Why Obama Won
I am at last able to reveal all the zingers and longer speaking passages which I offered to President Obama and Vice-President Biden during the course of the election campaign.
Healthcare: Republican health policy: drop dead.
Environment and climate change: Vote Republican – who needs a planet, anyway?
Republican ayatollahs: The Republican party used to be a mainstream political party but now it’s been taken over by fanatics and extremists. The Republican party is full of ayatollahs. They have sealed themselves away from the American people. They live in a community of gated minds.
Today America, under Barack Obama’s leadership, is standing up to religious tyranny in Iran. America will prevail, as we have always prevailed against tyranny, because our nation is founded on an irresistible idea: freedom to believe. Under Barack Obama’s leadership America will always be a place where people are free to believe and act on their beliefs, so long as they do no harm to others. The Republican party used to believe in freedom. But lately it’s full of ayatollahs – people telling other Americans how to think, how to live, whom they’re allowed to love. The Republican ayatollahs set neighbour against neighbour, family against family, brother and sister against brother and sister, mother and father against children. They have forgotten everything Abraham Lincoln taught them: “a nation divided against itself cannot stand.”
And see below under Gay marriage
The Romney crowd: A handy expression for the handful of rich people who stand to benefit from a Romney Presidency – and are paying for it in advance (see below under “Mitt’s Masters.” An alien class who know and care nothing for how most Americans have to live. We all know the Romney crowd. The children of privilege, who always want more of it.
The people who have servant problems.
The people who use the tax system as welfare. The people who wash their money in laundromat banks in the Cayman Islands. The people who take tax breaks for their hobbies [eg Ann Romney’s dressage horse, whose tax break was worth more than the annual income of the average American]
The people who went to private schools and cut your kid’s education.
The people with the best healthcare who won’t let your family have affordable healthcare.
The people who have expensive private security for their gated homes and close down your local police department.
The people who buy themselves justice.
The people who took all the new money when the economy grew and forced you and your family into debt, just to stay in the same place.
The people who claim the right to run America as their private country club, but expect you to pay up for all their mistakes.
The people who talk only to themselves, who have no idea how you and your family live. The people who see you and your family only as a means to make money for themselves – the people who throw you out of work or foreclose on your home or your farm or your business as soon as you stop making money for them. The Romney crowd. They took your money, don’t hand them your country.
Mitt’s Masters : why Mitt Romney would be America’s first pre-paid President: This is a man with no program, no ideas of his own, and you can find more backbone in a jellybean. He has never stood up to anybody with money and power. If he gets into the White House, he’ll do what he’s told to do by the people who have paid for him. Mitt’s masters. A small secretive cabal of super-rich people who want to take even more money from the American people. X people [small number of big donors] have given Romney and his party $Y million [huge number]. They didn’t do this out of the pure goodness of their hearts. They know what they’re paying for. They’ve paid for Romney’s health care policy. They’ve paid for Romney’s defense budget. They’ve paid for Romney’s Justice Department. They’ve paid for Romney’s tax policy. They’ve paid for Romney’s whole government and they want to turn it into a gigantic cashpoint.
Romneycomics: “Romney economics”. That takes too long to say. Let’s shorten it to “Romneycomics.” Anyway, it’s pretty simple when you come down to it. Sack more teachers… sack more police officers… sack more firefighters to give the Romney crowd more tax cuts.
Remember “voodoo economics”? Mitt Romney’s invented “vampire economics.” You hold it up to the mirror and there’s nothing there.
Mittmush/Mitt Loaf: H L Mencken once described President Warren Harding’s oratory as “a string of wet sponges”. Romney is given to the same empty sonorities (“I believe in an America that believes in itself”). Mittmush would be a good concise term for this kind of drivel. Or just possibly Mitt Loaf (a tiny portion of beef ground up with stale leftovers).
Mitt Romney: general abuse: Mr Downsize. He made a fortune from sacking American workers. Are you going to let him downsize America? Don’t let him turn Main Street into Mitt Street.
Call him Mr Downsize. Call him Mr Outsource. But don’t call him M President.
