An October Surprise sprung early?

An October Surprise sprung early? We were surprised to learn the Romney “47% gaffe” tape was from a Boca Raton fundraiser on May 17th. If it’s such a big deal, why didn’t it surface until now? In fact it did, but nobody much cared. So why is the media making a big deal of it now? Something to do with the crash and burn of the “Obama, foreign policy genius” meme? Hmmm?

Bonfire of the Absurdities: After 35 year career writing software for IBM mainframes, am now self-employed contractor thinking of joining a union and striking for higher wages. Cured morbid fear of heights when I learned to look at them as lengths standing on end. Uncompromising in refusal to accept browser cookies. Amateur investor who has accumulated a small fortune in the market after starting out years ago with a large one. For recreation, I run, hike, kayak and play tennis but will not consider synchronized swimming under any circumstances.

View Comments (42)

  • I'm puzzled. What the hell is the gaffe?????? Wadee say that is not spot on??? Who's outraged? Losers? Deadbeats? Hell, they know what they are. Like I said before, if Romney said "Good Morning" the Suckass Media (pardon the redundancy) would make it a GAFFE.

  • In other news, still no outrage regarding a video of Zero from 2003 which is in the possession of the Los Angeles Times. In this video, Zero lavishes praise upon former PLO spokesman Rashid Khalidi. Also in attendance were domestic terrorists Bernadine Dohrn and Bill Ayers. To date, LAT refuses to release video.

    • Of course they do! They worship at the altar of the ONE. THey would never release anything, even if true, that might put O in a bad light.

  • If this is the best they can do to try and damage Mitt, they are in a world of hurting.

    I finally switched out my homepage headlines from Yahoo the other day, because Yahoo was so incredibly biased. (I like to keep a "mainstream" one there for balance.) I put in CNN instead. Today, there are 5 headlines:

    Romney comments rattle campaign "- 4 hours ago"
    Borger: What's wrong with Romney "- 3 hours ago"
    Tape puts Romney back on defense "- 5 hours ago"
    Remarks that started it all "- 9 hours ago" (Romney remarks)
    Romney: 'It's not elegantly stated' "- 12 hours ago"

    I guess I need to dump them too. But the POINT is that these shills are disgraceful. The middle east was in flames, and our president is out fundraising and ducking from the cameras, and the media is focusing on some possibly not politically correct speech from the challenger? 100% of the headlines about a "gaffe" that is truly not a gaffe - but things that any reasonable person should (and does) think, if they think about it at all.

    I swear, this country needs a serious intervention and reality check!

    • It's pitiful, but Middle East in Flames is rather old news.. I remember asking my mum why those people were always setting cars on fire and throwing rocks, and she told me those people have always been doing that. It hasn't ever been different in since

      • My point is not so much about the flames in the middle east as it is about why CNN has EVERY headline on my desktop as a negative story about Mitt Romney and one video. Not to mention that the video is nothing! Nada. Zero.

        As for middle east burning - it's true that they have always been like that. But when they step onto OUR soil, and kill OUR AMBASSADOR, plus 3 other AMERICANS, it is a big flipping deal! These acts of aggression are acts of war. Not that I am advocating war, but they need to be handled as serious things. And Obama et al have pointed fingers at strawmen, ducked. punted and evaded and the media has given them a total pass. That is unconscionable.

        • i'd recommend configuring Google News..easy to follow aggregation of the stories you want.. CNN is all about eyeballs and hype, as are the other cable/internet news outfits

      • True, Alien, but this president specifically said that upon his ascension to the thrown, errr, I mean his inauguration, the violence in the Middle East would diminish. He basically gambled his major foreign policy initiative on his personal charisma and an appeasement posture. NASA being the most ludicrous component.

        • I don't remember that particular promise, and anyone literally believing it is foolish. I used to liken Obama-love to SteveJobs-love. Couldn't wrap my head around it except to identify the hallmarks of cults.

          • seemed like mild & naive statement regarding his life perspectives improving his ability to interact... not a promise to sweep away 5000 years of history. That is dramatic. His ego is unbridled like most any politicians. He and U.S. enjoyed a little bounce out of his election, and of course it faded off (http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0711/Obama_popularity_falls_in_Arab_world.html)

            I'm sure some people rightly compared his naive statement to Sarah Palin's regarding the peculiar Alaskan ability to see Russia.

