Mitt Romney, the hollow man

Romney likens hurricane relief to cleaning up "rubbish and paper products" from a football field. Is he joking?

By Joan Walsh

Mitt Romney accepts donations of food as he participates in an Ohio campaign event collecting supplies for victims of Hurricane Sandy. (Credit: AP/Charles Dharapak)

It’s become a platitude to say that no one should be playing politics with Hurricane Sandy, but that’s silly. When the performance of government suddenly becomes a literal matter of life and death to many Americans, we ought to be thinking about what kind of government we want to have, and that involves politics.

It’s impossible not to see that this storm has devastated Mitt Romney’s presidential candidacy. The response to the hurricane has seemed like one long dramatic Obama campaign commercial, a lesson in “We’re all in this together,” while Romney, the man who said he’d dismantle FEMA, flails on the sidelines.

Romney’s “relief” event outside of Dayton, Ohio, was surreal enough to be a campaign parody, with the candidate comparing the federal government’s hurricane relief efforts to the time he and some friends had to clean up a football field strewn with “rubbish and paper products.” It was supposed to be a parable of how Republicans handle disaster – with private charity, not government intervention – as Romney told his audience, “It’s part of the American spirit, the American way, to give to people in need.” The Republican went on to talk about the time some Hurricane Katrina survivors were rerouted from Houston to Cape Cod and the good people of Cape Cod responded by donating food and, yes, television sets.

Of course, as Alex Seitz-Wald writes, the Red Cross and other private charities are discouraging the donation of goods, preferring that kind Americans donate funds that can be used where they’re needed, not goods that must be sorted and distributed and may not even be necessary (television sets?).

Romney promised to put the goods on a truck to where they’re needed, “I think New Jersey,” he said.
That was a funny choice. Maybe it had to do with the fact that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has all but endorsed Obama in the last two days, repeatedly praising his “leadership.” He told the crew on “Morning Joe” that “It’s been very good working with the president. He and his administration have been coordinating with us. It’s been wonderful.” He told “Today” that FEMA’s response has been “excellent,” and he’s repeatedly tweeted his thanks to the president.

OK, let’s be honest: The New Jersey governor has not been Mitt Romney’s most loyal foot soldier. He was quick to join the calls for Romney to release his tax returns earlier this year, and his keynote speech in Tampa was more like a Christie 2016 campaign kickoff than a tribute to Romney. There’s obviously a heavy element of self-interest in Christie’s response. His approval as governor hinges on how he handles the storm, and so do his presidential aspirations. He’s got a huge incentive to work well with the president. He’s also got some incentive to stick a shiv in the flailing Republican contender, since a Romney loss would clear the way for a Christie 2016 bid as well. He’s clearly playing politics here.

But really, outside of Romney’s embarrassing European tour this summer, when he insulted Britain over Olympics planning and divulged a secret briefing by MI6, this is Romney’s worst moment yet.

As the storm approached, political reporters dredged up his pledge to “absolutely” restructure FEMA to give power to the states. At a Republican debate in June 2011, he suggested the private sector should do more, because federal spending even on FEMA was “jeopardizing the future of our kids.”  Tell that to the kids of New Jersey, Gov. Romney. And of course the Ryan budget would slash funding for FEMA.

After Romney’s laughable relief event Tuesday, reporters swarmed him to ask if he still favors sending FEMA funding and responsibility back to the states.  From the Romney pool report:

“Gov are you going to eliminate FEMA?” a print pooler shouted, receiving no response.
Wires reporters asked more questions about FEMA that were ignored.
Romney kept coming over near pool to pick up more water. He ignored these questions:
“Gov are you going to see some storm damage?”
“Gov has [New Jersey Gov.] Chris Christie invited you to come survey storm damage?”
“Gov you’ve been asked 14 times, why are you refusing to answer the question?”

Romney won’t answer because he can’t. We saw him pivot to the center, to become the white Barack Obama, in the three debates, as he realized his unpopular policies and his contempt for 47 percent of the country was dooming his presidential bid. He’s got no standing now to talk about how he’d handle this disaster. The heroes of Sandy, so far, are the first responders, the cops and firefighters and emergency technicians, the folks evacuating patients from hospitals and trapped citizens from flooding. These are the people who’ve been demonized by Republicans for the last two years:  the public workers who have become the new “welfare queens.”

When Obama pushed a jobs bill that would have helped states and cities avoid laying off such workers, GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell derided it as a “bailout,” and Paul Ryan, of course, voted against it.

To top it all off, George W. Bush’s laughable FEMA director, “Heck of a job, Brownie” Michael Brown, is criticizing Obama for reacting too quickly to Sandy. Are Democrats paying Brown to remind voters of the contrast between Obama’s quiet competence and Bush’s disastrous handling of Katrina?

