# why isn't anyone doing a better job calling Romney on his BS? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 25, 2012, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anyone-doing-a-better-job-calling-romney-on-his-bs/638795 "2012-10-25T03:49:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Catballou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Catballou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catballou)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anyone-doing-a-better-job-calling-romney-on-his-bs/638795/101 "2012-10-26T20:41:49Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > What’s going on here is that many of you are living in a fantasy world where one candidate is an honest, upstanding guy and the other is a lying sleazebag. How come the media doesn’t see that? Because they’ve been around and they know that’s politics. If there’s a particularly blatant lie going on they’ll jump on it, but the usual political BS and flip-flopping barely gets noticed. > > Which candidate is the more dishonest is a legitimate subject for debate. Where many of you go wrong is in assuming it’s just open and shut that Romney is worse and the media should agree with you. I’m not an assumer, I’m a fact checker. This means that I can not rely on sources like Fox News, formerly known as GOP TV, for information. In fact, I haven’t owned a TV in over 15 years because of the regulatory changes that ruined our access to more credible News. So I don’t _assume_ Mr. Romney is more dishonest and less trustworthy than Mr. Obama; I based my opinion on the cold, dry record of facts. Facts are not “suggestions” and they are not partisan. They are not “fair and balanced.” They are what they are. ---
**Author:** ![regginbrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ba9def/32.png) [@regginbrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/regginbrow)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anyone-doing-a-better-job-calling-romney-on-his-bs/638795/102 "2012-10-26T20:46:39Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > Apparently the Romney campaign photoshopped a pic to try to make the crowd look bigger. > > [Romney Campaign Exaggerates Size Of Nevada Event With Altered Image](http://www.buzzfeed.com/zekejmiller/romney-campaign-appears-to-exaggerate-size-of-neva?s=mobile) > > Really? At this stage of the game? Jebus. That is one awful photoshop. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anyone-doing-a-better-job-calling-romney-on-his-bs/638795/103 "2012-10-26T21:13:32Z")
Smell the competence! ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Colossus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.colossus/32/9423_2.png) [@Dr.Colossus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Colossus)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anyone-doing-a-better-job-calling-romney-on-his-bs/638795/104 "2012-10-26T21:25:30Z")
> [@Catballou](#): > > I don’t think calling Romney out for being a liar is effective regardless of how true it is. His base doesn’t care. They can easily rationalize with “they all lie.” the bigger issue is not to persuade the hard right, who are immovable objects; it’s to clarify for people like, well, me. i’m a moderate (not registered indy but probably by true association i am) and some of this stuff i’ve complained about swayed me towards the romney camp. then i found out the rest of the story, and it really shifted what points he initially made over me. that is what annoyed/frightens me–his lying and omission of facts nearly swayed even ME. but once i learned the whole story, any amount of sway evaporated. i wonder how many true independents might be swayed by the lies or turned off by the truth. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Colossus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.colossus/32/9423_2.png) [@Dr.Colossus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Colossus)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anyone-doing-a-better-job-calling-romney-on-his-bs/638795/105 "2012-10-26T21:42:18Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > If Obama had a 62% chance of winning in 2008 and a 62% chance of winning in 2012, and they are independent events, then the odds of winning both would be 38%. > > 62% is anything but overwhelming. 80% isn’t overwhelming either. 95% is overwhelming- just. you mathed out all wrong, there. intrade doesn’t factor in the percent chance of 2008 (why on earth would you think they did? where’d that come from?) today it’s up to 63.5%-which in a presidential election IS overwhelming. the highest percentage “landslide” was 61.3%. that’s HUUUUUGE for presidential (pop) vote, and since intrade is a pop-vote surrogate, the percentages are pretty related. obama only actually won by 53% in a similar score for the last election. it’s roughly a 50 50 thing so any amount over 50% bodes pretty well. you show me an election where someone wins by 95%–and it’s not considered utterly insane in terms of landslide victories. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anyone-doing-a-better-job-calling-romney-on-his-bs/638795/106 "2012-10-26T21:48:15Z")