America is teetering on the edge of a precipice, but Mitt Romney can take it forward.
So far in this campaign, Mitt Romney has hidden his money, his business career and his faith from the American people. Why should they vote for a man with so little belief in himself? NOTE: although his Mormon faith has been a very important part of his life, Romney does not mention it by name on his campaign website.
Mitt Romney says he wants less government. Now we know what that means. Truthless. Heartless. Brainless.
Mitt Romney goes to see the Wizard of Oz. He says: “Wizard, I need a brain, I need a heart and I need some nerve and right away. Can you help me? I’ve got $200 million.” Wizard says: “Gee son, I’d love to help you, especially for that kind of money, but a scarecrow and a lion and a metalhead got here half an hour ago and they cleaned me out of all three. But I could do a better dye job on your hair.”
Out of touch with ordinary people: Mitt Romney is a sightseer in his own country.
Mitt Romney: money The toughest decision Mitt Romney’s ever faced is which tax haven to use for his money.
Mitt Romney. The Patriot. His slogan is Believe In America. He does not believe in America as a home for his money. When American boys were being sent to Iraq, Mitt Romney sent his money to the Cayman Islands. Call on him to Open up that Caymans cashbox. The only good reason to send money to the Caymans is to save the turtle. Mitt Romney must love turtles.
On the recently discovered Bermuda account: If he can’t even keep track of his own money, how does he expect to keep track of the national budget?
After the Higgs Boson, scientists are even more excited by the discovery of a new sub-atomic particle. It’s the only thing in the universe smaller than Mitt Romney’s tax bill.
In seven years of running for President there’s only one issue where Mitt Romney has taken a stand: his right to hide his money from the American people.
Mitt Romney: weakness On Mitt Romney’s evasions and concessions to the Tea Party, and general reluctance to stand up for his own policies and beliefs: He used to stand for something, but now he’s just become a kettle for the Tea Party. When they turn the heat on him, out comes a lot of steam and hot air.
I’ve seen more backbone in a jellybean.
The next time Romney ducks or flunks a key issue: he showed a characteristic lack of character.
Mitt Romney? More like Submitt Romney…
Stand up for America? Mitt Romney couldn’t stand up to Donald Trump. Face it, he couldn’t stand up to Donald Duck.
On any big issue, Mitt Romney’s better than the Greyhound bus. If you miss one Romney position you can catch another one in half an hour.
Mitt Romney: dog transportation scandal Vote for the Mutt, Not the Mitt!
Mitt Romney’s/Republican policies would treat working people like a dog on a roofrack. Or
You cannot build a nation the Romney/Republican way – when a few people get to travel in an air-conditioned car and the rest are stuck on a roofrack. Or simply Romney knows as much about [x] as he knows about dog care.
Romneycare: We liked Romneycare so much that we/the President copied it for Obamacare. But now Romney has been pushed into tearing it down. This is a man who won’t even stand up for his greatest achievement.
“Corporations are people too.” Mitt Romney is right. I can remember Barbra Streisand singing “Corporations. Corporations who need corporations… are the luckiest corporations in the world.”
Romney’s grandstanding on Iran
Romney knows that his domestic programme has nothing to offer ordinary Americans. He knows he can’t get them to vote for job cuts and no health care and poverty in retirement. That’s why he’s grandstanding on foreign policy. Trying to look like a patriot and a strong man. Especially on Iran. Make no mistake – this President and this administration will never let Iran get nuclear weapons. But there are real risks in making the wrong move over Iran. To name just a few: the price of oil going through the roof, meltdown in the world economy, a war far worse than Iraq. On Iran, we cannot afford a President who uses his mouth instead of his brain. If Romney ever got charge of Iran policy American boys and American families would pay for his mistakes – as they had to pay for George W Bush.
Do you want to line up for gasoline and pay $x a gallon when you finally get it – to make Mitt Romney feel tough?
Do you want to see the dollar collapse and our economy unravel? Do you want to lose your job – to make Mitt Romney feel tough?
Do you want to send more husbands and fathers and sons and brothers into another terrible war – to make Mitt Romney feel tough?