As I write, the president is arriving at a Red Cross site to ask Americans for donations. Chris Christie, meanwhile, has rebuffed Romney’s offer to visit New Jersey’s devastated shore. (Politics aside: Really, what could Romney offer?) I can’t be sure whether or how much disaster relief will matter to swing state voters outside of the hurricane zone, but I am stranded (on a blue island) in the swing state of Wisconsin, where people are tuned in to the storm and the government response. No one can be reassured by Romney’s empty posturing. Unless there is some government-abetted or neglected further disaster, I think Obama will be reelected next Tuesday. Hurricane Sandy has reminded us what’s at stake.

Joan Walsh is Salon's editor at large and the author of "What's the Matter with White People: Why We Long for a Golden Age That Never Was." 
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Romney ‘rented’ Mormon church’s exemption to defer taxes for 15 years

By Jesse Drucker - Oct 29, 2012 12:01 AM ET

In 1997, Congress cracked down on a popular tax shelter that allowed rich people to take advantage of the exempt status of charities without actually giving away much money.

Individuals who had already set up these vehicles were allowed to keep them. That included Mitt Romney, then the chief executive officer of Bain Capital, who had just established such an arrangement in June 1996.

The charitable remainder unitrust, as it is known, is one of several strategies Romney has adopted over his career to reduce his tax bill. While Romney’s tax avoidance is legal and common among high-net-worth individuals, it has become an issue in the campaign. President Barack Obama attacked him in their second debate for paying “lower tax rates than somebody who makes a lot less.”

In this instance, Romney used the tax-exempt status of a charity -- the Mormon Church, according to a 2007 filing -- to defer taxes for more than 15 years. At the same time he is benefitting, the trust will probably leave the church with less than what current law requires, according to tax returns obtained by Bloomberg this month through a Freedom of Information Act request.

In general, charities don’t owe capital gains taxes when they sell assets for a profit. Trusts like Romney’s permit funders to benefit from that tax-free treatment, said Jonathan Blattmachr, a trusts and estates lawyer who set up hundreds of such vehicles in the 1990s.

Near Zero

“The main benefit from a charitable remainder trust is the renting from your favorite charity of its exemption from taxation,” Blattmachr said. Despite the name, giving a gift or getting a charitable deduction “is just a throwaway,” he said. “I used to structure them so the value dedicated to charity was as close to zero as possible without being zero.”

When individuals fund a charitable remainder unitrust, or “CRUT,” they defer capital gains taxes on any profit from the sale of the assets, and receive a small upfront charitable deduction and a stream of yearly cash payments. Like an individual retirement account, the trust allows money to grow tax deferred, while like an annuity it also pays Romney a steady income. After the funder’s death, the trust’s remaining assets go to a designated charity.

Romney’s CRUT, which is only a small part of the $250 million that Romney’s campaign cites as his net worth, has been paying him 8 percent of its assets each year. As the Romneys have received these payments, the money that will potentially be left for charity has declined from at least $750,000 in 2001 to $421,203 at the end of 2011.

Tax Returns

The Romney campaign declined to answer written questions about the trust.

“The trust has operated in accordance with the law,” Michele Davis, a campaign spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.

Paul Comstock, a financial adviser to LDS Philanthropies, an arm of the Mormon Church, said that while he wasn’t familiar with the trust, Romney and his trustee might arrange to compensate the church for the dwindling amount with other gifts.

“It may be that they’ve made provisions for the charity someplace else that will make up for what this isn’t going to give them,” Comstock said.

Bloomberg News obtained the trust’s tax returns from 2007 to 2011 from the Internal Revenue Service. Romney hasn’t disclosed the trust’s tax returns and is under no legal obligation to do so. He did make some disclosures about the trust’s investments in Massachusetts filings from 2002 to 2007 and as a presidential candidate in the current campaign.

After Death

Funds held by Romney’s trust are scheduled to be distributed after the death of Romney and his wife to “a charitable organization to be designated by Romney,” according to the 2007 filing, disclosing assets he held while governor of Massachusetts. “In the absence of such a designation the funds will go to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.”

Davis declined to comment on whether Romney has designated another charity since then.

Romney has been an active member of the church, which expects members to donate 10 percent of their income. Over the years, he has donated millions of dollars of stock in Bain-owned companies to the church, securities filings show.

The church recommends such trusts on its website as one of many options for donors.

“Probably one of the advantages of a charitable remainder trust is that it helps with capital gains tax,” said Carl McLelland, an attorney in the planned giving office for LDS Philanthropies.

Capital Gains

CRUTs were more common in the 1990s when capital gains rates were higher. In 1996, when Romney set up his trust in Massachusetts, the federal rate was 28 percent, compared with 15 percent today. At the time, a Massachusetts state resident who sold shares for a gain of $1 million could have faced a combined state and federal capital gains tax of as much as 40 percent, reducing his take to $600,000.

By contrast, if he contributed the stock to a CRUT, and it sold the shares, it typically wouldn’t owe any tax since it is a charitable trust. The CRUT could reinvest the $1 million and earn a return on the full amount.

“The power of this is the tax deferral,” said Jay A. Friedman, a partner at accounting firm Perelson Weiner LLP in New York. “The money is all growing tax free and he only pays tax on what is distributed to him.”

