Mitt Romney says that tax rates are too high—so high that he wants to cut them. So why did he deliberately avoid deducting charitable contributions in his 2011 tax return in order to pay a higher effective tax rate? The Romney campaign released a letter about the Romneys’ 2011 return on Friday, and says it…
Category: Election 2012
Romney Tax Returns: Days Late, Dollars Short, Still Incomplete
The top-line takeaway from the returns isn’t particularly good—his 2011 tax rate was 14.1 percent, below the effective tax rate for most Americans despite Romney’s vast wealth. (The middle 20 percent of householdspaid a 16 percent federal income tax rate in 2010). Most of Romney’s income is from capital gains, which is taxed at a lower…
The Problem of Conservative Intellectuals
Alas, all of the alleged crimes these conservative “intellectuals” attributed to Obama and the MSM were imaginary. The ineptitude of the Romney campaign—as well as their own commitment to the ignorance (and ideological obsessions) of their respective constituencies—has led them to make themselves appear ridiculous before the world. Television and radio bookers, university lecture agents,…
Romney’s ads show miners not paid during campaign stop
Romney, the Republican presidential nominee, went up with the two ads this morning – both of them hitting President Barack Obama on coal. The two ads titled “War on Coal” and “Way of Life” include shots of Romney on a stage with soot-covered coal miners. The footage is from Romney’s Aug. 14 campaign stop at…
Poll: Obama opens up big 14-point lead in Wisconsin
The Marquette University Law School poll released Wednesday shows Obama leading Romney among likely Wisconsin voters, 54 percent to 40 percent. The PollTracker Average currently shows Obama leading Romney by 6.3 points in Wisconsin, eclipsing the 50 percent threshold in the last month. MORE: Poll: Obama opens up big 14-point lead in Wisconsin | TPM2012….
Romney’s 47 percent remarks damage his image with voters: Reuters/Ipsos poll
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s dismissal of almost half the U.S. electorate in a secretly recorded video has hurt his image, although it may not determine how people vote on November 6. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday showed that more than two in five registered voters, or 43 percent, viewed Romney less favorably after…
Amid court challenges, early voting begins in U.S. election
The November 6 election is still seven weeks away, but early, in-person voting begins in two states on Friday, even as Democrats and Republicans battle in court over controversial plans to limit such voting before Election Day. Idaho and South Dakota are the first states to begin early voting on Friday, although North Carolina has…
Univision Hosts Presidential Forums
Spanish language network Univision will broadcast the first of two one-on-one presidential forums Wednesday night. GOP presidential nominee will be the first candidate to appear, and President Obama will answer questions Thursday night. Univision’s Meet The Candidates Forum will air in Spanish Wednesday and Thursday at 10 p.m. EDT. The interviews will be available simultaneously…
Mitt Romney will probably get 95 electoral votes from ‘moocher’ states. Obama will probably get 5.
Mitt Romney’s comments on the 47 percent of Americans who make too little to pay income tax and “will vote for this president no matter what” are causing him some political problems this morning. But could they cause him any electoral problems? Is he really insulting anyone who would already be willing to vote for him? Actually, yes. The…
Mitt Romney Tax Policy Studies: Candidate Seemingly Contradicts Their Conclusions
Over the past few weeks, the Romney campaign has repeatedly pointed to five separate studies supporting the candidate’s contention that a dramatic, across-the-board, reduction in tax rates can be paid for by economic growth and the elimination of deductions and exemptions for high-income earners. Romney himself referenced these five studies in an interview with Meet…
Jackson Ripley, 12-Year-Old Coloradan Boy, Writes Letter To Romney Saying His ‘Plan For America Isn’t What We Need’
Last week Jackson Ripley was watching political news coverage with his mom about pre-existing health care when he suddenly got up and decided it was time to write a letter to Romney. The letter begins (Editor note: all text from letter remains unedited): Dear Governor Romney, I’d like to say congratulations on winning the republican…
Mitt Romney: Barack Obama may lie in debates
“This is a campaign which I think will come into focus as the debates occur,” Romney said, according to a transcript released by ABC of Romney’s sit-down with “Good Morning America’s” George Stephanopoulos. “The president got a bit of a bump after his convention. I got a bit of a bump after ours. It’s going…
Why Barack Obama is winning
Obama’s durability, according to polling and interviews, is the result of a unique connection with voters as someone who broke racial barriers in 2008, his ability to evade much the blame for the recession and a brutally effective campaign. Romney’s inability to capitalize on trends with the economy and national mood that would normally create…
Poll: Low approval of Mitt Romney’s remarks
Romney made a statement criticizing Obama’s response to the protests and accused him of apologizing for American values and sympathizing with the rioters. Critics, including many Republicans, criticized his tone and timing, and questioned the accuracy of his accusations. There was a sharp partisan divide in approval of how Romney and Obama each dealt with…
Romney Dismisses Hidden Camera Footage As ‘Off The Cuff’ | Video
In a hastily called press conference Monday night, Mitt Romney dismissed the viral video that shows him telling attendees at a closed-door fundraiser that 47 percent of Americans are dependent on government checks and “believe that they are victims” and therefore will vote for President Obama. Romney took only three questions at the presser, and…
Groups race against time to get Florida voters registered
Voting-rights groups that virtually stopped registering voters in Florida for a year as they challenged the state’s new restrictions on elections now are scrambling to get people there registered for the November 6 election. The effort in Florida – a large, politically divided state that is crucial in the nationwide race between Democratic President Barack…
How Muslim Unrest Has Created a Crisis for Romney
That the left heaped scorn on Romney’s gambit came as no surprise. But the right reacted almost as harshly—with former aides to John McCain, George W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan creating an on-the-record chorus of disapproval, while countless other Republican officials and operatives chimed in anonymously. “This is worse than a Lehman moment,” says a…
Paul Ryan Promises To Lead From Behind
And we have to be able to work with Congress on those details, on how to fill it in and more to the point we don’t want to cut some backroom deal that they did with Obamacare where we hatched some plan behind the scenes and they spring it on the country. We want to…
Romney: My Magic Tax Plan Will Repeal Math
This was a vague enough plan that Romney believed he could get by without making any of the ramifications clear, except the good stuff about cutting tax rates. But the Tax Policy Center ran the numbers and found that, even if you granted Romney a series of optimistic to wildly implausible assumptions, he would have to raise…
Mitt Romneys Disastrous Energy Plan
The smirk appeared on Mitt Romney’s face near the end of his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. President Obama, he said, had “promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans” and to “heal the planet.” Here Romney paused, giving the crowd in Tampa a moment to savor the fact that he…