent of Saddam Hussein’s Minister of Information (Baghdad Bob) for all these years.
Minitru won’t admit the magical black man failed because Minitru linked its fate inextricably to this man…and when he loses reelection today that opens the door for us to bring Minitru down…and these guys know it.
Voters don’t care about any of this and are just of the mindset today that they gave Barack Obama a chance in 2008, in much the same way that they bought tickets to what ended up being a real sinker of a Will Smith movie. But they felt good about themselves for supporting the black man in this…though they draw the line at signing up for a sequel.
Today Americans are going to fire Barack Obama, just like they avoided Men in Black III last summer. There will be no hard feelings and no anger…just the reality that though Americans love giving magical black guys a chance, they aren’t stupid enough to keep spending their time and money backing stinkers. And a second term for Obama would be very stinky indeed…no matter how matter how much everyone in Minitru would insist it smelled of roses and ambrosia.
Can You Spend Any Time Outside Today Holding Up A VOTE ROMNEY Sign and/or An Empty Chair?
Do you think you have any time today that you could spend outside in a high traffic area holding up a VOTE ROMNEY sign on a street corner?
Maybe you could also hold an empty chair too?
This might sound silly to you, but it’s actually a big thing: people driving around who see VOTE ROMNEY will get excited…because they know they are not alone and they will see your presence as encouragement that your area is “Romney country”. Conversely, Obama voters will see the VOTE ROMNEY sign and be demoralized, thinking “Why even bother going to vote. Romney’s going to win”. And then they will just head to Pizza Hut or wherever (the place I think they’ve been keeping Oprah the Hutt lately, since that woman seems to have disappeared off the face of the planet. Whatever happened to Oprah Winfrey anyway?).
You don’t need a fancy sign…just go down to the drugstore and get a sturdy poster board and use a red marker to write VOTE ROMNEY in big letters…and then take a black marker and outline it so that people can read it well from far away. Don’t try to write anything else on it, because people need to read it quickly. VOTE ROMNEY works best.
And then, spend any time you can outside holding up the sign at an intersection you see with a lot of traffic. If you only have 30 minutes to spare, well, that’s 30 minutes that there wouldn’t have been a sign if you weren’t out there! I know people who make this a family event and they bring hot cocoa and go out for an hour of so…and then head back home to watch the election results come in or go off to vote themselves.
So, not only can this be a way to provide visibility for Romney/Ryan today…but you could also be making a great family memory that you’ll cherish forever. ”Remember mom when you took us and we held up that sign and everyone honked and gave us thumbs-up? That was so fun when we did that,” they’ll say, many years from now. What a great memory of the 2012 election!
If you don’t have the time to spare to hold up a sign, you can also provide visibility by wearing a Romney button or tee shirt today wherever you go. I know some people who like to face-paint and are putting VOTE under one eye and ROMNEY on the other, like they were football players…and others who are going to walk around with ROMNEY on one side of their face and RYAN on the other. That’s not for everyone, but people who don’t have to work and are just going out and about in the world (and who have bold personalities) can get away with this.
We’re all different, so you tailor all this to suit your level of comfort. You know what’s best for you.
But, I hope you can do something to provide visibility for Romney/Ryan today so that your personal touch can encourage others in your community to go out and vote…since the visibility you provide will kick everyone’s energy up into a higher gear!
I just know you’re going to do something great to help today…and I thank you in advance for doing it!
Don’t Miss Your Chance to Be Part of Mitt Romney’s Big Win Tomorrow: do something in your own way to finish strong!
Have you ever heard of the American Girls dolls? They’re a big thing here in Chicago, with a giant store on Michigan Avenue that’s a tourist trap and is always crowded. Apparently, there’s a doll styled after a character from every period of American history (rumor has it that Barack Obama collects them all).
The other day I was downtown and walked by the shop and thought about the people who were there for different important days in our history…the ones who were just regular people who never made it into any books and aren’t celebrated as individuals today. Those “American Girl” dolls aren’t supposed to be famous people…but just regular girls who lived in important time periods.