Concerned that CRUTS weren’t sufficiently philanthropic, Congress mandated in July 1997 that the present value of what was projected to be left for charity must equal at least 10 percent of the initial contribution. Existing CRUTS weren’t affected by the new law.

Dwindling Principal

Romney’s trust was projected to leave to charity an amount with a present value of a little less than 8 percent of the initial contribution, according to an analysis by Friedman. Thus, the specifics of Romney’s trust wouldn’t have passed legal muster if it had been set up 13 months later, he said.

Because the trust’s investments have been earning a return far below its annual payouts to the Romneys, its principal has dwindled rapidly.

In 2001, five years after it was established, the trust had a value of between $750,000 and $1.25 million. Since then, it has pursued a conservative investment strategy -- regardless of the ups and downs of the stock market -- buying a mix of money- market funds, federally-backed bonds and federal bond funds. Since 2007, it has moved its assets entirely into cash. By 2011, its investments earned a return of $48, down from between $60,001 and $100,000 in 2001. It paid $36,696 to the Romneys in 2011.

Romneys Favored

The current investing strategy favors the Romneys over the charity because they get a guaranteed payout, said Michael Arlein, a trusts and estates lawyer at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP.

“The Romneys get theirs off the top and the charity gets what’s left,” he said. “So by definition, if it’s not performing as well, the charity gets harmed more.”

The trustee for Romney’s CRUT is R. Bradford Malt, chairman of the law firm Ropes & Gray LLP, and manager for Romney’s various family trusts as well as his personal attorney. Ropes & Gray has also been for years the main outside counsel for Bain Capital.

If the CRUT maintains the same investing strategy, assets will continue to shrink, said Jerome M. Hesch, a tax and estate planning attorney at the law firm Carlton Fields. The trustee acted prudently in protecting against losses during a stock market decline, he said.

Nevertheless, “what’s going to go to charity is probably close to nothing,” Hesch said.

The people of Massachusetts know the real Mitt Romney

Those of us from the Bay State know what kind of leader Mitt Romney really is. If you’ve ever wondered why Romney is down 20 points in his home state, this is your chance to find out why.

Tell Your Story

Romney accepted a $25,000 statue as a gift says former Bain staffer

Published on October 29, 2012,

While working at Bain Capital from 2002 to 2003 as support staff, my colleagues and I were instructed to deliver a statue appraised for $25,000 as a gift to Governor Romney from his partners at Bain Capital. In 2002, I saw a fax from the NY Fed Chairman inviting one of Mr. Romney’s chief deputies at Bain to lunch to discuss ways to shape the direction of the economy.
This struck me as Bain having back door access to power that others did not have. While he was Governor, it was not unusual to see Mr. Romney at Bain Capital huddling with his advisors. This, too, was a Bain back channel to power and influence that others did not have.
- Bobbi,Cambridge

Tags: bain, corruption, the real mitt

Romney’s bait and switch on tuition. Fees skyrocket.

Published on October 29, 2012,

Romney says those who pass the high-stakes test at a certain rate get free tuition at state institutions, it’s really almost nothing.It’s the fees that are the killer.
-Trudy, Westfield

Tags: bait and switch

Mitt Romney made us 47th in job growth.

Published on October 28, 2012,

Mitt Romney claims he was a job creator but during his term as governor MA was number 47 in job growth. His company, Bain Capital, bought KayBee Toys, loaded them with debt and then sold them. Several hundred people lost well paying jobs. The company had been making money but not enough for Mitt. Bain also owned Bright Horizons Day Care in our local hospital but its own employees could not afford to send their children there.
-Carla, Pittsfield

Tags: jobs

Romney made our classrooms into test prep factories.

Published on October 27, 2012,

I work in Higher Education. Romney slashed budgets and raised fees on students. Romney claims that Mass. students were first in education. While they may score high on achievement tests, they are not college ready as a result of measures pushed by Romney. Classrooms are simply test prep factories. Simply put – his education policy was a disaster and we are still feeling the effects.
-Trudy, Westfield

Tags: education

My annual property taxes were $4400 per year before Romney took office and $6400 after he left office.

Published on October 26, 2012,

I am a retired school teacher who resides in Winthrop, MA.  Governor Romney slashed state aid to the cities and towns leaving them with two options: Lay off municipal workers or raise local taxes. During his 4 years as governor, less affluent towns were forced to lay off police, firemen, teachers, and other municipal workers to make up the budget shortfall created Governor Romney’s policies. Our town was among them. We were down to the bare bones budget until our we voted on and passed a 6.2 million dollar override. My annual property taxes were $4400 per year before Romney took office and $6400 after he left office. When Governor Romney says he cut taxes only tells half the story. The state taxes were cut, but the local taxes increased more. Many local and services were cut. Many new state fees were introduced. The net result was the average homeowner of our commonwealth was paying more for fewer services. Governor Romney is a master of this shell game. Governor Romney is a hypocrite as well. Several times he tried to pass pension reform and cited the abuse of the pension system as reasons for reform. Just before he left office he tried to slip a $125,000 per year pension to his campaign manager Eric Ferhsten. The Boston Globe uncovered his scheme and made it public. His poor performance as Governor is why Massachusetts will vote 2-1 against Governor Romney for President.
- Robert, Winthrop

Tags: bait and switch, taxes

[Don, Milford] Mass knows Mitt? No one including Mitt knows Mitt.