            Generally we are dealing with clowns on all sides... wish you partisans would see that sometimes. So now, a couple of my friends and I are just gonna watch the debates, and don't see voting for either guy. Gotta figure out what best to do with the Vote

          • Alien, I make no apology for being a partisan. I despise modern American liberalism. I see Barack Obama as a very very dangerous man. Not stupid. Not incompetent. Dangerous. Is Romney perfect? No he isn't and I don't look for perfection in a candidate. I look for a philosophical alignment and Romney is as close to my POV as I'm going to get. You seem to enjoy taking some notion of the high road and cast dispersions on both sides. That's fine but at some point the middle of the road will lead to nowhere. If you sympathize with collectivism and a diminished US, then say so. If you are a classical liberal or a conservative, then take the position. I can't see how or why anyone would try to straddle the middle when it comes to economic and fiscal policy. This country is in deep trouble and ideological lines must be drawn with respect to the US becoming a bankrupt welfare state or not.

          • The metaphors of partisanship are all wrong. There's no middle/high road, or a fence to chafe on. I just see two carnivals, both brimming with a number of people i don't care for. Sometimes they throw a tent over the circus, and there's some appeal. Or you look again, and you just see carnies and cages. Would it comfort you to know that I laughed and laughed at some of the freakshow that was the DNC 2012 audience, as the cameras swept back-and-forth? Could someone's head actually be shaped like that, for reals?

            That's mean, but its there. I have to step through it and brush it off sometimes. But let me step back and remind everyone here, as you do clearly dwell on the Debt: I'm not remotely convinced that the Republicans are any better on the matter of Debt then the Democrats. I've been paying attention to the Debt since i was 11-12y and began reading the newspaper. That means I watched Reagan preside over an explosion of Debt. And later, those hopeful years when Clinton & Congress had a good handle on it, how crushing to see Bush & Congress throw it all away..

            Romney argues for military spending as if it were a Keynesian jobs program. Paul Ryan's plan forecasted Debt will be mid $20Ts in a decade, and Obama's will be about $3T more, as far as i can tell. Both would have to deal with debts/interest piled on by past Ryan votes and presidential signatures. Neither plan is what will actually pass. We either receive a vomitous globule of a deal from some shamble of bipartisanship, or one party dominates a 2 year cycle and passes what it wants to ruinous partisan reaction, or we muddle along with continuing resolutions until something breaks.

            Then, ultimately, macro-economic trickery--inevitable because we're already wrapped in bubbles frothing on the surface of greatest bubble ever seen in history (that of credit markets/TCDM) Derivatives of fiat produced more shine than all the gold in the world. Sadly it works spectacularly well for significant timeframes, enough to convince a human-scale mind that all is OK. But something scary about the nature of money will emerge soon. China already wields its fiat like a gut-knife, helping bleed us till we've grown anemic. Japan muddles along quirkily on an insane pile of IOUs--not in flames as you might expect from ~%220 Debt over GDP. Money has simply become information in hyper-evolving sectors of human endeavor (Finance & IT). As illusory as it all might seem, we have nothing to replace the vapor born out of fractional reserve banking with, without inviting economic implosion. Chains of Debt Obligations amount to hundreds of trillions and transcend national jurisdiction. Romney’s not going to fix that by obsessing over taxcuts for the hyper-wealthy. Obama is clearly captive and will never resolve any of it.

            I see both parties, and whole nations, as flotsam on a vast storm addled sea. My outlook doesn’t bring too much joy. I only possess a small piece of faith that a paradigm shift, brought on my some development in Science, will usher us through it with some measure of stability. Meanwhile, I’ll shop for enclaves :)

          • I have said for years that both parties have their faults and their greed. I just feel at this point, the Republicans are doing slightly less damage than the Dems. And in the case of Obama, I would vote for a fork before I voted for Obama. I have always beensuspicious of him, and nothing he has done has allayed my concerns.

          • The way alien says mum, i'd say he's from England, not America. If he's not American, then his commentary is pure voyeurism, but if he's an American, his commentary is naive. I nope I don't offend you alien but that's what I'm getting here. If I'm wrong I apologise and you may feel free to call me out on this. I have a thick hide, I've been working around liberals all my life.

          • Daddy was U.S.A.F.. stationed at Lakenheath, he met her thereabouts.. Was born there, we moved to States when I was 3 1/2y. My brother and I have dual-cit. I would die for either country, but if they fought with each other, I'm all American still :) No offense taken

          • C'mon, Alien. Tina Fey AS Sarah Palin said that. Palin simply remarked that Russia was close to Alaska, which, by the way, it is.

          • Tina Fey said she could see Russia from her house.. But Sarah Palin mentioned being able to see Russia from parts of Alaska.. that's all I'm sayin'. The greater point is that she figured she had a perspective based on her upbringing that was superior to her opponents', in terms of dealing with foreign nations

          • And you can indeed see parts of Russia in Alaska on the Western coast. I lived in Fairbanks as a child at a USAF base, part of the early warning system. THere is STILL an Army base there, as well as in Anchorage. Very strategic place, Alaska. But I never cease to be amazed at the number of people who think Sarah really said that!