You’re living during an important moment in our nation’s history, because tomorrow’s the day that the American people choose to restore our prosperity and destiny instead of siding with the Left in its push to make this a European socialist style country. Perhaps some day there will even be a doll based on you (that an elderly Bathhouse Barry can eagerly anticipate collecting in his hot-pink nursing home room).
I really hope you are doing something in your own way to help Mitt Romney win big tomorrow, because I want you to be able to look back on these next two days many years from now and be proud of your part in making it all happen. Please don’t miss this opportunity to join Americans coast to coast in booting Barack Obama from the White House (along with all the Chicago thugs who came to Washington with him). This is like being there during the Revolutionary War…the day before Gettysburg…or being in Times Square for VE Day. What’s going to happen tomorrow will be epic…and YOU are going to not just witness it as a bystander, but be an active participant in it…in your own unique way.
Here are FIVE WAYS YOU CAN HELP MITT ROMNEY WIN BIG by using your individual talents in a way that you are comfortable with today and tomorrow:
5. Print out and distribute palm cards in your neighborhood or walk around taping them onto doors so that people know about “The Hope and the Change” being available to watch on Hulu.com today. Getting as many people to see this movie as possible is a great way to drive votes to Mitt Romney. Today — Monday 11/5/2012 — is really the last day to be able to spread the word like this and have people watch the movie. For palm cards you can print out, click HERE.
4. Call up all your friends and family and personally ask them to vote for Mitt Romney. Make sure they have the nudge they need to go to the polls tomorrow.
3. Go get a big piece of sturdy poster board and make a sign that says VOTE ROMNEY. Just like that. Keep it simple. Use a white poster board with bright RED letters so that it is easy to see. Outline the letters in black so they stand out. When you have the sign finished, go somewhere near you that’s safe to stand on a corner and show the sign to the cars that are passing by on the intersection. You can do this tonight or tomorrow. If you are free tomorrow in the morning, you can hold up the sign while people are driving to work…or you can do it after work if you get off in the afternoon. But tonight and tomorrow morning are the best times to hold signs. You might at first think this is silly, but seeing someone out there in the cold holding up a big homemade ROMNEY sign is a huge psychological push to go out and vote Romney. It tells the people in your neighborhood that “Wow! There’s excitement. I better do my part!”. This can be a BIG DEAL. It’s scary to go outside and hold up a sign for some people, so don’t do anything you aren’t comfortable doing…but if it’s not too cold out then spending a few hours outside with your family cheering for Romney and hearing the cars honk in support could be a memory you will have for a lifetime. Your kids will be in their 40s and you’ll be a grandparent and you’ll all say “Remember when we made that sign and held it up for the cars to honk back in 2012 when President Romney was first running…and I think we really helped win that election!”.
2. Do you like talking to strangers on the phone? Can you make some calls from home to help Mitt Romney get out the vote?
1. This might be obvious but….GET OUT THERE AND VOTE!
Whatever you choose to do…and however you can use your talents to help Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan today and tomorrow…I thank you from the bottom of my heart as an American. I think there are people out there right now who are doing incredible things to restore freedom and prosperity to this country. I think everyone who is part of the Resistance and is working to unseat the would-be tyrant Obama and his Leftist goons are real American heroes right up alongside those who were there in the past when America needed them most.
Thank you…God Bless…and keep up the great work through tomorrow!
Have You Noticed? Secret Service is treating Mitt Romney like a President, not just a candidate.
Last night I watched Mitt Romney’s speech from Bucks County, Pennsylvania and noticed something I hope you’ve picked up on: his Secret Service detail is treating Mitt Romney like a President…and not just like a candidate.
What I mean is that the looks on the agents faces, and the way they aggressively keep turning their heads and watching out for Romney, is the same thing they do for the actual President…but it’s not the same level of intensity these guys provide for a mere candidates for office, former presidents, First Ladies, etc. While the Secret Service always strives to do its job well and protect all its charges…the PRESIDENT is where they put their most energy…and I think mentally the agency has moved ahead and realizes that Mitt Romney will become the President-Elect tomorrow.
