Josh Marshall Must Read — On the timing of Baingate

[cthulu2016]

This is a superb piece but the 4 paragraph rule leaves out a lot, so read the whole thing at the link.

Why Now; Why It Matters
Josh Marshall- July 15, 2012, 11:00 PM 5614
...

The Obama campaign is hitting this so hard to take a series of associations and embed them so deeply into voters’ consciousness that they become inseparable from the mention of the phrase ‘Bain Capital’. Those are ‘joke’, ‘liar’, ‘felon’, ‘retroactively retired’, ‘SEC filings’, ‘Caymans’, ‘whiner’, ‘buck stops here’, ‘hiding something’.

You can spin these out forever. But beyond all the specific accusations, they’re painting a picture that makes Romney look ridiculous, like a joke. They’re making Romney look stupid and powerless on the front where he believes he’s one of the standouts of his generation. And that’s plain lethal for a presidential candidate.

But how does it come into play? Simple. Mitt Romney has two claims on the presidency: successful governor of major state and captain of industry. He’s largely written off the first by disavowing a genuine and perhaps far-reaching accomplishment: health care reform. Which leaves him with Bain Capital. The play here is to make this swirl of awfulness the first thing people think of when that phrase gets uttered.

Think about it this: when do you think the next time will be that Romney talks about Bain Capital on the stump? What will people be thinking about when the 15 minute convention video about Romney’s life gets to the part about Bain capital? The Obama camp is working to build a mental roadblock in front of any persuasive discussion of Romney’s professional life, something which should be the major predicate of his whole campaign. They’re not quite there yet. But they’re getting close.
...

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2012/07/i_hope_its_not_too.php

[TomCADem]

1. Awesome. Romney Was Hoping Being A Wall Street Banker Would Be An Asset...

... Thank goodness that even as the corporate media tries to ignore the OWS and Ninety-nine percent movement that Romney is getting heat for being a financier and corporate raider and that he is being forced to address the issue and his multiple lies.

[JDPriestly]

4. OWS is very much in people's minds. I'm not sure that precisely

what OWS does or whether it gets press is at all important at this time. OWS is there in every middle class person who sees the 1% cavorting around in the wealth that it took through means like Bain's leveraged buyouts, Walmart's vast import marketing scheme, Wall Street's derivatives fiasco and now, the banks' LIBOR fraud. Nearly everyone is aware that the 1% are a bunch of crooks. A few Republicans fool themselves into thinking otherwise, but when Romney finishes making a fool of himself, that will no longer be the case.

[flamingdem]

2. Let's hope it sticks hard

and they have more onslaughts up the sleeve for next week and onward

[CTyankee]

3. Sounds about right to me. The more people see Romney, the harder it is to support him.

Since he can't humanize himself, these attacks are doubly vicious. They will absolutely kill Romney politically. There's just no there, there...

[coalition_unwilling]

5. Excellent piece, (2nd such from TPM I've read in the past 72 hours.) Thanks

for posting!

[nikto]

6. This is a mirror-image of a Karl Rove-type attack...

...with the exception that these attacks are based on reality and true information.

But it is a Rove tactic to detroy a candidate in his perceived area of strength.
For Romney, it's that "rich businessman" thing that Obama is destroying.

Too many Americans who are naive about politics (and work hard for their own modest salary),
foolishly assume rich folks must be so very very smart to have made all that money.

Obama is shattering that naive assumption by showing the reality behind the image-The offshore holdings & tax shelters, the jobs shipped out and the profit$ outsourcing brings to Elites like Mitt.

And Romney is a hell of a lot less the honest businessman than Kerry was
a war hero. Destroying Romney should be easier.

[cthulu2016]

8. Yup

[AynRandCollectedSS]

7. Hmmmmm...

It looks like the White Horse Prophecy isn't going to come true after all, Mittens.


HAHAHHAHAHHAHA!!!!

[cthulu2016]

9. ...

[FSogol]

10. To be fair, Romney does a lot to make himself look like a joke

without the Obama campaign's help.

[Ruby the Liberal]

11. Josh knocked this one out of the park.

Well done!



k&r

[DevonRex]

12. It's not just that. As David Corn just said

on Hardball, he and Howard Fineman could keep 100 reporters busy for the next 4 months unraveling Romney's unsavory business and personal financial dealings. They have enough clues right now to put them all on the trail of huge revelations.

It ain't over by a long shot.

[malaise]

13. Excellent read

Rec