“Bob [Bergdahl], 54, had been a cycling champion and would have competed at the 1980 Moscow Olympics had America not boycotted them in protest at the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
“The experience prompted disillusionment with the US government….”
Toby Harnden, “Obama’s Bergdahl Fiasco,” The Sunday Times
From “Guess Who It’s All Up To?,” Gail Collins, NYT:
“Mitt is bringing half the Republican Party to Ohio on Friday to kick off the new ‘Romney-Ryan Real Recovery Road Rally.” Everybody’s coming — Ann, the sons, Paul Ryan, Paul Ryan’s wife who we have yet to actually meet, Rudy Giuliani, a couple of Olympic medalists and pretty much every Republican elected official except He Who Must Not Be Named in New Jersey.
So the party now run by snake handlers hits the road to sell their snake oil…
I’m looking forward to my own Real Recovery from this campaign starting Wednesday.
Now billionaire Jon Huntsman, Sr. (whose son’s presidential campaign flamed out pretty spectacularly) is calling on fellow Mormon Mitt to release more tax returns. Mitt and Huntsman, Jr. were rivals to head the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.
We’ve already seen the fighting between Mitt and Mormon Harry Reid. In fact, some are guessing that the source who told Reid that Mitt didn’t pay taxes for ten years is none other than Jon Huntsman, Sr.
The Desperate Politicians of Mormonistan. A reality show, perhaps, after Mitt loses?
Mitt seems to be morphing into Triumph the Insult Dog. Someone needs to lock him in a kennel, strap the kennel to the roof of a plane, and fly him home.
It’s one think to insult the British, who won’t stop being BFF’s with us. I can imagine President Obama and David Cameron having a good laugh about Mitt “Middle of Nowhere” Romney.
But now Mitt has insulted the Palestinians, and they’re not going to laugh it off. In a speech in Israel, he basically called them lazy and stupid because they lag Israel economically and said the Israelis were “culturally” superior. Cause we don’t already have enough problems in the Arab world.
And once again, Mitt’s crack staff got their facts wrong. In his speech, Mitt said that per capita GDP is $21,000 in Israel, compared to $10,000 in the West Bank and Gaza. He got that hugely wrong. Israel has a per capita GDP of $31,000, while it’s $1,500 for the Palestinians.
Mitt runs around saying this offensive stuff, but the Obama Administration, which actually has to govern and not just cram their mouths full of feet, has to clean up his mess.
Well, this has the Iranians shaking in their boots (or shaking with laughter). Here’s Mittens in Israel today being his usual milquetoast-y self:
“I respect the right of Israel to defend itself, and we stand with Israel in peace.”
He sounded more concerned about, and critical of, British preparation for the Olympics than Iranian preparation for nuclear weapons.
Whatever the issue, the right words and tone seem to elude him.
I don’t think Mitt’s plan in coming to London was to be ridiculed in front of 60,000 people gathered for the finish of the torch relay, but that’s how it turned out:
“Speaking in front of 60,000 assembled in Hyde Park at a concert to mark the end of the Olympic Torch relay, the London Mayor tonight reaffirmed the city’s zeal for the event.
“‘There are some people coming from around the world who don’t yet know if we are ready,’ [Boris] Johnson roared. ‘There’s a guy called Mitt Romney who wants to know whether we are ready. Are we ready? Yes we are!'”
Emily Allen and Damien Gayle, Daily Mail
Let me begin by saying, “Thank you, God.”
From The Guardian:
“Mitt Romney handed Barack Obama a priceless gift for the U. S. presidential election campaign when the presumptive Republican nominee blundered on his first diplomatic outing by questioning whether London was capable of staging a successful Olympic Games.
“In a move that astonished Downing Street, hours before it laid on a special reception for Romney at No. 10, he told NBC there were ‘disconcerting’ signs about the preparations for the Games.
One senior Whitehall source said: ‘What a total shocker. We are speechless.’
“David Cameron wasted no time in slapping down Romney hours after his remarks were broadcast. On a visit to the Olympic Park, the prime minister said: ‘We are holding an Olympic Games in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cities anywhere in the world. Of course it’s easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere.'”
Cameron gets the rhetorical gold, Mittens gets the rhetorical lead.
And, GOP, don’t you think you need to get a new nominee? Wouldn’t you agree there are “disconcerting” signs about him?
Although Mitt will be at the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, he is quick to distance himself from the rich guy taint of his dressage horse, in effect banishing poor Rafalca to the roof of the car, metaphorically speaking:
“This is Ann’s sport. I’m not even sure which day the sport goes on. She will get the chance to see it, I will not be watching the event. I hope her horse does well.”
Notice he says “sport,” not “dressage.” Notice it is “her horse,” even though the horse was paid for with his Bain money.
OK, so Mitt isn’t responsible for the bad stuff that happened at Bain between 1999 and 2002 because he was off being in charge of the Olympics and then he “retroactively retired.”
So then I’m sure he’ll be happy to answer our questions about all the records from those Olympics.
Um, wait, no, he can’t answer those questions because he wasn’t there! WTF? According to his campaign, he left to run for governor of Massachusetts before they made the final decisions about the Olympic records.
Seriously, this is what his campaign is saying. Can’t take the heat about Bain because he was at the Olympics, can’t take the heat about the Olympics because he was back in Massachusetts.
But those Olympic records were in good hands when Mitt left. He had a Bain guy, Fraser Bullock, deal with them.
What happened to the records? Many of them were destroyed. The rest are at the J. Willard Marriott library at the University of Utah. But before you head over to the campus, let me warn you that — yeah, you guessed it — you can’t see those records. J. Willard has them sealed up nice and tight for Willard M.
This guy is just one giant red flag, practically screaming out, “Don’t trust me, don’t vote for me.”
We know how Mitt has been running around taking President Obama out of context, so that the President’s remarks that you didn’t build the infrastructure that supports your business in Mittspeak became you didn’t build your business.
Well, the L. A. Times points out* that in his remarks at the opening of the 2002 Olympics, Mitt emphasized that the athletes didn’t get there on their own:
“You Olympians, however, know you didn’t get here solely on your own power. For most of you, loving parents, sisters or brothers encouraged your hopes. Coaches guided, communities built venues in order to organize competitions. All Olympians stand on the shoulders of those who lifted them.”
This is the same point the President was making in Roanoke on July 13: “Look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life.”
When Mitt says it, it’s the simple truth. When Obama says it, it’s straight out of Das Kapital.
* “Romney in 2002: Olympians ‘didn’t get here solely on your own power,'” Morgan Little
Embattled Farmers 