I never saw them treat John McCain this way. And they never treated Hillary Clinton this way, either. But they did treat Barack Obama this way very early on…way back to December 2007 or early January 2008, whenever he got a full Secret Service detail. They always treated him like he’d be the next president, not just a candidate.
But that’s how they are treating Mitt Romney right now…making it clear to me that the Powers That Be know that Bathhouse Barry is one and done.
Have you noticed this?
PS: Has anyone picked up on the Romney family’s Secret Service code names?
The Clintons, for instance, were assigned “E” words…and are Eagle (Bill), Evergreen (Hillary), and Energy (Chelsea).
The Obamas are “R” words…Renegade (Obama), Renaissance (Michelle), Radiance (one of the daughters), and Respect (I think…for the other daughter…the one who looks a little like Aretha Franklin when she was young, so I think it’s an in-joke). Update: the other Obama daughter is called “Rosebud”, not “Respect.
I don’t remember McCain’s code name but I know that the Palins had “D” words…Denali (Sarah Palin), Driller (Todd), etc.
I’d love to know what letter the Romneys were assigned and what their word choices were. I don’t think the candidates have any choice in the matter, but the agency won’t pick anything embarrassing to them. The words chosen are ones that are rare to hear in a conversation…so that over their earpieces they will know to go running if someone would just shout EVERGREEN or RADIANCE or whatever.
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UPDATE: I forgot about this, but there is a fun Wiki page that has all these names listed: Secret Service Code Names
The Romney family was assigned “J” and the Ryans are “B”, so:
Mitt Romney = Javelin
Anne Romney = ?
Paul Ryan = Bowhunter
Jana Ryan = Buttercup
Additionally, all the Romney and Ryan children will have code names that begin with “J” and “B” respectively, but details on those aren’t on the Wiki page. I wonder what Anne’s code name is. Does anyone know? I’d assign her Juno if I was picking because I like to use the mythology-based names. Juno fits with “Javelin” because it has a classic feel to it.
Other code names from history:
John McCain = Phoenix
Cindy McCain = Parasol
Meghan McCain = Peter Sellers (weird!)
Rick Santorum = Petrus (does that mean he’s related to the McCains somehow?)
Ted Kennedy = Murdering Drunk (I’m guessing on that one)
Jesse Jackson = Thunder
Joe Biden = Celtic
Jill Biden = Capri
LIVESTREAM TRANSCRIPT: Mitt Romney’s Speech in Morrisville, Pennsylvania will be on CSPAN at 425pm CST today!
What: Mitt Romney speech from Morrisville, Pennsylvania
When: 425pm CST on 11/4/2012
How to watch: CSPAN, via a link HERE
Format: Livestream transcript of Romney’s big speech in Pennsylvania
Justin and I are headed back to Chicago from Wisconsin right now and I’m writing this on his phone, but wanted to make sure you knew that you can watch Mitt Romney speak from Morrisville, Pennsylvania at 425pm CST today.
I really want to see what the crowd looks like in Pennsylvania and how much energy will be in that speech.
I think we’ll get back in time for me to do a live stream transcript of this…but if not I’ll watch it later and transcribe as I go. But I think we’ll be back.
The speech starts at 425pm CST 11/4/2012.
Tune in!
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Here’s something that’s really fun to find all in one place: CSPAN has all the modern speeches for Election Night going back many years. Both the Victory and the Concession speeches.
Mitt Romney will be giving his Victory Speech in Boston on Tuesday; meanwhile here in Chicago, Barack Obama will be making his Concession Speech from the fortress-like McCormick Place convention center.
We’ve waited for years to hear Barack Obama concede defeat and prepare to leave our daily lives…so watching some of these past speeches will hopefully get you in the groove for what’s to come.
It’s actually interesting to go back and listen to the Victory Speeches and think about how most of these guys say the same things over and over through the years…but nothing ever really gets better in terms of education, infrastructure, etc. No matter what party is in power, it’s always about how we need to improve education but yet we never do. Could be because we have not yet eliminated the teachers’ unions. How about we give that a shot in the future, and take the other public sector unions with them?