Published on October 26, 2012,

Each morning during the Mitt the Twit years, the Boston Globe would have another crazy idea Mitt had proposed. The following morning there would be a retraction. Most of the time he was out running for President and bad mouthing Massachusetts.  We have had some lousy governors but he is right up there with the worst. Mass knows Mitt? No one including Mitt knows Mitt. His position on any issue will change in the next hour.
- Don, Milford

Tags: flip flop, the real mitt

[Anne, Cotuit] Scholarships were really a few hundred dollars.

Published on October 26, 2012,

You know that claim he makes about the scholarship for qualifying high school seniors that provides them with a “free ride” to any state school? Well, in reality it amounts to a few hundred dollars; tuition only, no fees, no room and board included. We were so excited when our daughter qualified, and just as disappointed to learn it really didn’t amount to much; like most of his proposals, it sounded way better than it was.
- Anne, Cotuit

Tags: education, scholarships, student aid

[Jim, Sudbury] There is a good reason why he chose not to run for reelection.

Published on October 26, 2012,

There is a good reason why he chose not to run for reelection. He would never have made it It should also be pointed out that it was during his predecessor as governor, Bill Weld, when Massachusetts school children performed very well. Weld should be given the credit.
- Jim, Sudbury

Tags: polls, the real mitt

[Lynn, North Attleboro] No wonder he is at 30 per cent here.

Published on October 26, 2012,

I was an elected member of our local school committee when Romney became Governor. Although we are a suburban community, we have non-English speaking children in our system. Romney eliminated bi-lingual education funds for Massachusetts Once he decided to run for President after 2 years as Governor, he went around the country making jokes about Massachusetts and its citizens. No wonder he is at 30 per cent here.
- Lynn, North Attleboro, MA

Tags: education, polling

[Claudia, Stow] A mortgage now costs more than three times as much to record.

Published on October 26, 2012,

Mitt always likes to mention how he didn’t raise taxes in Massachussets. What he did do was raise fees in the state. He raised the recording fees for documents related to land. So to record a discharge of a mortgage you paid off it would cost over 3 times as much. To record a trust, it would cost almost 5 times as much. A mortgage now costs more than three times as much to record. It was sneaky.
- Claudia, Stow

Tags: bait and switch, fees, taxes

[Marcel, Pepperell] You just cannot trust this man.

Published on October 26, 2012,

Mitt Romney brags that he knows how to cross the aisle and work with legislators from the opposing party. Let’s be clear. The reason he signed legislation sent to him when he was governor of Massachusetts is that the Massachusetts legislature is so over overwhelmingly Democratic that any legislation that he vetoed, or would have vetoes, would be easily overridden by the legislature. It had nothing to do with bipartisanship. As soon as he was elected Governor he went out of state to campaign for President. He was not only out of state more than in it he denegrated and lambasted the very state of which he was Governor. You just cannot trust this man.
- Marcel, Pepperell

Tags: absentee, bipartisanship

Romney didn’t care about saving money for a rainy day.

Published on October 26, 2012,

We are struggling with the poor financial state of Massachusetts due to the fact that Romney didn’t care about saving money for a rainy day. When that day came, his tax policies left us without proper resources.
- David, Amherst

Tags: rainy

Romney emptied the State Rainy Day Fund

Published on October 26, 2012,

Romney emptied the State Rainy Day Fund — used to keep the state economy stable during hard times — in order to give tax breaks to the wealthy. He cut funding to the cities and towns causing our property taxes to go up. Our fees (i.e.: auto license, dog license, business permits, etc) doubled, while teachers, police and fire-fighters were laid-off. He spent his last year bad-mouthing the state at several Republican gatherings. When he left office, his staff removed all the hard-drives from the state computers to bury his tenure, leaving a check to cover the cost for new hard drives. In my opinion: that is like robbing a bank and leaving an I.O.U. I would like to see the campaign wind-down with the slogan: Ask Massachusetts!
- Roger, Haverhill

Tags: rainy

He will do anything to put the title President of the United States next to his name.

Published on October 26, 2012,

I took a giant leap of faith and voted for Mitt.  His record as a jobs creator in the state speaks for itself.  In the third debate he tried to take credit for Massachusetts’ excellent public school ranking, when in fact it was his predecessor who enacted the policy that created the improvements. As was the case of most everything else, Olympics included, he stood on the sidelines and tried and take more credit that he deserved. I truly believe that he has the potential to be a more dangerous president, if that’s possible, than George W. Bush.  Willard Mitt Romney is a crook who will do anything to put the title President of the United States next to his name.
- Carey, Brighton

Tags: bait and switch, jobs

I remember being impressed with Romney’s “Health Care for All” plan…

Published on October 26, 2012,

I remember being impressed with Romney’s “Health Care for All” plan, an idea that, for some warped reason, he now disavows.  Romney’s bid for governor was fueled by his running the Utah Olympics, an event largely made possible through sizable Federal government subsidies. He was a mediocre governor and is completely lacking in the qualities required to be the leader of our country. The polls speak volumes: Romney’s approval rating in MA is hovering around 30%.
-Elena, Cambridge

Tags: healthcare, leadership, Olympics

Special interests over public interest.

