Romney, Ryan blast convention video, other topics
Mitt Romney
Appearing in Orange City, Iowa, Romney highlighted the video shown on opening night in Charlotte that stated "Government is the only thing that we all belong to." After conservative commentators castigated the message, the Obama campaign disavowed it, saying that the video was produced by the city's host committee.
"Boy, they sure got that one wrong, didn't they?" Romney asked a crowd of more than 2,000 people gathered in a college gymnasium in northwest Iowa who cheered their agreement.
Romney used the example to make his case for a limited government that answers to the people. "The government belongs to us," he said. "We value the government we have, and we pay for it too. It ain't free."
In a swing state further west, Ryan told a group of 1,500 voters in Reno, Nev., that the root of Obama's problems lay in his policies, not his personality.
"President Obama is not a bad guy. He's good at giving great speeches, he's just really bad at creating jobs," said Ryan, who was raising money in Los Angeles as the president spoke on Thursday evening. "Here's the problem, when you think that the road to success and prosperity is more borrowing, more spending, more taxing, more regulating, a government-centered society with a government run economy these are the kinds of results we will get. And if we want the next four years to be any different than the last four years, we need a new president."
The Obama camp responded by saying Romney's economic plans would make America weaker. "He would give budget-busting tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans paid for by raising taxes on the middle class, make deep cuts to critical investments like education, and turn Medicare into a voucher program," said Obama for America spokeswoman Lis Smith in an emailed statement.
Smith also went after Ryan's factual accuracy, saying his speech "followed a similar and troubling pattern of misrepresenting both the president's and Mitt Romney's records." She cited Ryan's statement that Obama oversaw the downgrading of the U.S. credit rating, which the rating agency Standard & Poor's said was due in part to political posturing by House Republicans.
Obama wasn't the only Democrat in Ryan's crosshairs on Friday. He elicited a round of boos from the crowd when he asked if they knew Reid, Nevada's senator, whom Ryan faults for leading a body that hasn't passed a budget in three years.
Romney's trip to Orange City was his first to the far northwest corner of the Hawkeye State, an area that voted overwhelmingly for Rick Santorum in the primary and has been somewhat slow to warm to the Republican nominee. He was joined at the event by Iowa's governor, Terry Branstad, and Rep. Steve King, an outspoken conservative who is a popular target for liberals. King has drawn fire for comparing immigration to the process of selecting a good bird dog and recently raised eyebrows for saying he said he was unaware of any victims of statutory rape or incest becoming pregnant, but was "open to discussion" on the topic
King, who did not endorse a candidate in the run up to the Iowa primary, is in a tight race for re-election this year against the wife of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, a former Iowa governor. Romney called on the crowd to return the controversial congressman to Capitol Hill, saying, "I wanna make sure he's in Washington when I get there so we can do the things we're promising doing."
The endorsement of King quickly caught the attention of the Obama campaign, with top strategist David Axelrod calling the congressman "Mitt's governing partner" in a tweet after the event.
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No amount of leveraged buyouts nor corporate looting is going to do any of that. There is a gain, a greater than the sum of the parts advantage in doing big things together. THAT is the way of the Democratic Party.
Voters must reject these republican traitors.
Wake up people.
the republicans had mass control of congress from 1997-2007 and did not even attempt to fix SS, Medicare, tax systems. Ho do you have control for 10 years and get nothing done. At least Hillary & Obama tried, one didn't succeed the other did.. What kind of leaders are the republicans? The republicans passed the NCLB mandate without even asking the states. And look at the number of states trying to get waivers. An expensive failed republican mandate.
You really think the GOP house will allow Romney to do anything regarding health care other than repeals it? The GOP house has already publically stated they will take their sweet old time to come up with a replacement IF THEY COME UP WITH ANYTHING. Boehner already stated this as much.
What I want to know is what/how Romney is going to guarantee that the banks/hedge funds never cause another meltdown like in 2007/2008? If that happens again it'll destroy the economy this time vs just putting us into a major recession. What's he going to do? If all out savings are in the bank or invested in 401K/IRAs and our SS is sitting in some mutual fund, we cannot afford another financial crisis. The 1% can handle it, we cannot. If I want to vote for R&R, I want to know what THEY WILL DO. The democrats want to try to restrict the thieves/gamblers from doing it (the Dodd-Frank bill). At least the democrats are trying, what are the republicans doing?
With a voucher program, there is no medicare. The government will issue a voucher to people to help (loose term here) people pay for premiums. It does nothing to say that people can find affordable health insurance. It says nothing about insurances accepting people with pre-existing conditions. What do you think you will have by the time you do get to 65? More than likely you will have some sort of pre-existing conditions. And last but not least, the voucher does nothing to reduce the actual cost of health care services.
Remember it was House Republican Majority Eric Cantor that purposely changed the Stock Act (the one about inside trader knowledge) so politicians can still make trades on insider knowledge (just via family members). It was in the original bill, he changed it. Congress had to vote twice to get it done right!!! Who's looking out for whom???
Note Ryan plagiarized the health care cuts from Obama's ACA committee. Romney plagiarized the 12million job creation number from Moody's analysts. Neither giving credit to their sources. Also, Romney will take credit of the 12million jobs that Moody's analysts have already stated that will occur regardless which person is in the WH.
And all of this not even discussing like women's rights, etc.
"The republicans passed the NCLB mandate without even asking the states. And look at the number of states trying to get waivers. An expensive failed republican mandate."
The NCLB Mandate was a good idea that a bunch of greedy Conservatives tried to run without thinking about it.. They reasoned that they would improve test scores by holding the top children back until the more challenged children caught up with the top of the class..
BAD IDEA!!!! (No child should be left behind) But that way was the wrong one.. Back to the drawing board..... and do it right this time!!!!!!
Better than Reid and Frank playing naked leapfrog!
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And yet another closet queen comment.... Do you do much toe tapping in airport restrooms?
Government in America is an expression of the people, it is our government it is our country, we decide where we want to go and what we want to do.
When the first national parks were created, loggers and miners tried to come in because it was said they belonged to us all, so they were entitled to mine and log. This was obviously the wrong notion.
A similar parable can be seen here. Is American to be strip mined for the profit of a few or is it to be taken care of for the benefit of the many. I know which side I am on and the voters need to decide too.
Romneyhood and Ryanlieing.
And you on the right talk about class warfare, Unions workers make to much money you say, but it's OK for company CEO's to make millions have golden parachutes and if the company goes under they get a bonus, just like the Wall St. banks.
ummm, there is a very nice jobs bill that has been sitting in the House for a year.
You mean another stimulus bill that will add more to the debt? More money borrowed from Social security in the form of an IOU. Yeah that's a great plan.... Not !