What’s more pathetic? That he says these things or that people believe them?

Last night, Mitt Romney assumed the mantle of Republican nominee for the 2012 presidential election. Newt Gingrich thinks that’s insulting (to voters, he says) and Ron Paul thinks… well, who knows what Ron Paul thinks?

What came out of Mitt Romney’s mouth was a string of lies as long as the plane trip between here and the last job he outsourced.

Let’s take a look…

Americans have always been eternal optimists. But over the last three and a half years, we have seen hopes and dreams diminished by false promises and weak leadership.

Actually, according to Gallup, “U.S. Weekly Economic Confidence Steady Near Four-Year High”. Just sayin’…

Everywhere I go, Americans are tired of being tired…

Since when is it the President’s responsibility for people to get more rest?

For every single mom who feels heartbroken when she has to explain to her kids that she needs to take a second job … for grandparents who can’t afford the gas to visit their grandchildren … for the mom and dad who never thought they’d be on food stamps … for the small business owner desperately cutting back just to keep the doors open one more month – to all of the thousands of good and decent Americans I’ve met who want nothing more than a better chance, a fighting chance, to all of you, I have a simple message: Hold on a little longer. A better America begins tonight.

Single moms having to take second jobs is something that’s been around since MY single mom took a second and third job. Nothing new there. It’s hard to be a single parent, particularly when Republicans like Mitt Romney are cutting their unemployment and welfare benefits. President Obama is not responsible for the price of gas. Moms and dads who never thought they’d be on food stamps also never thought they’d lose their job when their jobs were sent overseas by people like Mitt Romney and never thought their food stamp benefits would be cut by Republicans. Small businesses have received more tax breaks and incentives to hire new employees under the Obama administration than ever before.

…I’ll tell you a little bit about myself. I’ll probably start out talking about my wonderful wife Ann – I usually do – and I’ll probably bore you with stories about our kids and grandkids. I’ll tell you about how much I love this country, where someone like my dad, who grew up poor and never graduated from college, could pursue his dreams and work his way up to running a great car company. Only in America could a man like my dad become governor of the state in which he once sold paint from the trunk of his car.

This is what Ezra Klein referred to this morning as the “Vote for Romney, he loves America” approach. And that rags to riches story? That’s one that Mitt Romney has to hear about from others. He never personally experienced it.

Four years ago Barack Obama dazzled us in front of Greek columns with sweeping promises of hope and change. But after we came down to earth, after the celebration and parades, what do we have to show for three and a half years of President Obama?

How about this?:

Is it easier to make ends meet?

Yes.

Is it easier to sell your home or buy a new one?

Yes.

Have you saved what you needed for retirement?

In three years? No.

Are you making more in your job?

Absolutely.

Do you have a better chance to get a better job?

Hell, yes. (See chart above.)

Do you pay less at the pump?

No. But oil company profits are at record highs and, as any thinking person knows, the president has nothing to do with the price of gas. He IS, however, trying to rein in Wall Street oil speculation that has the most to do with it.

If the answer were “yes” to those questions, then President Obama would be running for re-election based on his achievements.

Don’t worry, Mitt. He will.

It’s still about the economy …and we’re not stupid.

Seriously? You lobbing that softball at me? Given all you’ve said so far in this speech, you’re either stupid or a damn liar. I’m going with: “both”.

With Obamacare fully installed, government will come to control half the economy, and we will have effectively ceased to be a free enterprise society.

This President is putting us on a path where our lives will be ruled by bureaucrats and boards, commissions and czars. He’s asking us to accept that Washington knows best – and can provide all.

You haven’t actually heard about what Obamacare is about, have you , Mitt? Don’t you realize that healthcare decisions are made by bureaucrats and boards now? You know, ones that work for for-profit health insurance companies looking to maximize their bottom line at the expense of sick Americans? Of course you don’t. That’s not something you have ever had to worry about. You pay cash for your healthcare, don’t you, Mitt?

I see an America with a growing middle class, with rising standards of living.

Funny that. You seem intent on killing the labor unions that created the middle class. I think what you’re seeing is a figment of your imagination.

We will stop the unfairness of politicians giving taxpayer money to their friends’ businesses.

Mitt, you’re a Republican. You might want to check with your corporate buddies before making a statement like that.

As I look around at the millions of Americans without work, the graduates who can’t get a job, the soldiers who return home to an unemployment line, it breaks my heart.

This heartbreak brought to you George W. Bush, a man whose legacy you are trying to rewrite in your own image and who started the two wars that our soldiers are returning from.

We will restore the promise of America only if we restore the principles of freedom and opportunity that made America the greatest nation on earth.

If a Democrat said this, his or her words would be trumpeted from the loudspeakers by Fox News as being anti-patriotic and they’d be called a traitor who thinks America isn’t “the greatest nation on earth”.

[T]his time we’ll get it right. We’ll stop the days of apologizing for success at home and never again apologize for America abroad.

This is a lie. A huge, massively and widely debunked, flat out lie. A lie. Mitt Romney is a liar.

There was a time – not so long ago – when each of us could walk a little taller and stand a little straighter because we had a gift that no one else in the world shared. We were Americans. That meant something different to each of us but it meant something special to all of us. We knew it without question. And so did the world.

So, what are you saying? That Americans shouldn’t be proud? What’s the matter? America isn’t great, in your opinon? Really, Mitt? You want to go there? Because we can talk about YOU the way Republicans talk about US when we say stuff even remotely as negative about our great country as this statement is.

Mitt Romney has started out his general election campaign with a speech that was nothing more than a prepackaged pile of lies. Stay tuned, there’s more to come.

Adding… Obama for America Press Secretary Ben LaBolt had this to say about Romney’s pack of lies:

The title for Governor Romney’s speech tonight should have been Back to the Future, because he has proposed a return to the same policies that got us into the economic crisis in the first place – forcing the middle class to pay for tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, letting Wall Street write its own rules, and eliminating investments in the security of the middle class. Despite all evidence to the contrary, Governor Romney believes that showering the wealthiest Americans with special giveaways will make the middle class thrive. We have tried those policies before. They didn’t unleash growth, they didn’t spur job creation and they didn’t boost the middle class. And while Mitt Romney praised those policies in 2004, they led to a recovery that produced seven times fewer private sector jobs than the President’s policies, despite a significantly milder recession compared to the one the President faced coming into office. This election will be a choice between two candidates, two records, and two visions for the country. The President brought the economy back from the brink of another Depression, bet on American workers to spur the comeback of the American auto industry and American manufacturing, kept his promise to end the war in Iraq and refocus on al Qaeda and fought every day to build an economy where hard work paid off and responsibility are rewarded. Governor Romney referred to himself as the ideal Tea Party candidate, and his policies earn him that title. He would stack the deck against the middle class, pull the rug out from under growing sectors of our economy like manufacturing and clean energy and promote giveaways to Americans who can afford to lobby for them. Mitt Romney has spent the past year out on the campaign trail tearing down the President with a negative message that even Republicans who have endorsed him have criticized. This marks the end of that monologue. Now he must put his record and his agenda next to the President’s.

Game on.











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