Published on October 26, 2012,

Breastfeeding offers important health benefits for mothers and babies. The American Academy of Pediatrics and many other health professional organizations recommend exclusive breastfeeding for six month. Formula company “goodie bags” for new mothers with samples, coupons and advertising send a message that the hospital providing this “gift” endorses early formula feeding and that this practice undermines breastfeeding initiation. The public health, breastfeeding, and childbirth communities support banning those bags. In 2006, Governor Romney blocked this ban, which was supported by the Department of Health. He stood on the side of powerful corporate interests rather than the Commonwealth’s mothers, babies, and families. Since his tenure, all hospitals in the Commonwealth have voluntarily eliminated this inappropriate practice. I cannot vote for someone who repeatedly prioritizes policies for special interests over policies for public interests.
- Carol, Natick

Romney has no intention of working with us.

Published on October 26, 2012,

Romney was a carpetbagger taking advantage of a weak Democratic candidate to shove his way into office. He had no interest in running the state and spent most of his time out of state complaining about how mean we all were. Even members of his own party couldn’t work with him. It’s not because he was a “severe conservative” that he’s so unpopular now, it’s because he had no intention of working with us, he just wanted a stepping stone to where he is now.
- Heather, Cambridge/Somerville

Tags: absentee, bait and switch, the real mitt

Disgraceful, disgusting, and amoral.

Published on October 26, 2012,

For the last two years of his Governorship. Romney toured around the country campaigning for his “presidency-in-advance” by telling nasty jokes about Massachusetts, the state he was sworn to protect and promote. Disgraceful, disgusting, and amoral.
- C.W., Newton

Terrifying to think of Romney as president.

Published on October 26, 2012,

I was a State Employee then, (I’ve been retired for ten years now) and it was a struggle to get a pay increase, or anything while he was in office. He was the worst governor we ever had, it’s terrifying to think of him as president.
- Alexandra, Wareham

Tags: pay freeze

We are still cleaning his BS up all these years later.

Published on October 26, 2012,

He didn’t ask for the binder full of women. Womens’ groups brought it to him. He was known to ask why more male weren’t sent to him for positions as judges! I could go on. He wouldn’t win for dog catcher in Massachusetts! We are still cleaning his BS up all these years later.
- Kerry, Boston

Tags: binders, judges

I still remember the humiliation…

Published on October 26, 2012,

My daughter shared the experience of what it means to be a leader when Mitt was governor.  Mitt likes to brag that he did not raise taxes in Massachusetts and balanced the budget. He does not talk about the impact of his decisions. The public high school my daughter attended was forced to make hard choices to maintain the level of education that it had historically. This meant extra curricula activities such as sports and drama saw severe cuts in funding. The only way too extra curricula activities was by instituting user fees. As the parent of the team captain, I had the unfortunate responsibility to inform parents of the user fees and to gently remind them to pay if they wanted their child to continue in the activity. I still remember the humiliation in the voices of her peers’ parents as they told me that their children could not participate in the sports because they did not have the spare cash to pay the user fees for the sports. Ultimately, the teams were not inclusive in her public school because the children from upper middle class families were able to participate because their parents paid the user fees. Parents who did not have the extra money did not have the reward of seeing their children succeed in areas that were outside of the academic classes. As for me, the amount I needed to pay for user fees for her to participate in extra curricula activities year round at a public high school exceeded how much taxes had gone up in previous years.
- Fern, Williamstown

Tags: education

Liar, Faker, Millionaire.

Published on October 26, 2012,

Yes, I know Mitt. I’m a resident of Cape Cod and i think the most astounding fact about Mitt is that he brought obamacare to mass, though like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. I knew, from the moment that he chose to be a Mass Resident what he came here for. And yes, he ran for President more than six years. Liar, Faker, Millionaire.
-Janet, West Falmouth

Romney’s war on EMTs

Published on October 26, 2012,

Governor Romney promised not to raise taxes when he was governor, but what he did do was raise fees. As a certified basic EMT in Mass, I have to re-certify every two years. I have to pay for continuing ED classes, then I have to take a 24 hour refresher course, all so I can work for a company that starts pay at 11 dollars an hour. I also have to pay a fee to the state to process the re-certification paperwork. When Romney came in as governor, that fee was 75 dollars. When he left, it as 150 dollars! That is so I can do a job that pays less than 30,000 dollars a year.
- Todd, Framingham

Tags: jobs

He was pro-choice as governor; now he’s pro-life. I think he’s just pro-Mitt.

