"Michael Tomasky on the Problems With Mitt Romney’s Biography" by Michael Tomasky

[applegrove]

Michael Tomasky on the Problems With Mitt Romney’s Biography

by Michael Tomasky at the Daily Beast

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/06/17/michael-tomasky-on-the-problems-with-mitt-romney-s-biography.html

"SNIP.....................................................

What else—his career? He can say, as he does, that he spent his career in business, but he has to keep it vague. He’s not going to be mentioning Bain Capital very much. Yes, Cory Booker and Ed Rendell stepped on the White House’s Bain attack, and the White House has dropped it for now. But that doesn’t mean Bain is a winning ticket for Romney either. That has little to do with Booker or even the White House and more to do with Romney himself, the way he overstated the jobs he helped create. So the thing he spent 25 years doing is at best a wash.

His stint as governor? Not a chance. He did nothing for the state economically, he lost interest in the job after a couple of years, and he left with an approval rating in the mid-30s. The one good thing he did as governor, of course—the health-care bill—he runs away from like leprosy.

Ah, yes: the Olympics. There we are! He saved the 2002 Olympics. Surely he can say that! Well—he did, on the surface, but there’s a story lurking there too, about how he ruthlessly smeared the reputations of those who preceded him, who weren’t in the end guilty of any of the crimes Romney accused them of (a prosecution of them was dropped). Then we also have the reporting of The Daily Beast’s own Wayne Barrett, who found that Romney awarded a ticket contract to a man who was under federal investigation at the time and who subsequently became a big Romney donor. So even his greatest triumph comes with an alternate history.

Well gosh, then, what about the family? Ann is certainly sympathetic—breast cancer and multiple sclerosis. But then there’s this dressage business. I watched a little dressage the other night. Hey, to each her own. But let’s just say that it’s not a good sign when the candidate’s wife has a hobby and the campaign tries to cry foul when The New York Times describes it on the front page. That doesn’t mean there’s something problematic with The Times; right-wingers howled about that, but they did so because they know it means there’s something problematic with the hobby. The boys? I guess they’re clean, although the oldest one does have that weird name.

............................................................SNIP"

[Lint Head]

1. But there's no porn in his biography.

[enough]

2. On the Olympics, there's that video floating around where he brags to some Olympic group

about how he really knows how to get hold of those great big fat federal grants, how he got more federal grant money than anyone else, etc. etc. It's not just a few seconds soundbite, it's a whole little lecture, clear video, and there's no doubt at all about what he's talking about. I'm sure that will come back out in due time.

[66 dmhlt]

3. Rmoney: "I'm a Big Believer in Getting Money from Washington"

There are several, but the story was an ABC exclusive:
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/03/exclusive-in-02-romney-touted-d-c-connections-federal-funds/

And Raw Story added more:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/03/02/romney-i-am-big-believer-in-getting-money-from-washington/

NOTE: Both have the video