MA Gov. Deval Patrick on Romney’s Time as Governor of Massachusetts

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David Axelrod on Romney’s Record as Massachusetts Governor

Elections 2012, Barack Obama , Mitt Romney, Barack Obama , Barack Obama 2012 , Elections 2012, Video, Election 2012, Mitt Romney Massachusetts, Mitt Romney 2012, Mitt Romney Massachusetts Record, Romney Massachusetts, Romney Massachusetts Record, Politics News

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Broken Promises: Romney’s Massachusetts Record (VIDEO)

Published on May 31, 2012 by BarackObamadotcom

Learn more: http://www.RomneyEconomics.com
Mitt Romney ran for Governor of Massachusetts promising more jobs, decreased debt, and smaller government.
Here’s what Massachusetts got instead:
Jobs: 47th out of 50 states in job creation Taxes and fees: Increased more than $750 million per year Long-term debt: Increased more than $2.6 billion
Fact is, Romney economics didn’t work then, and won’t work now.

 

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Obama Campaign To Hit Mitt Romney’s Abysmal Jobs Record In Massachusetts

Turns out Mitt Romney’s Bain record didn’t create jobs in Massachusetts (Jim Bourg/Reuters)

Daily Kos

By- Jed Lewison

Wed May 30, 2012 at 07:18 AM PDT

With ABC’s Jake Tapper reporting that the Obama campaign is about to unleash an attack on Mitt Romney’s weak job creation record in Massachusetts, here are three things you should know:

1. Just like he is doing in 2012, Mitt Romney in 2002 said that his private sector experience as CEO of Bain Capital would allow him to create jobs in the state.
2. Romney’s private sector experience didn’t help him create jobs. Under his leadership, Massachusetts ranked 47th out of 50 states in creating jobs. During Romney’s tenure, the job growth rate was three and a half times higher nationwide than it was in Massachusetts.
3. By the end of his term, Romney was so unpopular that he didn’t even run for reelection—and if he had, he certainly would have lost.

With a record like that, it’s no wonder that in his standard stump speech, Mitt Romney doesn’t even mention that he was once governor of Massachusetts.

SOURCE

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As Governor, Mitt Romney Backtracked On Promised Reforms In Appointing Judges

The Washington Post

By Jerry Markon and Alice Crites, Wednesday, May 30, 8:33 AM

BOSTON — Mitt Romney marched into the Massachusetts State House in 2003 as a self-declared reformer, pledging to fix a judicial nominating system he decried as riddled with patronage and backroom deals.

Quoting John Adams, the new governor vowed to appoint judges purely on merit, put partisanship aside and restrict political contributions by those applying for the bench. “The citizens of Massachusetts deserve to have a squeaky clean process that has no room for politics and favors,’’ Romney said as he announced changes to judicial selection that were hailed as a national model.

Three years later, Romney changed course. He effectively took over the independent judicial screening commission he had unveiled with such fanfare. And as he geared up to run for president in 2008, Romney dismissed members of the commission who were resisting his choices for judgeships, according to documents and interviews.

Romney’s judicial nominees and his ill-fated effort to reform a politicized system offer a window into how he made some of his most important decisions as the state’s chief executive. As a Republican governor in a strongly Democratic state, he started as a good-government idealist, bumped up against an entrenched system and ultimately decided to work within it. And if, as Romney suggests, his time as governor is a key selling point for the presidency, his judicial appointments may be one of the most lasting legacies.

Though he once said people connected to state government would be at a disadvantage in seeking judgeships, Romney ended up appointing seven lawyers from inside his administration.

In his final 17 months in office, Romney pushed through a surge of judicial nominees, some with controversial records, others with the kind of political connections he had once condemned, records show. They included a former consultant for Bain & Co., the consulting firm where Romney made his reputation in business;a former Republican legislator rejected as too political by the screening panel, and a court clerk who had been reprimanded for asking a female co-worker to perform a lap dance at a strip club.

Before leaving office, he was forced to withdraw several nominees.

Judicial appointments often spark political fights, especially in a divided government. Romney’s Republican predecessor, Gov. Jane Swift, also drew criticism for late-term nominees deemed too political, including the Republican state House leader and a longtime Republican operative with no court experience.

The current Massachusetts governor, Deval L. Patrick (D) has been generally praised for his state supreme court choices, including the first black chief justice. But a number of his lower-court nominees have faced controversy, including a woman whose husband, a Democratic state representative, had donated tens of thousands of dollars, mostly to Democrats, including Patrick.

Unlike other governors, Romney promised far-reaching reforms.

“About 65 percent of these people appointed judges in Massachusetts — I’m not saying they’re not qualified, but they got appointed because of who they know,’’ said Christopher Iannella Jr. (D), the longest serving member of the Massachusetts Governor’s Council, the Colonial-era body that approves nominees. “Romney tried to change it, and I don’t think he was successful. I don’t see any difference between him and the rest.’’