Published on October 26, 2012,

He was pro-choice as governor; now he’s pro-life. I think he’s just pro-Mitt. He was in favor of Obamneycare; now he’s against it. He was pro-gay rights; now he’s against them. Romney is a well-oiled weathervane. He will do anything, say anything to get himself elected.
- Nancy, Malden

Constant Bickering

Published on October 26, 2012,

The only think I can remember about Mitt as governor is his constant bickering with the turnpike authority. I don’t think he accomplished whatever he was all worked up about, but there was a lot of noise. I will give him credit for signing in Romney Care. It has saved me a lot of money on my own insurance and on that of my employees. It works really well. What I can’t understand is why he doesn’t think its good enough for the rest of the country.
- Maureen, Bradford

I pray he does not become our President.

Published on October 26, 2012,

Mitt was gone almost half the time that he was “Our Governor.” I would like to have a Governor like our President. I wrote to our First Lady, Mrs. Obama and within one week, I received an answer and an instruction to always let her know if there was anything else that she could help me with. Of the four letters sent to Governnor Romney, no answer.  I pray that he does not become our President.
- David H, East Brookfield

He local aid to towns, causing towns to raise property taxes.

Published on October 26, 2012,

When Mitt Romney was Gov. of Massachusetts he cut state taxes, but raised fees on everything making it very expensive for small businesses. He local aid to towns, causing towns to raise property taxes. Mr. Romney did no favors to Massachusetts business or tax payers
- R. Wayne, Holbrook

I wanted to throw a shoe at the T.V. when he said he was proud of my state.

Published on October 26, 2012,

Romney spent more time bashing Massachusetts than he did governing it! I wanted to throw a shoe at the T.V. when he said he was proud of my state. It isn’t his state. He is going to lose Massachusetts by 20 percentage points. That should say it all.
- Carolyn, Cambridge

Mitt Romney did not go out and SEEK “binders” of resumes…

Published on October 26, 2012,

Actually, Mitt Romney did not go out and SEEK “binders” of resumes of prominent, capable women to help head up his cabinet and departments. Instead, women’s groups sought HIM out and asked why he had so few women as candidates for his cabinet and departments. That’s how it really happened.
- Donna, Winthrop

His positions change as readily as the weather in New England.

Published on October 26, 2012,

Romney’s record in job creation was appalling and his management of the state’s budget left huge deficits. He is a pragmatist whose positions change as readily as the weather in New England. He is not a reliable national leader for the future of the United States and our standing internationally.
- Robert, Newton

Tags: jobs

He was not a governor, but a boss.

Published on October 26, 2012,

He was not a governor, but a boss. He sent 800,000 jobs to China, and my poor mother in law at 80+ years, saw her home taxes go up every year so that she had to have help from all of us to keep her home. Her daughter and son in law lived with her along with another son so she could get by. We are still trying to bail out from him. But I think the strangest thing I was told by someone that worked for him was the elevator in the State House. He decided it was going to be his. So no one was allowed to use it, and I mean NO ONE except him and everyone else had to use the stairs. Now I have to wonder if a person working there had a medical problem, or a heart attack while he was in office, on the 4th floor, the paramedics would have had to carry that person down 4 flights of stairs as the elevator was off limits! Far as I know, this is a very true story. It was such a relief to see him go
- Ruth, Acushnet

Tags: jobs

Betrayal of same sex couples.

Published on October 26, 2012,

I will not be voting for Mitt Romney because of his despicable betrayal of same-sex couples and their families in Massachusetts.  When he campaigned for the Senate in 1994, and again for Governor in 2002, Mitt Romney claimed to support gay rights. But after the state Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to bar same-sex couples from marrying in 2003, Romney began pushing for a constitutional convention to overturn that ruling. The Boston Globe revealed today that as Governor of MA, he refused to allow the state birth certificate form to be amended for babies born to same-sex couples, instructing that the words “father” or “mother ” be crossed out and “second parent” inserted by hand. I have two gay siblings, and I will not forget Mitt Romney’s betrayal of them.
- Cara, Framingham

Romney made it so it took a year to get my Social Security Disability Insurance

Published on October 26, 2012,

How he affected me? I had to wait about a year before I was able to receive my SSDI and it was a very difficult year for me.
- Judy, Holyoke and Springfied

Romney, GOP may rue FEMA remarks as Sandy hits East Coast

Democratic strategist Julian Epstein and Georgetown University Prof. Michael Eric Dyson take aim at Mitt Romney and other Republicans who’ve said they want to reduce FEMA funding and turn all emergency services to the states, as Hurricane Sandy bears down on the East Coast.

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Colin Powell’s former chief of staff: ‘My party is full of racists’

"Let me just be candid: My party is full of racists," says Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell's chief of staff when he was secretary of state.

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Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell’s chief of staff during his time as secretary of state, decried John Sununu’s comment that Powell only endorsed Barack Obama because they are both black. “To say that Colin Powell would endorse President Obama because of his skin color is like saying Mother Teresa worked for profit,” Wilkerson told Ed Schultz.

Wilkerson said on The Ed Show that though he respects Sununu, a top Romney adviser and surrogate, “I don’t have any respect for the integrity of the position that he seemed to codify. Look at me, Ed, I’m white. I’m not black. Colin Powell picked me because of the content of my character and my competence.”

