THURSDAY UPDATE #2: FOX 31’s Eli Stokols:
At a press conference in a Lakewood teacher’s backyard, state Rep. Max Tyler and DNC Vice Chairman R.T. Rybak laughed at the Romney campaign’s refined slogan, “Strengthening the Middle Class”, and argued that the GOP challenger’s policies would do anything but.
“They’re putting up signs that say ‘Strengthening the Middle Class’ because of that study has shown that they will raise taxes on the middle class by $2,000 apiece,” Rybak said. “I don’t think it’s standing up for the middle class to have a whole bunch of us pay $2,000 more to Mitt Romney so we can help pay for another car elevator in one of his five or six or seven mansions.”
…Romney chose not to directly address his recently announced position against the renewal of a Production Tax Credit for wind energy providers.
At least six protestors greeted Romney in the parking lot with signs that read: “We work in wind”, “PTC = Jobs” and “Don’t kill wind jobs.”
—–
THURSDAY UPDATE: The Washington Post reports from Jefferson County Fairgrounds:
Mitt Romney sought to refocus the presidential campaign on the American economy on Thursday, outlining plans to help the middle class in his first rally after a difficult overseas tour.
Before an enthusiastic, mostly older crowd of about 2,000 supporters — with several hundred more gathered outside in the late-morning sun in the hope of catching a glimpse of the presumptive GOP nominee — Romney described a five-point program he called the “Romney Plan for a Stronger Middle Class.”
…Romney’s events Thursday are part of a coordinated effort by Romney’s campaign staff: they organized 24 events across 13 states to tout “Mitt Romney’s plan for a stronger middle class.”
The ideas were a repackaging of broad goals that Romney has talked about for months. They include increasing energy independence, improving education and job training, increasing trade, reducing the deficit and helping small businesses.
What was new was the urgency.
A few points we’ll make about the event today. It does appear that the crowd outside the hall at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds was even larger than the crowd inside the building. Far from being a sign of “overwhelming support,” this is more indicative of poor advance work. Romney’s campaign appears to have distributed many more tickets than the venue could accommodate, and those who didn’t get in line early were out of luck. The tickets were distributed electronically–Romney’s campaign knew how many people had gotten them. We’ve heard that despite the fact that Romney briefly spoke with the crowd outside, many of them were upset.
It’s a balance: you always want it to look like you’ve got overflow crowds, but not so much that those crowds get the impression your campaign is incompetent. Today trended toward the latter.
Romney’s speech did seem to be more energetic and focused than prior events in Colorado we’ve seen. There was no opportunity for the press or attendees to ask any questions; had there been, it’s possible Romney would have been put on the spot over his opposition to the wind power tax credit supported by his Republican colleagues representing Colorado in Congress. Romney also got much applause from the debunked claim that President Obama “cut $500 billion from Medicare.” But there was apparently nobody in this crowd who reads Politifact.
We’ll update further with additional press coverage as it comes in.
—–
GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney is making his first trip into the Denver metro area this week since losing the Colorado caucuses to Rick Santorum in February. We’ll be there:
This authentic Romney ticket (we’ve covered up the identifying marks) was delivered to us as quickly as we could fill out this RSVP page from Romney’s campaign. Which means you too can see Romney this coming Thursday at 10:45AM at Jefferson County Fairgrounds (doors at 9:45AM)–no four-hour early morning drive to the middle of nowhere necessary. So get yours, and tell your boss you’ve got plans for Thursday morning!
If you know anybody in the wind power industry, maybe they should make it a point to go.
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don’t ask him any questions while he’s there.
For many, Jeffco Co Fairgrounds is considered holy ground, particularly for cotton candy lovers. Ask the wrong question and you’ll be told to shove it up your ass.
Why?
Well interested Democrats, Unaffiliateds and GOPers are usually working.
Please keep your glitter in your pockets, libs.
That would be rude. So much better to circle the fairgrounds in a bus while leaning on the air horn, like the grown-ups do.
Any bets that Romney says anything that resembles actual plans and facts.