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430pm CST — waiting for the rally to start. Some man is singing a song I don’t know.
Shots of people coming in for the rally. Lots of little kids bouncing on top of people’s shoulders. The music is kind of catchy.
While it plays I’m going to make Justin some dinner since we didn’t eat on the road to and from Wisconsin. I’m using that lasagna tray I love so much but I’m making three different kinds of macaroni and cheese tonight, in the three different compartments: one regular, one with beef, and then a white cheddar and bacon one with chicken. I got a bunch of different cheeses at Mars Cheese Castle near Kenosha on our drive back and am using some tips the cheese lady there gave me for making these different mac & cheeses for Justin.
I swear, this pan makes me so happy and I use it every week for something: it’s great for baking too. Everyone I know is getting this from me for Christmas because it just makes my life so easy since I can make food for three days’ worth of meals for Justin and myself because of the three different compartments. If you have a bigger family, you’d probably just use it all up in one big meal (or two), but Justin and I typically only eat one big meal a day and snack the rest of the time so this is three days’ worth of cooking for us.
I’ve never bought anything that makes me this happy before or that is this useful in the kitchen. I just love this Chicago Metallic lasagna pan. After Romney wins, I’m going to celebrate by using an Amazon gift card I saved up to buy us a roasting pan from Chicago Metallic too…and then all winter I can make all kinds of roasts and I will think, “That’s the pan I ordered after Romney won the presidency. I ordered that when he was making his victory speech”. I like to imbibe household tools with magical memories like this for some reason.
440pm CST –
Apparently, this is a big and famous “southern rock group”. They are really good…like 70s rock. I have no idea who they are though, but people there seem to know. I swear, if you show me a pic of a fashion show from 1995 I could name every model and could probably tell you the designer, too…and I am good with movie stars and TV people…and of course I cover politics so I know most of the Congresscritters by sight…but I just don’t know music very well. That’s totally Justin’s department. Music and computer stuff. Leave the supermodels to me.
The song the group is playing is “Can’t You See?”…but I can’t see who’s playing it…lots of flag waving…excited people. It looks like everyone in Pennsylvania has turned out for this.
It’s dark in Pennsylvania…still light here in Chicago though. Must be cold there too because everyone is bundled up with hats and scarves. Everyone is smiling and excited.
I lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania back in 2004 and I worked on the Kerry campaign there. For the longest time they really thought Kerry would lose Pennsylvania and people were very freaked out all summer and into the fall. This was obviously back when I was still a Democrat. When we’d go canvassing for Kerry, people would say “I’ll vote for him because I always vote Democrat but he’s so gross. He looks like he would smell like farts. He reminds me of the guy on the Munsters”. I loved that. All of it was true. It wasn’t until the day or so before the election that the Kerry campaign felt it would actually win the state. And even then, we held our breath on election night. That was a sad and early night for me that year…I think I was home by 9pm, even though results were still coming in. We knew it was over though.
I mention this because it’s still hard for a lot of people to wrap their heads around the idea that Pennsylvania will go to Mitt Romney, but I really think it will. This is the best year ever for that to happen…and I can tell you that the fear in Kerry’s camp of losing Pennsylvania in 2004 was real. So it really is a state that could vote Republican…if the right Republican ran.
Mitt Romney is the right Republican and will win the state.
That’s such an exciting thought. It’s going to happen.
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450pm CST — still the event pre-show…people getting into place, different musicians and canned music playing…
Sign in the crowd: REAL CHANGE on DAY ONE
Love it.
Looks like Romney’s plane has been delayed. He’s flying in from Ohio. That would be my home state. Jealous?
I love saying that to Justin and teasing him that he’s not from Cleveland like me, so he must he jealous. Cleveland, Ohio…city of light, city of magic…where my heart will always be, even if Democrats have rendered it a pile of smoldering ruins.
CSPAN says that Romney “is also campaigning in Iowa, Ohio, and Virginia” today in addition to Pennsylvania. I wonder if they did it Iowa-Ohio-Pennsyvlania and then next up will be a later rally in Virginia, like an 8pm thing? A late one?