He added that he thinks Sununu’s remark was an “unfortunate slip of words,” but that it speaks to larger problem in the Republican party.

“My party, unfortunately, is the bastion of those people, not all of them, but most of them, who are still basing their decision on race,” Wilkerson said. “Let me just be candid: My party is full of racists. And the real reason a considerable portion of my party wants President Obama out of the White House  has nothing to do with the content of his character, nothing to do with his competence as commander-in-chief and president, and everything to do with the color of his skin. And that’s despicable.”

In an interview with radio host Michael Smerconish Friday, the president brushed off Sununu’s remarks, saying he will let Powell’s statement and support “speak for itself.”

“I don’t think that there are many people in America who would question Gen. Powell’s credibility, his patriotism, his willingness to tell it straight,” Obama said. “So any suggestion that Gen. Powell would make such a  profound statement in such an important election based on anything other than what he thought would be best for America doesn’t make much sense.”

Your Weekly Address

Keeping it Real: Sununu is a racist

Cenk Uygur looks at John Sununu’s attacks on Colin Powell, who this week endorsed Barack Obama — support that Sununu attributed to them both being black.

Cenk says, “That’s a classic case of projection. [Sununu] thinks, ‘Us Republicans, we vote based on race. If there’s a white guy against a black guy, we vote for the white guy. So I guess that’s what Colin Powell does too!’ But you see, Colin Powell actually has a brain, and he’s not a gut reaction racist like you are, John Sununu.”

Al Gore Looking to Sell Current TV

Current TV, the ratings-challenged cable network started by former Vice President Al Gore, has put itself up for sale, The Post has learned.

“Current has been approached many times by media companies interested in acquiring our company,” CEO Joel Hyatt told The Post. “This year alone, we have had three inquiries. As a consequence, we thought it might be useful to engage expertise to help us evaluate our strategic options.”

Current is still interviewing investment banks and has yet to launch a formal sales process, said one source.

The service, launched in August 2005 after Gore had begun his crusade against global warming, has churned through programming and personnel as it tried to find its voice.

The channel started out as youth-centric and user-generated before going heavier on news and documentaries. Its latest incarnation is as a left-leaning cable news network, à la MSNBC.
In January 2011, it hired former “Countdown” anchor Keith Olbermann, after MSNBC canceled his contract. Then in March, Current also cut Olbermann loose.

The network now airs such shows as “Joy Behar: Say Anything!” and “Viewpoint with Eliot Spitzer.”

Current, owned by Gore, Hyatt and some private backers, is in about 60 million homes, which could make it valuable to buyers looking for cable network distribution.

It gets about 12 cents a subscriber from pay-TV operators that carry it, or around $82 million last year, according to SNL Kagan. Ad revenue last year was estimated at just $16.9 million.

Romney as governor: a very practiced liar

By THOMAS J. CURRY
SWANSEA, MASS.

I am an independent with no party affiliation but from an ideological viewpoint, I am well to the right of center. Still, I cannot support Mitt Romney for president. While Barack Obama has not performed to expectations for a variety of reasons (some of which are his own failings), the dilemma in this election is that the alternative to Obama is Romney.

Having worked directly with Romney during his term as Massachusetts governor, I can tell you that there is nothing authentic or genuine about him. He'll tell you what he thinks that you want to hear and pretend to be what he thinks you want him to be.

He's an ideological chameleon who will say anything to get your support and then do whatever he wants to favor the rich and privileged; he's a caricature of the stereotyped Republican Party.
He lies frequently and convincingly, and has elastic principles, if any at all. He's fundamentally dishonest, while presenting an image of goodness and light.

He didn't run for a second term as governor because he knew that he would have been soundly defeated by the voters who experienced what he was really like. He'll be lucky if he gets within 20 percentage points of Obama in Massachusetts in this election.

Romney doesn't say much about his governorship, and those things that he does say are either lies or extreme distortions.

Most recently, the "binder full of women" gaffe is an example. He neither sought nor assembled that binder of women that he was boasting about; rather, it was brought to him and his opponent during the gubernatorial campaign by a bipartisan women's group that wanted both candidates to consider those in the binder for possible appointments whichever one of them was elected.

Another example is him bragging that, while he was governor, he balanced the budget without raising taxes, which is true. What he doesn't say is that in Massachusetts it's the law that the budget be balanced. That is, every governor and legislature has to balance the budget!

His assertion about not raising taxes is even more deceptive because instead of raising taxes he raised every conceivable fee one could think of and further cut state aid to the cities and towns so that they had to raise taxes to survive. The bottom line is that it cost residents considerably more t live in Massachusetts after he got through "...balancing the budget without raising taxes...."

He brags about the excellence of Massachusetts secondary schools, implying that it was his stewardship that caused this. The facts are that the secondary-school reforms were well underway years before he became governor and that he really didn't have anything to do with them.