> [@Dr.Colossus](#): > > why isn’t anyone calling out romney on some of this stuff…? > > for example, he touts how he saved the Olympics every chance he can to show what a great job he can do with the economy. > > only he saved those games WITH A MASSIVE GOVERNMENT BAIL OUT Couldn’t be because people don’t agree with you, could it? Couldn’t be because you’re doing the bullshitting here, could it? Politifact (Rating: Mostly True) doesn’t agree with you, nor Mark Lewis, a guy who was [actually there](http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/jan/06/mitt-romney/how-important-was-romney-fixing-troubled-salt-lake/). > [@](#): > > Mark Lewis worked for the International Olympic Committee when Romney hired him to help recruit additional corporations to help fund the games. …“It’s a pretty tough sell to go out to a company and say you should pay money to be associated with us,” Lewis said. He said Romney’s sales job persuaded them to contribute. [Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitt_Romney#2002_Winter_Olympics) seems to appreciate his contribution: > [@](#): > > Romney restructured the organization’s leadership and policies. He reduced budgets and boosted fundraising, alleviating the concerns of corporate sponsors while recruiting new ones.[142][145] Romney worked to ensure the safety of the Games following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks by coordinating a $300 million security budget.[144] He oversaw a $1.32 billion total budget, 700 employees, and 26,000 volunteers.[146] The federal government provided approximately $400 million[145][151][152] to $600 million[153][154] of that budget, much of it a result of Romney’s having aggressively lobbied Congress and federal agencies. Not to mention that getting a “bailout” isn’t an easy thing to do, but Romney pulled it off. So the real question is, why do you think Romney _didn’t_ save the Olympics? ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anyone-doing-a-better-job-calling-romney-on-his-bs/638795/107 "2012-10-26T21:48:29Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > Apparently the Romney campaign photoshopped a pic to try to make the crowd look bigger. > > [Romney Campaign Exaggerates Size Of Nevada Event With Altered Image](http://www.buzzfeed.com/zekejmiller/romney-campaign-appears-to-exaggerate-size-of-neva?s=mobile) That 54 awesomes. [Here’s my crude attempt to show the stretched and unstretched versions of the crowd.](http://www.boxjamsdoodle.com/images/RomneyRallyPic.jpg) Even that’s not right, because I just noticed there’s still a duplicated sliver on the right (the sunlit spot is too wide). ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Colossus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.colossus/32/9423_2.png) [@Dr.Colossus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Colossus)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anyone-doing-a-better-job-calling-romney-on-his-bs/638795/108 "2012-10-26T22:06:28Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > Couldn’t be because people don’t agree with you, could it? Couldn’t be because you’re doing the bullshitting here, could it? Politifact (Rating: Mostly True) doesn’t agree with you, nor Mark Lewis, a guy who was [actually there](http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/jan/06/mitt-romney/how-important-was-romney-fixing-troubled-salt-lake/). > > [Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitt_Romney#2002_Winter_Olympics) seems to appreciate his contribution: > Not to mention that getting a “bailout” isn’t an easy thing to do, but Romney pulled it off. So the real question is, why do you think Romney _didn’t_ save the Olympics? …did you just actually try to say Romney didn’t receive a bail out? saying Romney received a 1.3 billion dollar government bail out to salvage the Olympics is bullshit? you’re saying that…? ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anyone-doing-a-better-job-calling-romney-on-his-bs/638795/109 "2012-10-26T22:28:01Z")
Chessic Sense, you didn’t read the politifact article beyond the picture of the meter at the top, did you? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Colossus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.colossus/32/9423_2.png) [@Dr.Colossus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Colossus)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2012, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anyone-doing-a-better-job-calling-romney-on-his-bs/638795/110 "2012-10-26T23:25:25Z")