That would make sense to go west to east like that.
500pm CST — they are showing the crowd in Pennsylvania the video of the Romneys that they showed at the Republican Convention…the bio video, talking about the family, etc. Also talking about the Olympics. It’s a great video. I know someone will find it on YouTube and put it in comments for me.
Mitt’s talking about how much he loves Anne…and this is one of the only political couples who I think really are totally in love with each other. Like, old Hollywood romance love…like the Reagans had. I actually think the Carters really love each other too…and George and Laura Bush…and the first Bushes too.
I think the Clintons are best friends and know they are more powerful together than apart. The Obamas have an arranged “Down Low Club” marriage between a clearly gay man and a woman who was too difficult to deal with for a straight guy but who made a nice beard for a biracial guy who wanted black street cred.
It’s going to be great to have nice people who love each other and this country in the White House again.
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506pm CST — I kind of love listening to Mitt Romney talk now. It makes me smile. He’s really going to fix things. I believe in him.
I pledge to do everything I can do to help him succeed in any way I can…and I hope you do, too. This remarkable man has agreed to serve…and he answered the call to duty. I hope you choose to help him from DAY ONE. He just said in the video he will devote every waking hour of his energy to making America strong again.
How about we all match that?
509pm CST — the video talks about Paul Ryan, and there’s a HUGE CHEER as he talks on his video from the VP introduction event.
Governor Corbett, former Governor Ridge, Senator Toomey and others are up there.
Ridge is doing the warmup of the crowd. He has a really cool leather jacket on. He looks great.
Romney’s plane has landed and he is on his way to the event area.
Ridge says that Paul Ryan is one of the best decisions Romney could have made…and I agree.
I wanted Allen West for VP because that man is AWESOME…but I do agree that Ryan was even better.
Ridge is saying that Obama had four years to do something, and he didn’t…time to send him home.
521pm CST —
Pat Toomey takes the stage. He says it is cold, but we are freezing for a reason. Love it.
He’s talking about making Harry Reid Minority Leader and the crowd cheers.
“We are going to paint Pennsylvania red on Tuesday”…Toomey has a red jacket on and refer to its color. I love a man who color coordinates for punchlines.
If you’ve never been to a campaign event, it’s fun to see people in person you don’t often get to hear speak. If you ever have a chance to go to a rally, you should one day. They’re fun. You meet a lot of fun people too.
524pm CST –
Governor Tom Corbett takes the stage.
What’s FASCINATING is that a lot of people in the crowd are actually wearing purple. That’s so wild to me. Like, it’s a reflection of the state. Purple…going into red. Did they all color coordinate?
“Pennsylvania is in play!”
It is a massive crowd…enormous.
Size-queen Bathhouse Barry can choke on it.
Corbett is telling everyone why the state is in play…give children a better country than we are giving them right now.
Corbett is stretching it out a little…waiting for the Romney motorcade to arrive. Saying that the Romney crowd tonight is bigger than the Obama crowd that assembled nearby for something. This is near the Washington crossing area. General Washington had a surprise victory and Pennsylvania will be a surprise victory too.
The Romneys are a family that believe in this country. This is about the future of the United States. It is about courage, doing the right thing even if it is not the popular thing. Integrity, character, honesty, love of country.
Corbett had campaigned with Tagg and Ben Romney yesterday…when they talk, they talk about Mitt as their dad. They tell the personal stories about Romney. Like the little boy with cancer who wanted to meet the Governor and to see fireworks on fourth of July. Mitt Romney arranged fireworks for the boy…but Massachusetts wouldn’t allow fireworks to be set off…so Romney took the boy to Maine and he got to see fireworks.
Telling story about when Romney’s colleagues’ daughter was kidnapped and held in chains he led the rescue effort to find her and bring her home. She was going to be sold into sex slavery but Mitt Romney organized the effort to stop it. I think there was an episode of Law & Order based on this (and would be surprised if there wasn’t).
Mitt Romney is kind of an action hero.
