Romney ad features miners forced to lose pay during mandatory attendance at Romney event

[ProSense]

Romney ad features miners forced to lose pay during mandatory attendance at Romney event

by Laura Clawson

Mitt Romney must have really liked his campaign event using coal miners as a backdrop after their employer, Murray Energy, made attendance mandatory and unpaid, though they lost paid work time to attend. Romney liked it so much, in fact, that his new ad attacking President Barack Obama for supposedly being anti-coal uses images of Romney standing in front of those miners as they lose pay to be forced to listen to him.

The substance of the ad is ridiculous, of course. Obama has hardly been anti-coal—he just hasn't been as much of an enemy of renewable energy as the right would like to see—and the market is what's really hurting coal. But those images of coal miners forced by a mine owner with a dire safety record to give up pay to attend a Romney campaign event inadvertently reveal the true place workers would have in a Romney economy.

10:31 AM PT: And the Ohio media is taking notice. The Columbus Dispatch writes:

Mitt Romney’s campaign is airing two ads in eastern Ohio that include footage of the coal miners who lost pay because he campaigned at their mine. <...>

The Romney campaign confirmed the miners shown in the two ads were the miners from Romney’s campaign stop.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/19/1133915/-Romney-ad-features-miners-forced-to-lose-pay-during-mandatory-attendance-at-Romney-event

Puts Mittwit's China factory story into perspective, doesn't it?

[spinbaby]

1. Here's the kicker

I had a chance to talk to one of those miners recently--when they attended that rally they thought they were going to be paid for that day.

[Jack Rabbit]

2. This seems to be apropos of the Republican vision for America

The workers have to listen to a wealthy corporate raider with a history of killing American jobs talk about the wonderful things he'll do for them if elected president, while they pay for the privilege of listening to him and had no choice in the matter.

[kenfrequed]

3. Interesting

I wonder if this will get a bit bigger. I sort of hope so as it dovetails neatly with Romney writing off a large portion of the population, refusing to release his income taxes, and being a voice for the wealthy. It would be kind of interesting if the workers were made to show up at the event without pay.

On the other hand, we should guard against making too big a deal out of this as it would be very easy for these workers to actually be volunteers or pro-Romeny. In which case one of them could get an interview on some local news station and bango! Suddenly we have a news cycle about pro romney miners and how the democrats are out of touch with 'real workers' a'la Joe the Plumber part 2.

I'm probably just being paranoid though in keeping an eye out for the October surprise.

[nc4bo]

4. sigh, this is just sad and pathetic. nt