Romney as a repeat of George W Bush: Another Republican airhead with a rich daddy. We had a President like that before. It might be productive to compare Mitt Romney’s record to that of his father, who commanded wide respect across the political spectrum:
George Mitt
Ran American Motors, real engineering company which created thousands of US jobs Ran Bain Capital, financial engineering company which exported thousands of US jobs overseas.
Three-term governor of Michigan One-term governor of
Massachusetts. Absentee for
most of last two years
Spoke out about racism, including within Mormon faith Silent on racism, did nothing
to combat it within faith
Spoke out against Vietnam Silent on Vietnam (but
avoided going there)
Fought for poor people as governor and Nixon Cabinet member Did nothing for poor
Never saw an issue without a principle Never takes a stand
These comparisons, especially the last could be done most effectively by praising George’s record but staying silent about Mitt’s – audience will work it out for themselves. Could remind people that George’s moderate Republicanism has disappeared from that party.
Pin the record of George W Bush on Romney, all Republican candidates: greedy, dumb bankers turning people’s savings into financial dogmeat … a giant deficit even before America had to bail them out… sweetheart deals for the super-rich and big corporations, lower standards for everyone else … non-stop incompetence and dishonesty over Iraq… and finally, an economy in total collapse. Let’s go back there with the Republicans.
Republican policies are a repeat of George W Bush’s: As Napoleon once said about the French Royal family, they’ve learnt nothing and forgotten nothing.
Or simply refer to Proverbs 26:11 and invite listeners to look it up in the Bible. King James version: “As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.”
Gay marriage What kind of party thinks it fine for gay people to own a machine gun but not a marriage licence? The Republican party.
You may not like gay marriage but do you want to make it a crime – like the Republican party? With all the major crime the police and the FBI have to cope with – terrorism, drugs, racketeering – do you think they should waste their time on people who want to get married? Do you want the police to stake out churches instead of crack houses? Do you want informers and snitches to tell the police “Hey, I hear there’s a gay wedding going down”? When the police find a gay wedding do you want them to arrest and book all the guests for abetting a felony?
Reclaim Joe the Plumber. Use this character to highlight the impact of Republican policies and invent some others: contrast the losses/gains of Joe the Plumber, Sally the Nurse, Juan the Veteran, Frank the Retiree with those of Bob the Bank Boss – or indeed Mitt Downsize/Mitt Outsource.
The Wreckpublican party At the beginning of his Presidency, Barack Obama inherited a broken America. He said to the Republican party in Congress: “let’s join hands wherever we can to fix the country.” No reply. He was very patient with them – some said, too patient. No reply. The Republicans did not want to fix the economy. The Republicans did not want to fix the jobs crisis. The Republicans did not want to fix the tax system – except to give more money to rich people and corporations. The Republicans did not want to fix health care. The Republicans did not want to fix the banks and the financial system. All they cared about was protecting their friends and donors. They hated the President and they wanted to wreck everything he did, no matter what happened to our country and our people. They’re not the Republican party any more, they’re the Wreckpublican Party. Their last administration almost wrecked America. Don’t let them finish the job.
Republicans betray Lincoln and Reagan… Abraham Lincoln fought for government of the people, by the people, for the people. Today’s Republicans want government over the people, by the rich, for the rich.
Ronald Reagan believed in tax cutting but he never thought that poor and middle-income Americans should pay for handouts to the super-rich. Today’s Republicans let the super-rich treat America like a giant country club and they don’t even have to pay membership fees. Thanks to today’s Republicans, the super-rich don’t pay taxes, they give tips. I read recently that restoration of Ronald Reagan’s tax rates would pay down a major part of the US deficit. Make all Republicans, especially deficit hawks, respond to this fact.
… and Eisenhower Tax rates were even higher under the Eisenhower administration. If Mitt Romney were right about taxes, the country should have been ruined in the 1950s. Of course, the Eisenhower years saw sustained prosperity and high growth. Mitt Romney’s tax policies are dumb and discredited.
Mr Obama and Mr Biden won by ignoring all the above suggestions.