My guess is more red meat pablum and Obama bashing. If you’re looking forward to listening to a thoughtful man provide specific ideas and plans forget it.
How tired to you think he is going to look after traveling 10,000 miles to collect the loot from Adelman and make a fool of himself? My bet is he is going to look gassed.
Get him to agree to an interview with me. I’m happy to meet him anywhere anytime when he’s out here.
Numerous Republican candidates will tell him that I am incredibly fair in the interviews. (to the extent that many Democrats get pissed at the tone of the interview.)
It gets him phenomenal coverage here in Colorado – those interviews are read by hundreds of thousands as election day approaches.
And he gets to be interviewed by a successful local businessman who has received no direct government assistance.
How can he say no???
ps – it needs to be an hour. Less time makes for a lot less informative interview and that does him a lot less good.
Lynn Bartels, Statesman, Gazette, DP edboard ….. and he can wait until before or after the DU debate.
Sorry David your readership cant compete with any of their readership counts or the extended electronic distribution they affect.
Now back to synchro diving.
probably because my husband is registered unaffiliated. Not that he ever votes for Rs. I’ll just wait to read all about it here.
That’s impressive. 🙂
not just you.
Robo calls are repetitive with no variation.
The Cat was spoofing the method.
just how many times is your husband registered?
All I saw when I posted was one but screwy things were happening on a couple of my posts. Sorry, all.
it is time to demand that Romney release not his tax returns, but his medical records. Romney is old. If elected, he would be the second oldest president after Reagan. I think it is possible that some of Romeny’s so-called “gaffs” are due to short term memory loss.
I remember his father went to to Vietnam and dropped out of the Presidential race because he said he had been “brainwashed” by the generals. Romeny, the son, is too
blase about repeatedly contradicting himself. Some of the flip flops may be expedient, but some of the stuff is of concern.
I speak from experience. I am 71 and I do have a short term memory loss and vision problems. I make stupid mistakes and bloggers here are quick to correct me, for which I am very grateful. People disagree, violently, sometimes, with my opinions and that is just fine. But you all seem to be able to pick up on stupid mistakes and omissions…mine are similar to some of the stuff Romney is doing.
For example, David Corn on MSNBC spoke about asking Romney about a statement he had just made that Europe had more poverty than the United States. Romney immediately denied ever having said that. Corn went back and checked the tape. It is exactly what Romney had said. That is short term memory loss.
I say, it is time to demand his medical records.
…..it doesn’t mean he’s ever seen a neurologist. So there wouldn’t be any record.
I think his non/mis-remembering is more in line with his life long personality. Anything uncomfortable gets shunted into the memory hole. See? No cognitive dissonance.
Does bring to mind that during Reagan’s second term some journalists were starting to question HIS memory. Of course, the righties blasted the journalists, all left wing commie pinko types.
And as we now know, the journalists were right. Of course the righties fell all over themselves apologizing. Right???????
I imagine that short-term memory loss and willful “memory loss” may even reinforce each other.
Just ask my wife.
🙂
I know that one can not diagnose from just looking at video shots. It does raise a lot of questions. The response on Fox during the primary when he was asked some direct questions and became very anxious. His classic statement “I stand by whatever I said.”
The debate may be revealing, if the format allows unexpected questions or more importantly, follow-up questions.
As I have said, I do have short-term memory loss and I am familiar with that phenomena. Again, I certainly could be wrong. But, I recognize some of my reactions in Romney’s responses. One of the things that can happen with short-term memory loss is that one doesn’t
remember that one can not remember and so there is a tendency to blame others and to become hostile when confronted.
Releasing medical records is standard for presidential candidates. Most doctors do some very common medical health screening. It certainly is not adequate for complicated diagnosis. However, this is a potential problem with all candidates and it increases with age.
The question is how to address it.
Plus, remember those inane comments in Michigan…about the trees are the right size and there is a lot of water……that is not funny. In context, it is bizarre and I think attention should be paid.
His behavior certainly bears watching.