> [@](#): > > Romney wasn’t just the head of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee. Romney was also a registered lobbyist for the organization, Utah state records show. > > Romney last worked as a lobbyist on Dec. 31, 2000, according to a spokesman for the state lieutenant governor, who oversees the registry. > > As a lobbyist and president of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, Romney didn’t just stabilize the balance sheet. He brought in a record $1.3 billion in federal dollars for Salt Lake City’s games and more from Utah. In 1996, the Atlanta Summer Olympics cost U.S. taxpayers $609 million. The Salt Lake Tribune wrote in March 2000: “If charming state lawmakers were an Olympic event, Mitt Romney would be draped in a flag about now, singing the national anthem.” > > The Romney campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment about Romney’s Olympics role as a registered lobbyist. > > The games ended up becoming a boondoggle for pet projects. > > “For those of us who live here, if the Olympics is the excuse we need to get it done, we said, ‘Let’s do it.’” > > The Democratic National Committee is already running ads quoting Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) complaints at the time. He slammed the federal spending on the Salt Lake games as an “incredible pork-barrel project” and a “rip-off of the taxpayers.” McCain went further calling the spending a “disgrace” and pushed for a federal investigation. > > The federal spending was lavish. And much of it benefited private interests. In its definitive December 2001 investigation, Sports Illustrated documented shady spending and taxpayer-funded bridges-to-nowhere, including a millionaire developer receiving federal cash to build a road, and a billionaire ski resort owner gobbling up public land with federal assistance. Taxpayers spent $12 million on two temporary parking lots. Romney’s committee spent $3 million in federal money building a fence and adding security around a medical center to protect patients from Olympics crowds. Another $1 million was spent on a weather forecasting system. > > During Romney’s campaign for Massachusetts governor following the games, he boasted of his lobbying abilities. **“I’m in favor of getting more money from the federal government. … We need to do a better job getting money from Washington,” he said. “And I’m going to go after the transportation department and get more money there if at all possible. I was successful in doing that in organizing the Olympics – got record funds from the federal government. I’ll do that here.”** > **[Mitt Romney Worked As Registered Lobbyist For Salt Lake City Olympics](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mitt-romney-olympics_n_1704261)** > > Mitt Romney Worked As Registered Lobbyist For Salt Lake City Olympics not only is it NOT bullshit, he brags about it… this is mr. anti-government spending. this is mr. anti-bailouts. ^that guy claims to be against bail outs. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2012, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anyone-doing-a-better-job-calling-romney-on-his-bs/638795/111 "2012-10-28T15:50:52Z")
> [@Dr.Colossus](#): > > …did you just actually try to say Romney didn’t receive a bail out? saying Romney received a 1.3 billion dollar government bail out to salvage the Olympics is bullshit? > > you’re saying that…? Didn’t say that. > [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > Chessic Sense, you didn’t read the politifact article beyond the picture of the meter at the top, did you? Of course I did. Where do you think I got the quotes in my post? The point is that he didn’t just get a bailout. He went to private investors and snatched the pennies they were pinching. I don’t know why I’m supposed to believe that was easy or that it didn’t happen. Conclusion = he’s a good business man and the OP is wrong. Clear enough for you? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Colossus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.colossus/32/9423_2.png) [@Dr.Colossus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Colossus)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2012, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anyone-doing-a-better-job-calling-romney-on-his-bs/638795/112 "2012-10-29T01:27:17Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > Didn’t say that. > > Of course I did. Where do you think I got the quotes in my post? > > The point is that he didn’t just get a bailout. He went to private investors and snatched the pennies they were pinching. I don’t know why I’m supposed to believe that was easy or that it didn’t happen. Conclusion = he’s a good business man and the OP is wrong. > > Clear enough for you? then he used those pennies to fund pet projects and lobbied for things that benefited companies he was connected with. of course, the “op,” --me–never said he wasn’t a good business man. he’s shrewd and merciless and will say/do anything to get what he wants. he will say in one breath bailouts are wrong AND that he should go for the most federal cash-grab he can. he’s a businessman unscrupulously cagey, on par with Trump. no. what the op said was he was able to do this not because he was able to pull it out by his bootstraps through good business sense. he was able to do it because he received the