          • Alaska was beautiful! I am not a heat fan, so I like it. But I didn't have to wrry about pugging in the car at night so the oil wouldn't freeze, or driving on ice slick streets in a snowstorm, or going out in literal 40degree below zero cold to turn the car on so it would be warm when it came time to drive to work and school. As an adult, I might not have enjoyed it nearly as much! Anchorage is better. We were stationed near Mt. Mckinley in the center of the state.

          • You both are reminding me that you can, in fact, see Russia from parts of Alaska. I think most people knew this before Sarah Palin ever pointed it out as core to her foreign policy potential. It's no more defensible then Obama claiming that childhood in a Muslim nation would aid his ventures.

            Sorry that's an ego driven defense of my grasp of that particular piece of geographical trivia. I'm tired and would literally and vastly prefer to listen to sa_rose reminisce over airbase memories. Mine are extremely hazy and just about confined to the base near Clovis, NM. I've never been to Alaska, but my brother lived there for two years and shoveled peoples rooftops. Now he lives somewhat near Orlando, FL. Hated Alaska. He's always telling a story about an hours long battle between a bear and a moose witnessed by him, or a friend.. someone. The battle gets longer and bloodier each time, just like the epic 3 hour drive he undertook to see Lord of the Rings. Much like Hillary, I believe there were snipers nested along the route

  • Another months old video comes out to provide cover for Obama, that's two in less than a week.

    Someone is going to release a video of BHO double-tapping OBL in the head before it is done.

  • My big problem is WTF didn't Romney address the issue of how old the tape is? He's still in John McCain Jr. mode as far as I can tell.

    • I don't see how the age of the video matters and I am pleased that Romney did not back off the remarks. No apologies and no "clarification"

      • You are corrrect that the age of the tape doesn't really matter, unless Romney is tryinv to distance himself from it, which he isnt. What matters is the long delayed reaction to it. If they really thojught this was such a horrible scandal, why didnt they let it out then? This clearly shows they meant to hold onto this for strategic reasons, and release it either when they thought Mitt was vulnerable or Socky was in trouble. Ideally, as the headline suggests, a week or so before the election, when it could cause plenty of damage (they hope) and deny Mitt time to recover. And all with cooperation of the Collaborationist Media, of course. That it is coming out now suggests, I think, that Socky knows he's in BIG trouble.

        • This video was a break glass in case of emergency thing. BHO and the admin presided over another attack on 9/11 and the Middle
          East is burning. They needed a distraction quickly.

        • Specifically David Corn found it in dark corners of YouTube and used his platform to spread it farther? Nothing surprising about this dynamic, considering Mother Jones allegiance. Well I haven't read the whole article either.

          • Apparently Jimmah the younger searched out the owner of the video and convinced him to give it to Mother Jones. David Corn can't even take credit for having found it and dragged it into the light of day. It is clearly a distraction move, and Jimmah the younger is paying his dues to be a made guy with the Dems.

      • The age of the video matters, nothing to do with the video itself, but in this regard: this video been around for 4 months and had been uploaded to YouTube long ago and not generated much notice. Now, all of a sudden, the media is ginning up a controversy about it, pretending like Romney just said it last night or something (I didn't know it was 4 months old until I saw it on Rush) when in fact it is old news. So this is obviously a put-up job and likely planned as such - it is not spontaneous or recent, as REAL news is (we never hear the media get excited about a car wreck that happened 4 months ago.) So the question becomes, why spring this NOW instead of next month or the weekend before Election Day like 2000's Bush DWI story was? The answer may be Obama may be taking some heavy hits to his numbers from the Middle East mess and the public is not buying the "they only hate the movie" bullshit. If so, they may have needed something to create a diversion before Obama sinks out of sight.

        • Some of the recent polls show a huge hit on Obama's ratings since the Middle east stuff. A 7-8% drop in his approval ratings. So something like this will once again defelct attention from the real problems. THe thing is, what he said is being so twisted by Obama and company that they make it sound completely the opposite of the context of the tape, even of the short clips that are being shown. He says his 47% statement in relation to his campaign strategy. People who pay no taxes are not going to be drawn to a candidate that promises lower taxes. THEY DON"T CARE! THEY ARE PAYING ANYWAY! So that message goes out to the independant voter who DOES pay taxes, and will get relief from thetaxes being lowered. He didn't say he didn't care about the 47%. He said he couldn't attract them with the small government, lower taxes approach. And he's right! God, people are stupid!

      • I thought someone confirmed post convention at least?

        I'd say, as raw distillation of common conservative viewpoint, its pretty familiar to me but not so much to the 47%, most of which pay payroll taxes and aren't aware of their dependency or personally responsibility issues.

        The proclamation is an inartful broadside, politically.

  • No no no no. You don't understand. This was a "spontaneous" releasing of this "gaffe" yesterday. There was no pre-planning at all. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

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