He also talks about the excellence of higher education in Massachusetts as if he had something to do with that. What he doesn't tell you is that during his term as governor, he drastically cut the funding for public higher education repeatedly such that the state colleges and the University of Massachusetts had to raise fees to function, which resulted in tuition being a small fraction of the total cost to attend.

The split between tuition and fees for a Massachusetts student staying at UMass (then) was such that the tuition was less than 10 percent of the cost of attending!

That is, he drove the fees for public higher education through the roof, placing a greater burden on the middle-class students and their families who could not afford to go to the private schools. During his tenure, Massachusetts support for higher education was among the worst in the nation!

I could go on with many more examples, at many levels; but I think that the picture is clear. I cannot vote for someone as dishonest as Romney. I'll stick with someone who has more integrity and is more sincere, even if his performance did not meet expectations.

Thomas J. Curry, now retired, was an aerospace engineer and later, at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, was dean of the College of Engineering, provost, vice chancellor for academic affairs and director of the Advanced Technology and Manufacturing Center there.

Mitt Romney tries to ignore the Mourdock mess

On the campaign trail, reporters questioned Mitt Romney about his support for Republican Senate candidate, Richard Mourdock. And each time, Mitt Romney refused to answer the questions.

MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell, theGrio.com's Joy Reid, and Salon.com's Irin Carmon discuss Romney's lack of leadership and how it will impact his support among women voters.

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Colin Powell endorses Barack Obama for president

(CBS News) Former Secretary of State Colin Powell broke with the Republican party during the 2008 election, to endorse then-candidate Barack Obama for president, calling Obama a "transformational figure."

With 12 days to go before the presidential election, Powell publicly endorsed President Obama for re-election on "CBS This Morning" Thursday

"I voted for him in 2008 and I plan to stick with him in 2012 and I'll be voting for he and for Vice President Joe Biden next month."

Powell explained his choice to Charlie Rose and Norah O'Donnell:

When he took over, the country was in very very difficult straits. We were in the one of the worst recessions we had seen in recent times, close to a depression. The fiscal system was collapsing. Wall Street was in chaos, we had 800,000 jobs lost in that first month of the Obama administration and unemployment peaked a few months later at 10 percent. So we were in real trouble. The auto industry was collapsing, the housing was start[ing] to collapse and we were in very difficult straits. And I saw over the next several years, stabilization come back in the financial community, housing is now starting to pick up after four years, it's starting to pick up. Consumer confidence is rising."

Summarizing the past four years under Obama, Powell said "Generally we've come out of the dive and we're starting to gain altitude." He acknowledged that problems remain, saying "The unemployment rate is too high, people are still hurting in housing but I see that we're starting to rise up."

Turning to foreign policy, Powell said he saw "the president get us of one war, start to get us out of a second war and did not get us into any new wars. And finally I think that the actions he has taken with respect to protecting us from terrorism have been very very solid. And so, I think we ought to keep on the track that we are on."

Powell expressed his concern about Republican candidate Mitt Romney's changing positions on international affairs. "The governor who was saying things at the debate on Monday night ... was saying things that were quite different from what he said earlier. I'm not quite sure which Gov. Romney we would be getting with respect to foreign policy."

"One day he has a certain strong view about staying in Afghanistan but then on Monday night he agrees with the withdrawal, same thing in Iraq. On almost every issue that was discussed on Monday night, Governor Romney agreed with the President with some nuances. But this is quite a different set of foreign policy views than he had earlier in the campaign. And my concern ... is that sometimes I don't sense that he has thought through these issues as thoroughly as he should have."

Powell also said that he has given close consideration to Romney's domestic policies. "As I listen to what his proposals are especially with respect to dealing with respect to our most significant issue, the economy, it's essentially let's cut taxes and compensate for that with other things but that compensation does not cover all of the cuts intended or the new expenses associated with defense."

Powell said that he did not give either candidate early notice of his endorsement, but that he has "the utmost respect for" and spoke to Gov. Romney several weeks ago, and speaks to President Obama regularly.

He added that with this endorsement, he "signed on for a long patrol with President Obama" and that he feels more comfortable with Obama's stances on climate change, immigration, and education.
Powell also criticized congressional leaders for not living up to their responsibilities, mainly around resolving the approaching fiscal cliff.

"The major problem faced either by Gov. Romney or President Obama, whoever wins the election, is going to be what to do about the fiscal cliff we're about to fly over," Powell said.

"This is something that was put in place by Congress and while we're talking about the two candidates for president let's not forget that Congress bears a lot of responsibility for many of the problems that we have now. They're the ones that write the appropriations bills. They're the ones that pass the legislation for more spending and for the various entitlement programs that people have trouble with."

Gen. Powell last joined "CBS This Morning" in June, and at the time remained noncommittal about his support for either candidate in the race for the White House. "Whatever judgement I have right now would be incomplete. I haven't seen everything that Mitt Romney is going to do. I haven't seen how our economy is going to play out," he said in June.

And, despite his endorsement of a Democratic candidate in two presidential elections, Powell says he remains a Republican. "I think I'm a Republican of a more moderate mold," he said before adding, "That's something of a dying breed I'm sorry to say."