He’s actually awesome.
The crowd is chanting SEND HIM HOME, SEND HIM HOME and TWO MORE DAYS, TWO MORE DAYS.
THIS IS SO SMART!!!!!! Tom Corbett is telling everyone to take pictures of the crowd and put it on Twitter and Facebook and email to media…because the media loves to lie and claim “hundreds showed up” when there were thousands.
How awesome…to take down the Ministry of Truth by regular people becoming the reports.
Corbett says the different governors compete to see who brings in the biggest crowd for rallies…and Pennsylvania has beat them all!
“Take those pictures, don’t let the media lie”. Make Minitru look stupid. Show people that Minitru lies.
Romney is on his way.
“I want them to hear you in Philadelphia and Trenton. I want them to hear you in New York City. I want them to hear you in Washington DC.”
AWESOMENESS!
535pm CST –
Looks like the motorcade will arrive at 545pm CST. They are playing more music right now.
People look happy just bebopping and moving to the music. It’s fun.
Giant: VICTORY IN PENNSYLVANIA SIGN up above the crowd.
This is a larger crowd, by the way, than Bush drew in 2004 in the same location. People are excited!
546pm CST — the bus pulls up, with Mitt and Anne waving in the front!
People go nuts.
Patriotic music swells, flags wave…and then the ROCKY theme starts up (a Pennsylvania favorite).
Ladies and gentlemen…our next first family. They look great, wearing warm coats for the cold….
A warm Keystone State welcome to the next President of the United States and the next First Lady of the United States!
Chants of USA USA USA.
Romney: What a Philadelphia welcome. What a welcome.
Anne Romney speaks: Thrill of a lifetime. What a welcome. Thank you so much. This campaign is drawing to a close…what energy you have given us. Finish this race strong. We are so excited about Tuesday…and to be here in Pennsylvania. I am standing with a man that I have stood with for 43 years of marriage. In every circumstance I have seen him be exceptional in every way. He will not fail. We love this country and believe in America and this man will save this country and put it back on track. The next President of the United States, Mitt Romney.
ROMNEY: Thank you all. Thank you Marshall Tucker band. Talks about the hurricane. Please donate to the Salvation Army or other groups to provide care in tough time. Governor Christie is doing a great job and is giving his heart and passion. Thank you Governor. What a welcome. Thank you so very much. This audience and your voices are being heard all over the nation (even in Chicago!) and we will take back the White House because we will win Pennsylvania.
– This man looks presidential. It will be nice watching him for four years. He is competent. That’s change I can believe in –
This is a campaign about our country and our future. Stay at it all the way through victory on Tuesday. Look at the record of the people running for president. Change can’t be measured in speeches, but achievements. Candidate Obama promised a lot, but fell short. Obama promised to be post-partisan, but he’s been most partisan. He should have focused on creating jobs…but he focused on Obamacare and killed jobs. 9 million jobs short in the last report. Unemployment is higher today than when Obama took office. Obama raids medicare to pay for Obamacare. American family pays $3000 more a year now than when Obama was elected. Instead of bridging divides he makes them wider.
Obama has not lived up to promises to solve big problems. I will.
Obama fell so short of what he promised. He cared more about the Left’s agenda than new jobs. He declared war on coal and oil and gas. He raised taxes. He had an avalanche of new regulations. Everything he did hurt the economy. Americans are struggling to find a good job. Middle class is being squeezed with lower pay and higher taxes.
Obama thinks more government is the answer…but more good jobs is really the answer. The question of the election comes down to “Do you want four more years like the last four or do you want real change?”.
SEND HIM HOME SEND HIM HOME SEND HIM HOME is chanted.
I promise change and achieved change. I built a business. I turned around other ones. I turned around the Olympics. In my state I turned things around. That is why I am running for President. I will change the course the nation is on. I will see rising take-home pay.
– when the crowd chants his name, Romney actually blushes. It embarrasses him. He does not want this to be about him, but about the country. He is actually very humble and it shows –
I will not waste time complaining about predecessor. From DAY ONE I will go to work to get Americans back to work. Take advantage of energy resources: coal, oil, gas, renewables.