biggest federal bail out of its kind, ever up to that point. it changes the complexion of the whole thing… ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2012, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anyone-doing-a-better-job-calling-romney-on-his-bs/638795/113 "2012-10-29T01:41:22Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > Apparently the Romney campaign photoshopped a pic to try to make the crowd look bigger. > > [Romney Campaign Exaggerates Size Of Nevada Event With Altered Image](http://www.buzzfeed.com/zekejmiller/romney-campaign-appears-to-exaggerate-size-of-neva?s=mobile) > > Really? At this stage of the game? Jebus. Wait. Even my aunt, who sends me pictures of “geologic formations in the shapes of animals” (i.e., photoshopped crap) could tell that this was BS. What the hell happens to that pole on the left - does it just enter another dimension? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Colossus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.colossus/32/9423_2.png) [@Dr.Colossus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Colossus)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2012, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anyone-doing-a-better-job-calling-romney-on-his-bs/638795/114 "2012-10-29T03:31:38Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > the OP is wrong. > > Clear enough for you? curious still is that you didn’t rebut any of the other points that have been made. there’s a long list of things Romney has been duplicitous about. odd that the single thing you’ve keyed in on is the bail out (which you agree he received, which is all i said–that he saved the olympics w a bail out, which he fails to ever mention–which is still true). ---
**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2012, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anyone-doing-a-better-job-calling-romney-on-his-bs/638795/115 "2012-11-02T01:40:10Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > But ultimately, they vote for the side that holds their cultural and intellectual affinity. You mean… _gasp_… their class? > [@](#): > > Hell, until a few months ago Obama was even against gay marriage until he had a very fortunate conversion just before election season. That didn’t stop people like Andrew Sullivan, who claims to have left the Republican Party because of its anti-gay marriage positions, from becoming a full-throated evangelist for Obama who had exactly the same position on gay marriage as John McCain did at the time Sullivan flipped. Cite? From ontheissues - [John McCain](http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/john_mccain.htm): [ul] [li]Supports CA Prop. 8: one-man-one-woman marriage.[/li][li]Private ceremonies fine, but no gay marriage.[/li][li]Leave gay marriage to the states.[/li][/ul] [Barack Obama](http://www.ontheissues.org/barack_obama.htm): [ul] [li]Same-sex couples should be allowed to marry.[/li][li]No federal laws should hinder state-based same-sex marriage.[/li][li]Opposes CA Prop. 8, one-man-one-woman marriage.[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2012, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anyone-doing-a-better-job-calling-romney-on-his-bs/638795/116 "2012-11-02T03:55:29Z")
It seems that at least some of the media in Ohio are calling Mitt out on his attempt to misrepresent the auto bailout in order to mitigate the damage he did to his prospects in the Rust Belt by opposing it. [Toledo Blade – “Auto toxin”](http://www.toledoblade.com/Editorials/2012/11/01/Auto-toxin.html) > [@](#): > > In the final few days of the presidential contest, Mitt Romney evidently recognizes that his opposition to the federal rescue of General Motors and Chrysler is costing him voter support he needs in Ohio and Michigan. So the Republican nominee is conducting an exercise in deception about auto-industry issues that is remarkable even by the standards of his campaign… [Youngstown Vindicator – “Romney’s GM and Chrysler ads are an insult to Ohioans”](http://www.vindy.com/news/2012/nov/01/romneys-gm-and-chrysler-ads-are-an-insul/) > [@](#): > > Mitt Romney’s widely debunked claim that GM and Chrysler are moving auto manufacturing jobs to China after being bailed out by President Obama isn’t just dirty politics. The claim suggests that the Republican nominee for president believes the voters of Ohio are not sophisticated enough to separate fact from fiction… [Cleveland Plain Dealer – “Flailing in Ohio, Romney rolls out Jeep ploy”](http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2012/10/flailing_in_ohio_romney_rolls.html) > [@](#): > > Mitt Romney is desperate to convince Ohio voters that he’s the candidate most committed to the U.S. auto industry – no matter how much confusion he must sow to do it… > It won’t work. Ohio voters know who stepped up when the auto industry was at the abyss – and it wasn’t Romney. Ouch! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-isnt-anyone-doing-a-better-job-calling-romney-on-his-bs/638795.md?page=5)