MORE HERE

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GOP Groups Plan $1 Billion Blitz

By: Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei

May 30, 2012 04:34 AM EDT

Republican super PACs and other outside groups shaped by a loose network of prominent conservatives – including Karl Rove, the Koch brothers and Tom Donohue of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – plan to spend roughly $1 billion on November’s elections for the White House and control of Congress, according to officials familiar with the groups’ internal operations.

That total includes previously undisclosed plans for newly aggressive spending by the Koch brothers, who are steering funding to build sophisticated, county-by-county operations in key states. POLITICO has learned that Koch-related organizations plan to spend about $400 million ahead of the 2012 elections – twice what they had been expected to commit.

Just the spending linked to the Koch network is more than the $370 million that John McCain raised for his entire presidential campaign four years ago. And the $1 billion total surpasses the $750 million that Barack Obama, one of the most prolific fundraisers ever, collected for his 2008 campaign.

(PHOTOS: Republican money men)

Restore Our Future, the super PAC supporting Mitt Romney, proved its potency by spending nearly $50 million in the primaries. Now able to entice big donors with a neck-and-neck general election, the group is likely to meet its new goal of spending $100 million more.

And American Crossroads and the affiliated Crossroads GPS, the groups that Rove and Ed Gillespie helped conceive and raise cash for, are expected to ante up $300 million, giving the two-year-old organization one of the election’s loudest voices.

“The intensity on the right is white-hot,” said Steven Law, president of American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS. “We just can’t leave anything in the locker room. And there is a greater willingness to cooperate and share information among outside groups on the center-right.”

In targeted states, the groups’ activities will include TV, radio and digital advertising; voter-turnout work; mail and phone appeals; and absentee- and early-ballot drives.

The $1 billion in outside money is in addition to the traditional party apparatus – the Romney campaign and the Republican National Committee – which together intend to raise at least $800 million.
MORE HERE

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Another Missed Opportunity To Lead

The Maddow Blog

By Steve Benen

–

Tue May 29, 2012 8:00 AM EDT

Mitt Romney will join Donald Trump tonight in Las Vegas for a fundraiser, just a few days after the reality-show host reiterated his support for the ridiculous “birther” conspiracy theory. Asked by reporters yesterday whether Trump’s ugly, borderline-racist antics gives him pause, Romney seemed unconcerned.

“You know, I don’t agree with all the people who support me and my guess is they don’t all agree with everything I believe in,” Romney said. “But I need to get 50.1% or more and I’m appreciative to have the help of a lot of good people.”

That’s not much of a response. By Romney’s reasoning, decency is irrelevant — he should partner with anyone, no matter how vile, so long as it furthers his ambitions and gets him more votes.

The Obama campaign released a new video this morning, contrasting Romney’s response to supporters’ extremism with John McCain’s.

MORE HERE

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Two Republican Nominees (VIDEO)

Published on May 29, 2012 by BarackObamadotcom

Facebook it: https://my.barackobama.com/romneytrumpvid Tweet it: https://my.barackobama.com/romneytrumptwvid Tumblr it: https://my.barackobama.com/romneytrumptbrvid
John McCain stood up to the voices of extremism in his party. Will Mitt Romney?

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Des Moines, Iowa: A Grassroots Event With President Obama – Full Speech (VIDEO)

Published on May 25, 2012 by BarackObamadotcom

Are you in? https://my.barackobama.com/iowagrootsvid
At a grassroots event on the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines yesterday, President Obama spoke to volunteers and supporters about why he’s running for re-election. Thousands of Iowans lined up in the rain to get a spot inside. The President was fired up to be back in Iowa again, and he laid out the stark contrast between Mitt Romney’s experience as a corporate buyout specialist and his own experience as President of the United States.

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Obama Spending Binge Never Happened

Market Watch, The Wall Street Journal

By Rex Nutting, MarketWatch

May 22, 2012, 12:01 a.m. EDT

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Of all the falsehoods told about President Barack Obama, the biggest whopper is the one about his reckless spending spree.

As would-be president Mitt Romney tells it: “I will lead us out of this debt and spending inferno.”

Almost everyone believes that Obama has presided over a massive increase in federal spending, an “inferno” of spending that threatens our jobs, our businesses and our children’s future. Even Democrats seem to think it’s true.

But it didn’t happen. Although there was a big stimulus bill under Obama, federal spending is rising at the slowest pace since Dwight Eisenhower brought the Korean War to an end in the 1950s.

Even hapless Herbert Hoover managed to increase spending more than Obama has.

Here are the facts, according to the official government statistics:

• In the 2009 fiscal year — the last of George W. Bush’s presidency — federal spending rose by 17.9% from $2.98 trillion to $3.52 trillion. Check the official numbers at the Office of Management and Budget.

• In fiscal 2010 — the first budget under Obama — spending fell 1.8% to $3.46 trillion.

• In fiscal 2011, spending rose 4.3% to $3.60 trillion.

• In fiscal 2012, spending is set to rise 0.7% to $3.63 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate of the budget that was agreed to last August.

• Finally in fiscal 2013 — the final budget of Obama’s term — spending is scheduled to fall 1.3% to $3.58 trillion. Read the CBO’s latest budget outlook.

MORE HERE

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