Speed through KeyStone Pipeline.
Boost trade with Latin America and designate China as currency manipulator.
Make all have skills they need for good paying jobs.
Downpayment on fiscal sanity act. Cut spending. Take office on January 20th and take responsibility for the office.
Boost small business to fix problems holding our economy back.
Grant all states waivers for Obamacare to begin its repeal.
For first time in four years, people will know that the President of the United States likes them and will bring business opportunities.
Obama has ignored, blamed, and attacked people in Congress. That freezes the economy. Obama can’t change Washington from the inside, so let’s send him home to get a chance to do it from the outside.
I am going to work with Republicans and Democrats and find the good ones who care about the country.
Change course on energy.
Help with prices at pump.
Achieve North American energy independence in 8 years.
Care about small business.
– incidentally…no TelePrompTer…Romney speaks extemporaneously –
603pm CST –
Not just the large size of the crowds, but the depth of your convictions. I learned as Governor that best achievements are shared achievements. I will conduct myself with respect for all and represent one nation, not one party.
USA USA USA is chanted.
Obama has tried claiming the last four years have been a success. His plan is to do all the things over again: stimulus, Obamacare, taxes. This will not lead to recovery or success. Obama will hurt the military. We could have more recession. Obama told his supporters to vote for REVENGE.
I ask you to vote for love of country instead.
WILD CHEERS
Together we will lead America to a better place. We are two days away from a new beginning. I have an unshakeable faith in the American spirit.
With the right leadership, America will come roaring back.
We are Americans. We can do anything.
The only thing we are lacking is better leadership and that’s why we have elections.
You saw the differences at the debates. He says it has to be this way and I say it can’t stay this way. He has excuses and I have a plan.
We won’t settle. We have a dream. A better America. A better destiny.
TWO MORE DAYS and we will rebuild our country.
Confident we will be on a solid path and that college kids will find better jobs.
– Romney tells story about a troop that had sent a flag to the Challenger flight and it was recovered after the disaster and the flag was perfectly unharmed…and he saw the flag somewhere and got to touch it.
Talking about America the Beautiful song…honors veterans of armed forces to be recognized.
– watching him talk is watching THE PRESIDENT –
Take back America. We love you Pennsylvania. THANK YOU!
— Romney then goes to wave and shake hands and the crowd cheers. Flashbulbs on cameras pop like fireworks as real fireworks light up the sky. Flags wave. People are smiling. Many hold out their hands to touch the next president. Romney is swarmed as he tries to leave.
“God Bless you”, people shout. ”THANK YOU MITT ROMNEY!” they yell.
– NOTE: The Secret Service is not treating him like a candidate. They are so tight in formation around him because he is the next President. They never were like this with McCain. The way they are scanning the crowd and watching him is like they do with a sitting president, not a candidate.
Everyone knows what’s going to happen Tuesday.
What think you?
VIDEO: Tax in a Box Parody: All the Left Has to Work With at the End of the Election
This is both sad and weird at the same time.
It’s sweird.
That’s a perfectly cromulent word now.
In the last few days of the election, the Left has now decided to call Mitt Romney “a flip-flopper”. It’s a little late to start that meme, because Barack Obama decided to spend all summer attacking Romney as an evil corporate rich-man-villain…but that bombed. With two days left, the Left now wants to scream ‘He’s a flip-flopper!”.
It’s all they’ve got.
It’s pathetic and desperate.
Pathesperate, even.
The lefties I monitor are SO VERY QUIET on Facebook. They’re sharing this video and still talking about their favorite Halloween costumes. A few of them are saying that “Nate Silver promised Obama has an 80% chance of winning” and some of them are sharing electoral maps that have Virginia, Colorado, North Carolina, and Ohio in Obama’s column.
In reality all of those states will be voting to elect Mitt Romney…and so will Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada, and possibly even Michigan and Minnesota too.
It’s going to take the patience of several saints to not succumb to the temptation to mock all of these lefties come Tuesday.