On the other hand…maybe he is just smoking too much weed. I am sure his meds are only the finest. 🙂
I have brain farts all the time. I’m a terrible in-person debater. And no one has suggested it’s because of some medical condition.
I fully believe presidential candidates should always undergo full physicals, including cognitive tests you wouldn’t otherwise administer without a doctor’s concern, because it’s a very important job. We had one president who probably should have been declared incapacitated when his Alzheimer’s set on in earnest, and were lucky not to have faced any genuine crises when that happened. I’m not talking about Roosevelt and his polio redux, because he was in fine mental shape up until the day he died.
That said, the things you cite about Romney remind me of myself. As such, I don’t share any of your alarm. But that’s not to put down your observations or dismiss your concerns.
I was working in mental health when Reagan one day “remembered” being on a plane in WWII preparing to parachute over German territory. Reagan was in the military during WWII, making movies. He had remembered a movie scene and claimed it as real life. Not a ‘stolen valor’ thing, but an Alzheimer’s thing. Voters didn’t care and the Ds ignored it as much as everyone who did not work in mental health. But, it was quite the conversation between mental health professionals.
a Dem, be prepared to be kept outside. My wife, a registered Dem, was hustled to an area out in the hot sun, while others were let inside.
A good friend and colleague, Benita Phillips, is a registered Republican, but got into a public argument with county commissioner Craig Meis at a BOCC meeting about a month ago. She was pulled out of the line at the last GJ Rmoney visit and was told she couldn’t come in because she had been “identified” as a heckler.
If you are not a “good” republican, don’t expect to be treated well by Rmoneys’ thugs.
I would love to hear from any Dems that make it inside.
then she couldn’t go inside. They didn’t check voter registration…
Not to mention the vast majority didn’t get to go inside and most people had to stay outside because the venue was small which was a complete campaign failure.
fresh off of knocking it out of the park overseas, I see him delivering a real barnburner of platitudes. Drop a teaser or two about who gets the honor of second on this losing ticket, stiff the media, leave town.
The only question that remains is what is the ArapaGOP multiplier going to be this time about how many actually attended these events. 1.5 ? 2 ? 10 ? Stay tuned.
and were so enraptured by the great oratory obfuscation and rhetorical emptiness that the heavens literally opened and Manna fell upon the delirious crowd, thus proving–once and for all–that Trickle Down is not, as pappy once put it before swallowing his pride, Voodoo Economics.
The crowd was electrified. Romney was brilliant, energetic and on point. The crowd was on their feet multiple times during the speech and nobody had to cue them.
It’s too bad that Colorado Pols can attend an inspiring event like this, but all they can do is complain that too many people wanted to see Romney. Open your eyes and ears and listen to the man. He wants what’s best for America.
If by “best,” you mean a virtual rollback to the early 1800s.
to Romney about his position on ending wind-energy-credits?
But Romney was very good on energy independence today. He believes that wind is one part of the solution, and that we need to develop all of our forms of energy to the utmost.
that is the most detailed energy plan that has ever been proposed.
Plus, he wants what is best for America, because he says so. How could we possibly vote for anyone else.
‘Brilliant!’
Finally, we know some specifics about candidate Romney:
1) He wants what’s ‘best’ for America
2) He supports ‘energy independence’ and thinks we should ‘develop all of our forms of energy’. Groundbreaking, earth shattering, and–well, indistinguishable from every other candidate.
So, on Willard’s second point, above…did anyone ask him if he will work to stop the export of our energy resources to competitors overseas until we have achieved so called ‘energy independence’?
so silly? Did you tell him that ArapaGOP agrees with his position on ending the wind-energy-credit? Did you tell him that ArapaGOP disagrees, and thinks this is a terrible position? What do you think about Willard’s position on ending wind-energy credits?
……he would end the subsidies.
Fucking brilliant.
As is anyone who can’t see the contradiction here. Hint.
Is he going to end the oil subsidies?
to light your refrigerator bulb dimb watt. unless you are going to allege that the edia only showed polite applause as part of their conspiracy