What are you seeing the Left do in these last few days that make them seem sweird or pathesperate to you?
How are you going to help Mitt Romney win big in the next two days?
In a little bit I’m going to get in the car and head up to the Kenosha area in Wisconsin again with my boyfriend Justin; the first stop we’re making is to Kinko’s where I’ll run off another 100 color sheets of palm cards that tell people they can watch “The Hope and the Change” for FREE on Hulu.com. For the last week or so, I’ve been telling as many people as I can about this movie being available for them to watch online — for FREE — so that they can see how disappointed Obama’s 2008 voters are in his presidency. There is no way that someone who is not a committed Leftist would vote for Obama again after watching this movie.
The problem is that non-political people don’t know the movie is on Hulu for FREE. They might have heard it’s “online somewhere”, but a lot of people just aren’t very computer savvy and need things spelled out in great detail to understand what to do. So I made up these palm cards that make it impossible for people to not understand how to find the movie. I figure if I get them that far, they’ll actually check it out. Even if they don’t watch the whole thing, I think they’ll not vote for Obama after seeing just a few minutes of it.
When we get to Wisconsin, Justin and I just find a nice-looking neighborhood we have not already hit and we each take about half of the cards we made up (since I’m printing out another 900 cards today, that means 450 for me and Justin alike). And then we hit all the cars on the street and every house on the block. I take a roll of tape with me and that’s how we affix the cards to people’s front doors. The cards are self-explanatory so I don’t even knock (because that would take much longer) and we leave the cards under windshield wipers. Sometimes someone will be home or wonder why I left something on the door and I just say “There’s a free movie called The Hope and the Change on Hulu and we wanted you to know about it!”. If anyone asks who we’re with, we just tell them we’re fellow citizens who wanted to spread the word about the movie. Which is true, since I’m not affiliated with any campaign and neither is Justin.
We’re just Americans who love our country and want as many people to watch this movie as possible.
On the drive to and from Wisconsin we also stop at different rest areas and restaurants and I leave the palm cards any place I can. I love stopping in Cracker Barrels because they have a little General Store area…and it’s full of all kinds of candy and displays of lots of different stuff. There are TONS of great places to leave a palm card there. I also tape the cards up in the men’s room stalls and if we eat lunch or dinner at Cracker Barrel I also leave the cards on the seats at our table so the next people who sit down will get them.
As we’re eating I also leave the cards visible to other diners and people ask if they can have some too, and of course I give it to them. This has happened EVERY TIME we’ve been out doing this. If you have something in your hand — anything — and it looks like you are giving it away for free people will want it. It’s just human nature.
We always tape these to the pumps at the gas station too, near where it shows how much the gas is costing. That way people filling up will see it.
You know that I am confrontational by nature and have no trouble getting into arguments with people, but my boyfriend Justin is the polar opposite. If he’s going to be with me I always need to understand that Justin does not like doing scary or caustic things…and so we do things like distribute the palm cards together. He loves doing this because he doesn’t have to say anything and no one gets mad at him. He also likes to race me to see if he can distribute his stack of 450 before I do.
If you have a printer at home then you don’t have to go to Kinko’s. I made the palm cards in color but you can also print them in black and white to save some ink. I like doing them at Kinko’s because they have one of those giant, old-school paper cutters with the guillotine arm and it makes cutting the cards out very easy to do…but scissors work fine. Don’t think you have to run off 100 sheets of cards just because that’s what I’m doing with Justin…just do as many as you think you can distribute today and tomorrow. It makes no sense to hand these out on Tuesday — election day — because there would be no time for anyone to see the movie.
So, today and tomorrow (Monday) are the last days that we’re able to spread the word about “The Hope and the Change”.
We’ll never know how many people we got to see the movie through this effort…or who we reached…but I like to think that something like this is a very non confrontational and fun way to get people to think about how much “hope and change” disappointed them and how they’re going to remedy that on Tuesday.
Let me know if you are handing these cards out too and getting any feedback where you live!
What else are you doing to help Romney/Ryan in your part of the country?
[ You can also find a PDF of this HERE that's printable.]
